There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 476 Dog Servant

Kaifeng, Henan.

It has already started snowing here, even though a major battle was fought in Kaifeng a few months ago, and the cannon craters and bullet holes left on the city walls have not yet been cleaned up.

But the entire city, inside and out, showed no signs of the desolation that one would expect after a battle; instead, it exuded an astonishing vitality.

Around the city of Kaifeng, more than a dozen makeshift shacks have been erected. These shacks are not rudimentary; they are filled with dry grass, and each shack has a coal stove for heating.

Outside the shack, refugees were queuing up for hot porridge; they were all Henan people who had been returning from all directions after the war.

Because Henan has been devastated, the current work of the garrison and officials here, besides clearing out bandits, maintaining and restoring public order, is to provide relief to war victims.

The soup kitchens and makeshift shelters are temporary facilities and will only remain in place until the snow melts next spring. At that time, local officials will lead the registered disaster victims to the abandoned land to formally allocate land to them, allowing them to settle down and cultivate the land.

For the first two years, the government would rent out the oxen and tools used for land reclamation free of charge. In the third year, rent would need to be paid to the government, or the oxen could be purchased directly with savings.

The charitable institution in the prefectural city has reopened. It houses widows, widowers, and vagrants from the city. Many of them are unable to perform heavy physical labor such as farming, so the charitable institution provides them with light jobs such as sewing and mending.

This would have been unimaginable in the former Qing Dynasty.

After all, being a widow or widow means having no offspring and being unable to work in the fields. What difference is there between them and being useless?
When cattle and horses get old and can no longer work, they are slaughtered. These people, who are worse than cattle and horses, are widowed and orphaned. Living is simply a waste of the imperial court's food.

Liu Yong was also living in the charitable institution as a widow, orphan, and refugee, and was eating the porridge and rice provided by the institution.

The rice porridge was unpalatable, with a musty smell that was hard to swallow. It was clearly old grain from the government granary, only taken out when it was almost inedible.

But this is already quite good, because many people are eating old grains.

This is not the future; ordinary people are not as precious as they used to be, and food is more precious than people imagine.

As long as it's edible and keeps you alive, who cares if it's old grain or has a musty or strange smell?

Much of the old grain was simply taken from the Qing army's former granaries and distributed directly as relief grain.

The disaster victims, widows, and orphans who ate this stale grain were all deeply grateful to the Han Dynasty.

After all, the Han Dynasty not only did not intend to abandon them and let them starve, but also provided them with food and disaster relief.

The government officials who were once driven away now wished they could suck their blood dry and eat them alive, leaving not even bones behind.

Liu Yong endured his nausea and finished the porridge. Old Song, the head of the nursing home and also a representative of widows and widowers, came over to assign tasks to everyone.

The main tasks were mending Chinese character flags and clothing for disaster victims to wear in the cold. The former were to be hung on the city walls of Kaifeng, while the latter were to be distributed to disaster victims in soup kitchens outside the city for the winter.

Liu Yong received a piece of warm clothing, but hesitated for a moment before putting it down.

Old Song asked, "Old Liu, why aren't you making a move?"

Liu Yong was somewhat embarrassed: "No... I don't."

His accent was more like that of Zhili (an area in Hebei province), and he wasn't very fluent in Henan dialect, so he tried to speak as little as possible.

Old Song casually called out, "Hey, Old Li, come over here and teach Old Liu a lesson."

"I'm coming."

Old Li brought over a small stool and began to teach Liu Yong how to sew.

Liu Yong learned quickly, but even after mastering the skill, he was still somewhat distracted while mending.

He stayed in Kaifeng to see how the Han army governed the area, and he also couldn't escape, so he decided to stay and wait for an opportunity.

As they waited, the Han army officials mistook them for widowed and elderly people and sent them to a nursing home for care.

He doesn't see anything wrong with mending Chinese characters on flags normally, but giving warm clothes to disaster victims seems a bit too generous.
Even though he believed he had inherited his father Liu Tongxun's excellent character, he still felt that the disaster victims should not be treated too well; it was enough to let them barely survive and not starve to death.

Unexpectedly, these Han soldiers did the complete opposite, even sending widowed, orphaned, and beggars like him to the orphanage for resettlement.

Yes, that's right, what he found most outrageous was this nursing home!

Although there was a tradition of establishing almshouses throughout history, most of these almshouses were merely lip service, a way to save face for the court and demonstrate the emperor's benevolence towards the people. How could these Han soldiers actually take it seriously?

