As a megacity with a population of 1.5 million, Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, consumed an astronomical amount of food every day. But by the same token, the amount of food stored in Bianliang City over the years is also an astronomical figure.
——Bianliang is located in the most elite hinterland of the Central Plains in the world. It is surrounded by vast plains with the longest history of agricultural development in China. It has been the world's most important grain-producing area since ancient times. In addition, the Song Dynasty officials spent huge sums of money to build canals and plan irrigation, so the grain output was quite huge. As the inland water transport hub in the eastern part of the Central Plains, the Song Dynasty court could also relatively easily mobilize grain and crops from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital through waterways.
Under this circumstance, even though there is a shortage of food in the Bianliang market, there is still sufficient food in the warehouse. The Grain Merchant Guild in Kaifeng Prefecture alone has stockpiled at least two million pounds of wheat. And among the mansions of princes and high-ranking officials, there are many wealthy families who have hoarded tens of thousands of stones of rice and grain.
Ten thousand shi of grain, if you save some food, would be enough to feed 10,000 people for half a year!
The total amount of grain stored in Bianliang City at this time is enough to feed the entire city's population for at least a year!
But the problem is that whenever there is a national crisis, there are always unscrupulous profiteers and corrupt officials hoarding money.
——As a result, it was only a month before the Jin soldiers crossed the river to besiege the city, and the city of Bianliang, which had enough food to support it for a year, was already full of starvation, and it was like a purgatory.
"...Since the Jin soldiers besieged the city, the Kaifeng Grain Merchant Guild, which has been hoarding a large amount of rice grains, has been trying to raise the price of grains to the sky, so as to take the opportunity to severely scrape a layer of oil from the people of Li. If you suddenly Get a lot of Food stabilizing prices in the capital completely ruined their plans. What do you think they will do to you?" Guo Jing explained to Wang Qiu, "...I, a fake immortal, have no ability to protect you!"
"...They are openly causing trouble and sabotaging the war of resistance in the city. Should the Kaifeng Mansion just ignore them?" Wang Qiu exclaimed in surprise.
"...Who dares to take care of it? As a super large company that can monopolize the capital's grain supply, how could the Grain Merchants Association in Kaifeng not have a backend? In Bianliang City, there are countless princes, princesses, prime ministers, and princes' families, watching helplessly. I’m waiting to get some benefits from the grain merchants’ association!”
"...Princes, princesses, prime ministers, princes...are they crazy?" Wang Qiu couldn't help but take a breath, "...Today is already the tenth day of the lunar month. In another half month at most, when Jin Bing will be here this month After the city was breached on the 25th, no matter how much property these nobles, nobles and nobles had accumulated, their homes would all be ransacked and robbed, and even they themselves would all be robbed. The soldiers took the men away and worked as slaves, working as cattle and horses until they died of overwork; the women worked as camp prostitutes and were ridden by thousands of people, giving birth to a bunch of little bastard slaves, and even the queen was forced to do a striptease. Sleeping with the servant... The tragedy and frustration of Jingkang's shame is not a joke! But what are they doing now? To create trouble for the already dangerous defense of the city?"
Looking at the luxurious official sedans swaying through the city in the distance, Wang Qiu's eyes even showed a trace of pity, "...Are they seeking death? Are they seeking death? Or are they seeking death? ?”
"...What can I do? It's hard to let go of good wealth! In order to make profits, capitalists will even sell the ropes to hang themselves to their enemies. And the dignitaries of the feudal dynasty are also masters who will not shed tears without seeing the coffin."< br>
Guo Jing shrugged and replied, "...You may have heard that when Li Zicheng attacked Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen faced an empty treasury and soldiers who had not been paid for several months, so he had to mourn in every possible way for the wealthy families in Beijing. However, the nobles and wealthy families in Beijing still had nothing to lose and refused to donate their property and labor. In the end, the Ming army defending the city was left without food and pay. As a result, Li Zicheng entered the city and tortured the dignitaries one by one. Beat, kill a bunch of people on the spot, and immediately loot 70 million taels of silver... Don't these Ming Dynasty nobles know that once Li Zicheng's peasant army enters the city, they will immediately ransack their homes or even exterminate their clans? ? But they still betrayed the emperor without hesitation, and did not wait for the opportunity to take the family property and flee, but ruined their own livelihood - is it not because of luck and greed?
