Today's discussions about outer towns, villages, and the food and salary issues for group training have almost been discussed. Things have been agreed upon, and it looks like it's getting late.
The emperor, who was wearing a red dragon robe, stood up and said, "Your Majesty, please leave the food here and have lunch together. I will send someone to the imperial dining room."
I heard that in the past, the emperor used to have two meals, morning and evening, without eating in between, drinking tea, snacks, etc. However, Zhu Yihai is still used to three meals.
There is no need to make it grand.
Four dishes and one soup, just mix meat and vegetables.
The Imperial Kitchen moved very quickly.
The food was quickly served.
There are four dishes and one soup, including sea cucumbers roasted with green onions, sweet and sour pork ribs, then stir-fried leeks, stir-fried lotus roots, a kelp soup, and a cold mixed vegetable dish.
Very simple.
But it's quite exquisitely done.
Hong Chengchou looked at the dishes in front of him. They were not much, just right, and not wasted. They were paired with glutinous rice. They were really good. He was also hungry, so he started to eat them politely after thanking him.
I didn’t drink anything during the meal, so this was just a light lunch.
Everyone didn't chat much and finished eating quickly.
The waiter brought tea and a platter of fruit.
Hong Chengchou sighed and said, "When the Tatar Huang Taiji was here, his personal meals alone required twenty-two kilograms of plate meat, five kilograms of soup meat, one kilogram of lard, two sheep, five chickens, and three ducks a day."
In addition, cabbage, spinach, coriander, celery, leeks, etc. total nineteen pounds.
Sixty daikon, water radish, and carrots in total, one each of cabbage and winter melon, six pounds each of kohlrabi and dried water spinach, six pounds of green onions, four ounces of wine, three pounds each of sauce and clear sauce, and two pounds of vinegar.
In addition, the staple food is morning and evening meals with eight plates of cakes, thirty pieces per plate. To make each plate of cakes, you need four pounds of fine white flour, one pound of sesame oil, five tablespoons of sesame seeds, three cups of sand, white sugar,
Twelve taels each of walnut kernels and black dates..."
In comparison, Emperor Shaotian's royal meal was really simple and frugal.
It is said that after the Tatars entered the customs, although the regent Dorgon was not the emperor, he enjoyed the treatment of the emperor on a higher level than Huang Taiji at that time.
Get up early and have a bird's nest stewed with rock sugar. Then have breakfast, at least ten dishes. For example, one time when Hong Chengchou was visiting, he stayed with him. He stayed with Dorgon for a whole day that day and had two meals. He recorded it in detail afterwards.
Come down.
Breakfast: bird's nest, fat chicken pot, roasted chicken, game hot pot, one item, silver shredded pork, shredded mutton, steamed duck and lake pork plate, white cake with garlic soup, bee cake, bamboo rolls, steamed buns, one item
, a silver sunflower box with side dishes, a silver plate with four side dishes, and a large dish with soup.
At noon, we had eighteen dishes, including fire-smoked duck with lotus seeds, fire-smoked pork ribs with onions and peppers, steamed fat chicken, etc.
There were six more dishes in the evening, including duck kidney braised in vinegar, steamed quail, hot and sour sheep intestine soup, etc.
Anyway, I ate thirty-four dishes that day, and there was nothing special.
The emperor could not eat much at all, and many vegetables were left untouched. After the meal, he would give them to ministers or concubines, or directly to the people in the imperial kitchen. And those in the imperial kitchen would secretly sell the vegetables.
Go to a restaurant in the capital.
In comparison, the four dishes, one soup and a cold dish served by Emperor Shaotian of the Ming Dynasty are indeed too simple.
But the emperor thought it was pretty good.
There is war and chaos outside, and how many people still don’t have enough to eat.
After this summer's harvest, there was a rare good harvest in the south of the Yangtze River. In various places along Taihu Lake, the price of grain dropped to one tael or one stone. However, in order to supply other places, the imperial court still implemented a unified purchase policy, setting aside grain rations according to rations, and purchasing the rest uniformly.
