Chapter 267: How Ruthless the Qing Are (4600 Bonus Update)

In Luo Yangxing's memory, houses in Beijing had always been quite expensive! At the feet of the Son of Heaven, there were many powerful nobles, many merchants, many rich people of every sort, and the rules were also rather strict. Seizing or forcibly occupying property was relatively difficult.

So whether in the inner city or the outer city, good houses were expensive and hard to find. But now, that view was already outdated!

On the twenty-eighth day of the ninth month, just as he had finished his duties and returned home, two merchants who wanted to sell their outer-city properties at a bargain price had already been brought over by his steward.

"In such a hurry?" Luo Yangxing had been traveling for days, and in the afternoon he had gone to see that living King of Hell, Dorgon. By now he was utterly exhausted in body and mind, and hearing his steward report this made him somewhat impatient.

"Master," the steward sighed, his aging face full of bitterness, "it is not this servant who is in a hurry, but those property owners who are in a hurry. The Tartars—er, the court has already issued the 'House-Seizure Order,' with a deadline to move out. The inner city has already been cleared out several times, and it is truly a scene of utter misery!

People are driven out of their own homes just like that, not even allowed to take much luggage. It is complete ruin. Many of them are old hands from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The most pitiful part is that they are not even allowed to remain within three hundred li of Beijing. These days, along the official roads heading south, the capital's common folk dragging their families along are everywhere, and many have no clothes and no food. Starved corpses can be seen fallen by the roadside all along the way!"

Luo Yangxing was silent.

His steward sighed again. "Besides seizing houses, there is also land enclosure! Within three hundred li of Beijing, as soon as they take a fancy to any land, they immediately ride horses around it and enclose it, and the original owner must move out at once. If you do not want to leave, you have to submit yourself into bondage as a slave! Our family's two estates outside the city have also been taken a liking to by the people of Prince Yu's household."

"Understood," Luo Yangxing replied. "Just give them over!"

"Ai," the steward sighed. "Each one is more ruthless than the last!"

Luo Yangxing smiled bitterly. "If they were not ruthless, how would they have come to this present situation? Enough, say no more. Go and bring the people in."

"Governor Luo, this small one will be satisfied with just two hundred taels of silver," an elderly merchant said with a bitter face.

The one who had come with him was a young man in his twenties, dressed as a scholar and somewhat plump. Hearing the price quoted by the man beside him, a hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he immediately bowed. "Governor, this small one is named Wei Duo. My residence in the outer city is newly built, large and spacious, located on Shaanxi Lane outside Zhengyang Gate. I am also willing to present it to you, Governor. I only beg that the Governor allow me to attach my property to you, lest it be seized by the eas—by others."

This merchant, it turned out, did not want to sell his house, but to give it away.

Luo Yangxing could only smile bitterly. Although he was now Governor of Shuntian, he had no real power. His own property had already been taken by others—how could he possibly protect anyone else?

He sighed and asked, "How much property do you have?"

The merchant named Wei Duo said, "This small one is a salt merchant, and also runs inns, a sauce garden, a grain business, and a silk shop."

"No small business," Luo Yangxing said, waving his hand for his steward to take away the other merchant, who wore a mournful face, leaving only Wei Duo. "Why come to me?"

"Because this small one is unwilling to submit into bondage as a slave."

Attaching one's property and submitting into bondage as a slave were two entirely different things! Attaching property was a form of affiliation—although the property might still be swallowed up by the person it was attached to, such things were not common. But becoming a slave—that meant becoming someone else's property. A person could be bought and sold, so what property rights could one speak of?

Luo Yangxing sighed. "Then let it be so. But this official is now a clay bodhisattva himself, and I do not know how long I can protect you."

The merchant named Wei Duo had just left, satisfied, when Luo Yangxing's steward came to report again. "Master, several old hands from the Embroidered Uniform Guard have heard of your return..."

"Oh, quick, quickly bring them in to see me." Without thinking much, Luo Yangxing instructed the steward to bring the men in.

He and his father had controlled the Embroidered Uniform Guard for over fifty years across two generations, so naturally he regarded the Guard's people as his own.

The men were soon brought in, all in tattered clothes, looking little better than beggars. The one leading them had a bruised and swollen face, and upon seeing Luo Yangxing he knelt and wept loudly.

