golden scales

Bang bang bang!

The knock on the door was heard far away in the night sky.

The Patriarch of the Wu family got out of the bed in fear, and said in a trembling voice: "What's going on in the middle of the night?"

The lady of the Wu family was also awakened, and said: "Hurry up and put on your clothes and go open the door! A few days ago, someone smashed the door and refused to open it. The whole family was killed for the crime of 'defying Manchuria'."

Bang bang bang!Bang bang bang!

It wasn't just the Wu family, but the entire neighborhood was knocked violently.For a moment, the child was crying and the woman was screaming, completely breaking the silence of the night.

Bang!

The door panel was finally smashed open.

A few Qing soldiers in double-breasted mandarin jackets rushed into the courtyard of the Wu family, looking fierce and kicking at the door whenever they saw it.The Wu family originally had servants, but they couldn't afford to support them after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, so they had to be dismissed.Now there are three members of the family, Wu and his wife live in the main house, and their son Wu Bucheng lives in the side room. They were dragged into the courtyard by the Qing soldiers before they were dressed, and held against by a row of spears.

The head of the Wu family saw that his son and wife had been dragged out, and those Qing soldiers were not kind, so he hurriedly shouted: "Master Bing! Our family is a good citizen! Really a good citizen!"

An officer who looked like a Han came out of the Qing army, and shouted in the dialect of the Liaodong army: "The army is collecting food! Eight buckets of rice per person! There are three people in your family, you should pay two stones and four buckets! Pay them quickly!"

The head of the Wu family burst into tears immediately, and cried, "Sir, my lord, my family is small, how can I save two stones of rice?"

Two stones of rice is half a year's ration for a family of three. Who can save so much rice in this year?Those Qing soldiers didn't care, only saw the officer wave his hand, only five or six Qing soldiers were left watching them, the others all rushed into the room, they took what they could, and smashed those who couldn't. It was a mess.

The three members of the Wu family knelt in the yard in the freezing cold, feeling cold, afraid and angry.We can only hold each other and cry bitterly.

"Don't smash it! Lord Bing! My family's food is in the rice tank in the kitchen! Really!" the Wu family woman cried.

After a while, a Qing soldier came out of the kitchen carrying half a bag of rice, about three buckets in size.The officer sneered: "Only three buckets of rice? You can't even buy a life." He raised his voice and shouted: "Observe the imperial decree! Anyone who is less than eight buckets of rice should be killed! You don't want to be greedy for such a small gain, you will lose your life." But there's nothing left!"

His murderous words came out of his mouth.Several Qing soldiers shouted violently, pointing their spears at the three members of the Wu family on the ground.The Wu family just cried, where can food be produced?

……

"what!"

"Mom! Kill me! Don't kill my father!"

"what!"

……

Hissing and lung-piercing cries came from the yard next door. They were neighbors for many years, and Wu Bucheng immediately recognized the voice of the neighbor.He immediately came to his senses, knelt down and kowtowed: "My lord! I still have silver at home! Is it possible to use the silver to pay for it? I beg Master Manchuria to let my family live!"

"One tael of silver and one bucket of rice." The officer said coldly.

During the Taiping Festival, one tael of silver can buy two stones of rice.Even in the Chongzhen Dynasty, rice prices rose.Most of the time it is the price of one or two stones.Just like this, there are already complaints in the city of Beijing, hoping that King Chuang can live a good life when he comes.But now, people are asking you for a price with a knife and gun, can you still bargain?

"Yes! Yes! I have!" Wu Bucheng quickly raised his head.With a face full of dirt, he said: "There is a jar under the bed in my house! It's my wages saved."

Before the outbreak of the plague, Wu Bucheng worked in a fireworks shop and was appreciated by the shopkeeper.The monthly money is one or two taels of silver, which can be considered a well-off family in Beijing.The money was originally saved for emergencies, but unexpectedly it was still not saved.

A Qing soldier quickly came out with a jar and threw it on the ground.The clay jar was instantly smashed to pieces, and three silver ingots and a handful of broken silver rolled out.

The officer poked it with his foot.He picked up a silver ingot and put it in his waist, and let the Qing soldiers put the rest in their pockets, saying: "If you have five taels of silver, it will be equivalent to five buckets of rice."

"That silver ingot is five taels..." Wu Bucheng cried out.

The officer kicked Wu Bucheng hard in the face.

