A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 91 Eight Great Alleys
It was also a coincidence that Li Yu ran into the driver who was pulling the cart for him again this time when he was going out.

"It happens that you are familiar with the road, take me to Dongchang Hutong." Li Yu jumped into the car at once.

"Okay." The coachman replied listlessly, and then slowly pulled up the cart.

After walking out for a while, Li Yu immediately stopped him: "Wait a minute, you seem to be taking the wrong route, right? We should go north. If you go south now, you will be out of the city."

"Ah?" The coachman was a little dazed, and suddenly realized that he had really gone the wrong way, and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Li Yu felt that he was obviously lost, so he asked, "What's the matter, what's bothering you?"

"No, nothing." The coachman replied dejectedly.

Li Yu said with a smile: "I've heard that you are famous for being 'smooth' in the Dongjiaomin Lane area. You are familiar with the road and fast! You are not like the old style now, just talk to me if you have anything. Maybe I can help."

"Hey!" The coachman sighed deeply, "You can't help me, what happened to me is a big deal."

Li Yu asked curiously, "How big can such a big deal be?"

The coachman slowed down and said, "To tell you the truth, it was my brother who got involved."

"Is it your brother who is involved in the 'big deal'?" Li Yu asked.

"Yes, he owes the car dealer 40 taels of silver! 40 taels, this is life-threatening! Our two brothers can't save so much money in our whole life." The driver despaired.

"40 taels? What did your brother do? Gambling?"

Li Yu felt incredible, how could a coachman owe so much money. 40 taels is indeed a huge number for them. According to their income, excluding daily expenses, it is almost impossible to save 40 taels.

"It's not gambling," said the coachman. "It's like this. My brother usually pulls a cart for a young man who likes to visit brothels in Shitou Alley. He fell in love with a red lady some time ago. He doesn't want to have other things." Brother Gongzi likes the same red lady. When my brother took Brother Gongzi there that day, he was blocked by another group of people, and the two sides fought."

Li Yu wondered, "It sounds like it has nothing to do with your brother."

"It doesn't matter!" The driver said angrily, "But they beat my brother indiscriminately, and the most important thing was to smash the car! They left after the fight, and now the car dealer wants to ask my brother to pay for the car. "

Li Yu understood that his brother was lying on the gun for no reason, and suffered a lot.

"Where is your brother now?"

"My brother is lying in a medical clinic in Shitou Hutong, Luohua Teahouse also feels that my brother has been wronged, and helps pay for the treatment of the injury."

The land of fireworks in the Qing Dynasty was also divided into grades. The first grade was called Qingyin Xiaoban. The women in it generally performed arts but not their bodies, and basically had everything from piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and they could even recite poems in pairs; With a smile and a deep affection, it is often flocked to by all kinds of celebrities, gentry, powerful and wealthy businessmen.

The second level is the tea room. Although the tea room is inferior to the small class of Qingyin, the tea room is also a relatively high-end romantic place, and the interior decoration, carving and dyeing are quite particular.Although Yingying Yanyan of this level is not as talented as the girls in the small class, she is also young, beautiful, literate and artistic.

The third level is the bottom.Not as beautiful as the first two buildings, the interior decoration is simple, and the fireworks girl is relatively older and of average appearance.

As for the fourth level, it is the so-called "kiln".

"Take me to Stone Alley, I should be able to help you." Li Yu said.

The coachman stopped suddenly, almost knocking Li Yu out of the car with such a jerk.

"Can you help my brother?" the driver said excitedly.

Li Yu smiled and said, "Yes, but it's not a white gang."

The driver immediately knelt down to Li Yu: "Master, I'm calling you Lord! If you can help my brother, I'll make you a cow or a horse!"

Li Yu hated people kneeling for him the most. In his era, he basically only knelt on his knees to his parents, or when brothers swore to worship each other.

Of course, kneeling for your wife is a special case and is out of the scope of the discussion!
But this is the way it is in this era, no wonder he is.

