Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 76: Wanli Reappears Without Paying Homage to the Emperor (Part 1)

In October, as the weather in the capital gradually cooled, Zhu Jue began to consider building houses for the common people of Tongzhou City.

Although the people of Tongzhou City were no longer sleeping on the streets, it wasn't a good idea for them to always stay at the homes of relatives and friends.

Especially for those who own shops and restaurants, if they don't do business, they're just lying there losing money.

He certainly couldn't let ordinary people suffer losses.

Early that morning, around 7 a.m., he unfolded the new map of the capital and began to study it.

Where will the new town or new streets of Tongzhou be built?
If the only goal is to save trouble, then building it outside Tongzhou city is naturally the simplest option.

However, there is a problem with building it this way: Tongzhou City is full of secrets that cannot be revealed.

If he were to build the new streets directly outside Tongzhou City, ordinary people would inevitably be tempted to return to their hometowns to visit.

Will he be able to prevent locals from entering the city then?
He can forcibly prevent people from entering, but that will only cause endless trouble.

To avoid trouble, the new street needs to be far away from Tongzhou City, the farther the better.

His eyes lit up, and he immediately had an idea.

The area outside Guangqumen in the southern part of the capital was quite good. It was about forty miles away from Tongzhou City. Ordinary people were not allowed to leave their homes that far away. Moreover, there was already a main road leading in and out of the capital there, so there was no need to build the main street. They could start building directly there.

Another point is that Datong Bridge is located just outside Dongbianmen, north of Guangqumen. It was very convenient for ordinary people living there to cross the Tonghui River.

There was also a canal wharf next to Datong Bridge, where ordinary people in Tongzhou who were used to working at the wharf could find some work.

This place is really nice.

He gestured roughly with his hands, then decisively said, "Summon Wei Zhongxian to come and pay his respects."

Wei Zhongxian was somewhat uneasy at this moment, because he had not been able to find a single traitor recently, and the current emperor seemed to have ignored him, neither asking about him nor summoning him.

He even began to suspect that he might have fallen out of favor.

Fortunately, the current emperor finally summoned him.

He rushed to the main hall of Yuxi Palace, panting, and bowed, saying, "This servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue put down the memorial in his hand, somewhat amused and exasperated, and said, "Zhongxian, I didn't ask you to come to me immediately, why are you in such a hurry?"

I'm just afraid of falling out of favor.

Wei Zhongxian quickly flattered, "This servant was afraid of keeping Your Majesty waiting."

You bootlicker, can you stop acting like a lapdog?
Forget it, not letting you flatter someone is probably worse than not letting you eat.

Zhu Jue casually asked, "How's the investigation into the traitor going?"

Oh, how do I put this?

Wei Zhongxian said somewhat awkwardly, "A few nights ago, the secret guards used a net to trap a man in black, but when they untied the net to check, the man had already committed suicide by poison."

These traitors who collude with the enemy and betray their country even raise assassins!

Hmph, you think I know nothing?
I at least know who your leader is, and I also know the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou.

Anyway, you can run away but you can't hide, so there's no need to rush.

Zhu Jue frowned slightly, then raised his hand and said, "Don't rush this. Go and acquire another piece of land for me, the area outside Guangqumen and near the Datongqiao canal wharf. Acquire a piece of land about the size of Tongzhou City. We need to build houses for the common people in Tongzhou City."

I'm an expert at acquiring land; I can do it with my eyes closed.

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhongxian nodded repeatedly and said, "Alright, I'll go right away."

Zhu Jue asked again, "Still three days, is that alright?"

Anyone who dares to cause me trouble, I'll kill them!
Wei Zhongxian replied without hesitation, "No problem."

You're already very familiar with the process, so there's no need to explain anything else.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then waved his hand.

Wei Zhongxian quickly bowed and took his leave, scurrying away eagerly. Zhu Jue then picked up the memorials and continued reviewing them.

Unexpectedly, the next document was Huang Daozhou's memorial to the throne.

Your humble servant Huang Daozhou, a lecturer at the Hanlin Academy, respectfully submits this memorial.

