Chapter 149 Colorful Play Lane
The stage during the Dakang period has long gone, replaced by a residential area.
As a secondary county close to the capital of the Wei Dynasty, it is possible to travel to and from Fengjing within a day by horseback.
Many officials and merchants working in the capital will not buy expensive mansions in Fengjing, but will choose moderately priced houses in the secondary county.
In this way, they can save face, have enough space for family members and servants to live in, and reduce the cost of living.
Therefore, since the founding of the Wei Dynasty, Ning'an County has been in a state of expansion.
However, due to the restrictions of the city wall, the expansion method is somewhat special.
The powerful and wealthy families bought houses and renovated the mansions, while the local residents tried to reduce the size of the houses as much as possible and built a densely packed residential area.
Therefore, the stage and viewing venue during the Dakang period have long been built with residential houses.
When Zhou Yuan and his party arrived at the former stage area, they saw densely packed narrow houses.
"Sir, this is Caixi Lane in our county, where most of the residents are local people and craftsmen and peddlers.
If this is the mansion of an official or a wealthy businessman, I will send yamen runners to temporarily requisition them without your order.
But Caixi Lane is not possible. Although the area is small, there are many people living here."
"The biggest problem is that they have no money at home. If the county requisitions them, it will not be able to properly accommodate these many families.
Although it is March now, the cool breeze at night can still freeze people to death, and many of these people have children at home.
If the county forcibly requisitions them, if young children freeze to death and many people die of cold, I guess I won't be able to save my head."
The magistrate of Ning'an County was worried that Zhou Yuan was young and didn't understand the pros and cons, so he specially popularized the rules of the best place in the capital.
At the end, he added that there were several officials working in the Imperial Censorate living in the county.
If he, the county magistrate, did something bad, the censors who monitored the morality of all officials would definitely not let him go.
After hearing what he said, Zhou Yuan realized that being a county magistrate in the three auxiliary areas of the Wei capital really requires integrity and love for the people, otherwise it would become a promotion achievement for censors at all levels.
"The nearby people can be settled in various inns, and all expenses will be borne by the Yulin Camp."
"Your Excellency the Captain does not know that Ning'an County is located to the east of Fengjing, and is a place where many caravans and traveling merchants settle down.
The inns in the county are full of guests all year round. Even if there are some vacant rooms now, they cannot accommodate so many people."
The Ning'an County Magistrate did not say why he did not requisition the mansions of powerful and wealthy merchants for the temporary residence of the people. He was waiting for Zhou Yuan to speak.
As long as Zhou Yuan, the new noble of the court, speaks, let alone the wealthy merchants, he dares to requisition the mansions of some officials in the capital.
"It turns out that Magistrate Zhang has so many concerns. This matter is easy to handle.
Du Yi, you take my order to the Ning'an camp and ask the Ning'an County Lieutenant to select local soldiers and generals who own houses in the local area.
Let them enter the city to take in the people of Caixi Lane and temporarily live in their homes. This is a merit for pacifying the people. I will write to His Majesty to ask for a reward."
The Ning'an County Magistrate originally planned to offer his own mansion when Zhou Yuan was recruiting houses, but he didn't expect Zhou Yuan to be so arrogant.
In this way, the Ning'an County Lieutenant in the military fort outside the city was lucky enough to get a great deal. It was really a blessing from heaven.
"Zhang, the county magistrate, please register the number of people in Caixi Lane. I don't want the household registration, I just want to see who lives there now.
No matter old or young, young or strong, each person will be paid 20 copper coins per day as resettlement fees. If there are furniture and houses damaged after the requisition, we will compensate them with money."
"Sir, you are kind and virtuous. I hope that Ning'an County will also contribute. Let us take care of the resettlement fees and house repairs.
In this way, it will be better for long-term maintenance, and there is no need to trouble the general for everything."
Seeing that Zhou Yuan did not play by the rules, the Ning'an County magistrate hurriedly changed direction to show the value of the county office.
Although Zhou Yuan did not like his style of doing things, he still handed over the requisition chores to him to ensure that someone would continue to be responsible for the repair of Caixi Lane after they left.
After all, as the place where hemp ropes once reached the sky, Zhou Yuan and others had to go up to the house to check, which might damage the brick and tile roof.
When the people of Caixi Lane learned that the Yulin Army was going to temporarily requisition their own houses and give subsidies and arrange housing, they were all very happy.
There is no other reason. The Yulin Army is generous. They give money to everyone, young or old, including infants, and even pregnant women can get double money.
Faced with such generosity, they wish they could live in the Yulin Army for a year or two so that they can have more money at home.
Even happier than the people in Caixi Lane are the soldiers in Ning'an Military Fort. After Du Yi's military order was delivered, all the local soldiers and generals were overjoyed.
After getting the permission of the Ning'an County Lieutenant, they spontaneously formed several teams and led by officers at all levels to quickly enter the city to pacify the people.
After the residents of Caixi Lane were properly settled, Zhou Yuan led the warrior guards and Yulin auxiliary cavalry to enter the houses in the lane to check one by one.
What he didn't know was that at this moment, many merchants had already poured into Ning'an County, not to mention inns, even red houses and brothels were filled.
Some even rented houses directly in the city, ready to buy houses in the city at any time to gain benefits from them.
However, more wealthy merchants only buy but do not sell, intending to lose some capital and bet that there is really a secret hidden in Ning'an County.
Fortunately, Zhou Yuan has a special identity and is a new noble in the court, otherwise all the gambling houses in Ning'an City would be opened to him.
"There are many residents here. If there is something unusual, there should be some rumors. How can it be so normal."
"Brother Yin is wrong. Zhuxiang Mengyuan has literary and elegant guests holding banquets all year round, isn't it calm?"
In addition to Wei Baijiang and Wei Wuzu, other warrior guards and Yulin auxiliary cavalry were divided into several teams for inspection by Zhou Yuan.
He climbed onto the roof and used the wide-eye technique to check the nearby sky.
But the sky here was very normal, with no rotating portals or information introductions.
Just when he thought there should be no secrets in Caixi Lane, he found something unusual at night.
After patrolling in the daytime without any results, he used the wind control technique to enter a floating state in the middle of the night.
He also used the control technique to control the round shield to borrow force, climbed into the air, and looked down at Caixi Lane under the night sky.
A white dot that appeared and disappeared from time to time caught his attention. The white dot was located in a small courtyard of a residential house on the north side of Caixi Lane.
Although the courtyard was very narrow, an area was vacated for a vegetable garden, on which there were many yellow leaves and young sprouts.
The white dot flickered from time to time like a firefly. Although it was inconspicuous, it also attracted attention.
After Zhou Yuan wrote down the location, he led the team to explore every house early the next morning.
When he entered the house with a vegetable garden, he explored carefully as always and found that the flickering white dot was still there.
At this moment, he suddenly thought of the idea of building a house with earth padding.
The villagers in Qiaoxi have the habit of building a house with earth padding, that is, raising the foundation higher to prevent rainwater from flowing into the house.
If the people in Ning'an County also have this habit, the terrain here will indeed change after two or three hundred years.
"This makes sense. If the secret realm is in the sky, ordinary warriors can't get in touch with it, let alone ordinary people.
It is on the ground, but there are conditions for entry."