In every respect, the Shangjing Plains Prefecture in the Eastern Yuan Dynasty was a metropolis like no other in the world. Not counting the imperial city and the palace city, there are three gates in the east and three gates in the west, four gates in the south, and two gates in the north of the inner city of Shangjing, a total of 12 city gates; There are 17 city gates and 3 water gates in the outer city. The outer city is also called the national city, also known as the capital, and some people remember Tianjing. Another 175 steps around the city of 62 miles, with 218 squares built, more than 149,000 households that were not registered in the 16th year of the Eastern Era, totaling more than 265,000 households; In addition to the three Chi counties where the capital is located, the Pyeongwonfu Province has 14 other counties under its jurisdiction, with a total of 157,000 households and 276,000 households, and the two phases are combined, bringing the total number of 280,000 households and 540,000 people in Gyeonggi Province. Zhao system, public government documents, unless specifically specified, is used to "mouth" and "Ding", so this "Xinwei Nian Pingyuan Prefecture Household Department Book" is not entered into the female population of Gyeonggi counties; At the same time, when registering the household registration of the county government, it is necessary to divide the household registration into two types according to the employment or employment, and the household registration of the employed floating household is a separate catalog, which is also not reflected in the "Xinwei Year Plain Prefecture Household Submission Department". According to a letter written by the scholar Zhu Xuan the year before last, there are such words in the "Discussion on the Book of the Present and the Crepe Mansion", "Today's floating households, those who occupy other people's fields and plough and rent people's houses and live in them, or win the main households", "Another view of the springs and the vast states, its consumption is even worse, for the son of heaven cultivators are less than three or four, and for the rich and for the farmers nearly six or seven", clearly pointing out that the total number of floating households who have lost their land is almost twice as many as the households. In this way, if the female population is included in the total population of Shanggyon, together with the floating households in the separate register, the total population of the 17 counties of Gyeonggi Prefecture will exceed 2 million. Moreover, this is only the number of floating households and the number of men and women registered in the household register, and it does not count the inner city envoys, officials in Beijing, soldiers and soldiers, craftsmen and craftsmen of the temples and temples registered in the register, and does not count the officials and merchants who temporarily settled in the city, otherwise the number would be even more considerable; Only the Liyuan battalion of the Gongwei Jing Division and the Nanda battalion under the jurisdiction of the Pingyuan General's Mansion had 260,000 soldiers. Perhaps, in the first month of the 22nd year of the Eastern Common Era, the total population of Shangjing was close to or exceeded 3 million. Without a doubt, she is the largest city in the world. There is no dispute about this!

This conclusion was made by Shang Cheng. The people who provided detailed evidence for this conclusion were Li Mu and Tian Xiu.

At the moment, the three of them were sitting in a courtyard, drinking tea and gossiping.

Today is the fourth day of the new year, and Shang Cheng and a large group of civil and military officials came to the outer garden to accompany the Son of Heaven to shoot a bow. However, unfortunately, as soon as Shang Cheng arrived in the outer garden, a light rain fell from the sky, and soon it snowed again. There is definitely no way to test bows and arrows in such weather, but there are two or three hundred officials in the outer garden, so Emperor Dongyuan issued a system and said, "Hundred officials are the same as Qing", everyone plays casually, and I will take care of the meal at noon; It's like it's the Royal Parade.

When Zhang Pu, Zhu Xuan, these old courtiers, as well as the princes of Qinghe County, Poyang, Hou Yiguo, and other nobles accompanied Emperor Dongyuan into the warm hall, everyone began to move freely. Then Shang Cheng was dumbfounded. He is the county uncle of Shangzhu Guoying, and he is also a nobleman, but Emperor Dongyuan didn't call him by name to make him obey, so he could only stay outside the warm hall. But his noble is a new upstart in the army who suddenly shook up from the place, there are almost no two acquaintances in the capital, and the military generals who can't enter the warm hall are the only ones in the Shangzhu country, so no matter who sees him, it is a three-point respect. What's more, on the day of Zhengdan, the story of the fight between him and Yang Du in front of the Zichen Palace had already spread all over the Jingshi, and he was a ruthless person with a strong reputation, who would dare not be afraid to let him score five points? So no one dared to talk to him around the fireplace. Even a group of four or five generals who pulled out the tables and chairs to play with money were so frightened that they broke up when they saw him approaching. Even if there are occasionally one or two people who want to get close to him, but there are many people in this outer garden, if getting close to Shang Yanshan does not succeed and provokes Yang Liehuo and Gu Poyang, it will really be called more than worth the loss......

