It was the summer of the fourth year of the reign of King Ming of the Ming Dynasty.
When the weather gradually gets hotter, in the capital city of Nanjing, people walking on the streets take off their cotton and gauze robes, and the more fashionable people put on brightly colored silk clothes to show off in the city.
In this summer, the most popular color in Nanjing is noble and gorgeous purple... aniline purple!
The Weaver Palace, privately owned by Zhu Heji, has been launching silk and cotton fabrics dyed with the synthetic dye aniline purple since last winter. Before that, the Weaver Palace had already launched two synthetic fabrics using sulfur black and sulfide blue. Satin and cotton dyed with dyes are very popular because they are not easy to fade and the color is thick and uniform.
However, because purple natural dyes are too rare, the popularity of sulfide black and sulfide blue cannot be compared with aniline purple...
Driven by Zhu Heji, the Ming King who oversaw the state, the large-scale demolition and construction that had lasted for several years finally brought many new looks to Nanjing. Large open roads were opened and paved, and the city's drainage system also underwent large-scale reconstruction.
At Longjiangkou, Yifengmen, Sanshanmen, and on the streets outside Nanjing Imperial City, many tall and straight enclosed buildings were built, and they became more and more beautiful. Many new-style enclosed buildings with red brick exterior walls and glass windows have appeared, gradually taking on the style of a modern metropolis.
By the way, there are many four-wheeled carriages and three-wheeled bicycles on the streets of Nanjing today, and the latter is particularly eye-catching.
This kind of tricycle is divided into two categories: cargo type and transportation type. Among them, the freight tricycle is a tow truck mounted on the two rear wheels, which can be filled with miscellaneous things. It is the favorite of urban vendors.
The small three-wheel transportation type is the favorite transportation tool for officials in Nanjing. .
Nanjing is a city that occupies a huge area. Even if the eastern part of the outer city is not considered huge and empty, the inner city of Nanjing and the prosperous western part of the outer city alone are still a huge city. The yamen of the Imperial City of Nanjing and the Nanjing Court were all concentrated in the eastern part of the inner city of Nanjing, which was a little far away from the bustling living area of Nanjing City. Without a means of transportation, commuting to and from get off work every day can be a bit tiring.
Of course, high-ranking officials can afford to keep a carriage or simply ride a horse, but middle- and low-level officials do not have this condition - how big must the house be to keep a horse and also have a carriage?
Therefore, before and after get off work every day, you can see huge traffic on several major roads leading to the Imperial City of Nanjing.
Countless officials wearing Confucius uniforms, with big beards (some with no beards), carrying big swords on their waists, and hollow grenade hammers, just came and went on small tricycles.
Well, the former Confucian warriors who once made the world famous have now begun their daily routine of clocking in from nine to five.
And these officials riding small tricycles to work give the city an air of a political center.
It was in this spring that King Zhu Tianwang and Zhao Zhongyi returned to Nanjing after a long absence.
They have stayed in Dengzhou City for more than three years. It is also a metropolis that is developing extremely rapidly and even a little abnormally prosperous... What is different from the balanced development of handicrafts, commerce, and finance is that There is almost no handicraft industry in Dengzhou. Although there is some trade, there is no way to compare it with Nanjing. But the financial industry in Dengzhou is incredibly prosperous!
In the Dengzhou commercial port, which occupies a small area within the outer wall of Dengzhou, there are at least hundreds of banks and banks. There are tens of thousands of funds coming in and out every day!
In addition to the developed financial industry, Dengzhou's real estate market is also very prosperous. To the south of Dengzhou Commercial Port, there is a secluded neighborhood surrounded by tall fences. Hundreds of large and small courtyard houses have been built within the fence circle.
Regardless of their size, these courtyard houses all have tall, solid exterior walls and thick wooden doors. Moreover, their doors seem to be permanently closed, and there are very few noises coming from within the high walls, and no one seems to live in them.
However, these seemingly vacant properties are all worth a lot of money. The cheapest ones cost two thousand silver dollars, and the most expensive ones are even worth over ten thousand...
