North and South groceries

In this era, there is more than one month in a blink of an eye, Luo Yong wanted to go out for a walk and experience the local customs and customs, so when Niu Dalang asked him to go to the city to help his family with his kang, Luo Yong agreed without thinking. .

The weather is beautiful, there was no snow on the day when Luo Yong and the others entered the city, the sky was high and the clouds were clear, and the distance and distance were all white. The snow on the road had frozen last night, and the temperature was low during the day. Melt away.

Luo Yong was sitting on the bullock cart wearing a dark blue cross-collared gown, and was wrapped in a rabbit fur coat, but it was still cold when he was blown by the breeze while sitting on the cart, and his ears seemed to be freezing cold. It's average.

Lin Xingle, Tian Yong, and Tian Chonghu followed behind the bullock cart. Tian Yong was Tian Chonghu's cousin, and he had a good friendship with Lin Xingle. Come together.

Niu Dalang’s ox cart had already loaded a lot of tofu, dried bean curd and fermented bean curd at this time. Niu Dalang sat in the front and drove the cart, and there was barely room for another person in the back. These people all called Luo Yong sit.

Luo Yong also knew that his current physique was not comparable to theirs, so he took the luggage of several people into the car, found a place to put it, and joked with them: "I'll get tired in the car later, I will You guys go up and sit down for a while."

Along the way, everyone was talking and laughing. Niu Dalang was in his 30s and had seen a lot of people in the market. He was friendly and talkative.

Their Niu family is a merchant in Lishi County. They have a shop in the city, mainly engaged in grain trading.Every autumn, in addition to collecting grain in the county, they also go to the villages below to collect grain. Some of the grain collected is resold to grain merchants from other places, and some is stored in their own granaries.

At this time of year, the business of his grain store will be worse. It is approaching the end of the year, and there will be heavy snowfall everywhere in the north. There are not many grain merchants coming to collect grain at this time. The locals do not buy much grain at this time. Autumn is over. It didn't take long, and every household still had a lot of rations at the moment.

Business will gradually pick up after the beginning of spring next year, and food prices will also increase at that time.Like this autumn, in their Lishi County, the lowest price of corn was only [-] yuan per stone, and the highest was only [-] yuan. Now, in the county, a stone of corn costs about [-] yuan, and it will rise again in the next year. Some.

At this time, there are few people buying grain, and the grain business is not easy to do. Niu Dalang and the others sell tofu and dried tofu in their shop, which can increase their income to some extent.When the fermented bean curd used by Luo is made, they will get a whole jar of it as soon as they get it, and they are not afraid if it cannot be sold, they can still eat it by themselves.

People who do business are different, they have money in hand.

I heard that the status of businessmen these days is relatively low, and the sons of businessmen cannot take the imperial examinations. Luo Yong doesn't care much, anyway, he doesn't plan to marry a wife and have children in his life, and he has no descendants to harm him.

However, if it is not necessary, he does not need to make himself a businessman. It is good to be a farmer, and it is also good to increase his income by doing agricultural and sideline products by the way.

As for the imperial examination, Luo Yong did not plan to take it. At this time, the imperial examination system had not yet been developed, and most of the officials still relied on recommendation, and those who were in the officialdom were basically the children of the gentry, and it was difficult for people from poor families to squeeze in. have to go in.

Besides, official life is too complicated and restrictive, and Luo Yong doesn't like it either.

"I heard people say that if there is a disaster somewhere, there will be grain merchants from other places to sell the grain." Luo Yong is still more interested in doing business to make money.

"Not everyone can do that kind of business. Either it is a nearby merchant or a large grain merchant. It takes a lot of manpower and material resources to transport grain across the mountains and rivers, and we have to beware of bandits. Bandits, if they go late, there will be no profit, and if too much food from other places goes all at once, they may have to pay money and food instead.”

"There was a flood in Shandong and Henan this summer, so we didn't go there." Niu Dalang sat on the shaft of the car and talked to Luo Yong about his business experience.

"Have any grain merchants you know go there? What happened in the end?" Luo Yong asked curiously.

"It's good to earn back some hard-earned money." Niu Dalang said.

"That's better than nothing." Luo Yong bared his teeth.

"That's right." Niu Dalang also laughed.

Looking at his smile, Luo thought to himself, could the merchant who went to Shandong or Hunan to sell grain this summer be their nemesis?

