The Prosperous Era of Longwan

In the afternoon, Wang Zhiyuan put on his official uniform, left the Shuntian Mansion Yamen, got on a sedan chair and went to the imperial city.

Because he was summoned by the cabinet, the guards at the entrance to the imperial city would not stop him. Moreover, he was a third-rank official and a big shot who could go to the palace to meet the emperor.

After entering the cabinet, he was directly taken to Wei Guangde's duty room by the Zhongshushe people waiting at the door, where Ruble was already waiting.

Seeing Wang Zhiyuan arrive, he immediately went over to greet him. When he saw him, he smiled and said: "Master Wang is here, please come in quickly, the master has been waiting."

"Lu Bu, why did Mr. Wei Ge call me here today? Please tell me everything first."

Wang Zhiyuan is relatively close to Wei Guangde in the capital, and he has naturally come to the cabinet. Especially when there are some major emergencies in the capital, he has to participate in coordination.

Therefore, when they met Lu Bu, the two of them talked more casually.

Although there is a huge difference between Lu Bu and his status, as the saying goes, the seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister's door, ordinary people really can't underestimate Lu Bu, a famous man who can speak in front of Mr. Wei Ge.

"I don't know much about the collective. Not long after the master arrived to check the room this morning, he went to the next door and talked for a while before coming back.

After I came back, I posted a message to Shuntian Mansion, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry. It was probably about this.

Oh, by the way, Minister Jiang Zhijiang of the Ministry of Industry has arrived, and Minister Meng should be coming from the Ministry of War.

I really don’t know what it is. I haven’t mentioned it before, but it’s probably not a bad thing. I’m not in a bad mood today. "

Lu Bu just whispered something and took Wang Zhiyuan directly into Wei Guangde's check-in room.

"Mr. Wei Ge, Minister Jiang."

Wang Zhiyuan saluted the two people in the room as soon as he entered the door. Wei Guangde and Jiang Zhi also stood up and returned the salute.

"Please wait a moment. People from the Ministry of War are here. Let's talk about today's business."

After bowing to each other, Wei Guangde asked Wang Zhiyuan to sit down and Le Hehe said to him.

"Mr. Wei Ge, you'd better tell me first what it is, so that you can feel at ease. Otherwise, I still don't know if I didn't do a good job in Shuntian Mansion."

Wang Zhiyuan looked at Wei Guangde's smiling face and replied with a smile.

"Yes, Mr. Wei Ge, tell us what's going on first so that we can be prepared."

The speaker was Jiang Zhi. His main job was to supervise the canal workers, but because Zhu Heng was in poor health, he was called back to the capital and was ready to take over at any time.

Privately, they also called each other by first names, but this was in the cabinet, so Jiang Zhi changed his name to Wei Guangde as Wei Ge Lao.

Seeing that both of them wanted to know what happened today, Wei Guangde was not a person who liked to show off his opinions, so he just pondered briefly and briefly explained what he had thought about today.

"Cleaning up the capital?"

Jiang Zhi and Wang Zhiyuan were stunned when they heard Wei Guangde's thoughts.

Yes, their own mansions and yamen are cleaned by people, so they are naturally clean and tidy.

As for the city of Beijing, it’s such a big place, so naturally I haven’t thought about it.

Like everyone else, these people have actually been used to it for a long time. Where is this not the case?

It is because he is used to it, so even Wei Guangde, a person from later generations, has only realized that the health situation of the Ming Dynasty is worrying after all these years. It is no wonder that plagues often broke out in ancient times and many people died.

Although good hygiene does not mean that an epidemic will definitely not occur, but it is better than nothing.

At the very least, living in Beijing can enjoy a clean and hygienic environment. Isn’t it better than this dirty and messy capital?

Of course, the Chinese are also good at saving face. They are a country that naturally maintains its own etiquette. It is also a country with a thousand-year-old civilization, so it must be a little bit better than other civilizations of the same era.

Environmental sanitation seems to be a good way to do it, it is visible and tangible.

With the advent of the Age of Discovery, the mysterious veil of the earth has been unveiled, and there will be more exchanges between countries in the future.

How will they feel when overseas vassal envoys arrive in Beijing and see the clean and beautiful city of Beijing?

I remember that later generations saw that Marco Polo praised China as a flower in his travel notes.

It would be good for these Yi people to first appreciate the spirit of the Ming Dynasty from the moment they enter the capital city gate.

While talking, Wei Guangde took out the written charter and handed it to Wang Zhiyuan.

He is in charge of this matter, so he naturally wants to see it as soon as possible. If there are any problems, he should raise them as soon as possible. He should coordinate where it is necessary and come up with ideas when they should.

After all, the sanitation work of later generations is already very mature, so just apply it.

In fact, no matter what the problem is or how difficult it is, it can be solved as long as you have money.

