Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 133 Three hundred thousand?

"We have arrived at Nanjing South Railway Station. Passengers who wish to get off please take your luggage and wait at the door. Please pay attention to the gap between the door and the platform when getting off the train."

As the broadcast sounded, the train slowly entered the station and slowly stopped.

Zhu Yunfeng, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di got out of the car.

Zhu Di asked: "Where is this?"

He raised his head and looked around. There were rows of platforms and railways around him, trains passing by, and crowds of people on both sides like the sea, with no end in sight.

“Nanjing High-speed Railway Station.”

Zhu Yunfeng took out his cell phone, opened the satellite electronic map, pointed at the station and said, "Look, it's here."

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di came over, and Zhu Biao asked, "Where is the palace?"

"In Xuanwu District, more than ten kilometers from here."

Zhu Yunfeng enlarged the map, pointed at the Ming Palace Ruins Scenic Area and said, "Look."

"Oh my goodness, that's so far."

"In that case, our current location should be in the wilderness south of Jiangning County."

Zhu Biao sketched out a contrast in his mind between ancient Nanjing and today's Nanjing.

The main part of Nanjing City in the early years of Hongwu was very small, probably located in the Qinhuai District, Xuanwu District and Gulou District of Nanjing today.

It extends from Zhonghua Gate in the south to Xuanwu Lake in the north, from Crescent Lake in the east to Hanzhong Gate in the west. Its area is actually not small.

But the main urban area was in the Confucius Temple area in later generations, and many places in the city were wastelands. For example, the Gulou District in the northwest was the military camp in Nanjing.

Today, the urban area of ​​Nanjing is more than twenty times larger than that of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty, and the level of construction is unimaginable.

"Let's go."

Zhu Yunfeng led them outside. The Nanjing High-Speed ​​Railway Station was incredibly large. If they hadn't followed other passengers, they might even have gotten lost inside.

But even so, it took seven or eight minutes to walk out of the platform.

There was a lot of traffic outside, and the vehicles coming to pick up passengers had blocked the road outside the exit, which was full of cars.

However, Zhu Yunfeng had already booked a five-star hotel which provided a pick-up service. When they came out, a black Alpha was already waiting outside.

The hotel driver attentively helped them put their luggage into the car, and only started to merge into the traffic after they got in.

They first returned to Lansha Town from Changsha in the morning. After sending Queen Ma back, they set out from the town to the county high-speed rail station. It was already noon, and they took the 1:11 high-speed train. The journey took 7 hours and 40 minutes.

When we arrived in Nanjing, it was almost 9 o'clock in the evening.

The lights are bright at night, and the traffic is like the sea. The lights illuminate the roads and streets, and there are countless pedestrians coming and going. There are not only tall buildings on both sides, but also flower beds and towering trees. The greening is very well done.

Zhu Biao was looking at the scenery outside the window along the way. Although the place in front of him was also Nanjing City, he could not find the slightest sense of familiarity. It was full of strangeness everywhere.

Alpha drove in and out of traffic, got on the Kazimen Street elevated road, and then headed towards the Inner Ring East Line. It would take more than 20 minutes to drive there without traffic jams, but there were too many cars today, so it took them nearly an hour to drive.

After checking into the hotel, I didn’t feel like visiting the night market. I had been traveling all day. I was in Changsha in the morning and arrived in Nanjing in the evening, which made me feel very tired.

Three people stayed in a presidential suite, which had several rooms. Zhu Yunfeng called the hotel restaurant and asked them to send food. The three of them lay on the sofa in the living room of the room, feeling very tired.

It's not the kind of physical tiredness, but the mental tiredness.

Zhu Di lay on the sofa and looked at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling and said, "I don't know why, even though we're almost there, I feel sleepy."

"Yes, I used to feel that the mountains were high and the roads were long. I walked slowly and was physically tired, but mentally I was fine. Now it is..."

Zhu Biao also found it very strange.

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "Congratulations, you have experienced the fast-paced modern life."

"What the hell."

Zhu Di wondered, "The faster the pace, the more tired you are?"

"In the past, it took dozens of hours to get to the destination by green train. People played cards and slept on the train. When getting off the train, no one felt particularly tired. Instead, they felt full of freshness."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "Nowadays, people arrive at their destination in a few hours, but they are not in good spirits. That's because people didn't care about the destination before, but the scenery along the way. Now, no one cares about what's along the way."

"Hurry is not enough."

Zhu Biao had a new realization and nodded, "I understand."

'ah? ’

Zhu Yunfeng wondered, "What do you understand?"

However, seeing that he seemed to have some thoughts on this, Zhu Yunfeng did not ask.

Soon, after a short chat, the food arrived.

