Chapter 42 Ba Hong Xiuquan Tuogu

The military pay of 210,000 yuan was quickly distributed to Jinling City, which stabilized the military spirit of the Jizi Daying Camp.Jinling City was once again surrounded as tightly as an iron bucket, and Zeng Guoquan got the nickname "Zeng Tietong" because of this. People in the city began to float.Every evening, a family of people, the old and the young, go out from the gates of each city and never come in again.The spies of the Hunan Army moved around in the city, threatening, luring, spreading rumors, and coaxing them, using all kinds of means. Many Taiping soldiers who did not want to live and die with Tianjing quietly shaved their hair, and went out of the city in small groups in the dark. The number of people in the city dropped sharply.Even the nearly 40,000 people who are most loyal to the kingdom of heaven are gradually becoming difficult to maintain.The chief difficulty is lack of food.Kang Lu suggested to the King of Heaven to sow wheat and vegetables in the city.Tianjing City has a vast area, with fields, mountains, rivers and lakes, so it can be planted, but after all, the species are limited, and the distant water cannot save the nearby fire.Everything that could be eaten was eaten, even the rats that were so rampant that they were disgusting were eaten up.Hunger seriously threatens the city of Tianjing.

"Your Majesty, if this goes on like this, we can only sit and wait for death." These days, many soldiers came to Zhongwang's mansion, and when they arrived, they asked Zhongwang to make a quick decision to save the kingdom of heaven and the army and people of the whole city.After Li Xiucheng got acquainted with Hong Rengan, Kang Lu, Lin Shaozhang and others, he decided to present the most unacceptable plan to the king of heaven, "Your Majesty, the Qing demon is currently trapped in the periphery, with deep trenches, no food and grass, and foreign aid. If you don’t come, the capital cannot be kept. There is only one way now, and that is to ask Your Majesty to let the city stay.”

"What? Tell the city not to leave, where are you going?" Hong Xiuquan asked in astonishment. Compared with three years ago, the king of heaven looked older. His head was bald, his beard had turned gray, his eyes were dull, and his movements were slow. His whole body was full of ailments, and he was sluggish all day long. The critical situation in the past six months made him even more anxious and worried. The middle-aged Tian Wang had already entered the old state of dragon bell. "Your Majesty, let's twist 30,000 soldiers into one rope, rush out of the Shence Gate in the dark, and then try to cross the river to northern Anhui to meet Nianzi." Li Xiucheng expressed his long-planned idea.

"Stop talking nonsense, leaving the capital to clear the demons, doesn't it mean that my kingdom of heaven has perished." Hong Xiuquan roared angrily. "Your Majesty, a man can stretch and shrink. If the green hills remain, why worry about having no fuel to burn. Although the capital is temporarily lost today, it can be regained in the future. How can the Qing demon occupy it for a long time?" Li Xiucheng knew that the king of heaven couldn't bear to abandon the city, Patiently comfort. "Li Xiucheng, I have made you a loyal king. If I want you to be a loyal military adviser and hand over the power of the whole country to you, then I can't come up with any other good solution. Is there only this bad idea?"

Hong Xiuquan couldn't understand Li Xiucheng's strategy of seeking survival by surrendering and advancing by retreating, and regarded it as a sign of weakness and incompetence. "Now that the city is surrounded by food and people's hearts are disintegrated, if you don't leave, you will be wiped out by the Qing demon. Your Majesty, Tianjing is certainly important, but the fate of the kingdom of heaven should be above Tianjing!" Li Xiucheng felt that the words were too serious, so he kowtowed while weeping, hoping to move Hong Xiuquan's heart.Unexpectedly, when Hong Xiuquan heard this, he became furious: "I am ordered by my heavenly father and brother to be the only God of the Kyushu and all kingdoms. Why should I be afraid of it? You are afraid of death, and you will stay in your post. I will fight the country with iron, and you will not help me." , someone will help you.”

"Your Majesty!" Li Xiucheng shouted anxiously, "Although Xiucheng is not afraid of death, His Majesty and the entire city's soldiers and civilians cannot just sit and die in Tianjing. Your Majesty said that he has someone to help him. Now there is no one within a hundred miles outside Tianjing." My kingdom of heaven has one soldier and one siege, who will help me?" "Li Xiucheng, do you dare to despise me?" Hong Xiuquan sneered, raised his head and said, "You said that there are no soldiers, and I have more heavenly soldiers than water, why are you afraid of demons? If you are afraid of death, you will die. Let's go, political affairs It has nothing to do with you."

Hong Xiuquan left the dragon chair and stood up, walked arrogantly in front of Li Xiucheng for a few steps, and suddenly shouted: "Officer Chengxuan!" A young, beautiful woman in official uniform approached. "I will pass on my order. From tomorrow onwards, King Yong will be in charge of the government, and King Youxi will issue orders. Anyone who does not obey King Youxi's orders will be punished by the court!" "Your Majesty!" Li Xiucheng raised his head, looked at Hong Xiuquan in pain and said, "You kill me, I would rather die in front of Your Majesty than suffer future humiliation."

