The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 567 His Hometown
Pei Dahu and Lin Yu knew that this mission was of great importance, but they didn't know how important the city of Junzhou was to the emperor.

Everyone knew that Junzhou, or the soon-to-be-built Tianxin City, would be the center of the empire. Therefore, Junzhou could not be in chaos and could not afford to lose anything.

When they arrived at Junzhou City, they were shocked by what they saw.

The grand scene of the Laoying Wharf in the east of the city, with its forest of masts, is no longer there. Only a few shabby fishing boats remain on the wharf, and a few fishermen, who look pale and skinny like ghosts, are drying their fishing nets on the shore.

What about the big ships? What about the big ships that transported wood and stones, and artisans and craftsmen?

No one answered Pei Dahu's question because there was really no need to answer it.

There were few people at the dock. The big ship might have gone to Jingzhou or Jiangnan. Even the shacks built by the workers were nowhere to be seen, as if they were suddenly blown away by a gust of wind.

You should know that there were more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians who built Tianxin City here at the most, but now they are all gone.

All that remained in the wilderness east of the city were some bare scaffolding and a few ruins. The walls on both sides were in a mess, with stones and sand scattered around. Everything that could be moved had already been taken away.

Several hunchbacked old men were still walking back and forth on the scaffolding, trying to search for anything they could take away.

Pei Dahu put down the telescope and said with a slightly dejected look, "It's a mess. The prince's uncle may be young, but he's quite capable. He emptied everything out and left nothing for Da Qi."

Lin Yu had a blank expression on his face, as if he was indifferent to the actions of the king's uncle in draining the Great Qi.

"Big Lin, do you think the North Koreans are still in Junzhou City?"

Lin Yu shook his head and looked at a group of beggars at the city gate.

Pei Dahu stopped asking him and turned to his two men:

"I'm going to meet him and see what he's become. The four of us walking together will be too conspicuous. Let's tie the horses outside the city. One of us will watch while the other three go find some fishing gear and go into the city later."

Half an hour later, two burly fishermen carrying loads entered the city through the East Chengen Gate of Junzhou City.

There were few people on the bluestone-paved streets, and only a few small fishing boats were docked at the busy pier. The fishermen were either standing or sitting, looking at the shore with numb expressions.

Pei Dahu searched for a long time but didn't meet a single pilgrim. In the past, Junzhou was crowded with people, and countless pilgrims came from neighboring provinces, prefectures and counties every day to pay homage to the Zhenwu God.

"This is a great place that's like a cash cow, but you gave it to the prince, and it's become like this in just a few years. What a sin!"

The city wall, which had been repaired, now became dilapidated, as if it had just experienced a fierce battle.

The soldiers guarding the city gate huddled in the gate hole to cool off. They saw someone entering the city from afar, but they just glanced at Lin Yu lazily without moving.

Lin Yu walked in front with his men, and Pei Dahu followed behind. They pretended to be fishermen selling fish - Junzhou is next to the Han River, and many people make a living by fishing.

"Perhaps the uncle of the emperor has escaped and fled to the Southern Ming Dynasty."

Pei Dahu comforted himself in this way. Of course, he hoped that Qin Jianxun could send people to help in time. He didn't want his men to die here.

The four of them walked through the city gate and headed west for a while. All they saw was a dilapidated and dilapidated city. There were only a few shops open around, and the opera singers and storytellers in front of the City God Temple were gone. The former bustle of Junzhou was gone. Beggars and refugees were everywhere, squatting in rows in the streets and alleys.

Pei Dahu gritted his teeth and walked westward with the giant-like Lin Yu, and soon they arrived at Chaowu Street.

Pei Dahu asked Lin Yu to take out the long knife from the package, carry it on his shoulder, and walk through the city to intimidate those around him.

Chaowu Street, a street named after pilgrims, has now become the world of homeless beggars, and no pilgrims are seen.

The refugees were either lying or sitting, looking at a few people from time to time. They stared at the bag on Pei Dahu with strange expressions.

Frightened by the beast-like Lin Yu and the big knife weighing dozens of pounds, no one dared to come forward to snatch it.

"Let's find a place to rest and ask the uncle what's going on. Then we'll go to his house and meet him. This bastard has caused so much trouble in Junzhou! We can't let him off easily!"