He couldn't get together with the generals, he couldn't go to the civil officials to mingle, and he couldn't leave early, so he was bored alone, so he had to wander around in the outer garden. But after all, the outer garden is a royal garden, and today the Son of Heaven is coming, even if Emperor Dongyuan is not in the mood to go around at all, the place with a slightly better scenery is still arranged with strict guards. The Yulin Army and the Su Guard Forbidden Army on duty ignored his golden-winged head and red robe, and ordered him to stop at the distance of two arrows, and then meticulously inspected the official and asked for the origin. It's just that this inspection has tossed away the little leisure and elegance that he didn't have. Anyway, the winter scene of the bare branches and branches of the trees was not very interesting, so he turned around and looked back, and saw a large enclosed house halfway down, and went into it without paying attention. It doesn't matter what kind of civil and military difference he has, he is just waiting here for lunch!

It was here that he met Li Mu and Tian Xiu. The three of them talked a lot, and then somehow the topic was pulled to the capital.

Shang Cheng was not familiar with the capital, and the places with a slight impression were a few acquaintances such as Wang Yi's Yiguo Mansion or Chen Pu's Changsha Princess Mansion, so he mainly listened to Li Mu and Tian Xiu.

Li Mu's position has been determined, and he is still holding the post of Shaoqing in the Taishi Bureau, and then receiving the title of Hanlin Bachelor. This was told to him by Vice Prime Minister Zhu Xuan yesterday. After the New Year's Festival, the various yamen opened their doors to work, and he went to the Ministry of Officials to file and receive the official certificate. Tian Xiu's position has also changed. Her messy errands that caused the county deputy secretary to be removed were all removed, and the new official title was a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, but she was not given a real position for the time being.

Shang Cheng was born in the military, and the rank system of military attachés is still relatively clear. The rank of military attache is twenty-eight in total, from the general of the town of the first rank to the loyal and brave lang under the ninth rank. Among them, the Zhenguo General of Zhengyipin and the Hussar General of Zhengerpin are false honors, and no one has been officially promoted for tens of nearly a hundred years, and the few awards are posthumously awarded by the imperial court when the veteran of the meritorious service died. Among the remaining 26 ranks, the four ranks of the eighth rank correspond to the battalion sentry level officer, the seventh rank corresponds to the middle-level position at the brigade level, and the fifth rank corresponds to the middle and senior positions at the army level, while the fourth, sixth, and ninth ranks, the twelve ranks, and all kinds of non-rank and scattered orders from the ninth rank are basically all false honors that reward meritorious soldiers, and are special titles that allow meritorious soldiers to receive a little more money and food; They don't have much to do with the actual positions they hold. For example, his good brother Bao Kan, who had accumulated merit and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant of the seventh rank the year before last, even if he did not make any new military exploits in the past two years or the next three or four years, he could only be promoted to the rank of lieutenant of Zhenwei from the sixth rank in a few years later; After seven or eight years in the military, it is very likely that he will be promoted to Captain Zhenwei from the sixth grade...... By analogy, by the time Bao Kan retires at the age of sixty, he should be able to be promoted to the rank of lieutenant of Zhaowu, and if he is lucky, he may also be lieutenant of Zhaowu. However, in the past twenty or thirty years, Bao Kan may have ceased to serve as a lieutenant in the Admiralty and was transferred to other things, but because of his personal ability, it was difficult for him to hold important positions at the brigade and army levels. In other words, it is difficult for Bao Kan to become a front-line general, and it is difficult to have the opportunity to make great contributions, and it is even more difficult to cross the threshold of being promoted to general......

