【Ticket Request】

On the night of the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, there were long queues of gifts in front of the major yamen in the capital, and the same was true of Xuancheng Bodi Garden, which was across the street from Lingji Palace, and the Taifu Temple two streets away could only be regarded as ordinary. Although Wang Zunde had already instructed his family to paste the red paper pocket containing the prayer stickers at the door of the official residence, and the family did not even prepare a pen and paper for the registration, it was inevitable that someone would come to send a congratulatory ceremony.

Of course, before Zhengdan, it can't be said that the Wang family has no decoration at all, there should be a door god, peach charm, ghost judgment, spring post or have, the general charcoal next to the door also has to put two, two taels of silver set of grass gold (note: gourd headdress made of gold and silver, pea-sized, exquisite craftsmanship, rich people's families wear it on their heads during the Spring Festival, generally two or three taels of silver a pair) is not willing to buy, but the moth made of black gold paper (moths, grass insects, butterfly headdresses made of black gold paper, some people even wear a full head) is also prepared.

If there is a difference from previous years, I am afraid that the only thing is the wall calendar on the wall.

The Australian wall calendar from Guangdong has just appeared in Beijing a few days before the New Year's Festival, and this beautifully printed paper thick monthly calendar has been favored by the market as soon as it was launched.

Gu Ziming's new product fully reflects his business acumen and subjective initiative, the shape is based on the Datong calendar used by the Ming Dynasty today, and the illustrations on the wall calendar are carefully selected twelve pictures of 'Australia' scenic spots, and even next year he plans to select twelve famous prostitutes in Jiangnan to paint a picture of a beauty, with this year's precedent, I am afraid that it will be the brothels that will come to ask for silver.

The ink and paper used to print the calendar came from the Brunei headquarters, thanks to the achievements of the Senate in the chemical industry over the past year or so, and the lithographic factory in Sanya, a new industry that could bring enough jobs and business opportunities to the locals, so that the newly attached Li people and Tan households could be stable, and naturally Fu Xiaofei's work achievements were further complemented.

It only took a few months from having this idea to putting it into practice, and even Gu Ziming himself was quite satisfied with this efficiency. Of course, the benefits are also extremely considerable, according to rough statistics, the cost of ink, paper and transportation plus the labor of engraving slate and printing and binding, the cost of 50,000 wall calendars to test the water is only ten cents each, so low that Gu Ziming feels a little embarrassed. These wall calendars can be sold for seven cents of silver each in Guangdong alone, and they went north along the canal, and when they arrived in Beijing, they could be sold for a high price.

It is no wonder, after all, this wall calendar is not only beautifully printed, but also has the solar terms and the birthday of important figures such as the emperor, cabinet ministers, Confucianism, and celebrities.

What's even better is that although this matter was initiated by Gu Ziming, the whole process was not done, and it was directly done by Fu Xiaofei in Sanya and then sold to Fujian private businessmen passing through Qiongzhou. Although the approval price of each copy is only 40 yuan, it is not much more profitable than in Guangzhou, and it is also several times the profit, in order to circumvent the ban in the mainland, it is also under the banner of exclusively for Annan. But the devil knows how much of it really flowed into Annan, and how much was smuggled into the north of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, 50,000 wall calendars were indeed sold out a year ago. Now it seems that a lot of bulk goods have also been transported by those merchants to Jiangnan and Jingshi a lot of years ago, I heard that because of the rich and interesting content, even the concubines and officials in the palace have bought them, after all, health and parenting may always be the two major themes of the harem.

At this time, the almanac is no more than others, in the Ming Dynasty is expressly forbidden to print privately, every year the official seal of the yellow calendar must be stamped with the seal of the Qin Tianjian in order to be sold uniformly, the printing of the private calendar is punished in violation of the system, but the official yellow calendar often has to count the money and silver, after Jiajing, the law is gradually relaxed, especially in Fujian and other places, there are more private prints, and there are always people who want to get a piece of the pie in the market of tens of millions of copies a year.

It's just that the merchants are more careful like this time, and the name of this thing on the market does not have a calendar but is called the month card, and when it is sold to customers, it is said that it is convenient for large merchants and scholars to record important things on it. Since he is a businessman, if there is a debt that is receivable but not collected, it can be written on it at a glance.

Although this thing is still very simple in Wang Xingping's opinion, the color-printed wall calendar can already make Wang Zunde's eyes shine, and I heard that this book was bought by a subordinate to pay homage.

