Chapter 48 When Wu Hong Xiuquan's body was dug up, Jinling City burst into a violent storm

The next day, the treatment of Li Xiucheng, who was imprisoned in a wooden cage, improved.His hands and feet were no longer bound, his left arm was also medicated, and he was able to eat enough. Because of the hot weather, a crock full of cold water and a clay bowl were specially set up for him.In addition, a few things were added to the wooden cage: a small stool, a small table with pens, ink, paper and inkstone on it.Li Xiucheng sat on the stool, while slowly grinding the ink, while meditating on the inkstone. Back in the wooden cage last night, Li Xiucheng thought deeply for most of the night.In view of several basic understandings, he felt more and more that his attitude was correct: first, the young heavenly king was probably really dead; Revitalize the glory of the past; one is to persuade the brothers to lay down their weapons, so as to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, which is not a rebellion.A person who knows the current affairs is a hero, and he can see the current affairs in front of him clearly, but he is still a hero.However, Li Xiucheng did not trust Zeng Guofan easily.This scheming, vicious old demon head can do anything that is treacherous.Last night, when Chen Defeng was holding him and weeping, Li Xiucheng took a peek at Zeng Guofan, only to see his face was gloomy and cold, with a murderous look in his eyes.This made Li Xiucheng couldn't believe Zeng Guofan even more. It seemed that his life might not be saved.

Li Xiucheng is not afraid of death.From the day he joined the Taiping Army, he had made up his mind to dedicate himself to the Kingdom of Heaven at any time, not to mention that the Kingdom of Heaven had accomplished such a great feat of building a capital and a country, and he was in such a lofty position.This life is enough, what a pity to die!People who could read and write in the Taiping Army were rare. Even those who held great power in the court, there were not many who could accurately express their thoughts in words.In the past, he was busy fighting wars, Li Xiucheng didn't think of writing his memoirs, and the king of heaven didn't pay much attention to it.Now that the Heavenly King is dead, most of the people who rebelled with the Heavenly King are withered, and the Kingdom of Heaven is about to be completely annihilated. Is it possible that such a magnificent revolutionary movement, which lasted fourteen years and spread to sixteen provinces, should be silenced? disappeared?As an old brother who was the first to participate in the Jintian Uprising and as the main leader in the later period of the Kingdom of Heaven, Li Xiucheng believes that it is his unshirkable responsibility to write down the major events he has personally seen and heard in the past ten years and pass them on to future generations. up.It is very likely that this is the end of his life. He decided to use this rare opportunity to write a detailed self-report, with an attitude of being responsible to the king of heaven, the kingdom of heaven, and future generations, and to describe the past truthfully and without any prejudice. record it.With his usual extraordinary perseverance, he endured the scorching heat in the cage, the severe pain of festering and rotting left arm, the shame of being a prisoner, all his own pain, and forced his mind to calm down.It seems as if the flames of the sky are burning again in front of my eyes, the drums are ringing in my ears, thousands of horses are galloping, and countless flags are fluttering. heart.His writing and thinking are springing up, and his pen is like a dragon and a snake...

For several days, Zeng Guofan had been dizzy.Every morning, Zeng Guoquan took his eldest brother out and visited the camps inside and outside the city.Wherever he went, Zeng Guofan was worried.But seeing these winners all look like lunatics, reeking of alcohol, full of obscene language, shirtless, some don't even wear underpants, three or five are gambling and playing cards together, and each of them has a heavy weight hanging from their buttocks. money bag.There was a battalion for a woman, and dozens of Xiangyong unexpectedly became angry.Hundreds of small civilian boats were densely lined up along the river, and Zeng Guofan was told that each of these small civilian boats had a young woman on board, and at dusk, officers from the Hunan Army scrambled into the boats like flies chasing smells.Zeng Guofan felt chest tight and breathless.On the way back today, I passed Li Chendian's barracks, and Zeng Guofan stopped by to have a look.As soon as the door was pushed open, Li Chendian was seen sleeping naked on the bed. There were seven or eight women in the house, all with their upper bodies naked, and one sleeping on the bed, completely naked.Zeng Guofan wanted to scold Li Chendian, but remembered that Kang Fu was dead and he was the first hero to rush into Jinling, so he quietly left the door.

