The next day, Chang Yu got up early at dawn, with Lian Xin waiting for him to wash up. Li Muxian hurried from outside to tell him that a dozen nobles and Nanjing officials outside the gate of Chang's mansion had been waiting for a long time, and they all wanted to accompany him today.
To visit the mausoleum.
The Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty is located at the southern foot of Purple Mountain in the northeast of Nanjing. It is an excellent Feng Shui treasure land. At least that is what Li Muxian said. Anyway, Chang Yu did not understand this. Accompanied by Shi Kefa and a group of distinguished officials, he followed their instructions.
After the mausoleum, we returned to the city at noon, just in time for lunch.
Do you think Chang Yu will attend the banquet with those distinguished officials?
Of course it's impossible.
A dozen of Nanjing's nobles, including Xu Hongji, Tang Guozuo, and Zhao Zhilong's leading eldest brothers, were drafted by Chang Yu and sent to the front line. He didn't pay attention to the rest of them at all. He just talked about the situation and dealt with it during the visit to the mausoleum.
Come on, do you still want to let him accompany you to eat, drink and chat?
There are no doors.
It's better to go back to Chang Mansion and have a homely meal. Of course, big brother Shi Kefa will take him with him.
"Look at the virtues of those guys. They are polite on the surface, but I guess they don't know how to scold you behind the scenes." During the meal, Gao Jie had a look of disdain on his face: "How hypocritical!"
Chang Yu chuckled: "When you are knighted someday, will you also scold our family behind our back?"
Gao Jie was startled and then laughed: "What's the matter, are you going to get me a title?"
Moreover, Chang Yu rolled his eyes: "You don't look like the kind of person who goes through the back door to get promoted and get rich, so even if you get a knighthood, you will still attract people to gossip behind your back."
Gao Jie curled his lips: "I'm embarrassed to open my mouth after saying this." Then he said seriously: "Today, I will boldly call you my dear brother in front of Mr. Shi. If we attack Xi'an in the future and I capture the intruder, can you give me some money?"
Does your sworn brother get a title?".
"That's natural. If we capture the intruder, let alone your sworn brother, anyone in our family can ennoble him. This is something the court has already announced."
Gao Jie chuckled: "Nowadays, the court's words are not as good as a wise brother's promise."
"Hey, don't talk nonsense outside. It will have a bad influence... A few people were talking while eating." The guards came to report that the guards and the three guards of Dongchang had arrived outside Nanjing. The three guards of Dongchang and Hao
After waving the flag, Ji Ji was waiting to cross the river to pursue Chunxiang, while his bodyguard was waiting for orders at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the Qinhuai River.
A few days ago, Chang Yu took the water route back to Nanjing a little faster than the guards and the three guards of Dongchang. After all, the land was far away, and there were many big rivers blocking the way. Just crossing the river would take a lot of time, and Chang Yu even came back for a day.
They just caught up.
Chang Yu then sent an order to the Chen brothers to hire some big boats at the dock and switch to the waterway. He had heard for a long time that Yangzhou was prosperous and he couldn't miss it this time when he went south.
It turned out that Chang Yu was obsessed with Yangzhou City.
After lunch, Chang Yu bid farewell to the Changfu clan. As soon as he walked out of the gate, he saw more than ten dignitaries such as Anyuanhou, Yongchanghou, and Dingyuanhou waiting to see him off. Although they all had their own dissatisfaction with the little eunuch, after all, he
Although he had eaten their cheese, he still had to work hard on the scene. After all, the little eunuch was in the prime of life at this time and could not afford to offend him.
Chang Yu hated this kind of hypocritical politeness, but it was always unavoidable in official circles. He repeatedly declined the requests of these nobles to send him out of the city to the river, said goodbye to them at the pier by the Qinhuai River, and went boating out of the city.
Money is easy to get things done, let alone government projects. Chen Suole hired large ships at the Yangtze River wharf, which attracted many shipyards to rush to grab the order. In the end, the two brothers hired more than 20 large ships at once, rushed their war horses to the ships, and purchased grain and grass nearby. Just now
After finishing his work, Chang Yu arrived, got on the boat without saying a word, waved his hand, and set off for Yangzhou.
The big ship sailed smoothly on the water and had a wide space. Chang Yu, Shi Kefa, Gao Jie, and Li Muchian were sitting on the bow drinking tea and admiring the scenery. It was really comfortable. There were boats and boats on the river, but who could have imagined that they would pass by them?
The eunuch of Dongchang who had just quelled the rebellion and saved Nanjing from war.
As the sun set and night fell, the boatman came over to tell us that we had arrived in Yizhen County and asked if we would like to go ashore for dinner. The dock on the shore was busy.
Yizhen is now known as Yizheng. Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty once ordered to cast the golden elephants of his four distant ancestor emperors here. Because the golden elephants cast were lifelike in appearance, they were named Zhenzhou and Yizhen. The name of Yizhen was avoided by the Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty.
For Yizheng, it is also the intersection of the Yangtze River and the ancient canal.
The road back to Beijing was long, and there were still many official matters to be dealt with there. Chang Yu didn't want to be delayed too much on the way, so he shook his head and asked the boatman to get some food on the boat. He would go ashore to eat when he arrived in Yangzhou.
Well done.
The boatman then asked whether to enter the canal from here and head northeast to Yangzhou, or to go east along the river for dozens of miles and take the Li River (Li Canal, commonly known as Li River, Huaiyang Canal) and go straight north to Yangzhou?
Chang Yu asked that the distance was about the same, but the Yangtze River had wide water and the current was fast, while the canal was the opposite. Chang Yu thought for a while and asked them to turn into the ancient canal in order to have a calmer situation.
There was no talking all night, and at dawn the fleet docked and arrived in Yangzhou.
