I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 514 Yanbei Dusi
Hu Zongmei rode on his horse and sped all the way, finally arriving at Fengning City before sunset.

Fengning City is located at the confluence of Luan River and Xiaoluan River, with its back against Sharhu Mountain, and its location is very important.

It connects to Chengde City in the southeast and reaches Yingchang City directly along the Xiaoluan River in the northeast.

Yingchang City is located on Xiamaling Mountain, connected to the source of Sidaohe River, an upper tributary of Luanhe River, in the west and the source of Huanghe River in the east. It is known as the key northern gate of the Liaohe Hetao area.

Southwest of Fengning City, you can reach Chaohe River by crossing the Sharhu Mountain. Chaohe River meanders southward, passes through Gubeikou, enters the border wall, enters Miyun and reaches Tongzhou, and then becomes Luhe River which leads directly to Tianjin.

Continue northwest along the Luan River and you will reach Xinghua City.

The Ming Dynasty has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the construction of such an important city in recent years.

The city now has a circumference of 26 li and four gates. Half of it is used as military camps and government warehouses, and the other half is used as civilian and commercial shops. There are also two Buddhist temples. After several years of operation, it has become an economic and cultural center for hundreds of li in radius.

Hu Zongmei and his group of more than ten people, after having their badges verified, entered Fengning City and reported directly to the Fengning City Garrison Office.

The garrison was a light chariot captain who was in charge of an infantry regiment and a camp guard cavalry regiment formed by a nearby herdsman. His surname was Ding.

"Captain Ding, I am Hu Zongmei, and I have been ordered by the Central Military Governor's Office to be transferred to the Front Staff Office under General Qi. May I ask if General Qi is still in Fengning City?"

Ding Shoubei read Hu Zongmei's documents

Hu Zongmei, whose native place was Huizhou, was directly transferred by the Ministry of Personnel. It was obvious that he had a close relationship with Hu Gong, the Duke of Xuancheng County.

"Staff Officer Hu, Marshal Qi inspected the defense of Fengning four days ago and went to Xinghua City. I will arrange for you to stay here. Change horses tomorrow morning and continue to Xinghua City."

"Xedin, guard!"

After settling down, Hu Zongmei took his companions for a stroll in Fengning City while it was still light at dusk.

The northern half of the city was home to government offices, military camps and government warehouses.

The buildings are all large houses with high walls, and one courtyard after another is connected together.

The Liaohe Hetao area is now under the jurisdiction of the Xuanhuiyuan.

The Xuanhuiyuan established the Xiliaohe Hall here, with its seat in Chengde City, and nine administrative offices in Xinghua, Fengning, Chengde, Yingchang, Balin, Tongliao, Chifeng, Chaoyang, and Jianchang, respectively, to take charge of local civil affairs.

Therefore, the only government offices were the garrison and the government office, one in the east and one in the west, one large and one small.

The southern half of the city is residential, and the two main roads are lined with shops.

Tea from Fujian, sugar from Lingnan, porcelain from Jiangxi, rice from Huguang, silk from Suzhou and Hangzhou, cotton cloth from Songjiang, paper from Anhui, salt from Zhili, flour from Henan, millet from Shandong, wool and beef jerky from Hetao.
Dazzling.

In the shops, the clerks and the shopkeepers spoke Mandarin with local accents when talking to customers.

Hu Zongmei could recognize the accents of Huizhou, Anhui, Linqing, Shandong, Taiyuan, Shanxi, Tianjin, Zhili, Kaifeng, Henan, Taicang, Suzhou, and Fuzhou, Fujian.

The merchants wore either a gown or a yisa and spoke stiff Mandarin, in which you could hear accents from southern Mongolia, western Liaoning, and other places.

There is a street in the east of the city, with shoe shops and restaurants on both sides.

The foot shop was filled with porters and soldiers on leave from the camp, all dressed in short tights.

The people coming in and out of the restaurant were all merchants, scholars, and local chiefs and centurions. They were dressed in long gowns and Zhisun clothing, and wore hats and turbans on their heads.

The main food in the restaurant is noodles, including sesame cakes, soup cakes, steamed cakes, cage cakes, spring cakes, butterfly noodles, water-slip noodles, palm noodles, sliced ​​noodles, dried noodles, wontons, and he tan.
Hu Zongmei was surprised to find that the noodles he had seen in various small shops in Beijing could basically be found here, but the taste might be different.

Rice and stir-fried dishes are mostly eaten in restaurants, and Hu Zongmei even smelled the aroma of yuanyang hotpot from a restaurant.

Hu Zongmei couldn't help but say to his companions: "I can't believe that the new city outside the Great Wall is so prosperous, not inferior to the wealthy counties in the interior."

