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More than 20 days later, Tang Tong and his men finally arrived in the capital. The area outside the capital had not yet recovered from the looting by the Jiannu. The sight of desolation made Tang Tong feel very uncomfortable. The economy of the Ming Dynasty was considered quite developed at that time, but being bullied by a small Jiannu was really depressing.
At the very least, Tang Tong, who traveled through time from later generations, would be extremely depressed. With such a developed economy, and Emperor Chongzhen not being a tyrant, it just happened that natural disasters and man-made calamities came together and destroyed the magnificent Ming Dynasty to the Jiannu.
It was already August at this time, and the last of the Jiannu troops had withdrawn from outside the Great Wall, so the gates of the capital were opened, and the capital had regained its former bustle, forming a sharp contrast with the barbarians outside the capital.
Except for Tang Tong, all the other people in Tang Tong's group were country bumpkins who had never been to a big city. Naturally, they were particularly curious about everything in the capital. Even Yagyu Saburo couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Everyone first chose an inn to stay in. Tang Tong did not look for Tian Wan immediately, but took everyone to visit the scenery of the capital. Tang Tong was not familiar with the capital at that time. Everyone looked at the walls of the palace from afar, and each of them had different feelings in their hearts. Tang Tong was thinking of the young Emperor Chongzhen, who was so busy in the palace at this moment that he didn't even have much time to pay attention to women.
In his previous life, Tang Tong had also read some things about Chongzhen on the Internet. There is still a lot of controversy about this emperor in later generations, but no matter what, Emperor Chongzhen can't be considered a tyrant. The current Ming Palace is somewhat different from the Forbidden City in later generations. Looking at the buildings in front of him, Tang Tong couldn't help but sigh about the rise and fall of ancient and modern times. Everything in front of him seemed real and illusory. In a trance, Tang Tong didn't know whether his previous life was a dream or his current life was a dream.
In later generations, how many sons and daughters of China sighed and lamented the demise of the Ming Dynasty. How much suffering did a powerful nation suffer in the bloody world for more than three hundred years? How many sons and daughters of China sacrificed their lives and shed their blood for the rejuvenation of this nation? Thinking of all this, Tang Tong couldn't help but feel a little dazed at this moment. The previous life was like a dream, and the present life was like an illusion. Tang Tong's thoughts shuttled back and forth in the time and space of more than three hundred years.
The others naturally didn't sigh as much as Tang Tong. An Xiao, Hu Chuiyang, and the others envied the opulence of the palace. Yagyu Saburo marveled at the grandeur of the Celestial Empire's palace. Hong Niang curled her lips and said, "No wonder the people of the world have nothing to eat. The palace is so magnificent, I wonder how much of the people's blood and sweat it cost."
Hong Niangzi naturally didn't know the origin of this palace, so she said this. She blamed all the hardships of the people on the emperor. In fact, the hardships of the people were not entirely the fault of the emperor. The real reason was those bureaucrats and landlords. However, Tang Tong was unable to explain this logic to Hong Niangzi for a while.
"Miss Hong is right. This palace has indeed consumed a lot of the people's blood and sweat, but this is all the fault of the Tartars. The main foundation of this palace was built by those Tartars who drove us Han people to it. Therefore, it is those Tartars who are hateful, and the suffering of the people today is not entirely the fault of the emperor. The real reason is the heavy taxes imposed by those bureaucrats and landlords. The harm caused by these greedy vampires is not huge when the weather is good, but the Ming Dynasty has been affected by the small glacier climate in recent years, and has suffered from natural disasters and man-made disasters year after year. The harm caused by the party struggles and excessive concentration of land in the court has been infinitely magnified. If it weren't for the Jiannu, perhaps the Ming Dynasty could have survived. What a pity, what a pity...Miss Hong, as a Han Chinese, the object of your hatred is not the emperor in this palace, but those bureaucrats, landlords and Jiannu." It is not easy for Tang Tongzhi to change Miss Hong's perception of the world, so he said this more to his subordinates.
"Sir, what do you mean by the small glacier?" These days, Hongniang's attitude towards Tang Tong has greatly improved. Although Tang Tong is not an intellectual in later generations, in this era, his knowledge is absolutely admirable. In Hongniang's eyes, Tang Tong is a very learned person.
