The southeast shape wins, the three Wu capitals, Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times, the smoke willow painting bridge, the wind curtain and green curtain, and the difference of 100,000 people.

Although Wang Fulin had also been to Hangzhou in his previous life, this time he arrived in Hangzhou through the 750-mile waterways of Xin'an River, Tongjiang River, Fuchun River and Qiantang River, but it was a completely different feeling. This is the first time he has left Huizhou, but Ye Junyao is a native of Ningbo, and there are also people like Mr. Fang, Mr. Ke, and He Xinyin, who have traveled abroad all the year round, so he has heard them say that Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, the real population of the three major cities in the southeast is not only not inferior to the capital, but even surpassed. For example, Hangzhou is known as a population of millions living inside and outside the city wall, and it consumes 300,000 stone of grain a month.

This is also the reason why once the local harvest in Hangzhou fails, the price of rice will suddenly soar, and the price of rice will plummet when too much guest rice flocks from outside.

In later generations, from Hangzhou to Ningbo, if you take a passenger ferry by water, most of them do not take inland rivers, but enter Hangzhou Bay from the Qiantang River, and arrive at Zhenhai by sea, which is now Dinghai Mooring. But of course it won't be like this now, even if the sea is opened, the sea route is much more dangerous than the inland river, not to mention, there is a canal here that is older than the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Xixing Canal. It is said that this canal already existed in the late Spring and Autumn period, and the Yue Kingdom called it the San'in Ancient River Road. It was one of the indispensable waterways at that time. After thousands of years of continuous dredging and remediation, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty communicated it with the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is even more important today.

As for the Qiantang River waterway and canal, they are also connected, but the wharves are different. Today's Hangzhou has a total of ten city gates and five water gates. Five dry gates. You can take a boat directly into the city. And Wang Fulin and his entourage came from the Qiantang River waterway. You can take a boat directly from the Yongjin Gate Water Gate to enter the city, and then take the Guò city waterway to the place you want to go, and then get off the boat to change the carriage and horse. These are all Xie Steward told Wang Fulin, although he did not come because of his inconvenient legs, but according to the inn informed by Wang Fulin, he informed the Cheng family to stay in Hangzhou early to book a room.

There are many small wharves in Yongjinmen, among which in addition to the largest wharf for disembarking passengers, there are many large hotels and inns that have built small wharves for passenger ships to dock. The same is true for many shops, which are all unloaded and loaded by water. Because the inn where everyone wants to live is a small name in the city of Hangzhou, there is a wharf near the water gate, as soon as the boatman enters the Yongjin Gate, he is familiar with the door and walks along the waterway, all the way through the houses on both sides of the river, and finally stops at the back door of an inn. Here, Steward Zhao and an entourage who came to pick up the Cheng family have been waiting for a long time. However, the Ye family, who had said in the letter that they would wait here, was nowhere to be found.

Knowing from Steward Zhao that there was no Ye family in the inn, let alone booking a room in advance, Wang Fulin suddenly frowned. According to his meaning. Since the waterway is so convenient, Mrs. Su and Ye Mingyue Xiaobei don't need to stay in Hangzhou. Waiting for those unreliable Ye family members to pick them up, it is better to simply go directly to the road from the ancient canal leading to Ningbo, at most he will send a few more people to follow. However, Mrs. Su shook her head.

"The Ye family said that they were going to pick them up, let them pounce on the air, and they didn't know what to talk about after they went back. So let's stay here for two or three days, and if no one comes, it's not too late for us to set out. ”

Xiaobei, who suffered from seasickness, of course, wanted to find a place to live and take a breath, as for Ye Mingyue, she had been to Hangzhou City when she was a child, and now she has no impression at all, but she also hopes to go out for a walk in the past two days. So, the matter was settled.

This inn is quiet and elegant, Steward Zhao originally only booked a small cross-courtyard, but now there are many people who naturally can't live there, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that there was a small cross-courtyard next to it that was empty. There are two courtyards, and the people who live in the Ye family on one side and the people on Wang Fulin's side on the other side are just right. After settling down, Wang Fulin asked Yu Wen to ask Wu Xingcai and Zhang Xingzhe if they were willing to go out for a walk, and learned that these two only felt that their bodies were still shaking when they got off the boat, and they really had no strength, so he was no longer reluctant. He wanted to take only one Yu Wen, but as soon as he left the house, he found that there was a person closely behind him, who was Ah Heng.

Wang Fulin had long been accustomed to the taciturn and nimble Ah Heng, and when he saw her following without saying a word, he ordered: "I'm going to go around the town, you're tired of taking the boat, stay." ”

Ah Heng hesitated for a moment, and then said in a very small voice: "I heard that Hangzhou is very chaotic, and the petty officials remember to bring more people." ”

Wang Fulin didn't take such a request to heart, but after walking out of the inn, in addition to the two Zhao stewards and servants who led the way, he had to face the reality that there were already more than ten people behind him. Among them, there are the Xu family, the Cheng family, and the Qi family...... Only one Yu Wen was recruited by himself. Such a mighty group of people went out, the eye-catching attribute was too strong, he had to say it well, and in the end he only took two old soldiers with strong enough force to accompany him, and the others were all forcefully asked by him to stay and rest.

