When they win, the other parties will definitely add to the cake, but when they fail, the other parties will never provide help in times of trouble. What awaits them will inevitably be the end of being pushed down by the wall and attacked by a group of people.

The party struggle in Hanyang City is very fierce, and the power of the Shilu faction is also very strong. Everyone knows this.

Therefore, even though Che Liliang's words were just to the point without much explanation, everyone immediately understood the truth as soon as they heard it.

At that moment, Cai Menheng, the military attache who had retreated from Anzhou City, suddenly stood up and said: "Captain Che is right! We have no other way out except holding on to fight! And if we hold on to the city, we have no chance.

!

"It's freezing cold outside the city, which makes it difficult for the enemy to fight for a long time. However, we have united our forces and have a city to rely on, which is very convenient for me to hold on. Zhenjiang Fort has been besieged for more than a month, and it is still standing. It's our generation."

It’s a precedent that can be followed!”

Cai Menheng returned to Anzhou City from the command of Zhenjiang Bao Liulin to recruit troops for the uprising. He knew that once he continued to retreat and retreated to Huanghai Road or an area that the court could control in Hanyang City, he would undoubtedly die.

This time the Qing captives mobilized troops to investigate, the weak-minded leader Li Zhu and his small court in Hanyang City would never protect him.

And judging from the current situation, the former benefactor who promoted him, Cao Fanshu, Shen Qiyuan, may be wise enough to protect his own life and abandon his soldiers to protect his commander.

Therefore, he, Che Liliang, and An Kecheng were all in the same situation. Maybe others could continue to retreat to the south, but they had no chance.

Sure enough, after Cai Menheng's words as chief defender, Anzhou's pastoral envoy An Kecheng quickly realized his situation and immediately stood up to express his support for Che Liliang and Cai Menheng's defense of the city.

As for other subordinate officials who originally belonged to Pyongyang Prefecture, seeing that the situation had become clear, they no longer wanted to speculate with the Shen brothers, so they all stood up and advocated retreat.

They also privately saw the notices and sea arrest documents sent from the direction of Hanyang City. On the list, except for the important figures such as Lin Qingye, the commander of the naval forces of the South Third Road, and Liu Lin, the military commander of the Ping'an Road,

The rest are all those in charge of the "rebellion" in Zhucheng in the Second Path of the North.

For those of them who consider themselves to be "hijacked", even if they are held accountable after the car is returned, they are just "thieves" at best.

However, there are many thieves. Can the big shots in Hanyang City kill them all?

When the time comes when the eight immortals cross the sea and show their magical powers, we may not be able to escape sin.

At most, they could just give away the money they had plundered from big families in the name of resisting the Qing Dynasty.

In this way, the party advocating the defense of the city and the party advocating evacuation as soon as possible both made their attitudes clear. For a moment, they were very different from each other, and they started to quarrel in the second hall of the Pyongyang government office.

However, the Ming Dynasty General Yang Zhen who first raised the issue of "whether to withdraw or defend", who ordered the plenipotentiary envoy Shen Qicheng, watched silently and coldly.

The current situation was, of course, something Shen Qicheng had not expected. He also did not expect that the good situation would turn so suddenly.

But unlike many people present, he has a way out.

Today he raised the issue of whether to defend or withdraw, just to prompt the mixed rebel team to divide as soon as possible, so that at this critical moment, he could see clearly who was of the same mind as him and who was on the same side.

Now, everyone has made their attitude clear, the two factions are quarreling fiercely, and the distinction has almost been made clear.

However, it was said that the people present were divided into two groups. After the argument, they suddenly discovered that the Shen brothers were watching them indifferently and did not participate in the argument, so they quickly became quiet.

In the end, everyone looked at Shen Qicheng, waiting for him to express his stance.

"Haha, very good. I called everyone here today just to hear everyone's thoughts. Now that you have finished talking, I, the commander-in-chief, also have a charter."

When Shen Qicheng said this, the atmosphere in the conference hall immediately became tense. Everyone held their breath and widened their eyes to see what kind of regulations Shen Qicheng could come up with.

"Some of you want to defend and some of you want to withdraw. My idea is that those who are defending will be counted as one side, and those who are withdrawing will be counted as one side. At the moment, the main force of the Qing Dynasty army has not arrived, and those who are left behind will choose to immediately go to the city to help defend, and those who want to withdraw will get out of the city as soon as possible. , hurry south!

"The time is set at nightfall today. At that time, I will order people to open Datong Gate and Changqing Gate at the same time. Anyone who is determined to evacuate will immediately deliver the food, grass and equipment, bring gold, silver, and accompanying people, and prepare to leave the city tonight. preparation!

"As for the refugees gathered in the city, the same treatment will be done. The Pyongyang government will post a notice in a while. Those who are willing to stay to defend the city and resist the invaders, the soldiers and horses entering the city can be given city defense equipment and accept them to join the army. Those who are not willing to stay will be given the tools to defend the city. , let him go out of the city until the ugly moment closes the city gate!"

As soon as Shen Qicheng finished speaking, Che Liliang, An Kecheng, Cai Menheng and other people who advocated holding on to the city shouted almost at the same time:

"General Commander——"

"No!"

"With this order, people's hearts will be in chaos and no big things can be done!"

Correspondingly, those officials from the Ping An Road Supervisory Department and the Pyongyang Prefecture Department Zuo Er who advocated leading the military and civilians to evacuate immediately immediately bowed to Shen Qicheng and expressed their gratitude.

