eldest son of Ming dynasty

Chapter 248 Give the People a Way to Live

It is meaningless for the emperor to occupy too much money in his hands. If he has power, is he afraid of running out of money?

The economic system of ancient China was to some extent a highly closed small circle. Theoretically speaking, there is indeed a little more here and a little less there.

The purpose of the emperor is to strengthen the country and enrich the people. He needs money, and it is difficult to do things without money, but he cannot be a miser like Wanli.

Zhu Houzhao was preparing for the war before, because it is hard to say how much the war will cost, and he should also save some emergency.But he is not going to keep the money from the Shaofu under the household department.

Let’s talk about villains again, if you don’t spend, some people will come to help you spend.The emperor's own small coffers were all stared at by those civil servants, not to mention the money of the household department.At that time, this side will be sprinkled, so sprinkled, and the eyes will still be wide-eyed all year round.Once the household department is in short supply and encounters any major events, they will turn their eyes back to the emperor.

Now Zhu Houzhao manages the money by himself, at least he can see the output after the investment.

In mid-April, the weather in the capital was no longer cool. Gu Zuo paid homage to Han Wen and his old boss's wharf within a few days after leaving the palace, and then officially began to look for a suitable venue in the capital.

During the Zhengde period, the city wall of Beijing was not the "convex" shape that we are familiar with in later generations. Now there is only the upper part of the "convex" character, and the southernmost gate is called Zhengyang Gate.

To the north of Zhengyangmen is Damingmen.

Now Sheng's mother counts, there are three workers in the family, and they can have ninety cash a day, and more than 30 taels of silver a year. This is much better, and they can even save some money to marry their children.

"Stop making noise, and don't squeeze!" Suddenly, a cold-faced soldier came to the side.

The emperor meant that the city that never sleeps must be safe.

After Zhengyangmen, further south there was Yongdingmen.

Until the 32nd year of Jiajing, because the Tiandi Altar and the Shanchuan Altar had already been built outside Zhengyang Gate, and the Mongols moved south, and they were forced to reach the southern suburbs recently, so the monarch and his ministers discussed and decided to expand the city wall.

It turned out that Sheng's mother was [-] Wen a day alone and raised three mouths, so she was basically half full.Because in addition to rice and flour, the human body also needs necessities such as salt and sugar.Furthermore, humans are not animals, not only to eat, but also to tear a few pieces of cloth to make some clothes, right?In this way, you will know how hard life was in the past.

"Second brother, you ride on brother's shoulder and see what's going on ahead."

The really lively ones are actually the south of Zhengyangmen, that is, Zhengxifang and Zhengdongfang. Most of the people, merchants, shops, tooth shops, etc. are concentrated here.

These buildings are magnificent, but they are not accessible to ordinary people.

Half a child, I will be overwhelmed.Although I have saved a few years, I still don't have much money in my pocket.

As he spoke, Zhang Tianrui pointed to one of the several queues, "Young Situ, look over there."

"Mother, don't be afraid!" Sishu got down from his elder brother's neck and wrung his fingers to calculate for his mother, "My son heard this time that the government is going to build a big city here, and it will cost a lot of money and invite a lot of people! Then everyone has work to do, and everyone has food to eat!"

Then the outside of Zhengyang Gate is obviously not considered, but the imperial city is actually very crowded. Previously, the academy and women's medical center were built in the eastern city. Gu Zuo thought about finding a place in the western city, and tried to stay away from the imperial city. A little farther away, after much deliberation, he considered the place in the southwest corner, where there are some residential areas.

The eldest son is sixteen and the youngest is fifteen.The surname is Sheng, and the first name is also simple, elder brother Miki and younger brother Yoshiki.

……

In the Ming Dynasty, after passing the examinations, life would improve a lot. There would be an income of about 18 taels of silver a year, which is called granary grain. Income, well-off is no problem.

As a result, some people made a noise and shouted: "What the hell do you build, as long as you give me money, I will dig the cemetery for him!"

"There are so many people, so there are small restaurants to eat, and pharmacies to get medicine when they are sick. Children can't afford private schools, so they can only go to the academy to learn some miscellaneous things. That's why the academy has been built so big."

