On November 13, the 17th year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, on both sides of Yifengmen Street in the north of Nanjing, crowds were crowded.

At this moment, in the northwest area of Nanjing, close to the Yangtze River and the Qinhuai River, there have long been countless houses, markets everywhere, and dense population. Every day from morning to night, it is a bustling scene. But today is an exception, inside and outside the west wall of the inner city of Nanjing, on both sides of the Qinhuai River, those places where fireworks flourish, but now they have become very deserted, and the alleys are empty. People gathered on both sides of Yifengmen Street and North Zushi'an Street, on the city tower of Yifengmen and the nearby city wall, and on the Lion Rock on the north side of Yifengmen Street.

So many people gathered in this northernmost corner of the inner city of Nanjing for only one purpose, that is, to see the tartars!

Look at the evil and ferocious, who is bent on digging up the grave of Confucius, cutting off the roots of the famous religion, and turning the Han people into clothed slaves!

The negative publicity for the Tartars began in September and has been going on for almost two months now.

However, because the means of propaganda are still relatively limited, there are only two kinds of posting notices and distributing leaflets, and there is no special "propaganda department", so it can only be made a cameo by Jinyiwei and the Donggong guard battalion, so the effect is not very good.

The people of Nanjing were also not very convinced, and some of them saw the Ming court controlled by Zhu Cihong as an insatiable foreign power. After suppressing the nobles and ministers of Nanjing who tried to be the king of Qin, they were all trying to loot and gather! First, the salt tax was levied, then the house was raided, then the chatian (the military field, the official field and the hidden field occupied by Cha Xungui), and recently there were rumors that the customs duties and commercial taxes would be levied strictly!

Although in October, Zhu Cihong issued an order of "five years of grain exemption", exempting the field tax from the eighteenth year of Chongzhen to the next five years, and at the same time stopping the three salaries and increasing the distribution, it can be regarded as a little relief for the peasants in the southeast. But this decompression only makes sense for yeoman farmers, and does not do the gentry, landlords and tenants any good, and even harms!

Because the five-year exemption and the cessation of the three-salary increase not only reduce the burden of self-cultivated farmers, but also reduce the value of "trickery" - since the imperial court does not accept land endowments and additional distributions, what is the meaning of the gentry's tax-free privilege?

At the same time as the exemption from the levy of land and the addition of assignees, the government offices called the "military fields" that specialized in the management of military fields and official fields (including confiscated hidden fields and private fields) began to appear in various parts of Nanzhili. Although for the time being, these yamen were only responsible for the management of the land copied from the nobles and ministers of Nanjing. But everyone knows that they will soon replace the original guards and bring the military fields under the names of more than 100 guards in the southeast into their jurisdiction, which will seriously infringe on the interests of the gentry in the southeast!

In addition, a yamen called the General Taxation Department also appeared under the name of the household department...... The appearance of this yamen made many gentry smell the smell of "mining tax boom"!

Especially those southeastern gentry who live in Nanjing, they now know that the ability of the prince of Fujun, who is now in power in the Ming Dynasty, is far more than that of the old Wanli Emperor back then......

For such a "gathering prince", Nanjing Shilin naturally has no good impression. It's just that since September, Jinyiwei has been strictly investigating the "remnants of the eunuch party" - several culprits of the Nanjing eunuch rebellion, such as Han Zanzhou, Zhu Guobi, and Zhao Zhilong, have not been executed or formally tried, which means that the investigation is not over!

Therefore, the atmosphere in Nanjing City was a little tense, and the scholars were more careful when they spoke. Therefore, Zhu Cihong's reputation has not completely stinked......

But the big guy doesn't believe much in the propaganda of the imperial court controlled by Zhu Cihong to smear the Tartars.

Tartars are also human, how can they be so ferocious?

How could it be worse than the Ming Dynasty emperor who only knew about accumulation?

Therefore, today I heard that the Tartar delegation was coming to Nanjing, and the curious people and gentry of Jinling gathered in the area inside and outside the Yifeng Gate, which the mission must pass through to enter the city, to see with their own eyes the appearance of the Tartars and see if they were really fierce.

