At the time of Yang Quan's layout, in the north room of a big mansion in the east of the city, a man with a long beard in his forties was sitting at this table eating breakfast, and in the fine porcelain bowl in his hand, the white rice was crystal clear, seemingly like pearls, this is the pearl rice of Huguang, and the annual output is thousands of catties, except for the supply of the emperor as tribute rice, there has never been an outflow. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

But since Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, the wind and rain are not smooth, the country is full of disasters and difficulties, the treasury has never been full, even if Emperor Chongzhen talks about the internal anger in the money released, but it is still to no avail, the country's finances are on the verge of bankruptcy, Chongzhen, the head of the Ming Dynasty, of course, can not live like this, in addition to the open source to collect various salaries, he began to throttle from his own head, exempted from the luxury in the palace, and stopped all the tribute below. It is said that in order to reduce the burden of the people, this tribute rice does not need to pay tribute every year, but although the emperor does not want it, this tribute rice is still a steady stream of output every year, and the good fields in Huguang Province are planted with this kind of grain with very low output, because some rich and wealthy giants do not get tired of eating fine and fine, and those coarse rice, the big guys are difficult to swallow, and they must eat the best.

However, the output of this tribute rice is extremely limited, many rich and powerful people compete, the price has slowly risen, although Huguang planted more and more of this tribute rice, but the output is getting less and less, slowly, the price is becoming more and more expensive, slowly for a long time, if anyone can eat this tribute rice for a long time, in this rich circle will become a luxury figure, just like the long-bearded man today, the daily breakfast is also this kind of thing, it can be seen that the financial resources are extraordinary.

"Well, after eating this, let your father buy you something fun" I saw a young woman, holding a bowl of rice, teasing a thin child.

"No, I don't eat it," the child shouted as he looked at the rice that was handed to his lips, twisted his head, and pouted.

The woman looked at the appearance of the child, and suddenly became anxious, "Bao'er, eat, just one bite"

The child angrily turned his head away from the woman, "Don't eat, don't eat, don't eat!" You're feeding me, I'm going to cry to you! As he spoke, the child pouted and was about to cry.

The woman suddenly panicked, "Oh, Bao'er, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, my mother won't feed you, if you don't feed you, don't cry, don't cry."

The child was crying, but there was not a drop of tears in his eyes, looking at the woman still holding the rice bowl in his hand, he suddenly became angry, and reached out to knock the porcelain bowl in the woman's hand to the ground, jingle the bell, and the porcelain bowl fell to the ground and shattered.

The man who was sitting on the upper seat frowned when he heard the voice, stood up and came to the child, but he slapped him, and with a snap, he directly knocked the woman who fed the child rice to the ground.

"Hmph, what do you think of the child, he doesn't eat if he doesn't want to, do you know that this bowl of rice can buy three women like you back!" The bearded man drank at the woman.

"Husband, the slave knows that it is wrong, the slave knows that it is wrong, and the slave must pay attention next time." The corner of the woman's mouth was bleeding from the slap, and when she saw that the man was angry, she hurriedly knelt on the ground and pleaded.

The long-bearded man glared at the woman, and was about to say something, but at this time, he only heard the sound of hurried footsteps, but he ignored the woman and looked up at the courtyard.

At this time, I saw the gate of the courtyard, and quickly ran in a tough house, only to see this person run to the door of the house in a few steps, and knelt on the ground with a plop, "Master, our caravan is going out, the second master let the little one come over, let you pass"

The bearded man took a breath and walked briskly outside. "Go and tell the housekeeper, I won't come back to eat at noon, don't make pearl rice at night, this thing is a special silver, a bowl of rice costs three or four taels, this special one is put outside, it's enough to buy an acre of land, he nnd, Qiao Lao Er pit Lao Tzu, this special meal, Lao Tzu is bleeding in his heart,"

The long-bearded man spoke, wiped his mouth, glanced at the rice grains in his hand, shook his head, turned around and followed the door first. At this time, the elegant temperament in Fang Caitang's house suddenly disappeared, and the feeling was that he had been distressed about the money and chewed slowly.

In the grange of the Fan family outside Taiyuan Mansion, the carriages are ready to go, and the carriages are full of goods, and the outside is covered with mats, so that people can't see what is inside.

I saw the long-bearded man coming in from outside the Zhuangzi, looking at the convoy in the middle of the Zhuangzi, with a smile on his face. This is a man in his thirties next to the motorcade, who hurriedly greeted him, "Big brother, you're here,"

The long-bearded man smiled and said, "Second brother, isn't it just to transport goods?" Didn't you come once or twice, and you still need me every time? You just look at the delivery. “

The short and fat man shook his head, "Big brother, my brother is settling accounts, let's take a look at this goods, there is always no harm, brother, I'm still young, in case I can't think about it, big brother, you can still find out, besides, you're here, I'm also relieved,"

As he spoke, the man took out the ledger and handed it to the bearded man. "Oh, second child, why are you so serious," said the long-bearded man, but he took the book from the short and fat man's hand, and lit it up one by one along the convoy.

After about a cup of tea, the long-bearded man put down the account book in his hand, and said with a smile, "The second child is attentive, I think this goods are the same as those over there, and this time we will send them, we should be able to make a lot of money." ”

Saying that, he waved at the convoy behind him and said, "Let's go, don't waste time, you have to go to Shunshengchuan Xicheng in the past three days, although the guards along the way are all fed by us, but you also have to be careful, you can't go too fast on the road, and it's always bad to delay time."

The leader of the convoy below arched his hand at the two people, turned over and got on the horse neatly, and with a wave of his hand, the carriage walked towards the northbound road outside Zhuangzi.

Watching the convoy slowly walk out of Zhuangzi, the long-bearded man exhaled, but said to the short and fat man, "Second brother, find out that our spies were killed by the people over there?" ”

The short and fat man shook his head, "Big brother, where can we find this?" Anyway, Sun Harrier was found in the woods on the side of the road, and it was said that the horse was too tired to ride a horse, and the horse lost its front hooves, and the person fell off the horse and fell to death, but others don't know, we don't know, how could this Sun Harrier be so good at light work, how could he be killed by falling to death? Someone must have ruined our good deeds. ”

The long-bearded man gritted his teeth at the moment, "Hmph, if it weren't for Sun Harrier's accident this time, we wouldn't have gotten the news over there, otherwise this time, where would he Lu Xiangsheng be so lucky, he would have been impeached a long time ago, and what can make us suffer this time is obviously not a fuel-efficient lamp." Second, you continue to investigate, if you don't find out the villain behind the scenes, I'm always worried. (To be continued.) )