After Hu Zongmei and his entourage had dinner, they passed by Fengning Public School on the way back to their residence, just in time for the school to be dismissed.

Hundreds of students poured out of the gate, some were children of soldiers and civilians in the city, and some were children of herdsmen outside the city. They walked home in groups of two or three, holding books between their legs, chatting and laughing.

The next morning, Hu Zongmei was awakened by the sound of a military bugle call in the barracks.

He jumped out of bed, put on his clothes, woke up his companions, went out and washed around the shaking well. After breakfast, they led their mounts and ran along the street to the west gate.

On the main street of Ximen, we saw six monks, wearing gray-brown robes, cloth shoes, leggings, carrying luggage, holding rosaries in their left hands, standing in a line and walking towards Ximen.

Hu Zongmei was very curious and asked passers-by on the roadside.

"Excuse me, elder, what are these six monks doing?"

The elder on the street glanced at Hu Zongmei, who was leading the horse, and replied, "This is a monk from Shanhua Monastery. He is out practicing asceticism as per the custom."

"Penance?"

"Yes, these ascetic monks go out for about ten days, walking around Fengning for more than a hundred miles, chanting sutras and praying for the herdsmen along the way, and treating and giving medicine to the sick when they meet them.

Sometimes when an elderly person dies, we hold a ritual to pray for the souls of the herders.”

One of the companions couldn't help but say, "Ah, are they going to beg for alms?"

"No, how can begging for alms be called asceticism?" The elder denied it, "According to the precepts, these ascetic monks are not allowed to actively ask for alms from donors. They eat whatever is given to them.

Apart from the food and drink for that meal, no other clothing, cloth, gold or silver may be accepted, not even extra food."

My colleague asked curiously, "What if no one gives alms that day?"

The elder replied, "Then starve for a day. These monks are most averse to touching money, gold, silver, and copper coins. They are absolutely not allowed to touch them. It is said that after they have kept the precepts, if they touch them, they will fall into the Avici Hell."

Hu Zongmei was curious. "I didn't expect that the monks in the northern part of the Great Wall are completely different from those in the Central Plains. Elder, do you know which sect this monk belongs to?"

"I don't know which sect they belong to, but I only know that they claim to be monks from the Buddhist Reformed Society."

"Buddhist Reformation Society?"

"Yes, these monks from the Buddhist Reformation Society said that today's Buddhists no longer focus on reciting the Buddhist scriptures, nor do they talk about self-cultivation and salvation. They only know how to wear robes and engage in wealth and pleasure, and have fallen into the devil's way.

They must purify their roots and return to the right path of Buddhism, abandoning worldly thoughts and devoting themselves to self-cultivation and salvation.”

Hu Zongmei and his companions were all stunned. "There is such a Buddhist sect? Why haven't we heard of it?"

A businessman nearby said, "The Buddhist Guizheng Society, also known as the Zhenyi Sect, originated in the Hexi area of ​​Gansu. It is said that a group of monks who were not tolerated by the Guanzhong Buddhist sect went west to Hexi to find the true meaning of Buddhism. There they met monks who had escaped from the Western Regions to Hexi. The two sides argued for 20 to 30 years, and finally found that the Buddhist principles they pursued were the same, so they merged into one sect.

It absorbed some of the Buddhist mantras from the Vinaya, Zen and Tantric schools, strictly observed the precepts, adhered to true Buddhist practice, and called itself the True Meaning School.

When Huo Gong was the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, he learned about the words and deeds of these monks and thought they were good. He reported them to the court. The emperor also felt that such practice was the true way of practicing Buddhism. So he issued an edict to praise them and introduce them to various places.

Mr. Huo organized a Buddhist Reformation Society for them, which then quickly spread to Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, as well as Luanhe and Liaohe areas.

That's it!

Hu Zongmei followed the six monks out of the west gate and walked two or three hundred meters. The monks turned southwest, and Hu Zongmei and others were going to follow the northwest official road.

Hu Zongmei mounted his horse and turned around to see the rising sun. The golden light passed over Fengning City and shone on the green grassland. The light was so colorful that it made the six monks look like golden arhats.

They were dressed in coarse monk's clothes, carrying tall bags on their backs, holding rosary beads in their left hands, leaning on staffs in their right hands, with their heads held high, backs straight, muttering something, and walking slowly.

A gust of wind blew over from the grassland and across Hu Zongmei's face. He seemed to hear the words muttered by the monk.

"In this way, countless and boundless sentient beings can be annihilated. In fact, no sentient being can be annihilated."

Hu Zongmei and his companions took advantage of the horse's strength and trotted all the way. Two hours later, they arrived at Guojiatunbao.

Guojiatunbao is both a post station and a castle fortress.

