Ma Xiaofang watched these guys walk away, stood up and ran home to find someone, let go of Ma Jingyuan, and didn't mention it.

Zhu Hongsan and a group of children returned to the city, asked for five bowls of mutton soup at Lao Liutou's house, each of them brought a white flour bun, broke it and put it in the soup, and everyone sighed and snorted to eat.

Zhu Hongsan didn't expect that there would be mutton steamed buns in the Ming Dynasty, so he raised his head and asked Lao Liu: "Grandpa Liu, is this mutton steamed bun in Wuchang, is it a snack from your house?" ”

Lao Liu Tou recognized Zhu Hongsan, the little devil, and when he saw him talking to himself, he hurriedly said: "The little official can't afford your title, just call me Liu Laohan." The old man's family is a SX rice fat person, and this mutton bun is our food. In the past few years, the harvest on SX's side has been really bad, and there is no way to go to the son-in-law's family in Wuchang five years ago. ”

"Oh, you're a SX Mizhi person, do you recognize Li Zicheng?" Zhu Hongsan heard that Lao Liu and Li Zicheng were fellow villagers, and the heat of gossip began to burn again.

"I don't know, many of us have the surname Li."

"He's your pawn."

"There are more than a dozen post stations in Mizhi, and the old man has never seen them."

couldn't see any useful information, so Zhu Hongsan didn't ask, and lowered his head to eat mutton steamed buns. To tell the truth, Lao Liu Tou's mutton steamed bun is really good, no vermicelli, no pepper, no seasoning, just a little salt.

Zhu Hongsan lost his appetite after eating a few bites, watching the little friends around him sigh and snort, Zhu Hongsan pushed his bowl to his cousin Zhao Goudan, this guy doesn't know how to look, seven or eight years old is one meter five, half a head taller than ten-year-old Ma Jingyuan. At first glance, it is a serious wine bag and rice bag, and I don't know if my uncle's family can raise this rice bucket.

Zhao Goudan glanced up at Zhu Hongsan and said, "Why don't you eat it?" ”

"Ah, I'm full, see if you don't have enough to eat, I'll give you this bowl."

The rice bucket Zhao Goudan didn't think about anything else, and took it over for a meal.

Zhu Hongsan watched a few friends eat, and thought to himself: "Ancient food is not interesting, it is not as flavorful as modern food, I don't know how well those big restaurants are doing, I have the opportunity to taste it." "Of course, in ancient times, it was all green and natural, and there was no chicken essence and MSG, and this kind of meal was of course bland and tasteless in Zhu Hongsan's mouth.

"It would be nice if I could produce MSG, I know the production process of MSG, I heard someone explain it when I visited the factory before, but I don't know what the various bacteria of fermentation are. I have time to ask the soy sauce shop if they know it. Zhu Hongsan continued to think about his plan to make a fortune.

"Seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, there are all in that era, and it is not easy to make money. Nothing? Or is it what the masses want? "Zhu Hongsan had a flash of inspiration" Yes, there are seven things, but there is no sugar, which means that sugar is still a rare thing, and it has entered the people's homes. There is sugar in the old lady's shop, but it is all brown sugar and brown sugar, and there is no white sugar.

This is a good idea, and I will ask the old lady if she sells white sugar now. Thinking of this, Zhu Hongsan didn't have the heart to eat at all, and said to a few friends that he would leave in advance, and after paying the bill, he went to find his wife.

Come to the door of your shop. Seeing that there was no one in the shop, only the hired Shen Pozi was standing at the door.

Zhu Hongsan stepped forward and asked, "Granny Shen, where is my mother?" ”

"The little official is here, and your mother is stocking goods in the backyard."

Zhu Hongsan walked through the store to the backyard warehouse, and saw that his wife was counting the goods, saying that it was inventory, but in fact, it was to see what was less, what was left, and he needed to enter that. The old lady is illiterate, and she doesn't keep accounts, and that one is missing into that.

When the old lady saw her son come in, she put down the work in her hand and said, "It's enough to go out and go crazy, why did you come back so early today." Where did you go today? ”

"I didn't go there, I went around the city, and Zhao Goudan, Qian Fat, Tie Niu, them."

"Don't bark like a dog, call a big cousin."

"Okay, mother, why did my cousin act like he couldn't eat enough at home, and just now I ate two bowls of mutton steamed buns."

"Hey" the old lady sighed and said: "The dog was not born by your aunt, it was born by your uncle and another woman, and the girl was sold by your aunt after giving birth, and the dog is also a poor child, you have to be kind to him." "And this kind of gossip? Zhu Hongsan asked, "Why is this?" ”

"It's not your grandfather yet, your uncle has been married for ten years and your aunt hasn't given birth to a baby yet, so your grandfather bought a woman outside and came back, and then he had a dog. Back then, your aunt was actually pretty good to dogs. But after your aunt gave birth to your second cousin last year, she couldn't do it with dogs. ”

"I see." Thinking of this, Zhu Hongsan said sweetly: "It's still good to be a mother, only a mother is good in the world." ”

The old lady smiled: "The little bastard will talk sweetly." ”

Zhu Hongsan asked, "Mother, do we have candy to sell?" ”

"The little bastard originally wanted to do this, I wondered how this came to be my mother and my mother." The old lady scolded with a smile, took down a jar from the shelf and said, "Eat, don't eat too much, your teeth will hurt." ”

Zhu Hongsan took the jar and looked inside, it was a piece of yellow sugar, took out a piece and licked it, a little sweet, but a little bitter. asked, "Mother, isn't there any sugar that is not bitter?" ”

"There is sugar that is not bitter, brown sugar can be almost, but brown sugar is very expensive, you can't give you a little bastard to eat, you have to sell it for money."

