North and South groceries

After the time entered the third month of the lunar calendar, many places in the south began to enter the rainy season. The wet and cold raindrops brought the breath of spring, nourished the earth, and brought hope for the new year's harvest. At the same time, it also caused many problems for people's travel. inconvenient.

In the west of Lishi County, on the other side of Luliang Mountain, there is a small village called Shuangtang Village, which is quietly rising.

This village belongs to Qincheng, Taiyuan Prefecture, and is not far from the official road from Taiyuan Prefecture to Chang'an City. Although it is not very rich, the villagers can earn some money by relying on this official road, which is better than those in poor and remote places. , after all, it is still much stronger.

This village is neither particularly poor nor rich. The reason why it has changed recently is because of a foreign daughter-in-law in the village.

This foreign daughter-in-law is quite old now, and her eldest son has already married. Her natal family was originally in Guyaoling, which is a notoriously poor place. Her husband wandered there because of the war in his early years, and received help from their family. So get married.

Last winter, her two natal nephews came to the village, saying that they had learned a craft from Luo Sanlang of Naxipo Village and planned to make a living with it.

However, their hometown village is located in a remote place, which is not as convenient as Shuangtang Village for transportation and business, so they want to come to them to develop.

No one has ever heard of the name of Luo Sanlang in Xipo Village, not to mention that their village is so close to the official road.

After confirming that these two nephews of hers were really skilled and that there was no problem with their character, the people in this village quickly accepted them. After all, everyone wants their village to develop better, even if It can't be the same as that of Xipo Village, as long as their lives can be improved a little, it would be great to be able to add meat to the family every once in a while.

In this way, the Fan family brothers and several young people from their village have lived in Shuangtang Village ever since.

After that, they made oil-paper umbrellas made of hemp paper in the village, and sold them on the side of the official road for five cents a piece of oil-paper umbrellas. The rollers, as long as the oil-paper umbrella can be sold, they will have wages to earn. This whole winter, the village has hardly had a rest.

Everyone is very happy to be able to earn some money during the slack season. These people originally thought that it would be good to have this kind of money

Who would have thought that just before the spring of this year, the Fan brothers would teach the people in this village the skills of making hemp paper and oil paper umbrellas.

From the perspective of the Fan brothers, Ying also worried that the villagers would be jealous when they saw them earning money, and that foreigners like them would not be treated well in this village in the future.

Besides, it is really hard to hide the craftsmanship of making hemp paper and oil-paper umbrellas. These villagers help them with their daily work, and they basically know everything in their hearts. It's better to be a favor.

And the villagers of Shuangtang Village obviously understood this sentiment very much. In the following days, they treated the Fan brothers as if they were from their own village, and they became much closer and friendly to the other Guyaoling people.

"Oil-paper umbrellas, five cents apiece."

On this day, another villager from Shuangtang Village was selling umbrellas beside the pipeline.

There was just a spring rain yesterday, and the road was still muddy. He was the only one who came out to sell umbrellas today. The villagers were either busy with their work in the field, or they were making paper umbrellas at home.

The Fan brothers recently received a large order, and their relatives couldn't finish it, so they called their fellow villagers to join them. So many people shared a share, and they planned to deliver the goods within ten days.

I heard that the merchants who asked them to buy umbrellas this time came from Luoyang. I heard that there is more rain there, and oil-paper umbrellas are also easy to sell.

This official road is no worse than a busy city, with the heavy traffic. Most of the time, their road is deserted. If a dozen or so people pass by in a day, it is considered relatively lively. Here About half of the dozen or so people went to Lishi County.

Lishi County used to be an ordinary small town, but now there are so many merchants and pedestrians coming and going there, who would have imagined this before.

Not to mention that Xipo Village, that is, their Shuangtang Village, no one could have imagined that today they can make oil-paper umbrellas and sell oil-paper umbrellas to make money.

"How do you sell your oil-paper umbrella?"

A few horse-drawn carriages came from a distance, and the villager on the side of the road saw them, and immediately started selling at the top of their voices.

Sure enough, the carriages stopped, and the side window of one of the carriages was pushed open, and a middle-aged man with a serious face sat in the carriage and asked.

"Five cents a piece, everyone wants to buy it. It has been raining a lot these days. It would be great to buy a few oil-paper umbrellas to put on the car." The villager is quite eloquent.

"I heard that the oil-paper umbrella in Lishi County only costs five yuan a piece, why do you need five yuan here?" the driver in front said immediately.

