The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 293 Public Security Business
"This block covers an area of ​​more than 200,000 square meters, but according to preliminary survey statistics, there are more than 5,160 houses of various sizes built in this narrow area, accommodating more than 5,800 families. Yes, that's right, many houses are home to more than one family. Men, women and children, a total of more than 27,300 people, regardless of gender, age or status, are crowded together. Among these families, three-quarters have only one room..."

On July 1732, 7, Shi Changxie, the prefect of Daxing Prefecture, accompanied by many officials, was inspecting a large and messy shantytown of foreign immigrants in Chen'an District, Daxing City.

This can be considered a typical dirty and crowded slum, with people walking on the streets, and the nearby buildings are dilapidated and densely packed, filled with a depressing and heavy atmosphere.

Walking through the narrow alleys, you will see the residents' simple houses built with wooden boards and bricks. These houses look like they were built together haphazardly without any planning or design. The roofs are drooping with rotten wooden beams, and the walls in the rooms are almost all exposed bricks that cannot be painted, and they smell musty.

Immigrants here often buy cheap vegetables from the leftovers in the nearby vegetable market, or buy second-hand goods in the flea market. The vendors are gathered in a noisy corner, their boring hawking voices break the tranquility of the area, and sometimes there are deafening quarrels.

In this shantytown where immigrants are the majority, rude children are running around, their growth cannot proceed steadily, and even some older children who should be in school are running around like crazy, missing out on the education they deserve.

The children’s games include kicking stones and hide-and-seek. Every open space is their playground, and every night is the beginning of an adventure for them.

Despite the hardships and gloomy atmosphere of life, many immigrants in this area still maintain a sense of pride that is unique to them, and their eyes reveal a beautiful hope for the future.

They formed small, close-knit communities and faced their difficult and struggling destiny together.

"If a particularly large fire breaks out, this place will become a living hell, with almost no chance of survival!" Shi Changxie frowned and said, "We must assign someone to manage this place to prevent major accidents."

"Your Excellency." Meng Zhenghao, the civil affairs officer of Chen'an District, stepped forward and bowed to Shi Changxie, saying, "Our Chen'an District has divided the shantytown into five special management areas. In addition to sending corresponding management personnel, we have also selected more than a hundred managers and servants from these immigrant groups to perform daily public security and fire prevention patrols in the entire area to ensure the safety of the people's livelihood in the area. In addition, in order to prevent accidents, I plan to dig several fire extinguishing pools nearby to deal with possible fires."

"Well, very good." Shi Changxie nodded and said, "Although these people are all immigrants and have not yet officially become citizens, they are a group that cannot be ignored by our Qi State after all, and we cannot ignore them and let them fend for themselves. In addition, as people-friendly officials, you cannot passively wait for these immigrants to apply for naturalization. They may not know the laws of our country, or they are not familiar with documents, or they have been fooled and deceived, and they may not know how to become citizens. Therefore, you need to take the initiative to announce the relevant naturalization regulations and laws to them, and quickly settle the immigrants who meet the conditions. After all, the abundant population and healthy people's livelihood in your jurisdiction are also one of the many criteria for government assessment."

"Your Excellency the Prefect is right. I will certainly follow your instructions." Meng Zhenghao bowed and promised.

Shi Changxie looked at the other person deeply, said no more, and continued walking deeper into the shantytown.

In Qi State, the application for naturalization and settlement by foreign immigrants has become a "big business" involving many departments and personnel.

It is said that processing an immigration and naturalization application will cost at least thirty dollars even if all the requirements are met.

Brokers, clerks, guarantors, immigration officials, and all kinds of weirdos, every procedure and every person involved will get a cut of the profits, more or less.

This shantytown has a population of more than 20,000 people, and more than half of them are immigrants. In the eyes of local officials and underground forces, this is a "big business" worth hundreds of thousands!
Of course, as the chief official of a prefecture, Shi Changxie came to inspect this shantytown where a large number of foreign immigrants gathered not to solve their naturalization and settlement problems, but to specifically inspect and supervise fire prevention and disaster relief work.

A week ago, a fire broke out in a shantytown in Heishan City, Jianye Prefecture in the north, burning down more than 400 houses, causing more than 30 deaths and more than 160 injuries, shocking the whole country.

