***
The fighting on the top of Chuzhou City had reached a fever pitch, and the blowing snow and wind could not cool the anger of both sides.
Arrows like locusts from under the city would rise into the air from time to time and shoot onto the top of the city. After several waves of arrow rain, the Tartars would often climb up the ladders with roars.
The Qin soldiers on the city wall braved the enemies and arrows, and tried their best to cut off the barbs on the enemy's ladders, and then worked together to push the ladders away from the top of the city wall with hairpins;
Strings of Tatars fell along the ladders, and some fell directly into the icy moat. Without even a splash, they were dragged to the bottom of the river by their heavy iron armor.
The Qin soldiers on the city walls often paid the price of their lives for this. Many of the Tatars were very accurate archers, and as soon as a Qin soldier showed his head, the arrowheads would pierce their faces and enter their bones.
"Hang!" General Liu Shun roared, and his soldiers, under his command, shouted slogans as they hoisted up the heavy rolling log. "Release!" The rolled log was smashed down again with his roar, and the Tatars who were halfway up were hit on the head, one on top of another, screaming continuously.
Compared with arrows and guns, things like rolling logs, rocks and kerosene are more practical for dealing with enemy troops rushing to the city.
The enemy climbed up the ladders and dropped rocks weighing dozens of pounds on their heads. No matter if you had a shield or armor, it was useless. The huge rocks could break your limbs and shatter your bones.
The iron armor was shattered after hundreds of battles, and the south of the city has been surrounded by several layers of siege.
Shang Yi didn't know those magnificent poems, he only knew that he wanted revenge. Several brothers around him fell in a pool of blood. Among them, General Liu Shun had just been shot in the left eye socket by a strong arrow. When he was carried away by the military doctor, he screamed continuously. The intense pain made him roll back and forth. The young and strong men who carried him had to press down Liu Shun's body to prevent him from rolling off the stretcher.
There were corpses everywhere on and outside the city, and the shouts, groans, and sounds of swords and arrows were terrifying to hear.
On this boiling battlefield, the battle-hardened Shang Yi maintained a gloomy and indifferent attitude. He leaned against the battlement, ignored the arrows flying by, and calmly pressed the bullet into the gun barrel, and then stuffed a ball of paper into it to compact the bullet.
Doing so will multiply the amount of residue in the barrel after shooting, but it will ensure that the bullet does not fall out first when firing downward.
The north wind blew the snowflakes onto his face, turning every strand of his beard white.
After everything was ready, he asked Li Ping beside him to place a shield on the parapet. He looked for the prey through the gap with his cold eyes.
Although Shangyi didn't know his name, this Qing general was wearing double armor and commanding the siege from the foot of the city. It was he who shot the general Liu Shun in the left eye.
After locking onto Male's figure, Shang Yi ignored the fact that a Tartar had already climbed onto the top of the wall not far to the left, and nearly ten of his men were rushing up to fight. He took aim calmly. This was already his third shot to kill Male. He must not miss again this time.
Bang!
The whistling bullet, with its impotent fury, instantly hit Ma Le's face. At a distance of ten steps, the bullet was so powerful that Ma Le's entire head was blown apart, and his strong body fell to the ground.
"Master Zhang Jing!"
"Ah, Master Zhang Jing is dead!"
The nearby Tartars screamed in panic and became a mess.
Taking advantage of the chaos below the city, Shang Yi jumped up and roared, "Shoot! Shoot quickly!"
The Qin army on the top of the city immediately pressed to the edge of the parapet, fired fiercely at the city, and threw down bombs one after another. Fierce explosions occurred one after another. The general commanding the Qing army to siege the city was killed, and the morale was greatly damaged. Under this fierce attack, they suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat, leaving behind corpses all over the ground.
The first wave of the Tartars' attack was finally repelled. The South Gate and the East Gate received Qin Mu's order and did not hide their strength. In this battle, more than 200 Tartars were killed each. The corpses were spread all over the city gates, and the thick smell of blood made people want to vomit.
***
Chuzhou is only a hundred miles away from Jinling. When the Qing army arrived in Chuzhou, the atmosphere in Jinling city was inevitably somewhat tense. The navy led by Liu Zhongqin was cruising on the Yangtze River, and all private ships were prohibited from docking on the north bank.
A large number of cavalry were sent to the north bank for reconnaissance and early warning. Soldiers were checking pedestrians at each gate of Jinling City. The Five Cities Military Command also stepped up patrols in the city and strictly checked for spies.
But in general, the lives of the citizens were not greatly affected. A large number of scholars still gathered in restaurants and teahouses every day. They mainly discussed two topics: one was the war in Jiangbei, and the other was the ideological trend promoted by Gu Yanwu and Fu Qingzhu.
