Chapter 305 Zhengyang Gate

The first month of the 35th year of Jiajing is an extremely cold winter.

Starting around the New Year, groups of refugees with their families flocked to the capital of the Ming Empire, Beijing, from all directions.

Most of these people spoke Guanzhong accents, and many of them were from Zhili, Shandong and Henan. They wore ragged cotton jackets, had straw ropes around their waists, carried trembling children with shoulder poles, and black and broken quilts. They were begging along the streets, or looking for places to cook porridge, and wanted to survive with difficulty and humility.

At first, the people in the capital felt that these people were very pitiful and allowed them to live in the shops and alleys. However, as time went by, the number of refugees actually increased explosively. Within a few days after the Chinese New Year, more than 100,000 were poured in, and there was a trend of continued growth. Various public security incidents naturally increased simultaneously.

The anxious prefect of Shuntian saw that it would not work, so he reported to the emperor and asked the expulsion of the victims. However, Emperor Jiajing was apologizing to God. How could he agree to such a thing? But it was indeed not a solution to stay together. Master Yan came up with an idea and said, "Move all the victims to the outer city and do not allow them to enter the inner city."

The emperor felt that it was good, so he ordered Shuntian Prefecture to follow this and concentrate all the victims in the outer city to resettle... The Beijing city of the Ming Dynasty had no outer city originally, and the nine gates of the capital were the outer city gates. However, over time, the population gradually increased, and the suburbs of Beijing became prosperous... To be more precise, the suburbs of the southern suburbs had many houses and shops, which gradually developed to scale, and even the Temple of Heaven and Xiannong Temple, which were worshipped by the royal temple of sacrifices, were built here.

While prosperity is the same, hidden dangers arise. You must know that Beijing is extremely close to the Mongolian grasslands, and it is the throat of its way to stop its southward movement. Emperor Chengzu moved the capital here to "the emperor guards the country's gates"! At the beginning of the country, there was no problem with the country's efforts to suppress Mongolia, but later its national strength declined and it was attacked by the Tatar Oirats many times. The suburbs of Beijing without the protection of the city walls would be ravaged to death.

So some officials suggested that an additional outer city with a circumference of about 80 miles outside the capital was built to ensure safety. Due to various reasons, the construction was delayed until a few years ago. The first one was the Nanjiao Outer City outside Zhengyang Gate. However, shortly after the start of construction, it was difficult to sustain due to insufficient funds... This cannot be blamed for the court not raising it early. Who would have expected that the court's heavy taxes would be ravaged by Japanese pirates?

In helplessness, Emperor Jiajing sent Mr. Yan to find a solution. It is said that "a skillful woman is hard to cook without rice." What's more, Mr. Yan is not a skillful woman. Isn't this obviously difficult? After thinking about it, he finally came up with a solution that was not a solution - only build the southern city wall, and wait for the other three sides to be rich in the future.

Therefore, the shape of the "hui" in the original design drawings Beijing City became the current shape of the "convex" shape.

This southern exterior wall was basically completed last summer. It is 28 miles long and has seven city gates. The main gate is named "Yongding Gate". The rest are all named "Zuo'an", "You'an", and "Yongning". At first glance, they were named by the peace-loving Mr. Yan.

Unexpectedly, less than half a year after its completion, the earthquake in the twelfth lunar month destroyed the city wall for more than ten miles and the city gates collapsed several places. The degree of damage was much worse than the old city wall of the inner city that had been more than 150 years ago.

However, Yongding Gate, the main passageway to enter and exit the capital, was unharmed.

Now Shen Mo is standing outside this pavilion-style city gate tower with gray bricks and green tiles that are nearly ten feet tall, with three drops of water from the double eaves. Looking at the cracked new city walls on both sides, he can't tell what it feels like.

Zhu Shisan was so angry that he ran to the city to pick up a broken brick, took it over and broke it hard, and it broke two pieces. He was filled with indignation: "Is this a brick? This is worse than the one we eat in Shandong! Yan Shifan, is there any money he dare not greedy?"

Looking at the soldiers patrolling under the city wall in silence, they had already looked over and couldn't help but smile, "That's what you guys from the North Town Fushi dare to say." When they heard that it was the Jinyiwei, those soldiers could not avoid it, and they would do as far as they could.

Zhu Shisan also felt a little confused. Although he was not afraid of the Yan family's father and son, he did not want to cause trouble for the governor. He threw away the two pieces of city bricks and clapped his hands and said, "You can do whatever you want outside. You have to pay attention when you return to Beijing." This seemed to be said to him, and it was actually a reminder of silence.

Of course, Chen Si understood, nodded and said, "Yes, you can't cause trouble... I'll tell my family and tell them not to go to Beijing with us."