To this end, His Majesty the Emperor and the Cabinet Government issued imperial edicts and administrative instructions, ordering all cities to immediately check for fire hazards in residential areas to avoid the recurrence of such major fires and reduce casualties.

If local governments are negligent or neglect such issues, resulting in unnecessary loss of life and property, they will be held accountable and punished.

Daxing City is the second largest city in China in terms of population size after Jianye City. It is also the industrial and commercial center of the southeast. It has a permanent population of more than 680,000. If we add in non-naturalized immigrants and a large number of floating commercial population, the population of the entire city may exceed 800,000.

In addition, Daxing is only 120 kilometers away from Chang'an, which is at the foot of the emperor, so major disasters and accidents cannot be allowed to occur.

Therefore, Shi Changxie put aside all government activities on this day, and led a large number of officials and followers to begin inspecting and implementing fire prevention and disaster prevention measures in several shantytowns in the city.

Although he was mentally prepared for the complex and chaotic shantytowns, he was still shocked by the terrible environment, poor living conditions, and the density of people gathered in the shantytowns after his on-site inspection.

I never thought that in the extremely prosperous city of Daxing, there would be such a cramped and dirty residential area.

This really damages the image of Daxing!

"Can we introduce a few real estate and construction companies to carry out a major transformation of this shantytown?" Shi Changxie turned and asked Shao Gongchen, the governor in charge of economic affairs beside him.

"I guess it's difficult?" Shao Gongchen shook his head and said, "The area of ​​this shantytown is vast and the number of residents is much larger than any other residential area. If you want to tear it down and rebuild it, you must first build thousands of houses. After properly relocating the residents, you can gradually rebuild on the original site. In this way, real estate construction companies will invest a large amount of money in advance, and they will also have to take unpredictable business risks after the reconstruction of the shantytown. In this case, there may be no residential construction businessmen who will come forward."

"Ordinary real estate developers will naturally not take on this project." Shi Changxie said, "However, we can ask those housing improvement development companies that have obtained government franchises. They enjoy the preferential loan interest rates of the empire's policies. At this time, they need to assume due responsibilities and obligations for the government's public welfare housing development." "Sir, if this shantytown reconstruction project is handed over to them, I'm afraid they won't be able to take on such a large project for a while, right?" Shao Gongchen said worriedly, "Such a large-scale project will require a lot of funds. You know, many domestic banks and investment institutions are not very willing to lend too much money to housing improvement development companies, so as not to affect their operating efficiency."

"If one company can't take it on, then two or three companies can join together to take on the project." Shi Changxie said without question: "In terms of fund raising, we can help them exert a certain amount of official pressure on banks and financial institutions, and we can also provide them with corresponding official guarantees."

As the urbanization process of Qi State accelerated, many cities faced severe housing shortages. As a result, a form of "improved housing" appeared in large cities including Jianye, Daxing, Weihai, Guangling, and Linzi. That is, housing that meets the minimum standards stipulated by housing legislation in terms of housing structure, facilities, and comfort, and is suitable for urban residents and migrant workers to rent and live in.

In the 1960s, the Royal Foundation was the first to enter the field of improving housing for the working class and established a residential development and construction company. The company's original purpose was to "provide comfortable and convenient housing for the lives of disadvantaged urban residents while ensuring cost recovery."

In the fifth year of the Hanxing period (1675), the Cabinet's Department of Urban and Rural Housing Construction proposed in the "Outline of the Urban Housing Construction Development Plan" that "cities are required to take action to eliminate slums and build more improved housing for the poor."

To this end, local governments will provide preferential loans to such improved housing development and construction companies, with interest rates not exceeding 4% and a repayment period of up to thirty years.

Since the 90s, Qi's housing improvement development companies have achieved rapid development.

Over the past 40 years, the Royal Housing Development and Construction Company has built a total of 268,000 apartments in various cities, the Wanheju Housing Construction Company has built approximately 220,000 apartments, and the Xinghe Housing Construction Company has also built more than 160,000 apartments.

