Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

With the arrival of the army, not only the so-called way to survive came, but also the plague. Plagues occurred one after another in the late Ming Dynasty. Many people knew what the so-called plague was. This thing was the plague. It was prevalent in many places in the Ming Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, and Henan was the first to be hit. However, at that time, because the government soldiers and Li Zicheng's army were fighting fiercely in Henan, not many people paid attention to this issue.

By the 13th year of Chongzhen, this kind of epidemic broke out in Shunde Prefecture, Hejian Prefecture and Daming Prefecture. It was a highly contagious disease, and the plague was contagious, killing eight to nine out of ten people.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen, the epidemic developed further and prevailed in Daming Prefecture. Five to six out of ten people died. It was a very bad year and the death rate was quite high. People started in the morning and died in the evening. Within one night, the people fled in panic and the city became deserted.

This disease spread everywhere with Li Zicheng's army and was called "lump disease". People at that time recorded: "In summer and autumn, there was a big epidemic. People occasionally developed a fat lump and died within a few moments. This was called lump plague. Fourteen or fifteen people in the city were infected with this disease. In the spring, there were people vomiting blood, and several people in a family died."

This "lump" should be the name for the swollen lymph nodes of patients with bubonic plague. A "small scrofula" will suddenly appear between the patient's limbs, and then the patient will "lose food, feel dizzy and hot", and vomit something "like rotten watermelon flesh".

As long as one person is infected, the whole family will be infected, and some even "all the members of the family will be killed", regardless of their status, age or status, the entire family will die.

The most terrifying thing about the plague is that death occurs in an instant, and there is no time for diagnosis and treatment!

AIDS, SARS, and bird flu, which are now feared by people, are all Class B diseases, while the plague in the late Ming Dynasty was a Class A acute infectious disease with almost no incubation period and a very high mortality rate. People would die as soon as they got sick, and tens of thousands of people would die in one place.

Historically, the plague was rampant in the late Ming Dynasty. The more serious ones were the eighth year of Wanli, the fourteenth year of Wanli, and several years at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Nine out of ten houses were empty, which was a horrific sight. There were even "tens of thousands of coffins" at the nine gates of the capital every day.

The "Records of Chongzhen" recorded: "There was a great epidemic in the capital, with tens of thousands of deaths every day." Although there is a lack of accurate statistics, historical records show that the great epidemic at that time was extremely serious, with a mortality rate of about 40% or even more in Beijing! The dead were everywhere, nine out of ten houses were empty, and even all the people in the household were gone, with no one to collect the bodies.

After thinking about this, Jiang Han immediately perked up. He could now keep an eye on the Central Plains. Now he had guns and food, and was ready to go out again after everything was arranged. If the plague spread in the Central Plains, wouldn't that be a disaster? I've already opened up my cheats like this, and if I can still let such a tragedy happen, I might as well not be a time traveler.

"I understand the logic, but why am I the one who came to this godforsaken place?"

M16 was unhappy because her plan to squeeze the commander dry had not started halfway when the damn commander hid in M4's house. Fortunately, she was more skilled than him and joined in. In the name of mutual supervision, she hugged M4 and slept with her in the middle of the night. She hadn't had enough fun yet, and if she was sent out now, wouldn't she have no fun? No, wouldn't M4 be in danger?

"This was decided after everyone had a meeting and discussed it together. Do you think I really want to come here?"

Chuntian also looked unhappy. She was doing well next to the commander, but now her position has been taken by that little bitch 416.

What's the specific time? Actually, it's because, ah, recently, Springfield and M16's monopolization of the Commander has caused dissatisfaction among many humanoid sisters. Obviously, everyone is married, who doesn't have a ring? You are holding the Commander and eating alone all night long, is that reasonable?

It's fine if they eat alone, but they eat so much that the commander can't even walk the next day. Is this what a qualified humanoid should do? Criticize! Must criticize severely! This bad trend must be resolutely curbed! So, after many meetings and consultations, after physically suppressing the resistance of the two humanoids, M16 and Springfield were sent to Henan to carry out a top-secret mission.

