Because there is a Tonghui River wharf outside Chaoyangmen, the last section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Beijing runs through, and a large number of grains and southern specialties that have always arrived in Beijing from the south have to be unloaded here. As a result, there are countless porters, vehicles and traders, and merchant ships and ships are even more crowded with hundreds of boats and thousands of sails. For a time, the prosperity of businessmen was unparalleled.

In the city, there are several large and small royal granaries, and thick warehouses are used to store these grain materials.

This is the most prosperous area of commerce in the capital, and the grain ear pattern in the gate hole of Chaoyang Gate just right explains the reason for the economic prosperity. Logistics convenience has brought a large number of goods, and the transportation of these goods requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and the circulation of goods has brought a lot of money circulation, and it is impossible to prosper here.

(Until modern times, if you are interested, you can take a look at Baidu and Google to see what kind of company offices are in those buildings from Chaoyangmen all the way to the north, along both sides of the Second Ring Road to Dongzhimen.) ）

Because of the main reason for transporting grain, there are many place names related to warehouses left in Chaoyangmen.

North Gate Cang Hutong.

Lin Wenbing walked in the warehouse area of the north gate with light and vigorous steps, and several warehouse ambassadors who managed the granary and more than a dozen kuding leaders followed him respectfully.

Since the shopkeeper of Lin University rented several nearby warehouses to store grain, these warehouse ambassadors have regarded Lin Wenbing as a parent and ancestor.

"Last time, the household department came to check the accounts and count the grain deposits, if there is no big treasurer's deposit, we have the grain here. I'm afraid that everyone won't be able to explain it, at this time, probably everyone is enjoying happiness in the Zhenfu Division! ”

Lin Wen Bingcun has more than 100,000 stones of grain and beans in the North Gate Warehouse and the surrounding South Gate Warehouse, South New Warehouse, North New Warehouse, Taicang and other warehouses, which makes the moths in these warehouses look extremely hot. However, these group of beetles are all well-versed old fritters, who can be bullied casually, who must be stammered, they know very well, they can fight against Shanxi businessmen in the business war, and they can get so much grain to store here in this war and famine. Hoarding. With this kind of means and ability, how can a few petty officials of the seventh or eighth grade and people who are not famous in the stream be able to provoke it? What's more, this master is generous and gives rewards from time to time. It's better to wait for it!

"Lin Da shopkeeper. You save 27,000 and 320 stone japonica rice here. Thirty-five thousand two hundred and seventeen stone beans are all here, and the accounts match. Please check the shopkeeper's check. ”

The cangda mission of the North Gate Warehouse Kuding opened the semi-underground granaries, those granaries made of huge bricks and stones, in this era to achieve constant temperature and humidity, and no insects and ants, even if the rats are thrown in, the rats will turn around and run. (If you are interested, you can search for the introduction of the old granary in Beijing, and the above introduction is also true.) However, such facilities and equipment may not be able to prevent the group of rats in front of them.

At present, the price of food in the capital is changing several times a day, and this group of rats has long looked at the fat in front of them and swallowed I don't know how much saliva, but they don't dare!

"Shopkeeper Lin, when are you going to sell this grain and rice? If you make a move, you have a few friends in the food line and can share some of it for you. ”

"That's it! At present, the price of grain in the city has reached the point of five or six taels of silver per stone of rice, and if these tartars do not leave, the grain transported by Nanzhili will not be able to enter the city, and the price of grain in this city will rise! ”

Lin Wenbing heard the singing and harmony of the two ambassadors, and he smiled, "Everyone, do you think Lin doesn't plan to make money?" Helpless! These grains are the military rations that my master has long ordered me to prepare for the Qinwang army, and I dare not touch them! ”

Speaking of the food prepared for Qin Wangjun, several officials didn't dare to say anything.

The Tartars outside the city are still flowing in all directions, not long ago, a white flag of the Tartars actually rushed to Nanhaizi, rushed in to collect a lot, saw that there was no oil and water, so they went away in a huff, along the Tonghui River towards Tongzhou Gaoli Village, as if looking for something, shocked the state and county officials along the way, the generals of the army were shocked three times a day, closed the door and did not dare to fight.

However, the hundreds of thousands of stones of good grain and rice piled up in several warehouses around the area can be seen and eaten, and this taste is really difficult!

"So be it! I only need to leave an integer, 20,000 stones, and the rest will be sold at the price of five taels of silver and one stone, which can be regarded as relief for the people in the city. ”

Listening to Lin Wenbing's words, several cang ambassadors were even more beautiful than hearing the 360,000 Jialing birds singing in unison before the Buddha drove. It's clearly the sound of silver! High-quality japonica rice, five taels of silver and one stone? This is clearly to provoke us to make a fortune!

"If you pay in silver dollars, you will receive twenty-three silver dollars for every five stones."

