Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 626
"Woooo-"

When the train whistle sounded, accompanied by two figures walking down the train door one after the other, what appeared before their eyes was the empty train station.

"Xuan Zhu, Brother Ruan, this Xijing city is not as prosperous as you said, is it? The train station is empty and there are no people there."

With the sound of a young voice, the people who got off the train were not Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao brothers, but a group of Qi army soldiers on vacation who got off the train with them at the same time, thousands of miles away.

Hearing what his brother said behind him, Zhang Huangyan turned around with a smile, and behind him was a comrade he met in the army.

After the comrade-in-arms said this, before Zhang Huangyan could open his mouth, a young man in his early twenties who followed up laughed and cursed:

"Xijing City lives and works in peace and contentment. The people are either farming or doing business. There are only people who come here. How can there be people who come and leave?"

"Brother Liu, what Brother Ruan said is right, it's like this." Zhang Huangyan echoed, and asked the young man surnamed Ruan:

"Brother Ruan is going to go home first or..."

"Where am I going? It should be that you all go home with me. Go home first and taste my parents' handicrafts, and then go back to each house. Those who don't have a place to live will live in my house!"

Ruan Jin patted himself on the chest, and greeted the dozen or so brothers who got out of the car boldly, and everyone who heard the words also laughed: "Brother Ruan is bold!"

Zhang Huangyan smiled, carried his luggage and followed everyone out of the train station one by one, chatting and laughing along the way.

Since they were all dressed in mandarin duck battle jackets, others knew that they were soldiers who had just returned from the southern battlefield, and they also showed them respect.

Outside the Xijing City Railway Station is the same as the Ming Dynasty Railway Station. It is a large square with many horse-drawn carriages waiting to solicit customers.

In the past, as soon as these carriages saw people coming out, they would swarm up and snatch the passengers fiercely.

But after returning from the expedition for more than two years, Zhang Huangyan, Ruan Jin and the others found that these carriages were no longer snatching customers, but stepped up to a four-wheeled carriage in an orderly manner. The driver looked at them and asked:
"Brother in the army, do you want to take a car?"

The coachman is in his forties, and the carriage he drives is a four-wheeled carriage drawn by a large horse-drawn horse. Its shape is similar to Daming's carriage, but due to the use of iron materials and rubber wheels with iron hoops, the weight of the carriage is much lighter. few.

Such a carriage can seat six people, and Zhang Huangyan and his party have a total of seventeen people.

Seeing Zhang Huangyan and his group coming out, the coachman asked honestly, apparently he had just started this business not long ago.

Zhang Huang, who lives in Xijing City, said that they were a little uncomfortable with the sudden "gentle" change of the coachmen, but they did want to take the car.

From Xijing City Railway Station to Xijing City, there is still a full ten miles away, so you can't do it without a horse-drawn carriage.

"How much money does it cost to go to Huben Square in Xijing City from here?"

Zhang Huangyan, as the highest official in the team, naturally asked the price and paid the bill. This is an unquestionable tradition.

"Ten cents per car." The coachman replied with a smile, the price has always been the same, so Zhang Huangyan also looked behind after hearing the words, and then said to the coachman:

"Call two more cars."

"Come on!" Hearing this, the coachman picked up the wooden whistle and blew twice, only to see that the carriages waiting in line in the square drove out of two carriages respectively.

They were like a phalanx, one left and the other made up. This regular appearance was not organized by the driver spontaneously, so after Zhang Huangyan, Ruan Jin and four other people got on the car, Zhang Huangyan asked curiously:

"When did the rules for queuing carriages at this station exist?"

"After the Lantern Festival at the beginning of the year, the new law promulgated by Xia Changshi can be regarded as regulating the carriages at the railway station, so that those who are thin-skinned have something to eat."

The coachman shook the reins while chatting with Zhang Huangyan one after the other through the window of the carriage.

"With the current arrangement, will the money earned be as much as before?" Zhang Huangyan asked.

