This Wanggong Factory explosion should be the largest man-made explosion in history.
Not only did it cause huge casualties, it also caused huge economic losses.
Fortunately, it was daytime and many people had already gone out, which reduced the number of casualties a lot.
If it happened at night, I'm afraid this number would be several times higher.
In addition to the southwest corner of the capital being reduced to ruins, even the three main halls of the palace were damaged to varying degrees.
The resettlement of disaster victims and the repair of the palace are a huge expense.
The Bingzhan Bureau's firearms workshop was completely destroyed in this explosion.
All the gunpowder and firearms workshops were blown up, and a large number of craftsmen were injured and killed. Even the drawings were burned.
It was impossible to resume production for a while. In addition to the seven or eight thousand kilograms of gunpowder stored in the warehouse, a thousand flintlock muskets were also blown up.
Tian Ji, the Minister of Household Affairs, was in tears. In the past two years, the imperial court had finally got rid of the burden of Liaodong. The little money accumulated from trading with the Netherlands by imposing additional "Liao rates" and commercial taxes was spent now. not enough.
Although Dong Kewei, Minister of Industry and Industry, suffered broken arms in the explosion, it was still worth it to him.
A large number of buildings were damaged in the explosion, and the workload of the Ministry of Industry suddenly became much larger.
Just the restoration of the palace requires 3.5 million taels of silver. If you include the repairs and reconstruction of various places outside the palace, at least 5 million taels will be invested this year.
Where does the imperial court get so much money now? In the end, the Ministry of Revenue spent 1.2 million taels of silver to build the "three main halls" of the palace first, and the others could only be put away first.
After all, rumors are spreading in the capital now, and people are panicking.
Nowadays, rumors of the emperor's immorality continue to spread, causing wars to break out in various places. The peasant uprising that had gradually subsided is on the rise again.
If the people cannot be appeased quickly, big trouble is likely to occur.
Therefore, the court immediately carried out disaster relief. Although it only set up a few porridge sheds and distributed some porridge to the affected people, this was a rare quick response for the Ming court, which had always been inefficient.
In addition to giving porridge, the imperial court could only organize manpower to bury the unclaimed corpses in mass graves on the outskirts of Beijing.
But that's all the court can do.
Fortunately, it is summer now, and those people living on the streets will not freeze to death.
In fact, although there were a total of 20,000 casualties in this big explosion, the number of people who actually died unfortunately was only a few thousand people. Most of them were only slightly injured. These 20,000 people probably had some scratches and broken skin. Nails are included.
However, there are tens of thousands of homeless people.
The people below reported to the court in this way just to exaggerate the disaster situation and ask for more money for disaster relief, so that they could take advantage of the opportunity to embezzle.
As the initiator of this incident, Li Xianzhong still felt very guilty.
According to statistics from the Intelligence Department, approximately 2,000 civilians were seriously injured and required timely treatment.
So he asked Haqiya, disguised as Su Tai, to administer medicine and treat the injured people in the capital in the name of the Liao government and provide some tents!
After all, Su Tai had just entered the Duke's mansion and did not fully understand the situation in the mansion, so it was easy for him to expose himself.
I just took this opportunity to go out to apply medicine and slowly get to know the situation in the mansion.
At this time, the capital was in chaos, and even the Duke's Mansion had many buildings damaged.
Although Li Xianzhong's medicine was suspected of winning people's hearts, it also stabilized the situation for the court.
In the end, Wei Zhongxian agreed to Hazia's going out.
This move also won Li Xianzhong a lot of reputation. After all, apart from the imperial palace, the Duke of Liao suffered the greatest loss in this big explosion.
The Crystal Garden he spent a lot of money to build in the north of the city was in a mess, and almost all the glass greenhouses were damaged.
Under such circumstances, it is really a great act of kindness to donate medicine to the people in Beijing and send doctors to diagnose and treat them for free.
In particular, the Duke's wife Hazia personally came to the vicinity of Wang Gongchang every day to administer medicine to the injured people, which earned her a good reputation.
Although the imperial court has been blocking news about Liaodong, Liaodong's policy of light corvee and low taxes still spread to the capital. Many homeless people directly packed their bags and embarked on the journey to Shanhaiguan.
