After buying a newspaper from the newsboy, Pan Shiming casually asked, "Is the business good?" ”

The newsboy is a seven or eight-year-old child, fine, a slightly pale little face inlaid with a pair of big black and white eyes, revealing a bit of cleverness, usually buy newspapers but no one will ask him if the business is good, some curious glanced at Pan Shiming, saw that he was dressed as either rich or expensive, so he said truthfully: "It's not bad, I sold eight copies in the morning." ”

Pan Shiming said with a smile: "It's pretty good, how much can you earn in a day?" ”

"I guess there can be thirty or forty yuan." The newsboy said proudly with a little face.

"Oh, this has to be sold every day, and you can support your family at a young age." Pan Shiming rubbed his head as he spoke, turned around and entered the teahouse, but he smiled secretly in his heart, the newspaper lost money, but it fed a large number of newspaper boys, he didn't care about the loss of the newspaper at all, and now is not the time to make money.

He came to Tianhai Pavilion early this morning to drink morning tea, he made an appointment with Wu Changqing and Zhang Weiping, he had already booked a tea party, went straight to the private room on the third floor, ordered a pot, and then ordered a few things early, he paced to the window to enjoy the river view, since he entered the newspaper hall, he rarely came here to drink morning tea, and he didn't have that idle time.

Zhang Weiyun who he invited today is one of the three sons of eastern Guangdong who are famous for their poetry, Zhang Weiyun - Jiaqing nine years in the middle of the move, Daoguang two years of Jinshi, once in Hubei, Jiangxi as a county magistrate, acting Nankang prefect, for the official honesty, difficult to tolerate officialdom, the year before last resigned and returned to Guangzhou, has been living in the Wu family in the flower field of the Fuyin Garden.

He heard Wu Changqing mention that Zhang Weiyun was a member of the 'Xuannan Poetry Society' in Beijing, a staunch supporter of the anti-smoking, and had a very good relationship with Lin Zexu, the governor of Huguang, Huang Juezi, the secretary of Honglu Temple, and Gong Zizhen, the director of the Ministry of Rites.

Zhang Weiyun is not easy to invite, and he will not see any guests when he is idle, but this time he still begged Wu Changqing to come forward and ask him to write for "Xiguan Daily". I took advantage of this excuse to invite him to morning tea.

The little servant came in and reported: "Young master, the guest is here." ”

Pan Shiming didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly walked out of the private room to greet the two of them, and greeted the two at the staircase, he hurriedly bowed and said, "The junior has seen Nanshan Gong." ”

"No need to be polite." Zhang Weiyun, who was nearly sixty years old, waved his hand and said, "This is not the place to make rituals. ”

The three of them entered the private room. After sitting down one after another, drinking tea and eating breakfast, Zhang Weiyun read the newspaper carefully, and then said: "I have seen a lot of local tabloids, but "Xiguan Weekly" is refreshing, using the name of the old man to criticize the silk reeling women, but do you intend to provoke controversy? ”

"Nanshan Gongmingjian." Pan Shiming said with a smile: "The big shopkeeper said." The reason is not clear. ”

"The big shopkeeper?"

"It's the big shopkeeper of Yuanqiyi, easy to be content."

"Is this still an idea of contentment?" Zhang Weiyun said and looked at Wu Changqing.

Wu Changqing and Zhang Weiyun had a bit of a taste of forgetfulness, and they were not as restrained as Pan Shiming, so they immediately put down the teacup and said with a smile: "It is indeed an idea that is easy to know, he said that it must be attacked by Nanshan Gong in order to cause the scholars to follow suit, and this controversy is more eye-catching." ”

"Using the old man as a gunman, he is still really daring." Zhang Weiyun said: "Find a chance to bring him to meet the old man." ”

Pan Shiming originally wanted to ask Zhang Weiyun to be the editor-in-chief of "Xiguan Daily". Seeing this situation, he quickly dispelled this idea. Let Yi Zhishu come forward and ask for it.

