History of Cannon Fodder Struggle [Qing]

At the foot of the imperial city, opposite to Dai Chunlin, there used to be a cloth shop called Qingfeng cloth shop.

This cloth shop also became popular in the past two years, selling Zhu Rongyi, but after Zhu Rongyi was monopolized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the shop switched to a ready-to-wear shop, and its name was changed to Qingfeng Pavilion, gradually losing business.

And turning into a ready-made clothing store has become a joke in Huangchenggen. For a while, these merchants gathered together to discuss whether the owner of this store had something wrong with his mind.Opening a ready-made clothing store may have business in the outer city, but this is the inner city, and you can run into the inner city of a royal relative within two steps. If there is no sewing room, how can you go outside to buy clothes.

Recently, the shop closed its doors for rest for a few days. People thought that the shop could no longer support it and changed its owner. Unexpectedly, after closing the door for renovation, the owner did not move, but the shopkeeper here changed.

And they were all replaced by women, which made the people next to them puzzled.

Mo Shu came out with a wooden sign and asked the maid in the shop to hang up the wooden sign. The maid bought it two years ago. In the past two years, people have been sent to teach them literacy and instill some sales skills. Now they are able to stand on their own. .

Minning once said that after the shop opened, the wages of these maids would be hooked up to the commission, and when they earned enough money to redeem themselves, they could redeem themselves and leave, or they could continue to work.

If you do a good job, you can be sent to another branch to be a female shopkeeper.

This motivated the young girl. She was sold by her family and thought that this would be the end of her life. She never expected to have such a life-changing opportunity.

The maid went to the door and hung a wooden sign at the door. On the wooden sign was written the four characters "men stop" in vermilion lacquer.

It made the surrounding men choke when they found out that the store had reopened and wanted to go in to take a look. They had never seen a store with such a strange rule.

Some people didn't believe in evil and wanted to force their way in, but the maid stopped at the door, "My lord, all the clothes sold here are women's obscene clothes, are you sure you want to enter?"

Hearing this, the man blushed immediately, and muttered, "It's so mysterious, I thought it was something?"

The people around roared with laughter, and this person got into the crowd in a panic, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The maid squatted down, and said generously: "Everyone, we were originally a tailor shop, and there is nothing to hide. The business is not good, and now we are making women's clothes, so you can do whatever you want. Surrounded, don't get too close, so as not to cause misunderstanding and be regarded as a disciple."

In this way, everyone knows it well. For example, Dai Chunlin is also a woman's business, but men often go in to buy some fragrances, which will cause unnecessary troubles. Later, they simply avoided a facade and received these male customers. .

After figuring out what this shop was for, everyone dispersed.People are like this, the more mysterious they are, the more they want to find out, but they lose interest as soon as they are made public.

It is not ruled out that there are also people who plan to make some crooked ideas, but the defense is the tightest at the root of the imperial city, especially Qingfeng Pavilion has donated a lot of new equipment to Shuntian Mansion. Yamen servants.

If someone really uses their brains, those yamen servants will teach them how to behave.

Not long after the sign was hung, Mo Shu entered the store. Although the store door was open, it was covered by a thick curtain, so that no one could clearly see what was going on inside the store.

Mo Shu entered the store, and soon two maids came out of the store, one on the left and one on the right guarding the door.

Not long after, a carriage rattled over, and a young woman lifted the curtain, looked at Qingfeng Pavilion and asked, "Is this the store?"

The maid next to her helped her to take a serious look, and said: "Side, madam, this is the Qingfeng Pavilion diagonally opposite Dai Chunlin. That's the name my little sister said."

As soon as the young woman heard this, she was about to get off the carriage. The maid jumped down first and pulled out a small wooden ladder from under the carriage.

The young woman stepped on the wooden ladder and was helped out of the carriage by the maidservant.

The two walked towards Qingfeng Pavilion, and one of the two maids led them into the shop.

"You two, please come in."

The young woman stepped into the store only to find that although the door was covered, the inside was not dark, and there was light coming in from the high window.

"I heard that you have a very magical kind of clothing here?" the young woman asked the maid beside her.

"Madam, please come with me, the clothes are upstairs."

The three of them stepped on the stairs and went upstairs. The second floor was an open space with several shelves in the middle, and on each shelf there were two pieces of cloth that could fit together on a clothes support.

The young woman was a little disappointed, "Is it these things?" She really couldn't tell that there was anything special about this dress, no, is this a dress?It's just two veils joined together.

The maid smiled and explained: "Ma'am, don't look at it as inconspicuous. This kind of corset can hold up the breasts. Wearing it for a long time can prevent the breasts from sagging. This is the biggest role of the corset."

