(Thank you all for your continued support!) Speechless will always work hard! Everyone is welcome to join the discussion group and discuss the storyline together. ）

On August 12, the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, and the army of the Western Expedition arrived in Huangzhou, but just as soon as the confrontation began, the defenders scattered and fled. In the next few days, the army of the Western Expedition went up the river, and the Qing soldiers all fled or surrendered along the way, conquering many states and counties along the river one after another, and only then encountered resistance from the Qing army in Hanyang County. Hanyang is an important place that must be taken to attack Wuchang.

Unlike the generals of the Ming army at this time, Li Ziyuan, who was born in the loyal army, was good at tactics, and it was also the fighting style of the loyal army, he was good at concentrating his forces on one point to make a breakthrough, he estimated that the Qing army's defense focus was on Wuchang, as for Hanyang on the other side of the river, it was just a bluff, and then he ordered the naval warships to sail along the river, concentrated artillery fire to bombard the defenders on the city wall, and at the same time ordered the troops to prepare for the siege. More than 1,000 Qing soldiers in the city were immediately frightened by the might of the Ming army, but only a few perfunctory shots were fired slightly, and they fled one after another, and Song Yusheng, the defender of the Qing army, fell into the water and died in the process of escaping.

Since the westward expedition, the tens of thousands of troops led by Li Ziyuan can be said to have had a smooth journey, and after recovering the counties along the Yangtze River one after another, they easily captured Hanyang County. On August 19, Sun Xingping and Wang Jiaoquan, who were the front peaks, led the land vanguard to arrive outside Wuchang City and set up camp in 16 places. The next day, Wang Jiaoquan led hundreds of people to occupy Shuangfeng Mountain, placed cannons on Shuangfeng Mountain, and aimed the muzzle of the cannon at the city of Wuchang. Then he began to fire artillery into the city of Wuchang, but the cannon was not very tight, although it was a little sparse, but after the shells fell into the city, they continued to explode violently, blowing up many houses in the city.

Those flowering shells produced in Jiangbei, maybe they can't cut the timing, but they don't pay so much attention to the shelling down in the city, but they only need to hit the cannonball into Wuchang City, and this also keeps many people in the city from being buried in the cannon, after all, it often takes a few seconds for the cannonball to explode after it lands.

The sound of explosions in the distance came into his ears from time to time, and the explosion made Liu Fangming, who was lying on the bed, wake up from his coma, and after he was a little conscious, he suddenly caught a glimpse of his son Liu Tiren and his confidant Zhang Xiaotian standing in front of his bed. Although he only opened his eyes, he didn't have much strength.

For him, who had been sick for several months, he was now terminally ill, and as soon as he fell asleep in bed, he fell into a coma. After waking up again, he already knew very well what his own body was like, I am afraid that he was terminally ill, and he was only hanging on one breath.

Last year, Zheng Chenggong led his troops to attack Jiangnan, and the Qing court appointed Dasu, the minister of the court, as the general of Annan, and led the armies of all walks of life to march south. Liu Fangming, who was the commander-in-chief of Ningxia, was also transferred to accompany the expedition, and led the Ningxia town soldiers with the governor of the left capital as the commander-in-chief of the right side of the army, and with the defeat and death of Dasu, Liu Fangming, as the commander-in-chief of the left army, also became the only survivor of the expeditionary army, and was left in Wuchang instead of continuing south to Jiangning.

However, after staying in Wuchang, he and most of the soldiers from Ningxia refused to accept the water and soil in the south, and fell ill one after another, and the troops lost their original combat effectiveness. Seeing that every day there were soldiers in the army who died in a foreign land because of dysentery, abuse and other diseases, in order to save his life, he even reported directly to the imperial court: "The minister was ordered to suppress the thief, but he did not accept the water and soil, and he was sick and sick." The Ningxia sergeant he carried has been trained for many years, and his heart is full of affection. Now in the south, half of it is dysentery. and the ministers did not fill the ravine, and dared to beg for a change in the limit".

