Chapter 503 502 The Fall of Xinghua

Chapter 503 502 The Fall of Xinghua

In November of the 41st year of Jiajing's reign, the four gates of Xinghua Mansion were open, and there was an endless flow of people and cars coming in and out.

Fujian is known as the Eight Fujian Land, which actually refers to the eight prefectures under the jurisdiction of Fujian. Xinghua Prefecture, one of the eight prefectures in Fujian, has a prosperous economy. Although the land area is the smallest among the eight prefectures, the population of Xinghua Prefecture has been increasing since the early Ming Dynasty. The root cause of the exodus is that most people here are not willing to work on the land, but are willing to do business.

As the saying goes, there is no wealth without business. Naturally, although Xinghua Fucheng is small and has few people, it is one of the richest places in Fujian.

Three months ago, Japanese pirates landed in Xinghua Prefecture and looted Caizhai, Hangtou and other villages. Japanese ships filled the trenches and planned to besiege the city.

In order to protect themselves, a fierce battle broke out between the local boat people, hunters and Japanese pirates. Each side had its own victory or defeat. When the war came to a stalemate, Zhejiang reinforcements Qi Jiguang's troops were ordered to rush to Fuzhou after defeating Zhang Lian's rebels. The remaining Japanese pirates gathered with the Putian Japanese pirates and stationed In Lindun.

Qi Jiguang led his army to pursue this point and raided the Japanese pirates again. He won a great victory and beheaded, captured, burned and drowned more than 2,000 Japanese pirates. Then he returned to Zhejiang in October.

It's only been more than a month since the war against Japanese invaders. With such a great victory, the people of Xinghua Prefecture naturally thought that they could live in peace for a while and at least have a peaceful year. Naturally, in the past few days, the city of Xinghua Prefecture has been under pressure. When the door opened, surrounding farmers and merchants poured out of the city to work as merchants.

At the north gate of Xinghua Mansion, the city gate was open. Several city gate soldiers were huddled together gossiping out of boredom, ignoring the crowds of people coming and going.

Although the sun was high in the sky at this time, it was still a bit cold since the New Year was approaching.

At this moment, the pipeline in the distance was suddenly crowded with people. A large flow of people rushed towards Fucheng, and screams continued to be heard.

Seeing the chaos in the crowd in the distance, the city gate army naturally could not stay there any longer, so they had to get up and prepare to suppress them so that the people could maintain order when they entered and exited the city gate.

But soon, they realized something was wrong.

The crowd that came was very chaotic, and everyone looked panicked. Some farmers were carrying or carrying large and small bags, dragging their families and running towards the city gate.

Only when the chaotic crowd approached did the city gate army clearly hear what they were shouting.

"Japanese pirates, Japanese pirates are here again, run away."

The sounds of Japanese pirates coming one after another made all the pedestrians in front of them turn pale and panic.

The captain guarding the gate looked at the crowd of people running towards him, grabbed a younger boy and asked, "Where are the Japanese pirates? Have you seen them?"

“There’s a lot in the back”

The young queen replied angrily.

"Where? How many people are there?"

Hearing his unclear answer, the team leader wanted to slap him, but at this moment, it was more important to ask clearly about the situation, so he couldn't help but continue to ask.

"There are Japanese pirates in the towns behind. There are many of them. I'm afraid there are tens of thousands of them."

This time, the young man's words were a little clearer, letting the team leader roughly know the situation.

A large number of Japanese pirates appeared in the villages and towns outside Fucheng. Thinking of this, the team leader felt his scalp numb and quickly asked again: "Did you see it with your own eyes?"

"I saw them robbing things and killing people."

Perhaps the later generations were so frightened by the cruelty of the Japanese pirates that they could only answer his questions in simple sentences.

However, this was enough for the team leader to understand the situation at hand. Although there was no trace of the Japanese pirates at the moment, he did not doubt anything else under such a scene.

He let go of his hand and let the descendant rush into the city gate in panic. He turned around and called two soldiers, and told one of them: "Go to the city immediately and inform the general that the Japanese pirates are attacking."

Then he called another person and said: "And you, immediately notify other city gates that Japanese pirates are attacking and close the city gates."

