In the lobby of Xingcai Inn, there are tables and chairs, and it is inevitable to rub one by one when you walk in the store, although the doors and windows are wide open, the smell in the inn is very unpleasant.

The smell of wine, sweat and the smell of those fish dishes, with the aroma of fat powder in between, these chaotic flavors combine to make your nose stuffy.

On both sides of the bustling canal, there is also a place where the canal and the Haihe River meet, and there are a large number of people here day and night.

The folk atmosphere of the Ming Dynasty is quite flashy, from the high-ranking officials and magnates, down to the common people, all pursue pleasure, which also created the commercial prosperity of the Ming Empire in this era.

All kinds of people drink and shout, talk and laugh loudly, and there are fans who sing songs and laugh in it, the atmosphere in the lobby of the inn is very warm, along the way, not only the Xingcai Inn, but also the tavern inn, all the same.

Wang Tong was followed by Ma Sanbiao, Tan Jiang, Tan Bing, Tan Jian and Li Hutou, and they all experienced such an atmosphere for the first time.

Tan Jiang and several Tan family members usually live very simply, and they don't pay much attention to it, Li Hutou has always liked to be lively, but at this time they are all frowning, Li Hutou is still covering his nose with his hands, thinking that this noisy and dirty environment makes him very uncomfortable, but Ma Sanbiao looks around with great interest.

Wang Tong had a smile on his face, compared to that life, the night of this era was quiet and dark, but such a scene in front of him gave him a different feeling, evoking some emotion and memories.

The peddlers and pawns can also eat meat and drink wine, and everyone in the shop has a tired look on their faces, but no one is numb, and their faces are full of hope, Wang Tong looks at everyone carefully under the lamplight, guessing their identity and life.

I thought that this scene was the ultimate of civilian nightlife in this era, but I didn't expect that the two tables close to the Nanzhili merchants, very disdainfully said that compared with Su Songchang, it is really too far behind.

Wang Tong patted his head, and his thoughts involuntarily thought that it seemed that Wanli was already a very late emperor in the Ming Dynasty, and this empire would be destroyed in many years, and he should die well at that time, but Wang Tong was also a little strange when he thought of this.

Such a commercial prosperity, why in the history I know, in the end, the Ming Dynasty was impoverished, and could only maintain the finance and army through continuous taxation, and this increase intensified the peasant war, bankrupted the already poor peasants, forced them to the end of the rebellion, and finally led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and then the Tartars entered the customs, the arrival of a few hundred years of ignorance and darkness, and then the more humiliating modern times.

How could I have thought of it inexplicably, the more than ten years of disaster and destruction should be far away, Wang Tong patted his head and increased his strength.

Tan Jiang and Tan Bing have been accustomed to looking around all the places they can see from the time they left the city until now, when it gets dark, maybe someone will go out of the city, or they may come here to live here to drink some wine and eat something, but they have been staring at Wang Tong's table, and the clothes on their bodies are not at all the people who are begging for a living on this side of the canal, which makes people suspicious.

Tan Bing and Tan Jiang glanced at each other, and after nodding their heads to confirm, Tan Bing came over and whispered to Wang Tong.

After saying two words, Wang Tong didn't have any reaction, and then they noticed that their little master was distracted, and Tan Jiang coughed and put the tea bowl on the table.

The action was a little bigger, Wang Tong shook it, and reacted suddenly, although his historical knowledge was very fragmented, but thinking of the sea of corpses and blood that changed the dynasty, now he can realize how cruel this is more concretely, Wang Tong feels very uncomfortable.

Tan Bing said again, Wang Tong didn't even look at it, just picked up the tea and said:

"Don't panic, wait for someone to disperse."

After all, this is not at that time, everyone said that they would continue to beg for a living, and in less than an hour, those who did not have much money went back to their rooms to sleep, and those who had a lot of money went to sleep together with their fans, and the people in the inn lobby gradually became sparse.

In the end, only two tables remained here, and the turbid air gradually dissipated, Tan Jiang and the others were more comfortable, but they were in the mood to eat some snacks and snacks, and the other table also pretended to be chatting and did not move.

After the guys cleaned up, Huang San, the guy in the store, changed his clothes and walked over, and said respectfully at the table:

"Wait a minute, I'm going to trouble a few masters to change their clothes, pretending to deliver food together, although people are not allowed to go in and out there, but there are still some taboos about officials."

Wang Tong nodded with a smile, took out a piece of silver bills of about three taels and threw it to Huang San, and said:

"Go get a basket of steamed cakes and send them to that table, and the rest will be rewarded to you!"

A basket of steamed cakes is fifteen yuan, which is equivalent to a direct reward of three taels, Huang San's face was immediately full of smiles, but then he hesitated and said:

"Master, the steamed cakes in the room are cold."

"It's okay, just send it to them, just say that we invited it at this table, and if you send it, you will dodge."

Huang San didn't dare to say more, and hurriedly turned around to get busy, Wang Tong pushed the tea bowl in his hand forward, and said indifferently:

"Don't let people run away, and don't be afraid of hurting people!"

