In the city of Beijing in October, there is already a bleak smell, the wind blowing from the mottled ancient city wall, bringing the inherent cold of the northland, the leaves begin to wither, dry, pieces fall with the wind, fall on the green bricks and stone paved streets, passers-by step on, make a crisp breaking sound, as if heralding another cold winter.

The carbon households on the carbon mountain on the outskirts of Beijing also gathered their things early, preparing carbon for the winter for this giant with a population of hundreds of thousands, and also preparing an extra padded jacket for themselves to earn some money and spend the long winter in this winter.

Carbon household Zhang Dabiao has been doing this business for decades, and he is twenty-two in his fifties this year, but he looks seventy years old, has never married a wife, and of course has no descendants, and is alone. Since his grandfather's generation, he has been doing this for a living. Honest temperament, the stick can't beat a fart, on weekdays is not less bullied by other carbon households, robbed his customers, and did not dare to speak, sometimes bullied ruthlessly, cowardly and weakly said a few words, others stared at him and wanted to beat him, he was so frightened that he squatted on the ground and begged for mercy, others laughed, and gave him a nickname of "Zhang nerd".

Zhang Dabiao has a cowardly personality, but there is an advantage, that is, he is honest in business, and the charcoal is never short of two catties, and a basket of real money, although it is pressed by other carbon households, but there are many people who like to use his carbon, including many high-ranking households.

In August, Zhang Dabiao accepted an apprentice, who seemed to have fled from other places, in his twenties, with clear eyebrows and eyes, tall, but thin, not like a strong look, everyone else laughed, saying that Zhang Dabiao was old and wanted to find someone to send him to the end, so he took this person in.

This young man's name is Chen Xiang, when he entered Zhang Dabiao's door, he gave him a hard job, he was very diligent, and in August and September, it was still early to burn charcoal, so he ran all over the city, and pulled business for Zhang Dabiao everywhere to prepare for the winter. I went out before dawn every day, carrying two steamed buns in my arms, and came back after dark, pushing the door door, smiling and asking people if they needed carbon in winter, and they were not afraid of being blinded. It's good for Zhang Dabiao, he has to cook and wash every day when he goes back, and he also washes his feet for the older Zhang Dabiao. People say that Zhang Dabiao has picked up a treasure, and he has such a well-behaved and filial young man, and there will be no shortage of descendants in the next hundred years.

Zhang Dabiao is also happy and happy, as soon as October arrives, he takes Chen Xiang into the mountains to burn charcoal, this year's winter is cold early, some large families have not yet entered the winter to start using carbon, the noble gold is very expensive, can not stand the cool.

When the carbon was released for the first time, someone came to the door as usual and warned Zhang Dabiao that some places could not be sent, which was wrapped by others, otherwise Zhang Dabiao's carbon stove would be dismantled, and at the same time, the amount of carbon fees for this year was also set. The carbon gang is all over the capital and beyond, with thousands of disciples and grandchildren, specializing in dominating weak carbon households to collect money, which is not a big gang, but it is very prestigious among carbon households.

In the past, Zhang Dabiao couldn't afford to offend this kind of carbon gang, so he could only agree, reluctantly give up some large carbon users, and go to the market to set up stalls to sell. But this year is different.

Chen Xiang walked forward with a smile, the carbon gang came with two roe head rat minions, slanted eyebrows and crooked eyes to see that they were ruffians and hooligans, rampant, where to see Chen Xiang dressed in mud legs, seeing him step forward, he was about to scold, but don't Chen Xiang kicked one by one, kicked far away.

Chen Xiang is thin, but his clothes are full of muscles, and his explosive power is very strong, where are the people who killed people from the battlefield can be compared to these two minions, the two got up and scolded and felt out the short knife and wanted to move, but Chen Xiang snatched the knife away three or two times, twisted the arm bone, and slapped more than 20 ear scrapers and beat them out.

The two ran back and cried, and the carbon gang came to settle accounts with twenty or thirty people that night, but they "coincidentally" ran into another group of unidentified characters, and they were beaten to pieces on the road, and the leader was cut off from his ears and ran away in a miserable howl.

In the middle of the night, the leader of the Carbon Gang disappeared in the bed of the helm's house, even the clothes were there, but the person was gone, and the woman sleeping on a bed did not notice anything, and woke up with only an empty bed.

The carbon gang is in chaos, and the position of the gang leader is vacant, causing countless pairs of eyes to peep, which is a side story, not for the time being.

Without the trouble of the Carbon Gang, Zhang Dabiao got his wish and re-managed the old relationship that he had left behind, including the mansion of Hong Chengchou, a scholar of the Inner Courtyard University.

Hongfu housekeeper is Zhang Dabiao's old acquaintance, met, the housekeeper is very happy, in previous years did not use Zhang Dabiao's carbon, not to mention the shortage of catties, but also many times, burn up always feel unsatisfactory, although the head of the house did not say anything, but when the housekeeper consciously ashamed, today finally Zhang Dabiao came to the door, of course, happy, a strong urge Zhang Dabiao to hurry up this year.

Zhang Dabiao took Chen Xiang, hired two porters, pushed the carbon car, and began to deliver the door-to-door business every other day.

Zhang Dabiao is old, and he still has to take care of the charcoal burning work in the mountains, and he can't stand tossing every day.

This young man, still smiling, very diligent, as if the car of several hundred pounds is not troublesome at all, eat less every day and sleep late, busy day and night, and know how to be a man, often send some carbon to a few housekeepers in Hongfu for free, very likable, soon, Hongfu is familiar with this well-behaved young man, he transports carbon in and out, and gradually no one is deliberately staring at it anymore, and he is familiar with the way to go in and deliver.

Hongfu is in the inner city, in Tongluo Hutong, here was originally a Shangshu Mansion of the Ming Dynasty, after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, Dolgon gave this place to Hong Chengchou.

The mansion is luxurious, the courtyard is set one by one, the pavilions and pavilions, the nine-curved corridor, the lotus pond is exquisite, the crescent moon door of the lake pavilion, the carved beams and paintings are the eaves and corners, it is dizzying, breathtaking, living in it, the picturesque scenery is in the eye, how not to make people feel refreshed and happy.

But Hong Chengchou is not so comfortable.

In the past few days, the Taiji Hall of the Forbidden City has been noisy.

Azig, who came back with the troops, was aggressive and wanted to be the regent, of course, he couldn't say it explicitly, but he had a large group of people to help him say that Zilharang and the others were not vegetarians, how could Azig be the murderer? If anyone is really going to be the regent, it should be Zilharang, who is also an auxiliary minister.

The two sides fought and-for-tat in the Taiji Palace, arguing so much that their faces were red and their necks were thick, and no one was convinced of anyone.

The young Emperor Shunzhi and the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who had no backbone, watched this scene helplessly, and there was nothing to do.

Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan and I and a group of Hanchen had no room to speak, they shrunk their necks and watched on the side, the more they looked, the more frightened they became, the more they looked at it, the more cold they became, this Wang Huan's hundreds of thousands of people were ready to attack in Shanxi, and the Eight Banners masters were not busy coping, but they were arguing about who would be the regent!

Put the cart before the horse, or rather, the desire for profit!

For a moment, Hong Chengchou felt in a trance that he was back in the Ming Dynasty Hall, and it was not Shunzhi who was sitting on it, but Emperor Chongzhen, and it was not the Manchu nobles who were arguing, but the Ming friends, although there was a time and space gap, everything was the same.

He thought sadly, could it be that the fate of the Qing Dynasty would repeat the mistakes of the Ming Court?

(End of chapter)