Five or six years ago, when the emperor was choosing the location for the capital, Pei Dahu came to Junzhou City once.

Junzhou was still very prosperous at that time. The ancient city was next to the Han River and was located at an important shipping node. The water surface above the county seat was narrower and the water surface below was wider. As a distribution center for upstream and downstream goods and a stopover for pilgrims to Mount Wudang, the riverside wharf was very busy with people coming and going all day long.

The mountain products from Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi heading south, and the southern products from Hunan and Jiangxi heading north, all transit here.

Most pilgrims who come to worship Wudang Mountain stop here. Incense, paper, firecrackers, silk and medicinal materials are placed all over the street, which stretches from the pier to the foot of Wudang Mountain. It is called Chaowu Street.

But what I saw before me was a desolate scene, with ruins everywhere. From time to time, I could see a few starving corpses and women selling their bodies with straw tags on the roadside.

There are no prostitutes, no beggars, no thieves, and no human trafficking in Da Qi!
Emperor Wuding once made such a boast.

Unexpectedly, one day, the capital of the empire (or the quasi-capital) was full of starving people, and poor people were scrambling to sell themselves.

Pei Dahu walked for a while and found that several state-owned silk shops had been robbed. The store shelves were set on fire and were emitting black smoke. At the door of the store, only the bare flagpole of the black dragon flag symbolizing state ownership was left.

Pei Dahu clenched his fists and kicked open the half-open shop door, only to find that the shop was empty with only half a counter and shelves left.

"Let's go, eat first."

Four people stood in front of a food store. Two waiters were guarding the door with sticks. When they saw refugees approaching, they would beat them with the sticks. The refugees and beggars around them could not stop drooling at the aroma of the meat patties in the food store.

Lin Yu walked in front and waved his big hand gently, and several refugees who were blocking the way and trying to beg for food scattered.

Seeing this, the guy holding the big stick quickly stopped Lin Yu, who was dressed as a fisherman, and said impatiently with his neck tilted:
"The shopkeeper only accepts cash, not your stinky dried fish. Go! Go! Go!"

As he said this, he waved the wooden stick and was about to drive Lin Yu out.

Lin Yu gently picked up the waiter who was shorter than him, and let the waiter hit him with the stick without any reaction. When the waiter was tired, he gently grasped the stick and applied a little force. With a click, the stick broke into two pieces. He threw the waiter with his hand, and the waiter flew out like a sandbag.

The refugees around saw this and all shouted "good"; some people just wanted to watch the fun and joined in the commotion.

The guy was so scared that his face turned pale and he lay on the ground for a long time without getting up.

Pei Dahu chuckled, showing a kind smile, and stepped forward to help the waiter up. The waiter was so scared that he stepped back repeatedly.

"Brother, I have some money. I just want to eat some bread here so I can have more energy before continuing on my journey."

Pei Dahu looked back at Lin Yu and explained to the waiter: "My brother has a bad temper. I'm sorry for offending you just now. I'm sorry for offending you."

The guy with the big stick said he didn't dare.

Pei Dahu waved his hand, called the waiter forward, and said to him:
"Here are the silver. My brother is hungry. Go and serve some food. Please ask your shopkeeper to come out and talk."

The waiter wanted to refuse, but when he saw the heavy long knife hanging on Lin Yu's waist, he gritted his teeth. After a moment, the shopkeeper came out to greet him attentively. While staring at Lin Yu who was like a giant bear, he carefully asked Pei Dahu what he wanted to eat.

Pei Dahu took out half an ounce of silver from his pocket and stuffed it into the shopkeeper's hand.

"Five pounds of beef, two pounds of pork liver, twenty teppanyaki buns, twenty steamed buns, and more..."

Lin Yu, who was sitting next to him, had a rumbling stomach. When he heard about beef, water flowed from the corner of his mouth.

"Is this enough?" Pei Dahu often traveled on business and had a basic understanding of prices across Daqi. Half a tael of silver was enough for ordinary people to live on for a month. The shopkeeper took the silver, but smiled wryly, "My dear guests, we don't have any pork liver or beef."

Pei Dahu asked in surprise: "Then what do you have?"

