Buying a house is easy, but decorating it is difficult.
Yang Fan discovered that women have difficulty choosing when choosing decorations, just like choosing clothes.
It took an hour to look at the house, half an hour to go through the house purchase procedures, and three hours to discuss the decoration plan with the decoration shop. Her Royal Highness fully demonstrated the obsession of an ordinary housewife with decoration.
We have to consider the price and the grade. One moment I think this is better, and the other moment I think that is better. I am so entangled that I frown, hold my cheeks, and change the plan over and over again.
There was also Xiao Niangpi, my best friend, who was helping me out. Lin Yueru was adding fuel to the fire. It wasn't until it got dark and the decoration shop was about to get off work that I finally managed to get it done.
Yang Fan paid half the price for the house, which cost only 6,000 taels, but Princess Le'an spent 7,000 taels on the decoration. Of course, the price includes furniture.
After the decoration is completed, you can basically move in with your bags. The penthouse duplex room given by the consort cost another five hundred taels for decoration and furniture.
Finally, Her Royal Highness the Princess boldly took out the large deposit certificate of 50,000 taels from Xinghe Bank and slapped it on the table. Suddenly, everyone was shocked. Her Royal Highness the Princess is really rich.
Her Royal Highness the Princess sighed with satisfaction. It was done. She felt really accomplished.
With the attentive service of the staff of the decoration shop and Xinghe Bank, the payment of 7,500 taels was completed and the contract was happily signed.
The apartment will be handed over in three months, and when the time comes, Her Royal Highness can move in at any time in both apartments.
Speaking of which, this is the largest amount of money Her Royal Highness has ever spent in her life. However, Her Royal Highness feels that this is the most worthwhile amount of money she has spent.
Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru are also very happy today.
Both of them have enjoyed many of the furniture styles and decoration plans provided here. They have actual experience in using them, and they know the advantages and disadvantages and the solutions that suit them. They have also accumulated a lot of specific experience.
The two of them made many suggestions to Her Royal Highness based on their own experience in home life.
When they went home in the evening, they were still reminiscing about helping Her Royal Highness the Princess and choosing various plans today. From time to time, they also expressed regret, "Oh, it seems better if this happens again and again."
Yang Fan looked at it and shook his head, "Oh, woman."
When we parted from the princess and his wife, it was already dark. Under the illumination of the street lamp, we sent the princess and his wife to a light carriage.
This is one of the first batch of 300 carriages launched by the newly established taxi and carriage company.
At this time, street lights were installed on Di'anmen Street and Huangcheng North Street. This is also an important reason for improving the quality of this place.
There were no street lights in the imperial capital in this era. There were even no street lights in Chinese history. Every city was completely dark at night.
The first country in the world to build street lights was France, and the city was Paris.
Louis XIV, who was known as the "Sun King" at the time, officially promulgated a city road lighting ordinance. Street lights were hung on the streets of Paris. Therefore, the reign of Louis XIV was called the "Age of Light" in French history.
Yang Fan installed a street light pole every thirty meters on the newly built North Imperial Street. The street lights used carbide lamps, which are also called gas lamps. They are very bright and use carbide and water.
A lamp that reacts to produce gas as fuel.
Yang Fan's street lamp is made of wood, painted and ten meters high. There are two hooks on both sides of the top. Street lamp maintenance personnel need to add calcium carbide and water to the lamp every day when it gets dark, and then hang it on the wooden pole.
There is glass around the carbide lamp to prevent strong winds from blowing out the light.
These street lights lit up the night sky of the imperial capital for the first time. Even if you walk at night, you will not feel scared.
The luminescence of calcium carbide is very strong, not much worse than modern street lamps. It does have a pungent odor, but fortunately the lamp is relatively high, and after being blown away by the wind, you can hardly smell it on the road.
On this road, there are full-time street light maintenance personnel who light the street lights regularly every day. They add enough carbide to burn until dawn and light the lights. They and the road cleaning workers are all employees of the municipal shop.
Modern calcium carbide is very cheap, 3,500 yuan per ton. About 1.75 yuan per pound.
