Jiangnan water town, beautiful scenery, Qinhuai River, willows, smoky, at this time is the season of Yangzhou in March, in the past, or the rich salt merchants to win over Shangguan, or the lack of bureaucrats looking for talented people to act as staff, or the Yannei in Beijing come here to see a thing or two, and this is indispensable to be accompanied by beautiful people and wine, so every time at this time, on the Qinhuai River, by the West Lake Bridge, Yan Yan Yan is smiling, and the aroma of fat powder can be spread far away. Mothers have pushed out their trained skinny horses to compete for beauty.

In the former dynasty, those wealthy salt merchants who covered the sky with only one hand in the Jiangnan area, for the vassal elegance, made a "girl" competition, originally whether everyone is beautiful or a small jasper, Yangzhou thin horses can participate, but the former dynasty is rigorous, extremely harsh on women, pay attention to the atmosphere, women from good families are categorically afraid to participate in this kind of event, only those Qing officials, **, drama and the like participated, even if these girls can be called everyone's in some aspects, they still can't escape the contempt of the times.

In this dynasty, there are the four major families of Jia Shixue Wang who were born in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are local tyrants Zhen family, and the "girl" event can be regarded as a continuation, but the Zhao royal family has always disliked these luxurious and charming things, especially during the period when Lin Ruhai, a die-hard representative of the emperor, served as the salt patrol imperial history, and this event was very low-key. Fortunately, Lin Ruhai died of overwork in office, the power of the eldest prince and the second prince was not suppressed in Jiangnan, each showed his skills, the prince was right, most of the people sent from the imperial capital can be said to be the emperor of Jiangnan, the Jiangnan region is full of their wings, if the officials sent from above do not agree, there are ways to make them have hardships and can't say, they can't do it, the upper is orthodox, the lower is powerful, the two sides are in dispute, either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east wind, In the past two years, many officials have died violently because of that, and the entire Jiangnan officialdom has been in a miasma, and there is even a bit of a situation in the next life. "The merchant girl doesn't know the hatred of the country", and this "girl" doesn't know the turmoil and darkness of this officialdom, and the more people she wins, the more famous she becomes.

This is not another year of spring season, the small traders on both sides of the Huai River saw the opportunity, or sell some food, or some trinkets, gadgets and the like, although those high sons and girls do not look down, but at this time, the most important thing is to fly on the branches as phoenix sparrows, as well as those who have some talent but no fame and family background, and these are their customers, good luck vendors, occupy a good position, a whole year of food to earn, especially in the past two years. However, the people did not know what was going on, and from March to May, they were sparsely populated, and many people lost an unknown amount of money.

There are not many powerful sons and adults, and their generous patrons are also stingy, so the hawkers sit in the teahouse under the shade of the trees, and dare not drink the expensive tea, so they only let the proprietress send a bowl of hot water, and then give one or two copper plates in the afternoon. If the year before, the proprietress was willing to let them sit, and she frowned, hoping that they would leave with their butts dirty, so as to make room for the nobles who could really afford to eat tea. But a lot of the tea leaves I bought this year were almost rotten, and I gave up on myself, and went with these poor ghosts, and occasionally came in a hurry, and gave one or two leaves.

Aunt Chai is a pastry seller, and the daughter-in-law she married for her son is also a good cook, Aunt Chai was widowed in her early years, and her young son was weak, she not only grew with a thick waist and round shoulders, tall and black, and her hair was wrapped in cloth. She is selling food, this food is no better than other things, can not be put for a long time, it is not good to annoy Aunt Chai, but a bewitching girl in the west of the city dislikes it is not good-looking, not delicious, Aunt Chai's temper came up, directly drove people away, watched the sun come up, left her daughter-in-law to look at the stall, and ran to the teahouse to drink herbal tea.

