Wang Jie warmly received Wang Fulin and his entourage, which made Wang Fulin and others feel a little flattered.

Wang Jie admires the film and television personnel in Huaxia at this time, they are simple, hard-working, and know how to learn, can face up to their own shortcomings, low-key, and do not care about fame and fortune, unlike decades later, after the entertainment circle was a "black miasma", eager for quick success, and even the most basic professional ethics were widely questioned.

Wang Fulin said: "Thank you Director William for the support he gave to our crew, we hope that Mr. William can move to see the finished film, and I hope you can correct any shortcomings, so that we can further revise them." ”

Wang Jie smiled and said: "Elder Wang is polite! It stands to reason that you are my senior, I just did my best to help a little, I won't watch the finished film, I believe that this "Dream of Red Mansions" must be a classic drama." ”

This 87 version of "Dream of Red Mansions" can be called a classic as Wang Jie said, unlike the version of "Dream of Red Mansions" decades later, which is full of copper stench and hypocrisy.

After Wang Jie sent Wang Fulin and others away, he continued the filming of "That Year the Flower and the Moon Was Full". In fact, the archetypal characters in this drama are far more legendary than those told in Wang Jie's script.

Zhou Ying, who is indeed known as the "Anwu Widow" in the local area, supported the family business after the death of her father-in-law and husband one after another, and ran a huge business empire, which can indeed be called a generation of "strange women".

It's a pity that there are only a few historical records about her, like her life experience, descendants and children, and even the final outcome of the Wu industry, there are a lot of key information that is unknown, and later generations have attached some folklore and even fabricated stories for various reasons, so that the legend is directly upgraded to absurd myths, and then it is really a bit nonsense to tell any revelation and experience.

Many articles have mentioned that the real Zhou Ying is not a showgirl as Wang Jie wrote, but a native of Mengdian Village, Luqiao Town, SY County, SX Province, whose great-grandfather Zhou Meicun was a local businessman during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, according to the "Rebuilding Luqiao Town Urban and Rural Chronicles", Zhoumei Village started with "JX Kiln Industry", and then spent a lot of money to build 17 mansions, which took 24 years to complete the construction, and then destroyed in the fire, leaving only 1 courtyard.

In the era of Zhou Meicun, the Zhou family's business was booming, on the one hand, they bought cloth in Suzhou to SX printing and dyeing, and sold it in the northwest, on the other hand, they operated porcelain in JX, and there are records that they also participated in the salt industry in Yangzhou, accumulating 360,000 taels of family assets.

By the time of Zhou Ying's generation, the Zhou family should have been defeated, so her life history and parents are unknown, and the credible official record is only recorded in the third year of Xuantong of the Qing Dynasty (1911) Liu Mao Guanxiu and Song Bolu's "Rebuilding ZY County Chronicles" Volume 15: Shaogu, according to his brother and sister-in-law, was sixteen years old, and returned to Wu with his brother and sister-in-law. Shaogu is the death of both parents, and the life of his brother and sister-in-law is returned to Wu, indicating that marrying Wu is not the last order of his parents, but his brother and sister-in-law, so there is speculation in the academic community that she is the adopted daughter of the Zhou family rather than her biological daughter.

Her date of birth, according to the record of the "Widow of An Wu" Epitaph: died on February 9, the 34th year of Guangxu, at the age of 40.

The thirty-fourth year of Guangxu is 1908 AD, and the imaginary age is 40, so the birth year should be 1869, so many articles say that she lived 42 years old is incorrect, to be precise, 39 years old.

Then, the time when Zhou Ying married Wu Ping should be 1869 + 15 = 1884. Here are several problems in Wang Jie's script, one is Wu Weiwen, the father-in-law who appreciates Zhou Ying in every way, died in the year of Guangxu Bingzi in history, that is, in 1876 AD, when Zhou Ying was only 8 years old, and she is still in elementary school today.

Wu Ping is the only son of Wu Weiwen, and from 1876 to 1884, he should have been the head of the "Shiyi Hall" of the East Courtyard of the Wu family. It should be noted that the descendants of the Wu family said that Wu Ping and Zhou Ying died 3 years after marriage, and the two also had a daughter, but unfortunately they died young, and it seems impossible. Because the "Continuation of the SX General Chronicles" records: In the eleventh year of Guangxu, Anwu Fort was named the second lady. Wu Zhou's donation of 40,000 taels of silver is strange, rebuilt and completed, and the county Tu Guanjun established the stele pavilion as a chronicle.

In the eleventh year of Guangxu, that is, in 1885 AD, the "Rebuilding ZY County Chronicles" clarified the details of Wu Zhou's (Zhou Ying) entitlement: the county Confucian Temple has been in decline since Renxu...... Zhou Chengfuzhi, independent repair, completed in three years, more than 40,000 yuan. When I heard about it, I gave the second product a canon. In other words, Wu Ping had died by 1885 at the latest, so his wife could inherit the "will", and if people were alive, there would naturally be no "will". The reason why it is said at the latest, because there are still 3 years in the construction period, it can be seen that this project may be the beginning of Wu Ping, Zhou Ying gritted her teeth and stood up, and after the completion of the project, she was rewarded by the second lady of the Qing Dynasty.

