"How come the old ancestor has time to invite me for tea?"
Gu Jiu walked into the tea room with the help of his maid.
"Here you are! Come and sit down. The baby will be born soon." The Shaofu household steward smiled.
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "The baby will be born in more than a month."
After she finished speaking, she sat down on the chair, facing the Shaofu Household Manager.
The Shaofu family commander said cheerfully, "Originally, since you were pregnant, I should have gone to Xiaozhu to look for you. However, it would have been too conspicuous and I was afraid of attracting criticism. So I had no choice but to invite you out for tea."
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "I understand the concerns of our ancestors. Who wouldn't stay away from us nowadays?"
"That's what I said. We will continue to interact with each other."
The weather was warm, the windows were open, and outside was the bustling Xinmin County.
In just a few years, the county seat of Xinmin County expanded again, the population grew, and the market became more and more lively.
So many people simply moved out of the crowded and cramped shantytowns in Beijing and settled in Xinmin County.
In order to solve the housing problem, Gu Jiu allocated another piece of land and built houses similar to those in the second phase, which was designated as the sixth phase.
The price is not high, and the two-story house is big enough for a family of seven or eight.
It has a well, a separate kitchen, toilet and bathroom.
The community is surrounded by tall walls, with gates and guards, so you don't have to worry about safety.
This kind of house is most popular among ordinary people.
In addition to the increasing number of people buying houses and settling down, there are also many more students coming to study.
As a result, the rent has also increased.
As a result, many landlords who bought houses continued to live in the shantytowns in the city with their families, and rented out their new houses to students, earning enough to cover the income of three people.
If you have money, just buy two houses.
One is for my family to live in and the other is for rent.
Even the marriage market has changed.
If the man's household registration is in Beijing and he also owns a house in Xinmin County, the matchmaker can even trample down the threshold of his house.
You can choose any daughter of a landlord.
If the man owns a house in Xinmin County Phase II but does not have a Beijing hukou, the daughter of a landlord cannot choose freely, but the daughter of an ordinary citizen can choose freely.
If you only have a Beijing hukou but no house in Xinmin County, your family will have to rent a house in the shantytowns of Beijing. Sorry, no girl would be willing to marry into that family.
Everyone knows what the shanty towns in Beijing are like.
It's freezing cold in winter, flooded in summer, and mosquitoes, flies and rats are everywhere.
You have to choose a time and a place to take a bath.
The place is so small that taking a shower is naturally very troublesome.
As the roads in Beijing became cemented, the team of cleaners expanded, and the city's appearance was improved year by year, prompting ordinary people in Beijing to start paying attention to hygiene.
The first thing to do when it comes to hygiene is to take a bath frequently.
Especially in summer, when you are sweating all over, you need to wash yourself thoroughly.
In the shantytowns, it is quite convenient for men to take a bath. At worst, they can go to the inner city river and jump in to wash.
It is extremely troublesome for a woman to take a shower. She has to worry about being peeped at. She even has to worry about a scoundrel suddenly pushing the door open.
These are still bearable.
The most unbearable thing is the smell of feces and urine all over the yard.
Especially in the early morning, every household is busy emptying the toilet bowl, that feeling, haha...
In addition, there are only one or two wells in a market town, and many people use water, so it is very inconvenient to use water.
Some women are lazy and just throw the feces and urine pot in the corner without washing it out. After a long time, who can stand the smell?
"Even on the streets of Beijing, there's no smell of feces and urine, but my home always smells of feces and urine. This place is uninhabitable."
In the shanty towns of Beijing, countless women made similar cries.
"The Zheng family next door made a lot of money and bought a small two-story building in Phase 6 of the newly opened Xinmin County development. There are eight bedrooms upstairs and downstairs combined, and they rent them all out to students from other places who come to Beijing. They make a lot of money every month just from rent."
"Every day when the city gates open, the Zheng family goes to the new house to wash clothes, bathe, cook, and eat, and they also work there. They don't come back until the city gates close at night. This is just a place to sleep."
"I heard the Zheng family wants to find a scholar for their daughter. I don't care. No matter what, I have to buy a house in Xinmin County this year. Even if I can't afford a whole house, I'll settle for three or five. I've had enough of life here. My whole family sleeps in one room, and we have to clean out the shit all day. It's so hot, and I only take a bath once every ten days or half a month."
"After we bought a house, we followed the example of the Zheng family and rented it out. The rent is enough to pay off the mortgage. The kitchen, bathroom, and toilet are used by our family. The two gatehouses are just right for the whole family to live in."
The living conditions in Xinmin County are not necessarily that good.
But at least it takes into account people's food, clothing, housing and transportation, and brings convenience, hygiene and cleanliness to people's lives.
Who doesn’t like a clean place to live?
Who doesn’t want to smell good?
Houses in Xinmin County are not expensive compared to those in Beijing.
But even so, not every household can afford it.
These days, if there’s a sick person at home, not to mention buying a house, even having food to eat might become a problem.