Zhang Weiyun had a very high reputation in Guangzhou, and he criticized the silk reeling workers in the Xiguan Daily, which caused quite a stir, and many gentry were originally dissatisfied with the high wages of the women who went out to work, and Zhang Weiyun wrote an article criticizing it. Many scholars have written articles to criticize the trend.

Pan Shiming asked the newspaper writer to write an article to refute it, and for a while, the "Xiguan Daily" was very happy to quarrel around the high-paid women of silk reeling and female workers, and more and more people joined the war group, and the topic of controversy began to spread, the advantages and disadvantages of machine silk reeling and manual silk reeling. On the necessity of the development of machine factories, on the status of women, on equal pay for men and women for equal work, on women's foot binding, on the destruction of feng shui by steam engines.

There are more and more bizarre topics of all kinds, Pan Shiming no longer worries about not having enough topics and articles, what he needs to do is to select manuscripts, guide and balance public opinion, "Xiguan Daily" because of this big controversy quickly penetrated into the hearts of the people, and was generally accepted by the officials and gentlemen of Guangzhou and the surrounding prefectures and counties, many people have developed the habit of reading newspapers every day, and the most benefited is naturally the newspaper, and the sales of "Xiguan Daily" quickly broke through the 10,000 mark from 3,000.

Just when the controversy in the "Xiguan Daily" began to subside, and there was a tendency to die down, Tianjin cracked a case of smuggling crows. The big case -- Wang Yunzhong, the commander of the Tianjin Hejian Army, Liu Yunxiao, the chief soldier of Tianjin Town, and Min Zhengfeng, the guerrilla army, seized more than 131,500 taels of opium at once on two foreign ships in Tianjin, and the two foreign ships came from Haifeng and Sanshui counties in Guangdong respectively.

Daoguang received the report of Qi Shan, the governor of Zhili, Daoguang was shocked, and the dispute between the strict prohibition of smoking and the relaxation of the ban on smoking was immediately divided.

Guangdong Liangguang Governor's Palace, two halls.

Governor Deng Tingzhen, Governor Yiliang, Yue Customs Supervisor Yu Kun, Admiral Guan Tianpei, Guangzhou Governor Zhuer Hang'a and other Guangzhou military and political officials all kept silent with black faces, and under the hall, all the merchants of the thirteen lines knelt on the ground, and the atmosphere was solemn and dull.

Yi Zhishu also knelt at the back, gritting his teeth to hold on, he didn't dare to look at his watch, but he estimated that he had been kneeling for more than half an hour, and his knees were painful and numb because he was not used to kneeling for a long time, and he secretly sighed in his heart, these businessmen kneeling skills were not ordinarily good, how did he know that all the merchants had already prepared, and they had prepared knee pads in advance when they heard that the governor had summoned them.

The members of the adults he saw were all quite good at cultivating their qi, and he really couldn't help it, so he said boldly: "Lord Ministry——。 ”

Hearing him speak, all the adults were slightly surprised, Deng Tingzhen glanced at him quietly, and said, "Say." ”

"If nothing else, Lord Lin, the governor of Huguang, will inevitably come to Guangzhou as a messenger to ban smoking." Yi Zhixiang said half a sentence, and quickly stopped.

Daoguang summoned Lin Zexu to Beijing, and this kid dared to assert that Lin Zexu would come to Guangzhou as a messenger to ban smoking? Deng Tingzhen groaned slightly, and then said, "Get up and talk back." ”

Finally able to stand up, Yi Zhizu breathed a sigh of relief, slowly stood up, glanced at the merchants who were still kneeling motionless and did not dare to move, and secretly thought in his heart, Lin Zexu is here, but I am afraid that the days of kneeling will be long, and I can't afford to hide if I can't provoke it? You have to think about leaving Guangzhou for a while, at least to avoid the time period when Lin Zexu Xinguan took office for three fires. (To be continued.) )