The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Okay, I got it. Go ahead."

Wei Guangde smiled and nodded at the secretary, then went straight to his duty room.

When he walked to the door of the room, he saw Lu Bu who had been standing at the door for a long time, and said, "Keep an eye on the door. If you see Prime Minister Zhang coming, come in and let me know."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu agreed respectfully.

After Wei Guangde entered the room, Lu Bu hurriedly brought in the tea that had been brewed long ago from the small room next to him.

After sitting down to rest for a while and taking a sip of tea, he casually picked up a memorial on the table and read it for a few times, but an impatient look soon emerged on his face.

It is said that there were many memorials in ancient dynasties, which is true. Every day, piles of memorials were sent to the cabinet, but there were also many memorials that were the same and repeated every year.

It's not like the kind of memorials that local officials in Qing Dynasty palace dramas have to submit to the emperor every month. They just repeat things like shipping tax silver, local governance, and river dredging. Now, because of the implementation of the performance evaluation system, the lower officials also write their main work into the memorials to show that they have done those things while in office.

And the one in Wei Guangde's hand is an invalid memorial, which is empty and lacks substantive content. It first praises the great governance of the world, and then mentions some problems in the court, and then the emperor is smart and will be able to solve them.

Yes, Wei Guangde has gradually become impatient with handling such memorials. These things should be brought out by the Tongzhengshisi. If they have them, they can directly ask the Silijian to approve them. There is no need to send them to the cabinet for voting.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde thought carefully and roughly classified the types of memorials that he could think of to be handled quickly. He planned to mention it to Zhang Juzheng later to see if some of them should not be sent to the cabinet for processing in the future.

But as soon as the pen fell, Wei Guangde stopped suddenly.

He realized that although this could reduce the workload of the cabinet, it would undoubtedly open a loophole, that is, memorials would not be submitted to the cabinet, but would be approved directly by the Silijian.

This matter may not seem big, but it hides the risk of hollowing out the cabinet.

"This loophole cannot be opened."

Wei Guangde hesitated for a moment, and finally gave up the idea.

The brush continued to wave on the paper, and soon wrote a few words, which was considered a draft of this memorial.

Pasted on the memorial, closed the memorial and put it aside, it was considered to be the first official business of the day.

After that, of course, he continued to look through other memorials, but most of them were meaningless things. Although some might be a little novel, they were just like that. There were very few memorials that could really bring some useful information to Wei Guangde.

After dealing with several memorials, Lu Bu came in quickly and whispered in his ear: "Master, Prime Minister Zhang is here and has gone to the duty room."

"I know."

Wei Guangde nodded.

He did not put down the things in his hands immediately and went directly to Zhang Juzheng.

When people just arrived at the duty room, they always have to take a break.

However, thinking about his own affairs, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that after entering the duty room, he actually forgot to write a charter about the sanitation of the capital, asking Shuntian Prefecture and Wucheng Bingmasi to cooperate to clean up the city's garbage and feces, as well as the subsequent maintenance.

Looking sideways at the memorials that had been processed, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that he seemed to have become accustomed to such a mechanical processing of memorials. Sitting in this position, he picked up a book and flipped through it, then quickly drafted it, threw it aside, and picked up another one.

Shaking his head gently, Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh. I really don't know how Zhu Yuanzhang, the diligent emperor who founded the Ming Dynasty, spent his days. He could actually see such boring memorials to death.

How could he know that in order to make his subordinates write memorials more straightforwardly, Zhu Yuanzhang really spanked people.

At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang was also annoyed by the flowery articles of the literati. After cleaning up some people, he changed. At least the opening few paragraphs could understand the general idea of ​​the memorial.

The memorials in the early Ming Dynasty were not as complicated and repetitive as they are now, so Zhu Yuanzhang naturally calmed down and read them.

If the memorials now fell into Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, I'm afraid countless people would be punished again.

Finding a piece of rice paper, Wei Guangde began to write a simple charter of what he had thought about before, which was actually to clarify the responsibilities of Shuntian Prefecture and its subordinate Daxing and Wanping counties, and the responsibilities of the Wucheng Bingmasi.

The Wucheng Bingmasi was responsible for cleaning and sanitation, and the county yamen runners were responsible for daily inspections. The sanitation fee was collected by the Wucheng Bingmasi to pay for the cost of cleaning and keeping clean, mainly labor costs.

During daily inspections, the county yamen runners could fine merchants and residents who violated the sanitation rules, and the money would naturally be distributed between the yamen and the runners.

The money from the fines could also give the runners a little bit of subjective initiative, so that they would not turn a blind eye and fool around at will.

