The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Chapter 22 Corpses Blocking the River

Huo Tu's team consisted entirely of his fellow villagers, just like Li Chengye's team.

We all grew up together, and we all know very well who has the biggest pot and the smallest bowl.

To the younger generation of Huojia Village, Huo Tuzhen was like a close uncle to them.

Hotu was well aware of this; he didn't want the children from his village to die before him.

So he had the people of his village take hoes and rakes and follow the refugees who had been assigned to him the day before, rushing towards the city wall.

But the procession stopped when it reached the city of Yijun.

When the line stopped, Hotu was in the middle of the line, panting as he led people to carry ladders.

Knowing that the city would be attacked the next day, Huotu searched overnight and made many long ladders out of bamboo and wood.

When it comes to attacking cities, all he knows is "climbing the city walls" and "smashing the city gates," and he can't come up with any other tricks.

Therefore, these ladders were very precious, and he didn't trust others to carry them, so he personally led people to carry them.

They noticed the line had stopped, but the people in front of them weren't making any movement.

Huo Tu put down the ladder he was holding, pushed through the crowd to the front line, only to find that the procession had stopped in front of the moat at the south gate of Yijun City.

There used to be a wooden bridge here, which was donated and repaired by local gentry during the Wanli era. However, the day before yesterday, the garrison soldiers dismantled the bridge planks overnight, leaving only the bare bridge piers.

At the front of the crowd was Huo Tu's nephew, who looked at the muddy ground beneath the moat, completely at a loss.

Seeing Huo Tu arrive, the nephew breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Uncle, how do we cross this ditch? The mud at the bottom is really thick, it's hard to wade through!"

Hotu was almost driven mad with anger.

They themselves have all rebelled and are about to attack and capture the city, but they dare not cross the river because the riverbed is muddy.

If it weren't for her sister dying young, and this nephew having grown up with her since childhood and knowing his honesty, she would have loved to slap him to death.

Just then, a voice came from the top of Yijun County:

"Aren't you Huo Laosi from Huo Family Village? What are you doing here?"

Huo Tu was the fourth child in his family; his three older brothers did not live to adulthood.

People who aren't close to him wouldn't know about this, and besides, the voice sounded familiar to Huo Tu.

"Is that Master Quan from the Yang family?"

The speaker was Yang Quan, the steward of Yang Shen's household. He was the one who used to go to Huojia Village to collect rent during the summer and autumn seasons.

Huo Tu always received him, and the two were quite familiar with each other.

"Old Master Yang won't give us land to farm; we have no way to survive. What else can we do but rebel?"

Hotu responded.

"Just for this?"

Yang Quan pressed for an answer.

"Just for this."

Hotu said firmly.

A profound silence fell over both the city walls and the surrounding area.

The county magistrate, Zhou Dezhao, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but cover his forehead, and then he leaned out from behind the city wall.

"I am Zhou Dezhao, the magistrate of Yijun County. Huo Laosi, I just overheard you talking with Steward Yang. You also come from an honest family."

"As long as you disperse and return to your villages, I'll have Old Master Yang let you continue farming the land, and I'll also help you quell the rebellion. How about that?"

These words caused an uproar in Hotu's group.

"Can you return the rent and grain we paid in the past two years?"

"Hotu asked."

"The county magistrate has already spoken; if you repent, he will forgive your crime of rebellion. How dare you still ask for grain?"

Yang Quan grew anxious, fearing that Zhou Dezhao would agree, and interrupted him.

"Even if we go back to the village and get land to cultivate, there's no grain right now, and crops won't grow at this time of year; it's still a death sentence. I'm sorry, sir, but this city... I still have to fight it."

Hotu retorted.

As they were talking, someone next to them lost their footing and slid down into the moat.

"Someone has gone down!"

"Charge! Cross the river!"

Everyone assumed he was jumping down to climb over the city wall, so they all jumped after him, like dumplings being dropped into a pot, and crawled forward through the mud.

The people on the city wall were terrified when they saw this.

It is unknown who fired the first arrow, but arrows rained down afterward, causing chaos at the scene.

The warm atmosphere that had been somewhat reminiscent of hometown sentiment vanished instantly.

On the city wall, Zhou Dezhao's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

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"Charge! Take over the city and distribute food to everyone!"

Hotu loudly encouraged his men.

"Fire arrows! Fire arrows now! Stop them!"

Yang Quan's scream rang out first, filled with terror.

