Zhao Qixuan is also looking for an acquaintance, he once had the idea of doing a business of medicinal materials outside the border, of course, it is impossible to run over empty-handed to find a way, but to sell a batch of tea, cotton and salt to the northeast, sell to the soldiers guarding the border pass, make friends with others, and go to ask the old department of the county grandfather for help. It's a pity that when the county grandfather learned the news, he directly called him to the capital, scolded him, and drove him back to his hometown. At that time, it was a small tea merchant who sold him the tea, which is the person he found back now.

This small tea merchant's name is Cai Zhuocheng, a native of Hangzhou, and there is also a tea garden at home, which is handed down by his ancestors. Relying on this tea garden, although his family is not rich and expensive, they also live a worry-free life. It's a pity that he was unlucky, he accidentally offended a big businessman, and he was so crowded that the shop couldn't be opened, and someone sneaked into his tea garden and set it on fire, burning most of his family's ancestral tea garden. His mother fell ill in a fit of rage, and spent a lot of money to get a doctor for medicine, and the family was almost empty. Now his family's tea shop has long been closed, and he doesn't know when he will be able to make a comeback. When Zhao Qixuan inquired about the news, he accidentally learned about his recent situation, and thought about getting acquainted, so he went to visit and condole, and talked about what he was busy with recently, and the other party was a little moved.

This Cai Zhuocheng is in his early forties this year, and he began to contact tea almost as soon as he can speak, not only knows everything about planting and picking tea, but also knows how to make tea such as roasting tea and kneading tea. Originally, he had a family and a business of his own, and it was impossible for him to become a vassal of the second room. But now he can't do business anymore, his mother is sick again, and he urgently needs money to back. Zhang, the county duchess, is the nobleman he has the most hope to climb. Working for a few years for others, in exchange for a noble person to protect his mother, wife and daughter, is actually not so difficult to accept.

Zhang listened to his self-introduction, and was a little moved by his filial piety, and agreed to him very happily, as long as he served the second room for five years, he would help the second room find a new tea garden. Planting tea trees, and then teaching the tea workers in the second room the method of planting and making tea, five years later. The second room will help him rebuild his family's tea garden, and give him a reward of two hundred taels of silver. In the past five years, he and his family can move to the vicinity of the two-bedroom old house, and no one will harass them anymore. And Hangzhou over there. The second room will also send someone to greet the local government. If the big businessman is not allowed to embarrass his family any longer, his family can continue to run the tea shop.

Cai Zhuocheng smiled bitterly: "Thank you for your compassion, I won't tell you, the villain's family has already discussed, and the shop will be handed over to others, leaving only the tea garden to be taken care of by the villain's brother." As long as there is a tea plantation, good tea will be grown in the future. Shops are the same wherever they are opened. Today's shop was also purchased by the villain ten years ago. The old shop on my ancestors is long gone, so there is nothing to give up. It's just that the old mother is sick and weak, and the old wife and children are timid, and it would be great if there was a stable place to recuperate. ”

The Zhang family stopped persuading him, and asked people to take him down to rest, and she instructed Lu's mother to rent a second-entry courtyard behind the block where the Zhao clan lived, which was used to house Cai Zhuocheng's family, and then send two mothers-in-law over to wait for them.

Zhao Qixuan did a good job on this errand, and Zhang also praised him, he was a little embarrassed: "It's a coincidence this time, my nephew didn't expect him to be able to help." But this person is really capable, and Grandmother can only rest assured. ”

Zhao Xiu rushed over when he heard the news: "Brother Qixuan, I heard that the person who grows tea and makes tea has been found?" ”

Zhao Qixuan greeted her with a smile, and then told Cai Zhuocheng about it, and Zhao Xiu was overjoyed: "Great! So when can we start looking for tea plantations? ”

Zhang said angrily: "What's the hurry? It's October, it's winter, it's cold outside, how can you let the family have a good New Year, and wait for the spring to start after the year, so it's good to set off. ”

Zhao Xiu smiled embarrassedly: "It's me who is anxious." "I remembered the books I had been looking through recently, and I felt that I had to speed up the pages of the books.

