When the people of Daming were immersed in the happy New Year, Chongzhen did not hide in the harem to enjoy a rare leisure time. Since the second day of the first lunar month, he has been busier than usual.

He first went to visit the unwell British minister Zhang Weixian, and then visited the Jinyi guards inside and outside the capital, the Beijing camp guarding the city, and the camp in the northern suburbs, and summoned the sergeants and generals on duty one by one.

After a year of military discipline rectification, the combat effectiveness of the Gyeonggi armies has not improved much, but the practice of frolicking and gambling in the camp and recruiting prostitutes and drinking has finally disappeared.

Although the army also gave annual leave as usual, it only stopped training and did not send the sergeants home. The non-commissioned officers, who were not on duty when they were free, cleared out the field on the school field under the order of the superior officer, and held the New Year's sports meeting in the army.

Chongzhen and the generals watched the tug-of-war and football sports matches of the sergeants for a long time, and rewarded several sergeants who won the competition, before returning with great joy. In Chongzhen's eyes, the faces of these sergeants were very different from the same year ago.

The original Beijing camp sergeant had a little less market spirit and more simple and upward vitality. The new army sergeants recruited from the suburbs are a little more agile and cheerful, and they are no longer the cowering appearance of Mu Ne, who first entered the barracks a year ago.

Seeing the army with such a face, Chongzhen's heart finally felt a lot more relieved. At this time, he felt a little more secure in his heart.

In addition to inspecting the armies in Beijing, Zhu Youzhen also visited the almshouses in the city and the slums in the outer city, and presented some New Year's gifts that had already been prepared. Although it was just some rice and noodles and other food, it made the civilians in the outer city have a little more favor and respect for Chongzhen.

Liu Chongqing, who had just taken office as the mayor of Beijing, hurried to accompany Chongzhen to visit the scenery of the outer city after receiving Chongzhen's edict.

To tell the truth, since Liu Chongqing was transferred to Shuntianfu to assist Bi Ziyan in managing the daily affairs of the capital, he thinks that he has a detailed understanding of the style of the capital, and the number of patrols in the city is also one of the most among his colleagues.

But when he accompanied Chongzhen, he still felt like a fool, Chongzhen was not only extremely familiar with the streets to be inspected, but also could call out the names of most of the people who greeted them.

In contrast, although Liu Chongqing, who often goes on patrols and thinks he knows enough about people's livelihood and suffering, he finds that he basically does not recognize any of these people. And it was the first time he knew that in the outer city, a few hundred meters away from the imperial road, there would be such a large area of haphazard earthen houses.

This is not the most frustrating thing for Liu Chongqing, the most frustrating thing is that after Chongzhen inspected this area, he also convened a symposium with the local villagers. In this symposium, he basically couldn't check his mouth, and the entire rhythm of the symposium was controlled by Chongzhen.

When the meeting ended, Liu Chongqing found that he was inexplicably carrying two burdens. One is to solve the problem of drinking water for the poor people in this shantytown.

Beijing is known as the ancient capital of the Four Dynasties, after the Later Yan, Liao, Jin, Yuan dynasties, plus the current dynasty, the city has been built here for more than 1,000 years. In particular, the previous dynasty and the current dynasty are extremely powerful dynasties, and this capital is naturally several times more prosperous than the previous generation.

Although sewerage facilities have been built in both the Forbidden City and the inner city, the sewerage facilities that do not distinguish between rain and sewage, and the facilities that only have open ditches for sewerage in the outer city, have polluted most of the shallow water sources in the capital. Although the Ming people did not know what groundwater pollution was, they still separated sweet water from bitter water.

With the exception of some areas in the inner and outer cities, the well water in most areas is bitter water. Therefore, the water that Chongzhen drank was to be transported from Yuquan Mountain, and most of the wealthy families had a sweet water well specially used for drinking.

Most of the people in the capital had to pay for the sweet water from the sweet water wells for consumption, and the bitter water for washing. But people like this slum have enough money to buy sweet water with their daily income.

When Chongzhen asked them what difficulties they usually had, these people naturally thought of the problem of drinking water first. Contaminated water is not only unpalatable, but also often causes diseases such as cholera, so these people suffer from drinking water.

The development of tap water business was originally in Chongzhen's plan. Although he himself can drink the spring water from Yuquan Mountain, it costs a lot of money, and the spring water is already a secondary pollution when it is put into the water truck, and he doesn't think that this spring water will be stronger than tap water.

And the second question was raised by Chongzhen himself to mention these people, for these people, the emperor can think of them during the New Year, and it has made them very satisfied to come to meet them. If you can help them solve a drinking water problem, that's the icing on the cake.

But these people also know what it means to be in moderation. After all, the emperors in the past would only talk about relieving the people's suffering, and Chongzhen was the first to go between them to listen to their suffering. It is said that Emperor Taizu also often paid private visits, but after all, that was already a legend. Now standing in front of them alive, only this His Majesty Chongzhen is the only one.

