In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng broke the river to irrigate the city, and after flooding Bianzhou, he caused Baili Zeguo in eastern Henan.

Nowadays, Chenliu, Qixian and other places in the southeast of Kaifeng have lost their populations sharply, and they have become a barren land with a radius of more than 100 miles.

In the Songyue Mountain, on the plain east of Hugaoguan, only Zhengzhou, Xinzheng, Xuzhou and other counties distributed from north to south along the eastern foot of the mountain range have not been affected by the river, and there are still a large number of people farming.

The people of eastern Henan, after experiencing the catastrophe of Li Zicheng and the Ming army fighting for Zhongzhou, thought that the two sides had won the battle and would be able to be at peace for a while.

Originally, after Li Yan's governance in the past two years, coupled with the decrease in population, the clan that controlled a large number of acres of land was overthrown, the number of terra nullius in Henan increased, the contradiction between man and land was alleviated, and most of the people had land to cultivate.

They have worked hard to rebuild their houses, buy farm tools, and gradually come out of the wounds of war and prepare to start a new life. They see hope, but they don't want bad luck to befall them again.

On 5 August, south of Zhengzhou and north of Xinzheng, near Meishan, there was a small village of about 100 people.

In the early morning of that day, there was a commotion in the village, and the people hurriedly packed up their belongings, and then pushed the carts and carried the baskets, and helped each other to go south.

There were more than 100 people, some old and some young, and they were not wealthy, and there were no livestock in the team, only a mule cart, which was the belongings of Zhou Dongkui, the landlord of the village.

Although he is a landlord, he is not rich, and all his family wealth adds up, just like that.

At this time, Zhou Dongkui and Changgong Sun Maosheng were driving the mule cart in front, and his old wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law holding their grandson were crowded in the car.

"Owner, this time we didn't suffer a disaster, and the wheat in the field has not been confiscated, why do you want to flee?" Sun Maosheng pulled the mule in front of him, muttering, "Those Tartars are not people, don't eat, don't want people to farm?" ”

This year is a good year, the crops in the field will be harvested soon, and he will be able to eat enough, but he has to avoid the military disaster, Sun Maosheng feels a pity in his heart.

In his heart, as long as he can farm and eat well, it doesn't matter who he farms.

Zhou Dongkui waved the whip, hit him on the back of the head, and threatened, "You turtle grandson, pull the cart well." You don't know that Lijiazhuang in the north was killed by the Tartars last night. You also want to farm the Tartars, who will only rob you of your food and then kill you. ”

Sun Maosheng shuddered, speaking of these Tartars are really fierce, just in the past few days, the nearby villages have been slaughtered one after another, causing panic in the township, and the people in the village decided to flee south.

He had also heard a lot of news about the Tartars killing people before, but Sun Maosheng had never seen it with his own eyes, and he always felt that it was a little unbelievable.

"Boss, where are we going now?" Sun Maosheng asked.

Zhou Dongkui reassured, "Maosheng, don't worry too much, let's go to Runing." I heard from the people from the south that the tall and handsome man of Runing was a benevolent and righteous hero, who went to divide the fields and gave back farm tools and seeds. Don't you want to farm? When you arrive, you will continue to farm for the owner! ”

Zhao Maosheng's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"The owner will lie to you!" Zhou Dongkui smiled: "You work hard, when it is stable, the owner will find you a daughter-in-law."

Zhao Maosheng was overjoyed, turned his head, and looked into the mule cart. He is also twenty years old this year, and he is very much looking forward to this matter, and he already has a favorite person in his heart, which is his own young lady Zhou Xiaohuan.

Zhou Dongkui has a son, but he died of the plague last year, and there are no young and strong men in the family, Zhao Maosheng felt that his opportunity had come, thinking that if he worked hard, he would be able to impress Zhou Dongkui, and it would be good to be an inverted door in the future.

"Okay, you turtle grandson, where are you looking?" Zhou Dongkui, who had just comforted him, saw him glance inside the mule cart, and suddenly a whip came, beating Zhao Maosheng far away.

"You coward, don't even think about it~" Zhou Dongkui was about to scold him, but at this time, there was a sudden panicked commotion behind the team, and a voice shouted, "It's not good, the Tartars are here!" ”

Zhou Dongkui swung the whip again, stopped in mid-air, and was so shocked that he hurriedly got up from the mule cart, stretched his head over the roof of the car and looked back, and his face suddenly changed.

He saw a cloud of yellow dust rolling up behind him, and the sound of horses' hooves, mixed with the howling of the Tartars, reached his ears and made him tremble in fright.

The Tartar cavalry was extremely fast, and soon appeared behind them, and the people on the road scattered in horror in an instant, and ran away in amazement.

"Quick, damn, Xiaohuan, daughter-in-law get out of the car with Xiaoyu." Zhou Dongkui saw that forty or fifty Tartar cavalry were catching up, so he was so shocked that he pulled the mule cart and hurriedly shouted.

He hurriedly asked Zhao Maosheng to stop the mule cart, lift the curtain of the cart, and help the people in the cart down.

At this time, the Tartar cavalry had rushed to the front, slashing and killing the people on the official road, and the people were crying out in despair and despair, and one corpse after another, staring at the roadside.

These Tartar soldiers, about forty or fifty people, were all one man and two horses.

Most of them wore cotton armor with copper nails, a slender tassel on an iron helmet, and swords in their hands.

A few, there were three men, all dressed in white armor, with spears in their hands, flags on their backs, and cotton armor on their horses.

These Tartars were skilled in their bows and horses, and the people had no power to fight back.

Zhou Dongkui let his family get out of the car, then took his grandson from his daughter-in-law and ran to the side of the road.

He saw a forest in the distance, and several people ran away in horror, although Zhou Dongkui was old, he ran in front alone, and Zhao Maosheng supported his wife and followed behind him with his miss.

Suddenly, an arrow came, and Zhou Dongkui, who was running in front, fell, he covered his bleeding thigh in pain and sat up, and "boom" was another arrow, which directly shot through his head.

The screams stopped abruptly, Zhou Dongkui stared, his head lowered, and his body fell to the ground.

Only then, with the roar of horses' hooves, more than a dozen Tartars chased after them, the war horses circled around them, the three women hugged each other in fright, crying in panic, with a desperate look on their faces, Zhao Maosheng's face turned pale with fright, and his legs trembled.

At this time, several Tartar soldiers turned over and dismounted, surrounded them, and suddenly, a Tartar grabbed the small ring and took it off to the side, and the fifteen-year-old girl suddenly turned pale with fright, "Brother Maosheng, save me~"

When the old lady saw that the Tartar was about to take her daughter away, she hurriedly pulled it, and the Tartar was furious and slashed the old woman with a backhand, and the blood flowed all over the ground in an instant.

Zhao Maosheng looked at the corpse of the owner not far away, listening to the child's crying, his eyes were a little dull.

At this time, Tartar had already dragged Zhou Xiaohuan away for more than ten steps, her hair was scattered in the struggle, and a shoe on her feet fell off, crying and struggling, crying desolately, "Brother Maosheng, help me......"

Zhao Maosheng looked at the corpses on the ground and the surrounding tartars, but sat on the ground suddenly, and muttered at the corner of his mouth, "Cowardice, cowardice~"

(There was a problem with the computer, the document crashed, and it was over.) ）

(End of chapter)