It makes no sense for the emperor to occupy too much money in his hands. If he has power, is he afraid of not having money?
The economic system of ancient China was to a certain extent a highly closed small circle. In theory, there was 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. It is difficult to do things without money, but he cannot be a miser like Wanli.
Zhu Houzhao had previously prepared for war, because it was hard to say how much the war would cost, and he should also save some for emergencies. But he was not prepared to keep the money from the Shaofu under the Ministry of Revenue.
As a villain, if you don’t spend it, there will be people who will come and help you spend it. The emperor's own small treasury was watched by all the civil servants, not to mention the money from the Ministry of Revenue. When the time comes, there will be a sprinkling here and there, and the eyes will still be wide open all year round. Once the household department is in deficit and encounters any major event, they will turn their attention back to the emperor.
Now Zhu Houzhao controls the money himself, at least he can see the output after investing.
In mid-April, the weather in the capital was no longer cool. Within a few days after leaving the palace, Gu Zuo paid homage to Han Wen and other old bosses' docks, and then officially began to look for a suitable venue in the capital.
During the Zhengde period, the city of Beijing did not yet have the "convex" shape of the city wall that we are familiar with in later generations. Now there is only the upper part of the convex character. The southernmost gate is called Zhengyang Gate.
To the north of Zhengyangmen is Damingmen.
From the inside of Daming Gate, along the inner side of the east and west palace walls, a thousand-step corridor with continuous eaves, yellow tiles and red columns, and eaves was built. There are more than a hundred rooms facing east and west, which are used as a place to store documents and files. In the middle, there is a central imperial road that is as flat as a stone and as straight as a stone, also known as the "Sky Street". On both sides of Tianjie, government offices that exercised power for the feudal dynasty were concentrated. These most important government offices in the capital were connected to the Forbidden City through the square.
Therefore, you can go directly to Chengtianmen from Damingmen to the north. Then we passed through Duanmen and Meridian Gate to reach Fengtian Hall in the palace.
These buildings are magnificent, but they are not accessible to ordinary people.
The really lively area is actually further south from Zhengyangmen, that is, Zhengxifang and Zhengdongfang, where most of the common people, merchants, shops, and dental shops are concentrated.
But there is no gate protection here.
Until the 32nd year of Jiajing, because there were already sacrificial buildings such as the Temple of Heaven and Earth and the Altar of Mountains and Rivers outside Zhengyang Gate, and the Mongols were heading south, and had recently reached the southern suburbs, the emperor and his ministers discussed it and decided to expand the city wall. .
After that, there was Yongding Gate further south from Zhengyang Gate.
The emperor wants the city that never sleeps to be safe.
Obviously, outside Zhengyang Gate cannot be considered, but the inside of the Imperial City is actually very crowded. Previously, the academy and the Women's Medical Center were built in the East City. After thinking about it, Gu Zuo thought about finding a place in the West City, as far away from the Imperial City as possible. A little further away, after much deliberation, he considered the place in the southwest corner, where there were some residential areas.
There are no special buildings, unlike the Imperial College, the Confucian Temple, and the Shuntian Government Office in the north. It is really inappropriate to build a city that never sleeps.
Gu Zuo thought that by adhering to the southwest city wall, the original city wall could be used, thereby eliminating the cost of building the two side walls.
At this time, there are no approvals or various reports such as environmental impact assessments and feasibility surveys, and there are no various departments to run. To be honest, there is no need to even deal with land acquisition and demolition, and there is no compensation agreement to sign with the people.
As long as the court decides and the government issues an order, all the people living in the southwest corner will be moved to me. Of course, a new residence, a minister of household affairs, and the emperor's support can be found, and the house can be found, aren't they the ones who raid corrupt officials.
After that, on the west side of Zhengyangmen, a signboard of Boss was erected along the street. Several tables were set up with two big words: Recruiting!
Dongcheng's academy and women's medical clinic were crowded with buildings. Sometimes the emperor would go there, so the east and west streets in front of the door were swept clean. In the past few years, there were often woodwork or idle people coming in and out, making it a bit messy. It's all in order now.