After eating and drinking, everyone took a shower, relaxed for a while, looked at the night view of Nanjing city from the window, and then went to bed.

The next morning, the three of them took a taxi and headed for the Ming Palace ruins.

There is no need for tickets here, it is completely a park, and the car is parked in the parking space outside the gate. In the car, they talked to the driver and hired a car, and the driver waited for them in the car.

As soon as they got off the car, Zhu Biao and Zhu Di stared blankly at the palace wall in front of them.

At this point, only the ruins are left, because the original palace walls on both sides have disappeared, leaving only a lonely Meridian Gate still standing there.

There are tall trees and rolling grass on both sides, and the ground is covered with marble slabs, extending all the way to the palace. However, the palace was originally the Fengtian Gate Square, where civil and military officials attended the morning court.

But when they looked through the Meridian Gate, they only saw a row of trees extending inside. The railings on both sides of the Wulong Bridge were gone, and only a little bit of the bridge deck was left.

"Is this the imperial city?"

Zhu Biao opened his eyes wide. If there hadn't been a sign next to it that read "Ruins of the Ming Palace", he would have thought it was some ruins on the border.

"Yes."

Zhu Yunfeng took out his phone and checked the information. "By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Nanjing Palace Museum was already very dilapidated. The Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong of the Southern Ming Dynasty carried out some restoration work, but within a few months, the Qing army entered Nanjing and burned, killed and looted Nanjing. The Nanjing Palace Museum was also destroyed during this period. When Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty came to power, he ordered the demolition of the buildings in the Nanjing Palace Museum to build the Fayu Temple. After that, it was destroyed to varying degrees during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, the period when Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army invaded Nanjing, and the Republic of China period."

"Blank."

Seeing the information, Zhu Yunfeng couldn't help but say, "There were also British thieves who came to steal things. In the late Qing Dynasty, the British man Fares stole seven stone carvings and three pairs of stone lions."

Zhu Di sighed, "I never thought that my Ming imperial city would look like this six hundred years later."

Zhu Biao slowly walked into the Meridian Gate.

There are some damages caused by tourists on the inner wall of the Meridian Gate, with many scratches left as if by knives and axes, and it has long lost its original solemnity.

There is even a fish carved on the bricks on the ground, and I don’t know when this renovation took place.

Entering the Meridian Gate, there are stairs on both sides leading to the city wall.

The buildings on the city wall have long been gone, leaving behind dozens of column bases and inscriptions on the brick walls on both sides.

Zhu Biao walked to the parapet and carefully examined one of the inscriptions, which read "Gao Ting, the chief clerk of Yichun County, Yuanzhou Prefecture, Chen Tingyu, the clerk, Yang Xin, the brickmaker, and Peng Ting, the householder, in the tenth year of Hongwu."

The rest of the brick walls also have inscriptions left on them. These brick walls were not made in Nanjing, but were the best brick walls made in various places and sent to Nanjing for construction.

Old Zhu ordered that all officials responsible for building the brick wall must leave their names so that they could be held accountable if any problems occurred.

Apparently, after more than six hundred years, only these inscriptions remain to record past events.

"Time passes, and even high walls will eventually collapse."

Zhu Biao sighed.

"No, the Forbidden City in Beijing built by the fourth son is still there."

Zhu Yunfeng said with a laugh.

Zhu Di glanced at him and said, "Don't bring up something that is not relevant." "Haha."

Zhu Biao smiled, walked down the stairs, crossed the Wulong Bridge, and the Fengtian Gate should have been on the opposite side.

After passing the Fengtian Gate is the Fengtian Hall.

But at first glance, there was nothing there, only a square and gardens on both sides.

Zhu Yunfeng was right, this place has become a park and they don’t even charge admission because there are no buildings anymore.

"Let's go."

When they passed the former Fengtian Hall, Zhu Biao shook his head and said, "There's nothing to see."

indeed.

There was nothing left ahead, just a pile of tiles and patches of woods and grass.

Back in the car, Zhu Yunfeng suggested going to the Nanjing Museum.

Because it's right next to it.

Zhu Di asked the taxi driver, "Master, is the Nanjing Museum fun?"

It's best to ask the taxi driver about this.

The driver was honest and straightforward: "What's so fun about that place? Only people from other places go there. Who would go there as a local? It's so boring."

"???"

Zhu Di whispered to Zhu Yunfeng: "The masters in Nanjing seem a little uncivilized."

Zhu Yunfeng responded in a low voice: "No, this is already very civilized. I heard that normal Nanjing people start their conversations with "diao" and end with "bi". Uncivilized Nanjing people don't use any clean words in their entire conversations."

