In the autumn and July of the fourth year of Jiading in the Great Song Dynasty, new grain was listed.

At this time, the Great Song Dynasty was narrow and densely populated, although the Zhancheng rice was promoted, but because of its poor taste, it was not widely promoted in the fertile land of Liangzhejiang Road, but it was prevalent in mountainous places such as Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, and Fujian Road. Therefore, the capital and capital cities including Lin'an all need a large amount of food. Moreover, in the land of the two rivers and the two Huai, there are many people from Jingkang who return from the south of the Central Plains, and they like to eat pasta, so the demand for flour is extremely strong.

At this time, Lin'an City was more than 70 miles long, there were 8.9 million mouths in the city, and more than 400,000 people lived outside the city (Note 1), and the daily consumption of grain alone was nearly 30,000 stone. Among them, it is mainly rice, and some of it is flour, two Zhejiang, Fujian, two crops a year, generally one season of wheat is harvested first, and then one season of rice, and even one season of vegetables can be planted after two crops in the land of western Sichuan. Therefore, the source of wheat is quite sufficient.

There are hundreds of grain stores in Lin'an City, so the newly opened "Baoxing" is not noticeable. Although there was a lot of fanfare when it opened, Hu Fulang, the shopkeeper, is an old man in this circle, although he is young, less than thirty, but he has made the top and bottom transparent, so his peers are not suspicious of this new store.

But after a few days, the rest of the grain store shopkeepers felt the pressure, although the old customers in the store are still there, but some of the scattered customers who were originally swaying between the stores, almost all of them have transferred to the Baoxing grain store, fortunately, the Baoxing grain store only sells flour, not rice, leaving a way for the peers to survive, otherwise it will inevitably be suppressed by the peers.

"Baoxing's flour, is it really that good?"

Meng Shaotang, the owner of Lin'an "Rishengzhuang" grain store, sold rice and flour for a lifetime, and under his leadership, Rishengzhuang also became a large grain store in Lin'an, and there were six branches, so when he learned of the rise of "Baoxing", with a question, he personally went to "Baoxing" to find out the truth.

When he arrived at the door of "Baoxing", he was taken aback, so many people appeared in front of the grain store, and in previous years, it would only occur during the time of famine. The door of "Baoxing" is separated by a block of door panels, two small houses in front of the door to take care of, where a customer comes in, one of the small houses must make a smile, but also say "welcome", and a customer leaves, the other small house will also make a smile, say "thank you for your patronage".

"It's this little trick to attract guests?" Meng Shaotang pouted, he had been in business for many years, and he decided that it would not be so simple. So he didn't stop in front of the door for long, but walked straight to it.

"Guest, please enter from this door." Before he had crossed the door, one of the little guards seemed to know his intentions, so he came up and made a gesture, and then pointed to the other side of the door.

"Why can't you go in from here?" Meng Shaotang said with some surprise.

"I don't know yet, there are too many guests, and the right door enters and the left door goes out, which can prevent congestion." Before the little guy could respond, a person next to him rushed to say, "Old man, line up, line up behind me!" ”

Only then did Meng Shaotang notice that the group of people who entered the door was indeed lined up, and for every person who came out, one person entered the door. He twisted his beard a little puzzled, Lin'an is not a small place, the family servants of dignitaries and dignitaries and the ploppy wanderers in the city are all rampant, if they encounter such rules, they will immediately make trouble.

Consciously finding a shortcoming of this shop, Meng Shaotang twisted his beard and squinted, and then came to the end of the line and lined up.

Although there were a lot of people queuing up outside the store, the speed of progress was also very fast, Meng Shaotang counted, he was originally in the eleventh line, but it was less than half a pillar of incense, and it was his turn to enter the store. There was also a guy in the store who greeted him earnestly and led him directly to the counter, and the shopkeeper inside put down the work in his hand when he saw him, and stepped forward to say: "Alas, isn't this the old Meng owner of Rishengzhuang?" ”

Meng Shaotang was stunned in his heart, he didn't expect the other party to recognize him, looking at this shopkeeper, he also felt a little familiar, so he also arched his hand: "Old and clumsy, you are ......"

"The younger generation came from Shaoxing Mansion, and once visited Meng Laodong's family with the grandson shopkeeper of Hongyunzhuang in Shaoxing Mansion, and the younger generation was just a small guy in Hongyunzhuang at that time." The shopkeeper introduced himself: "The younger generation's surname is Hu, the small character Fulang, and now the big shopkeeper who lives in this Baoxing factory." ”

As the young shopkeeper said, he was originally a grain store guy named Hongyunzhuang in Shaoxing, but he was smart, sociable, and ambitious. Because he is a cousin of the whole family, he was recommended to Zhao Youju by the chief of the whole family. Zhao Heju promised him the position of chief treasurer, and gave him sufficient support, allowing him to open a grain store in Lin'an City. The well-known copper money was spent, and Zhao and Ju were extremely willing to invest in the early stage, and Hu Fulang had some ability, and the relationship between all parties was naturally opened.

"I see." Hearing Hu Fulang say this, Meng Shaotang shook his head, and felt that he had found the second weakness of Baoxing, although Shaoxing Mansion is close to Lin'an, but after all, it is only a mansion, Hu Fulang is just a guy in Shaoxing, but he came to Lin'an to be the big treasurer...... This Baoxing's owner is somewhat misemployed.

He didn't know how Zhao and Ju spent five days "brainwashing" Hu Fulang.

"It is a great honor for Mr. Meng's family to come to the shop." Hu Fulang's attitude was still respectful, although he knew that this colleague was here to spy on the truth, he still stretched out his hand and led him in: "Please, please." ”

Under the guidance of Hu Fulang, Meng Shaotang was taken to the small courtyard behind the storefront, and Meng Shaotang found that half of the courtyard was filled with wooden grain hoards, and the grain hoards were full of bags of flour, and the word Baoxing was embroidered on the outside of each cloth bag. He nodded, feeling a little strange in his heart, such a cloth bag is bound to increase the cost, Baoxing acts like this, how can there be any profit at all?

Someone happened to open a bag of flour, he went over and grabbed a handful and twisted it gently in his hand, Hu Fulang didn't stop him when he saw him, just smiled and watched from the side.

This flour is not only delicate, but also white in color, and there are almost no impurities in it, even the sand and gravel that are often stained by stone milling, cannot be seen. Meng Shaotang was taken aback, it was the first time he had seen such good-looking flour, no wonder those customers came here one after another.

He twisted a small amount of flour and put it in his mouth, feeling that the taste was no less than the flour he sold at home, and even better. He pondered for a while, then looked at Hu Fulang and said, "Shopkeeper Hu, do a good deal!" ”

Note 1: It can be seen in "Research on Institutional Change and the Supply Behavior of Small Farmers in the Song Dynasty" Source: A Study of the History of the Song Dynasty in China Author: Zhang Jinpeng