The Huangpu River connects the county seat of Shanghai with the Nanzhong Business District, close to each other but far away.

After more than three years of construction, this leased land built on the reed beach on the Huangpu River has begun to take shape, and there are some prosperous places. Although the county seat of Shanghai on the opposite side is large in scale and built early, it is full of beggars, homeless people, and people who are starving to death everywhere. The streets and alleys are full of garbage, and the city is full of vegetable leaves and dust, but here it is full of vitality, full of vitality and vitality, as far as the eye can see, and there are people who are full of energy and ruddy faces.

The road connecting the wharf outside the business area is very smooth with cinders and gravel, and in order to make it stronger, careful craftsmen have mixed some lime ash into it, and the road from the wharf to the concession is as smooth as a stone. Although the road is wide enough for several horse-drawn carriages to walk side by side, it follows what the locals call "traffic rules".

Different from the potholed streets in Shanghai County, the streets in the business area are all paved with ash and smooth pavement, clean and clean, without the slightest sludge and fecal water, and there are some bamboo baskets at the door of the shops on the side of the street on both sides of the street, which are used to hold garbage and other things, and there is a special sanitation bureau in the city to recruit those old and poor people, especially the elderly, who regularly clean and collect garbage every day, and there are special vendors who collect garbage to sell for profit.

Every morning, there are people who specialize in collecting night incense and push vehicles to collect the feces of each household and sell it in various places outside the district. These feces. Not to mention that for ordinary peasant households, even for the landlords and gentry, they are all treasures, and the children in the countryside have nothing to do, they just go out to pick up dung. It's just that with the abandonment of farming, the fleeing of households, the abandonment of wasteland, and the manure of various places, no one has collected it for a long time.

It's here in Shanghai, because there is a store in this business zone. A large number of materials are connected and transferred, showing a rather prosperous scene.

From the fourteenth year of Chongzhen. Several prosperous and wealthy places in the vicinity have been plagued by natural disasters and locust plagues, countless fields have been abandoned, and displaced people are everywhere.

From April to August of the 14th year, the area of Wujiang. There is no rain in the drought. Flying locusts cover the sky. The official ordered him to be arrested. Increasingly. The price of rice is four taels of silver per stone, and the beggars are full of roads, and many pillows are dying. The folk take the rotten grain residue as the treasure. or elm bark on tree cuttings. Factories are set up everywhere to give porridge, and tens of millions of people eat it every day.

In the spring of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, there was a great drought, and the rice money was 110 Wen, and the people had child eaters. The relics of the temple and the Longfu Temple set more than 1,000 hungry people, the day of death is not a sage, the tax grain is urgent, the rice is one-third, the wheat is discounted, one or two or five dollars per stone. Winter rice is four taels per stone, starving to death, and floating corpses are rolling in the river. At the entrance of the city gate and alley, a hundred and ten children were abandoned, or someone led them away, or regarded them as dead, and abandoned them in the graves, or gathered and burned them, or dug pits and buried them, and there were countless covers. Fortunately, those who did not die, peeled the bark of the elm tree for bread, the bran bark for porridge, and looked at the village, the bark was stripped away, and it was a famine that had not been seen for decades.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), the great drought of An, the flying locusts covered the sky and went down, the place where it was gathered, the seedlings and the reeds were exhausted, the people cut the bark and sawdust mixed with chaff to eat, or dig the white mud in the mountains for food, the name is Guanyin powder. On the left side of Hanshan, the place name Liang Village, hundreds of strongmen gathered to make a rebellion, fortunately it was extinguished in a few days, but the plague followed, but the government not only did not give free money and food, but severely punished and urged the department. The price of rice in Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture is as expensive as 323 coins per stone of silver, and 222 coins of wheat stone. The people are struggling to eat, they are displaced, the old children abandon the roadside, the urban and rural houses are dumped in the air, and the dead are resting on their backs.

Natural disasters and high prices have made the business district more and more prosperous. Every day, the large and small ships in the Huangpu River unload a boatload of grain, rice, oil and salt, and merchants from all over the country are busy taking the delivery vouchers to the stack to pick up the goods and take them away, and transport them to various places to make a lot of money.

