"Ah...this..."
Fang Xu had a big question mark on his face.
Then his face suddenly turned ugly: "Master Hou, the Hou Mansion does have some wealth. But there are not only 1,000 but also 800 houses in the upper reaches of the Jinshui River. I bought one of the larger ones at a low cost of 200,000 yuan. two......"
A house costs 200,000 taels of silver. How much does a thousand taels cost?
"Hiss~"
After counting on his fingers for a long time, Chen Kan got an accurate result, which was a lot.
Anyway, with the Houfu's family background, he definitely can't afford it.
After a while, Chen Kanfeng patted Fang Xu on the shoulder calmly: "Oh, it's okay then!"
Then he showed an encouraging expression: "You did a good job in buying the house."
"Thank you, Lord Marquis, for the compliment."
After saying thank you, Fang Xu always felt that something was wrong, but Chen Kan had already strode towards the convoy that had finished moving.
The long motorcade stretched for several miles, and the servants of the Hou Mansion really moved everything that could be moved to Beijing.
After all, the servants have heard that my Marquis will probably live in Beijing for more than three years, or even live in Beijing permanently and never return.
Chen Kan did not ride in the carriage with his female relatives. Instead, he found a carriage filled with goods and got on the shaft.
This is not the first time Beijing Chen Kan has arrived, but this is the first time Beijing Chen Kan of the Ming Dynasty has come.
The last time Chen Kan came to Beijing, the place where Zhuozhou City was located had become Fangshan District, and the large tracts of fertile farmland outside Zhuozhou City had been occupied by tall buildings rising from the ground.
The style of Beijing during the Ming Dynasty was still very primitive.
Although there are many villages outside the city, they are still far behind the capital, which is the most beautiful place in the world.
As far as he could see, Chen Kan rarely saw houses with green bricks and white tiles scattered on the North China Plain.
Most villages are made of adobe and thatch.
On the outskirts of Beijing, Chen Kan's first impression was poverty, and not ordinary poverty, but extreme poverty.
The north is unlike the south. Thanks to the popularization of Champa rice introduced from the Southeast Asian Peninsula in the former Song Dynasty, rice in the south of the Yangtze River can be harvested at least twice every year, so there is always no shortage of food.
The north, especially the secluded land of the North China Plain, has not been a wealthy place since ancient times.
Even if the capital was established here in the former Yuan Dynasty, it was more about robbing the people than developing it.
Along the way, Chen Kan didn't see the imaginary harvest of thousands of seeds.
What’s more, a group of sallow and skinny people are replanting the traditional northern crop, millet, in the fields.
It is hard to imagine that Zhu Di fought all the way from the border areas of Peking to Nanjing with the support of such a group of people who were so poor that they did not even have a complete piece of clothing.
It's a pity that Chen Kan came late, otherwise he really wanted to ask Emperor Jianwen, how did he play a good hand to pieces and perfectly avoid all the correct options?
Not long after the motorcade set off, a sparkling river came into view.
The scenery of the creek is beautiful, and many wealthy families can be seen enjoying the cool weather by the river, which is in sharp contrast to the poor people in the fields near Zhuozhou.
A river of golden water seems to separate two worlds, and the differences between the worlds are vividly displayed here.
At the end of the river, a towering city came into view.
That is the city of Beijing that is under construction.
Even from a long distance away, Chen Kan and his party could see the fly ash and dust covering the sky above Beijing.
Obviously, Beijing today is undergoing large-scale transformation.
Beijing is a square city facing south. The Jinshui River flows into the city from the north and flows out from the south.
Theoretically speaking, if everyone wants to reach their new home, walking through the middle of the city is the fastest way.
But looking at the mud above the city, Chen Kan decided to take a detour.
Under the leadership of Fang Xu, everyone took a detour from the east side of the city. The size of Beijing was really huge. By detouring along the city wall, they were half a day later than everyone expected.
Finally, the sparkling Jinshui River appeared in front of everyone again.
At the same time, exquisite houses built along both sides of the river also appeared in everyone's eyes.
Obviously, there are rich people in Beijing, but they all gather in the upper reaches of the Jinshui River.
This is not surprising, no rich person will go downstream to use the river water used by the rich people upstream with those Kuhaha.
As we approach this residential area, the scenery along the river changes suddenly.
First, endless lotus bushes appeared in the wetlands on both sides of the river, and the houses were separated by clusters of hibiscus.
The public areas are filled with delicate Luoyang peonies, the pavilions and pavilions look simple and elegant, and the rockeries made of Taihu Lake stones...
The biggest change is that the dirt road under everyone's feet has turned into a neat and smooth marble path. The marble path extends in all directions, even extending into the fields outside the residential area.
When he came here, Chen Kan jumped off the carriage and started walking. Chen Kan was satisfied with the environment here. Although it was in the north, it still made people feel like they were in a water town in the south of the Yangtze River.
The only thing that is not beautiful is that there are no tall trees for shade, and it must be very hot in summer.
Yun Cheng leaned behind Chen Kan and explained to Chen Kan: "Master Marquis, this is the residence of the nobles of the Northern Yuan Dynasty during the BC Yuan Dynasty. After the Northern Yuan Dynasty returned to the grassland, His Majesty came to Peiping to join the feudal vassal, so he rewarded the house here. It was given to princes and ministers, so the people who live here are either rich or noble.”
"oh!"
