Chapter 708: People's Livelihood and People's Livelihood

Although there is a curfew in the city of Guangzhou, but Huangpu Town has both a wharf, and a city Bosi and Huaiyuan Station, there are many people and businessmen who come and go, and there is no curfew, so when it is almost two watches in the evening, it is still lively and lively here. Bright lanterns were hung under the signboards in restaurants and restaurants, red lanterns were hung in brothels and prostitution houses with all kinds of glamorous words, and the streets were full of solicitors and women wearing heavy makeup, making it almost unsound like night.

Because the next day was the Dragon Boat Festival, the previous rule of the political secretary was to have a day off, and Zhang Yue simply brought his family to the town. In the afternoon, I watched the boats on the dock, and in the evening I booked a private room for dinner at a restaurant. Because there will be a dragon boat race on the Pearl River in front of Huangpu Town during the Dragon Boat Festival tomorrow, the family decided to spend the night outside. At this time, Du Juan didn't want to move because of the hot weather, and the quiet official wanted to go out to have a look, so he had to agree.

Holding Jingguan's hand and walking slowly on the street, Zhang Yue only felt that his ears were full of his son's twittering questions, and at first he answered patiently, but gradually he couldn't resist it. The first few attendants followed and paid attention to the flow of people around them, all of them with a vigilant face. Jing Guan is about to be four years old, and he rarely goes out at home, so this time he naturally sees that everything is fresh, if it weren't for him being pulled by Zhang Yue with one hand, he would have been eager to drill wherever it was lively. Seeing that there were many people around a stall on the side of the road, and a mouth-watering aroma wafted in the wind, he hurriedly pulled Zhang Yue's sleeve.

"Daddy......"

"Just had dinner, and you want to eat again? If your mother knows, she will teach you a lesson. ”

"Daddy, that's it!"

Seeing his son's unconcealed gluttonous appearance, Zhang Yue couldn't help but think of his childhood, and the original face couldn't be maintained. Thinking about going in to see if there were any good things to bring back to eat with the family, he pulled his son and squeezed into the crowd. Seeing this scene, the cow behind him dared to glance at Zhang Bu, and hurriedly pulled his legs to follow. When they finally squeezed into the innermost, they found that Zhang Yue's father and son were standing there looking at a big girl who was sweating profusely, so they couldn't help but look at each other.

Zhang Yue recognized this as the Jiuniang at a glance. On that day, Xiong Hao reported the precedent for disposal, and he passed it without any doubt, so he also knew that she had returned the deed. Although he didn't believe in the so-called trafficking, and that day was just a face-to-face, he always felt that this girl seemed to have some unspeakable hidden intentions. At this time, when he looked closely, he saw that she was in charge of collecting money and making snacks alone, and she had to hand over the goods, looking attentive, and she didn't see herself at all, so he looked at it even more carefully.

In later generations, Guangzhou's dazzling snacks are still very limited in today's years, whether it is rice rolls or double skin milk or boat porridge and so on are difficult to find, Zhang Yue to Guangzhou for so many days, if you stay up late, most of the supper at night is still made by your own cook, and there are very few people who buy outside. At this time, he glanced at the things sold on this stall, and found that the dim sum in it was a common snack in Beijing.

The dragon beard noodles sprinkled with white sugar and gold cakes, rolled into long strips of donkeys decorated with sesame and osmanthus white sugar, and the fruit cakes embedded with variegated dried fruits are kneaded into various kinds of dough fruits...... Seeing this, he almost thought that he had returned to the capital. Because of the fair price, more than half of the things were sold in a moment, so he bought some of them, took his son to the table next to him and sat down, and ordered someone to go to the stall next door to buy a few bowls of summer drinks. Seeing that Jing Guan was holding the noodles and eating sweetly, and his little eyes were still glancing at the few paper bags in front of him, he slapped the little guy on the head angrily, which dispelled his long hope.

As the night gets darker, there are naturally fewer pedestrians on the road, and the people on the stalls gradually disperse. Jiu Niang, who was going to close the stall, wiped the tables and chairs, and had to clean them up one by one, and when she saw that a few people were still sitting here, she wiped her hands and walked over. Before she could speak, she saw the young man with the child turn his head to greet her. Recognizing that this was what she had seen in Huaiyuanyi that day, and remembering that someone reminded her that this was a great official, she couldn't help but panic, and she didn't know what to say.

"There are more than a dozen families selling snacks in the market this night, only yours is an authentic northern flavor, and it is really a good business."