Upon hearing Huotu's promise to distribute grain once he entered the city, the starving people, who had previously had to be pushed forward by hoes and rakes, became fierce.

Ladders were erected one after another on the city wall, and the starving people climbed up them with red eyes.

They didn't have any proper weapons; a kitchen knife was considered fully armed, and many people used a sharpened wooden stick as a gun.

But their reckless spirit was the most deadly weapon in northern Shaanxi in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign.

The able-bodied men and yamen runners on the city wall were also frightened by this reckless behavior. Under the reprimands of the head constable and the heads of various households, they picked up the stones and logs they had prepared in advance and smashed them down the city wall and onto the ladders.

Given the density of people below the city, there's no need to aim; just throw the bomb down, and you'll hit someone.

Wei Mingdao, accompanied by several tall and strong patrolmen, ran along the city wall wielding broadswords, hacking at the top of any ladders that were attached to the battlements.

He had read some military books and knew that this was the key point in defending the city.

When he cut down the fifth ladder, he found that there were no more ladder heads visible on the city wall.

He leaned against the inner city wall to catch his breath, feeling a cool sensation on his head. He touched the back of his head and found that his hair ornament was full of sweat.

Many of the able-bodied men temporarily serving as archers on the city wall were also panting from exhaustion.

At that moment, shouts of alarm came from inside the main gate below the city wall: "The bandits have hacked down the gate!"

But Wei Mingdao remained unmoved, and even breathed a sigh of relief.

Because the gate was blocked with earthen bags yesterday morning.

Magistrate Zhou Dezhao was determined to defend the city to the death, so he simply sealed off both city gates, leaving the possibility of either the rebels breaking through or the government troops relieving the siege.

Otherwise, nobody can get in.

At first, the starving people were full of courage and recklessly climbed the city wall, but as the ladders were repeatedly overturned and cut down by the defenders on the wall.

In addition, they had been starving for so long that Wang Er ordered them to have a full meal the night before last, and they really had no strength left.

Logs and stones rained down from the city walls, accompanied by arrows, and more and more people fell from the ladders. Hotu's troops were routed.

Some people tried to stop them, but they couldn't.

Many people climbed down the moat, trying to climb back up to the outside, but later people stepped on them.

Then the next person stepped on the person who had just stepped on them.

The first person who tried to escape had completely sunk into the mud at the bottom of the river and had become a pile of mud.

When Yijun City was built, the moat outside the city was dug at the foot of the mountain. It was more than two zhang deep. Over the years, it has become deep and filled with mud. Now it is only half the original depth.

But now, the moat that was ten feet deep is only one foot deep in the section at the south gate.

They were all human corpses.

The blood soaked the soil on both sides of the riverbed, and Zhou Dezhao on the city wall felt like vomiting upon hearing it.

Just as Huotu and his men were about to flee after failing to breach the city gates, Zhou Dezhao ordered them to cease their attack.

Several constables around him shouted repeatedly before the laborers and inspectors on the city wall finally stopped.

Then the people on the city wall all saw what had just happened: corpses piled up and blocked the river.

Many people are still alive; they reach out and try to crawl out of the blood-red mud.

But they had been hungry for a long time, and after being trampled like this, they quickly lost their strength, and their outstretched hands gradually became still.

Apart from a few that crawled out from near the shore, their bodies covered in scarlet blood, there were no others.

The guards turned pale and vomited upon seeing this.

Huo Tu, still shaken, collapsed onto the north bank of the moat.

When he realized that it was too difficult to climb the wall with a ladder, he called a few young men from his clan to carry some old tables and dodge the stones and arrows falling from above as they headed towards the city gate.

Upon reaching the city gate, he and his men began hacking at the gate with axes.

The gate of Yijun City was made of solid wood covered with iron sheets. It was originally very sturdy, but over time the old iron sheets fell off and many patches were made.

They chopped for most of the day, until their axes were dull and worn down, and they even managed to cut through a patch below the left city gate.

Just as they were preparing to continue their efforts, they discovered that it was completely dark inside.

The city gate was blocked by something.

Looking back, the main force had already scattered.

Everyone was trapped in the moat, struggling to climb out, but none succeeded.

At this moment, the rain of arrows and stones from the city wall also stopped.

Huo Tu led the young men around the moat near the city gate and climbed up.

He stared blankly at the river of corpses, his mind completely empty.

It seems my nephew is in there too.