"These gentlemen are well-informed. The oil-paper umbrellas in our village are learned from Luo Sanlang of Naxipo Village. Although they are not produced in Lishi County, the quality is not bad. If you don't believe me, please take a closer look. .”

This oil-paper umbrella cost five cents, so there wasn't much profit in the first place. The Fan brothers had already agreed with them that the villagers should not lower the price, otherwise the oil-paper umbrella business would not last long.

The group of people didn't really intend to lower the price, but the driver just said it casually. Xipo Village is too far away. Since there is an oil-paper umbrella in front of them, they must buy the one in front of them if they want to buy it.

"I'll buy four." The man in the car said.

"Okay, four oil-paper umbrellas, twenty Wen." The villager looked happy.

The driver sitting in the front checked the four oil-paper umbrellas one by one, then took out a small string of copper coins from his pocket, untied the strings, counted twenty and handed them to him.

The villager took the money and continued to squat on the side of the road, carrying twenty copper coins heavily in his bosom, and he suddenly became more energetic.

Some time ago, there were many people who came out of their village to sell umbrellas, but not all of them were good at selling things. For some honest villagers, let them stand on the side of the road and sell, it is better to go back and work hard to make umbrellas and hemp. Paper.

So they really went back to make umbrellas and hemp paper. Only a few people would come here often, and the one who loves this work the most is the seemingly inconspicuous farmer in front of them.

He is very good at selling umbrellas. The umbrellas made by his family are no longer enough for him to sell, so he recently sells umbrellas from neighbors. Every time he sells an oil-paper umbrella, he can earn half money.

Today's business was good, he sold four umbrellas early in the morning and earned two pennies. You must know that in their place, many people are exhausted and may not be able to earn two pennies a day.

This is just the beginning, there is still more than half a day before dark, he calculated in his heart, maybe he can sell ten pieces today, if it is true, he will buy a piece of meat for his family to eat tomorrow.

After waiting for a while, two tall horses ran over from the other end of the official road, and the villager saw them, and hurriedly went over to sell his oiled paper umbrellas: "Mr. "

However, what responded to him was just a series of hoofbeats that gradually drifted away.The villager stood behind and looked at the two people on the horseback, but they couldn't see their faces clearly, but they were wearing the clothes they were wearing. I had seen them once before, and it was said that they were delivering letters from Chang'an City to Taiyuan Mansion. the servants.

Judging from the packages on their backs, this time it didn't seem like they were delivering a letter, but a delivery, but they didn't know what was in there, and who was it for in Taiyuan City.

He didn't know that these two guards didn't go to Taiyuan Mansion this time, but turned a corner in Fenzhou, crossed the Luliang Mountains, and went to Xipo Village.

His Majesty the emperor sent Luo Sanlang a half bucket of corn seeds because of his meritorious deeds.

This half bucket of corn seeds is very meaningful. Corn is now the sixth valley that everyone knows. No matter how tall Luo Sanlang is, he can't compare with the sacredness of this sixth valley. So this time, His Majesty the Emperor rewarded it Luo Sanlang's sixth case left many people confused.

Judging from the previous situation, the current one obviously doesn't like Luo Sanlang very much, although he didn't do anything to him, but his attitude is always somewhat tidy and careless.

But judging from the situation this time, things don't seem to be what they thought before...

The emperor's mind has always been unwilling to be easily understood by others. The more incomprehensible it is, the easier it is to establish majesty.

This side of Xipo Village.

This day, after dinner, it was rare for Qiao Junlin to sit in the courtyard of Luo’s family for a while. This person usually wished he could spend a quarter of an hour in two quarters. Leisurely.

Luo Yong was also very happy about his arrival, specially made a pot of tea, and invited him to drink tea in the hall and talk.

As a result, the two of them sat down and chatted for a while, when Qiao Junlin got to the point, but his statement was rather subtle: "I heard that the sage rewarded you with the grain seed of the sixth grain this time, so I think it is very important. your?"

"That's not necessarily the case." Luo Yong said with a smile: "Perhaps he gave too little before, so he must feel very embarrassed."

He said how this kid was willing to spend time on small talk today. He was worrying about this matter, but he was on his mind. wasting his time and energy on unrelated matters.

"Excuse me?" Qiao Junlin... He never thought that these four words could still be connected with the high and mighty Ninth Five-Year Lord.

"Yeah." Luo Sanlang said with a smile.

"Ah Choo." The embarrassing Emperor.