When the car drove into Lishi County, it was already afternoon, and the sky looked like two or three o'clock, and there were not many pedestrians in the city.

Entering the city gate, there is a spacious dirt road. There are many adobe houses on both sides of the dirt road. It is rare to see wooden houses. Most of them have only one floor. Occasionally, a two-story building can be seen, which seems to stand out from the crowd.

Seeing such a county town, Luo Yong once again deeply felt how big the gap between the seventh century and the 21st century is.The county seat of Lishi County, which is also the capital of Shizhou, is just as it looks.

Although in the memory of the original owner Luo Sanlang.Lishi County is basically like this, but after experiencing it personally, the feeling is a little deeper.

This place seems to have no other products except grain, but the price of grain is very low these days.

I heard that there are papermakers and silkworm farmers in various places in the south, as well as places that produce various tributes and high-end consumer goods.If the people here don't follow other people's sidelines and produce a few special products and only rely on farming, how many years and months will it take to get rich.

The north side of the city is mainly the office area, the Yamen Mansion is there, the governor and the county magistrate are also living there, and ordinary people seldom go there when they have nothing to do.

The commercial area is mainly concentrated in the south of the city, and the Niu's house is there. A big house facing the street is used as a shop, and there are several warehouses and places for receiving guests at the back, and their own house is behind it.

Niu Dalang parked the ox cart in front of the shop, and called the shop assistants to come out to unload the goods, while he led Luo Yong and others to the guest room in the backyard to rest.

That afternoon, Niu Dalang sent the workers in the shop out of the city to dig a load of mud and came back, and then vacated a room for Luo Yong and them to remove the adobe there.There is no way, it is too cold outside, once the adobe is taken off, it will be frozen before it is dry, so we can only take it off in the house, burn it on a brazier and roast it slowly.

The adobe doesn't need to be dried until it's very dry, it's enough to be able to hold its shape. After it's built into a kang, it's much faster to dry it on a low fire in the kang than to dry it naturally.Luo used to do this when he was building a kang at his own house. There were three houses and a thatched hut, and he built a total of four kangs. He is quite experienced now.

The first heated kang of the Niu family was set up in a large house for hospitality. This place looked like it was used for business talks. The place was quite big, and the heated kang was big enough. Eight or ten people are not a problem at all, and there can be two small tables in the middle.

Once the heated kang was ready, the old man of the Niu family invited a large group of relatives and friends over to show off to a group of old folks.

"Look at it, my son made this object, how is it, is it good? From now on, I will live on it, and I won't do anything." The old man Niu sat cross-legged on the kang, laughing loudly .

"You don't need to go down, you can eat and sleep here." His old buddies all expressed their envy.

"Did you see that stove over there? It can also boil some tea or something. When you're hungry, you can cook porridge there." The old man Niu continued to show off.

"Tsk, it's really warm. It's a cold day. If you wrap up your pajamas and lie down on this kang, the gods won't change it." An old man touched the warm kang surface with his rough palm and said with emotion.

"Lie down if you want, you're welcome, you can lie down as long as you like." Old Niu said boldly.

Not long after Niu Dalang entered this room, what he saw was such a scene. A group of old men were laying dead bodies on the newly built kang in their house. He is old.

"Oh, it's warm."

"This old bone is finally stretching."

"Aiyo...Aiyo...Shu Tan..."

It's no wonder that these old men are too exaggerated, the cold protection conditions in this era are really simple.

Not to mention those wealthy families who can sleep with fur piles. In ordinary people’s homes, the quilts are filled with rags, that is, things like rags and old cloths. How much can those things keep warm? Reed flowers, not to mention the warmth retention.

With the help of the old man Niu, Luo Yong and the others don’t have to worry about not being able to receive orders. After Niu’s house, they went to Zhang’s, Chen’s, Wang’s and Li’s houses...

This time, instead of finishing one house before going to the second house as before, I took off the adobes to dry at the house I went to, and then went to the next house, and waited for the adobes in front to dry before turning back to the kang.

On this day, Luo Yong and the others were working on the kang in a family's home, and there were a few people outside poking their heads. When Luo Yong saw it, he beckoned them to come over. Anyway, Lin Xingle was enough to do the kang work, and he slipped away occasionally. It doesn't matter.

"Why, do you want to learn technology?" Luo Yong asked them.

"It's just... Look." Those people scratched their heads, looking very restrained.

