Chapter 503 502 Xinghua Falls

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, raided the Japanese pirates again, and won a great victory. More than 2,000 Japanese pirates were beheaded, captured alive, burned and drowned, and then returned to Zhejiang in October.

It's only been more than a month since the war to suppress the Japanese. With this great victory, the people of Xinghua Prefecture naturally thought that they could have a period of peace and at least have a peaceful year. Naturally, in the past few days, Xinghua Prefecture has been in a state of chaos. 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 is high in the sky at this time, it is still a bit cold since the Chinese New Year is 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 are many things in the back”

The young queen replied angrily.

"Where? How many people are there?"

Hearing his vague 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: "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, he cursed and told his men to close the city gate without waiting for the soldier to leave to deliver the order, 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, the Ming army at this time 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 through the delivery of 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 Xinghua Prefecture City quickly entered a state of war preparedness, because there were occasional attacks by Japanese pirates, and both the civilians and soldiers completed their work step by step.

When the guarding troops saw the Japanese pirates, it was already late, and the Japanese pirates did not attack the prefecture city that day.

Just kidding, after all, it was a prefecture city, and the city wall was obviously much higher than the county town, so it was not easy to attack rashly.

In fact, there were many Ming cities that were captured by Japanese pirates, but not many were captured in real siege battles. Most of them were disguised and mixed in to capture the city in one fell swoop. When the Ming army was already prepared, such a city attack and defense battle would not be good even for the Japanese pirates who were good at fighting.

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

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

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

At this time, after receiving the news that the Japanese pirates attacked Xinghua Prefecture, Fujian Governor You Zhende thought of the official document sent by Fujian and Guangdong Governor Weng Zhangnei two days ago, knowing that the Governor had sent Liu Xian to lead troops to rescue Xinghua Prefecture, so he was naturally not panicked, but sent someone to send an official document to Liu Xian, asking him to speed up the march and arrive in Xinghua Prefecture as soon as possible to rescue.

After receiving the official document sent by Zhangnei, he had already sent official documents to the prefectures and counties along the way, naturally informing Liu Xian of the route of his army and asking the government along the way to provide food and grass supplies.

However, whether it was Zhangnei or You Zhende, they overestimated the number of people and horses around Liu Xian at the moment, and the scouts sent by Xinghua Prefecture also underestimated the number of Japanese pirates this time.

According to the official document of Xinghua Prefecture asking for help, more than 2,000 Japanese pirates attacked the city, while Liu Xian led only 700 soldiers to Xinghua Prefecture at that time.

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

Xinghua Prefecture City has been surrounded, and it is impossible for him to lead troops into the city.

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

When Liu Xian led his troops to Yingxianzhai, 40 miles away from Xinghua Prefecture City, Liu Xian's troops met a large number of people fleeing from Xinghua Prefecture.

Seeing the government troops, the people naturally rushed to ask for help.

Facing these fleeing people, Liu Xian heard them tell about the atrocities of the Japanese pirates and the miserable conditions in the village, but chose to stay temporarily for repairs, and at the same time began to recruit soldiers to make up for the shortage of troops.

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

In fact, most of the Japanese pirates were Ming people, and there were not many real Japanese pirates.

At this time, these Ming Japanese pirates pretended to be refugees, and Liu Xian naturally couldn't tell the truth from the false.

And he stayed in Yingxian Village to recruit soldiers, which naturally made the Japanese pirates understand the strength of their troops and the shortage of troops.

In fact, the Japanese pirates who attacked Xinghua Prefecture this time were divided into two groups. One group's goal was naturally to plunder Xinghua Prefecture and seize the city. There were more than 6,000 Japanese pirates, who were the main force of the Japanese pirates this time, and the other group's goal was Fuqing, and they wanted to block the rescue sent by the Ming army from Fuzhou.

The Japanese pirates also knew that Quanzhou Prefecture, south of Xinghua Prefecture, was suffering from plague, 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 made the Japanese pirates feel relieved. They also sent many spies to infiltrate Liu Xian's army, and Liu Xian was not prepared for all this.

After these people infiltrated Liu Xian's army, they only undertook the task of spying on military intelligence, so the details of Liu Xian's army were completely discovered by the Japanese pirates.