To sum up, this young couple has lived together for a maximum of 2 years. Of course, the record in the "Renewal of ZY County Chronicles" is even more cruel: on the eve of marriage, her husband fell ill and died in more than ten days. Childless. That is, after 10 days of marriage, Wu Ping died, which is consistent with the local folklore that the Wu family married Zhou Ying "Chongxi", however, Wang Jie specially gave the two young people a sweet time for the sake of storytelling.

Is Zhou Ying the "richest man"? In fact, the details of Zhou Ying's business are rarely covered in the local annals, and a large number of them record the deeds of the "Anwu widow" who was kind and enthusiastic about public welfare, so she can only rebuild Zhou Ying's business map according to various scattered materials. According to Wu Mi's recollections, there are ten new branches of the Wu family in Anwu Fort, all of which are "rich rooms", "but there are not many lands", that is, mainly for business, since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, it is divided into east, south, west, north, middle, five courtyards, and its eastern courtyard is the most wealthy. According to Liu Tieya's article "An Wu Widow" included in the "Jingyang Cultural and Historical Materials", the big fortune of the Eastern Courtyard: It is mainly due to the fact that Wu Weiwen got the Huai Salt Affairs (registered in the household department and undertook the monopoly right of the salt industry in JS, JX, AH and other provinces). He relied on the hundreds of salt quotations in his hands, (that is, the monopoly salt industry license issued by the government, one quotation was 4 million catties. The establishment of the "Yulongquan" salt general account in Yangzhou, and the establishment of branches in various places, there was an income of several million taels of silver a year, and the salt merchants were the richest officials and businessmen at that time, which were beyond the reach of other merchants. But there is a common sense error in the data. After the pacification of the Taiping Rebellion, Zeng Guofan was ordered to sort out the two Huai salt affairs, and in the third year of Tongzhi (1864), he designated the Huaibei ticket salt regulations, which clearly stipulated: 400 catties of salt for one lead, divided into four bundles, and the ticket and salt must match. This is the Huaibei Salt Farm, and the Huainan Salt Farm Zeng Guofan stipulates that each quotation is 600 catties, divided into eight packages, that is to say, there is at least a "10,000" word in the above materials, as for the income of several million silver a year, it does not match the Wu family's holding of hundreds of salt quotations.

Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang master and apprentice successively rectified the salt business, the way adopted is to restore the ticket salt as the key salt in disguise, change the original 10 trigger salt to at least 120 leads, 500 leads to allow the shipment of salt ships, at the same time, gradually with the number of salt introductions as the threshold, corresponding to the tax, demarcate the old merchants, and allow them to circulate and transship. According to this standard, all the salt quotations of the Wu family must have at least 500 channels in order to engage in the salt industry for a long time, but can 500 quotations create an annual income of "several million taels of silver"? It seems to be a bit mysterious, after all, in 1864, when the Jiangnan was dilapidated, the total number of positive salt introductions in the Huaibei salt field alone was 296982, and the Huainan salt field was four times this number, and 500 quotations could not lead to 1/30,000 of them, and if the annual income was millions of taels, then the sales of the entire two Huai salt production would be nearly 100 billion taels...... As for the figures of some articles, it is even more unreliable, saying that the Wu family has millions of salt citations in their hands, you know, the total number of salt introductions in the two Huai during the Daoguang period is only about 1.6 million citations, and the real monopoly of the salt industry has reached this point, and it is enough to collect taxes alone, according to Guangxu's "Lianghuai Salt Law Chronicle", the annual salt tax income of the two Huai is only more than 400 thousand taels...... If you count sales, it must be in the tens of millions.

To sum up, the scale of the Wu family's main business in Yangzhou will never reach the scale of an annual income of several million taels of silver.

The information that can be confirmed is that after Zhou Ying took over the family business, the main brand name "Yuxingzhong" developed to its heyday, with Deng Jiantang (SX Qishan people) as the shopkeeper, developed the main tea making project, and created the famous tea "Tiantai brand Jing brick", and later made the two major brands of "Tiantai" and "Deheng" sell well in the northwest and occupy the top spot of SX tea merchants.

After the Wu family hoarded and sold high, the Wu family made a great profit on the tea, and the asset accumulation reached 40, 500,000 taels, and the shopkeeper of the Lanzhou branch, Hu Fujiu, also did the Lanzhou tea industry "general businessman" for many years, which shows the status of the Wu family in the northwest tea industry at that time.

According to Zhou Ying's epitaph: Wu's business, Bashu is both male, Weiyang is especially prosperous, and every accountant is like a forest.

