Chapter 139: Fierce Fire Cooking Oil (Part 1)
Beijing, Forbidden City
Red walls, exposed tiles, cornices and brackets, multiple buildings, carved beams and painted buildings.
I can't get enough of the splendor, the indescribable imperial style, and the inexhaustible wealth and honor.
The residence of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty last year has become the imperial city of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty this year.
And those concubines of the Qing Dynasty who had just moved out of the bitter cold place of Shengjing, Liaodong and moved into the Forbidden City in Beijing not long ago were immediately dazzled by the largest palace in the East - in comparison, the one in Shengjing At best, it's just a palace at the level of a landlord's compound, which is really a bit unsightly.
Although after two hundred years of vicissitudes, this palace has left many traces of time. But in the eyes of the barbarian women who were born in the Mongolian grasslands and white mountains and black waters, this is still a real palace and palace in the sky!
"...Sister! This house is really big! Did the emperor of the Ming Dynasty live here?"
"...Now can each of our sisters have a hall to live in? When we were in Shengjing, we really couldn't even think about it?"
"...Yes! I'm really blessed this time! Eh? Auntie, where did this little mirror in your hand come from? It's so beautiful!"
"...Oh, this! It's just a new thing brought up by the slaves down there. I heard it's a foreign product from overseas in the south. There are so many on the market in Beijing today, it's not a rarity. I'll get it for you next time. A few! By the way, how did you use the soap I gave you last time?”
——Passing through the Dagukou "Trade Market" on the Bohai Sea last autumn, which was once occupied by the Chinese Alliance fleet, in addition to the large-scale "population-for-food" trade officially organized by the Jurchen Eight Banners, there were many other various bits and pieces. Small commodities also entered the city of Beijing, which had just changed hands.
"...Well, I've used it, it's quite fragrant, but I'm still not used to it - my little girl even thought of it as a pastry, and almost ate it into her stomach without paying attention, which scared me like something ...When it comes to things from the Ming Dynasty, I still prefer silk. I just made a new skirt recently..."
"...Hehe! I heard about it! Sister, you actually used the silk curtains hanging in other people's palaces to make clothes! Isn't it embarrassing!"
"...What's so shameful? You don't know how many sheep this piece of silk can exchange for on our Horqin grassland?"
……
Accompanied by chatter, the three most noble and favored aunts and nephews among the Jurchen lord Huang Taiji's concubines, Empress Zhezhe, Bumu Butai (that is, Dayu'er, the future Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang) and the newly married Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang just last year Hailanzhu, these three are also from the Mongolian Horqin tribe The noble concubine of the Borzigit clan was wandering among the palaces in the Forbidden City in Beijing, looking curiously and happily at the huge buildings with different heights and the countless dazzling "luxury things" listed in them. ", from time to time he made a sound of praise.
——Although Emperor Chongzhen took away most of the gold and silver in the palace before fleeing; when the Shaanxi bandits invaded Beijing, they looted the Forbidden City again. Next, in order to purchase urgently needed food, cloth and other daily necessities from the traverser merchant fleet entrenched in Dagukou, Huang Taiji once again searched the Forbidden City, including the bronze turtles and golden nanmu pillars on the palace. They were all unloaded and sold... But just the few things left in the palace, as well as the filial gifts recently offered by the slaves, were enough to make these foreign women who were used to poverty feel extremely excited.
On the other side, in the pavilion of the imperial garden, the little princesses who were tired of playing sat on the stone benches covered with brocade cushions, attacking the various exquisite pastries presented by the palace maids and eunuchs, just like one after another. Like a chipmunk with bulging cheeks, it happily eats...
All in all, as the families of the Eight Banners' dignitaries moved from Shengjing to Beijing one after another, they moved into various palaces and mansions. For a time, in the inner city of Beijing where the rich and powerful gathered, the sound of silk and bamboo was flying everywhere, the aroma of wine and food filled the air, and laughter and laughter continued. All the Eight Banners nobles who have survived the bitter cold of the white mountains and black waters are all enjoying the fruits of victory. Every day in Beijing is like paradise.