But whoever thinks that Dengzhou Prefecture under the rule of King Zhu Cijiong only has developed financial industry, expensive real estate industry, and tepid import and export trade, is totally wrong!
Because the Dengzhou territory under the rule of King Zhu Tian not only included Penglai County, but also three large prefectures and counties, including Fushan, Ninghai, and Rongcheng. These three prefectures and counties are all along the Bohai Sea, and the most indispensable thing is the relatively closed peninsula and offshore islands.
It is not difficult to train troops on these peninsulas and offshore islands without telling the Qing Dynasty.
In fact, Daming Dengzhou Town spends nearly four million silver dollars a year, almost all of which is spent on recruiting soldiers, equipment training, hoarding supplies, and building military camps.
By the end of the third year of the Ming Dynasty's supervision of the country, four "town-level camps" had appeared in Fushan County, Ninghai Prefecture, and Rongcheng County, including Zhifu Island Camp, Yangma Island Camp, Weihaiwei Camp, and Chengshanjiao Camp. camp"!
With the cover of Dengzhou, the "City of Freedom", four fully-staffed Ming Army field towns were established unknowingly under the eyes of the Qing Dynasty.
If you include the men and horses of the Dengzhou Battalion on the table, the Ming Dynasty's Army Division garrisoned in Dengzhou has exceeded 75,000 elite troops!
This number is enough to support a cross-sea expedition!
Just as the preparations for the war in Dengzhou were coming to an end, Zhu Heji's "three-year no-war" agreement had almost expired.
Five years of Ping Liao are about to begin!
King Zhu Tian and Zhao Zhongyi, the general manager of the Dengzhou camp, naturally wanted to go back to Nanjing to discuss the war in person with Zhu Heji, the king of the supervisory state.
Of course, the two of them also wanted to witness with their own eyes the current prosperity of Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty... It is said that the prosperity of the capital of the Ming Dynasty has exceeded the level before the demise of the previous Ming Dynasty!
When Zhu Tianwang and Zhao Zhongyi heard about how prosperous Nanjing was in Dengzhou, they didn't believe it. After all, Nanjing in the late Ming Dynasty was a metropolis with a population of one million!
At that time, the population of China was over 100 million!
But now the population of the world is at least 50 to 60 million, and the population under the new Ming Dynasty will never reach 30 million.
Can such a small population really support a prosperous city with a population of one million?
In addition, does Yuan Ru, who lives in a wealthy and gentle village, still have the same drive that "you will win only if you love to work hard"? Can they still fight?
However, when Zhu Tianwang and Zhao Zhongyi returned to Nanjing, accompanied by Zhu Heji, Da Boling, Zhuge Military Advisor, Mr. Yu, Su Yong and others, they boarded the newly built Yuejiang Tower. When he climbed up and overlooked the city of Nanjing, which looked like a busy construction site, he seemed to have returned to thirty years ago...the summer when the two of them followed the unlucky Emperor Longwu into exile in Nanjing.
Although the city of Nanjing at that time was more prosperous than Nanjing now, King Zhu Tian felt two completely different atmospheres.
In Nanjing in the first year of Hongguang's reign, it was impossible to feel the vigorous and upward atmosphere that Nanjing had during the four years of King Ming's supervision.
Look at those bearded scholars who rushed out from the Imperial City of Nanjing on tricycles and wielded long swords with empty hammers... This kind of momentum, this turbulent energy, how could there be such a scene in Hongguangnian?
King Zhu Tian put away the telescope, turned around, and said to Zhu Heji with a smile: "Those Yuan Confucians riding small cars look very energetic! Sure enough, they still have the energy to do business in Guangzhou and Chaozhou! Yes, very good Not bad...it’s time for a fight!”
Zhu Heji also nodded, thinking: "It would be great if they could be so energetic when they go to work!"
Thinking of this, Zhu Heji smiled and said to King Zhu Tian: "Abba, now the clearing and equalization of land in the country have been basically completed... The farmland controlled by the imperial court exceeds 300 million acres, and the total population is checked More than 28 million people came out, of which there were as many as 7 million strong men. One out of seven men is enough to make a million people. Even if we fold it in half, we can still pull out an army of 500,000 people, which is enough!"
