There is an east-west street outside the Dong'an Gate of the Imperial City, which is called Dong'anmen Street. Because it is closer to the Imperial City and is more prosperous, the east end of the street is the Shiwangfu Street running from north to south.
The street was named after the Mansion. The Tenth Prince's Mansion was a residence built by the Ming royal family for the transitional period when the adult princes left the imperial city for the fiefdom. Later, as the young heirs of the royal family gradually realized that although the land was fair, it was desolate and was mostly a gathering place for refugees, cocks, and robbers.
It was noon, and the wine shops and inns were full of people. Chang Yu and his party walked eastward along Dong'anmen Street and saw several taverns crowded with guests, including many soldiers. He did not like the crowds and continued to search.
Finally, I saw a pub at the intersection of Shiwangfu Street with only a few guests, so I went in.
When the waiter in the store saw four or five customers, he hurriedly greeted them: "What do you guys want to eat, military masters? Although our store is small, the cooks are good and the wine is good."
It turned out that when he saw several of Ji Jike's personal attendants carrying knives, he thought they were soldiers.
"I don't want wine. Just fry some meat dishes and serve a pot of tea." Chang Yu and the others found an empty table at the door and sat down, and said to the waiter.
"It's unusual for soldiers not to drink." Several people at the table next to him looked at him with suspicion, and one of them, a middle-aged man, chuckled.
Chang Yu smiled back: "It's expensive, I can't afford it."
"I heard that you get a lot of silver in war rewards. Do you still care about that little silver?" the middle-aged man chuckled, his expression full of ridicule.
"Of course you have to spend the money you exchanged for your life sparingly." Chang Yu smiled faintly, and the middle-aged man looked slightly embarrassed and stopped talking.
"Master Jun, then, meat dishes are not cheap. There is no beef, but there are some fish and bacon. It costs less than three taels of silver to buy a table." The waiter couldn't help but remind him after hearing the conversation between Chang Yu and the table next to him.
"It's really not cheap." Chang Yu sighed slightly: "But the brother just said that we are not short of money." He took out a few pieces of broken silver and put it on the table: "Let's buy a table at this price."
"Okay," the waiter said loudly and went to the kitchen.
The people at the table next to me looked at it, and some people couldn't help but said, "I don't like the expensive food and wine. It's not like you soldiers have expensive food and drinks."
"You..." After hearing what he said, one of the guards couldn't help it. Chang Yu stopped him with his eyes, and then smiled at the table: "Whoever pays for the food and wine can eat it. There are more people eating it." It's naturally expensive. Since you can eat it, why can't we soldiers spend money to eat it? But it's our fault that it's expensive. I also said that you paid too much for the food and wine, but that's right. When we were defending the city and fighting, no one blamed us for shedding too much blood and killing too many people."
"Hey, what are you talking about?" The big man at the next table slapped the table and was about to yell, but he was stopped by the middle-aged man next to him. He looked at Chang Yu and frowned and said, "This guy is not a soldier, right?"
Chang Yu raised his eyebrows and smiled: "How can you tell? Who in this city who is not a soldier dares to take a knife to the streets?"
The middle-aged man cupped his hands and said: "Whether it is true or not, my aura is not ordinary. We, the common people, can't afford to offend him. Just drink some wine and say a few words casually and don't take it to heart."
Recognizing this, Chang Yu bowed his hands in return and stopped talking to him.
The food was served very quickly, and unexpectedly the craftsmanship was really good. Chang Yu ate with gusto. Several of the guards were slightly regretful that they didn't have any wine, but no one had the guts to ask for it.
After all, it is during the duty period.
During the meal, Chang Yu informed several people that they would leave the city for the military camp in the north. Chen Wangting proposed to transfer personal guards or a battalion of retinue.
Chang Yu disagreed. Today there is a large-scale manhunt in the city. The frightened thieves are either hiding deep in the city or have escaped from the city. Besides, he is going to the military camp in the north of the city. There are tens of thousands of troops there. How could an assassin dare to be so bold?
Everyone thinks about it, but to be on the safe side, let the carriage with an obvious target go back to the Yamen to exchange for some precious horses and mounts.
The food was served quickly, and several people ate it quickly. The table next door was dumbfounded, and they thought that they must have been blind. I thought some rich man came out to experience life and had a taste of this kind of small restaurant, but judging from the appearance of the food... it must be the military. Wu's leading soldier.
While eating and waiting for the people from the Yamen to bring the mount, I suddenly heard a lot of noise outside the store, mixed with shouts and curses. The attention of everyone in the store was quickly attracted. Someone from the next table looked over and laughed: "There's a fight outside. A couple of gangsters and a bitch were fighting."
Upon hearing the excitement, everyone put down their bowls and chopsticks and crowded toward the door. Chen Wangting, who was sitting on the edge, couldn't help but get up and take a look. Suddenly he turned back to Chang Yu and said: "It's the Red Lady!"
Chang Yu was startled, then dropped his chopsticks, stood up and squeezed out the door to look over there. He saw several people fighting under a big willow tree not far away. One of them was actually Li Yan's wife, a former bandit soldier. The famous female general Red Lady.
At this time, he was fighting with a few thugs.
The red lady came from a military background and had extraordinary martial arts skills, but she was a woman after all. Facing a few young thugs who acted obscenely, she looked a little embarrassed. There were many onlookers beside her, mostly refugees who had settled down. They watched with gusto and said obscene words from time to time. They made noises and beat up a woman, but no one came to start the fight.
