Yangzhou, the earliest is the Hancheng of Wu State, the Eastern Jin Dynasty set up Guangling County, to the Tang Dynasty changed its name to Yangzhou, it borders the Yangtze River in the south, leads to the Central Plains in the north, the earliest section of the Grand Canal is here, built by Wu Wangfucha, when it is called Hangou. Since the opening of the North-South Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, Yangzhou has become a large-scale port integrating rivers and seas, and has become the center of shipping and commerce in the world with its unique advantages.

After the Tang Dynasty, the economic center slowly moved southward, and the economic development of the Yangtze River basin made Yangzhou's commercial position more stable, connecting Bashu, Lianghu, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang through the Yangtze River basin, connecting the north through the guò Grand Canal, connecting Fujian and Guangdong along the coast, and overseas trade to Japan, Dashi, Persia and India. It is the most prosperous commercial city in the Tang Dynasty, and the poem says "ten miles of long streets, 100,000 homes, a thousand lights in the night market, and red sleeves in high-rise buildings." Since then, it has always been a north-south transportation artery, and literati and ink writers lingered in it, leaving behind thousands of poems that have been recited for thousands of years.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was run through the whole process, and there was no land transit, Yangzhou was located in the middle of the Grand Canal, the north and south intersected, and the population was nearly one million, far more than any city in Europe at that time.

In addition to the complete goods, the most famous is Yangzhou Qingming, Lianghuai salt merchants and Yangzhou thin horses, and then there is the twenty-four bridges Fengyue that Chen Xin admires......

"The son is here to choose a concubine, if so, don't miss my house, there are still seven or eight girls in my family, everyone is one in ten thousand, fill in the words and paint, the piano sings and dances, all of them are fine, it is the bed kung fu, but also carefully trained by the fake mother...... "An old man of about 50 years old followed Chen Xin step by step, introducing his products. Every day, he observed the words and expressions at the banknote wharf. When he saw people who were brightly dressed and hugged each other, he went up to inquire about it, just like the future generations were selling insurance.

Chen Xin smiled and said nothing, walked slowly in front, and a group of guards dressed in plainclothes behind him saw that Chen Xin did not signal. Regardless of the old man, one person was left to watch behind the old man, and the other three people walked to the front. The other three were scattered, and the fierce aura they exuded had made the old man hesitate, but it was clear that he was a very professional broker. That wasn't enough to make him retreat.

After getting off the ship from the banknote, the shipowner went to contact the tax, Chen Xin and Liu Minyou took the entourage to get off the ship, and turned out of the dock not far away, because the two were well-dressed and had an entourage, there were several people talking back and forth, asking what kind of goods to buy, and then this old man appeared, and he judged that Chen Xin was the boss at a glance. Then he came up to talk. Seeing that Chen Xin was silent, he turned to Liu Minyou behind him.

"This son can be seen at first sight as a dragon and phoenix among people, and my daughter ......"

Liu Minyou waved his hand, "I have married a wife......"

"Of course, of course, all my daughters know how to be concubines, respecting their parents and their eldest women. Who doesn't know that Yangzhou girls are the most concubines, and they are rich and noble families in Huguang, Sichuan, and Jiangxi, and they are also coming to Yangzhou......"

"Okay, okay, I really don't need it." Liu Min became impatient, and as soon as he got off the boat, he encountered a few batches, as if he had not yet arrived at the scenic spot when he went to travel. Forced to shop first. He winked at the stupid monk and motioned for him to drive him away.

The stupid monk didn't say a word, and in Liu Minyou's stunned, he grabbed the old man's collar in a few steps, and with one hand, he lifted his feet off the ground, and waved the other hand, and the wine bowl-like fist was ready to hit the old man.

"Stop, who told you to hit him?" Liu Minyou hurriedly stopped.

"My lord, I see that you are making your eyes look good." The stupid monk waved his hand and scratched his head instead.

"I asked you to block him, I didn't ask you to hit anyone." Liu Min suspected that it was a mistake for him to choose this big guy as his personal guard.

"Oh" The stupid monk put down the old man, and the old man was caught by this god-like man, and he was so frightened that he couldn't speak, and now he couldn't move, only kept panting.