She went to flip through the book in search of new tea, not to choose a location. She came from modern times, and actually knew some tea production areas that became famous in later generations, such as Taiping Houkui, which came from Huangshan City, Anhui Province; Quanganghui white tea, also known as Qianganghui white tea, is from a place called Qiangang Village in Shengzhou, Zhejiang; Huiming green tea, also known as Jingning Huiming, comes from Jingning, Zhejiang. Although this is only a general location, and she doesn't know the specific location, as long as she is patient, she can always find out slowly.

However, this time Zhao Qixuan found a veteran of the tea shop, if he was asked to go to these places to find new tea without any evidence, he might not be willing to believe it. Therefore, Zhao Xiu wanted to find evidence from her grandmother's pile of books that could prove that there was good tea in these places, but unfortunately the results of the book search were not too ideal, but she also found that the Huiming tea produced in Jingning was actually a tribute tea in the pre-Ming Dynasty, with a long history, but the name was not exactly the same as in modern times, so she misunderstood. It seems that this time she wants to take advantage of history, but she can't, so she has to pin her hopes on the remaining two teas. Taiping Houkui is from Anhui, don't care for the time being, then Cai Zhuocheng is from Zhejiang, so let him go to Quanganghui white tea first.

Cai Zhuocheng moved his family here, and as soon as he settled down, Zhang's side ordered someone to invite a doctor to go over to see his mother. The doctor said that his mother's illness needed to be recuperated, and the medicine used had his own two rooms to worry about, and the waiting staff was also available, so Cai Zhuocheng started his work very dedicatedly.

When he saw Zhao Xiu for the first time, he was only amazed, who would let a little girl ask about such a big thing about buying an industry? But after listening to her for a while, I felt that she was clearly organized, and her words and deeds were extraordinary, not comparable to ordinary little girls of the same age, so I didn't dare to underestimate her anymore. Hearing her say that there was good tea in Shengzhou, he immediately said everything he knew: "The tea produced in Shengzhou is indeed famous, especially in a place called Pingshui, the Rizhu tea produced on the Rizhu Ridge in the east was still exclusively for the imperial tea of Ouchi in the previous dynasty." This dynasty didn't like this, but the tea of Pingshui was even liked by merchants from abroad. We all call it Pingshui Pearls Tea, each tea leaf looks like pearls, the tea soup is fragrant and flavorful, and it is very resistant to brewing. However, the villain didn't know that there was a place called Qiangang Village, which also produced good tea. ”

Zhao Xiu has not found relevant evidence. I can only say vaguely: "I don't remember which book I read about it, the tea produced there is made out to be round and not round, similar to the shape of Pingshui's pearl tea." But some are different, and the tea is fragrant and refreshing, which can be called a treasure. ”

Cai Zhuocheng was interested, since some "predecessors" discovered this kind of tea, which proves that it is indeed zài, and it is somewhat similar to Pingshui bead tea, the difficulty of development is much smaller. It's cold these days. It's almost the Chinese New Year, and it is impossible for him to leave his sick mother and go to Shengzhou to find tea, but he can chat with his fellow tea merchants nearby. Inquire about the situation in various tea producing areas in Shengzhou to see if you can find clues about Qiangang Village.

Before he could find out why, Zhao Xiu had already found relevant records here, which was mentioned in a previous travelogue. There is a covered mountain in the vicinity of Siming Mountain. The mountain is more than 1,000 feet high, there is a place called Qiangang on the mountain, it is halfway up the mountainside, it is shrouded in clouds and mist all the year round, the climate is cold, but the land is fertile, suitable for growing tea. The author of the travelogue once picked a few wild tea leaves there to soak in water and drink, and the tea was fragrant. It smells good. Unfortunately, the conditions in the mountains there are harsh, and there are wild beasts. He heard its cry from afar, was frightened, grabbed a handful of tea, and ran away with his luggage. Afterwards, he drank the fragrant wild tea, and regretted in his heart that he had not caught a few more, but the thought of the beasts on the mountain dispelled the idea of returning to the old land.

Although the author was timid, his travelogue was very plain and vivid, and he also explained the route of the mountain road he had traveled at that time very clearly, so that those who read his travelogue could find the wild tea tree without much trouble. Zhao Xiu was overjoyed, but immediately began to worry again, because the travelogue said that there were wild beasts on the mountain, in case Cai Zhuocheng went to find the tea tree, but encountered danger, how could she be happy?

