"Mother!"

"Eh......"

At 17 o'clock, when the official school of Changle Fang was dismissed, Li Dingguo also went home with most of the students.

Walking to the school gate, a woman dressed in blue cloth and holding a broom and dustpan looked at the school gate, and a young man beside Li Dingguo also greeted him with a smile when he saw this.

In this era of loyalty and filial piety, no one dares to avoid their mother, and if anyone does do so, they will only be spurned.

"Hello aunt, Zhang Ding'an, aren't you going with us?"

"If you don't leave, my mother will have to leave work in four minutes."

The people around Li Dingguo shouted, and the young man also responded with a smile, waving to see you tomorrow.

Then, without waiting for others to stay, he left with his mother.

Li Dingguo also went to the sentry box of the Terracotta Division at this time, and pushed out one of the bicycles that only had a dozen or so.

When he returned to his classmates, the young man named Zhang Dingan had already left his mother, and the others saw that Li Dingguo had done it and continued to walk home.

Li Dingguo had to walk to the avenue of Dongcheng, and then go to Baiwangfang, if there were no classmates, he could ride, but he wanted to know what his classmates did during the summer vacation.

"I heard that Zhang Ding'an's father was a cavalryman during the First Northern Expedition of His Royal Highness King Qi, and later retired from the disabled, and now he is a captain in the Soldiers and Horses Division."

"Then his mother still works as a sanitation worker?"

"Wu Chang seems to be a thirty taels of silver a year, but Zhang Ding'an's family has six brothers and sisters, and his mother is a sanitation worker, and the salary is close to four taels a year, so why not?"

"Yes, I heard that many people from outside the city have come to the capital to work as sanitation workers."

"Whether there are sanitation workers, you see how clean the streets in the capital are now."

"Isn't that because of the fines law? I heard that there has been a rule recently, and you have to pay a fine of ten cents for defecating and defecating at will. ”

"That's what some kids and lazy people do, right?"

"Whatever, we don't do it anyway."

"Hahahaha......"

The young men always have endless topics to talk about, and Li Dingguo just quietly pushed the bicycle and walked beside him.

He looked at the streets, it was indeed very clean, compared to the road surface in the southern city of Beijing, which used to have horse manure and dirt at every turn, and now the cement roads in the four cities of Beijing can be said to be much cleaner.

There are gutters on both sides of the road with stone drains, and neat concrete roads are separated from the road by steps, but there are very few horse-drawn carriages running on the road, most of them are bicycles and three-wheeled bicycles.

Bicycles that can walk for months with a handful of chain oil are more popular with the people than horses that need to be eaten and drunk.

Li Dingguo and the others walked for a long time, and the number of people became fewer and fewer, and in the end, only Li Dingguo and another young man were left.

However, when they walked to an auxiliary road marked with "Changle Fang No. 1 Lane", the young man also waved to Li Dingguo:

"I'm home, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow ......" Li Dingguo waved goodbye to the other party, and after watching the other party leave, he stepped on the bicycle, and then rushed towards Baiwangfang.

He didn't ride fast, or that bikes without transmissions weren't fast at all.

He rode from the auxiliary road of Changle Fang to the main road of Dongcheng, and in this era when there was no electricity, the intersection mainly relied on clever little mechanisms.

For example, at this moment, what stopped in front of Li Dingguo was a row of small red wooden signs that suddenly rose from the ground.

Along the end of the red wooden sign, Li Dingguo saw a man holding a gear handle.

The wooden sign is attached to a wooden stick buried in the intersection of the road, which usually falls into the groove of the road, and at each intersection there are two soldiers and horses who are responsible for lifting them.

They sat in the corner with a horse in their hand, looked at the pocket watch in their hands, blew a shrill wooden whistle when the time was up, and then lifted the handle of the stick, and stepped on a rocker to keep the wooden sign from falling.

After a minute, they can blow the whistle and then release the rocker and the wooden sign will fall, but at the same time they will have to lift the wooden card on the other side.

This wooden sign is not heavy, and although it is a little difficult to lift, it is easy to lift it.

This seemingly boring work is an idle job for many soldiers of the Terracotta Division.

There is also a sentry box behind them, and according to the rules of the Terracotta Division, every half hour, the nearby patrol team of the Terracotta Division will pass through the intersection and then change shifts.