Since the fall of Luoyang and the death of King Fu, in addition to the import of agricultural products on the surface and the trade of weapons and gunpowder in the secret, this trade area has also traded a large amount of cotton cloth.

In the past, the Susongtai area of Hangjiahu, known as a paradise on earth, also had a large number of displaced people called by the huge attraction exuded by the business area, consciously or unconsciously voting with their feet, and came here to try their luck and see if they could seek a way to survive for themselves and their families in this legendary magical place.

For a time, Shanghai County and several nearby county towns and Acropolis were overcrowded with such displaced people. Everywhere there are those who are numb, humble, fearful, and pitiful. It's a stark contrast to the people here.

And the people here always make people feel weird, or they have a different momentum, that is a kind of self-confidence and high-spirited momentum, and they all walk with their heads held high and strides. It seems that people here, up and down, all have a kind of hope, or a kind of dream.

These people were all secretly glad that they were lucky enough to be able to decide to invest in the trade zone at the beginning of its establishment, and some even brought their own land to join. At this time, the bustling scene of the business district made these profiteers ecstatic: all kinds of shops were lined up, and merchants were constantly coming and going. Compared with Shanghai County, Jinshanwei, Fengxian, Chuansha, and even Huzhou in Suzhou not far away, this is simply not a place of the Ming Dynasty, but another beautiful country without disasters and wars.

At this time, it is the beginning of the day, and many shops are taking advantage of the last business opportunity of the day to do business. When the street is bustling, although the autumn mood is already strong, there are occasionally a few autumn rains falling in the sky, and the river breeze blowing on the river surface also carries a slow coolness, but it does not affect the pedestrians on the street like weaving and shuttling lively.

On the side of the Huangpu River, there are a large number of warehouses and shops engaged in various trading and service activities with the Nanchu Trading Company, and countless people are looking for places to rest and play, so a large number of teahouses, restaurants and restaurants have been created. In some quiet alleys, there are a lot of fireworks and moon places, and the Qinhuai River, which is also doing business at the water's edge, is not so secretive here, talking about poetry and painting, as long as the price is appropriate, it is a porter who carries a big man on the dock, and you can also have a shot with the Oiran in the yard.

"We are the authentic courtyard here, please Guan Zhong as the ancestor master! It's like the group of bitches in Nanqu by the Qinhuai River, who don't do their jobs every day. Just thinking about how to catch a golden beetle son-in-law and become a little wife in a rich family?! A bitch is a bitch, whether it's a milk tea seller or a green tea seller! ”

It was dinner season, on several streets, the teahouses and restaurants were full of power, all kinds of knives and spoons, running halls and shouting, bursts of wine-scented meat, just from the restaurants spewed out. The large and small rice shops, rice stalls and noodle stalls on the street are also desperately shouting, beckoning those coolies who have just finished a day's hard work to come to the store to fill their stomachs. Trying to do your own business.

The newly opened "Zhengxing Pavilion" near the river is a comprehensive eating place. Advertise yourself as an authentic local dish, including grass head circles, braised poached wings, shrimp and black cucumber, herring chin paddling, herring bald lung, fried shrimp and other dishes that can be feasted by wealthy businessmen. There are also things that ordinary people eat, such as dregs and bowls, bald lungs, large meat buns, crab shell yellow, and large row noodles. In order to solicit business. Increase popularity. The shrewd boss even opened a café and invited a gentleman who sang and read the newspaper to tell the story, so that the business was even fuller. Upstairs and downstairs are crowded with people with all kinds of noises, bursts of excited discussions continue to come, and even the tea guys can't help but stop and listen to it.

In the café in the lobby on the first floor, diners are enjoying a rich dinner while discussing the latest business opportunities.

"No master Lu Ban's skills? It doesn't matter. There are no skills such as riveting and dovetail grooves by great craftsmen? Don't panic. Trumpet here has recently purchased 10,000 catties of fine iron nails from Hejing Manufacturing, and the beams and wooden frames of the house are ordinary women and children, and they can be done with a hammer, and they will be nailed firmly with a nail......"