But he is a little vague about the official rank system of civil and military, and only knows that civil officials have an eighteenth-order loose rank in addition to the sixteenth-order position. But he can't say that the specific official titles are loose ranks. Now, when he heard that Li Mu and Tian Xiu's two new bachelor positions sounded similar, he asked curiously, "What is the difference between this Hanlin Bachelor and the Hanlin Academy Bachelor?" ”

Li Mu had a lot of contacts with him, and he knew him well, knowing that he was shrewd in some things and confused in some things, so he explained to him: "The bachelor of Hanlin is from the sixth grade, and the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy is the seventh grade......

Shang Cheng immediately laughed. Li Mu's Shaoqing of the Taishi Bureau is only the seventh rank, and Tian Xiu's previous positions were even minor official titles below the eighth rank, but now they are all promoted, so he said to the two of them: "In this way, you have all been promoted!" Then you'll have to have a treat. ”

"Good! You say time, I'll find a place. Tian Xiu said generously. She added, "But I'm nothing as a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. The teacher's bachelor's degree is a really good job! ”

"Oh, what's that saying?"

Tian Xiu said: "Although the bachelors of the Hanlin Academy and the bachelors of the Hanlin Academy are both loose ranks, they are also very different. I'm basically a bachelor with nothing to do, but my teacher's bachelor basically doesn't have time to do things. ”

"Why?" Shang Cheng was even more curious.

"If the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy does not have other errands, he doesn't even have to go to the yamen, he just receives money and food at home. Bachelor Hanlin is working in the Prime Minister's Office, and all the documents in the Office are written by the teacher, so it is also called the Prime Minister. There are also people who call this position a fake. Tian Xiu said, "You think, the teachers are all fake, talking and laughing with the prime minister, going in and out of Tsing Yi, there are always people around to flatter, and there are people by the side every day to greet them, where is there time to do things?" ”

Shang Cheng raised his face and laughed, and said, "This sentence of "Burrow Ming" is wonderful! He said to Li Mu again, "Why don't you speak?" Hurry up! Anyway, your Li family is also a big family in Chang'an, and inviting me to eat may not be able to ruin the family property. Let's decide, let's take advantage of the fact that you haven't reported to the Prime Minister's Office in the past two days, let's find a place to have a big meal! ”

"Okay!" Li Mu said very simply. When he entered Beijing this time, he originally thought that it was just an official reinstatement, but where would he have thought that he would be able to enter the prime minister's office. Now don't say that Shang Cheng just taught him to invite him once, even if he invited him thirty or fifty times, he would not refuse.

Li Mu promised so well, Shang Cheng was a flurry. Chang'an Li is a well-known businessman in the northwest, so Li Mu's background is not good. Speaking of which, some of Li Mu's ups and downs in his career were also dragged down by this matter. However, Shang Cheng was unimpressed. Just as Li Mu occasionally said that he was hideous, he said that Li Mu was born rich and noble, and it was just a small joke between friends. But he saw Li Mu's red face and excited appearance at the moment, and he couldn't help but twist his face and ask Tian Xiu in a low voice: "Your teacher, didn't he drink a bar in the morning?" ”

Tian Xiu clenched his fists to cover his mouth, coughed twice and glared at Shang Cheng hatefully. She stiffened her face and said solemnly: "The teacher is not like some people, seeing wine is like seeing an enemy of life and death!" ”

Shang Cheng was bored and turned his head abruptly. He suffered a loss in front of his disciples, and of course he wanted to regain face from the teacher, so he said to Li Mu: "Aren't you just going to the Prime Minister's Office to make a clerical work, what are you excited about?" If I hadn't been scratched a few times on my face with a knife, I would have sharpened my head and gotten into it. ”

Li Mu and Tian Xiu were both amused by his words.

The three of them were talking and laughing and talking lively, and Chen Pu and Nanyang opened the felt door of the enclosure and walked in one after another.

"Teacher, Aoyama, so you're here!"