What, how did you say M16 was physically suppressed? This guy was exhausted when M4 was holding him. He was much easier to deal with than Springfield. The two were sent out to carry out the mission. As for the secretary's job, it was decided by others by drawing lots. The winner this time was 416.

Sighing, M16 accepted his fate. "Oh... Never mind. Let's hurry up and finish the work. Get everything done as soon as possible and go back as soon as possible. Do you have the mission information? I was drinking and didn't read it."

"Our goal is to rescue a scholar named Li Yan from a prison in Qi County. After rescuing him, we will meet up with the rescue team and ask him to help us contact the local people and help coordinate epidemic prevention and personnel summary..."

After reading the mission summary, Chuntian did not forget to complain, "Commander, are you so sure that this person will help us? What if that person doesn't cooperate?"

The words "He will cooperate" combined with M16's face are so credible.

This Li Yan has been mentioned before. He is a famous local gentleman in Qi County. He is very generous and righteous. He is truly very rare. As a gentleman who has empathy for the vast number of poor people, he is basically equivalent to a Castro in Cuba.

He distributed all the thousands of stones of grain in his warehouse to the hungry people, and also wrote a special relief song, calling on the wealthy households in the county to open their warehouses to provide relief.

Li Yan's behavior undoubtedly touched the bad luck of the wealthy families. The grain price is now more than 100 taels, and you want me to open the warehouse to distribute relief? Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. These people and the local county magistrate conspired to throw him into jail in the name of An Tong's bandit gang.

After Li Yan entered Tongliao and attained enlightenment in Longchang, he was completely awakened. After Li Zicheng's army killed the county magistrate and rescued him from prison, he went directly to Li Zicheng. When he arrived at Li Zicheng's army, Li Yan proposed to him that in order to win over people's hearts in advance, one must rely on benevolence and righteousness. Even if you don't mean it, you have to pretend. The army must be everywhere and must not harm the people. Good officials should continue to be appointed and bad officials should be beheaded directly. Taxes should be collected only half of that in the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng combined Li Yan's strategy and put forward the slogan of equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes. At the same time, Li Yan also specially sent people to compile a few slogans, such as "eat his mother, drink his mother", "open the door to welcome the King of Rebellion, and no grain will be collected when the King of Rebellion comes."

Relying on Li Yan's various strategies, Li Zicheng began to distinguish himself from other bandit leaders who were worse than pigs and dogs. He quickly won over a large number of people and gained the support of a hundred people in Henan. This led to the establishment of the Dashun Army and even the Dashun regime. However, in the later period, Li Yan was killed by Li Zicheng because of suspicion.

Jiang Han said, "Little Li, this kind of talent is very deep, you can't grasp it, let me come, let me see how I can grasp it!" While Li Zicheng's army had not arrived yet, he immediately sent two human figures to rescue Li Yan from prison.

Actually, he planned to send more people at the beginning, but after seeing the list of people traveling, Jiang Han was relieved. Just two people, let them go quickly so that he could have a two-day rest. Especially for M16, this task was just a piece of cake for her. However, to be on the safe side, Jiang Han still specially dispatched an Iron Blood Company to Henan for backup support. Really, this kind of person, the opposing generals would scold him when they saw him, he was so steady that made me want to vomit.

"This is the topographic map sent back by the scout. Our location is here, and the prison is here. If there is any movement, with the reaction speed of the officers and soldiers here, it will take about 30 minutes for someone to gather here. Within 30 minutes, we will follow this route to reach the city wall and let Kuiwu pick us up."

"That's reasonable. Ten minutes is plenty of time. Let's go and get ready."

The two's plan could be described as no plan at all. To put it bluntly, they would go into the cell, look for someone, find him, and leave. However, with the support of powerful information and backup, it seemed so reasonable.

"Who goes first?"

"Let me go first"

M16 was calm and reliable during the battle. Qi County was a small city, and its walls were mainly made of brick and stone with a large number of protruding bricks. This was easy for M16, and he climbed up the wall in two steps. Before the defenders on the city could react, the dagger in M16's hand flashed and cut his throat. He reached out and grabbed the chin of another defender, twisted it casually, and with a click, his neck was broken. The dagger was thrown out and directly penetrated the skull of a patrolling defender not far away.

