The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Under Su Jin's order, nearly [-] people from the Northwest Fourth Road arrived at Yelu Ridge one after another and set up camp. He landed the raw materials to Yeluling to be piled up; at the same time, Su Jin ordered people to spend nearly a month to the capital and the south to hire masons at high prices, many of whom were proficient in construction.

After a month of preparation, Su Jin officially dug the first shovel of soil in Yeluling, setting off the curtain of casting a new city.

Although Su Jin is a layman in this area, he has never eaten pork and has always seen pigs running. Moreover, the planning of the new city is not large. After convening the proficient craftsmen to discuss together, and considering the existing financial resources and raw materials, The new city is tentatively designed to be surrounded by inner, outer and inner rings, supplemented by the structure of Wuxiangfang City in the southeast, northwest, and middle.

The ring line is circular, with a circumference of fifteen miles on the outer ring, ten miles on the middle ring, and five miles on the inner ring. A city of this size can accommodate up to 10 people, and it belongs to a small and medium-sized city; The outer ring on the southeast, west and west sides extends to the waterway, and more than ten docks are planned to facilitate the loading and unloading of ships from south to north.

There is no city wall in the new city, and what the city of commerce wants is convenience and convenience, and it does not shoulder the responsibility of defending against the enemy. Of course, the pressure on public security in the city will definitely not be small. Without the confinement of the city gate, the people who come and go are of all kinds and styles, which is inconvenient to manage .

However, Su Jin already had a countermeasure, and he has already figured out a way to deal with it; the new city is divided into five compartments, and each compartment is divided into workshops, and each compartment has a yamen nearby, and a branch is set up in the workshop. The yamen received the official documents stamped by the yamen, and based on this, they could stay, eat and do business in the city, otherwise it would be difficult to move a single step; this could roughly control the identity, number and whereabouts of the people who came and went.

Twelve wide streets extend out from the middle compartment, named after numbers, the northernmost one is the first street, and so on until the No.12 street. From the drawings, the whole city is like a large dial, and the twelve streets are like twelve pointers; each street is a main commercial street, connecting shops, warehouses, markets, and so on.

As for the construction of shops, Su Jin requires all brick and stone structures, and abandons rammed earth and wood. Firstly, it is for cleanliness and solidity, and secondly, it is also for fire prevention; All are paved with gravel and asphalt, the main street is more than five feet wide, and the alleys can run parallel with bullock carts.

All in all, after exhausting Su Jin's brains, Su Jin tried to apply some things that later generations could copy to this era to Pearl City, and these whimsical ideas in Su Jin's mind really made him follow him. The officials of the project were inconceivable.

The construction of Pearl City began on April 28. It took [-] people to level the land and dig the foundation for a month. The three ring roads and twelve main streets soon took shape. After the foundation was laid, the asphalt was sprinkled on, and when it dried, the construction of Main Street and the Loop was complete.

The completion of the Ring Road and the Twelfth Main Street is like weaving the main veins of the entire new city, and the rest is to weave pictures around these meridians, and the construction of squares, shopping malls, shops, residences and other facilities along the streets is a weaving network. The process is very time-consuming.

Su Jin ordered Li Zhong to supervise the progress of the project, and he took time out to lobby the state capitals of the Song Dynasty. Rou Niang and others carefully painted tens of meters of urban renderings, which happened to be exhibited. At the same time, Su Jin also placed Offer preferential business conditions in order to attract merchants from all over the world to come to Pearl City to set up shops.

Su Jin was originally a well-known figure in the Song Dynasty. Officials from all over the country had heard of Su Jin's name for a long time. Seeing Su Jin personally urging people to go to do business, they were a little puzzled.

It stands to reason that he is a veritable king of the Northwest, condescending and putting down his body to do this kind of thing makes people feel that he is not doing his job properly, but Su Jin knows it hard, Mingzhu City has spent nearly 400 million yuan of living money. , Other materials and energy invested by the family are not counted, and the follow-up investment will be at least a million guan, and the money comes from the deposits of Huitong Yinzhuang depositors; , Yinzhuang in Yingtian and Beijing has nearly 300 million bank deposits into the account every year. In the past few years, the deposit balance has reached 800 million. Su Jinguang took away 500 million this time when he built the city. If the depositors withdraw collectively at this time, Su Jin was about to commit suicide by jumping off the building immediately.