"I ...... I've only been here for a few days, and you're just ...... It's just a fresh picture. Stammering in reply, Jiu Niang couldn't help but glance around, and then bowed to her knees, her voice became like a mosquito, "Your Excellency is here to catch me back?" I really didn't talk nonsense, it was indeed the kidnapper who introduced me to a good person to help me cook, and kidnapped me out......"

"Then why don't you go back?"

"I ...... I...... I don't want to go back. Jiuniang bit her lip vigorously, and it took a long time to turn her heart sideways, and said honestly, "I came from Chengmai County." Earlier Qi Guo Mansion ...... Earlier, the Qiu family hired my mother to take care of the kitchen, but then the Qiu family fell and dismissed us when we arrived in Chengmai County. Most of the people in Chengmai County are poor, and I am a woman, so I don't even have a way to live except for getting married. So...... So my uncle and aunt wanted to give me a match, so I ran out, and who knew that I happened to meet a kidnapper. ”

Zhang Yue really didn't expect his guess to come true, and couldn't help but think of Amber who was preparing to leave, and hurriedly asked, "So, are you really from the Qi Kingdom Mansion?" So what's your last name? ”

"The maiden's surname is Qiu, which is Sui's mother's surname. The population of the Qiguo Mansion is large, and there are now hundreds of people surnamed Qiu in the entire Chengmai County, some of whom are descendants of the Eight Classics, and some of whom are released from the ranks. It's just a subordinate, not a slave. The slaves and maids who were seriously rewarded in the Qiguo Mansion in the past had already been taken back when Grandpa Yongle was furious. We were just implicated, and when we migrated at that time, no matter what relatives were near or far, or domestic servants, as long as the household registration was in the Qiguo Mansion, they all migrated here. At the beginning, the supervision was strict, but it has only been loosened in recent years. ”

Jiuniang is honest, and rubbed the corners of her clothes uneasily while saying: "My mother used to take care of the food of the three rooms, that is, she was a hired cook, but she was also involved, and she married here to have me." Only then did my father and mother disappear, and I kept following my uncle and aunt, occasionally doing odd jobs for the Qiu family. The former young masters and daughters of the Qiu family are now very struggling, and there have been people who have been subsidizing money and food a few years ago, but last year and this year are somehow gone. Before I came out, I heard that the eldest man of the long house set fire to three houses, destroying a lot of things, and immediately became seriously ill......

I probably felt that Zhang Yue was trustworthy, but I was probably holding it back for too long, and I was afraid that Zhang Yue would arrest me back, so as soon as Jiu Niang opened the chatterbox, she couldn't stop anymore, and the nagging was half an hour. Zhang Yue asked while listening, but Jingguan was already dozing off in his arms, and Zhang Bu and the two were all scattered around and watching. At the end, Zhang Yue nodded

"If you are really trafficked, then the road guide along the way must be forged by them, that is to say, now you are doing this for a living, regardless of the income, according to the law, you will be considered a homeless, this is not the way."

"If the adults say so, there are a lot of homeless people in this Huangpu Town!" Jiuniang finally couldn't help it, and stubbornly raised her head, "The folk girl has read some books, and I have also heard that Qiongzhou Mansion was once called the end of the world, and now Chengmai County, there are only more than 1,000 households, and there are less than 5,000 people, including six major Li capitals, and the Han people are all moved over after we are like this, and many of them are sinners and people who are degraded by the imperial court." It's been so many years, as long as you take the money to buy off the local inspection department of thousands of households, who doesn't want to come out and make money? Every winter, many people quietly sawed big logs to make boats, hung up their sails and smuggled things to Champa on the other side of the sea or to the north of Vietnam. Although the wind was favorable, there were occasional big waves, and seven or eight of the ten people died in the sea. ”

Zhang Yue vividly remembers a conversation he had with Zheng He at the palace of the eunuch garrison in Nanjing, a famous eunuch who once mentioned that during his third voyage to the West, he and his fleet sailed at Wuhumen in Fujian Province and arrived at Champa in ten days and nights with a tailwind, which shows the speed of sailing downwind. And Chengmai, the capital of Qiongzhou, is only a sea away from these countries, and even a shoddy ship can indeed drift along the sea. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but groan thoughtfully.

"Third brother, I heard that you went out as soon as I arrived at the inn, why are you here, everyone is waiting for you in the inn!"