Nowadays, the noisy place has changed to the West City.
It was no coincidence that the place in the southwest corner chosen by Gu Zuoxuan happened to be right next to the Inspectorate. Ordinary people coming from far and near to find a job made the place noisy all day long. Zhu Houzhao also received There were several memorials to the imperial censor, all of which were written by Gu Zuo!
The emperor threw back the original memorials and said they were narrow-minded and hypocritical!
When Gu Zuo was at the scene, there were also imperial officials who would point and point on the way to and from the check-in room. He, the assistant minister, was not a minor official, so he ignored him at all, "What did your majesty say? What the young master did was to benefit the country and benefit the people by taking it from the people and using it for the people, but what the few censors did was My personal selfishness has been disturbed. If I didn’t think of it, I would be narrow-minded. If I didn’t think of it, if I didn’t think of it, it would be hypocritical!”
The emperor's words were so profound that the scolding group of people could only shrink their heads. For a moment, Gu Zuo felt very happy.
But having said that, when there are many people, there are many situations, and there are all kinds of religions and schools, so problems are easy to occur. For this reason, Gu Zuo also invited Zhang Tianrui, the Imperial College priest who had done this.
Zhang Jijiu was timid and resorted to stupid methods at first. He never returned home and ate and slept at the construction site, staring intently at him. Later, he gradually developed some cleverness. For example, he couldn't just want everyone, couldn't care about every trivial matter, etc. He also had to have people who could use him.
Now here, the first three days were fine, the sign had just been put up, but on the fourth day, people began to crowd under the Zhengyang Gate, and it was impossible to squeeze in. This is the work of the government, and the emperor is watching, and he is paid for the work. Also take care of a meal of white rice.
No one beat anyone, no one made trouble. It is common for Chinese people to get together with fellow villagers, but who dares to fight with each other here?
Are you afraid that Jin Yiwei will have no work?
Although this environment was hard, for the people of Ming Dynasty at this time, working here was basically a paradise, even better than being a tenant.
Gu Zuo looked at this heated scene from a distance, and couldn't help but think of the emperor's words that day.
"I didn't understand why Your Majesty was so anxious at first, 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."
At this time in the Ming Dynasty, land annexation was serious, and many people were actually landless. If they did not do this work, they would be refugees. Nowadays, there is a refugee problem in the Huguang, Jingxiang and Jingxiang areas.
On a larger scale, this is a stability issue. If you don't spend this money, you will have to raise so much military salary to quell the rebellion.
"There are so many people, so they need to eat, so there is a small restaurant, and when they are sick, they need medicine, so there is a pharmacy. If the children can't afford private school, they can only go to the academy to learn some miscellaneous subjects. That's why the academy is so big."
After Zhang Tianrui said this, he looked at the Minister Gu's mouth and explained: "What Your Majesty said, I couldn't have imagined. When wealth gathers and people disperse, wealth gathers and people gather, the capital is bustling and prosperous. This is called the prosperous age of the Ming Dynasty."
If there is depression everywhere and you still want to praise virtues and claim to be a prosperous world, then you will actually be self-defeating.
With that said, Zhang Tianrui pointed to one of the several queues, "Young Situ, look over there."
In the turbulent crowd, there was a woman carrying a baby on her back, and she was holding two boys with her left and right hands. Fortunately, the two boys were already half-grown teenagers. The taller one had his sleeves rolled up and seemed to be quite good at fucking. People who work hard.
"It must be mother and son, what's wrong?"
Zhang Tianrui looked somewhat reminiscing, "When that mother came to look for a job, the two sons around her were only this tall."
He gestured with his hand, reaching his waist.
"I didn't want to take her in at first because she had to take care of the children and was afraid that she wouldn't be able to take care of her work, but... I decided to take her in later. Now that the two children have grown up, they can be considered successful."
…
…
The eldest son is sixteen and the younger son is fifteen. The surname is Sheng, and the names are also simple. The elder brother is Sanshu, and the younger brother is Sishu.
