knife

Chapter 28: The Place That Follows the Rules the Most

Tai'an City is the richest place outside the pass.

Even Zhenwu City, where Linghu Ye, the commander of the 100,000-strong army outside the pass, was stationed, was far inferior to Tai'an City in terms of financial resources.

There are rumors that there are ten large silver balls in the underground silver vault of Tai'an City, each weighing tens of thousands of kilograms.

Of course, no one has actually seen it, and no one would dare to secretly investigate.

Tai'an City neither acknowledges nor denies the matter.

This, on the contrary, only confirmed the authenticity of the matter for everyone.

It is precisely for this reason that countless merchants from outside the Great Wall transported their goods to Tai'an City for sale.

No matter what you sell, as long as your goods arrive in Tai'an City, Tai'an City guarantees you a fair price, and no one will force you to buy or sell.

You can sell your goods here without carrying a lot of money when you travel outside the pass. You only need to deposit your money in a money exchange in Tai'an City and obtain a money exchange receipt. With this receipt, you can withdraw the corresponding amount of silver anywhere outside the pass. I heard that Tai'an City receipts are also readily accepted in Beiyuan.

If you purchase large quantities of goods in Tai'an City, simply display the tiger flag that sits there waving, and you can travel freely beyond the pass to your desired destination. No one dares to provoke Tai'an City. In the beginning, it wasn't that no one had robbed caravans displaying this flag. After such incidents, Tai'an City immediately compensated the owners for their losses and then found those who had robbed the goods. Their miserable fate proved Tai'an City's unparalleled reputation.

From its initial dismal performance to its current renowned reputation, it has taken twenty years.

This process also represents the journey of Zhou Zhi, the Lord of Tai'an City, from the eighth rank of Xuan Yuan to the ninth rank, and then to the innate realm, becoming an existence that everyone looks up to.

With each step Zhou Zhi took forward, Tai'an City prospered a little more, and its status rose a little higher.

With Zhou Zhi's meteoric rise to power, Tai'an City's unparalleled status was established outside the Great Wall.

The residents of Tai'an City also enjoyed a special status outside the Great Wall.

However, becoming a formal resident of Tai'an City is not an easy thing.

Once they become official city residents, the benefits they enjoy are something that makes everyone envious and speechless.

The figure of 200,000 people currently believed to exist does not include all residents of Tai'an City.

To become a resident of Tai'an City, one must first apply to Tai'an City.

Those who are eligible to apply must at least have a special skill.

Whether you are a skilled craftsman, a farmer adept at farming, a martial arts master, or a scholar who has gained knowledge from reading, you can apply, but whether you will be approved is another matter.

The standards of Tai'an City are vastly different from the standards by which people measure talent.

There was once a well-educated gentryman who had served as an official and was wealthy, and a farmer who only knew how to farm, who applied at the same time. However, the one who was approved was the farmer who was dark-skinned, thin, and had very little flesh on his body.

Once your application is initially approved, you will become a prospective resident of Tai'an City. During this stage, you will enjoy the protection of Tai'an City and be able to live and work under its jurisdiction as a resident.

However, at this time, you cannot enjoy other benefits of Tai'an City.

If you don't have any special opportunities or achievements, then the evaluation period is three years.

Three years later, once approved, you will become a formal resident of Tai'an.

Once you become a registered resident of Tai'an, you will be assigned a suitable job based on your expertise.

In fact, during the previous assessment period, suitable candidates had already been offered suitable positions; it was simply a matter of officially formalizing their status. Each person also received a lucky tiger waist badge, symbolizing the prosperity of the citizens of Tai'an.

Once you become a resident of Tai'an, your income will increase exponentially.

At the end of each year, you will also receive a substantial bonus based on your level.

That's right, the citizens of Tai'an have different ranks.

This level is determined based on your contribution to Tai'an City.

Jade plaques, gold plaques, silver plaques, bronze plaques, iron plaques.

The five ranks represent the five social classes under the rule of Tai'an City.

The iron plaques belong to the most basic level of the people. Apart from the recent additions, they are basically the people who have lived here since the founding of Tai'an City.

They didn't have any special skills, but they had unparalleled luck.

Because when Zhou Zhi brought a few people here, they were already here.

The leader of the stronghold at that time, Xuan Yuan, a seventh-rank expert, was already considered a formidable master, but he was still no match for Zhou Zhi, who was at the peak of the eighth rank at the time.

In addition, that guy was too cruel and too harsh on his subordinates and the people, so much so that when he was killed by Zhou Zhi, not many people followed him. Instead, his former subordinates swarmed up and wiped out his entire clan.

Zhou Zhi became the new leader of the fortress, and that small fortress became the prototype of the present-day Tai'an City.

The indigenous people of that time had a more powerful and compassionate leader, and from then on they truly lived a happy life.

Sometimes the world is just that unfair. No matter how hard you try or how diligent you are, it can never compare to being born into the right family.

