[Ming] Wuzong's Chronicle of Rebirth

Zhu Youtang actually didn't want Zhu Houzhao to go to the south of the Yangtze River. He was still young and the journey was long. A father always worried about his son traveling far.But this matter is indeed Zhu Houzhao's most suitable, regardless of whether Zhu Houzhao can handle this matter impartially and will not be suppressed by the eunuch's power, but if Zhu Houzhao's business under Du Ruo is growing, he should go and see for himself.

Textile mills, shipyards, and foreign firms are not businesses that make money every day. Even if the servants are loyal enough, the servants also have their own servants, and it is inevitable that they will not deceive the master for their own self-interest.It's better to let the two children see it for themselves, and this matter only involves a few young people, so there is no danger at all, as long as a lot of people are brought along, there will be no major problems.

In this way, Zhu Youtang inevitably gave in, and Zhu Houzhao happily prepared to go to Jiangnan in June.Zhu Houzhao was going to the south of the Yangtze River, so Du Ruo would of course accompany him. With Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo, the team ordered to investigate and deal with it expanded a bit.Jin Yiwei was still followed by Chen Yun, with Zhou Yao as his deputy.

My own child has grown up so much, except for one time when he got smallpox when he was young, and he was away from him, this is the farthest and longest time he has been away from him.Mrs. Zhang packed Zhu Houzhao's luggage, shedding tears while packing, and Zhu Houzhao felt sad after looking at it.Zhu Houwei and Ai Cao's two brothers and sisters knew that they would not see their brother for a long time, and they were very sad, so they refused to get off Zhu Houzhao's body.

Zhu Houzhao's side is Liqing Yiyi, and Du Ruo's side is going crazy.Zhu Houzhao's trip to Hangzhou was just to investigate the case and then go on tour, but Du Ruo still had a lot of business and official affairs to settle, so he was so busy these days that he didn't even touch the ground.

On June [-]th, Zhu Youtang personally sent Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo to board a small boat, accompanied by imperial envoys from the Inspectorate, and a pair of small boats headed for Jiangnan in silence.

It was June, when the weather was the hottest. Fortunately, Zhu Houzhao and the others took the waterway, so it was relatively cool.All the way from the capital to Hangzhou, although the inconvenience of sailing is indispensable, it is generally good.All the way to see the summer scenery, from the North China Plain to the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, all kinds of ships pass by on the road, and when they arrive at the port, the dense sails cover the sky and the sun, and the boatmen are vying for water transport, and the bustling capital cannot stop.

After passing the Xuzhou section, there is a bit of a scene in the south of the Yangtze River. The river gradually slows down, the mountains are like moss, the willows are on both sides of the bank, and the smoke from the city's wine flags is curling up.After a month's journey from Beijing to Hangzhou, Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo, half playing and half hurrying, finally arrived in Hangzhou City on a cool moonlit night.

The boat temporarily stopped at a small pier outside the city of Hangzhou. The group of people took a bath, took a shower, and slept, and got ready to deal with things after entering the city tomorrow.It was already July, and the farmers were sleeping on the edge of the fields to guard their one-year harvest. Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo overslept during the day and couldn't sleep at night. They played together and found a place closest to the shore when their heads got hot. The thatched shack quietly woke up the farmer, who was going to borrow a stove to cook Yangchun noodles.

It's just that Zhu Houzhao had such leisurely intentions, but they regarded him as a thief and punched him hard.People thought he was here to call black beating people, so he punched back immediately, Zhu Houzhao received a punch, and quickly explained: "Abo, we came here by boat and we were so hungry. I came to borrow a stove." .” After speaking, he handed over a few copper coins in his hand.

The farmer lit the oil lamp and brought it over. He saw two children wearing slightly reflective satin clothes, and heard that they did not have a local accent, so he said, "You are not local, are you? What are you here for?"

Zhu Houzhao pointed to a dozen or so passenger ships parked on the shore, and said: "Our family is in the silk business, and my father brought us to Yangzhou to see and see. When we come here at night, our brothers are a little hungry, so I asked my uncle to borrow a stove to cook a meal." Eat Yangchun noodles."

"What noodles?" God asked him to make a small fortune, and the farmer hurriedly grabbed a handful of copper coins from Zhu Houzhao's hand.

"Yangchun noodles." Du Ruo thought he didn't hear clearly, so he said it again in a slightly louder voice.

"I don't know what kind of noodles you northerners have. We don't have them here." Poor Zhu Houzhao didn't know that the name of Yangchun noodles didn't start to spread until the Republic of China, and it is still called the simplest among the general public. The name - Clear Soup Noodles.

"It doesn't matter, old man, you can just lend us a stove. We bring our own things." Du Ruo showed the old man the salted pork and dried noodles.The farmer looked at the piece of pork, swallowed his saliva, and said, "Then I will light the stove. Do you two do it yourself or shall I do it for you?"

"Help us, old man. This big handful of noodles is enough for the three of us." When Du Ruo said this, the farmer was naturally very happy, since he hadn't seen meat for several days.

The three secretly lit the fire. Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo went to the river to wash the meat. When they came back, they saw that the farmer had picked a handful of vegetables and Du Ruo contributed four or five eggs that he had hidden.

The farmer is also a good cook. Under the hazy moonlight, he cut a piece of meat into slices, fried the fat in the pan, and added water. The air was filled with a unique fragrance of fat.The fire was a bit small, and Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo couldn't care less about cleaning it, so he sat down on the thick grass and waited for the water to boil.

