readx(); In late spring in April, the willows spit out, and Shenyang, the "imperial capital" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, an important town in eastern Liaodong, was also immersed in the blowing of the spring breeze, unaware that an earth-shattering change was about to kick off.

The enemy is far from being a cold ghost of the moon

Like many cities in the Central Plains, Shenyang is also an ancient city with a long history, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yan Kingdom built a city here to explore. The Tang Dynasty was renamed Shenzhou, and the Tucheng was rebuilt in the Mengyuan period, and it was renamed "Shenyang" because it was in the north of Shenshui. After Ming Taizu expelled Meng Yuan and recovered Liaodong, he set up "Shenyang Zhongwei" in Shenyang, built a city and stationed troops, and was an important military town in Liaodong.

However, with the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens and the decline of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was repeatedly defeated over the course of several decades, and large swathes of territory fell into the hands of the Manchus. Shenyang was not the largest among the cities in Liaodong, and after Nurhachi established the Jin State, he originally wanted to be in Liaoyang, where the city was larger. So when he decided to make the capital Shenyang, the Manchu nobles were surprised.

In this regard, Nurhachi explained: "Shenyang extends in all directions, and the Ming Dynasty crosses the Liao River from Duerbi, and the road is straight and near; Shenyang Hunhe River leads to Susu River, logging at the source of Susu River, down the river, timber can not be used, there are many beasts near the mountain to hunt, and the benefits of the river can also be combined. But in fact, what he was really worried about was that Liaoyang was very close to Guangning, which was heavily garrisoned by the Ming army at that time, and although Nurhachi had repeatedly defeated the Ming army, he was still very afraid of the behemoth of the Ming Dynasty.

However, today's Shenyang, after the painstaking management of two generations of "Great Khan" of Nurhachi Emperor Taiji, is very different from the past. In addition to building a large-scale "imperial palace" in Shenyang, Huang Taiji also listened to Fan Wencheng's words, and built a circular earthen wall with a length of more than 30 miles on the periphery of the original city wall in Shenyang, called "Guan Wall".

This wall not only played a defensive role, but also greatly expanded the area of Shenyang City, making Shenyang surpass Liaoyang and become the largest city in eastern Liaodong. There is Desheng Gate Tianyou Gate in the south of the inner city, there is Fujin Gate Neizhi Gate in the east, Huaiyuan Gate outside the Gate in the west, and Fusheng Gate in the north. There are also eight gates outside the gate, which correspond to one of them and are called "closed doors".

Eight gates and eight passes constitute the basic pattern of Shenyang City. Waiguan is mainly the residence of the soldiers of the Three Banners of Zhenghuang and Huang, Zhengbai Shang, and there are also some Han Chinese who were enslaved and ruled by the Manchus to serve their lives. The inner city within the Eight Gates was mainly the residence of the Manchu "royal family", as well as many lama temples believed by the Manchus. Shenyang's most prosperous market, Siping Street, is also in the inner city, not far north of the "Imperial Palace".

This Siping Street is the liveliest place in Shenyang, almost comparable to the streets of the Central Plains City. The Manchu people used to make a living from fishing and hunting, and their economy was very backward. Although it has risen militarily, the productivity cannot be increased for a while, and the Han people's hard work style of facing the land and facing the sky, they can neither learn nor disdain to learn.

After occupying a large area of eastern Liaodong, the Manchus, of course, mainly obtained food by enslaving the local Han Chinese. But the status went up, and the tide rose, and the demand for various consumer goods in the Manchu Qing Dynasty also increased greatly. But they themselves could do nothing but fight, and they couldn't build anything, so it was natural that the Manchus, like other nomads, attached great importance to trade.

This Siping Street is the trade center of Shenyang and even the entire "Great Qing Kingdom". Merchants from different appearances, languages and customs from Tiannan and Haibei are full of large and small shops on both sides of Siping Street, and a large number of merchants sell all kinds of goods sold from afar here every day, and also purchase goods from here and sell them again, so as to obtain amazing profits.

Among these merchants were the Mongols in the west, the "savage Jurchens" in the north, and even the Koreans in the east. The goods are also varied, what horses, wool, ironware, jewelry, ginseng, deer antlers, bear gall, cordyceps... It's just a lot of things.

But of all commodities, only two are the most important and the most profitable: rice and tea. Both of these things were produced in the Central Plains, and the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing were enemies, and the imperial court banned all trade, so how did these goods get to Shenyang?

In fact, it is very simple to say, it is the word "smuggling". Although smuggling is a major crime of murder, the high profits still make many shameless Han people rush to it, especially the Jin merchants. Take rice as an example, when purchased in the Jiangnan production area, the price of rice is less than one or two stones; It was transported to the northern cities through the canal, and it was only two or three taels, and even if the price skyrocketed due to the lack of food, it would be up to seven or eight taels at most.

But in Shenyang, one stone of Jiangnan rice can be sold for more than 20 taels of silver! In order to make huge profits, these merchants sold grain to their country's enemies without conscience. After the enemy had eaten enough, he would in turn kill the Han people and rob the Han people, and continue to buy rice from them with the silver they had robbed. For these people, as long as they make a lot of money, what does it matter to them whether they live or die? Anyway, the Manchurians have a request for them, and whoever robs and kills them will not do anything to them.

However, since Huang Taiji "ascended the throne", out of distrust of the Han people, the management of the Han people has been strengthened a lot. The most powerful one is that Han merchants are not allowed to enter Shenyang City, so they can only sell rice tea and other goods to the Mongols at a low price outside the city, and then the Mongols transport them into the city to resell. This was tantamount to cutting off a piece of the profits from the Han merchants and giving them to the Mongols for free, which was regarded as a reward for the Mongol tribes to submit to the Manchu Qing.

Of course, the Han people were reluctant to do this, but this was the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and people had the final say, so what could they do? Fortunately, these Mongolian masters are not too ruthless, and they generally make Han merchants make a lot of money. In fact, this is the shrewdness of the Mongols, if they really can't squeeze the Han Chinese, they won't be able to make money. Anyway, it doesn't take much to transfer it, and this kind of lying down to make money has attracted a large number of Mongolians to engage in this kind of livelihood.

On this day, another Mongolian caravan drove more than a dozen carriages and walked slowly towards the gate of Huaiyuan. The leader of this caravan, Hasbargen, was already waiting at the gate, he had been living in Shenyang City for more than a month, and he was very familiar with the soldiers of the Zhengbai Banner who defended the city almost every day.

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"Hasbargen, you have a good business, you buy a batch of goods every three or two days, and you have made enough money, right?" The city gate official teased in Manchu, "Come on, come on, do routine business, check whether there are any prohibited items, weapons or whatever." ”

Hasbargen hurriedly handed the city gate official a small ingot of silver, and said with a smile in skilled Manchu: "My lord, you always raise your noble hand and let the brothers make a show to check it, it's all rice, come and check it again, what is there to check?" This bag of rice is one stone, and one stone is more than 20 taels of silver, and when it is poured on the ground, no matter how much you pick it, you can't pick it all, but the silver is not a lot less? It's better to go back and ask the adults to go to the Zuichun Building in the city and find two more Han girls..."

The city gate official said with a haha: "Don't talk nonsense, no matter how good my relationship with your brother is, it won't work if I don't investigate." Come on, pick three bags of rice at random, pour them on the ground and check them carefully! ”

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