Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 724 Jiuzhou Palace Changes Night and Wanders ([-])

In the middle of the night, the Qingyan Palace in Jiuzhou was brightly lit with candles, and the eunuchs and maids who were standing there did not even dare to vent their breath.In Dongnuange, the 83-year-old Qianlong sat cross-legged on the couch, listening carefully to He Shen reading the memorial to him.

It's impossible not to read, Qianlong's eyesight is really not working now.The Guangdong Customs had donated a pair of reading glasses made in the UK three years ago, but Qianlong couldn't say that after wearing them.In fact, it wasn't that the glasses were bad, but that Qianlong was afraid that if the news spread, the outside world would say that he was old and dim.For this reason, He Shen, who understood it well, announced to the public that the emperor does not need to wear glasses, and his eyes are good!
Closer to home.This memorial sent by Shengjing General Shu Liang has a total of more than 5000 words, and it reports in detail many abnormal situations in Kaiyuan and Changtu. From this, it is determined that the Beihai Navy is likely to take major actions in the future.He begged to send another [-] troops and [-] civilians out of the pass as soon as possible, and promised that Shengjing now has enough food, grass, and gunpowder. Once the northern pirates invade, he himself will lead the army and people of the city to defend Shengjing, and desperately ensure that the imperial tomb and the city are not lost. .

The reason why He Shen dared to disturb Sheng Jia late at night was because this memorial was too terrible.There are two important places in the area under the jurisdiction of General Shengjing, one is Xingjing and the other is Shengjing; the former is the birthplace of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, that is, Hetuala, the first capital city in the late Jin Dynasty; A capital city, where the tombs of Nurhachi, Huang Taiji, and up to Mengge Timur are all there.

Although I don’t know how many people have ridiculed the cowardice and incompetence of the imperial court in private over the years, at least the two capitals outside the customs were not lost, the water transportation was not interrupted, and Gurkha was destroyed in the southwest, and the Meridian Gate was sacrificed. Finally, it saved a face.But if Shengjing is lost, then Daqing will really follow that wisecrack, blowing the lamps and waxes and stepping on the pot.

After reading the memorial, Qianlong was silent for a moment, and asked, "Is Shu Liang worried too much?"

"Slave, I think it might be true."

"Tell me why?"

"Report to the master. According to the secret report ten days ago, since the beginning of May, the North Navy has been continuously dispatching troops from Fuerdan City to Jilin City via Ninggu Tower. These soldiers only stayed in Jilin City for a few days. They all headed south. A rough estimate must be at least 1 people."

"What about food and grass? Even if Zhao Ni wants to fight, he must prepare food, grass and ammunition!"

"This is what the slaves haven't figured out yet. Shengjing is not Jilin. The imperial court put 5 horses there. Even if Zhao Ni wants to invade the south, he must have military supplies, chariots, and civilian servants. Follow the practices of the Northern Sea Pirates in the past. Pai, you have to prepare enough supplies before you start. But..."

"But what?" Qianlong took the ginseng tea from Li Yu, the chief eunuch, and took a sip.

"Master, there have been similar incidents before. There was no sign of sending military supplies. The servants thought they couldn't fight. Unexpectedly, the North Sea Pirates suddenly launched. Then Zhao Xin is a monster!"

He Shen said angrily, he still has lingering fears about the last time Zhao Xin appeared in his house.After Zhao Xin disappeared outside the gate of He Mansion, he checked the mansion carefully, but found no clues.Because he also served as the admiral of the nine departments, he even let the commander of the infantry army secretly search all over the city for several days, but found nothing.

As the saying goes, people leave their names when they pass by, and geese leave their voices when they pass by.It is impossible not to find a trace of a seven-foot-tall living person entering the city.Could it be that a tunnel was dug from outside the city?Don't talk about it, He Shen himself doesn't believe this reason!
Qianlong was noncommittal to Heshen's words. His mind became extremely clear and transparent tonight for some reason, and he was no longer as old as usual. He pondered for a moment and asked, "Have you calculated the number of acres and grain production of the Northern Sea Pirates?"

"The slave asked the household department to calculate almost the same amount, thinking about checking it one last time before reporting it to the master."

"How much?" Qianlong's voice was a little hurried.

"2000 million acres of land, 700 million stones."

Qianlong showed an expression of disbelief, and asked, "You did the calculation right?"

