roccoschili Chapter 20: The 3 wronged souls of Jinling cannot be appeased, and emperors of all dynasties rise up
Chapter 20: The 3 wronged souls of Jinling cannot be appeased, and emperors of all dynasties rise up
Liu Yan held Xu Miaoyun's hand and stood in front of the dark gray building. As the camera slowly zoomed in, the gray and white color seemed to press down on everyone's chest like a huge rock, making it hard to breathe.
Beneath the sky, countless emperors simultaneously frowned at this moment.
After all, the words Liu Yan used, such as national humiliation and massacre, are chilling just to hear.
During the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows furrowed into a deep frown.
"A memorial hall? What kind of place is that?"
Upon hearing this, Liu Bowen spoke up.
"I am unaware of the events of later generations, but from the literal meaning of the words, it should be a place for people to pay homage and commemorate."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked up at the tomb-like building against the sky, and his heart pounded violently.
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.
Zhu Yuanzhang murmured the name repeatedly.
After all, Nanjing was the capital of the Hongwu Emperor and the heart of the Ming Dynasty.
During the Yongle reign, Zhu Di also frowned.
"A Holocaust Memorial Hall?"
Zhu Gaochi, standing to the side, also wore a look of confusion.
"This name doesn't sound very auspicious."
Zhu Di did not answer, but looked up at the sky, a sharp glint in his eyes.
At this moment, countless eyes are all looking in the same direction.
Above the sky, Liu Yan led Xu Miaoyun toward the entrance of the memorial hall.
As the camera slowly panned, one bronze statue after another appeared before everyone's eyes.
Among them were refugees, hunched old people, parents who had lost their children, and injured and frightened children.
Everyone was dressed in rags and emaciated; suffering was tangible at that moment.
Before the emperors of all dynasties could recover, an even more impactful sculpture appeared before everyone.
This is a woman in tattered clothes, with her knees slightly bent and her body bent under the weight, as if she could not bear the burden.
She held a dead baby in her arms, her head tilted back to the sky, her mouth wide open, as if she were screaming silently.
There were no tears on her face, or perhaps her tears had long since dried up, leaving only a frozen, eternal despair.
Xu Miaoyun stopped in front of the sculpture, looked up at it, and her lips trembled slightly.
That sense of despair seemed to instantly infect him.
Liu Yanzai also stopped in front of the sculpture and remained silent for a long time before speaking.
"This sculpture is called 'Family Destroyed and People Killed'."
"Standing 12.13 meters tall, commemorating the fall of Nanjing on December 13, 1937!"
Upon hearing the sound, Zhu Yuanzhang stood frozen in place.
"My kingdom has fallen?!"
Before Zhu Yuanzhang could recover from his shock, Liu Yan's voice came again.
"On November 12, 1937, the three-month Battle of Shanghai ended, and Shanghai fell! The Japanese invaders divided into multiple routes and marched straight towards Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, along both banks of the Yangtze River."
"In early December of the same year, the Battle of Nanjing broke out! On the 12th, Tang Shengzhi, the then supreme commander, abandoned the city and fled on the eve of the Japanese invasion."
For the first time, Liu Yan's voice carried a suppressed anger!
"Tang Shengzhi didn't even notify the city's garrison, leaving hundreds of thousands of soldiers leaderless!"
The following day, Nanjing fell.
"After the Japanese pirates entered the city, they carried out an indiscriminate and organized massacre of the civilians and soldiers who had laid down their weapons throughout Nanjing."
"Machine gun fire, bayonet stabbing! Burying alive, burning! Using every method you can and can't even imagine! In just six weeks, they slaughtered 300,000 of my Chinese compatriots."
"The surface of the Qinhuai River was stained red with blood, corpses littered the streets and alleys, tens of thousands of women were violated, and the ancient city of Nanjing, which has a thousand-year history, was reduced to ruins."
"The once prosperous city of Nanjing has been reduced to a living hell."
"The land is shattered! Life is devastated!"
Liu Yan's voice wasn't loud, but at this moment it was like a boulder, slamming into the heart of every Chinese son and daughter across thousands of years of Chinese history!
During the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly stood up!
He was panting heavily! He looked like a raging lion!
"Three hundred thousand people!"