Kang Fu died in front of the Golden Dragon Hall, which was told by Li Chendian to Zeng Guofan.But the strange thing is that Kang Fu's body was not seen when he returned to the battlefield, and since then, everyone has never seen Kang Fu again.Zeng Guofan believed that Kang Fu was dead.He thought of Kang Fu following him for thirteen years, he was loyal, he made outstanding achievements repeatedly, and sacrificed his life to save others many times, but he didn't get an official position in the court, and he felt very ashamed.He discussed with the ninth brother that although Kang Fu died, as the first person to rush into the city, he should still be credited first.Zeng Guoquan disagreed, saying that rewarding the living would be more effective than rewarding the living if everyone is dead.He saw what his younger brother was thinking, so he stopped arguing.I decided in my heart: in the future, I will build an ancestral hall for Kangfu in Yuanjiang, go to pay my respects in person, and then make a plaque of "Justice Kangfu" and hang it on the ancestral hall; educated.In order to comfort the spirit of Kangfu in heaven.

Inside Jinling City, there are broken bricks and tiles everywhere, and embers of fire.The fire in the Tianwang Palace has not been extinguished, and it seems to be burning vigorously in the northwest corner this afternoon. Every day, hundreds of Hunan troops rummaged through the ruins of the Tianwang Palace, and some people did dig out gold, silver and jewels. , but most people did not find anything of value.Women over the age of fifteen or sixteen and under the age of fifty have been snatched away.There are no more in the city, and they have gone to Fangshan, Qinglongshan and other places to search for them these days, making people panic. Avoiding the Hunan army is better than avoiding bandits.All of this made Zeng Guofan extremely anxious.He was worried that if this nonsense continued in Jinling City, Xiao Qiang would definitely be troubled.But Zeng Guoquan, the No. 1 hero who fought in Jinling, didn't care. He was soaked in compliments and cups all day long.

"Ninth brother, there is still one important thing to do." "What's the matter?" Zeng Guoquan looked at his eldest brother, his eyes were red. "Hong Renda confessed that Hong Xiuquan's body was buried in the Yulin Garden, and it hasn't been inspected yet!" "Do we need to have a test?" Zeng Guoquan was puzzled by this. "I interrogated many long-haired leaders, and they all said that the false king died more than two months ago. If he didn't die, how could there be a young king?" "I also believe Chief Hong must be dead, but it's common sense that an autopsy is required when a person dies. One day in the future, the court will ask, has an autopsy been done? What will be the answer? Also," Zeng Guofan said to his brother solemnly, " Will Changmao play tricks to get out of the shell? Pretending to be dead, actually sneaking out of the city. Although this possibility is not high, but there is no autopsy, what if someone insists on saying this in the future, what should we do?" Speaking of this, Zeng Guofan Pausing intentionally, he patted his younger brother's shoulder lightly, and said meaningfully, "Old Nine, you have won Jinling, and your achievements are unrivaled. There are many praises and envy!"

Zeng Guoquan seemed to have realized something: "I'll go check it out when I'm free in a few days." "Can we still live for a while?" Zeng Guofan said, "So many people are picking up treasures in the ruins of the Tianwang Palace. Have you ever thought that they may want to dig the tomb of Chief Hong, hoping to get rare treasures from him. Treasure. When they really let them dig it up, why would you do an autopsy?" "Then go now!" Zeng Guoquan said to leave. "Slow down." Zeng Guofan grabbed his younger brother, "Go tomorrow. Today you first ask Peng Yuju to lead a thousand people to surround the outside of the Tianwang Palace and drive out all the people in the ruins, and then send people to invite Xueqin, Hou'an and others came, and everyone went to check it together.

Gordon arrived at Moling Pass two days earlier and invited him here as well.He is a foreigner, and others believe what he says.In addition, post another notice stating that all battalions must clean up military discipline, and alcoholism, gambling, fighting, and robbing women are no longer allowed! " In the afternoon of the next day, Hong Renda was escorted to Tianwang Palace.The formerly majestic and majestic Tianwang Palace has now become a field of rubble. Hong Renda searched left and right, and finally found Yulinyuan.It has been destroyed beyond recognition, and the sweet-scented osmanthus tree is gone.Hong Renda stood dejectedly, unable to point out Hong Xiuquan's burial place, and muttered in his mouth: "It's good to find Huang Sanmei, she can find it."

