C1694 Capital May Day (1/2)

The capital's May day was definitely the most comfortable time of the year. Just after wearing a warm and flowery spring, it was the time for fresh vegetables and fruits to be available on the market.

The dust and sand that had plagued the old Beijing people had passed, and the streets were filled with hawkers selling cherries, sweet peaches, black and white mulberries, and everyone was preparing rice, red dates, and reed leaves, because May Day was coming.

Honestly, in these two years in Great Qing, other places did not have bills of lading saying that Tongzhi was really in a good mood. The price of food in Beijing was very stable and even decreased a little, which reduced the cost of living for the citizens.

In the late Qing era, the desires of the people were very low. Being able to eat their fill was already a paradise. With sufficient food supplies and cheap prices, the population of Beijing gradually increased.

The more people there were, the more valuable Old Beijing people's shops and properties would be. Of course, the more income they would receive, the more tax they would receive from the Shuntian Palace and the others. Just the tax on Chong Wen Sect alone was twice as much as it was five years ago.

This was a virtuous circle. The more food there was, the more people there would be, and the more people there would be, the more commodity consumption would increase, which would further the prosperity of the business world, which included real estate, food, textiles, medicine … Even the entertainment industries such as the Sky Bridge and the Eight Alleys were flourishing.

And the reason why all of this flourished was because of the word 'food'.

The commoners might not understand the great principles behind this, but the Big Merchant s in the capital could clearly see that the prosperity of the Great Qing at this stage was all thanks to Xiao Letian's good fortune.

There were only two main reasons for the food supply. One was because the war in the south had subsided and the Grand Canal had returned to normal. The resources in the south could be transported to the north continuously.

The second point was that Xiao Letian's Nan Yang Rice started to flood in in large amounts. God knows how much money this rice was worth in the production area, why it was so cheap to transport it by sea all the way to the Tanggu and then to the Beijing, which was even cheaper than Jiang-Nan rice.

It was because of the hard work of the sea grain merchants like Boss Mi that no one dared to earn any money in the Great Qing Province, and one by one, they entered the era of micro profit.

With food, the empire would be able to preserve at least a trace of prosperity in the Beijing Belt. As for the remote mountains of the other provinces, even the Forbidden City wouldn't be able to see or hear of them. Just pretend that they don't exist.

In such a bustling place, wouldn't it be a good celebration if they encountered such an important May Festival? A rich family killing chickens and cows, making dozens of filling dumplings, and even sending people to the TIANJIN Wei to buy the most fresh sea crab, drink some yellow wine and eat the Five Poisons Pancake?

The May Festival allowed the girls who left the house to return to their homes, which was a huge event in the ancient times. They cut meat and made wine, sold fresh fruits and pastries, and at the very least packed dumplings that were like peas, sand, and dates. They also had to put in the herbs at the door, making it as lively as they did during New Year's.

However, before this May Festival, there was something wrong with the smell on the street. Old Beijing had keenly noticed that there were a lot of soldiers patrolling by the side of the road.

What was even weirder was that all of the original soldiers in Head Office had been changed. All of them were new soldiers in the Xishan Camp, with their hair tied up in a yellow military uniform, the Gun s in their hands shone brilliantly.

The Head Office had changed its defense. There was an extra battalion of Western Mountain new soldiers in the yamen of the minister of nine city gates. There were even some people who said that Gui Zi Liu had hidden a group of new soldiers behind the Great Qing Sect.

”Could it be that General Liu wants to rebel?” The friends in the teahouse were whispering to each other.