PS: What's that, ask for a monthly pass!

Greeted by the acquaintance at the door was a group of people dressed in blue cloth trousers and short clothes.

Huang Da's shopkeeper and others knew that most of the people who wore this so-called work clothes were workers and craftsmen in various workshops nearby.

Although the so-called four-colored people of Shinong, industry and commerce, etc., merchants ranked the lowest, but the Ming Dynasty's discrimination and oppression of craftsmen and craftsmen were even greater than those of military households. And the merchants, because of the difference in economic status, the political status is actually much higher than that of these workers.

Seeing that these workers also entered the restaurant, and were also warmly greeted by the guests, Huang Da's shopkeeper couldn't help but feel a little delicate.

But when people open their doors to do business, as long as they have money come in, they are all guests, and as long as they give enough money, where can they not eat?

Therefore, the shopkeeper of Huang Da can only smile and keep silent, just drink and eat.

"Little brother, who are these people?"

But the steward, a figure with raised eyebrows, saw that the big shopkeeper was a little unhappy, so he stepped forward to ask the cousin who was waiting for the banquet.

"They?! But they are all great people, they are all craftsmen made by Ha Jing, and they all make artillery, firecrackers, and fine swords and armor! To tell you the truth, my cuirass has always been a little awkward, and the last time I mentioned it to the craftsman, he helped me adjust it slightly, and it was immediately very comfortable! It turned out that the curved arc of the nail did not match my body shape, so it was naturally awkward! ”

"It turns out that this young man still has armor hidden in his house?! The South Central Army is really bold! Thanks to them, they still boast of tight guards, and it seems that they are also tight on the outside and loose on the inside! ”

This idea popped up in the hearts of several people.

"Disrespectful! Disrespectful! It turns out that the little brother is also a good man. Martial arts addiction. ”

"Don't dare to be! My name is on the military register, and I had some spare money in my hand, so I put this set of armor in order not to panic when I was drafted into the army. ”

Today is already surprising to the merchants, I don't want to have armor hidden in this cousin's house, and what is even more surprising is that he is still a person on the military register!

It seems that this Nanzhong, as long as it is a strong man, I am afraid that it is all on the military book!

"A few guests. Don't just talk. Try the fish first. This squirrel mandarin fish should be eaten hot! ”

The cousin just reminded everyone not to just talk, forgot to eat, and took away a few plates full of food residues.

The shopkeeper Huang was a little reluctant to pick up a piece of squirrel mandarin fish that the cousin said, and the golden fish meat was chewed in his mouth. A crispy feeling on the outside and loose on the inside. From the taste buds on the tip of the tongue, there is a sweet and sour aroma. He was almost deprived of taste in the spicy mouth of a few dishes, and he immediately felt extremely sweet. What's even more amazing is that there are no thorns in this fish! He raised his chopsticks and motioned for everyone to come and try them!

In the blink of an eye, it rained like rain, and a squirrel mandarin fish was quickly eaten.

"Little brother. This fish is so delicious, I don't know how to make it? Also, why didn't you see the fish bones? ”

"Before this fish is put into the pot, the scales are removed, the gills are removed, the abdomen is cut off, the spine is cut off, and the ribs are removed, so you can't eat the bones and bones."

After that, put the tomato sauce in a bowl, add the stock, sugar, vinegar, wine, salt, and wet starch, and stir into a sauce. When the fish is removed from the pan and the sauce is sprinkled, it is a delicacy. ”

The cousin's words were simple, but the shopkeeper Huang Da, who was still planning to steal this dish and go back to the big proprietor to curry favor with the big owner, was immediately like a deflated ball.

Although refined salt and white sugar are expensive, they are sold in Beijing and Tianjin, but this ketchup, starch and other things cannot be found in Beijing and other places.

"Brother, what are the starch and ketchup?"

"Both of these things are sold on the streets. Tomato sauce is made from tomatoes after processing, and where the starch comes from, the villain doesn't know. However, all meat, whether it is chicken, duck, pig or cow, is wrapped in starch and then mixed with sauce, salt and sesame oil, and the meat is extremely smooth and tender. ”

"This year's new rice and new oil are coming down, if you want to grab this wave of market, you have to start early, to the shipping line to book space first, otherwise everyone's goods are coming, your goods can not go to sea without space, the market will not be grabbed!"

