The scenery along the Qinhuai River is picturesque.
At night, the lanterns on the flower boats are hung high, one after another, like stars dotting the Milky Way.
There are many restaurants and restaurants on the shore, and they are full of life.
Zhu Qizhen looked a little distracted when he looked at the scenery in front of him.
It seems that the night life of the ancients was very rich, and it was no less generous than that of later generations.
It's just...I wonder if the technicians here know how to pinch feet...
Behind him, Fan Zhong kept frowning, wishing he could twist his eyebrows into twists.
On this trip, I didn't bring many people with me. Beilin stayed in Huai'an, and Yuan Bin was busy mobilizing manpower and assigning tasks. Now the emperor is the only one left with him.
He doesn't see anyone as a good person now, and he keeps murmuring in his heart, what if something happens and he doesn't have a head and six arms...
"The smoke is in the cold water, the moon is in the gauze, and I stay in the Qinhuai River at night, close to the restaurant. The merchant girl does not know the hatred of the country's subjugation, but she still sings the flowers in the backyard across the river."
Zhu Qizhen, on the other hand, acted like a normal person and was reciting poems by himself.
"Your Majesty!" Fan Zhong couldn't help but stepped forward and said, "There are so many people here, I'm afraid it's... unsafe..."
Zhu Qizhen shook his head and said with a smile: "I don't understand, it's not safe to go into the city now!"
Fan Zhong was very puzzled, scratched his head and said: "I...can't understand..."
"It's been a while since I came out. I don't know how long the capital can keep it secret. Maybe... the officials from the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites are already on their way."
"But...why is it not safe to go into the city?"
"The White Lotus Sect is pervasive. If the news of my trip is leaked, they will get the news immediately. I don't know how many officials in Nanjing City are entangled with the White Lotus Sect. I am traveling in plainclothes now, without any officials or guards accompanying me.
If you enter the city, it's hard to say whether you can get out."
Fan Zhong thought for a while and then asked: "Then the emperor simply issued a decree and asked the officials of Nanjing City to go out of the city to greet them. When they entered the Forbidden City, they were accompanied by imperial guards. I wonder which one of them would dare to make a mistake?"
Zhu Qizhen smiled and asked: "If I enter the city with great fanfare, will the White Lotus Sect and Japanese pirates dare to attack Nanjing?"
Fan Zhong added: "I still feel that your safety is the most important. There is no need to risk your life for those thieves who have killed a thousand people."
Zhu Qizhen shook his head and said: "It's not easy to get everyone together, and we can cook it all at once. I don't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
Fan Zhong had no choice but to sigh and said: "Even if you don't plan to reveal your identity, you can find an inn to stay in. It's better than the one here. This kind of place... there are all kinds of people from all walks of life. I really don't feel at ease."
..."
However, Zhu Qizhen looked disapproving and said: "As the saying goes, the little one hides in the wild, the big one hides in the city. Now there are only you and me. We can just find a flower boat and get in. Even if someone knows that I have come to Nanjing,
I searched the whole city, but I never thought I would be hiding here!"
At this time, a flower boat slowly docked.
There is a woman sitting on the bow of the boat, dressed beautifully.
"Master, why don't you get on the boat and have a seat?"
Zhu Qizhen was wearing a blue Confucian shirt and holding a folding fan in his hand. The singing prostitutes on the boat didn't think much about it and just thought he was a romantic talent who came out to have fun.
"Okay, then sit down!"
Zhu Qizhen closed his folding fan and stepped onto the boat. Fan Zhong sighed helplessly and had no choice but to follow.
The woman looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, her skin was almost pathologically fair, and her figure was pitifully thin, as if she had been malnourished for a long time.
"Girl, don't blame me for being so abrupt. You can't have enough to eat even if you do this kind of business?"
The woman burst into laughter and asked, "Is this your first time coming to the Qinhuai River, sir?"
Zhu Qizhen asked in confusion: "Why did the girl say this?"
"If the young master often comes out for entertainment, you should know that thinness is considered beautiful on the Qinhuai River. If you are fat and there are no guests, you will really not have enough to eat!"
Zhu Qizhen was stunned for a moment, and suddenly understood, it turns out that this is the so-called... thin horse!
The so-called thin horse is a deformed aesthetic culture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Zhao Yi's "Kai Yu Cong Kao·Raising Skinny Horses" records: "Yangzhou people raise virgins and sell them as concubines, which is commonly known as raising skinny horses. The meaning is unknown. Baixiangshan poem says: "Don't raise skinny horses.
Don't teach little prostitutes. The funeral is in the present. If you don't believe me, you will remember: The horse is fat and fast, and the prostitute can sing and dance. In three to five years, it has been heard that the owner has changed." Song Mantang quoted it and thought that this is the origin of the theory of raising thin horses.