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

After receiving the official document, Liu Xian had to send two hundred people to Xinghua Prefecture to support due to insufficient troops, and spy on the Japanese pirates along the way.

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

The Japanese pirates set up an ambush halfway and almost wiped out this Ming army, with only dozens of people escaping back to Yingxianzhai.

Faced with the strength of the Japanese pirates, Liu Xian dared not act rashly. He could only recruit and train soldiers while sending documents to summon the surrounding troops, hoping to strengthen his forces as soon as possible and rescue Xinghua Prefecture.

However, Liu Xian also knew the nature of Ming Dynasty civil officials and was worried that the deputy envoy Weng Shiqi would impeach him, so he sent eight soldiers with documents to convey Weng Shiqi, describing the actual situation, hoping to calm them down and wait for rescue.

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

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

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

After Weng Shiqi led Xi Shiliang and the prefectural judge Li Bangguang to check the official documents, he asked people to let them go up the city.

Although Xi Shiliang and Li Bangguang both felt that these soldiers were suspicious and requested Weng Shiqi to temporarily detain them, Weng Shiqi was angry because Liu Xian's troops were too few and did not dare to come to the rescue. He angrily accused Xi Shiliang and Li Bangguang of being cowardly and arranged for these soldiers to join the soldiers guarding the north gate to supplement the insufficient city defense force.

All this fell into the trap of the Japanese pirates.

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

After thousands of Japanese pirates entered the city, they quickly defeated the Ming army that came to rescue them. Deputy Envoy Weng Shiqi, Lieutenant General Bigao and Tongpan Li Bangguang fled across the city after hearing that the city had fallen.

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

After receiving the report from the scouts, Liu Xian had to rush to rescue Xinghua Prefecture, but they were still too late when they arrived. The city had been broken by the Japanese pirates, but at this time Liu Xian was short of troops and it was difficult to attack the city. He had no choice but to retreat after receiving officials and people who had escaped from the city.

After the city of Xinghua was breached, the Japanese pirates slaughtered the people, "the pirates guarded the city gates, and no official or civilian could escape", and "burned the whole city to the ground", "after more than 60 days, the pirates fled to Pinghai because the city was too filthy".

Acting prefect Xi Shiliang, Putian County Magistrate Ye Shilan, County School Instructor Lu Yaozuo, Commander Zhang Yuan, Lu Shiliang, and Captain Zhang Yingwang were all killed by the Japanese pirates. Seventeen Jinshi died, dozens of Juren died, hundreds of Xiucai died, and countless civilians died. Lin Zhaoen alone buried more than 3,000 bodies, and cremated more than 20,000 bodies.

The new prefect of Xinghua, Yi Daotan, "heard that the corpses were piled up in the fields, and he stopped his car in Fuqing and did not dare to take office", until Lin Zhaoen collected the corpses and scattered them on the road, he dared to enter the city.

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

After learning that the prefecture had fallen, Governor You Zhende hurriedly mobilized the Ming army in Fuzhou to rescue Xinghua Prefecture, and Governor Zhang Nie was also shocked and had to hastily order the deputy general Yu Dayou, who had just returned to Nangan, to lead troops to rescue Xinghua Prefecture.

The news that You Zhende mobilized the official army from Fuzhou to the south could not be concealed from the Fujian officialdom, even if he wanted to conceal the news, hoping to cover up the fault with the Spring and Autumn style after recovering Xinghua Prefecture.

In any case, as the governor of Fujian, You Zhende was to blame for the loss of Xinghua Prefecture.

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

A few days later, the memorial was sent to the capital, shocking the court and the public.

The first time, the prefecture was lost. After seeing Li Bangzhen's memorial in the Western Garden, Emperor Jiajing was furious. He did not summon the cabinet ministers to discuss, but directly issued an order to dismiss You Zhende. At the same time, he appointed Zhejiang Councillor Tan Lun to lead Qi Jiguang's troops to Fujian to replace the post of Fujian Governor.

"Thousands of Japanese pirates captured Xinghua Prefecture, and Liu Xian did not have enough troops to fight. In Jiangnan, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were actually broken by a few thousand Japanese pirates."

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

"Your Highness, judging from Lord 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, but the result was still like this.