Breakfast is Xue Rong, Xue Fang two brothers accompany Li Mao to eat, the old lady is old and sleepless, used to go to bed early and get up early, just dawn, she got up and walked around the village with crutches, to dawn, then go back to the house to sleep back to sleep, not to noon generally do not get up. Because the old lady was not there, Webster did not show up.

In this era, it is customary to have two meals a day, breakfast is the main meal, dinner is small and simple, the average people's family is to deal with the hot meal that has not eaten breakfast, although the rich family is not so much, but it is also simplified, the same as dealing with.

Breakfast has meat, vegetables, soup, pickles, staple food rice porridge, noodle porridge, steamed buns and steamed cakes, very hearty. In addition to not drinking noodle porridge, Li Mao does not pick other foods, the meat is mutton, the stew is very bad, there is very little oil, and there is no salt. The dish is steamed with very little oil and no salt. The salt is served in a special small dish, the color is slightly green, and it is a little bitter to dip it in chopsticks.

Xue Fang, who was sitting on the opposite side, asked curiously, "Isn't the dish appetizing?" ”

Li Mao smiled: "It's already very rich, but I can't afford it." I'm used to eating light food in the temple, and it's the first time I've eaten so much salt at one time, haha, there are still people who eat like this in the world?! ”

Xue Fanghui was mistaken and said: "In recent years, the price of salt has risen again and again, and this spring it has reached two hundred yuan a bucket. ”

Li Mao exclaimed: "Doesn't Datang know the method of salt production, why is the salt eaten by the people so expensive?" ”

Xue Rong replied: "Datang is not short of salt, what is lacking is money. Seeing that Li Mao didn't understand, he explained: "I have 50 provinces in the Tang Dynasty, and only 14 provinces in the southeast can provide taxes to the imperial court, such as Weibo, Chengde, and Youzhou in Hebei Province, which neither declare their household registration to the imperial court, nor do they provide the wealth collected to the imperial court. In the northwest provinces of Fengxiang, Lingwu, Tiande, Zhenwu and other provinces, although the imperial court can control their household registration and financial endowment, because there are too many local garrisons, they cannot make ends meet every year, but the imperial court has to allocate funds to raise the army. As for Ziqing, Xusi, Biansong, Luze and other places, a large number of troops were stationed in order to prevent and contain the proud feudal clan of Hebei, and they could not make ends meet. In desperation, the Fifth Qi and Yang Yan Ergong moved the idea of salt and iron, and set up salt and iron to monopolize salt and iron, and supplement the shortage of land with the benefits of salt and iron. ”

Xue Fang added: "The pavilion households that make salt sell salt to the salt and iron courtyard, and the salt and iron courtyard is transferred to the salt merchant after the bonus, and the salt merchant sells it all over the place, and the price is not high at this time, although the localities have no right to collect taxes from the salt merchant, but they change their methods to blackmail the salt merchant, and the renovation can always make the salt merchant obedient, so how can the price of salt not be high?" ”

Li Mao nodded, and asked again: "What is the current salt and iron tax revenue in the national revenue?" ”

Xue Fang thought for a moment and replied, "Half of it should be." ”

After breakfast, the servant offered tea and was gossiping, when he suddenly heard the sound of ringing, and a faint fragrance came, but it was Wei who walked in surrounded by a group of maidservants. Li Mao and Xue put up and saluted, Wei returned the salute, looked at Li Mao, and said to her husband Xue Rong: "I have already understood the old lady, so let Qinniang serve Maohua's diet and daily life, and ask someone to count the day, tonight is the auspicious time." ”

Maohua is the word taken by Li Maogang, and he heard Xue Fang say that it is inconvenient to call the officialdom without a word, so he did this.

Wei's words surprised Li Mao, before eating, Xue Fang said that he would take a concubine for him in order to serve the living and eating, Li Mao only thought he was joking, and at this moment, when Wei mentioned it again, he knew that it was true.

Thinking that he was going to live with a strange woman, Li Mao had goosebumps, and he hurriedly waved his hand and said: "This is absolutely unacceptable, how can I get close to a woman as a monk......

