First year of Yuanzhi (1864), December 28—

In two days it will be New Year's Eve.

The arrival of the New Year slightly diluted the haze of war.

The festive atmosphere gradually replaced the bloody smell in the air.

As the people who went out to avoid disasters returned one after another, fireworks came back to this devastated city.

Stores are opening one after another.

There are more and more pedestrians on the street.

The shouts in the market were louder.

Mirror cakes, Tusu wine and other essential foods for the New Year are put on the shelves.

Families with a little financial resources have placed pine trees in front of their homes, making people feel the arrival of the New Year intuitively.

The "New Year atmosphere" is spreading, and everything seems to be back on track.

Compared to the scene of shouting and killing the sky a while ago, the bloody scenes are really like a different world.

In recent days, the only major event worth mentioning is probably the Emperor's announcement of the change of the era.

There have been so many things happening this year, and all kinds of major events have come one after another, making people breathless, so that people almost forget the "Ikedaya Incident", "Kyoto Summer Formation", "Changzhou

The series of major events such as the "Second Sekihara Joint Battle" and the "Edo Cage Battle" have all happened in just a few months!

From summer to winter... in just half a year, the situation in the world has changed several times.

Looking back at the summer not long ago, Changzhou, which had been defeated repeatedly, was dying.

At that time, everyone in the world felt that Changzhou was over and no longer had the ability and qualification to compete for the world.

But in winter, Changzhou actually joined forces with the law to kill the party and launched a beautiful counterattack, forcing the shogunate to a desperate situation!

Although they did not successfully capture Edo, they did seriously damage the shogunate, reversed the situation that was bound to die, and survived the dead chess!

Immediately afterwards, the vassals on the front line of the Senchous were put into trouble and sprinkled a handful of salt on the "wounds" of the shogunate.

All forces fought for more than half a year and returned to the starting point - the situation in the world is confusing, and I don’t know who will win!

Such a dramatic change of events is both cruel and faintly reveals a bit of black humor.

The court felt that this year was a troublesome year. In order to get a good omen, it decided to give up the current year name "Yuanzhi" and change the era name to "Qingying" after the New Year.

Apart from that, there is nothing else worth mentioning.

The scholars and citizens in Edo are busy working hard to rebuild the city and celebrate the New Year.

Everything is gentle, everything is calm.

...

...

Nihonbashi, somewhere—

"Child! Let's go away! I only have adults here!"

"I, my strength is not inferior to that of an adult! Please! Let me work with you!"

"I'm still missing three people! Three more people!"

"I, I, I! Choose me! Look at my body! I am so strong!"

"I don't pick on jobs! I can do it whether it's sifting sand or carrying wood!"

"Hmm? Are you a samurai? We don't have samurai here!"

"Wu, can't the warriors come to move wood?"

"If you want to move wood, just untie the guy on your waist first! How can you work with a knife?"

"As a great warrior, how can you not wear a sword?"

"If you don't want to remove the knife, go away! Go and find another family!"

...

At this moment, countless foremen are recruiting couture in Nihonbashi.

Because it is the starting point of the "Five Streets", young people who come to Edo to work and find a living will first settle in Nihonbashi.

Because of this, foreman in urgent need of labor all set his sights on this land that is more than a thousand.

They stood in a conspicuous place, announced how many people they wanted and what restrictions they had, and then picked out the people they were interested in from the crowd.

After recruiting enough staff, he took the newly recruited laborers straight to the construction site and started working.

The fierce war brought far-reaching damage to Edo.

The artillery fire of the Fauci coalition destroyed more than 40% of the ground buildings in Edo.

There are broken walls everywhere.

There are buildings and roads that need to be repaired everywhere.

There are construction sites waiting for construction to begin everywhere.

Business opportunities are everywhere!

The civil and engineering industry, which had been silent for a long time, became prosperous again.

The foremen in Edo were dispatched collectively to take on big orders.

This "cake" is so tempting that even the foreman from other places are attracted.

Foremen from other places joined forces and gathered a large number of people - most of these guys were tattooed with dragons and phoenixes - rushed to Edo in a fierce manner, vowing to get a share of the pie.

Anyone who can do projects will not be a good person - this truth is applicable to both ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad.

Unexpectedly, a fierce conflict broke out between the two sides, and even the Edo Prayer was alarmed.

The Fengxing Institute sent a large number of officials to stop the struggle and mediate in the center, and finally suppressed the riot.

The final result was that all foreign foremen were expelled, and local Edo foremen were able to monopolize the nutritious big cake of "post-war reconstruction".

Such results are not surprising.

It is natural for a foreigner to be unable to fight against local snakes.

In any case, Edo's "post-war reconstruction" was finally put on the agenda and construction started quickly.

In an instant, construction sites rose up one by one.

The sound of sand screening, the sound of "ping-ping-pong" bumps, the sound of hammer swings... all kinds of sounds unique to the construction site are one after another.

As we all know, civil engineering can always promote the local economy.

Thanks to the hard work of these workers, Edo's people's livelihood was quickly restored.

A large number of businesses discovered this precious business opportunity and rushed to various construction sites, setting up food stalls to make money from workers.

Even some people who do not do business usually carry shoulder poles and sell simple diets such as tea, glutinous rice dumplings to the workers.

It is said that "food, color, and nature are", so not only the catering industry, but also women in special industries are eyeing the wallets of these workers.

"They are going to pay their wages today, and they are all cheering up." - Recently, I can always hear such words in the mouths of the nightingales.

[Note: Nightingale: Most of the cheap prostitutes who recruit customers on the streets are in front of our office, Samagawa Bridge, and Asakusa Cottage.]

These scenes seem to be a repetition of "Ming Li Reconstruction".

After the "Zhengxiu Fire" burned two-thirds of Edo, the shogunate carried out a vigorous "Mingli Reconstruction".

The impact of this reconstruction is so far-reaching that it has affected all aspects of Edo.

It is no exaggeration to say that its influence has not been eliminated until now.

While restoring the building, the shogunate made major adjustments to the original urban planning and built a large number of wide roads specifically for fire prevention, namely wide roads.

Thanks to this series of clever new layouts, no serious fires occurred in Edo since then, allowing the Edo scholars and citizens to stay away from the power of Zhurong.

"Mingli Reconstruction" also allows Edo people to have healthier and more complete eating habits.

In order to adapt to the heavy civil engineering work, workers naturally eat more and better, which directly promoted the development of the Edo catering industry.

Many of the food and restaurants that are familiar to you today appear during this period.

Not only that, Edo people's eating habits have also undergone tremendous changes, from the original "two meals a day" to the common "three meals a day" today.

Judging from the results, the "Mingli Reconstruction" not only allowed Edo to be reborn, but also allowed Edo scholars and citizens to have a better life.

With the clear example of "Mingli Reconstruction" as a reference, many Edo people were optimistic about: This war may become another "rebirth" opportunity for Edo!

...

...

"Boys! Come with me! Our job is to repair the bridge of Tancho! This job is not difficult! Since we meet, I will invite you to drink tonight! Just treat it as a welcome to you!"

As soon as the foreman finished speaking, a cheer that was higher than a wave of louder sounded around him.
To be continued...