Within the city of Beijing, there are nine gates and nine carriages outside the city. Chaoyang Gate is where grain carts are transported. This is because grain entering Beijing passes through the Grand Canal, and the Tonghui River outside Chaoyang Gate is connected to the Tongzhou Wharf of the Grand Canal. , so the grain in Jiucang in Beijing enters through Chaoyang Gate, and therefore there is an ear of grain carved on the gate of Chaoyang Gate.
Therefore, Chaoyangmen has also become one of the grain markets in the capital. The other one is Jiangmi Lane outside Daming Gate. However, Jiangmi Lane is mainly for domestic sales to city residents. Chaoyangmen’s grain market is more like a wholesale market, such as the surrounding Changping , Pinggu, Yanqing and other prefectures and counties will sell wholesale from here.
During the great famine two years ago, rice was more expensive than gold. It was hard to find grains of rice in the Gyeonggi area. At that time, the grain markets in Chaoyangmen and Jiangmi Lane were almost closed. There were not many shops that sold grain, and those that did were too expensive to afford.
However, as the Wang brothers from Yangzhou made large purchases in the south of the Yangtze River, copied Liu Zeqing's granary, and Zheng Zhilong took the sea route to transport relief grains from Fujian to Beijing one after another, and the self-rescue of the farms, the famine in the capital was brought under control, and the grain market gradually recovered. It was very lively, especially the grain market in Chaoyangmen. There was an endless stream of grain sellers from outside the city and it was extremely noisy.
Buying and selling in the market is free, and there is always money and goods. There has always been no interference. However, in the past half month, there have been more official eyes and ears in the market. Needless to say, it is to prevent thieves from outside the city from purchasing food, especially when Song Xiance played a trick some time ago. After a batch of people were admitted, the control became even stricter.
Nowadays, any grain truck leaving the city will be strictly interrogated. Which company it belongs to and where it is shipped to must be clearly stated and a guarantor is required! Otherwise, you won't be able to get out of the city at all. From now on, the possibility of thieves outside the city trying to buy food under disguise is very slim, and even if you do, they will be intercepted without even getting close to the camp. This is why Song Xiance is so worried.
"The imperial court's move is really shameless. This shows that it may not really want to negotiate peace." In a dilapidated teahouse next to Chaoyangmen Grain Market, two rough men were wrapped tightly, holding teacups in their hands, cursing in a low voice. No one would have thought that these two people were the great thief Kou Li Zicheng and his national advisor Niu Jinxing.
The negotiators Wu Sheng and Shi Kefa could not imagine it. Emperor Chongzhen who hated him could not imagine it. Li Muxian, who was known as a semi-immortal with uncanny calculations, could not imagine it. Even Chang Yu, who was praised as omnipotent, could not imagine that Li Zicheng had such courage to secretly Sneaking into the capital and now drinking tea and cursing at the emperor's feet is really audacious!
It's no wonder that they didn't think of it. Very few people around Li Zicheng knew about him. Even in the military camp at this time, there were only two or three people who knew him. At this time, the man had long hair and beard, and was tightly wrapped in winter. He wore a little makeup. The mask was unrecognizable, and the common soldiers had never seen him before.
Li Zicheng stayed in the military camp outside the city for several days and wanted to take a peek into the city, but he did not come in with Song Xiance. The reason was very simple. It was too dangerous to follow Song Xiance. He pretended to be a follower. The followers were usually young people. Both of them were in their forties and were too eye-catching, and if they entered the city as their entourage, they would be closely watched by the imperial spies, and they might even be tricked, so they decided to disguise themselves as ordinary people and sneak into the city through Chaoyang Gate. .
The first stop was the grain market at Chaoyangmen. I thought it was because of Song Xiance's incompetence, but after seeing it in person, I realized that there was really no opportunity to take advantage of.
"This move should be because the court is disgusting with us. It has nothing to do with the negotiation. Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about it." Niu Jinxing took a sip from the tea cup and looked around with his eyes intentionally or unintentionally, very alert. "The benefits of the peace talks outweigh the disadvantages for the imperial court. The reason for deliberately making things difficult is just to lose face. I just want to let them breathe a little bit, and they will still have a good talk with us after all."