This wooden sign is not a threat to horse-drawn carriages, but it is a bit dangerous for bicycles and tricycles.

However, the new version of "Da Ming Law" formulated by Zhu Youzhen has long stated the responsibility, who collides with the wooden card, who is fully responsible, because Da Ming has arranged two whistle-blowing soldiers at each three-way road and intersection, even if one does not blow, the other will blow the whistle.

The whistle is very harsh at a small intersection, and there is no possibility that it cannot be heard, and once the whistle blows, no one can continue to move forward unless the vehicle is already half over the groove.

Of course, if there are really two soldiers who don't blow the wooden whistle, once reported, the whistleblower will be compensated with 100 yuan, and the non-commissioned officer will be deducted 100 yuan.

For the current Daming traffic, this is already a relatively flexible rule, and it is enough to deal with the current traffic with only bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.

"Beep-"

When the whistle blew, the wooden sign in front of Li Dingguo was put down, and he rode his bicycle across the intersection to the lively main road.

There weren't many cars on the wide main road, and the vendors along the street didn't put up their stalls, because the sidewalks were wide enough for them to set up their stalls.

Li Dingguo looked at both sides of the lively road, perhaps because he had experienced the battlefield, he felt that peace was the most relaxing state at the moment.

Five or six miles away, he spent a quarter of an hour riding back to Baiwangfang in a relaxed way, and pushed the cart through the side door.

He had just returned home, put his bicycle and walked into the square of the Carrier Palace, and saw the three of Chengde walking down the steps of the Carrier Palace.

He saluted the three senior officials from afar, and then ran back to his courtyard.

"I heard that His Royal Highness took this kid to the battlefield this time, I'm afraid that this will be another character in the future......"

Zhou Yanru stroked his beard and praised Li Dingguo, who had run away, but neither Chengde nor Bi Ziyan answered his words, which made Zhou Yanru a little embarrassed.

But he could also see it, shook his head and continued to walk towards the outside of the palace.

However, after they walked out of the palace, Li Dingguo changed into regular clothes and walked towards the carrier hall.

After a while, he came to the side hall of the Carrier Palace, and also saw Zhu Youzhen, who was dealing with the sparseness.

"It's back......"

"Hmm!"

Zhu You asked without raising his head, he could hear Li Dingguo's footsteps with a small weight, and Li Dingguo also responded, and then glanced at Wang Chengen, who was sitting in the corner dealing with officialdom documents.

Wang Chengen smiled and nodded at him, signaling that His Highness was in a normal mood today and should not be restrained.

Seeing this, Li Dingguo immediately walked to Zhu Youzhen's side, poured tea and water for Zhu Youzhen, and watched him deal with the sparseness.

"Is there any difference between school and school today?"

Zhu Youzhen handled a note and put it on the tray next to him, and Li Dingguo heard the inquiry and told what he had seen and heard today.

Listening to what he saw, Zhu Youzhen also happened to remember the matter of the sanitation workers, so he couldn't help but ask Wang Chengen: "Chengen, how many sanitation workers are there in the country now?" ”

"Back to Your Highness, I can't remember the specifics, but in the document sent by the Ministry of Industry last month, there were roughly 240,000 people."

Wang Chengen gave a rough answer, and Zhu You couldn't help but bow his head after listening.

Sanitation workers are currently serving the county, and the county seat of Daming is only more than 2,200 counties, that is, there are only 112 sanitation workers in each county.

Of course, some small counties do not need so many people, and the big cities such as Beijing, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou do have more people.

For example, there are more than 6,000 sanitation workers in 126 squares in Daxing and Wanping counties in the capital, and there are even more in Nanjing, and Zhu Youzhen remembers that there are more than 7,000 people.

With the peace of the world, not only the population of Beijing has increased, but the population of Nanjing, which covers a large area, has increased even faster.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, Beijing's population was only more than 800,000, while Nanjing's population was already 1.2 million, and by the tenth year of the Apocalypse, Beijing's population exceeded 1.3 million, and Nanjing directly rushed to 1.82 million.

After all, Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty was originally the largest urban area in the feudal dynasty, and the urban area of the entire city reached 230 square kilometers, accommodating 1.82 million yuan.

With the foundation of Nanjing left by Zhu Yuanzhang and the architectural style of the Ming Dynasty, even if it can accommodate two million people, it is very easy, if it is to build high-rise buildings, I am afraid that five or six million will not be a problem.

