Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 148 0143 [The other side of bustling Tokyo]

Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival, so I can no longer set up a stall or give lectures.

Because the vacancies in various streets are rented by merchants, they want to do business during the Lantern Festival.

The closer you are to the old city, the larger the scale of the lanterns will be. In some places, the lanterns will start half a month in advance.

Just when Hou Xuan, Chen Dong and others came to visit, Zhu Ming took Bai Sheng and Shi Biao to meet Li Hanzhang, Bai Chongyan, Ling Guxu, Min Zishun and other scholars to visit the city.

Hou Xuan lived in Tokyo for several years, and he came as a guide to explain.

Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty was divided into three parts: the new city (outer city), the old city (inner city), and the imperial city.

Things like Guozijian, Taixue, Wuxue, and places where scholars set up stalls are all at the southernmost end of the outer city.

Everyone entered the city through Nanxun Gate, and saw a large construction site as soon as they entered.

Hou Xuan pointed to the construction site and said, "This large area is currently being built as a Taoist temple. It used to be residential buildings."

Zhu Ming asked, "Where are the people living here being relocated?"

Hou Xuan said: "I don't know, anyway, he must have left the city, maybe he was placed somewhere outside the city."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Did the court give money to let the people move out?"

Hou Xuan said: "It is reasonable to give money, but no one knows whether it will be distributed to the people."

Going forward, to the east is Shuyao Huimin South Bureau, which is also a cheap public hospital in the Song Dynasty.

This originated from Wang Anshi's Market Trade Law, which stipulates that cooked medicines (Chinese patent medicines and medicinal wines) must be monopolized by the government, and private production and sales are not allowed.On this basis, official pharmacies were added, and then developed into public hospitals.

Hou Xuan pointed to the west and said: "From this street, there is a Qingfenglou Hotel. When travelers from the south arrive in Tokyo, the first inn in the city is Qingfenglou. The north and south buildings face each other, each with four floors, and the appearance is magnificent. , The interior is elegant. Visitors from other places are often proud to stay in the Qingfeng Building. The building is tall and shaded, and there is a draft in the alleys. People in the city often come to Qingfeng Building to enjoy the cool air in summer."

Ju Ming has read "Tokyo Menghualu", and the names on the paper keep appearing in front of his eyes, which feels unreal like a dream.

Across the street from the public hospital, there are several bookstores open at this time.

The bookstore owners were frowning, and Zhu Ming rode over to inquire, and learned that the place was about to be demolished.

The imperial court ordered that all be moved before April, and this area should be rewarded to Liu Wanrong.

Liu Wanrong was Song Huizong's new favorite, and she was pregnant for three months, and later Empress Liu.As soon as she blows the pillow wind, several bookstores will be unlucky, and the emperor gave her natal family to build a house here.

In Song Huizong's view, it is normal to demolish and relocate the gifted house.The woman I love the most now, her father is actually a tavern clerk, and she is still renting someone else's house, what a disgrace to the royal family if she talks about it.

Chen Dong said indignantly: "The Tai students buy pens, inks, papers and inkstones here. After they are dismantled, they don't know where to go to buy stationery."

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "There is also a bookstore outside Nancheng, it's only a quarter of an hour longer."

Moving on, Hou Xuan pointed to the west and said: "This is the house of Deng Xunwu, Cai Jing's party member. It has just been built for half a year, and two shops and more than [-] households have been forcibly relocated."

It is forced to demolish again.

Chen Dong said: "More outside is the house of Tong Guan's party member Gao Qiu. This man is in charge of the Forbidden Army, and he turned the Forbidden Army's barracks into a private house, and used the Forbidden Army soldiers as his own servants!"

Zhu Ming was a little speechless. A few days ago, he set up a stall to give lectures. The place was really well chosen, and it was next to Gao Taiwei's house.

Moving on, the circle on both sides of the Cai River is full of houses of Cai Jing's henchmen.

Even Cai Jing himself lives in Nancheng District.