"That's it! Seeing that the tea harvest in Fujian has been good in recent years, it is a good deal to exchange grain, oil and meat cloth for it! ”

"Yes, I changed the tea leaves, and sold them to those Xifan people in Manraka in exchange for their silver!"

"You don't have to go to Manchuria, now Luzon has Spanish galleons from the east every year, loaded with gold and silver to Luzon for all kinds of goods, you don't have to go to Manraka if you have goods, you can go directly to Luzon and sell them to this group of Spaniards!"

After a while of drinking and eating, they heard someone talking about business from the private room on the side.

"Big shopkeeper, do we want to buy some grain, oil, meat and the like to sell in Fujian, Jiangxi and other places? This money can't be earned by others. ”

"Nope! Although the grain market has always been good, you must not forget that grain is the most abundant and space-occupying thing. Rather than transporting grain thousands of miles, it is better to transport something else to Luzon, as they say, to exchange gold and silver with the Spaniards. Or go to Fujian first to exchange tea, and then exchange gold and silver with the Western people! ”

Huang Da's shopkeeper is scheming in the end, and he found the crux of the problem at a glance.

For a production-based industrial system like the Nanzhong Army, the circulation of goods is naturally not a strong point, but the Jin merchants are just the opposite, and they do a circulation business. Long-distance trafficking is the most basic job.

With his eyes slightly closed, the shopkeeper of Huang Da played a strong Shanxi Xiaoyi accent, "If we do it, we will only transport some cotton cloth, canned food, glass, mirrors, sugar, and refined salt, which occupy little space, and are not restricted from the export of Nanzhong to the mainland to sell, at most some meat!" ”

"Meat?"

A few people were a little surprised, the grain is not going to be transported, wouldn't it be more difficult to transport meat? Short shelf life?

"Let you pay more attention on weekdays, you are just thinking about drilling into the copper coin and turning heels! To know. Doing business also depends on the general trend of the world! What your eyes can see, how big your business can be! Otherwise, you are the shopkeeper of a shop! ”

After teaching his subordinates a few lessons, the shopkeeper Huang took out a few folded pieces of paper from his sleeve and put them on the dining table, "Oh, go see for yourself!" ”

A few people took the pieces of paper with some confusion, it was a copy of the Nanzhong Business Daily not long ago. Some paragraphs are finely outlined with cinnabar, and there are some annotated words on it.

"Tianfu meat processing plant buys all kinds of livestock at a good price. There is no limit to the quantity! ”

"Koukouxiang Meat Farm signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Hu Ji Farm. At least 3,000 pigs, 50,000 chickens and ducks, 1,000 beef cattle, and 2 million catties of fish are supplied every year! ”……

"Seen it all?"

The shopkeeper Huang played with the delicate wine glass in his hand for a while in his seat. asked his subordinates lightly.

"The big treasurer. This? ”

"These fields. They are all made of things such as wind chicken, cured meat, bacon, canned meat, etc., and after the chickens and ducks are slaughtered, the internal organs are cleaned. Do not pluck the feathers. Put the fried pepper and salt into the abdominal cavity, spread the seasoning around the inner chamber of the chicken, and fill a little pepper and salt from the knife edge of the chicken neck; After that, it is tied with rope and dried in a ventilated place, and it can be eaten after a month, and the thing can be stored for a long time. There are also those salted meats, which can be stored in large quantities for a long time! ”

"This thing was transported to the northern military town, can it be exchanged for silver?"

"The big shopkeeper, canned food and other subordinates have also seen it, and they have tried to eat it, this thing is a good thing, easy to eat, easy to carry. However, I just don't know if this price, after being transported to the north, will it be unprofitable? ”

Everyone hesitated for a while, but they fell silent for a while, "It's getting late today, everyone will go back to rest for the time being, and tomorrow it will be easy to go to various shops to explore the market!" ”

Nodding his hand, he called the cousin to sign to settle the bill, and the cousin counted the dishes on the table, "How many gentlemen have eaten?" ”

"Not bad! This steamed bread flour is good, and the food is very chewy, which is similar to what I eat in my hometown! ”

However, what happened next surprised Lao Xi'er again.