At this time, a royal censor came forward to impeach, saying that Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao, was trying to win people's hearts and was planning to do evil!
Everyone knows this truth. Li Xianzhong is spending his money to buy his reputation.
But if people are willing to spend money, what can you do?
Of course, the court could stop him from doing this and drive Hazia back to the Duke's palace.
But after doing so, if the court cannot pay to replace Li Xianzhong, it is likely to trigger a popular uprising.
The cost of applying medicine is much higher than that of giving porridge. Tian Ji said that the Ministry of Revenue is powerless. Whoever wants to stop Li Xianzhong from applying medicine should pay for it. Anyway, the Ministry of Revenue does not have so much money.
As for the refugees from the capital who fled to Liaodong, that would solve their big trouble. If all these refugees ran away, the court would not need to provide disaster relief.
A month later, Li Xianzhong's "Crystal Garden" was renovated, and all the original damaged glass greenhouses were rebuilt.
In order to increase the confidence of the people in the capital to resist the disaster, the Duke's wife decided to open the "Crystal Garden", which was originally not open to the people, to the people free of charge for ten days.
At the same time, the glass shop in Jingshi was also renovated, and a half-price glass discount was offered to old customers.
As long as the glass you bought at the shop was damaged this time, you can buy the glass that needs to be replaced at half price and install it for free.
Rich people actually don't have enough money to buy another piece of glass, but they just feel uncomfortable.
As a result, they started to buy large quantities of half-price glass. Some even took advantage of the half-price offer to buy more glass, replacing areas that had not been replaced with glass.
In just half a month, glass sales exceeded last year, and demand exceeded supply.
The glass inventory in the capital was directly emptied, and Li Xianzhong had to transport all the glass inventory in Liaodong to the capital.
Many homeless people were also recruited by the glass shop to become temporary installers.
Calculated in this way, excluding the replacement of glass in the Crystal Garden, the free medicine application by doctors in the capital, and the loss of donated tents, they actually made a huge profit, with a total of four to five million taels of silver.
However, the Apocalypse Emperor Zhu Youxiao has been unable to get over the grief of losing his beloved son, although he has gradually recovered under the treatment of Divine Doctor Wang.
But the frustrated Zhu Youxiao rarely went to court anymore. Most of the time he just worked alone in the carpentry room.
Although the "Nine Thousand Years Old" now controls the government, people without long-term worries must have immediate worries.
Emperor Tianqi's dragon body was deteriorating, making him have to worry about his future.
Although he and the guest family presented many beautiful women to His Majesty, their stomachs never responded.
So Wei Zhongxian said: "Doctor Wang, what happened to your majesty's dragon body? Can you have any more dragon heirs?"
Wang Huazhen shook her head helplessly and said: "Your Majesty has not fully recovered. The last time Concubine Ren gave birth to a dragon seed was probably just an accident. Now I am afraid it will be even more difficult!"
"Your Majesty is worried a lot right now. No matter how good my medical skills are, I still can't cure His Majesty's worries!"
"But Your Majesty is still young after all. If you can relax a little and get over the shadow of the Crown Prince's death as soon as possible, you may still have a chance."
"But be careful not to be stimulated anymore!"
Although I can report good news to His Majesty but not bad news, but now I have Sun Chengzong.
Even if he doesn't report it, Sun Chengzong will tell His Majesty.
However, Wei Zhongxian still asked Wang Huazhen to explain His Majesty's situation to Sun Chengzong, lest the old guy would have nothing to say to His Majesty.
But now Wei Zhongxian has to face more than just Sun Chengzong.
After the big explosion, in order to quell the rumors, the cabinet and Wei Zhongxian arranged for a long time for Dongchang, the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, and the Wucheng Military and Horse Division to jointly investigate the incident.
Although they judged that the explosion was mainly caused by the explosion of the gunpowder magazine of Wang Gong Factory.
But there was no evidence, because everything was blown up, and neither the mastermind nor the motive for the sabotage could be found.
On the contrary, the rumors of punishment from God became more and more outrageous.
After all, the rumors of "God's warning" are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Some censors even asked Emperor Tianqi to issue an edict to appease God's anger.
