Chapter 723 Jiuzhou Palace becomes wandering at night (1)
Late at night, candles were brightly lit in the Jiuzhou Qingyan Palace, and the eunuchs and maids standing there did not even dare to show their anger. In the Dongnuan Pavilion, the eighty-three-year-old Qianlong sat cross-legged on the couch, listening carefully to He Shen reading a memorial to him.
It's impossible not to read. Qianlong's eyesight is really bad now. Guangdong Customs paid a tribute to a pair of reading glasses made in England three years ago. After Qianlong wore them, he said it was nothing more than that. In fact, it was not that the glasses were bad, but that Qianlong was afraid that the news would spread.
, the outside world would say that he has old eyesight. He Shen, who understood this, also announced to the public that the emperor does not need to wear glasses, and his eyesight is fine!
Back to the subject. This memorial sent by Shengjing General Shu Liang has a total of more than 5,000 words. It reports in detail many abnormal situations in Kaiyuan and Changtu, and thus determines that the Beihai Navy is likely to make a big move next. He implores to hurry up
He also mobilized 20,000 troops and 30,000 civilians outside the pass, and promised that Shengjing now had enough food, grass, and gunpowder. Once the Beihai pirates invaded, he himself would lead the entire city's army and civilians to defend Shengjing and fight to the death to ensure that the imperial mausoleum and city were not lost.
The reason why He Shen dared to disturb the emperor late at night was because this memorial was too fatal. There are two important places under the jurisdiction of General Shengjing, one is Xingjing and the other is Shengjing; the former is the place where the Manchu Qing Dynasty started, that is, in the Later Jin Dynasty.
The first capital was Hetuala; the latter was the first capital after the Manchu Qing Dynasty changed its name. Nurhaci, Huang Taiji, and the tombs of Mengge Timur are all there.
Although I don’t know how many people have privately mocked the imperial court for being cowardly and incompetent over the years, at least the two capitals outside the Pass were not lost, water transportation was not interrupted, the Southwest destroyed Gorkha, and sacrificed prisoners at the Meridian Gate, finally saving a face. But if Shengjing
If it is lost, the Qing Dynasty will really respond to the wise saying and blow out the lamp, pull out the wax and step on the pot.
After reading the memorial, Qianlong was silent for a moment and asked: "Is Shu Liang worried too much?"
"Slave, I think this may be true."
"Tell me why?"
"Reporting to the master. The secret report from ten days ago said that since the beginning of May, the Northern Navy has been constantly moving troops from Fuldan City to Jilin via Ninggu Pagoda. These troops only stayed in Jilin City for a few days, and then
So they all headed south. A rough estimate is that there must be at least 10,000 people."
"What about food and grass? Even if Zhao Ni wants to fight, we must prepare food, grass and ammunition!"
"This is what I haven't thought through yet. Shengjing is not Jilin. The imperial court has put 50,000 horses there. Even if Zhao Ni wants to invade the south, military supplies, chariots and horses, and civilians are all indispensable. According to the past behavior of the Beihai Pirates
, you have to prepare enough supplies before you start. But..."
"But what?" Qianlong took the ginseng tea from the eunuch Li Yu and took a sip.
"Master, there have been several similar incidents before. There was no sign of transporting military supplies. The slaves thought they couldn't fight. Unexpectedly, the North Sea Pirates suddenly launched. Then Zhao Xin is the monster!"
He Shen said angrily. He still has lingering fears about the last time Zhao Xin appeared in his house. After Zhao Xin disappeared outside the door of He Shen's house, he checked carefully in the house and found out everything.
No clues were found. Because he was also the admiral of the Nine Gates, he even asked the infantry commander's office to secretly search everywhere in the city for several days, but found nothing.
As the saying goes, people leave their names when they pass by, and geese leave their voices when they pass by. It’s impossible for a seven-foot-tall living person to enter the city without finding any trace. Could it be that a tunnel was dug from outside the city? Stop talking, even Shen himself doesn’t believe this reason.
!
Qianlong was noncommittal to Heshen's words. For some reason tonight, his mind became extremely clear and clear. He no longer had the usual senility and drowsiness. He pondered for a moment and asked again: "Have you calculated the number of acres and grain yield of the Northern Pirates?"
"I asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to do the final calculation. I want to check it one last time before reporting it to the master."
"How much?" Qianlong's voice was a little urgent.
"Twenty million acres of land, thirty-seven million stones."
Qianlong showed an expression of disbelief and asked: "Did you calculate correctly?"