"Go!" Hong Xiuquan walked towards the inner palace without even looking at Li Xiucheng. Li Xiucheng left the Tianwang Palace with tears in his eyes. Hong Rengan, Kang Lu, Lin Shaozhang and others had already been waiting outside the gate of the palace. They were all angry and anxious after learning about the situation.Everyone accompanied Xiu Cheng back to Prince Zhong's Mansion, thousands of soldiers and civilians had already gathered outside the gate of the mansion.A veteran soldier in his fifties said to Li Xiucheng with tears in his eyes, "Lord King, Tianjing cannot live without your command!"

Li Xiucheng hugged the veteran's shoulder and was speechless.The old soldier turned his face away and shouted to the surrounding soldiers: "Brothers, let's all go to the Heavenly King's Palace and ask the Heavenly King to summon him. He must take back his life!" "Yes, go to the Tianwang Palace!" Thousands of soldiers shouted hoarsely, and walked towards the Tianwang Palace holding their swords and guns. "King Qian, you must go to the palace as soon as possible, otherwise something serious will happen." Kang Lu urged Hong Rengan's hand. "Yes, we're all going!" Lin Shaozhang stomped his feet and said to Hong Rengan and Kang Lu.Seeing that the situation was not right, Li Xiucheng became anxious: "Everyone, go, there will be no more troubles in Tianjing City!"

When Hong Rengan, Kang Lu, Lin Shaozhang and others arrived at the Heavenly King's Palace, there was already a lot of enthusiasm and voices in front of the palace gate, and the crowd repeatedly rang out "Please come out, the Heavenly King! "Please come out!" shouted. Hong Xiuquan was running around in the palace in a hurry. The intrusion of Hong Rengan and others made him feel like he had seen a savior. He grabbed Hong Rengan's sleeve and said repeatedly: "Brother Gan, you We must try to calm down this storm as soon as possible! " "Your Majesty, even if Xiucheng's strategy of keeping the city from leaving is not advisable, we still have to rely on him to defend the capital. Can King Yong and King Youxi bear this burden?" Hong Rengan said to Hong Xiuquan in a reproachful tone .Hong Xiuquan also realized that the handling just now was too inappropriate. "Brother Yan, what do you want me to do now?" Hong Xiuquan was so anxious that he was at a loss.