If you have a scholar at home, you should postpone the plan of buying a house.
In short, it is easy to make money and it is also easy to spend money.
The prices of goods in Beijing are also rising along with the housing prices.
For many students from other places who come to Beijing, the most difficult thing to accept is the extremely high prices.
Especially renting a house.
High prices have made life difficult for students and countless ordinary people in Beijing.
The prosperity of Xinmin County means that people have to pay a higher cost of living to obtain the same living conditions as in the past.
Gu Jiu picked up the teacup, which contained honey water that he brought from home.
She took a sip and found the honey taste very light.
After becoming pregnant, Gu Jiu was afraid to eat and drink freely, fearing that consuming too much sugar would cause gestational diabetes.
Even for honey water, he would only put a spoonful in a large pot of water, just to taste it.
"My ancestor asked me to come out today, not just to enjoy the scenery and drink tea, right?"
The Shaofu Household Officer laughed heartily. "Of course it's not for tea. Some time ago, someone submitted a proposal to build a city wall in Xinmin County. You know about this, right?"
Gu Jiu nodded, "I heard about this."
Xinmin County is a special place in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
It is the only county without city walls, the only county without agricultural land, and the only county without an agricultural population.
Even the registered population is composed of 70% refugees from other places and 25% landless and bankrupt farmers in the capital area.
Most of the rest are employees of Sihai Trading Company.
Employees of Sihai Trading Company are eligible for priority household registration in Xinmin County as long as they have worked there for five years.
It is also the only county where the county magistrate has been re-elected for three consecutive terms.
Last year, Gu Yu's term of office expired and according to regulations, he had to be transferred from Xinmin County.
To keep Gu Yu as the magistrate of Xinmin County, Princess Huyang first caused a commotion in the Ministry of Personnel, which made officials from top to bottom miserable.
Later, Princess Huyang ran to the palace to plead for mercy, crying and sobbing miserably.
Even Empress Dowager Xiao was persuaded by Huyang to plead for her in front of Emperor Wende.
Emperor Wende knew that all this was part of Gu Jiu's plan, but he still had to accept it.
No matter how unwilling he was, he knew in his heart that Xinmin County had to rely on Gu Jiu to run it.
Gu Jiu needs someone who is trustworthy and can do things completely according to her wishes.
This person is none other than Gu Yu.
Xinmin County is very important. It is a major taxpayer and has a large population. It can also solve the refugee problem that has been a headache for the imperial court.
In order to ensure the healthy development of Xinmin County, the best way is to maintain the status quo.
As a result, Gu Yu was successfully re-elected as the magistrate of Xinmin County.
It is useless for the aristocratic families in the Ministry of Personnel to be dissatisfied.
The Minister of the Imperial Household said, "Your Majesty is very interested in the construction of the city wall in Xinmin County. If it weren't for the current emergency, the construction of the city wall would have been discussed in the court. Once the disaster eases, this matter will definitely be brought up again. Xiaojiu, what do you think? Why don't you talk to me?"
Gu Jiu looked outside and smiled. "It's not impossible to build a city wall, but it will hinder the development of Xinmin County, just like the city wall hindered the development of the capital."
"But if we don't build the city walls, how can we guarantee safety if war breaks out? Can you just watch hundreds of thousands of people's lives being slaughtered by the enemy?"
"My ancestors misunderstood me. To protect the people's safety, building a city wall can only be considered a medium-term strategy at best."
"Do you have a better plan?"
Gu Jiu dipped his hands in water and started drawing on the table.
With just a few strokes, the map of Xinmin County was outlined.
No one knows what Xinmin County is like better than her, its founder.
She pointed at the map and said, "This is the county town. This area is the various workshops. This is the fourth and fifth phases of real estate. This area is the academy and other courtyards. Moving forward, a new residential area will be built here to accommodate more refugees."
"I would like to ask our ancestors, if we build a city wall, how long would it take to enclose everything? I've calculated it! It would take a full 480 li of wall to enclose everything."
The city wall was four hundred and eighty miles long. This number stunned the Shaofu's household officer.
"A city wall of four hundred and eighty miles, are you planning to build a second capital?" Gu Jiu looked at the Shaofu's steward with a half-smile.
The Shaofu Household Officer stroked his beard and pointed at the county town. "Can we just build the wall around the county town?"
"If we only build a wall around the county town, it will become useless. It has no real purpose other than controlling the flow of people in and out of the county town."
Gu Jiu bluntly rejected the suggestion of the Shaofu Housekeeper.
"So what do you think?"
Gu Jiu smiled and pointed to several corners on the map. "How about setting up military camps in these places?"
Where there are military camps, there is consumption.
In fact, Gu Jiu wanted to set up a fort.
I didn't reveal my true thoughts because I was afraid of shocking the world and causing suspicion.
"Set up a military camp?"
"The Jing Camp can allocate some troops to be stationed in these two locations to protect Xinmin County, which is equivalent to protecting the capital. What do you think, Old Ancestor?"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－－
First update! Continue to code the second and third updates
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