"Flowing ......"

In April, with the gloomy weather on the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, a drizzle was sprinkled on Shuntianfu, bringing a rain to the long-drought Shuntianfu.

"Your Highness, add some clothes to avoid the wind and cold......"

On the tower of Andingmen, Zhu Youzhen, who was alone with an umbrella and looked at the city, heard the news from behind him.

He turned around and saw Li Dingguo holding an umbrella and holding a cloak.

He just took three days off, and today he accompanied Zhu Youzhen to come out to take a look, after all, the two haven't seen each other for two months.

"Hmm......" Listening to Li Dingguo's words, Zhu Youzhen bowed slightly, and then turned his head and continued to look at the streets and alleys of the inner city under the city wall.

Li Dingguo handed the umbrella to the brocade guard behind him, shook the cloak, and carefully put it on for Zhu Youzhen.

During this process, Zhu Youzhen didn't do anything else, he just stood behind the female wall battlement, just holding an umbrella alone, quietly looking at the streets and alleys in the city in a daze.

It seems that as he gets older, or because things are too busy, he is either raising children or dealing with government affairs on weekdays, so he likes to visit the capital on a rainy day has become his recent pleasure.

He likes to see the capital in the rain because the capital in the rain has a paper-like light and thin texture.

I don't know if it's because his eyesight is too good, or if it's the effect of the drizzle.

Obviously, the capital in the rain is hazy, but the people and scenery in the streets and alleys of the city are more and more real by Zhu Youzhen's slender eyes.

He stood like this, holding an umbrella, watching the raindrops fall, and then sliding down the eaves of the houses in the streets and alleys.

In my ears, I heard the crisp sound of the rain flowing down from the arrow tower and the city tower next to me.

In the eyes, the capital under the drizzle is full of life.

Zhu Youzhen saw an old man and a child sitting under the eaves, the old man holding a pair of jet-black scissors wrapped in gauze in his hand, although his body was old, his fingertips were dexterously cutting the thin piece of paper in his other hand.

After a while, some images of cows, sheep and animals appeared on one side of the paper.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't see his face clearly, and even couldn't see what animal he had cut, he could only see the old man holding two paper cuts, his two hands moving up and down, and the child sitting next to him was holding his face with both hands, listening carefully.

Even if he couldn't see clearly, Zhu Youzhen could feel the kindness on the old man's face, and the child was watching and listening with his little head on the side.

They sat in the eaves of their small courtyard and enjoyed the world of their grandparents and grandchildren, while the busy people in the capital outside the courtyard also lived their own lives.

The rules of the capital have been changed by Zhu Youjian, and the main road of each fang market is a commercial street, and there are clothing stores, gold shops, shoes and hat shops, and imperial shops on the streets......

Of course, with the improvement of living standards, the most popular place for people in Beijing to visit is the flower shop.

Since the Xuande period in Beijing, the wind of raising flowers has been prevalent, and flowers have also become a special commodity in Beijing, and flowers are sold in shopping malls in any season of the year.

Among them, every April and May, the jasmine sold in the market is in pieces, some people carry jasmine for sale, and some are piled up in the flower shop, so that the fragrance of flowers on the street is far away, and the fragrance is unforgettable.

】

Even in winter, florists still use pots to grow lilacs for sale.

It's just that because lilacs are unbearable, no matter how the times change, jasmine is a common variety among the people of Beijing.

Now in April, it is the time when jasmine is on the market, so when Zhu Youzhen stands at the head of the city and looks inward, he can see that the guests of the teahouse decorate the tea table with jasmine, and the women on the street use jasmine to show their heads.

Men and women, young and old, either wear jasmine or hold jasmine baskets.

In the capital of the Ming Dynasty, there were so many rivers that some of the alleys were close to the river, and pieces of bluestone slabs stained with moss stretched all the way to the river.

Standing at the head of the city, Zhu Youzhen looked at the river, and could occasionally see a small boat swinging in the distance of the river, and the splash from the side of the boat was rippling to the palm of the raccoon girl by the river.