There are also disaster victims outside. Not only are soup kitchens set up to provide relief, but they've been doing so for several months. The rice used for the soup is old grain, but it's all thick soup that will definitely fill you up.

Every soup kitchen has a coal stove for heating, and now they are also preparing winter clothing for the disaster victims.

This isn't treating disaster victims! It's treating them like their own grandfathers.

Liu Yong felt an immediate sense of disbelief; he could accept that the Han Dynasty's officialdom was more honest than the Qing Dynasty's.

After all, if a newly established dynasty is not honest and its internal corruption is rampant, it would have been destroyed by local officials long ago, and it would not have had any chance to compete with the Qing Dynasty for the world.

But now, the Han Dynasty's officialdom is not only clean and honest, but it also treats disaster victims and ordinary people with such kindness, which doesn't even seem like it's about winning people's hearts.

If the goal was simply to win people's hearts, there was no need to go to such lengths. They continued distributing porridge for several months, and it was always thick porridge. When there wasn't enough grain, it was said that it was transported from Nanjing via the Grand Canal.

Such a huge investment, just to save a group of lowly people?
Liu Yong's thoughts at this moment have actually fallen into a misconception, or rather, not a misconception, but rather that he was originally a lackey.

He's clearly a lackey, yet he pretends to be an upright official who loves the people like his own children; he wants both power and reputation.

To paraphrase a famous saying from later generations: "In the eyes of prostitutes, no woman is unsellable. When they hear rumors that a woman is not selling herself, the highest level of understanding they can reach is whether the price has not been agreed upon."

Liu Yong now holds this view; he doesn't believe that the Han Dynasty truly loves its people like its own children, but rather that it's merely a scheme to win over the hearts and minds of its people.

Once the Han Dynasty unifies the world, it might be even more outrageous than the Qing Dynasty is now!

At that time, the people of the world will surely suffer immensely, living in constant fear, and more importantly, the Qing Dynasty will have no chance left.

No, he must hurry back and report the situation here to His Majesty and the imperial court.

Liu Yong seemed to have finally convinced himself that his current identity was no longer a problem. As a widowed beggar, not having a household registration would not arouse too much suspicion.

Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to leave Kaifeng, return to Beijing, and report the news to His Majesty and the imperial court.

At this moment, Liu Yong was unaware that his emperor had long been placed under house arrest by his good brother, Prince Yongxing, and that the Qing Dynasty he so longed for was busy in Beijing preparing to move back to the Northeast.

Moreover, even if Liu Yong were to escape Kaifeng and return to Beijing in time, things would only get worse.

Emperor Jiaqing lacked governing ability and his foundation was unstable. Yongxing, as his good older brother, was no better than him.

Yongxing devised a retreat plan to escape back to the border region, and the first thing he did was to confiscate their property!
It's not about confiscating other people's homes, but about confiscating the homes of Han officials, bondservants, and members of the Han Eight Banners!

With everyone ready to leave, Yongxing stopped pretending. Emperor Jiaqing, who was half Han Chinese, didn't really trust Han officials, so Yongxing would only be more wary of Han officials.

Anyone with Han Chinese ancestry was confiscated and imprisoned, their property, wives, and daughters all taken away, which also helped alleviate the shortage of supplies and food in Beijing.

For a time, Beijing became incredibly chaotic, and all the Manchu Eight Banners nobles made a fortune in this wave.

Those Han Chinese officials and lackeys who were loyal to the Qing Dynasty were all incredibly unlucky. Without exception, their homes were confiscated and they were imprisoned. Some were even wiped out entirely.

These people who were wiped out actually dared to resist the imperial army from raiding their homes; they truly had no respect for their masters!

Dong Gao, a veteran official of two Qing dynasties and the top Han official, was able to survive.

There was no other reason than that he had reached a political marriage alliance with the Fucha family. Dong Gao's grandson married Fucha Tuojin's daughter, and it was only through the Fucha family's connections that the Dong family was able to survive.

But that was the only way; the Dong family had to retreat with the Qing Dynasty to the area beyond the Great Wall.

The chaos caused by the Manchus in Beijing was quickly discovered by the intelligence spies without Pang Wencai's prompting, and they sent a telegram back to Nanjing.

Nie Yu glanced at the urgent telegram and tossed it aside: "The Manchus are really going to run away! Immediately summon the cabinet for a meeting."

"Yes."

The duty secretary replied.

……

(End of this chapter)