After giving the order, before the soldier left to deliver the order, he cursed and told his men to close the city gate, even though people kept coming from a distance.

The people near the city gate were undoubtedly temporarily lucky. They ran into the city before the city gate closed, while the people behind could only beat the thick city gate desperately. However, at this time, the Ming army could no longer care about their lives and could only attack them. They were shut up outside the city.

Not long after, hundreds of households went up to the city tower. Seeing that the people were gathering more and more, they could only shout to them to find a place to avoid the Japanese pirates, and advised them to leave here as soon as possible and go to the direction of Xianyou County.

The news of the Japanese pirates' attack was quickly notified to several people in power in Xinghua Prefecture after being passed on by soldiers at the city gate.

At this time, the highest official positions in Xinghua Prefecture were naturally Weng Shiqi, the deputy envoy of Xingquan Road, Bi Gao, the general, and Xi Shiliang, the general magistrate. Among them, Xi Shiliang became the de facto prefect of Xinghua Prefecture due to the affairs of the regent.

Soon, the three of them gathered together to discuss the matter.

In fact, in the face of the Japanese pirates' attack, the coastal prefectures and counties had already established a strategy at this time, which was to close the city gates and call for emergency help.

The discussion this time was naturally based on this arrangement. Xi Shiliang was responsible for recruiting strong men in the city to help defend the city and provide food for the soldiers. At the same time, the city was under martial law and the identities of the people in the city were strictly checked.

The Baojia system formed after the founding of the Ming Dynasty exerted a huge advantage at this time. It was easy to screen the people in the city, and those whose identities could not be confirmed would naturally be temporarily detained.

General Bi Gao was responsible for guarding the city, and at the same time sent out sentries using hanging baskets to go out of the city to detect the actual presence of Japanese pirates.

Weng Shiqi, on the other hand, hurriedly wrote official documents and reported the emergency to the governor of Fujian, You Zhende, and the governor of Fujian and Guangdong, Zhang Zhen, asking for reinforcements.

The entire city of Xinghua was quickly put into a state of combat readiness, because Japanese pirates attacked from time to time. Both the people and the soldiers completed their work step by step.

When the city defenders saw the Japanese pirates, it was already dark, and the Japanese pirates did not attack Fucheng that day.

Just kidding, after all, the government governs the city, and the city wall is obviously much higher than the county seat, so it is not easy to attack rashly.

In fact, Japanese pirates captured many cities in the Ming Dynasty, but not many were captured in actual siege battles. Most of them had to sneak in in disguise to seize the city in one fell swoop. When the Ming army was already prepared, such a city attack and defense battle would Even the Japanese pirates who were good at fighting could not get away with it.

In the following days, the Japanese pirates chose to besiege the city while looting surrounding villages and towns.

Although they launched sneak attacks on Fucheng from time to time, they were all discovered and repelled by the Ming army defending the city.

Seeing this situation, Weng Shiqi, Bi Gao, Xi Shiliang and others naturally relaxed their vigilance. The situation was now very good and they only needed to wait for reinforcements to expel the Japanese pirates.

At this time, after receiving the news that the Japanese pirates were attacking Xinghua Prefecture, Governor You Zhende of Fujian thought of the official document he had received from the Governor of Fujian and Guangdong Weng Zhangzhen two days ago. He knew that the Governor had sent Liu Xian to lead his troops to rescue Xinghua Prefecture, so he naturally There was no panic, but someone was sent to deliver an official document to Liu Xian, asking him to speed up his march and arrive at Xinghua Prefecture as soon as possible to relieve the siege.

After receiving the official document from Zhang Zhen, he had already sent the official document to the prefectures and counties along the way. Naturally, he informed Liu Xian of the marching route of the army and asked the officials along the way to provide food and grass supplies.

However, both Zhang Zhen and You Zhende overestimated the number of troops around Liu Xian at the moment, and the sentinels sent by Xinghua Fucheng also underestimated the number of Japanese pirates this time.

According to the official document asking for help from Xinghua Prefecture, more than 2,000 Japanese pirates attacked the city. At this time, Liu Xian led only 700 troops to Xinghua Prefecture.

