The carriage left Dongchang Hutong and headed south slowly along the Imperial City. It was soon submerged in the busy traffic. There was a constant flow of pedestrians, but no one expected to pass them by. In this ordinary carriage sat the current Ming Dynasty Prince, who was already powerful.
The great eunuch of Xuntian's Dongchang.
Zhu Cixiang stared out the car window in trance, and sighed for a while: "Getting married is a great event in life, but it's a pity that your identity can only be concealed, and I can't participate in it... It's a pity after all."
Chang Yu chuckled and changed the subject: "Do you see any changes in this capital?"
Zhu Cixiang was startled, looking out the car window and looking around: "It's a lot cleaner, and a lot quieter... There's no more feces and urine everywhere, and there are fewer homeless beggars." As he said this, he glanced sideways at Chang Yu and chuckled: "This
Of all of them, you deserve the most credit.”
Chang Yu smiled and sighed: "What you see is too superficial."
Um... Zhu Cihong was startled again, turned his head and looked out the window again, and remained silent for a long time. It was not until the carriage left the front door and approached Yongding Gate that he took a long breath: "What you want to say is that the people are living and working in peace and contentment?".
"There are some signs." Chang Yu smiled lightly: "After more than a year of hard work, I finally have a sense of accomplishment."
During this year, Yu Changyu fought almost everywhere outside Beijing. Every victory on the battlefield could make the court's foundation more stable, and also allow the people to live in peace.
Of course, relative to the place, the capital has changed the most. You must know that when Chang Yu first crossed over, the capital was in a mess. Just the plague and sanitation almost made him, a person from later generations, almost collapse. There was no place in this huge capital.
In public toilets, people defecate everywhere, and they can accidentally step on hot freshly baked pancakes...
The plague was raging in this extremely poor sanitary environment. For a while, the capital was like hell. What made matters worse was that the capital was in constant war at this time. Countless refugees poured into the capital, and the sanitation and epidemic situation were even worse...
At that time, the common people didn't even think about having a happy career, and living in peace was just a delusion.
But now, a year has passed, and the changes in the capital have been earth-shaking. The plague has been effectively controlled through the isolation method, and sanitation has fundamentally eliminated the bad habits of the people. There are public toilets everywhere, and those who see people urinating in public are patrolled.
If the soldiers and horses are caught, they will be beaten up, and if they are caught, they will be locked up in a dark room for a few days.
As for the refugees who were originally stranded in the capital, they have either returned to their hometowns, immigrated to Tongzhou, or worked on nearby farms and construction sites.
And as the war subsided, the capital's business began to gradually recover, and shops and vendors were overwhelmed...
"A prosperous age, creating a prosperous Ming Dynasty, is what I want!"
Chang Yu's expression was very sincere, and Zhu Cixiang's eyes lit up: "It's also what I want."
The carriage left Yongding Gate. There were vendors and people sunbathing at the gate of the city. Refugees used to build a lot of simple residences here, which was the refugee camp outside the city. It was now late, but it was still very noisy.
"When all the shacks outside the city are gone, the people will truly live and work in peace and contentment." Chang Yu said lightly, and Zhu Cixiang nodded slightly.
"Coming, coming." Beside the official road three miles away from Yongding Gate, Tu Yuan was lying in the grass, holding grass roots in his mouth and looking at the white clouds in the sky. One of his men hurriedly ran over. Tu Yuan stood up and got on his horse.
Looking to the north, there were many carriages on the official road. Although Chang Yu's carriage was no different from ordinary carriages, Tu Yuan still recognized it at a glance. Don't ask why, because he knew the old Hu who was driving the carriage!!
"Not far away. I wish you a happy wedding. Please make love to me when you come back from the wedding." Zhu Cixiang jumped out of the carriage and cupped his hands with Chang Yu, then turned around and left. Not far away, his entourage had been waiting for a long time.
"You, the Governor, always come to see the Crown Prince off every time you leave the capital. It's so respectable. Where are we going this time?" Tu Yuan drove his horse close to Chang Yu's carriage and asked in a low voice.
As Chang Yu's close confidant, Tu Yuan didn't know the purpose of his trip?
This is really not an exaggeration. Chang Yu knew very little about getting married. Even his personal attendants were mostly kept in the dark. They were just worried that too many people would cause unnecessary public controversy.
Tu Yuan just returned to the capital yesterday. This morning he received a military order to lead twenty soldiers to wait outside the city and follow Chang Yu out of the capital. As for where he was going or what he was going for, he had no idea why he had brought so few people.
Going out to Beijing is also to keep a low profile and not attract attention.
"Take you to the wedding banquet." Chang Yu stood on the carriage and looked back. Ten steps away, two girls were standing under a sycamore tree on the roadside. One of them smiled slightly at her and nodded, looking a little disappointed.
"That girl seems to be..." Tu Yuan looked at the situation and scratched his head. He thought of something and quickly shut up. He shook the reins in his hand and shouted to the twenty warriors on the side of the road: "Brothers, cheer up and walk."
He was a tall man with a loud voice, which attracted the attention of passers-by on the road. They secretly sighed that this man looked very brave. Nine times out of ten, he was from the Beijing Escort Bureau. Looking at his subordinates, they were all good guys, and they didn't look like good guys.
The guy who came on this trip is a tough guy.
