Pingyao stands on the land of Jinzhong. The tall city walls and towering towers reveal mystery and reverie.

When I stopped to look up at this ancient city wall from 2700 years ago, a kind of awe-inspiring majesty suddenly rose from my heart. Facing the thick and towering walls, I feel shallow and insignificant. Just as I felt scared and impulsive when I first faced the sea, I felt awe and urgency about this ancient city with profound cultural accumulation. I am glad that I can finally walk past her chest, feel her breath and listen to the echoes from the depths of history.

Pingyao covers an area of more than 2 square kilometers and has more than 30,000 residents. As soon as you step into the ancient city, the eternal quaint atmosphere will come to your face. The streets paved with blue bricks are uneven and singing old songs. The houses are all two-story and imaginative cyan. Many houses have a cave-like arch in the middle, which is thick and simple. Looking inside, there are flat-topped tile houses with brick and wood structures on both sides. After hundreds of years of wind and rain erosion, brick walls are pitted and mottled, just like an old man with a gully on his face mumbling about his past glory. It is not a pseudo-antique created by the deliberate management of reinforced concrete. It is a mark left by years of gentle touch with soft hands, and a masterpiece carved by wind and rain with fierce power for many years. Walking through the dusty streets seems to be a hundred years ago, far away and fearful. Only bicycles passing by occasionally tell me that modern material civilization has already penetrated into the small ancient city.

First, I crossed the ancient county government in Pingyao. This is a perfectly preserved monument. I've only seen yamen in movies and TV. Standing in front of it, the thick unpainted door, the threshold more than a foot high, the grinning stone lion and the square screen wall are all a combination of strictness and power, which makes people shudder. Stepping into the yamen, there are a long row of cave-style rooms on both sides, and the lobby passes through the North Instrument Gate. The lobby is the place where the county magistrate specializes in hearing criminal cases. The plaque hanging in the middle of the mirror is high above, with signs of silence and avoidance on both sides, and a crescent-shaped case-solving in the middle. That battle will weaken the defendant before he kneels.

There is a couplet in front of the lobby: "Eat people's food, wear people's clothes. People can't bully themselves, they are also people. There is no shame in losing your official position. Don't say that an official is useless, relying on an official. " The words are straightforward and simple, but concise, which shows the great significance of the inviolability of the people and the benefit of the honest and diligent party. Isn't it a lie to today's officials, big and small? In terms of official management, there is a rule in Ming and Qing Dynasties that if a local person gains the reputation of being a magistrate, he can't work locally, he has to work 320 miles away, and he can't bring his family. Every year from 65438+February to the first month of the lunar calendar, they have a month's holiday to visit relatives. Its intention is obviously to prevent officials from being dishonest. One should know that the chickens and dogs at home have ascended to heaven. Later, when "county officials", few did not take care of their families and families, and few did not lose everything.

On a street that is not too wide, I met the ticket number of "Rishengchang". There are five facades facing the street, with a passage in the middle and sidewalks on both sides. The whole courtyard wall is high and deep, with complete anti-theft facilities. At present, there are so many tourists and people come and go. I don't think there was such a grand occasion in those days. All the people who come in and out should be businessmen in robes and jackets, or they are in a hurry or preoccupied. However, it was such a courtyard that was neither brilliant nor magnificent, but it gave birth to the embryonic form of China's national banking industry and once manipulated the economic lifeline of the whole Qing Dynasty in the19th century.

The development of a country needs elites and advanced ideas, so does an enterprise. In l824, an elite entered Rishengchang. He is Lei Lvtai, the founding manager of Rishengchang Bank. His family was poor when he was a teenager, so he became a businessman. He is not all a genius, but he is more diligent and eager to learn. He worked as a shopkeeper in Hankou and Shi Jing's "Xicheng Yu". After the age of no doubt, because of good management, he was transferred back to the general manager by his employer and promoted to the position of big shopkeeper. In the fourth year of Daoguang, Lei Lvtai proposed to establish a "Rishengchang" bank. Since then, China has become the first bank industry. In the next 25 years, Lei Lvtai established its business strategy, selected effective partners and set up a semicolon wharf. In management, the individual share system has been created, that is, employees can use their own labor as shares to participate in the dividend distribution of the ticket number. The fate of employees and banks is closely tied together. Talent is not eclectic in employing people. Rishengchang's foreign exchange, deposit and loan business is growing day by day, with branches in more than 30 cities across the country, and also expanded its business in Europe, America and Southeast Asia. No wonder I was so impressed in Shame of Shanxi: "Most decent financial institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Han and other cities have their highest headquarters in the ordinary streets of Pingyao and Taigu. These big cities are just docks for wealthy businessmen in Shanxi to try their hand. " Rishengchang shows the glory of Shanxi merchants in the past, and it is the first national bank in China.

In a Ming and Qing street in Pingyao, I tasted the ruddy and fragrant Pingyao beef, and after seeing the colorful and long-standing lacquerware, I boarded the North Gate Tower.

According to records, the ancient city wall of Pingyao was built in West Zhou Xuanwang (827-727 BC) and rammed by General Yin Jifu. In the third year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (l370 AD), it was expanded into the present masonry city wall on the basis of the old city of Western Zhou Dynasty. The North Gate Tower stands tall, overlooking Ma Pingchuan outside the city. A moat is dug outside the city wall and a suspension bridge is set on the moat. Entering the door from the suspension bridge is an open space with four high walls, called Wengcheng. People and teams have to go through the urn to get to the city. This urn has great tactical value. First, forcing the enemy through the urn can delay the offensive. Second, if the gates at both ends are closed, the invading enemy will become turtles in a jar, and the defenders on the wall will be condescending to shoot stones and arrows.

Standing on the ancient city wall and looking out, the city wall is wide and winding, with mountains and pavilions. Every 60 meters, there is a beacon-like enemy observation building. Connect into an organic whole. The north wind is hunting, flags are flying, standing in the wind, and there are faint neighing of horses, clanging of golden songs and killing sounds in my ears. I think there must have been thrilling bloody battles in this city for thousands of years, and there have also been heroes who can sing and cry. Big waves wash away sand and lead flowers are washed away. Now only this high city wall and green bricks are left, and there may be some memories. For us, it is "how many things are jokes in ancient and modern times."