No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 58 The Mess (Continued)

Su Ze suddenly asked:

"The property in Jixiang Lane was also handed over to you?"

"Auspicious Lane? Are you talking about the house next to the Southern Court?"

Su Ze nodded. Jixiang Lane was exactly where the evil monk was causing trouble. According to what Yang Zong said, it was the property of the store and house administration. Most of the people who rented there were officials working in the Southern Court.

Feng Shiyuan shook his head and said:

"No, that property is not among the three thousand properties."

"Why is that? Didn't you say that the best properties in the store and property management department have been allocated to you? Isn't the house in Jixiang Lane good?"

Feng Shiyuan immediately said:
"Okay, of course! But those who can rent in Jixiang Lane are all officials working in the Southern Court. How can Feng afford to offend them? Even if they default on rent, they can't be evicted. If there are any problems, they often need people to repair them. The properties here are not profitable, so they are naturally not among the three thousand households."

It turned out to be the case.

"Have you heard about the demon incident in Jixiang Lane?"

Feng Shiyuan shook his head, and Su Ze then remembered that Feng Shiyuan had been in prison this month and probably had no chance to know these things.

However, Feng Shiyuan had been a bailiff in Kaifeng Prefecture after all, and was very good at observing people's expressions. He said to Su Ze:

"But if the Director asks, I can help find out."

Su Ze nodded, this time he really made the right decision.

Feng Shiyuan is both capable and well-connected, and is a local tyrant in Bianjing City. With him, the company can quickly get a handle on the store and house affairs.

"Then let's go take a look at these 3,000 properties first."

The carriage started moving. It was said that there were three thousand properties, but most of the houses of the shops and houses were connected together, and often the entire alley was owned by the shops and houses. In fact, these properties were only in dozens of streets and lanes.

After walking for a morning, Su Ze finally understood the general living conditions in Bianjing City.

To sum it up in three words - dirty, messy and poor.

Only then did Su Ze realize that the courtyard he inherited after traveling through time was such a good property in Bianjing City. No wonder Feng Shiyuan was willing to pay a thousand strings of cash to buy it.

Most of the 3,000 properties with the best store and house business that Feng Shiyuan mentioned were dilapidated, with muddy roads and a foul smell everywhere.

These houses are often crowded with far more people than they can accommodate. For example, Su Ze saw a house similar to his own courtyard, which was crowded with more than 20 people from three generations of a family. The efficiency of their use of the indoor space was so high that even the house renovation experts of later generations could only marvel at it.

Only a few of these properties are well maintained, but these properties also face problems of crowded housing and inconvenient transportation.

Moreover, the houses in Bianjing City were different from the residential areas in later generations.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, urban residents did not have factories, but they were also handicraftsmen who had lost their land.

Therefore, these houses are not only residences that meet living functions, but also their workshops.

For example, Su Ze saw a small courtyard. The inner courtyard was where people lived, while the front courtyard was a workshop for making oil-paper umbrellas. The courtyard was full of materials for making oil-paper umbrellas, and there were hired workers and peddlers coming in and out.

Su Ze was also enlightened along the way. There were oil-paper umbrella workshops, woodworking workshops, papermaking workshops, and dyeing workshops, which were scattered in the streets and alleys. This was the commercial landscape of the pre-industrial era.

By the evening, Su Ze had already run to nearly ten streets and alleys where shops and houses were located, and he had a rough idea of ​​what a mess the shops and houses were.

Dilapidated houses and overdue rent are two mutually exclusive problems.

Because the buildings were dilapidated, tenants were unwilling to pay rent or defaulted on rent, asking the store and housing department to repair them. The store and housing department had no money to pay for repairs, and since they could not collect the full rent, their financial difficulties worsened, and the buildings became even more dilapidated.

Coupled with other problems, it eventually became a mess that no one was willing to take over.

A young official like Lu Gongbi is willing to work here because he has a father who is the prime minister. He can escape from this pit at any time and just make money while in office.

For ordinary officials, the work of store and house administration is a shit pit, and no one knows when this shit mountain will explode.

Along the way, Feng Shiyuan was also observing Su Ze.

Feng Shiyuan had met many officials, but he had never met anyone like Su Ze.

The difference between officials and common people in the Song Dynasty could be said to be huge, or even two completely different species.

Even Liu Yong and Liu Sanbian, who had a bad career and were unsuccessful in officialdom, were frequent guests in brothels and never worried about their livelihood.

After Liu Yong passed the imperial examination, he had been working as an official. He had just resigned from the position of Yuhang County Magistrate (the mayor of Hangzhou City) and took up the position of Zhejiang Salt Inspector, both of which were important positions in governing a region.

Which serious official would dirty his official boots and step into these shabby alleys among the shops and houses?

Not to mention talking to the people who live there.

Lu Gongbi even rarely talked to Feng Shiyuan because Feng Shiyuan was a businessman and Lu Gongbi did not want to tarnish his reputation as a scholar-official.

Those officials who are able to listen to the reports of their subordinates and understand the situation under their jurisdiction are considered good officials who love the people.

These problems with the store and house affairs are difficult to solve anyway. They were not caused by Su Ze's term of office, so they can just be fixed by the next term.

Now it seems that Su Ze really wants to solve the problem?
Feng Shiyuan expressed pessimism about this.

The biggest question is where does the money come from?
Whether it's repairs or renovations, it costs money.

The store and house business has been suffering losses continuously. Even if we spend more money to renovate the building, we may not be able to collect rent.

Even if we take a step back, it will be difficult for the store to make a profit even if we collect rent.

With the increasingly expensive housing and commodity prices in Bianjing City, as well as the rise in labor costs, maintaining these houses is bound to be a loss.

Not to mention that the left and right wing store repair commanders of the store affairs are often ordered around by the powerful and influential, making it impossible to complete the maintenance work.

In Feng Shiyuan's view, this is simply a dead end.

Su Ze was much calmer than Feng Shiyuan had expected. He simply asked someone to move the account books from Feng Shiyuan's carriage to his bedroom, and then made an appointment with Feng Shiyuan to continue visiting the properties of other shops and houses tomorrow.

Feng Shiyuan bowed to Su Ze and drove away in the carriage. Su Ze returned to his house. He grabbed the box full of account books and entered the Peach Blossom Spring.

In Taohuayuan, a building similar to the Yasi Hall of Kaifeng Prefecture has been completed. Li Yuntongzi A Zhang is wearing official uniform and sitting behind the long table in the Yasi Hall.

Su Ze dragged the box to the [Yashi Hall], handed the box of account books to A Zhang, and asked:

"A Zhang, how long will it take to read these account books?"

Ah Zhang glanced at the box full of account books, stretched out his chubby hand and said:

"Five days, five days is enough!"

(End of this chapter)