"So... no comment, wait until they have calmed down and become anxious?" Li Zicheng looked at the door and snorted coldly, Niu Jinxing nodded: "Of course, we can arrange it as we want in the west, no matter what we talk about here. If we don’t delay things over there, even if the talks collapse, there will be no loss and enough time has been delayed.”
Well, Li Zicheng took a sip of tea and looked at the people coming and going outside the door, his eyes a little blurry. They had thought about what Niu Jinxing said before they came. They could talk if they could, and it wouldn't delay things if they couldn't talk. But, he Now he really wants to negotiate peace. When he reaches middle age and knows his destiny, he doesn't want to mess around anymore. It is enough to be the legitimate king of Xi'an in a down-to-earth manner.
But the current actions of the imperial court made him feel a little uneasy. He was not sure whether the imperial court was sincere in the peace talks. Logically speaking, the peace talks were a great good thing for the imperial court. It just didn't look good in appearance, but the real benefits were not. Few, but the imperial court is now deliberately making things difficult, even if they don't provide food and grass, and the conditions for peace talks are also quite harsh, so that the four of them can't come up with a decision after several days of discussion, so they have to wait and see what the imperial court will do next. Walk.
He took it for granted that the imperial court was losing face, deliberately venting ill-will and deliberately making things difficult. In the end, they would have a good negotiation, and they would eventually give in on the conditions. But for now, he just had to endure it and let the imperial court vent its ill-will first.
Li Zicheng knew in his heart that while he was delaying the court, the court was not the same. Maybe they were also waiting for how they would deal with the harsh conditions. Then they had to compare their patience, but now the food and grass matter had to be resolved quickly. , the negotiation cannot be completed in a day or two. If the food is short, the horses can be killed, but what will the horses eat after killing them? Is it possible to ask Li Guo to send food from the other side of the Yellow River?
Maybe, he really has to take that step. Li Zicheng often sighed, stood up, paid the bill, and walked out of the store with Niu Jinxing. He wanted to take a walk. After all, going to the city is not easy. For example, this time in order to escape The spies outside the military camp were watching, and Liu Xiyao deliberately asked Liu Xiyao to create chaos to attract the attention of the spies. The two of them crawled in the snow before dawn and crossed the other side of the Yongding River, going around to the village at the bottom of the Xishan Mountain, and then from the north of the city. Go around to the east of the city and enter the city through Chaoyang Gate, for fear of being spotted by spies.
At the same time, Li Muxian and Song Xiance were drinking and chatting happily in a street tavern. The two people in the same major discussed Taoism and law, each benefited a lot, and they both admired the other.
At the same time, Prince Zhu Cixiang of the Duanben Palace in the Forbidden City was arguing with his Confucian teacher: "The earth is round, or to be precise, it is elliptical."
"It's nonsense. Our ancestors have known for thousands of years that the sky is round and the earth is round. How did Your Highness hear this crooked theory? If the earth is round, how can a person stand without falling or a house without collapse?"
"That's the gravity of the earth's center. The earth under our feet is actually a very big ball. Just like the moon, isn't it also round when it's full... There are countless such spheres floating in the universe... Instead That’s what Zhengcheng Yu said!”
"That's nonsense, that's nonsense!" The scholar blew his beard and glared: "That eunuch... Chang Yu is very good at fighting, but that doesn't mean everything he says is right. How old is he... they are all heresy... The sky is the cover, and the earth is the chessboard..."
"No, no, the sky is not a cover, but the universe is infinite. And how can this be a crooked theory? Thousands of years ago, I once wandered in Taixu and saw the truth of the universe. Only then did he say, there is a sky outside the sky, and the universe is For Tao, all things are Tao. Taoism is the orthodoxy of the Han family, so why is it heresy..."
"Your Highness, you... you will become the king of a country and study the universe and Tao. You should focus on the Four Books..."
And at this time, where is the eunuch Chang Yu who has not been seen for several days?