Some raccoon girls by the river were speaking the official dialect of the Ming Dynasty, and the soft words of Wu Nong penetrated into the ears of the sergeant Lao Suo on the boat, making people feel that they could not escape, and they could only let their hearing indulge in this shallow and ordinary tone.

"Flowing ......"

"Boom—"

Gradually, the rain became heavier and heavier, and the gloomy clouds flickered a few times, followed by a muffled thunder.

"Your Highness, go and sit in the arrow tower first, and wait for the rain to light up before coming out."

Li Dingguo was worried that Zhu Youzhen would suffer the cold, so he suggested carefully.

In this regard, Zhu Youzhen often did not answer, but after bowing his head, he chose an arrow tower to go in and rest.

Before he walked into the arrow tower, the soldiers inside had already been evacuated, and the brocade guards also lit some spices in the arrow tower and made a few soft beds for the wooden bed.

After entering the arrow tower, there are more than a dozen kerosene lamps hanging inside, which is a new thing that has been perfected in the armament yard last year, the construction factory of the imperial horse superintendent, and the imperial store began to sell at the beginning of the year.

More than a dozen oil lamps were hung, illuminating the inside of the arrow tower very clearly.

Zhu You walked to the bed unexpectedly, and frowned slightly after sitting down.

He reached out and touched the bed, counting the softness.

"Five-layer ......" counted the fineness of the five layers, Zhu Youzhen looked at the hundreds of households in Daxingying who were on duty at Andingmen today, and said kindly:

"How many layers of soft does the soldiers sleep on weekdays?"

"When I go back to His Royal Highness, I often spread two layers of thatch, and then I sleep with a marching mattress, and the brothers who defend the city are normally to keep watch for a day and rest for a day."

The garrison replied respectfully, Zhu Youzhen said that he knew, and after a few seconds he said to Li Dingguo:

"Let someone send a message to Cheng'en, let him go up and live it, please allocate 100,000 taels of military salaries, and add a marching mattress for the soldiers of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies,"

"The kid takes the order......" Li Dingguo responded, and then there was no sound in the arrow tower for a long time, Zhu Youzhen just sat on the bed, looking at the window of the arrow tower that was less than the size of his head in a daze.

is as daze as him, as well as Bi Ziyan, who has been the deputy assistant of the cabinet since the beginning of the year.

The same thing, not the same place, Bi Ziyan at this moment was on the carriage rushing to the household.

With the continuous operation of batches of industrial zones, the output of various raw materials and commodity factories has soared, and the once expensive glass has now plummeted to the price of 100 cents.

As the secretary of the household department and the deputy assistant of the cabinet, Bi Ziyan's four-wheeled carriage naturally also used glass windows, so he could also see the streets and alleys outside the transparent windows.

Unlike the three cities of the east, west, and south, the floor of the inner city is paved with colorful rocks of Lejiao.

These rocks are smooth and translucent under the perennial pedestrian and rain washing.

Bi Ziyan saw some stagnant water on the ground, and when he passed by, he saw the upside-down street in the stagnant water, but before he could take a closer look, the carriage was already far away.

The sound of wheels crushing on the road brought him back to reality, and he turned his head, his hair and beard and the old spots on his face made him look like he was in his eighties.

Since entering the New Year, he has gradually felt that his strength is insufficient, and at the end of March, Ye Xianggao's death also made him much older.

Under the sadness of the rabbit and the fox, he only felt that he didn't seem to have a few years left.

The situation in Daming is like this, if he dies now, then ......

"Alas......" sighed, Bi Ziyan's cloudy eyes didn't know what he was thinking.

When the carriage stopped, he slowly got up, and when he straightened his back, he got out of the carriage with the help of the coachman.

The rain came and went quickly, and when he got out of the car, there was no trace of the heavy rain except for the crisp air after the rain, and the water standing all over the ground, and the continuous dripping of water from the eaves.

"You will go back later, go to the Qi Palace, and give this letter to Wang Bingbi."

Standing at the door of the yamen of the household department, Bi Ziyan took out a handwritten letter and handed it to his coachman.

"Yes......" The coachman didn't ask anything, but nodded honestly.

Seeing him respond, Bi Ziyan bowed slightly, and then walked into the yamen of the household department.

