The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Hearing the shouting in the distance, Wei Guangde didn't hear clearly what was said, so he turned to ask Chen Ju out of curiosity.

However, Chen Ju did not answer, but listened carefully to the seemingly noisy sound.

"Fire will give way to water."

Several more exclamations came. At this time, Chen Ju only said, "No, it's gone wrong."

In fact, at this time, Wei Guangde also heard that there was a fire somewhere in the palace, and the eunuch outside was calling for people to put out the fire.

Seeing that Chen Ju had turned around and ran out, Wei Guangde also hurriedly put down the book in his hand, closed the bookcase and ran out.

Standing in front of Wenyuan Pavilion, Wei Guangde saw thick smoke rising from the northwest. It was obvious that there was indeed a fire there.

Just northwest, where is that place?

There is no layout map of the Forbidden City these days, and even Wei Guangde is not qualified to see it.

But Wei Guangde knew that his current location was in the Forbidden City.

There is a road in front of him. If he goes east, he will reach Donghua Gate. If he goes west, it will be the way he came, which is naturally Zuoshun Gate.

What you can see after passing through Zuoshun Gate is naturally Fengtian Gate, and behind Fengtian Gate are Fengtian Hall, Huagai Hall and Shenxin Hall, which are commonly known as the "Three Main Halls".

To the northwest of the thick smoke, the natural location of the fire is the three main halls.

Of course, it is also possible that the fire was not in the three main halls, but in the harem behind the three main halls.

But if there was a fire there, would the cry for help reach here?

"Quick, go and see what happened and what the situation is. Go and come back quickly."

Chen Ju gave instructions to the chamberlain who had led the way before, and then urged him to quickly explore the fire.

The little chamberlain had to go now whether he wanted to or not. The chamberlain who was higher than him had given orders, so what else could he do.

Towards the left door, the waiter spread his legs and ran forward. After a while, he was out of sight, and the thick smoke in the distance became bigger, with billowing smoke and dust rising straight into the sky.

"It looks like the fire is not under control."

Wei Guangde said incredulously.

Here and there, in the Forbidden City, there are many eunuchs and guards inside and outside the palace. Is it possible that the fire can't be controlled at all?

Wei Guangde didn't believe it. It would be okay if it was at night, but if it were during the day, there would be a lot of people. Logically speaking, the fire could be easily controlled.

But judging from the thick smoke, it doesn't seem optimistic.

Chen Ju looked serious at this moment, "Water leakage in the palace is a big trouble. There is little water here. If it is discovered too late and it starts to burn, it will be a big disaster."

"Forehead?"

Hearing this, Wei Guangde was a little surprised. How could such a big palace have no water source? It would be easy to drill a well.

Seeing Wei Guangde's surprise, Chen Ju just whispered: "There were dozens of wells built in the palace, but none of them were usable, so most of them were sealed, leaving only a few wells to draw water for cleaning. What we eat and drink is the water from Yuquan Mountain."

"Why seal it? It's also good to keep it for fire prevention."

Wei Guangde was still puzzled.

"Things in the palace are complicated. Those wells are small and slow to lift water. Anyway, just leave it alone."

Chen Ju didn't want to talk too much about the affairs in the palace.

He didn't say it, but Wei Guangde could indeed make a rough guess. Thinking about the life of the people in the palace, he unconsciously said: "The pear blossoms are blown by the wind, and the jade is fragrant, and the spring color is heavy and the seal is locked. Only the red official can't help it, The teachings fly out of the palace wall."

This is a "Gong Ci" written by a poet named Wu Yan in the Song Dynasty. He writes about the imprisoned, suppressed and trampled youth. Wu Yan's Gong Ci depicts the story of people locked in a deep palace. The living conditions of the palace maids and their desire for freedom.

However, there are only a few people who can actually come out of the palace. They all say that the palace is magnificent and magnificent, but secretly it harbors filth and evil. It is unknown how many unbearable things happened inside, but the outer court does not know about it.

Wei Guangde, a later generation, also heard rumors that a concubine was thrown into a well in the palace in the late Qing Dynasty, and then the well was sealed. Thinking about what Chen Ju said about many wells in the palace being sealed, I didn't dare to think about it. I didn't dare to think about it.

However, they lost interest in talking at this moment, because the thick smoke in the distance was not controlled at all, and seemed to be still burning, and the area where the smoke started was even expanding rapidly.

At this time, the thick smoke they saw was no longer the black smoke they had seen before, but a plume of thick smoke rising into the sky.

"No, the fire is probably starting to spread. What happened to these chamberlains and guards?"

Wei Guangde couldn't help but muttered at such a scene.

"Don't let anything happen to the three main halls, otherwise it will be really troublesome."

Chen Ju had already determined the location of the fire because it was near the three main halls, but it was not something that human power could resist.