The weather is sunny and the official roads are busy with traffic. Now the situation in the Gyeonggi area has stabilized and the trade with the surrounding areas has resumed. There are constant business trips back and forth every day, and it is very lively. There are many escorts and merchants selling goods, and there are often dozens of cars and people. Chang Yu
After a group of disguised people walked among them, they were not obtrusive or inconspicuous.
"Shopkeeper, where are we going to have a wedding banquet?" Tu Yuan rode beside Chang Yu's car and asked in a low voice. Chang Yu, who was resting in the car with his eyes closed, yawned: "Did you notice anything strange?"
Ah, Tu Yuan was not a careful person at first. After hearing this, he thought to himself that he might have been followed. He hurriedly looked around and saw people on horseback and carriages. They were either walking in a hurry or talking and laughing calmly. I couldn't see anything strange. He was so stupid. I don't know.
...Hey, suddenly Tu Yuan saw a very familiar little girl on the carriage of a carriage about ten meters away... "Hey, isn't that Lian Xin? Oh, we are going to Jinan."
Chang Yu smiled and said nothing, while Tu Yuan scratched his head and looked confused: "Whose wedding banquet is going to Jinan, King De... No, ah, it can't be Lianxin's, could it be that this girl has found her husband's family, whose family
Erlang?"
"You are of the same character as those meddlesome nuns in the alley." Chang Yu scolded with a smile: "On the battlefield, none of our Dongchang guards can surpass you in terms of bravery. Even Wuzhong is inferior to you in riding and shooting. However,
When it comes to carefulness, you have to be at the bottom of the list."
"I don't have to go to Liumen to investigate the case. Why should I be so careful?" Tu Yuan chuckled and Chang Yu nodded: "That's right. Then I won't be able to take you with me when I go out. Maybe one day it will be because of you."
His carelessness cost our family our head."
Ah... this... Tu Yuan was stunned for a moment and said quickly: "The shopkeeper's safety is more important than my head. I won't be careless. I was just joking..."
Are you kidding? Chang Yu curled his lips and said: "I asked you to look around and see something strange. After a while, you saw the little beauty Lian Xin. If the thief deliberately distracted you with his beauty, wouldn't our family be in danger now?
The situation is over”.
Um... Tu Yuan suddenly broke out in cold sweat on his forehead. He looked around again, and sure enough, he found something else. There were carriages and pedestrians...
It's not that these carriages and pedestrians are suspicious, but they have left signs in some places that are not easy to be found that can only be understood by insiders. In other words, Chang Yu's trip to Beijing this time, although on the surface only Tu Yuan and his men
More than 20 powerful soldiers from the Black Tiger Battalion accompanied him, but there were actually more men secretly.
Seeing these people, Tu Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief: "It's not very peaceful on this road recently, but although there are only more than 20 brothers under my command, they are not afraid of those young men. It's just the old saying that it's easy to dodge a gun and hard to defend against an arrow. Just now
The shopkeeper also said that I was careless and there would inevitably be some mistakes, so now it’s better..."
The unrest on the road that Tu Yuan said was actually due to the fact that Li Zicheng had escaped recently and secretly attacked east and west to hide his whereabouts. The initial scale was not large, with more than ten or dozens of people, but the general environment of this year is really
It is too suitable and easy to gather people to cause trouble or rebellion. As long as someone takes the lead and shouts, the poor people will follow suit as if they have drunk chicken blood. In a short period of time, they have blossomed all over Hebei and Shandong. Although the scale is not very large, but
The number was so large that Wang Jiayan was so busy that he dispatched his troops to put out fires and train troops everywhere.
Moreover, these thieves who rise up when the wind blows are not just rebels but also many professional grassroots bandits. Previously, when the thieves were defeated in the Eastern Expedition, the imperial court was so murderous that they all stayed with their tails between their legs. Now they rise up when the wind blows.
Following the uproar, they not only clamored to fight on behalf of Heaven and the imperial court, but also began to commit robberies and robbery, so that the business of Sihai Escort Agency in the capital was booming now.
However, Chang Yu, who has experienced many battles, is not afraid of this, and he is more relaxed than ever before, and even feels like retiring from old age and returning to his hometown. After all, at this time, the court and the thieves are at a critical moment of negotiation, and he actually left Beijing to deal with private matters.
went.
If the ministers inside the court found out about this, they would kill him.
In fact, at this moment, in the Wenyuan Pavilion in the palace, Emperor Chongzhen was discussing peace talks with a group of pavilion elders. While revealing his bottom line, he also told the negotiating team to stop as soon as it was ready. Although Li Yan was on the Yellow River front
They got a good bargaining chip, but what they thought was the biggest bargaining chip was actually a misunderstanding: the intruder in Dongchang Prison was just a stand-in!
The elders can still understand that they should give up when they see fit. After all, with the current national strength and situation, they can fight without fighting. If the rebel army is forced to a desperate situation and everything is defeated, there will undoubtedly be a quagmire behind it.
But Dongchang actually fabricated a substitute to fool the government and the public, which made them so angry that it was hard to accept. Even though Emperor Chongzhen explained to Chang Yu that this was a deliberate smoke bomb to cause the thieves to chaos, which led Li Yan to use troops in the Yellow River...
It still makes them aggrieved, but fortunately, these are cabinet ministers who can understand a thing or two. When the court ministers know about it later, they will inevitably over-interpret it or take the opportunity to stir up trouble and stir up trouble.