North and South groceries

Since Guo An and the others came to Xipo Village, they have lived in the village.Both the master and the servant have no airs, and they get along very well with the people in the village.

After Guo An bought a piece of chicken cake from Luo Sanlang's family for each of the children in the village, the villagers became even more enthusiastic about him, especially those children, who wished to wander around Guo Shiwulang all day long. If the other party asks something, they must know everything and talk endlessly.

Luo used to go to the village to fetch water that day, when he heard a few children bragging around Guo An, saying that Luo Sanlang was also a scholar, and his reading was very good. After that disaster, he might be an official now.

When Guo An saw Luo Yong coming over, he didn't feel embarrassed, and greeted him with a smile. His attitude seemed to say: It wasn't Guo who wanted to inquire, but it was because the children in your village were too enthusiastic and always took the initiative to talk to him. I talk about these things.

Luo Yong also greeted him with a smile, and his expression and demeanor fully conveyed his meaning to the other party: I don't care if you ask about you.

What do these children in the village know? They just think that telling the other party that Luo Sanlang is a scholar and that he can take the imperial examination to become an official will make the other party think highly of him, but they don't know the current situation in the world at all.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, the gentry class has dominated the world for five to six hundred years. The promotion of the imperial examination system is no different from digging the graves of these gentry families.

Those officials elected through the imperial examinations all listen to the emperor's words and do things for the emperor. If this trend is allowed to develop and grow, then in the future, there will still be their gentry, what will they do? How can the ability to restrict the kingship continue to prosper forever?I also want to know what attitude these people have towards the imperial examination.

The demise of the previous dynasty was more than ten years ago. When Emperor Sui Yang conquered Goguryeo, he was defeated three times and the people in the rear base camp did not stop him from doing so. In the end, chaos arose and the Sui Dynasty collapsed.

The rise and fall of a dynasty, the right time, place and people and various factors, as well as the competition among the various forces among them, cannot be explained clearly in a few words.

Only the imperial examination system began in the Sui Dynasty, and Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty set up a Jinshi department and increased the promotion of this system.In this case, if it is said that those gentry have no idea, it is not believed to deceive ghosts.

Although I don't know how much turmoil this incident can cause under the circumstances at that time, it will not be without impact.Those of the gentry are not fools, they have been enlightened and enlightened at a young age, and they are all smart.

Those of later generations who make people pedantic by talking about a subset of classics and history should go read those books a few times first. Foolish people are also a matter of later generations. Yu also has nowhere to start.

All in all, the Sui Dynasty was destroyed and the Tang Dynasty was established, but the emperors now know the benefits of the imperial examination system, so this system is still implemented, but under various resistance, until now, it is still a bit difficult to push .

Under such circumstances, do you guess what the attitude of the clan children like Guo An is towards the imperial examination students?

Ha ha.

Even if the Taiyuan Guo family is not considered a first-class family, it will not affect that they will stand in the united front with the entire gentry group.

Listening to those children in the village bragging about the imperial examination and being an official, Luo Yongzhen felt worried for them. He really didn't know if Guo Shiwulang would buy them cakes next time on Friday.

It seems that on the next Friday, their chicken cakes can also be steamed in a pot less.

Luo Yong carried a load of water and walked to his yard while sorting out his thoughts.

Guo An also seems to be very interested in their method of making tofu in Xipo Village. However, although the villagers treat him warmly, they are unwilling to tell this secret about their economic lifeline anyway. As for those people in the village Adults won't let them know about these things for ignorant little dolls, so there is no way to leak the secrets.

Speaking of which, when Luo Yong first came here, it was only because they were located in a remote area, so the method of making tofu could not be spread here. Now it seems that Guo An's family does not seem to have this method of making tofu. son.

People in the world say that tofu was created by Huainan King Liu An, and Li Shizhen also said this in "Compendium of Materia Medica".

However, Luo Yong has memorized many Tang poems since he was a child, and he has never seen tofu appear in any poem. From this, it can be guessed that in the Tang Dynasty, tofu should not have become a daily dish for the common people. How about everyone? It’s hard to say. It is reasonable to say that many poets are also from noble families, but I have never seen anyone mention tofu.

Now it seems that the Guo family in Taiyuan does not have this recipe anyway. If Guo An wants to learn the method of making fermented bean curd from Luo Yong, he must first learn how to make tofu. This is probably why he has been hanging around in the village recently. s reason.

