prosperous age

Chapter 273 Chapter 272
Hearing the shouts in the distance, Wei Guangde didn't understand what he was saying, so he turned to ask Chen Ju curiously.

But Chen Ju didn't answer, but listened intently to the noisy voice.

"The fire is gone."

There were several exclamations again, at this time Chen Ju just said, "No, it's flooded."

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

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

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

Just northwest, where is that?
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 his current location was inside the Forbidden City.

There is a road in front of him, if you go east, you will arrive at Donghuamen, and if you go west, it is the way he came, so naturally it is Zuoshunmen.

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

In the northwest direction of the thick smoke, the location where the fire naturally caught fire was the Three Great Halls.

Of course, it's also possible that it wasn't the three main halls that were on fire, so it could only be the harem behind the three main halls that caught fire.

But if there is a fire there, can the cries for help reach here?
"Quick, go and see what happened and what's going on, go and come back quickly."

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

The little servant has to go no matter whether he wants to go or not. The servant who is higher than him has ordered it, so what else can he do.

Facing the direction of Zuo Shun door, the little servant spread his legs and ran forward. After a while, he was out of sight, and the thick smoke in the distance became even bigger, billowing smoke and dust straight into the sky.

"It appears that 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. Could it be that the fire can't be controlled at all?

Wei Guangde didn't believe it. If it was night, it would be fine. If it was daytime, there would be a lot of people. It stands to reason that the fire could be easily contained.

However, judging from the situation of the thick smoke, it seems not optimistic.

Chen Ju's expression was serious at the moment, "Water in the palace is a big trouble. There are few water sources here. Once it is discovered that it is burned later, it will be a big disaster."

"Forehead?"

Hearing this, Wei Guangde was a little surprised, how could there be no water source in such a big palace, it would be easy to dig a well.

Seeing Wei Guangde's surprise, Chen Ju just whispered: "There were dozens of wells drilled in the palace, but none of them worked, so most of them were sealed, and only a few wells were left for watering and sweeping. What we eat and drink is the water from Yuquan Mountain."

"Why seal it, it's good to keep it for fire prevention."

Wei Guangde was still puzzled.

"Things in the palace are complicated. Those wells are small, and the water is slow to be raised. Anyway, don't worry about it."

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

He didn't say anything, 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 is heavy and beautiful. Only Luohong officials can't help but Do your best to fly out of the palace wall."

This is Wu Yan, a poet in the Song Dynasty. He wrote a "Gong Ci", which is about the imprisoned, repressed and trampled youth. The living conditions of the court ladies in the novel, and their desire for freedom.

However, there are a few people who can really walk out of the palace. They all say that the palace is resplendent and magnificent, but there are evil people and evil people hiding in the dark.

Later Wei Guangde 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. Think about Chen Ju's saying that many wells in the palace were sealed up, I dare not think about it, I dare not think about it.

But at this moment they lost interest in talking, because the thick smoke in the distance has not been controlled at all, it seems to be still burning, and the place where the smoke is even expanding rapidly.

At this time, the thick smoke they saw was no longer the black smoke that they saw before rushing into the sky, but a thick smoke rising up.

"No, I'm afraid the fire has started to spread. What did these servants and guards do?"

In such a scene, Wei Guangde couldn't help muttering.

"It must not be that there is something wrong with the three halls, otherwise it will be really troublesome."

Chen Ju has already judged the location of the fire at this moment, because it is near the three halls, but this is not something that manpower can compete with.

In ancient China, the fire in the palace was regarded as a punishment from heaven. Although they organized water to put out the fire, they believed that the fire from heaven was caused by supernatural power, which was a manifestation of Vulcan's anger.

Whether it is in the palace or among the people, most of them use "running water" instead when there is a fire. That is to say, Wei Guangde is used to the sayings of later generations, and he does not have much awe of 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, and "walking water" means to make water "walk" to the fire place.

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

The people here are anxiously waiting for the news from the little servant. At this time, the three halls in the center of the imperial city have started to collapse in the raging fire. The huge accumulation of property and the magnificent three halls of the Forbidden City built by countless skilled craftsmen have been burned.

As Wei Guangde and the others saw, the fire was not under control. Because of the strong wind, the fire started somewhere in the three main halls and continued to spread along the corridors between the three main halls until the three main halls were surrounded by raging fire. Spread around the corridor.

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

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

But at this moment, the place representing the supreme authority of the Ming Emperor has been completely engulfed in flames, and the fire has burned to Wenlou and Wulou along the corridor.

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 to the surroundings once the fire could not be controlled.

Today's windy weather seems to have also accelerated the spread of the fire. Although many people rushed to fight the fire under the exclamation of the housekeepers and guards, and started to put out the fire under the organization of the on-duty eunuch and Jin Yiwei Qianhu, the effect was very limited.

When the little eunuch who was investigating the news rushed back to Wenyuan Pavilion, Chen Ju and Wei Guangde just looked at the thick smoke in the distance in a daze.

"Eunuch Chen, the Fengtian Hall was ignited by the sky thunder, and then burned down the three main halls. Now it has passed the Wenlou and Wulou, and it is about to burn down to Fengtianmen."

"How can this be good, bad, bad, bad."

At this moment, Chen Ju said in a little panic.

Wei Guangde was still shocked at first, the north wind is really weird today, driving the fire to the outside of the palace, fortunately it wasn't the south wind, otherwise it would burn directly to the harem, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Is it under control?"

Wei Guangde calmed down now, stared at the servant and asked.

