On November 13, the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, both sides of Yifengmen Street in the north of Nanjing were crowded with people.
At this moment, in the northwest area of Nanjing, close to the Yangtze River and Qinhuai River, there were already countless houses, markets everywhere, and a dense population. Every day from morning to night, there is a bustling scene. But today is an exception. The places inside and outside the West Wall of Nanjing's inner city, and on both sides of the Qinhuai River, where fireworks flourish, have now become very deserted and empty. People gathered on both sides of Yifengmen Street and Beizu Shi'an Street, on the tower of Yifengmen and nearby city walls, and on the Lion Mountain on the north side of Yifengmen Street.
So many people gathered in this northernmost corner of the inner city of Nanjing for only one purpose, which is to see the Tatars!
Look at the evil and ferocious Tatars who want to dig Confucius's grave, cut off the roots of the famous religion, and turn all the Han people into slaves. What do they look like!
The negative publicity against the Tatars began in September and has lasted for nearly two months.
However, because the means of publicity are still relatively limited, there are only two methods: posting notices and handing out leaflets, and there is no special "propaganda department". The only guest appearances are the Jinyiwei and the East Palace Guards Battalion, so the effect is not very good.
The people in Nanjing did not quite believe it. In the view of some of them, the Ming Dynasty controlled by Zhu Cihong was actually a greedy foreign regime. After suppressing the nobles and ministers of Nanjing who tried to serve the king, they continued to loot and collect! First, they imposed a heavy salt tax, then they ransacked their homes, and then they inspected the land (military land, official land, and hidden land occupied by Xungui). Recently, there are rumors that tariffs and commercial taxes will be severely levied!
Although in October, Zhu Cixi issued the edict of "Five Years of Grain Exemption", exempting land taxes for the next five years from the 18th year of Chongzhen's reign, and at the same time stopped the three-year salary increase, which was regarded as a slight reduction for farmers in the southeast. A little bit of pressure. But this kind of pressure relief is only meaningful to the peasants, and it has no benefit to the gentry, landlords and tenants, and it may even be harmful!
Because the five-year tax exemption and the cessation of the three-month salary and extra payment not only reduced the burden on the peasants, but also reduced the value of "guilty mail" - since the court no longer collects land tax and extra payment, what is the meaning of the gentry's tax-free privilege?
At the same time that land taxes were exempted and additional dispatches were made, government offices called "military field offices" that specialized in managing military fields and official fields (including confiscated hidden fields and private fields) began to appear in various places in southern Zhili. Although these yamen are currently only responsible for managing the land copied from Nanjing nobles and ministers. But everyone knows that they will soon replace the original guard posts and bring all the military fields under the name of more than a hundred guards in the southeast under their jurisdiction. This will seriously infringe on the interests of the gentry in the southeast!
In addition, an yamen called the General Taxation Department also appeared under the name of the Ministry of Revenue... The emergence of this yamen made many gentry smell the "mining tax boom"!
Especially those southeastern gentry living in Nanjing, they all now know that Prince Fujun, who is now in power in the Ming Dynasty, has far more abilities than the old emperor Wanli...
Nanjing Shilin naturally did not have a good impression of such a "gathering prince". It’s just that from September to the present, Jin Yiwei has been strictly investigating the “remnants of the Eunuch Party”—the culprits of the Nanjing Eunuch Rebellion, such as Han Zanzhou, Zhu Guobi, and Zhao Zhilong, have not yet been executed or formally tried. It means the investigation is not over yet!
Therefore, the atmosphere in Nanjing was a bit tense, and the scholar-bureaucrats were more careful when speaking. Therefore, Zhu Cixi's reputation has not been completely ruined...
But most people don't really believe the propaganda of the court controlled by Zhu Cihong to smear the Tatars.
Tatars are humans too, how could they be so cruel?
How could he be worse than the Ming emperor who only knew how to accumulate money?
So today I heard that the Tatar mission was coming to Nanjing. The curious people and gentry of Jinling gathered in and around Yifeng Gate, which the mission must pass through when entering the city, to see with their own eyes what the Tatars looked like and to see if they were real. Very fierce.
