The British government and the nobles of the Ming Dynasty gathered together.
Today is the day when the British Duke Zhang Weixian takes a concubine. I invite all the nobles in Beijing to come over and have a glass of wine.
After three rounds of banquets, I chatted about the young and crazy British father-in-law, and invited the beautiful sixteen-year-old Madam Ru to come out and meet the guests.
The old and healthy Zhang Weixian had a rosy face. Amid the ridicule and flattery of all the distinguished guests, he drank a few glasses of wine and left the show early.
After the banquet, a troupe was invited to sing in the East Garden of the British Government House.
The entire East Garden was crowded with people, including those who came to the banquet, as well as the entourage and escorts they brought with them to watch the play. The family members and servants of the mansion were also allowed to watch the play.
The dignitaries accompanied the British Duke and the Crown Prince to watch the play on the second floor of the Wangyue Building, which is facing the stage.
Mingyue Tower is a water pavilion, surrounded by water on all sides. Opposite is the stage opposite the pond, with corridors on both wings. It is a place for watching plays.
Outside Mingyue Tower, the guards are heavily guarded. Those who can enter here today are top nobles.
After all the guests came in, the guards outside immediately closed the door and blocked the stairs leading upstairs.
The escorts brought by these nobles were all having wine on the first floor, or watching plays in the corridors in front of the building and on the left and right wings.
Today, on the second floor of Wangyue Building, chairs have been arranged according to the status of the distinguished guests. The names of the guests are pasted on the backs of the chairs to avoid sitting in the wrong place.
The status of nobles and nobles is formed by history. No matter the seat or the position where they usually stand, there can be no mistakes. The seat is a direct reflection of the status.
At this time, in the lobby on the second floor, there are five chairs in a row on the north side and south side.
This is the seat of the only five dukes left in the Ming Dynasty. The seats of the dukes all face south and face north.
Directly in front of the Duke's seat, in the middle open space, is a luxurious Persian carpet. There are 11 seats on both sides facing east and west. These are the seats for 22 marquises.
Behind the Marquis's seat, there is a row of seats. There are 18 seats in the east and west respectively. These are the seats of 36 Earls.
There is no one on the southernmost chair on the west side, but there is a note with the words Dingyuan Bo Yang Fan written on it.
Although Yang Fan did not attend the meeting, he was the newly promoted Dingyuan Bo and was qualified to attend. Therefore, even if he did not come, he still had a place.
In this room today, many chairs are empty. This is because a large number of distinguished officials are not in the imperial capital, and many of them are in other places, especially Nanjing.
Behind the chairs of the five dukes and on the roof beam above, there is a large plaque with the four characters "One Spirit Lian Branch" written on it. This is where the nobles hold a secret meeting.
Now in the Chongzhen Dynasty, the nobles in the north of the Ming Dynasty are headed by the British Duke. Zhang Weixian sits in the middle chair.
Sitting on the chair on his left was an old man in his sixties. It was Xu Xigao, Duke of Ding. There was no one on the chair on his right. There was a note on the chair that read "Gong Xu Wenjue of Wei". The Duke of Wei was in
Nanjing, did not attend the meeting.
Xu Da is a duke of the two countries, and they are all dukes whose status is second only to the British dukes.
The chair to the east of Xu Xigao, the Duke of Ding, was also empty, with a note on it that read "Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou". To the west of the empty chair of Xu Wenjue, the Duke of Wei, sat an old man of about fifty years old, who was Cheng.
Duke Zhu Chunchen.
There are several middle-aged people standing behind these five chairs.
Standing behind Zhang Weixian is Zhang Zhiji, the British prince. Standing behind Dingguo Duke Xu Xigao is Xu Yunji, the prince of Dingguo. Zhu Chunchen did not bring the prince. Standing behind him is his trusted steward Zhu Deyong.
The Zhu family is also a wealthy family among the nobles. He has no idea how much wealth his family has. Therefore, he must bring a housekeeper with him for such things.
In the first half of the Wanli period of that year, Zhang Juzheng cleared the land across the country and implemented a whip method to distribute the Ding tax, corvee, land tax, and various miscellaneous taxes to the land.
At that time, Duke Cheng Guo was Zhu Yingzhen of the ninth generation. It was found that his family owned more than 10,000 acres of land in Yutian, Fengrun. In the Ming Dynasty, one acres of land was one hundred acres.