Naturally, he asked about the power of the fire, but he also discovered that the eunuchs and servants in the palace seemed to be very taboo to use the word "fire" when talking to Chen Ju, and the little servant's report just now did not mention "fire" ', just say burning, burning.

"When I went out to see it, it had already burned to the west corner gate, and the east corner gate was about to catch fire. The entire corridor was burning, and it couldn't be stopped at all."

Wei Guangde recalled it carefully at this moment, and it is true that the corridors extending from the three main halls lead along the palace wall to Fengtian Gate, and then connect from Fengtian Gate to Meridian Gate.

"hiss"

Wei Guangde gasped, if the fire passed Fengtian Gate and continued to burn along the corridor, it would not immediately reach Zuoshun Gate and Youshun Gate, there are also corridors connecting East Pavilion and Wenyuan Pavilion.

There are corridors extending in all directions in the palace, just to ensure that it is convenient to travel in rainy days. As long as it does not rain, no one walks in the corridors on weekdays.

But the situation is different now, there is a fire, and this corridor is made of wood, so it is naturally the best flammable material to ignite the fire, and if there is a wind to move it, it may burn here in a blink of an eye.

Wei Guangde inadvertently turned his head to look at the Wenyuan Pavilion behind him. The collection of books inside was vast, and it must be too late to rush to transport them. Only a few eunuchs are here, and they can't move the books in the bookcase anyway.

There are people in the East Pavilion, but those people are afraid that it will be too late to rush to transport the memorabilia, and they will not care about Wenyuan Pavilion.

"Is there any tool to smash down the corridor on the side of Zuoshunmen to prevent the fire from burning here. There are Dongge and Wenyuange here, so the things inside must not be damaged in any way."

Wei Guangde has no authority to speak here, so he can only speak to Chen Ju.

Although Chen Ju doesn't have a rank right now, he has a godfather, a godfather with real power, and he is an imperial servant himself, so his words are even more important than some low-level eunuchs.

"Hurry up, hurry up, find tools, a hammer or an axe, and demolish the corridor, so as not to burn it over."

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

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

After hearing Chen Ju's order, several servants immediately scattered to look for tools.

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

Wei Guangde said to Chen Ju again.

"Okay, as it should."

Chen Ju was in a panic right now, but he still felt that Wei Guangde's words were right, and it must 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, including a few servants, and some people from the Cabinet Zhongshu Keshe. They were the secretaries of the Cabinet, but at the moment Standing outside the hall, looking at the rising smoke not far away, pointing.

Chen Ju got angry when he saw them, and yelled at the servants in a very bad temper: "You bastards, get moving, find a hammer and an axe, and tear down the corridor that Zuo Shunmen came through. Burn here?"

"Yeah."

Chen Ju, a few servants, kept silent as soon as they shouted. They were assigned to the cabinet to serve tea and pass some official documents, so they had no status in the first place.

The servants of eunuchs with status all served in various eunuchs, or served in the front of the imperial court and the concubine in the harem.

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

As for those members of Zhongshushe, Chen Ju couldn't say anything. Fortunately, Wei Guangde stood up at this time and bowed to them one by one: "My lords, Wei Guangde, when this happens, Looking at the situation, it is going to burn along the corridor to here, please help me find tools, we need to demolish the corridor leading to here from Zuoshunmen."

The members of Zhongshushe in the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty were all officials of the seventh rank. They were not high-ranking officials, but they had dealt with the elders for a long time. assist.

"Makes sense."

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

"It seems that there are tools stored by craftsmen in the compartment, which are used to repair the palace. Let's go over there and have a look."

While arranging people to go out of the Zuoshun door to observe the fire, they looked around for tools to demolish the corridor.

The corridors of the Forbidden City are made of huge stone bases, with pillars erected on them, and the roofs are covered with tiles. It is simple and easy to dismantle, but it is also troublesome, depending on whether there are tools.

A dozen people took turns hacking at one of the pillars with an ax they found, but the effect was not great. Finally, a saw was used to saw off the beam between the two pillars, and only then did a gap of about ten meters flow out.

While Wei Guangde organized people to remove the fallen wood, the tiles were ignored. As long as the wood was removed, there would be no material to start the fire, and naturally it would not continue to spread.

But worried, he asked people to saw off the two corridors at the back and remove the fallen roof beams, which made him feel more at ease.

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

When he got close, Chen Ju almost slapped him, "What are you shouting for, help drag the wood, hurry up."

At this moment, a group of servants are busy dragging away the fallen wood, only Chen Ju, Wei Guangde, and the few Zhongshushe people are standing aside watching them carry the wood, and pointing at the side. talking about something.

Not long after, the pungent smell of smoke rushed over.

In fact, there was a faint smell of smoke before, but now the smell is stronger, and the shouts for firefighting are also from far to near.

"Will the Wumen be on fire?"

A Zhongshu suddenly spoke.

This fire is really capable of burning. After burning through Fengtian Gate, it went straight to Meridian Gate. I didn't see that the Zuoshun Gate not far away was already on fire, and the pungent smoke smell came from there.

Soon, the flames burned to this side along the corridor, but three sections of the corridor have been demolished here, the wood in the first two sections has been emptied, and only the wood in the last section of the corridor is still being cleared, which should be burned. But come.

"It won't burn through."

Wei Guangde shook his head at this moment and said, he has already thought clearly, the corridor is not connected to the Meridian Gate, so it is basically like this.

He just didn't know the situation inside the Youshun Gate, he had never been there, so he said: "There will be nothing wrong with the Meridian Gate, it depends on what's going on inside the Youshun Gate."

"There are six departments over there, and there are no corridors, so nothing will happen."

Someone from Zhongshushe replied.

(End of this chapter)