Chapter 36, Bloody New Year (Part 1)
In the fourth year of the Great Jin Tianhui, on December 29, the first year of the Great Song Dynasty Jingkang, Huining City
The setting sun at dusk fell on the Jinchhuhu River covered with thick ice, and the gorgeous sunset filled the western sky, scarlet like blood.
The howling and biting north wind, carrying a hint of coldness, seeped into the Jurchen's thatched hut, blowing away the weak warmth brought by the winter sunshine.
Although the Jurchen cavalry's horses have traveled across the desert and Liaodong, breaking into the colorful world of the Central Plains, the so-called capital Huining City they established among the white mountains and black waters is nothing more than a pile of messy sheds and huts. Hodgepodge ghetto. In the eyes of the Song and Khitan people who had already become civilized, this could not be said to be a city. At most, it could only be said to be a walled city - or even a village!
But this was helpless, because the Wanyan clan who founded the Jin Kingdom was originally just a small and rather backward tribe. Even though they took advantage of the situation and rose up, it took only a little more than ten years to destroy the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, and quickly established a huge empire covering thousands of miles, but at their core, they still couldn't get rid of the barbaric and ignorant barbaric tribes. true color.
——Before Wanyan Agu launched an army to rebel against the Liao Dynasty, the Jurchens in the entire Northeast were under the rule of the Liao Kingdom. Among them, the Jurchens who accepted the direct rule of the Liao Kingdom in the Liaohe River Basin are called "Mature Jurchens". They have a high degree of Sinicization, and most of them have settled down, animal husbandry and farming as their main way of life. The Jurchens who are still in a semi-barbaric state on the edge of the Khitan sphere of influence are called "born Jurchens".
The Wanyan tribe that established the Jin Kingdom was the most powerful tribe among the Jurchens.
These "born girls" live among the white mountains and black waters. In the mountains covered with dense forests, they are sharpened by the cold winds of the Great Wall. They sleep in sheds, hunt bears and tigers, and drink bad wine. Everyone is born to be a good hunter. Even the Khitan warriors did not dare to fight against these Jurchens.
The Khitan people's way of ruling the Jurchens was basically to win over and take precautions. On the one hand, they named the leaders of the Jurchen tribe alliance as "Jiedushi", and on the other hand, they prohibited them from interacting with the mature Jurchens. In addition, they also made things difficult for the Jurchens in business and trade, and priced various daily necessities at sky-high prices. So much so that during the era of Liao rule, although the Jurchens were sitting on the rich black land in the Northeast where they could beat roe deer with sticks and scoop fish with gourds, they lived a poor life with little to offer. A tiger skin cannot be exchanged for a handful of salt, and a basket of mink skins cannot be exchanged for an iron pot. Every year, they help the Liao people hunt for Haidongqing for free, and pay tribute to horses, gold, pearls, honey, pine nuts and ginseng, and even The most beautiful woman in the tribe had to be sent to sleep with the Khitan envoy!
Such completely undisguised cruel exploitation will naturally arouse the overwhelming anger of the Jurchen warriors. More than ten years ago, under the leadership of Wanyan Aguda, the Jurchens rebelled against the Liao Dynasty. They repeatedly defeated the strong with the weak, defeated the decadent Liao army, and finally swept the north, killed the Khitan emperor, and prospered on behalf of the Liao. After that, they swept through the Central Plains in one breath, drank the Yellow River, and defeated millions of Song soldiers. They created brilliant martial arts that far surpassed the Khitans.
However, at this time, it was only just over ten years since the establishment of the Great Jin Empire. Although the territory of the empire has begun to take shape, the construction of capitals and palaces has not yet been taken care of. Previously, when the first emperor of the Jin Kingdom, Wanyan Aguda, proclaimed himself emperor in Huining, there were only shabby straw huts in the city, and nothing could be found. Decent houses. Wanyan Aguda had no choice but to set up a felt tent to hold the enthronement ceremony and entertain envoys from various ministries, which was known as the "Emperor's Village". It was not until the end of his reign that he planned to build a palace in Huining, but before it was completed, Wanyan Aguda died (1123). After the second-generation emperor Wanyan Wu Qimai ascended the throne, he finally began to recruit slaves and prisoners of war on a large scale in the second year of Tianhui (1124), and collected wood, bricks and stones to prepare for the design and construction of a magnificent imperial city of the Jin Kingdom. This gives Huining, a simple and barbaric city, a bit of the grandeur of an imperial capital.
But the problem is that in the wild Saibei land, although there are all kinds of wood and stone, it is really difficult to find enough skilled craftsmen. Moreover, at this time, the Jurchens' rule over the North was still extremely unstable. The territory of the old Liao Dynasty was full of ruins, the fields were barren, the people were in dire straits, and various tribes were in constant rebellion, which limited the manpower and material resources that the Jin Kingdom could mobilize. However, in order to prepare for the southward attack on the Song Dynasty, the limited fiscal revenue had to be extremely tilted towards military expenditures. So much so that the construction project in the capital is moving and stopping, and the progress is very slow... It is now a severe winter with dozens of degrees below zero degrees Celsius. Even the cruel and rude Jurchen nobles have to ask the slaves on the construction site to stop. Let them rest by the fire to prevent them from freezing to death in large numbers.
As for the Jurchen Wanyan clan, they are preparing to celebrate the New Year with wine, meat and banquets in full swing - although the snow this year has been particularly severe, many livestock have been frozen to death, and the harvest of crops is not very good. But the last time the Jurchen warriors marched south to the Song Dynasty, they changed from the weak Song people to The dazzling array of good things that I grabbed back from my hands: gorgeous silks, mellow soju, smooth porcelain, sweet preserves, luxurious spices, exquisite pastries... are enough to make the women and children at home live a comfortable life. It’s been a long time since I took it...
However, no one knew that this was already the last dusk in Huining City.
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In the twilight of dusk, a tall, muscular middle-aged man, wearing a weird and nondescript dragon robe, appeared on horseback from the forest on the outskirts, surrounded by a group of Jurchen knights, and then walked on. The path buried in snow slowly entered Huining City.
This is the second generation emperor of the Jin Kingdom, the younger brother of the founding ancestor Wanyan Aguda, and the imperial chariot that Jin Taizong Wanyan Wu begged to buy.
In the evening, he had just returned from hunting in the wild and was "driving back to the palace" with a few rabbits he had just caught.
Under the twilight of the setting sun, Emperor Wanyan Wu Qimai stood on horseback at the door of several newly completed palaces, looking towards the messy streets of Huining. This so-called capital of the Jin Kingdom, the place where the Jurchen Dragon thrived, It is still full of thatched huts and tents, the narrow streets are twisted, and the bumpy roads are full of dirt. There are not only a few decent mansions and government offices in the whole city, but also no real city walls or gates... making the city look like a shabby refugee camp or a remote village. A large village, but it just doesn't look like the capital of a new empire that covers thousands of miles and is powerful in all directions. There is no trace of royal style or overlord's majesty!
In the eyes of the people of the Song Dynasty, the "Imperial Residence of the Emperor" of the Jurchens was simply inferior to an ordinary county town in the Central Plains.
And the Jin Dynasty court, huddled in such a large slum, was naturally full of the "local flavor" of the Caotai team. However, in the eyes of the people of the Shengnuzhen tribe who have never seen much of the world, a settlement like this is already quite good.