What's more, the Australian goods of the Beijing division are not only this kind, now the Guangdong version of the book Beijing has been able to see a lot, take the "Romance of the Gods" as an example, the complete set of market price to tattoo silver two taels, but also divided into many volumes, it is really inconvenient, the new version of Wan Tong is all small characters, although the book is thicker but a single one, and the paper is crisp and the text is fine and there are sentences to read, the most important thing is that such a book only needs to tattoo silver five coins, less than the original three percent. These days, Wang Liangjia Jintai Bookstore in Zhengyangmen, Yongshun Bookstore at the entrance of the Daming Gate Dongli Department, Wang Xingping accompanied more than one friend to see the original books and 'pirated' Australian books in these bookstores and put them together for sale, but although the original cover is stamped with the big red seal of 'If it is reprinted, it will be corrected for thousands of miles', but who is like piracy is a situation that makes people laugh and cry.

He sometimes even felt that if the Ming Dynasty did not go to war with the Senate in the future, those printing houses would also want to fight.

As for other multi-color overprinted Australian paintings, travelogues are even more easy to sell, plus the Australian mercury mirror, magnifying glass and the small number of Guoshi Wushuang liquor that have flowed into Beijing, this Spring Festival is also interesting.

For ushering in the gift and receiving gifts, Wang Zunde is naturally not exempt from vulgarity at the current festival, Taifu Temple is in charge of Ma Zheng and Chang Yingku, which is considered to be a position with some financial power, and he is the second person in the department in terms of seniority and real power. Now that the north is not appeased, some military generals have come to pay homage and fight for some benefits. Wang Zunde has always been quite helpless about such a thing, but as long as he is upright and asks for a hand, he doesn't mind helping, a few days ago Wang Xingping told him that Zhou Yiming's horses were weak and unbearable, so he took the initiative to transfer more than 200 Xingong war horses to Zhou's station in Tongzhou.

The other one of the people who visited was the Guizhou townsman in the capital, such as Ma Shiying, who was about to become a new branch of Jinshi, would naturally come to pay New Year's greetings tomorrow, and there were some Guizhou businessmen who lived in Beijing and usually had a lot of contacts and inevitably socialized, but Wang Zunde did not like to be lively, and there was no drum music at home. However, Wang Xingping didn't think it was necessary, after all, just listening to the sound outside was lively enough, and the sound of firecrackers had not stopped since sunset.

Now Wang Xingping can be regarded as having seen the Ming Dynasty's gift-giving methods, it is said that some of the books that look elegant are also hollowed out, and the doors of the major yamen are impassable throughout the first half of the night, and the lights are even more meandering from a distance, and it is not much worse than the light market in the first month. Although an official of Wang Zunde's level is only a dozen taels of gold, there are more than 100 taels of silver in these days alone, which is not the usual ice and charcoal two respects.

Fortunately, Wang Zunde has always adhered to the way of honesty and self-discipline, although it is inconvenient to return the money received, but it is also used in the affairs of his hometown, just like Wang Xingping is now training in Tuntian, Guizhou, Wang Zunde knew that he helped two hundred taels of silver, and he was cloth, clothing, vegetables and food as usual.

The noise on Chinese New Year's Eve continued until midnight, so that until midnight, Wang Zunde could gossip with his children and nephews in the back hall of the official office. There is only a table of eight immortals and a few snacks in the hall, and several people each begged for red envelopes and went early, and now there are Wang Zunde and Wang Xingping, Wang Zunde's son is not around, only a little grandson Wang Chengzhi is playing by himself in the hall, and the concubine Tang is taking care of his grandson while warming wine and cloth dishes for the two. The charcoal fire in the furnace was burning very strongly, which made Wang Xingping, who had just come back from outside, feel a little hot, and hurriedly took off the cloud-shaped shawl made of mink and warmed his ears.

"I didn't expect the New Year in Beijing to be so lively." Wang Xingping still has a trace of excitement in his heart, after all, it is rare to see such a 'busy' scene at night in this era, which makes him have a lot of closeness to Beijing after a long absence from nightlife.

Wang Zunde smiled indifferently and asked, "Just came back from Qipan Street?" ”

"I just came back from there, indeed." Yang Wencong was transferred to the south because of Lao Tzu, and he was bored with Wang Xingping to hang out in Beijing for the New Year, Wang Xingping didn't want to go out to play on a cold day, but he was also interested in seeing the New Year's scene in the city.

