King Luhuang of the Ming Dynasty: My father, Ming Taizu

Chapter 448 I hope everything is fine

Qin Zhen looked at the surging Huai River and felt dizzy. "Brother You, I don't know how many people will die on this trip to the Huai River. How should we deal with it?"

"No need. This is a disaster, no one can save us. Marquis Jianchang will lead the people of Lianghuai to rescue us with all their strength. If you sacrifice your life for the country, you will be rewarded when you return."

Qin Zhen was speechless. His companion actually wanted to do it again. It was really admirable.

The companion sniffed and said, "The air here is a bit pungent, let's go!"

Qin Zhen originally wanted to complain, but then he thought that the water here was too deep. Not to mention more than a hundred people, even if there were tens of thousands of people, it would be impossible to survive under the siege of so many people.

But Guo Ning was not the only one who was unlucky. While he was holding the big tree, Huai'an Prefecture had not yet been submerged by the flood, and Cao Da and others welcomed Zhang Yuanying and others out in a secret place near Huai'an Prefecture.

Zhang Yuanying cursed Cao Da while trying hard to hold back her laughter. Cao Da had burn marks all over his body, which was really funny.

The others also teased Cao Da. Zhang Yuanying shook his head and said, "Forget it. We haven't given that guy a head start yet. But there's a rumor from Liu Jishan that officials and salt merchants from Lianghuai will attack Marquis Jianchang in the city. Once they make a move, we will follow them. There must be no mistakes. Our goal is to kill Marquis Jianchang."

Most of the people here were Zhu Tan's enemies, and most of them were killed in the Jinyiwei prison, so they didn't have any psychological burden for killing Marquis Jianchang. The more miserable Zhu Tan was, the happier they were.

Zhang Yuanying had Liu Jishan as her accomplice, and was very familiar with everything in the city. She incited everyone and wanted to kill Zhu Tan in one go and then drown him in the water.

Before Zhang Yuanying finished speaking, Cao Da heard, "What's going on? It seems that a knight is coming."

Faintly, he heard the sound of horse hooves.

Zhang Yuanying frowned, thinking that he had exposed something, but then he realized that something was wrong; it was the sound of flowing water.

Just as they were thinking this, a wave that was taller than the house came crashing over. Zhang Yuanying and the others could only let out a scream before being drowned by the huge wave.

The flood continued to surge towards Huai'an City. Thanks to the protection of the city walls, the city was not severely damaged, but the entire Huai'an City was submerged in water more than ten feet deep.

It was midnight and Zhu Tan was just about to go to sleep when he was awakened by Xu Tai's loud shout. When he woke up, the water level had already submerged the bed.

"My Lord, there is a flood here. The flood has submerged our bodies. We must leave here as soon as possible."

"Spring flood?" Richard was startled, a little surprised. Zhu Tan thought that even if it was a spring flood, it would be impossible to have such a thing, and it hadn't rained recently, so where would there be any rain?

But now is not a good time to say this. In just a few words, the river water rose a lot.

"Door, open the door." Zhu Tan straightened his clothes. "The water level here is a little bit wrong. Let's go up."

Zhu Tan is a very good swimmer, but Xu Tai can't swim. The two of them kicked the door open and swam out, each carrying a piece of the water.

In just half a minute, the entire government office was flooded. The water rose higher and higher, even reaching the eaves of the house. Many people struggled desperately in the water, but after only two or three struggles, there was no sound anymore.

Zhu Tan looked at the rising water line, his eyes twitched, and he immediately thought of the Huaihe River bursting its dike, otherwise there would not be a flood of such scale.

At that time, he didn't know who did it. He just thought it was caused by water shortage, and cursed the former canal governor Liu Daxia in his heart.

Zhu Tan remembered where the tallest building was in the city, but although the river was calm now, it had risen to more than two feet high and was impassable.

"Xu Tai, go to the city wall. Although Huai'an Mansion is dilapidated, it should still be usable. Let's go there now."

Xu Tai nodded vigorously, waving his hands in the air, and finally pulled out a long sword to use as a paddle.

Zhu Tan, on the contrary, seemed much calmer. He even directed Xu Tai to sway left and right, but he said to himself that you don't need oars to row, you only need the waves.

Zhu Tan's inference was not wrong, but he still underestimated the power of the Huai River flood. The flood rushed into the city, and countless people were drowned in the flood, while even more people were fleeing.

