Chapter 121
When Chen Zilong and his party arrived at Zhenhai City, the personnel were separated for the first time. Those experts will be assigned to the high-end main residential community of experts located in the south of the city near the Agricultural Research Institute.
As for those young masters, they can buy or rent according to their wishes.
"Name!"
"Qiao's."
"Excuse me, if you want to rent a house, buy a house first!"
“What’s the difference between renting and buying?”
"For rent, the monthly rent in Zhenhai City is ten taels of silver, twenty taels of silver, thirty taels of silver, fifty taels of silver, and a monthly rent of one hundred taels of silver."
"The monthly rent is one hundred taels? Why don't you go grab it?"
"If it's too expensive, we also have cheap houses here. There are more than a dozen inns in the west of the city. A room there only costs one hundred yuan a day, which is more than two taels of silver a month. If it's still too expensive, you can stay in an ordinary room. Every day Fifty cents, and there are cheaper ones. Sharing with others only costs fifteen cents a day, and only four cents a month!"
"What if I buy it?"
"The most expensive independent courtyard is 3,600 taels of silver, the next first class is 3,000 taels of silver, the next first class is 1,500 taels of silver, the next first class is 1,000 taels of silver, the cheapest one only costs 300 taels of silver. Three main and two bedrooms, five rooms, together with the land, freehold!”
"So expensive!"
"Then rent a house, it's cheap!"
"Who are you looking down on? Is this lady someone who can't afford to pay?"
"Buy a set for one thousand five hundred taels of silver!"
"Ask the lady for her maiden name!"
"do what?"
"Apply the house deed!"
"Qiao Biluo!"
The person in charge directly wrote Qiao Biluo's name on the house deed, stamped it with a big seal, and directly pulled off the back page of the house deed. Even if the house deed was completed, the back page could be kept for archiving.
"Next one. Should I buy or rent?"
The staff put the floor plan directly on the table. Martina took two maids, two servants, and an old woman. A total of five people were responsible for her food, drink and diarrhea.
If you rent a house, it's not a big problem. But she came to Liaonan for a purpose. If she rented a house, it didn't seem cost-effective, but if she bought it...
Five people don't need a big house.
Martina considered that she had two carriages, and the house must have stables and a place to park the carriages, so she bought a house worth one thousand five hundred taels of silver.
After applying for the house deed, a middle-aged man took Maldina and his party to the new house.
The servant who followed Martina squatted on the street and gently tapped the road with the dagger he carried: "The materials used in the streets here are the same as those on the dock!"
As he said that, he simply lay down on the ground and tapped the ground repeatedly with a dagger, almost licking the taste.
"Solid as a rock!"
Xu Changshun said: "This ground is harder than rock!"
"Is it a rock?"
"no!"
"I've never seen rocks like this!"
In later generations, it is easy to see well-preserved ancient building complexes with a history of hundreds of years. However, in the West, such building complexes and even such cities are not uncommon. This is due to the ubiquitous stone buildings in the West. Such buildings, Unless special events occur, they can generally be preserved for hundreds of years.
Traditional buildings in ancient times were actually wooden buildings. If you want to build it faster, you can assemble the various parts of the building like building blocks. A three-foot-high wooden attic can be built in just a few days. Completed.
This kind of building has a very bad shortcoming. That is, they are very afraid of fire. In Chinese history books, the word "burned to white ground" often appears!
For example: in the fifth year of Yongjia (311), Liu Cong, the son of Liu Yuan, sent Shi Le, Wang Mi, Liu Yao and others to lead an army to attack Jin. In the battle of Ningping City, they annihilated the main force of the Jin army and killed the Jin Taiwei Wang Yan and other princes. , captured Luoyang, captured Emperor Huai of Jin, and killed more than 100,000 princes, officials and people. Burn Luoyang to the ground!
In the eighth year of Yonghe (the third year of Yongxing in Ran Wei, 352), on April 25, Murong Jun sent Murong Ping to lead his troops to besiege Yecheng. The Wei army defended the city for a hundred days. On the sixth day of August of the same year, Yecheng was breached. More than 200,000 Wei soldiers and civilians were slaughtered, and Yecheng was burned to the ground.
