Misfortunes never come alone
On the morning of the second day after the funeral, Aunt Niang and Sister Feng E came to the Yao residence on Yingpan Street and said to the Empress,"Dad and Runsheng's vengeful spirits haven't dispersed. They made a lot of noise in the house last night. "Our family is unfortunate to have suffered such a sudden disaster. It's all a sin from our previous life. Other than doing the seven sacrifices at home, we still have to ask for some seven meters.”
Aunt was a devout Buddhist and wanted to persuade the Empress to go with her to ask for seven meters with her children.
The Empress was shocked when she heard this. She held back her tears and said,""Those who believe in evil will have evil, and those who don't believe in evil won't have evil. Runsheng and his father are both Christian. If we don't believe in him, then don't ask for seven meters. Before Runsheng left, he wanted us to escape to the countryside.”
"No matter what, you have to finish Qi Qi before you leave.”Aunt saw that she could not persuade her sister-in-law, so she brought her daughter back.
The next morning, Aunt and Sister Phoenix wore mourning clothes and went from house to house to ask for seven meters.
Almost the entire city of Changsha knew about the disaster that had happened to the Yao family. When the neighbors saw the young mistress of the Yao family coming to ask for seven meters, they all rushed to give alms. Soon, a cloth bag was filled. The mother and daughter had been begging for three consecutive mornings, and before they could leave the northern district, they had already asked for a bucket of rice.
Aunt, Sister Feng'e, and two maids. One of them was called Aunt Peng, an old servant of the Yao family, and the other was called Aunt Gui. She was in her thirties and was a maid sent by her mother's family. The four of them still lived in the old house on Xiangchun Street.
The mother and daughter were grateful and asked Aunt Gui to carry a bag of seven meters. They came to my house together and told me about the situation of the neighbors competing for charity. The Empress was very touched. Although she believed in Jesus, she still agreed to set up a memorial tablet for her deceased husband and father-in-law in the old house.
On the seventh day, Uncle Guo An and Aunt Qiao Yun brought two families over. Li Wenbin did not come because his boss had ordered him to go out to collect the accounts. Aunt led us to burn incense, light candles, put out wine, rice, fruits, kneel and kowtow to pay homage. In the future, every seven days would be carried out according to the law. Every time the memorial ceremony was held, the whole family would inevitably cry.
Soon, it was November 12th. Tomorrow was May 7th. Aunt insisted on holding a grand sacrifice and invited her relatives and friends from the provincial capital to pay homage. She went to the paper shop and made two brick houses. The house was fully furnished, including tin foil ingots, gold and silver mountains. She was going to burn them for her deceased relatives during the memorial ceremony tomorrow.
She also cooked a few dishes and specially invited us over for dinner to discuss the things to be done tomorrow, including hosting a banquet to entertain the relatives and friends who came to pay their respects. After dinner, when she sent us to the gate, she said that she felt that the gold ingots were still a little short. She and Sister Feng'e still had to use the ghost paper to fold the ingots until late at night.
At about three o'clock in the morning on the 13th, the Empress was woken up by a thick smoke in her sleep and heard the crackling sound of burning. She pushed open the door and saw thick smoke and sparks flying in the sky above the courtyard.
Not good, fire! The Empress was so frightened that her whole body went limp and her legs knelt down. She fought to wake me and Second Brother up. We panicked and carried a suitcase and two big bags to escape to the back door.
When we ran out of the back door, we saw flames everywhere. The houses on the entire street were burning, and the fireworks reflected the entire night sky. The fleeing crowd was in a mess, and there were women screaming and children crying everywhere.
Second Brother and I supported Mother as we ran towards the river. The Empress was thinking about Aunt Niang and Feng E, so she suddenly came to her senses and told us to turn around and run towards Xiangchun Street.
When we arrived at Xiangchun Street, the old house had already been engulfed by fire. The streets were blocked by flames. Thick smoke and heat waves rushed towards us. We panicked and fled towards the north gate.
We ran to a vast field outside the north gate. When we turned around, we saw that the city had become a sea of fire. It was like a flaming mountain in Journey to the West. More and more people escaped from the city. The hysterical cries were earth-shattering. We squatted on the ground and cried loudly.
This was a tragic fire that caused many families to go bankrupt and burn their life savings. Many commoners were swallowed by the fire while they were still asleep. Those who were lucky enough to wake up saw their families and property being swallowed by the fire. They had to bear the heart-wrenching pain. It was so painful that they wished they were dead.
No one expected that this unprecedented disaster was man-made.
Since late October, Guangzhou and Wuchang had fallen one after another, and Changsha had become the next target of the Japanese army. In order to prevent military supplies and urban facilities from falling into the enemy's hands after the fall of the city, the National Government was determined to implement a scorched earth war in Changsha. It was stipulated that when the enemy troops entered within 30 li of the outskirts of the city, they would implement a scorched earth policy as an active defense.
On the morning of November 12th, Zhang Zhizhong, the head of Hunan Province and the commander of the provincial security, received a call from Lin Wei, the deputy director of the chairman's attendant room."I've been ordered to use the scorched earth policy against Changsha!”; Then he received a call from Jiang: If Changsha falls, the whole city will be burned down. I hope you will prepare carefully in advance. Don't miss it!
Zhang Zhizhong immediately summoned the Provincial Garrison Commander Deng Ti, the Provincial Security Chief Xu Quan, and the Changsha City Chief Xi Chulin for a discussion. They decided to set up the " Changsha Destruction Command " and formulated the " City Burning Plan ". Deng Ti was appointed as the overall commander, Xu Kun, the commander of the Second Garrison Regiment, was appointed as the overall commander, and Wang Weineng, the deputy commander of the municipal social training team, and Xu Quan, the chief of staff, were appointed as the deputy commanders.
