Deep Palace past events

The terrain in the village is quite complicated, and the night sky is as dark as ink. After running around for a while, he couldn't tell the difference between east, west, north and south, and he couldn't even judge which road could leave the village. He just chose a secluded place without houses to escape. .One mind is busy like an arrow, and two feet are flying like flying!

He was running around, when he suddenly heard a mess of footsteps not far behind, and one of them said loudly: "The little baby seems to be running towards the direction of the back village gate, everyone follow me to catch up!"

Yang Fan was even more alarmed when he heard this, he saw a forest not far to the right, and ran into that forest without thinking too much.

Yang Fan's face turned pale with fright, and he tried his best to escape to the front with all his might.

Out of the woods, I saw a big house behind a clump of plantains under the starlight in front of me, hesitating for a moment, then ran towards that house again.

When I got to the house, I saw the door was ajar, and it was quiet inside, as if there was no one inside.

Yang Fan didn't have time to think about it, he raised his legs and stepped over the high threshold, and after entering the house, he saw another small door inside, saw that the door was ajar, and rushed into this small door again.

After entering the house, I couldn't help being surprised, only to see that the house was surprisingly large.On the ground, there are piles of things like small hills piled up in piles.There is no light in the room, only two round holes with a diameter of about half a foot on the east and west walls. The moonlight pours into the room from the two round holes and shines on the piles of mysterious hills. Bread and other grains.

Yang Fan saw that the pile of corn in the corner of the room was quite high, so he ran to the back and squatted down to hide.

Just after hiding, I heard the footsteps of several people outside the door, and one of them said: "Brothers, I just saw that kid run into this door with my own eyes!" Another voice said: "Go, everyone go in and search !"

Hearing their footsteps getting closer, Yang Fan was so frightened that he fell silent, not daring to utter a breath.

Although the big house is big, it has an end after all. These people finally came to the grain pile where Yang Fan was hiding. Although Yang Fan knew that he was not an opponent, he was forced to stand up to meet him.

The leader is the thin, tall young man who chased the masked man with the owner's wife in the morning. His surname is Tang and his name is Biao. He is the teacher's younger brother of the owner's wife. He is originally from the martial arts world. Looking at Yang Fan's movements, he knows that he does not know martial arts. Without parrying, he kicked Yang Fan in the stomach with his kick, sending Yang Fan flying five or six feet upside down, and fell heavily to the ground with a bang.

Although Tang Biao didn't try his best, he was a master of martial arts after all, his leg was at least a hundred catties of strength, how could Yang Fan bear it?His eyes went dark, and he passed out.

"Where am I? Why are there waves crashing against the shore outside the house? Could it be that I'm by the water?"

Yang Fan slowly struggled to get up from the bed, sat on the head of the bed, gasped for a while, and then gradually recalled the situation before coma.I thought: "Anyway, I have to try to escape!"

Although the whole body was in severe pain, the desire to survive was very urgent. He stood up slowly while leaning on the armrest of the bed desperately. With the help of the faint moonlight coming in through the small window on the door, it was vaguely discernible that this house was not the big room during the day. .

Yang Fan went to open the door in the dark.But after groping for a long time, he couldn't even touch the latch. He wanted to open the protective window above the narrow door, but he was not tall enough.Normally, he only needs to jump up with a little force, and he can easily cling to the door frame above, but now he is top-heavy, and it is very difficult to even stand still, so he has no strength to open the protective window.

After panting for a while with his back against the door panel, his eyes had gradually adapted to the light in the room, and he couldn't help crying secretly.

It turned out that the door was locked from the outside, and there was no bolt on the inside at all.And the small square protective window on the door is less than half a foot in length and width, and it is difficult for even a baby to pass through, let alone an adult.The window was opened only for ventilation, so as not to suffocate people to death.It is impossible to climb out.

I was struggling to escape, when I suddenly heard a child's voice in the dark saying: "Go to sleep, you can't escape."

Yang Fan was startled, when he looked at that person, it turned out that the child sleeping on the upper bunk in the middle was talking to him.

"Are we on the boat? You... who are you? Why are you locked up on the boat?" He asked weakly.

The child said: "We are the boys they bought, and we will be transported to Jinling to be eunuchs."

Yang Fan was taken aback, "What? Send it to Jinling to be a eunuch? Didn't you say just now that it was going to be sold to a rich family as a servant? Why did it become a eunuch again?"

The child said: "Some of them are indeed going to be sold as slaves, but we are going to be sold into the palace as eunuchs.

Yang Fan was surprised and suspicious: "Then why don't you run away?

"Where are you going to run away? There is nothing wrong with being a eunuch. In our village, children from 38 out of 26 families want to go to Beijing to be eunuchs."

Yang Fan's expression changed when he heard the words, he was stunned for a while, and then asked again: "Are you all voluntary?"

