Chapter 354: Minister of Rites (XII)
The two brothers, who were originally close friends, went their separate ways because they followed different teachers. But this was not the end. The one who defected to the Qing Dynasty turned into a cruel murderer, owing a large amount of blood debt to the people, and even wanted to kill his fellow apprentice when slaughtering the people.
Those who do evil will eventually perish. This man was killed by the Chinese army, which ended his sinful life. Qingqing heard her companion sighing and thinking about the content of the play.
As the political course says, capital is power. Whoever controls the most capital has the most power. The fact that the junior brother was defeated by the senior brother does not necessarily mean that the junior brother is inferior to the senior brother. Rather, the senior brother knew very well how to collude with the gentry, which was why he suppressed the junior brother.
However, this is how my senior brother succeeded and how he failed. The gentry's previous means of oppression were relatively traditional, relying more on various clan relationships and various means of pretending to do things for the village to maintain their image, while at the same time madly oppressing the tenant farmers.
In order to raise money, this senior brother who followed the Qing Dynasty directly carried out exploitation to the end. He acted according to the theoretical model of maximum exploitation. In this way, although some money was collected and a lot of things were done, it also made the people see through more things. As a result, these exploited people finally couldn't bear it and rose up to resist the gentry who oppressed everyone.
Qingqing felt that this play was indeed well written. Although most of the audience's feelings were obviously not as good as the previous experience of watching "White Haired Girl", Qingqing still felt that she learned more from this play. At least the main characters in this play are all scholars.
After the two plays were performed, the morning performance came to an end. After the three of them came out, they returned to their residence. This was the place where the academy used to be. Although it is still an academy recently, it no longer teaches the Four Books and Five Classics, but secretly begins to teach the content of the civil service examination.
Perhaps because of the Spring Festival, there were not many people here. Qingqing and the other two were all from Jiangning. In Hangzhou, listening to the gentle words of Suhang, they felt homesick.
The teacher had gone back to prepare for the New Year, and the three of them arrived at the cafeteria. This place was built to imitate the government and military cafeterias of the Chinese court, and the food and even the layout were imitated. Rows of tables were empty, and the three of them found a random place. Then they took their bowls and chopsticks to get their meals, and then they ate and talked.
Wang Siyu took a bite of rice topped with tomato and egg and sighed, "Don't you think this play is too cruel to the gentry?"
"What do you mean?" Qingqing also took a bite of tomato and egg and asked in confusion.
The other one didn't say anything, but quickly took a bite of tomato and egg. This tomato is not easy to come by, it is an off-season vegetable grown in the glass greenhouse of the academy. In the past, could we eat vegetables in winter? Even dried bamboo shoots were probably rare.
That is, after the Chinese army conquered Jiangning, they opened a vegetable garden on the confiscated land to supply vegetables to Jiangning City. Only then did the people of Jiangning City have vegetables to eat.
In winter, we even dug a cellar to store Chinese cabbage. So in the past year or so, we made a casserole in winter and cooked chicken racks to make soup. Then we put cabbage leaves, tofu, meatballs, and even a few slices of fat in the soup. The family sat around the warm hot pot and ate the warm casserole, feeling very happy.
At that time, although they had heard that the Huaxia Army grew vegetables themselves, and that they grew vegetables in winter, the three of them were very curious. Growing vegetables in winter was totally unimaginable. It must be a lie.
But the academy where the three of them were located had its own glass greenhouse, with thick walls and a roof made of transparent glass. When the sun was out during the day, the thick straw mat covering the glass roof was opened. When the sun was not out, the thick straw mat was covered again.
A fire was also lit in the greenhouse to maintain the temperature inside, so that vegetables such as tomatoes could grow.
The three of them only saw this vegetable, which was grown on a large scale by the Chinese court, after the Chinese court captured Jiangning. It was only after eating it that they realized the benefits of tomatoes and eggs.
One person was eating desperately, and the other two dared not say anything and joined in the rush to eat, not letting the others have the most food.
As expected, people don't talk while eating. They just focus on eating. How can they talk so much nonsense?
After eating, the three of them finally had the energy to chat. Wang Siyu sighed, "I wonder if the food in the court is as good as the cafeteria in the academy."
Qingqing was amused, but she also understood her companions' ideas. The teacher at the academy said that if one could become an official of the Chinese court, one could eat in the court cafeteria. It was said that the price was very reasonable. So the three of them were looking forward to it.
