Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Guo Chongtao returned to Tonglifang's house.

He bought this house, which is not big.

Tongli Square is not a big square. It is only one-third the size of Mingjiao and Yiren Squares at most. It is also close to Xintan Pier and is very noisy with frequent business trips.

Some people like this kind of place because it is lively and prosperous, such as the former Tang Yinggong Li Ji.

Some people don't like it because it's too lively and not quiet enough.Moreover, most of the people living here are nouveau riche businessmen full of money, which feels like it lowers the style.

The nouveau riche also bought their houses.More than 20 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, some people have begun to sell houses in the core areas of Luoyang.

When Luoyang was in ruins, the imperial court issued the "Edict to Build Houses" and approved the applications of a large number of people to build houses.In fact, the ruins were too unsightly, the current situation was turbulent, and the court had no money due to continuous wars, so it mobilized private power and asked capable people to provide money and food, clear the ruins, and build houses.

Most of the houses for sale on the market come from this way.Some people's fathers and grandfathers were officials, and they were the first officials to come to Luoyang, but their children and grandchildren failed to become officials, or failed to become officials in the capital, and they were short of money. They decided not to go back to Luoyang to live. So the houses were sold and cashed out - obviously, these houses, which only cost the money to clean up the ruins and build houses, had increased in value dozens of times.

Guo Chongtao bought a house like this. He liked the excitement very much. He often climbed up to the attic on the second floor and watched the canal boats coming and going on Xintan, watched various goods being unloaded, and then watched many goods being distributed wholesale. Sprinkled around, this is how the pulse of the empire beats, and he likes it very much.

Feng Dao also bought a house in Luoyang, which was smaller than his. It was located in Ludao, Luxin, Chongrang and Lirenfang in the southeast of Luoyang.It was a legacy of Zhang Quanyi's administration, and it was the first place to be cleared out in Luoyang. In the past 20 years, the owners have changed almost every time, and almost all the first batch of Luoyang residents sold their houses and left.

The small courtyard that Guo Chongtao initially set his sights on was located in Luxinfang. It was a dilapidated house without any sense of beauty, and its structure and materials were very questionable. It actually sold for more than 1000 yuan, so why not grab it?
Feng Dao bought this kind of house, and they only wanted copper coins, silver dollars, and silk, let alone food.

Living in Luoyang is not easy either.

However, if you become a third-rank or higher imperial official, or a fourth- or fifth-rank official in a key department with real power, the imperial court will lend you a free house to live in during your tenure. It is spacious, elegant, and elegant, and the location is good. It is definitely worthy of it. identity.

Guo Chongtao is about to take office as the governor of Zhili Province, but he is not a capital official, because Daoism is in Ruzhou, south of Luoyang.

He has no chance to return to the capital for the time being. He can only wait until the day of today's...Prince...comes.

Sin!Guo Chongtao was slightly unnatural.

"Bang bang!" The sound of smashing the wall came from across the street.

Guo Chongtao looked around, and then cursed secretly: It's the end of the twelfth lunar month, and the craftsmen are not allowed to go home to celebrate the New Year. What are you doing?

That was the home of Kang Fu, the sixth commander of the right wing of Tielin Army who had recently moved to Luoyang.

This man was born in Hedong, and was originally a military commander of Yingkou County. Because of his repeated military exploits in the attacks on the Bohai Sea and the Western Regions, he was quickly promoted to an officer of the Forbidden Army at the age of 41.

Guo Chongtao still has some opinions on Kangfu.

As a member of a general family in Yuzhou and a native of Shatuo, Kangfu has always been valued by the king of Jin.As a result, he quickly surrendered after being captured, and kept a vague distance from the old people in Hedong. Such behavior was disgusting.

However, Kangfu's career in the military was really stable.As a soldier, he participated in several battles and seized opportunities, which made many people envious.

Guo Chongtao vaguely remembered that when the prince led the troops to attack the Bohai Sea, Kangfu was in the tent, and he seemed to have made some meritorious deeds. He wouldn't have defected to him at that time, right?Last year when the prince reorganized the Tielin and Wuwei armies, Kang Fu was inexplicably transferred from Yingkou County, Andong Prefecture, and transformed from a government soldier into an officer of the Forbidden Army. Only a ghost would believe it if there were no problems!

Another promotion and a new house. Kang Fu is in good luck.

The quality of the old house opposite was so poor that Kangfu seemed to be dissatisfied. He applied to Luoyang County to build a new house directly on the spot - such a high-profile house would be screwed sooner or later!
Guo Chongtao stood at the attic and watched for a long time.I found Kangfu's new house quite interesting. It seems to have a fire pit. This should be a habit brought back from Liaodong.

All the original wooden walls were demolished and replaced with brick walls.The foundation has already been laid and the wall is more than two feet high.

In recent years, the business of brick and tile kilns around Luoyang has been booming, and the scale has expanded. The largest one is said to produce 20 bricks per month, which is enough to build the yard of Kangfu's family - if it is a small private house, Tens of thousands of bricks are enough.

In addition to brick kilns, there are also lime kilns and wood drying kilns.

