North and South groceries

In fact, in the past few years, in the area of ​​their Guannei Road, many people have flowed to the south every year.

It’s just that this phenomenon is more obvious in some towns. Firstly, the information is more well-informed, and secondly, many urban residents do not have land in the first place, so there is no need to struggle with household registration.

On this concrete road across Guannei Road, there are businessmen coming and going every day, especially since autumn, a large amount of cashmere suet soap is transported from Guannei Road to Chang'an and other places through this road.

The concrete road leading from Dinghu County to Chang'an City is more prosperous and lively, especially the section of road south of Xicheng in Fenzhou after passing through Luliang Mountain.

Fenzhou gathers a large number of pedestrians and goods from Taiyuan Prefecture and Dinghu direction. There are not only cement roads, but also water transportation. After the bulk goods arrive in Fenzhou, they can hire boats here to go south. There are many boats going south. Some boats go south like the Wei River to Chang'an City, and some continue to go south along the Yellow River.

Water transportation can greatly reduce transportation costs. From upstream to downstream, you only need to go down the river.

A large amount of goods from the north flowed into Chang'an and other places. The Xinfeng market in the east of Chang'an City became more and more prosperous every year. It used to gather some merchants and farmers from the north to buy goods in winter. Now this place There are many merchants resident in the four seasons, not only merchants big and small in Chang'an City, but also those aristocratic families in Wuling Plain often send their families to Xinfeng to buy goods.

After winter this year, many people in Hedong drove their own ox carts and donkey carts along the concrete road to Xinfeng market as they did in previous years.

At the end of October, light snow fell in many places on Hedong Road. On this cement road that stretches for thousands of miles, countless pedestrians and goods are slowly moving to the south. The car makes a squeaking noise when driving...

Luo Siniang went to Xinfeng Market to buy goods with two stewards of her sister's restaurant these two days, Wulang and Liulang had to study, so she brought Qiniang out this time.

Qiniang is also ten years old this year, so she can't be kept at home all day, she has to be brought out to see the world.

When Si Niang was so old, Luo Yong dared to ask her to look at the grocery store. With the current situation of the Luo family, that small country shop is naturally nothing, but to the Luo family at that time, It was a shop that could support a family.

Si Niang used to think that her elder brother was really unreliable, but now it seems that she was thinking about it herself.

Since Si Niang often went to the Bai Mansion to attend classes with the children of the Bai family, she got quite close to the young ladies of the Bai family.

The Bai family also attaches great importance to the education of the next generation. From the collection of classics and history to the conduct of the world and even the strategy of the court, there is no one who does not not teach. Riding a horse-drawn bow is even more compulsory. Young people, stepping out one by one, are already quite literati Demeanor, free and easy and handsome, compared with the children of ordinary people, it can almost be called dragon and phoenix among people.

But these dragons and phoenixes can be regarded as young dragons and phoenixes at most now, and they can't stand anything.

One of the things that left a deep impression on Si Niang was that this summer, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old young man in the White Mansion smashed an inkstone in his study.

To put it bluntly, it is just a valuable inkstone, and it is not a rare treasure. If it is in Luo's house, Si Niang only needs to explain the whole story to his elder brother, and Luo Yong will not blame him, because he knows that Si Niang cherishes the things in the house. , this situation must be an accident, there is nothing to worry about.

To put it another way, if Si Niang breaks this square inkstone of the Bai family, then she will definitely have to pay for it. No matter what the Bai family elders say, she will buy a new one and come back. If the money is gone, she can always earn more , even if she can't make it back for a while, then she will admit it, why should she be so panicked?

But because of this inkstone, the young gentleman of the Bai family was in a state of restlessness for most of the day afterwards, and couldn't attend class well.

This is still in their own home, and it is just an inkstone. What if it is changed outside? What if something more serious than breaking the inkstone happens?

The Bai family is knowledgeable and educates their young children very well, but Luo Siniang doesn't want her brothers and sisters to become like that young man of the Bai family.

She has to let the following little ones see the world more, and learn to make up their own minds about everything.Now my brothers and sisters are no longer around, and Si Niang is the oldest among them, so these things have to be done by her.

"There are a lot of people in the Xinfeng Market, don't run around there, if someone sells you off, I won't be able to find you." On the carriage, Si Niang told Qiniang like this.

"Oh." The girl Qiniang didn't know if she had listened, and just buried her head in eating the cake.Teenagers are the time to grow long, and the weather has turned cold recently, the brothers and sisters in their family are all in the same situation, always wanting to eat all day long.

"Eating so much cake at this time, what else can you eat when you go to the market?" Si Niang felt bad when she saw her heartless appearance.

The little ladies in other people's families know how to dress up when they are in their teens, and the female celebrities are also starting to learn. Looking at this in my own house, what else do you know besides eating?

"Sister, what kind of food is there in Xinfeng Market?"