Yangzhou, a city that was once extremely glorious. With a hundred thousand dollars in wealth, riding a crane down to Yangzhou vividly illustrates its past prosperity and status. During the Tang Dynasty, it was equivalent to Shanghai, a ten-mile foreign market during the Republic of China. Today, Hong Kong and Macao are full of food, drink and entertainment.
From the word "Yangzhou Skinny Horse", you can understand that its neon career was no less than that of the Jinling Qinhuai River in the Ming Dynasty.
However, famous cities have appeared in the Jiangshan area, and each has led the way for hundreds of years. At this time, Yangzhou is no longer as glorious as it was thousands of years ago, but it is still considered a paradise on earth compared to the towns in the northwest, southwest and inland areas. At this time, the people's livelihood and humanities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas have improved.
Far better than other places (it seems to be the case now, but during the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Central Plains was still more prosperous)
If it was just for the romance, Yangzhou City would naturally have no attraction for Chang Yu, and there was only one reason why he came there with his heart in mind: Ten Days in Yangzhou!
Yes, in history, after Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide, the Manchu and Qing troops marched southward and Yangzhou refused to surrender. Duduo massacred the city! Historical records record that the massacre lasted for ten days, and a total of 800,000 Ming people were killed.
but!
First of all, I would like to state that the following text is not to whitewash the Manchu Tatars. I simply believe that the popularization of historical materials should be rigorous and fair. For example, it is certain that there was a massacre when the Qing army attacked Yangzhou, because the commander at the time was Duduo, and the commander was notorious.
The famous Li Chengdong has been recorded in many historical materials such as "Cihai" and "Nanshan Collection", etc., which are relatively objective. However, what shocked the world at all times in the Yangzhou massacre was the detailed, tragic and exaggerated "Ten Diaries of Yangzhou".
In ten days of massacre, more than 800,000 people died?
Fifty more than the 300,000 people killed in the Nanjing Massacre in later generations. In the cold weapon era, 800,000 people were killed in ten days (actually it was only one day, and there is a record of killings for five days). And there was such a large population in Yangzhou City at that time?
There is a lot of controversy about this in the academic world because there are many contradictions with other historical materials.
First of all, Wang Xiuchu, the author of "Ten Diaries of Yangzhou", just appeared out of nowhere. His name is not found in historical records. Some people in later generations said that he was a survivor at that time, and some said that he was Shi Kefa's staff or a close confidant. Otherwise, it would not have happened.
The records are so detailed, but all nineteen of Shi Kefa's staff died.
Secondly, the time when this book by Wang Xiuchu was published is also very interesting. It was discovered in Japan more than 200 years after the Yangzhou Massacre and before the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911.
It’s interesting, right? The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and Japan was the stronghold of the anti-Qing dynasty.
Because the author is doubtful and it is an only copy, many scholars believe that it was deliberately concocted by someone who was interested in the current situation at that time.
I have read this book before, and the contradictions in the content are quite ridiculous. It is similar to the self-media of later generations. Although it is not groundless, it is definitely based on the wind and rain.
Those who wrote books to record this matter could not have been involved at that time, because everyone who participated at that time was killed. Most of them were heard by hearsay later, but after all of them were killed, who told them, and they were so detailed? So there is a lot of water.
It makes sense that it is similar to the Battle of Jiangyin (Jiangyin Eighty-one Days). Friends who are interested can also look it up. It is said that at that time, the Qing army killed three kings and eighteen generals in the battle against Jiangyin, not to mention the eighteen generals.
Who, the three princes are, the Seventh King, the Tenth King and the Xue King, then the question arises, obviously the Seventh King Jierhalang and the Tenth King Duduo did not die in Jiangyin, and the Xue King has no such person.
Where did the Three Kings appear from?
At that time, the generals who attacked Jiangyin, Boluo and Nikan, had not yet been crowned kings.
Later, some people said that they were Liu Liangzuo's subordinates. Their thieves' nicknames were called "this king" and "that king". Isn't this nonsense?
Secondly, there is also an interesting record, which says that someone made a bomb and entered the Qing army camp, killing two to three thousand people on the spot!
Damn it, atomic bomb!
With the power of gunpowder at that time, even if you tied up two thousand people to suppress the bomb, you couldn't blow them all up. To kill so many people, tons of gunpowder were not allowed. Then the problem came. He dragged the tons of gunpowder with one hand.
How did you sneak into the Qing army camp without being discovered?
There are many more like this.
Moreover, Jiangyin fought for eighty-one days and was extremely brutal. According to statistics, 780,000 people died in the city and 780,000 people died outside the city, a total of 160,000 to 70,000 people.
Then the question arises. Jiangyin was beaten almost every day for eighty-one days, and a total of 160,000 to 70,000 were killed. But Yangzhou was beaten for one day, and 800,000 were killed?
Historical research is not a one-man study. Only through mutual reference and verification can we best restore the true history of that time. A single copy is not very credible.
But it is certain that the Tatars carried out a massacre in Yangzhou at that time, and the most recorded ones were the records of soldiers raping women, but it was by no means as exaggerated as recorded in the Ten Diaries of Yangzhou, and it became an out-and-out drama.
.
Of course, Chang Yu didn't come here to verify the authenticity of the Ten Days in Yangzhou. He was verifying a bird's egg about something that hadn't happened yet. He had two purposes. One was to recruit talents. Historical records record that there have been many admirable people here.
The national hero who was loyal to the emperor and defended the country until death was definitely not Shi Kefa, the coach who defended the city at that time. The second reason was to attract investment.
In history, most of the people who fought in the defense of Yangzhou were unknown little people or low-level officials at this time, but Chang Yu had to demote talented people in an eclectic way. Now is the time for the Ming Dynasty to employ people, so it is better to give them the opportunity to do their best for the country.