Chapter 292 Reason
Are there any prostitutes in the city?
This was an extremely absurd remark. Compared with it, Emperor Zhao's previous actions of questioning the integrity of Duke Yansheng and publicly mocking the incompetence of the head of the Meihua Han family, as well as his earlier frivolous words and deeds of taking money from both nobles and religious figures, all seemed insignificant.
However, what made these national elites who actually knew everything in the pavilion feel suffocated was that this light and absurd statement was as heavy as a mountain, making them breathless.
Let me tell you, how did prostitutes come about?
It's nothing more than a woman of her prime whose family went bankrupt. Otherwise, who would be willing to do it even if it was just to accompany drinking according to the law?
When Meng Yuanlao presented "Dongjing Menghualu" that day, he attracted ridicule from some students in the Imperial College. They said that the word "prostitute" was added to the names of several dishes, and they didn't know whether there was more salt or prostitutes in these dishes... The intention was to sarcastically show that the Jingkang disaster had already appeared during the prosperous and great period.
However, the current Tokyo is not the same as the Tokyo before Jingkang.
After the Jingkang Rebellion, until Zhao Jiu arrived in Tokyo in the spring of the third year of Jianyan, the population of Tokyo had been continuously migrating due to wars. It fell from over a million at its peak to less than 200,000 when including soldiers and their families. Even the entire Henan region was experiencing population outflow at that time.
In other words, everything in Tokyo at this time was, to a considerable extent, separated from what it was before Jing Kang. Many urban activities were quickly rebuilt within one or two years because of the return of the name of the old capital and the political center.
By the same token, it is impossible for prostitutes to suddenly appear in five or six years. If there are large numbers of prostitutes in Tokyo now, they can only be women of marriageable age whose families went bankrupt during the Jingkang Disaster, but also the result of social corruption before that. Considering that the court immediately implemented measures such as land division, military farming, and land granting in the then devastated Henan after returning to Tokyo... I dare not say that 100% of them are caused by war, but it is almost certain that nine and a half out of ten are caused by war.
There is no way around it. In troubled times, faced with unrestrained force, women of marriageable age are simply a kind of human property.
This is the reason why the Second Saint used women in the city to pay compensation. If there are large numbers of prostitutes in Tokyo now, the same logic must apply.
Therefore, if you want to know about the situation of the righteous heroes, the most direct way is to ask the women who became prostitutes. They must have a lot of stories to tell.
However, after suddenly realizing it, I couldn't help feeling embarrassed and ashamed.
A thousand-year-old nobleman hid in Yangzhou for two years carrying a wooden sculpture of his ancestor, and a family of three dukes from four generations were treated to good food and drink by the Jin people in Hebei for half a year. They were recognized as loyal ministers and should be rewarded without any reward. Even the daughters of the Zhao clan were given large houses when they were brought back, and even the two saints could live out their old age in temples and Taoist temples. Since the Jingkang period, millions of people have died, and their families have been reduced to dust, or even become prostitutes.
Is it magical?
Not at all, quite the opposite, this is very realistic.
Is it embarrassing?
Of course it is still embarrassing. Those who can come to the vicinity of this pavilion are all people who have personally experienced the Jingkang Change and the exile of the Jianyan period, and who also have some abilities and ideals.
One can even barely call him a time-tested person.
After these people wake up, they naturally feel extremely embarrassed.
"Officials!"
Just when the scene was extremely awkward, someone suddenly broke the silence. It was none other than Prime Minister Lu Haowen. He bowed without saying much, but his intention to stop the situation was obvious.
Lu Haowen's intervention made everyone feel relieved, and even made Yang Yizhong, who was extremely frightened, feel relieved... In fact, everyone wanted to stop it, but no one had the strength to do so.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Jiu, who took the initiative to provoke this matter, hesitated for a moment, but actually nodded slightly and gave up the idea on the spot: "I understand, so don't ask the prostitute."
Of course I understood... Even though Scholar Kobayashi was serving as the governor of Guanxi at the time, it did not prevent everyone, including Emperor Zhao who suddenly remembered this matter, from gradually understanding and figuring out everything during the previous silence.
Let's not talk about what kind of waves it would cause to call prostitutes into the palace, just another thing... Did these women who suffered from the war really just suffer from the war of the Jin army? They must be the relatives of innocent victims, but did all those innocent victims really die in the fight against the Jin army?
The anti-Jin volunteer army that Zong Ze's Tokyo Garrison gathered in Tokyo in the past was said to have a million soldiers, but the actual number of soldiers capable of fighting was over 100,000. They were the backbone of the country, and they rose earlier than Li Yanxian of Shanzhou. Could it be that they all had excellent military discipline?
Zhang Yu, who likes to pit common people against each other, has never fought against the Jin army? How many widows did he create? Yang Jin, the hornless sheep, first rebelled, then surrendered, and then rebelled again. He was a disaster all the way from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River. Among those who fought with him, there were at least a prime minister, a prefect of Kaifeng, a prince of Yan'an, and two deputy governors... He conquered cities along the way and gathered more than 100,000 people when he arrived at the Yellow River. Although it was a fictitious number and was coerced, how many widows did he create?
Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun's troops were also relied upon by the country at that time, but wouldn't these two troops cause war when they fought? In Jingou Town that day, Zhao Jiu really didn't want to ask Han Shizhong where the people in the town had gone, and now he couldn't ask.
What about Liu Guangshi’s subordinates?
What about Fan Qiong? Fan Qiong, who skinned people alive, was a legitimate official soldier. He was the first commander of the imperial army to control the city of Dongjing after the Jingkang Incident, and then he went all the way south to establish his own regime in Xiangyang.
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