The young woman nodded slightly when she heard this, and then asked the maid, "I heard that this kind of clothes first came out of Zhenbei Le Mansion, is it true?"

The maid still smiled and replied: "Madam may have misunderstood, this kind of corset was modified by us based on the clothes of foreign women. As for why it was said to come from the Baylor Mansion, we don't know."

The young woman frowned slightly, then took another look at the clothes, and asked, "Then give me one of these styles."

The maid nodded, "Yes, Ma'am, please come with me, I need to measure your size first."

The young woman glanced at the maid and stopped her from speaking, "Please lead the way."

The maid invited him to a small compartment beside her, and after a short while, she measured it and wrote down the size on a piece of paper.

The young woman felt strange when she saw that the female workers in this store could still read and write. She was a little more polite when facing the maids, and now her voice became softer.

"Wait a minute, madam, I'll get the bra for you and try on the size first."

The young woman sat on the stool and put on her clothes and nodded proudly.

After a while, the maid came out with a dozen corsets and helped the young woman put them on.

The young woman took off her bellyband and put on two pieces of cloth, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the empty chest.

The maid helped her adjust the tightness, and asked her softly, "Madam, do you feel tight?"

The young woman shook her head, "It's pretty good." She looked down at the two balls on her chest being lifted up, and for the first time felt that her chest was not so flat.

The maid smiled and said, "Ma'am, your breasts are a little swollen. You only need to wear them during the day to change this situation." She gave her the underwear, taught her how to put it on, and then turned her back.

After the young woman changed into it, the maid opened the cloth curtain beside it, revealing the big bronze mirror inside.

"Ah!" The young woman cried out in a low voice, then quickly covered her mouth, turned her head away, and blushed quickly.

The maid persuaded her, "Ma'am, there is no one else here, you can appreciate your body openly."

The young woman slowly let go of her hand and stood up straight. The maid helped her put on the previous clothes. The effect was obvious, and her chest, which was originally plain, rose and fell.

This made the young woman believe the original rumors, and she might not believe it if she hadn't tried it herself.

"I want all of these!" The young woman pointed to the clothes beside her.

The maid helped to pack it up, pressed a drawer on the wall next to it, and took out a cloth bag from the drawer, with the words Qingfeng Pavilion embroidered on it.

Putting all the clothes into the cloth bag, the young woman took it, picked it up and looked around, "This bag is indeed more convenient than a bag."

The maid smiled and said, "This cloth bag was specially designed by someone in our shop."

After the young woman went out, her maid hurried over, and after handing the cloth bag to the maid, the young woman turned around and asked, "How much is the total?"

The maid quickly reported the number, and the young woman was a little surprised, "You are really good at mental arithmetic, and you can read and write. It's a pity to be a female worker here."

The maid showed a look of admiration, "Literacy and mental skills are the basic skills for everyone in our store. Our boss said that it is always good for girls to learn Braille."

The young woman felt a little lost when she thought of her situation, and then she smiled awkwardly, "Your boss is right." If she had had the opportunity to read and write when she was a child, she wouldn't just serve others with sex now.

After paying the money, the young woman left the shop in a hurry.

The maid didn't pay much attention to this matter, because other guests came in.

Although there were not many guests on this day, they never stopped.

By the next day, the flow of customers was like an explosion. The store was full of people, and they stopped trying on clothes. They directly measured the size, chose the clothes and left.There are also those who have already measured the size at home and reported it directly. The stock in the store is exhausted in a blink of an eye, and a batch is quickly transferred from the workshop.

These clothes were quickly spread to the backyards of the clan and ministers, and a wave of fashion was blown up in the whole capital and quickly spread to the palace. As long as women don't change into this kind of underwear, those who were still wearing obscene pants with fat and long bellybands out of date I'm too embarrassed to go out.

In the palace, the maids secretly replaced it first, then the low-level concubines, and quickly spread to the ears of the high-level concubines.

Ordinarily, it is difficult to popularize this kind of shameful clothes, but every woman can't resist the temptation to prevent sagging breasts, even if she spat at them, she still secretly wears them.

After it became popular in the palace, the news spread outside the palace, and the outside of the palace became even more unscrupulous.

Of course, this was only spread so fast because of Minning's secret support.

In a blink of an eye, in addition to bellybands, this kind of bras and panties also began to appear in the embroidered shops on the market, and slowly spread to the people, and then swept through the major cities of the Qing Dynasty with the merchants.