Other people who do not farm have to rely on food stamps to obtain limited supplies. Unplanned food must be high-priced food.
No matter how much money you have, you don’t dare to waste it carelessly.
Because grains other than rations are priced on a tiered basis, the more you buy, the more expensive you are. However, the prices for things like pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, milk, and eggs are still very expensive.
Even the imperial court banned moonshine brewing nationwide and only allowed the government to sell it exclusively and limited brewing supply. The price was many times more expensive than before. The reason is that brewing requires a lot of food.
Of course, the emperor is the lord of the world, so he can eat one hundred and eight dishes at a meal. However, the emperor advocates frugality and prohibits extravagance and waste.
As the dean of the Admonition Yuan, Hong Chengchou's officials often kept an eye on the officials. Anyone who dared to eat, drink, and waste money would be immediately impeached.
There are even people who keep an eye on the houses of officials, and people will dig through the trash cans emptied out in their homes. Anyone who dares to waste will be left without food the next day.
For wealthy people, food will never be unaffordable, even if it costs two, two, three, or one stone, it is nothing. But for the imperial court, this wasteful thing cannot be tolerated, so they keep a very strict eye on it.
Nowadays, officials in Fengtian don't dare to treat guests casually. They usually just drink tea. If they ask for a meal, it's a simple meal. They never dare to treat more than four dishes and one soup.
The emperor has four dishes and one soup. Do your ministers dare to go beyond that?
After summer, the weather gets hotter.
Zhu Yihai looked at the rippling blue waves of the small sea outside the palace, with many boats parked on the water.
There is also a boat that just returned from Juehua Island.
Tianxiong Town is stationed on Juehua Island. Last year, they deliberately lured the prisoners to cross the ice and attacked. As a result, this carefully prepared poison pill caused the Tatars to lose thousands of troops, dozens of large and small cannons, and wasted countless gunpowder.
It can be said that it showed the majesty of the Ming army.
The Tatars had to send Mongolian troops to reinforce Ningyuan and guard against Shanhaiguan.
Tianxiong Town also occupied several small islands off the coast of western Liaoning, and even planned to build a fort on the Huludao Peninsula east of Juehua Island, and also planned to seize Yuanwanghaitai.
This led to the Qing army rushing to fight.
Huludao is a peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides, with Jinzhou Bay to the north, where Wuli River and Lianshan River flow into it, Ningyuan Acropolis to the west, Ningyuan Zhongzuo Suo in the northeast, Wanghai Tai to the west and Zhaiershan Fort, and across Jinzhou Bay there is
Tashan Fort, etc.
This place is actually not easy to fight for, but the Tatars have suffered such a big loss before, so they dare not be careless, so they have to fight for it with all their strength.
In the end, the commander-in-chief Lu Xiangguan was just a false shot. After the Qing troops from Ningyuan, Jinzhou and other places were mobilized, he turned back and went west to attack Guangning. The Tatars were exhausted and cooperated with the Shanhaiguan garrison to come for reinforcements.
Lu Xiangguan grabbed a few along the coast, and then went east to look at the sea platform.
The two sides came and went, and the Tatars ran east and west, fearing that they would not be able to hold on without reinforcements. Although the Qing army held Guangning, Ningyuan, and Jinzhou cities, the Ming army did not attack these strong cities, but the Liaoxi Corridor has a large population.
, the land is fertile, and despite the war, after the Tatars entered the customs, they still moved and settled a large number of Manchus and Han people here.
Now Lu Xiangguan's Tianxiong army can move freely on the sea, landing and attacking everywhere. Instead of attacking fortified cities, they mainly attack Manchu villages and villages. Every time they break through a village, they will kill the young Tatars and kidnap their young women.
The children left and rescued the Han Chinese who had been taken into slavery.
