Chapter 139: Cooking Oil with Fire (I)

Beijing, Forbidden City

The red wall is bright tile, the eaves are arched, the heavy buildings are stacked, and the carved beams are painted.

Can't get enough of the splendor, endless imperial style, endless wealth and honor.

Last year's residence of the Ming Emperor has become this year's Imperial City of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.

And those concubines of the Qing Dynasty who had just moved out of the bitter cold place of Shengjing in Liaodong not long ago and moved into the Forbidden City in Beijing were immediately dazzled by this largest palace in the East.

Although after two hundred years of ups and downs, the palace has left many traces of time. But in the eyes of the barbarian women who were born in the Mongolian steppes and the white mountains and black waters, this is still a real Qionglou Yuyu and a heavenly palace!

“…… Sister! This room is so big! Did the emperor of the Ming Kingdom live here? ”

“…… Can each of our sisters have a big hall to live in now? When I was in Shengjing before, I really couldn't think about it? ”

“…… Oh, yes! What a blessing this time! Huh? Auntie, where did you get this little mirror in your hand? It's so beautiful! ”

“…… Oh, this! It's just a new thing that the minions at the bottom have come up with filial piety, and I heard that it is a foreign product from the south and overseas. There are many in today's Beijing market, which is not uncommon. I'll get you a few next time! By the way, how did you use the soap last time? ”

In addition to the large-scale "population for food" trade organized by the Jurchen Eight Banners on the shores of the Bohai Sea last autumn, many other small commodities of all kinds also entered the city of Beijing, which had just changed hands.

“…… Uh, it's used, it's very fragrant, but I'm still not used to my little girl still treating it as a pastry, and I almost ate it in my stomach without paying attention, and I was scared of something...... Speaking of things from the Ming Kingdom. I still prefer silk and recently made a new dress......"

“…… Hee-hee! I've heard about it! Sister, you actually use the silk curtains hanging in other people's palaces to make clothes! Shame on you! ”

“…… What's so embarrassing, don't you know, in our Horqin grassland, how many sheep can this silk exchange for? ”

……

Accompanied by the sound of chatter, the three most noble and favored aunts and nephews among the Jurchen lords, Emperor Taiji and concubines, Empress Zhezhe and Bumu Butai (i.e., Da Yuer. The future Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang) and Hai Lanzhu, who was newly married last year, these three noble concubines who were also from the Borzigit clan of the Horqin tribe in Mongolia. Wandering through the palaces of the Forbidden City in Beijing, I was curious and delighted to look at this huge building of varying heights and countless dazzling "luxury things" listed in it, and from time to time I let out a sigh of praise.

Although Emperor Chongzhen swept away most of the gold and silver in the palace before he fled; When the Shaanxi Liukou invaded Beijing, they raided the Forbidden City again. Next, in order to buy urgently needed food, cloth and other daily necessities from the traverser merchant fleet entrenched in Dagukou, Huang Taiji once again searched the Forbidden City. Even the bronze turtle and golden silk nanmu pillars on the temple were unloaded and sold...... But just the few things left in the palace, as well as the filial gifts that the minions had recently offered, were enough to make them, the poor women of different races, feel extremely excited.

On the other side, in the pavilion of the Imperial Garden, the tired little Gege sat on a stone bench covered with brocade mats, and attacked all kinds of exquisite pastries offered by the palace maids and eunuchs, like chipmunks with bulging cheeks. Gleefully feasting......

All in all, with the families of the magnates of the Eight Banners, they moved from Shengjing to Beijing one after another, and lived in various palaces and mansions. For a time, in the inner city of Beijing, where the powerful gathered, the sound of silk and bamboo was fluttering everywhere. The aroma of wine and food is pervasive, and the laughter is continuous. All the nobles of the Eight Banners who came out of the bitter cold land of the white mountains and black waters are enjoying the fruits of victory, and every day in Beijing is like heaven.