You're talking nonsense.

He didn't even glance at the contents; he simply tossed it aside.

This is his new trick: throw away the memorials from those two guys as soon as he sees them, out of sight, out of mind!

Sure enough, another memorial from Liu Zongzhou followed.

He didn't even glance at it, simply tossing it aside.

That way, I won't let those two guys affect my mood.

After hastily reviewing the memorials, he led Wang Chengen and Fang Zhenghua straight to Tongzhou City.

The three factories in Tongzhou were built quickly because the steam engine factory and the machine factory didn't need any facilities built inside; they could just be empty factory buildings. Song Yingxing was responsible for making the machine tools and other equipment inside.

The problem is that they are short of copper right now, so they can't make many lathes, let alone other machines.

I wonder when I'll be able to snatch this copper.

He was standing on the north city wall of Tongzhou, deep in thought, when Yuan You hurried over, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Father-in-law, are the craftsmen's residences in the eastern part of the city almost finished?"

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, many have already been built, and the remaining two days will be completed."

That's good.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then solemnly said, "We are going to build houses for the common people in the former Tongzhou city, between Guangqumen and Datongqiao canal wharf."

Wei Zhongxian has already gone to acquire the land; he should be done in three days. At that time, order all the able-bodied men from the artisan households to go there and start construction immediately. It must be completed within a month, otherwise, if it drags on until the dead of winter, it will be a real problem.”

The original number of households in Tongzhou City was only around 10,000. It shouldn't be a big problem for the more than 100,000 artisans to build houses for the more than 10,000 ordinary people in a month.

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. I will immediately order the able-bodied craftsmen who have built the house to go and make preparations."

By the way, once Wei Zhongxian took over that piece of land, the common people who originally lived there had no houses to live in anymore.

The population of the capital region is still very dense, and it becomes even denser closer to the inner city. It is estimated that there are several thousand ordinary people in such a large area.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then solemnly said, "Wei Zhongxian probably still has four or five thousand ordinary people in the land he acquired. You should also have people build houses for those ordinary people, within the one-mile radius on the north bank of the Tonghui River that we acquired. Have them built in one month as well. Is that alright?"

This would only add four or five thousand households, which shouldn't be a big problem. If it really comes to it, the artisans here can finish building the factory and hurry over to help.

Yuan You pondered for a moment before nodding repeatedly and saying, "No problem."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then raised his binoculars and scanned the eastern part of the city on the north bank of the Tonghui River, falling into deep thought.

The eastern part of the city is almost finished, and the southeastern part will also be completed this year. In which direction should we expand next?
The expansion of the capital must be carried out in one go, because only now does he have enough military households and artisan households to use.

He couldn't maintain the number of 60,000 Jingying soldiers indefinitely. In order to pacify the Northwest and deal with the Jurchens, he had to continuously expand the number of Jingying soldiers. As a result, the number of Jingying garrison households that could be recruited to build cities would become increasingly smaller.

Furthermore, he also needs to continuously build factories, and each factory requires thousands of artisans. As a result, the number of artisans who can be recruited to build the city will become increasingly smaller.

The reason why the East City and Southeast City were built so quickly was because of the hundreds of thousands of military households and artisan households. If it weren't for these hundreds of thousands of military households and artisan households working, the expansion of the capital would probably have taken more than ten years, just like the construction of the outer city of Jinling. He didn't have that kind of time.

He had to complete the expansion of the capital within two years. Even if the Jurchens didn't attack, he would still have to mobilize troops to launch a counterattack.

In the next two years, there are five new towns to be built in the north and west. Should the north town be built first or the west town first?

He also had to consider making money. Expanding the new city was incredibly expensive, and if it couldn't generate economic benefits, even with Wei Zhongxian plundering the money, the Imperial Treasury wouldn't be able to sustain itself.

As for profiting from overseas trade, that would require luring Zheng Zhilong to the capital, and even in two years, Xiong Tingbi might not be able to manage to do so.

Nowadays, besides overseas trade, what else can bring in quick and easy money?
(End of this chapter)