Chongzhen asked many questions, and finally summarized three requirements for these people, the first is the drinking water problem that the people said; The second is the issue of raising people's incomes. The third is to demolish and renovate this messy and dirty earthen house area to improve the living environment of these people.

Increasing the income of the people is not something that can be done in a while, so Chongzhen did not come up with any ideas on the spot, but just asked everyone to work together, go back and think about it, and then report it to the Nancheng District that manages this place, or directly report it to the Letters and Visits Bureau near the official office of the six ministries.

Chongzhen agreed to these fathers, and as long as the method was reasonable, he would support them. The court couldn't come up with money and food, so he took out his own private money. When the people present listened to the emperor's promise, they were naturally smiling.

However, Chongzhen's proposal to demolish and renovate to improve the living environment made these people startled. They hurriedly explained to Chongzhen that most of the people here did not even have overnight food, that is, they could not afford to renovate the houses, nor could they afford to rent the houses during the renovation period.

Zhu Youzhen has a very good way to deal with this, he promised that everyone will not pay a penny for demolition and resettlement, even if it is the rental fee during the renovation period, the city hall will be responsible, if someone takes advantage of this problem to ask them for money, everyone will go together to block the gate of the Forbidden City.

With the good impression of the past, coupled with the promise of the emperor now, the people will also be suspicious, waiting to live in a house that does not cost money.

And Liu Chongqing is a little bit of a wax, the emperor's three promises are obviously going to fall on him, the newly appointed chief of the city hall. However, until the end of the symposium and leaving this place, Liu Chongqing did not come up with how to solve these three problems.

Of course, there are not really no solutions, but almost every solution costs money, and it costs a lot of money. Liu Chongqing only did a little calculation, and found that even if the tax in Beijing doubled this year compared with last year, it was just barely solving the problem of drinking water.

The plan to demolish and renovate the earthen house area will also solve at least 2-3 times the cost of drinking water, and if he brings such a problem back, he will not blame the officials of the city hall to death.

Although he knew that he might leave a bad impression on the emperor, Liu Chongqing didn't want to fail the task and be labeled as ineffective by Chongzhen. After all, the promise was made by Chongzhen, if he couldn't complete it, wouldn't he slap the emperor's face, he didn't think he could withstand this kind of pressure.

So Liu Chongqing sped up a few steps slightly, leaned sideways and whispered earnestly to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, it's not that the minister doesn't want to do his best, it's really that the few things Your Majesty said just now are costly, there are thousands of people living in this area, and the cost of finding water veins and drilling wells alone will almost drain the balance of this year's city hall, and if you want to demolish and renovate, I'm afraid it won't be completed in two or three years..."

Zhu Youzhen stopped suddenly, he looked at the surrounding terrain, and then walked a few steps quickly to a nearby wooden bridge, he stood at the highest point of the wooden bridge, and then beckoned to Liu Chongqing to go over.

When Liu Chongqing came to his side, Zhu Youzhen pointed to the earthen houses in the two low-lying areas in the east and west of the royal road and said: "How can there be only a few thousand people in these areas, there are tens of thousands of households south of this overpass, and there are 4 or 50,000 people.

In previous years, because of the dirty environment in these areas, there would be an outbreak of plague, cholera, smallpox and other serious diseases almost every three to four years. The capital is so big, and if a plague breaks out here, can the inner city separated by a wall be safe and sound?

Improving their living environment is protecting our own health and safety. We can't blindfold ourselves and wait for Heaven to take these diseases away. Maybe the investment is greater now, and it is better than martial law and medicine when the plague broke out.

Also, don't think about digging a few wells to deal with it, since you want to do it, you have to be bold, and prepare to plan the drinking water of the entire capital. The clean and living water outside the capital is Yongding River and Yuquan Mountain.

In addition, Changping and Miyun Mountains are high and densely forested, and flash floods have always occurred in summer. Rather than allowing the springs in these two places to harm the farmland downstream, it is better to build a reservoir to store it, which can be used as irrigation water and as a source of water for the capital in the future.

The city hall can set up a waterworks to study how to bring living water from outside the city into the city and supply it to the people of the capital. As for the capital part, you can go through the way of stock market raising, and the city hall will make a plan for the use of funds, and I will naturally let the stock exchange assist you.

As for demolition and reconstruction, this is also inevitable. Some of these low-lying areas are not suitable for living at all, and when the rainy season comes, they become the country of Haitian Ze, how can such a place be inhabited? It is necessary to renovate the entire area and divert rain and sewage...

In addition, this area is just a traffic artery south of the flyover, and only by demolishing and renovating this area can the factory area of the left and right Anmen areas be connected. In the future, coal from Xishan and cotton from the southwest can be transported to the textile factory in Zuo'anmen from here.

As for the cost of demolition and reconstruction, the city hall paid some of it, and then handed over the shops along the street to the construction company for development, which was about enough to offset..."