Although the officials were puzzled, they still had to save face. Everywhere they went, the officials would call together merchants from the local chamber of commerce. Su Jin naturally chattered and recommended the new city's preferential policies for investment.

And the investment promotion policy of Pearl City is indeed favorable. First of all, the store is free to use for one year. If you want to do business here in the next year, you can have the right to buy the store first or pay the rent; the second point is the preferential tax. Although the official tax rate in the Song Dynasty varies with different commodities, it is roughly between two out of a hundred and five out of a hundred. Su Jin declared that the Northwest Fourth Road has the right to agree to set the tax rate by the emperor, and the overall tax rate is set at one out of a hundred. Between the two, the tax rate has been greatly reduced; the third preferential policy proposed by Su Jin is even more peculiar. Anyone who has been in business in the new city for five years and has a good reputation will be awarded the title of honorary citizen by the government, and One of his sons can be recommended as an official.

The three preferential strategies start from the interests and face, and they are indeed more attractive. Su Jin understands the minds of merchants. It is their common idea to pursue profits and hope not to be despised by others. Su Jin uses their contradictory principles. psychology.

In addition, most people are very interested in the color pictures of the city that Su Jin took out. From the pictures, the trees are shady, the streets are open, and the shops are spacious and beautiful. Believe it; Su Jin naturally also sees this, and sincerely invites everyone to visit the new city in August. Those who are satisfied can sign an agreement on the spot to pick up the shops, and those who are not satisfied will be sent back respectfully.

After three months of construction, [-] civilians and tens of thousands of troops sweated profusely, and a brand new city stood on the northwest land. Su Jin took the lead in moving the Lushi Yamen to the new city. They could only move here one after another, the middle chamber was specially built for the relocation of the yamen to the place Su Jin had reserved for them.

Following the relocation of supporting government offices at all levels, the family members and guards of these people also followed.

At the beginning of August, merchants invited from all over the world arrived in the new city. Su Jin personally went to the pier to greet them, led five or six hundred merchants around the new city, and acted as a guide for them to introduce various facilities in the new city.

This group of people has not closed their mouths since they entered the new city. Everything in front of them feels like a dream. The wide and straight wide streets exude a strange smell. , for fear of falling into it.

"Master Su, what is the pavement on this road? Why does it have a strange smell, and it's a little soft."

"This is an asphalt road. It is paved with a kind of oil residue called asphalt. Don't look at how soft you step on it. This kind of road is not slippery in snow, rainy or sunny, and dust-free. At least within ten years. It will definitely not become bumpy, it is more than a hundred times better than the official road, if you don’t believe me, you can try it.” Su Jin laughed.

Some merchants got a bucket of water and poured it on the road, and then they dragged their horses on it. After a long time, they didn’t see any abnormality on the road. They stretched out their hands and felt that the water was water, and the road was a road. There was not even a black mark on it. , It's something that doesn't stick at all.

"This... is amazing." The merchants were dumbfounded.

"Everyone come with me, the magic doesn't stop here." Su Jin was triumphant, striding forward.

"Did you see? The two-storey small building by the road is a shop, and there is a yard at the back that can be used as a residence or a warehouse. These houses are all made of blue bricks and blue stones, and the outside is painted with white mud. Isn't it beautiful?" Su Jin pointed asked the roadside house.

"This...is this a shop? This old man thought it was a government office." An old man with few teeth opened his mouth wide, with an expression of disbelief.

Su Jin smiled and said: "Where are there so many yamen, they are all shops for you, are you satisfied?"

Everyone was speechless, and Su Jin didn't need them to answer. Their expressions had already betrayed their hearts, and there was no need to answer at all.

Surprises are still going on, whether it is the isolation strip of flowers and trees lined up along the street, or the empty large wooden barrels used to collect garbage placed every few dozen steps, it makes people sigh that this new city is different, When it was almost dusk, the wooden poles standing on the side of the road that Su Jin had not explained to everyone came in handy; more than a dozen ox carts loaded with lanterns approached, lit the lanterns, and hung them on the wooden poles in strings with long hooks On the road, the dimly lit street suddenly became bright, and everyone walked on the brightly lit street, as if walking in heaven. They were all amazed and praised without hesitation.

Some of the accompanying people had read books for a few years. After being amazed, poetry and ink rolled in their stomachs, and they had a strong creative impulse, so they said in public: the heaven and earth bells are beautiful, human beings weep ghosts and gods; city.

The crowd applauded repeatedly, and the applause was thunderous.