"Your Majesty, now you are the only one to meet the brothers in person and announce to them the revocation of the order just now." "I'm going to meet them?" The situation was so critical, Hong Xiuquan still couldn't let go of the airs of the king of heaven.In the ten years since he entered Tianjing City, he only went out of the palace once, which was the time when he went to the East Prince's Mansion to proclaim Yang Xiuqing's long live, and he regretted it afterwards. "Oh! Third brother." Hong Rengan was so anxious that he called Hong Xiuquan by the name he used when he was at home, "When is this, and I still care so much? When we were fighting in the country, the third brother didn't talk to brothers every day. Are we together?" After all, Hong Xiuquan was a hero who was fought in the flames of war, and one sentence reminded him. He collected himself, straightened his clothes, and said firmly, "I'm going out now!" "Heavenly King is out!" Someone with sharp eyes shouted first. "Long live, long live!" The soldiers shouted, most of these people were old Guangxi who followed Hong Xiuquan from Jintian Village.Before leaving Guangxi, I could often see Hong Xiuquan, but since I entered Little Paradise, I never saw the Heavenly King again.The Heavenly King is the son of the Heavenly Father and the brother of the Heavenly Brother in their hearts. Just when the oil is about to run out, these warriors who are loyal to the Kingdom of Heaven still feel infinitely happy when they see the Heavenly King who feels extremely honorable and reluctant to come out. Rong Guang couldn't help cheering.The king of heaven tried his best to maintain his former majesty, and said to everyone in a slow tone: "Although the capital is under siege, it is as stable as Mount Tai, and it will not be broken by the Qing demon. I went to heaven last night and saw my heavenly father and brother. Brother will send one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers down to assist the kingdom of heaven, you don’t need to panic, keep to your duty, the heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals will come down soon.” The king of heaven remembered that ten years ago, whenever he said such words to his brothers and sisters, there was There was an intoxicated shout.But today, most of the audience was lukewarm.The wise King of Heaven immediately announced: "Don't listen to the rumors, King Zhong is still a loyal military advisor, everyone must obey his orders and defend Tianjing." "Heavenly King is wise!" Someone shouted from below, followed by shouts one after another: "Heavenly King is wise! Heavenly King is wise!" Seeing this scene, Hong Xiuquan felt quite uncomfortable, but the matter had reached such a point that he had to completely rely on him.Hong Xiuquan asked loudly, "Where is King Kang Lu of Chu?" "The little official is here." Kang Lu walked to the side of the king. Hong Xiuquan took off the dragon robe in public, and said to Kang Lu: "I have worn this dragon robe for many years, and now I give it to you, and you will send it to King Zhong's mansion for me to give to King Zhong." "Yes." Kang Lu knelt down and took the dragon robe. The crowd was emotional, and many old brothers shed tears.Someone shouted: "Heavenly King, our food is gone, what should we eat?" "Eat sweet dew." Hong Xiuquan replied after thinking for a moment. "What is Tianlu?" "Where is Tianlu?" There was a lot of discussion in the crowd, and no one knew what the king said. "Have you all forgotten?" Hong Xiuquan said angrily, "The emperor said: 'The Emperor God, the great power, Israel, will be preserved. Travel to the wild, there is no food, the Emperor God, don't panic. Send sweet dew, people One liter, sweet as honey, satisfies the people.'” Hong Xiuquan recited it eloquently, and some people in the crowd began to nod their heads.Recalling carefully, there are these few words in the new book promulgated by the Heavenly King two years ago.Hong Xiuquan patiently explained to everyone: "Sweet dew is the grass in the wild. This is the food that God gave to the people. The Israelites survived the famine by relying on it. There are many weeds in Tianjing. Use this to satisfy your hunger, and its taste is as sweet as honey." Everyone smiled bitterly after hearing this. Hong Xiuquan himself set an example, and started to eat dumpling made of weeds the next day, but he fell ill three or four days later and never recovered.Knowing that he was hopeless, he called Crown Prince Hong Tian Guifu to his face: "After I die, King Gan will assist you, okay?" The sixteen-year-old prince burst into tears and shook his head in silence. "Then let King Xin and King Yong assist you, okay?" There was another shake of the head. "Then what about King Zhang? Still silent. "Who do you want to help?" Hong Xiuquan became impatient. "Loyal king." The prince replied softly. "Hey!" Hong Xiuquan sighed deeply, and ordered King Zhong to enter the palace. Inside the Taiping Gate, the loyal king Li Xiucheng was instructing the soldiers to dig a well.It turned out that the Hunan army outside the city was digging a tunnel. Once the tunnel was dug into the city, they would pile up a large amount of explosives in the tunnel, ignite it and explode, blowing up a section of the city wall above.At this time, the two sides fought hard at the gap. Often after hundreds of corpses fell, the Hunan army who rushed in was driven out again, and the city wall was quickly blocked again.Later, the Taiping Army created a good way to break the tunnel.They buried empty water tanks every two or three feet along the city wall.The Hunan army outside the city only needs to dig a tunnel near the water tank, and the people in the city can hear the buzzing sound if they put their ears on the wall of the water tank.Digging down vertically from the side of this water tank, nine out of ten will lead to the tunnel coming in from outside the city.Based on this method, the Hunan Army dug hundreds of tunnels outside the city, but none of them succeeded.The urgent edict of the king of heaven made Li Xiucheng uneasy: the king of heaven had been ill for twenty days.Could it be... Li Xiucheng hurried to the Heavenly King's Palace, only to see Prince Hong Tianguifu kneeling beside the dragon bed, Hong Renfa, Hong Renda, Hong Rengan, Kang Lu, Lin Shaozhang and others stood aside with their hands down. Li Xiucheng knew that the Heavenly King was critically ill, so he tiptoed to the bedside, The King of Heaven lay upright with his eyes slightly closed on the luxurious and exquisite dragon bed, covered with a bright yellow satin embroidered quilt. "Your Majesty, the little official is here