In other words, the Chengguo government acquired more than one million acres of land. After being forced to withdraw a large amount of land, it still retained 960,000 acres of land.
In order to make friends with King Lu (the same mother and brother of Wanli), Zhu Yingjie was willing to rent a chain of salt shops to King Lu with an annual income of hundreds of thousands of taels. It was tantamount to bribery in disguise. In the fourteenth year of Wanli, the Zhengguoben Incident broke out, and he was forced to do so due to factional fighting.
suicide.
The nobles of the Ming Dynasty seized and annexed a large amount of land and commercial assets through successive generations. The amount was extremely astonishing. They were the largest political, military and economic force besides the civil servants.
After Zhu Chunchen was killed by Li Zicheng, his younger brother Zhu Yuanchen fled to Nanjing and became the 13th hereditary Duke Cheng.
The eleven marquises in the east are:
Guo Peimin, the Marquis of Wuding, was the founding Marquis. He reigned in 1628 and succeeded him in the first year of Chongzhen (1628). He died in the rebel army in the last year of Chongzhen.
Taining Marquis Chen Yanzuo, Chen Yanzuo, seniority and death year are unknown. He ascended the title during Tianqi (year) and was still alive in the first year of Chongzhen (1628). This person's subsequent fate is unknown. No information.
Gu Zhaoji, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, the tenth generation, ascended the title during the Tianqi period. In July of the first year of Chongzhen, he was appointed as the governor of the Left Army. In September of the third year of Chongzhen, he was added as a minor division. In the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, he was appointed the governor of the Right Army in Nanjing.
, Admiral Cao Jiang. In the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign, the city fell and he died from thieves.
Song Yude, the Marquis of Xining, and the Marquis of Xining were all descendants of Song Cheng. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng's Dashun army invaded Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Meishan. Countless Ming ministers were killed by the rebels in this regime change.
Among them, Song Yude, the last Marquis of Xining, was among them. Emperor Hongguang of the Southern Ming Dynasty awarded posthumous titles to the founding ministers, and Song Cheng was posthumously named Duke of Ning.
Xue Lian, Marquis of Yangwu, was the hero of the Jingnan War and was passed down for eight generations. "Jia Shen Chuan Xin Lu" said that there were many lawless people, so he entered Beijing in great numbers and was tortured and plundered in the most cruel way. Those who heard about it were applauded and praised him. It is said that Xue Lian died because of protecting Zhuang, the fierce emperor.
But he was killed by the rebels, which is doubtful.
Xu Xiyin, the Marquis of Yongkang, was the ninth generation Marquis of Yongkang and the son of Xu Yingkun after the Jingnan War. He ascended the throne in the first year of Tianqi (1621) and died in the second year of Chongzhen (1629). He was passed down to two more generations.
The tenth generation: Xu Yingyuan, the uncle of Xu Xiyin, ascended the throne in the third year of Chongzhen (1630). The time of death is unknown. The eleventh generation: Xu Xideng, the son of Xu Yingyuan, the time of ascending the throne is unknown. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the city fell and he died from thieves
.
Anyuan Hou Liu Zuochang, after the hero of Jingnan. Anyuan Hou Liu Zuochang surrendered in Nandu. His family's lineage was very confusing in the late Ming Dynasty. I really can't find out clearly. I apologize.
Zheng Zhijun, Marquis of Wu'an, was the eighth generation after the hero of Jingnan. He attacked in the second year of Tianqi. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the city fell and he died from thieves.
Li Kaixian, the Marquis of Fengcheng. After the second batch of heroes who were knighted in Jingnan, he is the ninth generation Marquis of Fengcheng. He just ascended the title this year. His father was purged with the fall of Wei Zhongxian in the first half of this year and was sent to the smog-infested land to guard the border. Li Kaixian
In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng was killed after he captured the capital.
Ningyang Marquis Chen Guangyu, after the hero of Jingnan. The ninth generation Ningyang Marquis Chen Guangyu ascended the throne in September of the first year of Taichang. In July of the first year of Chongzhen, Jiashen took the command of the Zuojun Dudufu. In the second year of Chongzhen, he added the crown prince Taibao.
.This man is a powerful figure in the hierarchy, and his fate is unknown after the death of the Ming Dynasty.
There is no more today. The introduction of honorable nobles is for the needs of the subsequent plot. There will be five updates tomorrow.
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Please remember the domain name of this book: .Novel about Strange People of the Republic of China
This chapter has been completed!