Chapter 1,657 Fanfang

If you want to build a city, you must first demolish it. Just because of the Nongzhigao Rebellion, all the buildings in the west of the city near Zicheng were reduced to ashes, which eliminated a large number of obstacles to demolition.

At that time, the position of governor of Guangzhou had become a hot potato. On the one hand, the imperial court put pressure on local officials to build the city. On the other hand, the governors were worried that they would be held accountable if the project failed.

For example, Yu Jing, because he was born in Lingnan and knew the difficulties of building a city in Guangzhou, would rather not be promoted than to resign from his post in Guangzhou.

However, Engineer Meng himself was very courageous and determined to face the difficulties and insisted on building a new city in the west of Guangzhou, where the soil was sparse and harsh.

Zhao Xu not only agreed, but also specially sent envoys to bring the blueprints of the fortress to Cheng Shimeng.

However, Zhao Xu thought too much. To make bricks, clay must be obtained from farmland or mortar buried deep in the ground. City bricks are very expensive in Guangzhou, so it is impossible to use local clamshell soil and acid.

Made of red clay.

Magistrates came one after another, but they all gave up building the city because they had no soil to burn bricks.

When Lu Jujian saw that there was a stone section on the street, he immediately borrowed it to build the foot of the city.

It was not until several governors later that the government burned the city bricks and returned the city footing stones borrowed from the people.

In August of the fifth year of Xining, the Xicheng City, which took ten months of difficult construction, was finally completed. The entire city of Guangzhou has a circumference of 13 miles and 180 steps, a height of 2 feet and 4 feet, and nine gates. It forms the most prosperous and densely populated area in Guangzhou.

Fanfang was incorporated into the city.

Guangzhou established the pattern of three cities standing side by side. During the Song Dynasty, the total area of ​​Guangzhou City expanded to more than four times that of Tang City.

With a safe city defense, Guangzhou became a place that attracted merchants to trade. Western Australia in the south of the city became an inner harbor protected by city walls and docks. Merchant ships flowed between them and department stores were abundant, making it the "City of Five Cities".

There are also Dashi Street, Ivory Street, Agate Lane and other streets nearby. Engineer Meng proudly left a poem: "Thousands of doors shine on the Pearl City, and thousands of people's names are smoked in the jade city. The mountains and seas are hidden by China, and the ladder navigation is especially seen by foreigners."

Affection."

But that was Engineer Meng's way of putting money on his face. Compared with the Tang Dynasty in Guangzhou, when there were constant exchanges of foreign merchants and merchants, the number of which exceeded 100,000 for a long time, and there were countless ivory, jade, pearls, and Tibetan medicines, and they were still lagging behind.

far away.

The reason lies in the economic system of the Song Dynasty - "special inquiry".

Although the Shipping Department was established in Guangzhou at the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the initial trading method was very primitive. The Shipping Department and the Tibetan merchants used barter to trade, and the bulk commodities were purchased by the Shipping Department and handed over to the court.

.

Using this method, the Guangzhou Shipping Department, after years of hard work, was gradually able to deliver goods worth about 700,000 guan to Bianjing all year round.

The most impressive one was the purchase of gold worth one million guan. That year, the trade volume of Guangzhou Shipping Company reached 1.5 million guan.

In the previous Song Dynasty, when the annual income surplus was only six to seven million yuan, this was considered an incredible gain.

However, these things are useless for local development because they are all fiscal revenue of the central government.

Moreover, after Xining, the strong rise of Yunzhou in the South China Sea and Hangzhou in Zhejiang and Zhejiang, as well as the breakthrough progress of schooners and star-finding techniques, offshore navigation was gradually replaced by ocean navigation, large carrying capacity, and straight-line navigation.

In the seventh year of Xining, Guangzhou Shipping Company even suffered its first loss, with the loss amounting to 200,000 yuan.

There are even voices in the DPRK and China requesting the abolition of the Guangzhou Shipping Department.

Because it is a "state-owned enterprise", Jiang Zhiqi actually doesn't care much whether the shipping company is profitable or losing money.

However, when the Municipal Shipping Department does not have full-time staff, the local general magistrate will take charge of it. As a civil servant, Jiang Zhiqi does not think it is a good job, and even thinks that it is simply insulting to let Colander Tangtang Tanhua take charge of merchant affairs such as the Municipal Shipping Department.

Gentle.

