Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 623 Set Fire to the Village
"Cough, cough, cough..." There was a rush of coughing, and the old patriarch of the village appeared at the gate of the village. He was shocked when he saw the wounded soldiers and the broken gate of the village, "My son, how many times have I I was sick in bed every day, I thought you could be alone, how could you be like this?"

"Patriarch, the young patriarch is injured!" A native man helped the young patriarch over and saw that there was a bullet wound on his right chest. dim.

"My son..." The old patriarch lost his voice and almost fainted.

"Patriarch!" Several natives around rushed to support the patriarch who was about to fall.

"The Kyushu military artillery destroyed our gate, and it is estimated that they will rush over soon. If there is no old patriarch, who will command us to fight against the northern barbarians!" the natives said anxiously.

The old patriarch barely stabilized his body, but when he looked around, he found that there was no sign of the Zheng family's troops: "The Zheng family... where are their people?"

"Seeing that the situation is not good, they have already fled from the path behind the village ahead of time!" said the natives.

"These ungrateful guys are the ones who brought the disaster to our village, and they even escaped." The old patriarch said angrily.

"Patriarch, what should we do now? If the patriarch wants to fight, we are willing to fight to the death with the Kyushu army. If we want to withdraw, we will also retreat with the patriarch and come back with revenge in the future." The remaining clansmen in the village surrounded the old man By the side of the patriarch, he can change the fate of the entire village with just one word.

The old patriarch looked at the surviving soldiers. They all had more or less injuries, some were injured when defending the village gate just now, and some were injured in previous clashes with the Kyushu Army , it can be said that the youth and strength of the village were exhausted.And the starting point of everything is just out of doubts about the massacre of the Kyushu army.The old patriarch couldn't help but regret why he left the matter to his son at such a critical juncture.

"My son, Dad just wants you and the Zheng family to drive away the Kyushu Army and find a way to keep them from approaching our village. Why did you disregard the lives of the villagers and anger the Kyushu Army like this? "The old patriarch squatted down and said to his dying son.

At this time, he was about to die, and he knew that no matter how much he blamed his son, it would be useless.

"Abba, I'm incompetent, I... thought... I could destroy them... I didn't expect..." The young patriarch who was fatally injured didn't even have time to finish his final farewell words, and passed away.

"..." The old patriarch was silent for a while, and covered his son's eyes with his withered right hand.This is not a peaceful and prosperous age, the Gaoping area has always been in constant war. When he was young, he also hacked people on the battlefield, and saw many comrades die.

Then he got up: "Although we took the initiative to attack the Kyushu Army, the Kyushu Army is an invader. We did nothing wrong to protect our homeland. Even if we are defeated, we cannot give them our homeland for nothing. We want them to know that all they have in the end is a piece of scorched earth. I propose to set fire to the village, and then everyone follows the path behind the village to the shelter, and then come out after they leave."

Set fire to the village!All the villagers are in awe. Once this decision is made, the village will be gone, and the accumulation of hundreds of years will be destroyed.

"Patriarch, are you really going to do that? We built these houses with a piece of wood and a piece of soil, so they set them on fire?"

"If the Kyushu Army is gone, where will we come back to live? This place will become a wasteland."

Some villagers who regarded the village as their own lives muttered in low voices.

"If this place does not turn into barren land, the Kyushu Army will occupy it, and we will never be able to return! Only when this place becomes barren land, and they look down on it, can we have a chance to come back. If the house is gone, it can be rebuilt, as long as people return it." Here, the land is still there, and this forest is still there!" The old patriarch said bitterly, "These barbarians will arrive soon, just bring dry food, and immediately escape from the trail behind!"

Although some villagers were reluctant, the old patriarch's reputation in the village had always been very high, and most of the villagers gathered behind the village with a bag of dry food.

"Set fire!" The old patriarch also said in a rough voice, more than a dozen torches arced in the air and fell into the house.

The fire in the village was reflected in the eyes of the villagers, and their hearts were pierced like a knife. They were destroying the painstaking efforts of their ancestors with their own hands.

The old patriarch looked at the gradually expanding fire with cloudy eyes, and there was some selfishness in his heart, so the whole village was buried with his son.

"Let's get out of here." The old patriarch turned his head and led the rest of the villagers away along the hidden path behind the village without hesitation.

Before that, there were more than a thousand people in their village, but now only a few hundred people are still alive.

After the people in the village began to withdraw from the village, Zhao Guirong led his people into the village and saw the fire spreading.

"Hurry up and put out the fire." Zhao Guirong felt a little headache, this village is really stubborn, even dared to take the initiative to set fire to his own village, really disgusted again.

Originally, Zhao Guirong could have attacked the village earlier, but Zhao Guirong, who had been disgusted many times, was not enough to let the artillery battalion bomb the gate of the village to pieces in order to be cautious. , It can be said that it is fighting wits and courage with the air.If it had arrived one step earlier, perhaps no one could escape.

After the old patriarch led hundreds of villagers out of the village, he fled along the dense forest path behind the village.At the beginning, they only saw many footprints on the dirt road, which were the footprints of the Zheng family soldiers who had seen the situation in advance and fled.

But something was wrong in the back. Followed them along the dirt road, and found that there were some abandoned weapons and muskets on the ground, and there were big pits on the ground that were exploded by gunpowder. dead bodies scattered on the ground.

"What happened?" Everyone was shocked to see such a scene.The soldiers of the Zheng family who fled this way were obviously ambushed by the enemy, and that enemy could only be the Kyushu Army with a large amount of gunpowder.

"Could it be..." All the villagers suddenly raised their hearts to their throats.Didn't they burn the house just to get rid of the threat of the Kyushu Army, but now the Kyushu Army seems to have blocked their retreat.

The villagers bit the bullet and continued to walk forward for a few miles. When the road became open fire, the Kyushu Army, which was ready to fight, had already lined up in a dense formation on the way, waiting for them, and there were some captured Zheng family members beside them. The soldiers squatted on the ground.

(End of this chapter)