Shenyang, Liaoyang, Changchun...... A geographical term that has made people feel heart-wrenching or unfamiliar has appeared in front of people one after another in the past two years. People can know these place names through newspapers and other channels, and know those geographical words that belong to the Northeast, but for them, the Northeast is still far away.

The reason why it is far away is not only because the northeast is located in the northernmost part of the Ming Dynasty, but not only because of the bitter cold there. It is also because of the frequent "Northeast Flow" in "New Ming Law", where the exiles are, and like overseas, they are all places of fullness and exiles, and they are the places where savages haunt.

A mountain customs is divided into inside or outside the customs, the inside of the customs is the sky, and the outside of the customs is the earth. Heaven inside the gate, hell outside the gate. For many people, this is the case, and because of this, when Pan Renyuan led the horse and waited to cross the city, he could see those panicked prisoners, when they walked out of the gate, most of them were full of tears, reluctantly looking back at the gate, looking back step by step.

This is an exiled prisoner who was exiled outside the border, and the biggest difference between the "New Ming Law" and the old law is that there are many exiles, not exiles for thousands of miles, but exiles in the northeast or overseas, and almost all crimes, as long as they are not the crime of killing the head, are often exiles in foreign lands.

The exiles of the Ming Dynasty are permanent, and although they have a sentence, after the end of the sentence, they cannot return to their hometowns and can only settle in the place of exile. Although the government gave acres of land and cultivated land, exile was still a terrible punishment, because it meant not only being far away from home and familiar places, but also becoming a permanent stranger, leaving the homeland in the background.

The outcasts were often tied one by one by a thick hemp rope, while the policemen escorted them with bayonets unsheathed and eyed the front and back of the procession.

When the cries and shouts of the prisoners rang out at the gate, the listeners were sad and wept, but the police officers at the gate seemed to have become numb to all this, and they didn't even look at it. Just checking the documents of the pedestrians entering the customs.

Since two years ago, the imperial court has established an identity management system for the common people on the basis of household registration, carried out a huge project of household registration management and registration, and issued household registration certificates to every citizen, which must be carried when traveling according to the law for inspection. The household registration certificate also replaced the "road guide", thus making it convenient for the people, so that they could travel at will, without having to leave their hometown for hundreds of miles as in the past, and they had to go to the government to get the road guide first, and even be blackmailed by the officials.

However, not everyone has a "household registration certificate", Pan Renyuan does not have a "household registration certificate", but he has a substitute certificate.

"Return permit?"

The police took the "return permit" and carefully checked the description of the appearance on the card.

"The face is white, and the lips are less ......"

The reason why the police will carefully check it is because the "return to the hometown" is a certificate for the return of exiles who have completed their sentences, and of course their return to their hometowns is not permanent, according to the law, they can only return to their hometowns for six months, and they return to their hometowns not only to visit their families, but also to take their wives and children to go to Guanwai, or to return to their hometowns to get married. In short, in a word, after half a year, they will not only return to the penal colony by themselves, but also bring their wives and children with them.

Although this homecoming permit is not a good thing, it is a must for entering the customs. Every year, I don't know how many daredevils enter the customs with fake certificates, and even rob them to be confused, so they can't be careless.

After some inspection, the police took another look at Pan Renyuan, and then picked up the big seal in his hand.

"Tom!"

The moment the red seal was stamped, the policeman said to Pan Renyuan.

"Today is the 23rd day of the lunar month, if the 23rd day of May is not sealed at this level, do you know what will happen?"

"Yes."

Pan Renyuan nodded and replied.

"For every day of tarnishing, he shall serve one month of hard labor, and those who are one month late shall be a thousand miles away, and those who are half a year late shall be in exile in a new land."

For these rules, when he received the return permit, Pan Renyuan had already remembered it in his heart, and naturally he would not forget it.

Half an hour later, when he walked out of the gate and stepped on the land in the pass, Pan Renyuan's mood couldn't help but change. originally thought that he would not feel anything, Pan Renyuan only felt that his eyes were hot, and tears almost welled up.

It's been two years!

In the past two years and four months, Pan Renyuan has set foot on the customs for the first time, and when he first arrived outside the customs, he even thought that there was no hope of returning to the customs in this life.