"Thank you for your patronage, a silver dollar, and six hundred coppers."

"How much?"

"A piece of six."

There are many places where people have walked, and they have never seen such a price in all these years.

"Little brother, please go to the counter to check, is there a mistake in the accounts? lest you be embarrassed to explain when you get it. ”

The shopkeeper Huang instinctively thought that it must be this cousin who had miscalculated the account. Such a table of wine and rice, a piece of six? Impossible!

"This guy is good, you can't let him carry the black pot and deduct his wages when he settles accounts at night." Several businessmen are all one idea.

After a while, the cousin came back from the cabinet, facing shyness and embarrassment, his hands kept rubbing on the white apron, "A few gentlemen, I'm really embarrassed, I've checked with the cabinet, and the money for your wine and dinner is six hundred yuan." ”

This time, it was completely Huang Da's shopkeepers who were stunned.

More than a dozen people, with wine and meat, and drunk food, are actually just a silver dollar plus six hundred copper coins? This is unimaginable in the north and south of Beijing, and in any city in the mainland.

The hall went to the counter to settle the accounts for a few guests, leaving the big shopkeepers looking at each other on the seats.

"How so?"

A young guy muttered to himself.

A jar of soju made from good grain costs at least eight to more than one tael of silver in the mainland, and if there is a brand of old wine, the price will be doubled. A beef dish costs more than hundreds of copper coins, not to mention those steamed buns made of wheat from outside the beginning that are marked at the beginning, which must be even more expensive.

Why is it so cheap?

Is it because the price of rice is cheap, and the food and drink are so cheap? That's not right! If there is a matter of grain cheapness hurting farmers, then why are the farmers we saw along the way all red and complexive? If there was a low price of grain, these farmers would have stopped growing grain and planted something else, just like the farmers in the south of the Yangtze River, in order to pay taxes for grain, they all switched to running silk tea and sericulture.

While they were thinking wildly, the pardon walked towards them with a wooden plate full of yellow copper coins.

"Gentlemen, look for your money, four silver dollars. 1,400 Tongbao. You click a little. ”

Under the light of the lamp, the copper coins in the wooden plates emitted a blue-yellow light, which made these merchants who had been turning their heads in the copper coins since they were children a little dizzy.

1,400 Wentongbao, each weighing about five grams, seven or eight pounds of money is very random yards placed in the wooden plate, if it is not connected with a string between the money and the money, I am afraid that it will be spilled on the ground.

"Thank you, little brother."

Signaling the guy to take over the wooden plate, the shopkeeper Huang grabbed a string of treasures and passed it in his hand, if it was Chongzhen, a horse in the mainland. There are probably more than 1,000 texts. If it is changed to Tongbao, there should be four or five hundred texts.

"Little brother has worked hard tonight. A little coal tip. ”

"Thank you, sir, for the money." The cousin took the reward, raised his voice and shouted again, "The benevolent guests will be rewarded with 500 yuan!" ”

"Thanks! - "The upstairs and downstairs cousins shouted thank you in loud voices.

Listen to this thanks. Let the Huang big shopkeepers find the same feeling as the mainland.

A smile appeared on his lanky face. Kindly asked the cousin.

"Little brother. To tell the truth, he is also a businessman in the lower class, and he came to Nanzhong to do business. But. I don't know anything, and I want to ask my brother for a lesson or two. I also hope that the little brother will give advice. ”

"I don't dare to say it, I must know everything."

"I waited all the way and saw that the new rice had begun to go on the market, and the price of rice was naturally much lower than that in the mainland. But why are prices so low when it comes to eating? Aren't you afraid that the grain will hurt the peasants? ”

But Huang Mou watched from the road, and the peasants everywhere were living a good life, and many families in the villages and towns outside the city were building new houses. What's the secret? ”

"This is the benevolence and love of my general!"

Someone at a table next to him was talking. It was the group of workers and craftsmen who had just come in to eat.

