Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 308: The Destruction of Jiangnan! (Part )

"what!"

A shrill scream cut through the night sky.

Listening to the sound, it was made by a little boy.

As he stumbled forward, he looked behind him in horror.

When running through an arch, the little boy stumbled and fell to the ground.

At this moment, despair filled his mind and his emotions collapsed in an instant.

"Grandpa! Grandpa, why are you going to kill us?! Why!!!"

Under the moonlight, Zhang Peng, with disheveled hair and half of his body covered in blood, slowly walked out of the archway, holding a knife that was still dripping with blood.

This horrifying scene deeply stimulated the little boy's brain.

He didn't understand, he really didn't understand.

Why just now, the usually dignified and kind grandfather became like a madman, chasing them with a knife?

He saw with his own eyes that Zhang Peng hacked his cousin to death with a knife.

The horrific scene of the knife slashing his cousin's chest was deeply imprinted in his mind, and even now, it still flashed through his mind from time to time.

Zhang Peng did not respond to his grandson's cry, but walked towards his last grandson with firm steps.

Then he raised the bloody butcher knife in his hand high and chopped it down fiercely!
"Ahhhhh!!!!"

Blood splattered in the night sky.

Beneath the blood was a face full of despair and eyes that were gradually losing their life.

After killing his last grandson, Zhang Peng looked around and saw devastation everywhere.

The ground and walls were covered with blood and corpses.

At this moment, Zhang Peng felt deeply sad. An indescribable feeling surged into his heart, making him lose all strength all over his body.

The knife in his hand fell weakly to the ground, and then he knelt on the ground, covering his face with his hands, sobbing.

At this moment, in the entire Zhang family's backyard, there was no other living person except Zhang Peng.

Just now, he had dismissed all the servants and maids in their house.

This is the last thing he can do.

After crying enough, Zhang Peng stood up, walked back, and slowly walked into the restaurant.

The dining table was surrounded by corpses of Zhang family members.

Some of them fell to the ground, some fell on the dining table, but without exception, they all had black lips, ashen faces, and some white foam at the corners of their mouths.

Symptoms like these indicate death from poisoning.

Zhang Peng's eyes swept across their faces one by one, and his expressions were expressionless, neither sad nor happy.

He sat back in his seat, and after sitting there for a long while, he suddenly picked up the chopsticks and took a few big bites of the completely cold food.

Then, Zhang Peng raised his wine glass and looked at the transparent orange-yellow wine in the glass for a while.

After hesitating for a long time, he gritted his teeth and drank it in one gulp...

……

The next day.

The sun had broken through, the weather was clear, and the days were getting hotter by the day.

The people in Nanjing city still live their lives leisurely.

The officials in Nanjing city all frowned and looked worried.

The higher the official's rank, the more aware he is of the current war situation, and the deeper his frown.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, everyone in the yamen suddenly realized something.

It seemed that they had not seen Zhang Peng today.

Not only Zhang Peng, but also Zhang Peng's sons who were officials in the court did not show up.

At this time, everyone finally felt that something was wrong.

"Master Zhang Sheng, Master Zhang Peng has not shown up. Is Master Zhang Peng..."

The assistant minister of the Ministry of War found Zhang Sheng, the minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, and tactfully raised the questions in his mind.

Zhang Sheng, who was reading the latest intelligence, suddenly closed the secret letter in his hand, looked up at him, and said seriously: "Don't speculate, Minister Zhang Peng may just be unwell."

"How about this, you come with me to Shangshu Zhang Peng's house now to see the situation."

"Yes, my lord!"

After saying that, Zhang Sheng stood up and went to Zhang Peng's house with the Minister of War.

When he arrived at the gate of Zhang Peng's house, Zhang Sheng felt a little hesitant.

Although he was so sure before, Zhang Sheng actually didn't know what happened in Zhang Peng's family.

After taking a deep breath, Zhang Sheng knocked on Zhang Peng's door, but they waited for a long time and no one came to open the door.

At this moment, Zhang Sheng's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly realized that things were beginning to develop towards the worst direction for him.

"Quick! Get someone to break the door down."