The city is four li square, with a wall two zhang high (six and a half meters). There are two main gates in the north and south, and two side gates in the east and west. Most of the city is a post station, and a small part is the Guojiatun supply and marketing station.

That’s right, it was the supply and marketing cooperative established by Yang Jinshui. There was a supply and marketing station in Guojiatun, which specialized in retailing salt, grain, water chestnuts and cotton cloth to nearby herdsmen.

The staff of the supply and marketing station also have multiple duties. For example, they can be doctors who treat people and animals; they can be blacksmiths who can customize horse hooves or bridles; and they can be carpenters who can repair carriages and tents.

The area outside the Great Wall is vast and sparsely populated, and there is generally a castle post station every forty miles. There are four castle post stations from Chengde to Fengning, and two castle post stations from Fengning to Xinghua City.

From Chengde to Chifeng, there are six castle post stations.

There are three castle post stations from Chifeng to Bahrain, and five castle post stations from Chifeng to Tongliao.

There are two castle post stations from Fengning to Yingchang, and three castle post stations from Yingchang to Bahrain.

There are two castle post stations from Chengde to Jianchang.

There are two castle post stations from Jianchang to Chaoyang.

There are three castle post stations from Chaoyang to Chifeng, five castle post stations to Tongliao, and two castle post stations to Guangning Zhongtun Jinzhou City.

The grasslands also follow the water, and the official roads also extend along the rivers.

These castles and post stations distributed along the official roads along the river, together with the cities of Chengde, Chifeng, Fengning, Xinghua, Balin, Tongliao, Chaoyang, and Yingchang, formed a network-like chain, firmly controlling the Hetao area surrounded by the Luan River and the Xiliao River as the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Guojiatunbao was stationed with a team of border troops, a team of local cavalry, more than twenty post station keepers, and five or six supply and marketing station staff.

Hu Zongmei and his entourage rested here for an hour. They ate bread and drank boiled water. The horses were fed alfalfa and given water. They said goodbye to the postman and continued on their way.

There was an endless stream of convoys on the official road, high-wheeled carriages were running continuously, and heavy trucks were moving slowly.

The brisk post-chaise passed by quickly.

A post carriage refers to a horse-drawn carriage that travels from one city to another along the official road, has a fixed route and fixed time, and only rests at post stations.

Generally, there is one train a day. In busy areas, there are two or three trains a day. In quiet areas, there is one train every two or three days. Generally, there are four or six horse carriages.

From time to time, there were cavalry patrols back and forth.

These cavalrymen included cavalry teams dispatched from Fengning and Xinghua cities, as well as the Guojiatun cavalry team for daily patrols.

It’s just that the two are responsible for different areas, and there is some overlap in between.

On both sides of the official road were endless grasslands, with felt tents dotted far away in the green grasslands. Flocks of sheep were floating in the green sky like white clouds.

The herdsmen rode on horses, waving whips, and sheepdogs went in and out of the grass. Hu Zongmei could hear the herdsmen singing.

The song is like a peregrine falcon flying in the sky, very far away, but lingering around you.

After resting for a night in Bangoubao, Hu Zongmei and his party arrived in Xinghua City before noon.

Xinghua City is located in the upper reaches of the Luan River, at the confluence of the Sidao River and the Kebang River, thirty miles east of the old city of Kaiping.

The city is 24 miles in circumference and has four gates.

Hu Zongmei and his entourage entered Xinghua City and first reported to the Yanbei Regional Military Commission.

The Yanbei Commandery was under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of the Beijing Camp, and commanded the troops stationed in the Luan River and Xiliao River areas. The Mongolian Left Six Wing Guards also obeyed its dispatch and command.

Qi Jiguang also served as the commander-in-chief of the Yanbei Regional Command.

Led by the lieutenant colonel, Hu Zongmei met with Qi Jiguang.

"Sanshiqilang, I'm glad you're here. You've caught up with a good opportunity." Qi Jiguang said straight to the point, "You should report to the Yanbei Military Command Staff Office immediately. After you are settled, put on your military uniform and come to the big tent to attend the meeting. The military meeting will be held in one hour."

Hu Zongmei's eyes lit up: "General Qi, is there a war to be fought?"

"Yes, it's still a big battle. Go and report and get settled quickly, and come to the meeting as soon as possible."

"Yes!" Hu Zongmei ran away excitedly.

After reporting, receiving the military uniform, finding a place to stay, placing the luggage, and changing clothes, Hu Zongmei hurried to the big tent. Fifty minutes had passed.

The big tent was full of people standing according to their military ranks. Hu Zongmei was a civilian staff officer, temporarily holding the rank of Zhongwu deputy lieutenant, the eighth grade.

"Qi Shuai is here!"

Everyone stood up immediately.

(End of this chapter)