He Shen fell to the ground and kowtowed: "My slave will die! Please forgive me! My slave has been in charge of household affairs and military supplies for these years. I also asked people to compare the land inventories in Jilin and Heilong. There is nothing else to do."
You won’t be wrong if you make a mistake here.”
"It's none of your business. What's your fault? Get up." Qianlong's expression was slightly sluggish and his face turned gloomy. He let go of his crossed legs, rubbed them a few times, signaled He Shen to help him, and asked the eunuch in charge
Xiao Delu helped put on his shoes, stood up and walked back and forth in the hall, frowning and said: "How is that possible! How many people are there with him? Counting the population of the four counties of Jiaodong, is there six million?"
"Master, it's almost 6.3 million. Nowadays, pirates use machines for farming and harvesting, called tractors. Those with 120 horsepower can plow 200 acres of dry fields and 80 acres of paddy fields in one day.
In addition, there are larger ones, which can cultivate eight hundred to one thousand acres a day. Then there are various horse-drawn machines, which can plow dozens of acres a day. After the spring of this year, Jiaodong began to use them."
Qianlong was stunned for a long time before he realized what was happening. He had known about Beihai Town's use of machines to cultivate land for a long time, but he didn't take it seriously. He even laughed at Zhao Xin because of it, thinking it was just a trick he used to deceive the world.
Does making good guns have something to do with farming? Is it related? Well, now it seems that it is really related.
In fact, Qianlong has always believed that the reason why Beihai Town is not short of food is not only that there are large areas of Huangzhuang banner fields in Heilongjiang and Jilin, but also that the most important reason is that Zhao Xin squeezes Japan to provide a large amount of food every year, and buys food from Guangnan and transports it northward.
Only then did he dare to attack on all sides and resort to force. This sounds quite reasonable, so He Shen also thought so before.
Unexpectedly, in the spring of the year before last, a spy from Shangyu's reserve office who had been sent to Fuldan City many years ago to work as an undercover agent finally snuck into the civil affairs system and became a clerk in the Grain Reserves Bureau. This person spent more than a year using
Due to his duties, he consulted a large amount of information and took risks to copy many reports. When he felt that everything was almost under control, he took advantage of his business trip to Jilin Wula last winter to send the transcribed information to Jilin.
In the hands of the detectives in the city, the latter braved the cold weather and almost lost his life. Finally, he passed through the Zhelimu League and Zhaowuda League, and returned to Chengde from Karaqinzhong Banner.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After getting the information, Heshen felt like he had found a treasure, and immediately dispatched relevant personnel from the Shandong Qingli Department of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct calculations. However, the results of the first calculation
Everyone involved in the matter thought it was impossible and must have been a mistake, so they calculated again. Unexpectedly, when the second result came out, it turned out to be much more than the first time. Not to mention that everyone present was shocked.
Even He Shen found it unbelievable.
Then I recalculated a third and fourth time, and the results were the same...
Looking at the final figures, He Shen finally understood the meaning of those strange machines crisscrossing the land outside the customs.
As of the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign, the number of households in Beihai Town in the northeastern region was 421,763, with an actual population of 2,108,815 people. Based on 50 acres of cultivated land per household, there were a total of 21,088,150 acres of cultivated land, plus 1.57 million acres of unallocated public cultivated land.
The total number of acres of cultivated land is 22,658,150 acres.
Everything is considered normal up to this point. You must know that Beihai Town has been in the Northeast for nine years, and the figure of more than 20 million acres cultivated by itself plus the original cultivated land of the Qing Dynasty in various parts of the Northeast is acceptable.
But the next numbers are so scary!
Since 70% of the cultivated land in Beihai Town is planted with wheat or rye, rice, sugar beets, soybeans and other vegetables only account for 30% of the planting area. Therefore, in the 57th year of Qianlong's reign, the output of wheat alone in Beihai Town was 55.51%.
100 million kilograms, which is equivalent to 37 million kilograms of unground standard warehouse stone, and the yield per mu is actually as high as 350 kilograms!
Well, this number is nothing at all in another time and space, and can even be said to be a failure, but in this time and space of the 18th century, it is absolutely appalling.
Although the Qing government had long known that Beihai Town had a high yield per mu in Jilin, it always believed that it was just the result of intensive cultivation of individual plots of land; and the civil administration's efforts to publicize it through loudspeakers was just a whitewashing method.
We must know that in the same year, Xinjiang's total grain output in various parts of Guanhai and Shengjing's jurisdiction was 1.6 billion shi, but that was based on one billion acres of cultivated land, more than 200 million farmers, and the area south of the Yangtze River still had three crops every two years.
