"This is quite majestic..." Liu Xiang said with a smile, deeply aware of the deep gap between the government and the people. This cannot be changed overnight. Therefore, he did not rush to make various "people-friendly" gestures: supporting an old lady.
He asked emotionally: "How old are you?" or grabbed a farmer selling vegetables and asked expectantly: "How is your income this year?". Instead, he walked casually along the street. He saw
There was a notice posted by the Office of Comprehensive Management on the wall on the street. There were many people gathered under the notice. Apparently they came to see the notice. He felt very satisfied. Our voice must be spread openly and openly, and it must be spread more and more.
The further away the better.
Liu Xiang was led by Lin Baiguang and walked along the street. The business here is very prosperous, and there are various shops almost everywhere along the street. There are all kinds of shops. As he walked, he soon realized why Lin Baiguang called him
"Come and see for yourself" - these illegal buildings of the 17th century, built haphazardly, are no worse than those of the 21st century.
Except for the government offices on both sides of the street, there is almost no inch of the street that is not occupied by shops or shacks built by vendors on both sides. At least half of the road, which is more than 9 meters wide, is occupied, and the most exaggerated part can only barely give way in the middle.
A sedan was passing through. Tattered reed mats, scattered bamboos, scattered bricks and tiles...these shabby shacks made the entire Chengxuan Street look like a shabby secondhand market - to be honest,
The flea market in another time and space was neater than this one.
He noticed that many shacks were built by shops on both sides of the street. They were initially used to shade the sun, but gradually became part of the shops. Some simply set up workshops, restaurants, and teahouses in these shacks.
They simply put tables and chairs in the shacks for guest seating. Some shops have already completed the transformation from shacks to houses. They seriously consider building their houses on the road and encroaching on the road as a fait accompli.
It could be seen that the road had not been repaired for a long time, or had been repaired sloppily. He saw at least two types of paving on the street. One was made of blue bricks with vertical herringbone patterns on the sides. Although it was incomplete.
It can be seen that the paving is very meticulous; the street surface is high in the middle and low on both sides, which is conducive to street drainage. The other type is bluestone, which is quite rough in paving.
At present, no matter what kind of pavement it is, the damage is very serious. The bricks are missing and the slates are broken. I don’t know whether it is because there are no drainage ditches or they have been blocked. There is obviously poor drainage on both sides of the road, and the sewage dumped by the shops on the street
The sewage flows everywhere. The shacks on both sides also show their unique abilities. Some are raised with moso bamboos, and some are simply covered with sand to raise them. Sewage and garbage accumulated everywhere create an indescribable smell permeating the entire street.
Liu Xiang frowned and said, "How many years has this road been repaired?"
Jia Jue said quickly: "It is repaired every two or three years."
Every time repairs are made, high-ranking officials such as the left and right chief envoys of Guangzhou take office. As usual, the first and second counties of Guangzhou have to repair the roads, firstly to make a good impression on the newly arrived adults, and secondly, in case someone carrying the sedan chair steps into a hole.
If you sprained your foot or tripped, it was difficult for the local officials to explain. The so-called repairs were also very simple. They just mixed sand, soil and gravel and then paved the uneven areas on the road and compacted them firmly - in fact, it was similar to the "loess road" method.
.Of course, this kind of repair can fool you for a while, but after a long time, it will become the same as before.
"Why don't you use bricks or bluestones to repair the road like you do when building roads?"
Jia Juebei laughed and said, "To tell you what, sir, it's mainly because I have no money. The first major renovation on Chengxuan Street was in the 42nd year of Jiajing. That's where the bluestone was used." He said with an apologetic smile, "
You don’t know. The bridge repairs and road repairs all depend on the gentry and merchants. Now that the year is rough, who has the spare money? The bridge repairs and road repairs cost a lot of money. You can’t do it without tens of thousands of dollars.
…”
Liu Xiang remembered Yu Eshui's lecture on "Fiscal Policy of the Ming Dynasty" and knew that this was also true. In the Ming Dynasty, local finance was very weak. Public facilities were basically funded by the private sector, and the government played the role of initiator and supervisor at best.
.Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many stories of “building bridges and roads and doing good deeds” handed down in ancient times.
This is really enough "local autonomy", Liu Xiang thought. He asked again, "Is there a drainage ditch on Chengxuan Street?"
"Yes!" Jia Jue replied without hesitation.
"Where?"
"Sir, please take a look." Jia Jue led the group of them to a place on the roadside that was not occupied by shacks. Liu Xiang saw an open ditch exposed. It was more than one meter wide. Although it was dirty, it could be seen that
The ditch walls were made of bricks, filled with silt and various garbage. It was almost full, and sewage was slowly flowing in the ditch, emitting a disgusting stench.
"Originally, there were open ditches on both sides of this place, and rainwater and sewage from each house were poured into them and then discharged into the Liumai Canal. Now you have seen it."
These shacks that were built haphazardly and encroached on the road surface were basically covered with wooden boards or stone slabs and then built on top of the open ditch. The original "open ditch" became a "gutter".