The child said: "Yes, anyway, the family is poor, and if you become an eunuch, you will have no worries about food and clothing from now on. It is much better than at home. Zhao Chengshuang's family in our village is because someone entered the palace and became a eunuch. The whole family They have all lived a prosperous life, and now their whole family has moved to Changsha City to start a silk business."

"That's right, my second uncle and his family also became rich in this way!" Another child's voice came from the darkness.

"Oh, your second aunt's family also became rich in this way?" the child from before asked excitedly.

"Yes, my second aunt's family was originally poor and poor in the village, and my second uncle didn't like farming, so he sent my eldest cousin to the palace to be a eunuch. Now my eldest cousin heard that he was very busy in the palace. Well, not only can I get five or two months of money every month, but I also often get exceptional rewards from my master. He has only been in the palace for eight years, and I heard that he has saved thousands of taels of silver! Every year my second aunt goes to Beijing to see him, He would ask someone to give the second aunt a hundred and ten taels of silver. Now the second aunt and his family don't do anything, but rely on him to live. They have become the most nourishing people in the village, and they can weigh two taels of fat every day. Meat!"

"Ah, your second aunt is so blessed! I heard that after someone entered the palace and became a eunuch, she never recognized her family."

As soon as the two little friends mentioned the topic of entering the palace as eunuchs, they immediately became very interested in the conversation, and put Yang Fan aside.

Yang Fan had a severe headache at this time, and he didn't bother to speak. He went back to the bunk and listened to them silently while he was in pain.

He had never heard of these things before, so he was naturally very surprised.Xun Si: "I never imagined that their parents would be so ruthless. Knowing that their children are going to be sent to be eunuchs, they would sell their children to Daojiazhuang!"

In fact, he didn't know that this kind of thing was very common at the time.Many poor families, in order to make a living, would not hesitate to send their children to the capital to purify themselves.

Since the Song Dynasty, eunuchs have become a profession for people to ask questions.A large number of children from poor families voluntarily became eunuch candidates for their livelihood and wealth. Due to the increasing number of volunteers, the supply exceeded demand in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The huge zigong team in the Ming and Qing dynasties is surprising to say the least. In Beijing Xiao and Hebei folks, zigong has even become a fashion.

Almost all the locals saw or heard that someone from a certain family became a eunuch, bringing power and glory to the family.These people were attracted by the aura of great wealth, so they scrambled to become eunuchs.

The profession of eunuch is very attractive to the poor and rascals. Some people even have married families, and because of their wishful thinking about Weifu, they will also become eunuchs.

There are also some rascals who can no longer survive in the market and become eunuchs.For example, Wei Zhongxian, the biggest eunuch in the late Ming Dynasty, used to be a gambler. Because he couldn't repay his debts, he was ashamed and annoyed by his creditors, so he entered the palace and became a eunuch in anger.

In the Ming Dynasty, about [-] new eunuchs were selected to enter the palace every few years, and each time there were more than [-] eunuchs who voluntarily purified themselves for selection.Although most of those who came from the palace were not selected into the palace, the eunuchs were saturated, but this situation of oversupply was still out of control.

According to the Qing Dynasty when sorting out the expenses of the Ming Palace, it was found that there were as many as 10 eunuchs in the Ming Palace, which was ten times more than the 9000 palace ladies (the author's note: the number of [-] actually included Jinyiwei, Dongchang, Xichang and other secret service agencies , and eunuchs in various palaces, there are only about [-] eunuchs who actually live in the palace).

With the increase of the team of self-contractors, another related "business" has been derived:

Some human traffickers use various methods to obtain a large number of virgin boys every year when they go to the palace to elect new eunuchs, and transport them to the capital to ask knife-copy masters in special workshops to perform castration operations on these virgin boys, and then sell them into the palace as eunuchs. eunuch.At that time, many people made a lot of money exclusively from this kind of business.

Dao Baiqing, the previous owner of Daojiazhuang, and his son-in-law Tian Wudu started their business by doing this kind of business. After they were killed by their enemies one after another, their daughter Dao Yingfeng became the head of the family.Although he joined forces with several senior teachers to start other bigger "businesses", this "traditional business" of being a eunuch has not been let go.

As early as the beginning of the year, through their connections in the capital, they had found out the exact date for the selection of eunuchs in the palace this year, so they started preparations early, and tried their best to gather a total of 89 virgins, who were going to be transported to the capital and sold into the palace.

Daojiazhuang's handling of these children also varies from person to person. For volunteers, just say the purpose.For more people, it is to use deception and other means.Many people thought that Daojiazhuang wanted to resell their children to be slaves to wealthy families in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Although it was difficult to give up, they resolutely sold them because they thought that selling their children to a wealthy family would be better than being in their own home.