Chang Yu was so angry that he immediately pounced on him.
"You're a hot girl, how can you be so hot just because I touched you?" Pi Tian laughed shamelessly during the fight. Before he could finish his words, someone kicked him in the head, and he fainted with a loud thud. on the ground.
"Fight to death!" As Chang Yu spoke, he grabbed another person and punched him in the face several times. The person suddenly passed out with blood flowing profusely. Behind him, Chen Wangting and others had already rushed over to catch the rogues and give them a beating. Fists and kicks.
Chang Yu casually threw away the naughty thing in his hand and then said to the red lady who was panting and angry: "Sister-in-law is frightened. Let me take it out for you."
"Sir..." When the red lady was entangled by the ruffians and was embarrassed, she only wished she didn't have a weapon in her hand, otherwise she would have been chopped down. When she was in a hurry, she suddenly saw someone helping her, and she was about to step forward to thank her, but she found that it was Chang Yu. At that moment, Pleasant surprise.
"Why are you here, sir?"
At the right time, Chang Yu saw that the onlookers here were confused, so he dragged the red lady out of the crowd. Over there, Chen Wangting and others had already taken control of the situation. The little eunuch ordered to beat her to death. They were really...all beaten to death.
In a remote place on Shiwangfu Street, Chang Yu stopped and asked, "Why is my sister-in-law here, and how did she provoke these rogues?"
The red lady sighed and said slowly.
After surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, the Red Lady took a back seat, and the female soldiers under her command gradually put down their weapons to save lives and heal the wounded. They followed Chang Yu's instructions and established the first military hospital in the Ming Dynasty, which was located in the Jinwu Guard Yamen.
When the Tatars went south, Chang Yu was ordered to pursue the soldiers who were injured. He was immediately transferred to Fangjing and handed over to the Red Lady's Yamen for treatment and care. It can be said that during this period, apart from Emperor Chongzhen and Chang Yu, she was the busiest in the capital.
She was so busy that she didn't have time to see Li Yan's class teacher when he returned to Beijing.
Of course, there is another reason why the couple cannot meet each other, that is, Li Yan is currently a foreign military general and has no residence in the capital. Although he came to the capital by order, his status is sensitive and he has just surrendered. In order to avoid suspicion, he lives in Changyu every day. The arranged villa never goes out at will.
The matchmaker was also extremely busy, so much so that even though Li Yan had been back in Beijing for several days, the couple had not even met each other.
The Red Lady is a dashing and heroic female general on the battlefield. She loves the people and is considerate of her subordinates. She has always had a good reputation. The Jinwu Guards Yamen where she is stationed is near the Tenth Prince's Mansion. There are a large number of refugees gathered here. The Red Lady is good at charity and often brings some She came to visit the orphans and widows, or help the refugees see their sick, but she didn't want to encounter some naughty teases today. With her temperament, she would naturally get into a fight.
Poor people must be hateful. Chang Yu glanced at the place where the incident happened in the distance. The hateful red lady had done so many good things to them, but she didn't even say a word when the incident happened.
From ancient times to the present, the sentiment of hatred towards the rich has always existed. In the eyes of the poor, rich people have no good things, and it is unkind to be rich.
But is this really the case?
The rich contribute far more to society than the poor. In peacetime, they build bridges and roads, and in times of natural and man-made disasters, they donate money to provide relief. But what are the poor doing at this time? They will only magnify some of the shortcomings of the rich and use their power to bully others. Wait, in fact, he has more of these shortcomings, and he does a lot of sneaky things to pull out garlic sprouts.
There is a saying that if you are poor, you will be wise, but if you are rich, you will have a conscience.
The poorer a person is, the more vicious his heart is. Blame the world, blame the earth, blame society, otherwise there would be no such thing as the saying that there are many unruly people in poor mountains and poor waters.
"From now on, I won't do things like this where good intentions are not rewarded." Chang Yu hummed, and the red lady smiled bitterly and shook her head, "But please have a clear conscience. I know that I am speaking out of anger. You have never stopped doing good deeds. I heard today that you want to raise money to build an orphanage." .
"Hey, how come you found out about this so quickly?" Chang Yu was surprised.
"Did you talk about this in the Yamen last night? Luo Yu said it when she came to see me this morning," the red lady said with a slight smile. Chang Yu scratched his head: "Well, I originally planned to leave this matter to you, but I haven't had time to tell you yet, so I'll give you the money later, and I'll leave the preparations to you."
"In this humble position, I will try my best to live up to my trust, but I still have one thing to ask of you, sir." The red lady mustered up her courage.
"But I have to see General Li. He is right outside the front door. My sister-in-law can come over at any time." Chang Yu said.
"No, no, no." The red lady quickly shook her head: "I want to ask you, sir, if you can give the military hospital a yamen of your own. Right now, I am borrowing the Jinwu Guards. They went out to fight a few days ago and the yamen is spacious. Now that the class teacher has returned, The court office is overcrowded, and most of the subordinate subordinates are female soldiers...it is very inconvenient."
It turned out that this was the case. Chang Yu pondered for a while and said, "Well, I still have something to do. My sister-in-law will go to the Yamen to find me in the evening. How about we get together with General Li and talk about this matter?"
The red lady was overjoyed and thanked her profusely.