Wang Zhiyuan got the charter and started reading it. Jiang Zhi on the side couldn't sit still anymore and came closer to read together.

Until now, he was still thinking about what Wei Guangde meant by improving the sanitation of the capital. It was easy to understand that it was easy to clean a house and clean up the garbage and throw it out, but a city

"Let the people consciously clean up the garbage in front of and behind their houses under the supervision of the chief and the li chief, and transport it to the garbage points in various cities. The government recruits special personnel to clean up. City officials dispatch out to inspect the sanitation of various places. Public toilets are built in major streets in the capital, and excrement workers are recruited. Take away every morning

Well, it seems like there are people doing this job now.

How much manpower does it take to remove all feces and garbage from the streets and clear the ditches?"

The more Jiang Zhi read, the more he felt his head was spinning. Wei Guangde's charter could be said to have thought of all the problems of the Forty-Nine Cities. However, at the end, all the cattle and horses entering the city had to put bags on their buttocks to prevent the animals from excreting their feces at will. He frowned. .

There were no such rules before, how troublesome it was.

However, thinking of the things on the street, Jiang Zhi felt that it seemed to be a good idea to put it on.

In addition, Shuntian Prefecture recruited these police officers in charge of sanitation. Their wages were borne by the merchants along the street, and the government officers collected them according to the area and location, which was called sanitation fees.

Finally, there were penalties for all violations, such as garbage that was not transported to the garbage dump set up in the market and was discarded at will, and a fine was imposed.

Cows and horses were fined for not wearing feces bags.

People who urinated and defecated on the street without going to the public toilet were fined.

The police officers who had the power to impose fines included government officials, Wucheng Bingmasi and patrol camp officers and soldiers. Half of the fines went to the government office, and half went to the sanitation fee.

That is, the more fines were imposed, the more they would get.

Wei Guangde knew that this kind of money would definitely not be given directly to the officers and soldiers who caught people. The superiors in the government office would definitely take a share first, and then the rest would be given to them.

However, as long as there was money to be made, these people would do it very responsibly.

The regulations written by Wei Guangde were so comprehensive that almost all the problems that Wang Zhiyuan and Jiang Zhi could think of were mentioned and solved.

In fact, cleaning up the city and cleaning up the mansions are the same, that is, the rules.

As long as the rules are established, many things will be easier to handle in the future.

"Wei Gelao, Jiang Shilang, Wang Fuyin, I'll keep you waiting."

While the two were still reading and thinking about Wei Guangde's regulations, Meng Shilang of the Ministry of War arrived.

Several people exchanged greetings and soon got to the point. Wei Guangde simply repeated his meaning.

"Wei Gelao, Wucheng Bingmasi and the patrol camp will definitely cooperate with this matter."

Hearing that there was going to be some sanitation work in the capital, Shuntian Prefecture would be in charge, and the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War would only cooperate, he naturally wouldn't say much.

However, after Wang Zhiyuan and Jiang Zhi finished reading the regulations, Meng Shilang also took it and took a look.

Although he felt a little novel, he didn't say much.

The Ministry of War didn't have much to do, so he just had to go back and write a document to the two yamen under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, asking them to listen to Shuntian Prefecture.

After they left the cabinet, the cabinet deputy assistant Wei Guangde convened people from Shuntian Prefecture, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works to study and improve the sanitation of the capital. The news spread like wildfire.

Those who knew the news first felt novel.

The sanitation of the whole city, one more trouble.

For the officials, naturally, they didn't have much idea.

Because they spent most of the day in the government office, and the rest of the time they were in restaurants or other mansions. As for going home, that was where they slept, and there were people cleaning, so it was considered clean.

Although they knew that the streets were dirty and messy, they rode horses and sedan chairs most of the time, but rarely walked on the streets.

At least, this was the case for those who had official positions.

After all, people with official status may have the money of a police officer, that is, to hire someone to do things.

Although some people with ordinary family backgrounds would save this money to support their own expenses in the capital, there were still relatively few officials who walked directly on the streets.

Therefore, they had seen the scene of the rainy day in the city, but rarely tried it, so naturally they didn't have a deep understanding.

The clerks in the government office were quite excited, because they had a low status, poor welfare, and were the main force in the work. They had to work regardless of wind or rain, but they were not affected by the sanitation.

Think about the streets becoming cleaner. It seems that on rainy days, you don’t have to rush on the road with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and you have to keep an eye on the road with an umbrella. It seems that it’s pretty good.

At this time, in Shuntian Prefecture, Wang Zhiyuan returned to the government office and immediately sent someone to notify the county magistrates of Daxing and Wanping to come to the government office for discussion.

This matter has been recognized by the Prime Minister, and it is also a good thing. Naturally, it will not be delayed, so people were called to discuss it as soon as possible, and they planned to arrange it as soon as possible.