The ferocious Tatars have not yet appeared, but the soldiers of the New Army, who look almost as ferocious as the Tatars, are already at one post every three steps and one post every five steps. We stood on the street outside the Drum Tower - there was a house next to the Drum Tower in Nanjing that was going to be allocated to Su Guansheng, the Count of Dongguan who was in trouble. Because Su Guansheng was still in Denglai and had not returned, it was temporarily returned to the management of the Generalissimo's Mansion and was used to house him. The Tatar mission has arrived.
The New Army soldiers standing guard were all the "heroes" who had just divided their fields and wives. They returned to the camp one after another in mid-October. Everyone was very motivated. They were now training at a "697" intensity, and they were eating well. It looked like they were there. Full of energy, completely different species from the Beijing camp soldiers who were stumbling around before...
Just when the gentry and common people in Nanjing felt a little afraid of the increasingly energetic New Army soldiers who were overcoming difficulties, the Tatars also disembarked from the official ship coming from Yangzhou.
There were not only the envoys, but also the Tatar soldiers escorting the envoys. All of them had shaved heads, wore braids with money rat tails, wore cloth face armor, carried long guns, and carried swords on their shoulders. They were listed in four columns. The column came swaggeringly.
It doesn't look like...it's not much more vicious than the people of the new army!
Following the Tatar soldiers were three Tatar officials riding horses, all wearing Tatar clothes and with braids. There were also three Jinyi guards in flying fish uniforms riding beside them. It was not clear whether they were accompanying or guarding them. ?
The people watching the excitement started talking at this time.
"These Tatars don't look any more ferocious than Chitose's new army!"
"Of course it's worse. These are not real Tatars, but some Han army of the Tatars... Didn't it say that in the public notice (leaflet)? There are many Han troops under the Tatars, and they all surrendered. Their Han people.”
"Remember, it seems like you first become a slave, follow your master to fight in battle, and after you perform meritorious service, you can be promoted to the Han Army and be incorporated into the Han Army Banner."
"Why do you want to be a dressing slave first?"
"Except for the generals who defected to the Tatars and the civil servants who took refuge before the Tatar emperor moved his capital to Beijing, all other Han people would have to be slaves under the Tatar rule..."
"What is a wrapped slave?"
"You are a slave! Your life is yours, you can kill or sell it, your wife is also a slave, you can sleep with your master if you want, you can't resist!"
"Isn't this the same as it was during the Meng Yuan Dynasty?"
"There are more culprits than Meng Yuan. At that time, Meng Yuan was a third-class Han and a fourth-class Nan... Now the Tatars who have occupied Beijing want to turn all Han people into slaves!"
"Really? I don't believe that there are so many Han people and we have become their slaves?"
While people were talking about it, the Tatar delegation had already arrived outside the Yifengmen Wengcheng. Qian Qianyi, the Minister of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, was waiting there with several civil and military officials. When he saw the Tatar envoy arriving, he wanted to go up and talk to him - is the Ming Dynasty a country of etiquette? It is necessary to treat envoys when they come.
But at this moment, I don’t know whether the New Army soldiers who were maintaining order were negligent or for some other reason. I saw an older man dressed as a Confucian scholar suddenly striding out of the crowd. In full view of everyone, He quickly arrived outside Yifeng Gate and stood between Qian Qianyi and others and the Tatar delegation.
What's going on? Qian Qianyi hurriedly turned to look at the commander of the New Army of Kenan who was in charge of order at Yifeng Gate. But this Yu Da Xietong seemed not to see anything and just stood upright.
"Is that Sun Longfu in front of me? Ruan Dacheng is here in Tongcheng... As soon as we say goodbye to the capital, it will be seventeen years in the blink of an eye!"
Ruan Dacheng! That eunuch Ruan Dacheng! When did he come to Nanjing? Is it to reminisce about the past with Sun Zhixian, who is also the backbone of the eunuch party? No, they don’t know each other very well! And why did Ruan Dacheng and Sun Zhixian stay away from each other for seventeen years? In the first year of Chongzhen's reign, Ruan Dacheng had already given up his official position and was writing opera at home... What the hell is going on?
Qian Qianyi squinted his eyes and saw only a figure from behind. He wanted to step forward to stop the two remnants of the eunuchs from reminiscing. However, he was pulled away by Li Guorui, the Marquis of Wuqing who came with him to greet the Tatar delegation.
"Mr. Qiange," Li Guorui said with a smile, "watch the show!"
Going to the theater? What show are you watching? Qian Qianyi was stunned again and again.
