I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 642: The New Look of the Capital

At noon that day, after having lunch with Concubine Song, Zhu Yijun changed into a gauze robe, tied a silk leather belt, and wore a black gauze hat on his short hair. He immediately turned from the emperor to an ordinary passerby.

But this passerby was tall, handsome, and heroic.

Song Liuli straightened Zhu Yijun's collar and hung a sachet on his belt.

"The emperor is out on a private visit, come back early, and don't go into a secluded alley. There are a lot of gossips out there, and the emperor likes to watch the fun, so you must not go in lightly."

Zhu Yijun laughed: "Don't worry. When I go out, there will be so many plainclothes guards in front and behind me, and there is also a brave guard battalion in the distance ready to serve at any time."

Song Liuli turned to Qi Yan and Lin Fu, who were in casual clothes, and said, "The emperor's safety is in your hands. Don't be careless."

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. Even if we die, we will never let the emperor make the slightest mistake."

Zhu Yijun was in front, with Qi Yan and Lin Fu protecting him on both sides, and they walked to Xi'an Gate, where Song Gongliang and Su Feng were waiting.

"Your Majesty, today I am on a private visit in disguise. I will be in charge of the command from a distance, while Su Zhenfu Envoy will escort you nearby. I have also transferred 26 guards from the Fengchensi to escort you in plain clothes.

Six people will be there to protect the emperor, and twenty people will be scattered around. I and Eunuch Liu Yi have secretly gathered three thousand brave guards in various places, ready to serve at any time. "

After listening to Song Gongliang's report, Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Okay, I'll leave everything to you, Mr. Song."

Zhu Yijun was flanked by Qi Yan and Lin Fu, with Su Feng leading the way in front, and six guards protecting him not too far away, and twenty scattered guards following behind.

The group was conspicuous at first, but after walking a few dozen steps on the street, they blended into the bustling crowd.

There were so many different kinds of people on the street, some wearing long shirts and jackets, some wearing new woolen coats, some wearing square scarves, and some wearing round-top felt hats that were imitations of new military caps.

There were scholars and students, Taoists and monks, peddlers, soldiers and police officers, and wealthy businessmen. People from all over the world, from the north to the south of the desert, dressed very differently.

They speak different dialects and come together to form the most prosperous capital city in the world.

When they arrived near the Shuntian government office, Pan Yinglong, wearing a cotton robe, a brocade belt around his waist, and a cross-folded hat, was waiting at the door of a restaurant.

"Mr. Zhu, I am polite."

"Sorry to have kept Mr. Pan waiting. Let's go."

"Okay, where would you like to see it, Mr. Zhu?"

Early this morning, the Imperial Household Department received an imperial order to inform Shuntian Prefecture Governor Liu Yingjie and Vice Governor Pan Yinglong that the Emperor wanted to visit the five cities in the capital.

It was clearly a surprise attack, leaving no time for Shuntian Prefecture to prepare.

Liu Yingjie happened to be on an inspection trip to Xian, Xianghe, Wuqing and other counties, and was not in the capital, so he was accompanied by Shao Yin Pan Yinglong.

After Pan Yinglong finished dealing with government affairs in the morning, he hurriedly changed into casual clothes, ate a few bites of lunch, and waited here.

"Shuntian Prefecture is in the North City. Today we will go from the North City to the West City and then to the South City."

"Mr. Zhu, please!"

Several people walked along the street at a leisurely pace and soon arrived at the streets and alleys of Jintaifang.

This place is close to Shichahai and Jishuitan, and has a nice environment. Most of the people living here cannot afford to live in Chang'an Avenue and the prominent district of Dongcheng, but their family conditions are good and they have requirements for the living environment.

The streets and alleys here are very similar to those in Dongcheng District. Most of the houses have separate entrances and exits, and each house is surrounded by a wall. When you walk under the wall, you can hear the sounds inside.

Addressing each other as Master, Madam, Young Master and Young Miss has some connotation of being a wealthy family.

Looking up, you can see the bell tower and drum tower in the distance, flashing in the sun.

This place is not as quiet as Dongcheng District. There are many people walking on the streets and alleys. Zhu Yijun can see some old women visiting each other from time to time. Some of them will leave one house and go into another house after just a few steps.

"Mr. Pan, who are these old women?"

“Master Zhu, these maids are quite mixed, but they are all after the female members of the family in the mansion.

Some teach the women in the family how to sew, some cut cloth and sew clothes, some resell rouge, hair oil and facial cream, some sell jewelry and hairpins, and some treat illnesses and prescribe medicine for the women in the family.

"A jack of all trades, you take care of everything?"

"Yes, Master Zhu. These families are always trying to emulate the officials and noble families. Their women are kept in seclusion and never go out of the house. However, they cannot afford to keep maids and nannies who have different duties, so these old women who visit each other from house to house appear in the market."

Suddenly I saw a house in front of me. The gate of the courtyard suddenly opened. I poked my head out, looked around, opened the door, let a maid come out, and then quickly closed the door.