This is a fatal weakness of wooden buildings. Once a fire is accidentally caused or burned by the enemy, the consequences will be quite disastrous. When Cheng Shijie built Zhenhai City, he considered that war would destroy everything, and a fire could wipe out the hard work of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. In order to preserve the buildings and facilities used to study agriculture in the Ming Dynasty, Leave some inspiration to future generations. The newly developed cement and steel buildings were adopted, from roads to city walls, from streets to shops, which are completely different from traditional Ming-style buildings.
Mardina's carriage drove on the flat cement road for nearly half an hour, or two quarters of an hour. The middle-aged man led Mardina and his party to a huge fort-style building complex, and met with the doorman. Make the handover.
The middle-aged man looked at the carriage drive: "Miss Xu Si, you can live here with peace of mind. This is a high-end community in Zhenhai City. There are guards patrolling every day. People you don't want to see will never disturb you. you!"
The housekeeper stepped forward and said, "Isn't this too biased?"
"It's just ahead!"
At this time, the door opened, and a man who looked like a butler stood at the door. He bowed and said: "Welcome the proprietor to move to his new home. I, Han Shun, will be your temporary butler. If you need anything, please give me your instructions."
The housekeeper looked at the big house in front of her and was a little surprised: "Is this the new house of our Xu family?"
"Exactly!"
"It covers an area of five acres and has three front and three entrances. There are eight master rooms, twelve servant rooms, three living rooms, two dining rooms, two kitchens, two public toilets, eight private toilets, stables and four A carriage garage and seven utility rooms, totaling the entire courtyard,
Han Shun then introduced: "Fifty-seven houses, with a small garden in the backyard, two studies, one... bedrooms all have bedding, brand new, made of pure cotton. If the noble is not used to it, We can switch right away!”
To be fair, despite her young age, Maldina is a well-informed girl. As early as when she was nine years old, she was baptized and became a believer.
Under the influence of Xu Guangqi, Miss Xu Si, the youngest, was very favored. She had been to the distant Guangzhou, and also to big cities such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Nanjing. The aristocratic lady is completely different.
However, when Martina came to Zhenhai City, he was really shocked. This is a very new city and a very clean city.
The smelly drainage ditches that can be seen everywhere are gone, replaced by rows of underground pipes, and manhole covers can be seen every twenty or thirty steps. Needless to say, the scene of sewage flowing across the city no longer exists, and the whole city is very dirty. Neat and very clean, even cleaner than the world-famous Suzhou and Hangzhou.
"Why is it so clean here?"
Maldina looked at his temporary butler Han Shun and said: "There is no dirt on the road!"
Han Shun said with a smile: "This used to be Maqiao Town. It was also dirty and messy at the time. A lot of garbage was piled up in mountains. The commander-in-chief formulated a management policy. Anyone who littered would be fined. At the beginning, everyone If you are not used to it, you still litter. You have to be severely punished several times before you change it. Now, everyone likes this neat and clean environment. There is no need for supervision. Anyone who dares to litter again will definitely be scolded by everyone. You are ashamed of yourself."
"Our house is in an excellent location. There is a commercial street five hundred steps away. You will not feel the hustle and bustle of the market, and it is very convenient to purchase daily necessities!"
Han Shun continued: "These shops are all newly opened. They sell rice, oil, salt, vinegar, and cloth. These businessmen have such sharp noses that they immediately smelled the business opportunities. In Zhenhai City, I rented a store and started doing business. If the commander hadn't insisted on them paying taxes and made many merchants angry, there would definitely be more shops in the city."
Mardina said in surprise: "He still wants to collect business tax?"
"Yes, our commander-in-chief said that merchants should pay taxes. It is a matter of course. If you want to do business in Liaonan, you should pay taxes to him honestly. If you don't pay, you should get out!"
Han Shun sighed helplessly and said: "The handsome man drove away many merchants because of his anger, otherwise there would be even more merchants here."
