@@"Is this the capital of the above country?"

"What a majestic and magnificent city. It's really shocking."

A foreigner who had just arrived in the capital of the Ming Dynasty could not help but sigh while standing under the tall walls of the capital.

There are twenty-four provinces in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, with the north and south Zhili as the core. Not to mention the city of Nanjing in the south, which was the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties. It is a huge city with ancient charm and unique scenery in the south of the Yangtze River.

Since Emperor Yongle ascended the throne and moved the capital to Shuntian, the city of Beijing has undergone transformation, from the capital of the Yuan Dynasty to the capital of the Ming Dynasty today, a huge and towering city.

It not only occupies a large area, but also has three inner and outer walls that are more than 20 meters thick, as well as various defense facilities. After all, Suncheon was originally a fortress city.

After experiencing the Battle of Tumubao, Wala's attack on the capital left a very deep impression on the Ming Dynasty. Strong enemies were surrounded in the north. During the Jiajing period, Anda Khan's cavalry approached the southern suburbs, which forced the Ming Dynasty monarchs and ministers to attack the capital.

Made stronger and stronger.

This also created the current capital city. With the Forbidden City as the core, the imperial city, the inner city, the outer city, and the urn city were layered on top of each other to form this solid capital city of the Ming Dynasty.

On the tall and majestic city wall in front of you, banners of the Ming Dynasty are fluttering in the wind. Under the rays of the sun, the armor of the Ming Dynasty soldiers on the city wall reflects the golden light. Heavy general cannons are hidden behind the battlements.

There are no traces visible outside, but once they are attacked by the enemy, the roar of these giant cannons will let the enemy know what price they have to pay to attack the most prosperous and largest city in the world.

The huge city gate seemed to be about to pass through a giant, and there was an endless stream of cars, horses, and pedestrians. This largest city in the world handles a huge population, with a permanent population of up to one million, not to mention local tourists, businessmen, and tourists entering the city.

Peasants selling in Beijing are waiting.

The idea of ​​​​previous generations was to reduce the population. After all, the capital was only so big.

But the population of the capital cannot keep shrinking. After all, the Ming Dynasty is now in its prosperous times. The people have their own fields, have their own jobs, and have a surplus of income every year. Every family's granary is full of grain. The court is light on corvee and low on taxes, and the people bear the burden.

There are few people and sufficient material life, so the marriage rate is high and the childbirth rate is also increasing.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty began to popularize schools and medical clinics, which greatly improved the survival rate of children and women. After all, before, women had to walk on the line of life and death to give birth, and whether they could survive it all depended on their lives.

, not everyone has the money to find a doctor, and the mortality rate of young children is extremely high, especially female infants. Due to the poverty of the family and the lack of food surplus, as well as the influence of various exorbitant taxes and old ideas, female infants were drowned in large numbers, and the dynasty's population increased very slowly.

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But even so, the increasing population later became a heavy burden for each dynasty in its final years.

However, today's Ming Dynasty does not care. After all, the land in Ming Dynasty does not belong to the nobles, but to the imperial court. After the imperial court distributed the land equally to each household, there is still a large amount of grain fields. Currently, Annan and Northeast China are not developed. The Ming Dynasty has plenty of land to distribute to newborns.

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Therefore, since the New Deal was officially implemented in the third year of Tianqi, the fertility rate of the Ming Dynasty has increased every year. In just six or seven years, the population of the Ming Dynasty has expanded to more than 30 million households, with tens of millions of people.

Except for those who were slaves, those who were lowly were liberated, and the refugees who were hiding in the mountains and forests returned to their places, and more babies were born.

The population of the Ming Dynasty is increasing, which is a good thing. After all, a sufficient population represents sufficient productivity and mobilization power, and the population is the size of a country.

But there are problems with a large population. For example, right now, the imperial court has to consider how to expand the capital to accommodate more people.

This is not just the case in the capital, but also in many big cities such as Nanjing.

The development of industry will inevitably accompany farmers from rural areas to factories and to cities.

Today, the most developed area in the Ming Dynasty is the North and South Zhili region with the two capitals as the core. This area has the largest population in the Ming Dynasty. A large number of farmers have entered the city in order to have a better life and a better future for their children.

Moving towards factories, this also forces these big cities to consider the issue of expansion.

At present, the expansion plan of the capital has been put forward

According to the schedule, Zhu Youxiao was even considering whether to demolish the city wall of the capital.

After all, with the current strength of the Ming Dynasty, the grasslands and the Manchus can no longer pose any threat to the imperial court. Not to mention the threat to the imperial court, they will have to thank God if the imperial court does not attack them at the moment.

Without the threat of the northern grasslands, the thick city wall has lost its original function.

And with the development of science and technology and industry, urban expansion is inevitable.

But the ideas of these big shots have nothing to do with Angel, a foreigner.

The blond hair and blue eyes did not look like a Central Plains person. The pedestrians around were surprised to see Angel, a blond and blue-eyed foreign barbarian, standing at the gate of the capital city.

After all, as the maritime ban was lifted, trade between various countries and the Ming Dynasty increased, and more and more foreigners came to Zhili in the north and south. Among them were not only people from vassal states, but also people from many foreign countries and city-states in Southeast Asia who came here.

Different from the previous tribute ship system of the Ming Dynasty, today's Ming Dynasty welcomes overseas trade with a more tolerant and open attitude. This undoubtedly attracted many overseas forces to sell goods in the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, the goods of the Ming Dynasty were also brought back to their own countries.

, this is a new economic beginning.

It is also thanks to today's open policy that Angel, a foreigner, can stand on the land of the Ming Dynasty as a non-envoy.