"Of course not, but at least it's fairer." The coachman responded and explained:

"Before, many cars occupied the position. They could make a dozen trips a day, while others could only make one or two trips."

"Although I am tall and strong, I can't beat four hands with two fists, and I usually finish it with five or six times a day."

"You can make a lot of money by going five or six times, right?" Ruan Jin couldn't help interrupting, "You can still earn one, two, five or six renminbi in a month."

"Don't just look at the money..." The coachman didn't know whether to laugh or cry:
"Looking at the size of this big draft horse, it needs to eat fifty catties of grass and ten catties of beans every day."

"Just for the horse food, I have to spend [-] Wen a day, in addition to the carriage and horse tax of [-] Wen."

"If the running is less than five times a day, the family can only make up for it by farming with parents, wives and children."

"Although the people of Qi State are not hungry, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea are all expenses. I have been immigrating for three years, and only two families of seven can get [-] acres of cultivated land."

"When the rice and wheat are produced, the family has to eat ten mu of land first, and the grain sales of the remaining ten mu of land are only about eight taels of silver."

"Although this money is enough for the family's oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea, and enough for the family to buy two new clothes every year, it doesn't save much money."

"I have no choice but to work as a coachman except for the slack time."

"This big draft horse was bought with a loan of 20 taels of silver from the bank, and the carriage was bought with all the money saved at home."

"Although the bank doesn't ask for interest, we still have to pay back the money. I've already paid half of it now, leaving ten taels of silver. I think we can pay it off in the coming year."

"That's why I said, if you don't have five buses a day, I'm afraid I can only borrow some from a friend's house."

The driver's words clarified the situation of his family, and Zhang Huangyan who heard the words said with a smile:
"It's okay. I heard that tens of thousands of tractors will be imported in the second half of the year. At that time, it is estimated that each household in Qi State will be allocated another five or six acres of land. The pressure on your shoulders will be less."

"That's true!" Speaking of land distribution, the coachman immediately laughed:

"Every year, I look forward to the land distribution before the spring. This year, my family only divided seven acres of land at the beginning of spring, so we have [-] acres of cultivated land."

"By next year, if I can divide another seven acres of land, then I will be able to pay off the money I owe to the bank early."

"By the way, you are soldiers in the army, so you should have more land, right?"

The coachman became curious about the number of land assigned to the soldiers of the Qi army. The reason why he dared to ask boldly was because there was no rule in Qi State not to disclose the number of land assigned.

"How can it be..." Ruan Jin said dumbfoundedly: "When we enlisted in the army, we were able to share [-] mu more enlisted land than you, and the land after that will be the same."

"My family has three households and twelve people. This spring, we will divide twelve acres, each person will have one acres, which is the same."

Speaking of this, Ruan Jin asked Zhang Huangyan who was next to him: "By the way, Xuanzhu, have you decided to stay in Qi?"

"My father hasn't replied yet, so I have to think again." Zhang Huangyan shook his head, the driver didn't know what Zhang Huangyan's father did, and thought he was just an ordinary person, so he persuaded:
"The guest officer hasn't been registered as Qi Ji yet? Then you have to hurry up. There are more and more immigrants now. If you enter late, you may not even have the original familiar land. You can only wait for the government to reclaim it."

"That's right!" Ruan Jin listened to what the coachman said, and persuaded Zhang Huang:

"Anyway, you have joined the army, so you can get the [-] acres of enlisted land first. You can't buy and sell the land in Qi State. If you don't get it now, you won't be able to buy it even if you have money."

"There are only so many fields in Xijing City. If you get naturalized later, you may have all the land in other prefectures."

Ruan Jin's words are very reasonable. After all, although the number of fields in Jingzhao Mansion of Xijing City is tens of millions of mu, judging from the current number of hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year, the fields in Xijing City may be divided up in two years. It's almost there.

"Let me think about it again..."

Zhang Huangyan was a little hesitant, seeing this, Ruan Jin and the coachman stopped talking about him, but talked about the changes in Xijing City.

"Has there been any changes in Xijing City compared to two years ago?"

