In this turmoil in the late Ming Dynasty, although the nobles, gentry and landlords were lying on the body of the Ming Dynasty to suck blood, there were very few who could maintain loyalty and righteousness in the face of great disaster. On the contrary, for the sake of the continuation of their family, they continued to maintain their glory and wealth, and took the initiative to surrender to the enemy and sell their country.

When Chongzhen died, he lamented, "I am not a king who destroyed the country, but all the ministers who destroyed the country are ministers." In fact, it is not just ministers who destroyed the country. Without these local gentry and landlords as accomplices, the Qing Dynasty's men would not be able to occupy the country, but the north could flood them. However, ministers and gentry and landlords were unable to separate them at all. It is better to say that the ministers who destroyed the country are than to say that the country is destroyed.

A dog outside barked, followed by a second and a third one. After a while, the dogs nearby started yelling.

"What's the matter?" The four people sitting in the house were shocked and suspicious.

After a while, the dog barking lowered, but it just whimpered. Later, there was no sound of whimpering, as if it was scared by something. The four of them quickly understood why these dogs stopped barking. The sound of horse hooves came from outside, which looked particularly crisp in the dark night.

The four people's faces changed drastically, and the youngest Zhu Guangchong screamed: "No, it must be that the matter of submitting a book was discovered." After that, he collapsed on a chair.

These people didn't sleep in the middle of the night and sat secretly in the hall waiting. They had a ghost in their hearts, and it was not surprising that Zhu Guangchong could guess. The other three also changed their faces. However, seeing Zhu Guangchong's appearance, the second son Zhu Guangchong sneered: "No prospect."

He turned to Zhu Guangling and said, "Brother, our families are not easy to mess with, let's fight." After that, Zhu Guangling had already walked out of the hall and shouted loudly, "Hurry up, call everyone up, prepare for guys."

With Zhu Guangling's shouts, the whole courtyard became lively. Countless servants and servants rushed out of the rooms with weapons. However, before they could get together, the gate of the Zhu Mansion shook violently, and after a few moments, it was knocked open. The Ming army in red uniform rushed in directly rode in.

The resistance of the people was destined to be unsuccessful. When the servants holding weapons saw the officers and soldiers rushing in, they were so scared that they threw down their weapons and turned around and fled. Only dozens of loyal servants from various families wanted to rush over to fight with the officers and soldiers, but they were killed by the Ming army. Except for the two soldiers who were injured, the officers and soldiers suffered no losses.

Although the families were very famous in Shandong, Huang Degong was not ruthless when there were strong enemies outside. The next day, after the crime of colluding with enemies was announced on the city wall, all the male family members were killed.

The news of the families surrendering to the enemy spread throughout the city, and no one sympathized with them. Although the families had favors to Shandong before, if everyone had to exchange for the lives of the whole city, no one would be so stupid. The families were wiped out and their reputation became bad. This also shocked some of the big families with impure minds. Faced with such powerful forces from the Qing army, they were shaken in their hearts, but they had not had time to take action.

The Qing army's attack came as scheduled, and the artillery fire in Jinan City became significantly sparse, which greatly encouraged the Qing army to attack. The pressure on the Ming army to defend the city increased greatly. The Qing army rushed to the top of the city several times, but fortunately it was driven down by the Ming army again.

While fighting fiercely on the top of the city, a conspiracy was being carried out quietly in the city. In addition to the killing of various families, it did shock some of the big outdoors with dissatisfaction, but also provided a direction for other bold people.

"What, are you going to surrender to the Tartars outside the city?" Ma Degong opened his eyes wide and looked at Tian Xiong, his eyes full of shock.

Although the two of them had not healed all of their stick injuries, they had no problem walking. Despite this, Ma Degong was still a little surprised by Tian Xiong's arrival, but he never expected that after Tian Xiong sat down, the first thing he said to him was this.

"Shh, why are you so loud? You're not going to die." Tian Xiong quickly made a silent gesture, stood up and checked outside, and saw that the farthest sergeant was dozens of steps away from the house, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

This is Ma Shigong's residence. Since the two of them were beaten dozens of military sticks and kept recuperating in the mansion, even if the war was at its most intense, Huang Degong did not send them to the stage. Others worked hard on the city wall, but they had time to recuperate.

After Tian Xiong came back, Ma Degong shook his head like a rattle: "No, this matter must not be done. The general is as kind as a mountain to us. I cannot betray the general."

"What kind of kindness is as heavy as a mountain? If it were as heavy as a mountain, would he beat us fifty-year-olds because of this little thing?" Tian Xiong's face became excited, and what he could not tolerate was that his position as a central army was also deprived of his position as a central army, and was replaced by Weng Zhiqi: "In recent years, we have followed him to fight south and north, and made great contributions. If it weren't for them, could he be named Duke Jingguo? I didn't expect that he would turn against others just because he was late."