Wei Guangde also roughly explained the amount of the fine, which was no more than five taels of silver. It was impossible to fine someone to the point of bankruptcy just because of a hygiene problem.

Whether it was the people in the city or the merchants, five taels of silver would make them feel distressed.

After writing the regulations simply, Wei Guangde waited for the handwriting to dry before folding it and putting it in his sleeve. He touched Qi Jiguang's letter again, and after confirming that it was correct, he stood up and left the duty room.

"Uncle brother."

After the announcement, Wei Guangde walked into Zhang Juzheng's duty room and greeted him with a bow.

"Shandai is here, please sit down, is there anything?"

As for Wei Guangde coming over so early in the morning, Zhang Juzheng naturally knew that he must have something to talk about. After inviting people to sit down, he asked casually.

"Two things."

Wei Guangde cheerfully stretched out two fingers and said.

"Tell me one by one, haha."

Zhang Juzheng smiled.

At this time, the clerk brought tea. After waiting for the people to go down, Wei Guangde took out Qi Jiguang's letter from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng. He said: "This is a letter written by Qi Jiguang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Army. I wonder if the governor of Liaodong delivered it to the capital. News?”

"Liaodong?"

Zhang Juzheng was slightly stunned. Looking at his reaction, it seemed that he did not expect that the first thing was about Liaodong.

After receiving the letter, Zhang Juzheng took it out and read it.

Soon, Zhang Juzheng frowned.

This small move also convinced Wei Guangde that Zhang Xueyan probably did not tell Zhang Juzheng the details of Liaodong, otherwise he would not have made this move.

Naturally, there was nothing illegal in Qi Jiguang's letters, so Wei Guangde dared to show them to others.

After Zhang Juzheng finished reading the letter, folded it, put it in an envelope, and handed it back to Wei Guangde, then he said: "If what is said in the letter is true, it should be done sooner rather than later."

Zhang Juzheng is not a mother-in-law, an indecisive person. If someone like Wang Gao may appear again, of course it is best to deal with it as soon as the signs show up.

Now that Zhang Juzheng had expressed his attitude, Wei Guangde immediately said: "What does the uncle mean?"

"About this matter, you should first send a message to Yuan Jing and ask him to prepare and wait for the order from the governor's office."

Zhang Juzheng did not ask the Liaodong Ming Army to attack Hongli Village and Shaji City immediately, but just asked them to prepare. Naturally, he also wanted to check the authenticity.

In this position, of course he would not listen to partial beliefs. He needed to verify the contents of Qi Jiguang's letter before he could make a decision.

However, from asking Qi Jiguang to prepare, it can actually be seen that if what the letter said is true, the Ming army should send troops to conquer Atai and Ahai at this time to completely nip the instability in the bud.

As for the rumors from the outside, this cabinet does not seem to be a stable master. Since they came to power, the Ming Dynasty has been in constant war. Of course, he will not take these rumors seriously.

No matter how big a deal it is, as long as the war is always victorious, these remarks are just the barking of incompetent people.

"Well, by the way, didn't you say there is another thing? It won't be the Southwest War, right?"

Zhang Juzheng thought of the two fingers Wei Guangde showed before, so he smiled and continued.

"It's not about the war in the southwest, it's about the capital."

Wei Guangde smiled and put away the letter, but when he took out his hand, there was another piece of paper, and then handed it to Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng took the piece of paper from Wei Guangde's hand, opened it and read it, and soon his mouth opened slightly, as if he suddenly understood.

“Walking on the street every day, I smell a foul odor from time to time, and the streets are full of filth. It feels really hard to match the scene of the Ming Dynasty’s capital.

To be honest, people can still live in this imperial city and various mansions, but other places, tsk tsk."

Wei Guangde kept shaking his head slightly and said, as if he was very sorry.

"If I didn't mention the charity loan, I really wouldn't have thought of it."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beautiful beard and said with a smile: "When I first came to the capital to take the imperial examination, I thought I was setting an example for the world, but after I entered the city, I found that it looked similar to my hometown.

But I didn’t think too much about it, thinking that all cities in the world should be like this.

Now that I have seen the proposal of philanthropic loan, I feel very good.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty, under the emperor's feet, should have its own magnanimity. The health of this capital should be improved. "

"Well, when the capital is ready, we can use this as an example to spread it throughout the Ming Dynasty, and let people from the vassal countries see the weather of the Ming Dynasty."

Wei Guangde smiled and continued.

"Um."

Zhang Juzheng nodded, and then said: "I think this is feasible.

Since the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division is in charge, Shandai should be in charge of this matter. Shuntian Mansion will fully cooperate and strive to make the capital clean as soon as possible. "

Beijing was the capital of the empires of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a large population. By the Wanli period, there were more than 800,000 residents, and by the late Qing Dynasty, the combined population of the inner and outer cities exceeded one million.