With the heritage of Nanjing, as long as the Ming Dynasty does not die, it is impossible for any city to surpass Nanjing.

Without him, it is all because Zhu Yuanzhang's tomb is there, and the two-Beijing system, it can be said that no matter in terms of politics, etiquette, or economy, Beijing is unlikely to surpass Nanjing.

As for the magic capital of later generations, Songjiang Mansion in this life, I am afraid that Nanjing is by its side, and it can only be used as an outpost port city in Nanjing.

Of course, if the Qi State rises and becomes the largest trading partner of the Ming Dynasty, then the status of Songjiang Mansion will still be raised.

However, this elevation of status is likely to lead to Yingtian and Songjiang Prefecture becoming an economic circle.

That is to say, in any case, the economic circle of the Yangtze River Delta is destined to be formed, which is nothing more than one superpower and many powers, and then two superpowers.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen was very curious about what the Ming economy would look like in the future.

It's just curiosity is curiosity, and there are a lot of things that he needs to solve right now.

"Let Huangdian list a copy of the capital, and give me the price list of each province within half a month."

Zhu Youzhen explained to Wang Chengen, and his move made Wang Chengen's heart tighten.

He knew that His Highness was probably going to start releasing the tens of millions of taels of gold and silver from the Financial Division.

"Slave and maid receive ......"

Wang Chengen agreed, and then prepared to discuss this matter with Cao Huachun.

Just when he turned around and was about to discuss, three figures also appeared at the door of the bank in Chang'an County, Xi'an......

"This should be in the bank, and the silver iron scroll should be exchanged here."

When Zhu Fuju's voice sounded, he immediately turned his head to look at the two figures behind him.

That was the family where he sent his ashes at the end, and the widow of the same comrade at the beginning, that is, Zhang Li at this moment, was standing behind Zhu Fuju with his twelve-year-old eldest son.

They don't know what a bank is, so they don't know how to exchange their husband's and father's pensions and bounties.

Of course, Zhu Fuju didn't understand, but he was just about to exchange the silver, and then go to Ningxia after a few days of rest, so when Zhang Li's mother and son came to the door, he was also happy to drive the carriage to take the two to Xi'an, the first city in the northwest.

Like the capital and the overwhelming majority of important cities, Xi'an is also composed of two counties, one is Chang'an County and the other is Wannian County.

However, from the Tang Dynasty, Wannian County was renamed Xianning County, and then the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties all inherited the place name and did not change it back.

Zhu Fuju had read a book about Xi'an Mansion in the army, so at this moment, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed when he looked at the words "Daming Chang'an Branch" on the bank's signboard.

"Let's go."

Looking at the banks with different shapes, Zhu Fuju explained to Zhang Li's mother and son, and then took them into the bank.

There are no people in the bank, because it is not open to the people, so the people who can appear here are basically in the imperial court.

Therefore, as soon as Zhu Fuju appeared, an official from Jiupin who was sitting at the door immediately stepped forward and said:

"Dare to ask ......"

"Zhu Fuju, the quartermaster of the Ningxia battalion, came to exchange for silver this time."

Zhu Fuju was not polite, but took out the promotion document of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies from his arms.

"General, please ...... here"

Seeing that the person who came was the quartermaster of Zhengbapin, this official did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly took Zhu Fuju and others to a glass window sill.

To be honest, this is the first time that Zhu Fuju and others have seen such a large piece of transparent glass, and it is also so clear.

"Redeem the bounty."

They were looking at the "expensive" glass, and the official had also explained to a sub-ninth official behind the counter.

After the explanation was over, the official turned around and asked with a smile: "Dare to ask the general, do you have an iron medal for enlistment and a silver iron scroll?" ”

"Yes, but we have to exchange for two people, this is the widow of my comrade, and she will also exchange the bounty and pension silver." Zhu Fuju explained, and at the same time, Zhang Li also took out his deceased husband's enlistment iron plate and silver reward iron scroll, as well as the death document issued by the government.

Zhu Fuju took it and handed over his things together, and the official also checked the things.

The enlistment iron plate is easy to imitate, but the death paper with simple color-changing ink, and the silver reward iron scroll pressed out by a hydraulic press, are things that cannot be imitated in this era in any way.

Therefore, after a brief look, the official pushed the things into the counter, and the sub-ninth grade official in the counter checked it again, and then the sub-ninth rank official got up and walked to the iron door behind him.

