In July of the first year of Wuding, I looked to the southwest of the capital, Xiaoyan Mountain.
The mist is thick, and looking around, the charming scenery of the northern mountains is looming in the clouds and mist, as if a huge veil is floating down from the sky.
Among the hazy clouds and mist, a woman about twenty years old came from the mountain stream holding a bamboo basket. The bamboo basket contained several pieces of washed clothes.
She was carrying a bamboo basket in one hand and holding a dark and skinny child in the other. The child was about four or five years old, and his steps were still a little staggering.
Two people, one large and one small, walked through the lilacs blooming in the valley towards the thatched cottage at the foot of the mountain in the distance.
The mountain breeze blew by, and the fragrance of flowers was refreshing. The wind messed up the woman's hair. She looked up to the northeast and stared at the direction of the capital for a while. There were still faint traces of tears on her unworldly face. .
"Sister Yang, let's go quickly, I'm hungry."
It wasn't until the thin black child pulled the woman's hand that she came back to her senses, wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, took out a piece of candy from her coarse cloth skirt, hesitated for a moment, and then handed the candy over.
"Here, Shuanzhu, eat it, there used to be a sister named Jin from Qifangzhai in the capital, and she loved eating this candy the most."
Before she finished speaking, Shuanzhu took the candy cake and swallowed it in his mouth without saying thank you.
The beautiful woman chuckled, pointed at the child's forehead and said: "The starving ghost is asking for a life, and he eats and looks like her daughter..."
Shuanzhu devoured his meal, pointed at the thatched house at the foot of the mountain and shouted: "Mother is back! Mother is back!"
A wisp of smoke rises in the distance, and the hitching post is like a cheerful deer, jumping and running towards the thatched house.
"Don't fall."
She glanced at the vast Yanshan Mountain and quickened her pace following the children in front of her who were rushing home.
~~~~~
There was a bamboo hat hanging in the thatched hut, and Shuanzi's mother had prepared meals. In addition to the farm-style delicacies such as bamboo shoots and wild vegetables, there was also an additional meat dish. There were a few slices of meat as thin as cicada wings on a coarse porcelain dish.
The woman swallowed her saliva and just put the bamboo basket down when a plump woman walked out of the kitchen at the back. Wearing a bright red raw silk skirt, without any rouge or powder, she opened half of her breasts, revealing her peach red gauze waist. She hurriedly shouted when she saw her. :
"There's news! I went to the Shibalipu market today. Several sellers from Shandong Province said that the Kaiyuan soldiers from Linqing killed a hundred thousand Ming thieves and cut off tens of thousands of heads and piled them at the west gate. Wengcheng, many people saw with their own eyes, a red-haired general who was more than ten feet tall, took a stick like Sun Wukong's golden cudgel, and beat the mighty warriors from Guangji Gate. He killed more than 3,000 Ming troops alone, Jiangbei The four general soldiers asked him to kill three of them, and they all said that this man was a true Martial God descended to earth, a savior sent from heaven to help our Daqi, Queen, Daqi is saved!"
"Killed more than three thousand people..." she muttered to herself.
"Is there any news about the emperor?"
Shuanzi's mother was talking with flying eyes. After hearing the woman's question, her bright eyes suddenly dimmed, but she soon smiled brightly again and comforted the woman:
"Queen, don't worry. The plague and drought in Beizhili are over. It rained a few days ago. Next year will definitely be a good year. There will be plenty of progress. There are more people going to the market in Shibalipu every day. We'll see you again in a few days." If you go out, you will be able to find out the emperor's news. Let's eat first... Xuanzhu, my lord hasn't moved his chopsticks yet, you!"
Shuanzi's mother raised her chopsticks and hit her son on the head. Shuanzi grabbed a piece of meat with his hand and ran away.
The two women smiled at each other, and Shuanzi's mother kept picking up food for her. She looked back at her son's naughty and clever look, put down his chopsticks and said:
"Shuanzi's father left early. If Emperor Wu Ding hadn't taken him in, we would have starved to death in Shanhaiguan. Even if we risk our lives, we have to protect you and return to Linqing safely. There are people over there. There are many veterans of the First Army and the Second Army. They all came from the capital. They may know the whereabouts of the emperor. The emperor has been doing good things. He has his own destiny and will be fine. I dreamed about it last night· ·····”
She chewed the coarse old rice in the bowl. The delicacies of the mountains and seas that she and her husband had tasted in the past in Kaiyuan and the capital had become a distant memory.