Li Yu jumped down from the car and helped the coachman up, "Don't kneel down to me in the future, I've already told you, the help is not in vain, so there is no need to do this."

The coachman was about to burst into tears, "I really met a good man! You are a living Bodhisattva! What's your name, I have to burn incense for you every day from now on!"

"My name is Li Yu. Where are you, what's your name?"

"My name is Zhao Qian." The coachman said.

"I see, hurry up and take me to Shishi Hutong first."

"Come on, sir! Sit down!"

Zhao Qian, the coachman, seemed to erupt in a small universe in an instant, sweeping away the gloomy emotions just now, and turned into a "swift smoke" again, and rushed out with a whoosh, Li Yu was directly brought back by the inertia.

Zhao Qian led Li Yu to the stone alley at his top speed.

Stone Hutong is one of the famous Eight Hutongs in the capital, also known as the Land of Fireworks Lane in the capital.

In fact, there are not only eight eight alleys, there are more than a dozen similar ones, but the eight alleys are the highest grade among them.

Since the 21st year of Qianlong, no fireworks are allowed in the inner city of Beijing, and all of them have been moved to the south city, which is next to Liulichang.

By the time they arrived at Stone Alley, Zhao Qian was already sweating profusely from running, and Li Yu was about to be vomited in the car.

"Slow down, slow down, it's all here anyway!"

Zhao Qian smiled innocently: "I'm sorry, sir, I'm too excited."

Li Yu jumped out of the car, "I can walk the rest of the way by myself. It's called Luohua Tea House, right? How far is it?"

Zhao Qian wiped his sweat and said, "It's not far away, it's not far away, it's just a hundred steps ahead."

"Okay, let's go."

But Li Yu stopped after taking two steps, because he saw a familiar figure.

Yang Xiaolou!
The two looked at each other for an instant, looking at each other.

Yang Xiaolou coughed, "Brother Li is here to have fun?"

"No, no, no! That's not the case, I didn't come to find a girl." Li Yu quickly explained.

Yang Xiaolou's eyes were full of disbelief, "Brother Li doesn't need to explain, I understand. What else can you do here besides looking for girls? Are you here to study your knowledge?"

"I'm not here to study knowledge, and I'm not here to find girls!"

Li Yu was so jolted in the car that he coughed when he got anxious.

Yang Xiaolou said: "Brother Li doesn't need to do this. If you are looking for a girl, you can find a girl. You are not an official of the court, so it doesn't matter. And I heard the word 'Luohua Tea Room' just now, so I know where it is."

The Qing government explicitly prohibited officials from visiting brothels. To a certain extent, many high-ranking officials and nobles in the Ming and Qing Dynasties liked boys, which was also the reason.

Li Yu stopped coughing: "I'm here to find his brother."

Yang Xiaolou looked at Zhao Qian, the coachman that Li Yu was pointing at. He was tall and thick, and frowned, "Brother Li has to change his habit!"

"It's not what you think, his brother is lying on the bed and still can't get out." Li Yu said.

"Ah!" Yang Xiaolou's expression changed drastically, "Brother Li, how could you do this! You, you, you!"

Gan!
Why can't I explain it!

"His brother is lying on the bed injured, I said Brother Yang, what are you thinking?"

Yang Xiaolou breathed a sigh of relief, "It turned out to be an injury! I thought..."

Li Yu asked, "What do you think?"

Yang Xiaolou was also a little embarrassed to have misunderstood Li Yu, and quickly waved his hand: "It's nothing, it's nothing!"

Li Yu pretended to snort, and asked back: "You still talk about me, but why are you here?"

Yang Xiaolou pointed to the yard behind him: "This is my adoptive father's house, I'm here to get things."

"Your adoptive father? Senior Tan?"

Yang Xiaolou nodded, "Yes, this Yingxiu Hall belongs to my adoptive father. What do you think?"