Now the murderous Tartar has not yet appeared, but the soldiers of the new army who look as fierce as the Tartar have been three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, and they have been standing from the wharf outside the Yifeng Gate to the street outside the Drum Tower - there is a house on the side of the Nanjing Drum Tower that is ready to be assigned to the Dongguan Bo Su Guansheng, because Count Su is still in Denglai and has not returned, so it is temporarily returned to the management of the Generalissimo's Mansion, and it is used to place the Tartar Mission.

The soldiers of the new army standing guard are all "heroes" who have just divided the fields and the lady, and they only returned to the camp one after another in mid-October, everyone is full of enthusiasm, and now they are all "697" training intensity, and they eat well, and they look like they are a hundred times more energetic, and the Beijing battalion soldiers who staggered before are completely two species......

Just when the gentry and common people of Nanjing City were a little afraid of the soldiers of the New Army who were becoming more and more energetic, the Tartars also disembarked from the official ship coming from Yangzhou.

There were not only the envoys, but also the Tartar soldiers who escorted the envoys, all of them with shaved heads, braided with money rat tails, clothed in cloth armor, carrying spears, and waist knives, and listed four columns, swaggering.

Look...... It doesn't seem to be much more fierce than the people of the New Army!

The Tartar soldiers were followed by three Tartar officials marching on horseback, all wearing Tartar costumes and with braids, and three brocade guards wearing flying fish suits walking beside them on horseback, and they didn't know whether to accompany or guard?

The onlookers began to talk at this time.

"This Tartar doesn't look as fierce as Chitose Ye's new army!"

"Of course it's not as good, this is not a real Tartar, but a Tartar Han army...... Didn't the public unveiling (leaflet) say it? There were also many Han troops under the Tartars, all of whom were Han people who had taken refuge in them. ”

"Remember, it seems that what is the first to be a clothed slave, follow the master to fight, and after meritorious service, you can be promoted to the Han army and incorporated into the Han army flag."

"Why do you want to be a cloth slave in the first place?"

"It is said that unless the generals who defected and the civil officials who took refuge before the Tartar Emperor moved the capital to Beijing, the rest of the Han people had to be coated servants under the rule of the Tartars......"

"What is a coated minion?"

"It's a slave! Lives are all people's, they can be killed or sold, and their wives are all slaves, and the master can sleep if he wants, and he can't resist yet! ”

"Isn't this the same as when Meng Yuan was in the same place?"

"There are many more culprits than Meng Yuan, who was a third-class Han and a fourth-class southern ...... at that time Now the Tartars who occupy Beijing want to turn all the Han people into clothed minions! ”

"Really? I don't believe it, there are so many of us Han people, and they have all become their slaves? ”

When people were talking, the Tartar mission had already arrived outside the Yifengmen Urn City. Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ming Rite Department, was waiting there with a few civil and military officials, and when he saw the arrival of the Tartar mission, he wanted to go up and talk - is the Ming Dynasty a state of etiquette, and he still needs to be entertained for the invitation.

But at this moment, I don't know if it was the negligence of the soldiers of the new army who maintained order, or for some other reason, I saw an elderly man dressed as a Confucian student, suddenly striding out of the crowd, and in full view of everyone, he quickly came to Yifeng Gate, blocking between Qian Qianyi and the others and the Tartar Mission.

What's going on? Qian Qianyi hurriedly turned his head to look at the new army commander who was in charge of the order of Yifengmen. But this Yu Daxie didn't seem to see anything, just stood straight and solemn.

"Is it Sun Longfu in front? In the city of Lower Tong Nguyen Dacheng...... As soon as the Beijing teacher parted, it was seventeen years in the blink of an eye! ”

Ruan Dacheng! That eunuch Ruan Dacheng! When did he come to Nanjing? Is it to catch up with Sun Zhiji, who is also the backbone of the eunuch party? No, the two of them don't know each other well! And why did Ruan Dacheng say goodbye to Sun Zhiqi for seventeen years? In the first year of Chongzhen, Ruan Dacheng had already abandoned his official position to write operas at home...... What the hell is going on?

Qian Qianyi squinted his eyes to look, all he saw was a back, and he wanted to step forward to stop the two eunuch remnants from reminiscing. was pulled by Li Guorui, the Marquis of Wuqing who came with him to greet the Tartar mission.

"Qian Ge guy," Li Guorui said with a smile, "Watch the play!" ”

Watching a play? What kind of play to watch? Qian Qianyi was stunned and stunned.