Wang Xingping smiled, Qipan Street is inside the Zhengyang Gate, to the north is the Six Yamen and the Five Military Governor's Mansion and Daming Gate, to say that the Spring Festival to give gifts to officials, there has always been the busiest, the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve is really asking for a horse stake and not getting.

Putting down the topic, Wang Zunde raised the letter in his hand again, and said: "I just received a letter from Mingde during the day, saying that everything is fine at home, and since the beginning of this year, the training of the troops in the Jierong Institute has been quite effective, and the surrounding chieftains have also converged a lot. ”

Wang Xingping said embarrassedly: "I have been running around for most of the year, and I have not achieved the work of size, which is really ashamed." ”

Wang Zunde said with a smile: "There is nothing to be ashamed of, what you have done is a fundamental plan, and the second brother can also be blind if he knows what to do." ”

"I still have to do it with my uncle."

"You can rest assured, I have already put on the question book what you said, I heard the news that Yang Chupu will return to the ministry in a few days, and there is naturally no problem on the side of the military department, last time you said that the criminal department was also tied?"

"It's a senior brother of the same year, named Liu Duo is now the director of the Zhejiang Qing Officials Division, the day before yesterday, my nephew Zuodong invited him again, and he also introduced a colleague for me, who is also the head of the Criminal Department, and now he is in charge of Jiangxi, and they all promised his nephew to help."

"Jiangxi Division? It seems to be called Hong Chengchou? Wang Zunde thought for a while.

"It's this person, they all promised their nephews to help him turn around in the criminal department."

"Got the money?"

"That's not true, my nephew only sent some Australian goods." Wang Xingping said with a smile.

Wang Zunde said again: "Your senior brother is helping. ”

"Senior Brother Ma really cares about friendship, and he and Na Ruan Dacheng are also good, I have met twice these days."

"Ruan Dacheng heard that he is a disciple of Gao Cunzhi (note: Gao Panlong)."

"It seems so."

"The young master of the Yang family also loves to be with them?"

"Exactly." Wang Xingping smiled and shook his head helplessly, his uncle seemed to have some prejudices against Yang Wencong, but after Yang Wencong arrived in Beijing, he really only cared about making friends and traveling, and did not focus on his studies.

"He didn't say that he was concentrating on preparing for the exam, Brother Wish (note: Yang Shikong) still walked too well, so it was better to wait for his son to finish the test before going to work, and now his temperament is wild and there is no one to control him." Wang Zun was very serious, "If it goes on like this, how will it be tried, but I can say two things." ”

Wang Xingping also wanted to defend his friend, "Longyou is indeed talented and learned, and he is always so indulgent because he has some success." ”

Wang Zunde's expression was calm, and he replied: "I also just heard that the president of this year's Spring Festival is Shi Lianyue (note: Shi Jikai). ”

"What? Does uncle think there's anything wrong with Shi Shaozai? ”

"He is also quite straightforward, but it seems to be a little discordant with that Ruan Dacheng, Yang Wencong and Ruan Dacheng are too close to him, it is inevitable that he will be criticized, which is not a good thing."

"I see, my nephew should remind Brother Yang in private."

…………

After having supper at Wang Zunde's place, and talking more, he returned to his residence in the outer city for almost three watches, but fortunately, the curfew was not very strict during the New Year's Festival, and he was only questioned once when he passed the first patrol police shop in the west of Zhengyangmen.

Back on the second floor of the inn, Wang Xingping was not sleepy, he thought about it, although it had been a long time since the agreed time on weekdays, he still took out the radio from the box, took out the antenna from the window, and began to send the report as usual.

In the sound of firecrackers, with the notes of the arrival of the new year, Morse code beats regularly.

'Everything is fine in the capital......

'The set goal was successfully ......'

'See you tomorrow ...... Qi Chengyi'

[References]

1, "Daming Huidian"

2, "Records of Emperor Mingshen Zongxian"

3, "Heavenly Creation" Song Yingxing

4. "Ming Dynasty Book Price Test" Yuan Yi

5, "Wanli Shuntianfu Chronicles"

6, "Wanli Ye Ed" Shen Defu

7, "Chronicles of the Middle" Liu Ruoyu

8, "Wan Department Miscellaneous Notes" Shen Bang

9. "Wanli Shuntianfu City Restoration Map"

10, "History of the Ming Dynasty • The Biography of Hong Chengchou"

11, "History of the Ming Dynasty • The Biography of Ruan Dacheng"

12, "History of the Ming Dynasty • The Biography of Ma Shiying"

13, "Ming Ji Nanluo" Zhang Yin