Despite the endless variety of profitable businesses in Daxia, business in the three major categories of bricks, tiles, lime, and lumber has never been bad.

Among the first group of dignitaries to come to Luoyang, if there were brothers Xiao Yu and Xiao Yu, there were clansmen who ran brick and tile kilns, and the business was extremely prosperous - I heard that the Xiao family was doing this business when they were in Lingzhou.

It is a well-known fact that saints like brick houses.The emergence of the brick wheel kiln greatly increased the output of bricks, and the price dropped sharply, and the entire market suddenly grew bigger.

Nowadays, those who have some money want to convert their wooden houses into brick houses, or at least a mixed structure of brick and wood.If you are more sophisticated, just spend a lot of money to buy a stone and mix it with bricks to build a house.

The bricks and tiles produced in various brick and tile kilns are all booked almost as soon as the bricks are put into the kiln.There is never a reason why it cannot be sold. It is simply sitting on the ground counting money. It is more profitable than selling illegal salt or mining gold. To be honest, mining gold is really not very profitable, unless it is a gold mine that has been secretly mined before the court has discovered it. .

However, recently there is a new trend.As Persian mathematics and architecture became popular, many noble houses hired a large number of builders to renovate their courtyards outside the city and built many high-rise buildings with masonry structures.Mathematicians were designing and calculating on site. After the entire project was completed, the cost was not as high as imagined.And each one of them promised with confidence that such a stone building would last for hundreds of years and serve as the foundation for family inheritance.

Guo Chongtao was speechless.

Even Daxia doesn't know how many years it can be passed down. Can this noble stone house last for that long?But then again, houses in the past dynasties cannot be preserved, mainly due to wars, and the biggest damage to buildings in wars is arson - Huang Chao set fire to the palace back then, and in the end it was the gold merchant Jiedushi who Li Xiang donated wood, and the three major buildings in Chang'an were rebuilt.

If it is a stone house, maybe it is not so afraid of fire.

Guo Chongtao shook his head, the world has changed a bit.

It does not change many things drastically at once, but slowly changes over decades, allowing people to slowly adapt.When I looked back decades later, I was suddenly shocked to find that the entire society had been turned upside down.

Will people die and the government cease?

Some do.

Some never will.

Today, he has done a lot of things, and he is perhaps the person who has changed the face of traditional society the most in history.

Guo Chongtao silently recalled the scene of entering the palace yesterday.

The saint was obviously testing their understanding and acceptance of Xin Chao Yazheng. He asked himself questions and answered them quite well.

In fact, this is also his true inner view.

He hated some parts of the New Deal and supported others.Feng Dao should be similar, but their support and opposition are probably different.Guo Chongtao can be sure of this.

Feng Dao should be a relatively traditional Confucian scholar, and he must be very opposed to the reform of the imperial examination.In other words, the reform he hopes to see is not like this.If Feng Daolai were to preside over it, he would probably cut down on rote subjects such as Ming Jing, reduce miscellaneous subjects such as Three Histories, Ming Shu, Ming Suan, and Ming Law, and increase the number of admissions to Jinshi subjects.

But he was cunning and pragmatic.

He supported the new dynasty in public and made many useful suggestions along the lines of the sage, so many people considered him a "New Dealer".

Thinking of this, Guo Chongtao wanted to laugh.

Feng Dao is an extremely traditional Confucian literati, but he is very good at violating his own heart and giving in to his superiors, and he can also do a good job.

Guo Chongtao still admires this matter.He can deceive himself, easily "get into the act", and can act very well, as if he were real.

For such a person, even if he knew his true inner thoughts, a saint would probably make great use of him.

Damn, there are too many monsters and monsters in this world!
In the next few days, Guo Chongtao has been active in Beijing, mainly visiting generals and officials from Hedong.

He sadly discovered that there didn't seem to be much.

When the King of Jin was still alive, the highest-ranking Jin generals were Li Cunxiao, governor of Yaozhou and Duke of Jinxiang County, but he had been dead for many years and his influence had long since dissipated.

After Li Cunxiao died, the rest were not very successful.The position may not be low, but it is not high either. The appearance of being in the middle is depressing.

After Guo Chongtao paid a visit, he gave up.

The New Year came soon, and when the first ray of sunshine rose from the east in the 925th year of Tongguang ([-]), he was speechless as he watched the catfish, cod, and saury prepared by his family with great excitement.

The fish is delicious and can even be used as salt, saving money.

Guo Chongtao still remembers that when the old servant who went to buy fish came back, he was very happy and said that he had quick eyes and quick hands and grabbed more than a dozen fish from Xintan and Nanshi.

Recalling the dried sea fish hanging under the eaves of every house in Beijing, Guo Chongtao discovered that some festival habits seemed to be constantly strengthening.It's getting stronger with every passing year.

Prince, he should support the New Deal, right?

Guo Chongtao learned from different channels that the prince should support the New Deal. He had made many remarks in public and even excluded officials who did not support the New Deal from the East Palace.

Then, he had no hesitation, and took advantage of his free time during the New Year to read through the books written by the saints.