Yes. Even with good irrigated land in Zhili and Shandong areas, the yield of sorghum per mu is only 180 kilograms.
In other words, Beihai Town only used 1.6% of the Qing Dynasty's cultivated land and 7% of its population, and obtained 2.3% of the entire Qing Dynasty's grain, all of which were fine grain.
You must know that this is still the result of a lot of wasteland that has not yet been developed. If the momentum continues, within ten years, the annual food produced in the Northeast and Xinjiang regions alone will be enough to feed the entire northern population.
Zhao Xin has been struggling in the bitter cold outside the Pass for only nine years, but he has already enabled millions of people to "have clothes for the cold, food for the hungry, houses for the poor, and fields for the tillers." And he just harvested
The tax is 10%, and there are no miscellaneous surcharges at all. Every household rushes to sell their surplus grain to the grain station.
Qianlong asked himself, could this be something a human being could do? Compared with Beihai Town, the "Kangxi and Qianlong Dynasties" that lasted for more than a hundred years for the three generations before and after his father's ancestors had become a joke!
The more Qianlong thought about it, the more discouraged he became. He looked at the candlelight with his hands behind his back and said quietly for a long time: "Heshen, where do you think Zhao Xin and his gang members came from? Why after so many years of investigation, there is no clue at all.
"
How should Heshen answer this? If he had known, he would have had people dig up the ancestral graves of the old Zhao family. Fortunately, Ye Zhanrong and his son in Hoi'an did not publicize the cemetery of the last Princess Zhao, otherwise the Manchu Qing would have dared to send people to visit it if they knew about it.
Ann was dug up, and then the bones were crushed and the ashes were thrown away.
Before he could speak, the old Qianlong murmured to himself again: "I am already the sixth generation after the death of Taizu. Taizu, Taizong Hongwu, was fierce and brave, and created the foundation of the Qing Dynasty through life and death. The inheritance of the ancestors
Zhao Pixu, orphans and widowed mothers entered the Guan to rule the world. The Holy Patriarch ascended the throne at the age of eight, Miao Mo used his wits to capture Obei at the age of fifteen, and decided to withdraw from the vassal at the age of 19, quelling the rebellion of the three vassals. Half of the country was in turmoil, but he still managed to survive.
After three expeditions to Junggar, six tours to the south of the Yangtze River, canal transport and control of the Yellow River, the world returned to its homeland. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Shizong's reign, he cultivated political science and refreshed the official system, which made the country strong and the people prosperous.
I entered the palace at the age of six and studied with the Holy Ancestor. At the age of fourteen, I entered Yunsongxuan and studied government affairs with the late emperor. Thinking of my father and grandfather who worked diligently and diligently at night and day to seek governance, I did not want to lie under the big tree to enjoy the cool air. Since I ascended to the throne, I have not
Those who are greedy for the pleasures of bells and drums, do not love fine clothes and fine food, do not love the beauty of beautiful children, and treat the world with sincerity and sincerity. Although the cold people in the world cannot be clothed, the hungry can be fed, and the widowed, widowed, lonely, and sick can all be nourished, it can be
I ask myself, even though my bones have been broken and my heart has been broken over the years, it can be considered a peaceful and prosperous age.
Oh my god! Why did you send down such a monster to bring trouble to the world?! Are you blind! Now I have fallen to the point where I can’t even save the tombs of my ancestors, making me the eternal sinner of the Qing Dynasty!!!"
He can't win on the battlefield, and now he can't even compare to farming. Decades of civil and martial arts are like a dream!
The more Qianlong spoke, the angrier and angrier he became, his face became more and more rosy, and his voice became slow and heavy, carrying irresistible pressure and shouting. Hearing this, He Shen felt panic and sadness in his heart, and tears streamed down his face.
The ground was wet. He walked a few steps on his knees, hugged Qianlong's legs tightly, and said pleadingly: "Master, pay close attention to the body of the dragon. All mistakes are the fault of the slaves! The master is worried about the humiliation of the minister, and the master will humiliate the minister and die. Servant
Damn it, things are not going well..."
He Shen was talking nonchalantly, and suddenly felt something strange about Qianlong. When he looked up, he saw Qianlong looking out the window blankly, without saying a word. After a while, his body tilted, and he immediately passed away.
Xiao Delu's face turned pale with fright. He rushed forward two steps with a whoosh, supported Qianlong who was falling to the ground, and together with He Shen lifted Qianlong to the couch and lay down.