The farmer fumbled back and brought two bowls and a clay pot, and the three of them silently waited for the delicious pot to come out.

"Your family is in the silk business, they must be rich." Looking at the jade-colored skin of the two under the moonlight, the farmer saw that they were rich sons. "You merchants are getting richer and richer."

It turns out that people who hate the rich are everywhere. Du Ruo and Zhu Hou looked at each other and smiled, but Zhu Houzhao and the others were puzzled by the next sentence. "Tell your father, be careful, Hangzhou City is not easy to mess with now."

There is a show, and Zhu Houzhao knows that this is probably going to mention Hangzhou Weaving Mansion.Sure enough, the farmer's next words were: "Now there is another Eunuch Liang in Hangzhou City. He likes children like you the most. Be careful that he catches you and sells you for money!"

What the farmer said was so scary that Zhu Houzhao actually shed a few drops of cold sweat. "Could it be that he still dares to rob civilian men in broad daylight?" Du Ruo was too frightened to move when she saw Zhu Houzhao, and said with a smile that his pouting face was very cute.

"He really dared to rob. I heard from Zhang Bao in our village that the boss's son was robbed, and it took 2 taels of silver to get it back." The farmer showed a black hand with cracks Come on, Shen Shen said mysteriously: "I heard that the floors in Zhizao Mansion are all paved with gold bricks. This person is not a human thing, so it's not worth it."

Zhu Houzhao just looked at Du Ruo and smiled. It turned out that this Eunuch Liang was known by the whole city of Hangzhou. "How much harvest can the old man have in a year with so many fields?"

"One mu has an output of 5000 catties. This year is a good year. Our family has ten mu of land, and this year we can have an output of more than [-] catties." Under the moonlight, the farmer has a happy smile on his face. "With another crop of rice, we can have a good year this year."

"I heard that growing mulberry and raising silkworms can earn two taels of silver per mu. Why don't you change to mulberry fields?" One tael of silver can buy two shi of rice, and one shi of rice is equivalent to nearly four hundred catties of rice, which is really a slippery sum. It's a good deal.

"You two young masters, if you don't manage your family, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. After paying the tax, the weaving mansion will peel off another layer of skin. If there is a flood or drought in a year, these two taels of silver will be worthless." While speaking, this The water boiled with a gurgling gurgling, and under the light of the fire, there was an oily gleam on the white water waves, and the happy slices of meat were churning happily.Du Ruo threw the noodles down and drove them away with chopsticks, a unique aroma of noodles evaporated.

"The noodles are really delicious." The farmer picked up the noodles with his chopsticks, and when he saw that it was almost ready, he added a few green vegetables to the pot, and the job was over.

"Come, come, come, this big pot must be enough." After speaking, he took two large bowls with chopsticks and handed them to the two.

Zhu Houzhao took the bowl of noodles, regardless of the hotness and etiquette, and ate the noodles in big mouthfuls.The farmer smiled when he saw the two children eating happily, and added a big chopsticks noodles to their bowls.

Only then did Du Ruo and the others realize that the farmer hadn't eaten a bite, "Why don't you eat it, it will be batter later."

The farmer stopped there in embarrassment, and smiled embarrassedly: "My Dalang will help me with work tomorrow. He hasn't eaten meat for half a month. I want to leave mine to him." Zhu Houzhao listened I felt embarrassed, and silently put down the face in my hand.

People gave money and things to borrow their stoves, and the farmer felt embarrassed at this time. "Eat it, I'll just watch."

Du Ruo also silently put down the bowls and chopsticks, took out a large handful of about ten silver scorpions from his pocket, and handed them to the farmer, but the farmer didn't want it either. It's ready.

With all the benevolence and righteousness, the farmer was embarrassed and said happily: "I am from Xiaoyang Village. Did you see that small road just now? Follow it to Xiaoyang Village. You can just find a man named Yang Erchui. We in the countryside don’t have any rare things, if the young masters are bored in the city, come to me, and I will take the young masters to fish for fish and dig lotus root, you northerners haven’t seen it before, have you?”

Du Ruo put all the noodles left in the pot into the basin, handed it to Yang Erchui, and he took it too, happily eating it.After the three of them finished eating the noodles, Yang Erchui sent the two of them back to the boat.

As soon as I got to the shore, I saw Liu Jin standing there holding a lantern, and saw three people coming from here, and hurried to meet them. "Oh, young masters, you are making this old slave anxious to death. Why don't you get off the boat by yourself without a waiter."

Just now the two young masters were like golden boys, and now they saw a waiter wearing silk and satin, and now they knew that what they met was not an ordinary wealthy family, so they were glad and helped to explain: "I'm afraid it's The two young masters were hungry, so they went ashore to look for food."

"You are?" Liu Jin noticed that this person was not from the boat.

Yang Erchui just felt that this man's voice was too feminine, but he had never seen a real eunuch and didn't look that way, so he explained: "I am from the nearby Xiaoyang Village, and I met two young masters at night. Send them back here."

Liu Jin felt relieved after hearing this, touched a piece of five taels of silver, and sent him away. Yang Erchui thanked him again and again, and repeatedly asked Du Ruo and the others to go to his village before giving up.

Liu Jin sighed, and resigned herself to serving Zhu Houzhao and Du Ruo to wash up and go to bed.After dawn, after waking up from sleep, a group of ten boats slowly entered the port of Hangzhou.

The author has something to say: I added it last night, and I will post it tonight