"There are dried fish, dried shrimp, rice..."

"Then come up, everyone! Go!"

Seeing the shopkeeper's awkward expression and his inaction, Pei Dahu asked in surprise, "Why? You've already paid me, and you're not going to do business anymore?"

This is not Liaodong, where people are not allowed to do business.

"Sir, I'm afraid this half tael of silver is not enough..."

Pei Dahu was a little angry and said angrily: "Why is it so expensive? It's not that expensive in Wuchang City! Are you running a black market?"

"Sir, calm down. Listen to me, there have been refugees making trouble outside the city these days. They have robbed everything they could in the countryside of Junzhou and set fires everywhere. Even the Taoist temples outside the city have been looted by the refugees. The ships have been diverted to the south of the Yangtze River to transport flowers and stones. It's hard to find pigs now. If you buy one ounce of silver per pound today, I'm afraid it will cost one ounce and a half tomorrow..."

"What about the grain distributed by the court? It's tens of thousands of dan, and it's free. I heard that everyone in Junzhou got a share!"

The shopkeeper just smiled bitterly after hearing this: "Food, haha, who knows which bastard will eat it."

Pei Dahu gave another tael of silver, and the shopkeeper was overjoyed and went to cook.

Soon a stack of steamed buns was brought out. Pei Dahu looked at a family of refugees squatting at the door. Two skinny children were huddled beside their parents. He took a few buns and gave them to the parents. The refugees nearby came up to grab them, but were scolded away by Lin Yu.

Pei Dahu picked up a pancake and started to eat it. The shopkeeper came out with a large stack of steamed pancakes. Pei Dahu asked:

"Boss, the last time I came to Junzhou, it wasn't like this. What's going on? There are beggars everywhere."

The shopkeeper shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying nonchalantly: "What a sin! Who knows what kind of world this is? After the war, we build the city, and after the city is built, there is another war..."

Pei Dahu smiled and said, "We are all devout pilgrims from Henan. We made a wish at Wudang Mountain a few years ago. Now that we have become rich, we have come to fulfill our wish to the ancestor. We are new here and don't know much about the affairs of Junzhou. Could you please tell us about it, shopkeeper?"

The shopkeeper asked the waiter to continue serving the dishes, and he pulled a bench over and sat down below Pei Dahu. Lin Yu was still handing out cakes to the refugees at the door.

"You don't know what's going on. Our Junzhou is completely destroyed. The Taoist priests on the mountain have fled, and the Taoist temples have been looted and burned. You've also seen that many people's homes have been burned and looted, leaving them with nowhere to live. Tens of thousands of able-bodied men are waiting to be fed. We can't kill them all, and we can't drive them away."

"Able-bodied men? Those who built the capital? Where's the food for the court?"

The shopkeeper stood up and said, "Sir, you have come all the way from Henan, and you are a devout pilgrim. You must have encountered conscripts on the way. Don't you know?"

Pei Dahu laughed and said, "If you knew, why would you ask the shopkeeper?"

"It's true that the court distributed food, fodder, and cloth to the soldiers. Two years ago, I saw with my own eyes carts of food passing through Chaowu Street. However, the number of able-bodied men reported by Junzhou is false. They said there were 100,000 soldiers and civilians building Tianxin City, and we were lucky to have 50,000 of them coming to Junzhou. But the court distributed food based on a population of 100,000. As for where the food went, they said it was transported to the south. There was a famine in the south this year, and the price of food is several times higher than here..."

"What about Tianxin City? Is it repaired?"

"Repair his grandma, if you go and see later, they have just dug a foundation and laid a few bricks, but the bricks have been dug away."

The shopkeeper said a few words, then suddenly remembered something and stopped talking. He stood up and made an excuse to go to the back to check on the food.