Zhao Xiu told Zhang, and Zhang said: "What's so difficult about this? Just send a few more powerful and martial arts guards to follow him. Wild beasts are terrible, but look at what you write in this book, the mountains are not full of wild beasts. The person who wrote the book was just a scholar, and he was still able to escape safely, and a large group of people went there, so it was naturally more stable. Let them flee away as soon as they find the beast. ”

Zhao Xiu felt reasonable when he thought about it, and his mood was much more relaxed. Zhang picked up the travelogue and flipped through it, and said with a smile: "I forgot where it came from, I forgot about it a long time ago, I didn't expect you to be able to turn it out." Is the book you are talking about that kind of tea provenance this travelogue? But the boss only said that the wild tea from the front post was good, and he didn't say that it was similar to Pingshui bead tea? ”

Zhao Xiu smiled dryly: "Probably my granddaughter remembered it wrongly and mixed it up with other teas, right?" Hahaha......"

With clues and a road map, the search for new tea has been settled. Cai Zhuocheng went to make preparations before the trip, and Zhang also asked the people in the outer sixth room to bring a letter to the Hangzhou garrison, asking him to help take care of Cai Zhuocheng's tea shop. This garrison used to be a personal soldier of the county grandfather, and he was also a virtuous person, and he had a good relationship with the second room, and he would send people to give gifts and greetings during the New Year's holidays.

In addition, the Zhang clan also asked the clansmen to help find three or four powerful strong men, together with their two guardians, to prepare Cai Zhuocheng as an accompanying escort after the spring of next year.

Seeing that everything was ready, just waiting for the east wind, Zhao Xiu was really a little excited in his heart. If this thing can be done smoothly, then the second room will add a big entry, and it will be much more confident than relying only on the field. Sure enough, with the golden finger of crossing, it is not difficult for her to make money.

Who knew that she was excited for two days, and Zhang and Zhao Qixuan poured cold water on her.

Zhao Qixuan found a tea maker, and asked people who knew how to cultivate pearls. Because there were pearl households and jade workers in the former Ming Dynasty who studied the method of raising pearls, there were also people in the Lingnan area of this dynasty who understood this, Lingnan was too far away, so he went to find the pearl households and jade workers of the previous dynasty, but there was no result. The land of Susong has never been a place for pearl diving, more than 500 miles away Zhuji does not produce pearls now, when it comes to pearls are famous, pearl households live together, then of course the first choice is Hepu in Guangxi. However, during the reign of Emperor Taizu of this dynasty, he had ordered to pick pearls once, and the income was very small, and it was very dangerous, and it was also killed, so Emperor Taizu issued an order to prohibit pearl diving. Hepu Zhuchi was abandoned, and the bead households were scattered, and they didn't know where to go. If you really want to find it, send someone to the surrounding area of Hepu, and you can find a few, but in this way, it takes time and effort, and it may not be possible. Zhao Xiu listened to Zhao Qixuan's return, and he was a little hesitant.

Zhang also advised Zhao Xiu: "The first emperor banned pearl diving because of the labor and wealth of the people. Now you want to raise pearls, but you have to send people to look for pearls thousands of miles away, if you find people, you have to leave your hometown and go to Zhuji to raise pearls for you. Isn't this also a waste of money and labor? What if you can't raise beads? There is no shortage of money at home, it is enough to have tea and weaving farms, but this pearl is still forgotten, right? If you have to be free, you should read more books and practice female popularity. Another day, my grandmother will bring you a loom and teach you how to spin and weave, which is what a girl's family should do. ”

Zhao Xiu also knew in her heart that she was telling the truth, so she silently lowered her head and agreed, and after returning to the room, she put away the books that recorded the method of raising pearls, and took a box and locked it.

Maybe one day, she will be able to try to study the method of cultured pearls herself, but now she has to give up for the time being. Grandmother thought it was too much of a waste of money, and she knew it would be too much of a toss-up. Now that there are two new industries, housing leasing and weaving workshops, the tea garden has also been skimmed, which should be enough for the family, right?

Thinking about these days, she was full of thoughts about either the tea garden or raising pearls, and she delayed her homework. Grandmother probably thought it was bad to remind her. But spinning and weaving or something, she can learn, but she doesn't plan to bother too much.

She took a pen from the pen holder in the corner of the bookcase, spread out the blank paper, and began to practice calligraphy and painting.

That's what she wants to do. (To be continued......)