"It's clean up there, come up." M16's entire set of actions was almost completed synchronously within two seconds, as fast as if he was using a Swansea Westin.

"Wow, that's quite skillful." Chuntian quickly climbed up the city wall and saw the scene in front of him and couldn't help but sigh.

"Let's go." Killing a few ordinary soldiers was not something that M16 could boast about. The current mission was more important. They were pressed for time, with only half an hour. He walked over, pulled out the dagger from the soldier's head, wiped the blood off his body, and ate the soup in its original state.

The location of the prison was behind the county government office, which was in the center of the county, so the two of them had to cross half of the county to reach the target location, not to mention the time it would take to return.

It has not rained in Henan for a year. The sky is so blue that there are not even any clouds. The moonlight at night is naturally quite clear, but almost no one would go to appreciate the moonlight these days. The two people's movement paths are basically in a straight line. When they encounter a residential building, they just climb over the wall and walk away, not afraid of alarming others. People these days can't even feed themselves, so there is no extra food to feed a dog.

Even if there is, it will be taken away and cooked by someone the next day.

The scouts in the sky had been following them closely and simultaneously transmitting the surrounding situation to the two of them, allowing them to avoid most of the factors that might cause a disturbance.

The two of them rushed all the way like lightning and quickly arrived at the outer wall of the prison behind the county government office.

"I can't believe that we still need to play indoor CQB at this age."

"Is this called CQB? The T-dolls in the cafe can handle them, right?"

"Don't mention it, it's true."

While the two were chatting, M16 put up a piece of wall-breaking explosive. Who the hell wants to try to sneak in and break through the defense with you? I'll just tear down your wall!

After pulling the seal open with force, M16 whispered "Be careful to hide" and moved sideways to a safe place. After ten seconds of waiting, there was a loud bang and a large hole as high as a person was blown open in the outer wall of Qi County Prison!

The jailers inside were still sitting around the table chatting and telling dirty jokes to kill time when they were knocked over by a gust of wind. The huge impact force carried bricks and stones and hit one of the unlucky guys on the head, making him lose consciousness on the spot. The rest of the guys also had their brains, chests and abdomens shaken by the impact force, and they fell to the ground unconscious, without even coming to their senses.

The M16 equipped with night vision goggles took the lead, walked into the cave, and killed two jailers who were still groaning on the ground with two bursts of fire, then turned left and entered the prison area.

"Who among you is Li Yan?"

After hearing this question, none of the shocked prisoners dared to say a word. Just kidding, everyone has seen a musket. He just came up and shot the jailer. There is a high probability that he came to silence him. No one knows what sin Li Yan has committed. He is pretending to be dead. If you want to kill him, kill him. Don't let the blood splash on me.

Li Yan, on the other hand, became somewhat indifferent after his initial shock. Although he didn't know why the government would make such a big fuss to kill him, he had expected this day. He shook off his dirty gown and went to die with a generous heart: "I am Li Yan. If you have any problems, just come to me. Don't hurt innocent people."

"is it him?"

"How would I know? I don't have a photo of the target, but judging by his behavior, it should be him."

"That's all, take it away!"

Holding a small army axe, he chopped off the iron lock on the prison door. Then he walked forward with M16 and stuffed a black sack on his head. He grabbed the man under his armpits and turned away. It was obvious that he was an old hand at dragging corpses. He was very familiar with this method.

"We have received the mission target and are preparing to evacuate. Kuiwu is ready to pick us up. We will be there soon. By the way, do you have a bulletproof vest? Put one on the target."

The loud noise of the prison cell being blown up naturally alarmed almost everyone in the city. The county yamen runners were the first to react and immediately started beating gongs to call people. With such a loud noise, it might be the rebels breaking in.

Qi County is very lively tonight.