According to Wang Fulin's meaning, it is natural to go around the city first, but Steward Zhao had already learned the purpose of Wang Fulin's trip from Steward Xie's letter, and he had to explain: "Although there is a market in the city, and the night market in Shou'an City is also very famous, but if you want to talk about the rice market, it is no more than Huzhou City outside the Wulin Gate in the north. From Wulinmen to Beixinguan, the folk call it Hushu, also called Huzhou City, stretching for more than ten miles. Because it is on the edge of the canal, it is the only place to come back from the West Lake, there is no curfew at night, and the excitement is not found elsewhere, so people who come to Hangzhou will not come here for a visit. And those grain ships are all gathered over there. ”

At the end, he smiled and said: "Dongmen vegetables, Ximen fish, South gate firewood, North Gate rice." The city of Hangzhou is surrounded by towns on all sides, and the pattern has been gradually set since the Song Dynasty. ”

Since Steward Zhao, an old Jianghu who has been in Hangzhou for many years, said so, Wang Fulin is naturally as good as a stream. And if you want to enjoy the Beiguan Night Market, I am afraid that you will not be able to come back at night, so he has to send someone back to say hello. Sure enough, as soon as everyone rode out of the martial arts gate, they saw houses and alleys lined up one after another, and all kinds of cries and selling were boiling. Immediately afterwards, Wang Fulin deeply realized how lively and prosperous this famous southeast city in the Ming Dynasty could at least rank among the top three. Even outside the city, traffic jams along the way are commonplace. As for the appearance of women, it is not uncommon for them to appear. Seeing a man is also not evasive.

And the most intimate thing is. The familiar Shexian accent is often heard all around. Of course, the accents of the other five counties in Huizhou also have a lot, and he can barely distinguish between Jixi and Wuyuan.

As Steward Zhao walked, he pointed to the many shops on both sides, and said with a smile: "Can the little officials see these shops?" Don't look outside the city, the price of this shop is worth going to two or three shops in the city. And the further north you go, the more expensive the shop becomes, because it's located on the edge of the canal. Many shops are not priced in years, but in months, and occasionally days. For example, this time the price of grain plummeted, and there were too many grain ships gathered here, so Hangzhou Prefecture and County ordered that grain ships should not anchor here for more than five days. It is used to sell rice and see if it can wait until the price of food rises. ”

Speaking of which. He added: "There are also people who ship it to Songjiangsu Prefecture to sell, but there are too many grain merchants these days, and the price of grain in Songjiangsu has plummeted." ”

"I see."

Just after the influx of population in the capital for many years, a prosperous Qianmen business district was formed outside the south gate, along the way, Wang Fulin found that Hangzhou's Beiguan business district is not inferior, where rice grain, silk, jewelry, all kinds of goods from the north and south, calligraphy and painting, porcelain, pen and ink, books...... There is no shortage of these elegant industries. Food lovers can find a variety of cuisines to satisfy their appetites, and wine lovers can also taste local wines. At this moment, it is dusk, even if there are many fewer guests to visit West Lake in this warm and cold weather than in summer and autumn, but it is also common to come back here in groups and enjoy the nightlife by the way.

When Wang Fulin walked around for a long time, when night fell, he heard the sound of silk and bamboo orchestras coming from a restaurant on the left, among which it was Wu Nong's soft hand plucking the pipa and singing softly.

"The sunset is rolling in the west, and the river is surging in the east. The night came and today is the Ming Dynasty, and the youth has passed. Romantic characters through the ages, how many heroes at one time. The dragon fought for a long time, and ended up talking and laughing. ”

Listening to this lyrics, Yu Wen, who also runs an inn at home and also has a cooking business, was suddenly very envious: "The words are well written, and the songs are also good." ”

Wang Fulin suddenly laughed, if Ye Qinglong was here, he would definitely complain angrily, what kind of thing he was singing, he couldn't understand a word! However, the personalities of the two young men before and after are completely different, the same thing is that they both love to watch Xiàn, so he doesn't force it, Steward Zhao smiled and didn't say anything, he simply walked into this restaurant. The guy who came forward saw that Wang Fulin was about to go up to the second floor without saying a word, and knew that he was rich, and immediately led the way with a smile on his face, but he had just stepped on the floor of the second floor when he walked in front, and he only heard a bang, and looked at it, but someone had dropped the cup.

"What a mess of singing! What years are these words, which poor sour wrote, change quickly, sing a cheerful one! ”

Wang Fulin also went upstairs at this time, and saw that it was a big man who patted the table, and there were several tables of guests around who all looked sideways, but no one came forward, he saw that the broken cup was only next to the big man's table, and the singer was okay, but she was silent, and he was too lazy to meddle with things, so he found a table against the wall, and Yu Wen and the two old pawns and the master and servant of Zhao Steward sat down, and ordered seven or eight dishes in a quiet atmosphere, and there were all swimming in the water flying in the sky, plus two dishes of seasonal vegetables and a soup. After all, eating on the boat every day, even if the cook's skills are okay, and there are a lot of cooked dishes in the box, but his mouth is still dull and tasteless.

When the little guy went down to serve the food, Wang Fulin couldn't help but glance over in surprise when he heard that there was no movement around, but after this glance, he found that everyone was looking at him, and he suddenly felt that the second monk was confused. But the next moment, he understood what was going on. Because the big man who dominated a table before actually took Yu Wen aside and squeezed it directly onto his table!

"Where did the little brother come from?" Dahan's tone was very casual, and the words he said were also very casual, "It's fate to meet, can you add double bowls and chopsticks?" ”

PS: Last month's final monthly pass was 1374 votes! Thank you for listening to me every day, in fact, no matter how hard you try, you can't get into the top five of the history classification, but with one more monthly pass, maybe one more reader can see this niche book! The new January is coming, I hope you can vote for your guaranteed monthly ticket, thank you! (To be continued......)