Chapter 37, Bloody New Year (Part 2)
Although there have been some unworldly literati in ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, who imagined the pastoral life in the isolated countryside as an extremely beautiful paradise. But just as educated young people who go to the countryside always miss big cities, rural life in any era also makes city people feel bored.
Especially in this barbaric and ignorant era, the life of the Jurchens, who are on the edge of the civilized world and in a bitter cold land, is even more miserable.
For most Jurchens in this era, they worked hard every day planting crops, hunting, fishing, panning for gold, feeding livestock, and tanning leather... They lived in low, damp grass sheds with drafts on all sides; They wore clothes made of animal skins and even tree bark that were so rough that they hurt people, and they ate dried meat and fish that lacked salt and had a rancid smell, as well as moldy whole grains mixed with sand. Then when it gets dark, there is nothing to do, not to mention watching the theater or listening to books, and I can’t even light oil lamps and candles... I have to drink a few bowls of bad wine, and just cuddle up with my wife and mess around. people. Occasionally, if I travel hundreds of miles to a small county town and look at the goods and utensils of the market vendors, I will be shocked.
Even if you are a chief, you can only spend your whole life trapped in the abyss of violence and poverty. Life is neither happy nor safe: if you scratch your skin, you may die from infection. If you catch a cold, you may die from a cold. There are often wars between tribes, so it is easy to lose arms and legs... the people are in danger, and the nobles are living in dire straits. Each tribal settlement was like a concentration camp, only more unhygienic and inhumane. The people who lived there all had tangled hair and were crawling with lice. Their mouths smell like swills or sewers, and their faces are covered with pustules and scars, and are covered with a thick layer of dirt mixed with sweat, sand, and dander...Everyone has never seen the real world. The Jurchen barbarians can only struggle like wild beasts in this uncivilized and ignorant world, born in the mud and dying in the wilderness. They have been doing this for generations, and they have become accustomed to it.
But as the emperor of the Jin Kingdom, Wanyan Wu Qimai had seen the world. He had seen the Khitan emperor's luxurious residence and invaded the magnificent cities of Shangjing and Zhongjing in the Liao Kingdom. The wonderful life that Jurchens could never dream of, the lethality of the prosperous scenes of big cities, and the temptation of luxury and splendor of the nine-layered palaces shocked him beyond words. So after he returned to his hometown of Huining, he felt that everything was shabby and unsightly, so he did not hesitate to be scolded as a prodigal by the elders of the clan, but he also wanted to build a decent imperial city and palace.
Fortunately, today is no different than it was back then. As the Jurchen clan has been blessed by heaven, has won many battles, defeated the Khitan enemies, and swept the entire Northland, the wealth and savings of the Wanyan tribe have been a hundred times what they used to be. With the help of Wanyan Wu Qi, he Buy the emperor a little extravagant capital. And every time good news comes from the front, it also means that more good things are about to be sent to Huining... I recall the few beautiful Song Dynasty singers who were just escorted to the palace yesterday, with delicate and beautiful flowers, jade-like skin, and flowing eyes. Wanyan Wu Qimai couldn't help but swallow her saliva as she felt a burning sensation in her crotch - in the half of his life he had spent by the Hushui River, Wanyan Wu Qimai had never seen such a delicate and beautiful woman. She is the most beautiful girl in the Jurchen tribe, but how can she have such delicate skin? With such a delicate demeanor? Is there such infinite charm shown in the eyes?
A few years ago, they broke into the palace tent of the Liao Kingdom and captured several Khitan noblewomen wearing silk clothes and powdered face. These rude Jurchen chiefs were already as if they had found a treasure, and they felt as if they were immortals descending to earth... Now again Comparing it with the new singing girls from the Song Dynasty - it's really a waste of comparison!
——You know, a woman’s beauty has always come from skin care and make-up. Even the most talented beauty embryo, if she was born in a barbaric tribe in a remote country, would wear no makeup, bare face, and wear rough furs all day long. Clothes, not being able to bathe all winter, and having to farm, herd, fish and hunt... will most likely darken and roughen the skin, and bring with it a disgusting odor. Often as soon as I take off my clothes, the house is filled with the strong smell of salted fish and goat - no matter how beautiful a "beauty" is, how many people with heavy tastes can handle it?
Moreover, Wanyan Wu had vaguely heard that even such a pretty and gentle young lady was just an ordinary singing prostitute plundered from Hebei County in the Song Dynasty. Far from being first-class... I wonder how after the Jurchen cavalry swept across the Central Plains and broke through the colorful world of Bianliang, those palace concubines captured from the Song Dynasty's palace would be so beautiful that they would captivate the entire country.
——Due to the barrier of thousands of miles of Guanshan, Wanyan Wu, who was begging for money at this time, did not know the bad news that the two armies of the Jin Kingdom were completely wiped out at Bianliang City.
What he didn't even know was that the black hand that had just destroyed the main force of the Jin Kingdom had crossed thousands of mountains and rivers and quietly arrived at his side!
——The last dusk of the Jurchen Golden Kingdom was so gorgeous and brilliant that the whole sky was as red as blood...
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On the outskirts of Huining, in a forest covered by thick snow, several hazy white figures were quietly moving.
——Wang Qiu, Guo Jing, Doraemon, Yue Fei, Han Shizhong and others, each wearing a snow camouflage cloak, carefully poked their heads out of the snow, and used binoculars to look at the meeting on the other side of the Tiger River. Ningcheng.
Even by the standards of this era, this is a rather crude and even very shabby human settlement.
First of all, what everyone present in the Song Dynasty couldn't believe was that this "city" didn't even have a city wall, just like a grass market in the countryside!
