Suzhou, Gansu. It's a cold winter!

The city near Jiayuguan is quiet in the winter snow. It was too cold, and the people in the city didn't want to move. Moreover, the two street markets in the dilapidated city of Suzhou have now been gradually marginalized economically, and the merchants in the city have been attracted to open shops outside the north gate to do business, and the common people and the local gentry and wealthy families have gradually become accustomed to this new market, whether it is to buy things, or to take a walk with nothing to do, the things that can be bought in the North Gate Market, and the shopping environment are much better than the old state city.

Several handicraft families in Suzhou have closed down, including a few blacksmith shops. Their products are not comparable to Northwest Department Store at all, and even in terms of price, they are completely defeated. So it was a complete defeat in the year-long free competition. But they are doing better now than they were before. Because the Northwest Department Store has a shelf life, most of these craftsmen have been included in the Northwest Department Store. For these craftsmen themselves, joining the Northwest Department Store is a stable income and a good salary; The second is that the Northwest Department Store belongs to one of the subordinate companies of the Qin Foundation, and the Qin Consortium is the royal consortium of Daqin, known as the "Small Internal Affairs Office".

The only place in the state city that still seems to be a little more lively is Hengkang Hall. Because Hengkangtang's shopkeeper Zhao was very interested in the first day when the Northwest Department Store entered Suzhou, he surrendered and lost, so that Hengkangtang became a member of the Northwest Joint Venture Pharmacy very smoothly. Over the past year, the scale has been expanding, and many foreign pharmacists have been added.

Truckloads of medicinal materials are transported in, and what is transported out is boxes and boxes of medicines.

The sales of these drugs in Suzhou are not too high. After all, the people here are poor, and there are more decoctions in traditional Chinese medicine. In the middle of the year, in the middle of summer. Just when many people secretly laughed at Hengkang Tang's gains outweighed the losses, the arrival of an army made all the finished drugs that Hengkang Tang had accumulated for half a year empty. It turns out that this is the confidence of the 'Northwest Joint Venture Pharmacy'.

Heng Hong Hall. It's sent!

Later, it was rumored that Hengkangtang had obtained some prescriptions from Huqing Yutang in Jiangnan, focusing on low-cost and cheap medicines such as Zhuge Marching Powder and Avoiding Plague. This is a necessity in the army, and it is sold very well in Lanzhou and other places, and the finished drugs produced by those joint pharmacies in eastern Gansu are in short supply at all. In particular, the cheap and high-quality anti-plague is dispersed, and many people in Lanzhou and other places carry a bottle on their bodies, which has become a standing peace medicine in midsummer.

In the old city of Suzhou, Hengkang Hall is the only one that has good news in addition to catering and accommodation!

Boss Zhao also became a member of the Advisory Council opened in Suzhou in the second half of the year. One of the Standing Committee members. It can be described as a spring breeze.

It is also because of this 'fact' that the local gentry in Suzhou, who originally had a rejection mentality towards the Northwest Department Store and Qin's entry into the Northwest, also changed their attitude.

This royal boy is really a good money boy.

People with more active brains in the county have such feelings, let's just say take Lin Changqing, who drives a horse, originally the car and horse shop are just half-dead. The Huihui riots were too severe in damaging the economy and people's livelihood in the northwest, and it was not at all possible that it could be restored in ten years. So the business in the northwest has also become very inconspicuous, very inconspicuous. The carriage and horse shop is developed by trade, and the Lin family's carriage and horse shop is so alive and dead, I don't know when it will die. As a result, relying on the Northwest Department Store, Lin Changqing has replaced all the carriages and horses with four-wheeled carriages in just one year. Although it is rumored that the Lin family owes a lot of money to the Northwest Department Store, Lin Changqing really occupies the top of the Suzhou gentry, and no one in the locals dares to despise him. Like the shopkeeper Zhao of Hengkang Hall, the two became the local trumpeter representatives in Suzhou who advocated for the imperial court.

A lot of people's minds are starting to come alive. Some people are already wondering how to get on the Northwest Department Store. and even the Qin clan behind it.

The center of Suzhou is naturally the state government, and it is listless throughout the winter, and the gate is closed. A team of policemen who guarded the gate also hid in the gatehouse to make a fire. After all, this is Suzhou, where people's livelihood is withering, not the prosperous Jiangnan. After the autumn harvest has passed. The local government only needs to keep its eyes on the North Gate Bazaar and prevent the merchants there from evading taxes. One qiē is OK!

Suzhou, no, the whole Jiuquan, the whole of Gansu, and now the Yamen are all eating financial meals. Relying on local taxes, they can't even afford to pay them three months' salary.

Personally, the officials here, regardless of the heights, everyone is more comfortable than their southeastern counterparts. Too little!

Xu Xing was a member of the Suzhou Education Bureau, and he was one of the few local Jinshi who was an official in Lanzhou when the Northwest surrendered. As a disciple of Confucius and Mencius, Xu Xing is very loveless to the current Great Qin Dynasty.

Although the imperial examination still exists, it is no longer the 'specialty' of Confucius and Mencius's disciples. The government went to the countryside, and the tentacles even hooked the villages, which was an absolute redundant move in Xu Xing's view. Especially after the promulgation of the new education system, those new schools are like a needle in the flesh, which makes Xu Xing hate.

