scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 15 The Mysterious Family

(PS: Children's Day is here, I wish all friends a happy holiday - although it is more than ten or 20 years late, by the way, please ask for the collection and recommendation tickets in June.)
In Guangzhou City in the early years of Kangxi, only the residents’ houses located in the inner city were neat, tall and prosperous, and the two Pingnan Palaces in the middle were even more magnificent, majestic and luxurious.But it is a pity that, like all the big cities in China in this era, the bustling and safe inner city is only eligible to live in the Banner Banners of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty and their families and family members. They could only drag their families and live in the dilapidated, small and dark outer city, which formed an incomparably sharp contrast with the inner city—and in the city of Guangzhou, this contrast was especially obvious.

Just after noon on the second day of October, on the official road outside the west gate of Guangzhou under the scorching sun, a dusty carriage ran over from west to east, and the driver sitting on the driver's seat was An old man over the age of sixty, with strong muscles and bones, and very energetic, was driving a carriage with one hand, and fanning the wind with one hand holding a bamboo hat. "What the hell is this weather? It's already October, why is it still so hot? God, do you want us Cantonese to live?"

Walking to the side of Ximen City in Guangzhou, the old man found a shady place and stopped, fanning the wind, turned his head and rushed into the carriage, shouting: "Madam, San'er, we're in Guangzhou, Ma'am, didn't you say that you must bring San'er to see?" Are you looking at Guangzhou City, why don’t you come out?”

"Son, son, we're in Guangzhou, wake up, wake up." A clear female voice came from the carriage.After a while, the faint snoring in the carriage finally stopped, and a rough man's voice also came out, "Mother, it's not yet dawn, I'll go to sleep." Immediately afterwards, the snoring sounded again .

"Stupid son, we're in Guangzhou!" The female voice shouted impatiently, and there were two crisp sounds of body collisions in the carriage, as if the woman had slapped her son hard.After being woken up, the male voice cheered, "What? Arrived in Guangzhou? I want to get out of the car, get out of the car!" Before he finished speaking, the curtain of the carriage had been knocked open, and a short, fat, dark half-sized man He jumped out, splashed a lot of dust and smoke when he landed, and left two and a half inch deep footprints on the solid ground!Then I looked up at the Guangzhou City Tower not far away, and the half-child, who was only fifteen or six years old, immediately cheered, "We have arrived in Guangzhou! The city walls are so high! Father, mother, look, the city walls of Guangzhou are much taller than the city walls." We in Zhaoqing are much taller!"

"Silly boy, have you learned a lot?" Amidst the gentle laughter, a slender woman also jumped out of the carriage, and stood still under the carriage lightly.When they saw the woman's face clearly, the eyes of the passers-by could not help but brighten up. It turned out that the woman who was called Mrs. by the old driver turned out to be very young and beautiful. She was in her thirties, with handsome features and a curvaceous figure. Well, it is an extremely rare and beautiful young woman.Then look at the old driver with gray braids and at least over 60 years old. Almost every passerby can't believe that this beautiful young woman is really the wife of the old driver, let alone that such a beautiful young woman will give birth to such a beautiful woman. Ugly son, almost every passerby has such a thought in his heart-what a flower stuck in the cow dung!
("It's a terrible strange flower stuck in a piece of good cow dung!" The old driver yelled!)

"Ma'am, can we go into the city?" The old driver asked the beautiful young woman, wiping his sweat, "If we don't go into the city, we can eat something outside the city and take San'er around the city wall. Let’s go, we should be able to reach Mude to spend the night tonight.”

"It's rare to take San'er out for a trip, so of course I have to take him into the city to have a look." The beautiful young woman smiled sweetly, grabbed her son who was eager to enter the city, and said to the old driver: Before entering the city, let's go to the east gate first, take San'er to see those things, let him gain some insight, and then go to the city to stay overnight."

"Ma'am, are you really going?" the old driver asked seriously.The beautiful young woman nodded and did not speak. She just pulled her son back into the car and sat down outside the car. She picked up the whip and said, "Master, you are tired after driving for a long time. You go to rest in the car, and I will drive the car." Dongmen, I know the way here."

The old man hesitated for a while, but in the end he couldn't hold back his beloved wife's decision. He got into the carriage and sat down. The beautiful young woman drove the carriage with a whip, took her half-old son around the city, and slowly circled towards the east gate. The middle-aged and half-year-old who went out for a long time kept yelling in the car, pointing at the city wall of Guangzhou, excited, "Mother, look quickly, it's so tall! Father, look quickly, it's so deep!" The moat! Mother, look quickly, the street is so wide, much wider than ours in Zhaoqing! Haha, there are so many people!"

"Yes, yes, San'er, please keep your voice down, your father and mother's ears are almost deaf from your noise." The beautiful young woman replied with a smile.The middle-aged boy was startled when he heard this, and then quickly covered his mouth with his fat hand like a bear's paw, looking extremely nervous, making the beautiful young woman and the old driver in the carriage laugh out loud.But just when the family was enjoying the family happiness, a new voice shouted, "Master, look quickly! The city wall is so high, the tower is so high, the moat is so deep, even the city of Kunming is bigger than that." No way!"

