There are nine carriages in the nine gates in Beijing and nine carriages in the seven imperial cities outside. Chaoyang Gate is where grain carriages are carried. This is because the grain entering Beijing passes through the Grand Canal, and the Tonghui River outside Chaoyang Gate is connected to the Tongzhou Wharf of the Grand Canal.
, so the grain in Jiucang in Beijing enters through Chaoyang Gate, and therefore there is an ear of grain carved on the gate of Chaoyang Gate.
Therefore, Chaoyangmen has become one of the grain markets in the capital. The other one is Jiangmi Lane outside Daming Gate. However, Jiangmi Lane is mainly for domestic sales to city residents. The grain market at Chaoyangmen is more like a wholesale market, such as the surrounding Changping
, Pinggu, Yanqing and other prefectures and counties will wholesale and sell from here.
During the great famine years ago, rice was more expensive than gold. It was hard to find grains of rice in the Gyeongsang Province. At that time, the grain markets in Chaoyangmen and Jiangmi Lane were almost closed. There were only a few shops that sold grain, and those that did were too expensive to afford.
However, with the Yangzhou Wang brothers' large-scale purchases in the south of the Yangtze River, and the looting of Liu Zeqing's granary, and the relief grains shipped by Zheng Zhilong from Fujian by sea, and the self-rescue of the farms, the famine in the capital was brought under control, and the grain market gradually recovered.
Especially the Chaoyangmen grain market, there is an endless stream of grain sellers from outside the city and it is extremely noisy.
There is freedom of buying and selling in the market, and there is always money and goods. There has always been no interference. However, in the past half month, there have been more official eyes and ears in the market. Needless to say, it is to prevent thieves from outside the city from purchasing food, especially when Song Xiance played a trick some time ago.
After a batch of people were admitted, the control became even stricter.
Nowadays, as long as a grain truck leaves the city, it will be strictly interrogated. Which company it belongs to and where it is shipped to must be clearly stated and a guarantor is required! Otherwise, you will not be able to leave the city at all. Since then, it is possible for thieves outside the city to purchase grain under disguise.
It's very small, and even if you purchase it, you won't be able to get close to the camp without being intercepted. This is why Song Xiance is so worried.
"The imperial court's move is extremely shameless. This shows that it may not really want to negotiate peace." In a dilapidated teahouse next to the Chaoyangmen Grain Market, two rough men were wrapped tightly, holding teacups in their hands and cursing in a low voice.
No one would have thought that these two people were the great thief Kou Li Zicheng and his national advisor Niu Jinxing.
Wu Sheng and Shi Kefa who were negotiating could not imagine it, nor could Emperor Chongzhen, who hated him to the core, nor could Li Muxian, who was known as a half-immortal with his clever calculations, nor could even Chang Yu, who was boasted of being omnipotent, have imagined that Li Zicheng would be so bold and secretive.
Sneaking into the capital and now drinking tea and cursing at the emperor's feet is really audacious!
It's no wonder that they couldn't think of it, because very few people around Li Zicheng knew about him, and even at this time there were only two or three people in the military camp. At this time, the man had long hair and beards and was tightly wrapped in winter, and he wore a little makeup.
He couldn't recognize him at all, and ordinary soldiers had never seen him before.
Li Zicheng stayed in the military camp outside the city for several days and wanted to take a peek into the city, but he did not come in with Song Xiance. The reason was very simple. It was too dangerous to follow Song Xiance. He pretended to be a follower. The followers were usually young people.
Both of them were in their forties and were too eye-catching, and if they entered the city as their entourage, they would be closely watched by spies from the imperial court, and they might even be tricked, so they decided to disguise themselves as ordinary people and sneak into the city through Chaoyang Gate.
.
The first stop was the grain market at Chaoyangmen. I thought it was because of Song Xiance's incompetence, but after seeing it in person, I realized that there was really no opportunity to take advantage of it.
"This move should be because the imperial court is disgusting with us and has nothing to do with the negotiation. Your Majesty, there is no need to worry about it." Niu Jinxing took a sip from the teacup and looked around intentionally or unintentionally, very alertly. "The peace talks are of great importance to the imperial court."