Pei Dahu was speechless for a long time.

~~~~~~
The previous life of Emperor Wu Ding, the miserable programmer named Qi Meng, spent most of his time before the age of twenty near Junzhou.

At that time, the ancient city had sunk into the vast Han River, with only the city walls standing in the water. Junzhou was no longer called Junzhou, but was named after the river that submerged it - Danjiangkou.

A city, a group of people, born and raised here, a dam spanning east and west, life and death are at stake.

The fate of the people of Junzhou is just like the time traveler himself, floating up and down and speechless.

Many years later, when he diligently searched the vast sea of big data networks for official accounts of that massive project, all he found were fragmented, dreamlike recollections:

"The Han River surged with waves,

Nine out of ten years there is flooding.

Selling my son for a handful of rice,
Sell the girl and donate the money.

Kill the ox and starve the dog.
Carry your bag and walk to the horizon."

Floods occur nine out of ten years. This is the most fatal thing for farmers who rely on the weather and the soil for their livelihood.

Jun County was once the birthplace of Taoism in the Celestial Empire and the place where Xuanwu, the prince of Jingle Kingdom, the founder of Taoism, became a monk and practiced.

In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to worship the Great Emperor Zhenwu (also known as Xuanwu), Emperor Yongle renovated Wudang Mountain and built a royal Taoist temple. He also built the Jingle Palace in Junxian County for the emperor to purify himself before going up the mountain and for the transfer of supplies. It is the first of the eight palaces in Wudang Mountain.

When my grandfather was a child, he often went to Jingle Palace to play and climbed a turtle carved from a huge stone inside. On the stone tablet next to the turtle was engraved the imperial edict issued by the emperor when Jingle Palace was built.

In my grandfather’s memory, the city wall of Junzhou ancient city was particularly magnificent, surpassing the existing ancient city wall of Xiangyang.

There is a saying among the people that "Junzhou Prefecture is as solid as iron", and it is said that its city wall is 3.5 kilometers long.

Construction of the Danjiangkou Dam began. To avoid transportation difficulties after the diversion, the county seat began to be relocated. At the time, the county seat had a population of approximately 2. Residents carried bricks, wood, and furniture by hand, and the city wall was partially demolished.

Only a pair of stone turtles and a memorial archway were moved from the Jingle Palace and moved to the current Danjiangkou urban area and placed in the rebuilt Jingle Palace. The rest of the buildings that were more than 500 years old were destroyed.

Xiaochuan District (later renamed Xiaochuan Township) was relocated to the old site of Junxian Town. To commemorate the ancient city that disappeared forever underwater, Xiaochuan Township was renamed Junxian Town. Unexpectedly, 20 years later, Junxian Town was relocated again.

Endless relocation and immigration throughout life.

~~~~~
Thirteen years ago, Jin Dajiu, the uncle of the King of Qi and Duke of Cheng, was an ordinary court angel. Aside from his handsome appearance and his father's background as a yangban (a nobleman), he wasn't particularly remarkable. When Liu Zhaosun traveled to this time and space, Jin Dajiu was on a diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty. He was emaciated and suffered from the bullying of Ming officials.

It was not until the end of the bloody battle of Hunhe that Chaotian met Yuan Chonghuan, who was as thin as him, in Shenyang. The two of them talked and made suggestions for the union of Kaiyuan and Korea.

Now, Yuan Chonghuan has died in Kyushu, and Jin Dajiu has become so fat that he is no longer as handsome as he used to be. As the saying goes, time is a butcher's knife that turns grapes green and banana leaves red.

When Jin Dajiu traveled around the capital of the Ming Dynasty, he saw too many Ming officials who were obese due to excessive indulgence. These people spoke rudely to Koreans just to ask for a stack of Korean paper. They did not show the demeanor of the Celestial Empire at all.

Jin Dajiu was very disgusted with this kind of behavior - the king's uncle back then was full of righteousness, and compared to now, he was completely two different people.

More than ten years ago, Pei Dahu and Yuan Chonghuan negotiated with Jin Dajiu. Until now, he still remembers what Jin Dajiu looked like back then.

"I haven't seen you for over five years, and you've gained weight again, even fatter than those fat, corrupt officials in the capital. The Emperor and Empress Dowager Cisheng trusted you so much that they handed over Junzhou and Tianxin City to you, yet you treat the people of Daqi like this. Do you still have a conscience?"

"General Pei, you are the same. You are old, with white hair on your temples. You have no conscience. You came to Junzhou and killed my servants. What's the matter with that?"

The main hall of Jingle Palace in Junzhou Prefecture.

The obese Jin Dajiu looked at the prince Pei Dahu who was tied up and smiled with satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)