Chapter 255: Hoeing the vegetation at noon, and the map of the river on the Qingming Festival

When the wedding was held in Yangjiatun, Dengzhou Prefecture was still dead and dying, without any change. The autumn wind kept whistling by, bringing a strong chill. The garbage and fallen leaves on the ground were swept up by the autumn wind and threw them into the air. When the wind stopped, it fell down one after another, continuing to cover the entire Dengzhou City with fallen leaves and garbage.

"Is this Dengzhou City?"

It was at this time that Ma Yi quietly came to Dengzhou Prefecture. After the battle of Aoshan Guard, Ma Yi officially left the guard team and became the manager of Maoyans. From then on, he spent most of his time lurking in Dengzhou City, lurking in the corner where no one knew it, quietly and closely observing everything that happened here.

Dengzhou City, Yanzhou City and Jinan City are the three most important cities in Shandong Province. From a military perspective, Dengzhou City is more important than Yanzhou City and Jinan City. The number of Ming troops stationed in Dengzhou City is quite large. In addition to the infantry, the Dengzhou Navy is also stationed here. There was a period of time when the imperial court set up the Dengzhou General Town here, which shows the importance of its military status.

Dengzhou has always been an important logistics base to fight against the Tatars. Whether it is the logistics supplies of the Ming army in Dongjiang Town, or the logistics supplies of the Ming army defenders such as the Gaizhou Wei, Fuzhou Wei, and Jinzhou Wei were mostly shipped from Dengzhou. At that time, Dengzhou City was quite prosperous, and a large amount of supplies gathered here. Every day, tens of thousands of goods were concentrated from all over the country to Dengzhou City. Both sides of the street were lined up shops. Almost all chambers of commerce nationwide had semicolons here. The money shop semicolons opened here can also be exchanged for silver notes from all over the country.

Unfortunately, after the fall of Gaizhou Wei, Fuzhou Wei, Jinzhou Wei and other places successively fell, the logistics function of Dengzhou City was greatly weakened. At present, there is only one Dongjiang Town that needs to transport supplies from here. After Mao Wenlong was killed, the number of officers and soldiers in Dongjiang Town was greatly reduced. The strength of the Dengzhou Navy also shrank on a large scale. Without the need of the market, there would naturally be no activity of merchants. Therefore, a large number of chambers of commerce began to withdraw from Dengzhou City, and the shops on both sides of the streets closed one after another. Dengzhou City inevitably became deserted.

However, the fatal blow to Dengzhou City was still from Kong Youde. At the end of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde launched a rebellion and occupied Dengzhou City. Due to insufficient food, he ate people. The rebellion lasted for a long time, and half of the ordinary people in Dengzhou City were said to have been eaten. After Kong Youde surrendered to the Tartars, Dengzhou City was basically destroyed by him.

Since Kong Youde's rebellion, Dengzhou Prefecture has been dead and dying, and there is no chance of life. On the empty streets, there are only soldiers patrolling, and few pedestrians can see pedestrians. Occasionally, one or two pedestrians walk by, holding their heads and avoiding the rustling autumn wind. The shops in Dengzhou City have the best business, and the coffin shops are also good.

"So many refugees..."

Ma Yi looked around, and she kept sighing in her heart.

A large number of refugees from Liaodong were huddled in every corner of Dengzhou City. As long as they could hide from people, they were occupied by them. They had no food or clothing. They had no food or clothing to survive, and they had to rob their families and take risks. They had to do everything they could to find food and clothing for themselves. Otherwise, they would have to starve to death or freeze to death.

In late autumn, there is already a strong coolness at night. The whistle and whistle and whispering autumn wind constantly takes away the lives of refugees. Some people are quietly curled up in the corner and never wake up the next day. When they meet such people, the old lady who is responsible for cleaning up the dead bodies in the city lifts the body up expressionlessly, puts it on the cart, and then pulls it away. As for where to deal with it and how to deal with it, there is no need to care.

In addition to the refugees in Liaodong, there were also local refugees, which also flooded into Dengzhou City. In particular, the Tartars on Tianheng Island went ashore to wash and plunder, burning Laiyang City, resulting in a large number of refugees pouring into Dengzhou City. Because there are too many refugees, the government cannot provide relief. If you want to survive, you can only find food by yourself. No matter what food it is, as long as it can relieve hunger, they will eat without hesitation.