The stupid monk stretched out his hands and stood in front of the old man like an iron tower and said, "If you come again, I will block you." ”

Liu Minyou turned his head speechlessly, and the surrounding guards laughed, seeing that Liu Minyou looked over, he didn't dare to laugh anymore, and a few people turned their faces and covered their mouths with their hands. Liu Minyou quickly caught up with Chen Xin, silent, Chen Xin turned his head and said to him with a smile, "If it really doesn't work, then change it, this stupid monk is a good fighter, when the guard reacts a little worse, let the stupid monk go to the patrol team, the joke is small, and the failure to perform duties is big, especially the personal guard." ”

Liu Minyou remembered the back of the stupid monk guarding the door of the store in Jizhou, shook his head, and said, "No, I'm used to it." ”

At this time, the group walked out of the dock and entered a wide bluestone street, the street was bustling with pedestrians, and there were porters moving goods from time to time.

Chen Xin called Song Wenxian, Zhou Laifu and a group of guards, and commanded in a low voice: "Everyone has worked hard all the way, today is a day off, except for the sea dogs, they are all taken by Mr. Song to stay in the city, and then they will play on their own, but they can't go out of the city, tomorrow Zhou Laifu will arrange to find a shop, and meet me at the Bell and Drum Tower at the end of noon, can you remember?" ”

"Yes," everyone replied in unison.

Pu Zhuang asked a little strangely, "Why aren't you allowed to go out of the city?" ”

Chen Xin's eyes widened and said, "Because I said it." Pu Zhuang nodded hurriedly, how did he know that Chen Xin was going to **, and specially sent them all into the city, so as not to be touched, this time Chen Xin didn't even leave Song Wenxian behind, anyway, this person didn't take him with him.

Chen Xin said to Zhou Laifu again: "Give each person three taels of silver." ”

Song Wenxian asked again: "Do you need to bring two more people?" There are a lot of dragons and snakes here, so be careful. ”

Chen Xin shook his hand, "No, the sea dogs are fine, the Tartar pirates have been killed, and you are still afraid of dragons and snakes?" Besides, there is a stupid monk who is not. ”

Pu Zhuang and the others laughed, promised to retreat, and led a few people to ask for directions, and headed towards the city......

"If the two sons want to buy goods in large quantities, they can't do it on this street, the west end of this street goes out to the south, there are more than 20 large and small alleys, iron pots, porcelain bowls, cotton, cotton cloth, pen, ink, paper, inkstone, etc., each gathering in the alley. The price is 10% lower than this street. The two were about to move on when a voice suddenly sounded beside them.

Liu Minyou turned around and saw that a middle-aged man wearing a round hat and a cyan robe looked at the two respectfully behind him, and Liu Minyou said impatiently: "We just passed by here with the ship, not to buy goods, so we don't bother." ”

"So don't bother the two Yaxing. If you want to purchase goods in Yangzhou in the future, you can find a villain and ensure that you can find the cheapest and best source of goods for the two. A certain surname is Ding, and his single name is also Ding, and he is at the dock every day. Where to go. Thank you for your understanding. With that, he was leaving.

Liu Minyou was about to raise his feet to leave, when suddenly Chen Xin said loudly, "This Brother Ding, how do you know where the cheapest is?" And how do you know it's the best? Is it convenient to inform? ”

When Ding Ding heard this, he stopped and looked at Chen Xindao: "Meng Gongzi asked, it is not easy to store more goods, and the price is low when there are many goods, and the arrival time of each family is different, and the price is always big or small. I run every three days, write down the prices of each house, and I can know where the cheapest is. As for the good goods of the He family, the villain's method is to often listen to people bargaining in the store and reduce the price. The customer will say more bad, the store will say more good, and learn from others on weekdays, and write down more and how to distinguish each goods, and record it into a book. When the two are compared, they will always look at a little bit. ”

Chen Xin said dumbly, "Your method is simple, but when the price is set, it is all in the middle of the sleeve, how do you know." ”

"At the beginning, I did not know anything, but then because I ran diligently and remembered well, I would not forget the names of the merchants I had seen, and the next time I came, he felt cordial, and the merchants were gradually increasing, and now the prices of each store were low and I was notified, and the price was naturally known."