"Sanlang, have you gone to fetch water again? Everyone said they want to fetch water and call us."

When Luo Yong was carrying a bucket of water and was about to walk to the gate of his courtyard, he happened to meet a villager who was helping his house. At this moment, the other person was carrying a blank mold and walking towards the village. Blank mold.

These days, they are taking off the blanks to build a house together on the Luo family side. The few blank molds that Luo Yong borrowed from the Lin family are not enough, and he also borrowed a few from other villagers. When it's over, it's natural to take it back.

Judging from the current progress, the adobe houses in the Luo family's backyard would definitely be built before the tenth day of the Lunar New Year.

These people have also prepared the tools needed to make tofu at home. Those tofu baskets are the same specifications as Luo's. The tofu baskets in their entire Xipo Village are basically of this specification. The cut tofu The length and width are similar, the difference lies in the thickness of the tofu block and the amount of water.

"It's okay, just these two buckets of water, I can carry them myself." Luo Yong said with a smile.

"I'll come, I'll come." Without further ado, the man put the blank mold on his shoulders to the side of the road, and reached out to pick up the burden on Luo Yong's shoulders.

When the load of water was picked up by the other party, Luo Yong immediately felt relieved. Born in this era, people like them, diving into water and chopping firewood is a daily routine. Luo Yong didn't want to push all the work to Erniang and the others. Do it, so you have to bear it yourself.

If you want to drink water, you have to pick it yourself, if you want to burn wood, you have to chop it yourself, if you want to eat pasta, you have to grind the noodles yourself. It is really hard to push the big bluestone millstone round and round.

This load of water was poured into the water tank, and the bottom of the tank was only low. The man picked up the load and went to the village to help Luo with water.

In recent days, his family has two children who are also in the Luo's yard every day. At noon, Luo uses them to feed the helper Zhang Luo, and the two children eat together.Although they can also help with picking wool, in the eyes of the villagers, Luo probably won't earn much food with that wool.

To say that this trend was first brought up by Tian Chonghu, he first brought Tian Xiang'er to the Luo's yard, and then other children in the village followed suit when they saw it.Now there are six or seven people who come to Luo's yard to help pick wool every day, most of them are female dolls, and there is a boy who is as old as Luo Wulang.

That boy is also a poor boy. His father died and his mother remarried, so there was only one grandma on top, but after his son died, his grandma became a little out of sorts.The grandparents and grandchildren are hungry and full all day long, and there are kind-hearted people in the village who are afraid that they will starve to death at home, and sometimes they will help them.

Recently, that kid has been coming to Luo's courtyard every day, and this meal at noon can fill his stomach.To be honest, for such an older child, no one taught him or cared about him, he was dressed in sloppy clothes, and he looked more dull than other children. Just like him, what kind of work could he help? Shan, I didn't drive him away, and I didn't lose his share of the lunch every day.

For these children, Luo Yong has no idea. Anyway, since they are here, it doesn’t matter whether they can help or not, just give them an extra bite of food. It’s not a precious thing anyway. Well, I can eat better than Luo's at my own house, so I don't have to come here.

In Luo Yong's view, there is nothing to be proud of when a child is well-dressed, well-dressed, and happy, because those are all given by their parents, and it is not something they have done themselves.

Similarly, there is nothing to be ashamed of a child who dresses poorly, eats poorly and lives in a mess. It's just bad luck that they didn't meet a good family and good parents, and it's not something they did wrong.

A few more days passed, and in the early morning of this day, Guo An finally came to talk to Luo Yong, expressing that he wanted to learn how to make fermented bean curd from him.

"Fifteen Lang walked around the village recently, and he must have seen clearly that the method of making tofu and fermented bean curd is not something that can be easily given away to others in this Xipo Village." Luo Yong did not tell him. Going around in circles, he bluntly refused.

Guo An looked at Luo Sanlang on the opposite side of the low table, and saw the young man sitting on the kang at the moment, dressed in white earthen cloth with a short brown collar, his face and body showed the immaturity of a young man, only his expression and tone of voice , but there seems to be no room for change.

Guo An even had a strange illusion for a moment. When he looked at the boy, it seemed as if he was looking at an impassable mountain.

"It's not that there is no compromise." Guo An did not give up.

