The clattering horse hooves trampled across the stream. The first horse had already set foot on the west bank of an unknown stream that ran across the center of the Kaifeng prairie. Then dozens of knights crossed the river in an open carriage.
The person who was the first to cross the river was wearing a black hat and yellow clothes, with a three-foot straight knife hanging from his belt. Although his beard has turned gray, his burly body is still upright. It is Zhao Kai.
And in the compartment of the two-wheeled carriage, there was a white-haired, elderly fat man sitting. This fat man seemed to be ill, his face was red, and he was breathing heavily. It was Zhao Huan, Zhao Kai's eldest brother. .
It is now the summer of the 34th year of Hongwu. The two brothers Zhao Kai and Zhao Huan cried each other at Yuejiangmen Wharf in Yingtianfu, Nanjing a year ago.
Although the two of them had been fighting in their adolescence and youth, that was all decades ago. Now they are both much older, have children and grandchildren, and have experienced countless ups and downs. Now that we have seen through it and seen it away, it is naturally up to the two brothers to take care of themselves.
After the brothers finished crying, Zhao Huan proposed to go to Kaifeng Mansion and then go to the Yong'an Imperial Tomb to pay homage to his ancestors.
Of course, Zhao Kai immediately agreed. Not only did he agree, but he also offered to accompany his brother back to Kaifeng Mansion.
However, he did not agree to leave immediately because Zhao Huan had been at sea for a month and was in poor health. Therefore, Zhao Kai asked his brother Zhao Huan to rest in Nanjing for a few months and then go north together in the next spring.
And after Zhao Huan rested and ate and drank for several months... his health got even worse!
Well, a problem like gout cannot be solved by taking supplements and resting, right? And Zhao Huan definitely still has "three highs", so after eating and drinking for a few months, his health is even worse.
And Zhao Kai didn't know how to treat Zhao Huan's problem. In his previous life, he had only been in the second year of high school and had never studied medicine!
So all we can do now is to take my eldest brother on the road while he can still hold on... We must let him fulfill this wish before he dies, right?
So Zhao Kai packaged the affairs of the DPRK and handed them over to the prince Zhao Ping. The Western Expedition presided over by this prince went smoothly. Wei Wang Zhao Yi and General Yue Yun received frequent reports of victory, so his prestige was also established, enough to take charge of the DPRK. . Zhao Kai himself took the Queen Zhu Fengying, Concubine Natalie, and accompanied Zhao Huan, whose health was getting worse day by day, on the long journey home for a visit.
Because Zhao Huan was in poor health, Zhao Kai did not dare to walk too fast. After three months of stop-and-go, he finally arrived at the Kaifeng Prairie where the "sky is vast and the wilderness is vast".
Zhao Kai stopped immediately and looked around. On the east bank of the creek behind him, there was a long procession of carriages and horses walking slowly on the green grassland. And to the west... the majestic Kaifeng City is already in sight!
The carriage that Zhao Huan was riding in had arrived beside Zhao Kai and stopped. Zhao Huan was holding on to the railing of the carriage, looking around, and asked Zhao Kai in a hoarse voice: "Third brother, where are we? Why is there so much grass? Are we in the grassland?"
Of course this is grassland! It’s Kaifeng Prefecture Prairie!
Although Zhao Kai's army has already marched directly to Huining Mansion, he has not changed the Kaifeng Mansion prairie back to its original appearance, and it cannot be changed back!
After the war between the Song and Jin Dynasties, the economic center of China once again moved eastward. The Gyeonggi and Jingxi roads and the eastern and western parts of Jingji (now Henan Road), which were originally very prosperous commodity economies, were affected by the flooding of the Yellow River and the large-scale implementation of the military system. , inevitably heading towards depression.
In Zhao Kai's view, there is nothing wrong with this kind of depression... Depression and poverty are actually not synonymous. The reason for the depression was due to underdeveloped industry and commerce, a single industrial structure, with only agriculture, animal husbandry and military industry (concentrated in Luoyang), and the continuous outflow of the population.
Well, it looks miserable.
But in fact, the "per capita income" of Henan Yingtianshi Road is not low, even higher than that of Jiangnan! Moreover, the gap between the rich and the poor in Henan Yingtianshi Road is very small. Most of the land is "very evenly" controlled by hundreds of thousands of military households, and the remaining land is official land cultivated by small farmers. There are no big landowners at all, and there are no big businessmen except Luoyang, the military-industrial capital.
In the past ten years, Yingtianshi Road in Henan Province and Yingtianshi Road in Shaanxi Province have been exporting places for military households. As the surplus population continues to move to the Northeast, Monan, Hexi, Datong, and even the other side of the ocean, the conflict between people and land in Henan and Shaanxi is not serious at all. Moreover, the land on Yingtian Road is not allowed to be bought and sold, so there is no possibility of land concentration.
In addition, because the new generation of soldiers are generally well-educated and are considered to be both civil and military, they are not easy to bully. It will not be easy to swallow up their land.
As for the industry and commerce of Henan Yingtianshi Road, in addition to the military industry, it was also deliberately suppressed by the Song Dynasty court - industry and commerce were too developed, and the military system should be disintegrated!
Using the area around Kaifeng Mansion as a pasture for raising horses was an important means for the Song Dynasty court to suppress commercial activities in Henan.
"Brother, this is Kaifeng Prefecture!" Zhao Kai raised his riding whip and pointed in the distance at the golden Kaifeng Prefecture city wall in front of him under the afternoon sun. "Brother, look, that is Kaifeng Prefecture! Let's hurry up Got home!"