Now, back in Guannai again, back to the prosperous land of the Central Plains, how can he not be excited?

Where do you go when you enter the customs?

Let's go to Beijing.

In a few days, it will be the New Year, and there should be some old friends to visit.

Two days later, when Pan Renyuan arrived in Beijing by public carriage, he had not even entered the city gates when he found that the place seemed to be more depressed than in the past. Many years ago, when he was under the rule of the Manchu Dynasty, he came to the capital to take the test, and the capital at that time was very lively, especially the Chongwenmen tax gate, even in the cold winter wax moon, you can also line up a long line, but now, there are only a few people in the Chongwenmen.

The empty inner city, the empty streets, only seem so quiet that it is hard to believe that this will be Beijing, will be the imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty.

No, this is the former imperial capital!

After several tosses, Pan Renyuan still found an old friend, he is a native of Beijing, although they are not classmates, but they are the same year, they also had a wine and talk together, the meeting of the deceased naturally made Li Huaping quite happy, although the meal time has passed, he still instructed the servants to prepare the meal, because the New Year is approaching, this family is full of wine and meat, so there is no need to deliberately Zhang Luo, so a table of meals was purchased. In addition, Li Huaping even specially invited a few friends to wash the dust for Pan Renyuan.

At the beginning of the banquet, everyone naturally complimented Pan Renyuan, complimenting him for his outspokenness and benevolence, of course, in his words, there was naturally dissatisfaction with the court. For these words, Pan Renyuan was about the same, and just casually agreed.

For him, he has already paid the price for his righteousness back then, and his price is to be confiscated in Changchun, the new city that was built just two years ago.

"What does Changchun look like? Is it not far from the ancient tower of Manchuria? Every winter, does the water drip into ice? ”

Although I can see the Northeast from the newspaper, I don't really know about the Northeast, whether it is Li Huaping or the other people sitting with me, so I am naturally a little curious.

"Changchun in Shenyang north of hundreds of miles, Yongli 16 years, the 43rd battalion commander of the loyal army Li Fengting led the troops to recover, and built a new city here, the city wall is nine miles in circumference, there are more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians inside and outside the city, most of them are exiled prisoners in the mainland. It's only a few hundred miles from Ningguta, and it's cold or not......"

Looking at the people in the room who were still wearing cotton clothes while drinking wine, Pan Renyuan smiled.

"Although it is bitterly cold in the northeast, in winter, because of the ondol, the house is warmer than in the gate."

"It's really comfortable to have a fire kang in winter, but it costs a little coal."

Wang Li, who was on the side, asked again when he answered.

"Isn't Changchun the northernmost part of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Yes and no."

Pan Renyuan nodded first, then shook his head and said.

"Although it is now the northernmost city of my three eastern provinces, however, it is not the end of the governor's palace, I have heard the garrison military Zuo mention, thousands of miles to the north, are my Ming land, but on the bank of the Heilongjiang River, there are fortresses built by the Russians, and now the northeast authorities focus on stabilizing the place first, and then expanding to the north, once the situation in the northeast is stable, it will definitely send troops to drive the Russians."

They didn't know much about the Russians, even Pan Renyuan didn't know much about them, and soon he changed the topic and talked about the Northeast.

"Actually, the Northeast is not as barren as everyone thinks, the land there is more fertile, as far as the eye can see, it can be said that it is a thousand miles of Pingchuan, in that kind of land, just sprinkle a handful of seeds, you can harvest a few stones, but it is not suitable for growing sorghum, millet, wheat, because the weather is too cold."

"And what's grown there?"

As soon as Li Huaping heard that they did not grow sorghum, millet, or wheat, they immediately became curious.

"If you have dozens of acres of land at home, such as the Rongmin people who are placed in the northeast, they have at least 150 acres of Xuntian, plant hundreds of acres of corn, and can harvest at least 10,000 catties of corn a year, and then plant some potatoes, and then plant some pasture, and sell corn to the market, eat potatoes in winter, raise a few horses and cows at home, and it is no problem to collect a few hundred taels of silver a year,"

The so-called "Honored People" are the retired Ming army, not only the loyal army, but also the Ming army and the righteous army in various places, a considerable part of them were placed in the northeast, of course, in return, the Xuntian given to them is also half or even twice as much as the Guannai, which also makes the northeast instantly more nearly 100,000 landlords.