Hongniangzi was not well educated, but she always respected learned people. A real man did not rely on his appearance but on his talent in front of a woman, and Tang Tong's talent was not comparable to that of the scholars of this era.
"The small glacier refers to a weather phenomenon, which means that the overall weather on the earth where we live has become colder, resulting in less grain harvest in our fields. Miss Hong, if you want to understand this matter clearly, you might as well go to school for a while after returning to Changzhou. You won't understand even if I explain it to you now." Tang Tong smiled slightly and turned to look at Miss Hong. He liked her current attitude. No man would like a beautiful woman to roll her eyes at him all the time.
"Well, I'll go." When Hongniang saw Tang Tong turning around to look at her, her face turned slightly red. She was not a shy person, but these days, she gradually discovered many different things about this Lord Tang. For example, he was very kind to women, soldiers and disciples, and he didn't let her and Hongying call themselves slaves. He was not arrogant despite being in a high position, and he was very skilled in martial arts but never hid his knowledge when teaching others. What was even more rare was that he was so knowledgeable and full of compassion for the people of the world. He even said something very sensible, "When you can have compassion for others, you should feel happy."
Little girls always like to dream of the Prince Charming. Although Tang Tong is not the Prince Charming in appearance, in Hong Niangzi's heart, Tang Tong is absolutely qualified to be the Dark Horse Prince. She originally disliked Tang Tong's tricks to break up her relationship with the Hong Family Troupe, but during this period of time, she found that without the burden of the Hong Family Troupe, her life was the happiest she had ever had since she grew up. So she gradually stopped disliking everything Tang Tong did for her. Instead, sometimes she would randomly think that this Lord Tang had gone to such great lengths to keep her by his side, was he really interested in her?
Tang Tong's attitude towards her was ambiguous, which made Hong Niangzi unable to guess what was really in Tang Tong's mind. But people are always like this, the more they can't guess, the more they can't help but guess. So, Hong Niangzi would pay more attention to Tang Tong's every move, and gradually imprinted Tang Tong's figure on her heart without knowing it.
However, the current matchmaker has not reached that point yet. She just thinks that Lord Tang is a good person, especially the pair of eyes looking at her, which have a feeling of seeing through everything, making her heart beat faster for no reason.
Tang Tong had been through it all in his previous life, and he saw clearly what Hong Niang was thinking. However, he did not intend to seduce the girl, so Tang Tong had nothing to be proud of about Hong Niang's psychological changes. Tang Tong turned around and told everyone about the origins of the capital city and the imperial palace, sharing some of the historical knowledge he knew. Everyone listened with great interest, and they were not so interested in the scenery they saw.
In the evening, everyone returned to the inn. It turned out that it was Tang Tong's apprentices who took care of his daily life. This was a way to take the opportunity to please the master, but after Tang Tong accepted Hong Niangzi as his personal guard, those apprentices tactfully handed this task over to Hong Niangzi.
Although Hong Niangzi had never served anyone before, she was a girl and her mind was naturally much more delicate than a man. After nearly twenty days of getting used to each other, Hong Niangzi accepted the facts before her. Because Tang Tong had given her a silver note of one hundred taels more than ten days ago, Hong Niangzi believed that she should also fulfill her responsibilities.
When the Hong family troupe left, Hong Niang distributed all her money to those people. Seeing that she was penniless, Tang Tong gave her a hundred taels of silver note, which was somewhat intended to win people's hearts.
Of course, Hong Niangzi would not be easily bribed by the one hundred taels of silver, but Tang Tong's actions made her have a great liking for him. She was a person who clearly distinguished between gratitude and resentment. Good was good and bad was bad. Tang Tong was good to her, and she believed that she should also be good to Tang Tong. This was Hong Niangzi's principle in life.
People with principles generally don't have bad hearts, which makes Tang Tong have a lot of good feelings towards her. So in Tang Tong's eyes, Hong Niangzi also has more femininity.
Not all women are feminine, and not all women can make men feel happy physically and mentally when washing their feet. Tang Tong placed his feet in the copper basin, and the slightly hot water made Tang Tong's whole body relax. Hong Niang lowered her head and gently rubbed Tang Tong's feet with her bare hands. This was her first time washing Tang Tong's feet, so she was not nervous.
Tang Tong looked at Hong Niangzi who lowered her head, and his heart couldn't help but be moved. He stretched out his hand to Hong Niangzi.
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