After leaving Beizhen Fusi, Chang Yu meditated slowly on the Qianbu Corridor, then stopped a young eunuch who was passing by and asked him to quickly find Tang Potian, the leader of the guards of the Prince's Mansion. He immediately went to Baodafang (now Dengshikou) ) The avant-garde Yamen of the government army picked up 300 men and horses, and led the Royal Horse Supervisor Wei Dahai to quickly go to Jintaifang (now Guowang Hutong, Gulou Street). The Siwei Yamen of Tengxiang gathered 300 people outside Anding Gate.
After the explanation, Chang Yu turned around and hurried out of the palace from Daming Gate in the south, heading towards the front door. He was going to find Fang Ba.
A few days ago, Chang Yu had entrusted Fang Ba to help him buy a large amount of rice grains. He had planned to take time to settle the accounts in the past few days, but he didn't want to leave tomorrow, so he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to go over and take a look.
There is a large alley running east-west between Daming Gate and Qianmen. It is the longest alley in old Beijing. It is called Jiangmi Lane. As early as the Yuan Dynasty, a river outside the imperial city and a canal outside the city were used to set up a tax office and customs office for transporting grain and rice. Here, because of the name Jiangmi Lane, the city was built in the Ming Dynasty and the alley was divided into two sections called East and West Jiangmi Lane. Because it is close to the imperial city, yamen are gathered here, including the Zongren Mansion, the Ministry of Officials and the Household Department, etc., such as Liubu Zhong The Ministry of Rites, Honglu Temple and Huitong Hall were located in Dongjiangmi Lane.
But whether it was the Yuan Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, this place was a famous grain trading market. It was called Dongjiaomin Lane and Xijiaomin Lane in later generations. However, the river has changed its course, and the Yuhe Bridge outside Daming Gate (today's Zhengyi Road area) has long disappeared. trace.
As the largest grain trading market in the capital, it is natural to come here to purchase grain and rice. This is why Chang Yu came here to look for Fang Ba. Moreover, according to Fang Ba, Song Siyang, one of the twelve Taibao of Nancheng, has a rice shop in Jiangmi Lane. shop.
The signboard of the rice store is simple and clear, it's called Song, so even though there are many grain stores here, Chang Yu didn't take much effort to find the place, not to mention the crowds of people in front of this rice store are very eye-catching.
But these people are not here to buy rice, but to sell rice. A few days ago, the Songjia Rice Store began to purchase food on a large scale. Not only did they want all kinds of rice and grains, but the prices were relatively reasonable, and some were even slightly cheaper than the market price. Just a little taller, it immediately attracted the attention of merchants from the north and south.
Fang Ba naturally experienced what Chang Yu told him personally, and he and Song Siyang were in charge of the matter in the store.
Seeing Chang Yu arriving, he immediately led him to the back house to serve tea.
"I will be leaving Beijing in a few days. I will continue to collect grain. If possible, I can go to the countryside to purchase. If the cash on hand is not enough, I will send someone to deliver some later." Chang Yu served the tea, and Fang and Song sat with him respectfully. After hearing this, they nodded repeatedly. For some reason, the two of them were extremely respectful and even a little scared today. It was just that Chang Yu had something on his mind and didn't notice.
After explaining a few words, Chang Yu left the rice store. In response to his needs, Song Siyang found him a carriage with a special driver. Chang Yu wanted to refuse, but after thinking about it, he agreed. Anyway, his identity soon became known. Exposure is not that important anymore.
The market is prosperous. As the most prosperous grain and rice trading market, there are grain boats in the river and the streets are crowded with grain carts. It was once so crowded that the cart drivers had no choice but to turn into alleys and take detours.
Chang Yu had something on his mind, so he lifted the curtain and looked out the window, watching the passers-by, passing by the houses on the street, and marveling at everything in the world. Suddenly, a tall gate tower flashed past his eyes, and it seemed that it had Wu Mansion written on it!
