"Qiang Qiang..."

"Dong dong..."

At this moment, six bells and drums sounded from the Bell and Drum Tower.

"It's six o'clock"

A ray of light came in from the window, but the monarch and his minister still showed no sign of sleepiness. After seeing the light, Nikan suddenly asked:

"Even if we fully grasp the evidence, and even if we find those people quickly, are we going to arrest all the relevant people like this?"

Wang Wenhui asked: "What does your Majesty mean..."

He suddenly thought, "As soon as His Majesty arrived in Nanjing, he launched a large-scale investigation into the whole city. People who didn't know what was going on thought that Your Majesty was a person who couldn't hold a grain of sand in his eyes. If you say it badly, it means he is mean and ungrateful. Such words are natural.

Can't come out of his mouth"

He then said: "Your Majesty, in fact, no matter which party is causing trouble, it has nothing to do with the overall situation of our country. Not only does it have nothing to do with the overall situation of our country, it does not even affect the overall situation of Jiangnan. There are 200 gray-clothed guards set up by the Jiangnan Inspectorate in Nanjing.

There are also a hundred people brought here from the capital, so these are three hundred people."

"General Guo Tiancai's reconnaissance battalion can also be brought out at any time. Anyway, they are stationed in the city and don't have much to do. With the 500 cavalry of His Majesty's Len Department, we have more than a thousand elite forces that we can call upon. This is still

If you alert the garrison, you can catch all the foxes and rats in the city."

"Ji Jiawei has been in Nanjing for a long time and is very familiar with the urban foxes and rats in the city. In fact, they want to retreat to their respective dens. I can just keep an eye on them secretly. There is no need to launch a big rope throughout the city. When they retreat,

Because of the intervention of the Gray Guards in the City God's Temple, they will definitely be dormant for a while. Since we let them go in the end, they must have thought that they did not have enough control over Ji Jiawei's side. So, if Wei Chen's guess is not wrong,

, I will definitely come to your door again, and I will wait and see what happens next.”

"As for other aspects, now that we have today's considerations, especially His Majesty's guidance, the Gray Guards' next actions will be targeted. In less than a month, there should be definite news, and then we can

The net is closed”

"What if they sense something strange and retreat?"

"Your Majesty, it is unlikely that neither Qian Ming nor Li Zicheng will let this power go away easily. In that case, all their operations will be in vain. Even if they want to leave, where can they go?"

"The entire north of the Yangtze River, our country is impregnable. To the south of the Yangtze River, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Guangxi have passed through Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's troops. After washing them, there are not many gentry forces left. Due to our country's deliberate indulgence, they have reduced the power of the barbarians in various provinces.

It has been almost consumed, and it will be very convenient after our country moves in.”

"The area where they can move is Jiangnan, Fujian and Guangdong. If they want to completely escape from these places, they can only go to sea. At sea, they can only use schooners. Without a suitable wind direction, it will not work, not to mention the Swift we are waiting for.

Not a vegetarian.”

"Besides, even if all of these people are caught, it would be a shame to die!"

"Oh? Why did you say that?"

"Your Majesty, this matter will involve Sun Chuanting again."

"Forgive you"

"Your Majesty, everyone says that Sun Chuanting is an outstanding talent in the Ming Dynasty, but he only represents the civil service class, or at most some military officers. To ordinary people, he is the executioner!"

"What you said is..."

"Yes, when he was in Henan, he allowed his subordinates to rob the people and allowed them to kill good people and take credit. When he fought with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in Henan, although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong also blackmailed the people, they never killed innocent people indiscriminately.

No matter what, the people still have a full meal every day, but among the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, they regarded the people as ants for the sake of their so-called merits. In Henan, people called him King Sun of Hell, and the people avoided the officers and soldiers even more.

