Chapter 19 Exploration

After Qi Xuansu left Ye Xiu's mansion, he was not in a hurry to leave this city within a city.

Except for Yujing, every prosperous town has such a place where poor people live, which does not change with the changes in the world.

The reason why Yujing is an exception is that Yujing is a pure Taoist city. There are only three types of people in it: Taoists, spiritual officials, and Taoist people. Taoists and spiritual officials are not to be mentioned. Taoist people are also people with skills. They have their own jobs and livelihoods. They dare not say that they are rich and powerful, but at least they have no worries about food and clothing, and can maintain at least decency.

More importantly, Yujing has a unified plan. In name, all the houses and palaces in Yujing belong to the Taoist sect. There are no private houses. The Tianji Hall in the Nine Halls is responsible for maintenance and repair. Including the Great Immortal, they only have the power to use, not all the power, so everyone rents, but the lease period is very long, and the longest can be up to a hundred years.

Another thing is that Yujing stands on the top of Kunlun. Even if someone envies the prosperity of Yujing, they can't climb up. The Taoist sect can easily control the population of Yujing.

But other towns do not have the unique advantages of Yujing. They are all located in plains and thoroughfares, and naturally gather population. It is easy to have such a city within a city or a shantytown outside the Bohai Prefecture.

In this regard, even the Imperial Capital is not immune.

In the early years of the Imperial Capital, the plane outline was square, with only nine city gates. The central axis of the city starts from Zhengyang Gate in the south, runs through the imperial palace, and reaches the bell tower in the north.

In the early years of the Wei Dynasty, the country was strong. Emperor Taizong took the offensive against the Golden Horde tribe and led his army to the north five times, but the problem was not prominent. Later, the power of the Wei Dynasty declined, and the Golden Horde army was approaching the city many times. During the Ming and Yong years, officials suggested building an outer city with a circumference of about 80 miles outside the Imperial Capital for safety.

The construction of the outer city began in the 32nd year of Ming Yong. Because the southern suburbs were more prosperous at that time, and there were royal altars such as the Heaven and Earth Altar and the Altar of Land and Grain, the outer city was first built from the south line. However, not long after the construction started, it was difficult to continue due to insufficient funds.

As a last resort, the court could only change the plan and only build the southern line of the city wall, and the other three sides would be built when there was money in the future. The length of the southern line of the city wall was also reduced from the original 20 miles to 13 miles. Its east and west ends bent northward and joined the southeast and southwest corner towers of the inner city.

Since only the southern part of the outer city was built, the plane outline of the imperial capital city changed from the original "mouth" to a "convex" shape. The lower half of the "convex" character is the outer city, and the name "outer city" is not worthy of the name. It is not outside the inner city, but to the south of the inner city, so the outer city of the imperial capital is also called "South City".

In the end of the Wei Dynasty, although the other three sides had not been built, there were still a large number of people living there.

When Daxuan entered the imperial capital, he finally completed the remaining east city, west city, and north city, and changed the "convex" shape to a "return" shape, and also became the current pattern of the outer city being mainly for the people and the inner city being mainly for the residences of noble officials and major government offices.

Compared with today's Imperial Capital, Yujing, due to its topography, still maintains the "convex" shape of the old Imperial Capital. The upper part of the "convex" character is "Xuandu", which has the highest terrain, and the lower part of the "convex" character is "Yujing", which has a lower terrain.

As for Jinling Prefecture, due to its topography, it is very irregular. Not only can it not be described by a specific word, it has little to do with the word "square", and even has no clear central axis.

It is said that this is based on the astrological signs of the Three Enclosures and the Twenty-Eight Mansions, combined with the geographical pattern of Jinling Prefecture, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and changed the old system of square or rectangular city walls in the past. It has become a model of combining geomancy and natural geography, and is unique.

In general, the old city of Jinling Prefecture is located in the southeast corner, with dense population, prosperous business, and a large number of workshops. The mansions, top restaurants and houses of the powerful and wealthy merchants are distributed in the southwest of the old city.

The old city is also called the inner city, and outside it is the outer city, which is equivalent to the outer city of the Imperial Capital. The northwest part is where the black-clothed men's military camp is located, with a large number of barracks, granaries, warehouses and military workshops. It is not allowed to enter casually. This city within the city is located between the military camp and the inner city. Like the entire Jinling Prefecture, it presents an extremely irregular shape.