At the Wu Mansion in Jiangmi Lane, Chang Yu suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his heart. He quickly called the parking driver and asked, "Where is this place?"
"Jiangmi Lane Ertiao Hutong" said the driver.
"This Wu Mansion?"
"Oh, back to Mr. Chang, this is the residence of Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong," the coachman said.
Yes, yes, Chang Yu patted his head and looked at the tall gate of the mansion. No wonder it looked so familiar. It turned out that this was Wu Sangui's home.
Onlookers may think something is wrong. Shouldn’t Wu Sangui live in Xidan National Costume World?
Yes, you are right. The clothing market in Xidan is called Xiaoshihu Hutong. It is indeed Wu Sangui’s residence, but it was the palace granted by the Qing court when he became Queen Pingxi. To be honest, he really didn’t live there for many times. God, because he lived most of his life in Pingxi Prince's Mansion in Yunnan (formerly the villa of Hou Muying of Xiping, it is said that it is now Yunnan University), he didn't even stay as long as his son Wu Yingxiong, the consort.
The palace in Beijing is actually just a symbolic empty shell, and considering its scale, it is too petty for a palace. In fact, at this time it was only the residence of Zhou Yanru, the former chief minister, and Cao Xueqin also lived there for a while during the Qing Dynasty.
Looking at the gate of the Wu family, Chang Yu felt a little flustered in his heart. This was not only because Wu Sangui, the last heroic general in the late Ming Dynasty, lived here, but also because Chen Yuanyuan, who was known as a beauty and was a disaster, was in the house at the moment. Two of the most famous people in the Ming Dynasty were in the house. Beauty, Tian Xiuying has passed away and we have no chance to meet each other. This Chen Yuanyuan cannot be missed.
But there was something going on at the moment and there was no reason to visit, so Chang Yu had no choice but to urge the driver to continue on his way.
Heading north, we will reach a relatively sparsely populated place in a short while. At this time, the city of Beijing was no different from that of later generations. Even though it was an inner city, there were remote and wilderness areas everywhere.
Although this place is remote, it is famous, it is Shiwangfu Street!
Yes, it is the famous Wangfujing Street in later generations. This small village was not famous in the Jin and Liao Dynasties. It became a Ding Street after the Yuan Dynasty established its capital in Beijing. When Chengzu moved north, he built ten palaces here, hence the name.
I don’t know what Zhu Di’s idea was, so confidently he built ten palaces in one breath. He really thought he could have twenty-six children like his father, but in fact he only had three seedlings.
Zhu Di established his capital in Beijing and built ten palaces in remote areas east of Beijing for the princes to live in. Since the princes of the Ming Dynasty did not need to reach adulthood to be crowned kings, and after being crowned kings, they would immediately go to live in their own land, so these palaces were just It was used for transitional living, but the scale was not large, and because the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, except Zhu Yuanzhang, did not prosper, the place was uninhabited and almost a wasteland.
Fortunately, not far away was the avant-garde military post of Baodafang (today's Dengshikou), where they could walk their dogs and run wild freely.
In fact, the guards in Baodaifang are not just the Fujun avant-garde. There are many yamen in this area, such as Jinwu qianwei, Yulin left guard and Fujun left guard plus Fujun avant-garde. There are six guard yamen in total, and these few The guards are almost all responsible for the security on the east side of the imperial city.
The carriage stopped in front of the Yamen of the Prefectural Army Guards Station. The moment Chang Yu got out of the car, he could clearly feel that the coachman's expression was strange, but he pretended not to know and asked the coachman to return the way he came, and then walked straight towards the Yamen.
A lot of sergeants had gathered at the gate of the guard station, including many from the school captain Xiaoqi and the general banner. They were discussing something in low voices. When they saw Chang Yu approaching, someone immediately opened their mouths to ask.
However, before Chang Yu could answer, he saw someone hurriedly pushing aside the others to greet him. It was a guard from the Prince's Mansion: "Eunuch Chang, Mr. Tang is waiting for you inside."