They divided the soldiers into groups of three and formed a hundred groups to burn the city. The details of the burning of the city, such as the distribution of fire materials, the location of the fire, the alarms, orders, signals, and discipline, were also specified. It was scheduled to enter the preparation position before 2 am on the 13th.
At two o'clock in the morning, more than 100 arson teams formed by the Second Garrison Regiment and the social training team arrived at the designated location with gasoline, kerosene, and other fuel.
Suddenly, the hospital for wounded soldiers outside the south gate caught fire. Soon, several more places were set ablaze. The arson team, who did not know what was going on, mistakenly thought that it was an arson signal, so they poured fuel on the buildings and threw the lit torches at the houses.
They first set fire to key departments such as the head of the government and the police station, then set fire to banks, schools, hospitals, and finally set fire to every house along the street. Soon, the whole city was on fire.
After the fire broke out, the firefighters and police officers had already retreated outside the city because they had already formulated the " City Burning Plan ". All the fire trucks had drained all the water and replaced it with gasoline or kerosene. The entire city instantly became a sea of fire, and they could only announce that they had abandoned the city.
The fire burned for five days and five nights before it extinguished itself. The sudden fire turned the entire provincial capital into a living hell. More than 3,000 people died in the sea of fire while they were still sleeping. More than 90% of the houses in the city were burned down, tens of thousands of people were homeless, and the ancient city's cultural relics were reduced to ashes. Fortunately, in order to avoid the war, 90% of the residents had evacuated before the fire.
Because the fire happened on the night of November 12th, the telegram code of that day was "Wen", and the fire happened at night (evening), so the fire was called "Wen Xi Fire".
Wen Xi's fire shocked the world. After the fire was extinguished, the Japanese army did not attack Changsha. The citizens who survived the disaster were extremely indignant and cursed Zhang Zhizhong as a sinner.
Famous people in Hunan, including overseas Chinese, demanded a thorough investigation of the truth, severe punishment of the culprit, and relief for the victims.
Later, they found out the cause of the sudden fire, which was completely caused by the local military leaders mistakenly believing the rumors, not preparing well in advance, and being anxious and flustered.
In the end, the military court sentenced the Changsha garrison commander Deng Ti and the commander of the second garrison regiment Xu Kun to death for the crime of dishonoring their duties and neglecting their duties. He was sentenced to death by the provincial police chief, Wen Chongfu, for abandoning his duty without following orders. Xu Quan, the provincial security chief, was dismissed and investigated. The head of the provincial government, Zhang Zhizhong, had misjudged the use of personnel and prevented negligence. He was dismissed from his post and instructed to deal with the aftermath to see how it worked. The three prisoners on death row shouted that they were wronged while being tied up and executed.
Obviously, this judgment was unfair. Due to Jiang Jieshi's intervention, Zhang Zhizhong's punishment was too light and not enough to appease the public's anger. Someone wrote a couplet to mock him."Where is Zhi Ji? How could the central government tolerate the two plans? The three heads have been resentful for ages. The horizontal comment: Zhang Huang is at a loss." The first word of the couplet was Zhang Zhizhong.
There were brick houses on both sides of the Yao residence on Yingpan Street. The fire walls around them blocked the spread of the fire, and the fire only burned the front of the street. The Yao family's old mansion on Xiangchun Street was not so lucky. It was completely destroyed by the fire.
After the fire was put out, Grandpa heard the news and rushed over with First Uncle and Second Uncle. The Empress hired people to find four charred bodies from the rubble of the ruins, but they could not identify who was the master and who was the servant. They could only buy four high-quality coffins and hide them in the Yao family cemetery.
The pious Aunt and Sister Feng'e, especially the youthful Sister Feng'e, had gone to the Yin Prison with the paper-made brick house and the gold and silver mountains before their ancestors had time to pay their respects.
Moreover, everything had changed. The church in Xiangchun Alley had been burned down, and Dongyue Palace and Kaifu Temple were also doomed. The masters who had survived the disaster were too busy to take care of themselves. They could not find anyone to help their mother and daughter exorcise the souls of the dead, so they could only be buried in peace.
For this, besides the heart-wrenching pain and sorrow, the Empress also felt extremely apologetic. This time, the Empress could no longer bear the burden of the disaster and could no longer hide it from her uncle. She asked Uncle Guo An to send an urgent telegram to her uncle in Shanghai and wrote a long letter, describing the misfortune that had happened to her family in detail.
This is not a place to stay for long. After burying Aunt, Mother, and Maid, Grandpa will take us back to Yuan Jiahu.
Uncle Guoan felt that it was the only place where the Japanese army would invade Changsha. There was no barrier to hide in the flat land, so he strongly advocated moving south.
The Empress also felt that she should respect her father's living will. The next morning, the three of us followed Uncle Wenbin and fled to Black Rock Ridge in the southern suburbs.
Yao Shunru stood on the stage and was in so much pain that she was in so much pain that she could not bear to talk about the misfortune that her family had suffered. She could no longer control her emotions and sobbed. The crowd below the stage was furious and shouted angrily, Down with Japanese Imperialism! The hatred of the country and the hatred of the family will never be forgotten! Down with Japanese Imperialism!
Yao Shunru's bloody and tearful accusation was like a bolt from the blue, deeply shocking a girl's soul. If you want to know what will happen next, please read the next chapter.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。