An understatement made several warehouse ambassadors even more excited.

Outside the city, along the Tonghui River in the direction of Tongzhou, a puff of smoke and dust rolled up in the fields.

Tang Chang led dozens of scouts under his command, rushed all the way along the North Canal, and turned into the Tonghui River valley at Tongzhou Gaolizhuang (today's Zhangjiawan Village, Tongzhou, Beijing), and followed the Tonghui River all the way to the west.

The scout team of less than a hundred people actually had nearly three hundred mules and horses, almost to the level of three or four horses per person, and in the open field, an overwhelming pillar of smoke was raised.

In the smoke column, you can vaguely see the white flag of Jiannu and the banner inlaid with red flags, from the distribution of the allocation of Shiku to the growth.

"Here comes the Tartars!"

A frightened cry came from a group of Ming troops a few miles away from them, and they were immediately in chaos.

This Ming army is the lower barracks of Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong Town, and I heard that someone in the west of the Wuqing River defeated the Tartars, so I also wanted to go to get a piece of the pie, and by the way, I mixed a few days of delicious food and drink, and I didn't want to meet the Tartars here! Looks like these Tartars are here to find the bad luck of the guy who killed them! We are still heroes who don't suffer immediate losses, and thirty-six plans are the best!

Think about the white flag Tartar I encountered in the suburbs of Beijing a few days ago. Isn't it also a menacing scurrying around, looking for the bad luck of a certain army?

For a time, swords, guns and flags were abandoned, and armor and baggage were all thrown away. I only hate my grandmother for having two legs less.

Tang Chang and the others rode their horses and rushed to the outside of Gaoli Village, and when they saw the flags, swords, guns and a lot of baggage tents that had been discarded, they couldn't help but mock, "Such an army is embarrassed to come to us to ask for military merits?" A few Tartar flags scared them so much that they almost ran out! ”

"Captain, what should we do?"

One of the scouts turned around and straightened the bundles of Jiannu armor on the mule's back, tightened the rope that bound a few Tartar heads, and instructed Tang to change his next move.

"What to do. Cold! ”

Look at the abandoned supplies all over the ground. Even if the Nanzhong Army has never lacked military salaries and rations, the idea of careful planning has long been deeply rooted in everyone's bones.

"Leave ten people and put these things together. Bookmark well. Wait until we report to the capital. Then go back to the camp and report to the lord! ”

Tang Chang and the others were sent out by the Shouhan to report to Emperor Chongzhen and the adults in Beijing, in order to prove that they had indeed won the battle. Instead of those officials and soldiers often doing the habit of turning defeat into victory and killing good and risking merits, Shouhan deliberately selected some captured Jiannu flags, armor, and heads for the scouts to carry as evidence.

Piggybacking on it can make the officers and soldiers who gather like flies around roll a little farther away.

I don't want to, but I got the effect in this Goryeo Village today.

"I knew that I would have let the brothers swing around the camp under the banner of Tartar every day when they practiced horses."

A scout fumbled with the knives and guns discarded by Datong Town, and expressed his opinion with regret.

This rather large horse team, through Gaoli Village to Yangzha Village, along the course of the Tonghui River all the way to the northwest, traveled only dozens of miles, then continued to encounter a small group of Ming troops, at first or the towns to come to the aid of the officers and soldiers, but, slowly, the number of the Beijing camp troops became more and more.

However, without exception, none of the troops dared to attack this horse team with a number of horses, everyone in the team wearing armor, and vaguely seeing the banner of Jiannu, and they did not even have the idea of interception, just a few firecracks from a distance.

When Tang Chang and the others fled all the way in fright, and entered the ground on the outskirts of Beijing with great smoothness, Zhu Youzhen, the emperor of Chongzhen, was furious with the gentlemen of the cabinet on the platform.

Behind the throne there are eunuchs holding umbrellas and fans, and there are many eunuchs standing on both sides of the throne. Two one-person-high bronze crane incense burners are emitting fine smoke, the hall is full of strange fragrance, and there are two rows of brocade guards standing outside the hall, and the honor guard in the hand is shining golden in the rising sun in the morning.

And Zhu Youzhen himself, looking at the first and second assistants who were prostrate at his feet from the throne, suddenly felt weak for no reason. Since he ascended the throne, he has always wanted to use Guò's own hard work to achieve the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty in his own hands, but in the past few years, the cruel reality has ruthlessly shattered his idea.

"When the emperor and the emperor brother, why didn't they have so many things?"

He couldn't help but think of his elder brother Zhu Youxiao, the emperor of the Apocalypse, when the old eunuch Wei Zhongxian was in charge of government affairs for the imperial brother. "Could it be that I killed Wei Zhongxian and killed the wrong one?!" Such a terrible thought popped up in the back of his mind.

However, he immediately drove this thought out of his mind and began to think about the important military aircraft in front of him.