He Shen slipped from the scorpion and fell to the ground, kowtowed: "The slave will die! I beg the master to forgive me! The slave has been in charge of the household department and military supplies for these years, and he has asked people to compare the cadastres of Jilin and Heilong. It’s not wrong to be wrong on this.”

"It's none of your business, what's your fault. Get up." Qianlong's expression was a little dull, and his face was a little gloomy.He let go of his crossed legs, rubbed them a few times, motioned He Shen to help him, and asked the chief eunuch Xiao Delu to help him put on his shoes. He got up and walked back and forth in the hall, frowning: "How is it possible! His How many people are there? Counting the population of the four counties of Jiaodong, is there 600 million?"

"My lord, it's about 630 million. Now the northern sea pirates use machines for farming and harvesting, called tractors. Those with 120 horsepower can plow [-] acres of dry land and [-] acres of paddy fields in a day; there are also larger ones. , can plow [-] to [-] acres a day. There are also various horse-drawn machines that can grow dozens of acres a day. After the spring of this year, Jiaodong will also start to use them.”

Qianlong was stunned for a while before he realized it.He knew about the use of machines to cultivate land in Beihai Town for a long time, but he didn't take it seriously. He even laughed at Zhao Xin because of it, thinking it was just a trick he used to deceive the world.

Does the well-made guns have anything to do with farming?does it matter?Well, now it seems that it really does matter.

In fact, Qianlong always believed that the reason why Beihai Town is not short of grain is that apart from the large fields of Huangzhuang Banner in Heilongjiang and Jilin, the most important thing is that Zhao Xin squeezes Japan to provide a large amount of grain every year, and buys grain from Guangnan and transports it to the north. That's why he dared to attack in all directions and resort to military force.This sounds quite reasonable, so He Shen thought so before.

Unexpectedly, in the spring of the year before last, a secret agent from the Shangyu Reserve Department, who had been sent undercover in Fuldan City many years ago, finally sneaked into the civil affairs system and became a clerk in the Grain Storage Bureau.This person spent more than a year, took advantage of his position to consult a large amount of information, and took risks to copy many reports.When he felt that everything was almost mastered, he took the opportunity of a business trip to Ula, Jilin last winter, and sent the copied materials to the inspector in Jilin City. The latter braved the cold and almost lost his life. In the end, I went through the Zhelimu League and Zhaowuda League, from Harqin Middle Banner to Chengde.

After Heshen got the information, as if he had found a treasure, he immediately mobilized relevant personnel from the Shandong Cleaning Department of the Ministry of Accounts and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to make calculations.However, the result of the first calculation made everyone involved in this matter think that it was impossible, and there must be a mistake, so they recalculated.Unexpectedly, after the second time the result came out, it was much more than the first time. Not to mention that everyone present dropped their jaws in shock, even He Shen felt it was unbelievable.

After that, I recalculated the third and fourth times, and the result was the same.
Looking at the final figures, He Shen finally understood the meaning of those weird machines scattered across the land outside the pass.

As of the 57th year of Qianlong, Beihai Town had 421763 households in the Northeast, with a real population of 2108815.Calculated on the basis of 50 mu of cultivated land per household, there are a total of 21088150 mu of cultivated land, plus 157 million mu of unallocated public cultivated land, and the total number of cultivated land is 22658150 mu.

So far everything is normal.You must know that Beihai Town has been in the Northeast for nine years. The figure of more than 2000 million mu is also acceptable.

But the next number is too scary!
Since 57% of the arable land in Beihai Town is planted with wheat or rye, rice, beets, soybeans and other vegetables only account for 55.51% of the planted area, so the output of wheat in Beihai Town in 3700 years of Qianlong was 350 billion catties , which is equivalent to [-] million stones in the standard unground stone warehouse, and the yield per mu is as high as [-] catties!
Well, this number is nothing in another time and space, it can even be said to be a failure, but it is absolutely appalling in this time and space of the eighteenth century.

Although the Qing government had known for a long time that Beihai Township had a high yield per mu in Jilin, it always believed that it was just the result of intensive cultivation of individual plots;

We must know that in the same year, the total grain output of all parts of the Guanzhou plus the Shengjing area and Xinjiang was 16 billion shi, but that was based on one billion mu of arable land, more than 2 million farmers, and the area south of the Yangtze River was still three crops in two years. some.Even in Zhili and Shandong areas with good irrigated land, the yield of sorghum per mu is only 180 catties.

