In the late Qing Dynasty, the size of the capital was actually not large. Even in the area surrounded by the city wall, there was still a lot of farmland!
The Temple of Heaven and Xiannong Altar in Nancheng are surrounded by crop fields and swamps. Further south on Nanheng Street where Zeng Guofan rented, there are large vegetable gardens!
This is true inside the city, let alone outside the city. Outside the tall tower of Yongding Gate is the endless North China Plain, with ditches, dense roads, and dotted villages!
Outside the capital city gates, large and small markets will be formed, because this is an important transportation thoroughfare, with many merchants traveling from south to north and people entering and leaving the city.
Therefore, the surrounding villagers spontaneously gathered here to form a grass market, opened restaurants, inns, and sold fresh fruits, vegetables, and even large goods such as wood and stones.
Because the city gates of the capital are open only during certain hours, no one can enter the city at night, and many merchants arrive late and can only make do with staying in Caoshi for one night!
The Yongding Gate in Nancheng is the most prosperous of all the grass markets in the Four-Nine Cities. Because it faces the official road to the south, people coming from the south go here, and the number of people coming in and out every day is much greater than that in the north city.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the grass market here in Yongdingmen had already grown to a large scale, with thousands of people gathering every day!
If the imperial court had not allowed people to build permanent houses outside the city for security reasons, otherwise a small town would have spontaneously formed!
But today, the eyes of the people in the grass market outside Yongding Gate were opened. They saw a large group of people coming on the southern official road with dust flying... It was not an army. You could tell that it was an ordinary caravan at a glance.
There were more than a hundred people in the crowd. This was a big deal. With a roar, countless porters, hawkers, even beggars and thieves rushed up.
Some want to grab some business, while others want to fish in troubled waters. Even the wild oriole with the door half-opened shows its head and wants to grab some business!
But they had just blocked up and didn't wait to shout, but they only heard a bang, and the crowd let out a neat exclamation, and then immediately dispersed!
"Foreign devils... oh, it's foreign devils... foreign devils pulling coffins!"
That's right, it was a group of foreign devils who came on horseback. Under the protection of dozens of tough escort agents, they came from the south pulling a coffin and six carts of goods!
The leader, a foreign devil with deep eyes and a high nose, wore a black satin robe common in the Qing Dynasty, and a small melon-skin hat inlaid with white jade on the top of his head.
Except for not having braids, he looks just like people from the Qing Dynasty!
"Look, they are really foreign devils... They even have guns! Oh, they are both long and short... Obedient, get out of the way!"
In the shadow of the tall tower of Yongding Gate, a eunuch in casual clothes was sitting on a recliner and drinking tea comfortably. When he saw this group of people, he was so frightened that he dropped the purple clay pot, jumped up and ran away!
"Greetings to your lordship!" The eunuch threw himself in front of the horse's head and kowtowed. "Greetings to your lordship! Long live my lord, I have been waiting here for your lordship for more than half a month!"
"Good luck, Sir! Please come to the city, Sir!"
Oops... people suddenly went into an uproar, "foreign devil lord sir? How come the foreign devil has become a prince?"
The eunuch stared around and cursed, "You blind bitch, why don't you kneel down! This is the admiral general of the imperial court, and he is a British lord!"
"The majestic Duke of the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire! Still not kowtow!"
Nowadays, when a ninth-grade sesame official goes out, the common people have to kowtow to say hello. How have you ever seen a double-qualified prince? There was an immediate sensation, and several people's knees went weak and they immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed.
At this time, the soldiers and officers who were guarding the city also came. One look at this posture and knew that the guests waiting for Long Live Lord had arrived, so they quickly dispersed the people.
"Get out of the way, get out of the way...make way for General Gordon! Kneel down, are you a fool? Kneel down quickly!"
The group that came was none other than the Gordon Expedition, and the person in the coffin was the famous British explorer Samuel Baker. He contracted severe typhoid due to sunset in the winter, and finally died on the way!
After Samuel's death, the expedition team unanimously agreed to escort the remains of this legendary explorer back to China!
His assistants, disciples, and employees in Europe put pressure on the local government of the Qing Dynasty and forced those cowardly officials to spend money to send people to escort the coffin!
By the way, even this coffin was given by Zuo Zongtang. After all, the person died on his one-third of an acre of land!
The local officials of the Qing government also wanted to be proud. If the army or government servants were used to guard the coffins of the British all the way, people would be really scolded if word spread about this!
The people had to have their spines broken! I had no choice but to spend money from the government treasury and go to the escort agency to hire a pickpocket to escort him back to Beijing!
How far can you walk with a coffin? It was almost May before Gordon finally saw the majestic towers of Beijing!
"Ah...my God, I see this great city again! Although it has declined, its rich historical accumulation is still so heavy!"
After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the city wall of Beijing has reached an astonishing height of fourteen meters, and the city towers and arrow towers are even higher!
The city wall, which is five stories high, presses down in front of people like a mountain, and there are no modern high-rise buildings around to compare.
The medieval city walls were surrounded by low squares and crop fields, and the strong contrast created a sense of visual conflict!
The vicissitudes of history and the majesty of the imperial capital are all entangled together, and then added with a little dejection of the declining dynasty, the combination is really unique!
Gordon ignored the eunuchs and officials who greeted him, and instead waved to a person in the city gate!
A fast horse ran out of the city gate, and Major Delaney, the military attache of the British Embassy in Beijing, greeted him with a smile.
"God bless you, dear Sir!"
"Oh... God bless you too, my old friend! The weather is nice today!"
"You are very lucky. Yesterday there was a sandstorm, but today there are blue skies and white clouds. It seems you are a lucky star!"
"Is this... the body of Sir Samuel Baker?" the major quickly took off his hat and saluted.
"Yes, please escort to the church quickly and ask the priest to pray... Have the ship you arranged ready?"
"No problem, the British merchant ship Robin will be stationed in the Northern District in five days... I have already contacted the captain, and he will escort the knight's body back to London!"
"Sir Gordon, your escort mission has ended... Now get back to work immediately. Go and see His Majesty the Emperor first. I think he is already too anxious to wait!"
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