The first thousand four hundred and fifty one is called for the people 3
Among the crowd, I almost moved to Zhangtai Street.
When we arrived at Zhangtai Street, the situation became much better.
Nowadays, scholar-officials, nobles and wealthy people disdain to come here.
The people who live here are basically the middle and lower classes of Chang'an, especially the people at the bottom.
To put it simply, it is a slum.
But a hundred years ago, this was not the case.
A hundred years ago, this was the Zhangtai Palace of Qin Shihuang.
The story of returning the intact jade to Zhao happened here, the immortal legend of Jing Ke assassinating the King of Qin and the King of Qin walking around the pillar also happened here.
Since King Qin Huiwen, the political and decision-making center of the Qin State has been here.
Unfortunately, now, everything has changed.
Xiang Yu burned down all the glorious palaces and all the eternal achievements of the Qin Empire.
Zhangtai Palace has become a historical symbol, a rubble buried underground.
This place gradually became a slum.
It has become synonymous with messiness.
In the past few decades, this place has been a paradise for rangers and gangsters, a lair for murderers and robbers.
Countless people are deeply persecuted and dare not speak out when they are angry.
It is not until today, after the reconstruction of Chang'an City, that this place gradually regains its vitality.
Because Liu Che hated all the systems and mechanisms related to the slums, he moved the Tingwei Yamen, its offices, and family members from Beique to this place. He even specially arranged the huge living market in Liushi here.
As a result, high-ranking officials and nobles appeared here, and you could even see traces of many princes, scholar-bureaucrats, and relatives.
but……
As a slum in the past, the people living here have always been the middle and lower classes of the city, with the majority of them from the lower classes.
At this time, what is the life of the lower class people in Chang'an City, those extremely poor people, like?
Liu Che knows a thing or two.
The Xiu Yiwei and the censors also reported some reports.
But it wasn't until he saw it with his own eyes that he realized that his efforts were far from enough and the people in this country were still very poor.
Through the curtain of the carriage, Liu Che looked at the children playing along the street.
These children all wore patched clothes and pigtails, and their faces were covered with snot and filth.
These children are all five, six, seven or eight years old.
If placed two thousand years later, each of them would be the treasure and heart of their parents. They would be loved and protected with all possible means.
But here they live like weeds.
Almost all children have some degree of malnutrition.
Some people are even as skinny as a stick.
But this is not terrible. In fact, their situation is much better than before.
In the past, let alone malnutrition, they probably had no chance of malnutrition!
Before Yuande, the mortality rate for children under the age of twelve in Guanzhong was as high as 50%!
One in every two children will never live to be twelve!
Nowadays, with the improvement of living standards, economic conditions and medical and health conditions, this premature death rate has been reduced by 80%.
But Liu Che was still very dissatisfied.
Where is this place? Chang'an City!
The sacred capital of the Han Dynasty was the capital of the empire and the center of the world.
But people, especially children, are still dying of hunger, and a large number of people are living below the extreme poverty line. Their homes are bare and they have no money left.
But just beside these people, Qili Monk Guanli, Beique and Weiyang Palace were singing and dancing every day.
While the rich wine and meat smell, the road with frozen bone.
this is the truth!
If this reality cannot be changed, Liu Che may feel better in his heart.
But the fact is - it's not.
Since Yuande, Liu Che has considered that in order to stabilize his rule, he must expand the scope of the middle class.
It is determined to increase people's income and national income.
To this end, he promulgated various policies and granted various benefits.
For example, food price protection, for example, instead of levying corvee for construction projects, the method of levying low-cost labor is used instead.
He did not hesitate to throw away his moral integrity and used the renovation of Chang'an's nine cities as a guise to steal the renovation costs from businessmen.
But it's a pity...
The burden on the people, especially the people at the bottom, has not actually been reduced much.
Take this transformation of Chang'an as an example.
Originally, the policy announced and formulated by Liu Che was that all residents of Chang'an could move to new homes and only needed to pay a new home fee of 10,000 yuan per household.
If you have no money, you can choose to use work as a loan. You can apply to the Neishi Yamen and get a loan from the Shaofu, and the interest on the loan is 11%. People can choose to participate in Chang'an reconstruction and other national projects to repay it.
But the problem is that the policies at the top will always be distorted when it comes to the bottom.
This time is no exception.
The Internal History Yamen has been leaderless for a long time since Uncle Tian resigned. Later, Liu Che found Niu Ru, a native of Qi State, to serve as Internal History.
But Niu Ru was an outsider and had no reputation, let alone prestige.
The people below were simply dissatisfied with him.
Niu Neishi was jokingly called "Zuotang Neishi" and "Nuonuo Mingfu" in Chang'an City.
This means that the internal history officer, apart from sitting in the yamen, only has the ability to wait for the superiors and the subordinates.
As a result, the internal history office, especially the grassroots officials in Chang'an City, immediately ushered in spring.
The emperor said that a new house costs ten thousand? Good! Of course, we cannot and cannot change this matter.
But, you mud-legged person, you have a new house to live in, shouldn't you be filial, filial? Thank you, thank you?
It’s not much, just give me 1,800 yuan!
What if you don’t give it?
If I give you a house, do you dare to live in it?
Some people even simply postponed it and did not arrange for people to move in at all.
This posture is very obvious, it is to cut off the flesh and blood, and it is to get a share of the pie.
As for the people being forced to sleep on the streets, it has nothing to do with them.
There is still a conscience in playing like this.
It's just a little fishy, and ordinary people can get through it with gritted teeth.
But the problem is that once the door of desire is opened, it is difficult to close it.
In just half a year, countless nasty things have happened during the transformation of Chang'an!
Moreover, it is obvious that there are interest groups operating and controlling it.
According to Xiuyiwei's report, there are even two thousand stones in it, and the Liehou family is involved.
As for those big businessmen, powerful people are always around.
Their purpose in doing this is very simple, which is to force people to borrow money.
There is no need to explain, normal people should be able to understand that once you start taking out high-value private loans, your family will go into bankruptcy, and it is very likely that your family will be ruined.
In this BC, the results will be even worse.
Those merchants, officials, and nobles will not stop until they turn all the people into bonded workers!
correct!
Their purpose is to force the people to sign a harsh contract of prostitution with them that restricts personal freedom.
This is worse and worse than the land annexation that happened in rural areas in the past.
The wealthy landowners in the countryside only aspire to the land and turn the people into tenants.
But these guys want to turn the people and their descendants into their own slaves!
However, Liu Che strictly controlled the use of Han people as slaves. Any attempt to turn people listed on the household registration into his slaves may now pay a heavy price!
So, these scumbags learned a trick from Anton.
The evil bonded labor system appeared two thousand years in advance!