The battle between the two waves of aquarium did not affect the passenger ships, and it was obvious that both sides had restraint.

On the afternoon of the eighth day, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, Wang Xu arrived at Yangzhou Mansion.

Wang Xu had only heard of the prosperity of Yangzhou Mansion before, but he had not actually felt it.

Now, coming up along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, looking at the painted boats docked on both sides, the giant merchant ships, and the crowded city, it is really not comparable to the kind of place in Liyang County.

Liyang County is only a small county seat, and in the afternoon, when it is almost dark, there are no people on the street.

This is not the case in Yangzhou Mansion, after dark, it is the day when the nightlife begins.

There are literati who go in and out of the restaurant, paint boats, chant poems, and are full of spirit.

Some businessmen spend a lot of money, just to win a smile from the beauty.

Wang Xu even saw glass beads in some people, and the pursuit of glass beads.

There is no doubt that Yangzhou City is a really prosperous place, and there are very few cities in the south of the Yangtze River that can not be left behind.

"What's it called, what are you here for, is there any entrainment of goods?"

Unlike the rumors, Wang Xu found that if he wanted to enter the city, he actually had to pay taxes.

Outsiders who do not carry goods will have to pay 300 wen when they enter the city, and those who bring goods will have to pay 5 taels.

Even those who have meritorious names must pay this money, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter the city.

"This old brother, let me ask you, what is the matter with this city entry tax?"

Wang Xu found a vendor and inquired about the news in the city.

The peddler sighed and said bluntly: "It's not for the imperial court to get it, you said that Yan Gong's new policy is so good, there is no need to compete with the people for profit, and there are not so many rules."

Now, I need money everywhere, what is the entrance fee, sanitation fee, land apportionment fee, and spit on the ground, and if you don't give it, you will be thrown into a cell and locked up for a few days.

I can see that the group of big men in the court don't plan to give us a way to live. ”

The hawker's tone was gloomy, and his accent was from Zhejiang Prefecture, and he carried a lot of goods, and the entrance fee of five taels of silver was probably gone.

"Taxes are excesses!"

In the depths of Wang Xu's heart, the word flashed violently.

At the time of the New Deal, most of the taxes were directed at the gentry, and few wool was scraped from the common people.

After the New Deal was abolished and the Han Party was demoted, the tax revenue in the court was immediately reduced by one-half, and there were holes everywhere.

No matter how these holes are plugged, they can't still make the gentry bleed.

The Zhu Party, which was based on the gentry, was the victor and the beneficiary of this party struggle, and if they were willing to bleed, they would not oppose the New Deal.

Now that the New Deal has been abolished, in the face of less and less tax silver, of course, the wool is out of the sheep.

What's more excessive is that the entrance fee to the city is calculated according to the number of times.

Once entering the city, the small traders drove the carriage and asked for five taels of silver when they entered the city, while the big traders pulled a boatload of goods or five taels, and the charging standard was obviously unreasonable.

A thousand-kilometer sea ship can pull thousands of times more goods than a horse-drawn carriage along the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal into Yangzhou Mansion.

The small traders have to cut down on food and clothing for five taels of silver, but the big traders give five taels of silver, but they are like sending them to call Hanako.

Such a rule is obviously not right on the bottom, poor for the small people, rich for the businessmen, and diametrically opposed to the new deal in the tax collection according to the amount.

The disadvantages of the defeat of the Han Party and the abolition of the New Deal have begun to be revealed.

Wang Xu was worried, but he couldn't do anything, so he could only pay the entrance fee and enter the city of Yangzhou, not daring to think about how the imperial court policy would change in the future.

Yangzhou City, is the capital of Yangzhou, the south of the Yangtze River has a lot of water, Yangzhou City is also a large and small river, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal passes through the city.

The most talked-about thing is the Yangzhou thin horse.

Yangzhou thin horse does not refer to horses, but to people.

Yangzhou City, is the base camp of the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, the salt merchants are rich and rival the country, and the comparison is excessive, and the thin horses that come out of the salt merchants have become the embodiment of the extreme luxury in the south of the Yangtze River.

Yaren, Yagong, will buy six or seven-year-old girls from poor people's homes, train them from an early age, teach them singing and dancing, piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and sell them to the rich as concubines or enter the Qinlou Chu Pavilion when they grow up, and make a profit from it.

A first-class thin horse, poetry, calligraphy and painting are omniscient, no different from everyone's ladies, and poetry can also be pinched easily, literary talent is not necessarily worse than that of scholars, and often becomes the concubine of the official gentry.

The second-class thin horse, who can sing and dance, but only slightly loses his literary talents, often enters the Qinlou Chu Pavilion, paints the boat in the flower room, or sells his art, or sells his body, and if he mixes well, he can also marry a literati and a scholar, and he will have no worries in his life.

