In the third year of Jingyou, during Emperor Renzong's reign of the Song Dynasty, an unruly young man fell into the back garden of the Great Song Imperial Palace, thus beginning a life that wou...
Some people were talking loudly in the restaurant next door, talking about poetry or current affairs. Even the workers on the street could sing a few songs of "Lang Tao Sha".
All kinds of chaotic sounds come together, composing a song of the various aspects of life in Kaifeng City.
In fact, the literacy rate in Bianliang was not bad. Due to the strong business atmosphere and the fact that printing technology had lowered the threshold for literacy since the Tang Dynasty, many peddlers and hawkers could read.
In addition, factories opened by the imperial court would set up literacy classes to popularize cultural knowledge for workers.
Under such influence, all kinds of poems were sung everywhere. Zhao Jun copied poems under the pseudonym Lu Xun, and he couldn't even keep up with the speed of writing new poems.
Not only did some younger writers emerge, but even poets who had never been heard of in history appeared, and the poems they wrote were very wonderful.
Last month, a worker from a famous cement factory wrote a poem called "Bodhisattva Man", which was published in the Bianliang Daily and shocked everyone.
From this we can see that perhaps some people in history had the talent to write poetry, but because of their poor family background they could not afford to go to school and eventually became mediocre.
In this prosperous age, where people have no worries about food and clothing and have free opportunities to study, it is natural that some people will take advantage of this opportunity.
It is foreseeable that various types of talents will emerge in the future.
There are not only scientific research talents in mathematics, physics and chemistry, but also writers, poets, dramatists, singers and so on.
Times create heroes.
At the same time, the times will also create those who were once ordinary people.
Just like many art forms such as opera and singing, they originally came from the folk.
The convoy of carriages came out of Liangmen, and West Street, with its countless pavilions and towers, was still crowded with people.
Occasionally there are noisy sounds, and quarrels and even fights are inevitable in the market.
But he was soon stopped and arrested by the yamen runners on duty at the street office of Kaifeng Prefecture.
Now the population of Bianliang City is increasing, the urban area is getting larger and larger, and the influx of foreign population has greatly increased the pressure on public security.
In recent years, some criminal gangs have emerged, but they were quickly suppressed.
Zhao Jun has always been ruthless towards corrupt officials and gangs of evil forces.
Weeds are removed every year. It seems to be done silently, but in fact, the Imperial City Bureau never slacks off.
Once you leave the outer city, you'll see a completely different scene outside the city.
Since large-scale demolition has not yet been carried out in the inner and outer cities, bungalows and wooden buildings are everywhere. In contrast, in the outer city, tall buildings are rising from the ground.
Five- or six-story buildings made of reinforced concrete can be seen everywhere, and people come and go, mostly ordinary people from the lower class.
Who would have thought that the inner and outer cities look like feudal urban areas with very few concrete buildings, but compared with the outer city's houses that are similar to those from the 1970s and 1980s, the land in the inner and outer cities is more valuable and there are more rich people?
However, I believe this situation will not last long.
Because the imperial court has already launched the inner and outer city renovation plan, even though the land in the inner and outer cities is expensive, the land prices have already soared before real estate development has begun.
The only good news is that the rate of appreciation of land prices in both the inner and outer suburbs has slowed as the city expands outside.
Therefore, as the city continues to expand outside the city and land prices stabilize or fall, the court can then purchase large tracts of land and carry out transformation.
After leaving the city gate, there are no factories outside the city, only some handicraft workshops. The large factories and workshops have been moved outside the east city. The city is now extremely commercialized.
Goods were transported from outside the city for circulation. Not only were there merchants from all over the country, there were even Arab merchants from Central Asia in the city. Just like Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, foreign faces were not uncommon.
"Outside the city is now vibrant and full of life. Those tall buildings remind me of Du Fu's poem: 'I wish I had thousands of mansions, to shelter all the poor and bring joy to the world.' These buildings are truly as stable as a mountain, unshakable in the face of wind and rain. Du Fu can rest in peace."
Fan Zhongyan sighed as he watched the changes in Bianliang.
When Zhao Jun heard him mention Du Fu, he said, "Actually, I like Du Fu very much. What a pity! I wish I had been born a few hundred years earlier, in the Tang Dynasty."
Fan Zhongyan understood what he meant and chuckled, saying, "It's good to be born a few hundred years later. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang became senile in his later years. Even if you, Hanlong, were truly talented, how could you compare to the close friendship between us and the current emperor?"
"hehe."
Zhao Jun smiled and said nothing.
Fu Bi smiled and said, "Yes, this great era is also the result of the many years of hard work of the prefect and the minister."
“It’s also inseparable from the efforts of everyone.”
Zhao Jun smiled.
After the convoy left the west of the city, it walked along the official road for several kilometers and could already see a vast military camp in the distance.
There were about 100,000 imperial guards in Bianliang, and these 100,000 people certainly could not be stationed in the city. In the past, the military system of the Song Dynasty was that there were 500 people in a battalion, five battalions in an army, and ten armies in a wing, which means there were 25,000 people in each of the east and west wings.
The rest of the army was stationed outside the city. At the most crowded time, there were more than 600 grain camps in Bianliang and its surrounding areas, with about 300,000 people. This shows how chaotic the Song Dynasty army was in the past.
However, after the reform, the imperial guards at this time were not only streamlined and well-trained, but also moved outside the city, no longer mixing military and civilians as before.
Although some imperial guards were still stationed in the city, there were only the imperial palace guards, the imperial city guards, and the city gate and patrol guards, which totaled no more than 10,000 people, half of whom were under the control of Zhao Jun.
At this moment, outside the West City military camp, 20,000 densely packed troops were ready. They came out of their camps when the sun rose, had breakfast, and left with their tents, carriages, and supplies.
Almost as soon as Zhao Jun and his men arrived, rows of soldiers wearing Song Dynasty military uniforms, wearing big hats and carrying long spears came out of the camp.
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