According to his words, the coachman also sent the letter to the Qi Wangfu a moment later.

Almost when the letter was sent to the Qi Palace, Zhu Youzhen, who also felt that the rain had stopped, also walked out of the arrow tower.

He walked along the horse paths at the head of the city, but he looked inside the city from time to time, and outside the city from time to time.

The capital was washed clean by a heavy rain, and the dust caused by months of drought and sand and dust was washed one after another, making it look extremely clean and bright.

Walking in the city, the air was fresh and overflowing, which made Zhu Youzhen's heart suddenly brighten.

He walked to the other side, looked at the market town across the moat outside the capital, and suddenly stopped.

Zhu Youzhen thinks that he is a superficial person, he is not like those literati and, who can speak into chapters and recite poems against the smoke and rain in the south of the Yangtze River.

He can't understand the famous mountains and rivers, and he can't use his in-depth writing to exaggerate the ordinary alleys.

It's just that, thanks to Chongzhen's memory, what he can do in terms of writing is probably the good ink painting Danqing and the sketches he learned from his previous life.

In his opinion, everyone has an eye to find beauty, and the world is full of scenery, but the scenery seen is different.

After entering the sixteenth year of the Apocalypse, the population of Beizhili dropped to 6.63 million, and of these more than 6 million people, 2.9 million people lived in Shuntianfu.

Of the 2.9 million people living in Shuntianfu, another 1.3 million live in Beijing.

Of the remaining 1.6 million, more than 1.3 million live in the "vast and sparsely populated" province of Suncheonfu, cultivating and working in the fields...... The remaining 200,000 or so people live in the market towns around the capital.

On weekdays, the streets of the market towns outside the capital are full of people, and there are all kinds of small merchants and vendors, and they are lively like the vegetable markets of later generations.

Walking into the market town, many people can hear the clear shouts of the vendors and the lively bargaining.

Because of his liveliness, some people in the inner city of the capital, and even dignitaries and nobles, will wander around the market town outside the city in disguise, listen to interesting stories, and eat delicious food.

However, at this time, this lively market town was crowded with people who came to the capital to work and beg for a living.

Beizhili is no better than Sichuan, and even less than Yunnan, which is "uninhabited for 100 miles", and in terms of arable land, the arable land of Beizhili can only meet the needs of 7 million people.

The satisfaction referred to here is to simply eat a full meal, and by the way, to be able to eat meat during the New Year's holiday.

People are always in pursuit of a better life, and the people of Beizhili are no exception.

For the people of Beizhili, who only have six acres of land per capita, the current life is good, but they are also pursuing a better life.

Therefore, when the farming is over, the people who cannot afford to live in the capital will stay in the market towns outside the capital, and devote all their leisure time to part-time work.

Children want to read, and they need to bring their own paper, pens, inkstones, and inkstones to read, and these things need to cost money, and for the sake of children, many people squat on the steps by the moat.

Even when it rained, they were cloaked and crouched on the steps, waiting for their employers to hire them.

As it is now, thousands of people in lily clothes are sitting by the moat, judging from their shaking of their robes, the heavy rain just now did not make them go home, and most of them are waiting in the rain.

Maybe for the people who have a house in the capital, they don't work when it rains, and they just go back to sleep.

But for the rural people who come to the capital to work, renting a Zhangxu hut in a market town outside the capital also requires ten copper plates a day.

You can cook food on your own home, but the house money is not exempt, and it is inevitable.

If there is no work to be done today, then they will have to pay ten deni.

For them, ten cents is enough to buy two bundles of twenty sheets of paper for their children, which is enough for three or four days.

Therefore, they had to sit on the steps in the rain, waiting for a job of fifteen or twenty wen a day to be done.

However, since the beginning of summer this year, the three prefectures of Beizhili, Yongpingfu, Shuntianfu, and Hejian Prefecture have suffered drought one after another, and grain production has been somewhat reduced, so many peasants have taken advantage of the slack to come to Tianjin, Beijing, and other places to work.

When there are many people, it is difficult to find a job, and the salary is naturally cheap.

"So many people are looking for jobs to do, isn't there a job to be built in the new factory of the Imperial Horse Supervisor?"

