In this era, riding a carriage is definitely a very sour thing, you can imagine a carriage without shock absorption facilities walking on the potholed road that kind of bumps up and down, left and right, no tried and tested people, on the top can not last long, the storage will feel that the internal organs are displaced together, the things eaten are rising together, ready to come out to enjoy the scenery outside.

If it was possible, Li Ze would never be willing to ride a carriage, even if it was not a comfortable thing to ride a horse, but it was better than a carriage, and riding a horse at least pursued a speed.

But this time when he went to the county seat, Li Ze was going to pretend to be a big-tailed wolf, and Xia He was accompanying him, and Xia He couldn't ride a horse, so he could only choose a carriage.

Sometimes Li Ze doesn't understand very much, obviously the carriage is so uncomfortable, why this thing has become a status symbol to a certain extent, it seems that there is no carriage, and when you go out, you are extremely faceless.

After walking on the road for a long time, Li Ze felt that he had some understanding, and along the way, he saw the ox cart, the donkey cart, and the cart pulled by the mule, but he really didn't see any other carriage besides him.

Horses are strategic materials, and it is indeed beyond the reach of ordinary people to have a few horses at home. And the carriage that Li Ze was sitting in was still a two-horse carriage, which was even rarer in this remote place.

Li Ze and his entourage of five people, he and Xia He sat in the carriage, Tu Lichun and Chu Sheng rode horses to guard both sides, twelve acted as grooms, sat on the wheels to catch the car, his buttocks were beaten, and there was no good way to do so, so he could only sit on the wheels in the air, every time he moved his buttocks and touched the wounds, he grinned in pain, and gasped slightly.

Li Ze is a person who does not want to suffer, since he can't change this road, and he doesn't have the ability to improve the overall performance of the carriage, it is still necessary to think of ideas to make himself sit a little more comfortable inside. His carriage, from the outside, is not unusual to most carriages in the world, but it is very different from the inside. The inside of the carriage, except for the floor, was covered with soft bags, made of satin bags, filled with cotton, flattened and sewn into small squares with needles and threads, and then covered in all the raised places to prevent the carriage from hitting its head when it was bumpy. On top of the two seats, two belts also made of silk tied him and Xia He firmly to the wall of the car, and Li Zemei called them seat belts.

Not to mention, such two belts will cross and tie people, and a little bump will be much better, of course, there is no good way to shake from side to side, you can only carry it.

Li Ze didn't have anything tied these two belts, but Xia He was strangled by these two belts, and the beautiful scenery was immediately revealed. Originally, after wearing a loose coat, Xia He's figure had been basically covered, but such a tie immediately made her appear in her original form, when it was really seen horizontally as a peak on the side of the ridge, with different heights and heights, Li Ze, who was sitting opposite him, looked Xia He up and down with a smile all the way.

The so-called beautiful and delicious, having such a little beauty sitting opposite for herself to admire, finally makes this somewhat painful journey more fun.

The closer you get to the county seat, the more pedestrians on the road will gradually increase, and the road will be much better, no longer the dirt road full of potholes and potholes as before, some fine stones will be compacted on the road, and drainage ditches can be seen on both sides, and the carriage will immediately go steadily.

Lifting the curtain of the carriage, Li Ze looked out, those who drove the cart, those who carried the burden, those who led the donkeys and mules, and those who pushed the wheelbarrow, there were men and women, old and young, and there were pedestrians on a road. In the Tang Dynasty, the status of women was still relatively high, there were women who were officials, there were women who did business, working in the fields, selling wine, it was commonplace, but it was not like the confinement of women in the Ming and Qing dynasties reached an unprecedented height.

This year's annual success is still good, even if it is an overcharge of three or five buckets, but the price of grain has also fallen, no matter how many thousand years have passed, the methods used by landlords and old rich businessmen to deal with the common people have not changed much.

Thinking of this, Li Ze blushed a little, because the price of grain in this county was suppressed, which was actually his masterpiece of Yixingtang. In the past two years, Yixingtang has almost monopolized the grain trade in the county, and the price of grain is almost a matter of Yixingtang's words. Now to lower the price of grain, and when the spring is not available, and then sell it at a higher price, this is a business that will make sure that you will not lose money.

Grain, at this time, is hard currency.

But blushing is blushing, how to do things, what to do, he doesn't do it, some people do it. Li Ze did not have a virgin heart in his previous life and in this life, within his line of sight, where he could do it, among the people he knew and was close to, he was willing to help them, as for those who did not know, he did not feel that he had to bear any responsibility for them.

That's a matter for the government.

Since the government has collected taxes, of course it has the obligation to take care of the lives and deaths of its people, and Li Ze, who is a person who takes risks to do business, will certainly not take on things that he should not bear.

Because, too, I paid taxes.

Thinking of this, Li Ze complained a little in his heart. Speaking of taxes, it's really not high, business tax is ten taxes, but if you think that there are really only these expenses, it would be naïve, up and down the dots must be in place, otherwise a small official can let you survive and not die, all kinds of can't prevent countless donations, and the big head is also them. The heart of the official is clear, and if he can collect the taxes of the people under his rule, it is already a thing that can be celebrated by beating gongs and drums, and such a thing as donating money cannot be expected too much, or it is a pleasure to extort merchants. Yixingtang is naturally the first to bear the brunt, so after a year, it is already three or four out of ten.

It does seem to be a bit high, but for this era, the profits of doing business are also extremely high, the backwardness of transportation, the blockage of information, making circulation extremely difficult, the goods here, the special products are only consumed there, basically can be sold at a high price.

Last month, Yixingtang had just donated a sum of money, which was apportioned by the county for the birthday of Li Anguo, the envoy of the Chengde Festival, that is, Li Ze's Laozi.

Li Ze really didn't expect such a thing, he could actually be publicly apportioned, and he was relieved when he thought about it later, the emperor Lao Tzu's birthday is not only celebrated by the whole world, but of course he also wants the whole world to pay money to congratulate the emperor, is there any difference between him and the emperor in Chengde?

It's just that Li Ze guessed that the officials in this county and the state probably took advantage of this incident to get a lot of money.

Not only did Yixingtang pay the money, but Li Ze also sent Tu Lichun to make a special trip and gave him a gift to Lao Tzu, even if he was not treated by Lao Tzu, but the filial piety that a son should fulfill must be fulfilled. However, the result made Li Ze very cold, and he accepted the gift, but he didn't even say a word back, because Tu Lichun didn't see the festival envoy at all.

The conversation with Gongsun Changming made Li Ze realize that the world of great contention may come at any time, and the current calm is only the last tranquility before the outbreak, and I don't know if this tranquility is two or three years, or four or five years, but no matter what, he wants to take advantage of this last quiet time to earn a little more money, and he needs a lot of money to pave the way for himself. When war broke out, business became a luxury, and a merchant without a strong force would only become the favorite of robbers and bandits in those days.

At such a critical moment, the current big shopkeeper of Yixingtang actually wants to come out with a moth, how can Li Ze tolerate it? Naturally, he was going to be kicked out.