"Guard Commander, this subordinate has suffered! This subordinate has not even a home left—driven out by others, with a whole family, old and young, on the verge of having no food to eat. Guard Commander, you have returned at last—save this subordinate!"

"You—who are you?"

"This subordinate is Yin Yingjie! This subordinate is Yin Yingjie, Chiliarch of the Southern Provost Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

"Chiliarch Yin, what is this..."

"Driven out. Home gone, property gone. Wife and children are living under someone else's roof at their maternal family's place in the outer city. This subordinate has no savings to speak of, and now everything in Beijing is expensive. This subordinate is about to not even be able to afford food..."

"How did you get the injuries on your face?"

The former Embroidered Uniform Guard Chiliarch named Yin Yingjie stamped his foot. "Beaten by a booi slave of some Beile's household! And the outer city won't let us stay either! There's a deadline to move out, but where are we supposed to go?"

"Guard Commander, we are the same as Chiliarch Yin—homeless!"

"Guard Commander, please speak to the Prince Regent for us..."

Speak about what?

Luo Yangxing could only sigh. Beijing was now the Tartars' world! What could a remnant of the previous previous dynasty possibly say?

The reason Dorgon had made him Governor of Shuntian was simply to use his family's generations-long control of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to stabilize the situation in the capital region.

Now not only had the elite troops of the Eight Banners all arrived, but their families and booi slaves, numbering no fewer than a million people, had been moving to Beijing in waves. How large was the population of Shuntian Prefecture anyway? With so many Eight Banners lords and booi slaves pressing down on it, what was there to fear?

Had he not seen that they had already begun enclosing land within three hundred li of Beijing?

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After several loud crashes, Liu Sheng, who served under Wu Sangui, led several of his men and smashed open the gate of a foul-smelling courtyard near Liulichang in Beijing's outer city. The moment he entered, he saw five already somewhat decomposed corpses hanging from a crooked tree in the yard!

"Master Liu, this is a bit unlucky!"

A soldier of the Guanning Army who had entered right behind him frowned deeply at the sight of the hanging corpses—the whole family had killed themselves! It seemed there truly was nowhere left for them to go.

"Ai! A bitter fate!" Liu Sheng sighed and reached up to touch his own shiny bald forehead—he had already shaved his head!

Not only had he shaved his head, but everyone in Wu Sangui's Guanning clique had shaved their heads and grown the money-rat tail.

And the reason they had shaved their heads had nothing at all to do with Sun Zhixie. It was because Wu Sangui's army had been sent back to their old home of Ningyuan by Dorgon after the fifth month to harvest the crops. Ningyuan was beyond the Pass, and the system enforced there was naturally the same as in the Manchu heartland.

If you did not shave your head and change your clothing, did you still expect the Great Ming dynasty to come back?

And at this time, inside and outside Beijing, large-scale head-shaving and clothing-changing had also begun—not because Dorgon had issued a head-shaving order, but because large numbers of Han people forced to submit into the banners as slaves were shaving their heads and changing their clothes.

And among the common people who were unwilling to become slaves and had no way out, quite a few ended up like the household Liu Sheng had just seen. That Li Zicheng only wanted money—the Tartars truly wanted lives!

On the road all the way from Ningyuan, he had seen no shortage of human tragedies! Especially after getting within three hundred li of Beijing, on both sides of the official road he could see corpses fallen or hanging from trees from time to time.

As for Han commoners dragging their families along the official road, wandering aimlessly—there were even more of them!

Although Dorgon claimed to be enclosing only "unowned land," once the actual enclosing began, who cared whether the land had an owner or not? They picked only the finest cultivated fields to enclose. Not only farmland was enclosed, but fine houses and courtyards and grain stacks piled to the brim were all enclosed along with it.

As for the Han people, those who could work were naturally forced to submit into bondage; those who could not work were not even wanted as bondservants and were simply driven away!

"What does luck have to do with it?" Liu Sheng sighed. "We are men who lick blood from the edge of a blade—afraid of this? Brothers, work a little harder today and help me bury them. Later I'll treat everyone to a good meal."

It turned out that this residence had been allotted to him by Wu Sangui. Wu Sangui, as Prince Who Pacifies the West, had also been granted a residence in Beijing's inner city, and his household retainers were allowed to occupy a certain number of properties in the outer city. Liu Sheng, thanks to Chen Yuanyuan's pillow talk, was now one of Wu Sangui's trusted confidants, and so had been rewarded with property.

(End of Chapter)