As a large number of people gather in cities, people's activities inevitably produce garbage and excrement, coupled with sand and dust, environmental problems arise.

The first thing that impressed outsiders about Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was its tall and majestic city walls. It was said that twelve horses could run parallel to the top of the city walls.

Entering the city, you can see the magnificent palaces and government offices. The city is prosperous with prosperous markets and commerce. "The city's population is increasing, goods and goods are becoming more abundant, and there is almost no place for people in the city."

The most prosperous market in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty was Qipan Street between Damingmen and Zhengyangmen. According to the "Picture of Accumulating Victory in the Imperial Capital", Qipan Street was dotted with high tents and criss-crossing lanes, selling all kinds of goods and bustling with tourists.

By the Qing Dynasty, Qipan Street had developed into the bustling commercial district of Dashilar, which was known as "the essence of the capital city lies here."

But behind this prosperous scene there are other unforgettable memories and troubles.

Later generations know that the dust weather in the capital actually appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty.

Strong winds brought fine powder-like dust to our faces, and the situation did not improve until the Qing Dynasty. "Whenever the wind blows, the dust and shadows tower into the sky and block the sun, making people unable to recognize each other. It is commonly known as blowing yellow sand, and the moon will blow." Several times or ten times, or even every month."

The wind and dust in the north made the southern scholars who came to the capital for the first time very unaccustomed. Xie Zhaozhe from Fujian wrote in his notes: "In the land of Yan and Qi, there is no wind every day; the dust is so high that you can't tell what is close. People from the south of the Yangtze River are also the first to arrive. "It's very painful, and the natives disdain it."

However, local people are accustomed to this. Beijing's all-pervasive wind and sand blow by strong winds, causing "flying dust" everywhere indoors. When encountering such unpleasant weather, residents papered their windows to block the intrusion of sand and dust. "The wind and sand in Yanland are all-encompassing, and many windows are covered with paper to block them."

Another very unsightly phenomenon in Beijing's environmental conditions during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was defecation on the streets, with some people defecating anywhere.

This is especially surprising to outsiders who first arrived in the capital. “The roads in the north are filled with filth, especially in the capital. People stay naked in the daytime and do not avoid officials. They are disrespectful and disrespectful. They get used to each other and secretly respect them.” Heart".

The main reason for this phenomenon is insufficient sanitation facilities and lack of toilets in the city.

Most houses do not have latrines, and women use toilets. "There are no pit latrines in the city, and the women drown themselves in the ditch outside the door in the early morning."

The feces is poured into the ditch, making the ditch blocked, so ditch cleaning needs to be carried out regularly.

Although there were dung men in the capital in this era who were responsible for collecting excrement and sending it outside the city, the phenomenon of "dung filling the roads" in the city still existed.

In the final analysis, it is still due to the times.

Beijing uses a lot of animal power, so that "mule and horse dung is everywhere in and around the capital, in the streets and alleys, in front of and behind the ministries and yamen. When it rains or snows, it turns into mud and has an indescribable odor, making it look like a large dung factory."

Therefore, the feces in the capital is not only from the people, but also from livestock all over the streets.

Later generations used asphalt to pave roads, but in this era, livestock excrement was thrown into the streets. You can imagine what the scene was like after the rain.

Wei Guangde plans to solve the problem of garbage and feces, as well as the resulting poor drainage in Sijiu City at once this time.

Shachen can't do anything about it, but Wei Guangde is very familiar with sanitation work.

When the ditches are clogged, they need to be dredged and dredged. This is a matter of investing manpower.

In terms of manpower, the Five Cities Army and Horse Division has plenty of people, so there is no problem at all.

It is said that the first city-wide health campaign in Beijing was carried out by the Eight-Power Allied Forces, a group of invaders. It is embarrassing to think about it.

Now that Wei Guangde is here and has thought about it, he will naturally resolve this matter completely.

"Well, I'll send a note to summon Shuntian Fuyin and the commander of the Army and Horses Division, and tell them the matter."

Zhang Juzheng gave the job to him, and Wei Guangde had no intention of refusing, so he accepted it immediately.

No one knows how to do this better than him, and with the accumulation of garbage and excrement in the capital over time, the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division may not have enough manpower, and they may have to mobilize officers and soldiers from the capital camp to help.

In short, the capital of Ming Dynasty must be the largest and cleanest city in this era.

You will feel much more comfortable living in such a city.

If Wei Guangde hadn't had the foresight to do so, he wouldn't have considered it simply because it was commonplace.