"I can't buy endless Hengtang yarn, and I can't finish collecting Songjiang cloth. But, man, now that Nanzhong muslin has been transported by boatloads and boats to various places, you still plan to make money by spinning and weaving? If you want me to say, simply buy cotton yarn in Hengtang on the spot, buy white cloth in various parts of Songjiang, sell it to Nanzhong Trading Company for finished dyed muslin, and sell it everywhere, and there is a hat to grab when you enter and exit! ”

"Do you still plan to keep those hundreds of bags of raw silk? I tell you, even if your goods are Nanxun's Qili silk, you will be yellowed from spring to autumn, and then put it down, and it will be completely sold for money in the spring of next year! How are you going to pay back the money you should have? What the? Is your raw silk the best color of the Bajia standard? My brother, you don't want to think about it, no matter how good-looking a girl is, can she still marry at the age of thirty? ”

"Boss Lin, I got a textile machine from Nanzhong, if it weren't for the fact that my wife was a sworn sister who followed Miss Li's mother-in-law in Nanjing, and walked the way of Miss Li, and begged for words, I got twenty textile machines from the Longsheng luggage shopkeeper, which were made of nine-turn steel in one color in the critical parts! Much better than those looms made of wood at home! I don't plan to knock you to death with a stick, a machine, a thousand yuan! If you want your little brother to take a stake in your weaving yard, one machine will top three strands! ”

In the lobby, people listened to the storyteller read the newspaper commentary, interspersed with commentary, drinking and talking about business.

And in some of the darker corners, there are also people talking about business that is not very light.

"He Ye, among my 2,000 people, there are seven or eight hundred people who are weavers from all over the country, if it weren't for the continuous disasters everywhere, Nanjing weaving would not be able to use so many manpower, and the weaving workshops everywhere were not doing well, and dozens of Caidong who opened weaving workshops all changed careers to sell Nanzhong cloth to Nanzhong merchants as sitting, how could these people be sold to you by me? Can you raise the price even more? I've been feeding them for more than half a month with one meal and two meals a day, and I can't even get my money back, right? ”

"Huang Fatty, you don't cry poor with me here, who doesn't know that you, these weavers, were originally the house slaves of each family, and the master of the house didn't want it, so he threw it to you? Do you feed them with one dry and one sparse one? Who doesn't know that on the edge of the Huangpu River, all the people who are favored by Long Shengxing are living two days a day? Eating meat on the fifteenth day of the new year, the table is good, and the reward of being selected as the leader is a salted egg every day? You people bought it and sold it to the masters of Longsheng, don't you have to spend time and favors? Don't you have to feed them with food? ”

"He Ye, what kind of character are you?! Who in the Huangpu River doesn't know that you and Long's prevailing shopkeeper Lei are brothers, and he can delay your business? If these weavers can't inspect it, and can't pass the test that is prevalent in Guòlong, you will put me in the jar and pull me to Wusongkou to plant lotus! ”

"You kid can talk! Get! I'm going to get it! But. I don't have any cash for you! It just so happens that there is a batch of makeup and five poisonous red yarns on hand, which are from the authentic Jiulongjiang Weaving Workshop! I'll give you four dollars a horse, which is worth the price of these people! ”

The human trafficker known as Huang Fatzi, who has been in the human population business of selling leaves and moving stones for many years, has always been a handful of money and a handful of goods, and today he can't help but hesitate a little when he has to barter goods.

It's not that the deal is unprofitable, on the contrary, it looks like the profits are still very good. During the Wanli period, the cost of a big red yarn with makeup and five poisons was fifteen taels, but the imperial court only gave the salary of six taels and five yuan. And now the retail selling price of this makeup five-poison red yarn sold on the market is directly six yuan a horse, and if you buy it in large quantities, it can be a little lower. But no matter what, it has to be more than five yuan. He shook his head. Have a long face. After complaining bitterly, he took over the business.