It should be said that sewers are much more sanitary than open ditches. The problem is that the "illegal construction" on both sides of the road has completely covered the ditches, and even if the government wants to clear the ditches and clear the ditches, they cannot do so.
"I haven't washed the ditches for many years, and they have already become clogged. It's better if there is no rain these days. When we return to Nantian in a few days, when there is a lot of rain, the ditches will overflow, and that's when it will be called 'stinking beyond smell'." Jia Jue said.
"Why don't you dig ditches? Is it because you don't have money?"
"To my lord, it doesn't cost a lot of money to clean the ditch. You can just ask people from all over the country to come and do it. It doesn't even cost much money - just let them take the smelly mud out to make fertilizer. But you have seen it.
," Jia Jue pointed at these shacks, "How do you dig ditches like this?"
"The store owners built their tents in Fugou. Although the space is large, they themselves are the ones to blame for the smelly water flowing across the ditch." Liu Xiang was puzzled.
"Sir, they deserve their own fault for suffering, but the situation has become like this. Who is willing to demolish their own shacks and let the officials dig ditches? Besides, demolishing one or two houses is not effective. We have to demolish the shacks on both sides of the street.
All the shacks have to be demolished. There are hundreds of businesses here, and people have different opinions, so the matter has been discussed many times, but it has never been done."
Liu Xiang said: "These shacks originally had no land deeds. The merchants were occupying official land on the roads. Why didn't the government demolish them?"
Lin Baiguang smiled and said: "You don't need to ask this. Demolition of illegal buildings has always been very difficult - the benefits involved are too great."
Jia Juepei smiled and said: "Mr. Lin is right. Which of these shops does not have a large threshold behind it? Some of them, let alone the magistrates of Panyu and Panyu counties in Nanhai, even the prefects, may not be in their eyes. The so-called cutting off people.
Making money is like killing your parents. You can do anything in a hurry. In the early years, a Hu Futai wanted to demolish a shack. The shopkeepers couldn't find any money channels, so they spent money to bribe people from the Guandi Temple to do it.
Thousands of beggars flocked to the entrance of the government office to defecate and urinate, singing about the falling lotus, pretending to be crazy and scolding the street people. After struggling for several days, they forced Mr. Hu to take back his life."
"Are beggars so powerful? The yamen has all the torture instruments and prisons. All those who come to cause trouble are arrested, and a few standing cages are put to death. How can this still not cure them?"
"Beggars are all people with nothing. Even if they die, their lives are at risk. This cannot scare them." Jia Jue said with a smile, "Besides, how big can the cell be and how many people can be arrested? The Yamen can't take care of food, so they have to be released.
Get out. If the matter gets serious, the enemy will be able to seize the opportunity. These four words of 'provoking a civil uprising' will immediately ruin the master's future."
"It's really impressive."
Lin Baiguang smiled and said: "Even if the wealthy gentry family in Guangzhou is holding weddings and funerals, if you don't pay them 'bichen' in exchange for a sticker to put on the door, I guarantee that you will be unable to do anything."
Even if the trouble gets bigger and a notice of complaint is sent to the government, the worst they can do is bring a few scapegoats to stand trial. They can beat or kill them as they please. Anyway, they have lives to spare."
"It seems that the mayor of Guangzhou is really not easy to be elected." Liu Xiang touched his forehead, "Qiongzhou Prefecture is just a small place after all. It can't be compared." He turned to Lin Baiguang and asked:
"How much do you know about the conditions of these lower classes?"
"We don't know much. The social sentiments here are dozens of times more complicated than in Hainan Island." Lin Baiguang said, "We in the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Industry have only a small number of people. Most of them are middle- and upper-class people, and their knowledge of the bottom of society is very limited -
But Qiwei Escort Agency should know something. Boss Sun also posted a message to me, asking to see you."
"See you in the evening." Liu Xiang said, "We need people like them now."
"Don't have too much hope. Although the people the escort agency deals with are from all walks of life, they are only 'dealing with', not 'colluding'. They may not necessarily know all the thresholds."
"You are posing difficulties to me." Liu Xiang said with a smile, he realized
"Where, where," Lin Baiguang said, "the three religions and nine sects outside the city of Guangzhou are still quite afraid of us - thanks to the contribution of the special investigation team back then. I don't think it is too difficult to demolish illegal buildings. We just entered the city.
The demolition of the illegal buildings on Chengxuan Street is equivalent to expressing to the citizens of Guangzhou our determination to remove the old and build the new."
"Yes, not only that. We also need to do a few practical things to let them know that we are different from the decaying Ming Dynasty." Liu Xiang said, "The first impression I had after entering the city was that the streets were dirty and sewage flowed across the street. We
The troops and agency personnel should be mobilized to carry out a comprehensive cleaning, remove the garbage in the city, and conduct a dredging of Guangzhou's sewer system. These are all things that are actually beneficial to the people." (To be continued.)