I cried. My computer was finally fixed today. Oh my god, what kind of suffering is this? I finally don’t have to type on my phone anymore. My thumb and index finger have been peeling these past two days.

Volume 375: Chapter : Li Yan Returns

By the time the yamen runners came to check what was going on, the two men had already run away carrying Li Yan. The runners were stunned when they saw the devastated scene, their dead colleagues and the blown-up prison wall.

What kind of person is this? He used explosives to blow up the wall during a prison break? Qi County has never encountered such a vicious criminal in eight lifetimes. He can't be chased. If he doesn't catch him, it's ok. If he does catch him, how can he be alive?

Thinking of this, the yamen runners hurriedly notified people to wake up the county magistrate who was still asleep, and asked him to call the officers and soldiers in the city. This kind of situation cannot be handled by us yamen runners.

So do you think the officers and soldiers dared to go up? It's hard to say. As I said before, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty was very poor. This poor performance was not only in combat capability, but also in many aspects, including weapons and equipment, welfare benefits, combat capability, and fighting will.

The reason is just one word: poverty.

As a famous corrupt official, Wei Zhongxian can be said to have taken the matter of drinking the blood of soldiers to the extreme. From the 38th year of Wanli to the 7th year of Tianqi, the Ming Dynasty owed a total of more than 9 million taels of military pay, and all of this silver went into Wei Zhongxian's pocket. Therefore, although Chongzhen's killing of Wei Zhongxian was the result of party struggles, there was nothing wrong with it.

The wages were owed to such an extent that in many places the soldiers had not been paid for more than three years. Not only that, the generals under them continued to exploit the soldiers, encroached on the land of the soldiers stationed in the fields, engaged in corruption, and squeezed every possible way to make money. In order to survive, the Ming soldiers had to sell their wives and daughters and pawn their armor and knives. A large number of soldiers in the army lacked clothes and pants, and some did not even have shoes. When it came to this point, how could the army still be an army?

So whenever a war breaks out, the soldiers will often mutiny. Why would they fight for you if you don't even pay them?

Therefore, after hearing the order from the county magistrate, the local officers and soldiers also had doubts in their hearts. In this big county town, there were people using gunpowder and muskets, and they were not friendly. After a fierce psychological struggle, the soldiers set an action plan based on preserving themselves. If something went wrong, it was better to save money first. The officials were not as important as their own lives.

With such efficiency of the officers and soldiers, M16 and his companions encountered no resistance at all. They came and went carefree, all the way to the foot of the city wall, where they met the first group of defenders who came to stop them.

"Boss! It looks like there are only two people?" An officer holding a torch had relatively good eyesight and saw the two figures at a glance. The others were basically no different from blind people with open eyes.

"How many?" the officer confirmed again.

The man squinted his eyes and took another look, then said with certainty, "Two!"

"Then what are you still standing there for! Hurry up and get on with it!" Wow, there were only two of them. Although I don't know where they got the explosives, what kind of waves can they cause with just two people? Isn't this a free military achievement? If you ask me to go up and fight a tough battle, I don't have the courage, but I do have the courage to get military merits, and it's very big!

As he spoke, his courage came up and he shouted, "Don't run away, little thief! Surrender now, or I will kill you without mercy!!"

As soon as the words fell, there was a loud bang. The soldiers subconsciously shrank their heads. When they turned around, they saw the officer had answered to the end, with a hole as big as a bowl on his head.

"Oh no, there are muskets, retreat quickly!!"

The situation is not right, retreat quickly. My goodness, Mahakala killed a person with just a raise of his hand. This is not a military achievement at all, it is the King of Hell coming. The little flame of desire that had just risen was extinguished with a puff. Everyone hid behind the shelter of the house in a panic, fearing that the other party would shoot them again.

After M16 casually got rid of an annoying fly, she lost interest in taking action as she watched the officers and soldiers scatter like birds and beasts. Mission first, she held Li Yan and headed straight for the city wall.

At this moment, Li Yan, who was covered with a black sack, also realized that something was wrong. Who would take people so far to silence them? Although he was covered with a sack, his ears were not deaf and he could still hear the movements around him. This group of people were obviously not in the same group as Guan Jun, so who were they?