"No need to be so anxious," Zhu Shisan said embarrassedly: "Let's talk about it when you enter the front door."

"No need," said Chen Silently, "Just now." Then he turned around and walked towards a carriage behind. He ran and bumped all the way, and the original carriage had long since fallen apart, and this one was bought in Tongzhou.

He knocked on the car door, and Rou Niang opened it from the inside. Beifeng poured it in at once. Chen Si didn't want to stool. He quickly grabbed the wall of the car and closed the car door hard. When he looked inside, he saw Ruohan sleeping heavily with a thick quilt.

Silence immediately slowed down and lowered his voice and said, "Is it better?" But he asked Rou Niang.

Rou Niang whispered, "I took the medicine and fell asleep just now." When he was in Tianjin Wei, Ruohan suffered some coldness and was exhausted from running around, so he finally fell ill.

Situated to Ruohan, he sat down, looking at the thin and sick face, feeling very sad, and reached out to gently put her hair on her forehead, awakening Ruohan. After seeing his sad face, he forced a smile and said, "It's okay, I feel that it's much relaxed and I've already gotten better."

Seeing that she was so sick, Chen Mo did not forget to comfort herself, and he couldn't help but feel even more sad. He held Ruohan's little hand tightly and said with a heartache: "If I knew that the journey of a thousand miles was so difficult, I wouldn't let you follow me no matter what I said."

Ruohan leaned his little face against his hand and whispered: "It's all my fault, it's useless..."

Silent shook his head, and a turbid breath grew and said, "I should say this."

The separation was about to happen, Ruohan didn't want him to worry, so he forced himself to cheer up, stood up and smiled, "What are we doing? Isn't it just a small cold disease? Even if I don't take medicine, I will be able to get over it in two days."

Chen Si put her back again, wrapped her quilt tightly, and whispered: "When I enter the capital, go to Zhengyangmen to find the best guest room, and wait for me there."

"Are you... going to leave now?" Ruohan could no longer laugh: "Nothing will happen, will it?"

"Don't worry." Silently said, "Zhu Shisan has already briefed me and said that the matter has been cleared. I will probably go through the motions when I come back and there will be no big problems." As he said, he laughed, "Maybe after three or seven days, we will see you again."

Ruohan bit her lower lip tightly and said, "I hope..."

Chen Si looked at Rou Niang again and said, "Let Tiezhu invite the most famous doctor in the capital to buy the best medicine, don't care about the price, and be sure to be foolproof." He was really worried about the medical level of this era, afraid that those quack doctors would treat the deaf people into mutes.

Rou Niang nodded obediently and said, "I understand, don't worry sir."

"Then, I'm leaving." Chen Si looked at his fiancée deeply, turning his worry and reluctance into a deep kiss.

Regardless of Rou Niang being by her side, Ruohan responded warmly, and the two kissed each other with selflessness and passionateness, just wanting to last forever.

Suddenly, he was disappointed in the convoy that had entered the city, and silently touched the sachet in his arms. It was always carried by Ruohan. It was said that it was driven by a real monk. He was originally prepared for the wedding night, but now Shen Mo is going to accept the unknown trial, so he can't take care of so much.

Zhu Shisan came over and said, "Brother Chen, to be honest, I really envy you. If you go out of the city, you will be sent by scholars, farmers, industrialists and commerce, and you will be accompanied by beautiful women and martyrs on the road. If I can live to this point, it will be worth dying immediately."

Chen Si smiled and said, "If you can't get through this level, everything is false." Zhu Shisan hurriedly comforted him a few words, and Chen Si patted his shoulder and said, "Master Thirteen, they have gone far away, let's go too."

"Zhong, let's go." Zhu Shisan waved his hand, and the four of them protected Silence in the middle... or in the middle, and entered the city from Yongding Gate.

Through the deep city gate, everything in front of you was shocked by the silence. On both sides of the avenue, there were a lot of broken temples and thatched huts, which could not be seen at first sight, almost flooding the buildings in the outer city.

Looking around, there were devastated, and numb and dirty faces that appeared before my eyes, as if they were in the largest refugee camp in the world. God also fought against these refugees. From the third year of the Chinese New Year, it was blowing one after another. It took three days of heavy snow to make it snowy, and it dripped into ice... The soldiers patrolling the city were putting dozens and hundreds of refugee bodies that were frozen and hungry, and slumped in the snow on a large cart and were about to be sent to the outside world of the city to burn.

Is this the capital of my Ming Dynasty? Isn’t this the slum of New Delhi? Is it a slum in New Delhi? I was silent and dizzy. In his impression, even though Zhejiang has suffered from war in the past two years, it has never seen such a horrifying scene. However, he saw it in this city of Beijing.
Chapter completed!