What does sleeping in the middle of the night and waking up in the middle of the night have to do with people who want to make money to support their families?
Diligent people have probably been like this since ancient times.
Anyway, from what Su Changsheng saw, this was the case. Whether it was Jiaxing or Lin'an, hardworking people always got up early and stayed late.
"Lin'an is the most prosperous in the world. People who come home late go home to sleep at three o'clock, and people who get up early get up at five o'clock to go to work. People who come home late want to eat night food to satisfy their cravings, and people who get up early also need to eat morning food to fill their stomachs. , so that we can start work early.
Therefore, the food vendors are working day and night. Almost at any time, as long as you come here, you can eat what you want. However, you may not be able to drink the clear juice of the snail soup. It is winter now and there are no snails. "
Su Changsheng said with a smile.
"This... Your Majesty remembers it wrong?"
"His Majesty left Lin'an in March or April. I must have remembered it wrong. But even if there is no snail soup, there are still many other delicacies. For example, the fish soup is very good. It tastes delicious. The fish meat is soft and glutinous. You can take a sip. It's really the best choice.
And coming at this time is really a coincidence. It's the New Year's Eve soon. The Song people's celebration of the Lantern Festival is very grand and lively. That night, all men and women in Lin'an City will go out to play, and hundreds of thousands of people celebrate the Lantern Festival all night long. Dadan will never leave until dawn, you must not miss it. "
Xin Qiji swallowed and sighed after hearing this.
"I heard it a little bit before and thought it was an exaggeration. I didn't expect it to be true. The wealth of Song Dynasty is really not a joke. In the past, the celebration of New Year's Eve in my hometown was quite lively, but how could there be hundreds of thousands of people? Even if it was true, it was true. It’s the Ming Dynasty celebrating New Year’s Eve, so it won’t be so lively, right?”
After Su Yonglin founded the country, of course he also regarded the Lantern Festival as an important holiday and gave it a holiday, but it was different from the five-day and five-night celebrations of the Song Dynasty.
People in the Song Dynasty held lantern festivals and temple fairs for five days and nights from the fourteenth to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, and officials could also take a nap. People in Lin'an City would unleash their purchasing power and desires during those five days.
The rule of the Ming Dynasty is that officials only have two days off. How can the people celebrate that the government does not interfere, but officials can only take two days off at most, and they must continue to devote themselves to endless work hell.
Of course Su Yonglin himself took the lead in the charge, so the Ming Dynasty's celebration of Yuan's Eve definitely did not have the atmosphere of "the king and the people are enjoying themselves" like the Southern Song Dynasty.
Su Yonglin is a workaholic and has strict requirements for officials. They are required to focus most of their energy on work. They are not allowed to slack off or abandon official duties for personal reasons. Officials are strictly prohibited from gambling, and horse riding and hanging are banned within the court. Such gambling games swept away the extravagant scenes of Wen Tian and Wu Xi in the previous dynasty.
However, Su Changsheng just shook his head at Xin Qiji's surprise.
"It's just that Lin'an and some big coastal towns look prosperous."
Speaking of this, Su Changsheng looked disdainful: "If you go deep into some inland towns and take a look, you will know what it means to be depressed, dilapidated, and a hell on earth. In the Song Dynasty, it was a place where gold and jade were ruined on the outside. The whole country raised a city and a night sky. The great city is full of music and singing at night, and the whole country is tired."
The slight surprise that Xin Qiji had just aroused immediately dissipated.
"Really?"
"Those of us who were the first to follow His Majesty know that we have traveled to many places along the southeastern coast of Song Dynasty, and have also gone deep into many inland towns. We have seen too many human tragedies with our own eyes. When looking at the Song Dynasty, we cannot only look at Lin'an. "
Su Changsheng shook his head repeatedly.
What he said made sense. Xin Qiji nodded with a heavy face.
"Having said that, it would be great to have such a life. What should Ming Dynasty do to let the people live such a life? All living beings suffer, but if they can be happy, who wouldn't want to?"
Of course, Su Changsheng didn't know how to answer this question. He only knew that the Song people's method would definitely not work.
However, this did not prevent Xin Qiji from deciding to visit the night market in Zhong'anqiao Shopping Street on the evening of the 14th of the first lunar month, to experience the customs of Lin'an and to understand what this city supported by the whole country's efforts was like.