Looking at the thousands of people waiting to work, Zhu You asked Li Dingguo without replying, to which Li Dingguo asked the eunuch of the imperial horse prison behind him, and then responded:

"I was recruited, but as soon as the people heard that it was a long-term worker, they shook their heads and refused to work."

For the peasants, what industrialization is, they do not understand, they only know the difference between long and short labor.

Although the factory is to solve the problem of employment, but the employment of urban residents is the same as the employment of rural residents, since it is a factory, it is not necessary to say that it is guaranteed to make profits, at least it must not lose money.

Therefore, the workers needed by the factory must be stable, and stability means a long time.

For the peasants, what they are best at is farming, they are used to being loose and free, and it is okay for them to sell their manual work, but let them go to the factory to be disciplined, which makes them avoid it.

Therefore, even though the Huangdian factory offered a wage of 30 wen a day, many farmers were still reluctant to do it.

"Your Royal Highness......" Li Dingguo was afraid that Zhu Youzhen would think that the emperor had done nothing, so he explained: "Although many people are unwilling to work, the factory still recruits more than 2,000 long-term workers, and these people are already left. ”

The industrialization coverage rate of the Ming Dynasty is not large enough, and the number of factories is not so large, more than 2,000 workers, which is enough to provide the number of workers in four or five factories.

The rest of the people, the imperial store is also willing but powerless.

This is not a problem of the emperor's shop, nor is it a problem of the peasants, but a problem of Zhu Youzhen.

Anyway, now Daming is governing, and since he is governing, he has to be responsible.

If a peasant has no work to do in the slack, he will run in vain, or even go home in debt, and then in order to repay the debt, he will have to spend several years immersed in hard work, once he encounters natural and man-made disasters, then he can only take risks to do something he does not want to do.

Therefore, the peasants wanted to find short-term jobs, but it was their situation that caused them to be unable to do long-term jobs, and what the court needed to do was to solve the problem for them, not to scold them for being ignorant.

"The Ministry of Industry will build a railway connecting the four stations in the east, west, north and south of the capital, and recruit workers on the spot, with a salary of 15 yuan, and the speed should be fast, and I will see the specific performance within three days."

Zhu You looked at the group of peasants who were waiting for the labor, and felt very uncomfortable, and immediately thought of building a railway around the city to provide relief through work.

On this road, he wanted to see if he could get electricity before he left Daming to prepare for the tram in the future, but under the catastrophe, many things needed to be arranged in advance, and he could not tolerate his personal wishes.

Thinking so, Zhu Youjian got off the horse, and Li Dingguo and some disguised brocade guards hurriedly followed.

Zhu Youzhen walked out of Andingmen in front of them and went to Anding's market town outside Andingmen.

Walking across the stone bridge in front of the moat, Zhu Youzhen came to Anding Market Town, and what greeted his eyes was colorful, fresh and watery melons, fruits and vegetables, as well as lively fish and shrimp river fresh.

These things suddenly made Zhu Youzhen feel the breath of fireworks rising.

"Your Highness, these things are nothing to look at, and besides, there is a noisy flow of people, so it's better to be careful......"

Li Dingguo followed, perhaps because he had been in the military academy for a long time, he was a little too careful, so after following up, he carefully reminded Zhu Youzhen to pay attention to safety.

However, in the face of his reminder, Zhu Youzhen said calmly: "When you go to a new place, you have to go shopping, some people like to visit the city, some people love to visit the landscape, but I would rather come to visit the vegetable market." ”

"At the very least, I can see these raw chickens, live ducks, fresh melons and vegetables, and red peppers here, and I can know what the local prices are."

"Coming to experience the bustling, crowded, haggling market, I can tell whether the vendors are making money or losing money."

"Looking at the peasants waiting in line, I can know how the countryside is doing, whether the new deal is effective, and how the peasants are doing."

Zhu Youzhen said his opinion, his opinion influenced Zhu Ciran, but Zhu Ciran was not as thorough as him, he only thought about seeing the countryside, but forgot that the city and the countryside were indispensable.