This is because there are many old and powerful people living in the inner city, even the shops cannot be moved casually.It doesn't matter in the outer city. Looking around, most of them are civilians, and they don't have any scruples about demolishing and building houses.

Zhu Ming also went to Cai Jing's mansion to have a look, the area is really huge!

Moreover, there are two Cai family mansions, one was built when he first became prime minister, and the other was built when he was dismissed for the second time.All were rewarded by the emperor, costing more than one million guan, and nearly a thousand houses were demolished.

People in the outer city were often demolished, and people in the inner city were also hard-pressed.

Song Huizong expanded Yanfu Palace from the north of the imperial city to the north wall of the inner city.This was not enough, and the inner city wall was also occupied, and it was repaired all the way to the northern city of the outer city.This operation alone doubled the size of the imperial city.

The Shangqing Baolu Palace, which is under construction, is built next to Yanfu Palace.The upcoming Wansui Mountain (Gen Yue) will continue to expand to the northeast.

If these two places are completed, they will occupy half of the inner city north of the imperial city.

It's not over yet, when Longevity Mountain is built, Jinghua Garden will be built, and the inner city wall will be occupied again, and the royal garden will be extended to the outer city.

With a series of operations, the final area of ​​the imperial building can be multiplied by three on the basis of the original imperial city!

Moreover, all the houses in the central area of ​​Tokyo were forcibly demolished.

In addition, a large number of Taoist temples are being built. Some Taoist temples are rebuilt from Buddhist temples, and some houses are also demolished.

During the reign of Song Huizong, at least tens of thousands of Tokyo citizens were demolished and driven out of the city!

How should those homeless citizens live outside the city?

It is no wonder that Gyeonggi has been rebelled for several years, and there are still many thieves, many of whom are probably citizens of Tokyo.

Zhu Ming circled Yanfu Palace half a circle on horseback, and all the scholars from Yangzhou were silent.They had only heard that the emperor was fatuous, but they did not expect such cruelty and the large-scale demolition of residential houses in urban areas had surpassed the imagination of the local gentry.

Zhu Ming suddenly asked: "Where do the homeless people usually go?"

Chen Dong said, "Go south, east, and west."

"drive!"

Ju Ming swung his whip violently, and rode eastward around the city wall.

Li Hanzhang and Hou Xuan chased after them on horseback, but the rest continued to wander around the city without horses.

After a while, I ran to Niuhang Street, where livestock were sold.Going out of Xincao Gate along the street, you will arrive at the residential area outside the city, and there is still nothing unusual here.

After crossing the moat, there were fewer pedestrians, and Zhu Ming began to gallop wildly.

Li Hanzhang probably guessed what he wanted to see, and shouted loudly: "Go to the southeast!"

Zhu Ming reined in his horse and turned to the southeast, and quickly ran to the bank of the Cao River.

At a glance, there are shacks everywhere on both sides of the Cao River.

The young men and women who live here have to do odd jobs in and out of the city during the day, and if they can't find a job, the whole family will have to go hungry.

There are not many elderly people, and they cannot bear the heavy snowstorm of the past two years.

Zhu Ming led his horse into the shack area, and found that most of them were half-grown children, who stayed at home to take care of their younger siblings.

Suddenly I saw a rich man coming with his servants.

There are rich people around him, and every time this guy goes to a shack, he will lead the rich people in to have a look.

Zhu Ming followed silently, and saw the rich man lead a girl out, ordered her to stand outside the house and circle around, and then checked whether the teeth were broken.

The rich man was very satisfied and said, "This is what I want."

"Fifty strings," said the dental man.

The rich man said: "It's too expensive. When I come to Tokyo this time, I want to buy two maids to go back."

The tooth man said: "If you buy two girls, you can combine ninety guan."

After the two parties finalized the deal, Yaren went to the girl's parents to draw up an employment contract and sign it on the spot.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, life-long sales were no longer allowed, and the contract lasted for a maximum of ten years. Failure to give freedom after the time limit would result in a lawsuit.If it is resold during the period, the period should also be calculated according to the initial sale.

