I have a cornucopia

Chapter 338 The Destruction of a City
Ten days later.

"This can't be the capital anymore!"

King Yang stood on a stinking street in the capital and looked at the devastation.

All I could see were burnt ruins and severely decomposed corpses...

There had been a five-day battle in the city.

After entering the palace, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, Wu Sangui, was stabbed to death by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that he was stabbed with more than fifty armor-piercing spikes, which made him look like a sieve. This shows the hatred of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty for him. After all, the armor-piercing spikes only need to stab the vital parts once, but he stabbed more than fifty times. Although Wu Sangui was indeed a brave man, Haoge was also a veteran of many battles. He was also a warrior on the battlefield. He attacked the enemy by surprise and finally succeeded in stabbing to death the traitor who had trampled on his dignity for several months.

He has quite the style of Yuan Ziyou.

But like Yuan Ziyou, he is the kind of person who can be provoked but not dealt with.

Stabbing Wu Sangui to death could not change his own fate, so Hauge was hacked to death by Wu Sangui's servants.

It is said that they are all chopped into small pieces.

In fact, Hauge was not prepared to survive before he took action.

Including the die-hard farmers who followed him.

They were simply bullied by Wu Sangui, and they were determined to die together. During the time when Wu Sangui controlled the capital, they suffered all kinds of bullying from these bastards. Not to mention ordinary farmers, even the wives and daughters of the princes were often raped by Wu Sangui's men, and some were even raped in front of them. Including several concubines of Haoge, they did not escape the clutches of Wu Sangui. From time to time, the King of Pingxi asked his princess to invite concubines and princesses in the palace to visit the mansion. They definitely could not refuse to go, and then they returned to the palace with bruises after a few days of visiting. Some even died of sudden illness in the Prince of Pingxi's mansion. Poor Haoge had to grit his teeth and say that it was all fate and had nothing to do with the Regent, and then silently took over the body of the woman covered in bruises.

He is a man after all.

He also has dignity.

After all, he also has his moment of explosion!

In the past, he could still fantasize that with the help of Wu Sangui, he could still maintain the Qing Dynasty, and that by sacrificing his dignity, he could still maintain the broken empire. But after learning that Yang Feng's army had already moved north, he also realized that the Qing Dynasty was obviously really going to end.

Since death is the same whether it is early or late, and enduring this humiliation will only result in living for another half a month, it is better to kill Wu Sangui before he dies.

Let’s get our revenge first.

You cannot go to the Ming army's execution ground to be tortured to death with humiliation.

In the end, he and the tens of thousands of remaining soldiers in the imperial city launched a desperate counterattack with the mentality of dying together. After he killed Wu Sangui with his own hands, he was hacked to death by Wu Sangui's servants. At the same time, the remaining soldiers, regardless of gender, age or status, all rushed out of the imperial city with their weapons, killing Wu Sangui's subordinates and the remaining residents outside.

Because the incident happened suddenly, most of Wu Sangui's subordinates did not know what had happened, and some were even killed in the outer city by the desperate die-hard farmers.

Not only did they kill anyone they saw, but they also set fire to everything they could in the city.

Even the imperial palace was set on fire by those women.

Eventually, both the inner and outer cities turned into a sea of ​​fire, and in the sea of ​​fire, all parties were killing each other frantically.

All parties.

It is no longer possible to talk about both sides.

Tiegan Zhuangjiao, the subordinates Wu Sangui brought to Beijing, the subordinates who took refuge in the local area after entering Beijing, and some of the remnants who still stubbornly entrenched here, killed each other for silver, killed each other for hatred, and killed each other to escape from this hell...

It was a complete massacre.

In fact, it was largely a pre-apocalyptic indulgence. Everyone knew that the Qing Dynasty was doomed, and those who were still in the city at the moment were basically the kind of people who would not be wanted even if they surrendered, and they had nowhere to go if they escaped. Xuanda had been sealed off, and most of the Qing troops trapped in Suoyang Pass chose to be castrated and enslaved. Those in the Baiyang Fort and Xiaobaiyang Fort had no food, and finally killed each other. Then some of them opened the gates and chose to be castrated and enslaved. The rest tried to break out of the siege, but were surrounded and annihilated by Li Dingguo's troops. There were still one or two thousand hiding in the mountains and forests. It is estimated that almost all of them starved to death by winter.

Those in the capital had another option, which was to go north and hide in the Rehe Mountains as bandits.

But the Dong Tumed, Halashen, Duoyan and other tribes have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty...

They surrendered after the Battle of Suoyang Pass.