."
Zhang Dai's "Tao'an Dream Memories" written by Zhang Dai in the late Ming Dynasty states: "There are dozens of people in Yangzhou who eat and drink on the bodies of thin horses every day."
In the Qing Dynasty, Wu Chichang's "Gu Chuang Xian Hua" Volume 4 "Skinny Horse" records: "The Jinling gangsters bought young girls from all over the country, selected the handsome ones, conditioned their skin, decorated their clothes, and taught them, such as calligraphy, painting, piano and chess, Xiao
There are all kinds of pipes, flutes, and strings. If there are melons, they will be sold to wealthy eunuchs and businessmen as concubines at a high price, or they will go to brothels, which are called "raising thin horses." If they meet a good girl from a poor family, they will use all kinds of tricks to lure them.
"
Most of these skinny horses are children from poor families. They are bought by human traffickers when they are seven or eight years old. Then, what awaits them is a long concentration camp-style devil training period. This thinness is due to natural frailty.
, was also deliberately starved.
Some were lucky enough to be favored by high-ranking officials and wealthy gentry, and were married off and raised home. Others were sent to the Qin Tower and Chu Palace.
Therefore, most of the singing girls on the flower boats on the banks of the Qinhuai River were born in thin horses.
"Master, don't just sit there, let me sing a song for you!"
Zhu Qizhen looked at the sickly thin woman in front of him, and a thought suddenly came to his mind.
Human traffickers are nothing!
Those who run brothels are not good birds. If they didn’t buy and sell women, how could there be so many traffickers in the world?
This kind of industry will have to be banned sooner or later, but the time is not yet ripe.
Then restore an ancestral system, and court officials are not allowed to stay with prostitutes.
First, let you lose the support of the court, and then gradually shrink it until it is completely banned.
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On Zhoushan Island, Japanese pirates are gathering on a large scale.
Except for a few small groups of troops who are still harassing Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other places, almost everyone has come.
In fact, Zhoushan Island is less than a hundred miles away from Ningbo Port. However, due to the maritime ban imposed by the Ming Dynasty, Zhoushan Island and Ningbo, although facing each other across the sea, were outside the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.
Before the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains dynasty rarely faced threats from the sea, so the focus of military defense was mostly on the land fortresses in the northwest, making the Zhoushan Islands seem insignificant.
In the Ming Dynasty, this situation changed. In the twelfth year of Hongwu, a thousand households office was established in Zhoushan. In the seventeenth year of Hongwu, the thousand households office was upgraded to Changguowei, which shows that Zhoushan Island had been valued by the imperial court.
However, as time went by, the imperial court's strategy for coastal defense shifted to a defensive strategy, setting up Japanese guards in coastal areas, and even chose to give up on islands like Zhoushan hanging on the sea.
Yuanchang Guowei moved to Xiangshan, leaving only two thousand-household residences with about 2,000 people in Zhoushan. The defense force was greatly weakened.
The county system in Zhoushan was abolished and residents were required to move to the interior. Only about 500 households were left to guard Zhoushan Island together with military households.
With the gradual collapse of the guard system in the Ming Dynasty, military households could not even guarantee their livelihood, so they continued to escape from the guards privately. Some fled back to the mainland, and some simply went to sea to become Japanese pirates.
The emptiness of Zhoushan's defense made it easier for Japanese pirates to take advantage of the situation.
Shen Lang, nicknamed the Three-Headed Dragon on the Sea, has long been eyeing this island, but he lacks strength. At this time, Zhoushan Island has been occupied by the Li brothers.
At this time, Shi Heng's joining greatly increased his strength. After several fierce battles, he finally drove the Li brothers out of Zhoushan and occupied the island alone, thus becoming the largest Japanese pirate leader along the coast.
Since then, Zhoushan has become the base camp of Japanese pirates. They are entrenched on various small islands with Zhoushan as the center, and often raid coastal villages and towns at night. When the officers and soldiers react, they immediately go to sea, causing great disturbance.
After the initial battle with the Li brothers, Shi Heng also became Shen Lang's most effective deputy.
The three hundred people he brought with him were all regular troops of the imperial court, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong. Because of this, Shen Lang usually would not send Shi Heng to harass villages and towns, but would use this army to fight against other forces. p>
It can be said that he is now able to become the king of the sea, and half of the credit is due to Shi Heng.
"Brother Shen, are you looking for me?"
"Come, Brother Shi, come and sit!"
Shen Lang enthusiastically pulled Shi Heng to him and ordered: "Go and prepare the food and drinks. I want to have two drinks with Brother Shi!"
Shi Heng was not polite and sat opposite Shen Lang.
