Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

Bai Jintang sat under the window of Changqingzhai, flipping through a collection of Yan Gong's poems.

Although he is a businessman, he is a Confucian businessman who has read poetry and books, and his ancestors also have fame.In my spare time, I am also willing to read some poems to cultivate my temperament.

Yan Gong is the former Privy Councilor Yan, and now the president of Qingbei University.

Years ago, President Yan published a collection of poems in Bianliang, including all his own poems and essays.As a half-reader, how could Bai Jintang not be overjoyed, and immediately entrusted his friend Jiang Ping in Beijing to buy twenty volumes back.

Yan Gong's poems are fresh and timeless, leaving a fragrance on the lips and teeth after reading.Bai Jintang was so intoxicated by the artistic conception of the pear blossom courtyard melting into the moon that he didn't even notice that someone was walking beside him.

It wasn't until the man knocked on the window frame and called out "Brother" that Bai Jintang raised his head and said with a smile, "It's rare that you're still bored at home because of the fine weather today?"

Standing under the window was a boy of thirteen or fourteen years old, with delicate features and youthful looks.

He laughed, leaned on the window frame with one hand and jumped into the room, standing beside Bai Jintang: "Brother, I'm going to visit Yingtian."

Bai Jintang sighed slightly: "Just now I said that you have settled down a little bit, but now there will be troubles again. Yingtian Mansion is thousands of miles away from Yangzhou, and the first month is just out. What are you doing there?"

His younger brother Bai Yutang said: "There are people in Yingtian Mansion using the name of master to deceive and cheat, I have to go and rectify the name of the master."

Bai Jintang asked, "Which master?"

Bai Yutang has loved martial arts since he was a child, and he also likes to study mechanical arts. The Bai family can be regarded as half a scholarly family. After his parents passed away, Bai Jintang hired a great Confucian who has read poetry and books to be his teacher.

There are four or five masters in martial arts, government agencies, and literature who have done the ceremony of apprenticeship seriously, and all of them have names and surnames, so they are worthy of being deceived by people using their names.

Therefore, Bai Jintang was a little uncertain as to which of his masters had been faked.

Bai Yutang said, "It's Master Xia."

"Of course it's me, little old man!"

The sound came from far to near, and a man with white hair and childlike face, dressed in common clothes, stepped into the gate of Changqingzhai.

Bai Jintang hurriedly stood up and saluted: "Senior Xia."

Xia Yuqi waved his hand: "Sit and sit."

After a little humility, the two sat opposite each other at the table, with Bai Yutang standing on one side.

Bai Jintang asked: "I don't know who used the name of Senior Xia?"

Xia Yuqi smiled: "Little friend Bai, you don't care much about Jianghu affairs recently, do you?"

Bai Jintang shyly said: "Didn't it be Chinese New Year recently, these properties under Brother Jiang's name also sent accounts. It's ashamed to say that the boy didn't finish all these accounts until yesterday."

At the beginning, Jiang Pin sent a letter to him, asking him to come to Yangzhou to take care of his property.

Bai Jintang himself has ancestral properties in Jinhua, but most of them are manor fields, and there are also some century-old shops that make a small profit without losing money.It is enough to leave a few stewards in Jinhua to guard, there is no need for him, the head of the family, to sit in Jinhua all the time.

What's more, he and Jiang Ping are friends. After receiving Jiang Ping's letter, Bai Jintang immediately packed his luggage and brought his fearless younger brother Bai Yutang to Yangzhou.

It was only when he arrived in Yangzhou that he discovered that what Jiang Ping left him was really a huge pile of property.

In addition to the family fortune he has accumulated over the years from traveling all over the world, there is also the matcha workshop that was built during the Yangzhou tea disaster.

Now that matcha tea has become completely popular in the entire Jiangnan area, Jiang Ping also sent a letter from Bianliang, asking him to set up some kind of assembly line production in the workshop, expand the scale of the workshop, and seize the unowned market.

Bai Jintang didn't know what an assembly line was, but he specialized in art. His younger brother Bai Yutang happened to have a master who was quite proficient in mechanism art.

After hearing about the concept of the assembly line, Xia Yuqi bluntly said, "This is an old calendar of more than 1000 years." He put on a look of disdain, but secretly designed several mechanisms to make the assembly line run more smoothly and improve construction efficiency.