"Okay, okay, Erlang, you can just say it once or twice, don't yell like a bumpkin, and embarrass me!" Amidst the complaints, thirty or forty men who looked like servants surrounded a carriage and rampaged Coming over, the driver in the carriage was a handsome but extremely wretched young servant, who was intoxicated and said to a fat man sitting next to him, "Master, why do you think Guangzhou is so big? Why are the people so big? How much? Compared with here, Kunming City is like a rural place! If you became the magistrate of Guangzhou that day, young master, we would have made a fortune. Not to mention, just collecting money for fire consumption, at least a year will be spent Three to fifty thousand taels of silver, right?"

"Idiot! Tell you not to say such things, why do you always forget to eat?" The young white fat man knocked on the driver's head with a chestnut, and said angrily: "You idiot, can Kunming City Compared with Guangzhou City? Kunming is an inland city, with high mountains and dangerous roads, and of course a smaller population. Guangzhou is a coastal city. It has been the government of Nanhai County since the Qin Dynasty, and the second largest port in the country. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it was still a maritime silk The starting point of the road, has trade relations with dozens of countries, and the population was nearly one million when it was the largest, can Kunming compare with here?"

"Young master really knows a lot, the little one has been taught." The handsome servant rubbed his head and smirked.The old driver and the beautiful young woman next to each other looked at each other, and they were a little surprised by the wide knowledge of this white fat man—in this age when traffic information is seriously underdeveloped, it is really rare for an inland person to be so clear about the situation in Guangzhou .At this time, the handsome servant suddenly turned his head and saw the beautiful young woman here, and immediately turned into a pig brother again, his eyes were shining, he couldn't help blowing a whistle, and said with a lewd smile: "Young lady is so beautiful, she has a husband's family." No?"

"Teng!" Before the words finished, the beautiful young woman stood up on the carriage with wide-eyed anger.Fortunately, the fat man also jumped up, slapped the handsome servant on the back of the head heavily, and roared: "Idiot, if you dare to talk to me again, I will make you look good!" The fat man bowed his hands to the beautiful young woman and said: "Ma'am, I'm really sorry, I can't discipline you well. The servant offended the lady. I will apologize to the lady on behalf of the servant." The beautiful young woman gave a deep bow.

"You're smart!" The fat man apologized very sincerely when he reached out and didn't hit the apology person. The beautiful young woman couldn't get angry no matter how angry she was. If you dare to fart indiscriminately, I will tear his mouth apart!"

"Yes, yes, I will discipline you well." The fat white man apologized repeatedly, then beat the outspoken dog-legged servant and walked away first.The beautiful young woman sat back in her seat angrily, and said to her son next to her, "Son, if someone talks to your mother like that in the future, you will rush up and beat me right away, and pay for your life if you kill or injure my mother!"

"Okay!" The black and fat half-sized man happily agreed, and clapped his hands together, making a sound like gold and iron.The old driver in the carriage hurriedly said: "Madam, don't teach the child badly. Why do you pay for your life? This is Guangzhou, not Zhaoqing! Besides, the fat boy just now taught the evil slave a lesson, and It is very rare to apologize to you, look at his posture of crowding forward and backward, how many people like this would be so reasonable?"

"Master, that kid is molesting me, you don't care about molesting your wife, and now you are here to teach me?" The beautiful young woman curled her mouth, tears were already rolling in her eyes.The old man who drove the car was most afraid of his wife, so he had no choice but to raise his hand and surrender, and said helplessly: "Okay, okay, it was wrong for my husband, but it was really hard to do things for my husband just now, that fat man apologized so sincerely, how could I still do that?" Get rid of him? Let’s do this, if something like this happens in the future, the husband will come forward immediately, so the head office will do it right? — Ma’am, I beg you, this place is on the official road outside Guangzhou, don’t act like that. It's like that at home."

"That's more or less the same." The beautiful young woman smiled through her tears, then swung her whip again, and drove the carriage to continue to the east gate.The black and fat half-sized boy smiled stupidly: "Mother, I like that fat white guy just now. I have grown up so much, and if I see someone who is as fat as me, walking with him, no one will laugh anymore." I'm getting fat..."

While speaking, the family of three finally made a detour to the east gate of Guangdong, but the beautiful young woman still did not drive the carriage into the city, but drove the carriage to the east.The half-child asked curiously: "Mother, why don't we go to the city?" The beautiful young woman didn't answer, but the old man behind said in a low voice: "San'er, don't talk, your mother will take you to see something." The eldest son obeyed his parents' words, so he obediently kept his mouth shut.

The carriage traveled another two or three miles along the official road, turned into a remote path, and after a few miles, the beautiful young woman finally stopped the car under a high mountain covered with bushes, pulled her son out of the carriage, and pointed at the The green hills, thirty or forty feet high, said softly, "Son, do you know what this is?"