Chen Kan nodded to express his understanding.
No wonder there aren't any tall trees here, I'm afraid assassins are hiding in them.
After a while, everyone, led by Fang Xu, walked to the door of a large house.
The plaque on the door has been replaced with four large gilded characters of Jinghaihoufu.
At this time, Chen Kan's several-mile-long moving team also attracted the attention of many people, most of whom were dressed like stewards.
Obviously, Chen Kan's neighbors are also very interested in Chen Kan, their new neighbor.
Chen Kan automatically ignored the curious glances from secretly and ordered Fang Xu to open the door.
Then he took the lead and walked into the new house with his hands behind his back.
Zhu Zhanji, Hua Shi, and Zhu Zhanhe ran towards the atrium in a hurry, preparing to find their favorite bedroom.
Zhu Yuelan and Yuncheng directed the servants of the Hou Mansion and the helpers to start moving the things on the carriage towards the house.
The first thing to enter was Chen Kan and Zhu Yuelan's big bed.
There was nothing he could do. When he was in Nanjing, there was no bed to sleep on at home, so he made the Marquis so angry that he went to a brothel to take a nap. Now Yuncheng really doesn't dare to make such a small mistake again.
The so-called Sanjin house consists of three courtyards. The front courtyard is where the servants of the Hou Mansion live, and the middle courtyard is where the three young men and the steward Yuncheng live.
In addition, the auditorium where Chen Kan receives guests and the restaurant where the family eats are also in the atrium, and the backyard is where Chen Kan and Zhu Yuelan live.
The three courtyards add up to more than a hundred rooms.
Although it was a little smaller than the Marquis Mansion in Nanjing, considering that a group of people were new to the place, Chen Kan didn't find fault with it.
The only fly in the ointment is that there is no lake in the backyard garden, only a small pond, which is about twenty or thirty square meters in size, and there are some fish and tortoises in the water.
After walking around the yard, Chen Kan saw that the bedroom had been carefully decorated by the servants, so he planned to catch up on his sleep first.
After drifting on the boat for more than a month, even though Chen Kan was used to riding on a boat, life on the boat was still far from comfortable compared to a soft ship.
The yawn came as soon as it came, and along with it came Yuncheng's disgusting old face.
"Master Marquis, there is someone outside the door asking to see you. He claims to be the commander of the Three Thousand Remaining Battalion in Beijing."
Chen Kan's footsteps paused, and a strange look appeared on his face: "Three thousand battalions are left in Beijing to command the affairs?"
Chen Kan clicked his lips and was a little stunned.
Although Chen Kan did not hide his whereabouts along the way, didn't Lao Shizi come too quickly to direct the affairs?
The Three Thousand Battalion, one of the three major battalions of the Forbidden Army in the capital, was originally composed of three thousand Mongolians who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, so it was named Three Thousand Battalions. The other two battalions were the Fifth Army Battalion and the Shenji Battalion.
However, the Three Thousand Battalion has grown to this day. It is no longer just the 3,000 people at the beginning of the camp, but has expanded to an exaggerated 70,000 people.
Then combined with the Fifth Army Camp and the Shenji Camp, they were known as the 200,000 forbidden troops.
At the same time, the three major battalions are also directly under Zhu Di's personal control of military power.
In the history of the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the most fundamental reason why the civil servant group was able to completely suppress the imperial power was that the main force of the three major battalions was buried in Tumu Fort by the Baozong Emperor.
Otherwise, as long as one of the three major battalions is still there, it will not be the turn of those Jiangnan wealthy families to jump up and down in the court.
At present, the main forces of the three battalions are in Nanjing to defend the capital, and only the five thousand soldiers of the three thousand battalions remain in Beijing.
"Then let's go and meet him."
Chen Kan made a decision quickly.
He wanted to see what his nominal deputy general's intentions were.
Walking out of the backyard with his hands behind his back, bypassing the busy servants of the Hou Mansion, Chen Kan saw the commander of the imperial army who stayed in Beijing outside the gate.
As well as a cart of gifts and two retinues behind the commander of the imperial army.
"The last general Zhou Shi has met the Marquis."
When the visitor saw Chen Kan, he quickly came forward with two subordinates to salute, with a respectful look on his face that made it impossible to fault him.
Chen Kan raised his eyebrows and pointed to the pavilion not far away: "General Zhou is exempt from courtesy. When I first arrived, the house was in chaos, so I didn't invite General Zhou in as a guest. If General Zhou doesn't mind, let's go over there." What do you say?"
As soon as these words came out, Zhou Shi's face suddenly stiffened, and he couldn't help but feel a trace of dissatisfaction in his heart.
He didn't expect that he would rush over to express his loyalty, but in the end he couldn't even get through the gate of the Marquis' Mansion, which was a bit insulting.
But after all, he had been in a high position for a long time, so he quickly suppressed his dissatisfaction, and cupped his hands towards Chen Kan and said: "The last general has been rude, please invite me."
Chen Kan nodded and walked straight towards the pavilion not far away with his hands behind his back.
When he came to sit down at a stone table in the middle of the pavilion, Chen Kan stretched out his hand and said: "General Zhou, please sit down."
Zhou Shi hesitated for a moment, then came and sat down in front of Chen Kan.
Just as he was about to speak, Chen Kan asked preemptively: "General Zhou is here today, is it to congratulate me on my move to a new house?"