On the way, Liu Xian received official documents from Zhang Nian and You Zhende, giving him a general understanding of the situation of Japanese pirates around Xinghua Prefecture.

Xinghua Fucheng has been besieged, and it is impossible for him to lead his troops into the city.

A simple comparison between the hundreds of people around him and the more than 2,000 Japanese pirates showed that he could not attack Xinghua Prefecture directly, and because of the Quanzhou plague, Liu Xian had to lead his troops to take a detour.

When Liu Xian led his troops to Yingxian Village, which was forty miles away from Xinghua Prefecture, Liu Xian's troops encountered a large number of people fleeing from Xinghua Prefecture.

Seeing the officers and soldiers, the people naturally hurriedly called for help.

When Liu Xian faced these fleeing people and heard them describe the atrocities of the Japanese pirates and the tragic situation in the village, he chose to temporarily station for repairs and at the same time began to recruit soldiers to supplement the lack of troops.

However, what he didn't know was that among the people fleeing, there were also a large number of Japanese pirate spies.

In fact, most of the Japanese pirates were Ming people, and there were only a small number of Japanese pirates.

At this time, these Ming Japanese pirates were disguised as fleeing people. For Liu Xian, it was naturally impossible to distinguish the authenticity.

And he stayed in Yingxian Village to recruit soldiers, which naturally made the Japanese pirates understand the reality of his troops and the lack of men and horses.

In fact, the Japanese pirates who invaded Xinghua Prefecture this time were divided into two groups. The goal of one group was naturally to loot Xinghua Prefecture and wait for an opportunity to seize the city. There were more than 6,000 Japanese pirates, who were the main force of the Japanese pirates this time, while the goal of the other group was to seize the city. It's Fuqing, and they want to block the Ming army's rescue mission from Fuzhou.

The Japanese pirates also knew that there was a plague in Quanzhou Prefecture, south of Xinghua Prefecture, so they naturally avoided it. Correspondingly, the Ming army would never come to support from this direction.

At this time, Liu Xian issued an order to recruit soldiers, which gave the Japanese pirates some peace of mind. It also allowed the Japanese pirates to send many spies to take this opportunity to sneak into Liu Xian's army, and Liu Xian was unprepared for all this.

After these people infiltrated Liu Xianjun's army, they only took on the task of spying on military intelligence. As a result, the details of Liu Xianjun's army were completely discovered by the Japanese pirates.

At this time, Weng Shiqi, the deputy envoy in Xinghua City, also received news that Liu Xian's army was close at hand, and hurriedly sent a message urging Liu Xian's troops to rescue the city.

After Liu Xian received the official document, due to lack of troops, he had to send 200 people to Xinghua Fucheng for support and to spy on the Japanese pirates.

However, as soon as the reinforcements left the camp, the news was discovered by Japanese pirate spies.

The Japanese pirates set up an ambush in the middle of the road and almost wiped out the Ming army. Only a few dozen people escaped back to Yingxian Village.

Faced with the strength of the Japanese pirates, Liu Xian did not dare to act rashly. He had to recruit and train soldiers while sending documents to summon surrounding people, hoping to strengthen his strength as soon as possible and rescue Xinghua Prefecture.

However, Liu Xian was also well aware of the urinary nature of the Ming Dynasty civil servants, and was worried that his deputy envoy Weng Shiqi would be impeached for this, so he sent eight soldiers with documents to convey the actual situation to Weng Shiqi, hoping to make them calm down. , just wait for rescue with peace of mind.

However, these eight messengers were all killed by Japanese pirates on the way, and the documents were also robbed by Japanese pirates.

It was the documents they carried that were used by the Japanese pirates as weapons to break the city.

On November 29, eight Ming army uniformed sergeants appeared outside the north gate of Xinghua City, claiming to be messengers sent by General Liu Xian.

Weng Shiqi led Xi Shiliang and Li Bangguang, the general magistrate of the government, to check that the official documents were correct, and then asked people to lower them into the city.

