April Ding Chou, twentieth, the day when Xu Chang and Ying'er got married.

The dam on the Zhuanghou Nan River has been built and water has begun to be filled, leaving only the diversion canal next to it to be filled. In order to take advantage of water conservancy, Xu Ping buried three large turbines at the bottom of the dam, all made of wood. It's just that it's useless now, only three hinges are exposed, and there will be a matching device in the future.

At noon, all the people in the village had a holiday and came to celebrate Xu Chang.

Because Xu Chang and Ying'er are both subordinates, everything is simple, just to make a fuss at home, and they don't invite relatives and neighbors.

Xu Zheng and Zhang Sanniang sat in the middle of the hall, and Lin Wensi was a witness on the side.

When the newcomer came up, Lin Wensi saluted, and the two of them saluted the lord's mother, and it was considered a ceremony.

The crowd of villagers gathered outside applauded and set off firecrackers in the courtyard. At this time, the firecrackers were real bamboo, and they were thrown into the fire one by one and crackled.

When Xu Ping saw it, he secretly called it a mistake. Gunpowder is not a difficult thing to make, he crossed over, of course he knows the formula, if he thought of it earlier, he would also make a few fireworks, so it would be lively.

After a while, the banquet was served. The main table was placed in the hall, and it was none other than Xu Zheng and his wife, Lin Wensi, Xu Ping and the newcomer and his wife. The rest of the dealers were placed in the courtyard.

The Xu family sells wine, and there are naturally a lot of wines, and a jar is placed on the side. Xu Ping's steamed liquor also has a few jars there, and some of them go to get it themselves.

The liquor is too strong, and it's okay to drink it for the first time, but after drinking it for a long time, people who don't get used to it won't get used to it. Come to think of it, in Xu Ping's previous life, unless he really loves wine, who would drink liquor often? The north is okay, and the liquor in the south has not been popular for many years.

Really speaking, after the emergence of baijiu, it was only popular in northern China for a long time, until the emergence of high-end baijiu carefully brewed from sorghum and other grains in Daqu came to the table. The price of food is not cheap, and it is not something that the lower classes can afford to drink regularly. It was only after liberation that the government developed edible alcohol from high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, and then converted it into liquor by various methods to reduce the cost, and liquor became a popular alcoholic beverage.

At this time, the koji used was small koji and red koji, and the large koji had not yet appeared, let alone the real solid fermentation process, which would have to wait many, many years after the normal development of history.

The liquor steamed by Xu Ping can only be said to be a clever product, and it is far from the real sorghum Daqu or Wuliang Daqu, of course, it does not have that mellow aroma, but it only relies on the strong nature of the liquor, which is particularly attractive to those real drunkards.

Although these are idle articles, it is necessary to make it clear. If people who cross want to make money from liquor, one way is to make high-quality products like famous liquor such as Moutai Wuliangye, and the other is to rely on the results developed by the government organization in later generations to make liquor with low-cost edible alcohol. Crops that can be used to make alcohol efficiently, such as sweet potatoes, cannot make Chinese liquor, only grains.

The reason why Xu Ping did not sell his steamed liquor as a high-end product was because it was not a high-end product in the first place, and it was only attractive in a special market. The literati who wrote poems and lyrics in the Qinglou would not like this kind of thing at all, and they just represented social customs.

After three rounds of drinking, Xu Zheng said goodbye to Zhang Sanniang and left. The two of them are here, everyone can't let go of their faces to drink, and there is also someone to greet them in the restaurant.

Sending the master away, Sun Qilang took the lead in cheering, and at this time, the big fish and meat came up, the spirits were also brought to the table, and several large drunkards began to drink in real booze.

Xu Ping sent Lin Wensi home and returned to the courtyard again.

Sun Qilang drank until he got up, and shouted to Xu Chang, who was sitting in the hall: "Everything, why don't you send the bride back to the house and have a drink with our brothers?" It is worth a thousand gold at the moment of the Spring Festival, and you always have to wait until the sun goes down to do things, at this time you just look at it, and you can't eat it in your mouth, isn't it more anxious! ”

Xu Chang scolded: "This guy, the dog can't spit out ivory in his mouth!" ”

Turned to Ying'er and said, "Lady, why don't you go back to the house first?" These people are all rough people, and you know, after two bowls of wine, they can say anything, and it won't look good at that time. ”

Ying'er replied shyly: "It's okay." ”

Pretending to be carried by Xu Chang, he returned to his small courtyard first.

The crowd looked at the couple and laughed loudly, and the scene was chaotic.

When Xu Chang came back, Sun Qilang stood up, stepped on the stool with one foot, slapped a jar of liquor on the table, and said loudly: "Anyway, do you dare to fight three bowls with Qilang?" ”

Xu Chang stepped forward and said, "You're not looking for death?" Let's get rid of you first! ”

Xu Ping knew that if he was present, this group of people would also be restrained, and he would not be happy, so he took some wine and food and took them back to the small courtyard to drink with Xiuxiu.

After these few days, Xiuxiu slowly put down the events of that day, but after all, she was not as lively as before, Xu Ping felt regretful in his heart, but he didn't know what to do.