The third-class skinny horse, limited by qualifications, is really funny.

If you want to be literate and talented, if you want to sing and dance without singing and dancing, you can only pick up people's teeth and live with laughter.

When people are old, they often end miserably, and there are very few people who can get out of the way.

As for the fourth- and fifth-class skinny horses, they are the worst, and they can often only be used as maids.

The classification of thin horses starts from appearance, and when they grow up, talent is the first priority, appearance is second, and the best are one.

Tooth people and tooth men, when choosing girls, they will pick the kind of beauty that is one in a hundred, this kind of girl who has been showy since she was a child is worth cultivating.

However, there is a saying that when you grow up, you will also grow disabled, and this is the case with thin horses of the fourth and fifth grades.

If you want to be literate or not, you have to look good, although you are not illiterate, you can't do it, you can only sell it to others as a maid, or give a first- or second-class thin horse as a foil.

With thin horses as the industry, Yangzhou government has supported a large industry.

The girls who bought it, as little as seven or eight taels, as many as a dozen taels, trained for a few years, even if it is a third-class thin horse, it is a thousand taels of silver when it changes hands.

A first-class and second-class skinny horse, if he wants to redeem himself, the cost is as high as tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels.

Many poor families are not only not ashamed of thin horses, but proud of thin horses.

I feel that my daughter can be bought as a thin horse, which is a blessing that I have cultivated for eight lifetimes.

Some of the skinny horses who grow up and mix well and come to look for relatives will add thousands of acres of fertile land to their families, and the family will wear gold and silver.

The people see that it is profitable, and even take the initiative to raise their children as skinny horses, so that the wind of comparison is getting higher and higher.

"It's already the end of May, and in a few days, the news that the imperial court is going to open Enke will come down, and the Xiucai in Yangzhou will come to catch the exam, so the top priority is to settle down and plan ahead of the rise in prices."

When Wang Xu entered Yangzhou, he began to think about where to stay.

Liyang County, far away from Yangzhou Mansion, is separated by Jinshan Mansion, Hangzhou Mansion, Suzhou Prefecture and several prefectures and counties, and the Wang family has no industry here.

It's only the end of May, and there are still three months to go before the end of August, when Enko's exam starts.

For such a long time, just living in a hotel is a lot of money, with this money, it is better to buy a yard in Yangzhou, anyway, these yards will not depreciate, and it is also the foundation of eternity in your hands.

Of course, you can't rush to buy a yard, you have to pick and choose, you have to choose a suitable place.

Two days ago, let's stay in the restaurant first, and ask the guys in the restaurant if there are any good houses for sale nearby.

Wang Xu walked down the street, looking for a restaurant to settle in.

After walking two streets, a five-story restaurant attracted his attention, especially the couplets hanging outside the restaurant, which showed the vicissitudes of life.

Shanglian: Busy for fame, busy for profit, busy and busy, and drink a cup of tea.

Downlink: Hard work, hard work, joy in suffering, and then take a pot of wine.

Horizontal batch: Fame and fortune.

"It's a place of fame and fortune, let's settle down here."

The word fame and fortune made Wang Xu feel moved, and he didn't go anywhere else, so he planned to settle here.

When I got inside, the first floor was the living room, surrounded by dozens of dining tables, and there was a stage in the middle of the living room.

The second floor is a private seat, and there is a screen to cover it when listening to a book, and you can remove the screen when watching songs and dances, and you can see it more clearly from top to bottom.

The third floor is a private room, and decent people who don't want to show their heads can eat in it, and they won't be disturbed by others when the door is closed.

The fourth and fifth floors are guest rooms, which are divided into upper rooms and lower rooms.

However, the ancients believed that when people go to higher places, water flows to lower places, so the upper room is more expensive than the lower room.

If you don't like someone to live on your head, you can choose to live in the upper room, don't mind, the lower room is cheaper, and it is not much different from the upper room.

When Wang Xu entered, it was already afternoon, and it was almost dark.

On the stage, an old man was telling a story, about the past of Confucianism, the story of a scholar named Cui Yu and the white fox.

Cui Yu is indeed a person, and it is rumored that he is still the ancestor of the northern clan and the Cui clan of Qinghe.

The story is similar to that of Zhai Zhiyi, about Cui Yu saving a white fox, how the white fox repays the favor and so on.

This white fox will become the demon king of the white fox clan in the far north in the future.

Cui Yu also led the Cui family to soar and become a famous big family in the north through his kindness with the White Fox King, and achieved a good story.

It's just that laymen look at the excitement, insiders look at the doorway, the story of Cui Yu and the fox has actually always been the heart disease of the Cui family.

Why, because this is a male fox, the story of the white fox cooking porridge for Cui Yu and accompanying Cui Yu to read is not as beautiful as everyone thinks.

Well, it's disgusting.