"Thieves"

"Sun Chuanting is like this, and so are the others. Among the governors in the late Ming Dynasty, Lu Xiangsheng is slightly better, and the others are almost the same. And the civil and military officials we just mentioned are almost all like this. If nothing else,

Let's talk about Shi Kefa. When the four towns in Jiangbei were still in Jiangbei, except for Huang Degong's tribe, Gao Jie's tribe, Liu Liangzuo's tribe, and Mou Wenshou's tribe, they all treated the people as if they were grassroots. Mou Wenshou was slightly better, but he was just a prince, so he began to implement it in the Huaisi area

His military law has been implemented, and the entire Huaisi area is subject to his military law. If the people disobey even a little, military law will be implemented."

"As for Liu Liangzuo and Gao Jie, they are like grass-headed kings. They are butchers who take life and death in the local area. The people they harmed far outnumber the bandits. When our country entered the Jianghuai area, the people welcomed it with gongs and drums.

This alone is evident.”

"Our country originally wanted to stabilize the local situation by winning over officials from the previous government. However, now that the country has completed land re-clearance, division, issuance of new land deeds, and implementation of new tax policies, the overall situation is in my hands. Even if there are people with ulterior motives who want to

To destroy it, I’m afraid it’s also because of the inability to do so.”

Nikan nodded, "You are right, I am overthinking it, but indulging the existence of these urban foxes and social rats is also disrespectful to the national law. In this way, you are limited to one month to find out, and then catch them all. Other places

Is it Lang Lang Qian Kun, just Jiang Nan, or is it the old style? What kind of style is this?"

…

Three days later, in the evening.

This day happened to be the birthday of Nikan's new concubine Ahai, so Nikan decided to have dinner on the boat. It was the season for eating lotus roots, and watermelons were also among the last batch. With the new rice, mandarin fish in the Yangtze River

Fish, water chestnuts, Jurong chestnuts, sweet-scented osmanthus cake, and fat duck in season, the royal chef in the palace prepared a large table and started eating on a painted boat.

Even though Nikan himself didn't care when the emperor went on patrol, Wang Wenhui felt like he was facing a formidable enemy.

When people often talk about "swimming the Qinhuai River", they mostly refer to the ten-mile-long area in the outer city centered on Mochou Lake. But in fact, this river also passes through the inner city, and the inner city closest to the imperial city is

There is a pier in Gongyuan, southwest of the palace. In the early Ming Dynasty, all high school scholars could get on the boat from here and swim from the inner city to the outer city. This was also a highlight moment for the scholars.

After the capital was moved, scholars no longer had the opportunity to swim along the Qinhuai River. However, it was common for dignitaries to bring their concubines and famous prostitutes on boats from here. However, unless they were able to bribe the few nobles who guarded the inner city,

Otherwise, it would be a one-way trip to get on the boat from here, and you would not be able to go back on the same day when you get to the outer city, because the inner city is closed around seven o'clock in the evening.

Therefore, people with a little bit of money and power will most likely own houses in both the inner city and the outer city.

After the Great Xia Kingdom occupied Nanjing, in order to facilitate people's travel, the outer city still followed the old custom of closing at seven o'clock, but the inner city was relaxed to nine o'clock. Wang Wenhui prepared three painted boats for Nikan. Naturally, he arrived in Nanjing in advance.

It was specially made by Nanjing Shipyard and has a two-story layout. The first floor still has the old-fashioned window lattice, using white lake silk as the window screen, which can be put down when not in use.

As the main place for viewing the river view on the second floor, the window lattice is naturally covered with glass produced in Daxia. In late autumn, when the weather is a bit cold, the scenery outside the window can be clearly seen through the glass. Moreover,

The glass can be pushed outward a little, so you can breathe the fresh air on the river. Naturally, the use of pushed-out glass windows is for safety reasons.

The Kingdom of Daxia implemented strict firearms management in the country. Although the glass at this time could not block lead bullets, it could still break them, and the flying broken glass could also kill people.

But the power of bows and arrows is not enough. The average width of the Qinhuai River is 150 meters. If the boat is traveling in the middle of the river, if you want to shoot the window glass with a bow and arrow from the bank, it will be too weak to hit.