Wu Bucheng fell to the ground with a scream, and after two breaths, he spit out two broken teeth and a mouth full of blood.

"Master, please spare me! My family still has the coffin book with ten taels of silver. I beg you to be merciful. Please be merciful!" Wu Bucheng's mother hugged her son, and hurriedly said, "There is a jewelry box just behind the altar."

A Qing soldier quickly stepped into the main house, and soon heard the sound of the shrine being toppled.The Qing soldier came out with the jewelry box and opened it in front of the officer, and sure enough there were two ingots of five taels of silver collars lying there.

The officer ordered someone to accept it, and his tone softened a bit: "There is still a lot to do, either give money, or choose someone to take his life!"

"Master, please be kind!" This time the Wu family was really desperate, the family really had no money, so they had to lie on the ground and cry.

The officer was not very patient, and had to rush to the next family to collect grain.Perhaps it was because he was greedy a lot, he was in a good mood, and said kindly: "Let's keep the small one."

A Qing soldier stepped forward behind him, stabbed the two old men of the Wu family with a spear, and asked them to choose one to die.

Wu Bucheng rushed forward, hugged the tip of the gun, and said with a leak in his mouth: "Kill me, kill me! Don't kill my parents!"

The Qing soldier could understand Chinese, his hands trembled slightly, he poked the gun forward, and gave him a wink to get out of the way.

Wu Bucheng was originally a man of elves, but now he was frightened, and he still held the gun head and shouted: "Kill me!"

Wu Shi hugged her son and pulled her back, but she forced herself to push forward: "Kill me! Master Jun! Kill me!"

The Qing soldier heard the officer behind him say "hmm", retracted and stabbed the tip of the gun, immediately pierced Wu's chest ribs, pulled out immediately, and a puddle of blood spurted out.

Wu Bucheng threw himself on his mother and blocked the bloody hole with his hands, but he couldn't resist the blood gushing out.He was lying on his mother's body in pain, but he went to see his father again. At some point, he had fainted from the panic, and then crawled over to hug his father and wept.

The Qing soldiers took the silver and grain, as well as some bronze wares and cloth, went to the street, threw the things on the cart, and rushed into the next house.

The family has two sons who are in their prime of life, and they have been waiting in the yard with wooden sticks in their hands.It's just that civilians who have never experienced battles are no match for these Qing soldiers. Four or five spears immediately stabbed two middle-aged men into bloody men.

Seeing their son being killed, the two elderly members of the family rushed out with kitchen knives, but were killed together.

The officer stepped forward, stepping on the blood, and said, "I searched and left quickly! I wasted too much time just now."

As soon as he turned around, he saw two Han people with buns on their heads running away on the street.Soon after, Qing soldiers chased after them, hacked them to death, cut off their heads and raised them high with spears, shouting along the street: "Whoever dares to go out will be killed!"

……

The massacre on the 18th day of the first lunar month in the [-]th year of Chongzhen did not subside until after dawn.Li Zicheng didn't snatch the money that Zhu Cihong left for the people of Dudu to pay for his life that day, but was looted by these Manchurians.Seeing that it is the season of lean and yellow, with neither money nor food in hand, and unable to even bury the family members, how should they live?

When Song Hongye went out in the morning, he could only smell the stench of corpses in the air, so he quickly took a smoked kerchief to cover his mouth and nose.He is now a nobleman of the third rank in the court, and he is the coat of the regent's family in the banner. In addition, he can be a man, so he is quite popular.So before the grain collection order was issued, he had already notified Xu Dun, and he didn't know if all the Jinlin Society had escaped the night of massacre.

"Master, the dirty blood on the street is being washed up ahead, I'm afraid we have to wait for a while." The housekeeper walked to the side of the sedan chair and reported in alarm.

"Then wait, it won't be long..." Song Hongye said, suddenly feeling a little sore, and closed his eyes.

Just two years ago, everyone in Beijing thought that the Zhu family was rotten, and they all wished that King Chuang would come soon so that another emperor could live a better life.However, when King Chuang came, he didn't bring any good life to the Beijingers, but when the prince of the Zhu family left, he left a sum of money to pay for the lives of the people.

Chuang Wang came and went in a hurry, and he didn't forget to grab something when he left, obviously he didn't plan to come back.

Then these braided soldiers came again, at first they said they were begging for thieves from Daming, later they occupied the inner city, and now they committed such crimes.

If I had known today, it would be better for the Zhu family to be emperors!

Ps:

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