There are more than a hundred such houses in a market town. For example, "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" depicts the scene of Qingmingfang in Kaifeng during the Northern Song Dynasty, in which there are 122 houses of various styles.
Even if we don't count other lands, and only demolish houses and buildings, the court would need to compensate the people with more than one or two million strings of cash for the demolition costs to move a market in the inner city.
If we take into account other vegetable fields, shanties, luxury houses and high-value residences near the imperial city in the inner city, the compensation for more than 40 wards is simply unimaginable.
A rough estimate shows that the demolition compensation plus the construction costs to transform the entire inner city from wooden houses would cost the Song Dynasty court an annual fiscal revenue, which is about 200 million strings of cash.
Therefore, for now, we can only proceed step by step. First, we must spend money to expand the palace, and then renovate each market town one by one. We dare not complete it all at once.
The snow had stopped in late November and the streets were clean. Except for the slight gloom caused by the continuous cloudy days and lack of sunshine, it did not dampen people's enthusiasm.
Lanterns were hung on both sides of the street, and crowds of people were surging. There was a constant stream of pedestrians coming and going in the West Market, including many foreign faces, such as merchants from the Middle East.
"Tanghulu, delicious Tanghulu."
"Grilled tofu, fragrant and tender grilled tofu, only three cents a piece."
"Oh, potatoes. Fresh potatoes from the oven. So fresh."
The shouting sounds spread in all directions.
Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan walked among the crowd, looking around as they walked.
"How long has it been since you walked around the streets like this?"
Zhao Jun asked.
When Fan Zhongyan heard his words, he frowned slightly and then said, "Maybe one or two years."
"Me too."
Zhao Jun looked up into the distance and said, "It feels like I'm so busy every day, busy with national affairs and dealing with external enemies. I don't have time to spend with my wife and children, nor do I have time to focus my main energy on people's livelihood. Now that Western Xia is destroyed and the Liao Dynasty is about to collapse, don't you feel a lot more relaxed all of a sudden?"
"Yes, so you plan to take a good rest?"
Fan Zhongyan asked back.
"no."
Zhao Jun raised his head and looked at the bustling street.
It was already dark, and lights in thousands of houses began to light up. Children were running in the streets and alleys. Women came back with washed clothes from the river, preparing to cook dinner. A faint smell of honeycomb coal wafted in the air.
He said: "We should pay attention to people's livelihood and take a good walk around Kaifeng. Kaifeng is the center of the country. If there are problems here, then who knows how many problems there are in the whole country."
Fan Zhongyan understood what he meant and said with a wry smile, "If my old bones were not so weak, I would also like to travel around the world with you."
"Let's go."
Zhao Jun smiled and blended into the night.
After leaving the inner city from Liangmen, the order in the outer city was still pretty good.
Apart from the occasional street fights, collisions and quarrels, or beatings and scolding by shrews.
These are very common things in the city. There are Kaifeng government officials on duty on every street to coordinate.
The blocks are lined up in an orderly manner.
Kaifeng City is very big, and Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan could not walk around it in a whole day, so they just strolled around the West Market today.
I looked at the scenery of Yicheng Tower and Fanglin Garden from afar. The whole building was full of red sleeves waving and colorful ribbons flying.
In addition to basic commercial areas, the outer city market also has a large number of residential areas. Every household uses honeycomb coal outside the door, and it is common to see several families renting a house together.
The water we use is well water, which sometimes makes washing clothes and cooking very inconvenient.
Zhao Jun saw all of this and kept it in mind.
As the two walked and chatted, Fan Zhongyan suddenly asked, "You sent a document to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning. What did you do?"
While observing the situation among the people, Zhao Jun casually said, "Let people know that the Western Region Uighurs and the Black Khanate have submitted to the Song Dynasty and submitted to its rule."
"Will they agree?"
"This is the principle of using courtesy before force, being a king at home and a hegemon abroad. This is sometimes necessary for a great power to behave in order to demonstrate its majesty."
"Well, that makes sense. Back then, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent envoys to the Western Regions, but they colluded with the Xiongnu and even killed the Han envoys. That's why Emperor Wu conquered Dayuan."
Fan Zhongyan nodded and said, "Emperor Taizong of Tang attacked the Turks, but Gaochang State allied with them and resisted the Tang. So the Tang army conquered the city, destroyed the state, and occupied the Western Regions. We've given them a chance, haven't we?"
As he spoke, he turned his head and noticed that Zhao Jun was staring at someone's yard. There were several girls squatting by the well in the yard washing clothes. Fan Zhongyan said angrily, "You are already in your thirties."
"Old Fan, what are you thinking about?"
Zhao Jun rolled his eyes at him and said, "People with dirty thoughts only have dirty minds."
"So, tell me what you're thinking about?"
"I was wondering how inconvenient it is for them to get water from the well."
"inconvenient?"
Fan Zhongyan turned his head and saw that every time the girls needed water, they had to laboriously turn the wheel in the well to get it up.
Sometimes you don’t have enough strength and may even fall down, and you have to fetch the water all over again.
“It’s a bit inconvenient, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Fan Zhongyan said: "Many towns are far from the river, making it inconvenient to go there, and the water in the river is not clean."
In addition to the four canals, Kaifeng also has many underground rivers.
The underground rivers were also not clean in the past. After the underground forces were eradicated, Kaifeng Prefecture sealed the underground entrances with steel doors.
Without the underground accumulation of dirt and filth, the water quality improved and became the main source of domestic water in the city.
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