Ming Dynasty 1627

Chapter 130 The Ming Dynasty Demolition Team
With only twenty li left to go, Lu Xiang-sheng no longer hesitated to conserve his horse's strength and accelerated at full speed.

Amidst the swirling dust, the towering and majestic Guangning Gate tower came into view in the distance.

(Attached image: AI has restored the colors of the city gate tower. Although it is not Guangning Gate, it should be similar.)

……

A moment later, Lu Xiang-sheng arrived outside Guangning Gate.

He looked up and, sure enough, saw a newsstand on the city wall that looked exactly like the one at the Lugou Bridge.

Lu Xiang-sheng dismounted and walked towards the city gate.

It was already past midnight, and there were few people scattered around the city gates.

This is normal.

To make a living, vegetable farmers and vendors often have to line up at the city gate before dawn to rush into the city and secure a good spot.

Commercial vehicles, regardless of which direction they came from, had to detour to Chongwenmen to register for tax payment. There was a reason why the Ministry of Taxation of the Nine Gates of the Capital was located there.

Lu Xiang-sheng traveled light and simply, carrying only a bundle containing two changes of clothes and a few books, making him just an ordinary traveler.

He dismounted and walked familiarly to the city gate, where he took out two coins from his sleeve and handed them over.

This was a routine he had followed when leaving Beijing several years ago, and he knew it by heart.

However, the goalkeeper did not take the money.

He frowned, glanced around instinctively, and ultimately felt uncertain.

The gatekeeper was in a bad mood, and his tone was naturally unpleasant: "Get in! Starting a few days ago, pedestrians are exempt from taxes!"

The sound wasn't loud, but it conveyed a sense of irritability and frustration.

Lu Xiang-sheng was slightly taken aback, somewhat surprised.

He didn't ask any more questions, but silently withdrew his hand, led his horse, and walked into the city gate.

When traveling, he always disliked revealing his official identity.

Only in this way can we dispel the fog and see the true nature of things.

Several years ago, Lu Xiang-sheng was transferred to Linqingcang. According to the rules, he should have arrived in twenty days. However, he rode at full speed and arrived in seven days.

However, he did not take office immediately. Instead, he secretly observed Linqing County for ten days, thoroughly investigating the deeply entrenched corrupt officials.

This is why he was able to act swiftly and decisively upon taking office, sweeping away all the malpractices and ultimately earning a top-notch performance evaluation.

Now, five years later, I've returned to the capital, but I can't shake this habit of traveling incognito.

Watching Lu Xiang-sheng lead his horse away into the distance, the gatekeeper finally couldn't help but spit a mouthful of phlegm on the ground.

"Pooh!"

The sound seemed to trigger something, and several guards standing nearby immediately surrounded them, their faces full of distress.

"Boss, when will this misery ever end!"

"Yes, the poll tax was suddenly abolished, and our income has dropped by 70% or 80%!"

Another soldier sighed, "Without money in my pocket, I'll go back home and my wife will look down on me. I won't even be able to get my penis up anymore!"

The goalkeeper felt even more suffocated as he listened to his subordinates' complaints.

He glanced around warily, and seeing not a single ghost in the middle of the day, he lowered his voice and sighed deeply.

"Damn it, these days are really tough!"

He said bitterly, "These nine tax matters were originally well managed by the Ministry of Revenue, but inexplicably they were transferred to Shuntian Prefecture!"

"That new Magistrate Li is like a rock in a latrine, stinking and stubborn, impervious to reason! Whoever tries to bribe him will die quickly, and the more he bribes, the more miserable his death will be! I've never seen an official like this before!"

As he spoke, he seemed to recall something even more terrifying, and his voice lowered even further, trembling slightly.

"What's most hateful are those damned eunuchs from the Eastern Depot! Instead of targeting those high-ranking officials in the court, they're targeting us nobody! What merits does that ambassador from Chongwen Gate have?"

"A low-ranking official of the ninth grade, who is not even worth mentioning in this capital city, was actually arrested and imprisoned in the Northern Garrison! He hasn't been released yet!"

The moment the words "Eastern Depot" were uttered, the surrounding soldiers shuddered, their resentment instantly replaced by fear.

After a moment of deathly silence, a soldier still asked unwillingly, "Boss, so... so it'll always be like this from now on?"

The gatekeeper glanced at him sideways, a cold smile playing on his lips, and said in a low voice, "We'll see."

He seemed to be speaking to his subordinates, but also to himself.

"A new broom sweeps clean, so let's bear with it for now. If Magistrate Li wants to use our Nine Gates Tax Bureau as a stepping stone to his own promotion, let him try!"

“Such a capable person would not want to stay in this mere sixth-rank sub-prefect position for long. At the shortest, it would be half a year, at the longest, and he would eventually be promoted.”

He paused, a shrewd, worldly-wise glint in his eyes.