The old woman was carrying a tightly wrapped package, looking here and there, and hurried towards the nearest city gate, Deshengmen, like a thief.

"Guess what this woman is doing?"

Zhu Yijun pointed at her back and asked.

Everyone was silent for a while, and then the pacification envoy Su Feng said, "Mr. Zhu, I guess this woman is most likely here to absolve this family of sin."

"Eliminate the evil?"

"What do you mean?"

Everyone didn't know what was going on.

"In reply to Master Zhu, this kind of thing often happens in the wealthy families in Jiangnan. Young ladies who are kept in seclusion have secret affairs with servants or relatives in the mansion, such as cousins ​​in the mansion or students of the master, and then get pregnant.

However, the noble family did not dare to make such a scandal public, so they found a powerful old woman to secretly abort the baby, and then gave her a sum of money and asked her to bury the dead fetus outside the city.

Seeing how sneaky this woman is, it's probably like this, and it won't be a good thing anyway."

"Makes sense."

The crowd continued walking forward, passing Xinkai Street and arriving at Mingyufang, the border of North City and West City. Most of the people living here were minor clerks from various government offices, as well as accountants from businesses.

When I reached the entrance of the alley, I saw a group of people gathered together, and there were a dozen water vendors pushing wheelbarrows, waiting in line.

"What's this?"

"Mr. Zhu, there is a well ahead. People from nearby come here to fetch water to drink. It seems that this is a sweet water well. People who push water carts to sell water also come here to fetch water."

"Well?"

Pan Yinglong replied, "Yes, Master Zhu, it is the place with the well. There are 667 wells in the streets of the capital. Previously, only 59 wells were sweet water wells, and the rest were bitter water wells or wells with different properties in between."

"Well, I know there are many bitter water wells in the capital. The main reason is that the well-drilling technology is not good and the wells are not deep enough. If they are deeper, the water will not be so bitter."

“Mr. Zhu is wise.

With the guidance of Master Zhu, the students invited workers who were good at digging salt wells and geographers who were good at surveying water veins from Fushun, Sichuan and other places. They dug 51 deep wells, 35 of which were sweet water wells and the rest were sweet water wells.

Shuntian Prefecture dug 269 deep water wells based on the old wells, of which 146 were sweet wells, only 35 were bitter wells, and the rest were mixed wells. "Zhu Yijun nodded, "Let's go and take a look."

Everyone gathered around, not too far away or too close.

There are two wells side by side in the well pit, with two wooden wheels. The well mouth is very small, only big enough for a wooden bucket to go down. There are two long stone troughs next to the well mouth.

A man was turning a wooden wheel, which made a creaking sound and the wooden barrel was pulled up. He reached out and pushed it, and the water in the barrel poured into the stone trough and flowed down into the wooden barrel placed under the trough.

The wooden barrels lined up to fetch water are of different sizes.

The big wooden barrel needed to be filled by turning the wheel four or five times and carrying water four or five times. Then two men put a wooden pole through the handle of the barrel, lifted it up one after the other, and the man behind held the barrel steady with his hands and walked back slowly.

The small wooden bucket was filled after being shaken twice, and the people who came to fetch water could carry it away one by one.

It was the waterwheel's turn. It took nearly ten turns to fill the wheel. The water vendor stuffed a few cents into the hands of the man who was turning the wheel and pushed the waterwheel away with a creaky sound.

Zhu Yijun sighed: "Rolling the water wheel is hard work."

"Yes, Master Zhu.

These people who row the water-wheels were all arranged by the town. The young and strong men in the town took turns to come, and every household paid a dime a month as wages to these young and strong men who rowed the water-wheels.

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With the money given by the water vendors, the young and strong men were willing to take turns doing this hard labor."

Zhu Yijun looked for a few minutes, then turned and left: "Let's go and look somewhere else."

When they reached an alley with no one around, Zhu Yijun said to Pan Yinglong, "Mr. Pan, the water plant needs to be built quickly."

"Mr. Zhu, the reservoir of the water plant will be located in the middle reaches of the Yu River. A canal will be built to divert the water to a place six miles northeast of Andingmen. The water will be deposited, filtered, disinfected, and then deposited again. Then, a cement pipe will be buried underground to a place one and a half miles north of Dongzhimen.

Four 30-meter-high water towers are being built, and steam engine pumps are also being installed.
The biggest problem now is laying water pipes, which have to pass through the moat and under the city wall. Many people say that this will undermine the defense of Beijing. "

"Defense? If the Ming Dynasty is still attacked by foreign enemies and reaches the gates of Beijing, how can I face my ancestors? How can I face calling myself the emperor of the Ming Dynasty?
Ignore the nonsense these people are talking about.”

"Your Majesty is wise. I argued with them based on reason. Now that the Ming Dynasty has eliminated all foreign enemies and the world is peaceful, how can any foreign invader reach the capital?
If that were true, wouldn't the millions of soldiers in the Ming army and navy die of shame?