"Ah..." Zhao Huan held his neck, looked at Kaifeng Fucheng from a distance, and just murmured, "I'm home, I'm home, we haven't been together for more than thirty years! Dad, mother, The unfilial son Zhao Huan is back, back again!"
Zhao Kai also nodded and said with a smile: "Brother, let's work harder and we can enter the city before dark!"
Zhao Huan also nodded, "Okay, if you work harder... you can go back!"
Zhao Kai whistled, let go of the horse's reins and ran straight out. Behind him, a large group of Banzhi cavalry had crossed the creek, their horses hooves following him, rolling westward.
Kaifeng Mansion, Zhao Huan and Zhao Kai are back!
...
The area near Kaifeng Mansion looks particularly desolate at dusk. The earth-yellow rammed earth city wall stands alone in the vast grassland. Most of the city gates were sealed before the disaster that flooded Kaifeng Prefecture, and were not opened later. Only Nanxun Gate in the south of Kaifeng Prefecture, Shuntian Gate in the west of the city, Chaoyang Gate in the east of the city, and Chaoyang Gate in the north of the city. The Jingyang Gate was opened again.
The two brothers Zhao Kai and Zhao Huan, as well as the more than ten thousand Banzhi cavalry and thousands of accompanying people who escorted them, entered Kaifeng Fucheng through Nanxunmen.
Inside Nanxunmen is the straight Imperial Street. When Zhao Kai and Zhao Huan came back, this long and open street was still there. However, the prosperity on both sides of the Royal Street has long since disappeared, leaving only the wheat fields that have grown ears of wheat... Outside the city of Kaifeng Prefecture are grasslands, but inside the city are wheat fields!
As the last Kaifeng Mu before the tragedy of Xuanhe, Zhao Huan could hardly cry when he saw this scene.
This is Kaifeng Mansion, the most virtuous capital of the Song Dynasty, where he has lived for 26 years!
At that time, Kaifeng was the most popular place in the world, and the housing prices were also the highest in the world... Now there are horses roaming outside the city and farming in the city, and there are not even many people around.
Oh, the current Kaifeng Prefecture official, Zhao Ji, is the thirty-third son of Zhuangzong of Song Dynasty and the youngest brother of Zhao Huan and Zhao Kai. He has tried his best to organize the people of Kaifeng to welcome him on both sides of the Royal Street. With his efforts, Kaifeng Mansion is packed with people today, and they are all gathered at the edge of the royal road - almost more than 10,000 people! A city that used to have a population of one million now only has over ten thousand people left. Such desolation and loneliness can no longer be described in words.
If Kaifeng Fucheng could cry, it would definitely be crying now.
Zhao Huan sat on the carriage and listened to Bianliangzi on both sides of the road speaking with northwest accents (most of them were horse breeders from Lingzhou) shouting "Long live the mountains". He was so sad that he couldn't even cry.
"Second brother, thirty-third brother!" When the carriage drove into the Zhuque Gate in the inner city of Kaifeng Mansion, Zhao Huan finally couldn't help it and said to Zhao Kai and Zhao Ji with tears in his eyes, "Why is Kaifeng Mansion so desolate? If The late Emperor has a soul in heaven, and he will definitely be heartbroken when he sees Kaifeng Mansion in such a state..."
Zhao Kai looked at this elder brother and didn't know what to say? Wasn't this Kaifeng Mansion made like this by him and the late emperor? If the late emperor had a spirit, he would be so ashamed that he would be too embarrassed to be a ghost. He might have been reincarnated early.
Zhao Huan seemed to know that it was his fault, and cried: "Second brother, if I had known this, Brother Yu should have supported you on the throne that day. If you were an official in Kaifeng Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion would definitely not fall. It turned into what it is now..."
This... is hard to say!
Zhao Kai thought to himself: With my current method of using troops and generals, of course I can defend Kaifeng Mansion... But back then, I didn't seem to have any clever tricks! If you really want to become an official in Kaifeng Mansion, you may die in the Song Dynasty.
Zhao Ji, who accompanied Zhao Kai and Zhao Huan into the city, was Zhao Ji's posthumous son. When he was born, Kaifeng Mansion had become a ghost town, so he had never seen the prosperity of Kaifeng Mansion in the past, and he had no feelings for Kaifeng Mansion. Now Seeing his eldest brother crying sadly, he comforted him and said, "Brother, it will be better after you enter the Zhuque Gate... After entering the Zhuque Gate and walking a little further, you will reach Zhouqiao Wazi, which is the busiest place in Kaifeng Prefecture. place!"
Zhao Huan wiped his tears and said, "Zhouqiao Night Market was really prosperous back then! I wonder how it is today?"
Zhouqiao Night Market?
Zhao Ji thought to himself: There are only 10,000 people in Kaifeng Mansion, so what kind of night market is there? In the Wazi area of Zhouqiao, there is neither a night market nor a Wazi. There are only two to three thousand households and a "Daojun Temple" dedicated to Emperor Zhuangzong.
This Taoist temple named "Taojun Temple" was built in Kaifeng City after Empress Dowager Zheng returned to the north. It has a bit of the style before the Xuanhe disaster. It is now the best house in Kaifeng City.
Therefore, the two filial sons of Zhao Ji, Zhao Kai and Zhao Huan, arranged their stay in this Taoist Monastery...
