Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 573: Toasting, not eating, drinking and punishing

The meeting lasted until noon.

Today's discussions on the food and wages of the outer towns, tun towns, and regiment training are almost the same. The matter is agreed, and it seems that it is not too early.

The emperor dressed in a red dragon robe stood up, "All the ministers will stay here for dinner, let's have lunch together, and I will send someone to the imperial dining room."

I heard that in the past, the sons of the Ming Dynasty used to eat two meals in the morning and evening, and did not eat in between. They drank tea and snacks to pass away.But Zhu Yihai is still used to three meals.

It doesn't need to be grand.

Four dishes and one soup, good combination of meat and vegetables.

The Imperial Dining Room moved quickly.

The food will be served soon.

Four dishes and one soup, namely sea cucumber with scallions, sweet and sour pork ribs, then stir-fried leeks with vegetables, stir-fried lotus root, a seaweed soup, and another cold mixed vegetable dish.

Very simple.

But it's quite delicate.

Hong Chengchou looked at the few dishes in front of him, the amount was not too much, just right, and it would not be wasted. It was really good when served with glutinous rice.

No alcohol was served with the meal, which was meant to be a light lunch.

Everyone didn't chat much, and they finished eating quickly.

The waiter brought tea and a platter of fruit.

Hong Chengchou sighed, "When Tartar Huang Taiji was around, he had to eat 22 catties of meat a day, five catties of soup, one catty of lard, two sheep, five chickens, and three ducks for his own meals.

In addition, cabbage, spinach, coriander, celery, leeks, etc. totaled [-] catties.

There are sixty big radishes, water radishes, and carrots in total, one each of cabbage and wax gourd, six catties each of kohlrabi and dried water spinach, six catties of green onions, four liang of wine, three catties each of sauce and clear sauce, and two catties of vinegar.

In addition, the staple food is breakfast and dinner with eight plates of steamed buns, 12 per plate, and to make a plate of steamed buns, you need four catties of high-quality flour, one catty of sesame oil, five spoons of sesame seeds, three mixes of chengsha, white sugar, [-] taels each of walnut kernels and black dates..."

In comparison, Emperor Shaotian's imperial meals were really simple and frugal.

It is said that after the Tartars entered the customs, although the regent Dorgon was not an emperor, he enjoyed the emperor's treatment, which was even higher than that of Huang Taiji at that time.

Wake up early, stew bird's nest with rock sugar, make it right, and have breakfast, at least ten dishes.For example, when Hong Chengchou visited him once, he stayed with him. He stayed with Dorgon for a day and ate two meals, which he recorded in detail afterwards.

For breakfast, one piece of bird’s nest fat chicken pot, roasted chicken wild hot pot, one piece of silver shreds, one piece of mutton shreds, one piece of steamed duck and pork paste, one piece of Efen white cake in garlic soup, one piece of bee cake, one piece of steamed buns rolled with bamboo knots , one small dish in a silver sunflower box, four small dishes on a silver plate, and one large vegetable soup.

At noon, I ate [-] dishes, including fire-smoked duck with lotus seeds, smoked green onion and pepper elbow, steamed fat chicken, etc.

In the evening, there are six more dishes, vinegar duck waist, steamed quail, hot and sour sheep intestine soup, etc.

Anyway, I ate 34 dishes this day, without heavy samples.

The emperor can't eat much at all, and many dishes have not been touched. After eating, they will be given to the ministers or concubines in the harem, or directly to the people in the imperial dining room, and those people in the imperial dining room will secretly sell the vegetables Go to a restaurant in the capital.

In comparison, Emperor Shaotian of the Ming Dynasty's four dishes, one soup and a cold dish were simply too simple.

But the emperor thought it was pretty good.

There is a lot of chaos outside, how many people still can't eat.

After the summer harvest this year, the south of the Yangtze River has a rare good harvest. Along the Taihu Lake, the price of grain has also dropped to one tael and one stone. However, in order to supply other places, the imperial court still implements a unified purchase policy, leaving rations according to the mouth, and purchasing the rest.

Other people who don't farm the land have to supply a limited amount of food stamps, and the unplanned food has to be high-priced food.

No matter how much money you have, you don't dare to waste it casually.

Because food other than rations is priced in steps, the more you buy, the more expensive it is.However, the prices of pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, milk and eggs are still very expensive.

Even the imperial court banned private brewing of wine throughout the country, and only allowed the government to monopolize it, with a limited supply of brewing, and the price was many times higher than before.

Of course, the emperor is the lord of the world, even if he wants to eat one hundred and eight dishes for a meal, it is no problem, but the emperor advocates frugality and prohibits extravagance and waste.

As the dean of the Admonishment Academy, Hong Chengchou's officials often stared at the officials. Whoever dared to eat and drink extravagantly wasted would be impeached immediately.

Some people even stared at the officials' homes, and someone would go through the trash cans that were emptied from their homes. Whoever dared to waste would have nothing to eat the next day.

For rich people, food will never be unaffordable, even two or three taels of silver and one stone are nothing.But for the imperial court, this wasteful head cannot be opened, so it is very strict.

Now Fengtian officials dare not treat guests casually, usually they just drink tea, and if they want to keep a meal, it is also a light meal, and they never dare to exceed four dishes and one soup.

The emperor always has four dishes and one soup, do your courtiers dare to surpass it?
After summer, the weather is getting hotter.

Zhu Yihai looked at the rippling blue waves of the small sea outside the hall, and many boats parked on the water.

And the boat that just came back from Juehua Island.

Tianxiong Town was stationed on Juehua Island, and last year it deliberately lured captives to attack on the ice. As a result, this carefully prepared poison pill caused the Tartars to lose thousands of troops, dozens of cannons, and wasted countless gunpowder.

