nanming man

Chapter 745

There are many reasons for the prosperity of a city, and it is not possible to create a prosperous city by moving the population here.

Beijing's prosperity stems from its political status, surrounding areas, and the blood transfusion of the Grand Canal.

Due to their political status, a large number of bureaucrats and nobles live in Beijing. They control huge wealth. With them, the city will have consumption and drive the economy.

However, consumer demand alone is not enough. Materials and personnel are needed to meet the needs. People around the city need to grow vegetables, raise chickens and ducks, and also need a lot of rice, which is transported from the canal and continuously transfused to Beijing to maintain Beijing. of prosperity.

After the Qing army occupied Beijing, the political status of Beijing did not change much. Li Zicheng wiped out the dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchu Qing drove away the upstarts of Dashun, but the dignitaries in the city did not disappear.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty took Beijing as its capital, and the tens of thousands of Eight Banners in the city, as well as princes, became the upstarts in Beijing, and Beijing still had great consumer demand.

It's just that after the Qing army entered the customs, the Northland was dilapidated and the canals were cut off. There was only consumption demand and no material supply, but a prosperous Beijing city could not be maintained.

Of course, there was a shortage of supplies, and the Eight Banners could not be squeezed out. The original residents of the city were forced to leave Beijing and became banner slaves or tenants.

Therefore, in the first few years after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the population in Beijing dropped sharply and the city was in a state of depression. However, as the Eight Banners’ manors in Beizhili were scaled up, and after the Qing army occupied the two Huaihe Rivers, grain was shipped to Beijing. This made Beijing gradually walk out of the depression stage and began to slowly recover.

At this time, the city gradually regained its vitality, restaurants, teahouses, and shops gradually increased, and there were even several brothels and brothels.

Although it cannot be compared with Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, after all, more than [-] banner people live here. Beijing is not comparable to Nanjing, but it can compete with Wang Jing in the Western Wei Dynasty, or even slightly better.

Mr. Hou is notoriously fond of prostitutes, which is something that everyone in Beicheng knows, and the Qing court has become accustomed to spying on Han officials.

It is a good thing for a person to have shortcomings. If he does not love money and is not lustful, then the Qing court should think about why this kid took refuge in the Qing Dynasty.

At this time Hou Fangyu was wearing a colorful mandarin jacket, a full hat with a green emerald on his head, and a paper fan in his hand, walking on the street.

He fanned his folding fan as he walked, wanting to make his walking posture more romantic, but he himself felt that his outfit was quite wretched.

The colorful mandarin jacket is vulgar, and the green emeralds inlaid on the hat are even more disgusting, making the entire Chinese aesthetics go back thousands of years, and it is completely inferior to the romantic clothes of Taoist uniforms, but there is nothing to do. This is Beijing. Manchu is this aesthetic.

At this time, he was walking on the street, and there were many goods in the shops on both sides. Many people dressed like him were walking on both sides of the street, buying various things.

Hou Fangyu just glanced at it casually. The types of goods are much less than those in Jiangnan, but all the necessities in life can be bought, but the prices are much more expensive.

Hou Fangyu frowned slightly. It seems that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has recovered fairly well in the past year or so, and this must be reported.

At this time, he walked across the street and came straight to a street in the West Market. There are many brothels along the street, and it is a place where fish and dragons are mixed.

In order to deceive others, Hou Fangyu had patronized all the brothels on this street, and did not favor one over another.

At this time, he came to a two-story brothel with the words "Yihong Yuan" written on the plaque, which was Xuanyiwei's stronghold in the capital.

The news that teahouses and restaurants can collect are just gossip from the market. If you want to collect more valuable news, you still have to rely on brothels and brothels. This is the advice of King Wei to Xuan Yiwei.

Because it was still early, there were very few people on the street in front of Yihong Courtyard, and the girls didn't come out. There was only an old turtle at the door.

Although it was explained that prostitution was not illegal in the Qing and Wei dynasties, brothels were still big taxpayers, and sisters and children were all employed with certificates, but prostitution was not an honorable thing after all, and the general government also had regulations that prohibited officials from prostitution.