In ancient China, fires in the palace were regarded as natural punishment. Although they organized rescue operations to put out the fire, they believed that the fire from heaven was caused by supernatural forces. This was a manifestation of the anger of the God of Fire.

Whether in the palace or among the people, most people use "water" instead when a fire breaks out. That is to say, Wei Guangde is used to the saying of later generations and does not have much respect for the word "fire".

The ancients also believed that water in the Five Elements can suppress fire, so the word "water" should be used to suppress fire. "Water" means to make water "walk" to the place where fire is.

Today seems to be a day of thunder but no rain. Although there are clouds in the sky, they don't look like rain, and the wind is very strong.

People here were anxiously waiting for news from the young chamberlain. At this time, the three main halls in the center of the imperial city had begun to collapse one after another in the raging fire. The huge accumulation of property and the magnificent three halls of the Forbidden City that countless skilled craftsmen had worked hard to build were burned to the ground.

As Wei Guangde and the others saw, the fire was not under control. Due to the strong wind, the fire started burning somewhere in the three main halls, and continued to expand along the corridors between the main halls until the three main halls were surrounded by flames, and then continued along the way. The corridor spreads around.

In fact, Wei Guangde discovered during his first imperial examination that the Golden Palace he saw was different from what he saw later when he visited the Forbidden City.

Corridors are built on both sides of Fengtian Hall and Jinshen Hall, and the corridors will eventually extend forward and back along the palace wall.

At this moment, the place that represents the supreme authority of the Ming Emperor has been completely engulfed in fire. The fire has burned along the corridor to the Wen Building and Wu Building.

In order to prevent rain, the Daming Palace built corridors on both sides of the palace wall, and the corridors were all connected. This also caused the fire to spread along the wooden corridors if the fire could not be controlled.

Today's windy weather seemed to have accelerated the spread of the fire. Although many people rushed to the fire in response to the screams of the chamberlains and guards, and started to put out the fire under the organization of the eunuchs on duty and Qianhu Jinyiwei, the effect was very limited.

When the little eunuch who was investigating the news rushed back to Wenyuan Pavilion after a long journey, Chen Ju and Wei Guangde just looked at the thick smoke of the feature film in the distance absentmindedly.

"Eunuch Chen, the Fengtian Palace was ignited by thunder, and then burned down the three main halls. Now it has passed the Wen Tower and the Wu Tower, and is about to reach the Fengtian Gate."

"It's good, it's bad, it's bad."

At this moment, Chen Ju said a little panicked.

Wei Guangde was shocked at first. The north wind today was really weird, driving the fire to burn outside the palace. Fortunately, it was not the south wind, otherwise it would have burned directly to the harem. The consequences would be unimaginable.

"Has it been controlled?"

Wei Guangde calmed down and stared at the chamberlain and asked.

Naturally, he was asking about the intensity of the fire, but he also discovered that the eunuchs and chamberlains in the palace seemed to be very taboo about using the word "fire". When talking to Chen Ju, and in the report just now by the chamberlain, there was no mention of "fire". Just say burn, burn.

"When I went out to see, the fire had already reached the west corner door, and the east corner door was about to catch fire. The entire corridor was burning, and there was no way to stop it."

Wei Guangde recalled it carefully now, and it was true that the corridors extending from the three main halls led along the palace wall to Fengtian Gate, and then connected from Fengtian Gate to Meridian Gate.

"hiss"

Wei Guangde took a breath of cold air. If the fire burned through Fengtian Gate and continued to burn along the corridor, it would not immediately reach Zuoshun Gate and Youshun Gate, where there are also corridors connecting Dongge and Wenyuan Pavilion.

The palace has corridors extending in all directions to ensure that it is convenient to travel even on rainy days. As long as it doesn't rain, no one walks in the corridors on weekdays.

But now the situation is different. There is a fire. This corridor is made of wood, which is naturally the best flammable material to start a fire. If the wind blows, it will burn here in the blink of an eye.

Wei Guangde inadvertently looked back at the Wenyuan Pavilion behind him. The collection of books inside was so vast that it would be too late to rush to transport them. There were only a few eunuchs here, and they couldn't move the books in the bookcases.

There are people in the East Pavilion, but those people are afraid that they will not be able to rush to transport the memorials by then, and will not care about Wenyuan Pavilion at all. It is not within their scope of authority. Their duty is only to ensure the safety of the memorials. If the palace is burned, it will be burned.

"Do you have any tools? Break down the corridor on the left side of Zuoshun Gate to prevent the fire from burning here. There are Dong Pavilion and Wenyuan Pavilion here. The contents inside cannot be damaged at all."

Wei Guangde had no authority when speaking here, so he could only speak to Chen Ju.