Just as they were about to chat, the teacher from the academy came over. When he saw the three of them, he said, "Get ready, we are going to Mancheng!"
Hearing this news, the three of them were a little excited. Jiangning has the largest Manchu city in the entire Yangtze River Basin, and Hangzhou also has a Manchu city. This is a comparison. But now that the Huaxia Army has driven away the Manchus, they directly moved into the Manchu city. The Manchu city is still not accessible to ordinary Han people. Of course, they are happy to get the opportunity to visit.
The students in the academy were not just the last three, some other students also joined the team. Along the way, the teacher told the history of Mancheng. Although the local students in Jiangning and Hangzhou knew about Mancheng, the students from these two places were not the only ones studying in this academy.
Although China under the rule of the Qing Dynasty did not divide people into four classes like the Yuan Dynasty, the bannermen always had privileges over the Han people until the end of the Qing Dynasty. They did not equate themselves with the Han people, nor did they give the Han people the same power as the bannermen. This can be seen from the Manchu cities spread all over the country during the Qing Dynasty.
Manchu City is the military garrison area of the Eight Banners. It is a city within a city. The Qing Dynasty established the first Manchu City in Beijing, which is also the largest Manchu City in the country. Beijing Manchu City is the original inner city of Beijing. After the establishment of Manchu City, Manchus and Han people were separated. Manchus lived in the inner city, namely Manchu City, and Han people lived in the outer city. The Manchus and Han people were clearly divided.
China is such a vast country with a limited number of Manchus, so it is naturally impossible for there to be a Manchu city in every city. The Manchu cities in the Qing Dynasty were mainly distributed in important cities and strong military towns.
As the rule of the Qing Dynasty gradually stabilized, the number and size of Manchu cities continued to grow. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to more than 20 Manchu cities built in major cities in the northwest and northeast, there were more than 20 Manchu cities in Zhili Province. In the later period, Manchu cities were built in almost all major cities.
The students had many questions as they listened to this, some of which the teacher could answer, but some he could not.
On the way to Mancheng, they saw some teachers carrying loads coming from Mancheng. There were a lot of vegetables in the bamboo baskets at both ends of the loads on their shoulders. Qingqing sighed, "Sure enough, as expected!"
Young people have a voracious appetite, especially for these beautiful-looking vegetables, such as tomatoes.
Wang Siyu showed off and recited the content about tomatoes in the question bank.
The origin of tomatoes is the Andes in South America. In places like South Fuso, there are still large areas of wild species. The genus tomato is divided into colored tomato subspecies and green tomato subspecies. The former has a variety of colors when ripe, while the latter has green fruits when ripe. The genus tomato consists of common cultivated tomatoes and several species closely related to cultivated tomatoes, which are generally divided into two complex populations: common tomatoes and Peruvian tomatoes.
Everyone knows that Wang Siyu has a good memory, but unexpectedly he even said this.
To show off, Wang Siyu said with a smile: "It is also called June Persimmon. Its stem is like mugwort. It is four or five feet tall, its leaves are like mugwort, its flowers are like pomegranates, and one branch bears five, three or four fruits. ... It is a herb, and it comes from the Western Regions, hence the name."
"Where are you talking about?" Qingqing asked.
Wang Siyu replied proudly, "It is recorded in the Imperial Collection of Peiwenzhai Guangqunfang in the Complete Library of Four Branches of Literature during the reign of Emperor Kangxi."
Most of the students knew about the Siku Quanshu, but had never read the "Imperially Compiled Peiwenzhai Guangqunfangpu".
The original name of "Guang Qunfangpu" was "Yuding Peiwenzhai Guang Qunfangpu". The original author was Wang Xiangjin. In the 47th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1708 AD), Wang Hao added, deleted, adapted and expanded "Guang Qunfangpu" and compiled it into a book, which was included in the "General Catalogue of the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature" under the category of "Pulu".
Wang Hao (lived around 1700 AD) was styled Wenyi and Tianquan. He was from Linqing. His birth and death years are unknown. He lived around the 39th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign. He became a Jinshi in the 24th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1685 AD). He served as a cabinet scholar and a minister of the Ministry of Rites. He was the governor of Hunan. (According to the Sikuzongmu, he served as the governor of Guizhou.)