At the beginning of August, Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong, attacked the Qing troops in Zhuozhou, and beheaded more than 1,000 people.

The two governors and supervisors Zhang Fengyi and Liang Tingdong, who led tens of thousands of troops outside, but were passive and timid and did not dare to fight, according to the report of Dongchang Fanzi, these two people were anxious every day, and they could not be exempted from their crimes, so they took rhubarb medicine every day to die.

"Two useless things. Want to die? When Dongnu retires, I will definitely give you a good way to die! Chongzhen didn't dare to kill those generals who led the troops, but for these so-called superintendents who had no armed team in their hands, they didn't even blink an eye when they killed them.

"What's the current military situation?"

Zhu Youzhen's voice was like the water in the wax moon, cold and gloomy.

"The day before yesterday, you waited for the performance, and there was a tributary team, how was the situation?"

"It was rumored outside that the tributary team was besieged by the Jiannu Zheng White Flag and the Red Flag Division, and all of them had been martyred. Now. Tens of thousands of Jiannu cut off the road between Beijing and Tianjin, and small groups of rangers haunted the suburbs of Beijing, as if they were ready to offend His Majesty! ”

The first assistant of the cabinet, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the scholar of the East Pavilion University, Wen Tiren, knelt on the ground in fear, and told Chongzhen, who was in a thunderous rage, about the military situation in front of him.

"What about Lu Xiangsheng? Where did he go?! Isn't his Tianxiong army known as being able to fight and dare to fight? Why is it delayed?! ”

The Son of Heaven was furious, and the palace maids around him were all trembling, and everyone did not dare to come out, for fear of harming the pond fish. Only Wen Tiren continued to play back to Chongzhen unhurriedly.

"A few days ago, I received Lu Xiangsheng's inscription, his department has arrived in Zhending Mansion, and is now in the Baoding area, and he will soon enter Gyeonggi to fight Dongnu."

In order to defend against the invasion of Jiannu. Chongzhen summoned Lu Xiangsheng to lead the army into the guard. Give Shang Fang sword again. At this time, Lu Xiangsheng, as the head of the military department, was the prime minister of the military affairs of the seven provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jin, Henan, Chu, Shandong, and Jiangbei, and had just defeated Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng's more than 10,000 armored cavalry with more than 1,000 Tianxiong troops in Chuzhou and Qixiang Mountain, and pursued and killed the defeated Gao Yingxiang's department for more than 50 miles, and originally planned to take advantage of the victory to pursue and eliminate Gao Yingxiang's department in one fell swoop. but received this holy decree from Chongzhen. As a last resort. Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to lead the army north to come to the rescue. Gao Yingxiang crashed headlong into Hong Chengchou's big net, and Li Zicheng and others escaped by luck and got a chance to breathe.

I heard that Lu Xiangsheng, who has always been famous for his ability to fight and good fighting, has passed the Zhending Mansion. And another Hong Chengchou, who can fight in battle, also arrived in Huailai, and there are two famous generals around Gyeonggi, who must be able to drive Dongnu away soon.

"Is there any military information there?"

Chongzhen asked in a low voice to Wang Chengen, who was standing behind him.

Although he killed Wei Zhongxian, after a few years of wrestling with civil officials and the cabinet, he still preferred to believe in these eunuchs who came out of the Xinwang Mansion.

"Back to the emperor's words, the Dongnu who went to Changping to disturb the mausoleum have been withdrawn, and Gao Gonggong led some of the soldiers and horses of the three battalions to the southeast, because there are often Dongnu rangers in this area recently, about the size of Jiannu Niulu, Gao Gonggong is worried that they will suddenly attack the Beijing Division. Yesterday, there was an urgent report of the military situation, saying that there was a white flag and a red flag Jiannu crossed the west bank of the canal in Tongzhou, so the Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen were particularly tight, and the morale of the garrison was fluctuating. ”

Hearing that the eunuch who supervised the army and horses of the governor Tianxia Qinwang sent by him was so powerful, Chongzhen couldn't help but snort at the corner of his mouth, which was regarded as expressing satisfaction.

"Gentlemen, please. Give tea, give a seat. ”

Wen Tiren and the others hurriedly kowtowed and thanked him, stood up, and several little eunuchs were called in by Wang Chengen, and placed a few rosewood chairs diagonally opposite the emperor. As soon as they sat down, the eunuchs brought the emperor's tea to their faces, so they had to stand up again and bow down to thank them.

"How are the soldiers and horses of the three battalions distributed? What is the dynamic of Shaanxi thieves since Gao Yingxiang was captured? How to dispose of it? ”

After several cabinet scholars sat down in their chairs, they began to discuss the defense of the capital division under Chongzhen's question.

