Building a house is actually a very troublesome thing, choosing a location, looking at feng shui, looking at the day, looking at the pattern...... The messy rules are no simpler than marrying.

But Madu is not so particular, he just needs the yard to be spacious enough, the house to be big enough, the terrain is high and not flooded, and it is dry and tidy. He thought that the population of his family was not large, so he would be able to make a three-entry yard.

The grandfather who has always been stingy Bala, but he is rarely arrogant, he said that the courtyard of Sanjin is too stingy. I don't know what he thinks, is it better to eat dried fish in a bigger house?

Lao Liu also said that those wealthy businessmen and landlords who have no background in the official face also have to build courtyards with five entrances and five roads at home, and the courtyards with three entrances and three exits are too inconsistent with Ma Du's identity.

Five into five, Ma Du did not plan to make his home into a Jiangnan garden, and it would not cost much to have two more courtyards. Buy stone bricks and tiles, ask craftsmen, and cover them when they say they will cover them. Ma Du didn't have much time to delay at home, and he was worried that Ma Dajia would send him a jewelry box one day.

The tenants in both sides also came to help, and Madu did not treat them badly, and gave them the same wages as the big workers, twenty wen a day.

Building a mansion, building a courtyard and building a school, Ma Du thought that he would be very busy, but who knew that he would not be able to intervene at all.

There is an old loach in the main house, Lao Liu is supporting up and down, and even Zhang Wuliu is running errands in a hurry. As for the school, Yuan Jiuli and the tenants are worried.

Ma Du was extremely bored for a while, so he could only practice calligraphy at home for recreation, and occasionally drove the carriage with small fish and water chestnuts for a ride. There is no speed of life and death, and the horses are clattering and knocking on their hooves on the official road, like turtles, even this has made the little girls ecstatic, standing on the wheels and dancing and screaming.

Or follow the small turtle to the river to spear fish, although the small turtle has a clumsy mouth but flexible hands, often a fork can catch a foot-long big fish. If it was in the lake in the past, the little turtle would definitely get praise from his grandfather. Now Grandpa would only kick him twice and tell him that this is not what a scholar should do.

It's not bad to cook with big fish, these days the two have made a lot of food, some of them have complained, and some of them are very popular with the big guys.

The fried fish pieces have been recognized by everyone, the big herring with fewer spines is washed and peeled, chopped into small pieces and marinated in sauce, wrapped in flour and fried in the oil pan, fished out and dipped in sweet sauce to eat, the taste is very good, the small fish and water chestnut are very like.

Ma Du was flouring the pickled fish pieces, and the little fish ran into the kitchen in a hurry, "Brother, the landlord has come to ask for money!" ”

"Oh." Madu smiled back, "Let them come in and wait!" Madu washed his hands, and when he entered the room, he saw two people in the hall, one in his fifties, with gray hair, sitting in the hall, dressed in splendid clothes, and dressed as an outsider.

Another one in his thirties, dressed as an ordinary long-timer, stood quietly behind the old man.

Ma Du stepped forward and arched his hand, "Let the two of you wait for a long time!" ”

The old man was quite polite, and with the long entourage behind him, he fell to the ground with a puff of worship, "Grass people Shen Changfu greets my lord!" ”

Oh, I asked Lao Tzu very clearly, Ma Du stepped forward and stretched out his hand to help, "Ma is just an idler with an official and no position, and this is not an official office, Shen Yuan doesn't need to be so polite, please sit down." ”

The two then sat down, and the big fish was very sensible and brought up tea, a large bowl of coarse porcelain, which was brewed with twenty pounds of fine tea foam.

The tea stalls outside the city gate, although they are all made of tea foam, are wrapped in linen cloth and boiled in pots. This is good, sprinkle directly in the bowl, and take a sip of the mouth full of fine tea foam, that is, the old loach is hidden as a treasure.

"Please use tea, please use tea! Poof, poof! Ma Du greeted the Shen Yuanwai with a smile, and took a sip of it himself but sprayed two sips of tea foam.

"Hehe......" This Shen Yuanwai also smiled, blew the broken tea leaves on the tea water, and took a small sip.

"Shen Yuanwai is generous and bold, and more than 500 acres of land are owed on credit to the elders in the family, which is really admired by Ma."

"Hey, it's only 500 acres worth something. The grass people originally wanted to open a silk workshop, and bought some land to plant mulberry and raise silkworms. It's useless to keep these lands in your hands, and thank the old lady for being willing to take over. Ahh......h

Ma Du nodded, "So that's the case, Shen Yuanwai is a businessman in the end, businessmen have the rules of businessmen, Ma knows it, the arrears for buying land have been prepared, and Shen Yuanwai has brought an IOU." ”

Shen Changfu smiled, "Master Ma misunderstood, the grass people are still turnover, this time they are not here to collect the arrears, they want to find adults to do some small business together." ”

Ma Du was happy in his heart, just waiting for you to come to buy my soap, he was about to speak, but he heard Shen Changfu continue: "The grass people want to buy some pig iron, and I hope that the adults will be considerate." ”

Hey? Instead of buying soap, Ma Du was also a little stunned, and asked casually, "How much do you want?" ”

Shen Changfu stretched out two fingers, "Two hundred thousand catties!" The grass people know that the number is a bit large, and they can ...... in batches"

Madu interrupted him, "You came from the Taiping Mansion? Mr. Hu didn't sell it to you? ”

I heard that the iron-smelting furnace over there is smoke and dust billowing every day, and a wharf is specially built near the quarrying rock, and every day there are ships full of pig iron sent to Yingtian, as long as you have a heart, you can guess.

The iron ore in Taiping Mansion has only been mined for two months, the scale has not been raised, and the output is very limited, which can meet the needs of Lao Zhu, and there is no need to continue to spend a lot of money to buy pig iron transported from Hebei.

Although there is no Lao Zhu in the pig iron market, there is still not much pig iron in circulation, just look at the price that is still high.

If you want to buy 200,000 catties of pig iron at once in the Yingtian area, you are definitely dreaming, unless you want to master the iron ore of Taiping Mansion. Even so, it is its current output of more than two months, you must know that the pig iron output of the entire Great Yuan Dynasty is less than six million catties, yes, it is catty!

Although Ma Du didn't care about anything, he finally hung up the name of "mine manager", and it was not surprising that the other party came to him, and he was the only one who could do this.

Shen Changfu nodded helplessly, "Master Hu said that the grass people wanted too much, and he couldn't be the master, so he found the adult's side." The grass people are willing to pay a tael of silver to buy a pound of pig iron, and they will not let the adults work in vain. ”

He gave a look, and the chief entourage behind him stood at the door and shouted, and immediately two servants came in carrying a box, which looked small and seemed to sink very much, and went out on the ground.

Chang Sui stepped forward and reached out to lift the lid, and Ma Du's eyes immediately widened, and there were golden little ingots inside.

"Oh, tsk......t-tut" Ma Du clapped his hands and said with a smile: "One or two pieces of silver for a pound of pig iron, and so much gold bribes the official." Shen Yuanwai is really generous. ”

Regarding Ma Du's greedy expression when he looked at the gold, Shen Changfu seemed to be very satisfied and waved it again, "A little bit of a small courtesy, and please ask the master to smile." If it happens, there will be another reward. ”

Ma Du shook his head, "The official didn't mean you, the official said him!" He stretched out his hand and pointed at the long follower, "Shen Wansan, Shen Yuanwai!" ”