In this era of extreme scarcity of materials and extremely backward infrastructure, the magnificent Chang'an City is undoubtedly the most brilliant moment pearl in the whole East Asia and even the entire known world.

Countless princes and nobles gathered here, even if they were far away from Hangu Pass, almost equivalent to a personal territory, they would not return, but they would also rely on the prosperous world of Chang'an.

In the original history, after Chen Ping's death, Emperor Wen Liu Heng appointed Zhou Bo as the prime minister on the front foot, and on the back foot, on the grounds of 'the public waiting for a long time in Chang'an, and the etiquette is not in agreement', he made a difficult attack on Zhou Bo, who was difficult to support alone, and let Zhou Bo, who was the prime minister, 'be the first in the world' and set an example for the princes and ministers.

Poor Zhou Bo's butt didn't sit hot in the prime minister's position, so he was driven back to his hometown by Liu Heng to farm...

Even so, Zhou Bo's demonstration still didn't play much of a role, and the princes and nobles didn't seem to see the prime minister's example, they still drank wine and danced, but they stayed in Chang'an, and they didn't return to the country.

A large part of the reason for this is that these people want to stay in the political center, so as not to miss opportunities such as the vacancy of Jiuqing and the lack of generals in the army, but the prosperity of Chang'an City is also an important factor that makes the powerful nostalgic unable to go.

Although Chang'an is prosperous, everything has two sides - even under the prosperity of Manhattan in later generations, there are also countless slums and poor areas; Even in Kyoto, there are urban villages.

Beicheng District is the slum settlement area of Chang'an.

Different from the prosperity of Qili and Shangguanli in the south of the city, except for Xiaoli near Xishi, almost all of the small farmhouses in the north city are short and shabby, and there are few high-gate mansions.

The mud mixed with straw formed a half-height fence, and most of the courtyard was just a mud-walled thatched house that could slightly block the wind and rain, and the mud stove in the east corner of the courtyard was covered with a 'kitchen' almost indistinguishable from a pergola.

The setting sun adds a bleakness to the slightly depressed Beicheng District in the cold winter.

At night, when it was time for dinner, there were not a few cooking smokes rising in the north of the city, as if no one was eating.

In the He family's house south of Dongshi, in a small farmhouse courtyard, a little boy who looked no more than four or five years old was laboriously stepping on a wooden bench, lying on the edge of the rice urn, digging rice from the urn with a bamboo scoop.

Not far from the boy, on the edge of the stove in the southeast corner of the courtyard, an older girl was squatting on the ground, neatly tidying up the roots of wild vegetables in her hands.

The little hand was red from the cold wild vegetables, and her cheeks were faintly cracked by the cold wind, but the little girl didn't care about the pain, but only cared about making a bowl of steaming food before her father came home, so that her father, who had been running for several days, could come home and sit down to eat a mouthful of food and relieve the fatigue of the body a little.

After tinkering for a long time, the little boy struggled to climb down from the rice urn, his small mouth pursed slightly, and he walked behind the little girl in frustration, and pulled the corner of the girl's clothes: "Sister, there is only these rice left." ”

The girl did not forget to be busy in her hands, and when she measured her head slightly, she saw that in the bamboo scoop in her brother's hand, there was only less than half a bowl of corn...

The girl put down the wild vegetables in her hand, pretended to smile easily, and touched her brother's little head: "Don't be afraid, my father has been out for several days, and he should be able to bring back some rice grain." ”

The little boy nodded Nuonuo, carefully put aside the bamboo scoop containing corn in his hand, took his sister's hand, and put the little hands that were frozen purple on his face: "Sister's hands are cold." ”

Looking at her younger brother's sensible appearance, the little girl forced a smile, and her heart suddenly filled with bitterness.

The mother died in childbirth when she gave birth to her younger brother, and the younger brother was weak since he was a child, and the father had already spent all the rest of the family money in order to give his younger brother some nourishing things.

Now, the little girl is almost fifteen years old, and in a few months, she will have to get married.

Otherwise, the government will come to the door to urge marriage, collect fines, and even force the match; Now the situation at home is really unable to pay the 'late marriage fine' for her...

