The thirty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, Beijing.
Just after noon, around three quarters past noon, a young man carrying a birdcage in his right hand and pinching two walnuts in his left hand came to the entrance of the famous Hanjia Hutong in Dashilan outside the front door.
This young man looks about seventeen or eighteen years old. He is wearing a robe over a mandarin jacket, a pair of cyan trousers, a leather hat unique to the bannermen, and a pair of leather boots.
No need to ask, this is a banner man.
The fact is indeed true. This young man is really a bannerman who eats hard crops, but he is not from the Eight Banners of Manchuria, but from the Eight Banners of the Han Army.
To say that this young ancestor is very prominent, he was Jia Hanfu, who once patrolled Henan, was awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, was awarded the title of Prince Taibao, and was awarded the title of Tuosala Hafan (Yunqiwei). He made great contributions to the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
Jia Taibao.
It's just that no matter how prominent Jia Taibao was during his lifetime, it has been a hundred years since the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. The Jia family has not produced any big shots since Jia Taibao, so now the Jia family is actually one of the ordinary bannermen in Beijing.
Home.
In addition to receiving the bannermen's exclusive salary rations, the whole family lived on Yunqiwei's annual salary of 85 taels.
This salary and ration may be considered good among the Han bannermen, but compared with the Manchu and Mongolian bannermen, it is useless at all.
Most of the Eight Banners of the Han Army were latecomers with relatively low qualifications.
Although today all the bannermen of the Han army are proud of their bannermen, in the eyes of the Manchu and Mongolian bannermen, they are still "originally Han people", and such treatment cannot be compared with that of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia.
This is partly due to the fact that the old man of the Jia family, Jia Taibao, was too incorruptible at that time. He spent all his life savings on building academies to cultivate talents for the court. After his death, he had no legacy left to his descendants.
As a result, each generation of the Jia family is not as good as the previous one, and they are a typical Bannerman whose family status has declined.
What's even more worrying is that the Jia family has been declining since the young man's grandfather's generation. By the young man's generation, he is the only fourth generation male of the Jia family, and he has truly become the living treasure of the Jia family.
There was only one male in the family, so everyone in the Jia family must have attached great importance to this young man. They also pointed out that the young man studied diligently and participated in the imperial examination, so that he could honor his ancestors and restore the lintel of the Jia family;
Or just point out that the young man should study riding and shooting seriously, join the army to serve the country, and reappear the glory of the old man on the battlefield. Not to mention earning a first-, second-, and third-class title, he must also earn a third-class Hadahaha title (Captain of Light Vehicles) for his descendants.
, otherwise if you continue to sit back and do nothing, you may be kicked out one day.
The problem is that this living treasure of the Jia family is not only incompetent in literature and martial arts, but also has the bad habit of being a child of the bannermen in Beijing. He eats and drinks with a bunch of bannermen kids all day long, or gambles away money, and has become like this.
The famous prodigal son made his father Jia Daquan angry several times.
But we really can’t blame Jia Liu for this (the first two sisters and the other three brothers all died shortly after birth), but rather the climate of this banner people.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the newly born Eight Banners disciples did not have to fight in the north or south without the hard work of their fathers and grandfathers. In addition to collecting hard-core crops, the court also distributed silver rewards every now and then, and the Green Camp took care of most of the wars.
Over time, whether it is the Eight Banners of Manchuria or the Eight Banners of Mongolia, including the new generation of the Eight Banners of the Han Army, each generation is inferior to the previous generation. In addition to eating, drinking and having fun every day, the riding and shooting skills left by their ancestors have long been forgotten.
Emperor Qianlong is so anxious that he has issued many imperial edicts, requiring the children of the Eight Banners to learn riding and shooting, and to master the Mandarin language. However, no matter how anxious Emperor Qianlong is, the temperament and habits that the children of the Eight Banners have developed over hundreds of years cannot be changed easily.
, and let it go.
As for Jia Liu, the emperor could not control the bannermen's children. What's more, he always hoped that his son would become a successful man, while he himself was a father who did everything in food, drink, prostitution and gambling.
The days passed like this, but as expected, an unexpected surprise came.
A soul from later generations somehow attached itself to Jia Liu, and then this scene happened.
"Master, I told you that if you go into Goulan Alley again, I will break your legs when you go back... Otherwise, let's go back."
