"Dockworkers, rickshaw drivers, coachmen, paperboys, laborers, sailors, nightsoil men, prostitutes, beggars..."
Li Changzhou flipped through the documents in his hand, understanding the living standards of these lower-class citizens.
Take the paperboys for example, their average daily income was three cents, with an average monthly income of nine yuan, working an average of six hours a day.
They didn't starve, but life held no meaning, no hope—days without prospects. If they had no house locally, they were doomed to rent for life, only able to share housing, squeezed together with a bunch of people, never having a home of their own.
The living environment was also extremely poor; not to mention fire hazards, sanitary conditions could prove fatal at any moment.
Now with chaos from war and robbers rampaging, burning and looting had caused many people from outside the city to abandon their ancestral homes. These families flooded into the city, exacerbating this situation.