In other words, Beihai Town only used 1.6% of the arable land and 7% of the population of the Qing Dynasty to obtain 2.3% of the grain of the entire Qing Dynasty, and it was all fine grain.

We must know that this is still the result of a lot of wasteland that has not been developed.If this momentum continues, within ten years, the annual grain production in Northeast China and Xinjiang alone will be enough to feed the entire northern population.

Zhao Xin has only been tossing and tossing in the bitterly cold place outside the pass for nine years, and he has already given millions of people "all the clothes for the cold, food for the hungry, houses for the poor, and fields for the tillers."Moreover, he only collected [-]% of the tax, and there were no miscellaneous surcharges at all. Every household rushed to sell their surplus grain to the grain station.

Qianlong asked himself, is this something that humans can do?Compared with Beihai Town, the "Kang and Qian Dynasty" of the three generations of my father and grandfather for more than 100 years is simply a joke!
The more Qianlong thought about it, the more discouraged he became. He looked at the candlelight with his hands behind his back, and after a long time said quietly: "He Shen, where did you say Zhao Xin and his henchmen came from? Why have you searched for so many years, but you can't find any clues. "

How does He Shen answer this?If he knew, someone would have dug the grave of the old Zhao family ancestor.Thanks to Ye Zhanrong and his son in Hoi An, they didn't announce the tomb of the last Princess Zhao to the outside world, otherwise Man Qing would have sent someone to Hoi An to dig it up, and then he would be ashamed.

Before he could speak, the old Qianlong muttered to himself again: "It's the sixth generation to fight the Taizu. Zhao Pixu, orphans and widows enter the customs only to determine the world. The holy grandfather ascended the throne at the age of eight, Miao Mo made plans to capture Oboi at the age of 15, and decided to withdraw from the domain at the age of 19 to put an end to the chaos in San Francisco. Three expeditions to Junggar, six patrols to the south of the Yangtze River, repairing water transport to rule the Yellow River, light corvee and thin Fu, and the world's heart. King Sejong practiced Zuo for 13 years, repaired Ming politics, refreshed the government of officials, and also strengthened the country and the people.

I entered the palace at the age of six and studied with the holy ancestor. At the age of 14, I entered Yunsongxuan and studied government affairs with the late emperor.Thinking of the two generations of my father and grandparents who worked hard at night and worked diligently to govern, I don't want to lie under a big tree to enjoy the shade. Since I ascended to the throne, I have not been greedy for music, fine clothes, fine food, and beautiful women. I am pure and sincere to the world.Although it is impossible to make all the cold people in the world have enough clothes, all the hungry people have all the food, and all the widows, widows, lonely and disabled people can be supported, but I think that it is a peaceful and prosperous world after all these years have broken bones and broken hearts.

God!Why did you send down such a monstrosity to bring chaos to the world? !Are you blind!Now I have been so reduced that I can't even keep the tomb of my ancestors, making me a sinner of the Qing Dynasty through the ages! ! ! "

He can't fight on the battlefield, and now he can't even farm the land. Decades of martial arts and martial arts are like a dream!

The more Qianlong spoke, the more angry he became, his face became more ruddy, his voice became slow and stagnant, with irresistible coercion and shouts, He Shen felt panic and sorrow in his heart, and tears fell down. Wet the ground.He took a few steps on his knees, hugged Qianlong's legs tightly, and said pleadingly: "Master, be careful about the body of the dragon. Thousands of mistakes are the fault of the slaves! The master is worried about the humiliation of the ministers, and the master humiliates the ministers to death. The slaves deserve to die, and they are not good at doing things."

He Shen was rambling on, when he suddenly felt that something was wrong with Qianlong.When he looked up, he saw Qianlong staring out of the window blankly, without saying a word, for a long while, he tilted his body, and immediately lost his breath.Xiao Delu on the side turned pale with fright, he rushed forward two steps with a "huh", grabbed Qianlong who was falling to the ground, and together with He Shen, put Qianlong on the couch and lay down.

There was an instant chaos in Jiuzhou Qingyan Hall, whether it was eunuchs or maids, some were looking for soup and water, some were lifting screens, some were moving tables and chairs, some were burning incense, and some were kneeling on the ground and looking down at the cracks in the bricks , running back and forth down the corridor outside the hall with their hands tied, this is called a mess!