It is said that on some street corners, leftover bones are often found. Some people have identified that these bones are usually from little girls. As for who has been eaten by them and how they have been eaten, no one is willing to check them. In this day and age, let alone children, even adults, if they are accidentally put on the hands of hungry people, they will suffer the same fate.

Even if a soldier like Ma Yi who has experienced many bloody scenes cannot help but be vigilant in the face of the cold eyes of the refugees around him. In order to avoid revealing his identity, there is only a dagger for turning over in his arms. This is what Zhang Zhun equips each guard soldier, and the quality is pretty good. However, if the hungry refugees around him pounce on him regardless of everything, he will definitely be torn to pieces. Fortunately, this scene did not appear.

"You're here."

Based on the information I remembered in advance, Ma Yi finally arrived at his destination. Soon, someone opened the door inside, looked at Ma Yi vigilantly, and looked around. There was no one on the surrounding streets, as if it was a dead city.

"The day is the afternoon when hoeing the wheat."

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival."

After checking the code, Ma Yi flashed into it.

The gate was quickly closed, and Ma Yi's figure completely disappeared into Dengzhou City.

In fact, not only Ma Yi, but every official in Dengzhou Prefecture can deeply feel this dying atmosphere. Under the influence of this atmosphere, there is only despair, depression, numbness, and soreness and weakness every day. The most common thing they do is to think about how to transfer from Dengzhou, a ghost place. The second is to think about how to collect money and make money. The situation is becoming more and more dangerous, and Dengzhou Prefecture is becoming less and less safe. If you continue to stay in Dengzhou City as an official, you may have to lose your life. Even if you make countless wealth, you must have the use of your life. If you have no life, no matter how much money you have, what's the use?

The Tartars in the north are becoming stronger and stronger. Everyone in Dengzhou City can feel the heavy pressure brought by the Tartars. The large number of refugees who escaped from Liaodong brought the myth of the Tartars' invincibility and caused all kinds of rumors in the city. Among these refugees, many of them are spies from the Tartars. Their task is to constantly spread rumors and attack the morale of the soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty.

Under the promotion of those who are interested, rumors can easily cause panic and thus cause mass riots. Even if the continuous dispatch of troops to suppress them, it is still impossible to stop the spread of rumors. The riots will occur every three or five days. Each riot will cause a large number of casualties and property losses. Each riot will increase the degree of confrontation between the military and the civilians.

Especially the Tatars' entry into the Tatars in July once again hit everyone's confidence. The Ming army in Datong, Xuanfu and the capital, with less than 300,000 people, was defeated by the 300,000 to 40,000 people. Datong, Xuanfu and the capital could not resist the attack of the Tatars. If the Tatars attacked again in the future, wouldn't it be like entering a no-man? Since the Tatars could go south from the west, could they also go south from the east?

Originally, Dengzhou City had Dongjiang Town as its northern barrier. When Mao Wenlong was still alive, Dongjiang Town's defense was quite stable. However, after Mao Wenlong was killed, Dongjiang Town was getting worse day by day. In the past, Mao Wenlong could still send troops ashore from time to time to harass the rear of the Tatars, so that the Tatars could not attack the western Liaoning with all their strength. However, Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, relieved the Tatars' worries, and from then on, the Tatars could go west with all their strength.

It can be said that if Mao Wenlong did not die, the Tartars would not have invaded in the second year of Chongzhen - its backyard might have caught fire at any time. The Tartars did not have a lot of troops, and the number of Tartars who were recruiting elite main forces into the Frontier. The number of Tartars who stayed in Chenyang and other places would be very limited. As long as the Ming army sent troops from Dongjiang Town, they could directly attack Huanglong and sneak attack Chenyang. From this perspective, it was no exaggeration for Yuan Chonghuan to be dismembered. It was Yuan Chonghuan himself who created conditions for the Tartars' entry into the Frontier. Later generations suspected that he and Huang Taiji had reached some secret agreements, and it was not without reason.

After Mao Wenlong died, the deputy general Chen Jisheng took over him. Chen Jisheng was an idiot. Facing the offensive of the Tartars, he could only passively defend. The Tartars took the opportunity to continuously attack the defense zone of Dongjiang Town, and the Ming army could only retreat step by step. By the seventh year of Chongzhen, all the land in Liaodong had been lost. Dongjiang Town only controlled several islands on the dock, and its strength had plummeted compared to before. The Tartars, who controlled the Jinzhou Guard, had already met the conditions to cross the Hainan Islands.
Chapter completed!