Emperor Kangxi: The First Rule of the Palace

Chapter 1 Wedges
The first month of the 18th year of Shunzhi was a cold winter.Just after the new year, groups of beggars began to beg along the street as if they had emerged from the ground.These people were crowded under the eaves of shops and in ruined temples west of Hade Gate in Beijing.Families and nests built dilapidated huts and thatched sheds at the base of the city wall, intending to live there for a long time.Fortunately, since the defeat of King Li Chuang, the city of Beijing has suffered repeated military disturbances, with a population of ten to five or six.

The inside and outside of Dongzhimen are full of rubble, and some are free, otherwise it would be overcrowded.Most of these people speak the Kanto dialect, and there are quite a few people from Zhili, Shandong, and Henan, wearing ragged jackets, with grass ropes tied around their waists, begging for food from people with broken bowls.

"Grandpa and aunt, do good deeds and enjoy some leftovers. I escaped from Rehe. There are old people on the top and young people on the bottom. There is nothing I can do!"

"Amitabha! It's a sin! Where did the disaster come from in the winter, and you traveled so far?"

A middle-aged man with a tinkerer on his shoulder turned his face and stopped when he heard this, and said with a sneer, "You are at the foot of the emperor, how do you know the things in the countryside! Damn it, I'm surrounded by yellow flags I don’t want to eat, but eat (upper corpse and lower beg) hair?” As he spoke, he twisted his braids around his neck and walked away angrily.

At this point, readers may ask: What is "enclosure", it's so powerful!
It turned out that before the Manchurians entered the customs, the Eight Banners soldiers went out to fight, and they prepared their own horses and equipment.Each banner occupies a large amount of banner land for military supplies, and the owners of each banner, princes and clans also consume a lot of gold and silver in their daily squandering, so they set up manors of various sizes outside the pass.After entering the customs, the royal relatives, relatives, and civil and military officials of the former Ming Dynasty died and fled after they entered the capital, leaving behind countless barren fields without owners.Dorgon then ordered to "distribute as much as possible to the kings from the east, Baylor, Beizi, Xunchen, etc.", of course Qiu Baye picked the best ones to grab.They tied two horses with a rope, and planted a flag on top of it, and the soldiers behind them frantically lashed out, making as many circles as possible, and the land in the circle became the property of the bannermen.This is called enclosure. "This is mine with a yellow flag", "That is my flag with a white flag".There are even more domineering ones who want to drive out all the people in the circle, or exchange them with a little swollen land.This is still polite, and what is even worse is to take the opportunity to rob.Wherever the enclosure arrives, all the utensils in the room will be left behind, and the ugly wives and daughters will be taken away by the original owner with "graciousness"; the pretty ones will be kept.As a result, there are 77 prefectures and counties in Gyeonggi, Zhili, Shandong, Henan, and Shanxi, with a length and width of two thousand miles.Among them, those who were forced to take risks as "stealers" are too numerous to count.

Let's just say that there is a small inn on Yongxing Temple Street in the west of Beijing called "Yuepeng Store".This is probably taken from the meaning of "it's not easy to say (joy) if you have friends coming from afar".There are more than a dozen guest rooms in the backyard of this small shop, which are specially for the candidates to live in when they go to Beijing to take the exam.It is still early to leave the department, and the business is very slow.There are four Eight Immortals tables on the three facades on the street; there is an elegant seat to the north for guests to eat; a long counter to the east of the facade sells wine, meat and sporadic groceries.The guys are all from the countryside, and they have gone back to celebrate the New Year. There is only one boss He and a few apprentices from far away to support the store.In the early morning of the eighth day of the first lunar month, the store had just picked up the door panel, and only heard a "hutong", and a person fell in.