"Go to Linqing and keep looking. You will definitely find him."
Yang Qing'er said to herself silently in her heart, not hearing clearly what Shuanzi Niang said behind her.
The loyal Chamber of Commerce boss in front of me, after the explosion that changed the fate of Daqi two months ago, regardless of the dangers, he took his son through the capital where thieves were plundering, and escorted Yang Qing'er all the way here. In this quiet place We spent the most difficult two months in the valley...
After Yang Qing'er ate, she looked up at the endless Yanshan Mountains in front of her. She was in a bright mood and felt that even the mountains were getting brighter.
~~~~~
August 14th.
Linqingzhou City.
It was already August, and tomorrow would be the Mid-Autumn Festival. Linqing Prefecture, a city that was more prosperous than the capital, suddenly felt like it was suffering from a plague.
The sight of numerous sails and masts on the canal disappeared, and the canal boats that used to sell salt up and down the bank suddenly disappeared.
Compared to the river, the scene in the city is even more depressing. A few days ago, the North-South Street, which was still filled with food and goods and crowded with people, has closed its doors one after another as if under a curfew. No matter how much the patrons bang on the door, there is no movement. .
Even the thirty-two alleys of flowers and willows and the seventy-two spring-stringed towers in Fatty Street in the north of the city are deserted today with only a few pommel horses in front of the door. Speak of the delicate sounds of the Yangzhou thin horses soliciting customers, which is only 30% to 50% less than in the past. A group of Qingke helpers who came to have fun suddenly disappeared.
Only Baoantang in the west of Chengdu is still open as usual today. Not only that, Baoantang opened the door early in the morning, and the clerk put out all the secret medicines at the bottom of the box in the drugstore, such as Thousand-year-old Korean Ginseng, King Kong Powder, and Changting Dan. ····Putting it outside the door, Daian stood at the door of the store and shouted at the top of his lungs to the passers-by on the street:
"Come, come, come, take a walk, take a look, the goods are genuine, no one can be deceived. Today, the big officials in the East are selling at a loss. If you buy ginseng, you will get Vajra Powder, a long-lasting elixir, which is very powerful. Who knows who uses it..." ···”
Several passers-by were immediately attracted by the shout, grabbed a deer whip lying on the stall, and bargained with the shop assistant...
Suddenly, a rapid bamboo whistle broke the calm of the street.
Groups of Qi soldiers, fully armored and armed with sharp knives, blocked the intersections on both sides of Rouge Street. Without any explanation, they began to kick down doors one by one along the street. Some security guards came quickly carrying door hammers, as if they were facing a formidable enemy. When pedestrians saw it, they screamed and ran away.
The instructor came out and shouted:
"Cut down the profiteers, so people don't have to worry!"
The Zhenfu soldiers seized a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, silk and satin from the most prosperous 72-storey shop in Zhongzhou, Linqing, and bags of grain were moved out of the cellar. The soldiers and training officers of each camp followed the soldiers into the shops and cellars. The Civil Affairs and Imperial Guards sent people to supervise and register the seized goods and silver.
~~~~
More than eighty merchants who had direct contact with the Ming army were escorted to Aotouji Pier by the Zhenfu soldiers. Emperor Wu Ding was already waiting on the river bank. The Zhenfu soldiers asked the merchants to kneel down. Zhang Dong stepped forward and pointed at the crowd. :
"The world is rotten, and the people are thieves, all because they are hungry! The people are hungry because there is no land to cultivate! There is no food to eat! You eighty-one families have invaded people's fields and hid tax items! You have hoarded them and inflated the price of food to five taels of silver and one stone. , deserve to be killed! Make up the commercial tax and land rent owed to the Ming Dynasty,"
"This is the Shangfang sword given to the emperor by the former Ming emperor. I will use it to kill you common thieves today!"
Zhang Dong said, holding Shang Fang's sword in front of the crowd.
Someone among the kneeling merchants muttered: "Using the sword of the previous dynasty to kill people of this dynasty, what's the point here?"