Ordinary lamps can burn for several hours with a few calcium carbide. It is very durable and has high brightness. One ton of calcium carbide is enough to burn several major streets in the northern city of the imperial capital for one night.
This price is affordable for Yang Fan. And currently, there are only a few limited sections outside the north wall of the Imperial City, from Di'anmen to Drum Tower, and from the road west of Xinghe Supermarket to Yinding Bridge.
However, with the development of both sides of the entire Imperial City North Street, street lights will inevitably be gradually installed.
Now that other places are wastelands after demolition, Yang Fan naturally does not want to waste carbide lighting. Therefore, only this section of the road north of the imperial city is equipped with electric lights.
Because Xinghe Supermarket is open until the end of the night (21:00), public lighting is necessary here.
In view of the fact that Xinghe Supermarket is the chicken that lays golden eggs, the emperor took the unprecedented step of canceling part of the curfew hours in Beicheng. It is not considered illegal until the end of Haishi (23:00).
Many of the places illuminated by street lights have not yet been developed, with vacant land on both sides.
However, since the curfew was partially lifted, many people doing small business, setting up street stalls, selling snacks, and even juggling and singing operas spontaneously gathered here.
It is equivalent to forming a small night market.
Yang Fan doesn't care. Anyway, it will be developed step by step. Everyone can use it if they want to. Enriching the citizen's culture is also what Yang Fan would like to see. The management of the Ming Dynasty was too rigid. The entire society was lifeless.
The Ming Dynasty was a big step backwards from the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty broke the strict divisions between squares and cities in the Tang Dynasty. Tokyo in the Song Dynasty broke through the walls and opened shops. There were various commercial properties and shops along the streets.
Moreover, the emperor issued a decree to cancel the curfew in Tokyo. Commercial activities continued almost all night long, with the night market ending at three o'clock and the morning market starting again at five o'clock.
This was not the case in the Ming Dynasty. The management was too strict, and it even interfered with every word and deed of the people, whether they walked on the side or in the middle of the road. Which bowl should be used for eating quickly? Who ate first and who ate last? Everything was not trivial. The emperor had to interfere with every trivial matter.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Taizu Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty was the craziest. Basically all the officials and common people were controlled by the emperor's rules as soon as they opened their eyes in the morning, which was very annoying.
In Yang Fan's memorial to the emperor, he calculated that Xinghe Supermarket could increase its income by 30% due to the midnight curfew before opening. This made the emperor, who was short of money, quickly agree to Yang Fan's suggestion.
The biggest benefit of street lights is not only to facilitate citizens' travel at night, but also to greatly reduce the crime rate. Because darkness is a breeding ground for crime.
Whether it is robbery or theft, they are all hidden in the darkness. If the night sky of the city is illuminated, these crimes will be drastically reduced.
The reason why ancient cities adopted curfews was mainly to deal with night crimes.
In the evening when the lanterns were first lit, Yang Fan and his two wives wandered on the road. People were coming and going on the road, and various roadside stalls hung with lanterns selling various snacks and gadgets. It was full of the atmosphere of human fireworks.
Son.
The autumn wind blows, which is very pleasant.
The three of them walked through Yandai Xiejie with their entourage. The lights here were brightly lit, and the traders were hurrying to open their business. All kinds of shouts, bargaining sounds, and people's laughter mixed in their ears.
The partial lifting of the curfew has directly stimulated the city's business. The nights here are becoming more and more lively.
"Master, the capital has changed a lot since you came to the capital. It has become a bit unfamiliar to me." Xiao Niangpi held Yang Fan's hand and said softly.
She looked at the prosperous scene and felt indescribable joy in her heart.
She and Lin Yueru were both born and raised in the capital city. They knew nothing more about this ancient capital that was more than three hundred years old, and they were also very familiar with it.
Ever since Yang Fan arrived, the capital has begun to undergo subtle changes.
The city gradually became more popular and more humane.
"This is just the beginning. The capital will get better and better." Yang Fan said softly. "The Ming Dynasty will also get better and better. People will have fewer and fewer constraints and become more and more free. There will be a day in the future. Everyone
Everyone can live according to their own ideas without affecting others."