"I would venture to ask you how much profit you can make in a day? If it's inconvenient, it doesn't need to be said. ”

"Meng Gongzi asked, there is nothing to say, outside the dock as Gongzi saw, they are all people like me, just saw that Gongzi is powerful, Gongzi is definitely not an ordinary person, he will never come to rob me of such a business, there is nothing inconvenient. Childe asked me how much profit I made a day, so if Childe bought a hundred taels, I could get one tael, and the daily income varied, when there was nothing, and when there was more, I could get five or six taels. Although Yangzhou is a thoroughfare between the north and the south, but the real bulk goods from the north and south will not be bought in Yangzhou, and they have gone to the north and south of the production area, even if there are Henan, two Huaihao businessmen come here to buy in bulk, they are deep-rooted, and the network is wide, and they will not look for people like me. ”

"Even so, the income is not much, why not run your own shop to make a better profit? With your diligence, you may become a big business. ”

"It's good to be a wealthy businessman, but I have no backer, no capital, if I generally buy goods from the wharf, I will not be cheaper than others, if I go to the north and south to buy goods, no one cares about it all the way, the tax will have to pay a lot more than others, and the price will be higher, there will be no doubt about the loss, not as I am now, although it is hard, there is also a lot less trouble."

Chen Xin pondered for a moment and said to him: "There is an opportunity today, I want to open a shop here, if you are willing to help me take care of it, wait for me here tomorrow at this time, and put forward your conditions." ”

After Chen Xin finished speaking, he left with Liu Minyou, leaving Ding Ding in a daze......

The two walked along the street, and Liu Minyou asked as he walked, "Do you plan to use this person as an agent?" ”

Chen Xin nodded, "It's not an agent, Yangzhou is located between Shandong and Jiangnan, and in the long run, it is very important for my business. ”

Liu Minyou asked: "It's easy to buy a shop, but it's not so easy to put up a shelf, we have discussed the model of these shops so many times, and the long-term goal has not been set, and even the name is not yet available." ”

Chen Xin pondered for a while and said: "It's better to build a trading company, just call it Sihai Trading Company, separate accounting, don't get together with our internal sales department, this is external, and now you can only manage it temporarily." ”

"What scale do you want to be?"

Chen Xin replied: "I want to cover the canal first, and then the state capitals along the canal, and the south of the Yangtze River will be opened more, and it is best to reach the county." ”

Liu Minyou still doesn't agree with it, "Daming is so big, if you set up points everywhere, the cost will be higher." I envision that it is only about manufacturing, so that customers can come to Shandong to purchase goods by themselves, so that the management is simple, and the energy is used to expand production and develop new products. ”

"Our trading company network not only sells southern goods and self-produced goods, but also purchases the materials we need in Wendeng Camp in the future, which is a material network, so that our materials can be guaranteed through multiple channels."

Chen Xin only said half of it, in fact, in his heart, Sihai Trading Company has a more important role. It's just that he is still in the initial stage, his strength is still very weak, and the time is far from ripe, so he didn't say anything to Liu Min in advance.

While speaking, the four of them walked out of the street just now, remembering that Ding Ding said that the south is still a place to sell goods, so the two turned north into another street, and the street was mostly restaurants and teahouses. It is even more lively, with men and women of all colors coming and going, and traveling monks, fortune tellers, and green-skinned scoundrels shuttle among them. The teahouse was full of tea customers, listening to stories and singing, and there were several people on the street who occupied the street to perform their arts. A circle of spectators around them, from time to time let out a cheer, Dan Lang around the circle to sell snacks, a prosperous scene. The two were interested, looking east and west, completely ignorant of the time.

Listening to the storytelling in a teahouse, Chen Xin and Liu Minyou squeezed into a bunch of people to watch the fairy order beans, the man held a short stick in one hand, and skillfully arranged several porcelain bowls in the other, and the beans appeared in several bowls. Liu Minyou couldn't see the flaw when he stood in front of him, so he almost wanted to add a sentence "The following is the time to witness the miracle".

After the two of them looked at it, they dropped a few pieces of broken silver and squeezed out of the crowd, Chen Xin felt a little hungry in his stomach. It was already afternoon when he got off the boat, and after another half a day, it was time for dinner, and he saw a restaurant in front of him, and the curtain at the door had two big characters written on it: "Congee Quan".

He patted Liu Minyou: "I've been eating too well lately, how about going to nourish my stomach today?" ”

Liu Min has a look at the signboard. Hurriedly nodded in agreement, turned his head to find the other two, the sea dog was behind him, but the stupid monk was not far away and watched a woman stepping on a single rope with a smirk, completely forgetting that he was a personal bodyguard, and Liu Min had a good shot on his head in the past.