The book consists of 100 volumes, divided into 11 categories: weather, grain, mulberry, vegetables, flowers, fruits, wood, bamboo, flowers, and medicine. Wang Hao and others made a major revision of "Qunfangpu", dividing and combining its chapters, deleting some of the content that was not related to farming, and correcting the errors and omissions in the original book. After the revision, the form of the book is more uniform, the content is rigorous and substantial, the materials are richer, and the contradictions and repetitions are reduced. It can be regarded as a new book. All the old articles retained in the original book are marked with the word "original" at the beginning, and the new content is marked with the word "increase" at the beginning, which is easy to distinguish. The poems and fu written by Xuanye himself are marked as "imperial poems" and collected under the various articles.
Seeing Wang Siyu showing off his knowledge, some students were amazed, while others didn't take it seriously. The teacher was also an old teacher and had seen many students. It was not uncommon to see such showing off. If it were in the past, Wang Siyu, who was proud of his talent, would probably be criticized. But the curriculum of the Chinese court was originally a very diverse thing. It included many subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, plants, and animals.
Finally, the gentleman just sighed and said, "It's a good thing for you to learn more and gain more. But you also need to cultivate your character."
All educated people know this saying and they all say “I understand”.
Hangzhou has been praised as "the southeastern scenic spot and the capital of the Three Wus" since ancient times. In the Qing Dynasty, it was not only a "river and sea important place" that "must be heavily garrisoned to suppress rebellion", but also a key point for economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south and an important source of revenue for the country. Therefore, it became one of the first cities in the Qing Dynasty to station the Eight Banners for garrison. In the second year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1645), the Qing army built military forts in the areas of Qingtai, Wangjiang and Houchao gates of Hangzhou City, marking the beginning of the Eight Banners garrisoning Hangzhou. Later, due to the many conflicts between the banner soldiers commanded by Gushan Ezhen (the name of the Eight Banners official) and the Han people, the Qing court chose the western corner of Hangzhou City in the seventh year of the Shunzhi reign (1650) to build the Manchu City for the banner soldiers to garrison, so as to keep a certain distance between the two. The project was completed that year, and the Eight Banners garrison officers and soldiers entered the Manchu City the following year. In the sixteenth year of the Shunzhi reign (1659), the Qing court expanded the Manchu City of Hangzhou.
When everyone arrived outside Hangzhou Mancheng, although they had seen Hangzhou , they still couldn't help but sigh a little for the Mancheng here.
There is a city beside West Lake, which is very different from the soft style of Hangzhou. There are many shops and stores here. People come and go, and the soldiers go in and out in threes and twos. The soldiers and civilians do not disturb each other, and it seems very harmonious.
The teacher talked about the local customs. The main residents of Manchu City were the Eight Banner officers and soldiers stationed in Hangzhou and their relatives and families. The Eight Banner soldiers were full-time soldiers, and their families were supported by the state. The garrisoned bannermen were born with rations, and received the prescribed salary and rice according to their duties. The elderly, weak, women and children who did not serve in the army could also receive the prescribed rations. At the same time, the Qing court issued an express order prohibiting bannermen from engaging in agriculture, industry and commerce. Therefore, Manchu City had a strong dependence on the outside world and had to have economic exchanges with the outside world to supplement their living needs. However, in the early days of garrison, there was no business in the city, and the daily necessities needed could only be purchased in Hangzhou City or from folk peddlers. Later, Manchu City gradually developed into a place where merchants gathered. More and more people entered the city to trade or work as servants, and various hotels and shops also appeared.
As they were talking, they saw someone picking out a lot of vegetables from Mancheng and selling them in Hangzhou. Qingqing was really curious and asked how there were so many vegetables produced in Mancheng.
The teacher was also puzzled. Even after two years, he still couldn't understand why he saw it so many times. He could only explain, "Maybe Shandong people just like to grow vegetables."
Although this statement is full of regional prejudice, it was unexpectedly recognized by the students. However, if these people knew that this tradition actually came from another time and space, they would probably be even more surprised.
The only invincible army that Huo Chong had ever seen was the People's Liberation Army, so naturally he wanted to learn as much as possible from it.
For that great army, the tradition of growing vegetables is long-standing.