But his excerpt was naturally left behind, after all, for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the situation in Jiangnan was there, and it was naturally impossible for them to let the elite Ningxia Town stay in Ningxia, so this Ningxia Town was still kept in Wuchang. This stay in Ningning is not tight, and there are soldiers who die of violent illness every day, and even Liu Fangming, who is the chief soldier of Ningxia Town, is also suffering from a vicious disease.

Now, Liu Fangming, who feels that his time is running out, saw his son and confidants, thought that his time was short, and he was rejected several times when he asked to be transferred back to Ningxia, and suddenly touched the dissatisfaction that had been accumulated in his heart for a long time. But although dissatisfied, he still asked.

"Are there any reinforcements from Jinglu?"

Again, Liu Fangming asked out of words, the "strategy" in his mouth is naturally the five provinces through Hong Chengchou, now stationed in Wuchang he is Hong Chengchou's subordinate, since he learned that Zhang Huangyan's army went west, he has repeatedly asked Hong Chengchou in Changsha for reinforcements, but until now there is no news of reinforcements.

"Back to the military gate, reinforcements...... Still no news......"

Zhang Xiaotian's face was extremely ugly, and there was no news of reinforcements until now, which meant that they had been abandoned.

"This old puppet is clearly trying to trap me in a place where I am bound to die!"

Hearing the news that there were no reinforcements, Liu Fangming immediately yelled, struggled to sit up from the bed, stretched out another finger, and then scolded angrily:

"Cough, what a bold old thing, his surname Hong has not sent a soldier to rescue Wuchang, it is clear that I Wuchang fell into the hands of thieves, so that Nanchang will be isolated by the Ming army, and then his surname Hong is the soil emperor of Nanchang, even if the court is dissatisfied with it in every way, it is helpless, his surname Hong is a good calculation! When the time comes, whether it is the world of the Ming Dynasty or the world of the Qing Dynasty, as long as he can sit firmly in Nanchang, he can keep his glory and wealth. The old man didn't want to think about how many evils he had done after he descended, and the people of the world wanted to eat his flesh, and the Ming Dynasty would never spare him, hum ......"

As he spoke, Liu Fangming coughed violently again.

"Dad, Lord Hong, I think I have his difficulties, you must be sick and confused."

Dad's words startled Liu Tiren, and he hurriedly tried to find an excuse for his father, but these words were going to affect the Liu family.

"Confused, I'm not confused at all, since Fan Wencheng died of a violent illness, the person surnamed Hong has a disagreement with the imperial court, and now he is even more ignorant of Wuchang and us, he just wants to keep himself, we are just a pawn of his surname Hong!"

Liu Fangming, who sat up, scolded as he spoke, not only scolded Hong Chengchou, but in the end, even the court and even the emperor also scolded.

“…… I, Liu Fang, am also known as the Qing Dynasty, but the court actually treats me like this, and he Shunzhi Xiao'er doesn't want to think about it, if there is no us, can he sit firmly in the world? Today, you actually want me Liu Fangming to die of illness here......"

This time it can shock Liu Tiren and Zhang Xiaotian. The two of them all looked at Liu Fangming dumbfounded, they really didn't expect that he was so temperamental, not only scolded Hong Chengchou, but even the emperor scolded him, and the two of them were all frightened by his words and broke out in a cold sweat.

"This time, let's check and let the surnamed Hong and those Manchurian Tartars be killed, if you are not careful, you have to die and the clan will be destroyed!"

Listening to Liu Fangming's words, Liu Tiren and Zhang Xiaotian, who were frightened and speechless, hurriedly dissuaded.

"Junmen, we can't talk nonsense, if we keep talking, we may lose our heads!"

"Lose your head?"

Liu Fangming sneered, looked at Liu Tiren and Zhang Xiaotian, and sneered.

"If you don't say this, you can save your head?"

Listening to the sound of cannons coming from the window, Liu Fangming continued.

"Now that the Ming army has set up a large camp outside the city, it will attack the city in a few days, and when the time comes, can we save our lives? Then Li Ziyuan is also a fierce general of the Ming army, with our more than 20,000 sick soldiers, how can we hold Wuchang? ”

The disheartened Liu Fangming let out a heavy sigh of relief, and then said.

