Wang Dou and Han Zhong drove the oxen, and the two put the plough and hoe on the oxen, drove the oxen and rode back slowly. ”

Han Zhong opened his mouth and smirked, Wang Dou smiled, this kind of thing is just a small episode, it is no longer worth paying more attention to yourself, it is better to take the cattle and farm tools back and start the work of Tunbao as soon as possible.

The ox walked slowly, and the two had to ride their horses slowly, and it was nearly evening before the two walked outside the Jingbian pier.

At this time, the nest built by ten families outside the pier has been like a decent, seeing Wang Dou come back, Yang Tong, who kept pointing and pointing on the side, hurriedly greeted him, he asked Wang Dou diligently but it was hard, and at the same time diligently drove the cattle back to the pier, and said that the king head was powerful, and he got a lot of things back.

Wang Dou also breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that there were nine cows in the pier now, and no more could be fitted, so it seemed that a bullpen had to be built outside.

asked about Han Chao and Qi Tianliang, and the two have not yet returned. This morning, when Wang Dou and Han Zhong went to Shunxiang Fort, the two also went to Baoan Zhou City, and when they left, the two picked a few young and strong people from the military households to go together.

Presumably, when the two of them come back, they will bring back some cattle and materials, and when they don't come back, they just build a cattle pen outside, and this task is naturally handed over to Yang Tong, and for a while, Yang Tong shouted and commanded those military households to build a cattle pen outside.

At noon three days later, after the simple cattle pen was built, Han Chao and Qi Tianliang also returned from the state city.

In addition to bringing back a large number of cattle and farm tools, rice and noodles, the two also accompanied a large number of people. When the two of them went to the state city that day, they only brought six young people with them, and now they have come back, and there are more than 20 people. Look at these people, all of them are shabby, there are men and women, old and young, or dragging their families, or carrying their own simple luggage, and some young people who are young and strong are helping to pick up rice and drive cattle.

They looked like a group of outcasts.

Wang Dou was surprised and delighted, and asked about the Han and the DPRK, it turned out that they went to Bao'an Prefecture City on this trip, in addition to buying back all kinds of materials, they also recruited five or six homeless households in the prefecture city at random, and also asked someone to post a notice in the state city, informing Jingbian Fort that there was a need for tunhu. ”

Wang Dou looked at the list, and Qi Tianliang explained on the side that the ten stone rice was bought in a rice shop called Wan Shenghe, and they had run through several rice shops in the state city, even if this rice shop was the most fair. But having said that, a bucket of rice costs five taels of silver, a stone of rice costs five taels of silver, and ten stone of rice costs fifty taels of silver.

Wang Dou frowned, when the Ming Dynasty was rich, one or two silver could buy two stones of rice, that is, in ordinary years, generally one stone of rice was only one or two silver, and now although the price of rice has fallen, it is still so expensive, it is really outrageous to ask for five taels of silver and one stone.

There are also cows, which were bought by the two of them in a cattle shop called Yihechang, and the two of them inquired everywhere, and the price of big cattle in the state city is generally more than eight taels and one calf, and the price of calves is more than five taels and one head, and buying ten cows is already discounted, and it also costs eighty taels of silver.

Wang Dou remembered that in the early Ming Dynasty and the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the price of a cow was only three taels of silver, and the price of a cow in Wanli was only more than five taels, and now a big cow cost more than eight taels, and the price of cattle rose so much.

Qi Tianliang continued to explain that after they bought cattle and rice, they went to an iron-striking shop to buy hoes, iron rakes, plowshares, plough walls, etc. In addition, I went to the bamboo shop to buy dustpans, flat poles, baskets and other things, which were much more expensive than in previous years.

In addition to their food and expenses these days, by the time they returned, they had not much money left.

Qi Tianliang couldn't help but scold the high prices of all kinds of prices, and scolded those profiteers for taking the opportunity to raise prices, even this year's charcoal is much more expensive than in previous years, they bought more than 100 catties of charcoal back, and actually used more than one or two silver, in the past, these charcoal only cost five dollars of silver.

Wang Dou was speechless, thinking that more than a hundred taels of silver would be gone, and he couldn't help but hate and scold: "These profiteers, robbing money." ”

When Qi Tianliang came back, he also ran to a woodware store and bought a set of tables, chairs and stools for Wang Dou and came back, which made Wang Dou a little surprised.

But then Qi Tianliang talked about an interesting thing, which made Wang Dou also curious. There are three small officials in Dongjiazhuang, one is a priest, and two are collecting classics, and Zhong Rong is one of them.

The Ming officials are divided into collectors, priests, wardens, and officials, and the collectors are the last of the officials. In the Ming Dynasty, it is very difficult for officials to be promoted, if the road goes well, they can only be promoted to priests after three years of accumulation, and then three years are the wardens, and another three years are the best officials, and the officials are still petty officials who do not enter the stream. The difficulty of the promotion of officials in the Ming Dynasty can be seen.

Although the officials of the forts of the Daming Guard are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Guards, their evaluation is to see the comments of the seals of the forts, which has caused greater difficulties for the promotion of the officials, and their rice is also paid by the forts, a few buckets of rice per month, and often in arrears, so the officials of the guards in the late Ming Dynasty fled seriously.

This Zhong Rong also often lived a hard life of being full and hungry, and he was quite excluded by the priest Li Chao in the fort, so when Zhang Guilai, the officer in charge, asked who was willing to go to Jingbian Fort, Zhong Rong volunteered to come.

After Wang Dou gave Zhong Rong's salute, he also looked him up and down, seeing that although he was describing a fallen soul, his attitude was neither humble nor arrogant, and he was also a clerk anyway, and he could write and calculate, so he already had the heart to keep him.

He stood up and smiled: "Wang Doude's help is really a blessing, in the future, Mr. will stay in the dun, and I will pay the monthly rice in the future, and I will never deduct the arrears." ”

He instructed Yang Tong to find a room for Zhong Rong in the pier to live in first, let him sleep in the original room of Ma Ming and his wife, and then prepare a set of tables and chairs for him.

Zhong Rong went down with Yang Tong, he had heard of Wang Dou's name, and when he saw that he was a martial artist but also spoke elegantly, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised.

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Old White Cow:

There will be one shift today, and three shifts tomorrow. The time is half past two in the afternoon, six in the evening, and twelve in the evening, thank you for your support.