Thinking of this, Jiang Zhiqi asked his subordinates: "Didn't Su Tongpan see you today?"

The clerk replied: "I heard that Su Tongpan went to Huaisheng Temple."

"Go to Fanfang again." Jiang Zhiqi frowned: "When he comes back, ask him to come see me."

Huaisheng Temple is a Koranic temple built in the 29th year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty.

"At the foot of the white clouds and at the limit of the slopes, there is a floating map. Its system is like that of the Western Regions. It is made of stone and has never been seen in Zhongzhou. It has been passed down from the Li and Tang Dynasties to the present."

This pagoda is called "Guangta Temple" by Guangzhou people, so Huaisheng Temple is also called "Guangta Temple".

Around Guangta Temple, a residential area gradually formed, where mainly Tibetan residents lived.

Foreigners are foreigners who came to Guangzhou from far away seas to settle down. In addition to Tianfang people, there are also Indians and people from various countries in the South China Sea.

The area where they lived was called "Fanfang".

Today, this place is still dominated by the rich and powerful Tianfang people, and there are also a large number of local people they employ, mainly Yi people and Dong people recruited along the way.

The Song Dynasty was relatively tolerant to the Fan people, and set up a fan chief in the fanfang for management. The chief's main responsibility was to manage the daily affairs of the fanfang and attract businessmen.

At the request of the Tibetan people, the imperial court even ordered the local government to set up schools for them, so that all Tibetan children could attend school and learn Chinese culture.

They also have the opportunity to integrate into the upper class of society, influence the local economy, and be granted official positions by the court.

As long as they abide by the laws of the Song Dynasty, the Tibetan guests can retain the freedom of religious beliefs and customs, live for more than three generations, buy fields and houses in Guangzhou, and if one of the three generations is an official, they can even marry Chinese women.

Colander was wearing casual clothes and a soft-winged futou, walking in the fanfang.

On both sides of the street, there are rows of shops. It can be seen that the earliest ones were of Han style. Later, some Western-style buildings gradually grew in the middle, and gradually merged into one, making the whole street become a place full of exotic places.

The place of style.

The shops here mainly sell carpets, thin rugs, spices, perfumes, dyes, preserved fruits and the like. There are also workshops selling tinware and silverware.

The women had their ears "pierced" and wore more than a dozen earrings on each ear. Some also had piercings on their noses and wore gold jewelry inlaid with precious stones.

Men like to wear colorful floral silks, but tapestry and brocade are still strictly prohibited by the court. A colander can tell that they are wearing Meishan single-sided dyeing.

In addition to wearing fancy clothes, they also like gold and precious stones. Basically every respectable man has a few imported gold coins nailed to his belt and a few gold rings on his hands that can be used as seals.

When they saw the colander, everyone bowed and saluted, because the captain had already greeted him, and everyone knew that this young Song official was the head of the Shipping Department, a person who could easily decide their fate.

The center of Fanfang is the Guangta Temple. Colander entered the temple, took off his boots, and walked barefoot towards a room led by the children in the temple.

The room was large, carpeted, and the whole room exuded a strong scent of rose water.

The pillars in the room are full of exotic style, with Arabic classics written on them.

Sunlight shines in through the tall windows, and many neatly dressed men can be seen transcribing scriptures in the large room.

Colander noticed that they used stone paper and quill pens. After transcribing, they had to cover it with a layer of linen cloth and spray it with rose water before it was complete.

An elderly Tianfang man was leaning on a rattan bed. From time to time, younger people would come over and politely ask for advice in a low voice, and the old man would also answer in a low voice.

Next to the old man was an old Tibetan man who was dressed in rich clothes and looked respectful. He always wanted to talk to the old man, but he never got the chance.

Seeing the colander come in, everyone in the room looked stern. The man in rich clothes couldn't help but ignore etiquette and whispered to the old man eagerly.

The old man sat up straight, bowed to the colander as a salute, and motioned for him to sit in front of him.

The wealthy Tibetan people became even more anxious and began to mutter in Fan dialect in front of the old man.

Colander looked at the old man calmly and said in fluent Fan dialect: "Your scriptures say, 'God can distinguish between those who destroy and those who improve.'"

"Your scriptures also say, 'You should return the property of the orphans to them, and do not exchange the bad for the good, and do not add their property to yours and devour it. This is indeed a great sin.'

"

"What I want to tell the old gentleman is that under the laws of the Song Dynasty, this is also a serious crime."
Chapter completed!