Zhu Tan and Xu Tai each occupied a door, which was really eye-catching. Many people were swimming hard towards them.

Before Zhu Tan could do anything, Xu Tai killed the other two men and tried to push Xu Tai away from the door and take his place.

The same was true for Zhu Tan, but his movements were very fast and these people could not catch up with him at all, so they had no way to catch up with him and saw that Zhu Tan was already approaching the city wall.

There are no more city walls and no more towers.

Zhu Tan grabbed a protruding brick and looked under the moonlight. He saw that the whole city was filled with water, about seven meters deep.

Xu Tai also came in, holding the railing on the city wall and said, "My Lord, what should we do? Have you been waiting for a long time?"

"Now we can only wait. If it weren't for this flood, we would still be able to make it through."

Xu Tai put his sword against the city wall and said, "The people in the city are all annoying guys!"

Zhu Tan nodded. With such a flood, many people would surely drown. The force of nature is ruthless. Just because you are a county magistrate does not mean you can do whatever you want. Everyone is the same under natural disasters.

After more than an hour, the river water receded slightly, confirming Zhu Tan's guess. However, he was surprised to see corpses and piles of dry firewood floating over from upstream.

Zhu Tan speculated that it was because the city upstream was destroyed, thousands of corpses were found, and many people were washed away by the river. It was very scary.

What worried Zhu Tan the most were the dead bodies of the Jinyiwei. They were wearing red clothes. Ninety percent of them were his men, and there were a few stationed outside. It seemed that they had been wiped out.

When Xu Tai saw this scene, tears almost fell from his eyes. He had always been very good to his soldiers. Those imperial guards who followed him to the south were all his confidants. Now, perhaps only one tenth were left.

The river water continued to flow down until it receded to about one meter before it stopped.

Zhu Tan looked at the wall emerging from the water, feeling a little relieved, and said, "Xu Tai, hurry up, hurry up, this city is going to collapse."

Xu Tai slammed the city wall with his palm. The huge recoil force threw him to the top of the city wall, and the city wall collapsed silently.

Zhu Tan had already climbed onto the city wall and stepped on solid ground, which made him feel safe.

At this moment, as the sky gradually brightened, Zhu Tan saw clearly that the entire Huai'an city had become a ruin, with even people and dogs fighting over trees.

A child tried to swim to a tree, but a dog had already perched in the tree. As soon as the child stretched out his hand, he was bitten by a puppy and disappeared into the water.

Zhu Tan had only seen the Huaihe River flooding and the tragedy of people and snakes fighting over forests in documentaries, but he had never seen people and dogs fighting over trees. What a tragic scene it was.

At dawn, the scene that made Zhu Tan and Xu Tai's blood boil appeared. There were more than ten small boats from the city to the outside, and there were more than ten people sitting on each boat.

These people were like a group of hungry wolves rushing into a flock of sheep, specifically targeting officials, especially the Imperial Guards and Yulin Guards who had escaped to safe areas, more than 80% of them died at their hands.

"Fuck you!" Xu Tai watched two familiar guards being killed by a sword, his eyes bloodshot.

Zhu Tan clenched his fists but did not lose his composure, because he had already seen that these people had clear goals and were definitely targeting them.

"Xu Tai, don't cry. They are here to kill us. Let's leave here quickly before they arrive. If there is any grudge, they can come and settle with us later."

Xu Tai calmed himself down, drew the long sword from his waist, and swung it vigorously, "Just wait, I must avenge this vengeance, otherwise I will not be named Xu!"

In fact, Xu Tai's initial shouting had attracted the attention of these people, but when a boat was about to sink due to the water, they were delayed.

When two of the small boats came, Zhu Tan and Xu Tai climbed over the city gate and followed the main channel of the Huai River, hoping to use the river water to shake off the pursuers behind them.

If they stayed in the city any longer, they would be finished, as they would never be able to escape the encirclement of more than a dozen small boats.

The flood passed, but the flow of the Huaihe River did not slow down, but instead accelerated, which reminded Tang Zheng of the scene of Sun Wukong crossing the sea, and it made him shudder with fear.

Behind them, there were two boats. Perhaps because they couldn't see clearly, they didn't chase them. They thought that these two planks were just planks, and if they were swept into the sea, they would definitely die.

Although they are death warriors, they also have a mission. If they fail to complete it, they will die.

I saw those small boats shuttling back and forth in the city, surrounding the government offices and villas, and leaving nothing unscathed wherever they passed.