So from Daming Gate to the north, you can go directly to Chengtian Gate.Then pass through the Duanmen Gate and the Meridian Gate to the Fengtian Hall in the imperial palace.

There are no special buildings, unlike the Guozijian, Confucian Temple, and Shuntian government office in the north, it is really inappropriate to build the city that never sleeps there.

But having said that, there are many people, there are many situations, and there are all kinds of teachings and nine schools, so it is easy to go wrong. For this reason, Gu Zuo invited Zhang Tianrui, who had done this matter, to invite Zhang Tianrui, who had done this.

The whole family pointed at this, and Sheng's mother would follow whatever she said.

Amid the turbulent crowd, there was a woman carrying a baby on her back, holding two boys with her left and right hands. Fortunately, the two boys were already half-grown teenagers, and the taller one seemed quite capable with rolled up sleeves. work people.

Gu Zuo looked at the hot scene from a distance, and couldn't help but think of the emperor's words that day.

Sanshu patted his younger brother's head, and said to Sheng's mother, "Mother, report this name first. If you report it, it will always get better and better in the future. Didn't you listen to it? Now it's Shengjun who is in charge." on."

Zhang Tianrui had a look of reminiscence, "When that mother came to look for a job, the two sons beside her were only this tall."

For the sake of making a living, Sheng's mother didn't care what women said about showing her face in public, but she said openly, "Yes, what are you afraid of when it's cold, you're only worried if you don't have work to do."

Now that the government started to recruit workers again, Sheng's mother heard the news, she was so happy that she didn't care about anything, and rushed over with her two sons.Now there is an extra little girl whose younger sister's family can't afford it. She has four mouths and always wants to eat!

No one beats anyone, no one makes troubles, and it is common for Chinese people to get together from their hometown, but who dares to fight each other here?
Is it because Jin Yiwei is out of work?
Although this kind of environment is hard, for the people of Daming at this time, working here is basically a paradise, even better than being a tenant.

"But what do you want to create here?" Someone asked.

After Zhang Tianrui said this, seeing Gu Shilang's mouth wide open, he explained: "Your Majesty said that, I would never have imagined it. Wealth gathers and people disperse, wealth disperses and people gather, and the capital is lively and prosperous. This is called the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty."

Sanshu has the strength, the two brothers cooperated seamlessly, one squatted and the other rode, and they could see clearly after getting up.There were heads everywhere around them, but at the end of the queue, there were four tables lined up with people writing, and a large flag was pulled up beside them.

"Hahaha!"

If there is a depression everywhere, but you still want to sing praises and proclaim yourself a prosperous world, then it will actually be self-defeating.

After that, on the west side of Zhengyang Gate, a big sign was set up along the street, and a few tables were set up, with two large characters written: Recruitment!
Dongcheng’s academies and women’s medical buildings are all in one piece, and sometimes the emperor would go there, so the east and west streets in front of the gate were all cleaned up. In the past few years, there were often timber or other people coming in and out, making it a bit messy. It is now in order.

"It should be mother and son, what's wrong?"

From the inside of the Daming Gate along the inner side of the east and west palace walls, a thousand-step corridor with eaves and ridges, yellow tiles and red columns, and eaves was built. There are more than a hundred rooms facing each other from east to west, as a place to store documents and files.In the middle, it sets off the central imperial road, which is "flat as a stone and straight as an arrow", also known as "Tianjie".On both sides of the Tianjie Street, government offices that exercise power for the feudal dynasty are concentrated. These most important government offices in the capital are connected to the Forbidden City through the square.

"Brother, I see. Thirty Wen a day, xx has no deceit! I don't understand those two words."

Sanshu raised his head, he was also confused, reading characters was not his specialty, "It's fine if you have thirty characters, don't worry about anything else! Sishu, let's do a good job together when the time comes! Sister, buy a chicken and go back!"

"I didn't want to take her in at first, because she had to take care of the children again, and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to take care of the work, but... I finally took her in. Now that the two children have grown up, they can be regarded as having survived."