Moreover, the attention paid to this wave of thought was no less than that to the battle in Jiangbei. In the past, the "double Jin combination" of Jin Shengtan and Jin Gongnan fought against hundreds of enemies alone and made a great success.
Then another person jumped out and also became the talk of the town. One of them was called Huang Zongxi and the other was called Wang Fuzhi.
Wang Fuzhi, courtesy name Ernong and alias Jiangzhai, was from Wangyaping, south of Hengzhou. He was less than 30 years old, but he became famous at a young age. When Zhang Xianzhong went south to Huguang, he heard of his great name and sent people to recruit him, but he and his brother hid in the mountains and refused to respond.
He was a rising star of the Hunan School, with excellent writing, sharp words and profound thoughts. After Gu Yanwu and Fu Qingzhu launched a wave of criticism of the eight-legged essay and Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, he could no longer sit still and hurried to Jinling.
The remarks he made on his first day in Nanjing were destined to make a splash.
At a gathering of literati at Taoye Ferry, he loudly criticized the idealism that everyone from Zhou Dunyi to Zhu Xi insisted on, that is, seeking truth outside of qi, that "truth precedes qi", and "truth precedes matter", that is, that spirit exists before matter.
He emphasized that "qi" is the entity of the changes of yin and yang, and Li is the regularity of the change process. Li is the principle of qi, and there is no isolated Li outside of qi. Li is not only in qi, but also the movement and change of qi, which has its inevitable regularity.
This is a typical materialist theory. It effectively refutes the view that spirit exists before matter in Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism. At the same time, it points out that it is the idea of Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism that is divorced from reality and seeks "reason" that has led Confucianism to extremes.
In fact, Wang Fuzhi was by no means the first person to deny Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism.
Although Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism has always been the mainstream thought in the Ming Dynasty, starting from Wang Yangming's proposal of the idea of "unity of knowledge and action", it actually represented that scholars had begun to reflect on and make limited negation of Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism.
However, no one has ever criticized and denied Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism as clearly as Wang Fuzhi did.
Therefore, once his theory was put forward, it immediately caused a strong sensation, and countless people came to him to debate every day.
Huang Zongxi is as famous as Wang Fuzhi. He also opposed the theory of "reason comes before qi" in Zhu Xi's and Cheng Yi's Neo-Confucianism. He believed that "reason" is not an objective material entity, but the movement law of "qi". He believed that "temperament and human heart are a whole and popular body, and a public thing." This is similar to Wang Fuzhi's theory.
Huang Zongxi admired Wang Yangming's idea of "investigating things to acquire knowledge and integrating knowledge with action", and was very appreciative of Qin Mu's "physics" class at Yuelu Academy. He believed that this doctrine of seeking the inner principles of the operation of all things was the same as the idea of "investigating things to acquire knowledge" in the School of Mind.
The reason why he caused a sensation was not because he put forward basically the same views as Wang Fuzhi. He was even more powerful than Wang Fuzhi. He not only challenged Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, but also challenged the imperial power.
He said that the original purpose of establishing a monarch was to "make the world benefit from it" and "free the world from harm." In other words, the purpose of establishing a monarch is to make him bear the responsibility of suppressing private interests and promoting public interests.
For the monarch, his duty is primary, and power is subordinate to his duty and serves to fulfill his duty. The monarch is just a public servant of the world.
He proposed that "in ancient times, the world was the master and the monarch was the guest. Everything the monarch managed throughout his life was for the world." This basically denied the legitimacy of the monarch's "family world".
Even Qin Mu did not expect this. Under the tide of thought he had started, someone would actually dare to stand up and deny the legitimacy of the "family dynasty".
The thoughts of Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi echoed the guidance of Gu Yanwu and Fu Qingzhu, and caused a great response.
Those who supported Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism jumped out to write articles to refute it. The intensity of this clash of ideas was no less than the battle in Jiangbei.
Yang Tinglin and others in the court did not care about the debate among the scholars. Qin Mu suddenly changed his plan and ordered Su Jin to retreat to Lai'an County, leaving only 8,000 troops in Chuzhou.
As the saying goes, a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. Qin Mu is the ruler of a country, trapped in Chuzhou, with few soldiers and generals, how can this be tolerated
Zhuge Min, Yang Tinglin, Du Yinxi, Bian Di, Liu Boquan, Bai Tie, Song Yingxing, Tan Qiubai and a large number of civil servants rushed to the Ministry of War and demanded that He Liang immediately dispatch troops to the north to rescue Chuzhou.
The Minister of War He Liang and the Vice Minister Gu Jun'en became the target of public criticism.
He Liang had no choice but to show everyone the decree sent back by Qin Mu, and said aggrievedly: "I understand your feelings, but the King of Qin has issued an order, and I dare not disobey it."
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.(To be continued..)
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