The owner of the store, He Guizhu, heard the men shouting, quickly put on his trousers, kicked the chamber pot under the bed, pulled on his shoes and ran outside.At first glance, this man was in his early twenties, with a tin green hemp cap on his head, and two-foot-long braids. His hair hadn't been shaved for more than two months, and it was gray and long. It's about an inch and a half long.The cotton gown seemed to have been shot by a bird's gun, and the torn cotton wool was exposed like rotten suet.

Looking at his face, it was yellow and purple like ginger, his eyes were closed tightly, and he was already frozen.He Guizhu couldn't help but sighed and said, "It's a crime! This is a common thing, so let's send it to the Zuojiazhuang outside the city. Speech, what a bad day!"

The guys scrambled to find a broken mat to roll up the dead man, and were about to get a broken door panel to carry him away, when the curtain at the back of the shop rang, a man came out and said, "Slow down!"

When everyone looked back, the person who came out was about 30 years old, wearing a blue satin melon skin hat, a black dog skin sauce color silk mandarin jacket, a gray tufted wool robe inside, and a clear ridge on the thousand-layered woolen boots, standing firmly. Stand in the middle of the door.The owner of the store hurriedly apologized and said with a smile: "Second Master, this is a poor scholar who froze to death outside the door."

"We'll have to see if he's dead or not." As he said, he went forward and knelt down, tried his hand under the young man's nose, raised his hand to catch his pulse, and felt for it: "People are not dead yet! Quickly make a bowl of ginger soup, no, get some hot wine first!" The men looked at each other and stood still, and He Guizhu hurriedly said: "My lord has ordered, why don't you hurry up?"

The man who came out was a Juren, a native of Yangzhou, named Wu Ciyou, a talented man well-known across the country.He came from a wealthy family, and his ancestors had been high officials for several terms.He Guizhu, who opened the shop, used to be his family's servant.During the reign of Chongzhen, there were wars and turmoil, and the old man Wu was afraid that the tree would attract the wind, so he asked his family members to vote for their relatives.He Guizhu's father was born in a family and had no relatives outside. The old man showed kindness and helped him open a small shop locally.When the Qing soldiers entered the pass, Shi Kefa fought against the Qing Dynasty in Yangzhou. After the city was broken, blood flowed into the city.The He family couldn't stay in Yangzhou, so they simply moved to Beijing.This Wu Ciyou was originally a student of Hou Fangyu. After the Qing Dynasty was settled, he obeyed God's will, passed the examination for scholar, and won the Juren.It's just that Mrs. Wu's heart is for Daming, and he vowed not to eat clean millet, and focused on "Tao Te Ching" behind closed doors at home.This time Wu You went to Beijing to take an exam, and just met He Guizhu again, so he simply stayed in Yuepeng's shop.Even though he doesn't have the title of master and servant now, He Guizhu still respects this young master very much.

People hurriedly carried the scholar who was about to freeze to death into the shop, poured a bowl of hot rice wine down, and after about a quarter of an hour, the young man opened his eyes slightly and then closed them again.Wu Ciyou let out a sigh of relief and said, "Clean up the room below me, let him lie down, and raise him for a few days."

He Guizhu couldn't help hesitating: "This young man is troublesome too. He has saved people, but he still has to support them...don't care! He doesn't spend my money anyway, and I'll just wait for someone from Yangzhou to settle the score." Seeing Boss He's hesitation, Wu Ciyou , and said: "Saving a life is better than building a seven-level pagoda. Besides, it's outrageous to save people without saving lives." He Guizhu hurriedly said, "Do as the Lord tells you."

When it was time to light the lamp, the young man finally woke up.Probably due to the effect of two big bowls of hot noodles in chicken and ginger soup, his face turned red, but he was still a little dizzy. Seeing Wu Ciyou holding a lantern and pushing the door in, he struggled to get up.Wu Ciyou hurriedly held him down, and said: "My friend, don't move, just lie down." The young man bent his upper body and kowtowed on the pillow repeatedly: "Grandpa, you saved me! The water flows forever, I don’t thank you for your kindness, I will always smash my bones to repay you!” As he said, a string of tears flowed down his delicate face.