Your destination is the starting point for another group of people.

While many people strive to become citizens of Tai'an, some are born with an iron plaque featuring a cute little tiger with its paws raised.

Aside from these people, several other groups of people also lived in Tai'an City. Businessmen.

Anyone who wants to expand and strengthen their business outside the Great Wall must have a shop in Tai'an City.

The rent for each shop here is incomparable to that of the shops on both sides of Zhuque Street in Chang'an, and these shops are absolutely only for rent and not for sale.

The contract is signed annually, take it or leave it, and the rent increases by 10% every year, without fail.

Even so, the shops here are still in short supply.

The second large group consisted of people who sought refuge in Tai'an City.

Because there is an ironclad rule in Tai'an City: once you enter the territory under the jurisdiction of Tai'an City, no matter what hatred you have between you, you must not kill each other.

Killing someone within the territory of Tai'an City is a major taboo. Once you kill someone and the people of Tai'an City find out, even if you run to the ends of the earth, Tai'an City will send people to kill the murderer.

In the words of City Lord Zhou Zhi, Tai'an City is a place where harmony brings wealth, and bloodshed is taboo.

This rule is very unreasonable, but it has been used by many people in a reasonable way, thus becoming a place of refuge for many.

As long as you escape to this place, you can live.

However, the cost of survival is also quite high.

The cost of living in Tai'an City is truly beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Over the course of a year, one would inevitably spend over a thousand taels of silver.

In other parts of the country outside the Great Wall, poor people could live comfortably on a few dozen taels of silver a year.

Comparing the two, it's no exaggeration to say that Tai'an City is a den of iniquity.

Once you run out of money, you're in big trouble.

Because Tai'an City wouldn't take in someone who's penniless.

At that point, your most likely outcome is that you will be expelled from Tai'an City.

There's a strong possibility that your enemy is waiting for you outside Tai'an City!

Tai'an City is a very reasonable and well-ordered place.

But Tai'an City is also the most ruthless place.

From the high-ranking officials in the city lord's mansion to the lowest-ranking clerks managing the city, and even the patrolling warriors, everyone only recognizes rules and regulations.

Nowadays, the rules and regulations in Tai'an City are becoming more numerous and detailed.

It's gotten to the point where if you dare to spit in the street, you'll get caught and fined.

Those guys wearing red armbands, hiding somewhere, are secretly watching everything. Once they spot someone breaking the rules, they'll dart out like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, grab you, and fine you.

Even if the person who suddenly appears and shouts for a fine is a frail old man or woman, the person who gets caught will obediently pay the fine, because these people usually have a bronze tag hanging on their waist, or at the very least, an iron tag.

The older generation of indigenous people are no longer able to do the work.

They had no special skills and were illiterate. They were already at the age where they could just sit around and wait to die, but the city lord's mansion created these positions for them, allowing them to make a difference in their old age. This not only increased the city's revenue but also brought them good rewards.

Under the constraints of these countless rules and regulations that seem incomprehensible and absurd to outsiders, the sanitary conditions in Tai'an City are probably unmatched even by the imperial palace.

People who have lived here for a long time find it unbearable to go to other places, not to mention anything else, just the sanitary conditions alone.

Zhang Qingyun, who had just stepped into Tai'an City, was truly shocked.

The prosperity of Tai'an City left this person, who was born and raised in Chang'an, the capital of the Qin Dynasty, feeling overwhelmed.

On the street, which was more than ten zhang wide, all sorts of people streamed past her. The shops along the street were filled with a dazzling array of goods, and colorful signs and banners fluttered in the wind. But what captivated her even more were the houses, all of them exactly the same: two stories high, with red bricks, green tiles, and white walls. Wide avenues divided the houses into neat, square sections.

In Tai'an City, it seems that even houses must follow the rules.

“Miss Qingyun, there are no private houses in Tai’an City.” Fatty Li Kaixin’s face was full of happy smiles: “All the houses are built by the City Lord’s Mansion and then rented or allocated in a unified manner. People who can own a house in the city are either meritorious officials of Tai’an City, original residents of the city, or people who don’t care about money at all.”

"All of them?" Zhang Qingyun found it hard to imagine.

“Of course!” Li Kaixin laughed. “Currently, there are about 200,000 people living in the entire city. Of these, no more than 50,000 are residents of Tai’an City. The rest are outsiders. Young Master is ambitious and plans to double the size of the city within the next ten years, so that this magnificent city and its surrounding area can support 500,000 people.”

Five hundred thousand people!
Zhang Qingyun breathed a sigh of relief.

Chang'an has a population of no more than one million!

But that's the capital of the Qin Dynasty!

It is the political, economic, and cultural center of the entire world.

Even Danyang City in Southern Chu cannot compare to it!
It's hard to imagine that such a magnificent city could have been born in what is considered a wild and untamed place like the area outside the Great Wall!

(End of this chapter)