When December of the first year of Chongzhen was about to come, the snow began to fall in the north and south of the river, and the plains north of the Huai River became a white snowfield.

In the face of this season when most northerners are trapped at home, many people in the Ming Dynasty who have surplus food and salaries are relieved, and the difficult first year of Chongzhen is finally coming to an end.

In the past year, there have been droughts, floods, and wars with the Mongols, and there have been earthquakes near the capital. Of course, they can only think about this kind of thing in their hearts, and they don't dare to say it openly.

However, with heavy snow blocking roads, no matter how severe the disaster in Shaanxi is, these victims will not be able to move outside the province in such weather. People in several provinces near the disaster-stricken areas in Shaanxi Province thought that there would be no more homeless people near their homes, and that social order would finally be stabilized.

The people of Daming, who are far away from the disaster area, feel that although this year has not gone well, bad luck has happened this year, so next year should be smooth. As for the affairs of the victims in Shaanxi, it will naturally be arranged by the imperial court, how can they have anything to do with them, who are thousands of miles apart.

The people of the capital do not see it at all, and there are also signs of disaster in Gyeonggi this year. This is because the opening of various workshops in the palace last year, the water conservancy management of the Gyeonggi Canal, the renovation of the streets of Gyeonggi City, and the repair of various road factories have not only found a way out for these Gyeonggi people who have encountered disasters, but also made them have a few more living money.

The funds borrowed from the central bank flowed into the hands of millions of people in the vicinity of Gyeonggi through these infrastructure projects and workshop production inputs, and the people took the money and spent it in the Gyeonggi market.

As a result, the market in the capital has become more prosperous than in previous years. After all, in the past, the wealthy families in the capital were either nobles or officials, and these people accounted for less than 5% of the capital's population. In addition, most of them have large and small estates in the vicinity of Gyeonggi, so there is basically no need to buy them outside the province.

The projects spent by these noble bureaucrats outside are nothing more than antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and the Qin Mansion and Chu Museum. These industries have nothing to do with ordinary people, nor can they promote economic development, so it can be said that most people cannot benefit, and naturally they will not be able to drive the prosperity of the capital market.

However, at the end of last year, Chongzhen forced the nobles and bureaucrats to withdraw from the land near Gyeonggi and took some company shares to offset their land price losses, so that the feudal manor system that these nobles had previously self-sufficient was bankrupt and had to start buying daily necessities in the market.

Although these nobles were quite dissatisfied at that time, they could only remain silent for the time being because of Chongzhen's drastic reform of the Beijing camp, which purged them of their power in the army, and the British duke was unwilling to stand up for them.

However, after the middle of the year, these nobles who took the stocks suddenly realized that the stocks in their hands were not the waste paper they once thought, but the real cornucopia. All the nobles who did not sell their shares at the beginning of the year now have more than doubled the number of shares in their hands, and the largest one has increased by 6 times.

At this time, most of the nobles have long forgotten that they were full of resentment when they accepted the stock last year, and they were even a little concerned about their inability to return to the army to serve in the name.

The most important thing they care about every day is, what is the price of the stock today? Has the stock in your hand risen? Now that the stock has risen to this extent, will it continue to rise in the future? Isn't it time to sell your stock?

All in all, in the first year of Chongzhen, because of the joint efforts of the people of the capital and the bureaucrats and nobles in Beijing, the tradition of the shops in the city being lively was broken only on the first and fifteenth days of the new year.

Every day in the capital now is like a bazaar. In the countryside, the frequency of the market has changed from once a month or 15th to once every 10 to 5 days.

The prosperity of the market not only promoted the development of the economy, but also profoundly changed the way merchants in the capital operated. Originally, the trading volume of goods in the market in the capital is not large, so the competition between the various merchants is mainly to compete for a small number of rich and noble families in the capital, in order to win over these high-quality customers, they generally pay attention to the three sections of the account, and the customers come to shop on weekdays, and do not need to pay cash.

That is to say, the capital turnover of each merchant in a year is only about 3 times. However, with such a low transaction frequency, they can still get a lot of profits, which proves that these merchants must be at a fairly high profit for the pricing of goods. Moreover, the main profit of a merchant comes from these high-quality customers.

However, since the beginning of the first year of Chongzhen, the merchants in the capital found that the world had changed, and the four seas commercial banks attracted ordinary people to shop with lower pricing and cash transactions, so as to speed up the turnover efficiency of funds to make a profit, and became the first business in the capital within half a year.

Sihae Commercial Bank seems to have tasted from this way of trade, and in the second half of the year, it expanded from Gyeonggi to the whole of Beizhili, and also entered Shandong, Henan, Liaoxi, Dongjiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places.

