Zhou Fu walked into Chang Maoyuan, and Zhang Yigong, the shopkeeper of Chang Maoyuan, was wearing a pair of glasses to read the account book behind the counter at this time. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 As soon as he saw Zhou Fu walking in, he immediately stood up, greeted him with a smile on his face, and said, "Oh, what gust of wind blew Steward Zhou into the store today?" No wonder this magpie has been calling at the shop early this morning. ”

While speaking, Zhang Yigong led Zhou Fu to the back room to sit down, and hurriedly asked his subordinates to serve tea.

Zhou Fu sat down slowly, picked up the tea, looked at the cup first, then used the lid of the cup to open the tea leaves floating on it, smelled the fragrance, nodded, took a small sip, nodded again, then put down the teacup, and said with a smile: "Shopkeeper Zhang is getting richer and richer now, look at this cup......" He gently tapped the teacup with his slender nails, making a crisp tinkling sound, and nodded and continued, "This is authentic Jingdezhen porcelain, although it is not an official kiln, but it is also a fine product in the private kiln." Besides, this tea, this fragrance, this is the Longjing before the Ming Dynasty this year, right? The little day of the shopkeeper is really enviable! ”

"I won't hide it from you, this porcelain and this tea were all sent by the head of the general number, specially used to entertain distinguished guests like Steward Zhou. Usually, an errand runner like me, where would he dare to use such a thing and drink such a good tea? That is, thanks to the blessing of Steward Zhou, the contemptible people can have the opportunity to smell this fragrance. Zhang Yigong also replied with a smile.

"Look at what you say." Zhou Fu laughed, "Who doesn't know that Chang Maoyuan's business is very good now." The head office is still not allowed to give the shopkeeper a salary increase? Where can I not afford this teacup and drink this tea? ”

Hearing this, Shopkeeper Zhang also smiled. He arched his hand and replied:

"Steward Zhou, I won't tell you anything, thanks to you, the business of the trumpet has been good in recent years. Naturally, the contemptible people also made some money. I have to say that this teacup, this tea, is not really unaffordable. However, Zhou shopkeeper, as the saying goes, 'it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift'. In this world, how can there be any business that is always good? Wouldn't it be uncomfortable if business didn't do well in the future and you had to go from luxury to frugality? Besides, the world is not very peaceful now, and finally I have some money in my hand, and I have to prepare more for the future, so where do I dare to spend it? ”

Zhou Fu also laughed and said, "Shopkeeper Zhang is really far-sighted. Now in this world, hey...... Even my family is short of money to spend now. ”

Shopkeeper Zhang pretended to be surprised and said, "I'm afraid this won't be, right?" Your mansion is a relative of the emperor, where can you lack money? If your house is short of money, I'm afraid we will only have to eat grass. ”

"The royal relatives are not short of money? Now even the emperor is short of money. Zhou Fu sighed, "A few days ago, in order to make up the military salary, the emperor not only stopped everyone's salary, but even began to fight the autumn wind to the ministers. Now my family is counting on this little business with you. ”

Zhou Fu is the father-in-law of Emperor Chongzhen and the housekeeper of Zhou Kui, the father of Empress Zhou. Speaking of which, this old ruler is also a famous Grande. In history, the last ruler of the Ming Dynasty was known for being stingy. In the original history, in 1644, that is, before the fall of the Ming Dynasty, in the face of the advancing Li Chuang army, the Ming Dynasty due to the lack of military pay led to the army retreating, so Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen ordered all the emperor's relatives and Manchu Dynasty princes and ministers to donate silver for military expenses. His eunuch Gao Ding first borrowed money from Zhou Kui to temporarily raise enough money to recruit troops and horses, but Zhou Kui insisted that there was no remaining money at home, and the eunuch Gao Ding saw that Zhou Kui was so stingy that he had no choice but to go back to Emperor Chongzhen to return his decree. Empress Zhou knew that Zhou Kui was as good as his life, and sighed to Emperor Chongzhen: "My father Zhou Kui is deeply favored and trusted by His Majesty by the Ming Dynasty on weekdays, but I didn't expect to be so stingy, once the city is broken, how long can his family wealth be kept." So he personally called Zhou Kui to reprimand him fiercely, and Zhou Kui had no choice but to grit his teeth and take out 5,000 taels of silver to help.

This number is too small, and if the ruler takes the lead, others will naturally follow suit. Then, naturally, the imperial court will not be able to get enough money. Therefore, the virtuous Queen Zhou thought about it and felt that at least the least, there must be 10,000 taels. So Queen Zhou secretly sold some of her jewelry and some of the other women in the palace to get five thousand taels of silver, and then asked her father Zhou Kui to take these, plus the original five thousand taels, to make up a whole number.

After Zhou Kui got the money, he thought about the five thousand taels of silver he had donated, and the more he thought about it, the more distressed he became, so he floated away two thousand taels of five thousand taels of silver given by Queen Zhou, and then donated a total of eight thousand taels.