Bai Jintang copied a copy of these mechanism blueprints to Jiang Ping who was far away in Bianliang. According to Xia Yuqi's intention, he withdrew his name and said that it was made by a friend from the rivers and lakes.

From time to time, a wave of pirates came up from the Yangtze River, bringing a few ships of spice treasures of unknown origin, and asked him to exchange them for gold.

As things got more and more serious, Bai Jintang didn't even care about restraining his younger brother, so he had to let Jian Jiantian wander around Yangzhou city, causing some minor troubles from time to time.

What is it like beating the youngest son of a member of staff who is bullying men and women in broad daylight, being a money-spreading boy helping others repay loan sharks, and then sneaking into the loan lender's house in the middle of the night to steal a few hundred taels of silver, and so on and so on.

In the beginning, Bai Yutang was not very proficient in business, and he was caught several times on the spot, and each time he reported his family name straightforwardly.

Later on, this kind of thing rarely happened, because Bai Yutang's hands and feet became more agile, and ordinary people could no longer catch him.

But Bai Jintang's worries grew day by day.

He watched Bai Yutang's martial arts improve day by day, and also watched Bai Yutang's character become more rebellious day by day.

Being proud of one's talents and despising the heroes of the world will inevitably lead to a big somersault sooner or later.

Now that he has provoked a few rich merchants and gentry in Yangzhou City, causing disaster, Bai Jintang can still spend some money, make a smile on his face, and settle the matter for him.If you really offend someone you shouldn't, and cause a catastrophe, when the time comes...

Yutang, at that time, I am afraid that my brother will not be able to help you...

Half of Bai Jintang's mind was devoted to managing the business, and half of his mind was devoted to worrying about Bai Yutang. As for the news in the world, he really didn't care about it.

Occasionally, when he is free in business and Bai Yutang doesn't cause trouble for him, he would rather read poems to cleanse his mind.

Xia Yuqi said: "Someone built a tall building in Yingtian Mansion, called Chongxiao Tower, and said that this building was built by me to test the heroes of the world. Whoever can break the mechanism in the building will get 10 taels of gold, and the Accepted by me as a closed disciple. Let’s not mention the gold or not, my closed disciples have already been accepted, and they let this word out, isn’t it a lie.”

"The Sky Tower?"

Bai Jintang whispered the name.

For some reason, he suddenly felt a little out of breath, as if something reached out from the name and strangled his throat bit by bit.

In the end, he said: "It's so murderous."

Xia Yuqi nodded: "Several years ago, someone found my hiding place and asked me to go out of the mountain to build a government building in Yingtian. I am old and don't want to do these things that show off my talents, so I refused. They pestered me again and again, and I was so annoyed that I brought Yutang back to Jinhua to find you."

Since Bai Yutang worshiped Xia Yuqi as his teacher, he spent most of the year at Xia Yuqi's residence learning mechanism art from him.After this incident, Xia Yuqi took him back to Jinhua and lived with the two brothers ever since.

Bai Jintang came to Yangzhou to help Jiang Ping take care of the property, Xia Yuqi also came along, and lived in a garden in the backyard of the Bai Mansion.

"Although I didn't leave the mountain at that time, I knew that some old friends were persuaded by them to go to Yingtian. Since then, I have never heard of them again."

Xia Yuqi sighed, "Perhaps the Sky Tower is indeed a ferocious place."

Bai Jintang frowned: "Someone invited you to go out of the mountain and failed, so I invited other seniors to build this building. Now I invite the heroes of the world to destroy it in your name... What is this for?"

Xia Yuqi said coldly: "No matter what the reason is, I must go to Yingtian. Although the old man has been hiding from the world for many years, others have already called him by name. If you dare not fight, you will be looked down upon."

Bai Jintang nodded slowly: "Then... Yutang..."

Xia Yuqi smiled: "Yutang will go to Yingtian with me."

Bai Jintang's eyes widened slightly: "This..."

Xia Yuqi blinked slyly: "People have said that whoever breaks the tower is my closed disciple. Then this building must be broken by Yutang, of course."

Bai Jintang turned to look at Bai Yutang worriedly: "These boys understand, but Yutang is still young and has a somewhat impetuous temperament, I'm afraid..."