"There are all kinds of delicious food, you just have to keep your stomach."

"Is there any canned food?"

"There are not only cans, but also fresh tangerines and pomelo."

"Then are you going to buy these this time?"

"I'm going to buy cloth."

"Buy tangerines too!"

"If you don't buy it, buy it yourself if you want to eat it."

"I have no money."

"If you don't have money, you can't earn it yourself. Go to work at the grocery store."

"Sister..."

"Not buying."

"Sister..."

"Not buying."

"..."

Saying not to buy it, when they arrived at Xinfeng Market, Luo Siniang led Qiniang to the places that sold southern specialties.

Those baskets of tangerines, yellow and orange, among the merchants selling tangerines, someone who knew Luo Siniang, even if someone brought his own tangerines and asked her to taste it, they said they just arrived last night. A batch of goods has not been picked by others. If North and South groceries are willing to accept, he will lower the price a little.

Si Niang peeled a tangerine to taste, ate half of it herself, and handed the remaining half to Qiniang, Qiniang took the half orange, so happy that she couldn't see her teeth.

"Pretty sweet, I want to see the goods."

"Ma'am, please, this batch of goods is not much, but the best Huainan tangerines. When they were delivered, there were five or six carts. When they arrived at us, there were only less than three carts left. I picked them all." Alright..."

Si Niang had seen these truckloads of tangerines, asked about the price, and after careful inspection to make sure there were no problems, she quickly decided to buy this batch.

The guys who came with them had already gone to rent the yard at this time, and the goods they bought in the past two days were placed there for a while, and when they were finally bought, they hired a bullock cart to transport them back to Chang'an City.

"Sister, why didn't you bargain with the merchant?" Leaving the place where the tangerines were sold, Qiniang walked and peeled them with a few tangerines in her arms, feeling very comfortable.

"His tangerines are not expensive, why should I bargain with him?" Si Niang replied, "We should ask others to earn some money, and they will think of us next time when there is a good product."

"Then how do you know he's not expensive?" Qiniang asked again.

Si Niang took a look at this foodie, and really wanted to yell at her in the street: Is your head full of food?

Think about it or forget it, brother is not around, this idiot can only be taught by herself.

"Of course I have inquired about it in advance. We have so many groceries in the north and south. It is not easy to inquire about some information. You have to do some research in advance to know everything."

After saying this, Luo Siniang felt that her temper was much better now, and it was really useful to go to Bai's house to take classes more often. Even if the content in those books was not needed for a while, it was still very good for self-cultivation.

"Sister."

"Do what?"

"Look, there's a cake seller over there. The sign says it's from Luoyang, peony flower cake."

"..."

Luo Siniang turned her head and left.

"Sister..." Qiniang hurriedly followed, muttering about peony flower cake.

"..." Si Niang gave her a look, letting her experience it for herself.

"Let's go buy cloth." Qiniang muttered, and then quietly became a servant.

I can't blame her for being cowardly, who is Luo Siniang, those girls in Chang'an City who are usually very powerful, will take a detour when they see her.

I heard that there were a few girls in Chang'an City who liked the character of their elder brother Luo Yong, but this girl was too good, so they gave up after thinking about it.

"Ah Choo!" Luo, who was rumored to have been abandoned by the girls in Chang'an because his sister was too powerful, was blowing a cold wind on the wall in Longxi at this time.

In the past two days, a group of Gaochang merchants came from Le County, they all came to buy wine and needles, and they brought news to Luo Yong, saying that on the day they left Gaochang, a large food caravan just arrived Gaochang.

The reason why they said this was just to express to Luo Yong the spirit of those big food merchants who want money and don't want their lives. The speaker has no intention to listen to the listener, but Luo Yong is quite concerned about this matter.

"The big food caravan brought Kunlun slaves?" Luo Yong asked them.

"No." Those Gaochang merchants said.

In the next few days, Luo Yong climbed to the wall to watch when he had nothing to do. Someone asked him if he was waiting for Apu to come back, but he said no.

It’s such a long journey from Datang to Apu’s hometown, and they are not Hu merchants who are familiar with the business. They don’t know how many situations they will encounter along the way, and how many detours they will take. It takes a year to make a round trip , the possibility is really too low.

On the sixth day of November, just as Luo Yong woke up, the county captain Guo Fenglai told him a piece of news.

——Hassan, the cannibal, came again. Their caravan arrived in Changle County last night. Although it was during the curfew time, their documents and directions were all right. The winter night was cold, so Guo Fenglai let them be released Come in.

Later, he told the guards about something that happened when Hassan and others were in Changle County last year, so Guo Fenglai reported this incident to Luo Yong early this morning.

"Are these big cannibals, but should we be more careful?" After all, there have been quarrels before.

"It's okay, I'll go meet them for a while." Luo Yong said with a smile.Judging by the look on his face, he was clearly very happy.