"Are you all from the city?" Luo Yong asked again.

"Yeah, my house is just ahead, just turn around here."

"We are all locals."

"I saw you when I was doing odd jobs and working in the shop, walking with some students from the county school."

"Sanlang, how did you make this kang, can you teach us?"

"You can follow along if you want, but I can take you with me while I'm in the city these few days." Luo Yong said with a good-looking manner.

"Really?" Really such a good thing can happen.

"That's natural, there are no other requirements, as long as one rule can be kept." Luo Yong said.

"Really?" Several people asked hurriedly.

"When you enter someone else's house, help someone else's house to set up a fire, don't look too much at what you shouldn't look at, and don't take too much grass that you shouldn't take." Luo Yong said.

"..." Those people were stunned for a moment, and then someone said angrily, "Why did Sanlang say that? Are we Meng Lang's generation? How could we do that thief thing?"

"Don't rush to get angry." Luo Yong said: "Although the rules I set are low, it is not easy to keep them."

"After you learn the kang skills, this year you will help people in Lishi County, and next year you may go to Taiyuan Mansion or even farther away. At that time, our craftsmen in Lishi County will also be outlawed." As far as the county people know, if there are one or two bad reputations among them, who would dare to let the people from Pankang from Lishi County enter their houses in the future?"

After hearing what Luo Sanlang said earlier, those few people immediately became a little emotional, and went to Taiyuan Mansion or even further afield to help others. It was a large blank market. According to Luo Sanlang's current wages, One kang and two buckets of rice, how much food should they earn after one winter.

Then Luo Sanlang's subsequent words also made them understand the importance of reputation, they were afraid of being messed up by a rat droppings.

"San Lang's words are justified, I will definitely keep them in mind." Someone said loudly immediately.

"I'll definitely keep that in mind."

"Don't look at what you shouldn't look at, don't take what you shouldn't take."

"This is the rule. If anyone breaks the rule, it will be difficult for all of us."

……

Seeing that these people seem to have made up their minds, Luo Yong nodded and said, "Then you guys will follow me to the next house to take off the adobe."

On the second day, Luo Yong's construction team of the pan-heated kang was divided into two teams. a team.

Lin Xingle and the others have been working very hard these past few days, throwing off their arms to cook the kang, thinking about earning a few more buckets of rice to go home for the New Year. This one kang is two buckets of rice, and the output of ten kangs is one mu of land. That's it, where can I find such a good thing on weekdays.

Luo Yong is not as good as them in work, but he is very good at leading apprentices. He leads a few novices by himself, and his work is not necessarily slower than that of Lin Xingle and the others. When these apprentices become proficient, then The speed whizzed up.

One group was divided into two groups, and the two groups were divided into four groups and eight groups. Later, Luo Yong didn't have to work at all. He just walked around the city with his hands behind his back and looked at the fruits of his apprentices' labor. , At the beginning, I was able to raise some opinions, but later I praised them all.

Lishi County is really lively these days, every household is making kangs, rich people buy a few loads of mud from the porters, and ask Luo to use their kang team to do the construction.

Those who have no money can dig some mud outside the city and make it according to the shape of the kang that Luo Yong they made. Give him a few days to start with a few earthen stoves, and the skills will come out immediately.

·

On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Chen's house in Taiyuan Prefecture.

The servant who just got Kuaijiao came to report that Mr. Xiao Lang, who went on a study tour last year, has returned, and now he is almost outside the city. After hearing the news, everyone in the family rushed out of the city to meet him.

This is the only seedling of their family, two generations of single heirs, and now he is pointing at him to spread his branches and leaves, but he prefers to go out to study like others. Now that he has finally returned, how can he sit still, hurry up I went out of the city to pick up people.

I successfully picked up someone outside the city, and the whole family reunited after a long absence. Everyone was very happy. The boy who had just returned from a long journey said to his grandparents: "Grandma, I found a good item for you this time. You will be very happy to see it."

"What is it?" The old lady wiped the tears from her face and asked, "Is it a special product found elsewhere?"

"It's just a coincidence. I happened to meet you in Lishi County. Come here a few of you." The boy waved to the people behind him as he spoke, and two dark and dark men walked out of the crowd. Well, the one who gave the money was the uncle, and the uncle said to let them pass, so they naturally passed.

"..." The old lady still had tears in her eyes, and her expression froze. This is... a special product from where?