Chapter 2046: The Final Journey 14

Upon arriving in Guangzhou, the old Emperor spent three days familiarizing himself with the local climate before he began to appreciate the scenery of Panyu. Even though the old Emperor was often weary and his legs were unsteady, he still visited what needed to be visited, even if only for show.

The older generation all knew that the Panyu of today was a completely different city from what it had been thirty years ago. Over those three decades, from urban infrastructure to urban culture, earth-shaking changes had taken place.

The most intuitive change was in the scale of the city. A hundred years ago, although Panyu was likewise the central city of the Lingnan region, with scholars from the Central Plains continuously migrating south to escape the chaos of war, and the economy and culture developing considerably, compared to the present, it could only be considered middling.

During the rule of the Liu clan of Southern Yue, Panyu City saw further development. The old city was renovated and expanded southward to the banks of the Pearl River. During the Southern Yue period, the residents of Panyu City were mainly the imperial family, palace women, eunuchs, officials, generals, and guards. Ordinary citizens and common folk had no right to settle within the city walls.

On the contrary, relying on Panyu City as their base, a large number of neighborhoods and markets were built to the east and west of the city, connected by roads, gradually forming a considerable scale. These auxiliary neighborhoods outside Panyu City during the Southern Yue period would later become Panyu's eastern and western cities decades later.

Back when Pan Mei pacified Yue and advanced on Xingwang Prefecture, when his army reached Panyu City, he gave the most direct description of the stark disparity between inside and outside the city walls: outside Panyu City, the common people were as base as pigs and dogs.

It could be said that when the court originally pacified the south, it was a true "liberation" for the people of Lingnan. At least for the people of Guangzhou, they gained the right to live and do business normally within Panyu City.

Even to this day, Panyu City might not be called the largest city in the south, but to call it the fastest-developing and most rapidly progressing city in the south would be well-deserved. Compared to thirty years ago, when the south had just been pacified, Panyu today has expanded its area by a full three times.

In the decades of the Great Han's urbanization, a city advancing as furiously as Guangzhou's Panyu was probably unique. The traditional ward-and-market system was continuously collapsing in this process, but it was a gradual one—some places fast, some slow, some early, some late—yet Panyu was the earliest to follow the capital in reforming the ward-and-market system and entering the new urban management model.

Even the expansion and construction of Panyu's eastern and western new cities was planned in complete accordance with the laws of commodity economy and urbanization. In terms of the integration of infrastructure, management systems, and the economy, perhaps even the Eastern Capital could not compare.

After all, besides commercialization, the Eastern Capital also had a heavy political atmosphere—that was the essential difference. There had been travelers from the Central Plains who came to Guangzhou Prefecture, stayed in Panyu for just one day, and then exclaimed to their companions that they had felt a different kind of scenery in Panyu, after which they settled, bought property, and put down roots there, ending their wanderings.

In the eyes of such people, Panyu was probably the freest, most open, and most inclusive city in the Great Han Empire. Here, perhaps even the air one breathed was sweet.

One thing was beyond doubt: Panyu had the strongest commercial atmosphere in the Great Han, and this held true across the entire nation. It was a paradise for merchants, craftsmen, and navigators—and of course, equally a breeding ground for thieves and criminals.

Here, all trades flourished, ten thousand merchants gathered, and every resource was concentrated. Every pleasure that humanity could currently possess could be experienced here.

Of course, matching this was an advanced and strict management system. In the maintenance of commercial rules and institutions, it could be said that Panyu was the most meticulous and complete in the entire nation.

The most famous of these was probably the establishment and management of the guild-market system. Panyu was extremely strict in this regard, to the point of being rigidly uniform. Although Panyu had its own county, in terms of concrete management, the authority of Guangzhou Prefecture needed no elaboration—it had achieved near-vertical management, and in urban administration, the Panyu County office was merely a humble executor.

According to the regulations of the Guangzhou Prefecture office, all trades within Panyu City had to conduct business in concentrated areas, pay taxes collectively, and were forbidden from encroaching on each other's trades. This was both for the orderly and prosperous development of the market and for the convenience of the authorities' centralized management.

Therefore, unlike the "chaos" in many current Great Han cities, Panyu City was at least in commerce orderly and well-arranged, with shops and stores in the guild-markets standing in tight rows. Under the strict management system, various guild-markets emerged: Rice Market Street, Fish and Meat Row, Seafood Workshop, Porcelain Street, Spice Workshop, Silk and Cloth Workshop, Flower and Bird Street, Leather Goods Street, Timber and Tile Market, and so on.

Each street and neighborhood was located in densely populated areas, ranging from a single street to four or five streets combined, with shops numbering from dozens to hundreds. Even brothels and pleasure houses in Panyu City had to operate in concentrated areas and pay taxes according to regulations, and every flower street and willow lane was a major taxpayer of Guangzhou Prefecture, "cherished" dearly on ordinary days.

The guild-market system had some history by now and existed throughout the Great Han, especially in large cities, but places that managed it as strictly and clearly as Guangzhou Prefecture were truly rare.