But in actual operation, it is often overdue, because there are many lawsuits about this matter.

Hou Xuan walked behind Zhu Ming: "Since the construction of the government house, the price of slaves has been reduced. In the past, this kind of girl was worth at least [-] guan, but now you can buy one for [-] or [-] guan."

"Didn't it mean that the imperial court restricted the keeping of private slaves?" Zhu Ming asked.

Hou Xuan explained: "The imperial court only forbids signing the contract of sale. When did it restrict the keeping of private slaves? The palace took the lead in buying slaves and maidservants. Many maids were bought with money, and they were released after the contract expired, or they were not released at all. In addition, the number of official slaves is gradually reduced, and officials commit crimes, and no longer use their female relatives as official slaves."

The royal family of the Northern Song Dynasty really took the lead in buying and selling women.

Zhang Rong, a Beijing official during Song Shenzong's period, was fined and his salary was suspended. He couldn't live without money and food, so he sold his daughter into the palace.Later, when he was in court, he asked for his daughter to be redeemed in front of all the ministers, which made Song Shenzong very embarrassed.

Wang Anshi didn't keep concubines. When Song Shenzong learned of the situation, he immediately called the eunuch and gave him three thousand coins to help Wang Anshi buy two concubines.

In fact, Wang Anshi had a concubine, but his wife bought it on her own initiative.

The concubine claimed that her husband was a general in the army, and the ship capsized while escorting the army rations, and she couldn't afford compensation after exhausting her family's wealth, so she had to sell her wife and concubine to the court to pay off the debt.Wang Anshi took pity on what happened to her, so he returned the concubine to her original husband.

The price of a young, beautiful and skilled woman is very expensive, often hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Even buying a nanny in Tokyo requires more than thirty guns.

Women can sell and men can buy.

Men are mainly bought to serve as servants. Especially during wars, rich families hire poor men to serve as servants.

It is said to be hired, but it is actually paid for life!
The entire Tokyo belongs to the largest population trading market in the country.

It seems to be an employment system, but the rich and powerful family will not let people go after the deadline. Do the parents of the maid dare to sue?

"The middle and lower households in the capital don't give birth to boys again, but every time they give birth to girls, they love them like holding a jade and holding a pearl."

This sentence seems beautiful, it seems that people in Tokyo love their daughters more, but there is something else behind:
"As soon as they grow up, they will teach art according to their qualifications, and they will be picked up by scholar-bureaucrats for entertainment. They have different names, such as people around them, people with skills, people with merit, needleworkers, people in front of the court, people who play dramas, and people who unpack and wash. The grades of qin boy, piano boy, and cook are all in order. The cook is the worst, but it is not available for extremely rich families."

What is the daughter raising for?
Teach them skills and sell them to rich and noble families as handmaidens.

Of course, it cannot be said to be sold, the law does not allow it, but the daughter is hired as a servant.

Ju Ming witnessed a human trafficking with his own eyes, and he can't do anything, because this kind of transaction is legal.

Zhu Ming rode away slowly and saw an old man on the way. It is not easy to survive the heavy snow for two years.He reined in his horse and asked, "Old man, have you always lived by the Cao River?"

The old man replied: "I used to live in the city, but my house was demolished and turned into Liu Lianfang's house."

Liu Lianfang, the Lianfang envoy surnamed Liu, is responsible for the supervision of clean government.

Hou Xuan said: "This Liu Lianfang is also Cai Jing's party member, and his residence is in the north of Taixue."

Zhu Ming asked again: "Liu Lianfang took over your house, did you give any compensation?"

The old man replied: "Someone from the palace said that the official family gave the land to Liu Lianfang, and only paid two yuan to my family."

Hehe, for just two pennies, he demolished his house in Tokyo.

Ju Ming looked at the countless shacks on both sides of the Cao River on horseback, and couldn't help sneering: "What a Tokyo city, it really is the first-class bustling place in the world!"

(Thanks to the boss of "A Wipe" dude for the reward!)

(End of this chapter)