Because this style first became popular in the capital, all kinds of outrageous stories collided.Some say it came from the palace, and some say it came from a certain palace. No matter where it comes from, it is without exception a concubine who fell out of favor, or a concubine invented this kind of underwear for the sake of favor. The master or the emperor was amazed when he saw the woman with the straight breasts lined by this kind of clothes, and the woman was favored again.

No matter how outrageous the legends are, in short, no one can stop the trend caused by this kind of clothes. When it spread to the south of the Yangtze River, this kind of clothes got an elegant name called concubine Xiaoyi.

This made Minning a little embarrassed. Well, I originally wanted to use other news to cover up the news that the bra and panties came from her, but I didn't expect that the people's brains would open up and save her from this trouble.

Zheng Jun breathed the salty sea breeze, watched the black hair and black eyes coming and going on the shore, a sense of intimacy from the heart welled up in his heart.

As the boat gradually approached the port, Zheng Jun became more and more excited, and Haizi beside him was eager to try it out, wishing he could fly to the shore immediately.

"Sir, have we arrived in Guangzhou yet?"

"No, this is Xiangshan County." Zheng Jun looked at the inscription on the shore and said.

Haizi was immediately discouraged, and muttered, "I also don't think this is like the port of Guangzhou." Then he cheered up again, "Xiangshan County is very close to Guangzhou."

"Don't worry, I will definitely be able to go to Guangzhou today." Zheng Jun answered him with a smile.

"What are you two gentlemen talking about? Is it possible to dock now?" A brunette foreigner came over and asked.

Zheng Jun replied immediately: "Respect Baron Charlie, this is just a small port and it is not suitable to stop, we have to keep going."

"Oh, Mr. Zheng, I have to say that Porcelain Country is too prosperous. I really didn't expect such a big port to be a small port in your eyes. Our largest port in Poland is similar to this."

Zheng Jun knew that the Porcelain Country in the Western population refers to the Central Plains, and it used to refer to the Dynasty and now refers to the Qing Dynasty.

"How does that compare with the Holy Roman Empire?" The Holy Roman Empire is Poland's envied and hated neighbor. As long as the Holy Roman Empire exists, the Polish king will also have a share.

For example, the printing press Zheng Jun got was originally invented by the Holy Roman Empire.

"Of course it's even more incomparable. The building in the Porcelain Kingdom is so beautiful!" Baron Charlie was not stingy with his praise at all, wishing to belittle the Holy Roman Empire next door again and again.

Zheng Jun smiled subtly, accepting Baron Charlie's compliment.

After the ship docked for a short time, officials from the Customs Department came to register. Just as Zheng Jun reported his name, the officials widened their eyes, "Are you the Zheng Jun who disappeared in Nanyang earlier?"

Zheng Jun nodded, "If it's correct, I am Zheng Jun who got lost in a storm in Luzon."

The official looked him up and down, clicked his tongue, and said, "I never thought you would come back alive after such a fate. Well, now that you're back, the people sent by Lord Baylor don't have to look for you anymore."

When Zheng Jun heard that he had been missing for so long, and that Master Baylor had not given up looking for him, he was suddenly moved. He died for his confidant, and he was full of nothing to repay.

"My lord, I'm planning to rush to Guangzhou, but the people on board are all foreigners and don't know the route, so I need to find someone to lead the way, and please help me."

The official said: "That's simple. There is a boat going to Guangzhou, and you will follow."

After thanking him, Zheng Jun returned to the ship, and soon the ship left the port to follow a merchant ship to Guangzhou.

After driving along the coastline for another five or six hours, I finally arrived in Guangzhou before dark.

As soon as it gets dark, nothing can be seen at the port, and the Guangdong Customs has stopped working, and their ships can't really dock. They will not be allowed to dock until the Guangdong Customs inspects tomorrow, pays taxes on the goods they bring, and takes over the paperwork.

That night, almost all the people on board tossed and turned. The Poles were excited to board the legendary Porcelain Kingdom. Zheng Jun couldn't wait to wake up and announce that he was back!

Early the next morning, Zheng Jun couldn't help laughing at Baron Charlie, who also had red eyes.Well, everyone is the same, no one need laugh at anyone.

"Dear Zheng, I have to say that this city is so beautiful, neat and clean, am I in heaven?" Baron Charlie exaggerated.

Zheng Jun also thought of the extremely bad sanitation conditions in Europe, and the shadow of the Black Death from time to time, so he said with lingering fear: "If you like it, then stay here for a while."

Baron Charlie shook his head, "That's impossible, the king still wants me to ship those exquisite porcelains back to China as soon as possible. Go ashore as soon as possible, and you can buy those exquisite porcelains when you get ashore."

