The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

In the two battles of Sangyuan Town and Deshengdian, the Yi army captured thousands of Qing troops.

Liu Sheng's treatment of prisoners of the Qing army was naturally different from that of the Ming and Shun armies. Although they were also punished with hard labor to work to maximize their human value, the hard labor period generally started at three years.

For example, the Eight Banners lasted ten years for Manchuria, eight years for the Han army and the Mongolian army, and five years for the original Ming army and Shun army that had not yet joined the banner after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.

Although Zhou Yanru surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, it was only for a short period of time, and he did not make any plans for the Qing army to cause much harm to the people in the pass. In addition, he took the risk of staying in the capital, which shows that he still prefers the Han family in his heart. Liu Sheng also He was a little merciful and was punished with three years of hard labor.

If he performs meritorious service or accumulates merit while doing hard labor, his sentence can be reduced.

An Jun also knew this, so he didn't say much about Zhou Yanru, but mentioned another person.

"Your Majesty, there is also a man named Gong Dingsi with Zhou Yanru. It is said that he is also a famous person in Jiangnan. This person also expressed his willingness to serve as an official."

"Gong Dingsi?" Liu Sheng's eyes lit up slightly.

He knew this man. In the history of later generations, he, together with Wu Weiye (Wu Meicun) and Qian Qianyi, were called the three great Jiangzuo writers in the southern literary world. Although most of it contains elements of commercial flattery, the humanistic talent is definitely not bad.

In addition, Gong Dingsi also married Gu Hengmei, one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, as his concubine. Historically, after he became an official in the Qing Dynasty, because of his eloquent speaking and literary talents, he was highly used in both the Shunzhi and Kangxi dynasties, and served successively as Minister of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Rites.

It is said that although this man surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he still actively fought for the interests of the Han people, and also secretly helped some people with ideals who fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty.

If Liu Sheng were to evaluate him, he could be regarded as a traitor with some conscience.

Although Liu Sheng thought that this man had some talent and conscience, he was not prepared to make an exception, so he said: "This man has also welcomed Qing prisoners into the capital before, right? After interrogation, if he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he would be punished like Zhou Yanru Let’s talk about three years of hard labor.”

"I understand."

···

Zhou Yanru sat on a broken bench, huffing and puffing while drinking the porridge distributed by the army to the refugees.

This porridge is far from reaching the level of being able to stand up with chopsticks and not fall over, which is the highest requirement for relief, but it has a little oily star and is full of salty taste. He inquired about this porridge being served three times a day in the refugee camp.

Nowadays, most of the people staying in the refugee camps are people in the capital who cannot live on their own - basically they have run out of food at home before.

Once you enter the refugee camp, you must obey the control of the Yi army and act according to the rules set by the Yi army. It is far less comfortable and cheaper than staying at home. However, there are still many people who voluntarily apply to become refugees in order to enter the refugee camp.

Because right now, nothing is more important than three consistent meals a day.

In this severe winter, hunger is not so easy to resist - Zhou Yanru now understands this matter deeply.

When the Qing captives were preparing to evacuate the capital, with the help of Feng Quan, he reluctantly faked his death and escaped, sneaking into a wealthy family's house in the outer city that had a large cellar and secret passage.

As for Gong Dingsi and others who followed him, because they were not taken seriously enough, they did not have to fake their own deaths. They only needed to take a little risk to sneak into the outer city.

The outer city was vast and there were many houses. In the late Qing Dynasty, in order to collect money, food and other materials and cope with the attack of the Yi army, the troops were stretched thin, so naturally they would not spend a lot of effort to search for some unimportant surrender ministers of the former Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the two of them successfully escaped the fate of being taken outside the customs and stayed inside the customs.

However, the large family where Zhou Yanru was hiding did not have much food, and because of the addition of Zhou Yanru, Gong Dingma and others, the situation became even more difficult. Within two days, each person could only drink a small bowl of clear porridge per day.

If you live in the south of the Yangtze River, there may be gentry and rich people who use a bowl of porridge every day to eat rice and clean the stomach, and regard it as a way to prolong life.

But in this severe winter in Beijing, a small bowl of porridge every day will only make people feel hungrier, and then feel the overwhelming cold.

Although Zhou Yanru was once the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, and Gong Dingsi also gave this wealthy family a lot of money before, in this world, food is the hard currency.

Seeing that food was in short supply, Zhou Yanru once heard the woman behind the family say that he wanted to drive them out.

Even though the owner of the wealthy family could carry them cleanly and knew how to drive them away, this large cellar would inevitably be exposed, and he did not listen to the woman's words. But this also made Zhou Yanru unable to speak and asked the family to provide more meals every day.