"This time, we are outcasts, there are no reinforcements to send from the imperial court, and the side surnamed Hong is bent on leaving Wuchang to the Ming army, let's be a dead end now!"

"It's real, it's really not good, the military gate is not as good, it's better to surrender the Ming army!"

Looking at the disheartened military gate, Zhang Xiaotian thought for a while, and then said.

"After the Ming army is lowered, there may be a way to live!"

"That's it, it's better for us to lower the Ming army! When Zhang Huangyan entered Jiangxi, he also surrendered everywhere, no matter what, with Ningxia Town, we can not only save our lives, but also try to get rich and ......"

When Liu Fangming heard his son's words, his heart couldn't help but move slightly, and surrendering may be the best choice.

But he is inevitably a little hesitant, his own affairs, he is very clear, from the Manchu Qing Dynasty into the Qing Dynasty, he can be said to have made great contributions to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, during the pacification of the Northwest Rebellion, he has repeatedly made military exploits, this hand is stained with the blood of the Han people, if it is now surrendered to the Ming Army, will it be settled by the Autumn Queen?

Seeing that his father was hesitating there, knowing that there was no other better choice, Liu Tiren and Zhang Xiaotian, who exchanged glances with each other, couldn't think of any other way, that is, they knelt down on the ground together.

"Dad, now there is no other way, let's, let's go down!"

As soon as Liu Tiren's words fell, Zhang Xiaotian followed alongside.

"Yes, Junmen, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is unkind, and I thought that countless Han people were killed when I entered the customs, and now we are back to the Ming Dynasty, and it is also for my Han people!"

Although after Liu Fang's name was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xiaotian, as his confidant, also entered the Han military banner, but in his bones Zhang Xiaotian still identifies that he is a Han, which will inadvertently say the word Han, and what Liu Tiren thinks is very simple, what he wants is to keep his glory and wealth, as for whether the Han people are Han or not, it doesn't matter.

Looking at the two kneeling on the ground, Liu Fangming groaned and did not speak. After hesitating for a while, he finally spat out the truth and said:

"Brightness...... It's not so easy to surrender, don't forget that in the second year of Shunzhi, He Zhen, the chief soldier of Hanzhong Town, raised troops to rebel against the Qing Dynasty and led 70,000 troops to the north to attack Xi'an, an important town in the north and west; At the same time, Wu Dading, the deputy general of Guyuan Town, also killed He Shiyuan, the chief military officer of Guyuan, and occupied Guyuan Town to rebel. It was our desperate struggle that forced Wu Dading to lead his troops to evacuate Guyuan and go south to join He Zhen in Hanzhong. Later, he pursued all the way and killed a large number of anti-Qing rebels and hundreds of thousands of rebels? And let's quell the rebellion in Ningxia, that's killing all the way, I'm afraid it's not so easy to ......"

Shaking his head, Liu Fangming looked at his son and cronies who were kneeling on the ground, he was already tired and out of breath after saying these words, thought for a while, and then said again.

"If you want to bring down the light, the blood on this hand is not good!"

The blood on your hands is hard to go!

For traitors like Liu Fangming who defected to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this is the biggest original sin on them, and it can be said that it is a stigma that cannot be washed away, so they naturally have such scruples. But for the ordinary officials under his rule, they didn't think so much, when the explosion in the city came, for Wu Pinyun, who was a grain road, it was like thunder, so that he couldn't sleep at all, and those eyes looked into the distance involuntarily, and the sound of explosions kept knocking on the bottom of his heart, only making his whole person become uncontrollable.

"It's time, it's time!"

Again, he thought to himself as he looked out the window at the flames caused by the shelling. Just as he was talking to himself, someone suddenly asked by the door.

"What's the time?"

Don't even have to look back, Wu Pinyun also knows who is coming, it is Zhao Gongshan, the general of the street patrol, because the two are fellow villagers and their general position is also the relationship that Wu Pinyun helped him get, so the relationship between the two has always been extremely close.