Martina nodded and said: "There are very few people in my country who collect business tax. Not only does he have to collect it, but he also pays one tax per fifteen. Who would want to do business in his territory?"
"There are still people who are willing to do it, and they are not willing to pay taxes, but later they find out that after paying the tax, if someone comes to extort money, the urban management people will come over immediately to get the person, and their business will not be affected in any way. Everyone So they pay it willingly, because the money they lose every month to extortion is much more than the taxes they should pay."
"Businessmen will not do business at a loss."
After Chen Zilong and his party arrived at Dianzhenhai City, they were quickly assigned their residences. Surprisingly, these experts were not in separate courtyards, but in independent pavilions.
There are five rooms on three floors, with a total of twelve rooms on the first and two floors. Downstairs is the living room, kitchen, and guest room, and upstairs are three bedrooms and a study room. Considering that some experts have many families, the third floor can also be lived in. There are Six rooms.
This kind of loft is built according to the villa style of later generations, and the decoration is also mainly white.
When Cheng Shijie planned Zhenhai City, he not only set aside spacious streets, sufficient squares and green spaces, but also set very high architectural requirements. In particular, the underground sewers are so wide that horse-drawn carriages can even run inside.
Not only the city center, but also both sides of the city's main roads, from the city center to the high-end residential areas of the Agricultural Research Institute, and even near the Agricultural Research Institute, are all covered with cement roads.
In particular, the center of Zhenhai City is the Agricultural Science Square, which covers an area of more than 300 acres. This square faces from north to south and is listed with five statues, one of which is Shennong's, followed by Pan Shengzhi (the famous Agricultural Science of the Western Han Dynasty). Family), he compiled "The Book of Pansheng", which was written in the Western Han Dynasty and is the earliest agricultural book monograph in my country. It has been more than two thousand years.
Then there is Jia Sixie, an agricultural expert in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. He wrote a comprehensive agricultural book "Essential Techniques for Qi Min". It was written in AD 533~544, more than 1,500 years ago.
The book systematically summarizes the agricultural science and technology knowledge in my country's Yellow River Basin since the Qin and Han Dynasties. Its material layout provides a basis for later agricultural works to follow. It consists of chapters on farming, grains, vegetables, fruit trees, trees, livestock, brewing, seasoning, cooking, and foreign products. It is the earliest and most complete large-scale agricultural encyclopedia in China.
Chen Min: In 1149 AD, Chen Min's "Agricultural Book" of the Southern Song Dynasty summarized in detail the rich experience of farmers in southern my country in planting rice, raising silkworms, planting mulberries, and raising cattle. He also pointed out that improving soil through rational fertilization can improve soil fertility. Always new and strong.
Wang Zhen: courtesy name Boshan, a native of Dongping in the Yuan Dynasty. Ancient Chinese agriculturist, agricultural mechanist, and Taoist scholar. In the fourth year of Emperor Chengzong's reign in the Yuan Dynasty, he wrote "Wang Zhen Nong Shu", and at the end of the year he wrote "Making Movable Type Seal and Calligraphy" to describe his wood movable type printing technique.
The last one is Xu Guangqi...
These statues are based on the normal proportions of the human body multiplied by three. Martina saw this statue of Xu Guangqi. I felt a little distracted for a moment because this statue looked so similar.
When Martina looked at this building, Chen Zilong was also stunned.
At that time, he looked at Song Yingxing next to him and said, "I didn't expect that this Cheng Zhenglu is really thoughtful!"
"Flattery and flatterer!"
Song Yingxing was vaguely unhappy. Building a ancestral hall or temple to worship ancestors was a tradition that lasted for more than two thousand years, but Wei Zhongxian ruined this tradition.
Chen Zilong shook his head and said, "No, Chang Geng, how long do you think it will take to carve this stone statue?"
Song Yingxing was slightly startled: "This..."
With the use of machinery in later generations, a stone statue could be carved in about half a month. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the use of manual and primitive carving techniques, it took a longer time. For example, the stone statues of the Ming Tombs took two years to quarry and select repeatedly. That is with the strength of craftsmen from all over the country. If it is a private person, it may take five years.