(In fact, for Longsheng, the cost of this kind of makeup five-poison red yarn (including transportation costs) is only three yuan, five or six yuan, even if it is dumped at a "low price", it is definitely a huge profit.) ）

In the dark corner downstairs, there is a talk of shady business. In the private room upstairs. Several are sturdy and burly. His expression and demeanor were rough, and his eyes flashed with a cold light, and what he negotiated with the murderous man was a simply dark business.

I am glad to say it. Suddenly, there was a commotion downstairs, and a voice said, "The patrol is coming." "And the chengguan!"

"The people from the urban management bureau are here, be careful not to spit and throw garbage! Also, Xiao Er, tell our guys, take a closer look at our stall, whether it has crossed the line! Beware of those chengguan, they are all hob meat that does not enter oil and salt! Thirteen o'clock! ”

The men in the private room suddenly stopped talking, pushed open the window and followed the voice, and saw some people wearing black hats and short blue armor walking around the street, some of them had their hands copied, some of them had their hands behind their backs, and they had short clubs hanging from their waists, all of them had their chests and bellies, and their eyes were as sharp as eagles, and they only shot into the crowd.

Someone next to him whispered: "These urban management is really tight, and they are in charge of the city's appearance and sanitation of small merchants and hawkers, and they are ranked to see that the business district is clean and tidy, right?" It's all the work of these chengguans! Donkey balls! Spit out a copper dollar for spitting, and a silver dollar for standing in the corner of the wall to untie a small hand, or you helped them catch two people urinating anywhere! Those vendors who set up stalls indiscriminately, many of them were poisoned, and they complained and scolded them endlessly, all because of the discarding of garbage everywhere, food residues and sewage were all over the ground, and after being caught by the chengguan, they were first beaten with sticks, and then fined, and they had to hang a license plate with the words unqualified hygiene and food consequences on the stalls, so who dared to eat? The small merchants and hawkers in this city are all afraid and hated of this chengguan, but when they went to the county seat, they felt that they couldn't do it without chengguan! ”

The man told his companion one thing and knew how powerful the chengguan was: in the spring, a group of scholars came to this business district to visit, and by the way, they bought some underwear, stockings, high heels, and other boudoir toys for their wives and concubines. As a result, he was very ashamed of what Uncle Ning Yuan had done, and in his words, he scolded Uncle Ning Yuan for competing with the people for the benefit of the people and not valuing the scholars, etc. Originally, they scolded Ning Yuanbo for this kind of thing, and they didn't bother to care about the patrol, and they didn't want one of them to snort in the street, and spit out a mouthful of phlegm to express their anger.

Unexpectedly, this move was seen by a group of chengguan, and immediately went up and asked Naxiu to pay a fine of ten copper yuan, on the grounds that the spring plague was rampant, and the person was suspected of maliciously spreading the disease. Not wanting to refuse to pay the fine because of the bad attitude of the group of scholars, the chengguan simply added a fine of one silver yuan per person.

"It's a hornet's nest. At that time, someone went to Shanghai County to report to the official. It happened that Jiangsu Xuezheng and Yushi were here, and they were furious when they heard this, so they immediately issued an official document, ordering the good students in the business zone to send this group of students out and not insult Sven. And guess what? ”

"Donkey balls! Let us Lao Tzu see, I'm afraid that the chengguan here will be unlucky! ”

"Wrong! Wrong! ”

"Grandma's! Could it be that those students are still unlucky? ”

"Even if you don't win, it's not far away!"

The one who was doing business with this group of rough men was one of the many people in the trade area, the scalpers, or brokers.

"The shopkeeper of Huang Da here directly threw out the official document of Jiangsu Xuezheng, saying that Lao Tzu's urban management is right! Then he ordered that the gate of the trade zone be closed, and the grain, rice, oil, salt, and cloth that had been prepared to be sent to Nanjing, Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou and other places would be delivered. There are also weapons and armor that are ready to be sent to various places along the Yangtze River, and the transportation has been stopped. Then, the cannons on the wall were pushed up, and all the Ding Zhuang people in the business area wore armor and held knives, this time, but the Jiangnan officialdom and the old men left behind in Nanjing were frightened! ”

Several men pinched the cups in their hands and stopped talking, and after a while, a man with a Shaanxi accent asked in a low voice: "Then, what about these old men in the Ming court?" ”

