The main gate of the imperial city is a three-chambered cave door with red walls and yellow tiles. There is a plaque on it with the two characters of Ming Dynasty written on it. There are also ten characters on the door: sun and moon light and heavenly virtue, mountains and rivers where the emperor lives.
The Daming Gate is not open, so we can only walk through the Xiaoyue Gate on the side. After leaving the Imperial City, what we see is not only the morning sunshine, but also the sound of hustle and bustle.
This is Xiaotian Street, where business is booming and bustling.
People passing by here hawk food, sell goods, and perform operas.
"This is Chaoqian City. Just outside Daming Gate, there are many such markets in the inner city."
"In Shuntian, most of the people who live in the inner city are nobles, officials, scholars, and big businessmen. But most of these people are concentrated in Dongcheng District, where Chongwenmen and Zhengyangmen are closest to the canal ferry.
, so wealthy businessmen and visitors from foreign countries come and go frequently."
"Among them, the businesses with large profits, such as pawn shops, cloth shops, grain shops, etc., total about one hundred businesses; the businesses with small profits, such as net shops, vegetable shops, tofu shops, tailor shops, etc., total thirty-two
OK."
"There are also various large and small guild halls, totaling more than 140 places."
"From the inner city to the outer city, the East City is a place for buying and selling. We, the palace people, sell palace utensils or buy utensils from outside. They are all in the East City. This is all legal.
transaction."
"As for Chaoqian City, it is the first city in Nancheng. Of course, it is not a particularly big market, but it is a must-go market. All goods going to and from the east and west of Shuntian Prefecture must pass through here."
"Master Ji is coming with our family. The Han Jing Factory we are going to is in Xicheng."
Ji Xiang looked at everything in front of him.
In the Forbidden City or the Imperial City, unless there is a big event or going to court, you will never see so many people.
But as soon as you leave the imperial city, the mortal world is rolling in, and the flowers are gradually enchanting. This atmosphere of fireworks makes people want to stop. The active population of Shuntian Mansion from Jiajing to Wanli years has already exceeded 800,000.
All kinds of palaces turned into thousands of huts.
The temple is so high that it is difficult to hear thunderstorms in the rivers and lakes.
Ji Xiang also saw many knights with swords. At least from the appearance, they looked like veterans of the world.
Maybe some people here were thinking of going to the Forbidden City to get the emperor's head, but when they saw the officers and soldiers patrolling the Tianjie, they silently shrank their necks and bared their teeth, still unconvinced.
The market was prosperous in the Ming Dynasty. From the Jiajing Emperor, to the Longqing Emperor, and then to the Wanli Emperor, there were three generations of emperors who had not been in court for many years. One was addicted to cultivating immortals, and the other was eviscerated by beauty a few years after he ascended the throne. This current king
, he is still an autistic person.
In the country, although the actions of the three emperors were completely useless, they were misdirected and became "ruling by inaction"?
In short, because the central department did not take care of things, people's lives and the state of the people became more prosperous.
Especially at this time, during the Wanli period, perhaps thanks to Zhang Juzheng's whipping method and the inflow of silver from foreign trade, prices began to become very low.
A pound of rice only costs two or three cents, a pound of salt costs four cents, and a pound of mutton costs nine dollars and fifty cents in future generations.
The woodcutter would cut a load of firewood from the mountain every day, carry it to the market and sell it in exchange for two pounds of meat, and the whole family would have food and clothing.
Comparing it with the famous Ming Dynasty measurement unit "Emperor Chongzhen", during the Chongzhen period, a kilogram of rice normally cost more than 20 yuan.
Of course, these are all during peacetime. If a famine occurs in a certain area, it will definitely have to be discussed separately.
But thanks to this short period of peace, market culture, folk novels, and opera art were born in large numbers at this time.
This Xiaotian Street, the road leading to the West City, is full of hustle and bustle.
Scholars came to Beijing, merchants sold goods, official documents were delivered, officials shuttled around, and sergeants patrolled.
