In the Niujiling of Jiugong Mountain in Tongshan County, Hubei Province, there is a large-scale tomb of King Chuang, which has become a quiet witness of a heroic story. The tomb and memorial hall of Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant uprising, rest in the mausoleum, and a corner of this mausoleum is the place where Li Zicheng was martyred.
Looking at this mausoleum from afar, a stone tablet stands on the right side of the memorial hall, and it is embossed with the words "Li Zicheng's martyrdom". Surrounded by verdant pine forests, the breeze blows, and the pine needles sway with a faint sound, as if telling the bleak story of the heroes of the past.
Back in the early summer of 1645, Li Zicheng was defeated in Jiugong Mountain in Tongshan County, and fell into the mountain alone, and his only companion was an oolong horse who had been with him for many years. Li Zicheng evaded many searches by the Qing army in the mountains, but food was scarce. Finally, he met a grandmother in the mountains, saw the food in her basket, asked eagerly, and took out a few taels of silver and handed them to the grandmother. Grandma saw that he was haggard, ragged, and carrying a sword, but instead of robbing her of food, she paid a lot of silver to buy it. Grandma felt Li Zicheng's kindness, so she sold a few pieces of glutinous rice cakes in the basket to him. Li Zicheng took the glutinous rice cake, gobbled it up, and nodded to his grandmother with a smile of thanks.
Continuing on, Li Zicheng came to Niujiling, felt tired, and sat under a pine tree to take a nap. When he woke up, he found himself surrounded by a group of landlords. They were armed with various tools, and Li Zicheng hurriedly got up to escape, but Xiang Yong had already surrounded him. In the fierce struggle, Li Zicheng suffered a fatal blow. Seriously wounded, he was unable to draw his sword to defend himself, and was finally beheaded by the landlord Xiang Yong.
The leader of the peasant uprising, a bright star in the long river of Chinese history, fell in a tragic way at the age of 39. Behind him, the landlord Xiang Yong seized his belongings, while the oolong foal hovered where he died, as if waiting for the return of his master. But the master never returned, and the wail of the oolong foal accompanied the passage of time until it disappeared into the mountains.
Life can't be **, and heroes also have ups and downs. What is put down may not only be material, but also the vicissitudes and stories precipitated by the years.