But in such a situation at home, if you can't get a little dowry, who wants to marry her?

The girl sighed silently, and there was a piercing sound of rotten wood grinding from the dilapidated courtyard gate.

Before the girl could react, the little boy had already run to the door and jumped into the arms of the man who walked in the door: "Father is back!" ”

The little girl hurriedly turned her back and secretly wiped away the tears on her face, and when she looked back, she already had a warm smile on her face.

"Father."

Seeing the corners of his daughter's slightly red eyes, the man's face darkened significantly, and he gently put the boy in his arms on the ground, his eyes dodged the direction of the girl, and said in a low voice: "Come into the house." ”

The little boy hurriedly followed like a little heel, happily circling the man's legs, while the girl sniffed lightly and followed last.

When he came to the house, the man let out a long sigh of exhaustion, sat down and collapsed, and the girl hurriedly squatted down and took off the pair of shabby cloth shoes on her father's feet that were almost stuck to his feet.

The room was suddenly filled with a harsh smell, which provoked the little boy to quickly cover his mouth and nose.

The girl picked up the pair of cloth shoes as if nothing had happened, went outside the house, put them at the base of the wall, drew hot water from the clay pot on the stove, and walked back to the room with the bucket of hot water.

Looking at his daughter squatting on the ground gently rubbing her feet soaked in the wooden barrel, the corners of the man's eyes were slightly sour, and he lowered his head in frustration.

"Father, send your daughter to Tianfu tomorrow..."

The girl said with a slight trembling voice, slowly raising her delicate, but somewhat gray face, with tears in the corners of her eyes, and looked at the man's face.

The girl could see clearly that when her father entered the door, he secretly hid the shriveled rice bag behind the door.

My father didn't buy rice.

After this meal tonight, the family will run out of food...

Looking at his daughter's sad gaze, the man couldn't hold back any longer, covered his eyes with one hand and sobbed in a low voice.

Seeing this, the little boy who was originally playing happily also stopped the game in time, holding his fingers in his mouth, and looked at his father's slightly shaking shoulders stupidly.

"It's useless for me, it's because I haven't taken care of you two brothers..."

The girl wiped the tears on her face slightly, took the man's hand, shook her head with a forced smile, and said, "How dare the daughter blame her father." ”

As she spoke, the tears that the girl wiped away appeared on her chapped cheeks again: "Don't be sad father, my daughter marries into the Tian family, which is a blessing and a good thing." ”

Hearing this, the man's shoulders rose and fell more violently, sobbing and taking out a string of copper coins from his arms, and defending himself sadly: "I really didn't eat or drink, and I saved all the money I earned from threshing grain for the owner..."

As he spoke, the man's eyes gradually became desperate, and his crying became more sad: "I saved these three hundred dollars, but I can't buy a stone of rice..."

·

·

·

PS: After the founding of the Han Dynasty, the world was empty, the population was greatly reduced compared with the Qin period, and the national finance gradually fell into depression because of low taxes.

In order to change this situation, Liu Bang formulated a policy of "encouraging childbirth", which is diametrically opposed to the current "family planning", and the first thing was the granting of land in the early Han Dynasty: each family was divided into 100 acres. One household here is Liu Bangliu's loophole - two old people and eight children, a total of ten people, this is a family, counted as one household, divided into 100 acres of land; One of the sons married a daughter-in-law to another household, which is two households, and there are 200 acres of land.

What is mentioned in the article is the supplementary measure of the follow-up 'encouraging childbearing': girls must marry when they are 15 years old!

If you don't marry after the age of fifteen, then for the next three years, the government will collect a high fine, and if you don't marry until the age of eighteen, the magistrate will personally help the old leftover girl who does not want to marry find a husband.

The purpose of the state is to have more newborns, so that the population base will increase, and the number of taxpayers will increase, that is, the taxes collected will increase. The local magistrate strictly enforced it for the sake of political performance—the political performance of the Han Dynasty was calculated according to the increase in the population, acres of land, and number of household registrations under the official's reign, and the more the increase, the more capable the official became. When it comes to black yarn hats, officials naturally hate those old leftover women who are unwilling to marry, and they are naturally extremely concerned about their marriages.