Chapter 226 Meng Qian Meng Xue
After conveying the imperial will to the Yingzhou front, Wang Quan waited for a few days in the government office of Shuozhou City, but there was no movement on the Yingzhou front. Instead, he received a joint official document from the King of Qin and Yang Ye, saying that the vanguard general Yang Yanzhao was seriously injured and had not recovered, and the front-line soldiers were injured and exhausted, and needed to rest for a few more days.
Wang Quan was so angry that he smashed a blue and white porcelain teacup and cursed! Although there are special cases where generals do not obey the orders of the emperor when they are away, you dare to disobey the imperial will and be lazy and afraid of fighting?
Yang Yanzhao was seriously injured and had not recovered, what are you doing, the Song Dynasty God of War Zhao Defang and the Golden Sword Yang Wudi?
"Pen and ink, please!"
Wang Quan cursed angrily for a while, then wrote quickly. One secret letter was sent to the capital to complain to the emperor, and another secret letter was sent to Yingzhou City to threaten and urge the war.
The three commanders on the front line found various excuses to not send troops to the secret letter from Wang Quan, the supervisor of the army, which urged the war every day. They delayed until the 24th day of the lunar month. It was estimated that another secret order from the emperor to urge the war from the capital would arrive. Qin Wang Zhao Defang ordered, "Tomorrow, send troops to capture Yunzhou, and the army will go to Yunzhou City to celebrate the New Year."
Yang Yanzhao, who had not yet recovered from his injury, led 2,000 troops to guard Yingzhou. Qin Wang Zhao Defang and Yang Ye, who was invincible with a golden sword, led 26,000 elite troops, with sufficient siege equipment and supplies, and headed straight for Yunzhou City, 200 miles away.
Yunzhou has a steep terrain, a wide and tall city wall, and a garrison of more than 6,000 soldiers. It was thought that it would be a tough battle.
Unexpectedly, the Yunzhou defenders did not fight to the death. The siege lasted for two hours, and Yunzhou City was broken. The flags of the Song army were planted on the city wall, and most of the Liao army in the city had already withdrawn from the east gate and escaped.
Yang Ye stood on the city wall, looking at the city that had been looted by the Liao army. There were ruins everywhere, black smoke filled the streets, and people were wailing miserably. After thinking for a moment, he said to Qin Wang Zhao Defang beside him: "Your Majesty, the Liao army abandoned the city and fled, probably to preserve their strength and also to lure the enemy deeper.
We should follow the original plan and Rest in Yunzhou City, and keep your troops still!" The King of
Qin nodded, "All the food and supplies in the city have been taken away by the Liao army. Inform the rear commander Pan Mei and the military supervisor Wang Quan that the food, supplies and other logistical materials should be sent to Yunzhou City as soon as possible."
Most of the Khitans in Yunzhou City followed the defeated Liao army and fled. Those who were looted in the city were basically Han people. These Han people who had been ruled by foreigners for many years were not surprised or excited when they saw the Song army of the same roots and ethnicity, nor did they resist. They just looked at these soldiers numbly, waiting for the arrangement of their fate.
Luo Li rode on the horse, looking at those ordinary Han people whose facial features were the same as those of the Song people, whose clothes were tattered and worn out but not styled by foreign races. They had numb expressions and empty eyes, and they cried softly in front of the bodies of their relatives.
Luo Li sighed in her heart, with a lot of emotion!
The mountains and rivers are broken and the wind blows the catkins, the life is ups and downs and the rain beats the duckweed, the country is weak, and it is not easy to be a colony. After Shi Jingtang, who left a name for thousands of years, offered the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Han people whose ancestors lived in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were also sold as sacrifices.
Under the rule of foreign races, they are the lowest scum. Doing the most menial and tiring work, supporting the noble elders who are high above them, with no human rights, no dignity, and no life protection. At the beginning, there will be angry resistance, but after a long time, they will become numb and become lowly "four-legged beasts" in the eyes of foreigners.
Two thin figures on the side of the road made Luo Li involuntarily pull the reins of the horse. A boy about eight or nine years old, holding a girl of four or five years old in his arms, sat quietly on a stone pier on the side of the road. The two children were thin and unkempt. The boy's eyes were calm, watching the Song army passing by in a line, and the girl's eyes were terrified.
At their feet was the body of a man, with a bloody wound on his chest, and the black and red blood had stained a large irregular pattern on his gray cotton robe.
The dead man's eyes were wide open, looking at the sky, as if making a silent accusation.
The background of the picture was a burnt building, with smoke-blackened walls standing stubbornly, and a puff of smoke still coming out of the collapsed roof.
Luo Li turned over and dismounted, walked to the two children who were snuggling together, squatted down, and asked softly: "Where is your home? Is this dead person your relative?"
The boy hugged the girl tighter, and the girl grabbed the boy's clothes tightly.