"Once he leaves, replace him with a Prefect Wang or a Prefect Qian. Do you think he won't take a bite? In this world, what official doesn't love money? Just wait and see!"

His words gave everyone a glimmer of hope, and they began to praise him.

"The boss has a good eye!"

"That's right, the boss has a long-term vision!"

The gatekeeper, who was feeling smug, suddenly changed his expression and shouted sternly, "Get back to your seats! Don't you all have any sense? If... whatever... gets hold of something, and I don't live to see my day, you won't get away with it either! Get out of here!"

The crowd was jolted awake by the scolding and scattered like birds, returning to their posts with their eyes fixed straight ahead, as if the complaints had never happened.

Inside and outside the city gates, the desolate silence returned.

……

Meanwhile, Lu Xiang-sheng entered Guangning Gate, thus stepping into the southern part of the capital.

Heading east from here, passing through Caishi Street and Luoma Street, and then turning north, you will reach Xuanwu Gate.

The desolation outside the city was swept away, replaced by a strong smell of bustling voices, animal dung, and various kinds of food.

The streets that should have been spacious were crowded with various vendors on both sides of the road.

The only remaining passageway was a narrow passage, just wide enough for two carriages to pass each other.

Vegetable vendors, groceries vendors, and manual laborers all extended their stalls as far outward as possible, as if occupying an extra inch would earn them an extra penny.

Lu Xiang-sheng led his horse carefully through the crowd and sewage. The ground was uneven, filled with black water that had been sitting for who knows how long, emitting a foul stench.

Several children were chasing and playing on the narrow street. In order to avoid a child who suddenly rushed out, Lu Xiang-sheng slipped slightly and stepped into a deep pit that was over his ankles.

The cold, dirty mud instantly filled his boots, and the chilling dampness made him frown.

Upon seeing this, the children scattered in fright.

There was only one child who looked rather simple-minded, about six or seven years old, standing barefoot, looking at him timidly, his body trembling slightly. Lu Xiang-sheng looked at the child, then at his own disheveled appearance, and the anger in his heart subsided after a brief surge.

He shook his head helplessly and waved his hand, indicating "never mind".

The child, as if granted a pardon, respectfully bowed and then ran off, disappearing into the depths of the chaotic alleyways in the blink of an eye.

Lu Xiang-sheng sighed inwardly, realizing that his haste and lack of composure had made him forget his usual shrewdness, and he deserved this predicament.

In the past, when officials and gentry entered the capital, even if they came from the west, they would mostly take a long detour through Fuchengmen in the north.

Once you enter through the gate, you'll find yourself in the inner city. The streets are clean, and it's not far to the City God Temple. Although it's also a market, it's far better than the filth and chaos of the southern city.

He made a careless mistake and entered through Guangning Gate, so he deserved what he got.

Lu Xiang-sheng led his horse, navigating for a long time through the crowded streets, before finally getting through the worst section of the road.

Looking back at the chaotic scene, Lu Xiang-sheng breathed a long sigh of relief.

It's all thanks to the weather; the rain from a few days ago didn't come down.

If it really rains heavily, the ground will be flooded, and excrement and debris will float on the surface. That would be truly despairing!

Continue walking forward, then turn north, and the imposing Xuanwu Gate will come into view.

Like Guangning Gate, no gate tax is required here, and pedestrians can pass through directly.

However, the moment Lu Xiang-sheng passed through the Xuanwu Gate, a clamor even louder than that of the southern city market crashed down on him.

The main street inside Xuanwu Gate was teeming with people, shoulder to shoulder, several times more bustling than the southern part of the city!
A troop of soldiers, escorted by a squad leader, was slowly advancing along the left side of Xuanwumen Street, holding a large sign that read, "By Imperial Order, the Streets Are Cleared."

Further out, a dense crowd of onlookers had gathered, their voices a cacophony of chatter, exclamations, and curses rising into the sky.

Lu Xiang-sheng's gossipy nature was aroused again, and he led his horse and squeezed his way into the crowd.

The clerk stopped in front of a shop that jutted out slightly from the street. With a blank expression, he picked up a brush dipped in ink and, with a hasty but forceful gesture, drew a large circle on the wall of the house. Inside the circle, he wrote a glaring "Demolish" character!

"Next!" The clerk's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable air of authority.

The procession continued forward, and a commotion suddenly erupted among the crowd.

"This...this is being demolished already? This is the shop of the Marquis's family!"

"You damned green-skinned thief, causing trouble! Really causing trouble! I'll get you..." A muffled voice came from the side, seemingly from another shop that had been demolished, only daring to mutter a few curses.

Someone nearby chimed in, "Good for them! Look at Xuanwumen Street. It was originally over thirty paces wide, but these greedy people have been encroaching on it day by day, and now it's less than half the width! If it's not cleaned up, even carriages won't be able to pass!"