by order." Li Xiucheng whispered in Hong Xiuquan's ear. Hong Xiuquan slowly opened his eyes, looked at Li Xiucheng absentmindedly, and opened his mouth after a long time: "Xiufu, you are here, just sit here!" Hong Xiuquan looked at the edge of the bed, and Li Xiucheng sat down sideways.Hong Xiuquan stretched out a withered hand from under the quilt, put it powerlessly in Li Xiucheng's palm, and remained silent for a long time.Li Xiucheng didn't know what to say.The two were silent for about a quarter of an hour, and Hong Xiuquan finally spoke again: "Xiufu, my father and brother are going to call me to heaven, and I will entrust you with important matters." Xiucheng hurriedly knelt down, Hong Xiuquan shook his head Twice: "No, no." Xiucheng had to sit down again. "After I die, the crown prince will ascend the throne. He is only a sixteen-year-old child. I can't rest assured." "Your Majesty, don't worry, Xiao Guan, King Qian, King Chu, King Zhang, etc. will try their best to assist the Prince." As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xiucheng felt that the answer was inappropriate, and he should comfort the King of Heaven. "Xiuquan, I'm sorry." Two tears rolled out of Hong Xiuquan's sunken eyes.Seeing this scene, the prince burst into tears, and all the people in the room also wept together.The crying stopped for a long time, and Hong Xiuquan continued to say to Li Xiucheng: "Since Yang and Wei killed each other and Dabao ran away, I am really wary of people with different surnames. I know that you are loyal and loyal through the ages, but I don't believe you. Let the city farewell." Going away was originally a good strategy, I regret that I did not accept my faithful advice and made today's big mistake." "Take care, Your Majesty!" King Zhong squeezed Tianwang's cold hand tightly with his hot hands, and comforted him, "Shixian's 100,000 horses have arrived in Jiangxi. After your majesty's dragon body recovers, we can still break out. At that time, we will transfer to the Jiangxi, try to restore the country again." "Xiucheng, this is exactly what I want to talk to you about." The maid brought the last bowl of ginseng soup, and Li Xiucheng fed Hong Xiuquan two mouthfuls.After closing his eyes to rest for a while, the king of heaven felt much better. He struggled to sit up, leaned against the head of the bed, asked the prince to get up, and called his brothers, Kang, Lin and others to sit down. "My illness will not get better, and I can't break out with you." "Your Majesty, I will break out of the encirclement when you get better in a few days." Kang Lu said. "That won't work. If you go out of the city with a sick body, you will be caught by the Qing monster sooner or later. Since ancient times, have there been emperors who have been taken prisoner?" A wry smile appeared on the corner of Hong Xiuquan's mouth, and then disappeared quickly, "I have already done what I have done. Arrangement. Now, I will entrust heavenly blessings to you, Fu'er." Hong Tianguifu stood up. "King Zhong, King Qian, King Chu, King Zhang, loyal, righteous, wise and brave, are the assistant ministers I selected for you. You are young and ignorant, and you must listen to the arrangements of the four kings in the future, and you must not make random decisions. The four kings They are all from your father's generation, and you should treat the four kings as you would treat me." "I obey!" Hong Tianguifu said respectfully. "In front of me, bow to the four uncles." King Zhong was about to stop the prince, but he has already saluted everyone.So the four hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed three times to Hong Tianguifu. "I'm entrusting Fu'er to you." Hong Xiuquan had a relaxed smile on his haggard and pale face. Hong Rengan took a step forward and said with tears all over his face, "Your Majesty will rest the dragon's body in peace. There are more than 200,000 soldiers and horses outside the city of Tianjing. The Kingdom of Heaven will surely be restored." "Gan's words are good!" Hong Xiuquan glanced at Hong Rengan with satisfaction, and then looked around at the others. He suddenly felt refreshed, and said in the decisive tone he used to command and fight: "I hope that Xiu, Lu, Hezhang thinks the same way as Yan, and I hope all the soldiers in the Kingdom of Heaven think the same way. Even though I have returned to Heaven and Tianjing has fallen, the Kingdom of Heaven has not perished. We still have more than 200,000 people. When the Jintian Uprising was only Thousands of people, as long as the brothers are united, the Kingdom of Heaven will surely be restored. Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother told me that my children and grandchildren will sit firmly in the country. You must wholeheartedly support the prince. After my death, the prince will immediately ascend the throne, and Stabilize the morale of the army.” When Hong Xiuquan said this, he rested for a while, and continued: "You must look for opportunities at any time to protect the crown prince and rush out of the capital to go to Jiangxi to look for virtuous people. If you don't find opportunities for a while, even if the city is broken, it is still possible. At that time There must be chaos everywhere, and Qingyao's thoughts are all on looting treasures, and you just took advantage of this time to sneak out of the city. There are more than a thousand pieces of Qingyao's clothes and hats in the harem robes and gowns, which I deliberately preserved back then. When the time comes..." Hong Xiuquan was about to speak, when suddenly he became dizzy, and his head tilted away, Hong Tianguifu was so frightened that he cried loudly again, everyone panicked, and the king ordered the imperial doctor to be sent quickly.After a while the imperial doctor entered the palace, felt his pulse and said, "It's okay, I've talked too much, I'm tired, let Your Majesty rest for a while and you'll be fine." Zhong Wang and the others retreated quietly. Early the next morning, bad news came from the palace: the king of heaven had passed away.Li Xiucheng, Hong Rengan, Kang Lu, Lin Shaozhang and others entered the palace in a panic, only to see the Heavenly King lying on his back on the bed, bleeding from his nostrils, and his whole body was already stiff.There was a note on the coffee table beside the bed, and the crooked handwriting was written by the king of heaven: "I have completed my entrustment, and I have gone to heaven. I hope you and others will help the young master and revive the kingdom of heaven." "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" There were mournful cries in the Tianwang Palace.