After two years, even Emperor Xiao Zhu felt that Nanjing had undergone considerable changes.
Although the city of Beijing has developed rapidly in the past few years and a large number of wealthy people have poured in, in terms of prosperity, it is still less prosperous than Nanjing.
The most intuitive impression given to Zhu Cixi was that there were obviously more rich people in Nanjing than in Beijing, and there were far fewer poor people wearing coarse cotton clothes.
The wide streets were busy with traffic and people coming and going. Not only was it very crowded, it was also extremely noisy, with hawking sounds everywhere.
No, under the protection of ten guards with swords, Zhu Cixiang's carriage took a full hour to drive from the pier into the city. After entering the city, the carriage was jammed and moved slowly like a snail. From time to time, the carriage driver
Conflicts and verbal abuse would break out among the guards.
Fortunately, everyone was relatively restrained, but no one actually took action.
Despite this, Zhu Cixiang in the carriage frowned involuntarily as he looked at the messy scene on the street.
Fortunately, all the large group of people stayed outside the city, and he only took ten people into the city in a carriage, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.
Although I know that the reason for being so crowded and chaotic is inseparable from the fact that it is the imperial examination, but judging from the fact that this situation is normal, I guess it will not be much better.
As a later generation, Zhu Cixiang naturally knew that this could no longer be solved by management alone, but that the streets and buildings in Nanjing were far from being able to adapt to the current development.
Seeing that a full incense had passed and the carriage was still moving near the city gate, Zhu Cixiang completely ran out of patience. He got out of the carriage with his sword and decided to walk. Otherwise, he didn't know how long he would have to wait to reach the palace.
.
In this situation, even calling in the army is useless, because there are too many cars, horses and sedans on the street, and pedestrians cross the street from time to time. The chaotic scene makes people's scalp numb just looking at it.
In addition to the police officers, there are also many garrison troops on the streets. It is obvious that the entire Nanjing city's garrison and police officers have been dispatched to maintain order. However, in the face of the huge flow of people and vehicles, these police officers who maintain order can only
It can avoid the outbreak of conflicts and large-scale chaos.
But they are powerless to clear the streets.
There are many wealthy young men dressed like Zhu Cixiang on the streets, but very few carry swords in their hands, let alone the eight guards who all carry swords.
He immediately attracted the attention of police officers and soldiers on the street, and pedestrians subconsciously avoided them.
"Stop, don't you know that during this period, you are not allowed to carry weapons on the streets in Nanjing?" A policeman came up with several soldiers and stopped Zhu Cixiang and his party.
Zhu Cihong winked at one of the guards. The guard immediately understood what to do and immediately greeted him with a smile. He cupped his hands and said, "Master Cha, my young master just arrived in Nanjing today and didn't know there was such a rule.
, please do me a favor..." After saying that, he took out a few banknotes and stuffed them into the hands of the policeman calmly.
The policeman looked at the banknotes in his hand, which were all of the latest version of one or two denominations, and his expression softened a lot, and he said: "Originally, I was going to take you to the Yamen for questioning, but it depends on your dress and appearance.
It's not like he's a bad person, just go back to the Yamen, but the sword will be confiscated."
"This... poor man, these swords are made of fine steel. Do you think you can be more accommodating?"
When the guard heard that the sword was going to be confiscated, he looked embarrassed and took out a few banknotes again and handed them over.
Although the policeman was excited, he looked at the crowd around him and did not answer this time. Instead, he shook his head helplessly and said: "It's not that I'm not accommodating, but that I can't be accommodating. Even if I'm accommodating, you guys will leave."
It’s not that far.”
"That's it!"
The guard didn't know whether to reveal his identity or not, so he could only look at Zhu Cihong with a look for permission.
Zhu Cixi knew that revealing his identity now would make everyone kneel down to make way for him, but it would also increase the risk factor, so he stepped forward and said, "Okay, our carriage is over there. Let's put the weapons back on the carriage."
Is it possible to go inside?"
"Yes, as long as you don't take out your weapons and wander around on the street."
The detective nodded. If the court had not issued a strict order during this period, they would not have taken care of this kind of thing.
After putting the sword back into the carriage, Zhu Cixiang was extremely depressed, but he had to go to the palace empty-handed under the protection of the guards. Fortunately, walking was much faster than riding in a carriage, and it only took half an hour to reach the entrance of the palace.
.
The imperial guards guarding the gate were all shocked by the sudden arrival of the emperor. Although most of these imperial guards had joined later and did not know Emperor Xiao Zhu, they still fell to their knees one after another.
After all, although gold medals can be imitated, I believe that no one in the world would be bold enough to pretend to be the emperor, so these imperial guards would not dare to stop him.
"Everyone, just get up and perform your duties."
Zhu Cixi waved his hand, and then strode into the palace with his hands behind his back. The guards behind him, in order to avoid further explanations and causing unnecessary trouble, loudly announced the emperor's arrival all the way.
The imperial guards and palace maids along the way were also frightened and fell to their knees. Although they had many questions in their hearts, no one dared to stand up and question it.
Looking at this scene, Zhu Cixi couldn't help but think, what if some madman who was not afraid of death wore a dragon robe and pretended to be the emperor, wouldn't he simply break into the palace?
Then he shook his head. This situation should not happen. The reason why it happened this time was mainly because everyone knew that the emperor was not in the Nanjing Palace, and the imperial guard guarding the gate was a new member and did not know him as the emperor.
Zhu Cixiang only came to the square outside Fengtian Hall and stopped, because although the imperial guards along the way did not stop him, they all followed him, obviously still a little suspicious in their hearts.
Seeing Zhu Cixi stop and look back at them, all the forest guards fell to their knees again.
Zhu Cixiang's brows finally furrowed. If he had just entered the palace, the imperial guard guarding the gate didn't recognize him, which would be understandable.
But after coming in for so long, none of the imperial guards recognized him as the emperor, which really surprised him.
After all, he had lived in the Nanjing Imperial Palace for so long, and many imperial guards were brought here from Beijing.
In fact, Zhu Cixiang didn't know that the reason why this happened was because the old imperial guards were all sent to various places to escort the test papers as team leaders. They have not returned yet. Those who stayed in the palace to guard were all nearby.
I just joined two years ago.
And because Zhang Yan hated eunuchs, almost all the former eunuchs in the palace were sent to Dongchang branches in various places, or to the royal shipyards and salt factories, resulting in few eunuchs in the palace.
The maids in charge of the front palace were also newly recruited in the past two years, and the maids and eunuchs who knew the emperor were all in the harem.