In order to appease people's hearts as soon as possible, Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youxiao had to issue the "Edict of Sin".
However, it was not just Li Xianzhong who made a big fuss about this matter. The Donglin Party and Fushe also felt that this was a good opportunity to attack eunuchs like Wei Zhongxian.
The first to launch a counterattack was the Qin Tian Jian. The Qin Tian Jian was an organization that monitored the astronomical phenomena. It was an anonymous government agency in normal times. This disaster gave them the right to speak.
Qin Tianjian Zhan said: "On the sixth day of the fifth lunar month, there will be a thunderous sound like thunder coming up from the northeast and traveling to the southwest. There will be clouds blocking the sky and not dissipating for a long time."
Zhan said: "When the earth rings, the whole world will rise up to attack, and the women's temple will be in chaos."
He also said: "When there are roaring sounds in the ground, it is called an ominous image. If there is disaster in the land, and if there are sounds in the ground, the city will surely perish."
Among them, two sentences are particularly crucial, namely "the women's temple is in chaos" and "the city must perish". Women are women, temples refer to eunuchs, and eunuchs are the ancient names for eunuchs.
The combination of women and temples means that women and eunuchs unite to cause trouble. This is too obvious.
This woman, of course, refers to the Hakka, the wet nurse of Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao, and this eunuch is none other than Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian was furious and ordered that Qin Tian Jian Zheng be killed with a stick.
But what he didn't expect was that Wei Zhongxian's behavior of "killing people and silencing them" would actually accelerate the spread of this kind of speech.
Nowadays, except for Liaodong, there is almost no place where "the emperor has lost his morality" is spread.
With the help of the Donglin Party and Fushe, everyone now knows that this big explosion in the capital was due to the "eunuch party's chaos in government", which made heaven angry and people resentful, so it was punished by heaven.
Qin Tian Jian was brutally killed by Wei Zhongxian because he told the truth, which aroused the anger of the people!
As a result, Wei Zhongxian's shrines across the country were smashed by the people. The angry people looted tributes and demolished the shrines, forcing the government to send sergeants to guard them day and night.
It would be fine if it was just the common people making a fuss. Gu Bingqian, the chief minister of the cabinet, had also loosened his position.
He actually wrote a letter suggesting that some Donglin Party members who were imprisoned in the imperial prison be transferred to the Ministry of Punishment and tried under normal judicial procedures.
You must know that Gu Bingqian put a lot of thought into joining Wei Zhongxian.
This Gu Shoufu is already seventy-six years old this year. He became a disciple of Eunuch Wei four years ago.
At that time, it was popular for "9,000-year-old" people to be adopted sons, but Gu Shoufu was a scholar after all. At this age, it was a bit embarrassing for both parties for him to directly ask Wei Zhongxian to become the adopted father.
But this didn't bother him, so he made his youngest son Wei Zhongxian's adopted grandson, so that he could legitimately become Wei Eunuch's adopted son.
But now it is obvious that Chief Minister Gu is a little scared and is showing his favor to the Donglin Party members.
Eunuch Wei quickly responded to Gu Bingqian's suggestion.
He directly ordered his subordinate Sun Yunhe to secretly execute all the Donglin Party members in prison.
This frightened Gu Shoufu so much that he quickly complained of illness.
"Nine thousand years old" Wei Eunuch told everyone with his practical actions that as long as Emperor Tianqi does not fall, he will still be the Wei Zhongxian who can make all the changes.
Even if you continue to rely on celestial phenomena to build momentum, it will be useless.
In order to allow His Majesty to relax and stay cheerful. Wei Zhongxian and Feng Sheng's wife Hakka decided to accompany Zhu Youxiao to go boating in Xiyuan.
In fact, Emperor Tianqi did not have many hobbies. Apart from carpentry work, he also engaged in "internal affairs" in the palace and went boating in Xiyuan.
Since practicing at the Yulin Camp, Zhu Youxiao has lost interest in "internal exercises".
After all, after having a truly powerful army, who would have the heart to play "playing house" with a group of eunuchs and maids all the time?
Therefore, in addition to doing carpentry work, going boating in Xiyuan became a rare life adjustment for Zhu You.