Although both Xi Shiliang and Li Bangguang felt that these soldiers were acting suspiciously, they asked Weng Shiqi to temporarily detain them. However, at this time, Weng Shiqi was angry that Liu Xian's troops were too weak and did not dare to come to the rescue. He angrily accused Xi Shiliang and Li Bangguang of being cowardly and Arrange these soldiers to join the soldiers guarding the city at the north gate to supplement the lack of city defense troops.

And all this fell into the Japanese pirates' treacherous plan.

That night, several Japanese spies killed other Ming soldiers around them, led the Japanese to set up ladders on the north gate wall and entered the city, and quickly captured the north gate. When the city gate was opened, the fall of Xinghua Prefecture was inevitable.

After thousands of Japanese pirates entered the city, they quickly defeated the Ming army to rescue them. Deputy envoy Weng Shiqi, general Bi Gao and general judge Li Bangguang fled across the city after hearing that Fucheng had fallen.

After occupying Xinghua Fucheng, the Japanese pirates burned, killed, and looted, and the people of Fucheng were in mourning.

After receiving the report from the sentry, Liu Xian had to rush to rescue Xinghua Prefecture, but when they arrived, it was still too late. The city had been defeated by the Japanese pirates. However, Liu Xian did not have enough troops to attack the city at this time, so he had to assist the escapees in the city. After the officials and people came out, they couldn't bear to retreat.

After Xinghua Fucheng was broken, the Japanese pirates massacred the people. "The thieves guarded the city gates separately, and the officials and the people could not escape." They burned "the whole city to pieces." Flattening the Sea”.

Xi Shiliang, the magistrate of the department, Ye Shilan, the magistrate of Putian, Lu Yaozuo, the county school instructor, Zhang Yuan, Lu Shiliang, and Zhang Yingwang of Qianhu were all killed by the Japanese pirates. Seventeen Jinshi people died, dozens of people were promoted, and hundreds of scholars were killed. , there were countless civilians. Lin Zhaoen alone collected more than 3,000 corpses and cremated more than 20,000 people.

The new magistrate of Xinghua Prefecture, Yi Daotan, "heard that corpses were piled up in the fields, so he parked his car in Fuqing and did not dare to come to take office." He did not dare to enter the city until Lin Zhaoen collected the corpses and scattered them across the road.

The news of the fall of Xinghua Mansion was reported to Fujian Governor You Zhende and Governor Zhang Zhen respectively by Liu Xian and Weng Shiqi who escaped.

After learning of the fall of Fucheng, Governor You Zhende hurriedly mobilized Fuzhou Ming troops to go south to rescue Xinghua Prefecture. Governor Zhang Zhen was also shocked and had to hurriedly order Yu Dayou, the deputy general who had just returned to southern Jiangxi, to lead his troops to rescue Xinghua Prefecture. .

The news that You Zhende mobilized officers and troops from Fuzhou to go south naturally could not be concealed from the Fujian officialdom. Even if he deliberately concealed the news, he hoped that after taking over Fuxinghua Prefecture, he could use the Spring and Autumn Period to cover up his mistakes.

In any case, the governor of Fujian, who was on the pastoral side, was to blame for the loss of Xinghua Prefecture and the shock to You.

However, after hearing the news of such a big move, Li Bangzhen, the censor of Fujian Province, wrote a memorial to the capital as soon as possible.

A few days later, the memorial was sent to the capital, which shocked the government and the public.

For the first time, the city of Fuzhi fell. Emperor Jiajing was furious after seeing Li Bangzhen's memorial in Xiyuan. He directly issued an order to remove You Zhende without summoning the cabinet ministers for discussion. At the same time, he appointed Tan Lun from Zhejiang to participate in politics and led Qi Jiguang's troops to go south to Fujian. He took over the post of governor of Fujian.

"Thousands of Japanese pirates captured Xinghua Prefecture. Liu Xian did not have enough troops to fight. Jiangnan, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, was actually defeated by thousands of Japanese pirates."

In Prince Yu's palace, the people in the palace were also shocked by the news from Fujian, and Prince Yu was also extremely angry.

"Your Highness, judging from Mr. Li's memorial, Governor Zhang actually predicted that the Japanese pirates might attack Xinghua, but..."

Wei Guangde didn't know what to say. He guessed the movements of the Japanese pirates and the result was like this.