Zhu Fuju looked at each other, and the official from Jiupin also explained with a smile:

"There's no problem, he's already counted."

"Well......" Zhu Fuju felt that this model was very novel from Qianzhuang, but he didn't know if it could be promoted.

But before he could think clearly, he saw the scribe of the nine grades and another person, who walked out of the iron door with a large wooden box and placed it under the chairs at the counter.

Then the officer began to pull out the large pliers and the scale, and then looked up and asked:

"Dare to ask the general, do you want one tael of loose silver, or ten taels, or one hundred taels?"

"If I want a hundred taels, they will give one tael."

Zhu Fuju thought about it for a while, and he was going to the barracks, and the business was relatively transparent, so it was nothing to take a hundred taels.

However, compared with others, a woman like Zhang Li, who has no pillars in the family, goes out with ten taels and one hundred taels of silver, which is a little too ostentatious.

"Okay, please wait."

When the second-rank official heard this, he and another second-rank official began to cut the silver.

Zhu Fuju's reward for silver was quickly in hand, three hundred taels of silver ingots plus five ten taels of silver ingots, and finally seven pieces of broken silver of one tael of silver, and his three hundred and fifty-seven taels of decapitation silver was in hand.

In the Ming Dynasty, one catty and sixteen taels, so the three hundred and fifty-seven taels of silver were actually more than twenty-two catties.

"Adults can weigh it." The official from Jiupin brought a money scale from his position, and Zhu Fuju also weighed it himself when he saw this.

There was no problem with the weight, Zhu Fuju nodded and was about to take it away in a cloth bag, but to his surprise, the bank had already prepared items for him to hold silver.

A simple wooden box, with silver in it, the heavy feeling made Zhu Fuju have an illusion, that is, it seemed that there were always people around him who wanted to rob him of his silver.

However, without waiting for his feeling news, Zhang Li's silver began to be cut out little by little.

Since Zhang Li's deceased husband was a small flag official, the reward was naturally more than that of Zhu Fuju, who was still an ordinary soldier during the bloody battle in Beishan, plus the one hundred taels of pension silver, and soon the broken silver was piled up into a small mountain.

The two men at the counter were busy for a long time, and the tiger's mouth was sour, and finally all the silver was cut in about two quarters of an hour.

"A total of four hundred and sixty taels of silver, plus one hundred taels of bereavement silver, for a total of five hundred and sixty taels."

"Five hundred and sixty taels?!" Hearing that the deceased husband had left so much silver for himself, Zhang Li was a little stunned.

Five hundred and sixty taels doesn't sound like much, but it's definitely a huge amount of money for the people of this era.

If all this money is taken to the capital, it is completely possible to buy a courtyard covering an area of one acre in the imperial city, or buy more than a dozen shops in Xi'an City.

Just collecting rent, Li Zhang's family can collect nearly twenty taels of silver in rent every year, and it only takes about twenty years to recover the cost, not to mention, the follow-up rent alone can make their mother and son live a very nourishing life.

For Zhang Li, who once worked as a tenant for a landlord for a year with her husband and only earned at most three or four taels of silver, this silver is a huge amount of money that she and her deceased husband can only earn in two lifetimes.

In the past, Zhang Li's family did not receive a reward from his deceased husband, but on weekdays, at most, he sent six or seven taels a year, and only a few dozen taels were sent during the second Northern Expedition and the third Northern Expedition.

Like this, a sum of more than five hundred taels of silver, she has never received it in her life.

Looking at this silver, Zhang Li's eyes couldn't help but redden.

"There's nothing wrong with that." Zhu Fuju helped weigh it, and after making sure that there was no problem, he put the thirty-five catties of silver into a wooden box.

For Zhu Fuju, who has been carrying fifty or sixty catties of armor all year round, two boxes of silver that add up to fifty-seven catties are nothing, and after verbally thanking the officials of the bank, he walked out of the bank with Zhang Li's red eyes.

The carriage at the door was guarded by the soldiers and horses at the door of the bank, and after Zhu Fuju came out, he pulled the cover of the carriage open, put two boxes of silver in the car, and then held the cover with one hand and asked:

"But what else do you want to buy?"

"No need, you can buy it in the royal store in the town, thank you really General Zhu." Zhang Li was embarrassed to trouble Zhu Fuju again.