Zhu Youxiao's boating is different from others. He doesn't like to stay on the big boat, drink wine, watch beautiful women dancing or enjoy the scenery on the lake.
Instead, he likes to go on deep-water adventures in small boats, and sometimes he also enjoys role-playing.
Previously, Hakka often dressed up as a peasant woman to pick lotus flowers, while Wei Zhongxian often dressed up as a fisherman and lowered his net to catch fish.
The two often accompany Zhu Youxiao to play in Xiyuan on a boat.
Originally, a few people were drinking and having fun on a large boat in the shallow water area north of Xiyuan Bridge, but Zhu Youxiao found it boring.
So he secretly took two young eunuchs and drove the boat towards the deep water area to the south.
Of course, Wei Zhongxian couldn't hide this matter, but considering the two young eunuchs accompanying Zhu Youxiao, one was his subordinate Liu Siyuan, and the other was Wang Tiqian's subordinate Gao Yongshou.
Both of them were young men of seventeen or eighteen years old, similar in age to His Majesty, and they were both confidants, so he didn't think much about it.
After all, this is not the first time His Majesty has ventured into deep water in a small boat.
Emperor Tianqi took the two young eunuchs and paddled all the way, directly to the deep water area of the lake.
Zhu Youxiao was having a great time. From time to time he looked back at the shore and giggled. He was very satisfied and had a great time.
But suddenly a strong wind blew on the lake, and the wind and waves suddenly rose, and actually overturned His Majesty's boat.
The eunuchs and maids on the shore were all shocked when they saw His Majesty fall into the water!
Keshi was so frightened that she lost consciousness. When she looked at Wei Zhongxian, she found that Eunuch Wei had already plunged into the water and went to save him.
At this time, Wei Zhongxian was far away from the place where Zhu Youxiao fell into the water. If he had waited for him to swim over, his Majesty would have sunk to the bottom.
However, Eunuch Wei's loyalty still served as a good example.
The eunuchs on the shore rushed to the table closest to Zhu Youxiao and jumped into the water, while the remaining people quickly rowed frantically toward the water where the accident occurred.
The steward Tan Jing swam to Zhu Youxiao first and successfully rescued his majesty ashore.
Wei Zhongxian did not bother to change out of his wet clothes at this time, and was anxiously waiting for Dr. Wang to take His Majesty's pulse.
Soon after, Wang Huazhen came out and said, "Your Majesty is fine. He just choked on two pieces of water and spit it out after I took care of it."
The surrounding eunuchs and maids also heaved a sigh of relief. If His Majesty had any trouble, they would all be buried with him.
As for the two little eunuchs who fell into the water with His Majesty, no one cared about their lives. Anyway, the bodies would naturally float up after a while.
Even if they were lucky enough to survive, they would probably be killed with a stick.
Wang Huazhen said to Wei Zhongxian in private: "These servants are really too careless. Your Majesty's health is already not good, and this has made matters worse."
It was obvious that Wang Huazhen did not tell the truth in front of everyone just now.
He said: "Originally, Your Majesty can live for at least six or seven years. After this big explosion and falling into the water, I am afraid that he only has two years left at most. Please nine thousand years old to make plans early!"
Wang Huazhen's words forced Wei Zhongxian to face the reality that Emperor Tianqi would soon die.
According to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, if His Majesty has no heirs, the one who will inherit the throne will be King Xin Zhu Youjian.
I have not treated Zhu Youjian well in these years. Not only did he not let him meet Zhu Youxiao, but his little eunuchs also kept bullying him. I am afraid that he has already hated him.
But who would have thought that Zhu Youxiao was already dead at such a young age, and now there is no regret medicine to take.
But even if he had not offended King Xin, he might not be able to trust him like Emperor Tianqi and hand over the power of government to him.
Therefore, no matter what, King Xin cannot be allowed to inherit the throne.
Fortunately, at the beginning of this year, Queen Zhang Yan had already chosen Princess Zhou for King Xin.
In addition, construction of King Xin's palace had begun two months ago. The top priority was to drive King Xin out of the palace first.
Soon he found his confidant Li Yongzhen and asked: "How is the progress of the project of Prince Xin's Mansion?"