At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice changed slightly due to anger, and the chair was overturned on the ground with a loud "bang".
"Three hundred thousand people?! In our capital?! In Yingtian Prefecture?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang's hands were trembling, but not from fear, but from an indescribable, ineffable anger that seemed to seep from the very marrow of his bones!
Empress Ma, who was standing to the side, also stood up. Her face was ashen, and she tightly grasped Zhu Yuanzhang's arm, her eyes filled with sorrow.
The courtiers in the hall were in an uproar!
Three hundred thousand! A full three hundred thousand lives!
And so he died under the swords of the Japanese pirates!
"That Tang Zhisheng deserves to die! He deserves to die!"
Although Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know who Tang Zhisheng was, the mere mention of abandoning the city and fleeing was enough to enrage him!
The Japanese pirates, whom Liu Yan mentioned as the cause of all this suffering, made this iron-blooded emperor grit his teeth in hatred!
With a loud crash, Zhu Yuanzhang kicked over the tea table in front of him, and in an instant, the fruits and teacups on the table shattered all over the floor.
"Three hundred thousand! My sons and daughters of China! Three hundred thousand! My people of the Great Ming Dynasty!"
"They all died tragically at the hands of these beasts!"
Inside the main hall, the courtiers knelt on the ground!
A suffocating atmosphere hung over the Ming Dynasty like an impenetrable dark cloud!
The fifth year of the Yongle reign, Shuntian Prefecture.
Zhu Di stood in front of the door, his hands clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white.
This emperor, who had conquered the northern deserts five times and sealed the wolf's lair, now had a livid face and his chest heaving violently!
Those decisive and ruthless eyes, which had seen countless battles, were now bloodshot!
"Three hundred thousand fellow Chinese! Three hundred thousand ordinary people!"
Zhu Di gritted his teeth, seemingly repeating the number word by word, as if he wanted to chew each word up and swallow it!
"Japanese pirates! Japanese slaves! How dare you, a mere small country, bully our great China!"
Zhu Di's voice was like the cold wind inside an ice cellar!
"The descendants of the Ming Dynasty, numbering three hundred thousand, were slaughtered by these Japanese pirates from the East!"
Zhu Di whirled around, his gaze sweeping over the kneeling court officials and princes, his eyes sharp as blades! It was terrifying!
"Such a wolf in sheep's clothing! How dare he accept my imperial decree! How dare he submit to the feet of my Great Ming!"
"The King of Japan? Hahahaha! Hahahaha!"
Zhu Di laughed! But his laughter was filled with chilling intent and murderous intent!
The Great Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace!
Ying Zheng stood with his hands behind his back, his face ashen. This First Emperor, who unified the six kingdoms, had a murderous look in his eyes at this moment!
"Three hundred thousand civilians perished at the hands of the island barbarians!"
"These island barbarians all deserve to die! They all deserve to be killed!"
In the third year of the Zhenghe era of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, opened his eyes like a lion.
"Throughout my life, I have fought against the Xiongnu in the north, sealed the Wolf Mountain, and explored the vast desert for thousands of miles, all to protect my people from the humiliation of barbarians and to ensure that the land of China will be free from invaders forever."
"When has the great nation of China, with its refined manners, music, and culture spanning millennia, ever suffered such a humiliating disgrace?"
"These barbarian wolves slaughter the old, weak, women, and children; they brutally kill unarmed civilians; they have utterly lost their humanity and conscience! This hatred is irreconcilable!"
The first year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty.
Li Shimin was furious!
"A tiny, insignificant nation! How dare you insult the descendants of our great China! We shall repay you with annihilation! With blood for blood! With tooth for tooth!"
Behind me, sunlight shone on the silent sculptures, casting long shadows.
Three hundred thousand.
That number, like a mountain, weighed heavily on the hearts of every Chinese emperor.
A common man's rage! Blood splatters five steps away! An emperor's rage! Millions lie dead!
When a nation that has stood strong for a thousand years is enraged, it will unleash a wave that will engulf the heavens and the earth!
The Japanese pirates! That tiny island nation! At this moment, in the eyes of emperors throughout countless time and space, they have become the purest and most unforgettable hatred!
It's not the destruction of the nation and the extermination of the race that can quell the hatred in my heart!