The next day was another day for the platform to listen to politics. Chongzhen was very diligent and had to listen to politics almost every two days.
Because it is a morning pilgrimage, it starts at dawn at around five o'clock in the morning in summer. Even in winter, it’s after seven in the morning. Basically, at dawn, the emperor was already sitting there. How dare you ministers be late.
Many of them live in Nancheng. Living in the capital has been difficult since ancient times. Not only is rice expensive in the capital, housing prices are even more impressive. Many people rent houses in Nancheng for cheap.
Go to court in the morning and have to get up in the middle of the night. It would be a lie to say that the feeling is not uncomfortable.
In the square in front of Qianqing Gate, there is a breakfast stall made by the eunuchs. They can have some breakfast here. You can also eat instant noodles. Hot water is provided here.
There are now more than twenty types of instant noodles, and the price has dropped from one tael of silver to five coins a bowl. After all, there are too many new foods coming out now. Sales of instant noodles have also increased dozens of times.
After all, the royal family has already started to have breakfast. The imperial kitchen has to get up early to cook anyway, so it is better to let the ministers have a place to eat. For those with tight finances, a few thousand taels a year is still an income.
Because it was very hard to get up in the middle of the night and rush to Beicheng in the morning. Therefore, Yang Fancai developed a large number of six- and seven-story unit building residential areas outside Di'anmen.
Buildings in this kind of community occupy less space and have lower unit prices. After all, the biggest cost of a house is the price of land.
The price of a three-bedroom apartment is only about a hundred taels of silver. If you don't have enough money, you can also get a loan. This makes it affordable for many middle- and lower-level officials. So sales are very hot.
Many officials above level three also discovered an advantage. This is right outside the north gate of the imperial city, too close to the imperial court. No matter what era, what determines the value of a house is always location, location, location.
Transportation here in Beicheng is inconvenient, and the poorest people in the capital live here.
The capital emphasizes the rich in the east, the noble in the west, the poor in the south, and the humble in the north. Dongcheng is full of wealthy businessmen. Most of the people living in Xicheng are nobles and high-ranking civil servants. Most of the people in Nancheng are poor, driven by carts and selling pulp. There are many slums in Beicheng where the families of eunuchs, untouchables, and some of the lowest level coolies gather.
When Yang Fan developed Imperial City North Street, he first built roads and then demolished them on a large scale. The poor were moved to the newly developed Tongzilou community in Nancheng. Priority is also given to job recruitment and placement.
The roads here have been repaired, and facilities such as sewers and street lights have also been added. Coupled with public transportation facilities, government soldiers and street cleaning staff patrolling the streets. It is equipped with supporting commercial streets, leisure and entertainment facilities, and bustling dining streets. It directly turned Beicheng into a high-end residential area with the most comfortable life in Beijing.
Moreover, the greening of the community here is just like the garden, with lakes, rockeries, pavilions and landscaping. nice environment.
In particular, it is equipped with water supply and drainage, central heating in winter, plate glass doors and windows, indoor dry and wet toilets and shower rooms, a kerosene stove, a kitchen with cabinets and stone decoration, etc. It is really comfortable to live here.
The community still has 12-hour security patrols and access checks, and high walls with barbed wire. Not to mention safety.
The community is also equipped with a small supermarket and shops along the street outside. Life is also very convenient. Coupled with the hardening of road cement and the road sewer drainage system, there will never be waterlogging during heavy rain.
Outside the gate of the community, there are even horse-drawn taxis and single-car steam engine rail buses. It's easy to walk anywhere. The quality of life has simply reached its peak in this era.
By comparison, several courtyards are not as good. After all, humans still like animals to enjoy a comfortable life.
In particular, the newly built theaters, sports venues, libraries, etc. on Di'anmenwai Street have enriched cultural life. As a result, many officials of third rank and above are also here, paying huge sums of money to buy villas and small single-family buildings.
In this era, big families lived together, and some families directly bought an entire building in the community. It is enclosed by a wall and used for the whole family to live in.
Some large families from out of town even put forward the request to customize a single-family house because their children have been in Beijing for a long time.
Therefore, the flow of people to work and go to court every day now appears in two directions. Some of them came from Nancheng and came in through Zhengyang Gate. Another part enters the imperial city from Di'anmen, and then from the east
An gate to enter the Forbidden City.
Nowadays, anyone who does not own a new-style house on Huangcheng North Street would be embarrassed to say hello to others.
Compared with courtyard houses with low land utilization rates, the unit price of these new-style buildings is actually very expensive.
But the living experience here is also very good. Yang Fan can control the area sold, causing prices to rise slowly. It gives people a feeling that the value of the purchase will increase.
Many officials, relatives of the emperor, eunuchs, and generals privately invested their money in real estate projects on the North Street of the Imperial City. Not only has the price of these houses been rising slowly, they can also be rented to young officials and students studying in Beijing to prepare for the imperial examinations.
In this era, those who can study and those who can compete in martial arts are all children of wealthy families.
There are too many rich people in the capital, although the source of their money is not clear. However, these funds are staggering.
Yang Fan's idea was to find a way to take out their money and circulate it in the market again. This was used to treat the serious problem of hoarding silver in the Ming Dynasty. Deflation is the biggest problem in Ming Dynasty now. It led directly to financial ruin.
Yang Fan's large-scale old city renovation has provided hundreds of thousands of job opportunities to the poor in the capital.
From the first year of Chongzhen, Yang Fan began to develop North Street. The huge scale of the project requires a huge amount of labor. This resulted in almost all of them finding jobs.
In addition, those building railways and roads outside the city. Hundreds of thousands of people are here in Yang Fan, receiving food and salary. In almost two years, a working class was created.
Their presence has boosted consumption.
After all, their families also need to buy firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, and make clothes and bedding. After saving enough money, I plan to buy a tube building and a small residential building in Nancheng.
With some money, the demand for education also increased. They believe that their children also need to go to school. At least learn some common words and arithmetic. The next generation can also find a good job without having to do hard work.
Therefore, with the development of the consumer market. Military households, which accounted for one-third of the capital's population, also had job opportunities.
They sent briquettes. Driving donkey carts from outside the city into the city to sell vegetables. Women wash and mend clothes, do needlework, and make clothes and bedding for others.
In the face of a severe drought, a large amount of land in North China's rural areas became extinct, and disaster victims were everywhere, the capital city actually appeared to be prosperous.
Many of the various products launched by Yang Fan in department stores and supermarkets were not available in this era. They are all sold at high prices as luxury goods. Examples include thermos bottles and Stirling engine fans powered by kerosene lamps. A four-wheeled carriage. Down jackets, various candies, fine horses from the prairie, prairie beef approved for sale by the emperor...
The civil servants and nobles of the Ming Dynasty used all kinds of money to purchase luxury goods. They simply cannot resist these luxuries.
People often go from frugality to luxury. Once you get used to these material enjoyments, it is difficult to quit.
A steady stream of money flowed from their hands to Yang Fan's. Yang Fan used the money to open factories, invest in education and scientific research, and carry out large-scale infrastructure construction. Increase employment opportunities for people in the capital and surrounding areas.
When this money comes into the hands of the people, they will spend it again to buy various daily necessities. for household expenses. Save money to buy a house or start a small business.
The capital has almost become a unique place in the North. There are two completely different worlds inside and outside the city walls.
Chongzhen often paid private visits incognito, taking his concubines out of the palace to wander around Beicheng, and learn about the people's livelihood. He was surprised to find that without knowing it, Beicheng had become the most prosperous area in the capital.
