Surrounding this batch of gold and silver, more than 400 soldiers and 800 commoners were injured or killed. It also created a serious antagonism between the officials and commoners in Taiyuan City. Before Xiao Ruxun arrived with his troops, 80,000 commoners in Taiyuan City had been mobilized. They surrounded the remaining 1,000 soldiers and two or three surviving officials in a small area.
If they did not hand over the food and treasures in their hands, they would be killed by the angry commoners.
Even though the officials said they were rebels and rioters, they could see the panic in each other's eyes.
In reality, they didn't know who these food and treasures belonged to. In any case, the government certainly didn't have them. If they did, they would be in the private homes of other officials and wealthy merchants. In other words, these were the private properties of the high-ranking officials who had already died.
Right now, they were ownerless. It belonged to whoever took them.
Of course, they wanted to take these things because they had also suffered heavy losses. It was not a problem to use the righteous name of the government to take over this batch of food and treasures.
But they didn't expect that this time, the commoners seemed to have lost their minds and were relentless. There were more and more people. A black mass stretched out and surrounded them.
There were also people shouting at them, telling them to hand over the food and treasures and get out of Taiyuan City. Otherwise, they would kill them. They had many people and weren't afraid. They didn't believe the court would kill the hundreds of thousands of people in Taiyuan City.
Under the threat of the extreme cold, the injured commoners seemed to have lost their minds. They wanted food, money, and survival. The government's action of not killing the Northern Barbarians but killing them had completely infuriated the commoners.
Just as they were about to be all killed, a wave of gunshots suddenly rang out. A black mass of government soldiers surged out from all directions and surrounded the commoners.
This group of government soldiers was very different from other government soldiers. Not only were there foot soldiers, but there were also cavalry. They were very fierce cavalry and had a murderous aura that made people tremble. Their bloodthirsty gazes swept across the commoners who only had wooden sticks in their hands. The war horses anxiously swung their hooves as if they were planning to charge and break through the enemy lines.
The situation had been reversed.
The Ming Army, surrounded to the point of despair, had been saved from a desperate situation. One could imagine the joy in their hearts.
The commoners panicked, but they did not disperse.
The ones who were truly panicking weren't the commoners, but Liu Yong, who had pushed things to this point.
Liu Yong was a member of the Liu family. Yesterday, before the Northern Barbarians took over the city, he had been invited by a friend to a restaurant run by his family for a drink. The restaurant was no longer open to the public, but it was still not a problem to entertain a guest. The two of them chatted about the recent troubles, and after three rounds of drinks, there was a sudden change in the city.
The Northern Barbarians had charged in!
They looted and burned buildings. Whenever they saw a luxurious building, they would plunder and burn it down. Although this friend's restaurant was slightly more secluded, it could not escape the clutches of the Northern Barbarians. His friend told Liu Yong to hide while he went out to check on the situation. In the end, he was killed by the Northern Barbarians at the entrance.
The restaurant wasn't very luxurious. After a round of looting, it was lucky that it wasn't burned down. Liu Yong, who was in hiding, naturally didn't die and luckily survived. Looking at the devastated city and the corpses that littered the ground, he was in a daze for a while. When he saw the completely destroyed Liu Clan, he was also in a daze for a while.
When he finally realized what had happened, he cried for a long time.
When it was snowing, he wandered aimlessly alone to the place where the Northern Barbarians threw away the gold and silver they didn't need. He saw the scene of the Ming Army and the people fighting over the treasures. He wanted to hide far away, but inadvertently, he saw a soldier of the Ming Army fighting over a silver bracelet with a commoner.
That was his wife's item.
He decided to get the bracelet back, but the soldier who had just killed someone almost killed him. Luckily, a few commoners swarmed up and beat the soldier to death. Luckily, he survived and took back his bracelet. Just as he was about to escape, more soldiers of the Ming Army came and continued to confront the commoners. He was almost killed again.
In order to survive, he united all the people there and used words to encourage everyone to kill the soldiers of the Ming Army and take back the treasures that belonged to them. Words were very effective, especially at this time, when the commoners rushed forward without a care for their lives and almost killed all the soldiers. However, at the critical moment, more soldiers came.
Liu Yong wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape, but now that things had come to this, he was regarded as the leader and asked for countermeasures. He thought carefully and suddenly felt that it was actually quite good to do this.
This was because he knew very well that these treasures belonged to the great clans. Rather than letting the government take advantage of the chaos to rob them, it would be better for him to take the lead and use these rioters to rob the treasures, then escape during the chaos.
As a result, Liu Yong stepped forward bravely and encouraged the people who were in trouble to gather together and fight against the Ming army. Although the Ming army took all the treasures due to the difference in combat power and equipment, the road they took to leave was blocked by the angry people.
Liu Yong originally did not want to make the matter too big, but he did not expect that many commoners would spontaneously ask for help. When the sun rose, Liu Yong was shocked to find that the situation had developed far beyond his expectations.
There were already tens of thousands of people in Taiyuan City involved in this fight, and the nature of the matter had changed from a simple fight for treasures to a fight for the officials to pay with blood.
Liu Yong himself did not expect the situation to change so drastically. The anger that the commoners had suppressed for a long time could no longer be controlled. What they needed was not only the treasures and food, but also the deaths of the officials.
Just as Liu Yong was in a dilemma, Xiao Ruxun arrived with the main force. They directly surrounded the commoners and blocked the road. He sent elite cavalry and musketeers to the front to deter the rioters. He himself walked at the front and looked at the panicking commoners.
He heard what had happened from the mouths of some of the commoners who had not participated in the matter. It was because of this that he was so angry.
For the sake of a batch of food and treasures, such a thing had happened. Tens of thousands of people had participated. This was a serious group rebellion. He did not believe that there was no mastermind behind this.
Therefore, he picked up his megaphone.
"I am Xiao Ruxun, the Chief Military Officer of the Imperial Border Pacification Army. I have come to deal with the Northern Barbarians. I am very sorry to the elders of Taiyuan City. I did not arrive in time and caused the fall of Taiyuan City, but this is not a reason for you to surround and kill the officials! Call out the person in charge! Talk to me directly! "
Xiao Ruxun was full of vigor. He directly asked these people to call out the person in charge. According to his calculations, these commoners would not answer him, but they would involuntarily look at the mastermind behind this matter. This was because they were out of their wits and did not have the ability to make decisions. They needed someone to make decisions for them.
The mastermind behind the scenes would naturally surface.
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