Bai Yutang saw his master talking to his brother just now, so it's not easy to intervene.Seeing his elder brother looking at him at this time, he immediately said: "Brother, don't worry, I will go to Yingtian now, I will definitely not cause trouble, and just focus on breaking the skyscraper."

Bai Jintang shook his head and smiled: "That's a big tone. The Sky Tower is also the painstaking work of several old seniors. How come it came to your mouth, but it's as easy as picking something out of a bag."

Xia Yuqi patted Bai Yutang's arm: "This is my apprentice! Little friend Bai, don't worry, I will bring him back no matter how I took Yutang there. With me here, what are you afraid of?"

Bai Jintang sighed softly, and said, "Then there is old Lao Xia."

Turning to Bai Yutang again, he said, "You must remember to listen to Senior Xia's advice in everything. If you let me know that you are causing trouble again, I will never forgive you."

Bai Yutang nodded obediently: "Understood, brother."

In a corner that Bai Jintang couldn't see, he and Xia Yuqi looked at each other and laughed in unison.

On the third day of February, Bai Jintang sent Xia Yuqi and Bai Yutang to the carriage to Yingtian Mansion.

When he got home, he still felt restless, as if he shouldn't have sent Bai Yutang to Yingtian Mansion to destroy some skyscraper.

Even though he knew that Xia Yuqi was there and the trip should be safe, he still felt uneasy.

After thinking about it, he wrote a letter and ordered someone to send it to Jiang Ping in the capital.

Brother Jiang is in the capital, so he should be better informed than I am.Maybe he can know the inside story of the Sky Tower...

A prince died in Yingtian Mansion, but the lives of the people are still the same.

The imperial envoy Mr. Bao went and returned, sent Mr. Pei, the prefect, and Mr. Huo, the transfer envoy, to Beijing, and brought back truckloads of cement, and began to repair the embankment on the river bank.

It is said that the cement is so strong that after the river embankment is repaired, it can be guaranteed that there will be no floods for ten years.

The manpower used to repair the river embankment also followed the emperor's idea of ​​providing relief with work, recruiting idlers from nearby villages, providing two meals a day, and paying a wage of one hundred copper coins.

Bao Zheng wanted to recruit 200 middle-aged men to repair the embankment, and he offered such generous treatment, but after three to five days, he only recruited [-] people.

Suspicious in his heart, he went to a nearby village to find out what was going on.

When the floods hit the nearby villages last year, a wave of people died, and another wave of people fled. Those who did not escape had no food left, and their faces were pale and emaciated from hunger.

Most of the people who are still in the village today are old, weak, sick and disabled. The real strong men have already gone to Bianliang to survive.

The 200 people are the sum of the nearby middle-aged men.

After figuring this out, Bao Zheng weighed the pros and cons for a long time, and finally recruited a group of strong women to serve as the labor force. Any woman who can lift a fifty-pound boulder will be paid the same as a man.

The so-called etiquette of birthright must give way in the face of the cold reality.

Even if these women don't come to the construction site to earn money this winter, they will still have to pick up hoes and work in the fields next year's spring plowing to serve as the pillars of the family.

What's more, what kind of etiquette do farmers pay attention to?I can't even eat.

Therefore, as soon as Bao Zheng's notice to recruit female workers was sent out, there were a lot of responders, and five hundred workers were gathered that day.

After recruiting a group of women, the river can finally start work on time, but this has also attracted a lot of criticism for him.

They are all working on a construction site, so they must not meet each other, speak, or touch each other, right?

How decent is it for a woman to meet, talk to, and have physical contact with a foreign man?

Still don't pay attention to the defense of men and women?

You said farmers don’t respect etiquette, so you, Bao Zheng, as an official of the court, don’t respect etiquette anymore?

Farmers are not polite, so you have to educate them and let them know how to guard against men and women.In the end, you also took the lead in mixing women with men?

Crazy, crazy!

When the news came back from Yingtian to Bianliang, a censor immediately read Bao Zheng's book, saying that he had no regard for human relations, was rude and shameless.

Although Bao Zheng is also a member of the censor, and even the second in command of the censor, but when the censors join in, it doesn't matter if you are the boss or not?

Zhao Yiyi took the censor's memorabilia and happily wrote below: A man is determined to secure the world, and a woman can hold up half the sky.Seeing that Qing's words are clear and logical, why not go to Yingtian to repair the embankment in person?