The Ministry of War also sent a letter when it returned, asking the government office in the capital to fully cooperate with Shuntian Prefecture and improve the sanitation of the capital.

As for the Ministry of Works, although it seems that only one department is involved, it also has the most things to do, because Wei Guangde temporarily added one in the afternoon, that is, the drainage ditches in the entire city of 49 must be cleaned, and the unreasonable places must be modified.

Yes, although the Yongle Dynasty made detailed plans for Beijing, including drainage ditches, many places have changed a lot after more than a hundred years.

Let’s not talk about other things, but the outer city was originally built by the people themselves. Except for a few streets that were demarcated by the Ministry of Works, most of the others were built by the people themselves, and the drainage ditches were naturally backward.

When there was no outer city wall, it was naturally not considered part of Beijing. When it rained heavily, it was flooded, and no one cared.

But after the Jiajing Dynasty built the southern city wall, that area became the outer city, which was already considered part of Beijing, so the drainage project could no longer be ignored.

In the past, the Street Office did it, but it was very perfunctory. It just built a few channels for drainage. As for whether it could meet the needs, they didn’t care.

Anyway, even if someone saw it and reported it to the Ministry of Works, when they went there, the water had already receded.

This also caused people in Beijing to be afraid of heavy rain. Think about the road conditions. If it floods again, you can’t bear to look at it. The streets are full of filth.

Of course, this is mainly about the outer city. The drainage of the inner city must be much better. We can't let the water flood into the imperial city.

Most of the officials' residences are also in the inner city.

This time, the Street Office received instructions that Jiang Zhi should take charge and do a good job in repairing the drainage ditches and roads in the capital.

Of course, road repairs will be the last, and they have to wait until the road surface is cleaned up, but they have to come up with the ditch planning plan and implement it first.

While the capital was busy preparing for the health battle and preparing to make Beijing the cleanest city in the world and the first health city, the war in southern Xinjiang continued.

There were corpses everywhere under Baoshan City. With the sound of gongs coming from afar, the Burmese army that had just gathered under the city wall and was preparing to attack the city wall ran back, turning a blind eye to the rain of bullets from the Ming army on the city behind them, and only wanted to escape as soon as possible to two miles away from the city.

The Burmese army has maintained a high-intensity siege for several days. These days, the troops of various chieftains took turns to launch a stormy attack on Baoshan City.

However, the effect was not ideal. The best time was that someone climbed the city wall and was pushed down by the sword and shield of the Ming army.

It should have been a great joy to repel the Burmese army again. Didn’t you see that the Ming army on the city wall was cheering and celebrating their victory?

As long as they survived, other teams would come to take over the defense in a while, and they could go back to the barracks to drink and eat meat. These were all rewards from the superiors, congratulating them for winning another battle.

However, the soldiers could cheer, but Li Chengliang, Mu Changzuo and Luo Rufang, who knew the details, could not laugh.

"General Li, why didn't Mang Yinglong retreat and continue to launch a crazy offensive? Does he really think he can capture Baoshan City?"

Mu Changzuo was confused by the Burmese army's fighting style that completely ignored casualties in the past few days.

Although they were in the city, the scouts outside the city had sent back news that the rear army of the Burmese army did not rush to Baoshan City, but retreated to Lujiang City.

Such an abnormal behavior can only be said that Mang Yinglong should have received news of the war in southern Myanmar.

But after knowing the news, he did not withdraw elite troops to support, but only let the rear army retreat, and the vanguard and central army repeatedly attacked the city. This is very unreasonable.

Li Chengliang did not answer, and Luo Rufang on the side said: "Perhaps it is true as Li Dudu said, the bandits want to seize Baoshan and then retreat, severely injuring our army so that they dare not follow and pursue."

"But this price."

Mu Changzuo pointed to the pile of corpses under the city and shook his head.

"The 3,000 cavalry that have been put together must be supplied in the next two days, and they must be dispatched at any time."

Li Chengliang did not respond, but spoke.

This was said to Luo Rufang, who is now responsible for the distribution of all the supplies for the Ming army in Baoshan City.

"General Li, don't worry, the cavalry's food and grass have been fully allocated since yesterday, and two days of bean cakes and other things have been prepared. There will be no delays."

Luo Rufang said with a fist.

"All the troops have been brought up to fight, and I guess the Burmese army can't hold on any longer.

If the fight continues like this, the chieftains' wealth will probably be lost under Baoshan City. By then, it won't be us who will have a headache, but the bandits."

Li Chengliang said calmly as he looked at the Burmese army regrouping in the distance.

In the past few days, the Burmese army has been charging more and more crazily. Whenever the horn sounded, they would rush to the city wall without hesitation, which put a lot of pressure on the Ming army. (End of this chapter)