Zheng Jun spread his hands regretfully, "That's such a pity, I originally wanted to take you to the capital to have a look."

"Really? Go to the capital, oh, God is so wonderful, in fact, it's not impossible for me to spare some time."

Zheng Jun shook his head with a smile.

He also brought Baron Charlie to Beijing for a purpose. He wanted to bring someone to meet the master and tell him about the situation in Europe. Didn't the master want to buy some things from foreigners?There are ready-made people here, and some things are bought by the Qing Dynasty, and those people are on guard, but if it is replaced by foreigners, there are not so many problems, it is just a matter of how much profit is paid.

He wants to form his own fleet, connect to Baron Charles' line to maintain trade relations with Poland, and radiate other European countries through Poland.

The customs formalities were completed quickly, and some goods were withheld as customs duties.

The news of his arrival in Guangzhou was quickly learned by Thirteen Lines, and Pan Yuancheng came to greet him with a happy face.

"Brother Zheng, it's great that you can come back safely!" Pan Yuancheng had been sending people along the route to Luzon to find someone, but there was no news for several months. Lord Belle, I didn't expect Zheng Jun to come back.

Zheng Jun was quite touched and said: "It was also a coincidence. After being separated from the fleet that time, he was detained by foreigners and taken to their country. After escaping, he went to Poland. The Polish king liked porcelain very much, so I persuaded the Polish king to join us in the Qing Dynasty. This is the luck to come back with the ship."

After listening to him tell his own experience in a few words, without mentioning the hardships inside, Pan Yuancheng sighed, "You are also a brother, you have a flexible mind. If it were me, I might just stay there with all my heart."

Of course, this is just a compliment. Although the Qing Dynasty accepted trade with foreigners at this time, they thought foreigners were just barbarians and looked down upon them.

If it was Pan Yuancheng, he might try his best to come back.

"It's good to come back, first rest at my house for a few days before returning to Beijing." Pan Yuancheng patted him on the shoulder and said.

Zheng Jun accepted his kindness. Originally, he had no plan to set off for Beijing immediately, and he had to arrange for the Polish fleet.

Then he asked Pan Yuancheng to borrow a sum of money and handed it to Haizi, "Go home first and make arrangements for your family. I'll go find you when I come back from the capital."

Haizi saw so much money, he hurriedly declined, "Sir, this is too much."

Zheng Jun said, "This is what you deserve. If it wasn't for your translation and avoiding the dangers along the way, I may not be able to come back. Take these as my life-saving money, take it!"

Pan Yuancheng on the side watched this scene, smiled and said nothing.

He was very satisfied with Zheng Jun's performance, which shows that this person is emotional, and he is not the kind of person who forgets righteousness for profit.

Such talents are worth paying for.

Haizi tremblingly took a bag of money, thanked him, and quickly said his home address, "The money is enough for me for a long time, and I will always be at home waiting for my husband to come to me." After speaking, he bent over The waist ran away quickly.

Pan Yuancheng hurriedly winked at the people on the side, and a person was immediately separated from the crowd to follow Haizi.The people in this port are so complicated, and the scene just now was seen by many people.

"Come on, come on, get on the carriage first, and have prepared meals in the tavern. Wandering outside is definitely not as good as eating in your own country." Pan Yuancheng led him to the carriage.

Zheng Jun hurriedly stopped, "Wait a minute, I have to bring a friend with me. By the way, can you please help me find a translator who can speak Latin, and take the crew on the ship to the shore for a stroll."

Pan Yuancheng waved his hand immediately, "This is easy to handle." The Guangzhou Thirteenth Bank has a reserve of talents who can understand various languages.

Zheng Jun turned his head and said to Baron Charlie in stumbling Latin mixed with Polish, "Baron Charlie, this is my good friend. He wants to take us to enjoy the delicious food of Porcelain Kingdom."

Baron Charlie's eyes lit up when he heard it, "I heard that the food in Porcelain Country is wonderful, as delicious as pizza and pasta. Your friend wants to treat you? That's really great!"

Upon hearing the pizza, Zheng Jun's mouth twitched. He really couldn't understand the way of putting the stuffing outside.During this period of time, he had had enough of those sweet, sweet, salty breads, and now as long as he was given a steamed bun and a dish of sauce, he believed that he could eat it with relish.

In fact, there are also bakers in Guangzhou, but they only serve high-ranking officials and wealthy families.

As for civilians, they simply cannot afford this kind of foreign bread.

The churches in the capital will give some bread to the poor on their god's birthday.

A thought flashed through Zheng Jun's mind, but he didn't grasp it. He shook his head, but he didn't take it to heart, and took Baron Charlie into the carriage.