After the four people entered the store, Xiao Er came to entertain, this store specializes in porridge, there are lotus seeds, bamboo leaves, cranberries, milk, sugarcane, yams, wolfberries, perilla, rehmannia and flax, sheep kidney, pig kidney, deer kidney, immortals, lilies and so on more than 20 kinds, two people and sea dogs each ordered three kinds of vegetarian porridge, only the stupid monk ordered five bowls of meat porridge, a moment to serve, fragrant, four people finished eating, all had a swollen stomach, porridge bowls piled up a table.

Liu Minyou touched his stomach and praised the aroma of porridge, and said to Chen Xin: "The porridge is really delicious, when I am old in the future, I will come to Yangzhou, drink tea and listen to the opera, and eat some porridge at night, which is also very good." ”

Chen Xin shook his head, and Liu Min looked at him strangely, "How is it?" ”

Chen Xin sighed, "It's so prosperous today, so do you know what it will be like in more than ten years?" ”

"What?"

Chen Xin said in a low voice: "Originally, more than ten years later, this place was slaughtered, the corpses were all high, the eaves were high, the smell was several miles, Yangzhou was almost a ghost, you want to come to support the elderly, and it depends on whether we can stop the Tartars." ”

Liu Minyou had not seen "Ten Days in Yangzhou" in his previous life, but he knew about the massacre in Yangzhou on the Ten Days, and at this time, he was immersed in the scene, and he had some more feelings, and it was hard to imagine how the vibrant city in front of him could become like that.

Chen Xin sighed, and suddenly whispered to him and said, "It's best to have another bowl of pork kidney porridge, so that you can have the strength to find my sister at night." ”

Only then did Liu Min remember what Chen Xin said before getting off the boat, and he was a little expectant and a little worried in his heart.

"Forget it, I'm still not going, I'm not used to going to that kind of place." Liu Min was still embarrassed for a long time, and besides, the stupid monk didn't open the door, so maybe he would be known to everyone if he took him along.

"Really?" Chen Xin asked, "Anyway, I'm going to go, I finally came to Yangzhou, this time I go back, if I don't fight the rogues, I will fight the Tartars, and one day I will die on the battlefield, I regret it, hehe." ”

Chen Xin beckoned Xiao Er to ask for money, let the three of them go out, he gave Xiao Er two more cents of silver, and then whispered to Xiao Er about the location of the "red light district", it turned out that the nine alleys were on the canal in front of the north of the bank, stretching for half a mile, and at night those sisters went out to the tea shop by the river to wait for customers.

Xiao Er took the silver and thanked him again and again, listened to his foreign accent, and kindly said to him: "Childe first lives in a nearby inn, places his luggage, and then doesn't need to bring anything at night, and follows Xiaoniang to the alley for the night." The famous prostitutes in the alley are crooked, and the prostitutes who come out at night are crooked prostitutes, and the famous prostitutes do not go out, and they can only be found by a guide. ”

"How old do crooked prostitutes usually be?"

"They are all older, most of them are ten**, there are also twenty or thirty, and there are more by the river at night, and there are fewer famous prostitutes."

Chen Xin waved his hand and said with a smile, "It's just right, Lao Tzu likes crooked prostitutes, and there are many people to be lively." ”

After Chen Xin inquired clearly, he went out and called the three of them, seeing that it was still early, he found the place that Xiao Er said, on the edge of the canal, the bank was planted with willow trees, and he found an inn and booked four rooms, he and Liu Minyou were on the second floor of the street, and they could see the teahouses that Xiao Er said when they leaned out of the window. Chen Xin went to Liu Minyou's room to drink tea again, and had a chat with no match.

As it gets dark, the pedestrians of all kinds gradually become scarce during the day, but there are many more people dressed as scribes and merchants in the teahouse and restaurant.

The liquor shops and teahouses have lit candles in the hall, and hung all kinds of yarn lamps in front of the door and on the willow trees, more than 100 lights, under the reflection of the yarn lanterns, a hazy pale yellow on both sides of the street, the breeze by the river is gusting, the shadows of the trees are waving, the willow leaves make a rustling sound with the sound of the canal, and the hustle and bustle of the day is far away for a moment, as if it has never existed.

After reading it, Chen Xin said to Liu Minyou: "The environment here is good, a bit like a bar." ”

Liu Minyou also looked at the window and said strangely: "There is no one here." ”

Chen Xin said with a smile: "Standing on the street, of course, you won't come out later, will you go?" ”

"Well, no."

Suddenly, a chattering woman's voice broke the silence, Chen Xin looked out, and many women poured out of the alley about a hundred steps away, walking in groups of three or five.