Great time travel

Chapter 36, Bloody New Year
In the fourth year of Dajin Tianhui, on December 29 of the first year of Jingkang in the Dasong Dynasty, Huining City
The sunset at dusk fell on the Yachuhu Water covered with thick ice, and the gorgeous sunset covered the western sky, scarlet like blood.

The whistling north wind, mixed with a little bit of coldness, penetrated into the Jurchen's hut, blowing away the faint warmth brought by the winter sun.

Although the horseshoes of the Jurchen iron cavalry have traveled all over the desert and Liaodong, and broke into the colorful world of the Central Plains, the so-called capital Huining City they built between the white mountains and the black waters is nothing more than a mess of sheds and thatched huts A hodgepodge of slums.In the eyes of Song people and Khitan people who have already moved towards civilization, this can hardly be called a city, at most it can only be called a city—or even a village!

But this is also helpless, because the Wanyan clan who established the Jin Kingdom was originally just a relatively backward small tribe.Even though they took advantage of the fortune to rise up, it only took more than ten years to destroy the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, and quickly established a huge empire with an area of ​​thousands of miles, but from the bottom of their hearts, they still couldn't get rid of the barbaric and ignorant tribes. True color.

——Before Wanyan Agu fought against the Liao Dynasty, the Jurchens in the entire Northeast were under the rule of the Liao Kingdom.Among them, the Jurchens who were directly ruled by the Liao State in the Liaohe River Basin were called "mature Jurchens". They had a relatively high degree of Sinicization, and most of them had settled down to animal husbandry and farming as their main way of life.On the edge of the Khitan people's sphere of influence, the Jurchens who were still in a semi-barbaric state were called "birth Jurchen".

The Wanyan tribe, which established the Kingdom of Jin, is the most powerful tribe among the Nuzhen.

These "Nurchens" lived between the white mountains and the black waters, in those mountains covered with dense forests, they were honed to be extremely fierce by the cold wind in the northern part of the country, they slept in huts, hunted bears and tigers, and drank bad wine. Everyone was born to be a good hunter. Even the Khitan warriors dare not fight these Jurchens.

The Khitan people's way of ruling the Jurchen is basically to win over and prevent them. On the one hand, they named the leaders of the Jurchen tribal alliance as "Jiedushi", and on the other hand, they were forbidden to communicate with the mature Jurchen.In addition, they also made things difficult for the Jurchens in business and trade, and fired up various daily necessities to sky-high prices.So much so that in the era of the rule of the Liao Kingdom, although the Jurchens were sitting on the rich black land in the Northeast where they "beat roe deer with sticks and scoop fish with ladles", they lived a poor life with nothing.A tiger skin cannot be exchanged for a pinch of salt, and a basket of mink skins cannot be exchanged for an iron pot. Every year, he helps the Liao people hunt Haidongqing for free, and pays tribute of horses, gold, pearls, honey, pine nuts and ginseng, and even Had to send the most beautiful woman in the clan to sleep with the Khitan envoy!
Such undisguised cruel exploitation will naturally arouse the overwhelming anger of the Jurchen warriors.More than ten years ago, under the leadership of Wanyan Aguda, the Jurchen rebelled against the Liao, repeatedly defeated the strong with the weak, defeated the decaying Liao army, and finally swept the northern lands, killed the Khitan emperor, and prospered on behalf of the Liao.After that, he swept across the Central Plains in one breath, drinking horses in the Yellow River, and defeated millions of Song soldiers, creating a brilliant martial arts far surpassing that of the Khitans.

However, at this time, the establishment of the Great Jin Empire is only a short period of more than ten years.Although the territory of the empire has begun to take shape, the capital and palaces have not been considered for construction. Previously, when Wanyan Aguda, the first emperor of the Kingdom of Jin, proclaimed himself emperor in Huining, there were only dilapidated grass sheds in the city, and nothing could be found. decent homes.Wanyan Aguda had no choice but to set up a felt tent to hold the enthronement ceremony and entertain the envoys of various ministries, known as the "Emperor's Village".It was not until the end of his reign that he planned to build a palace in Huining, but Wanyan Aguda died before it was completed (1123).After the second emperor Wanyan Wu begged to ascend the throne, in the second year of Tianhui (1124), he finally began to conscript slaves and prisoners of war on a large scale, collecting wood, bricks and stones, and preparing to design and build a magnificent Jin Dynasty imperial city. As a result, Huining, a crude and barbaric city, has somewhat of the majestic atmosphere of an imperial capital.

But the problem is that in the wild land of Saibei, although wood and stone are available, it is really difficult to find enough skilled craftsmen.Moreover, the Jurchens' rule over the Northland was still extremely unstable at this time. The territory of the old Liao Dynasty was full of ruins, the fields were barren, the people were in dire straits, and the tribes continued to rebel, which limited the manpower and material resources that the Jin Kingdom could mobilize.Just in order to prepare for the southward attack on the Song Dynasty, the limited financial revenue had to be extremely tilted towards military expenditure.As a result, the construction project in the capital is still moving and stopping, and the progress is very slow... Right now it is the severe winter of tens of degrees below zero, even the cruel and brutal Jurchen nobles have to stop the slaves on the construction site Take a rest by the fire, lest they freeze to death in large numbers.

As for the members of the Jurchen Wanyan tribe, they are preparing to celebrate the New Year with wine, meat and banquets in full swing. Although this year's snow has been particularly severe, many animals have froze to death, and the crops are not very good. But the last time the Jurchen warriors went south to the Song Kingdom, they snatched back from the weak Song people a dazzling array of good things: gorgeous silks and satins, mellow shochu, smooth porcelain, sweet candied fruit, luxurious spices, delicate pastries... ...enough to give the women and children of the family a comfortable and fat year...

However, no one knew that this was already the last dusk in Huining City.

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In the twilight of the evening, a burly, muscular middle-aged man, wearing a nondescript and weird dragon robe, appeared from the outskirts of the forest on horseback, surrounded by a group of Jurchen knights, and then stepped on The snow-covered path slowly entered Huining City.

This is the second emperor of the Jin Kingdom, the younger brother of the founding ancestor Wanyan Aguda, and the royal driver of Jin Taizong Wanyan Wu Qibu.

On this evening, he had just returned from hunting in the wild, and he was "driving back to the palace" with a few rabbits he had just hunted.

In the twilight of the setting sun, the emperor Wanyan Wu begged to buy horses and stood at the gates of several palaces that had just been completed, looking at the messy streets of Huining. There are still patches of thatched huts and tents, the narrow streets are crooked, and the bumpy roads are full of dirt.Not only are there few decent mansions and government offices in the whole city, but there are even no real city walls and gates... making the city look like a dilapidated refugee camp or a remote village in a remote area. The big village, however, is not like the capital of a newly emerging empire with a vast area of ​​thousands of miles and a mighty power in all directions. It does not show the slightest bit of royal demeanor and overlord majesty!
In the eyes of the people of the Song Dynasty, the Jurchen's "emperor's residence" was not even as good as an ordinary county in the Central Plains.

And the court of the Kingdom of Jin, curled up in such a large slum, was naturally full of the "rural atmosphere" of the grass-roots team.

However, in the eyes of people from the Jurchen tribe who have never seen anything in the world, a settlement like this is already considered pretty good.