"Yes! That's too much!" The coachman drove the four-wheeled carriage on the concrete mansion road, and nodded in response.

Since the state of Qi is mainly populated by immigrants from the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, there are rice fields on both sides of the ten-foot-wide road, and it will be time for them to harvest in a month or two.

"There are more immigrants here, and Xijing City will be bustling, and the rules will be stricter."

"However, those rules are normal. You will know when you return to Xijing City. Xijing City is very lively now. The inner and outer cities have been built and are full of people."

"Especially in the outer city, the city wall is at least ten feet high, the city gate corridor is twenty feet wide and six feet high, and there is an open space of three feet in the middle of the road. I don't know what it is for. It looks like a train track. .”

"There are rice fields dozens of miles outside the city of Xijing, and there are so many people coming and going."

"However, you said that if there are more people, the prices should be higher, but the prices are dropping every day."

"Except for beef, which has risen to Liuwen, the prices of other firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar tea have all dropped."

"The factories in Anling Prefecture in the north and Pingling Prefecture in the south also come to Xijing City to recruit workers every day, and the wages have already reached fifteen yuan."

"In addition, some time ago, water came out of the faucets in every household. Although it is not as sweet as well water, it is convenient to use, and the water comes out with a twist."

"Anyway... Our country of Qi is getting better and better. I think we will surpass Nanjing in two years."

Speaking of the changes around him, the smile on the coachman's face couldn't stop, and he kept talking:

"When my son grows up, in about ten years, the family will probably have a hundred acres of land. At that time, we can spend some money to buy a tractor, and three people can plant the hundred acres of land. The money for selling grain is enough I've been eating it for a year."

The coachman said, and as time passed, they also began to see the tall outer walls of Xijing City.

This city wall, which is ten feet high, eight feet thick, and 120 miles in circumference, is probably the largest and most majestic section of the city wall between ancient and modern times.

Looking at the city wall, Zhang Huangyan and the others felt small.

"It's a pity. Xia Changshi announced three days ago that the Qi State will no longer build cities. I'm afraid it will be difficult for a city as majestic as Xijing City to appear in the future."

Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but sigh. After all, for the people of this era, the city wall not only protects them, but also serves as a kind of local scenery to a certain extent.

"It's really big..."

When the Suzaku Gate, the south gate of the outer city and the first gate on the central axis, appeared, Ruan Jin and the others sighed.

Just as the coachman said, the twenty-foot-wide and six-foot-high Suzaku gate is daunting.

There is an endless stream of people coming and going on the moat bridge at the gate of the city, the number of which is no less than a thousand.

But even so, these people still look extremely small under the gate of Suzaku City.

The carriage drove into the city from the road, and the eight-foot-deep corridor made people feel extremely long.

When the carriage drove into the city, Xijing City, as the outer city, did not present a barren scene, but was already very prosperous.

The small courtyards built by the Ministry of Industry of the State of Qi are arranged in a dense array on both sides of the street. There is no high or low situation, showing a neat and uniform aesthetic feeling.

Driving out of the corridor, a wide avenue with a width of forty feet, also known as Suzaku Avenue, appeared in front of the corridor.

The forty feet of Suzaku Avenue are all roads, and the left and right sides of the road are all sidewalks.

On the sidewalk, Qi State continued the atmosphere of the common people's love of flowers. Men and women passed by with flowers pinned on their heads, or carrying flower baskets one by one.

"A lot of people, not so many when we go out."

"It's really much more."

"Even the inner city was sparse before, but now there are so many people."

After two years of expedition, Zhang Huangyan, Ruan Jin and the others couldn't help lamenting the large population of Xijing City.

Right now, there are [-] gardens, [-] squares, and [-] small courtyards in the outer city, and most of the areas in each city are vacant.

If it is fully utilized, there will be no less than 200 million people living in the outer city of Xijing City, and no less than 260 million people including the inner city.

Even though it is so vast, Suzaku Avenue, the first avenue in Xijing City, is still lively, and the twenty-mile road leading to the palace is full of people coming and going.