However, as an official at the state bureau level, Xu Xing's small life is very good. His salary is 10,000 yuan per month, plus subsidies, etc., and he can finally get 12,000 yuan.

This Huayuan was also one of the reasons why Xu Xing was dissatisfied with Great Qin Yanzhòng. In the eyes of Xu Xing, who is full of poetry and books, this so-called 'Huayuan' is just the 'treasure money' of the Ming Dynasty. Once there is a change, it will shake the world. See paper money as evidence of the greed of the new dynasty.

But Xu Xing won't make a head bird. Although it is not a silver for nothing, it can be sold in the Northwest Department Store. The Northwest Department Store still only recognizes paper money, and silver can't buy anything there.

Of course, in Xu Xing's eyes, this is a kind of 'double reed'-like storage.

Xu Xing was dismissive of this kind of 'counterfeit banknote' in his heart, and only regarded it as a 'necessity of life'. But his wife and children loved Hua Yuan to death. With Huayuan, they can sell what they yearn for in the Northwest Department Store!

Dressers, full-length mirrors, perfumes, cosmetics, gorgeous and bright fabrics, delicious sweets......

For the barren and impoverished Northwest, these things are an irresistible temptation.

As for Xu Xing himself, after he liked cigarette rolls, which have a thick taste and are very convenient to absorb, the 'counterfeit banknotes' in his hands also have a value. Whether it is the Northwest Department Store or other shops selling cigarettes, the North Gate Market only accepts this kind of money.

And Xu Xing also knew his immediate boss, Chen Yunpeng, the second deputy governor of the prefecture in charge of education, land, urban construction, health and other departments, who was also born in Jinshi and loved calligraphy and painting by nature. On the day of the opening of the Northwest Department Store, Chen Yunpeng became a loyal customer here. Because the Northwest Department Store has the best pen, ink and paper in the Northwest, and has the most complete calligraphy and picture books in the Northwest. In the first two months, Chen Yunpeng not only did not have enough money to spend, but also became the first 'unjust big head' in Jiuquan to exchange one hundred taels of silver at the Jiuquan branch of Huaxia Bank.

Over the past year, the Northwest Department Store and Huayuan have been impacting Suzhou's own economy, and now this kind of banknote has been able to pass through most of the towns in Suzhou.

Xu Xing, as a hidden 'hostile' element, also tried to smoke dry tobacco from scratch. However, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. Once a person is accustomed to the enjoyment of life, it becomes difficult to return to the way it used to be. His attempt to re-smoke dry tobacco failed less than a week. It is spicy and bitter, and it is full of smoke and oil, which can be called torture for Xu Xing, who is used to cigarettes. In the end, he directly shook the dry tobacco stick, and then smoked cigarettes honestly.

He didn't have the courage to refuse the bargain offered by the Northwest Department Store, but he accepted it - he felt that he was sinking deeper and deeper. Not only him, but all the subordinates across the state.

On this day, the weather was clear. Xu Xing walked out of the yamen, intending to take a look at Jiuquan Academy.

Jiuquan Academy is a time-honored academy in Suzhou, and it can be called a loud name in Gansu in its heyday. It was created for Tang Kuan, the deputy envoy of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, and was later abandoned. In the early years of Qianlong in the former Qing Dynasty, Huang Wenwei, the governor of Suzhou, rebuilt the site of the Confucian Temple and divided it into two, one for adults and one for children. 2 instructors of the state school are divided into teachers, and the monthly classes are yearly, and the monthly diet is about 300 taels of silver. Raise funds to buy land and buy houses, and lease funds to anoint the fire. In the twenty-fourth year of Qianlong (1759), Zhizhou Xu Hao was rebuilt. There are Jingye Hall, Lequn Pavilion and so on. More than 20 sergeants from the county were selected to graduate and continue to teach.

Although Suzhou's new-style primary school and middle school halls have been opened, the influence of Jiuquan Academy is still there, and under Xu Xing's obvious eccentricity, it is impossible to say how much the software facilities of Jiuquan Academy have improved, but the hardware facilities, that is, Xuetian and 'financial allocation', are higher than the highest in history. After all, Suzhou is now less populated and more land, and it is not eye-catching to allocate more land to the academy.

Chen Shushao, the head of the academy, is also the most upright master. It was specially selected by Xu Xing from a group of 'local celebrities'. He is not the most famous person in Suzhou, but he is definitely the most upright and stern person. And he has an attitude of rejection of Xinxue, otherwise even if Chen Shushao can't be a state official, he can go to the county below to be an official after three months of training. At this point, Xu Xing was very ashamed of himself, because although he also resisted the new dynasty in his heart, he did not dare to resist at all. The three-month training was obediently went, and the final exam results were quite good.

Chen Shushao directly refused!

Xu Xingyi's actions were all to make Jiuquan Academy, which is positioned as a 'middle school', completely suppress Xinxue. However, reality has proved that although Jiuquan Academy is still famous in this year's year, it is still the leader of Suzhou education, but it has not completely suppressed the newly established Suzhou No. 1 Middle School.

Winter break is coming soon. The final exams are coming out, and the secondary school level exams can't be evaluated concretely, because the 'curriculum' on the two sides is too different. But Mengxue, that is, the primary school, Chinese language and mathematics, there is a comparison.

Xu Xing wants to take a look at 'his own territory' and cheer up 'his own people'! (To be continued......)