Grains

Then, without waiting for Brother Shen Qicheng and Shen Qizhou to say anything else, they immediately exited the meeting hall in confusion and hurried to draft documents, post notices, pack their own things, and organize their families and servants.

In just the blink of an eye, the government meeting hall, which had just been crowded with people, was almost completely empty.

Only the stunned Che Liliang, the Shen brothers, An Kecheng, Cai Menheng, Liu Zhiman, and a few other rebel commanders who may have realized that they would never gain anything good even if they retreated to the south were left. , stay where you are.

Che Liliang didn't know those volunteer commanders, but when he saw that they didn't follow them away, he felt quite relieved. He nodded to them first, then turned around and said to Shen Qicheng:

"Commander Shen, if we allow those people to leave, our city's strength will be greatly reduced, and the chances of defending the city will be even smaller. Why did the Commander-in-Chief make such a decision?"

What Che Liliang originally wanted to say was why he was so unwise, or even why he was so stupid, but he saw that Shen Qicheng himself had no intention of evacuating together, so he left some dignity for him.

"What's the next step? Haha, Lieutenant Che, what you said is wrong. You heard what those people said just now, and you saw their attitude. Do they seem like people who can follow us to the end? If we keep them in the city, they might sell us in a blink of an eye!"

Che Liliang's actual official status was just a special general in Dingzhou. There was a reason why Shen Qicheng called him captain in front of him.

When the anti-Qing uprisings in various places in the North were beginning, Shen Qicheng, who took advantage of the chaos and took control of Pyongyang City, was very optimistic about the whole thing, so he sent people to Hanyang City at that time.

Shen Qi expressed his merits to several court generals who participated in the capture of Zhenjiang Fort. They were all designated as military and horse control commanders in their respective places of office, so that they could have the title of voluntary soldiers and civilians in the place where they commanded control.

It turns out that the matter has been settled. Shen Qiyuan, who is the judge of Li Chao's soldiers, has already issued the documents and will be promoted to officials and nobles soon.

As a result, when the official document was sent out of Hanyang City, it was stopped and was not sent out. Subsequently, the matter was suppressed, and there has been no further progress since then.

Shen Qiyuan wanted to use this move to tie the country's leader Li Shu to the anti-capitalist and anti-Qing faction.

But the leader of the country, Li Zhu, was not stupid. He would not easily be bound to the anti-Luke faction unless he saw the winner between Jinhaizhen and the Qing Dynasty.

Shen Qicheng and others have now figured out the reasoning behind this.

However, Che Liliang was obviously one of our own, so calling him Captain was also a sign of respect or a sign of goodwill.

Of course, Che Liliang didn't care at all about Shen Qicheng's title to him, but the other words Shen Qicheng said surprised him, a warrior.

"Ah? This -, this is what the commander-in-chief's army planned! However, at this time, there are already Qing raiders patrolling the outside of the city. On their way out of the city and retreating south, they may be pursued by Qing raiders' forwards!"

"Captain Che, you have to figure out the cause and effect. No one forced them to leave. It was their own choice! Haha, Captain Che, you can also try to persuade them and see if they will listen to you. Admonishment!"

Shen Qizhou, who had been watching, saw Che Liliang's reaction and heard what he said, and immediately refuted him.

"this--"

Faced with Shen Qizhou's rebuttal, Che Liliang was stunned and speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say.

In fact, he also knew very well that when faced with the fierce reputation of the Qing army and the imminent threat of massacre, most people's idea was to run away quickly, and run as far away as possible. Few people would realize that escaping outside the city would only lead to will be more dangerous.

Only people like him who have the experience of escaping from Dingzhou City may have personal experience.

In this way, after nightfall on November 15th, the Shen brothers kept their promise and ordered the opening of Datong Gate, the east gate of Pyongyang City, and Changqing Gate, the convenience gate in the southeast corner.

A large number of refugees and civilians gathered in Pyongyang Prefecture, as well as officials from the former supervisory department and government offices swarmed out, riding in the night, on foot, on horseback, carrying burdens, driving carts, bringing their families, or Groups of people crossed the Datong River on the ice and tried their best to retreat to the south.

Those Qinglu Bagara vanguard soldiers who had arrived near Pyongyang Fucheng did not expect that they would only arrive at the city in the afternoon. By nightfall, the officials and people in the city had already begun to flee.

Surprised and astonished, they had no choice but to send people on horseback to convey the military information to the rear. At the same time, they dispatched horse teams on the spot, divided into several groups, and began to follow, pursue and harass the people fleeing south of the city.

The vanguard soldiers of Qinglu Zhenghuang, Xianghuang, and Xianglan Bagara who arrived outside Pyongyang Prefecture were less than a thousand people in total. However, facing the fleeing Korean people, they were as invincible as tigers descending from the mountain and entering the flock of sheep.

In this way, as many as tens of thousands of Koreans who evacuated Pyongyang Prefecture that night, including some fleeing officials and a large number of northern refugees, were killed by the Qinglu Bagara vanguard soldiers, who numbered less than a thousand, and their bodies were scattered everywhere.

Of course, those who were directly pursued and killed by Qinglu Bagala's vanguard soldiers accounted for only 20% of them at most.

About 20% of the others were trampled to death by their own people while fleeing in panic.

At the same time, more than 20% of the people in the court were already kneeling on the side of the road in despair and lying in the snow before the pursuers could catch up with them, asking for surrender.
Chapter completed!