"If you were me, would you use those compromise methods?" Yi Luo used his current status to negotiate a compromise with these gentry children, which was tantamount to seeking skin from a tiger.

Guo An's so-called compromise method is nothing more than asking Luo Yong to teach him the method. In the future, Xipo Village will do Xipo Village's business, and their Guo family will do Guo's business. What is the conflict of interest.

Luo Yong is not stupid, he has taught them everything, and he can still have something for himself in the future. Even if Guo An is honest, it is hard to guarantee that there will not be one or two cruel people in his family. After learning, it would be a hidden danger for Luo to keep this person. If he teaches a few more people in the future, how will it end?

This kind of thing sounds scary, but the reality is often so cruel, the dark side of human nature can be magnified as much as there are benefits.

In this era of extremely blocked information, who would know where a few people died in any corner? Even if they knew, who would really care. Make a note of why those people's anger arose, and what kind of human tragedy is behind it, and who really cares.

Before he really had the power to protect himself, Luo Yong would not make such a so-called deal with any force.

If you want to teach, just let go of teaching, if you don't teach, then don't teach a single one.As long as he said nothing and refused to teach, then even if others screwed his head off, they would never be able to pry a word from him.

Guo An tried to persuade him again, but seeing that Luo Yong really refused to let go, he had no choice but to give up in the end.

"So, let's talk about a deal." Regrets are regrets, this result is not unexpected by Guo An, after all, Na Luo's coffin board is not called for nothing.

"Okay." Luo Yong readily agreed. If he wanted to talk about business, there would be no problem. His fermented bean curd was originally made to sell money.

"If I exchange beans with you for fermented bean curd, how many beans will you exchange for fermented bean curd?" Guo An asked.

"Three buckets of beans are exchanged for a can of fermented bean curd." Luo Yong said.

The kind of earthenware pots he uses for fermented bean curd can hold a little more than a liter, and a pot of fermented bean curd sells for five yuan.The price of beans is about two yuan for a bucket now, but the market for this stuff is not as good as that of rice and wheat. It is not very expensive for Luo Yong to offer him three buckets of beans for five yuan. too much.

"I'll give you [-] dendrobium beans, and you give me [-] cans of fermented bean curd." Guo An countered.

"There are too many. For the first transaction, I can only give you 550 cans of fermented bean curd. The beans will be counted as 150 hu according to what you said." He made two half-folds.

"Saburo doesn't believe me?" Guo An asked with his mouth open.

"It's really hard work. If Fifteen Lang is really in a hurry, he can bring the [-] Dendrobium beans first, and then I can hand over the [-] cans of fermented bean curd to you in four batches." Luo Sanlang The implication: I really can't trust you, if you can trust me, you might as well give me the beans first.

When he was still living in the 21st century, Luo Yong once saw such a plot in a film and television program: a big boss fell in love with a new factory and wanted to keep it for himself, so he gave it to the The factory placed a big order, drawing a big cake for the factory owner, forcing the factory to overload production regardless of everything, and even borrowing money to buy raw materials.

Then when it was time to deliver the goods, the boss deliberately made it difficult. The factory could not successfully ship the goods, and the funds could not be returned. What happened in the end, the factory changed hands.

[-] cans of fermented bean curd, that is not the amount that Luo Yong can produce now, let alone beans and labor, just the salt and rice wine used to make fermented bean curd is a considerable investment, Luo Yong only has a total amount now family property?

550 cans is already the limit, that's all, when the time comes, he will also have to pay someone on credit.If it weren't for his confidence in his own fermented bean curd, Luo Yong would not accept such a large order.

"So, Shiwulang will give some deposit first." Seeing that the other party no longer raised objections to the order size, Luo Yong said again.Although they got along well after he came these days, business is business.

"This is the consistent money." Guo An was also prepared, and ordered his servants to withdraw the consistent money on the spot: "When the beans are all paid, you have to return my deposit." I don't know if it was influenced by Luo Yong or what, Guo An also became picky at this time. If he had been with other people in normal times, he would never have said what he just said so directly.

"That's natural." Luo Yong accepted the money with a happy face. The money was one thousand Wen, and it was very heavy to lift, weighing six or seven catties.

Although this is just a deposit, it has to be returned after the other party has handed in all the beans, but that's okay, at least let's make a turnaround first, Xue Weng's three hundred Wen is considered settled.