The three identical painted boats are all of the "Han Gong Qiu" style that Ma Shiying, whom we introduced before, once sat on and discussed with Ruan Dacheng on board. They are all the largest painted boats in Nanjing at the moment. The bigger they are, the more expensive they are.

The boat was in the name of Jiangsu Chief Minister Sun Lin, and the lantern had the word "Lin" written in big letters. Of course, since it was the birthday of the emperor's concubine, Sun Lin was not eligible to participate in the meeting.

The people on the boat, including the boat girls, and the guards were all gray-clad guards, the internal officials, and the cooks came from the palace. In order to prevent the unfortunate accident of falling into the water, when he learned that the emperor had arrived in Nanjing, Navy Minister Sun Jiaji secretly sent

A Marine Corps of about three hundred people is permanently stationed at Shicheng Gate, and there are currently Marines on these three ships.

There is a table on the second floor of the three boats with lanterns hanging on them. From the outside, there are probably a few people eating, drinking and enjoying themselves. It is impossible to tell which boat is the owner. Of course, only one has a Nikan sitting on it.

Katarina, A Hai, Wang Wenhui and others.

According to common sense, as the owner, Nikan and the others must sit on the middle boat. However, after thinking about it, Wang Wenhui felt that he still could not act according to common sense. He asked Nikan to sit on the third boat. The first two boats were gray.

Yiwei and internal officials.

On this painting boat, Nikan, Ahai, and Katarina sat together eating, drinking, and having fun. Wang Wenhui stood behind and waited on them. On the first floor, rowing a boat was a boat girl dressed as a guard in gray.

, while the Marine Corps stood guard.

The ship set off quickly. After arriving in Nanjing, these gray-clad guards had all been trained on Taihu Lake. It was easy for them to deal with a calm river like the Qinhuai River.

There is a troupe on each ship, and the troupe on the Nikan ship was brought from Beijing. They were originally raised in the palace. At this time, they wanted to celebrate a birthday or something, and there were no more entertainment activities.

, letting the troupe sing is the most popular activity.

Although Nanjing City under the jurisdiction of Daxia Kingdom has undergone earth-shaking activities in the countryside, in the city, it is actually the same as before. Starting from Gongyuan, it reaches the Mochou Lake area, which is twenty miles long, with both sides of the bank.

The rows of shops that can occupy such a good place must be occupied by places like brothels, large restaurants, theaters, teahouses (storytellers), and large hotels.

In order not to attract other people's attention, Wang Wenhui did not prevent other painted boats from setting off at Nikan's strong request. Of course, there were not many painted boats that could travel in the inner city. When the three painted boats started to move, there were only two painted boats in front and behind them.

A few almost identical boats were moving here and there.

Different from the usual use of stern sculls and poles to open animated boats, these three boats are also equipped with oars in addition to poles for emergencies.

Under such circumstances, the speed of the boat was very slow and naturally very smooth. The three of them, including Nikan, had already finished their dinner hastily and sat by the window to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the river and both sides.

At night, various lanterns are hung on the buildings on both sides of the river. Where the river is close to the embankment, river lanterns showing the images of lotus, cranes, ladies and children are arranged in a row. The river lanterns are strung with twine.

Together, from a distance, they look like blooming lotus flowers, cranes stepping on the water and taking off at any time, dancing ladies, and dolls playing in the river.

There are a large number of lanterns hanging on every building. The lanterns are covered with red silk or thick paper, and the name of the building is expressed in black letters, or the owner's surname is embellished. The lanterns are swaying in the autumn wind.

, under the illumination of all the lanterns, the clear Qinhuai River reflects the brilliant lights on the bank, contrasting with the bank.

Music is indispensable in every building, whether it is pipa, guqin, or flute, and there are also babbling lyrics with obvious Wu Nong soft language, and the storyteller's words float to the river from time to time.

Such scenery has never been seen by Catalina from Europe or Ahai from the prairie.

But Nikan was thinking, "Apart from the things hidden in the darkness, all this looks very beautiful at least on the surface. How much business does the twenty-mile-long Qinhuai River Commercial Street have every day, and how much can it support?"
Chapter completed!