What was Xu Guangqi doing five years ago?
When Wei Zhongxian's eunuchs were in power, in order to win over people's hearts, they planned to appoint Xu Guangqi as the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and assistant bachelor of the Hanlin Academy to serve as the assistant director of Zhan Shifu. However, Xu Guangqi refused to take up the post, which aroused the eunuchs' dissatisfaction and was impeached. The emperor ordered him to " The crown and belt are free to live in."
Xu Guangqi stayed in Shanghai from the third year of Tianqi to the first year of Chongzhen, compiling the "Complete Book of Nongzheng". In other words, when Cheng Shijie ordered people to carve this stone statue, Xu Guangqi had no official or position at the time. He was just a compiler of "The Complete Book of Nongzheng". "Just an old man."
If you need to curry favor, do you need to curry favor with Xu Guangqi?
This is of course a misunderstanding. In fact, it only took these craftsmen more than two months to carve Xu Guangqi's stone statue, and that's all. Especially for the polishing and finishing parts, sandpaper and polishing machines were used. Although it was animal-powered, it was not very Stable, but much faster than manual refinement.
Cheng Shijie was not trying to curry favor with Xu Guangqi. As one of the four major agricultural experts in ancient China, Xu Guangqi deserved Cheng Shijie's respect.
Gu Shizhang opened a huge shop covering an area of more than 14 acres, or nearly 10,000 square meters, in Zhenhai City. It specializes in Huizhou specialty rice paper, ink, and inkstones, and also provides calligraphy and framed services.
Xie Jinglin opened two specialty restaurants in the city, which could serve beef, mutton, roe deer, rabbit and other game. Cheng Shijie also made a lot of wine.
Zhang Chen's Oriental Trading Company also opened a branch in Zhenhai City...
…
Jinzhou City, Haining Army General Military Mansion.
In the side hall of the right front hall, an old man wearing a blue uniform was sitting there drinking tea. This old man is about sixty years old. His face is full of wrinkles, his beard is gray, and he has a kind-hearted look. His outer clothing is made of fine silk and satin. It is gorgeous and elegant. If you put this outfit overseas, it can be said to be priceless.
Sitting on his left side is a man in his thirties. He is quite tall, has a scholar's crown and white clothes. He looks pretty good, but his eyeballs rotate a little too fast. He is shrewd in everything. It is best to deal with him. Be careful;
An eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl was admiring a landscape painting with her hands on her back. She was dressed in a light yellow dress. She was a little over 1.7 meters tall and quite outstanding. She had long hair that reached her waist, her fingers were twisted together habitually, and she had an oval face. She was not stunning, but very attractive, and She is the kind that becomes more and more beautiful the more you look at her. Her eyes are sharp and her lips are thin and delicate, like cherry petals. You can tell at a glance that she is a well-spoken person.
As for Yang Yuniang next to her, she seemed a little uneasy. Although Cheng Shijie's property was getting bigger and bigger and his business was getting better and better, Cheng Shijie paid more and more to Yang Yuniang in order to win over Yang Yuniang. In less than a year, Yang Yunniang's net worth is already very high.
She hadn't calculated how much money she had. Anyway, Cheng Shijie had made a kerosene lighter. At first, it was just for the convenience of scouts, thunder gunners and artillerymen to light fires.
However, sometimes, the flowers planted intentionally do not bloom, but the willows planted unintentionally create shade. More than 2,000 lighters were produced, which brought Yang Yunniang hundreds of taels of silver in dividends. But the problem is that when the Thunderbolt gun operator got the finished lighter, Su Huaicai, a soldier of the Fourth Division of the former Youdu Division who had just joined the army for just three months, actually succeeded in making a Thunderbolt gun-style tap fire based on the principle of the lighter. .
Although this running fire device weighs more than eight kilograms and looks very large, it saves the process of lighting the match rope.