He knew that Shen Lang valued his own strength, so he always showed a carefree look, thus creating the illusion of a simple mind and well-developed limbs.
"Brother, why are so many people coming to Zhoushan Island? Is there anything big going to happen recently?"
Shen Lang smiled faintly and said: "Brother Shi is right, this time, we are going to do something big!"
Shi Heng pretended to ask: "Could it be that the Li brothers are coming back to kill us again?"
Shen Lang smiled and said: "It is said that these two brothers went to Luzon and supported some general's rebellion. However, it failed. They must have been thrown into the sea to feed the sharks long ago!"
Shi Heng asked again: "Is that...a member of the Oda family?"
"The marriage between the Oda clan and the Owari clan has regained support at home. Now they are busy fighting for power with the Ashikaga family, and they don't care about overseas affairs at all."
Shi Heng scratched his head and said: "It seems that the eldest brother is already the overlord of the sea, what else is there to do?"
Shen Lang smiled mysteriously and said, "My brother's wish is not just to be the overlord of the sea!"
Shi Heng thought about it for a while, then seemed to come back to his senses and asked: "Is the eldest brother... preparing to attack the Ming Dynasty?"
"The one who knows me is Brother Shi!"
Shen Lang laughed and said: "I have been wandering at sea for half my life. My biggest wish is to return to my hometown, kill the dog officials who framed my brother one by one, and avenge my family. If it can be realized in this life,
Then you will die without regrets!"
"Why should I die or not? Brother, please don't say anything unfavorable. Just tell me the name of the official you mentioned and where he is serving now. Just leave this matter to your brother!"
"With your words, I will be content as my elder brother. However, this person is Ying Tianfu Yin now. Revenge is not easy."
"The eldest brother's revenge is the brother's revenge. Brothers, even if they risk their lives, they must avenge the eldest brother!"
Shen Lang was very satisfied with Shi Heng's performance and finally got down to business.
"I know my brother's thoughts, but how can a man settle in this corner of the ocean? Since he wants to do it, he will do it for a big one. When Nanjing City is captured, how can a small Yingtian Prefecture Yin still be able to do it?
Why did you run away?"
Shi Heng immediately pretended to be surprised and asked: "Brother, do you want to attack Nanjing?"
Shen Lang nodded and said solemnly: "Yes, gather all the troops and attack Nanjing!"
"But... our military strength..."
"Brother Shi, I will tell you that this attack on Nanjing is an alliance with the White Lotus Sect. Their people have already penetrated into Nanjing City and even among officials at all levels. Most of the soldiers in Nanjing now
The horses were dispatched to escort Prince Jing'an to Annan as an envoy. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! As long as you cooperate properly and cooperate inside and outside, it will be easy to capture Nanjing in one fell swoop!"
Shi Heng asked: "Even if we can capture the city of Nanjing,... can we hold it? Don't blame me for being discouraged. By then, the court will go crazy and mobilize an army to conquer. I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on for long..." p>
Shen Lang still looked relaxed and said: "Brother Shi's worries are not unreasonable, but I have my own plans for you!"
Shi Heng couldn't help but ask: "Brother, just tell us exactly what your plan is. Otherwise, you brothers will not feel at ease if you go out and fight for your life!"
"Well, your worries are not unreasonable!"
Shen Lang nodded and continued: "Do you know that the current emperor is not in the right position?"
Shi Heng's expression changed and he asked: "Brother, what do you say?"
"This world was originally conquered by Emperor Taizu, who later passed the throne to Emperor Jianwen. However, King Yan rebelled and seized the throne. Since then, King Yan's lineage has occupied the throne for nearly fifty years. Now it's time to
Go back!"
After listening to this, Shi Heng was silent for a long time, and then asked: "Is it possible that the eldest brother has already found Jianwen's descendants?"
Shen Lang didn't speak, just smiled silently, looking like he was keeping secrets.
Shi Heng added: "After so many years, a descendant of Jianwen suddenly appeared. Who knows whether it is true or not? Brother, don't be deceived!"
"Is it important whether it is true or false?"
Shi Heng was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "Brother is right, when we take over Nanjing City, if we say he is real, he will be real!"
Shen Lang patted him on the shoulder and said: "When this matter is completed, you and I will be the meritorious service of the new dynasty, and it will be a matter of course to be granted the title of marquis and prime minister!"
Shi Heng quickly replied: "Thank you big brother for your cultivation!"
"No need to say anything unnecessary," Shen Lang waved his hand and said, "This time, we have to rely on our brothers to fight in the front line."
"It's just what Brother said!"
Shen Lang took out the map and said: "In three days, the White Lotus Church will open the city gate, and you will be responsible for dealing with the guards in the city..."