Hu Gong and his men from the Rong government also support my opinion. And I also told them that the newly expanded North City, East City, and West City will no longer have city walls. According to the plan, they will be expanded directly on three sides. "

Zhu Yijun sneered: "Now we have entered the era of hot weapons. City walls are nothing in front of artillery. It is outdated to cling to the city walls and think that you are safe."

The group came to Xuanwumenwai Street, a north-south street that starts from Xizhimen Street in the north and ends at the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice in the south.

At the intersection ahead, I saw a row of rickshaws, also called rickshaws, parked with six or seven sedan chairs parked next to them.

The rickshaw driver sat beside his rickshaw, staring at the sedan chair bearers not far away.

There were two carriages parked on the other side, looking very cool.

When people saw Zhu Yijun and his group coming, the quiet street corner immediately became lively.

Two of the sedan bearers came out and chatted, "Gentlemen, would you like to take a sedan? It's stable and fast, and you don't have to starve."

Two rickshaw drivers also came over and said, "Gentlemen, the rickshaws are made in Kaiping. They use the best steel from Kailuan, steel wheels, and cowhide wheels. They run like flying. You only have to pay one person's price wherever you go."

Another clever driver said, "You guys are all young people who love new things. Our rickshaws are the newest things, and they are a people-friendly project supported by Shuntian Prefecture.

Young masters, come and try something new."

"Okay, let's try something new." Zhu Yijun said happily, "Mr. Pan, Qi Yan, Lin Fu, and the other two will take a rickshaw together, one for each. The rest will take a horse carriage. Let's go to the Duchenghuang Temple."

"Yes."

Everyone got on the rickshaws and carriages one by one. The sedan bearers not far away looked at the excitement here with disappointment, and faint complaints could be heard over there.

"Everyone is keeping up with the latest trends, so fewer and fewer people are riding in sedan chairs."

"Yes, their rickshaws are cheaper than ours and run faster, so who would want to take a sedan chair?"

"Alas, nowadays, apart from women going out, who would ride in a sedan chair? But families whose women ride in sedan chairs either employ a team of sedan bearers or rent a sedan chair. How could it be our turn?"

"Damn it, next spring, I will change my job and pull a rickshaw."

The rickshaws ran smoothly on the street outside Xuanwumen.

In the middle is a public horse-drawn carriage like a tour bus, on both sides are double or single horse-drawn carriages, and on both sides are rickshaws, which sometimes speed past pedestrians on the street.

On both sides of the street, in addition to the flags of various shops, you can see eye-catching billboards from time to time.

Some were placed on the roofs of buildings on the street, or on sturdy iron frames, and two were even hung on two archways.

Various advertising posters, "Yu Meiren" vanishing cream, "Qicai" floral cloth, "Tianxian" velvet, "Junma" woolen cloth, "Magpie" cotton cloth, "Baixue" sugar, "Tianbao" glassware, "Xinghuacun" Fenjiu, "Chang'an" Xifeng wine
They are all connected with words and pictures, and are beautifully drawn, which is very impressive.

"Boom!"

The voice came from behind. Zhu Yijun turned his head and saw a horse-drawn carriage coming from behind and soon surpassed the front.

The conductor was hanging at the front door, half of his body suspended in the air, patting the carriage with his hands.

"Xuanwu Gate, Luomashi Street, Temple of Earth and Temple of Heaven, Yongding Gate. Just get in the car and go."

You are walking fast even without getting on the bus.

Zhu Yijun noticed at a glance that there was an advertisement painted on the carriage that the conductor was photographing, and it was a public service advertisement.

"Be a civilized person and don't urinate or defecate anywhere!"

Soon they arrived at the Ducheng Temple, which was separated from the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple by the Xuanwumenwai Street. There was a large open space in front of the entrance, with hundreds of vendors gathered around, selling all kinds of things.

There are food, such as popcorn, fried dough filling, rice flower, white cake, amber candy, rose candy, sesame candy, cowhide candy, raisins, hawthorn candied haws
There are toys, such as katydid cages, colorful butterflies, small lanterns, paper cranes, small windmills, wooden gourds, and painted clay figurines.
Useful things: bowls, spoons, chopsticks and kitchen knives
The hawking sounds were like the Qiantang River tide, roaring and covering the entire Ducheng Temple.

People come and go. Men and women burn incense to the City God who rules over the world, pray for blessings and peace, and then they take a walk here, buy some favorite things, or buy some food and toys for their wives and children.

On the left and right sides of the main entrance of the Duchenghuang Temple, there is a wooden sign, each as big as a wall, standing high on an iron frame, with a huge advertisement on each.

"If you have money, deposit it in ICBC and you can get interest!"

Easy to understand.

"Sanhe Labor Service Agency will introduce you to the most profitable job."

A labor service company appeared so quickly, and it’s called Sanhe?

Are all the people it introduces to work there Sanhe masters?

(End of this chapter)