Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 245 Supplies Dwindled, Reinforcements Cut Off, Jurchens Weep in Bleeding (Part 2)

The capital city has begun another large-scale construction project.

However, this time, Eunuch Wei did not lead the Embroidered Uniform Guard to acquire land everywhere.

The inner court summoned able-bodied farmers to dig the land in the streets and alleys!

The work of digging the ground was quite easy, because the inner court required strong young farmers to dig a small ditch about a foot in diameter in the ground.

Moreover, the inner court paid workers according to the length of the ditch; digging a ten-mile-long ditch would earn them one tael of silver.

These shallow pits are just as easy to dig as small ditches. Farmers can dig these small ditches with ease. One person can dig a mile a day without any problem!
That guy excited the young and strong farmers so much that they practically fought over the job.

The problem is that the inner court still needs five hundred able-bodied men to dig in the streets and alleys of the capital.

However, it doesn't matter if too many come; there are other digging jobs in the inner court.

For example, they dug four large ditches, each three feet in diameter, side by side, from the capital to the mouth of the Haihe River, a distance of over 100 to nearly 200 li. They were paid one tael of silver for every li they dug!
For example, from the capital to Jizhou, and from Jizhou to Yongping Prefecture, four large ditches, each three feet in diameter, were dug side by side, and one tael of silver was paid for each mile dug.

Furthermore, from the mineral deposits in Jizhou Town to the cities built in various places, and from the cities built in various places to the wharves at the mouth of the grain transport river and the wharves at the mouth of the Luan River, or to Jizhou City or Yongping Prefecture City, etc.

In short, the capital city needed people everywhere to dig the ground, and the most they could dig was a small ditch about three feet in diameter, and the wages were very high.

The young and strong farmers were so excited that they were waving their hoes and digging everywhere.

They really thought they were just digging a ditch.

Who would have thought that after they finished digging, the soldiers of the capital also mixed some special mortar with stones, spread a layer evenly under the ditch, and then laid down perforated wooden blocks, and carefully measured the height difference between the wooden blocks and the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a craftsman pulled out square iron bars about three inches thick with holes and placed them on the wooden strips. Then he took out round-headed nails and hammered all the square iron bars onto the wooden strips. After that, he told them to fill all the soil that had been dug out next to them back in and flatten it.

They essentially dug a ditch and then filled it in!
Isn't this taking off your pants and farting?

To be honest, no one can understand what the inner court is doing, and the people of the capital can't understand it either.

Soon, the soldiers of the Beijing garrison started pulling out all sorts of strange carriages that were running around the streets and alleys.

They had seen carriages before, but they had never seen a giant carriage with wheels only a foot high and a carriage several feet long.

This kind of carriage can carry forty or fifty people at a time, and it can be pulled by just one horse!
Immediately afterwards, the inner court posted a notice that anyone could ride in one of those strange carriages to any place in the capital, but they had to pay a fare: one coin for travels within ten li, two coins for travels within twenty li, three coins for travels within thirty li, and so on.

This caused an uproar throughout the capital.

All the ordinary people were scrambling to get a ride. Everyone had a penny, and even if they just sat there for fun, riding for ten miles and then back would only cost them two pennies.

At first, the people of the capital just found it novel. As for the scramble to sit there, much of it was an illusion, just like the illusion of selling houses in later times. Most of those who were scrambling to sit there at the beginning were actually shills!
Most people have a herd mentality; if others are scrambling to sit down, why shouldn't they?
As for being scammed out of money, nobody considers that. So what if you're scammed out of a penny or two? Who cares about that little bit of money?

In later generations, some people were cheated out of an extra million or even two million yuan. Moreover, one or two coins are only equivalent to fifty cents or one yuan in later times. If you throw them on the ground, no one will pick them up. Who cares about such a small amount of money?

There were countless ordinary people in the capital who loved to join in the fun. When someone was scrambling to get on, they would get on too, and once they did, other ordinary people couldn't resist getting on and trying it out as well.

I must say, this carriage is really novel, and it's really comfortable to ride in. It's not bumpy at all, and it's quite fast.

Many people have tried it and have their own ideas about it. After all, there are many people working in workshops and factories these days, and many of them are several miles away from the workshops and factories where they work. If they have to walk there, it will inevitably be tiring, and it will inevitably affect their work.

Now that we have these horse-drawn carriages, and it only costs one coin for several miles, why not take one? A round trip every day would only cost two coins, and sixty coins a month.

At first, only those who lived far from the workshops and factories sat on the train every day, but later those who wanted to enter the inner city or go to the northern outer city to buy things also started to sit on it.

Especially after the capital city gradually got colder, it was much better to ride in a carriage than to walk outside in the cold wind. The carriage had glass windows to block the wind, and when there were many people inside, it became warm and cozy, and it wasn't cold at all.

The carriage passenger transport business in the capital is booming, but the Jurchens in Liaoyang are spitting blood.

This is because when the cold winds began to howl in the capital, Liaodong was already covered in heavy snow, followed by a world of ice and snow.

The grain reserves in Liaoyang City were also running out.

They drank porridge every day, and the porridge gradually became so clear that you could see the bottom of the pot.

Even the firewood in the city gradually ran out, and they even had to dismantle doors and windows to cook porridge.

As for making fires, that has long been prohibited. There isn't even enough firewood to cook porridge, let alone make fires. Are we just going to eat rice with snow?
In this freezing cold, with not enough to eat and no fire to warm the body, who could stand it?
The harsh winter in Liaodong was unbearable even for disaster victims, let alone the Manchu bannermen who were used to being served.

To prevent the Liaodong soldiers and civilians from becoming spies for the Ming army, all the civilians who originally lived in the city were driven out.

At this moment, there are only 50,000 garrison troops in the city, and they have no target yet to do those inhuman things to fill their stomachs.

The Jurchens in Liaoyang were cold and hungry; they were shivering from the cold and their limbs were weak from hunger.

Amin was frantic. He kept sending out fast riders to ask for help, but there was no news at all. Not a single black dot appeared north of the Prince River, let alone any reinforcements.

It seems that Huang Taiji has abandoned them!
Amin was so angry she almost vomited blood.

At this moment, the equally massive city walls on the southeast, west, and north sides of Liaoyang were bustling with activity and excitement.

The Ming soldiers were different; they had already stockpiled enough grain and coal, and even a considerable number of live pigs.

There were also boilers for heating, four in each city, enough to keep 40,000 ordinary households warm and cozy throughout the winter.

Although there are more than 100,000 troops stationed in the three cities at this time, their barracks are all ten people per room. So there are only more than 10,000 barracks for more than 100,000 troops. One heating boiler is enough. After all, no matter how big the barracks are, they are at most a hundred square meters per room, which is much smaller than the houses of ordinary people.

The main reason Zhu Jue ordered four heating boilers to be installed in each city was to help warhorses and livestock get through the winter.

In the frigid weather of Liaodong, without heating, warhorses would have a hard time enduring the cold. In the past, many warhorses froze to death every winter, and even if they didn't, they would lose weight rapidly.

Things are different now. The stables are equipped with heating pipes, so the warhorses are very comfortable inside. There's also plenty of hay, so the warhorses eat and sleep, and instead of losing weight, they're actually gaining it.

Even the pigs they brought in were blessed.

The pigsty is equipped with heating pipes, so it's incredibly comfortable to lie in. And right now, there's an abundance of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even grains and vegetables in Liaodong, so the pigs can eat as much as they want!

If the Jurchens in Liaoyang knew that they were even worse than pigs, I wonder what they would think.

(End of this chapter)