However, just outside the laughter and abundance of food and clothing, in the streets and alleys of the outer city where the poor lived. But it is full of unimaginable gloom and ruin, and more than 700,000 of the original millions of citizens have either died in the fire, or have been exiled, or have been sold overseas as piglets, and most of the rest have lost their livelihoods. In order to be able to eat a bite of food, I had to sharpen my head and beg for the Eight Banners masters.

Indeed, compared with the rogues who only knew how to burn, kill and plunder, Huang Taiji's political skills and ruling strategies were much more sophisticated, and after entering Beijing, he claimed that "urgent recruitment, first receiving people's popularity, is the first urgent task of this dynasty". Immediately, this heroic lord immediately began to buy people's hearts, first "with a big show, and the gentry of the previous dynasty to cleanse the former dirty order, the cabinet in Beijing, the six ministries, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other yamen officials, all with the original officials and the officials of the Eight Banners to do things as one, all civil and military officials, military and civilian people, etc., if they can be subjugated to our court, they are still allowed to be hired." "That is, to directly recruit the officials of the Chongzhen Imperial Court, and the commanders will be reinstated!

So he immediately made the civil and military ministers in Beijing who had won the Qing Dynasty officials instantly return to their hearts, and sang praises to Huang Taiji, the lord of the Mandate of Heaven.

Then, because he wanted to operate Beijing as the capital of the Qing Dynasty in the future, and could not spoil it, Huang Taiji strictly restrained military discipline in Beijing and forbade the plundering of the market at will. Except for a few Ming Dynasty nobles and clans who did not know the times, most of the industrial mansions of large families were protected.

However, these appeasement measures of the Qing court were all aimed at the gentry family. In order to buy a sufficient amount of grain from the battlefield bazaar opened by the traverser fleet at Dagukou, Huang Taiji directly dispatched troops to drive hundreds of thousands of displaced people who had gathered inside and outside Beijing to Tianjin, and lay countless corpses along the way, dumping them at the "maritime merchants" in Dagukou according to the "coarse grains" such as eight buckets of wheat or equivalent potatoes per adult man and woman, five buckets of wheat per person for the elderly and children, and a separate price for beautiful women.

In this way, Huang Taiji received a large amount of military rations and reduced the risk of civil unrest in the Gyeonggi area, which can be described as the best of both worlds, except for those displaced who were deprived of the right to speak. However, even if there is no such thing, in such a year of war, chaos and famine, and human life is as humble as grass, their fate is also a dead end, and they can be sold as piglets. Kind of lucky!

And the ordinary people in Beijing have also had a miserable life for most of the past six months. Before, there were successive military disasters and thousands of people were killed. Then the soldiers of the Eight Banners entered Beijing, and finally they didn't kill people indiscriminately, but there was a famine again, and the people of Shengdou were still in panic all day long, although through the "population for food" transaction with the traverser, the Qing Dynasty, which had just established power in Beijing, obtained at least five million stone or more of all kinds of grain, but Huang Taiji did not have the slightest intention of releasing grain for relief, but used all the grain and rice obtained from these transactions as military supplies for continuing to attack all parts of the Central Plains.

Therefore, at this time, the city of Beijing is still a scene of decay and decay to the extreme: dirty streets full of garbage, crumbling and dilapidated houses, and those sick and weak citizens with yellow faces and thin muscles, like a group of dying walking corpses, struggling with hunger and illness...... There are many smiling women in the neighborhoods and alleys, and all kinds of theft and robbery crimes are also rampant. However, under the curfew and killing orders issued by the Qing court, especially the deterrence of the pile of human heads outside the city gate, not many thieves dared to hit the head of the banner man.

However, the situation in the city of Beijing is far from being the worst After all, it is the imperial capital, which has extraordinary political significance, whether it is the Eight Banners or the Guanning rebels, they usually have to be a little more ferocious here, at least they will not wantonly slaughter the people in the streets.

And on the battlefields where the braided soldiers of the Great Qing Dynasty are headed, there are already corpses and a sea of blood...... (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )