A middle-aged man about forty years old got out of the carriage, and his bearing was extraordinary. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info Maybe this is the difference between people who are full of poetry and books, as soon as the young man sees the middle-aged man, it is like a mouse seeing a cat, and he takes two steps back in fear. The middle-aged man didn't pay attention to him, but directly arched his hand to the landlord, and said politely: "The owner, we are scholars who went to Beijing to catch the exam, whether we can be accommodating, this rent is inevitably too expensive......

The landlord also respects the readers, who knows if these "down-and-out" readers will soar after this subject? Since this middle-aged man treats him politely, he is also very polite: "Don't hide it from you, it's not that I want to do so, the whole Chang'an is like this." If you don't believe me, you can go and inquire, and the price I have given is already the lowest price. In the whole of Chang'an, you can rent a big yard with ten dollars, and I'm afraid you won't be able to find a second one. ”

The middle-aged man frowned: "Then why did I come to Chang'an last time, and the rent was only more than 100 yuan?" ”

"This master, I guess I didn't come to Beijing to take the exam last time, right?"

The middle-aged man was stunned: "What does it have to do with Enko?" ”

"It's a big deal! The master doesn't know, if on weekdays, these two houses in the courtyard will be rented to you for a few hundred dollars, and it has nothing to do with it. But doesn't this happen to be the Enke period, there are many people in Jingshi, and this house is not enough to live. If it was a few years ago, it didn't matter, you could still go to the store to do some work, and you could live in a public house. But over the years, there have been too many people in Chang'an City, and public housing is in short supply. We are ordinary people, and renting out our houses is just asking for food and clothing. This thing is rare and expensive, and it is only when you catch up with the opening of the imperial examination that you can earn such a small point. If a few people go to the inn, it can't be more expensive! The landlord knew everything, and the middle-aged man could tell from his frank eyes that he was not lying.

"The store's housework, is it really not for you to live?" Middle-aged people don't give up, and they still want a miracle to happen.

The landlord smiled and said, "My lord doesn't know, since the introduction of the commercial tax, people from all over the world have come and gone in Chang'an City, and the people in Chang'an City have suddenly increased like steamed dough. If it weren't for such an ordinance, maybe the public housing would have been occupied by those merchants! The rent of this public house is cheap, how can the businessman not know? These people have sharpened their heads, and they want to take advantage of loopholes. If they occupy public housing, where will the people in Chang'an City live? ”

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, this is also the truth. What is the place of the shop? This store is also called a building store, which is a yamen. Originally, this yamen was also quite oily, because it was in charge of the rent of public housing, and of course, it was also responsible for the management and maintenance of the real estate of the imperial court, including public housing and official offices. Since the establishment of the Supervision Department, the store is no longer popular. After all, this little emperor can't tolerate sand in his eyes. You can also think that because Chang'an City is the economic, political and military center of this era, and even an international metropolis of "all nations", not only a large number of people poured into Chang'an, but even Persian, Tianzhu, Wa and other merchants have flocked to Chang'an. As a result, the housing rental market in Chang'an City is booming, and the rising housing prices have made more and more people unable to afford to rent houses and can only sleep on the streets. Chang'an City is the capital of the country, how can this be tolerated at the feet of the Son of Heaven? Therefore, since the Qiande period, in order to stabilize the society, the Dashun court has introduced a "low-rent housing" policy, that is, shop housework, specifically renting cheap houses to the people.

In the store house, there are also left-hand store housework and right-hand store housework. The main thing is to divide Chang'an City into two, and the left side shop is responsible for the public housing on the left side of the Mingde Gate of Chang'an City; The right wing is responsible for the public housing on the right side of the Mingde Gate. Taking the house affairs of the Zuo Xiang Store in Chang'an City as an example, the highest official is called "Gou Zuo Xiang Store House Affairs", the official is not high, and he is a small official of the eighth grade. Don't look at its small officials, it's not small at all, just like Bi Ma Wen in "Journey to the West", his subordinates have prison letters, prison deputies, pawnbooks, wrestlers, big and small officials, etc. Of course, this "Bi Ma Wen" is an apocryphal official position, an official who breeds horses, and his taste in the Chinese Dynasty is quite high. After all, the ancient cavalry was a huge cost of troops, and it was quite expensive to raise, so it was quite a high official to serve as its chief officer. Take the horse herding supervisor as an example, the prison is all six products, where is it so unbearable in "Journey to the West"? Well, that's off topic......