This type of housing changed the gloomy appearance of some poor areas in Qi cities and brought about a new housing trend. Although these houses could not completely solve the urban housing problem, they greatly alleviated the overcrowding and disorder in the central areas of various cities.

Improvement housing is not ordinary commercial housing, but housing with a certain social welfare color. Improvement housing companies participate in housing construction and management based on charitable concepts, and their profits are generally controlled at around 5%.

The main sources of funding for these companies are charitable donations from all walks of life, royal sponsorship, government loans and private investment.

As early as the second year of the Hanxing reign (1672), the Cabinet's Urban and Rural Housing Construction Department would give priority to providing vacant land after the clearance of slums and shantytowns to improvement housing companies, and urge these companies to build workers' housing on the original site to provide housing for the working class.

As an early form of urban apartments, improved housing occupies an important place in the history of urban housing development in Qi State.

The housing improvement companies in various cities in Qi State would hire professional housing architects to design special houses for the ordinary working class. Although the structures and styles of the houses they built were not exactly the same, these types of houses still had some basic commonalities.

Compared with other housing, improvement housing companies pay attention to the room division in the house structure and will implant important housing division concepts in the architectural plan, including the division between families and the division between family members within each family, which includes factors to avoid moral and ethical confusion.

In addition, this type of house also pays attention to natural lighting and ventilation, is connected to tap water and drainage systems, attaches importance to public health, and is equipped with public kitchens, laundries and toilets. It meets the basic requirements stipulated in the "Public Health Ordinance" and has thus become a model for subsequent urban apartment developments.

There is a huge contrast between the improved housing and the simple shantytown housing. The former is spectacular, clean and well-equipped, while the latter is low and dilapidated with a poor environment.

Improved housing can be regarded as a high-end rental housing. Although the rent is higher than that in the private housing market, it is not too high considering its housing quality.

During this period, rent in the city center of Daxing was relatively expensive. The average monthly rent for a single room was about three yuan, a two-room room was five yuan, and a three-room room was six yuan and fifty cents.

It is estimated that the average wage of workers in Daxing is currently between 12 and 15 yuan per month, and rent generally accounts for about one-third of workers' income.

The tenants of the Royal Housing Construction and Development Company are some of the higher-income workers, and the average wage of the poorest tenants is 14-16 dollars per week. In order to uphold the principle of inclusiveness, the company's development and holding of apartments actually charges 15% to 20% lower than the market price, and sometimes even lower, so its housing is welcomed by workers in the printing industry, jewelry manufacturing, equipment production, engraving and locomotive manufacturing industries.

However, the number of such houses is limited, and tenants generally have to wait two or three years to apply, so most ordinary workers still cannot rent these low-priced, high-quality apartments.

For the purpose of housing management, the Improvement Housing Company built a closed community that was isolated from other residential communities. It is said that this model came from the design concept of Emperor Taizu. Therefore, the Royal Housing Construction and Development Company would use majestic and closed iron fences or walls to separate its residences from other adjacent residences, and lock the gates at night, forming a relatively independent community, which was called the "barracks-style architectural style."

In addition, the improved housing has very specific management regulations to strictly manage tenants. The management regulations of the Royal Housing Development and Construction Company have as many as 9 articles, which stipulate that: unless each family member of the applicant is vaccinated against infectious diseases or agrees to comply with the "Epidemic Prevention Ordinance" and agrees to send each infected case to a suitable hospital, no room application will be accepted; rent arrears are not allowed; the windows of the corridors, washrooms and toilets should be cleaned every Saturday and completed before am every day, and tenants should take turns to clean; washed clothes should not be hung outside the house; garbage should not be thrown outside the door or window; cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, etc. cannot be kept in the house.

Any tenant who does not comply with the apartment management regulations will receive an eviction order. Although this rigid management method has been criticized, these regulations have, to some extent, reshaped the living habits and customs of urban residents. Public health, disease prevention, self-discipline, neighborly respect, civilized behavior, and compliance with management regulations have become the cultivation and behavior that modern urban residents should have.

As one sociologist put it, improved housing is "a small patch of civilization planted in the midst of a vast savage wilderness."

Although this statement is somewhat exaggerated, it still plays a certain role in improving the quality of urban residents and their quality of life.

(End of this chapter)