As if he realized that his subconscious words scared the tourists, the driver quickly said seriously: "Don't get me wrong, these are interjections, not curse words. If you want to go to the museum, I will take you there."

"Well, let's go and take a look."

"okay."

The driver turned the steering wheel to get out of the parking space, and an electric car behind him almost hit him.

The other party opened his mouth and said, "Hang the token, you are going to die."

"MD, get out of here."

The driver jumped out of the window and yelled, "I'll beat you up, BYD."

"MD, come on, wori, XXX."

The other party rode away on his electric bike, leaving behind some harsh words.

"Coward."

The driver ducked his head back and said, "Don't get me wrong. We Nanjing people are the most civilized. The guy just now was uncultured. He must be from Suzhou."

"."

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di were both dumbfounded.

Only Zhu Yunfeng had heard that Nanjing was a "quality" city and spoke the pure Jinling dialect.

For example, Ma Guocheng, deputy general of Jinling, is an outstanding representative.

Saw it today, it's as good as its reputation.

The atmosphere in the car suddenly became awkward, but fortunately the museum was not far away and the driver quickly took them there.

The Nanjing Museum was boring in the eyes of the master, but very valuable in the eyes of Zhu Biao and Zhu Di, especially the History Museum, which was full of historical deposits.

There were crowds of tourists coming and going, and there was a long queue outside the museum. The three of them stayed there until noon before coming out.

The driver happily waited for them in a nearby parking space.

Generally speaking, it is good enough for a taxi driver to earn four or five hundred yuan a day, especially in this era when Didi is competing for business.

Zhu Yunfeng only got 2000 yuan for a day's charter, and it was not as tiring as usual, so he was naturally happy.

Seeing them come out, the driver took them to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

To ease the embarrassment, the driver found topics to talk about on the way, introduced the scenic spot to them, and his tone became much more civilized.

Although it still occasionally mixes in interjections such as "mua", "diao" and "bi", its quality has indeed improved a lot.

After having lunch, we went to the Presidential Palace, Confucius Temple Pedestrian Street and other places in the afternoon.

Stay in hotel at night.

Then for the next five days, the three of them traveled around Nanjing and saw many sights.

There are city walls, temples, museums, Hongshan Zoo, Wutong Avenue, Qixia Mountain, Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and so on.

On the sixth day, they decided to go to one last place and then head to Beijing.

The taxi stopped and after getting out of the car, they looked up and saw a huge statue.

It was a ragged woman holding a dead baby in her hands, looking up at the distant horizon blankly.

Below it was written, “The family was torn apart,” “The murdered son will never be reborn,” “The husband buried alive will never be reborn,” and “The misery was left to the wife who was raped by the devil.”

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di both opened their eyes wide.

Even Zhu Yunfeng is like this.

He knew about the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, but it was his first time here.

This solemn and dignified feeling comes over you, making you feel sad.

The three of them didn't say anything as they walked into the square outside the museum, where there were sculptures along the way.

Some of them looked like civilians fleeing for their lives during a massacre, some looked like people carrying the bodies of their relatives, and some looked like murdered women with the bodies of their children lying on them.

There is some distance from the passage to the official entrance to the museum. It has been less than twenty days since the New Year, so not many people come here, but everyone is very quiet.

There is a huge wall on the right side of the entrance, with the words "Victims, 300,000!" written in various languages ​​​​of various countries.

When you enter the museum, you will see photos of survivors hanging on the walls.

There is a light behind each photo. If the light is off, it means the person has died. If the light is still on, it means the person is still alive.

Zhu Yunfeng, Zhu Biao, Zhu Di and others watched quietly, looking at each photo carefully. Many people even had scars on their faces, and there was even a photo of old man Fang Jitang among them.

Passing through the Survivors Memorial Hall is the History Memorial Hall, which lists all the events from the September 18th Incident to the July 7th Incident to the Nanjing Massacre in detail.

There were many newspapers left over from that time, and one of them was about the killing competition between the two demons. It was a newspaper published by the Japanese themselves.

The rest of the records of murder, robbery, rape, burning, machine gun fire, etc. are piled up like mountains.

In addition to paper materials, there are also a lot of film and television materials, including interviews with survivors and some records from cameras and video cameras at the time.

It is said that many of them were too cruel and bloody to be released, but even so, every visitor here had a solemn look on their face and a flash of anger in their eyes.

"Three hundred thousand?"

Standing in front of the huge oil painting of a Japanese soldier wiping his knife, with Chinese corpses in front of him and a monk carrying corpses next to him.

Zhu Biao raised his head and looked up, muttering: "The Japanese also killed the envoys of our Ming Dynasty, haha"

Some debts cannot be repaid for the time being, but the Ming envoy who was killed six hundred years ago should also be demanded.

(End of this chapter)