"Mother, how much does this candy cost?"

"Three big dollars a tael of brown sugar, and ten big dollars a tael of brown sugar."

"It's expensive, but there's no white sugar."

The old lady scolded: "White sugar is eaten by people like us, it is not sold in Jiang X County, and it is only sold in Wuchang Mansion, I heard that it is very expensive, and it costs ten taels of silver and one tael." I've heard that they were all shipped from overseas. ”

"Three big coins and ten taels of silver, the appreciation is 3,000 times, even if the sugar yield of brown sugar is 30 percent, it is nearly 1,000 times" Zhu Hongsan calculated that his money situation was very good, and he was in a good mood. said to his mother: "Mother, can you give me some of this candy?" ”

"No, it's all money, and it's not good to eat too much sugar. Let's go home, my mother still needs to order something. ”

It seems that the old lady can't do this, but fortunately she has some money, so she will go to the street tomorrow to buy a few catties of brown sugar and test it.

Zhu Hongsan went home to play by himself and didn't mention it.

As soon as Zhu Hongsan left, his uncle Zhao Mingda came. Seeing his sister, he said, "Eldest sister, what about the three babies?" Something went wrong. ”

"Big brother, what's wrong? Three just came home. The old lady Zhao Chunhua saw that her brother was not affectionate, and the goods were no longer ordered, so she stepped forward and asked.

"Just now, the grandfather ascended to the church, let me pass on the news that you two have been to the hall."

"What? Doesn't he know that we are royal? The law of the Ming Dynasty can't control us. Zhao Chunhua said hurriedly.

"Of course I know, that's why I'm in a hurry, only the magistrate can manage the royal family if something big happens. Big sister, you haven't done anything these days, have you? Haven't you seen anyone, have you? ”

"No, just half a month ago, your nephew let the Ma family girl beat the Ma family girl in Majiazhuang, and I went to reason. Besides, Majiazhuang is three miles away from the county seat, and it is not ten miles away, isn't it ten miles out of the city to report to the official? ”

"Maybe that's the case, I saw that the second young master of the Ma family went to the county office, and then the master was promoted to ask me to come to you two."

"This is a big deal, as long as it's not a rebellion, Da Ming Law can't control us."

"Don't talk about it yet, take the child to see it first."

Zhao Chunhua and Zhao Mingda returned home and saw Zhu Hongsan playing with the little yellow dog, Zhao Chunhua stepped forward and said to his son: "Son, we will go to see the county order in a while, and if the master wants to ask about the Ma family's girl beating you, you will tell the truth, everything depends on the mother's eyes." ”

Zhu Hongsan was stunned for a moment and nodded blindly. I thought to myself: "This bit of is still a labor county order?" Doesn't it mean that the dynasty is rampant, it doesn't look like this. ”

Zhao Mingda and Zhao Chunhua pulled Zhu Hongsan and hurriedly came to the county hall. Zhu Hongsan is the first time to see the county government of the Ming Dynasty, in his imagination the government offices are all high-rise houses, with majestic stone lions at the door, terrazzo floors, the county order sits in the center, and two classes of officials are on both sides. But the reality was too far from what he imagined.

Wuchang County Ya is built in the north corner of the city, look at the door is similar to the land temple outside the city, the lobby is about two meters high, there are two stone carving animals less than one meter high on both sides of the door, it is not clear what kind of animal it is. The color of the yellow and the sun is blown, and there is an animal that is missing a leg.

The plaque on the gate says Wuchang County Ya, it is not gold, it is black on a red background, the plaque is mottled, revealing most of the wood underneath, the words on the plaque are still missing the pen and less stroked, and they can be seen clearly that it is Wuchang County Ya. It's really going to be so run-down, how run-down. The door is very clean, and there are no weeds or anything. Zhu Hongsan maliciously thought that if there was a whirlwind blowing at this time, there would be no need to change places to shoot ghost movies.

In the middle of the lobby was a table covered with a blue cloth, and the wall was painted with a rising sun, but the paint on the wall had almost fallen off, and the outline of the sun could barely be seen. There was a little old man sitting behind the table, looking more than fifty years old, but people in the Ming Dynasty were old, and now Zhu Hongsan guessed that other people's ages were subtracting ten years old from their appearance.

On either side stood six servants, all about forty years old, holding red and blue water and fire sticks.

Uncle Zhao Mingda entered the hall and knelt down and said, "Master Qiyu, Zhu Zhao, Lieutenant of Fengguo of this county's clan, and Zhu Hongsan, Lieutenant of Fengguo, have brought it. ”

He Xianling said: "Get up and stand aside." ”

"Down there is Anren Zhu Zhao, Fengguo Lieutenant Zhu Hongsan?"

"Exactly." The old lady replied.

"This official asks you, do you know the management regulations of the clan of this dynasty?"

"My lord, I know, you can't be the people of the four industries, you must report to the magistrate ten miles away from the city, and our mother has not violated it."

He County Ling said: "Didn't I ask you this, do you know that the clan is not allowed to read and write?" ”

The old lady said: "I know, my father didn't know how to read back then, and my son didn't know how to read. ”

He Xianling asked: "No, why did someone report that Lieutenant Zhu Hongsan of Fengguo was literate?" ”

The old lady looked at me with her mouth wide open and thought, "Could it be that someone has taught my son to read and write, this is an unfortunate event." ”

Zhu Hongsan looked at He Xianling with a half-dead look, and knew what was going on when he heard him say this. "It's really a life trouble, it's the beginning of literacy, it must be that Ma Laosan went home in the morning to talk about my writing, but it's no problem, my brother knows what to do."

Giving the old lady a reassuring look, Zhu Hongsan stood up and was ready to answer the question of the county order.