"Tell the truth? You want to be whipped, you little slave!" Zai Cheng's eyes widened!
"No, no, no... Lord Beile, please calm down. I have a relative who has been working in the Ministry of War for generations. I heard from him that this is indeed the case!"
This is the first time that Zaicheng, who is ignorant and unskilled, has heard some stories from the founding of the country!
It turns out that the Manchus' entry into the Central Plains was actually a special case of successful gambling. After instigating Wu Sangui's rebellion at Shanhaiguan and the decisive battle with King Chuang, the Manchus truly entered the Forbidden City!
China at this time was not the unified structure it had during the Kangxi, Yongzong and Qianlong periods!
The Nanming court was still there, and the peasant army that rebelled against the king was also very powerful. The Han warlords who instigated rebellion, such as Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, and others, were not single-minded.
Tibet is in an independent state, and the Western Region is also controlled by the Mongol Khanate. It is completely divided!
And what is the population of the Manchus themselves? The number of soldiers capable of fighting in the Eight Banners is only over one hundred thousand. Counting all the women and children in Baishan and Heishui, there are no more than five or six hundred thousand soldiers.
In ancient times when science and technology was not developed, before the industrial revolution, cold was a very terrifying factor restricting human survival. In the bitter cold places outside the customs, the birth rate was horribly low!
Thousands of miles of uninhabited mountains and forests, this was still the norm even during the liberation of 1949!
The population expansion outside the customs is actually due to the development of science and technology, agricultural mechanization and urbanization. Only by being able to eat well and not starve to death in winter can the birth rate be increased!
The more than 100,000 troops, including the Eight Banners of Mongolia, ate up the huge Central Plains in one bite. In this way, the miracle of snake swallowing elephants was deeply buried in the hearts of the Manchu people with a feeling of unconfidence.
When settling in the Forbidden City, the Manchus did not destroy any palace buildings in the Forbidden City, but directly settled in. This was a very rare phenomenon in the changes of dynasties in the past.
Moreover, after settling in the Forbidden City, first of all, the palace ban system and the eunuch system were completely preserved. Basically, all the eunuchs serving Emperor Shunzhi were left over from the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, the Manchus just used themselves as bandits to enter the Central Plains and enjoy the blessings for a few years. He had no long-term plans at all, so he had no interest in establishing his own system, especially in small and inconspicuous places.
It’s not certain whether Jiangshan can continue to work for a long time. You talk about an imperial dining room system, a night vigil system for palace maids holding lanterns, and a schedule for patrolling soldiers on the city wall... Who has the leisure to tinker with these things?
Even the system of the Forbidden City has continued from the Ming Dynasty, but what about the rules of the entire Great Wall defense system? Was there ever an abolition?
Zai Cheng was dumbfounded, "Huh? You mean... our Qing Dynasty never modified the Great Wall defense system of the Ming Dynasty from beginning to end?"
"No, no, no... Lord Baylor, you have understood it wrong. Of course it has been modified. The method for our country to modify it is very simple, that is to withdraw troops!"
"Now that the Manchus have entered the border, the Great Wall will be useless. If it is no longer useful, then all the garrison troops will be disbanded!"
"So many fortresses, military camps, and acropolis left by the Ming Dynasty along the Great Wall have all been dismantled from the army. There are no soldiers anymore, only ordinary people are left. What else do you think is unsystematic?"
"But after all calculations, one thing was missed... Our country abolished hundreds of thousands of the Ming Dynasty's Great Wall Border Guards, making the Great Wall completely useless... But..."
"Say it!" Zai Cheng glared and was about to curse.
"Yes, yes... but the military system of the Great Wall has been abolished, but many passes have not been abolished! You said Zhangjiakou, Juyong Pass, Yumen Pass... there are still some soldiers left to collect taxes at these passes!"
"Those Shanxi Lao Xi'er who want to do business in the north are not allowed to go through the passes? We have to keep people to maintain order... Who is the right person to use for these passes that have no military significance? Why not just organize the surrendered Ming Dynasty soldiers into the Green Battalion? Keep stuffing it in!”
"Father passes it on to his son, and son passes it on to his grandson... It is passed down from generation to generation, and the son inherits his father's legacy!"
The steward sighed, "Many of the access control and patrol systems are step-by-step continuation of the rules of the Ming Dynasty, and we haven't changed them! So isn't it clear who is behind the ignition of this beacon fire?"
"These old soldiers are actually continuing the rules passed down by their grandfathers and grandfathers!"
"We in the Qing Dynasty do not have any rules about lighting beacon smoke, but the Qing Ming Dynasty did have this rule!"
All of a sudden, all the officers in the camp suddenly realized, "So that's it? There was chaos when the country was founded, and we could only continue the system of the previous dynasty... Later, due to negligence, we forgot to formulate a new system..."
"The result is this fake corpse from two hundred years later! This is the resurgence of the remnants of the previous Ming system!"
"Master Baylor... If this is the case, then these old soldiers are really innocent..."
Pooh! Zaicheng spat and flew out, "What are you farting on? Innocent? There is no such word as innocent in my eyes..."
"I don't care what the system is or not. Anyway, these six old guys causing chaos in the capital is a capital crime!"
"Haha... If it falls into my hands, they won't be able to reason... Let me continue the interrogation. I just want to know who is behind the scenes!"
"There must be someone behind these six old guys!"
Zai Cheng was murderous, and he was not the only one in the court who was also murderous!
In the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Yangxin Hall in the Forbidden City, the powerful officials from the DPRK and China gathered together. There were also senior officials from the Sixth Military Department waiting to be summoned. There were whispers everywhere in the dark night.
In Dongnuan Pavilion, Yixin and Yixuan were both crazy. Under their instructions, Prince Qing Yikuang became the first hound to jump out and attacked Zeng Guofan directly!
"Rebellion? Are you about to rebel now? How can you light a beacon fire on the Great Wall? This is the rule of the Han people to guard against our ancestors. Why is it resurrected today?"
"Kill! We must kill him to serve as a warning to others! If we don't kill him, he will lose his head, and they will forget who owns the kingdom now!"
Yikuang stood on the ground spitting foam and flying stars. Ci'an frowned as he watched, "What are you shouting about? Who do you want to kill? Who do you want to kill?"
"Of course whoever lit the beacon fire will be killed... let the local officials along the Great Wall arrest those who lit the beacon fire and behead them all!"
Li Hongzao, the great scholar in the last row of seats, didn't like hearing this anymore: "Prince Qing! There are beacon towers every 20 miles on the Great Wall, stretching to thousands of people in the capital. Do you want to kill everyone?"
"How many people do you have to kill? Are you responsible for killing so many people and shaking the world?"
Yikuang glanced at him, "Why is this? Do you have any objections, Grand Scholar Li? Do you feel sorry for the Han people's heads? So you are also the main messenger behind it!"
"That's nonsense! This is the Hall of Cultivation of the Heart, Prince Qing, don't talk nonsense!"
"Haha, am I talking nonsense? Haha, to put it bluntly, you Han scholars must have been happy for a long time! Isn't the Great Wall the most proud thing of you Han people?"
"You..." Li Hongzao was so angry that his blood pressure rushed to his forehead. "You are a scoundrel! Where can I, a scholar, go to a beacon fire? Who will listen to me... You are simply... a scoundrel! It is an insult to gentlemen!"
Prince Qing Yikuang smiled and touched his bare forehead, "Haha... You are a scholar and no one listens to you, so it's the Han people with military power who did it?"
With just this sentence, Zeng Guofan, who had been closing his eyes to rest his mind, opened his eyelids, and his eyes were full of energy!