Seeing this, Zhu Fuju also nodded, and then explained: "This amount of silver is too much, and you now have more than 30 acres of land in your family. ”

"You are a woman with three children, you can't plant it after all, and you will be bullied in the town."

"Why don't you just buy some shops in Xi'an City, rent them out, and support yourself by rent."

Zhu Fuju's words are not known to be impeached by many people in later generations, but they are extremely normal in this era.

In ancient times, the people were not simple, and it was a trivial matter to eat the household, and some people even ate it to live households.

It is not uncommon for some lazy people to climb the widow's wall in the middle of the night and insult the widow and force themselves together.

Under normal circumstances, the widow can only be with the lazy man for fear of being said to be unruly, and the lazy man gets the widow's property.

If Zhang Li's three children were all fifteen or sixteen years old, then Zhu Fuju would persuade him to live in the town, but the eldest of her children was only twelve or thirteen years old, and he was afraid that he was not the opponent of some lazy people.

For the sake of their safety, Zhu Fuju still felt that it was better to rent the land to others for cultivation, and buy a yard and a few shops in Xi'an City with the reward.

Zhang Li's widow, who had just died of her husband, suddenly had a huge sum of more than 500 taels in her hand, and she really didn't know what to do with it for a while.

Zhu Fuju was the only official she knew, and he was also an officer of Zhengbapin, so he wanted to see more people like her, so after listening to his words, Zhang Li nodded.

"I'm tired of General Zhu, my mother and son don't know how to repay you......"

Zhang Li expressed his gratitude, but Zhu Fuju waved his hand to signal that he did not need to be polite.

Looking at Zhang Li, who had already agreed, Zhu Fuju took them to the imperial store in Chang'an County, Xi'an.

Huangdian is not only a department store and supermarket, but also undertakes the shops and businesses such as the tooth shop and gold and silver shop of the former Imperial Horse Supervisor.

Knowing that Zhu Fuju was the quartermaster of Zhengbapin, the officials of Huangdian in Chang'an County also hurriedly looked for shops and houses for him.

For Xi'an City, Zhu Fuju is so familiar that he can't be more familiar with it, after all, he and his father have to come to Xi'an every year to deliver food to the palace.

It's just that he was a tenant back then, but now he has become an official, and he was a little emotional for a while.

However, due to the relocation of the feudal domains and the expansion of Xi'an, there are many more mansions in Xi'an.

In the old city of Xi'an, there was a Qin palace and eight county palaces, and as they moved away, the palace was used as the office of the government, and some of the original courtyards of the government were put up for sale.

Zhang Li took a look at an eight-house house with three entrances and three exits, and the price of the Huangdian Ya Store was eighty-five taels, and after Zhu Fuju's bargaining, it was finally sold for eighty taels.

In order to facilitate rent collection, Zhu Fuju bought a row of ten shops for Zhang Li's family in the West Market of Chang'an County, each with 30 taels of silver, and spent a total of 300 taels.

There are currently no people renting or selling these shops, mainly because the imperial court has relocated the population of Shaanxi, and Xi'an is surrounded by hungry people who have just been allocated land.

Zhu Fuju estimated that as the hungry people stabilized, the shops would eventually be rented, and these ten shops would bring Zhang Li's rental income of 20 taels a year.

Busy here, Zhu Fuju took Zhang Li's family to buy furniture for the house, and hired an old mother to help cook the fire at a monthly price of 500 yuan.

After all this was done, he stopped buying things and put away the remaining one hundred and eighty taels of silver.

"I'll take you home first, and then I'll rent some carriages to help you move in a few days, and then finalize the matter of renting the land to someone else."

"Sister-in-law, you can rest assured, with me, the lazy people in the town will not dare to harass you."

Zhu Fuju helped people to the end, preparing to finish Zhang Li's affairs before leaving, and Zhang Li had nothing to repay.

He wanted his three children to recognize Zhu Fuju as their father-in-law, but the age gap between the two was not large, and Zhu Fuju was not married yet, so he had to give up.

With the sound of the Xi'an Drum Tower, Zhu Fuju took the time to take them out of Xi'an City, a prosperous place in the northwest, in a carriage.

Before leaving, Zhang Li looked at the wide Xi'an City, maybe she would live in this city for the rest of her life......

The afternoon update is around half past five

(End of chapter)