Li Yongzhen said: "Prince Xin's Mansion was rebuilt on the basis of Prince Hui's Mansion. Demolition and reconstruction will greatly delay the progress, but it will definitely be completed before the end of this year."
Wei Zhongxian said: "I heard that King Xin has always advocated frugality. Don't make the palace too luxurious. Since it is a renovation, some things have been painted off-the-shelf, so don't they look new?"
"No matter what method you use, it must be completed within a month. Next month our family will see King Xin move into the brand new King Xin's Mansion!"
Originally, they were planning to cut corners for Prince Xin's Mansion in order to make money.
Now that he has the instruction of "Nine Thousand Years Old", he is naturally more unscrupulous.
I directly painted and polished the old things left behind by Prince Hui's Mansion, and only replaced them with new ones when I found something that was really rotten, but I also used some relatively cheap things.
Zhu Youxiao still loved his brother very much and allocated 150,000 taels of silver to Zhu Youjian to repair his mansion. In the end, the group spent a total of less than 20,000 taels.
It can be said that except for the new greening of Xinwang Mansion, almost everything else has been renovated.
In July, Zhu Youjian and his party happily moved into their own Xinwang Mansion.
It turns out that the most magnificent thing is the gate of the palace and the stone lion in front of it.
The entire Xinwang Mansion is new except for the front door, and everything inside is almost in a mess.
It's not even as good as the old stuff they used in Xu Qin Palace for many years.
Dorgon said angrily: "These Wei eunuch minions are really bullying us. Since they bully us like this, the master is a prince after all, and they actually fool us with such shabby things."
Wang Chengen on the side glared at Dorgon, and then looked at Zhu Youjian on the side.
It means that the master is unhappy, but you are actually adding fuel to the anger?
Dorgon is 14 this year and has been with Zhu Youjian for 5 years.
He had won Zhu Youjian's trust by standing up for his master.
Unlike his imperial brother, Zhu Youjian's trust in his slaves did not last long, and it was absolutely impossible for him to favor Wei Zhongxian for a long time.
However, Dorgon often said things that Zhu Youjian wanted to say but was difficult to say.
Although he was often punished by Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youjian did not hate him, otherwise he would not have been able to keep him as his companion eunuch.
Of course, there is another reason why he trusts Dorgon.
In fact, Dorgon's younger brother Duduo was the eunuch of Kunning Palace. The two brothers could often deliver messages to Zhu Youjian and Queen Zhang Yan.
Although it was the joy of moving to a new house, there was no one at the door of his Xinwang Mansion at this time.
Although Zhu Youjian pretended not to care, after all, ministers of the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to make friends with the vassal king.
However, I am still a little disappointed with this.
Wang Chengen beside him said: "I heard that your Majesty is considering choosing a good fief for the prince, so this Prince Xin Mansion is just a temporary residence for the prince, and it is indeed a bit crude!"
In fact, Wang Chaoen and Dorgon were talking about the same thing, but it was obvious that Wang Chengen gave Zhu Youjian a step.
His expression softened a lot as expected, and he said: "Actually, according to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, this king should have been a vassal a long time ago. Unfortunately, the emperor couldn't bear to leave this king, so he stayed here all these years!"
Not long after, Prince Xin’s Mansion finally welcomed its first guest, the eunuch Duduo from Kunning Palace.
I saw Duduo coming with a lot of utensils and said: "The Queen is afraid that His Highness King Xin will not be accustomed to living in the new palace, so she ordered the servants to bring all His Highness's belongings from Xuqin Palace."
At this time, Zhu Youjian said with some emotion: "The emperor's sister-in-law is still thoughtful!"
Soon Duduo came to the study with Zhu Youjian. After closing the door, Duduo said in a low voice: "Now His Majesty's health is deteriorating, and even the Queen can rarely see His Majesty. But a few days ago, His Majesty suddenly When asked about the heir to the throne, the Queen recommended His Highness King Xin to Your Majesty!"
Duduo's words shocked Zhu Youjian. Due to Wei Zhongxian's obstruction, he had not seen the emperor's brother for more than half a year. Even when he left the palace to say goodbye to the emperor's brother, Wei Zhongxian blocked him.
Could it be that the emperor's health is about to fail?
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(End of chapter)