Although Chen Ju has no rank at the moment, he has a godfather, a powerful godfather, and he is an imperial chamberlain, so the weight of his words is even greater than that of some low-level eunuchs.

"Quick, quick, quick, get some tools, a hammer or an ax will do, and tear down the corridor to prevent it from burning down."

Wei Guangde's words reminded Chen Ju that the only way to prevent the fire from spreading here and burning down the East Pavilion and Wenyuan Pavilion was to destroy the corridor.

The little chamberlain also said just now that the fire spread along the corridor.

After hearing Chen Ju's instructions, several chamberlains immediately spread out to look for tools.

"Go to the East Pavilion and call the people over there to help dismantle the corridor."

Wei Guangde said to Chen Ju again.

"Okay, that's exactly what it should be."

Chen Ju was panicking at the moment, but he still felt that Wei Guangde's words were right, and it would definitely be right to find more people to demolish the corridor.

They quickly ran to the East Pavilion. At this time, there were more than a dozen people standing in front of the East Pavilion door. There were several chamberlains and some people from the Cabinet Secretariat. They were the cabinet secretaries, but they were all standing at the moment. Outside the hall, he looked at the thick smoke rising not far away and pointed.

When Chen Ju saw them, he became angry and shouted at the servants in a bad temper: "You bastards, get up and find a hammer and ax to tear down the corridor through the Zuoshun door. Do you want to burn it down?" Come here?"

"Um, yes."

Several chamberlains, including Chen Ju, remained silent even when they shouted. They were assigned to the cabinet to serve tea and water and deliver official documents. They had no status in the first place.

Eunuchs with high status served in various eunuchs, or served in the palace or in the harem.

As for Chen Ju, the imperial chamberlain, they naturally knew that they had to be obedient, and they would crush them in all directions.

As for those people from Zhongshushe, Chen Ju had nothing to say. Fortunately, Wei Guangde stood up at this time, bowed his hands to them one by one and said: "Sir, Wei Guangde, when this happens, It looks like the fire will follow the corridor to here, so please help me find tools, we need to dismantle the corridor leading to here from the left door."

The Zhongshushe people in the Ming Dynasty cabinet were all seventh-rank officials. They were not high-ranking but had long-term dealings with cabinet elders. Wei Guangde did not dare to use his mere seventh-rank official power to scare others, so he could only explain what he meant and ask them to assist.

"That makes sense."

After Wei Guangde finished speaking, one person nodded in agreement.

"It seems that there are tools stored by craftsmen in the compartment for repairing the palace. Let's go over there and take a look."

While they arranged for people to go out from the left door to observe the fire, they looked for tools from around to demolish the corridor.

The corridors of the Forbidden City have bases made of huge stones, with columns erected on top, and roofs covered with tiles. It is easy to disassemble, but troublesome to dismantle, depending on whether you have the tools.

More than a dozen people took turns to chop down one of the pillars with an ax they found, but the effect was not great. Finally, a saw was called to cut off the beam between the two pillars, and only about ten meters of space was released.

While Wei Guangde organized people to move away the fallen wood, he ignored the tiles. As long as the wood was transported away, there would be no material to ignite the fire, and naturally it would not continue to spread.

However, because he was worried, he also had the two sections of corridors at the back cut off and the fallen beams removed, and then he felt more at ease.

At this time, the waiter who was inquiring about the news at Zuoshunmen also ran back and shouted, "It's not good, it's burned."

When he got closer, Chen Ju almost slapped him, "What are you yelling about? Help pull the wood, hurry up."

At this moment, a group of servants were busy dragging away the fallen wood. Only Chen Ju, Wei Guangde, and a few people from Zhongshushe stood aside and watched them move the wood, pointing and saying. What are you wearing?

Not long after, the pungent smell of smoke came over me.

There was actually a faint smell of smoke before, but now the smell was stronger, and the shouts for firemen were coming from far away.

"Will the Meridian Gate burn?"

A Zhongshu suddenly spoke.

This fire is really capable of burning. It burned through the Fengtian Gate and headed straight for the Meridian Gate. Unexpectedly, the Zuoshun Gate not far away was already on fire. The acrid smell of smoke came from there.

Soon, the flames burned along the corridor to this side. However, three sections of the corridor had been demolished. The wood in the first two sections had been removed. Only the wood in the last section of the corridor was still being cleaned. It should have been burned. But come.

"It can't be burned."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said that he had already thought clearly that the corridor was not connected to the Meridian Gate, so that was basically it.

He just didn't know what was going on inside the Youshun Gate. He had never been there, so he said, "Nothing will happen at the Meridian Gate. It just depends on what's going on inside the Youshun Gate."

"That's Section 6 over there. There are no corridors, so nothing will happen."

Someone from Zhongshushe replied.