There was chaos in Jiuzhou Qingyan Palace instantly. Whether they were eunuchs or maids, some were looking for soup and water, some were carrying screens, some were moving tables and chairs, some were burning incense, and some were kneeling on the ground with their heads down looking at the cracks in the bricks.
, running back and forth in the corridor outside the palace with their hands tied, this is called chaos!
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "No chaos!" He Shen shouted at everyone present with a voice that could drip water, and continued: "Whoever messes up will be dragged down and killed with a stick immediately! Manager Xiao, you
Tell the imperial doctor personally and quietly, without disturbing others. This matter must not be spread out!"
This person holds many positions, including the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Director of the Internal Affairs Bureau. Although he always puts on a smile on weekdays, he does not pretend to be polite when punishing eunuchs who do not understand the rules, which makes many eunuchs afraid.
As soon as he spoke, things immediately became quiet inside and outside the palace.
He Shen knew that Qianlong was in a state of distress and was suffering from phlegm. However, the same situation had happened once the year before, and it was obviously worse this time.
He took out a silver flat flask from his arms, which was filled with styrax wine. After unscrewing it, he poured it into Qianlong's mouth. Unexpectedly, Qianlong's teeth were closed tightly, and the yellow-brown wine dripped down his clothes.
At this moment, he didn't care about violating his taboo anymore. He asked the eunuch on the side to bring him a silver spoon for tea leaves, used the handle of the spoon to pry open his teeth, and then poured some wine in.
After a while, Qianlong made a purring sound from his throat, like a bellows. Heshen felt relieved and was about to drink more wine when two imperial doctors rolled into the Dongnuan Pavilion.
While the imperial doctor was treating Qianlong, He Shen stood aside, looking at the sallow-looking Qianlong and feeling confused. Even though he was greedy, the friendship between him and Qianlong for decades was genuine.
At this moment, he felt a little regretful. Why was he in such a hurry? It would be different to report back after dawn!
In a daze, a face that made him hate and fear appeared in front of him out of thin air, and at the same time, a sentence that that person had said echoed in his mind.
"Master He, how long do you think you can live if Qianlong dies?"
He Shen's heart twitched violently, and an idea emerged that would be disapproving of the world. Now was the best time to launch his plan that he had been planning for more than half a year.
After struggling for a moment, he quickly made a decision. While no one was paying attention to him, He Shen turned around and left the palace. He came to an eunuch on the left side of the door who was standing with his head bowed, and calmly took the eunuch from his waist.
The next thing, with a mosquito-like tone, whispered: "Gather everyone together and wait outside the Old Summer Palace, waiting for my order."
The muscles on the eunuch's face twitched twice, then he took the waist badge, turned around and walked out. Only then did He Shen return to the main hall. He did not enter the Dongnuan Pavilion, but knelt on the cold gold bricks with his hands
Putting his hands together and facing the empty Xumi throne, he softly recited the "Medicine Master Sutra".
"I heard that at one time Bhagavan traveled to various countries and came to Guangyan City to live under the music tree. He was accompanied by eight thousand great monks, thirty-six thousand Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas, as well as kings, ministers, Brahmins and lay people, gods, dragons, yakshas, humans and non-human beings, etc., countless
The public respectfully gathered around and explained..."
When he was halfway through reciting the sutra, the eunuch who had left with his waistband had come back and stood quietly at the door of the palace. He Shen heard the other man coughing slightly behind him and continued without turning his head.
Kneel on the ground and recite.
About half an hour later, an imperial doctor sweating profusely withdrew from the Nuan Pavilion, walked up to He Shen and said: "He Zhongtang, the emperor is awake. It's just that it's too difficult to speak."
He Shen hurriedly got up and walked in. When Qianlong on the couch saw him coming in, his lips moved as if he had something to say. He Shen burst into tears and rushed to Qianlong and said: "Master, you scared this slave to death!"
"
"Sheng, Shengjing...die...the ancestral mausoleum...return forever..." Qianlong's throat moved, and he used all his strength to mumble.
Qing muttered. After he finished speaking these words, he closed his eyes and fell into sleep.
He Shen stepped back, fluttered his horseshoe sleeves, knelt down on the ground, and said with a choked voice: "I understand. Master, rest in peace and rest your dragon body. I will go and do it immediately."
What do you understand? What should you do? The two imperial doctors were at a loss, and Xiao Delu, the eunuch in charge next to them, also seemed to understand. Except for He Shen, the other three people didn't understand a word.
After retreating outside the palace, He Shen whispered to the eunuch who had just gone to deliver the order: "Tell our people to immediately seal off the island and the palace gates. No one is allowed to leave the island without me! Anyone who disobeys will be locked up immediately.