Under such circumstances, over time, the guild system of Guangzhou Prefecture developed vigorously, with a higher degree of organizational management, ranking at the forefront of the nation!

Operators within the guild-markets of Panyu City were all required to join the market guilds, pay membership fees, and submit to management. All their business activities were constrained by the guilds. Conflicts within the market were resolved internally, while matters outside the market were handled uniformly by the guild. Pricing power lay with the guilds, and even tax collection was handled on their behalf.

Clearly, the guilds were the most powerful assistants of the authorities in managing all trades and all streets and markets. However, such development, while saving the authorities much trouble—often they only needed to sit back and collect money—also bred numerous conflicts.

For example, the guilds' exploitation of shopkeepers and members. In Panyu's streets and markets, bullying and monopolistic behavior was rarely seen. The markets had their systems, the guilds had their rules, and anyone daring to offend would face suppression from the entire guild, generally with no good outcome.

The guild rules were mainly formulated by the guild heads, who were held by various celebrities and wealthy merchants, with the authorities only supervising.

Within each street market's guild, conflicts were often rife. The guild head could almost be called the local emperor of each street, wielding great power and enjoying great conveniences. Powerful members within the guild, vying for the position of guild head, often schemed against one another, using every means available, and violent acts were also common.

At the same time, conflicts between large and small markets in the same trade occurred from time to time, especially over commodity pricing rights. Over the past thirty years, there had been several price wars between guilds of the same trade within Panyu City, even bloody clashes, each time costing many lives.

Every guild also kept a number of hired thugs. These people who operated in the gray zone were also a challenge to urban public security, and many crimes were inseparable from these violent gangs.

These maggots, together with the slums, constituted the sources of various criminal activities in Panyu City. There was no doubt that Panyu City's crime rate was persistently high across the entire nation.

All sorts of contradictions and problems arose against the backdrop of Panyu's great commercial and economic development, but none of these could obscure the transformation Panyu had undergone over the past few decades. It could even be said that in the current Panyu City of Guangzhou Prefecture, the sprouts of capitalism had already emerged.

The city was filled with the petty bourgeoisie, and the status of merchants was not subjected to the suspicion, contempt, and restriction seen in other cities. They had even begun to exert a subtle influence on the authorities.

Panyu was also a city of immigrants. The foreign-born population made up the overwhelming majority of Panyu's residents. Conversely, the native indigenous population had, over the long course of development, gradually decreased in proportion.

The immigrant population brought advanced culture and technology from outside, and the relaxed political and economic atmosphere also made Panyu's culture open and diverse—not only traditional Chinese, but also overseas and Western.

As the starting point and terminus of the Maritime Silk Road, Panyu City possessed superior conditions and status that other coastal cities of the Great Han could hardly match. Since the An Lushan Rebellion, the Maritime Silk Road had begun to rise, and the fleets traveling to and from Panyu grew daily. But with the Great Han Empire's relaxation and encouragement of overseas trade policy, and increasingly frequent activities in the islands and countries of the South Seas, it was only natural that Panyu City received development benefits far exceeding those of the same period in history.

And winter was precisely the season when foreign merchant ships were most active. At the docks along the Pearl River, almost every day foreign ships loaded with Great Han porcelain, silk, tea, ironware, and other goods weighed anchor and set sail, with the Lingding Sea full of ships spreading sail southward with the monsoon.

At the same time, what most attracted attention in Panyu City, and also drew the most criticism, was perhaps the gathered crowds of foreigners. Among the foreigners coming and going from Panyu, merchants were only a part. They typically stayed for two to six months at a time, and even if some purchased homes and property in the city for the convenience of long-term travel, they still counted as temporary residents.

In contrast, there were also some permanently resident foreign populations within Guangzhou Prefecture. These numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with no fewer than one hundred thousand in Panyu City alone. Such a scale was astonishing and incredible in the current Great Han—nationwide, probably only Guangzhou Prefecture had the conditions and the environment to accommodate so many people.

Among these foreigners, the Arabs were the most numerous, followed by Goryeo, Japan, and India. In recent years, some indigenous merchants from the South Seas had also increased.

Their origins were complex, and their identities equally so. Merchant was the most common identity; the rest included adventurers, sailors, craftsmen, fugitives, and even exiled groups.

Back then, in view of the "religion-eradication" operation carried out by the Anxi Protectorate General in Suiye, the court had also issued a series of restrictive policies, persecuting Arabs and foreign peoples who believed in Islam in the Central Plains and the great northwest. This forced many Muslims within the territory to either change their faith or flee elsewhere, and Guangzhou Prefecture was the final choice for many.

Therefore, the foreign population of Guangzhou Prefecture was diverse and motley, and trying to distinguish their origins was completely impossible.

To accommodate these foreigners, Guangzhou Prefecture had specially designated certain streets for them to live together, with the core principle still being ease of management. This gave rise to another distinctive feature of Panyu City: the Fanfang Street, which spanned streets and connected markets.

What Guangzhou Prefecture and even the entire Guangnan East Circuit never expected was that the old Emperor's first "shot" in Guangzhou Prefecture would be aimed precisely at this Fanfang Street.