The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 152: Ten Miles of Qinhuai River, Land of Gold in the Six Dynasties

The city of Nanjing is really huge. In terms of area, it is the largest of the ancient capitals of all dynasties. Whether it is Chang'an, Luoyang, or Beijing, it is difficult to hold a candle to it, because its area is 320 square kilometers, which is equivalent to a 15-kilometer square. The square area means that an adult would have to spend three to four hours walking from the north of the city to the south of the city, and it would take a straight line, and the road was flat.

In fact, the city of Nanjing is not a regular square. Its city walls were built according to the terrain. There are mountains, hills, rivers and lakes in the city. The terrain is very complex, so it may not take half a day to walk from the north to the south. Can walk.In addition, Nanjing City is divided into four layers: palace city, imperial city, inner city and outer city, which is the so-called four-layered city wall.

Let's say that Jia Huan and others left Xiaohezhuang and arrived at the Da'ande Gate in the outer city in about an hour. From this gate, going northward is the moat of the inner city. There is a bridge here called Changgan Bridge. Cross the bridge. After entering from the Jubao Gate, this area is the famous "Ten Miles of Qinhuai River, the Golden Land of Six Dynasties". It is also the most prosperous area in the entire Nanjing city, including Confucius Temple, Jiangnan Gongyuan, Yingtianfu School, Jiangning County School, Jiaofangsi, etc. , all gathered here.

It was March in spring, the sun was shining brightly, but there were willows like smoke on both sides of the Qinhuai River, restaurants and restaurants were standing there, tourists were coming and going, and there were an endless stream of pleasure boats and boats on the river. Many beautiful women in bright clothes were walking gracefully on the boats, talking and laughing. The banquet was full of sweet sounds, and the music of silk and bamboo was endless.

Tiehu rode the horse in front, Xingwei drove the horse behind, and Jia Huan followed the carriage leisurely on horseback, crossing the bridge while enjoying the intoxicating scenery on both sides of the Qinhuai River.

"Little son, come down to play, sister is waiting for you, hee hee!"

"I dare to ask the young master Gao's surname, Dong Xiaoyu, please sweep the bed and wait for me!"

"Little boy..."

As the saying goes, sisters love to be pretty. Although Jia Huan was dressed simply at the moment, she had sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, red lips and white teeth, and a temperament as gentle as jade. She immediately attracted the attention of many women on the nearby boat.These promiscuous women not only dress boldly, but also have a bold style. They look at each other unabashedly, and even smile and salute, announce their names, invite Jia Huan to come down and join the boat together, drink and talk, and discuss the joys of life.

Ping'er raised the curtain of the carriage window and peeked secretly at the painting boat under the bridge. Seeing a group of warblers porridge, wasp waist and long legs, crisp skin and snowy skin, flaunting their heads and poses, he couldn't help but spitting secretly. : "Bah, a bunch of shameless dirty hooves!"

Looking again, she found that her third master was always looking straight ahead, calmly riding forward. The pretty maid couldn't help but feel very happy, but it was not until she completely crossed the bridge and could no longer see the charming woman on the river that she finally let go. Car curtain.

The carriage continued along the street and passed by a secluded street full of high-profile courtyards. This is Wuyi Lane. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, this was where high-profile families lived, such as the Wang family and the Xie family.

There is a poem written by Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty: Weeds and flowers beside the Zhuque Bridge, and the setting sun is slanting at the entrance of Wuyi Alley.In the old days, the front swallow of Wang Xietang flew into the homes of ordinary people.

This is the place described in the poem, but there are no ordinary people's homes in Wuyi Lane now, because the high-ranking families of the Jin Dynasty also lived here. For example, the old house of the Jia family is in this Wuyi Lane. Today There are also several Jia family members who stayed in Jinling living here.

Since the death of Aunt Zhao, Jia Huan did not want to have too much involvement with the Jia family, so when he returned to Nanjing with his coffin, he never set foot in the Jia family's ancestral home, nor did he visit the clan members who stayed behind in the few rooms. , now of course there is no reason to visit, I just happened to be passing by.

After passing through Wuyi Lane, he continued walking north for about half an hour, and finally arrived at Taiping Lane on Zhuque Street. Jia Huan bought a small house here, spending a total of 200 taels of silver. The house was not big, but it was divided. There are five or six rooms in front and back. It happens that Tiehu and Shitou live in the front house, while his master and servant Heping'er live in the back house.

It is said that when Jia Huan arrived in Jinling at the beginning of the year, the first thing he did was to build Aunt Zhao's grave, and the second thing was to buy a house and settle down. Now his household registration has been registered in this small house, and his school registration follows his household registration. In other words, Jia Huan can take the provincial examination directly in Yingtian Mansion from now on, without having to rush back to Beijing.

However, the Provincial Examination is held every three years, and the latest Provincial Examination was held in August last year. At that time, Jia Huan was still in the filial piety period, so he missed it. Unless there is an accident, he will have to wait for another two years. Rural examination.

Of course, Jia Huan was not in a hurry and was very calm. After all, he would only be 15 years old in two years. Looking at the entire Jin Dynasty, 15-year-old Juren were really rare.

Let's say that Jia Huan and others arrived in front of the house, moved their luggage, mainly several large boxes of books, and sent the rented carriage away.

After finally moving into a new home, the one who was most excited was naturally Qiao Ping'er. She ran around setting up and tidying up, humming a little tune, and the smile on her face never stopped. When Jia Huan saw this, she was both happy and emotional.