"Part of it is guarding the city, and part of it is stationed outside Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen. Originally, a part of it was stationed outside the Desheng Gate to support Changping. Now that the soldiers and horses of King Qin are coming from all over the place, Changping is safe, and this part of the people and horses have also withdrawn to Chaoyangmen. Leave it to the control and command of the high father-in-law. ”

"At present, according to Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, after the thieves Gao Yingxiang was captured, some were defeated, some were annihilated, and some surrendered, and there was not much left. At present, the army is in hot pursuit, blocking on all sides, and the service period is flattened. The rest of the stubborn people wanted to go to Henan, the people were wide, and they couldn't go to Sichuan, so they had to flee north from Shangluo Mountain. When Hong Chengchou left Shaanxi, he had already arranged heavy troops on various major roads, set up ambushes and nets to wait, and he thought that he would arrive in Beijing in a few days. ”

When Wen Tiren was reporting Chongzhen's question unhurriedly, he suddenly heard a tidal shout from outside the imperial city, the sound was noisy and chaotic, from far and near.

The people in the hall immediately stopped talking, and turned their attention to the source of the great noise.

"What are you doing in a daze?! Go out and find out! ”

Wang Chengen scolded the little eunuch on duty, and the little eunuch went out like waking up from a dream.

"Tang Shuren's affairs have been done?"

The Tang Shu people in Chongzhen's mouth are Zhu Yujian, the Tang King of the Tang Dynasty who was in Nanyang Mansion, Henan, and heard the news that Jiannu had entered the Kou and the Beijing Division was under martial law, so he advocated the establishment of the King of Soldiers in accordance with Chongzhen's edict. However, this is a big taboo since Chengzu Zhu Di! Since Chengzu Zhu Di, it has been clearly stipulated that the pro-clan is not in charge of the army, and the prince's army is only guarded, and the clan is not good at interfering in politics. It is also to prevent the emergence of a second Yan King. Zhu Yujian led the Qinwang soldiers composed of guards in his palace just arrived in Kaifeng, and was dissuaded by local officials and the king of Zhou, and could not go north anymore. With his younger brother Zhu Yuzhen as the king of Tang. And Zhu Yujian himself was sent to Fengyang to be imprisoned within the high walls.

The monarchs and ministers tried to calm themselves down and not think about the most terrible thing, but they were all thinking in their hearts, "Could it be that Dongnu really came down the city along the canal?" ”

"Ancestor! Ancestor! ”

The little eunuch who was sent out by Wang Chengen to inquire about the news gestured to Wang Chengen in a panic, trying to call Wang Chengen out.

"It's right here! I'm here, can the sky still fall?! ”

"Back to the emperor's words, it is said outside the imperial city, outside the Qihua Gate, there is a sudden appearance of the white flag of Jiannu and the banner of the red flag, and the soldiers and horses of the three battalions are a little flustered, and the military situation is unstable!"

Qihuamen is the name of Chaoyangmen in the Yuan Dynasty, and some people still call this name Chaoyangmen at this time.

The faces of several people suddenly turned pale, could it be that Jiannu really wanted to break through Beijing?! However, the next wave of sound was unexpectedly pleasant.

"Great victory! Our South Chinese Army won a great victory in Hexi! ”

Many people followed the horses of Tang Chang and others in the city, galloping and shouting all the way, spreading the news of this victory to every corner of the city.

"Great victory! A total of more than 6,000 Dongnu were killed! ”

"Great victory! Kill more than 100 leaders at all levels below the Dongnu Red Banner Jiala! Countless cane flags have been captured! ”

"Great victory! More than 100 Dongnu were captured alive and sacrificed to His Majesty! ”

The soldiers and civilians in the area of Qipan Street outside the Daming Gate looked at the palace and shouted loudly and loudly.

The staff of the Ministry of War, Shi Langzhong, held the report document in his hand, and under the guidance of the squire, he rushed to the master of ceremonies with several directors holding some flags, armor, knives and guns.

Wang Dehua, the eunuch with palm prints waiting there, his hands trembled and he could barely hold the thin few pages, and he rushed straight to the platform, and behind him, the waiter, Lang Zhong, the chief and others followed at a trott.

"Emperor! In Hexi Town, Wuqing County, the Southern Chinese Army of the Ming Dynasty broke the white flag of Jiannuzheng, inlaid with red flags, and inlaid with red flags Mongolian Jiala, beheaded 6,000, and captured more than 120 people, dedicated to His Majesty! ”

"What's going on?"

In the face of the sudden good news, Chongzhen also tried his best to maintain the demeanor of a gentleman, not asking about the good news, but first asking why he was flustered.

"Tang Chang, the messenger of the Nanzhong Army, carried the captured Jiannu flag, which was placed on the shoulder for convenience, and ran all the way, the flag was swept up by the wind, and the soldiers of the three battalions mistakenly thought that Jiannu was coming, so there was a misunderstanding!" (To be continued......)