“That’s right! If we don’t demolish these illegal structures, how will we pave the stone road? I’ve heard that this newly appointed Prefect Xue is quite a strong-willed official!” said an elderly man in a scholar’s ​​robe, stroking his beard.

"A stubborn magistrate?" A sneer came from the crowd. "What's a little demolition of the nobles' mansions? Wait until he gets to the mansions of those eunuchs, then we'll see if he's all show and no substance! I bet he won't dare!"

Various whispers reached Lu Xiang-sheng's ears, causing him to frown deeply.

Paved with stone slabs?

He pulled the elderly scholar in a scholar's robe beside him, bowed, and asked humbly, "Greetings, sir. I am a scholar who has just arrived in the capital. May I ask if the capital is going to rebuild its roads? But the national treasury is empty now, and the expenses on the nine border regions are enormous. I'm afraid that paving roads in the capital will cost millions of dollars. How can the court undertake such a thing?"

Seeing that he was refined and scholarly, the old man politely returned the greeting and shook his head, saying, "Young man, you are unaware of this matter. It was not funded by the national treasury, but by donations from nobles, eunuchs, and ministers in the capital. It is said to amount to more than 500,000 taels!"

"Moreover, it's not the whole city that will be repaired. In the first phase of the 'New Policies of the Capital,' only Xuanwumen Street and Chaoyangmen Street to the east will be repaired first."

"New policies in the capital?" Lu Xiang-sheng's doubts deepened.

"Hehe, it seems you're new to the capital, sir. It's understandable that you don't know," the old man chuckled. "Turn right to Zhengyangmen Street and buy a copy of the 'Da Ming Times,' which was just published the other day. Everything is explained clearly in it. These days, every scholar newly arrived in the capital has a copy!"

The procession of the licensed clerks headed far north.

Suddenly a passerby shouted, "They've started demolishing Wang the eunuch from the Eastern Depot!"

Wow! The show's about to begin!
The crowd lagging behind immediately erupted in commotion. The old man, unable to contain himself any longer, cupped his hands in greeting and then chased after him.

"Sigh..." Lu Xiang-sheng couldn't stop him and had to give up.

He was filled with doubts and decided not to rush to submit his documents to the ministry. Instead, he decided to settle down and figure things out first.

……

At this moment, as the crowd watching the demolition spectacle surged northward, the view around Xuanwumen suddenly became much more open.

Lu Xiang-sheng, leading his horse, habitually looked in the direction of Chengen Temple, which he remembered...

The next moment, he was completely stunned.

Hey?
What about my huge Chengen Temple?
Why is it gone?

What should have been a temple is now just a desolate ruin, overgrown with weeds and a scene of utter devastation.

……

After asking a passerby, Lu Xiang-sheng finally understood the reason.

Why did Chengen Temple disappear?

This all started with the Wanggongchang explosion.

When that devastating disaster happened last year, he was still in Linqing, Shandong. He had only heard about it, but he never expected it to be so tragic.

Half of the elephant stables next to Xuanwu Gate collapsed, and the elephants, frightened, ran away in all directions.

As for Chengen Temple, which is right next to Wanggongchang, it simply took off from the spot and headed to the Western Paradise together.

Today, the former site of Wanggong Factory is a ruin. The new gunpowder factory simply moved to the northwest of the city and renamed it "Anmin Factory". This scared away all the residents in the vicinity who could move, and the land price plummeted.

After the rubble and corpses were simply cleared away at Xuanwumen, the epicenter of the disaster, no one was willing to build houses there anymore.

The rumors that ghostly wails could often be heard at midnight made this place a haunted spot that everyone avoided.

As for Chengen Temple, some nobles and wealthy gentry originally wanted to organize its reconstruction, but later, rumors spread from somewhere.

It is said that the abbot of the temple did not respect the Buddha in his daily life, but only cared about accumulating wealth. In private, he was greedy for money and lustful, which is why he was punished by being struck by lightning.

Once this was said, it was difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and the abbot was unable to crawl out from underground to refute it, so the matter of reconstruction was never mentioned again.

Lu Xiang-sheng stood before the ruins, a wave of sorrow washing over him.

He led his horse, pondered for a moment, and decided to head towards Zhengyang Gate first.

I can just happen to be passing by and buy a copy of that damn "Da Ming Times" to see what's actually written in it.

Then they went to Chengshou Temple in the east of the city to settle down.

The tea inspection station was located nearby, a place where wealthy merchants congregated.

I can take this opportunity to ask about the market price of horse fodder in Beijing.

Having made up his mind, Lu Xiang-sheng didn't delay any longer. He led his horse and joined the flow of people heading towards Zhengyang Gate.

(Attached is a map of Xiao Lu's itinerary for today. Dongcheng is close to Chongwenmen, so the imperial shops and tea inspection offices are located there, and I think there should be many merchants there.)
(End of this chapter)