Seeing that Zhao Gongshan had entered the floor, Wu Pinyun said bluntly.

"I'm going to burn down the grain depots in this city. Do you think you can do it?"

Zhao Gongshan, who had just sat down, couldn't help but let out an "ah", immediately bounced up from his chair, and stared at Wu Pinyun in surprise. If this was said by any stunned young man in the city, he might not be so surprised, after all, this is the grain road in front of him, if the grain depot is burned, the first person to be held accountable is him, how could a person like him, who has three ideas in a blink of an eye, think of doing this kind of arson and burning grain, this is undoubtedly a matter of cutting off his own head. His mind couldn't whirl for a while, staring at Wu Pinyun with surprised eyes and not knowing what to say.

Seeing Zhao Gongshan's surprised appearance, Wu Pinyun asked:

"Do you know what kind of goods this Liu Gongming is?"

Seeing that there was a lot of disrespect in his tone, Zhao Gongshan nodded and said,

"I heard that he was originally the general soldier of Liugou in the Ming Dynasty, and later descended to the Qing Dynasty, made military achievements along the way, and then became the general soldier of Ningxia."

"It's just a traitor with Han blood on his hands!"

Wu Pinyun sneered.

"Now Daming is the time of ZTE, more than a year, haven't you seen the situation? Daming first easily conquered Jiangnan, and then Jiangxi and Jiangbei, which can be said to be all the way, why is this so? Isn't it because the hearts of the people in the world are in my Daming, the reason why we defected to him Liu Fangming at the beginning was just for a way to survive, but if we follow such a black road surnamed Liu, not to mention that the name of this traitor on my body can't be washed away, and even my head may not be able to be saved. ”

Zhao Gongshan didn't understand many things, but just responded with "oh oh". Just like when he defected to Liu Fangming, it was also Wu Pinyun's idea.

Glancing outside, Wu Pinyun continued.

"The Han people who died under the surname Liu over the years, there are not millions, there are six or seven hundred thousand, he doesn't know how much Han blood he has on his hands, I estimate, until he is forced to defend Wuchang, when the time comes, we will definitely die, after all, the commander of the Ming army this time is Li Ziyuan, this person is quite ruthless, when he was in Nanchang, after going down to the city, not only killed the Qing army who defended the city, but also helped the Qing army to defend the city, and was also ordered to be killed, if Liu Fangming is determined to defend to the death, can we live?"

Zhao Gongshan has roughly understood this, in a word, Liu Fangming has no way to retreat, and Li Ziyuan is a ruthless character.

"Oh! In this way, if we keep it, we will really be dead!"

"What is the basis for Liu Fangming to defend to the death now? That's 600,000 stone of grain in the city! ”

600,000 stone grain, this is Liu Fangming's biggest defense of the city, the reason why there is so much grain, is because this is the collected grain, but these grains are cut off because of the canal, can not transport the capital, naturally can only stay in Wuchang.

Looking at Zhao Gongshan, Wu Pinyun continued

"How do you burn this granary to the one surnamed Liu, do you dare?"

Zhao Gongshan didn't hesitate, he immediately nodded and said.

"It's burned and burned, why don't you dare, without food, his surname Liu can't keep it, and when the time comes, we will be able to save our lives!"

Nodding, Wu Pinyun said again.

"If you're willing to do it, we'll set this fire together. Show the people inside and outside the city a skyrocketing fire, and if there is no food, the morale of the army in the city will be in chaos! ”

"But no, as long as this army is in a mess and there is no food, when the time comes, this Wuchang will naturally not be able to hold on!"

Zhao Gongshan suddenly became excited.

"It's too easy to burn that granary. Those individual goods are usually to scare people, and at night, one by one they sleep with peace of mind, and they just put a fire and burn it out. ”

Just as his words fell, a person walked out of the room next to him, Zhao Gongshan saw that it was Zhang Shu, and he couldn't help but be surprised when he saw that someone heard his words. This scribe is a servant of the grain road, and he was recruited last year, and now he is known about such a secret, and he is relieved that when he was about to start, he only heard Wu Pinyun say.