The leader stood up and arched his hand to the shopkeeper of Huangda. "Since this gentleman is a guest from outside, he is naturally not familiar with the rules and regulations of my Nanzhong, if he is not presumptuous, how about explaining one or two to Mr. below?"

The tanned face, thick muscles and joints, and calloused hands all indicate the person's identity. But although his appearance is rude, his words are crepe, and he is obviously a character who has read a book.

"I would like to listen to the teachings of the gentleman."

Several people sat down separately and listened to the master tell the secret of the problem between grain prices in Nanzhong.

The cousin was also quite knowledgeable, and immediately went to make a new pot of tea and sent it. The statement is for the purpose of gossip given by the restaurant to the gentlemen.

"Sir doesn't know, this southern and central place is thousands of miles, the most suitable for planting rice and other things, and it is very easy to grow, and the most even has two years and seven crops. However, the taste of this rice is extremely poor, and not many people are willing to grow it anymore. The general is virtuous and political, and each mu of land is taxed at a rate of 20 taxes and 1 yen, and rice is levied. At the end of the year, the rice and rapeseed collected alone were enough for the craftsmen, soldiers, boatmen, and sailors everywhere to eat for several years. These people, according to the general, are the so-called non-agricultural population. One of them is just a few people, that is, people who do not make a living by means of farming, breeding, fishing, etc. ”

Thousands of miles away? They are all places where crops such as rice can be grown, and this is not a bragging. Huang Da's shopkeeper went all the way south, and he also saw the green rice fields that stretched for thousands of miles. Farmers drive buffaloes and carry fine iron ploughshares, giving people a rather laid-back feeling.

However, the problem arises again.

After paying the tax at the rate of 20 or even 15 taxes, the peasants ate four meals a day, and each meal was eaten to their necks, and they might not be able to eat it all. Removing the grain consumed by raising pigs and cattle at home, how to deal with a large amount of surplus grain, this is the concern of Huang Da's shopkeeper.

"Sir is worried about the surplus? Anyway! The general said that if the peasants have no money in their hands, how can we, the craftsmen, earn a living? Therefore, it is necessary to buy the grain from the farmers! And it has to be bought at a high price! ”

The shopkeeper poured the teacup in front of the master Huang Chengcheng tea and asked him to moisten his throat.

"A high-priced acquisition? How to get a high price? He asked with concern.

"For example, if the price given by foreign merchants in the market is one penny of silver and one stone of rice, and we, the non-agricultural people, go to the grain and rice store to buy grain, and it is also one penny of silver and one stone of rice, then the official purchase price of grain is three coins of silver and one stone of rice! This rice is rice, and the harvest is rice. Because rice is easy to preserve, rice is not necessarily! ”

The man took a sip of tea and continued to foam at the mouth to tell the guests about the various practices of General Li in Nanzhong, how to widely implement benevolent government, and how to be widely benevolent.

But he didn't notice that the two eyebrows of the shopkeeper Huang were almost intertwined.

"Three coins of silver and one stone are collected, and one penny of silver is sold, which is a loss of two coins of silver from the books, not counting the loss of rice during processing, and the damage in the process of storage and transportation.

He was puzzled, and when he saw that the people around him were also frowning, they looked like they didn't understand the essentials.

"It turns out that the price of rice in the southern and central regions is so low, but the peasants' lives are rich and happy, but it is because the general subsidizes two yuan of silver per stone of rice?"

The shopkeeper of Huang Da consciously lured the craftsman to speak.

"You say yes and no."

"What do you mean by that?"

The craftsman wants to have this hobby of being a good teacher on weekdays, and when he encounters such a good opportunity at this time, how can he let it go? couldn't help but point two fingers and tell the story for the shopkeeper Huang.

"When the grain numbers under the general's mansion collect grain, one-third will be given in cash, silver dollars, and tongbao. The remaining two-thirds is offset by industrial vouchers. With this industrial voucher in hand, the peasants can buy any kind of goods produced in the south after the shops in Nanzhong have issued their own household registration books. Oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, cloth and ironware, ash and bricks for building houses can all be purchased at a 20% discount on industrial coupons! (To be continued......)