As long as the court decides and the government orders, all the people living in the southwest corner will move to me.Of course, the new place of residence, a servant of the household department, and the support of the emperor, the house can be found, and those who searched for corrupt officials are not the same.

At this time, there are no approvals or various reports such as environmental impact assessments and feasibility investigations, and there are no departments to run.To be honest, there is no need to deal with land acquisition and demolition, and there is no compensation agreement with ordinary people to sign.

They are from Shuntian Prefecture. After the death of their father, the family property was taken away by unscrupulous relatives. A farmer's family, if there is a slight change, it will fall into abject poverty. The capital whose mother Sheng came to beg for food could not be here. Got a job carrying logs.

But there is no gate protection here.

Now here, the first three days were okay, the sign was just hung up, but on the fourth day, people began to crowd under Zhengyangmen, and they couldn’t squeeze it. This is the work of the government, and the emperor is staring at it. Also manage a meal of white rice.

In Jiajing, the price of pork per catty will be twelve to fifteen, which is basically doubled. Ordinary people can't afford meat, and after that, the common people will suffer even more.

The emperor's words were penetrating, and the scolding made this group of people have no choice but to shrink their heads back. For a while, Gu Zuo also felt relieved.

Now, the noisy place has been changed to Xicheng.

"I don't know how long this work will last this year, but it suddenly stopped in October last year. Please bless the Supreme Lord, don't stop this winter."

On a larger scale, this is a stability issue.If you don't spend this money, you will have to raise so much military pay to counter the rebellion in the future.

At this time in the Ming Dynasty, land mergers were serious, and many people were actually landless. If they didn’t do this work, they would be refugees. Now there is a refugee problem in the Huguang Jingxiang area.

As for prices, prices vary from time to time and from region to region.Prices rose in general in the Ming Dynasty. Fortunately, during the Zhengde period, it was relatively good. During this period, rice cost about 5 to 7 yuan per catty, pork cost [-] to [-] yuan per catty, and fish and shrimp cost [-] to [-] yuan per catty.

Zhang Jijiu was timid, at first he used a stupid method, even when he didn't go home, he ate and slept on the construction site, with his eyes fixed on him.Later, he gradually became more clever. For example, he can't want everyone, can't take care of all trivial things, etc. He also needs people who are useful.

But ordinary people, such as long-term workers, only have 7-10 taels of silver per year, and their lives are still relatively tight.Converted to a day, it is between 20 Wen and 27 Wen, so 30 Wen is really not high, it is only enough to make ends meet, but it is not too low.

But I'm afraid...

……

Sheng's mother looked at her 16-year-old eldest son and murmured in her heart: I can't eat all of them, I want to marry my son a daughter-in-law and give her a fat grandson.The incense of the Sheng family can only be passed on.

It's not a coincidence that Gu Zuo chose this place in the southwest corner, which happens to be next to the Inspector's Office. Ordinary people rushing from far and near to find a job made the place noisy all day long, and Zhu Houzhao also received several letters. The censor memorials are all from Gu Zuo!
The emperor threw back the original number of these memorials, saying they were narrow-minded and hypocritical!
When Gu Zuo was at the scene, there would be Yu Shi, and on the way to the value house, he would point and point.His servant is not a petty official, so he ignored it at all, "What did your majesty say? What the Shaofu did was to benefit the country and the people, but what the censors did was I have been disturbed by my personal selfishness, I didn't expect that this section is narrow, and I didn't expect that this section is hypocritical!"

An honest-looking farmer nearby also said,

Yes, although they are still poor, the government has recruited workers to give them a way to survive, and there is always hope in the future.If you have hope, don't be afraid.

Gu Zuo thought, if the southwest city wall is attached, the original city wall can be used, thus avoiding the construction cost of the two side city walls.

"At first, I didn't understand what His Majesty was anxious about, but after seeing so many people fighting for a job, I realized that tens of thousands of mouths are far more important than creating something."

He gestured with his hand, reaching to his waist.

Sishu stuck out his tongue like a child, and turned his face away to hide in front of his elder brother, but there was always a smile in his eyes.

……

"What is the government's first priority?"

"It's a way of life for the people."

(End of this chapter)