Lu Ming

Chapter 642
1635年2月10日，农历乙亥年12月23日。

No matter from which point of view, the development process of Nanyang, which is slowly advancing through hardships, is an extremely important event for the country and the nation.

However, for the subjects of the Ming Dynasty who were far away in Guangdong, they had absolutely no idea what happened in a distant land.The public lacks both information channels and awareness of pioneering.

What the public pays attention to is always the most basic and most living things such as firewood, rice, oil and salt.

Time flies by.The brutal battle that took place on Zheng He Island was inadvertently two months ago.In a blink of an eye, it was early 2.

It was the New Year's Eve, and the people of Daming who lived in the ancient city of Guangzhou walked hurriedly with joyful faces.Neighbors in the street congratulate the New Year loudly when they meet, and every household is preparing for the New Year.

This year's Guangzhou City, because the days are getting better, the New Year's atmosphere is much stronger than in the past.

Memories are hard to erase.All the "middle- and lower-class people" in Guangzhou who are over 30 years old have a deep feeling and understanding of the term "year-end".

As early as the time of Emperor Tianqi, the New Year's Day in the city of Guangzhou was roughly as old as one year old.Including the early years of Emperor Chongzhen, the term "Nianguan" has never been a good word in the memory of neighbors.

At that time, the government's taxation was repeated year after year, and various Liao shang exercises were assigned by the court one after another.In addition, officials and subordinates from all walks of life took the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to share money and make money to wipe out the deficit. The majestic No. 1 city in Nantian, the whole city, young and old, was oppressed by the imperial court.

In those years, all industries withered and people's livelihood was difficult.Except for those rich and powerful families, ordinary people's Chinese New Year is really a disaster.

At the end of the new year, the creditors came to the door. I don’t know how many old households in Guangzhou city became naked and run-down because they couldn’t pay their debts.

What's more, they hanged themselves, and they don't know how many of their families were ruined.

Chinese New Year is to pass through the gate of hell.

It's strange to say.Since then, everyone's life has gradually improved after Emperor Chongzhen came to power.

First, business is flourishing.

Overnight, a lot of well-made groceries came from the unknown Yizhou inexplicably.

The wealthy businessmen in Guangzhou city heard the news and went out to sea one after another to find sources of goods and contact sellers.

From then on, it gradually got out of hand.First of all, the laborers and porters at various land and water wharfs grew up: after they went to work, they had unloaded goods, and the wages they earned became more and more.

With the spread of Yizhou goods in the Pearl River Delta, a large number of people and local resources subsequently participated in the trade exchange: wealthy businessmen began to spend money to recruit workers to go to Yizhou to do work for others.Later, there were those masters with a "kindhearted heart" who even sent their slaves to the streets to "pick up" people, or directly served porridge on the streets, and those who drank the porridge were stuffed into the bilge and pulled to Yizhou to exchange goods.

After that, the chain effect, the whole city was mobilized.Countless small and medium-sized businessmen benefited from the arrival of Yizhou goods, and primitive industrial clusters began to appear. Most of the dicks and pua who beat sacks at the head of the smelly ditch can grow up, and hired small workers to take the whole family to weave day and night The supply of foreign trade sacks is still in short supply.

In this way, Guangdong's primitive economy, which had previously fallen into stagflation and difficulties, gradually became a vassal of industrialization and was forcibly transformed.Although the public participated passively, they actually benefited from it.

Afterwards, it is a well-known story-a general Cao fell from the sky with a bang, and with his elite soldiers, he began to fight against the pirates, and the weather in one year wiped out the Fujian, Guangdong and Hai that had been infested for many years. bandit.

After the people were amazed, they gradually realized that the properties in Yizhou belonged to Mr. Cao! ?

After a long time of trouble, all the young and old are doing work for Cao Zongbing?
People's eyes are sharp.When everyone found out that the person who brought him the life-saving money and saved his family was not the Emperor Chongzhen but the village general, someone Cao from Yizhou quickly became close to the subjects of Guangzhou.

After that, life got better year after year.The land of the Pearl River is changing with each passing day, as if everyone is busy overnight, and the fast pace of life makes the ancients who are used to the slow pace overwhelmed.

An extremely shocking thing is yet to come: In just a few years, a new city has sprung up, completely overturning Ming people's cognition.

The clean and tidy hardened ground, the spacious and luxurious red brick sewer system, the straight and beautiful main road, and the brick houses rising from the ground.

Although the city didn't even have the most basic walls, the new residents who flocked in voted with their feet: the people believed that the city was safer than the old city.

Those mountain-like gunboats running rampant on the Pearl River, as well as the elite soldiers who have never been defeated in daily conquests, provide an endorsement for this cognition.

Now, another year is approaching.

At the end of the year of Yihai, the ancient city of Guangzhou is filled with joyful atmosphere.Accompanied by the sporadic sound of firecrackers from urchins at the door of the house, blessings written on red paper and couplets are pasted in front of the shops in the city, and a variety of New Year's goods are piled up on the shelves.