"Don't worry, it's your own people.".

Zhang Peng, who knew that he had already walked around the ghost gate, said with a smile.

"Set fire to the grain, I will also take a hand, it just so happens that I have a barrel of fire oil from Jiangbei."

In an instant, Zhao Gongshan also understood that the identity of this scribe was probably not very simple, so there was no need to ask more. The three of them began to plot a specific plan under this oil lamp, where to climb over the wall and enter, where to burn first and then where to light.

"This well rope must be cut first, so that after the fire is lit, the water cannot be lifted, and this kind of transformation, with the water in those tanks, will not be able to do anything at all, and the fire will not be extinguished."

"Don't worry about this, I'll do it here."

Zhang Pengcheng said in his chest.

Later, the three of them agreed on how to use the code to communicate, and the specific division of labor was carefully considered. Finally, Zhao Gongshan patted his head and said.

"Your oil smells bad, isn't it too strong?"

This fire oil is not ordinary fire oil, but the "tar" left over from the coking process in Jiangbei, which is easier to ignite than sesame oil and rapeseed oil, and is not easy to be extinguished by water. It was specially prepared by Zhang Peng for this operation, in addition to the prepared fire oil, there was also a special "timer".

After waiting for a few more days, and finally waiting for a windy night, Zhao Gongshan climbed in separately from outside the wall. Because it was late at night, there were a few people wandering around in this granary. Zhao Gongshan jumped into the granary first, then carefully avoided the guards, and then, he took the smelly kerosene cylinder from his waist, first unscrewed the lid, poured the oil on the rice grain sack in the warehouse, and then took out a thread and dipped it in the oil, and then found the match.

Zhao Gongshan has used a fire sickle and flint to light the fire since he was a child, and he has never used this kind of match. He tried to burn two matchsticks in Wu Pinyun's house, which was much more convenient than a fire sickle flint, as long as he rubbed it on his body, it could immediately cause a fire. Zhao Gongshan struck a match, a blue flame came out with a pop, and then he lit a piece of incense, the other end of the incense was stained with a fire rope, and the end of the fire rope was wrapped in gunpowder.

When Zhao Gongshan threw fire oil from warehouse to warehouse and coiled the timed fire rope, Zhang Peng over there quietly held a glass bottle and poured the liquid in the bottle into the well rope of several wells, which is sulfuric acid, which can corrode the well rope, and when the bucket is lifted, the well rope will be broken.

After the two of them finished their work, almost a moment had passed, and just when Zhao Gongshan pressed the last granary, a fire suddenly rose in the warehouse where the oil was poured on it, and the fire was extremely powerful. The guards who were patrolling the warehouse immediately let out an exclamation, and just as they were beating gongs and drums, Zhao Gongshan had already jumped around the house and jumped on the wall to leave the granary, and at this time, several more granaries were on fire almost at the same time.

In the whole granary, this meeting has been lively, the first to rush out of the warehouse soldiers immediately shouted to put out the fire, but there was more than one warehouse on fire, and soon a dozen granaries were on fire, when the warehouse soldiers were in a hurry to extinguish the previous burning granary, the other granaries were also on fire, so that they were not in a hurry to extinguish the fire that continued to rise.

But it was only a moment, and the flames flying in the wind had already rushed to the eaves of the warehouse and the rows of houses, and the soldiers who were patrolling the streets, seeing the fire in the distance, immediately screamed.

"Mom! It's on fire, it's on fire......"

The sky in the west turned red, and the whole city suddenly became commotion, and people had already woken up from their dreams, and crowded into the alleys to watch the fire in the distance, and people stood in the streets and alleys to watch the spectacle of the fire. The rising flame turned into a magnificent flame in an instant. The fire even scorched the faces of people nearby, and the smoke choked people so much that they couldn't open their eyes, and the fire could not be extinguished. Burned grain becomes the best fuel. The fire burned until dawn, and it was still burning there until dawn......