"In fact, many of them do not grow by themselves, but recruit a few tenants, those tenant farmers farm for them, and then they collect sixty percent of the rent, even so, that is also inexhaustible to eat and drink, they are the Ming Dynasty honors, Xunmin, Xuntian according to the law preferential ......"

Although there was no sarcasm in Pan Renyuan's words, in the ears of Li Huaping and others, they all said indignantly.

"Today, he treats Qiu Ba like a child, treats a scholar like an enemy, and treats Qiu Ba so generously, when he goes west in the future, does he mean to go to this group of well-pampered Qiu Ba to recover Shaanxi?"

The reason why Li Huaping said this is not only because Shaanxi has not yet been recovered, but also because he is still envious of the opportunities of those Qiu Ba, who can get a large piece of land for nothing, and they do not have to pay land taxes and bear forced labor. On the other hand, scholars often did not have such generous preferential treatment.

"But no, then there is no such thing as Russia in the north, and Russia or something......"

"Russia."

"Yes, is that the Russians? In the future, just point to that group of people, can you still beat the Russians? ”

When they complained like this, Pan Renyuan rationally chose to be silent, he knew that the Northeast could be pacified in the past two years, precisely because of the nearly 100,000 military landlords in the Northeast, although they said that they had retired, but as soldiers in the township, they brought their own weapons, and once they received the order, they would immediately assemble to accept the command of the military commander.

"Hmph, I want to see, with the grace of those Qiu Ba today, how can I become the lord of Zhongxing, and how can there be such a Ming Monarch Holy Lord from ancient times to the present?"

Hearing that their topic slowly changed, Pan Renyuan diverted the topic and said.

"Huaitang, the younger brother first came to the capital, I don't know why, how can this capital be so deserted compared to the past? It stands to reason that at this time, it should be quite lively, right? ”

"Lively? How lively? ”

Li Huaping said bluntly.

"Now Beijing, that is, a name, don't forget, the imperial capital Shenjing is now in Zhongdu, that is, Qinghe County in the past."

The imperial capital moved to Qinghe!

Even in Changchun, Pan Renyuan had read it in the newspapers, and naturally knew the reason for moving the capital - to save the suffering of millions of stone grains every year. Of course, the people did not reduce the burden - the grain still had to be paid, but it was worth cash, but the use from the original supply to the Beijing division and the northern troops, into the official of Mr. Shexue, in the past two years, under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, almost ceased to run social science, once again flourished, although the imperial court gave Mr. Shexue Lu rice is not much, only a dozen stones a year, but it also shows the importance of the imperial court to culture and education.

For this kind of "good endowment" taken from the people and used by the people, the people will naturally not refuse. Because after the relocation of the capital, everyone in the world can benefit from the incomprehension of the grain, which makes the relocation of the capital extremely smooth.

However, it was not without opposition, both officials who said that "the ancestral system of the Son of Heaven guarding the border" opposed it, and there was also opposition from the officials and gentlemen of Beizhili, after all, they knew what moving the capital meant for Beizhili, which meant decline.

It's like the capital now.

"Hasn't it only been a few months since we moved away? How is it now decaying like this? ”

Pan Renyuan asked in surprise.

"It's been a few months, but how many Beijing officials are there? How many honors are there? More than 100,000 people left here, how many businesses in this capital either closed down or moved their business to Zhongdu because they left, how many people were in this capital in the past? When Emperor Lie was in the meeting, at most, there were almost no less than a million, and how many are there now? However, with only 300,000, this capital is no longer the capital of the past......"

Probably the biggest impact of moving the capital is a local native like Li Huaping, who is not a businessman or an official, and cannot move their family to the central capital, but can only watch Beijing fall into decay. Referring to the decline of the capital, Li Huaping and others all sighed with lamentation, they had originally welcomed the arrival of the present day happily, but in the end, they did not expect that in exchange for the departure of the new dynasty.

"This new dynasty, ah......"

With a long sigh, looking at Pan Renyuan, Li Huaping smiled helplessly.

"Brother Clery, just take your time, this new dynasty is very different from the past......

New Dynasty!

When he heard these two words, Pan Renyuan couldn't help but wonder in his heart, isn't the new dynasty the Ming Dynasty?