Before Li Yan could figure out what was going on, a gunshot almost exploded next to his head, causing tinnitus in his ears. Fortunately, it was not next to his ear, otherwise Li Yan would have been deafened even if he was not deaf.

The buzzing in his ears made Li Yan scream in pain, and his shouting also attracted the attention of the two humanoids.

"What's going on? Why is the person screaming all of a sudden? Did you squeeze too hard and break a bone?"

Chuntian was a little confused when he saw Li Yan suddenly starting to shout.

"Are you questioning my professional ability?" M16 looked back at him coldly. How could I, a three hundred year old corpse dragging master, make such a mistake?

"Then can you explain why he suddenly started yelling?"

M16 still had a cold face and said, "He misses his mother."

"walk slowly"

After a safe journey, the two men finally climbed over the city wall, climbed up Kuiwu and left, leaving behind the county magistrate who was very angry because a hole was blown in the prison and he had to pay for repairing the cell.

Li Yan, who had been hungry in prison for many days, could not stand the hearing loss and constant shaking. He fainted on the spot. After an unknown amount of time, he slowly regained consciousness. Li Yan heard a series of noisy sounds and someone shouted, "Don't push! Lead one by one! Line up!"

The black cloth on his head was pulled down, and the sudden pain from the light made him squint his eyes. What he saw was a stern soldier's face, but his words were unexpectedly gentle and polite: "Are you awake? This may be a bit presumptuous. I asked our people to give you a quick wash and you will be fed soon."

Hearing about eating, Li Yan really felt hungry. He had been hungry for several days. Ordinary people had nothing to eat, so how could the prisoners in the prison have food? Impossible. It was only because Li Yan's family came to visit him every now and then and brought him food that he barely survived starvation.

However, being in an unfamiliar place, Li Yan's vigilance had not subsided: "Where is this place? Who are you...?"

"I know you have a lot of questions to ask. How about this? Please eat first. We have a lot of things to do here, so I will explain to you while you eat. Is that okay?"

To be honest, the other party's attitude was a bit too nice, which made Li Yan a little uncomfortable. He thought about it and felt that if the other party wanted to kill him, there was no need to let him eat first before killing him. Food was much more expensive than human life these days, so he agreed.

As they spoke, several soldiers of the Volunteer Army brought up a large bowl of rice porridge and went back to work. They added some minced meat to the rice porridge. Even though Li Yan was a gentry, he hadn't seen meat for many days after all his wealth was gone, so he ate it with relish.

While eating, he understood the origins of these people and the reasons why they tied him up.

"You mean, you are Jiang Han's subordinates?" Li Yan felt as if there was light at the end of the tunnel. He was not unfamiliar with the name Jiang Han. The locust plagues everywhere in Henan were caused by batches of Jiang Han's people selling grain at affordable prices and purchasing locusts, which prevented the situation in many places in Henan from becoming extremely dire. For this, the people of Henan all praised him. The name Jiang Han had a high reputation among the people of Henan.

Moreover, this man also fought against Jian Nu, and he was indeed a passionate man. Li Yan also admired Jiang Han very much, but he had always had a knot in his heart about Jiang Han before, that is, you are so capable, why do you want to rebel? However, after experiencing the ups and downs of life, Li Yan now realized the truth in Longchang. How can you run the country well with these insects of the Ming Dynasty? Mr. Jiang is good at rebelling! It's time to rebel against him!

If it weren't for Jiang Han, Li Yan's first choice would definitely be Li Zicheng, because firstly, it was Li Zicheng's army that rescued him from prison, and secondly, the people around him, the left five battalions were all cattle and horses, and Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan was a pure lunatic. It was obvious that only Li Zicheng could succeed, and there was no other choice. Now it's different. There is a purple star from heaven, an ultimate macho man. Who would choose a loser who was beaten to only 18 people and retreated into the mountains? After he realized the truth in prison, he planned to surrender, but wasn't it a coincidence? He was rescued by someone.