Wu Ciyou pulled up a chair and sat down beside him, and asked with concern: "What's your name? Why did you come to Beijing? How did you end up in this situation?" The young man half leaned on the pillow, sighed and said, "Mm. Lord, I am from Zhenghuang Banner. My name is Mingzhu. My ancestors are also descendants of dragons and phoenixes. My father Niyaha was a member of Prince Rui Dorgon's tent. My father was dismissed from office by the company, and he was so angry that he couldn't afford to get sick, and the family was in decline. He had no choice but to live in Mongolia with his uncle. Uncle Nertai took pity on us and gave us a small piece of cultivated land. Worship is going to change the land of the yellow flag again, saying that in the years when Dorgon encircled the land, the border yellow flag suffered a loss, and now he wants to get it back, which will cheat us alive! I thought this old thief would always look at the face of his ancestors , leaving this place alive, who knew that the old bastard was so heartless that he sent his brother Murima to drive out all the people in our village in a snowy day, and burned the village down... What a pity He wiped his tears, choked up and said, "Our uncle and nephew went all the way from Rehe to beg for food and entered the customs. In Taiping Town, they met robbers and forced them to join the gang. Think about it, my father doesn't know whether he is dead or alive, so what can I do To do that kind of thing? I had no choice but to run away, and my uncle was shot dead by a robber. I went to Beijing alone, and I wanted to have a good time with my late father’s colleagues. My family offended Oboi, no one dared to take me in, so I had to live on the street and sell calligraphy for a living. Pity me, a clan of hairpin tassels, for such a fate... These days, the snow has been falling heavily, and I am hungry. If you want to hide from the snow in front of this shop, who knows..."

The more Mingzhu talked, the more sad she became, she simply burst into tears: "Grandfather! You are my reborn parents, flesh and blood father and mother! Mingzhu is hard to repay in this life, and will be rewarded with a great favor in the next life!"

Hearing this, Wu Ciyou couldn't help feeling sad, and quickly comforted him: "Mingzhu, don't say anything. These days, how can ordinary people have a good life! There are so many beggars in Beijing these days, and they are all beggars outside the pass. Enclosed homeless people—do you have any relatives in Beijing?"

Mingzhu shook her head and said, "I don't have any relatives anymore, even if I do, it's rare to see them."

When Wu Ciyou heard about it, he hurriedly asked, "Then how could it be?" Mingzhu calmed down and said, "I heard that one of my cousins, Mrs. Sun, is the wet nurse of the third elder brother of the present prince. I met her seven years ago, and she Then I went into the palace. The palace is strictly forbidden, how can I get in like this?" Wu Ciyou pondered for a while, and said: "You should stay here first. You are well-versed in literature and ink, and you have a good reputation. Don’t worry about not having a chance to get in in the future. If it doesn’t work, I will bring you a letter to go to my father and ask him to find a bowl of food for you. My name is Wu Ciyou, from Yangzhou, and I am here waiting for the exam. Next After the exam, we will go back to the south."

Mingzhu is a very smart person. Hearing what Wu Ciyou said, she struggled to get off the bed, knocked her head three times on the ground, and said: "There is a blue sky above. If Mingzhu is guilty and forgets the kindness of Brother Wu's life-saving, it will be like this pen." !” As he spoke, he took out a large Xuelang Haohu pen from his sleeve, and snapped it into two in the shadow of the lamp.

The two were talking intimately, when the cotton curtain was lifted, He Guizhu walked in and said in a low voice, "Second Master, just now the eunuch Wang, the patrol head of the Thirteenth Yamen, came to drink, and there was rumor that Master Shunzhi passed away!"

"The emperor has passed away!" The news spread like wildfire, and spread all over the city of Beijing through restaurants, teahouses, theaters and other lively places where people gather.But before the decree is issued, people can only hide and watch quietly, looking for close friends to make gestures like this:
"The emperor is only 24 years old, so young, how could he pass away?"

