Emperor Chongzhen was by no means the only one who had trouble sleeping late at night in the huge city of Beijing. A few days ago, the frontier army defeated the Qing army and beheaded more than 10,000 people, which shocked the whole city. The patriots were excited and celebrated day and night. Soon, news came to the capital that the thieves Hundreds of thousands of troops have swept away Baoding Prefecture and are about to move north.
It was really a world of ice and fire. The people who were originally excited and cheering fell into deep worry and fear. There were many people burning incense, worshiping Buddha and praying. Some literati and poets who cared about their country were even doing exercises in Goulan Wine House. He lamented that the general was not a country, and at the same time he scolded the court for not doing its job properly and not doing its best to suppress the bandits as the top priority. It was simply insulting to be polite to mess around in the city.
What they considered to be an insult to politeness was, of course, the fact that one day, the imperial court suddenly ordered the construction of public toilets in various places where people gathered in Beijing.
Public toilets are places where filth hides. They are remote and secret. How can such a filthy place appear openly on the street? It immediately attracted the saliva of these trolls. The trolls just sprayed but ignored the fact that people defecate everywhere in the city. The stinky The reality is that flies, rats and ants are everywhere.
However, the imperial court was very tough at this time and ignored the criticisms of these trolls. Multiple departments jointly launched an environmental protection war in the capital, strictly prohibiting open defecation and littering. The Military and Horse Division was responsible for daily supervision, and even Jingying and Jinyiwei were involved. At the same time, public toilets and garbage collection points will be established in densely populated areas.
This infrastructure project is also a multi-department joint effort. The Ministry of Industry is responsible for site selection, the Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for demolition, and the construction of the project is outsourced to the Huangshang Octopus Chamber of Commerce.
Usually once the official departments get involved, there will be all kinds of dirty inside stories, such as asking for money and getting cards, otherwise the construction period will be delayed again and again. However, the difference this time is that the Ministry of Accounts and the Ministry of Works are extremely efficient in their work. The reason is very simple. , various departments have recently joined forces to fight against corruption. No one dares to commit crimes against the wind, and this matter was supervised by the emperor himself, striving to eliminate the plague as soon as possible.
Once the Ministry of Industry has chosen a place, construction will begin immediately on the land without an owner, and the Ministry of Household Affairs will immediately go to negotiate with the owner, and the negotiation will go very smoothly. Anyone with any brains will know how to deal with Octopus. His background is between royal businessmen and underworld, which is pretty much the same. Just don't cause trouble.
Where the crowds are densely packed, Qianmenwai Street is naturally the first place where merchants gather. It is the most prosperous commercial district in Beijing and the most famous red light district. Among them, Dashilan is the most popular. Around Dashilar, there are Qianmen Jianlouzi in the north and Langfangtou Ersan. Articles, jewelry market, nine-door money market.
This area is home to many wealthy businessmen. Banks, bank accounts, and banks are everywhere, one after another. Opposite Dashilar is the meat market and fresh fish market, and outside is the famous Qianmen Street, leading directly to the overpass and Yongding Gate. The street inside goes from the east entrance of Dashilar to the food store in the south, and then to the south is Puchen City to the overpass.
There are countless teahouses, restaurants and theaters inside and outside Dashilan, such as Dajingcheng Nightclub (called Chajia Teahouse in the past, Guanghe Building in later generations), Zhonghe Garden, Qingle Theater, Sanqing Theater, Daguan Tower and more than ten Home theater. In addition, there are countless cloth shops, silk and satin shops, tea houses, pharmacies, etc. in this area.
In such a prosperous place, the Ministry of Industry even selected five places here.
Of course, the headline news in Dashilar these days is not that five official toilets will be built at once, but that a bodyguard agency suddenly opened.
What kind of escort agency is this? Many people couldn't understand it for a while, but after hearing the news, they suddenly realized that they were actually looking after people's homes and escorting goods to ensure safety.
The name of the escort agency is Octopus. Anyone who knows the business will know as soon as they see the name that it is run by an imperial merchant. It has a tough background and cannot be offended by ordinary people.
Of course, very few people, even Emperor Chongzhen, didn’t know that the backstage of the Octopus Escort Agency was Dongchang and Jinyiwei. , hundreds of years later this is where the Huiyou Escort Agency will be!