In the city, there were not a few horse-drawn carriages like the one Zhang Huangyan and the others rode. They dragged the guests back and forth.

The roads of Qi have already been distinguished by the roads of later generations.

There are roads for carriages, bridle paths for horses, and bicycle paths for bicycles.

The three roads are separated by flower beds full of flowers. The road is twelve feet wide, the horse path is five feet wide, and the bicycle path is three feet wide.

With such a wide road and a permanent and floating population of less than 60, there is no traffic jam in Xijing City.

In terms of the prosperity of the main road, Xijing City is no less than the two capitals of Ming Dynasty.

The coachman drove the carriage through the roads of Xijing City. With the appearance of the watch factory, the government servants who were responsible for guarding the intersection basically used the pendulum clock at the intersection to raise and lower the wooden sign.

There are two pendulum clocks, one person tall, standing in the middle of the intersection, once the time is up, the pendulum clock will ring, and the government officials will put down the roadblocks to let the vehicles and horses on the road pass.

"Hey! What are those red stakes on both sides of the sidewalk?"

Ruan Jin saw something that hadn't appeared before he left, and the coachman who heard the sound took a look and explained:

"That's a fire hydrant. In October last year, a family in Xijing City was caught in a fire, burning several households. Fortunately, no one was injured."

"However, because the well water could not be rescued in time, all the houses in that row were burnt down."

"After the incident, Xia Changshi stripped the yamen servant of his original responsibility for fighting the fire and set up a yamen called what... um... the fire department."

"Anyway, every city now has a team of fire stations stationed. They use horse-drawn carts to pull water pumps to fight the fire. Below these red piles is an artificial river, from which water can be pumped to put out the fire."

"Does it work?" Zhang Huangyan was curious, but the coachman shook his head:

"I haven't seen it, but some of them have seen it, and said that the water sprayed by the pumping machine is one or two feet high, and a cart can pull several thousand catties of water."

"Thousands of catties of water can basically... You see! That is to put out the train."

The coachman suddenly pointed to a carriage passing by in front of him. The carriage was pulled by four large drawhorses. The rear compartment was more like a water tank, one foot long, four feet high, and seven feet wide.

A machine smaller than a tractor is placed above the carriage, about three feet long, wide and high, and there are many rubber tubes coiled beside it, the thickness of the wrist.

The car was not traveling fast, and the four large draft horses were walking slowly, so Zhang Huangyan and the others could see clearly.

When the car passed the intersection, Zhang Huangyan and the roadblock in front of the three carriages were also put down, and they continued to head towards Huben Square.

Since the defensive pressure of Xijing City mainly came from the sea, Hubenfang was located in the southwest corner of the outer city, so the carriage drove on Suzaku Avenue for a quarter of an hour before turning into a two-way eight-foot-wide street.

When I came to the street, although there were still houses, there were a lot fewer pedestrians on the road.

If it weren't for the tall sycamore trees on both sides of the road, Zhang Huangyan and the others would have thought that what they saw just now was an illusion.

"There are so many empty houses."

When the carriage came to the street in the southwest corner, Ruan Jin couldn't help talking when he saw the vacant houses and shops beside the road.

Facing his exclamation, the coachman also said:

"These houses were built at the beginning of the year. Don't look at the vacancy now, it is estimated that they will be full of people in a few months."

While speaking, the coachman also drove the carriage and brought them to the gate of Huben Square.

Since Hubenfang is a military square, there are soldiers guarding the gates of the [-] surrounding squares. Horse-drawn carriages without waist plates cannot enter, so the coachman can only stop.

"Guest officer, look..."

The coachman looked embarrassed, and Zhang Huangyan and the others knew that he was in trouble, so they took out the badge from his pocket and showed it to the soldiers at the door.

After the Dongjin Movement, Zhang Huangyan was promoted and became a garrison officer at a young age.

This time they came back because Huang Long, Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan and others arrived in Xijing City at the end of April. The three of them expanded their army according to Zhu Youjian's instructions, so they recalled many generals from the front line.