This speed of expansion not only stunned the merchants of the capital, but also forced them to change and begin to learn the trade model of the Four Seas Merchants. The seemingly unshakable merchant guilds and old rules of shopping malls in the Gyeonggi area began to fall apart under the commercial wave set off by the four international trading houses.

For the officials of Shuncheonfu, this season should also be the time to prepare for the winter break and enjoy the fruitful fruits of this year.

However, the right mansion of Shuntian Mansion Cheng Wang Siren felt particularly strange in the past two days, in the past, it was not until nine o'clock that he could see the scene of his subordinate officials stepping on the spot, but now he has walked into the gate of the palace in full view of everyone.

And when it was time to get off work at 5 p.m., the group would rather sit in their rooms in a daze than be the first to step out of the door and go home.

After entering his duty room, Wang Siren was still thinking in his heart, when he heard the door shaft behind him creak. When he looked back, it turned out that the official in the house had brought it over with a burning charcoal stove and a pot of boiling water.

Although this little official has no authority, he is running around in the house, and he is very well-informed. Wang Siren didn't think much about it, so he said to him: "You slowly make this stove, come and tell me, have these officials in the palace been lost in the past few days?" Don't talk about doing things casually, what kind of fame is this commuting? ”

Although Wang Siren has always been more serious in official affairs, he has no quarrel with these little officials in private, so this little official is quite willing to get close to this high-ranking official of Shuntian Mansion.

After hearing Wang Siren's instructions, he put down the things in his hand, walked to the case where Wang Siren was sitting and saluted, and then said respectfully: "Didn't the lord hear the rumors?" ”

Wang Siren paused, and asked curiously, "Rumors? What rumors could make them so restless? Last time, the officials of Wanping and Daxing counties were exchanged, and I didn't see them so nervous. ”

"The eldest lord doesn't know, in the past two days, there have been rumors that Shuntianfu is going to reform again. Bounded by 30 miles outside the city wall of the capital, a city of Beijing was established around the city, although the city of Beijing was still under the rule of the Shuntian government, but the finance, personnel and everything had to be independent.

The two counties of Wanping and Daxing, which originally accounted for half of the capital, will also withdraw the county administration from the jurisdiction of Beijing, and the Beijing City Hall will take over the governance of Beijing and change its name to the Beijing City Hall. Since then, within 30 miles of the city wall of the capital, it is all up to the Beijing Municipal City Hall.

Sir, do you think, if this Shuntianfu Yamen leaves Beijing City, can it still be called the Shuntianfu Yamen? It is clear from top to bottom of this Shuntian Mansion that after removing the treasure land of the capital, what is the difference between the Shuntian Mansion and the local yamen? It's not as good as the local government. ”

waved his hand and sent the little official to continue to do things, Wang Siren could only shake his head and sigh in his heart, "Sure enough, people's hearts are not ancient, and rotten wood clay sculptures are full of courts." ”

In Wang Siren's view, whether or not they can stay in the capital and be transferred to the future Beijing Municipal City Hall should depend on the usual performance of these officials, rather than this kind of temporary pretense. What's more, even if they can't stay in the capital, they are still officials, not demoted, and they can be used there.

But this kind of thought, he can only think about it in his heart. He knew that in the Shuntian Mansion, except for Bi Ziyan, basically no one would agree with his idea.

For him, no matter where he serves, he thinks it's the same thing, and it's just a matter of pacifying the people. He doesn't care if the place where he works is rich or not, and whether he can get additional income.

Of course, this has something to do with the fact that he was originally a big clan in Shanyin, and for these officials in Shuntianfu, most of them are from poor families, and most of their purpose for studying and becoming officials is to seek wealth and fame. The quality of this place is concerned about their own interests, and they can't help but go all out.

In previous years, the commercial tax in the capital was only 40,000 or 50,000 taels, Wanping and Daxing each had 1 or 20,000, and Shuntianfu looked like 6 or 7,000. Just such a little silver, it is impossible to say that it has to be allocated a small half by the palace in the name, whether it is Shuntianfu or the two counties attached to Beijing, it can be regarded as a good year if it can be maintained without arrears.

But this year, the capital's commercial tax has risen fivefold sharply, reaching almost 250,000 taels. In addition, new public service departments such as railways and sanitation have been established, as well as various infrastructure projects. It can be said that all of a sudden, the capital suddenly became a gold mine, and the wealth of the world seemed to be pouring into the capital.

At such an ascendant moment, he suddenly said that he would transfer Shuntianfu from the capital, which naturally made these officials a little uncomfortable. Wang Siren can only turn a blind eye to this, even if he goes out to refute them now, these officials will not put their minds on official business.