They are from Shuntian Prefecture. After their father died, the family's land was taken away by unscrupulous relatives. A peasant family fell into abject poverty at the slightest change. When Sheng's mother came to the capital to beg for food, she could not live here. Got a job carrying wood.
A half-grown boy will defeat me. Although I have saved money over the years, I still don’t have much money in my pocket.
Now that the government started recruiting workers again, Sheng's mother heard the news and was so happy that she rushed her two sons over without caring about anything. Now I have a little girl that my sister’s family can’t afford to raise. She has four mouths and always needs to eat!
The whole family pointed at this, and Sheng's mother would follow her no matter what.
"Second brother, ride on brother's shoulder and see what's going on in front."
Sanshu had a lot of strength, and the two brothers cooperated seamlessly. One squatted and the other rode. After climbing up, they could see clearly. There were heads everywhere around them, but at the end of the queue, there were four tables together, with people writing and a large flag standing beside them.
"Brother, I saw it, thirty cents a day, no deception! I don't recognize those two words."
Sanshu raised his head. He was also lost in the lake. Reading was not his specialty. "As long as you have thirty coins, don't worry about anything else! Sishu, let's work together and do a great job! Give it to mother and Little sister, buy a chicken and go home!"
In the Ming Dynasty, after passing the civil service examination, life would improve a lot. There would be an income of about 18 taels of silver a year, called Lin Liang. In addition, they could also teach people to take the imperial examination, so that there would be an income ranging from 30 taels to 50 taels a year. Income, well-off is no problem.
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 between 20 and 27 fen per day, so 30 fen is indeed not high, it is only enough for Hukou, but it is not too low.
As for prices, prices are very different in different eras and regions. In the Ming Dynasty, overall prices rose. Fortunately, they were relatively good during the Zhengde period. During this period, rice cost about 5 to 7 cents per catty, pork cost seven or eight cents per catty, and fish and shrimp also cost seven or eight cents per catty.
In Jiajing, the price of pork was twelve to fifteen per catty, which was basically doubled. Ordinary people could no longer afford to eat meat. After that, the people would suffer even more.
It turns out that Sheng's mother has 30 cents a day and three mouths to feed, which is basically half full. Because in addition to rice and noodles, the human body also needs necessities such as salt and sugar. Furthermore, humans are not animals. Not only do they eat, they also have to pull out some pieces of cloth to make some clothes, right? In this way, you will know how difficult life was in the past.
Now Sheng's mother calculates that there are three workers in the family, and they can earn ninety cents a day, which is more than thirty taels of silver a year. This is much better, and they can even save some to marry their children.
But I'm afraid...
An honest-looking farmer next to me also said,
"I don't know how long this work will last this year. Last year, it suddenly stopped in October. God bless me, don't stop it again this winter."
In order to make a living, Sheng's mother didn't care about women showing up in public, but she said openly: "Yeah, what are you afraid of when the weather is cold? If you don't have any work, you will be worried."
"Mom, don't be afraid!" Sishu got off his eldest brother's neck and counted with his fingers 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 hire a lot of people! Come on! Then everyone will have work to do and everyone will have food to eat!”
Sheng's mother looked at her eldest son, who was already sixteen years old, and thought in her heart: We can't eat everything. We need to marry her son a daughter-in-law and give her a fat grandson. Only then can the incense of the Sheng family be passed on.
Sanshu touched his brother's head and said to Sheng's mother: "Mom, please register this name first. If you register it, it will always get better and better in the future. Didn't you listen to what others said? The Holy Lord is in charge now. On."
Yes, although they are still poor, government recruitment has given them a way to survive, and there is always hope for the future. If you have hope, don’t be afraid.
"But what should be built here?" Someone asked this question.
As a result, someone made a fuss and shouted: "It doesn't matter what he builds, as long as you give him money, I will dig up the cemetery for him!"
"Hahaha!"
"Stop making any noise and stop crowding!" Suddenly a cold-faced soldier came over.
Sishu stuck out his tongue like a child, turned away and hid in front of his elder brother, but there was always a smile in his eyes.
…
"What is the government's first priority?"
"It's to give people a way to survive."
