Zhang Ruoxi took this thick stack of land deeds and house deeds and looked through them, and found that many of them did not have the endorsement of the original owner, and said: "Many of these deeds of the Dong family should be obtained by betraying slaves, and some are obtained by cleverness, and many of them are not in accordance with the law. ”

Zhang Yuan said: "It is better to go to the county house to reissue the 600 acres of mulberry forest deeds of my brother-in-law's family, and I will keep these deeds first, and they should still come in handy in the future." ”

Zhang Ruoxi suddenly said: "Hey, there is also a slave contract for selling yourself." ”

Zhang Yuan hurriedly said: "Let's see if there is a slave deed with the surname Zong." "I divided a stack from my sister's hand, looked through them one by one, and saw a deed for selling men signed by Zong Laoben, the paper was yellow, obviously some years, and the deed read:

"Sanlintang Zong Laoben, now the biological male Zonglu, the milk name is lazy, thirteen years old, because of the poverty of the family, said that there is no borrowing for food, and is willing to lead to Huating Dong Shengren to be a slave in the Chang Mansion, get silver seven taels or eight money, the deed is said, and pay enough, this man is to listen to the silver master to raise Chengren, marry Yi, use it for life, if there is no danger, it is his own life. This male is his own child, and there is no unknown origin and other things, now I want to have a basis, and the deed and this male handprint is a photo - February 19, the fifth year of Wanli, the old book of the sect (charged), and the person in the middle of the king turtle shou (charged). ”

A stack of deeds rummaged through, except for this deed of selling the old man of the sect, he didn't see the deed of sale with the surname Zong, Zhang Yuan instructed Wuling to go to the outer courtyard to ask Zong Yishan's father's name, and when he didn't move, Wuling talked back and forth, saying that Zong Yishan's father's name was Zong Lu - Zhang Yuan said to his sister and brother-in-law: "Zong Yishan is a son of a house slave, and he does not have a deed of sale, this is easier to do, I will seek a background for Zong Yishan." ”

…… The ten open wooden boxes in the room are golden, white flowers, and jewelry, which is only a small part of the wealth of the Dong family in Huating, except for gold, jade, jewelry and books and antiques, this gold and silver ingots alone are worth 30,000 taels of silver, Huating Dong has always been stingy, and the local disaster relief has never been willing to pay, once it was initiated by Chen Meigong, Dong Qichang looked at Chen Meigong's face, and reluctantly took out two calligraphy and paintings and sold them for eighty taels of silver for disaster relief silver - in the last years of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng attacked Datong and threatened Gyeonggi, Chongzhen ordered to give up Ningyuan, The Guanning Iron Cavalry of Wu Sangui entered the Weijing Division, and the troops needed to raise salaries, but the treasury of the palace and the Taicang silver of the household department could not come up with the money, and in desperation, Emperor Chongzhen ordered to donate silver according to the level of the officials, but only a few eunuchs donated some silver, and the vast majority of officials were like iron roosters, and the cabinet minister Wei Dezao only donated five hundred taels, Chen Yan cried and confessed that he was honest and had no silver to donate, but later the peasant army captured Yanjing, Wei Dezao was the first to surrender, and Chen Yan gave 40,000 taels of silver, It can be seen that the Ming Dynasty is not without money, and the money is in the hands of corrupt officials and corrupt officials - once a bully and inferior gentry like Dong Qichang encounters the Ding Revolution, it must be similar to Wei Dezao and Chen Yandai, not all officials in which dynasty are not the same, why be loyal to a surname, the mentality of the late Ming gentry is very common, as long as they keep their own lives and property, the rise and fall of the country, and the people do not do anything else, which is similar to the Taizhou school advocates "Mingzhe to protect his life" And the hedonistic trend of thought that arose has a certain connection - and Zhang Yuan knows the general trend of history and has the will to save the country, so he must have huge financial resources in his own hands, and said at the moment: "Sister, brother-in-law, can I participate in a joint venture in this Shengmei, and I will pay 10,000 taels?" ”