Zhang Sheng decisively ordered to start knocking on the door, and immediately two guards came forward and kicked the door violently.

After the door was kicked open, the scene inside shocked everyone outside.

The front yard was still a peaceful scene, except that there was no one around.

But the backyard was a Shura-like place, with blood all over the walls and corpses of Zhang family members on the ground, making people feel as if the factory guards had visited.

Zhang Sheng's pupils began to shrink rapidly and a look of fear appeared on his face.

"Search quickly! See what happened!"

"Where's Zhang Peng?! If he's alive, I want to see him. If he's dead, I want to see his body!"

"Yes, my lord!"

At Zhang Peng's command, the accompanying guards began to search everywhere in Zhang Peng's house.

Soon, the search yielded results.

"Master Zhang Sheng, we have found the body of Minister Zhang Peng!"

"Take me there quickly!"

The guard took Zhang Sheng all the way to the restaurant.

Here, Zhang Sheng saw the dead Zhang Peng, his son, and his wives and concubines.

Zhang Peng's death was the same as that of his family members.

Their lips were all black, their faces were ashen, and there was a trace of white foam at the corners of their mouths.

This typical sign of death from poisoning made Zhang Sheng's legs go weak. He quickly reached out to hold on to the door frame to avoid falling to the ground.

Zhang Peng committed suicide.

He not only committed suicide, but also killed his wives, concubines, sons, and grandsons with his own hands before he died.

He destroyed his entire family.

Zhang Sheng didn't understand why Zhang Peng would use such an extreme method to end the lives of his family.

Just then, a guard came to Zhang Sheng with a letter in his hand.

"Master Zhang Sheng, here is a letter from Master Zhang Peng for you."

Zhang Sheng stretched out his trembling hand and took the letter from the guard.

The letter did indeed say that it was written personally by Minister Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng opened the letter and found a piece of handwriting in a sloppy handwriting.

The letter read: Minister Zhang Sheng, by the time you see this letter, I should be dead.

I am sorry to say goodbye to you in this way, but I am afraid I cannot say many things to you in person. We have already lost this war.

But if you think I'm going to leave this place where I've lived half my life.

Then you are wrong.

I would rather die by my own hands than die by the knives of the factory guards.

Zhang Sheng, run!
Take your wealth and your family and go to sea.

You can go to Southeast Asia, the West, or even East Asia.

Don't try to resist, it will only waste your time.

The ending of failure is already doomed!
Finally, this is my last request in my life, I hope you can agree to it.

Burn my body and the bodies of my family members, and don’t let the court get my body!
The letter became more and more sloppy as it was written. At the beginning, you could still see the elegant handwriting, but towards the end it became just sloppy lines.

After reading the letter, Zhang Sheng couldn't calm down for a long time.

However, he still helped Zhang Peng and fulfilled his last request.

"Come here, gather up the bodies of Master Zhang Peng and his family members and burn them."

"Yes, my lord!"

Under Zhang Sheng's order, a group of guards picked up the bodies on the ground.

In Zhang Peng's yard, they piled up straw and burned their bodies on the spot...

The news that Zhang Peng personally killed his entire family spread quickly in Nanjing.

This news greatly shocked the officialdom in Nanjing and exacerbated the panic of Nanjing officials.

Starting from that afternoon, officials, along with their property and families, began to leave Nanjing one after another.

At this moment, the busiest place in the entire Nanjing city is the port outside the city.

In fact, not only the ports outside Nanjing city, but also the ports in the entire Jiangnan region are operating at high load.

Too many powerful people, with their property and families, boarded ships and wanted to leave the Ming Dynasty.

Why do these powerful and wealthy people want to leave Ming Dynasty at this moment?

Is it because the Ming Dynasty is not good that they don’t want to stay in it?
No, they wanted to stay in Ming Dynasty, but there was no place for them in Ming Dynasty anymore.

If they stay in Ming Dynasty, they will die, so they must run!
The wealthy and powerful who own ships are extremely grateful at this moment that they have their own ships.

Those powerful people who don't have a bed are willing to spend a lot of money to buy a berth on the ship, or even just a place to stay.

But unfortunately, there are too many rich people and too few berths available for sailing. Many people cannot buy a berth even if they spend all their money.