Hearing this voice, Zhang Yue looked up and saw that it was Fang Jing who was sweating profusely, so he nodded and smiled: "Don't worry, it's hot when you go back, it's not as cool as outside." How about it, this Guangzhou is different from Shaanxi, Nanjing, and Beijing, right? These days, you have taken Li Guoxiu and Rui Yixiang around the city, visited a lot of academies, but you found the one you like? ”

"In addition to the official schools such as Guozijian and Shuntianfu School in the capital, there are almost no private schools, there are six or seven academies here, and there are three or four other thatched cottages and fine houses for teaching. I took them in to sit in under the pretext of asking for advice, and I felt that the knowledge and so on of those gentlemen were not worse than those of the official school, but they were not as good as the regulations. Speaking of the academy, Fang Jing suddenly forgot the purpose of coming out to find Zhang Yue just now, and said with great interest, "I also found a book with a text written in several academies, but unfortunately I couldn't read a word." ”

Zhang Yue chose Guangzhou among so many political ministers in the world, because it was the most convenient port for foreign trade, and when he heard the Fanwen books, he instinctively thought of the manuscripts translated by Xu Guangqi and others in the late Ming Dynasty. After thinking about it for a while, he saw that Jiu Niang was still biting her lip and standing there, so he stood up.

"In this case, you stay here first, and I will ask the official office and the river management hall in Huangpu Town to take care of you at that time. As for what you say, I will send someone to verify it when the time comes. ”

Seeing that Jiu Niang was stunned for a moment, then happily curtsy and saluted, and was busy cleaning up again, Zhang Yue asked Niu to dare to pick up the sleeping Jing Guan, and walked back with the guards and Fang Jing. As he walked, seeing Fang Jing's curious look, he covered up the affairs of the Qiu family and said the situation in the Qiongzhou Mansion as important.

"I think that when Song Shi Su was relegated here, he sighed with loneliness and indignation, and it was strange to listen to it at the end of the world. I have heard people say in the past few days that almost all the people in Qiongzhou Mansion are Li people, there are very few Han people, and the island is full of dense forests, it is not easy to cultivate, and life is even more difficult, no wonder this girl ran out quietly. The difference between Guangdong and the bottom is too great, and the wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou often give gifts and money to officials, and their lives are extremely luxurious, regardless of the life of the people! Third brother, what charter do you have now? ”

"There is no hunger in the prosperous world, why do you need to be busy with farming and weaving......"

Muttering such a poem, Zhang Yue couldn't help but shake his head. When reading the Red Mansion, he didn't feel much about Daiyu's other poems, but this one always felt that it was too much of a saint. Yongle Renxuan is known as the prosperous era of the prosperous era, but the common people are still working hard but can't get rid of the hardship. If you don't work hard and weave, you can only take a big risk and dance on the blade. It's just that he still couldn't agree with Fang Jing's indignant words, so he explained with a smile.

"If you want to govern a place and clean up the peace, first of all, it is indeed necessary to clarify the rule of officials, but this article must not be too radical and too hasty, you must know that there are very few officials in our court, and it is reluctant to support their families, let alone maintain the dignity of officials. Blindly having a clean breeze on both sleeves only means that the person has good ethics, but not necessarily how capable he is. Therefore, talented and unvirtuous people can be reused while beating warnings, and virtuous and untalented people can only be used for education.

Now that I'm in office, there are a few things that matter. First, after the opening of the sea in Guangzhou, the city will be rectified - this is not my business, but the emperor mentioned it, I always have to pay attention, you must know that the merchants are all thirty taxes one, if the same is true for maritime merchants, the tax will be too low. The second is the persuasion of education in Guangdong, which can be vigorously supported by both official and private schools. The third is agricultural business, it is summer all year round, especially in Qiongzhou Prefecture, if possible, I would like to find some farming experts to try rice seeds, if only I could grow three crops of rice......"

Fang Jingping has read a lot, but it is the first time he has come into contact with these, earlier he and Li Guoxiu Rui Yixiang went around the city to visit those academies, he already felt a little big, and now he saw Zhang Yue counting six or seven with his fingers, he couldn't help but stick out his tongue and stopped talking. It was only at this time that he truly realized that it was better to read 10,000 books than to travel 10,000 miles.

Since there are the most merchants in Huangpu Town, the inns are often full, and many people even live in houses in order to save money. Zhang Yue had asked people to charter a small courtyard of the largest inn in the town, and now under the guidance of Fang Jing, he found the land, and before he stepped through the door, he saw a familiar figure among a group of businessmen on a table against the wall, and he couldn't help but be surprised and delighted.