Speaking of the store's housework, this "Zuo Wing Store Housekeeping Officer" subordinates are also like the Horse Herding Supervisor, quite a lot of subordinates. The two deputies of the chief officer, called the "shop and house affairs officer", the official name of Da Shun, is not known, that is, judgment, power, straight, test, pipe hook, promotion, point, signing, supervision, etc., these are the officials, the others are rank officials, knowing this, they are not afraid of those bluffing names. This "shop and house affairs officer" is a petty official from the eighth grade, and there are three "shop house affairs hook officials" from the ninth grade, and fifty "money plundering relatives" from the ninth grade. If the Ten Rank Officials had not started, there would have been 500 regular officials, called "Zuo Xiang Store Repair Commander", and now they have become officials.

How do these people divide their labor? Among them, the "Zuo Wing Store Repair and Selection Command" is responsible for repairing public housing and adding bricks and tiles, who makes them the smallest officials and the most people. The "money-grabbing officer" collects rents from house to house, the "shopkeeper and housekeeper" regularly inspects the public housing in the area under his jurisdiction, the "shopkeeper and housekeeper" is in charge of the maintenance, lease, and rent collection of public housing in the area under his jurisdiction, and the number one leader is "in charge of the housekeeping affairs of the left-wing shop" to take charge of the overall work. That's pretty much the case with the shopkeepers. If you put aside the past, just stuff some money into it, regardless of whether you are registered in Chang'an or not, you can rent public housing, spend the least money, and live in a big house. But after the little emperor came into power, any loopholes were almost blocked, and this benefit was naturally gone. Merchants who traveled north and south could only stay in guest houses or rent private houses. But after the imperial court paid attention to business, they made more money, and they didn't care about the small money.

But this policy has made it difficult for the scholars who came to Beijing to take the exam. Not all scholars are rich and tyrants. Even if it is a local tyrant, during the imperial examination, he may not be able to live in a big courtyard with one or two entrances! The rent is really sesame blossoming, and it is getting high! Even when Meizhou's "local tyrant" Su Shi rushed to take the exam, he could only borrow Pingshan Academy, you can think about it, during the imperial examination in Chang'an City, to what extent the house price has started.

Therefore, the scholars who rushed to take the exam could only squeeze into an inn on the outskirts of the city, or borrow to live in Pingshan Academy. But now it has been less than a month since the exam, and those cheap inns on the outskirts of the city have long been full, and it is impossible for Pingshan Academy to accommodate so many scholars. Some desperate scholars had no choice but to go door to door and beg to be taken in. It's okay to have relatives in Chang'an, but if you don't, you can only knock on the door cheekily. Or find a ruined temple with no people, after all, most of the beggars in Chang'an City were included in the factories opened by Huangzhuang. It is not a shame to live in a broken temple, and Fan Zhongyan, the prime minister during the Yuan Shou period, also lived in a broken temple. Of course, if you can talk about the temple monks in Chang'an City, it is okay to hang a single order. Not to mention that you don't know yet, these monks are the real "local tyrants" in Chang'an City!

The middle-aged man listened to the landlord's chatter a lot, and his brows became tighter and tighter. They went all the way from Linchuan to experience "countless calamities" -- the carriage did not know how many times it broke down on the road before it arrived in Chang'an. It's just that I'm in a hurry and didn't prepare, so I couldn't even find a place to live.

The middle-aged man said in a pleading voice: "This brother, this Enke is not always open, don't you want to be accommodating?" Look at my family, it's getting late, where can I go? In this way, you are accommodating, how about six dollars in rent a month? ”

(Actually, writing this chapter is quite emotional, because I have rented a house in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and I know that the housing prices there are really frightening to death.) According to the price of goods in ancient times, the ancients could earn back the rent in five days, and they still lived in the capital. Today's people live harder than the ancients, sometimes because of a room, you will envy the ancients, why are there so many low-rent houses, it is not a small single room, it is a big courtyard. Of course, the population in ancient times was not as large as it is now, so it is very helpless to think so. (To be continued.) )