Secondly, looking from afar from the other side of Jianchuhu River, there are several unfinished palaces in Huining City that are spacious and covered with glazed tiles, but the scaffolding has not yet been removed. But the vast majority of people still live in mud and thatched houses, or sheds built on the mud with thatch and branches. Even if there are a few brick houses occasionally, they are covered with thatch and topped with a few stone roofs. The houses often have no doors and are simply blocked with branches, reed mats, animal skins and other debris. Moreover, most of the houses in the city are very low, and it is winter now. Many houses have even been buried in snow, so that the people living in them have to dig holes through the roof... It feels quite like a primitive society. The "simple" style of the cave tribe.
"...Tsk, is this broken city the capital of the Jurchen Kingdom? Not to mention Bianliang and Yanjing, even the county seat of Tangyin, my hometown, is far inferior! From my perspective, this city is full of money, that is, two Three thousand households, a population of 10,000 or 20,000, nothing like an imperial capital!”
Yue Fei bit a straw stick and said with a hint of disdain, "...when I faced off against the Jinlu warriors on the battlefield, I was always thinking about which beautiful landscape could breed such a tyrannical person. Man. But now that I have seen it with my own eyes, I am disappointed..."
"...But it was these vulgar barbarians who came out of the poor mountains and rivers. It took only ten years to defeat the Khitan people to the point of almost annihilation. It took less than two years to trample to pieces the data of our Song Dynasty in Hedong and Hebei. Ten prefectures and counties came to the capital Bianliang City twice! ”
Han Shizhong looked back at him and responded calmly, "...the Hebei Forbidden Army has been fighting against it for many years, and is almost invincible; the Guanxi Forbidden Army has 2 to 300,000 carved-faced villains, and all of them died at their hands... the so-called poor mountains and bad waters. Diaomin, Pengju had better not underestimate these Tartars!”
"...I can take care of this matter of course." Yue Fei smiled and nodded, "...I will never be merciless when killing people and setting fires later!"
Although the so-called cities of these Jurchens are dilapidated enough to make many "civilized people" who come to peek shake their heads, there are still people who live in even worse conditions than them - a small earthen slope about a stone's throw away from Huining City. Currently, there are tens of thousands of slave coolies preparing to cut wood, quarry stone, build palaces and build cities for the Jurchens. Most of them are Khitans, Bohai people, Xi people, Liaodong Han people and Song people who were captured by the Jin army from the war. people. The wood they had cut down and the stone they had worked hard against the cold wind in the north of the Great Wall were piled as high as a hill on the outskirts of Huining City.
But at this time, the construction project had just begun. Even the Jurchens were still living in thatched mud houses. When it was the turn of these slaves, they didn't even have a house at all. Their current so-called residence is to dig a hole in a high place, make a roof with some dead grass branches, wrap it in rags or animal skins, and huddle in the hole to "cat winter"... Such a simple residence, In terms of warmth retention, it is simply not as good as a cave where bears hibernate! Coupled with the lack of food, lack of clothing, and lack of acclimatization, it is normal for half of the people to freeze to death after enduring a cold winter!
"...In the slave camp over there, I vaguely saw many Chu Hong uniforms of the Forbidden Army. They are all dirty and torn, and are about to turn into rags."
After Guo Jing observed carefully with a telescope for a while, he turned back to Wang Qiu with a look of pity and sighed, "...these bunch of useless cowards were unwilling to fight to the death. As soon as their bones became weak, they gave up their weapons and surrendered. As a result, they were escorted to the prison by the Jin people." Come here, work hard all day long... Fortunately, we are here now, otherwise by the time Huining Imperial City is completed, nine out of ten of these guys will be dead..."
But Wang Qiu paid attention to another aspect, "...This slave camp...seems to be very laxly guarded? There are no walls, trenches, or barbed wire outside, just a bunch of messy shacks, and the patrolling Jurchen soldiers are all Not many...Aren't they afraid of slaves escaping?"
"...Barbed wire? Haha, not to mention whether the Song Dynasty had the technology to pull out large quantities of wire, do you know what the price of pig iron can be sold in Saibei today?" Guo Jing sneered, "...as for escaping... Where do you think this is? This is the capital of the Jin Dynasty, the birthplace of the Jurchens! It is separated from the Central Plains by thousands of mountains and rivers! How can it be so easy for a person to escape alone?
Now it is the harshest winter of the year, with water dripping everywhere and turning into ice, and the cold wind blowing like a knife. How far can these weak and ragged slaves run? Not to mention the pursuit by the Jurchen cavalry, how to deal with the food on the road? Don’t forget, there are hundreds of miles of uninhabited virgin forest around here. Even if you want to rob or steal, you won’t be able to find a place! In such a snowy day, even the native Jurchen hunters may not be able to find prey to feed themselves, let alone strangers like them. In short, if they work hard as cattle and horses for the Jin people, they still have a mouthful of food to eat; If you escape recklessly, you may end up feeding a hungry wolf in the blink of an eye... What do you think these prisoners will choose?
Of course, now that we are here, as long as we plan properly, these prisoners of war may also be a big help..." After explaining the desperate situation these slaves were in, Guo Jing looked up at the sky again and found that the twelve-year-old The late winter was really short, and the setting sun had slowly sunk behind the treetops, making the world seem darker and darker. Everything around him looked hazy, so he turned around and announced to everyone, "...Okay. , The enemy situation of the Jurchens has been almost explored. You must have an idea of how to fight the battle of Huining. Now let's go back and join everyone before it gets dark! Lest they wait impatiently over there... When they return, they should eat and rest as soon as possible. Everyone should recharge their batteries - tomorrow is the day when these Jurchen Tatars will die! ”