It can be said that it has played the prestige of the Ming army.

The Tartars who engaged in it had to dispatch Mongolian soldiers to reinforce Ningyuan and guard against Shanhaiguan.

And Tianxiong Town also occupied several small islands on the west coast of Liaoxi, and even planned to build a fort on the Huludao Peninsula to the east of Juehua Island, and also planned to seize the original Wanghai Terrace.

The Qing army rushed to fight.

Huludao is a peninsula, surrounded by the sea on three sides, facing Jinzhou Bay in the north, fed by Wuli River and Lianshan River, etc. Tower Mountain Fort, etc.

This place is actually not easy to fight for, but the Tartars had suffered such a big loss before, so they dared not be careless, so they had to fight with all their strength.

In the end, Lu Xiangguan, the commander-in-chief, only feigned a shot. After the Qing army was transferred to Ningyuan, Jinzhou and other places, he turned back and went west to fight in Guangning and other places.

Lu Xiangguan grabbed a few along the coast, and then went east to fight Wanghaitai.

Both sides come and go, and the Tartars are running around, without reinforcements, they are afraid that they will not be able to defend. Although the Qing army defended the cities of Guangning, Ningyuan, and Jinzhou, the Ming army did not attack these fortified cities very much, but the Liaoxi Corridor has a large population. , the land is fertile, and despite the war, a large number of Manchus and Hans were resettled here after the Tartars entered the customs.

Now Lu Xiangguan's Tianxiong army can come and go freely on the sea, landing and attacking everywhere. If they don't attack fortified cities, they mainly attack those Manchu villages. Every time a village is broken, they will kill the young and strong Tartars, and then capture their young women. The child left and rescued the Han Chinese who had been taken into slavery.

For those Han Chinese who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, they were also advised to move to Juehua Island with the boat, and then to Denglai for resettlement.

This style of play made the Tartars miserable.

But there is no way.

That's how they engaged in the Ming army back then, who knows that they are being turned against them now.

They had no choice but to take the initiative to forcefully relocate the people along the coast of western Liaoning, asking them to move [-] miles away from the coast.

In fact, this is almost to completely abandon the 300-mile-long Liaoxi Corridor, because the narrow part of the Liaoxi Corridor is only a dozen miles, and the wide part is only [-] to [-] miles.

The Tartars couldn't bear the consequences of the Ming army robbing people, so they had to move to the sea and abandon the coast, just like Liaodong, Beizhi and other places.

But for cities and forts such as Shanhaiguan, Guangning, Ningyuan, and Jinzhou, Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners were stationed to garrison, and the three hundred miles of fertile soil and farmland in western Liaoning were completely abandoned, and even the mouth of the river was blocked and fences were erected to build walls.

Zhu Yihai was very happy when he heard the news in Dengzhou.

This was exactly his purpose. He built a bastion on Juehua Island and sent a town of troops there to make the Tartars restless, so they had to voluntarily give up the fertile soil of the Liaoxi Corridor.

In fact, Zhu Yihai didn't intend to use troops against Liaoxi. Here he just threatened to contain and mainly harassed.

Liaodong occupies the peninsula, controlling the coast and the line of the Yalu River.

But even so, the Tartars couldn't bear it. If they didn't move the border, the army would be able to snatch people and demolish them every day that day. Population is also an important resource. Even if the Tartars can guard the city, there is no one. What kind of land do they plant?

Even the food grown will be taken away.

Now they can only fortify the walls and clear the fields, move people away, leave the land deserted, and guard the castle.

For Zhu Yihai, the goal had been achieved. A town of people restrained the Qing army in the corridor of Liaoxi for three hundred miles, and prevented them from cultivating the fields. They had to supply food and salaries from other places, which became an important burden for the Tartars.

The situation is getting more and more favorable.

"I don't know what's going on in Hanzhong."

Due to the great uprisings in Shanxi, northern Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, Wu Sangui and others were forced to evacuate from Hanzhong and go back to suppress them, which gave Hanzhong a rare opportunity.

However, although Zhu Yihai had given instructions to Sichuan and Shaanxi at the beginning of the year, it was impossible to say whether he could seize the opportunity.After all, the troops over there are not the elite of the imperial battalion. It is hard to say whether they can cooperate well, or whether they have the ability to attack tough bones.

What's more, Zhang Xianzhong is also a variable. Who knows what crazy actions this kind of tyrant in troubled times will make at critical moments.

"Even if we can't take the opportunity to seize Hanzhong, at least we can hold Sichuan." Chen Qianfu replied.

"It's a rare opportunity. The Tartars have already suppressed the uprisings in Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, and they will return to Hanzhong at any time. Wu Sangui, a big traitor, should be on guard. If he is allowed to break into Sichuan, it will be very troublesome." Zhu Yihai said.

Wu Sangui was quite capable of fighting. After all, he was able to rise up against the Qing Dynasty when he was old and dying, and swept the Southwest. This person is indeed quite capable.

It's a pity that he wholeheartedly turned his back on the Ming and surrendered to captives, and was willing to be a running dog.

"Wait, the result should be coming soon. Zhang Xianzhong won't last long at all. Once he loses, the situation will become clear. Whether he succeeds or not, it's just a short time." Zhu Yihai didn't have a good impression of Zhang Xianzhong, a hero in troubled times .

But after all, he is a person who will be eliminated by the times. He originally gave Zhang Xianzhong a chance. If he can go to Yunnan to fight the chieftain's rebellion for the imperial court, at least he can be stable for a few years. Give him a good death.

But he insisted on choosing this path, and he had to suffer for himself.

(End of this chapter)