Before I knew it, some of the villagers were too drunk to drink, and they had been overturned, and they were still sober while scolding and laughing, and carried these people back to the house.

While there was a mess, there was a sudden sound of horses riding outside, heading straight for here.

Xu Chang drank an amazing amount of wine, and at this time he was just starting to get a little drunk, and he was fighting with Gao Daquan when he heard the sound of horses riding and was taken aback.

This is a remote countryside, there are very few rich and noble families who ride horses, you must know that Xu Zheng and his wife ride donkeys or ox carts, and horses are rare things.

Not daring to slack off, Xu Chang hurriedly stood up, greeted Gao Daquan, and went out to see together. Now that the Xu family has entrusted this grange to their couple, they dare not care.

Xu Ping also heard it in the courtyard, felt strange in his heart, and walked out.

The three of them went out of the door, and they saw a person rushing towards here, and when they arrived at the door of Xu's house, they stopped at the door, and the horse was raised high, quite majestic.

Behind the horses, seven or eight strong men dragged their guns and clubs, and ran out of breath. It turned out that this person deliberately made this move not far from Zhuangzi, and I don't know what it means.

Seeing the person who came, Xu Chang stepped forward to sing a song, and said loudly: "I don't know if the elder is coming, I haven't greeted him from afar, and I forgive my sins!" I don't know what you have to do with our village. ”

The man was riding on a horse, and he didn't return the salute, and looked at Xu Chang with slanted eyes: "Xu Gan, do you have the final say on the affairs of this village?" If not, find someone to talk to! ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Xu Ping from time to time.

Xu Chang said: "Our petty officials are in the village, if there is a major event, he will naturally preside over it." But if it's a general matter, just tell me, the master has entrusted me to take care of the village here. ”

Xu Ping looked puzzled, and didn't know what the origin of this person was, so he asked Gao Daquan in a low voice: "Do you know who this person is?" It looks so majestic! ”

Although he asked, Xu Pingyuan didn't expect Gao Da to answer all, he was new after all.

Unexpectedly, Gao Daquan actually knew, and said to Xu Ping in a low voice: "This person's name is Li Wei, and it turns out that he is under the same group of herds as the little one, but he is the one or two acres of good land for the horse supervisor. After the horse supervisor was withdrawn, he planted the fields he had originally divided and got rid of his military status. Because he was originally in the army and had a little strength, he filled the elder on the left and took a few strong men to inspect the place. ”

Xu Ping nodded, and watched Xu Chang and Li Wei talk with peace of mind.

In the countryside of the Song Dynasty at this time, there were so many messengers who connected with the government. The first is Li Zheng and the township scrivener, who are in charge of supervising and urging taxes, persuading agriculture and mulberry, and making deeds and other miscellaneous matters. The other is the elder, who is in charge of patrolling to catch thieves and maintain local law and order, and his subordinates are local strong men.

Although they were official jobs, these positions were neither officials nor officials, but errand servants of the local household. If it weren't for the powerful family, or the so-called situation household, this kind of errand would be extremely unlucky.

Among them, there is Li Zheng is the most, unless the person is rich and strong, otherwise there are people below who do not pay taxes to pay on behalf of Li Zheng, and there are apportionments on the top and pressure on the head of Lizheng, and there are all kinds of inexplicable errands, and the family will be bankrupt in a few years. In front of the so-called Lizheng Ya, everyone heard the color change. For example, if the government gives you an errand and asks you to escort a penny to hundreds of miles away, and if you don't pay it for a few years, whoever is in charge will have to kneel. Because the Xu family is a first-class big family here, as soon as the messenger of Lizheng comes to the head, it is Xu Zheng who spends the money to spread it up and down to others, otherwise there is no one in the family.

The three messengers are the best, just to maintain law and order, as long as they don't encounter extremely difficult cases, it's nothing, and they can also play prestige in the countryside. Of course, if you are unlucky, you really encounter a thief who can't be caught in a case that can't be solved, and the board of the county minister is also unforgiving. If you have a time limit, you will fight if you exceed the limit, even if you really cripple the elder and kill him, it is not a matter of you, you are unlucky.

So Xu Ping knew that Li Wei was just a local elder, and he didn't take it to heart.

Li Wei saw that his master Xu Ping didn't come out, so he only asked Xu Chang, who was in charge of the village, to come out to deal with it, and felt that he was looking down on himself, and his heart was already on fire. He originally heard that the Xu family was holding a happy event today, but he didn't invite him, and came over to play a majestic game and drink wine, and when he encountered this situation, he had the intention to make things bigger.

He said coldly: "Now the place is not peaceful, thieves are rampant, I have a duty, of course I have to patrol around." Have you heard anything about it? ”

Xu Chang said: "Our village is calm and calm, and I haven't heard anything about it. ”

Li Wei's face changed suddenly: "What are you talking nonsense!" A few days ago, the shepherd of the cattle and sheep division next to Zhuangzi lost dozens of sheep overnight, such a shocking case, you dare to say that you have never heard of it! ”

Xu Chang listened to it and knew that he was here to find trouble, so he had to lower his body and said respectfully: "I have heard of this, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes, and the government has not made an example, who dares to take it seriously?" ”