"The benefits outweigh the disadvantages, and the reason for deliberately making things difficult is just to lose face. I just want to give them a little breath, and they will have a good talk with us after all."
"So... no comment, let's wait until they calm down and get anxious before talking?" Li Zicheng looked at the door and snorted, Niu Jinxing nodded: "Of course, we can arrange it as we want in the west, no matter what we talk about here
If we don’t delay things over there, even if the talks collapse, there will be no loss and enough time has been delayed.”
Well, Li Zicheng took a sip of tea and looked at the people coming and going outside the door, his eyes a little blurry. They had thought about what Niu Jinxing said before they came. They could talk if they could, and it wouldn't delay things if they couldn't talk well. But, he
Now he really wants to negotiate for peace. When he reaches middle age and knows his destiny, he doesn't want to bother anymore. It is enough to be the legitimate king of Xi'an in a down-to-earth manner.
But the current actions of the imperial court made him feel a little uneasy, and he was not sure whether the imperial court was sincere in the peace talks. Logically speaking, the peace talks were a great good thing for the imperial court. It just didn't look good in appearance, but the real benefits were not.
Few, but the imperial court is now deliberately making things difficult. Even if they don't provide food and grass, the conditions for peace talks are also quite harsh. The four of them have been unable to come up with a decision for several days, so they have to wait and see what the imperial court will do next.
Walk.
He took it for granted that the imperial court was losing face, deliberately venting ill-will and deliberately making things difficult. In the end, they would have a good negotiation, and they would eventually give in on the conditions. But for now, he just had to endure it and let the imperial court vent its ill-will first.
Li Zicheng knew in his heart that while he was delaying the court, the court was not the same. They might also be waiting for how they would deal with the harsh conditions. Then they would have to be patient, but now the food and grass matter had to be resolved quickly.
, the negotiation cannot be completed in a day or two. If the food is short, the horses can be killed, but what will the horses eat after killing them? Is it possible to ask Li Guo to send food from the other side of the Yellow River?
Maybe, he really has to take that step. Li Zicheng often sighed, stood up, paid the bill, and walked out of the store with Niu Jinxing. He wanted to take a walk. After all, going to the city is not easy. For example, this time he wanted to escape.
The spies outside the military camp were watching, and Liu Xiyao deliberately asked Liu Xiyao to create chaos to attract the attention of the spies. The two of them crawled in the snow before dawn and crossed the other side of the Yongding River, going around to the village at the bottom of the Xishan Mountain, and then from the north of the city.
Go around to the east of the city and enter the city through Chaoyang Gate, for fear of being spotted by spies.
At the same time, Li Muxian and Song Xiance were drinking and chatting happily in a street tavern. The two people in the same major discussed Taoism and law, each benefited a lot, and they both admired the other.
At the same time, Prince Zhu Cixiang of the Duanben Palace in the Forbidden City was arguing with his Confucian teacher: "The earth is round, or to be precise, it is elliptical."
"It's nonsense. Our ancestors have known for thousands of years that the sky is round and the earth is round. How did Your Highness hear this crooked theory? If the earth is round, how can a person stand on it without falling or a house without collapse?"
"That is the gravitational force of the earth's center. The earth under our feet is actually a very big ball. Just like the moon, is it also round when it is full... There are countless such spheres floating in the universe... Instead
That’s what Zhengcheng Yu said!”
"That's nonsense, that's nonsense!" The Confucian puffed his beard and glared: "That eunuch... Chang Yu is very good at fighting, but that doesn't mean everything he says is right. How old is he... they are all heresy... The sky is the cover, and the ground is the chessboard..."
"No, no, the sky is not a cover, but the universe is infinite. And how can this be a crooked theory? Thousands of years ago, I traveled in the universe and saw the truth of the universe. Only then did I say, there is a sky outside the sky, and the universe is For Tao, all things are Tao. Taoism is the orthodoxy of the Han family, so why is it heresy..."
"Your Highness, you... you will become the king of a country and study the universe and Tao. You should focus on the four books..."
And at this time, where is the eunuch Chang Yu who has not been seen for several days?