After all, in the previous Ming Dynasty, only vassals recognized by the Ming Dynasty could send envoys and tribute ships to pay tribute and trade. Coupled with the repeated and excessive maritime bans, it was difficult for outside merchants to have direct contact with the Ming Dynasty. This also led to the rise of Nanyang second-road traders and

The repeated smuggling of merchants from the southeast of the Ming Dynasty and the rampant Japanese pirates along the southeast coast.

But now, as long as you come with friendship and peace, you can set foot on the land of Ming Dynasty.

Relying on the Yapai road guide he received when he landed, Angel proved his identity and entered the prosperous city of Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

The lively flow of people, wide and smooth roads, clean streets and shops on both sides attracted Angel's attention. This powerful and dreamy oriental dynasty has always been a holy land that Westerners dream about. It is said that there are countless people here.

All the wealth.

Angel, who has now arrived at the capital of the Ming Dynasty, is extremely convinced that the Ming Dynasty does have countless wealth. No matter whether he is noble or low, whether he is a noble or a commoner, as long as he is willing to work hard, he can have enough food and warm clothes.

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According to his understanding, Angel knew that every common person in the Ming Dynasty now has his own land. They can cultivate it and only need to pay a very small amount of taxes. The rest is theirs. Therefore, the common people in the Ming Dynasty have enough food.

, they can eat three meals a day, and if they are full, they will naturally become stronger.

Moreover, prices in the Ming Dynasty are now very low, and people's incomes are not low, so everyone can buy what they want. The prices of various clothes and cloths are very cheap, but these cloths are expensive when sold to Southeast Asia and the West.

Outrageous!

In addition, Angel was amazed by the rich products of the Ming Dynasty. Almost all kinds of food can be found in the Ming Dynasty, and various minerals are also available in the Ming Dynasty. It is indeed a dynasty with a vast territory and abundant resources.

Walking on the wide and sturdy streets, Angel and his companions looked at all kinds of novel things and all kinds of fragrant food. Angel was extremely envious of Ming Dynasty's material richness, and things like candy men were even more enviable.

Let Angel marvel at the magic of the Ming Dynasty.

Some sugar fats are turned into lifelike little people and animals with various shapes and strange shapes under the dazzling production. This is undoubtedly a wonderful craft.

Shadow puppetry, storytelling, and juggling also attracted Angel's attention.

Whether it was the fight between a few shadow puppets, the storyteller's vivid descriptions, or the wonderful performance of juggling swords and guns, Angel felt the vitality of this city.

The capital of the Ming Dynasty was too big, and there were too many things that had never been seen before.

There is no doubt that this is the largest city in the world, and it is also the most vibrant city. Everything here is so prosperous and full of vitality, just like the Eastern Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, it is exuding its dazzling brilliance and attracting the world.

Sight.

Walking, Angel and

Their companions were also hungry. They found a shop to sit down and bought food with the Datong banknotes they exchanged for silver and gold coins when they landed. The hot wontons whetted their appetites, and they were filled with the aroma of green onions and cumin.

The fragrant mutton sesame cakes made them enjoy eating even more. They even tried many other foods such as mutton soup and fried tripe.

The few people with chubby bellies originally planned to take a rest, but the sound of gongs and drums attracted their attention again.

As the sound of gongs and drums got closer and closer, Angel saw another novelty of the Ming Dynasty, the lion dance.

There were two fake lions, one red and one yellow, with a young, strong and flexible young man standing inside, dancing up and down, as if the lions had come alive, performing various movements vividly.

Angel has some understanding of the Central Plains culture. Generally, lion dance is only performed on festive occasions, such as weddings, New Year's Day, Lantern Festival, Zhengdan and other major festivals.

Is anyone getting married right now?

Angel asked the clerk on the side about the situation. The clerk looked at it and said, "Oh, this, this is to celebrate the Zhili Steel Company's stock breaking through one tael of silver. It is said that Uncle Zhang and Uncle Zhou made enough money before.

They spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in the capital, which attracted the envy of countless people."

Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver!

This amount shocked Angel. They knew how much one tael of silver weighed. According to their silver coins, it was equivalent to hundreds of thousands of silver coins. This was an astonishing amount of wealth. To be able to come up with such a fortune

How amazing are those Uncle Zhang and Uncle Zhou?

The Ming Dynasty was indeed an extremely powerful dynasty. Just a few people you met would be so wealthy!

While Angel was sighing with emotion, Zhu Youjian, who had just finished his labor camp and returned to the capital, clenched his fists in envy and suppressed his blush.

Only when he returned to his Xinwang Mansion did he find out that his father-in-law, that bastard, had taken a loan from Daming Bank in his name to do his business!

During the years when I was forced to work outside, I made a lot of money!

Now, because of the steel company he and Zhang Guoji set up, and the listing, his net worth has increased several times, and he is buying big houses, steam carriages, and all kinds of rare treasures, such as corals three feet high, and things as big as a child's fist.

Pearls, I really don’t know how these people make so much money!

I don’t know why the court doesn’t care about it!

Scholars, farmers, industry and merchants have always been like this in all dynasties. Now that the humble status has been abolished, look at how arrogant and rampant these businessmen are!

They openly showed off their wealth and competed for wealth in the capital!

And that Zhou Wang Zhu Gongzhen is not a good person either!

The majestic Ming Dynasty clan actually went to do some logistics, just forget it, and he really made money!

At present, excluding those clans that have been deprived of their titles and dethroned from the throne, it seems that he, the emperor's biological brother, is the poorest and most miserable person in the reign of King Xin!

The vassal kings in the north all handed over their land and started doing business like the king of Zhou. The emperor did not intend to kill them all, but also provided them with many conveniences. Now the vassal kings no longer have to be raised in the same place as pigs.
To be continued...