However, just outside this group of laughter and abundant food and clothing, among the streets and alleys of the outer city where the poor live, are filled with unimaginable desolation and dilapidation - among the original one million citizens, there are already more than 700,000 Some died in the war, some were exiled, or were sold overseas as piglets. Most of the remaining people lost their livelihood. In order to get a bite of food, I had to sharpen my head and beg to be commanded by the Eight Banners men.
Indeed, compared with the bandits who only knew how to burn, kill and loot, Huang Taiji's political skills and ruling strategies were much better. After entering Beijing, he claimed that "rushing to recruit people and attracting people first is the first priority of this dynasty." . Immediately, this unparalleled hero immediately began to win over people's hearts. He first "made a big announcement to clean up the past filth with all the gentry" and "ordered the officials of the cabinet, the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other yamen to all serve as their original officials under the Eight Banners" "Officials work together" "All civil and military officials, soldiers and civilians, if they can submit to our court, are still allowed to be employed" - that is, officials from the Chongzhen court will be directly recruited and all officials will be restored to their posts!
So immediately all the civil and military ministers in Beijing who had won the title of Qing Dynasty returned to their hearts and sang praises to Huang Taiji, the Lord of Destiny.
Then, because he wanted to run Beijing as the future capital of the Qing Dynasty and not let it go to waste, Huang Taiji strictly enforced military discipline in Beijing and prohibited random looting of the streets. Except for a few nobles and clan members of the Ming Dynasty who were ignorant of current affairs, the properties and residences of most wealthy families were protected.
However, these appeasement measures taken by the Qing court were all aimed at the Jin gentry family. Huang Taiji was not so polite to the ordinary poor and humble people - in order to buy a sufficient amount of food from the battlefield market opened by the traverser fleet in Dagukou, Huang Taiji directly dispatched troops to gather people inside and outside the capital. dozens of Tens of thousands of people were driven towards Tianjin, with countless corpses lying on the ground along the way. According to the price of "coarse grains" such as eight bushels of wheat or potatoes of equivalent value for adults and men, five bushels of wheat for each of the elderly and children, and a separate price for beautiful women, they went to Dagu. "Maritime merchants" exporting goods carry out dumping.
In this way, Huang Taiji not only obtained a large amount of military rations, but also reduced the risk of civil unrest in the Gyeonggi area. It can be said to be the best of both worlds. Only the refugees who were deprived of their right to speak were unlucky. However, even if there is no such thing, in these years of war and famine, when human life is as humble as grass, their end will still be death and they can be sold as piglets. Quite a lucky one!
The ordinary people in the capital have also been living in misery for the past six months. There were successive military disasters and thousands of people were killed. Then the Eight Banners soldiers entered Beijing. They finally stopped killing people randomly, but famine broke out again. The common people in Shengdou were still in panic all day long - even though through the "population-for-food" trade with the time travellers, the big people who had just established power in Beijing were The Qing Dynasty obtained at least five million stones of various grains, but Huang Taiji had no intention of releasing grains for relief. Instead, he used all the grains and rice obtained from the transaction as military supplies to continue to conquer various parts of the Central Plains.
Therefore, at this time, the city of Beijing is still an extremely dilapidated and decadent scene: dirty streets filled with garbage, crumbling dilapidated houses, and sick and weak citizens with sallow faces, like a bunch of walking corpses dying. Struggling with hunger and illness... Many street girls with forced smiles appeared in alleys in various neighborhoods, and various crimes such as theft and robbery were also extremely rampant. However, under the curfew and killing orders issued by the Qing government, especially the piles of human heads outside the city gate, not many thieves dared to attack the banner man.
However, the situation in Beijing is far from the worst - after all, this is the imperial capital and has extraordinary political significance. Whether it is the Eight Banners or the Guanning rebels, they usually have to restrain themselves a little here. Someone with a vicious personality would at least not kill people wantonly in the streets. And on the battlefields where the Qing braided soldiers pointed their swords, there were already corpses lying everywhere and seas of blood...