Compared with the brothels in the south of the Yangtze River, the brothels in the Qing Dynasty were of a much inferior quality.In the south of the Yangtze River, a famous prostitute lives in a house by herself, with more than a dozen servants, and the guests don’t get to know them directly, so they have to talk about poetry, poetry and life first. There is a sister living there, and the guests are not very educated, most of them go there to sleep.

Hou Fangyu actually doesn't like it very much, such a place is not elegant at all...

"Oh, why did Mr. Hou come today?" Mr. Gui stepped forward and nodded.

Compared with Mr. Hou, Hou Fangyu prefers to be called Mr. Hou. He looked at the sky and saw that the lanterns had just been hung upstairs. He came a little earlier today, which made people feel that he was more anxious.

"Is Miss Wan'er there?" Hou Fangyu asked with a smile.

"It's up there! The little one will take you up there!" Mr. Gui laughed.

Hou Fangyu waved his hand, "No need, I'll go up by myself."

After finishing speaking, Hou Fangyu went up to the second floor, while Mr. Gui walked outside the building, looked at both sides of the street, did not enter the building, and began to solicit customers on the street.

On the second floor of Yihong Courtyard, Hou Fangyu sat in a room lit with red candles and draped in many red gauzes, and in front of him sat a beautiful woman with a dusty air.

At this time, the girl poured him a glass of wine and asked, "Young Master, what is the important matter here today?"

Hou Fangyu nodded, and said seriously: "Two things, the first is the Manchu Qing Gongbu workshop, which has produced self-generating firecrackers and lightweight copper cannons."

"The tartar's action is so fast! It seems that our action is still too late." The girl was a little surprised, she was silent for a moment, and said seriously: "This matter will be reported to the slave."

Hou Fangyu nodded, and continued: "The second thing is, I have prepared the list and materials that Deputy Envoy Fang requested."

As he said that, he took out a letter from his pocket, handed it to Li Wan, pondered for a while, and said: "However, I don't approve of Xuan Yiwei's assassination of Tang Ruowang. This will only remind Man Qing to pay more attention to firearms!"

Li Wan frowned and said, "Young Master, why do you say that?"

Hou Fangyu opened his mouth and said: "Although Doer Gun has asked Hong Chengchou to preside over the firearms casting and the training of men and horses, many people in the Tatars still don't think so about the understanding of firearms. Only a few Han officials are very concerned about this matter. Beijing The imperial court, after all, is the imperial court of the Manchus. They occupy most of the main positions, especially the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Officials, and the Ministry of War. They are all controlled by them. Now Bahana, Minister of the Ministry of Households, has spent a huge amount of money on Hong Chengchou. If Tang Ruowang is assassinated, it may not only prevent Man Qing from casting firearms, but it will increase Dorgon’s attention to firearms, and the loss outweighs the gain.”

Hou Fangyu said: "In my opinion, instead of assassinating Tang Ruowang, it would be better to kill Hong Chengchou. This old man is the confidant's trouble. He helped the Manchus restore the north and has already achieved initial results. Compared with a year ago, how much has the city of Beijing changed?" , I think Xuan Yiwei also found out."

Li Wan nodded, "I'm just responsible for conveying the news for the young master, and can't make any decisions, but I will pass on the young master's words."

Hou Fangyu nodded slightly, and began to drink from his glass. It was obvious that he was in a depressed mood.

As a secret agent for infiltrating the Qing court, he acted in fear and couldn't sleep well. He was afraid that talking in his sleep at night would bring him a fatal disaster. Only in Xuanyiwei's stronghold could he relax a little. Every time I got drunk and fell asleep until dawn before going back.

Seeing this, Li Wan poured another cup for him, and said with a smile, "My lord, the king defeated the Tartars again in Guanzhong. I think the Tartars are just so few. In a few years, the king will fight to Beijing. By then Both the son and the slave will be freed."

When Hou Fangyu heard her talking about the great victory in Guanzhong, he suddenly remembered something, quickly put down his wine glass and said, "By the way, I still have one thing to respond to. Jierhalang and Haoge were defeated. Dole Gun seems to have intentions. Two people~~~"

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(End of this chapter)