"Mountain." The half-child replied obediently.The beautiful young woman said kindly again: "Then son, do you know how this mountain got here?"

"I don't know." The black fat half-sized man shook his head.The old driver next to him said in a deep voice: "San'er, I'm here to tell you that this mountain was piled up with the ashes and corpses of the dead. It's better now. In the past few years, you could smell the smell of this place from ten miles away in Guangzhou." Corpse stink!"

"Such a high mountain was piled up with the ashes and corpses of dead people?!" The black fat half-sized man was taken aback, and exclaimed, "How many dead people must there be? Fifty thousand? One hundred thousand?!"

"It's 80!" The beautiful young woman said with a choked voice, "Seventeen years ago, the big traitors Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao led the Manchu Tartars to attack Guangzhou. A traitor named Fan Chengen came out of the city, opened the gate of Guangzhou, and two big traitors led the Manchu Tartars into the city, murdered and set fire everywhere, raped and plundered, and killed 17 Cantonese in twelve days. Later, Master Shizhen outside the city of Guangzhou hired people and spent a lot of time collecting all the corpses, moved them here and burned them to ashes, and piled them up to form this mountain..."

Speaking of this, the beautiful young woman was already sobbing, and the old man driving the car continued: "Since then, this mountain has been called Gongzhong, which means a big tomb, do you understand?" Nodding understandingly, the old driver ordered again: "San'er, kneel down facing the mountain."

"Yes." The black and fat half-sized man knelt down to the mountain respectfully, and then turned around and asked: "Father, mother, why should I kneel?"

"Because in this mountain, there are the ashes of your grandmother, your uncle, and many of your relatives." The old driver said slowly: "17 years ago, your grandfather's family lived in the city of Guangzhou and participated in the bloody battle to defend Guangzhou. After the city was broken, your grandfather took your mother and escaped from Guangzhou City, but your grandmother and uncle all..."

"Then I should kowtow to them." The black and fat half-sized man suddenly became sensible, kowtowed three times to the corpse mountain, and said loudly: "Grandma, uncle, I'm here to see you ,do you know?"

"San'er, be good, your grandmothers must know." The beautiful young woman stroked the top of Aizi's head, choked with sobs and said slowly: "San'er, mother brought you to see this mountain today to tell you that Manchu Tartars The blood feud brought to us by the traitors Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao will never be forgotten, we must take revenge, expel the Manchu Tartars, cut the traitors Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao into pieces, and put them to death!"

"Mother, I remember." The black and fat half-sized man agreed loudly, and immediately asked: "Father, mother, where are the Manchu Tartars and big traitors? I'm going to beat them to death!" Roaring, The black and fat half-sized man opened his arms and clenched his fists violently, and there was a crackling sound of joints all over his body, his power was astonishing.

"Silly son, there are many Manchu Tartars, and the big traitors also have many scumbags. How can you beat them by yourself?" First remember these bloody feuds, and then father and mother will teach you skills, and take you to meet some anti-Qing heroes who also have a deep hatred for the Manchu Tartars, let you..."

"Ma'am!" The old driver suddenly interrupted, "Someone is here."

Of course, you can’t talk nonsense about anti-Qing and Fuming in front of people you don’t know. The beautiful young woman quickly shut up when she got the alarm. The young woman's family couldn't help being stunned. It turned out that it was none other than the group who molested the beautiful young woman just now, and the one who walked in the front was none other than the very sensible and polite white fat man.Seeing the beautiful young woman's family here, the fat man was also taken aback. He wanted to open his mouth to say hello, but he was worried that the group of people behind him would not dare to talk nonsense. While hesitating, another taller follower yelled. "Lord Lu, it seems like it's time to go? Go to the city early, maybe you can have a meal at Prince Pingnan's house! This kind of ghostly place will definitely be haunted at night, and it will be dark if you don't leave. Scared, we brothers can't go back to Kunming to explain to the prince."

"It turns out they are also traitors!" The old man driving the car and the beautiful young woman raised their eyebrows together, sweeping away the only slight favor they had for that fat white man—naturally, our Lu Yifeng Lu Fat Lu Da County Magistrate.

"Understood." The county magistrate Lu Da, who came here to receive class revolutionary education, did not agree angrily. He glanced sideways at the three members of the beautiful young woman's family, and said to himself, "What is this family doing here? Look at that woman's eyes are red and swollen. , there are still tears on my face, I must have cried just now, and I must cry here for the Guangdong people who were massacred by the Manchu Manchus. I just don’t know where they are from. Could it be that my teacher asked me to work hard in the coastal and Jiangnan areas? The anti-Qing and Fuming patriots I met? But seeing that they are one old, one young, and a fierce woman, it is unlikely that they are anti-Qing and Fuming patriots. It should be just the survivors of the Guangzhou Massacre who came to mourn the murdered relatives."

(PS: The mysterious family that appeared in this chapter is not about pouring water, but a very important character. Every name of their family, it can be said that every friend has heard of it, but I don’t know if anyone can guess it It's - extremely difficult!)

(End of this chapter)