What does this mean?

It means that this place can actually become a distribution area for bulk goods, and it is even unique. This is not Qi Xuansu's random guess, but it makes sense.

Before the Great Xuan, maritime trade was not prosperous, so the prosperous areas of Jinling Prefecture were mainly concentrated in the Qinhuai River line. Facing the inland, the northwest part close to the river was slightly empty, and even the coastal line was not prosperous, mostly fishing villages.

Now that maritime trade has become the main part, it is more convenient to go directly to the sea along the river. If you go along the Qinhuai line again, it will be time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, the Taoist sect set up many warehouses on the Dinghuai Gate line. The original intention was to be adjacent to the black-clothed men's military camp, which is safer. From another perspective, these warehouses are not far from here.

Thinking of this, Qi Xuansu suddenly had the desire to explore this place.

He thought so and did so.

Qi Xuansu pretended to leave the place first, and then quietly returned.

When he came here before, Qi Xuansu heard many wailing and crying sounds here. After he returned here, he came to these sheds that served as prisons.

It was small, cramped, dark, and damp inside. There were countless small spaces separated by wooden fences on both sides of the aisle. It was pitch black, and only a faint flickering light could be seen in the dark. Only when you walk in and take a closer look, you will find that these tiny dots of light are actually pairs of eyes, but these eyes are lifeless, dead, and numb.

Qi Xuansu stopped and looked carefully. Most of the people inside were women. Their clothes were intact and they were not skinny, but they were pale and unkempt. In addition to numbness, everyone's face and eyes were filled with deep fear. As early as when Zulong ruled the world, the slave system had been largely abolished. In the following thousands of years, although there was a saying of selling body contracts, strictly speaking, it should be slaves. Later, when it came to the Jin Dynasty, the system of burying people alive was also abolished.

In the Great Xuan Dynasty, it went a step further and completely abolished the system of inferior status.

The status was divided into: military status, civilian status and inferior status. In fact, the Great Xuan not only abolished inferior status, but also abolished the military status when abolishing the guard system.

But abolishing it officially is one thing, and actually implementing it is another. For example, the government only recognizes one wife, and the rest are concubines, but the saying of equal wives is popular among the people. So even if the inferior status is abolished, there are still women of the moon and slaves.

This is one of the reasons why Xuansheng wanted to abolish "Tianle Taoyuan". It was not that Xuansheng could not stand this kind of flesh trade, but the existence of brothels would invisibly encourage behaviors such as forcing good women into prostitution and luring good women. The latter must be eliminated, and the best way is to solve it from the source.

This is what Qi Xuansu saw in front of him. There are a large number of low-class brothels nearby, and there is a reason for that.

Qi Xuansu stretched out his fingers and gently stroked these worm-eaten wooden fences. As long as he exerted a little force, he could break them, but he knew that he was insignificant and had no power to protect himself in the undercurrent of Jinling Mansion. He really had no ability to help others.

At this moment, there was a sound outside.

Qi Xuansu immediately jumped onto the beam and hid his body.

A group of beggars came in and took some women out, including a few men, and caught up with several carriages outside. The carriages were hung with thick green curtains on all sides, making it difficult to see the scene inside.

Qi Xuansu's heart moved, and he followed behind these carriages.

The carriage quickly left this city within the city and entered the prosperous inner city. After going around for about two hours, it was already dark, and then it came to an alley in the southwest corner of the old city.

The whole alley was flanked by two blue brick walls that were a hundred feet long and two feet high. At the end of the alley was a black lacquered door. Probably because few people came here on weekdays, it was very deserted. As soon as it got dark, not only no one walked, but also no birds flew over here.

A man got off the carriage, stepped forward, grabbed the beast face of the gate, swallowed his mouth and knocked three times, and after a slight pause, knocked four more times.

Not long after, a questioning voice came from inside: "Is it Boss Ye's goods that have arrived?"

The person outside the door was obviously not here for the first time. He was already familiar with the people inside, and he didn't have so many scruples when talking: "You know it, but you still ask? Hurry up and open the door."

After a while, the door slowly opened and let the carriage in.

Qi Xuansu looked at it from afar, hesitating slightly. After all, this seemed to have nothing to do with Lei Xiaohuan's mission, but he also felt that this matter might be related to the entire big case, so he decided to find out.