That year, the enemy launched a large-scale sweep and mobilized troops to surround the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, implementing a strict military encirclement and economic blockade. The land was vast and sparsely populated, the land was barren, and there were only 1.4 million people. How could they afford to feed and clothe tens of thousands of cadres, soldiers and students? As Mao Zedong said, "We had almost no clothes to wear, no oil to eat, no paper, no vegetables, no shoes and socks for the soldiers, and no blankets for the staff in winter... Our difficulties were really great." Faced with the increasingly difficult economic situation, Mao Zedong launched a mass production movement in Yan'an: he took the lead and personally opened up a piece of wasteland under the office building in Yangjialing, planting peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables; Zhu De carried a basket to pick up manure and accumulate fertilizer everywhere; Zhou Enlai quickly became an expert in spinning.
The leaders had already "contracted production to households", so the army was naturally not idle. In 1940, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De went to Nanniwan to conduct an on-site survey in accordance with the instructions of the CPC Central Committee on launching a mass production campaign, and decided to settle and cultivate land here for self-sufficiency. In the spring of 1941, under the leadership of Wang Zhen, the commander and political commissar of the 359th Brigade of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army, they were ordered to enter Nanniwan, cut through thorns and open up wasteland for farming, sleep in the open air, overcome numerous difficulties, and create a large amount of material wealth. In 1942, the production self-sufficiency rate reached 61.55%; in 1943, the production self-sufficiency rate reached 100%. By 1944, the 359th Brigade had reclaimed 261,000 mu of land for farming, harvested 37,000 shi of grain, raised 5,624 pigs, and handed in 10,000 shi of public grain, achieving "one ton of land cultivated and one ton of surplus". With their own hands and sweat, the officers and soldiers transformed the uninhabited Nanniwan into the beautiful Jiangnan of northern Shaanxi with "fragrant rice fields, fat ducks in the ponds, crops everywhere, and cattle and sheep everywhere".
A group of students arrived at the gate of the Qing Dynasty. The teacher took a pass and requested to enter according to the previous agreement.
The troops did not make things difficult for everyone. They checked their pass letters, counted the number of people, and then let them in.
After walking for a while, they saw some Westerners appearing in the city. The students looked at these foreigners curiously, and the teacher asked, "What country do you think they are from?"
"Is he Spanish?" Qingqing replied.
The teacher was stunned. He didn't expect that the students, especially the few female students, were so knowledgeable.
Wang Siyu felt that his limelight was stolen and couldn't help showing off again.
In 1513, Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and launched the first European expedition from the New World to the Pacific Ocean. He claimed the Atlantic Ocean and all adjacent lands for the Spanish crown, which was of great historical significance.
In terms of commerce, the early performance of the Castilian Empire was not good. Its colonial expansion did stimulate Spanish trade and industry, and allowed some large cities to develop to a limited extent, but it was not until 1546, when the great silver mines of Zacatecas, Mexico, and Potosí, Upper Peru (now Bolivia) opened, that Castile and its royal family were able to obtain a large amount of silver from shipping, which gradually and rapidly grew into the main source of income that the royal family sought to increase. But in the end, these precious metal imports caused investment in other industries to shrink, causing Spain to experience unprecedented inflation in the late 16th century. The expulsion of Jews and Moriscos further drained talent from the commercial and craft industries, making the situation worse. The influx of large amounts of silver also made Spain overly dependent on foreign raw materials and manufactured goods, and the enthusiasm of local people to invest in and operate industries was greatly reduced.
The rich preferred to use their wealth to buy public debt (juros). The public debt was supported by this imported silver, rather than by manufacturing production and agricultural improvements. The public debt helped the Spanish aristocracy to maintain the view that labor was shameful, at a time when other Western European countries were gradually abandoning this prejudice. In the Low Countries, France, England and other parts of Europe, the circulation of gold and silver led to economic and social changes, but not in Spain. The Salamanca School and the Arbitrista made suggestions on the problem of inflation, but they failed to influence the policy of the Habsburg government.
…
This is the content translated from the information that the Chinese court recently obtained from the Spaniards.
Seeing that the students really put in the effort, the teacher asked, "Now that everyone has read it, let me ask you, why does the court care so much about collecting Western things?"
The other students were not willing to be outdone and quickly replied: "Spain is a small country, yet it dares to claim that the Atlantic Ocean and all adjacent lands belong to the Spanish royal family. China is a hundred times larger than Spain, and we should replace it."