As the saying goes: When times are dangerous, a minister's integrity will be revealed; when times are rough, a loyal minister will be recognized.A friend in need is a friend indeed!
Thinking about the maids and servants around him back then, only Ping'er followed him to "exile" to Jinling without any regrets. From that moment on, Jia Huan regarded her as his woman and a relative who he could rely on.Although Ping'er was a maidservant, she had served her master in a wealthy family such as the Wang family and the Jia family since she was a child. The conditions were naturally quite generous. I have lived in Zhongzhong for more than two years, and I have even done menial tasks such as washing and cooking.

"Third Master, what are you doing? Put it down quickly and let the servant girl do it." Ping'er saw Jia Huan cleaning the bookshelf with a feather duster and quickly ran over to grab it.

Jia Huan had no choice but to make the bed again. Ping'er immediately ran over in surprise and said: "The third master is the master, how can he do this job of making the bed?"

Jia Huan smiled and said: "Master has to work too, not to mention you doing it all by yourself. How long will it take you to do it? If you get exhausted, wouldn't I feel bad for you!"

Ping'er's face felt hot, but his heart felt sweet. While pushing Jia Huan's back, he said softly: "Good ancestor, you can go out and play for a while. It's all right if you have the heart. I'm afraid you'll go too far." The more you help, the more busy you are."

Jia Huan said with a smile: "How is it possible? I look down on your third master too much. It doesn't matter, I can pack the books myself at home office?" After that, he opened the box and packed the books.

When Ping'er saw this, he couldn't stop him anymore, but he felt warm and happy in his heart.

In the past two years or so, Jia Huan has read through the three boxes of books, notes, and insights that Lin Ruhai gave him. He also wrote a lot of reading notes himself, plus the books, maps, and documents collected in the past few years. There were as many as seven or eight boxes of newspapers, so it took nearly two hours to pack them all up, filling the bookshelves against the wall to the brim.

At this time, Ping'er had almost tidied up the backyard. He washed his hands and made a cup of tea for Jia Huan, and asked, "Master, are you hungry? I'll cook for you."

Jia Huan quickly took her hand and said with a smile: "I'm not hungry yet. I've been busy all day. Sister Ping'er, you should take a break at least. I just told Huzi and Shitou to go to the street to buy food. Let's eat tonight." Takeaway, no cooking.”

Ping'er was really a little tired at this time, so he sat down and rested for a while after hearing this, while Jia Huan continued to sort out his books. He was planning to go to Yangzhou in the next two days to return Lin Ruhai's notes and books.

About half an hour later, Shitou, the boy, packed the food and came back with a copy of the newspaper. As soon as he entered the door, he shouted: "It's over. Shenyang and Liaoyang have also been lost. Yuan Hongtai, the Liaodong manager, burned himself to death."

After hearing this, Jia Huan hurriedly took the Di newspaper and opened it. He saw that the headline was indeed the fall of Shenyang and Liaoyang. He couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling. Once Liaoyang and Shenyang fell, the entire east of the Liaohe River would be captured by the Hou Jurchens. Yuan Hongtai was a smart and capable man, loyal and loyal, but unfortunately he was not good at using soldiers. In the end, he lost Liaoshen and his life. It was really sad and sad!
It is said that in February of the fifth year of Qiansheng, Liaodong Economic Strategy Yang Gao led 20 Jin troops to reinforce Liaodong and tried to attack Hetuala, the capital of the Jin Kingdom. As a result, he was defeated in Saerhu, Kaiyuan and Tieling fell one after another, and Yang Gao led the remnants of the army. Retreat to Liaoyang and Shenyang.

After that, the imperial court recalled Yang Gao to prison for questioning, and reassigned Xiong Tingbai, the left minister of the Ministry of War, to take over the post of Liaodong manager. Tuntian, built a large number of forts.

Xiong Tingbai's step-by-step approach soon achieved miraculous results. The Jurchen army with high morale was bruised and bloody in front of the fortress. Nurhachi saw that he could not find any flaws, so he had to retreat angrily.

Originally, under the new defeat, Xiong Tingbai's strategy of first defending and then counterattacking was correct. However, the civil and military forces of the Jin Dynasty and the Manchu Dynasty felt aggrieved. The great country was defeated by the small Jin Kingdom. That was not a big deal. It must be They wanted to regain face and dignity as soon as possible, so they impeached Xiong Ting for refusing to fight. It took more than a year and a large amount of military pay, but he failed to regain the lost ground.

At this time, both Emperor Qian Sheng and Emperor Kangping were a little out of control, especially Emperor Kangping. This man was originally a powerful emperor who was good at martial arts. When he was in power, all barbarians were tamed, including Nurhaci. He once came to Beijing to pay tribute and knelt before him to proclaim himself a minister. Now Nurhaci dared to raise his troops to rebel against the Jin Dynasty. How could he endure it?
Therefore, as soon as the ministers' memorial to impeach Xiong Tingbai came out, the imperial court immediately dismissed Xiong Tingbai from his post and appointed Yuan Hongtai, the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, as the Liaodong manager.

Yuan Hongtai was a shrewd and capable person, and he had been Emperor Kangping's confidant at the beginning. His appointment as the Liaodong manager was naturally promoted by Emperor Kangping.

Yuan Hongtai was probably also eager. After arriving in Liaodong, he immediately abandoned Xiong Tingbai's strategy and turned to defense to take the initiative. As a result, he suffered consecutive defeats. In addition, he took in the surrendered troops without authorization. As a result, he fell into the trap of combining inside and outside and lost Shenyang. He could only lead the remaining troops to retreat to Liaoyang in a hurry.

At this time, Nurhachi attacked with all his strength, but Yuan Hongtai couldn't resist after all. Before the city was broken, he set himself on fire and died for the country.

(End of this chapter)