On the day the escort bureau opened for business, it posted hero posts to recruit heroes from all walks of life to join forces. In fact, it was recruiting escorts. The capital was originally a place where merchants gathered, and there were many heroes from all walks of life who served as bodyguards and followed them into the capital. However, they were all self-employed, so they had nothing to lose. The salary is high, and applicants are enthusiastic.
As an imperial businessman, there were many congratulators from the capital's tycoons, and due to the background of the Octopus shareholder Twelve Taibao, there were many gangsters who came to support the business, but the most eye-catching ones were the two yamen that only gave out gifts but no one came.
One is the Nancheng Soldiers and Horses Division, and the other is the Jinyiwei.
Dashanlan is located in Nancheng and is directly under the jurisdiction of the Nancheng Army and Horses Division, not to mention the Jinyiwei brand. These two yamen sent congratulatory gifts. Their purpose is self-evident. In addition to knocking the mountain and shaking the tiger, it also tells others about our strength. Strong background, come and sign the order.
Of course, the biggest shareholder behind the Escort Bureau is actually Dongchang. The reason why he doesn't come forward to support him is to keep a low profile. Dongchang's reputation is too bad, and secondly, it offends too many people.
Of course it's because Dongchang has been too busy recently.
Not long after the Dongchang was restarted, there was a shortage of manpower, and most of them were recruited from Jinyiwei. And now that the war was starting, Chang Yu was particularly interested in intelligence collection work, and almost all of his manpower was dispatched to various war zones and south.
Chunxiang, who stayed in the capital, was under great pressure. On the one hand, he had to recruit and train people. Secondly, he had to monitor public opinion in the city. Thirdly, he had to unite multiple departments to fight against corruption. Fourthly, and most importantly, he had to secretly do some dirty work for Emperor Chongzhen. Chang Yu Secret assassination list.
While Emperor Chongzhen was praying late at night, in the Dongchang Yamen on the east side of the imperial city, Chunxiang looked at the bloody man who had been beaten into a pig's head and had almost no human appearance in the imperial prison, without any mercy on his expression, and said coldly: "Are you recruiting or not?"
The bloody man's aura was weak: "The castrated dogs in Dongchang are inhumane. It's time to kill them. You, what else do you want me to kill..."
Chunxiang sneered and looked at the confession in front of him. This person was the person Chang Yu designated to arrest. His name was Chen Hongfan. His crime was collaborating with the enemy and treason. Before he was arrested, he guarded Dengzhou and Laizhou. Chunxiang sent people to arrest him just a month ago. As soon as he returned to Beijing, he was thrown into prison.
This Chen Hongfan is known as the living Qin Hui and is the biggest traitor of the Manchus in the Ming Dynasty, but he shamelessly writes books and propaganda to promote his allegiance to the Ming Dynasty. It is so shameless that it is outrageous! Of course, these all occurred in the Southern Ming Dynasty after the death of Chongzhen and the entry of the Qing army.
But if things hadn't happened, would Chang Yu have let him go? Of course he couldn't! Otherwise, how could he be worthy of Zuo Maodi.
After Chen Hongfan was captured by Dongchang, he immediately confessed to illegal activities such as corruption and bribery, interception of military pay, and even seizing the wives of his subordinates.
But the people in Dongchang still tortured him non-stop, beating him even if they didn't recruit him, and beating him even if they did, because Chunxiang didn't get the confession he wanted, and he was collaborating with the enemy and betraying the country!
But Chen Hongfan is not stupid. Don’t say that he has never done this before. Even if he did, he cannot be prosecuted. This crime is now the death penalty, and he will definitely die!
It's just that he hasn't figured out the situation yet, that is, whether he is recruited or not, the outcome will be the same, just as miserable!
"Chen Hongfan, have you ever heard of Lingchi's punishment?" Chunxiang snorted coldly.
Chen Hongfan, who had lost his dignity, trembled all over when he heard this: "You, you gelded dogs will not die well..."
"Strip it off!"
Chunxiang said calmly to the punishment expert next to him, Chang Yu said that people like this would not be able to forgive their hatred even if they were cut into pieces, so let's give him a more exciting way to die.