In the same way, in order to overwhelm the war faction in the court, the ministers of the peace faction of the Song Dynasty during the Jingkang period even forged military orders on the eve of the Jin soldiers crossing the river south, and sent all the soldiers who served the king back to their original positions, leaving the capital defense empty. , simply crazier than the Jin spies. The goal is just to make the war ministers lose the courage to fight - the national defense force has been ruined like this, how can you still fight?
As a result, after the Jin soldiers broke through the city, the Jurchens did not show any good looks to these "heroes" of the Lord He faction. They still robbed all their property, raped and humiliated their female relatives, and even captured them as slaves—— These monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty are more happy than the other to commit suicide! It’s really a death-defying contest! All kinds of absurd deeds will definitely make people jaw-dropping! ”
Speaking of this, Political Commissar Guo Jing couldn't help but sneered, "...In fact, if a loyal minister really comes to Bianliang with reinforcements from other places, then instead of receiving gratitude and praise, he will be punished by the gang leaders. The peace ministers hate him so much that they regard him as an enemy. Even the main war faction will be wary of the reinforcements! During the Battle of Bianjing, Zhong Shidao led tens of thousands of Western troops from the border of northern Shaanxi to rescue him, but the imperial gentry he rescued were beaten to death. The main reason was that the troops were too strong and difficult to place. ! With such a precedent, how can the righteous people in the world not feel cold? ”
"...Oh my God, the thinking of these people is so strange! After others were besieged, they were looking forward to reinforcements, but they hated the reinforcements? Are they suicide enthusiasts? Moreover, seeing them like this Why did the Emperor of the Song Dynasty just ignore it if he wanted to die?"
Although Nobi Nobita was confused about the above-mentioned profound topics, Doraemon still heard some clues and asked questions like this.
"...Emperor Qinzong Zhao Heng? Well, his capital is indeed a bit richer than that of Emperor Chongzhen. There is still a lot of money and food in the palace and treasury, but first he has to supply 70,000 soldiers to defend the city, and there are also more who may arrive at any time The King Qin’s ability to set up a big pot to boil some porridge to help the refugees is already the limit. As for punishing those powerful nobles who hoard food... I’m afraid Emperor Qinzong simply doesn’t have the determination!”
Regardless of whether the cat-shaped robot understood or not, Guo Jing continued to explain, "...What's more, for this Bianliang siege, food supply is not an important thing. In today's Bianliang City After all, there are only a few households with no food at home. The ordinary citizens had more or less stored some food before the Jin soldiers besieged the city. Then Bianliang City should be attacked before their families ran out of food. ”
——The second offensive and defensive battle of Bianliang in history lasted less than a month from the first siege of the city by the Jin Army on the first day of the eleventh month until the city was defeated. The two sides still had a lot of time to just confront each other. The main focus of the Jin soldiers was on siege and reinforcements, and there were not many real large-scale siege operations... But even so, Bianliang City, with a population of one million, 70,000 defenders, and mountains of weapons and supplies, was still breached. Got it!
The length of time that these 70,000 Song troops persisted in resisting in the capital Bianliang was not even as long as the defense of Constantinople in 1453, the swan song of the end of the Eastern Roman Empire - the last Eastern Roman emperor fought with 9,000 defenders against 100,000 Turkish army! It's been like this for two months!
It can be seen from this that how powerful the Jurchen cavalry are in combat, and how incompetent and useless the Song Dynasty Forbidden Army is.
What is even more tragic are the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty during the Jingkang period - to put it harshly, even if a few pigs sat in the court, they would be stronger than them!
At least pigs are not very good at seeking death, but people are capable of seeking death!
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PS: Explanation for the confusion in the title of the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty: People in the Song Dynasty officially called Kaifeng Tokyo, but this is the same as Tokyo in Japan. Bianliang, Bianjing and Kaifeng are all commonly used legal names. Later generations mostly used Kaifeng, while people in the Song Dynasty mostly used Bianliang - everyone just needs to know where the city is. In fact, the earliest large city built in Kaifeng was Daliang, the capital of the Wei State during the Warring States Period.