"What to do? Master Liu, do you know who owns many of the boats in this river? Six or seven out of ten are these old men, and the grain, rice, oil, salt and cloth in the Shanghai Business Zone and Ningbo Trade Zone are one day late. How much money are they going to lose? And now there are various state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River. How many Shengdou small people have to live on grain and rice from Nanzhong? There are also those scholars who can only survive by relying on the anointing food sent by Miss Li in Nanjing. Not to mention that the military towns along the Yangtze River just have a reason to defeat the battle, we don't have weapons and gunpowder in our hands, how can we fight?! ”

And so. This academic politics and imperial history have offended the big guys? ”

"Not really! One was so angry that he went home and handed over the question book, quit the official and went home to eat the old rice. The other is said to have died of illness within a few days! ”

The expressions on the faces of those people changed even more when they heard this. The scalper hurriedly enlightened everyone, "Master Liu, Master Luo." Li Ye, in fact, this is also a good thing. The law of Nanzhong is practiced in this business zone, and one good thing is that the law of the Ming Dynasty will not work here, as long as you don't commit crimes here, it doesn't matter if there are big things outside. It's the robbery of the emperor, the day is the mother, and it has nothing to do with it! ”

Hearing this, several people couldn't help but look at each other, and then laughed out loud as if they had unloaded a thousand pounds of burden.

"It has nothing to do with robbing the emperor's mother, so what if we burn the emperor's ancestral tomb and kill his two uncles?"

"Although I am not as arrogant as these people, I am also very unhappy with the emperor, I don't know what to do?"

"That's right! Let's see that a lot of gunboats have come to the river in the past few days, and there are still a lot of troops ashore, I don't know what to do? ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, those warships and troop carriers have been rumored on the streets these days that they are going to transport troops north to fight the Tartars in Liaodong, what do you have to do with them?"

Seeing that the scalper's face was flushed by a few people, and beads of sweat kept rolling down his forehead, several men couldn't help laughing.

In the midst of laughter, footsteps, stairs and a series of greetings could be heard.

"But it's the shopkeeper of Huangda."

"Brother Huang hasn't seen him for many days, and he has always been good."

"I saw the shopkeeper of Huang Da again, I listened to the high arguments that day, and I gained a lot, and I will listen to it again today."

"Huang Da shopkeeper! What is a good business, but you have to take care of your little brother! ”

In the midst of a greeting, a gentle voice with an accent of Nanzhong official dialect sounded: "Brothers, Huang really dare not be in love!" If I have something to do today, I will talk to you about it another day. ”

Then a typical businessman in his forties, slightly fat, wearing a foreign suit, with a smile in his eyes, walked into the private room with a smile on his face.

After greeting everyone present, the shopkeeper stopped the scalper from introducing him one by one.

"Let's guess and see if it's accurate."

"This little brother, you are the youngest among these people, just Junjie, and you have a Shaanxi accent. I think it's Li Ye, the righteous son of the eighth master of Ansai, who is traveling between the Han of the Jianghuai River at this time? ”

"This benevolent brother, your book is the thickest in front of you, but your clothes are the most simple among these people, and you are still wearing a coarse cloth jacket in such weather, you should be Liu Ye of the Mizhi Hongji who is doing business in the Bianliang area at the moment."

"Sitting next to Liu Ye, I think it is the brother of the Tenth Master of Yan'an Luo, who has recently joined forces with Mizhi Hongji to do business."

"And this, with a pair of thick-soled official boots under his feet, and some Liaodong accents from time to time when he speaks, should be the cadre of the Kunshan who has been doing business with Liu Ye, Tenth Master and little brother Li Ye?"

The origins of these people in front of them were reached by Huang Yiwei one by one, but a few people didn't think it was strange, what was this little secret of their own in other people's acres and threes of land?

Yes, these people who came were Li Zicheng's subordinate Liu Tichun, Luo Rucai's cousin Luo Ruxiang, who was ranked tenth, Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son Zhang Dingguo, whose surname was Li, and the opposite was Zuo Liangyu's henchman. (To be continued......)