Zhang Ruoxi looked at her husband Lu Tao, and Lu Tao said: "If there is no meson, my Lu family has been defeated this time, and this property should be given half of meson-"

Zhang Yuan hurriedly said: "Brother-in-law, don't say that, shouldn't I help my sister-in-law!" ”

Lu Tao said: "Don't talk about anything else, this Shengmei is half of my Lu family and Zhang's family, and you don't want to give out 10,000 taels of silver, the business trick you said last time is worth 10,000 gold." ”

Zhang Yuan said: "This will never work, the money for the shares must be paid, otherwise it will be difficult for my brother-in-law to explain to Uncle Lu." ”

Zhang Ruoxi chuckled and said: "Just let Xiao Yuan come out of this share, as the saying goes, brothers settle accounts." ”

Lu Tao thought about it, Lu has been trapped in Dong's harassment since last year, and the loss of sericulture textile is very large, and it is really a bit of a bit of money to prepare for the Shengmei firm, so he said: "That's good, I will clearly say that my father will make a contract with Jiezi, and in the future, Shengmei will be shared by Lu and Zhang." ”

Lu Tao is a very decent person, so to make a contract, Zhang Yuan also feels that it is best to make a contract, this is not a matter of one or two years, but to continue to future generations, the contract relationship is more stable than relying on feelings alone.

After discussing the matter of Shengmei for a while, Lu Tao and Zhang Ruoxi went back to the room, and after Zhang Yuanyu returned from the bath, he saw that Mu Zhenzhen fastened the ten copper locks that had been pried off again, and said, "Young master, this lock can still be used." ”

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "Do you have to forcibly pry every time, hehe, what kind of mentality is this-Ming said let Laifu buy ten copper locks......

Mu Zhenzhen agreed, and the next day he got up early and instructed Laifu to buy ten copper locks, and locked the boxes one by one, seeing that the young master and Xizhang's eldest son and third son were going out, he hurriedly chased after him and said: "Young master, this is the key, young master keep it." ”

Zhang Yuan smiled: "I have a key tied to my belt, which is unusual." ”

Zhang Dai and Zhang Cao both laughed.

Mu Zhenzhen's face flushed, holding the set of keys in his hand, a little overwhelmed.

Zhang Yuan said: "If you really keep it, you are my housekeeper." ”

Mu Zhen really felt the young master's trust, and his heart was heavy with joy, and he asked again: "Where is the young master going?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Go to Yang Xiucai's printing shop, you don't have to go with you." "Let's go out with the eldest brother Zhang Dai and the third brother Zhang Cao, and there are Yang Shixiang's servants waiting in front of the door.

Zhang Cao glanced back at the fallen girl, and said with envy: "Jie Zi is really lucky, I can also find such a treasure from Sandai Street, like my personal maid Lumei, and my eldest brother's maid Suzhi, they are only useful in bed, and they are useless when they get out of bed——"

Zhang Yuan said: "Well, that's called a vase." ”

"Vase." Zhang Cao was surprised at first, and then burst into laughter, obviously realizing the deep meaning of "vase".

Talking and laughing, I arrived at Yang Shixiang's book printing workshop early, this workshop is connected to the back garden of the Yang family, just on the bank of the Qinglong River, not far from the Narcissus Temple, a slip of ten large tile houses, Yang Shixiang accompanied an old official of the county household has arrived first, this old official is to estimate the value of the Yang family's book printing workshop, while looking at it, the valuation is quite meticulous - the craftsmen employed by the bookstore are divided into writers, engravers, and printers, and Yang's bookstore has a writer, 12 carvers, six printers, and two handymen, such a scale can only be regarded as a small bookstore, The old official of the county household gave Yang's bookstore real estate, the existing engraving, the pear wood and paper used for engraving a total of 1,200 taels of silver, which should be overestimated, Zhang Yuan did not care, so he invested in Hanshe Bookstore according to Yang Shixiang with 1,200 taels of silver, ten taels of silver and one share, that is, one hundred and twenty shares, Yang Shixiang said: "I will give another eight hundred taels of silver to make up two hundred shares." ”

