Nanming Yiming

Chapter 7

In September of the 4th year of Shunzhi (1647), Nanjing has entered late autumn, and the lights are just coming on. Tonight, the Qinhuai River is full of people and traffic, and there is a scene of singing and dancing.

If it weren't for the coldness of the bare forehead being blown by the wind, people would feel as if the change of dynasty had never happened!
smoke cage cold water moon cage sand,
Night mooring Qinhuai near the restaurant.

The business woman doesn't know the hatred of subjugation,
Across the river, I still sing backyard flowers!
Du Mu's "Po Qinhuai" is the most authentic portrayal of the moment.

A huge chessboard has already been set up outside the Piaoxiang Pavilion, and the square at the entrance is already full of people, even the private hall inside the pavilion and the boats on the river are already full!
In the private room on the second floor, Qian Qianyi and his wife Liu Rushi had already been seated early.

Qian Qianyi was a top three Jinshi in the 38th year of Wanli (1610), which is commonly known as "Tanhua".He is one of the leaders of the Donglin Party, from the official to the minister of the Ministry of Rites. He was dismissed because he failed to fight for power with Wen Tiren.

Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng supported King Fu in Nanjing, and Qian Qianyi attached himself to him and became the Minister of Rites.

At the same time, he is also the leader of the Jiangnan literary world, and Wu Weiye and Gong Dingzi are known as the three great masters of Jiangzuo. Qu Shixu, Gu Yanwu, and Zheng Chenggong were all his students.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen (1641), 59-year-old Qian Qianyi married 23-year-old Jiangnan famous prostitute Liu Rushi, which caused widespread criticism.

Of course, the biggest criticism was that in the second year of Shunzhi (2), Qian Qianyi surrendered to the Qing Dynasty to sacrifice Nanjing and took the lead in shaving his hair.

When the soldiers approached the city, Liu Rushi persuaded Qian Qianyi to throw himself into the water with him to die for the country. Qian thought for nothing, and finally said: "The water is too cold to go down."

Liu Rushi tried his best to sink into the pool, but was held back by Qian Qianyi. In the end, Qian Qianyi led all the ministers to open the city and surrender to Duoduo in the torrential rain.

In the end, the Qing Dynasty only appointed Qian Qianyi as a minister of the Ministry of Rites. Three months later, Qian Qianyi resigned from office and returned to his hometown.

On the contrary, his wife Liu Rushi, although a prostitute (the legendary head of the Qinhuai Eight Beauties), has a high integrity and insists on refusing to go to Beijing with Qian Qianyi, and persuades Qian Qianyi to rebel against the Qing Dynasty.

In the past two years, Qian Qianyi was implicated and imprisoned several times because of his students' rebellion against the Qing Dynasty.

Both of them are no strangers to Qinhuaihe, and they have both been the protagonists here.This 36-year-old couple in distress is extremely loving at the moment!
"Is the master still optimistic about Hong Chengchou?" Liu Rushi asked.

Qian Qianyi asked back: "Could Madam be optimistic about Qian Mo?"

Liu Rushi: "Qian Mo and Xia Wanchun are well-known child prodigies in the south of the Yangtze River. The master also praised them very much. At the odds of 1 to 30, I paid 5000 taels of silver for Qian Mo."

Qian Qianyi gasped!Said: "Ma'am is very good at chess, she has already entered the "use of intelligence", so does Qian Mo still have a chance in this game?"

"Hong Chengchou is a master of seclusion, even if he is a husband, he definitely has no chance."

"Ma'am, I'm afraid this money will go to waste!"

Liu Rushi said: "It's not that this game is a game of chess, the general trend of the world is the chess game. Now that Qing is strong and Ming is weak, my bet is not Qian Mo but Daming!"

Qian Qianyi was shocked: "Madam be careful, how do you know that this is not Hong Chengchou's conspiracy? By placing bets, we can follow the clues to find out the wise person. Otherwise, why didn't many bets fall on Qian Mo with such high odds."

As the chess game is about to start, more people place bets.Only the shopkeeper shouted: "Master Fan Yongfang, a rich businessman from Yangzhou, bet Governor Hong 100 taels!"

Qian Mo's odds dropped again to 1 to 50.

Seeing the odds of 1 to 50, Qian Mo attracted a lot of individual customers to bet here, but they all reported that the sky was falling, and they bet at 5 taels and 10 taels.

Although the amount is small, the quantity is large, and the odds have stopped falling!
I thought there would be no more climaxes. Unexpectedly, just before the closure, the shopkeeper shouted again: "Mr. Qian Mo, a famous scholar in Jiashan, bet himself 10 taels. Now the odds are adjusted to 1 for 30."

Mr. Qian actually bet 10 taels of himself, and if he wins, it will be 500 taels!My goodness, it seems that Mr. Qian has great confidence in himself!

"Shopkeeper, I want to raise Qian Mo, and I want to raise too!" Before the game was closed, Qian Mo actually received several W taels of surcharges, raising the odds to 1 to 25.

Xia Wanchun took the 10 taels of 50 times the contract and handed it to Qian Mo.

"Brother Mo, Xiaoyin has fulfilled her mission."

The reason why Qian Mo set the chess game 15 days later is that he made a deal with Hong Chengchou to let his father go back to his hometown to sell his assets. The Qian family in Jiashan is a famous family with a lot of property. In the past few years of fighting against the Qing Dynasty, his father has already sold a lot of property .

However, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse. Although it can only be sold at a low price for urgent needs, the father still brought back a full amount of gold and silver equivalent to 11 taels of silver.

(During the Wanli period, 1 tael of gold could be exchanged for 8 taels of silver, but now it is more convenient to carry gold than silver, and gold is more popular. 1 tael of gold has generally been exchanged for 10 taels of silver)

There is no way, who made the Ming Dynasty have no bank notes, so they can only trade in cash.The banknotes "Da Ming Treasure Banknotes" issued by the imperial court in the early years have long been turned into waste paper due to random printing and distribution.In this era, there is no recognition of paper currency, and metal currency or "barter" is still the main currency. Don't look at the shouting of 100W taels. Just hand over the gold and silver to the casino for inspection, and you must prepare in advance for packing and weighing. for a long time.

It is not an exaggeration to call this chess game the "No. [-] Gambling Game in the World". The gold and silver bets alone have reached tens of millions of taels of silver on the books.

You must know that the annual income of the Chongzhen Dynasty is only a pitiful 400 million taels of silver!

Although the court was poor, the wealth of the gentry in the Ming Dynasty was still jaw-dropping. As soon as Li Zicheng entered Beijing, those court officials who cried poor every day obediently handed over 7000 million taels.The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who have not been poisoned by war for a long time are richer than the gentry in the north!

　Historically, Nanjing at this time has been changed to Jiangning by the Qing Dynasty, taking the meaning of tranquility in the south of the Yangtze River. This article still uses Nanjing, after all, the author is from the perspective of Nanming.The scholar is a new author and has no basic readers. Thank you for your collection and recommendation!

　　


(End of this chapter)