After the anger subsided a little, I saw a middle-aged man with a thin body, a white face and no need to wear silk, and a thing wrapped in an oilcloth in his hand came over, and Aunt Chai hurriedly got up and let people. Although Aunt Chai is five big and three thick, but she admires this kind of scholar the most, her mother's family is also solid, she married the child his father despite the opposition of her family, his father is poor and doesn't even have a bowl, just knows a few words, but unfortunately his fate is not good, and he went early. This middle-aged man is the distant uncle of Mrs. Chai's husband, and he is a very capable person, who works as a staff member in a large family. Although Aunt Chai wants to be close to him, he is a tall man, if it weren't for the fact that he has no heirs under his knees, and he doesn't have an uncle who is close to him, only her husband and son are close to each other and take care of him, even so, he has never talked much to Aunt Chai, and he rarely goes out of his lord's mansion, and rarely sets foot in such a cheap place.

"Why is the eldest uncle here, come and sit down."

The middle-aged man frowned, the tables and chairs were clean, but there were bare-chested people who sat there, some who talked meat, and some who snored with a rag to cover their heads, and the man was a decent person who reads and reads, and he really doesn't want to sit with this group of ninth-rate people, the man raised his head, the sparse immature leaves can't block the dazzling and dazzling sun, it's not very hot, but it's very dry, I've been out for so long, I haven't even drunk hot water, my Adam's apple is slightly moving, and I don't dislike it, so I sat down where Aunt Chai pointed out.

Aunt Chai sat next to her, and didn't dare to get too close, this gentleman is a capable and tolerant person, often able to say a lot of Taoist news, these years "girl" in the south of the Yangtze River and Huai Yue famous, the Huai River side of the trail have been occupied by some powerful people in the city, if not for Mr. to entrust the relationship, their family will not get this stall.

"Sir, why is it lonely this year, three kittens, our business is not easy to do! You give me some pointers. ”

Aunt Chai had a loud voice, at this time, she deliberately lowered her voice, and the people in the entire teahouse also heard it, it was about their own interests, everyone stopped their voices, or turned their ears sideways, or held the tea bowl, and the bold ones directly tilted their bodies, and looked at the man who was not the same world as the people around him. In the shadow of the curtain of the teahouse, there were three men, one sitting, two standing, ordering a bowl of tea, not drinking, there were many guests, old

The man is also surnamed Chai, he is on duty next to the master of the Zhen Mansion and is a staff member, but this staff is also divided into high and low, the Zhen family is the emperor's cronies, and there are also concubines and second princes who are deeply favored by the emperor, and there is a group of capable and powerful staff members around the master Zhen. I don't have much talent, I have no money, and I have no power. Mr. Chai touched the oilcloth bag in his hand, that is, sitting on a cold bench and running errands, where is his turn to speak. At this time, a group of people, all of whom looked like they were in their fifties and sixty, were listening attentively, and Mr. Chai's vanity gradually rose, and he scolded himself for being just a pariah, what can they know!

"It's hard to say, how can you talk nonsense about the things above."

Aunt Chai's eyes lit up. The common people's life is monotonous, either working or resting, and the greatest pleasure in idle work is to listen to the storyteller talk about the ancients, gossip about the idle affairs of those people above, not only the people with titles, but also the most noble people who occasionally talk about it, this dynasty is open-minded, even if it is wrong, it doesn't hurt, moreover, the upper and lower lips move, and the words spoken are silent and unfounded, who cares about you.

Once in the countryside, when the farm was slack, several farmers and peasant women were in Kandashan, and a peasant woman asked, I don't know what kind of life the emperor's family is doing. A peasant woman replied that it must be a very good life, and when the queen wanted to eat, she would say to the palace maid, bring me a persimmon cake. The farmer added that the rake used by the emperor should be made of gold.

"Sir, let's talk about it, we just want to know why it's like this year, and whether it will be next year."

"It's not good to say, a few years ago, this prince was bad, and the saint was merciful, named Prince Yizhong, and detained in Jiuhua Palace in the South China Sea. The prince has always been a virtuous and filial son, how could he behave so rebelliously, the saint thinks that this is provoked by the slaves below, and we are also here in the place where the saint focuses on cleaning up and observing. ”