They had no other choice.

Jirgalang has completely given up the territory west of the Liaohe River. If they do not surrender, Jirgalang will not help them when the Ming army goes out to retake western Liaoning. What's more, Yang Feng has no special feelings for them. Therefore, from the Great Wall to the north to Khorchin, everyone has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

Korchin was because Dayuer's sister and her son were sent back by the Queen. The Queen had ordered a large temple to be built for her in Korchin, where they would worship Buddha in the future. The master was invited by the Queen from the plateau for them.

By the way, restore relationship with Gao Yuan.

In other words, Gushri Khan had to pay tribute to the empress.

There is no problem with this. Gushri Khan had already paid tribute to Chongzhen during the time of Li Zicheng.

Therefore, those people in the capital city who hid in the Rehe Mountains made it convenient for the Dongtumed guys to use their heads to seek credit from the empress.

There's really no place to escape.

So these guys in desperate situations ended their lives with an indulgence in killing. The killing in the capital city lasted for five whole days and ended in the end because all those who could run had run away, and those who did not run were basically all dead.

Of course, they also burned everything they could in the city.

"Your Majesty, there's no way to clean this up. Besides, there are corpses everywhere, and it's easy for a plague to break out. I think we should seal this place off first, close all the city gates, and wait a few months until they've all rotted into bones before coming back in. Also, during this time, it's best to fill the gaps outside the city gates with cement, and then shoot rockets inside to set fire to the unburned parts of the city. Otherwise, rats and the like in the city will easily spread the plague if they get out. We can't be careless about this kind of thing."

Huang Fei said.

The main force of the Northern Expedition had not actually arrived yet. It was only after Yang Feng learned of the civil unrest in the capital that he went to Tianjin with his troops.

But what he said made sense. Such a situation would inevitably breed bacteria and plague would be unavoidable. If the soldiers entered the city to clean up and were infected with the plague, and then spread the disease, it would be troublesome.

"withdraw!"

Yang Feng said immediately.

They immediately withdrew from the capital with the small number of cavalry that had entered the city.

Then they began to circle the city and close the gates.

As for pouring cement, it is very simple. Just transfer it from Tianjin. This is also necessary. Otherwise, rats and the like inside will drill out from the gaps and spread the plague outside easily. All that is left is to let the soldiers continue to shoot rockets inside.

Of course, they also have to be thoroughly disinfected and even isolated and observed for a few days.

Ditan Park.

King Yang looked at the capital city, which had been closed off, with emotion.

The whole city was silent. Standing here, one could even see the palaces in the imperial palace that had been burned to black.

Even in the moat outside the city, there were also many rotting corpses. This kind of killing was definitely not limited to the city. In fact, many hardcore farmers still rushed out and some actually escaped, but most of them died in the killing outside the city.

The soldiers who were ordered to set fire were still shooting arrows with bows and arrows, but the arrows were tied with oilcloth and then ignited. One by one, these rockets fell into the city in a parabola, and the city that had been extinguished by the rain soon began to smoke again. This city will definitely not be able to serve as the capital in the short term. It will cost a huge amount of money to rebuild it. It is completely unnecessary in this era. At least we have to wait until the famine era is over and there is spare capacity before we can consider rebuilding.

It can only serve as a military fortress...

It was originally a military fortress, and it remained a temporary base until the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Besides, the Queen has no interest in coming back.

This place is no match for the comfort she has in Nanjing. It would be enough to keep one person and a palace here. Even Wang Chengen doesn't need to come back in the short term. After all, Xi'an is more important than here, and it will take a long time for the population in this area to recover.

It is estimated that the entire Shuntian Prefecture may not even have a population of one million!
"Your Majesty, where is Baoding?"

Huang Fei said tentatively.

"Forget it, I'll give them a chance. If they can clean up those high-ranking officials themselves, I'll let them atone for their crimes!"

Yang Feng said.

Huang Fei nodded quickly.

Asking them to surrender directly would be too easy for them. They have to do something for King Yang to be eligible to atone for their sins.

"Wealthy singing and dancing halls, desolate tombs and deserted platforms. Looking back, everything has turned to dust, only the green mountains remain unchanged."

King Yang finally took a moment to remember everything that was buried in the ruins.

"My youth also passed away with them!"

Then he said.

After saying that, he turned around and left.

As for the reopening of the capital city gates, it was already winter. Huang Fei went in and cleaned out 60,000 bones. Wu Sangui was easily found because he had been put into a coffin by his men. He was not wearing the official uniform of the Qing Dynasty, but the official uniform of the Earl of the Ming Dynasty. He must have been preparing it all the time. It was obvious that he still fantasized about returning to the Ming Dynasty.