Zhang Huangyan and his group were either garrison officers or chief banner officers, and most of all they were the captains of the first team.

The badges of ordinary soldiers can enter and exit Huben Square in a carriage, let alone them.

Seeing the waist card, a group of soldiers at the door bowed immediately, and then handed back the waist card.

The carriage entered Huben Square without accident, and Huben Square was much busier than the other squares in the southwest corner of the outer city.

Those who can live here are basically ordinary people whose families have joined the army.

Hubenfang, Yulinfang, Tiancefang, Xiaoqifang, and Longxiangfang are stationed in the four corners of the outer city and the inner city of Xijing respectively. Each square has [-] small courtyards, and the five squares have a total of [-] small courtyards. .

These [-] small courtyards represent [-] military households and [-] soldiers.

At present, there are more than [-] soldiers in Qi State, and Zhu Youjian has undergone many revisions. The current establishment is [-] battalions, [-] soldiers and horses, including [-] battalions of the navy and [-] battalions of the army.

Right now, the navy has been fully recruited and trained early. Zhang Huang said that they are in charge of the army, and the army's expansion this time is only six battalions.

Although it is not a lot, it is necessary to transfer backbones from each battalion to form a new battalion.

Thirty battalions and [-] soldiers and horses can basically meet the national defense situation of Qi State in the next few decades.

"Yes! That's it, you can stop the master!"

Ruan Jin yelled suddenly, startling the coachman.

He hurriedly stopped the car, and Ruan Jin also opened the car door and jumped down:

"Xuanzhu, you have a high official position, you pay the money, and I'll let my parents prepare."

After Ruan Jin finished speaking, he directly opened the door of his house.

There was a noisy sound from inside, obviously the sound of surprise when relatives reunited after a long absence.

"This guy... really..."

Zhang Huangyan laughed and cursed, then got out of the car and paid the driver of the three cars.

Although the fare of thirty cash is a lot, compared to Zhang Huangyan's current annual salary of 500 taels for a sixth-rank garrison officer, it is only Zhang Huangyan's income from walking around.

With paid vacation in the army, even if he doesn't do anything every day, he can still earn one, two, three or four renminbi.

However, not everyone is Zhang Huangyan.

Many people who have been in the army with him for three years have only reached the official rank of seventh rank or lower, with annual salaries of 200 taels and 160 taels.

Even so, these salaries are enough to make many people envious.

Official salaries are too high, which is the status quo under the Ming vassal system.

It's just that even if the salary is high, it cannot be lowered.

The high salaries of officials have increased the cost of bribery and corruption to a certain extent.

For many officials who are content with the status quo, it is difficult for them to take risky corruption for hundreds or thousands of taels of silver.

However, such anti-corruption methods cannot keep everyone clean. Even the Qi State can catch dozens to hundreds of corrupt officials every year.

The punishment for them is basically deportation, and they will be exiled to the north of Daming Ling together with the Ministry of Criminal Justice of Daming.

"Xuan! Let's go! Don't stand still, go shopping with me!"

Ruan Jin's loud voice sounded again, and he came out, apparently planning to grab a handful of Zhang Huangyan's "wool", and called him and the other two to go shopping together.

"What about us?"

The people who stayed behind shouted in embarrassment, but Ruan Jin dragged Zhang Huangyan to the street, turned around and shouted at them: "Go in and wash the dishes and clean the table, and get ready."

"I'll find Mr. Liu nearby to take the spoon!" Ruan Jin yelled, and Zhang Huang, who had a loud voice, had a pain in his ears, and couldn't help scolding with a smile:

"You guys, you've already sat on the deputy garrison officer, why do you still want to squeeze my wool?"

"They all squatted in the same ditch, why don't you pay some money, and it won't cost much!"

Ruan Jin hugged Zhang Huangyan with a smile, and walked to the entrance of the vegetable market in the workshop while abducting him.

Amidst the laughter of several people, they gradually disappeared at the end of the alley...

(End of this chapter)