Hong Daotai also came, he gave 500 taels of silver to participate in the Hanshe Bookstore, in this way, the 10,000 taels of the Hanshe Bookstore has made up 6,500 taels, of which the three Zhang brothers 3,000 taels, Yang Shixiang 2,000 taels, Lu Tao 1,000 taels, Hong Daotai 500 taels, the remaining 3,500 taels by Huating, Shanghai's six heads, vice presidents of the capital and shares, this is Zhang Yuan's means of encircling the heads of the clubs, the vice president, in fact, with his current financial resources, it is not difficult to run the Hanshe Bookstore, the reason why Yang Shixiang, Hong Daotai, Xia Yunyi and others participate in the shares, In fact, it is a sharing of interests - Yang Shixiang sealed a tael of silver to thank the old official of the house, sent the old official away, a few people drank tea in the shade of the river, Zhang Yuan looked at the carver sitting in front of the door and asked: "Brother Shixiang, how many words can this carver carve in a day?" ”

Yang Shixiang said: "It depends on what font is carved, if it is to be engraved with Yan, Liu, Ou, Zhao font, it is slow, only a hundred words can be engraved a day, and if it is a general Song font, also called the craftsman font, although this font is not very beautiful, but the strokes are horizontal and vertical is better to cut the knife, a skilled craftsman can engrave more than 200 words a day - I can only write Song characters here, if you want to hire a good regular script calligrapher, the silver is not low. ”

Zhang Yuan knew that the book "Zhang Jiezi's Selected Commentaries on One Hundred and Twenty Essays of Songjiang Shiwen" used craftsman characters, that collection of about 60,000 words, twelve carvers carved about 3,000 words a day, and it would take more than 20 days, so he asked: "Brother Shi Xiang, is movable type printing not easy to apply, why do bookstores still use engraving?" ”

Yang Shixiang said: "The cost of movable type is high, and typesetting is not easy, so it is more convenient to print in small batches or engraving." ”

Zhang Yuan nodded, thinking: "The clay movable type is not used, the cost of copper movable type is too high, and the lead movable type has to organize people to engage in scientific research, and for the time being, it is still used for engraving, engraving and printing has been used for more than 1,000 years, and it was not until the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China that it was eliminated by the lead printing from the West, which shows that it is still very convenient." Said: "Then Brother Shi Xiang will have to worry more, the engravers and printers of the Hanshe Book Company will be doubled this year, and then doubled before the end of the year, employing two types of engravers, one is the craftsman character engraver, and the other is the engraving of Yan, Liu, Ou, and Zhao fonts. ”

Yang Shixiang nodded and said: "Brother Jiezi, don't worry, I have been running a bookstore for many years, and I am familiar with doing this, in previous years, there were no books to print, and I was afraid of losing money, but now with the backing of the Han Society, I can let go and do it - but I want to ask a question next, in addition to this anthology of current literature reviewed by Brother Jiezi, what other books can be printed?" ”

Zhang Yuan said: "Brother Shi Xiang, the source of the book, don't worry, I will find a way, you just have to recruit skilled carvers and printers, and the bookstore can also train carvers by itself, and hire some poor and intelligent teenagers as apprentices, won't it be available in three or five years, we have to make a long-term plan." Suddenly, he asked: "Brother Shi Xiang can recognize Feng Menglong in Suzhou?" ”

Yang Shixiang said: "I have met Feng Menglong once, his three brothers are quite famous, known as Wuxia Sanfeng. ”

Zhang Yuan said: "I will go to Suzhou this time, I will meet Feng Menglong for a while, and ask him to write some fiction novels for our bookstore, which will definitely be a big seller." ”

Zhang Cao said with a smile: "Not to mention anything else, the 100 copies of "Golden Bottle Plum" alone can make Hanshe Bookstore busy for a year, and when I go to Nanjing this time, I will definitely find the manuscript of the whole "Golden Bottle Plum" and then engrave it." ”

(To be continued)