Over there, Huang San took the steamed cake and politely put it on the table, and the four people who were watching it began to be quite strange, and after hearing the reason, their buttocks jumped up as if they had been pricked by needles.

Wang Tong raised his hand and greeted in a loud voice:

"Come here, the official has something to ask you!"

As long as you are not a fool, you will not go over to reply, the four people looked at each other, turned around and ran, there was a scream in the air, the one who ran in front seemed to have been hit by some heavy object behind him, and he was carried to the ground with a scream, and the remaining three people stopped in unison, and a short arrow was nailed to the shoulder blade of the person.

"Tan Bing is so accurate!"

As soon as those few people moved, Tan Bing stood up from his seat and opened his bow and arrows, and quickly shot one person, the movement was smooth and fast, and there was no place to drag mud and water, Wang couldn't help but cheer.

Tan Bing shook his head and said humbly:

"The master has won the prize, if this is red and black, it won't miss more than an inch like a small one."

Wang Tong and several people Shi Shiran stood up, waved at the shopkeeper and the guy who were probing his brain, dispersed irrelevant people and others, and walked to the four stalkers.

The face of the man who was shot in the shoulder was bleeding, but the real damage was not serious, but this moment had completely frightened them, and they were all silent, and they did not dare to move.

"Who sent you?"

Wang Tong opened his mouth to ask, he smiled very kindly, with the appearance of Wang Tong's half-grown child, he really couldn't scare anyone, the first reaction of the four people was to shake their heads, and one of them explained with a face full of grievances:

"We're boat owners on the river, and that's where we come to eat."

Seeing the other party's movements, Wang Tong also shook his head, pointed to the person who spoke, and said:

"Three standards, take a cloth and plug his mouth!"

Ma Sanbiao is tall and strong, and he is boiling his body all day, and these few people who are staring at him are also considered strong men, but they have no resistance in front of him, so they grabbed one casually, pinched their cheeks and stuffed them into a rag picked up on the table.

The rag was greasy and dirty, and it was stuffed into the man's mouth, and the man immediately showed a look of vomiting, but the man was held down by Ma Sanbiao and couldn't spit it out at all.

Wang Tong put one of this person's hands on the table, Tan Jian held it down, Wang Tong untied his waist knife with his backhand, and the knife was not unsheathed, and smashed it on this person's fingers.

There are fingers as mats, and the sound is not too loud, but the eyes of the person who was hit widened suddenly, and his facial features were distorted, but his mouth was blocked and he couldn't shout anything.

Everyone on the side could hear the sound of bones breaking, this person's fingers were already twisted abnormally, Li Hutou seemed to tremble at the moment when Wang Tong smashed it, and his expression was still normal, but Wang Tong seemed to know his thoughts, turned his head and said with a smile:

"Tiger head, there are priorities in doing things, and there is no need to delay too much time for this kind of miscellaneous."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head and asked the other three, and his voice was still very kind:

"Who sent you?"

Everyone hesitated for a moment, and saw that Wang Tong was about to raise his hand, but the one who was hit by the arrow in the shoulder didn't dare to stiffen it first, and endured the pain and whispered:

"Lord Wang spares his life, Lord Wang spares his life, the small ones are from the incense club in the bow of the ship, since the adult killed Jiang Song, the incense head above has ordered to come down and keep an eye on the adult's actions"

Wang Tong waved his hand with a gloomy face, and said to the people around him:

"Tie it up and stuff it, find a firewood room and keep it shut up for the night, and bring it into the city tomorrow to ask."

Tan Bing and the others rushed up, tied up the people, strangled their teeth with strips of cloth, and threw them directly into the firewood room, but they scared the shopkeeper of the Xingcai Inn enough, and in a panic, they found two young men to look at the door.

This is just a small episode, Wang Tong and the others and Huang San are all wearing the clothes of the guys, holding food boxes, and the Xingcai Inn actually prepared a tattered carriage, which is said to be commonly used when delivering food over there.

The food and stir-fry are not small, and there are even four jars of sorghum wine, except for Huang San, who is driving the car, the rest of the people are not easy to get into the car, and it is obviously not suitable to ride a horse, so they have to follow the car.

Fortunately, the old horse was broken, and he had to be careful and slow when driving at night, so that he would not be unable to keep up, so Huang San began to ask Wang Tong to get in the car, but Wang Tong refused.

"There will only be a stop at night for loading and unloading, and in the second half of May, the Haihe River is also very busy."

Huang San's native is very familiar with this, but Wang Tong didn't expect that he would actually moor and load and unload in vain, and continue to discuss it at the moment.

"Some big ships from the south are careful, enter the Haihe River at night, unload the goods and leave at night, even if they don't go, they don't come out up and down, but the shipowners on this sea are rich people, and they are not used to eating coarse tea and light rice, and they often come to the small inn to call for some wine and food, and do not hide from the adults, the chef of the Xingcai Inn is a little famous in Tianjin Weidu."

(To be continued)