Cheng Shijie transferred Su Huaicai from the Fourth Infantry Division, and then gave Su Huaicai a large amount of information and asked him to research more powerful and faster fire guns.
The accumulation of wealth did not bring much sense of security to Yang Yuniang. Perhaps only in the dead of night would Yang Yuniang remember whether it was worth it.
Originally, Yang Yunniang was also a layman in bank management. She was crossing the river by feeling the stones. She would do whatever Cheng Shijie asked her to do. However, the problem was that the method provided by Cheng Shijie had always been tried and tested, but it failed to work in the bank.
Especially the dynamic password, this thing simply restricted the development of banks.
This is why Cheng Shijie thought too simply. Dynamic passwords require huge data support. In future generations, supercomputers and central processors will be available, which can easily solve this problem. If all manpower is used, Cheng Shijie's bank will be the same even if all loans are given out. You will also lose money.
Three subordinates under Yang Yunniang proposed a solution to her.
But the problem is, Cheng Shijie is too busy to care about this problem.
Emperor Chongzhen once again urged Cheng Shijie to go to the capital to report on his duties. According to regulations, even when Cheng Shijie was just promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Ning Navy, he had to go to the capital to express his gratitude.
However, Cheng Shijie didn't have time.
Now he is dealing with a fatal matter, that is, the group of young masters who came to Zhenhai City caused trouble. They insulted Ning Haijun's soldiers with unbridled words. Ning Haijun's soldiers got angry and killed the three The scholar with an unshakable reputation was thrown into the septic tank.
If these Ning navy soldiers killed these three scholars, the matter would be easy to solve. If the people are dead and there is no witness, they can just take two heads to touch them and pay some money, and the matter can be solved.
When the laws of the Ming Dynasty were formulated, they were biased in favor of scholars. The scholars of the Ming Dynasty were not the stinky Laojiu of the Yuan Dynasty. How did the title Laojiu come from?
In the Yuan Dynasty, people were divided into ten categories: one official, two officials, three monks, four Taoists, five doctors, six workers, seven hunters, eight commoners, nine Confucians, and ten beggars.
The status of Confucian scholars is only slightly better than that of beggars.
But it was different in the Ming Dynasty. For example, when a county magistrate tried a case, he would be given a beating first, or he would be tortured if he did not confess, but the scholar could not be beaten. A scholar is a disciple of the emperor, and he needs to be removed from his fame before he can fight...
Now that Ning Haijun's soldiers are beating up the scholar, the problem is getting bigger.
Now these three scholars, plus two to three hundred young men, are making trouble against Cheng Shijie every day.
Cheng Shijie was so angry that he could only explode at Chang Yu: "Look, look, what are you doing? It would be easier to kill him directly. Just bury him casually. Where are they going to find someone?"
There have been incidents of large animals injuring people in southern Liaoning. Nowadays, wild boars can eat people.
Zhang Yu said: "General, I will arrest the soldiers who committed the crime..."
"asshole!"
Cheng Shijie angrily scolded: "I have finally brought up Ning Haijun's military morale. With your treatment, our Ning Haijun soldiers will bow their heads and become timid whenever they see a scholar..."
This is just like in later generations, some trolls are criticizing security guards for roughing the law. When security guards (meaning, not real security guards) encounter emergencies, they will immediately consider whether they will violate the law when enforcing the law. The matter is not handled immediately, but self-protection is considered first. Only ordinary people can be injured.
"Then what does the commander-in-chief mean...what should we do now?"
"You're like this!"
Cheng Shijie lowered his voice and said: "Make some tofu with brine and drop everything. You go to the labor camp, bring up some vicious gangsters or gangsters, and declare to the outside world that there is a riot in the Ning Haijun labor camp and that some labor reform prisoners have escaped..."
Zhang Yu suddenly realized.
Cheng Shijie doesn't want to rebel directly now, because this will make it easier to establish slaves, so he can only settle for the second best.
There is no harm without comparison.
With contrast, there is harm.
Let them suffer a little first, so that they can know that Ning Haijun is their protector.
(End of chapter)