Therefore, he, the former chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, could only suffer like other people hiding in the capital day by day, hoping that the Qing captives would leave soon and the Yi army would arrive soon.

Ordinary people may think that the rumored stories of the Yi army relieving the people, rescuing victims, and fighting epidemics are false or exaggerated. However, Zhou Yanru, as the former chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, knew that the Yi army did indeed do these things, even better than the rumors. do better.

Therefore, he believed that as long as the Wei army took over the capital, he and the people would be saved.

Sure enough, after the Wei army captured the capital without any blood, they immediately launched relief for the suffering people in the capital.

Zhou Yanru no longer had to suffer the hardships of the wealthy family and came out with Gong Dingsi.

However, they also knew that Zeng's experience of surrendering to Shun and Qing was disgraceful, so they pretended to be ordinary refugees and prepared to observe the wind for a few days before making any plans.

Unexpectedly, Wei Jun quickly established a new management system in the capital at a speed beyond their imagination and appointed a large number of grassroots officials.

Among these grassroots officials, there was not even a single one who held the title of Juren. The highest status before was just a scholar.

After Zhou Yanru discussed with Gong Dingshu, he felt that Damai must be extremely short of officials in the capital, so he revealed his identity to the Yi army and made it clear that he wanted to serve as an official.

At this time, after eating the last mouthful of porridge in the bowl, Zhou Yanru saw that there was no one else in the room, so he said to Gong Dingma: "Xiaosheng (Gong Dingma's character, Zhilu written in front is the name), who do you think will appoint you and me?" What position?"

Gong Dingma also ate the porridge in the bowl with great care, and then wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said: "After all, you have served as the two chief ministers of the Ming Dynasty before, and you are well-known in both the government and the public. I believe that even if you are not entrusted with the cabinet, If they hold important responsibilities in the ministry, they will also be given noble positions such as the Imperial Envoy and the Minister of the Temple."

After hearing this, Zhou Yanru couldn't help but show joy, but tried his best to hide it, waving his hands and saying: "Oh, we changed owners three times after all, even if it was somewhat forced, but the reputation is not good after all.

Therefore, I don't want to think about the noble position that Xiaosheng mentioned - I am ready. Even if that person asks me to be a mere county magistrate, I will be calm and work hard. "

Although he said this, Zhou Yanru felt that taking local officials as an example, even if Liu Sheng did not appoint him as governor, it was possible for him to be appointed as a prefect or magistrate.

After all, he was the chief minister of the former Ming Dynasty. Even if Liu Sheng didn't value him, in order to win people's hearts, he should be given a good official position.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yanru suddenly felt that the Youxing salty porridge that he had not eaten just now was not so fragrant.

He thought that if he could really be appointed as a magistrate in Da'ei, he would not have to eat duck tongue, shark's fin, bear's paw, or abalone belly like he did when he was the first minister of the Ming Dynasty. He would be able to eat ordinary food every day. Chicken, duck and fish, I am very happy.

Soon, a group of Wei army soldiers entered the courtyard, interrupting Zhou Yanru's imagination about his future official life in Da'ei.

"Where are Zhou Yanru and Gong Dingsi?" the leading Wei army officer asked loudly.

'Is it the one who wants to appoint me to an official position? But why not send eunuchs to announce the decree? '

Zhou Yanru was puzzled, but he still walked out of the room and responded: "This old man is Zhou Yanru, and the person next to him is Gong Dingsi."

Gong Dingsha actually felt bad. He didn't want to identify himself at first, but when Zhou Yanru introduced him on his own initiative, he couldn't help but give him a speechless look of "Thank you."

As expected, the officer then took out a warrant and said: "Your Majesty has an order. It is found that the two of you have welcomed Qing captives into the city and surrendered to Qing captives. This is a capital crime."

But Nian and you were not entrusted with official positions by the Qing captives, and you had the intention of going back on your word, so you were sentenced to three years of hard labor. "

After reading it, the officer put away the warrant without even giving Zhou Yanru a look, and immediately waved his hand, "Go, arrest them, and take them to the hard labor camp!"

The soldiers from behind immediately came up and tied up Zhou Yanru and Gong Dingsi.

It wasn't until he was pulled out of the yard that Zhou Yanru came to his senses and shouted unwillingly: "I am the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty and I am a sincere official. Why am I being demoted to hard labor? Isn't your Majesty afraid of embarrassing the bureaucrats and gentry of the previous Ming Dynasty? Heart?!" (End of Chapter)