Many ships were even seriously overloaded, but there were still a large number of landlords and gentry who jumped onto the ships without caring about their lives!
And only in the coastal cities of Jiangnan does one have such a slight chance of escape.

More landlords and gentry in the inland areas of Jiangnan could only wait for death in despair.

The world is so big, but there is no place for them to stay.

The most fatal point is that the garrison soldiers on the front battlefield have not collapsed yet.

Instead, it was the officials, wealthy businessmen, landlords and gentry who were protected by them who collapsed first.

The first result of this was that the logistical supplies for the soldiers at the front-line garrisons began to become tight.

What followed was a series of defeats.

In just one night, the army led by Gao Shun swept through Huai'an Prefecture and Fengyang Prefecture.

At this moment, Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang and Luzhou have been exposed to the imperial army.

Gao Shun’s troops may arrive at the gates of Nanjing at any time!

Mass panic began to intensify. Cao Lei, who had originally planned to defend Nanjing to the death, had already lost control of his garrison soldiers before the war even began.

Because the soldiers in the garrisons were also afraid of death, there were also deserters among them.

The city of Nanjing fell into chaos in an instant.

Some people are trying desperately to escape, but some have already chosen to die bravely.

Zhang Sheng is one of them.

Although Zhang Sheng's family had more than one ship, and although Zhang Peng also told him in the letter to escape from Nanjing as soon as possible.

But like Zhang Peng, Zhang Sheng also didn't want to leave Nanjing.

That evening, Zhang Sheng, wearing neat official uniform, sat in the restaurant with his family to enjoy dinner.

His youngest grandson asked, "Grandpa, why are you wearing the clothes you usually wear in the court?"

His wife also asked, "Master, what happened?"

Zhang Sheng smiled and shook his head: "No."

After sitting down, Zhang Sheng looked at the family members around the dining table. His mood became complicated and the smile on his face slowly faded.

He felt a wave of emotion in his heart, wondering how Zhang Peng could be so cruel as to kill his own family with his own hands.

But when they thought that after they were defeated, those ferocious factory guards would definitely arrest them, and what would await them then would be horrifying torture.

Thinking of this, Zhang Sheng could only force himself to harden his heart.

After finishing their last exquisite dinner, everyone felt a little sleepy.

Not just one person, but everyone felt very sleepy.

So they chose to go to bed earlier than usual.

"Good night, Grandpa."

Before leaving, Zhang Sheng's youngest grandson was still jumping around and saying good night to him.

Zhang Sheng forced a smile but said nothing.

That night, when everything was quiet, a raging fire suddenly broke out in Zhang Sheng's mansion without any warning.

The flames came too fast and burned too quickly, forming a raging fire in the blink of an eye.

What was strange was that in such a large house, there was not a single cry, and no one went to put out the fire.

Finally, it was the servant from the house next door to Zhang Sheng who saw the flames and began to shout loudly.

"There's a fire! Help! There's a fire!"

The servant's shouts echoed through the silent night sky.

Soon, servants from the surrounding houses came to put out the fire with pots and pans.

But to their shock, all the doors of the house were locked. No matter how hard they knocked on the door, no one answered.

Finally, someone broke open the door of Zhang Sheng's house, allowing them to go in and put out the fire.

But the fire inside was already out of control, and the little water they had was just a drop in the bucket and could not put out such a big fire.

In desperation, everyone could only take fire-isolating measures and wait for the fire to slowly burn out.

The fire burned from midnight till dawn.

It was not until the sun rose that the fire burned down all the buildings in the courtyard and slowly died out.

The originally magnificent and luxurious house turned into a scorched earth overnight.

It was pitch black all around, with scorching heat and choking smoke still lingering.

The people who were waiting outside the house immediately entered the ruins to search for any traces.

But all they could find were a dozen or so bodies that had turned into charcoal.

"This... this couldn't be the body of Master Zhang Sheng, right?"

"Master Zhang Sheng also committed suicide?"

"Oh my God, Master Zhang Peng committed suicide, Master Zhang Sheng also committed suicide, we are finished, we are really finished!"

"..."

(End of this chapter)