Lu Youming was soaked all over. He was sitting on the government gate which had not collapsed yet. He looked at the approaching ship with a strange expression on his face.

"One misstep can lead to eternal regret, and it's too late to regret it!"

A man on the boat recognized Lu Youming and his face suddenly changed. "Mr. Lu, you can go now."

Three or four long spears pierced Lu Youming's body into a bloody mess, and he died not long after.

The people on the boat were still searching. Except for Liao Feng and Jiang Hong, the general managers of Fengyang Town, there were more than a dozen people who were not drowned, and they were all killed.

In addition, the head of the She family was unlucky and drowned in the river, so the remaining four people escaped.

While under siege, they even overturned a small boat.

Liu Jishan became a traitor. You Tai contacted Zhang Yuanying and was a little overwhelmed when he was attacked. "Liao Feng, are you going to kill us?"

Bai Wuyou shook his head. He saw Liao Feng's death. The murderer would not do it himself. There must be some powerful person behind him, otherwise he would not have done it in Huaishui.

This is a very frustrating thing. Even if they can survive, they are likely to become scapegoats and cannot escape the second misfortune.

This is the best scapegoat. He has both the purpose and the method, and he is in conflict with Marquis Jianchang. The person behind this has thought of everything clearly.

Even if Bai Wuyou left a way out for the Bai family, as long as Marquis Jianchang died, all his efforts would be in vain. Judging from the current situation, Marquis Jianchang had almost no hope of survival.

"No matter how difficult it is, we can't just sit there and wait for death. We must fight our way out and seize this big ship."

Although Bai Wuyou is old, he is still very brave, especially at this critical juncture, if he doesn't fight hard, he will have nothing.

There were also conflicts among the five major merchants, but under the circumstances, they were still united. There were only more than a hundred people, but they robbed two small boats and killed more than thirty people.

"Let the younger generation get on board and break through to clean up the mess. Everyone else, get on board. It would be even better if we can save the Marquis of Jianchang. Hurry!"

Bai Wuyou acted like a boss, and although everyone was confused, they still did as he asked.

However, when the water level dropped to more than one meter and the boats left one after another, Bai Wuyou still did not find any trace of Marquis Jianchang, but instead lost half of his troops.

Liu Jishan looked ashen. Marquis Jianchang was gone and Cao Da fell in front of him. He trembled all over, knowing that the son-in-law You Tai had suffered the same thing, and the deceased's status was no worse than that of Marquis Jianchang.

Liu Jishan's mouth trembled constantly, and he said, "Brother Bai, we are in trouble this time. We have lost our business and our people. What should we do?"

Bai Wuyou looked at everyone, "At this point, there is only the worst possible outcome. Fortunately, I sent Bai's Erlang to work in the canal transportation industry a few years ago, so I have some say and can hide for now! If there is really no other way, then we will have no choice but to seek refuge at sea."

"Cao Ren", also known as "Yan Gang", is similar to "Salt Gang". It is an active community. Moreover, "Cao Ren" is under the official name and has a certain say in the canal.

Bai Wuyou had already thought of a plan and let his brother do business. Now it is time to reap the rewards.

Although Liu Jishan and others were unwilling, they also understood that Bai Wuyou was right. This matter was too serious. With their identities as the five major salt merchants, it was absolutely impossible for them to escape.

The city of Huai'an was submerged by floods. Not only this area, but even the downstream of the city was a miserable place, and countless civilians were drowned.

Zhu Tan and Xu Tai fled together. Not long after they entered the main channel of the Huai River, Xu Tai saw that Zhu Tan had an outstanding swimming talent and was able to pull him to the shore in the turbulent river.

The river water collapsed in the south, and Zhu Tan stepped on the ground in the north. Although it was above his knees, it was only above his knees, so he was not worried.

Zhu Tan held the spear in his hand, calmed himself down, and said, "Amazing! I don't know who did this, so cruel."

If she still can't figure out who did it by now, then let Zhu Tan jump in and drown.

Xu Tai was still angry. "If I see him, I will make him regret it. Even if it's in the hall, I will cut him into pieces."

Zhu Tan patted Xu Tai on the shoulder and said, "This matter cannot be done by one person alone, but you don't have to worry. No matter who it is, I will always make sure the deceased has an explanation, so that he will not be alone on the road to the underworld. I don't know what happened to Ma Cong, Guo Ning and others, I hope everything is fine!"

(End of this chapter)