Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 939
In the first year of the co-government, many things happened in the Ming Dynasty, such as clearing the land, raising the salaries of officials, prohibiting excessive tax collection, resettlement of refugees, moving feudal clans to Taiwan, and two wars in Huainan and Sichuan. It’s not true. Regarding other national affairs, apart from the gentry class who are constantly discussing and enjoying it, ordinary people are more concerned about their own one-third of an acre of land, and their family’s food, rice, oil and salt.

As the new year approaches, the place is stable, and people from outside the city come to the city to buy new year's goods one after another, hoping to have a good year.

In the early morning, when the sky was getting bright, there were bursts of clear and crisp sound of beating watch, which echoed in the alleys of Yuyao City. , it's cold in the morning, so you need to prepare a jacket..."

The sound broke the tranquility of the city, and all the neighbors came to life, and many peddlers began to sell, and the city gradually became noisy, and the sound gradually became louder.

Not long after, the four gates of Yuyao were also opened, and the city gates were already full of people who were about to enter the city.

The guards pushed open the city gate, and several carts filled with pork and mutton entered first. They were all related households, and they provided the meat for 10 people in the city. People in the Ming Dynasty paid great attention to the cleanliness of the city, and kept According to some traditions in the Song Dynasty, it was inconvenient to slaughter in the city, so the slaughtering workshops were all outside the city. After the slaughter was done early in the morning, it was transported into the city and distributed to various restaurants and butcher shops.

Relational households do not need to line up, while ordinary people line up in long lines under the greeting of military officers, ready to be inspected.

Because the end of the year is approaching, business is going well, and there are extraordinarily many people entering and leaving the city gate, and the queues are long.

At this time, in the queue, there was a young man in the middle, his eyes wandering around the goods pushed by the common people, his eyes were full of curiosity, as if the surrounding scene was very fresh.

The young man was looking around, and before he knew it, it was his turn to enter the city. The officer at the side saw that his skin was fair, and he wore a square scarf and Taoist uniform, full of aura of wealth, so he personally interrogated him. He bowed his hands to the young man, and then asked: "Where is your son from, are you going to visit relatives or friends in the city?"

From the officer's point of view, this kind of scholar would only do these two things when he entered the city.

After hearing this, the young man politely returned the salute, "Wang Shiyuan, born late, is from the north. He fled to Yuyao and went to the city to do some shopping."

The officer saw that he behaved well, listened to his accent, and spoke the official dialect of the North, so he was undoubtedly a northerner, but his Northern dialect was too standard, and he seemed to be noble, but the officer couldn't help asking, "My son is from Beijing." Shi?"

Wang Shiyuan was replying in a relaxed way while looking up at the city, but when he heard the officer's question, his face suddenly tightened, and then he shook his head quickly and said, "Where is Wansheng from Beijing? Wansheng is from Henan, and later moved to Fengyang. I only came to Yuyao the year before last, and now I am Mr. Hujiazhuang private school in the south of the city, because my wife just gave birth to a child and it is inconvenient to go out, so I came to the city to buy some new year's goods."

Hearing so much from him, the officer couldn't help squinting his eyes, but then smiled and said, "I don't know if you know Hu Yuanwai from Hujiazhuang?"

"It's the late-born Lao Taishan!"

The officer nodded slightly when he heard this, and stretched out his hand with a smile, "So it's the east bed of Yuan Hu's family, please come into the city!"

Seeing this, Sergeant Wang couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief, walked slowly a few steps into the city gate, and then left at a faster pace.

Seeing him entering the city, the officer beckoned to a soldier, "Did you see that young master just now? Follow him to see who you met and what you did, and report to me afterward."

The soldier was just beside him, and he almost heard the conversation, and he couldn't help feeling a little puzzled, "The boss suspects that he is a spy from the north?"

As a city gate officer, I read countless people every day. The officer shook his head, "It doesn't seem like a detailed work, but I think it's a bit strange. The accent is obviously from Beijing. I don't know why it is called Henan. You just follow. How can there be so much nonsense."

When Wang Shiyuan entered the city, the streets were already bustling. In the Song and Ming dynasties, a new class, the citizen class, had formed. They had basically separated from agricultural production and formed a preliminary commodity economy society. Cleanliness and civilization also surpassed that of the West in the same period where people defecated everywhere.

After people wake up in the morning, wash their mouths and wash their faces, they should eat breakfast, but the citizens of the city in the Ming Dynasty seldom open fire, and most of them would choose restaurants, especially for breakfast. Hawkers supply, such scenes are often mentioned in Water Margin.

Wang Shiyuan walked to the street and looked back, but there were no officers and soldiers following him. He sighed, then calmed down and continued to stroll on the street.

Wang Shiyuan is not a secret work of the Qing Dynasty, but he has his own difficulties. His real name is Zhu Cihuan, and he is the blood of Emperor Chongzhen. Before the city of Beijing was destroyed, Emperor Chongzhen killed all the female scrolls, but he was not willing to kill them. Called to the front.

At this time, Chongzhen had become a father who hoped that his son would survive. He taught them to call adults when they met civil servants, and senior officials when they met military officials. He taught them how to salute and taught them to be ordinary people.

Zhu Cihuan and the prince were sent out of the palace, but how could the pampered prince really act like ordinary people, they had no skills to make a living, and were quickly captured by the Shun army.

After the Qing army entered the customs, the prince fell into the hands of the Qing army. At that time, Dorgon had just hypocritically ordered the Ming Dynasty clan to be treated preferentially. As a result, the prince was offered. Then let people say that the prince is a fake, and all the eunuchs in the palace who said it was the real prince and cried bitterly while hugging the prince were all killed. Only those who told lies could survive. The prince's teacher bowed his head without saying a word in order to save his life. The most shameful thing was the prince's grandfather, Zhou Kui, who insisted that the prince was a fake. In the end, Dorgon ordered with satisfaction that someone was pretending to be the prince, so he killed the prince.

This incident dealt a great blow to Zhu Cihuan, and he also realized that his identity must not be revealed.

During the war, he fled to Henan with a Shun army general and planted the land for a year. After the Qing army tracked down the thieves, the Shun general ran away, and he turned to Fengyang again. The old man recognized his identity during the incident, helped him change his name and surname, and became Wang Shiyuan.

At this time, the anti-Qing struggle in the south was in full swing, and the old man wanted to contact the Ming army who fought against the Qing in the southwest and send him there. I had no choice but to flee south again and turn around to Yuyao.

Soon after, the Ming Dynasty regained Nanjing, and the Qing army in Zhejiang also surrendered to Lu Jianguo. If he was already under the rule of the Ming army, he should be able to come out to show his identity and become a new prince.

It's just that Zhu Cihuan, who was born in the royal family, is still relatively sensitive to political struggles, and he is relatively timid, so he has been hesitant.

At that time, the two kings of Tang and Lu were fighting for the throne. He might have a chance when he came out, but he was even more afraid that after he came out, Tang Lu would poison him. In addition, he had already settled down in Hujiazhuang, so he didn't venture out.

Moreover, in his opinion, no one in the ruling and opposition parties seems to be hoping that a prince from Chongzhen will come out to disrupt the situation. Even the king of Chu who tried his best to turn the tide is not a good person. Small and insecure, although living in poverty now, he has a wife and son, and he does not want to be exiled overseas, so he has been hiding.

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(End of this chapter)