For those Han people who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, they were also advised to move to Juehua Island with the ship, and then go to the island for resettlement.
This method of fighting made the Tatars miserable.
But there is no other way.
This was how they defeated the Ming Army back then, but who knew they would be used against them now.
They had no choice but to take the initiative to forcibly relocate the people along the western Liaoning coast, requiring the people to move thirty miles away from the coast.
In fact, this almost means completely abandoning the Liaoxi Corridor, which is more than 300 miles long, because the narrow part of the Liaoxi Corridor is only a dozen miles and the wide part is only thirty or forty miles.
The Tatars could not bear the consequences of the Ming army robbing people, so they had no choice but to move to the sea and abandon the coast like Liaodong, Beizhi and other places.
However, the cities and fortresses such as Shanhaiguan, Guangning, Ningyuan, Jinzhou, etc. were stationed with Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners for garrison. The three hundred miles of fertile land and farmland in western Liaoning were completely abandoned, and even the river mouths were blocked and fences and walls were built.
Zhu Yihai was very happy when he heard the news in Dengzhou.
This was exactly his purpose. He built a bastion on Juehua Island and sent a whole town of troops there, which made the Tatars feel uneasy and had to voluntarily give up the fertile soil of the Liaoxi Corridor.
In fact, Zhu Yihai did not plan to use troops against Liaoxi. He was just threatening and containing, mainly harassing.
Liaodong occupies the peninsula and controls the coast and the Yalu River.
But even so, the Tatars can't hold it. If they don't move the border, the army can rob people every day and demolish them. Population is also an important resource. Even if the Tatars can defend the city, but there is no one, what kind of land will they farm?
Even the food grown will be taken away.
Now they can only strengthen the walls and clear the country, move the people away, leave the land deserted, and just hold on to the castle.
For Zhu Yihai, the goal was achieved. A small town of troops restrained the Qing troops in the three-hundred-mile Western Liaoning Corridor and prevented them from farming. They had to supply food and wages from other places, which became an important burden for the Tatars.
The situation is getting more and more favorable.
"I don't know what the situation is like in Hanzhong."
Due to the great uprisings in Shanxi, northern Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, Wu Sangui and others were forced to evacuate from Hanzhong and go back to suppress them. This gave Hanzhong a rare opportunity.
However, although Zhu Yihai gave instructions to Sichuan and Shaanxi at the beginning of the year, it is impossible to say whether they can seize the opportunity. After all, the troops there are not the elite of the imperial camp, so they can cooperate well, or whether they have the ability to attack the toughest problems.
Ability is hard to say.
What's more, Zhang Xianzhong is also a variable. Who knows what crazy actions this kind of troubled hero will make at the critical moment.
"Even if we can't take advantage of the opportunity to capture Hanzhong, we can at least defend Sichuan." Chen Qianfu replied.
"This is a rare opportunity. The Tatars have suppressed the uprising in Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, and will return to help Hanzhong at any time. Wu Sangui, a big traitor, must be careful. If he is allowed to break into Sichuan, it will be very troublesome." Zhu Yihai said.
Wu Sangui is still relatively capable of fighting. After all, he was able to raise an army to fight against the Qing Dynasty when he was about to die, and swept the southwest. This man was indeed quite capable.
It's a pity that he was bent on betraying the Ming Dynasty and surrendering to the prisoners, so he was willing to be a lackey.
"Wait, the results should be coming soon. Zhang Xianzhong won't last long at all. Once he loses, the situation will become clear. Success or failure will only take a short time." Zhu Yihai didn't have a good impression of Zhang Xianzhong, the hero of troubled times.
.
But after all, he is a person who will be eliminated by the times. He originally gave Zhang Xianzhong a chance. If he could go to Yunnan and quell the chieftain rebellion for the imperial court, he would be stable for at least a few years. In the future, if he could show his interest and hand over military power to the court, he might even consider it.
Give him a good death.
But if he insists on choosing this path, he will suffer the consequences.