"No chaos!" He Shen yelled at the people present with a voice that dripped water, and continued: "Whoever messes up will be dragged down immediately and killed with a stick! Manager Li, you should quietly send the imperial physician yourself, and don't alarm other people. It must not be passed on!"

This person holds multiple positions, including the Minister of the Interior and the Chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Although he always put on a smiling face on weekdays, when he punished those eunuchs who didn't understand the rules, he was honest and frightened many eunuchs.As soon as he spoke, there was a lot of silence inside and outside the hall.

He Shen knew that Qianlong was in distress and lost his mind, so he spit up his phlegm for a while, but the same situation happened once the year before last, and this time it was obviously worse.

He took out a silver flagon from his arms, which contained Suhexiang wine, unscrewed it and poured it into Qianlong's mouth.Unexpectedly, the other party's teeth were clenched tightly, and the yellow-brown wine dripped down the skirt of his clothes.He didn't mind breaking the taboo at the moment, and asked the eunuch on the side to bring a silver spoon for tea, and pried open his teeth with the handle of the spoon, and then poured some wine into it.

After a while, Qianlong made a snoring sound from his throat, just like pulling a bellows.He Shen felt relieved, and was about to drink some more wine when two imperial physicians scrambled into Dongnuan Pavilion.

Taking advantage of the time when the imperial physician was treating Qianlong, He Shen stood aside, looking at the sallow and weak Qianlong, feeling very upset.Don't look at him as greedy, but the friendship between him and Qianlong's monarch and ministers for decades is true.At this moment, he was a little regretful, why did he have to be so anxious, it would be different if he came back to report after dawn!
In a daze, a face that made him hate and fear appeared in front of him out of thin air, and at the same time, a sentence that that person had said echoed in his mind.

"My lord, how long do you think you can live if Qianlong dies?"

He Shen's heart twitched violently, knowing that he had to start preparing for something.While no one was paying attention to him, he quickly walked out of the hall, and went straight to a eunuch standing with his head bowed on the left side of the door, quietly took something from his waist, and whispered in a mosquito-like tone: Everyone gathered and waited outside the Palace of the Old Summer Palace, waiting for my order."

The muscles on the eunuch's face twitched twice, then he took the badge, turned around and walked out.Only then did He Shen return to the main hall. He did not enter the East Nuan Pavilion, but knelt on the cold gold bricks, folded his hands facing the empty Sumeru Throne, and lightly recited the "Medicine Sutra".

"That's what I heard. At one time, Bhagavan traveled to various countries and lived under the music tree in Guangyan City. He was with 8000 great monks, [-] Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, kings, ministers, Brahmins, laymen, Tianlong Yacha, human beings, etc., and countless people. Respectfully surround and speak"

When he was halfway through the recitation, the eunuch who left with his waist card had returned and stood quietly at the entrance of the hall. He Shen heard the other party cough lightly behind him, and continued to Kneel on the ground and chant.

About half an hour later, an imperial doctor withdrew from the Nuan Pavilion with sweat on his face, walked up to He Shen and said, "He Zhongtang, the emperor is awake. It's just that it's too hard to speak."

He Shen hurriedly got up and walked in, Qianlong on the couch saw him coming in, his lips moved, as if he wanted to say something.He Shen burst into tears, and threw himself in front of Qianlong, saying, "Master, you scared the servant to death!"

"Sheng, Shengjing. Death. Zuling Yongyan returns." Qianlong's throat moved, and he mumbled indistinctly with all his strength.After he finished speaking these words, he closed his eyes again and fell into a coma.

He Shen stepped back and shook his horseshoe sleeves, knelt down on the ground, and said with a choked voice, "I understand. The master rests at ease, and the slave will do it immediately."

understand what?What to do?The two imperial physicians were at a loss, and the chief eunuch Xiao Delu next to him also half understood.Except for He Shen, the other three didn't understand a word.

After retreating outside the hall, He Shen whispered to the eunuch who had just sent the order: "Tell our people to immediately block the island and the palace gates everywhere. Without me, no one is allowed to leave the island! Anyone who disobeys will be locked up immediately." !"

　In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to being responsible for farmland, household registration, and taxation in Shandong, the Shandong Cleaning Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs also supervised the farmland affairs of the three major jurisdictions of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Shengjing.As for Huangzhuang in the Northeast, it is under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)