In order to show that he had no money, Zhou Kui also asked people to deliberately make his house dilapidated, bury all the valuable belongings, and then let people post advertisements at the door to sell their real estate at a loss at a loss price, and then walked to the court wearing clothes full of patches. Naturally, other officials followed suit, and for a time, Beijing was full of advertisements for officials to tearfully sell their mansions. And if the officials of the previous dynasty didn't have any holes or patches on their clothes, they would be embarrassed to say that they were the pillars of the Ming Dynasty.

Then, Zhou Kui met the Liu Zongmin. The same is to ask him to come up with money to help him, but Da Shun's methods are much harsher than those of Da Ming. Zhou Kui's wife and daughter-in-law were killed, and his son was also tortured to death. Zhou Kui himself was naturally beaten all over his body. But Old Man Zhou is just tough, and he refuses to say where the silver is put when he dies. In the end, even Liu Zongmin had no choice but to ask Li Zicheng for tactical guidance. To say that Li Zicheng personally went out is really extraordinary, it only took one night to get Old Man Zhou to confess the location of the silver, and a guy searched for five million taels of silver. And Old Man Zhou, because his injuries were too serious, died the next day.

Of course, Zhang Yigong could not have known these stories of Zhou Kui, but Zhou Guozhang was not just a Pryushkin who would just throw flour and potatoes in the warehouse and wait for them to turn into dirt, he would do business like Grande. And Chang Maoyuan is one of the business partners of the Zhou family. Even, Chang Maoyuan's whale oil lamp can be sold into the palace, which has the help of the Zhou family, of course, the Zhou family is not a living Lei Feng, will not help in vain, in fact, all the transactions of Chang Maoyuan, the Zhou family has a dry share. This dry stock alone, in the past few years, has brought the Zhou family more than 10,000 taels of silver every year. And Zhang Yigong also knows that the Zhou family's business is more than just that. These transactions have brought the Zhou family a lot of income, and in comparison, the little money of the imperial court is not worth mentioning at all.

However, Zhang Yigong didn't say anything, but smiled and said: "Steward Zhou came to me to see this month's account books?" "Since Zhou Kui has dry shares in Chang Maoyuan, then he naturally has the right to check Chang Maoyuan's account books from time to time. Although there are still some days before the year-end dividends, Zhou Kui is not a person who has confidence in other people's temperament, although it is a dry stock that has not produced a penny, but in order to avoid being fooled by others, so that when it comes to dividends, he is given less money, every month, Zhou Kui will send Zhou Fu to Changmaoyuan to see the account book.

"Exactly." Zhou Fu did not shy away from it, and nodded directly.

Zhang Yigong waved his hand, and someone brought this month's account book, took out a pair of pen and ink, and put it in front of Zhou Fu.

"Steward Zhou, shopkeeper Zhang, this month's account books are here." The guy bowed.

"Thank you for your hard work, you go down first." Zhang Yigong smiled gently at the guy and nodded.

The fellow turned and went out the door, closing it with his hand.

"This guy of yours is a practitioner! You see this temple bulging, not bad? I've never seen it before. Zhou Fudao.

"Skilled? Three-legged cat. Zhang Yigong said, "This is my nephew, who has liked to dance with guns and sticks since he was a child." Later, I studied with others for a while. Now that the world is also chaotic, it is a good thing that he has learned some boxing, but this kid just loves to cause trouble, so my eldest brother asked me to take him, on the one hand, to look at him, to cause trouble, and on the other hand, to let him experience more. ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Yigong paused and said, "This month's business is not too good, you should know this." ”

Zhou Fu also nodded, and reached out to take the account book. This is what he knows, and it is a normal thing, because in the months after the New Year, business will always be a little worse.

Zhou Fu read the account book seriously, nodded, and took out a small book from his arms. Write down some numbers one by one. After being busy for a long time, Zhou Fu stood up and bowed to Zhang Yigong and said, "It's troublesome to be shopkeeper Zhang." ”

Zhang Yigong also stood up and said, "Don't dare to be." Steward Zhou wants another cup of tea? ”

"Nope." Zhou Fu waved his hand and said, "There is still something in the house." Well, shopkeeper Zhang, your tea is good, and you can't buy it when you have money. Maybe give me a little no? ”

"What's so hard about that?" Zhang Yigong said with a smile, he walked to the door, opened the door, and said to his nephew who had been guarding outside: "You go to that bag of tea." ”

His nephew answered and ran away, and after a while he came back with a clay pot.

Zhang Yigong took the clay pot and handed it to Zhou Fudao: "This is this year's Longjing before the Ming Dynasty, a rough person like me can't drink any taste, in my mouth, any tea has a taste, even if it is coarse tea used to boil tea leaves and eggs." It is still necessary for an elegant person like Steward Zhou to drink such tea. ”

Zhou Fu took the tea jar and shook it in his hand. Tea leaves are originally very light things, and even if you add a jar, it should not weigh much. However, this tea jar is obviously a lot heavier. But Zhou Fu didn't say much, just nodded, took the tea can, said "Excuse me", and went out. Zhang Yigong and his nephew sent Zhou Fu out of the gate and watched him walk across the street and enter Zhou's mansion. This Chang Maoyuan is also next to the back door of the Zhou Mansion.