This reason is very far-fetched, Wei said with a smile: "Mao Huaxiu wants to resign, you were originally a monk, isn't it true that you are now vulgar?" Twenty-year-old, don't marry a wife, and don't have a concubine by your side, do you want to do that, do you want to learn from that unscrupulous person to raise a few handsome little guys to warm the bed? Li Mao's face was red, and he subconsciously glanced at Qingmo, and it happened that Qingmo was also looking up at him, looking at each other, and the two of them felt sick together.

Xue Fang echoed: "Sister-in-law is a good idea, Brother Maohua should not refuse." A manly man is twenty years old and still doesn't understand the love between men and women, and it won't make people laugh if it spreads it. ”

Wei asked Xue Rong with a smile: "What is the idea of concubine, why didn't Da Lang comment?" ”

Xue Rong twisted his beard and smiled: "Very good, the lady bothered." ”

Li Mao shirked in every possible way, but it was difficult to get his wish. Wei was afraid that he would escape, so he asked Qingmo to guard Li Mao, and explained to Qingmo in front of Li Mao: "Look carefully, if you go on a business trip, little monkey cub, I will peel your skin carefully." The words were for Qingmo, and even more so for Li Mao. Because of this sentence, Li Mao stayed in the room all afternoon and never was discharged from the hospital.

When the lamp was in charge, the pock-faced woman came to the small courtyard and brought a new robe for Li Mao to change into.

A group of people surrounded Li Mao out of the small courtyard, turned around to a new house, the main house was five, the yard was neat and clean, a red silk was hung at the gate of the courtyard, and a huge red silk flower was hung at the door of the main house, and there was no red candle in the main hall, but a feast was prepared, and the cups and chopsticks were set up, and they had not yet been used.

The pock-faced woman led Li Mao into the new house on the side, and finally recited the words, rapping and blessings, the new house was very simple, Li Mao saw a woman sitting under the red candle at a glance, wearing a new dress, bowing her head, holding a handkerchief on her knees with both hands, and not wearing a red hijab.

The pock-faced woman said in Li Mao's ear: "Do you look familiar, take a closer look, can you recognize it?" ”

At a glance, Li Mao recognized that Qin Niang was the woman in Tsing Yi who he had seen in the morning, and for a while he felt in the clouds, and he couldn't believe that everything in front of him was true for a long time.

The Qin Niang under the red candle was dressed up in a new makeup, wearing a silk skirt, powdered face, painted vermilion, and a golden hairpin rewarded by the old lady was obliquely inserted into the newly combed bun.

After the pock-faced woman sang a few words of a song that no one could understand, she grabbed a handful of grains from her bag and sprinkled it into the new house, and with a crisp sound, the ceremony ended.

Li Mao was a little dazed, knowing that the status of the concubine was not high, and he also knew that the ceremony of taking a concubine was very simple, but he didn't expect it to be so simple, so it would be over? I can't believe it.

Opposite the empty room of a strange woman, Li Mao felt uncomfortable, at a loss for a while, and couldn't open his mouth nervously. Qin Niang was assertive, she stood up, walked in front of Li Mao with her head down, and whispered, "Take off your clothes." Li Mao took a startle, took a step back meaningfully, and hugged his arms to protect his chest.

Qin Niang pursed her lips and smiled: "Idiot, tell you to change into your regular clothes, and there will be guests later." ”

A fool is worth a thousand words, and the embarrassment of the room is suddenly relieved.

After removing the robe and changing into the usual clothes, and as soon as the belt was tied, the laughter of the Xue brothers and a few Qingke came from the courtyard, and Qin Niang pushed Li Mao and said, "Go and pick up the guests." He also instructed: "Drink less." ”

His concubine sent herself out to pick up guests, Li Mao was funny when he thought of this, Xue Fang saw Li Mao's red face, and greeted him out with a smile, so he quipped: "Disturbing Brother Maohua's good deeds, sins, sins." ”

Everyone laughed for a while, welcomed them into the main hall, drank a few glasses of water and wine, chatted some gossip, and the Xue brothers took their leave. Li Mao was uneasy, and Xue Fang laughed and said: "The night of candles in the cave room is worth a thousand gold at a moment, if I don't leave, it will be unreasonable." Stay, stay, cherish, cherish. ”