Eventually, King Yang showed mercy and returned his bones to his family.

His family had surrendered in Taiyuan before, including his son Wu Yingxiong, but he had been confiscated and enslaved in the Xi'an Palace. But no matter what, his father's bones should still be given to him.

Hauge’s is definitely gone.

Someone who escaped from the capital said that his pile of minced meat was fed to dogs.

As for the remaining ones, they were also difficult to distinguish. In the end, Huang Fei simply gave up distinguishing them. He loaded all the bones onto a ship and transported them to the sea and threw them into the Bohai Sea. After all, digging a pit for so many bones was a big project. It was much easier to put them in bags and throw them directly on the ship. From the capital to Dagukou, it was a straight river, and the transportation process was also simple. In short, he completed the cleaning of the capital in this way, but it was not completely cleaned up. In the following years, more than 10,000 bones were found one after another, but they were not necessarily the ones who died this time. After all, in the few months when Wu Sangui entered the capital, no less than double-digit people died every day.

As for King Yang, he had already gone to Xi'an at this time.

His Northern Expedition was over.

No real fighting took place during the entire Northern Expedition.

The last batch of Qing troops in Baoding ended their resistance by killing each other. In the besiege of Baoding and several surrounding counties, those high officials were cleared out, and then King Yang accepted their surrender. At this point, the war in the interior of the Ming Dynasty was completely quelled. Her Majesty Empress Kunxing of the Ming Dynasty theoretically recovered all the lost land for her father, although there was still Liaoshen, but Liaoshen was not lost by her father.

Xi'an.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!”

King Yang stood in front of Wu Sangui's tomb, looking at the two imperial tombs standing in front of him...

He buried Wu Sangui not far from Chongzhen and Li Zicheng.

Of course, it was definitely not intentional.

After all, there were many tombs in this place, and Wu Sangui was just one of them. The Wu family was in Zhonghouso, and there was still no one there. Besides, Wu Yingxiong was now eunuch Wu, so it was impossible for him to go there. He could only find a place nearby in Xi'an, so King Yang designated this place for him.

This is still King Yang's face.

Otherwise, they would not allow the burial. After all, Li Zicheng's former subordinates in Guanzhong still had some hatred towards Wu Sangui.

Now that he was a dead rebel, it was a mercy that his bones were not crushed and scattered. However, for the sake of King Yang's face, the owner of the cemetery reluctantly agreed to give him a burial place.

That's it.

In the future, when Chongzhen fights Li Zicheng in the underworld, he will not be without help.

King Yang took great pains to arrange the underground life of the three of them.

"Your Majesty is truly kindhearted! His kindness to the dead is a story that will be passed down through the ages."

Niu Jinxing quickly flattered him.

"The man is dead, let's just put it to rest. Besides, he has no descendants, so there is no need for us to make things difficult for him."

Yang Feng said.

Wu Sangui's two sons, in addition to Wu Yingxiong, there is another one, Wu Yingqi, who was adopted by his brother. He is younger, but his brother had surrendered with Zu Dashou a long time ago, so he is not in Shanxi, but is an official in the capital. His whereabouts are unknown. In fact, many of those killed in the capital are missing. Of course, the most likely possibility is that they are among the pile of bones thrown into Bohai by Huang Fei, but even if they are still alive and escaped, they will be tortured to death if they are found later.

The search for them will surely continue, and will not stop until they are found.

Zu Dashou himself also disappeared in the capital.

After Wu Sangui entered Beijing, they all became high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty, and Zu Dashou was even conferred the title of a prince!

Anyway, a bunch of people are trapped in there, so they might as well become king out of boredom.

Moreover, most of the officers and soldiers under Wu Sangui were missing. Of course, they could not have all died in the capital. In such a melee, it would be considered a lot if 20% or 30% of them died. They just took advantage of the massacre and used the dead bodies in the city as a cover to escape. It is even possible that they deliberately carried out such a massacre. After all, there were tens of thousands of dead bodies, and they were rotten. It was impossible to tell who was among them, so they could escape. Anyway, the court did not know whether they were among those bones. The future wanted notice for them was just a gesture. As long as they did not jump out and expose themselves, it would be almost impossible for them to be discovered again.

These guys are all old foxes.

The death of Wu Sangui was actually a good thing for them. If Wu Sangui had not died, it would have been difficult for them to abandon him. But if he had taken them away and escaped, he would have become a target of the imperial court.

His death made the situation clear.

(End of this chapter)