Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 99 Slaughter Village
"Let the women and children go, but kill all the others." After Zhang Chao arrived at Shenjia Village, he casually cut off the arm of a strong man holding a farm tool, and then said to the [-] battalion of cavalry who swarmed in.

I saw Zhang Chao and the others were like a pack of wolves trying to break into the sheep pen, biting the sheep everywhere, biting their throats open, and letting out their blood.

A strong man who had just walked out of his house and was about to work in the fields saw the hell-like scene outside. He quickly put down the farm tools in his hands and tried to escape home.

It's a pity that the [-] battalion of cavalry on the road spotted him before he opened the door.

Two [-]-battalion cavalrymen bent their bows and set arrows at the same time. They were ethnic minorities on the grasslands, just like the Mongols.

In just a few breaths, the man was nailed to the door by four or five arrows, but his vital organs had not been destroyed, so he was still alive.

He saw himself being nailed to the door, struggling desperately, trying to escape from here, but found that he had no strength in his whole body.

It wasn't until the last two cavalrymen shot another arrow that hit his heart that he lost consciousness and ended his painful life.

There are not many people who die like Jesus like this. After all, they are just farmers, ordinary people, and they don't need bows and arrows at all.

The tactic used by most of the cavalry of the Three Thousand Battalion is to gather people together and then take out the grassland machete, just like farmers cut wheat.

After running around the crowd, the knife became red, and the number of people decreased.

In the center of Shenjia Village, the most luxurious building is Shen Juren's home, just like most landlords in the countryside, Shen Juren's home is defensive.

But this defensive ability is a joke in front of the army.

The servants on the turret holding crossbows, not to mention the cavalrymen who can't shoot, even if they can shoot, but what effect will shooting on the iron armor have?

China's armor has never been inferior to that of the West. The iron armor, which weighs tens of kilograms, may be slightly weaker than plate armor in defense, but its flexibility is much better.

When Lu Xiangsheng fought through iron armor in the past, he was hit by dozens of Tatar arrows and was not killed. This shows the huge defensive ability of iron armor against arrows.

The only thing that could cause trouble to Zhang Chao and the others was the heavy wooden door made of Shen Ju's iron wood. It took them half a stick of incense to break through the wooden door.

Standing on the turret and looking at the sea of ​​flames below, the Shenjia Village, which is like a purgatory on earth, Shen Juren's heart was filled with ashes.

Because he knew that the Shen family was finished, and the Shen family had no future.

Because of his lust for profit, he attacked the government and opposed the Lijin Bureau, which led to today's murder.

But he was still unwilling to do so. He felt that no matter what happened, he could just fight it alone. At worst, he would be deprived of his fame. Why should he kill his relatives?

Amidst the screams of men, the cries of women and children, and the neighing of war horses, Shen Juren let out a helpless lament.

"What is the crime of my Shen family, why men, women and children were slaughtered, and my Shen family was cut off from incense, I am not reconciled, I am not reconciled!"

Zhang Chao, who was standing in Shen's courtyard, heard Shen Juren's voice, so he responded.

"You colluded to corrupt the court officials, resisted the court's lijin, and instigated unscrupulous people to besiege the tax card. Are these crimes not enough?"

"Any one of them is enough to kill your nine clans." Zhang Chao said.

It is not wrong for Shen Juren to cause today's disaster. If he hadn't held on to his fame and protected a large amount of land and merchants to evade taxes, Zhu Cihong would have used methods such as lijin.

"No one, no matter male or female, old or young, is allowed to be spared in the Shen Family Courtyard." Zhang Chao gave the order to the three thousand battalion of cavalry.

Different from the outside world, among the villagers in Shenjia Village, Zhang Chao only killed adult men and spared women and children, but he wanted to kill all the Shenjia compound.

I still remember that on the way to Shenjia Village, Zhang Chao saw tenants and farmers in other villages who leased and planted the land of gentry like Shen Juren. It can be said that the two really poor people wore a pair of trousers.

Even so, these tenants worked non-stop every morning and evening. The women reeled and spun yarn at home, and the men went to work in the fields.

But even so, they still don't have enough to eat most of the year. Even in bad years, the harvest is not good, but the rent is still paid.

But the harvest is inherently bad. Everyone can’t even fill their stomachs, and there is still money for the gentlemen to pay the rent.

But if you can’t pay the rent, at least the landlords will send someone to take away all the valuables in your house, or beat you to pieces, and tell your family when you are half dead. The body was carried back.

But don't think that a beating will exempt you from one year's rent. These Jiangnan gentry have the courage to fight against the imperial power and they are not doing good things to you.

You still have to pay the rent, and the masters will take the initiative to calculate the interest for you, and let you return the principal with interest in the coming year.

It can be said that this is already the greatest kindness of the gentlemen, after all, it gave you the hope of life.

If you are not allowed to rent seeds at all, then you are really on a dead end, and you can't help but have no hope of turning around in the future, and you won't even survive this year.

Although the twelfth lunar month in the south of the Yangtze River is not as cold as in the north, it can still freeze people to death.

After seeing these scenes, Zhang Chao realized that these country gentry and landowners had almost nothing good to offer, and their appearance carried original sin.

More importantly, Zhu Cihong's Ming Dynasty did not need such people, and small self-employed farmers were more conducive to the rule of the court and social stability.

"Drag the dead together and burn them all." Zhang Chao was very hygienic and asked the soldiers to drag the dead together and burn them together.

"Gold and silver jewellery, coral agate, and emerald tourmaline are all packed for me, and all these houses are seized and sealed. From now on, these things will belong to the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

Zhang Chao directed the soldiers to clean up the mess in the Shen family compound. He had a premonition that this was the first gentry whose family was wiped out because of lijin.

But it will never be the last one, because Zhu Cihong never misses any chance to kill someone.

In Shenjia Village at this moment, there are voices of women and children crying everywhere. They are crying for their father, brother, husband, and children.

It's a pity that this is their reward for sowing bitter fruits. If it weren't for the siege of the tax card yesterday, how could Zhang Chao lead the cavalry into the village today and kill wantonly.

However, those who survived could no longer feel resentment and rebellion against the Ming court, because they saw the Ming cavalry who came and went like a gust of wind.

(End of this chapter)