Just do what you say, Xin Qiji's mobility has always been very strong.
On the evening of the 14th day of the first lunar month, Xin Qiji dressed up in disguise, and under the protection of five guards and a local Lin'an member of the Skynet Army's second action group, wearing Song festival attire, left the inn as the sun set. He merged into the huge flow of people in Lin'an City.
There are so many people.
This was Xin Qiji's biggest feeling after setting foot on Lin'an Market.
Since he went south, he has always heard people say that Lin'an has a population of one million. He only thinks that this is an exaggeration. But when he saw it today, he felt that even if it was an exaggeration, it might not be much of an exaggeration.
There are huge crowds of people. Everywhere you look, there are people everywhere, and you can hear laughter and laughter everywhere.
As far as Xin Qiji's observation is concerned, what's even more amazing is that there seem to be more women than men.
Lanterns are set off during the Lantern Festival. When the sky gets dark, the city is filled with fireworks and lights, and the entire Lin'an City is enveloped in orange light.
At this time of year, Lin'an City is as dazzling and dazzling as the only luminous pearl on the dark earth. How can such beautiful scenery restrain a woman's footsteps?
During the lantern season, people come out to visit the city all night long.
In these days, women from common people can show their faces without any scruples, enjoy the free and beautiful air, walk around the streets, come and go, visit the shops lined up on both sides of the streets as far as the eye can see, and release themselves by the way. I have been holding back my shopping desire for a long time.
They brought their families, a couple with a son and a daughter, and some elderly people, and they went out to play in groups. Their faces were full of smiles as they saw novel things, and there was no distinction between men and women.
Compared with ordinary people's homes, the female relatives of officials and officials are much more reserved when going out.
In order to prevent people on the street from being crowded and being taken advantage of, they would use pieces of silk or cloth to make long circles around them to isolate the people outside. This was called the Purple Silk Barrier or the Jin Bu Barrier, which can be a good example of this. The style of a big family shows identity and status.
Xin Qiji looked at the dazzling array of lively scenes and new gadgets, and for a moment he almost forgot his identity and the purpose of his visit. His eyes were full of surprises and happiness, as if he had returned to the time when he was young and went out to participate in lively festivals with his family elders.
Along the way, he asked some questions that he couldn't understand, and the Skynet Army spy who was a native of Lin'an explained them to him.
What is this, what is that, what are these people doing, what are those people doing.
Walking through a street, when turning a corner, the sky was getting dark. Xin Qiji had good eyesight, and at a glance he saw the figures of some young men and women in a grove of trees on the side of the street. They were in groups of two and they didn't know what they were doing.
Following Xin Qiji's gaze, the spy also saw that scene and smiled.
"I'm afraid this is a man and woman who secretly arranged to meet each other without telling the elders in the family."
"ah?"
Xin Qiji was quite surprised.
He had read poetry and books since he was a child, and was deeply influenced by his parents' instructions to matchmakers. He was very particular about seeing and hearing no evil, and he would never look down on any woman, let alone touch her, and would not even look at her.
Su Yonglin reformed his political ideology, but the scope of the reform did not involve the relationship between men and women. Xin Qiji is still a very conservative person. How can we not be surprised when we see this scene at this moment?
The men and women in Lin'an City... actually fall in love freely and have secret trysts?
"How unbecoming is this..."
Xin Qiji muttered.
"On the top of a willow tree in the moonlight, people make an appointment after dusk. This is a poem by Ouyang Xiu. In Lin'an, this is a common thing. Even if the elders in the family know about it, they are unable to control it. As long as it doesn't cause trouble with human relations, why bother to beat the mandarin ducks? "
The secret agent smiled, very ambiguously.
Xin Qiji was immediately impressed.
"Have you read Ouyang Xiu's poems?"
"When I was young, my family was rich in business, so I studied with Master Meng for several years, and became proficient in writing. Later, my family fell into decline and was killed by my enemies. Except for my subordinates, everyone in my family died. If it weren't for Su The director came to the rescue, but his subordinates were already dead."
The secret agent chuckled and seemed to have looked away from everything: "But those are all things in the past. They are all in the past. I no longer think about those things in the past."
Hearing this, Xin Qiji was silent for a while, then patted the secret agent on the shoulder to comfort him.