"Hey, people have misfortunes and fortunes, who can say for sure? For example, if you take off your shoes tonight, you can be sure that you will put them on tomorrow morning?"

"Don't talk nonsense! I heard that it was because of Madam Dong's death, and the emperor suffered from lovesickness! You forgot, what is the name of that painter in Jiangsu called Chen? Yes, Chen Luoyun, he painted a portrait of Madam Dong. The guy has to reward 1 taels of silver—hey! Have you seen so many treasures in your life?—As long as you are lucky, it’s really easy to get rich!”

"You like to walk the talk when you speak! I heard that the emperor summoned Mr. Sukesaha five or six days ago! Don't there be any strange things?"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Is that what you should say? Be honest, it's none of your business whether you die or not!"

No matter what the common people say, one thing is clear: from the eighth day of the first lunar month, all the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs have changed into plain clothes.Outside the Meridian Gate, there was a long line of dark sedan chairs beside the Zhuma Pavilion.And those little eunuchs who like to carry quail cages to teahouses have not been here since the Chinese New Year.These abnormal incidents aroused suspicion among the citizens of Beijing.Some old Beijingers had seen the scene of Emperor Wanli's death and funeral, and they couldn't help being surprised when they saw that the royal family was acting so sneakily, but they just kept silent.

Wu Ciyou is a bookworm, and because of the cold weather, he doesn't go out, but just sits by the stove and reads.Mingzhu was a young man with a temper, and when he was in better health, he struggled to walk outside.He walked to the east of Zhengyang Gate to watch the excitement, and saw the six green woolen sedan chairs standing out in front of a long row of sedan chairs, the snow on them was half a foot thick.After inquiring quietly, I found out that since the third day of the new year, Prince Jieshu, Sony Lao Zhongtang, Ye Bilong, Sukesaha, Obai and Hong Jinglue entered the palace to pay their respects, and they never came out again. The family uses food boxes to send them in.Just staring dazedly, Mingzhu suddenly felt someone pat her back lightly, when she looked back, she saw a handsome young man with his hand on his waist knife under the snowy light, looking at him with a smile.

"You are... ah! Brother!" After hesitating for a moment, Mingzhu opened her arms in surprise and rushed forward.He recognized it all at once, the one standing in front of him was Wei Dongting, the only son of the third elder brother's wet nurse, Sun Shi, his cousin who had been away for five years.

I haven't seen him in five years, and Wei Dongting has turned out to be a handsome man. He is wearing a regimental collar men's uniform embroidered with Jiang Ya Hai Hai, a foot-long red tassel hanging from a wide waist knife, brand new lake silk black trousers Wearing riding boots.Seeing his attire, Mingzhu couldn't help feeling downcast in comparison.

Mingzhu took Wei Dongting's hand, just looked up and down, and asked after a while: "Cousin, after five years, you are very different than before, are you still working in Chengde Huangzhuang?" Wei Dongting smiled: "Me too I just came to Beijing. Last year, my mother entrusted me with a lot of favors to transfer me out, and now I am working as an idler in the patrol office. My mother said that I am young, and I have to practice for a few years before I can serve the emperor!"

Mingzhu couldn't help lowering her head when she heard this, and sighed: "Brother, I'm miserable! Now my family is ruined, my future is uncertain, and my fate is not good. What can I do! Cough, this life is really boring." Wei Dongting didn't wait for him to finish posting. Complaining, he tugged at his sleeve and said: "Let's go, let's get together at Hexianlou. You don't need to be sad if you come here, there will be big things soon, maybe we will add Enke again!" Mingzhu said "Where did you say that?" Wei Dongting laughed and said, "There's no reason to make fun of you with these things?" He looked around, lowered his voice and said, "Brother, Lord Shunzhi has passed away!"

(End of this chapter)