Jia Liu did not come to Hanjia Hutong alone. He also brought a servant Yang Zhi, who was two or three years older than him. He was also the only domestic slave of his Jia family. He was responsible for the "three guarantees" of Jia's security, cleaning and nanny.
heavy responsibility.
Although Yang Zhi is older than the young master, he is very timid. In addition, the old master has been angry several times because of the young master entering the Bada Hutong. Therefore, when the young master is carrying the bird cage and preparing to walk into the alley with his head high, he still can't help but give some advice.
.
"What are you afraid of? His state officials are only allowed to set fires, but my people are not allowed to light lamps! If he learns well, he can save more of my family property for young master. Young master, can I be so poor that I can only come to Hanjia Hutong?"
Jia Liuzui twisted his mouth and wandered into Han's alley without caring about Yang Zhi.
Rouge Hutong and Shitou Hutong in the distance are the real gold-selling caves at Qianmen, where the high-end ones are located. Compared with these two places, Hanjia Hutong is obviously not as high-end.
Hanjia Hutong is an alley, but it is really long, and it is not an ordinary alley, because there are brothels on both sides of the alley.
Just because it was noon, the ladies were resting to recharge their batteries, and none of the guests came here to have fun during the day, so at first glance there was no one in the alley, and it was very quiet.
Yang Zhi muttered what if the master knew what happened, but he followed the young master closely, and subconsciously led the way, because he knew which girl the young master liked the most.
After arriving at the door of the old place with ease, Yang Zhi went in first to ask the young master if his sister was awake, but saw the young master looking at him with a strange look, and then shook his head with hatred: "No future, brain."
What are you thinking about all day long?"
"ah?"
Under Yang Zhi's baffled and doubtful gaze, the young master walked to the Juchun Tower not far away, which was a brothel and theater integrated into one.
Upstairs is a place for girls, and downstairs there is a stage in the lobby. There are several so-called official seats separated by screens on the left and right, which are exclusive seats for high-rollers and can also be understood as VIP seats. Beyond the official seats are twenty or thirty Eight Immortals tables.
There are also long square stools for ordinary guests to sit while listening to the show.
This kind of establishment that combines a brothel and a theater is very common in the Bada Hutong, and there are usually "note stands".
The so-called "standing note" means that those good-looking male actors will put on costumes and stand on the stage for the guests below to comment. If there are familiar guests, the male actors will look at each other, pose, and sometimes go directly to serve them.
.
Finally, when the play is over, as long as the guests are willing to spend money, most of the male dancers will change their clothes and follow the guests to a nearby restaurant or somewhere to enjoy themselves. Those who are not good at this will go upstairs with their tea bowls, where good girls will come.
serve.
The entire industry is like this, no one is surprised, and everyone is used to it.
The Hui Ju Chun Restaurant is also not open yet, so there are no customers, not even the waiters.
After Jia Liu came in, he didn't rush to call anyone, but sat down casually and looked at the stage. He knew that Peking Opera had not yet been born, because the four major Anhui troupes did not come to Beijing until Qianlong's 80th birthday. At this time, the popular operas in Beijing were high-pitched and harmonious.
Qin Opera is somewhat similar to Peking Opera, but the singing style is slightly different.
Yang Zhi finally came to his senses and said with a smile: "Master, if you want to listen to the opera, you have to come at night. They won't play the gong at this time."
Jia Liu turned his head and gasped: "Who said I want to listen to the show?"
"Young master, what are you doing here if you don't want to listen?"
Yang Zhi was really confused by the young master's behavior today, and vaguely felt that the young master seemed to be a different person.
"The Queen Mother's eightieth birthday is coming soon. As children of the banner people, we must show some filial piety to the Queen Mother, right? I'm thinking of finding this opera troupe to put on a play to add some joy to the Queen Mother's birthday."
Jia Liu's expression was extremely serious when he said this.
"What?"
Yang Zhi thought that his ears heard wrongly, that his young master knew how to rehearse?
"Your young master, I am not an ordinary person. I will learn more from you in the future, and I will take you flying."
Jia Liu snorted, took out a playbook that he had stayed up all night to write, and threw it on the table with a proud look on his face.
"What?"
Yang Zhi took a closer look and saw a line of large characters written in ink on the cover of the album - "Three Chambers Trial of Galileo".
.............
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