There are many inns on the road with complete facilities. These inns provide not only meals, but also accommodation, and even some services.
Of course, Old Lei Xuan's inn is also nearby.
Someone was busy behind the stove, chopping meat and vegetables with a kitchen knife in his hand, and fireworks were rising. It was almost ten o'clock in the morning, which was the time for the first meal in the Ming Dynasty. At this time, there were the most guests. He shouted loudly, "It's...
He called his apprentice and asked him to serve tea and water to others. After a while, he prepared the meal himself, and a steaming hot meat noodle was brought to the table.
There are people with smiling faces, displaying cargo boxes, selling golden lotus horns, hanging lanterns in broad daylight, and selling copper and porcelain bowls for everyone to choose from. When encountering difficult customers, they will inevitably haggle with each other, and then look like they are in pain.
, said to make a friend.
Some people yelled loudly, holding brocade silk in their hands, and tried to attract people when they needed it, causing the people around them to wave their hands, claiming that they couldn't afford it.
Some people had their heads lowered, like hard-working oxen, carrying two loads of rice as they staggered by in Tianjie. They looked at this and that, shook their heads again and again, and continued to run around to make ends meet.
There were tall horses walking among them, and donkeys carrying cargo walked slowly.
Someone was concentrating on dyeing a headscarf on the street. After dyeing a large area, he had to paint it in detail without daring to be distracted. Someone on the side called him, and he didn't even dare to shake his head, so he could only turn a deaf ear.
Some people are sitting in a street food shop, holding a book in their hands, taking a bite of a pancake and reading the story. Their eyes are fixed on seeing the wonderful things. They spit out the crumbs of the pancake in their mouths, slap their legs with their hands, and enjoy themselves. Such uncivilized behavior will naturally be criticized by the same people.
The other diners at the table started to fight, but after a while they all gathered around his storybook and started having sex for free.
Someone was singing on the stage in front of him. His voice was sometimes high-pitched, sometimes melodious, sometimes tearful and plaintive, and the people around him cheered loudly.
Fireworks on earth, blue clouds in the sky.
Many people, thousands of people, are all different in their demeanor, appearance, and spirit of movement! Everyone is working hard to live. Even though the day before, the court was hunting down Huangtian believers in Shuntian, but when the matter stopped, it was time to
You still have to live your life.
In this world, there is nothing greater than "living"!
"Listen, they are singing "The Purple Hairpin" again. This play is very popular in Yingtian Mansion. In Shuntian, you see, these people just like to hear this kind of story."
"What's the story about?"
"Hey! A scholar and a girl are in love. What happens? There is an old lieutenant from a wealthy family and his noble daughter. They insist on pursuing them. If they fail to pursue them, they even send people to use all kinds of cunning tricks to thwart them.
There is a lover who kills several people..."
The eunuch who held the seal of the palace supervisor also showed sadness at this time:
"Think about it, before we entered the palace, there were people who were in love with each other! If we couldn't survive, how could we be eunuchs in the palace! This scene always reminds our family of a night many years ago.
One spring with catkins floating in the air, our family held pancakes in their hands, and the girl we liked held a stick in her hand. Our family...me! I still remember, she called me a stick and wanted to catch me.
In the palm of your hand..."
When Ji Xiang heard this, he wanted to ask, father-in-law, where did you come from? The woman's accent was so strong?
The chief eunuch of the shrine sighed melancholy: "Forget it, if our love lasts for a long time, how can we stay together day and night..."
"....By the way, is Master Ji a Zhengyi or a Quanzhen?"
Ji Xiang laughed: "From a family perspective, I am the right one. My father-in-law wants to ask me if I can get married, right?"
"But as practitioners of our generation, the ultimate goal is to become an immortal. How can a mortal woman enter the Dharma Eyes?"
"...I reached out and fished it out in the river. Did you see the gravel slipping away from my fingertips? That's the years."
"So for ten or twenty years, in the blink of an eye, everything you see is actually a ridiculous and weird scene, just like floating clouds."
"The world is like a yellow beam, this is just a dream."