There are especially many neighbors who come to buy various new year goods this year.Wearing brand-new robes, everyone had rosy complexions and was full of energy. They took out various silver coins and banknotes from their pockets, and exchanged them for new year's necessities in large and small packages.When meeting acquaintances, it is difficult to hold things in hand to salute, and say a few homely words loudly to congratulate them on the new year.

At the same time, many flowers brought from outside the city were piled up on both sides of the street.Usually at this time of year, it is customary for Guangzhou to bring a large number of flowers into the city for sale.

In fact, the "flower street shopping" activity that later generations are accustomed to first appeared in the Ming Dynasty.In the past two years, as the "world" has improved and the "official expenses" have been abundant, the scale of the traditional flower street shopping activities organized by Futai Yamen in Guangzhou has also increased a lot.

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"Baked potatoes. Sugar potatoes, salt potatoes. Baked potatoes"

In the small year when businesses are competing, hard-working hawkers naturally have to stick to their front-line positions.

Yang Liushui stretched out his hand, and with a pair of bright white electroplated iron tongs, he gently picked out a baked potato with its skin ripped apart from the stove.

At the same time, Yang Liushui's mouth was not idle, he was still yelling about his business, attracting passers-by to buy baked potatoes.

If a person of later generations came to Yang Liushui's mobile shelf truck at this moment, he would show a familiar smile: there was a blue iron oil drum that is common in later generations, with a square damper pulled out from the bottom, and cooking smoke was rising from the top .

In this day and age, there is no doubt that the blue tin bucket is a tall novelty.I don't know where Yang Liushui got such a scrapped oil barrel. This stuff is undoubtedly a controlled product, unless it is scrapped, it is impossible to reveal it to the people.

Using electroplated clips to clamp the potatoes into an equally bright white electroplated iron plate, Yang Liushui raised his face and asked with a smile, "Guest, do you want sugar or salt?"

The guests were two women wearing beautiful long skirts and carrying rouge and powder in their hands. They looked like they were out shopping.

The two women bowed their heads and whispered a few times, asking Hu Liushui: "Half everything."

"Okay!" Hearing this, Yang Liushui quickly cut the potatoes in half with a knife, then picked up a fine wire mesh sieve, sifted the salt shaker and the sugar shaker separately, and sprinkled the seasoning on the two halves of the potatoes. The whole process was done without touching the potatoes. Touched potatoes.

Finally, after putting the potatoes into two exquisite straw baskets, the guest took out a bright fifty-cent coin with satisfaction and threw it into Hu Liushui's hands.

Seeing the anti-counterfeiting profile of Mr. Cao with clear lines on the silver coin, Liu Shui put the silver coin into his pocket with a smile on his face, and then glared at his son who looked at the beautiful woman stupidly: "What are you looking at, hurry up and find silver for the customer!"

The half-sized boy has the same round face as Yang Liushui.The young man was just growing up, and his body was thin. He was wearing a short coat and homemade shoes, and he had short hair that is common among poor people nowadays.

Hearing my father's complaint, the boy came back to his senses and quickly took out a few loose coins from the money jar, and handed them to the guest with a blushing face.

In this way, accompanied by a few chuckles from the woman, Yang Liushui took care of it alone.

Novelty things always attract attention.Nowadays, in the city of Guangzhou, there are very few mobile street vendors with tin buckets like Yang Liushui.So as soon as he set up his stall, the business continued to flow.

In addition, beautiful things and ideas such as electroplating clips, powdered salt, powdered sugar, contactless sales, etc., have also added a lot to Yang Liushui's business.

So, when Yang Liushui's stall reached Nanshuimen, all the raw potatoes brought out today, as well as some sweet potatoes and taro, were all sold out.

Of course, closing the stall early today is also the reason why Yang Liushui deliberately brought less raw materials.

In the second half of the afternoon, in the new words, it is three o'clock in the afternoon.Satisfied with turning off the stove, Yang Liushui patted the kid on the head: "Let's go home."

The middle-aged man chuckled, skillfully put the belt on his shoulders, bent down and pulled up the shelf cart.

The next moment, with the rotation of the mechanism bearings, the slightly creaking wooden tires brought the car briskly, and began to move with the footsteps of the two fathers.

Yang Liushui's home is at the root of Zhongcheng, a long way from Nanshuimen.The father and son just pulled the cart and walked all the way.

Along the way, every household can already see New Year’s oranges, narcissus and other New Year’s things placed in front of the hall.When passing by the old school field, the father and son watched the rehearsal of the lion dance team for a while with their mouths open across the door.

Just like that, Yang Liushui and his son returned to their small courtyard in Zhongchenggen with ease.

The gate of the small courtyard was open, and a middle-aged woman in a plain short cloth gown was busy working in front of the stove in the courtyard.Thick smoke came out, mixed with the delicious smell of chicken and duck.

"The child's mother."

"I'm back."

"Hmm. Are all the dishes ready?"

"It still takes some work."

"Then I'll wash my face first and change my clothes."

"Clean up carefully, today is a big day. Remember to change clothes for your son after washing."

"Understood. If you want to treat distinguished guests, you should change your clothes."

(End of this chapter)