The Wu family's business layout, SC and Yangzhou are the two major centers, but due to the previous inaccuracy about the income of the salt industry, it can only be known that the Wu family has a pawnshop in the CD, Yangzhou Salt General is called "Yulong Quan", and its semicolon covers JS, JX, AH, among which JX's salt industry has some data from the 1920s preserved, and the salt merchants are ranked according to the number of salt tickets held by each family, which can be seen that Yulon Quan's ranking is relatively low.

With the development of the business, the Wu family has also opened a head office and branches in HB, JS, SH, SC, ZQ, GS, SX and other places, of which GS is mainly engaged in medicinal materials, and HB is mainly engaged in fabrics.

In the 16 years from 1884 to 1900, Zhou Ying's business did get bigger and bigger, which is an indisputable fact, and it also provided a material basis for her to donate money to charity, such as donating 40,785 taels to restore the "Weijing Academy", spending 40,000 taels to rebuild the Temple of Literature, and even donating 100,000 taels to the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Not only that, Zhou Ying later built a luxurious Wu family compound, serving more than 200 daily servants and spending as much as 100,000 silver taels throughout the year.

However, all of the above is not enough to support Zhou Ying's status as "the richest man in the world", not even the "richest man in SX", the only thing that can be characterized is the "richest woman", that is, the richest woman in that era when women generally have no economic independence.

The "richest man" compiled by Wang Jie is just a story, and "The Goddaughter of the Empress Dowager Cixi" is a joke that Wang Jie Sheng stuffed in.

Although they are also young widows, they are also listening to politics, and they are also housekeepers for others, and they can attach all kinds of sympathy to each other, but these two people have never met, and even the 100,000 taels of silver sent to Xing are all from Zhou Ying's adopted son Wu Nianxi.

Speaking of Zhou Ying's adopted son, the words can't be short, because there are really some grievances between him and Zhou Ying.

In order to hire an heir for Wu, he needs to inherit a child from the clan, which can be regarded as a succession, but Zhou Ying doesn't like the children of the Southern Courtyard with the closest blood relationship, so she gave the Intermediate Court 10,000 taels of silver on the grounds of "choosing merit and love", and took away the nephew Wu Yucheng of the Intermediate Courtyard, and later renamed Wu Huaixian (that is, Wu Nianxi) to show her nostalgia for her ancestors.

However, Wu Huai was not close to Zhou Ying when he grew up, and he was still thinking about taking back the power of the housekeeper, so he had a conflict with Zhou Ying. Zhou Ying's adoptive mother first went to the governor's yamen to complain, and the governor Fan Zengxiang wanted to make peace with the mud, so he called two of Zhou Ying's own brothers and reprimanded them, saying that they instigated the discord between mother and son. Unexpectedly, Zhou Ying didn't accept this set, and threatened to go to Lanzhou to complain to the Governor's Mansion, Fan Zengxiang was very nervous, so he came forward to threaten Wu Huaixian, saying that your mother was going to the Governor's Yamen to accuse you of disobedience and unfilial piety, which is a heinous crime, and quickly admitted his mistake and bluffed Wu Huaixian. The final result was that Wu Huaixian knelt at the door of Zhou Ying's mansion through the curtain, kneeling from morning to afternoon, Zhou Ying forgave him, but all the adopted son's cronies were eliminated, and the housework was recovered.

Whether these two mothers and sons formed knots at this time, we don't know. However, a historical material declassified by later generations, one of which has a very interesting record: Zhou Ying knew how to make good use of people, controlled it well, and used various means to continuously increase the value of Wu's huge commercial capital outside SX, and at its peak, it had reached the point of making money every day. And all this is closely related to Liu Maochun, the owner of the compound at No. 43 Guqiting Street in Yangzhou, JS, who is the chief treasurer of Yangzhou's "Yulongquan" salt number personally appointed by Zhou Ying.

In April 1904, Zhou Ying died of illness, and after that, his adopted son Wu Huaizhi (i.e., Wu Nianxi) sold the commercial capital outside SX Province at a high price in order to concentrate on the land in SX, so that Liu Maochun became the new owner of the "Yulongquan" salt. And Zhou Ying herself was not able to enter the "Wu Cemetery" that she spent a lot of money to repair, but slept alone outside, although she claimed to have purchased the tombstone stone for the construction of the cemetery, it was just a claim, after all, the time of her death was still 3 years before the "Xinhai Revolution" that became a pretext, of course, all this can only be said by future generations.

Even if it is such a piece of loess, it was dug up when the "four olds" were dug up, and the epitaph stele was broken into two pieces, and it was also taken by the villagers to make a pounding stone, until the original time and space in 2005 was discovered by a local literary and historical researcher Bai Jingang, which restored its original function and helped us understand the life of such a strange woman as Zhou Ying.

No matter how speculative it is, an indisputable fact is that even now, Zhou Ying can be called a generation of women.