Time is like an arrow, and in the blink of an eye, it has entered August.

The capital is overcrowded again, the Zhili Township Test is also carried out in the Gongyuan, and thousands of Xiucai have come to the prefectures and counties of Zhili, and the inns outside the Xuanwu Gate and near the Gongyuan have long been full, and many Xiucai can only rent a house to live.

Ji Yunfei, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, who did not become the same examiner in the Enke Hui examination, was finally selected as the same examiner of the Zhili Township Examination, and he took his family into the Gongyuan early the morning before yesterday.

Ao Tongxian was very envious, and Han Xiufeng was happy for Ji Yunfei in his heart, but he was only happy to help, because there were more important things to do these days.

With the help of Fugui, he spent two hundred taels to buy a large pile of old furniture from the Chongwenmen Tax Customs and the Internal Affairs Office, and even demolished the rockery, wall, cloister and threshold of a prisoner's house that was raided by the imperial court a few years ago. So many rags couldn't be transported back like this, so I had to find an old yard, let the old carpenter and a few apprentices of the old carpenter find Pan Er repair in the temporarily rented yard, repair it, find a lacquer maker to paint, and then transport it back to the hall when the paint is dry.

I also bought a lot of damaged porcelain, lacquerware, calligraphy and paintings, and kept the Shandong man Pan Er looking for busy.

The last time he went to the courtyard that was confiscated by the imperial court to pull things, Pan Er even picked up a Western clock with a high one, and the Shandong people tossed it for two days and didn't repair it, Han Xiufeng simply asked him not to repair it, and transported the Western clock to the temporarily rented yard to ask the old carpenter to repair it, repair and paint, and then transport it back to the hall as an untimely decoration.

I go out early and return late, running in these four places all day, and sometimes I am so busy that I can't even take care of eating.

There wasn't much to do today, so I finally stayed in the newly rented courtyard for a while, and Yu Youfu sent an uninvited guest from the hall. The family is an official master, and it is the imperial history who has just returned to Beijing from Huguang inspection, Han Xiufeng can only receive him warmly: "Master Huang, I'm sorry, the guild hall is being renovated, so I can only grieve you to live here first." ”

Huang Zhongyin turned to look at Li Jin, and asked in a low voice: "Han Shoushi, it's full of people, but there is no room inside?" ”

"Master Huang, do you know, this courtyard was rented by Ao Tongchen Ao Mingchen, and Master Ao saw that the guild hall was being renovated, and the fellow villagers had no place to stay in Kyoto, so they lent the outside to the guild hall." Han Xiufeng paused, and added helplessly: "Master Boiled lives on both sides, but he doesn't live alone, he has a family and several family members. ”

Huang Zhongyin originally rented a courtyard in the capital, but later went to Huguang and stopped renting, and he couldn't stay long when he returned to Beijing this time, so he planned to borrow the guild hall, but he didn't expect that the guild hall was being renovated.

Huang Zhongyin really doesn't want to squeeze a room with his family, and he doesn't want to live in the courtyard rented by the Ao family like a sender, so he said casually: "Since I can't live, then I won't trouble you, I'll find a place to live by myself." ”

"Master Huang, why don't you sit down and have a sip of tea first, and I'll go to the provincial pavilion to help you see if there is a room?"

"No, I'll find my own place."

Huang Zhongyin said that he would take his family out of the yard when he left, and Han Xiufeng could only put him in the carriage and send the carriage to the entrance of the alley.

Yu Youfu couldn't help muttering: "Zhili Township Test, there are so many talents in the capital, those halls and inns are all full, it's good to have a place to live, and I don't think it's good for us to be here." If you want to talk about the official master, there are more official masters, isn't it just a royal history, what's so great. ”

"Uncle Yu, the imperial history is not great, who is great?" Han Xiufeng asked rhetorically.

"The imperial history is remarkable, but I don't look down on his lofty appearance, Master Ji is the same as Master Ao is the master of Hanlin, sooner or later he can be the imperial history, and even be a bigger official than the imperial history, people are more kind, there is really no shelf."

"Isn't it that you haven't done it yet, and you'll see it when you do it." Han Xiufeng smiled and said: "Besides, Master Huang and Master Ji are really different, speaking of us, we are from Ba County, and in fact, they are not on the list of Jinshi in our Mansion Pavilion and even the Provincial Pavilion. ”

"Why isn't Master Huang from Ba County?"

"It's really not," Han Xiufeng walked into the courtyard and patiently explained: "Master Huang is a native of Fujian, and he studied in Ba County with his father who did business in Ba County since he was a child. ”

Although Yu Youfu has been working in the county government for so many years, he only deals with peddlers and pawns on weekdays, where can he dare to provoke high-ranking officials and nobles, he really doesn't know this, and suddenly asked: "He is a jinshi of the Eight Provinces Gang?" ”

"Hmm." Han Xiufeng sat on the small stool, and sighed while continuing to wash clothes: "There are many platforms in the Huguang Guild Hall (the hall house of the temple is commonly known as the platform), the Jiangxi Guild Hall has a lot of silver, the Shanxi Guild Hall has a lot of sedan chairs, and the Fujian Guild Hall has a lot of tops!" The 'four more' of the eight provincial halls is reasonable, and there are not a few Fujian merchants in our Ba County who have meritorious names and even official titles, so much so that they no longer need to be insured by our Ba County's students. ”

"So many?" Yu Youfu will be skeptical.

"What are you lying about," Han Xiufeng glanced up, and continued: "Speaking of which, this has something to do with the fact that most of the officials and masters of our Ba County and even the government and provincial offices over the years are from eight provinces. A few days ago, I had a drink with Director Zhang, and I accidentally talked about it, and Director Zhang asked people to check the old files of the Provincial Pavilion. ”

Yu Youfu asked curiously, "Why are you scared?" ”

"From the Shunzhi Dynasty to the present, sixty-two of the more than 100 county magistrates in Ba County are from the eight provinces of Jiangnan, Huguang, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanxi and Guangdong, and half of them have served in Futai and East Sichuan. If you think about it, there are so many officials and masters who support them, and it is not easy to occupy the number of students and people in our Ba County and even Chongqing Prefecture. ”

Looking at Yu Youfu's incredible look, Han Xiufeng smiled again: "Actually, it's nothing, we used to be frogs at the bottom of the well, and we always felt that the merchants of the eight provinces occupied the magpie's nest, robbed our locals of their jobs, and made us locals' money, but in fact, if it weren't for them, there would be no Ba County today." ”

"Four babies, what do you mean by that?"

"Earlier, we only had eight squares in Ba County, and only two squares outside the city. If it weren't for Huguang filling Sichuan, if it weren't for them, merchants from eight provinces, our Ba County would never have been like this, and there were 29 squares in the city alone, and as many as 21 squares outside the city. ”

Han Xiufeng squeezed out a piece of freshly washed clothes, and continued: "It is precisely because of them, merchants from the eight provinces, that as early as the Yongzheng Dynasty, as early as the Yongzheng Dynasty, our Ba County issued as many as one hundred and fifty-two posters to merchants, ten times that of other prefectures and counties. Now how many tooth lines others don't know, Uncle Yu, you know, three hundred and sixty lines, we have one hundred and nine lines of teeth in Ba County, including 40 lines in Jiangxi, 43 lines in Huguang, 11 lines in Fujian, 5 lines in Jiangnan, 6 lines in Shaanxi, 2 lines in Guangdong, and only two lines in our Ba County, you say, if it weren't for these merchants, we would be so prosperous in Ba County? ”

vertex