This is not just a matter of being late. If they had not delayed the time at that time and eliminated Kong Youde's entire army, not to mention anything else, just seized all the twelve red-clothed cannons from Kong Youde's army, Jinan City is as stable as Mount Tai. For this reason alone, it would not be an exaggeration to even kill fifty military sticks.

But if it falls on others, it will be natural. Do you have to find the reason to excuse me? Ma Degong did not think that the fifty army was beaten wrong, but was so agitated by Tian Xiong. He couldn't help but resent Huang Degong and nodded: "Ship Huang is indeed too much, but we surrender to the Tartars. Will it be too much?"

"What's too much? The general is not kind first, so don't blame us for being rude. Besides, if people don't care for themselves, they will be punished by heaven and earth. At present, Jinan City cannot be defended at all, but the general is unwilling to break through. It is obvious that tens of thousands of brothers and the city will die together. In the past few days, your subordinates have lost 30%. If this continues, we don't have to go to the battlefield and all our troops will die. If the city is broken, we will have nowhere to escape. Do you want to die in Jinan?"

Ma Degong hesitated: "But if we join the Qing army, what should we do if we are young?"

"What a real man has to worry about having no wife? You can only take care of yourself first!" Tian Xiong said firmly, his eyes full of chills.

Ma Degong shivered and hurriedly avoided Ueda Xiong's cold gaze, thinking about a question in his heart. If he disagreed, what would Tian Xiong do to him? He thought that Tian Xiong was arrogant and brought almost all his personal soldiers with him. It turned out that he had already made up his mind.

He did not dare to think about this question, and hurriedly changed the topic: "But we are all idle at home to recuperate and have no troops in our hands. Even if we want to join the Qing army, it is impossible?"

"How is it impossible? Isn't the Ximen Guardian not your old subordinate? You and I are still generals now. He will not ignore your orders. Even if he doesn't listen, as long as you arrive at the city gate, you can take the opportunity to kill him and seize the city gate."

Ma Degong then understood why Tian Xiong had to pull himself into the water. The Qing army was mainly attacking the North Gate, and almost all the cannons were concentrated at the North Gate. The Ming army's natural defense was also concentrated at the North Gate. The other three gates only arranged two or three thousand people to prevent the opponent from raiding. If he could open the west gate, when Huang Degong from the north gate heard the news, the Qing army had already entered the city.

"Okay!" Ma Degong's expression changed for a few moments, and finally made up his mind.

Tian Xiong smiled on his face: "Since that's the case, we'll go to Ximen immediately."

It took only more than a month since the official army entered Jinan City. Ma Degong's home was simple, and he only cleaned up some gold, silver and fine materials. As for the maids, the servants were sent by gentry from Jinan City. Ma Degong was too lazy to take any of them, and he was ready to set off in a short time. The two of them had more than 200 personal soldiers, and they headed towards the west gate of the city in a mighty manner.

At this time, the Yellow River did not enter the sea from Shandong, but there was still a river passing by in the west of the city. This river was called Xiaoqing River. The predecessor of Xiaoqing River was the undercurrent of the ancient Ji River. In ancient times, the Ji River was a large river that flowed eastward into the sea between the Yellow River and the Huai River. It was known as the "Four Du" together with the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Huai River.

By the Tang Dynasty, due to the siltation of the Yellow River, the Ji River west of Dongping was lost, and the Ji River below Dongping was renamed the Daqing River. In order to relieve the relocation of the old road downstream of the Ji River after the Daqing River was moved north, the Jin Dynasty built a low-lying harbor in Shanyin, northeast of Licheng, and introduced the Li River originating from the springs in Jinan into the Ji River. This river was named Xiaoqing River.

Xiaoqing River is an important waterway in Jinan City. It not only has the effect of moat, but also can directly enter the Grand Canal through Xiaoqing River. If it is normal, there are often ships coming and going on this river, but the war is still the same, and the ships on the river are basically extinct.

There were exceptions. On this day, there were masts and sails in the distance. Dozens of ships of different sizes broke into the Xiaoqing River and headed straight towards Jinan City. These ships were hung high with official flags, and there were many gunmen standing around the side of the ship, and shouts were vaguely heard from their mouths.

This fleet was naturally Yang Lin and the Portuguese mercenaries. After so many days of water, they finally arrived in Jinan. The outline of Jinan City in the distance had already come into their eyes. Seeing the tall walls of Jinan City, everyone stopped training and shouted happily on the boat.

A "boom" sounded like thunder.

"What sound?" The man asked and immediately remembered that it was the sound of the cannon.
Chapter completed!