"Yes, sir. The disaster in Henan is so severe that you are very worried about the situation here. However, we were busy fighting the Tartars some time ago and had no manpower. Now that the Tartars have been driven away, you sent us here as soon as possible to try to save the people of Henan from the dire situation."

Look, look at him, this is the person who wants to do great things! His words are so comfortable, he doesn't even talk about fighting for the world, but saving the vast majority of elders and fellow countrymen, such a kind and appealing statement, how can people not join him? Li Yan now feels that he only hates that Jiang Han is not in front of him, otherwise he would like to kneel on the ground, tears streaming down his face: "Yan, I have been wandering for half my life, and I only regret that I have not met a wise master. If you don't abandon me... well, forget it."

Having said that, Li Yan still had some questions that he didn't understand. For example, Jiang Han was far away in Yangzhou, dominating the area, and he was just a nobody. Why did he come all the way to find him? "Then why did you find me..."

"In fact, Mr. Li has been paying close attention to the situation in various parts of Henan, and your benevolent behavior has fascinated him. When he heard that you were imprisoned by the government, he sent us to rescue you. Mr. Li once said that Mr. Li's talent and mind are indispensable to us and the people of the world. Therefore, we once again specially invite you to join us and lead us to rescue the people of Henan."

Comfortable, too comfortable. No matter how others know, just these words like spring breeze and this warm attitude are so comfortable to listen to. Of course, whether to surrender or not depends not only on what the other party says, but also on whether the other party's action plan is feasible and can succeed. Li Yan asked again: "Then... can I know how you plan to save the people of Henan?"

The company commander was well prepared. He smiled and said, "Before we set out, the master only said six words: to fight against the royal family and save the people. The rest is up to you, master."

Li Yan's eyes lit up when he heard this. This principle really touched his heart. He asked again, "Then, for the people..."

The company commander laughed and said, "Come and see for yourself, sir." Then he stood up and opened the door to let the other party see for himself. At this moment, Li Yan saw where he was. This was a military camp, and unlike other armies, there were a large number of hungry people gathered here. They lined up in a long queue in front of several large pots of bubbling soup, waiting for porridge.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the relationship between the people and the soldiers was like water and fire; the two could not coexist. When the common people saw the government troops, it was like seeing the plague god, and they wished that their whole family could hide away from them. Those so-called righteous armies were not good people either, and the two were the same. However, at this moment, when these hungry people saw these soldiers in armor, they all responded as if they had seen their relatives. It was truly a wonderful sight.

"After we set up camp here, we sent out the message that we were going to give out porridge. There was an endless stream of hungry people coming here, and the soldiers had to work in shifts to keep up with the consumption. Now it seems that this pot is not enough."

Standing next to Li Yan, the company commander sighed a little, fortunately they brought enough supplies this time, otherwise it would not be enough.

"Next, we plan to ask the people who initially received the porridge to help spread the word. We will then organize food distribution activities, but the porridge will continue. These people have been hungry for too long... If they rashly eat the food, they may be in danger."

Listening to the company commander's words, Li Yan was extremely sure that the man in front of him was really thinking about the people and was really here to rescue them. If it was just to seize the world, who would care whether these hungry people would have problems getting food after being hungry for a long time? No, they only wanted people's hearts, that was enough. This was the essential difference between them and the Jiang Army where he was now.

"Next, we need to gradually attack those royal family members, nobles and bullies, take the food from them and distribute it to the common people. We cannot let this situation continue to deteriorate."

Li Yan nodded, agreeing with this. Although Henan suffered a serious disaster, there was actually no shortage of food. All the food was stored in the hands of these royal family nobles. The Prince of Fu in Luoyang alone stored tens of thousands of stones of grain in his mansion, and all kinds of treasures were countless. This man had raised himself to more than 300 kilograms in the late Ming Dynasty when natural disasters and man-made calorie disasters were rampant. It can be seen how rich he was.

"We are good at fighting on the front line, but we are still unable to rescue the people. We will rely on you for everything."

As the company commander spoke, he bowed deeply to Li Yan.