"Your Highness...... The kid didn't understand...... Li Dingguo returned the salute, and looked up in confusion:

"If it's just a vegetable market with so much knowledge and so much knowledge, then why do local officials still govern the local area so poorly?"

"You......" Zhu Youzhen sighed softly:

"If the officials of the Ming Dynasty are willing to put down their faces and go to the vegetable market, if they go to the vegetable market and know the people's livelihood and suffering, they can make changes, then my Ming Dynasty will not need me to implement a new policy."

"This group of them, like Shi Fenglai, Feng Quan, and Gu Bingqian, go out on weekdays, look at the mountains and rivers, chant poems, and feel convenient in the temple and on the streets of the capital......"

"Or, like the local officials who have been arrested over the years, they actually know what people's livelihood looks like, but they pretend they don't know."

Zhu Youzhen's words were finished, but Li Dingguo was even more puzzled.

"Why pretend? Isn't it a good thing that you can be promoted if you have merit in governing the city? ”

"Good thing...... But it also needs someone to do it......" Zhu Youzhen shook his head, and Li Dingguo also understood after what he said, and replied:

"Your Highness is saying that officials are afraid of doing it, and they are even more afraid of doing it wrong?"

"Well...... Zhu Youzhen nodded slightly: "It's not good not to do it, this is basically the code of conduct for officials in my court above the temple." ”

"They want merit, they can build bridges, they can also go to emigrate, there is no need to understand the problems of the people and solve all the problems."

"A lot of times they don't understand, but they pretend to understand."

"In the future, if you pretend to be a lake for them in the officialdom, you will have to pretend to be more lake than them."

Zhu Youzhen was teaching Li Dingguo how to be an official, but Li Dingguo shook his head with a wry smile:

"Such a lake, the kid doesn't want to pretend, the kid would rather do the work, even if he does it wrong, at least he is worthy of it."

"......" Li Dingguo is still that character, he has not changed, listening to his words, Zhu Youzhen didn't know what to say to him for a while, and even he reflected on himself.

It seems that he shouldn't teach Li Dingguo like this, the reason why there are so many twists and turns in the officialdom, the official face and the bottom words, to put it bluntly, are made up by a group of people who are afraid of responsibility.

Zhu Youzhen felt that he couldn't change the atmosphere of officialdom in Daming, but for Li Dingguo, who had not really stepped into the officialdom, he was more willing to believe in the truth.

He has a lot more convenience than Zhu Youzhen, the most convenient of which is that he can concentrate, but Zhu Youzhen can't.

Every day, different state affairs are spinning in front of Zhu Youzhen's eyes, and such an environment is destined to make it impossible for Zhu Youzhen to focus on one thing for a long time, unless this matter is very big and serious.

Therefore, if he wanted Zhu Youzhen to rectify the atmosphere of officialdom, Zhu Youzhen could only recruit a few people to rectify it.

It's just that this approach is only a palliative treatment for the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, but Li Dingguo is different, he can concentrate on one thing.

If he wants to lead his troops to fight, then he will concentrate on leading his troops to fight.

If he wants Enko to be an official, then he can concentrate on being an official and manage the one-third of an acre of land under his hands.

If he wants to rectify the atmosphere of officialdom, then he can keep an eye on this group of people and rectify it from bottom to top and from top to bottom.

Thinking about it like this, Zhu Youzhen smiled, and showed a hint of relief while laughing.

"If you have this heart, wait until you graduate and go to the army for three years of training, and then enter the court as an official."

"Boy, command!" Li Dingguo raised his hands and solemnly responded, and his back was straight.

With his appearance, Zhu Youzhen shook his head again and again.

The reason why he shook his head was because Li Dingguo's thoughts and appearance at the moment were exactly the same as those of him when he first entered the officialdom, but Zhu Youzhen was disheartened back then, what was Li Dingguo......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen was about to continue to visit the market town, but at this time, a brocade guard quietly came to Li Dingguo's side, said a few words in his ear, and handed over a letter.

After Li Dingguo took the letter, he also hurriedly stepped forward, and while whispering to Zhu Youzhen, he also handed over the letter:

"Your Highness, this is the Bi Ci Fu handwritten book sent by the king's palm print......"