Looking at the strange and beautiful woman in front of him, he turned around and pointed at the burnt house, and said calmly: "Our home is gone." He lowered his head to look at the dead body on the ground, "This is our father. He was stabbed to death by the Khitans."
Luo Li felt a pain in her heart, and she was also a little curious, "Our home is gone, and our father is dead, why don't you cry?" "
Dad said that crying is useless." After a moment of silence, the boy added, "The Han people here may die at any time. My mother was killed by the Khitans last year. Dad didn't let us cry. He asked us to find a way to stay alive and kill the Khitans to avenge our mother when we grow up."
Luo Li's heart seemed to be pulled by a hand. The fate of the children here is even more tragic than the Palestinian children she saw on TV in her previous life.
: "If you want to avenge your family when you grow up, come with me!"
: "Is there any food? My sister has been hungry for two days." The boy asked calmly.
: "Yes! There is hot food for you to eat." Hong Gu, who was standing behind, interrupted with red eyes.
The boy looked at Luo Li quietly for a while, and Luo Li also looked at him tenderly.
The boy finally nodded, "Okay! We will go with you."
The government office in Yunzhou was also looted, but the Liao army was reluctant to burn the houses. Maybe they thought they could still kill them back?
When Qin Wang Zhao Defang saw Luo Li bringing back two children, he didn't ask anything, and smiled warmly at the two children who were holding their hands tightly together.
Hong Gu had already gone to the kitchen to boil water and cook two packs of instant noodles. She opened a pot of canned meat and put half a pot of pork chunks in.
When Hong Gu brought up two large bowls of fragrant pork chunk instant noodles, the two children, whose faces Luo Li had just washed, turned their heads back at the same time, staring at the two bowls of noodles on the tray with their eyes wide open, their stomachs growling. They didn't move their feet, but just withdrew their gaze from the bowls of noodles and looked up at Luo Li.
Luo Li smiled, "Your stomach is rebelling with hunger, it's growling so loudly in protest? Go and eat!"
The two children were really hungry and frozen. The little girl's hand was shaking a little while holding the chopsticks. She had not cried until now, but now her tears were dripping into the bowl.
The boy put two pieces of meat into his sister's bowl and wiped her tears with his dirty sleeves, "Xue'er, don't cry. Taste it, the meat is delicious."
"Brother, eat it yourself, there is a lot of meat in my bowl." The little girl who had not spoken until now had a crisp and sweet voice.
The brother and sister wolfed down the big bowl of noodles, not even a drop of soup was left. The little girl named Xue'er stroked her bulging belly and sighed like an adult, "Brother, I didn't expect that the meat was so delicious!"
Luo Li couldn't help but laugh, and Hong Gu, who looked at the little brother and sister eating noodles with pity, also curled up her lips.
"Now that you're full and satisfied, tell me about your identities and experiences!" Luo Li said while drinking hot tea and looking at the brother and sister.
The boy's name is Meng Qian and the girl's name is Meng Xue. Their father opened a small clinic in Yunzhou City with the medical skills passed down from their ancestors.
Life should have been prosperous, but the Khitans defined the status of the Han people as the lowest class of pariahs.
Not to mention the extortion of miscellaneous taxes, many of the arrogant Khitans who came to the clinic for treatment and medicine were rude and tyrannical and refused to pay a penny. Some even extorted money on the pretext that the medicine was ineffective and had made people suffer.
The Meng family clinic often had more expenses than income, and they could not even have enough food. Last year, a Khitan nobleman came to the clinic for treatment and forced his way into the backyard to make a fuss. When he saw Meng Qianniang hanging clothes in the backyard, he became beastly and bit her when he attacked her, so he drew his sword and killed her.
Doctor Meng went up to fight, but his leg was broken by the servant brought by the beast. Little Meng Qian rushed up with a stick, but before he could hit anyone, he was kicked out hard and hit the wall and fainted.
When he woke up, his mother was dead and his father's right leg was broken. His little sister, who was playing at her aunt's house next door when the accident happened, was holding her mother's body and crying heartbreakingly.
Last night, when the Liao army broke into the hospital and robbed it, and burned the house with torches, Dr. Meng, who was protecting his two children, just cursed and was stabbed to death by the brutal Liao army.
After Meng Qian finished his story, his fists were clenched tightly, and his small chest rose and fell violently. Although he tried hard not to cry, his steel teeth were broken and blood was flowing from the corners of his lips.
Little Meng Xue's eyes were full of tears, and she could no longer hold back her tears, but she just closed her mouth tightly to prevent herself from crying out loud.
Luo Li stretched out her arms and held the two children in her arms. This kind of pain could not be comforted by words, so she could only silently comfort them with warmth.
Hong Gu, who looked cold but had a kind heart, kept wiping away her tears. Five-year-old Xue'er was the same age as her daughter, and her motherly love overflowed.