"Who is Huang Sanmei?" Zeng Guofan asked Hong Renda. "Sanmei Huang is the female official of the third child. She is smart, capable and has a good memory. She was also present that night." Hong Renda still stood there like a log, looking around blankly. "Yuanfu, do you know where all the maids in the pseudo-king's palace have gone?" Zeng Guofan asked his brother. "Hundreds of maids from the Palace of the False Heavenly King threw themselves into wells and hanged themselves. It is said that there was a woman named Huang Sanmei who was about to hang herself, but was caught by the soldiers, and was taken away by Li Xiangyun."

"Go and ask Li Chendian to bring Huang Sanmei here." Zeng Guofan said with a frown. After a while, Huang Sanmei arrived on a fast horse.It was a woman in her thirties with a very ordinary appearance. She didn't say a word, and quickly found the original site of the sweet-scented osmanthus tree.Zeng Guoquan ordered the soldiers to dig down.At this time, the sky over Tianwang Palace was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and the sky began to darken. After digging five or six feet, a large dark black wooden cabinet with carvings and patterns appeared. Soldiers used ropes to hang this large wooden cabinet up.The wooden cabinet was nailed tightly, and it took a lot of effort for several people to pry the wooden cabinet open. Sure enough, there was a dead body lying in the cabinet, wrapped from head to toe in bright yellow satin.The soldiers pulled it out of the cabinet, opened the yellow satin outside, and saw another layer of red satin, opened the red satin again, revealing a body of white satin, opened the white satin, and finally revealed a person inside.Huang Sanmei suddenly rushed in front of the corpse like crazy, knelt down and shouted: "Your Majesty, take me to heaven together!" After shouting, she burst into tears.

Hong Renda stood aside crying and said with a mournful face: "Old man, we are suffering so much!" Zeng Guofan took a step closer to inspect it carefully, and saw that Hong Xiu was wearing a yellow satin robe embroidered with a red sun and sea dragon, and black satin boots with a white bottom. Slightly closed, skinny and thin, with a thin beard on his chin, all white, he looks like he is over sixty years old.Zeng Guofan said loudly to everyone: "Everyone can see clearly that this is Hong Xiuquan, the long-haired false heavenly king who disturbed our Qing Dynasty and was hated by gods and men." Peng Yulin, Yang Yuebin and other battalion officials all took a closer look.Zeng Guofan specifically said to Gordon: "See clearly, this is Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the bandit." "He's an old man," said Gordon, smiling. "Peng Yuju!" Zeng Guoquan shouted, "Take some soldiers and carry Hong Chief's body to the river, pour oil on it and burn it!" As soon as Zeng Guoquan finished speaking, following a flash of lightning, there was a sudden explosion of thunder above his head, as if a heavy shell exploded.Immediately afterwards, there was another sound, and five thunders rang in a row.The generals of the Hunan Army surrounding Hong Xiuquan's body were all terrified.Zeng Guofan's face was pale, he felt that these thunder bombs were aimed at him. Huang Sanmei yelled to the sky: "Heaven, you have eyes, you have eyes, let's shoot more thunder and kill these animals!" "You thieves!" Zeng Guoquan's face turned black with anger, he quickly drew out his knife, and stabbed at Huang Sanmei.Huang Sanmei fell on top of Hong Xiuquan's body, hot blood gushed out like a fountain, dyeing the white satin robe bright red.Seeing this tragic scene, Hong Renda was so frightened that he couldn't stop shaking. The clouds grew thicker and thicker, until it was completely dark. "Brother, there is going to be heavy rain soon, let's go!" Zeng Guoquan pulled Zeng Guofan out of the Heavenly Palace, and the big raindrops hit his face. , It was still hot just now, and suddenly it was cold.The generals of the Hunan Army who were soaked by the rain all had goose bumps on their bodies.Zeng Guofan, who was hiding under the eaves of the hut, was terrified in the face of the sudden change in the weather.He didn't understand why Tianxin was so furious by digging up the grave and burning the body of this rebel leader!