Li Yu said, "What I thought was what you thought just now."

Yang Xiaolou was directly laughed out loud by Li Yu.

Li Yu glanced at the plaque in the back yard, "Yingxiu Hall".

In fact, Bada Hutong was originally the place where the Hui troupe came to Beijing to stay and live, and it was a foothold for Peking opera artists.Later, with the development of industry and commerce, and the increase of poor families, coupled with the serious imbalance in the ratio of men to women in the capital, the ratio of men to women reached an astonishing 160:108!Where there is demand, there will naturally be a market, so Bada Hutong gradually became a red light district at the same time.

But in the late Qing Dynasty, the Bada Hutong was not very large.According to statistics during the Guangxu period, there were 37 registered families, and if each family had more than a dozen people, generally speaking, there were only 500 prostitutes registered on the register and holding certificates.

The real development of the Eight Great Hutongs took place during the period of the Republic of China.

At that time, many Liyuan masters lived in Bada Hutong, and their residences also taught opera.Every master will also give his apartment a hall name, Tan Xinpei named Yingxiu Hall for his apartment, and Mei Lanfang came from Zhu Aiyun's Yunhe Hall.

In "Farewell My Concubine", Cheng Dieyi, played by Leslie Cheung, was called Xiaodouzi when he was young, and his mother was a prostitute.Why at the beginning of the movie, she was able to take the children to find the theater troupe immediately. In fact, she lived close to each other, and her status was not high, so she would not be looked down upon.

Master Guan also said in the play: "They are all low-level, whoever hates whoever!"

Of course, Bada Hutong has now become a place where ordinary people live, and there are also some historic sites.

Li Yu has a classmate who lives in Bada Hutong in old Beijing. He said that every holiday, he would hear some tour guides leading tourists pointing to the downstairs of his house and saying, "See, this is Cai E's back then." The place where I got engaged to Xiaofengxian!"

His classmate is worried, don’t want to, think about it, if the tour guide points to your house and says that this place used to be a kiln, would you be happy?
Li Yu said to Yang Xiaolou: "I still have business to do, let's go first!"

Yang Xiaolou said: "I'll go with you, I know this place well."

"Are you familiar?" Li Yu asked jokingly.

"I'm just familiar with the road!" Yang Xiaolou hastily corrected.

The three of them came to the hospital together. When Zhao Qian saw his brother on the bed, he rushed over and said, "Brother, how are you doing?"

Zhao Qian's elder brother was a little surprised when he saw Zhao Qian, and said, "Brother, why are you here? You don't have enough money for today's share!"

Zhao Qian said with tears: "It's all like this, brother, why do you still want to pull the cart?"

Brother Zhao Qian said: "I can't do it if I don't do it, how can I eat if I don't do it? How can I pay back the money if I don't do it?"

"But you!" Zhao Qian couldn't help crying.

Li Yu also saw his legs. Zhao Qian just said that his brother was injured, but he didn't expect that his legs were broken. These people are really too much!

Although the clinic tried its best to connect his leg, but the medical condition at this time is only so, and there will be no problem in walking normally in the future, but it is impossible to continue pulling the cart.

Brother Zhao Qian squeezed out a smile and said: "Don't cry, brother! Your brother is doing well! At least it can last another ten years, and I won't lose to you this 'swift'!"

"Stop talking, bro!"

"Also, how many times have I told you, don't come here again! I will take care of my own affairs. If I let them know that you are my brother, I will ask you for money. Just let them come to me, the big deal I will pay them my brother's life!"

While the two were talking, a woman was heard outside the door talking to the doctor of the hospital.

The woman said in a special tactful voice, "Boss, if you pay less for yesterday's medicine, I will be able to pay you back in a short time."

The doctor sighed: "Feng Ling, of course you can slow down, but the medicine costs a lot. I'm not talking about you. For Zhao Qian, you've done your best, and it's almost enough!"

The woman said: "No! His brother was injured because of me, how can I ignore it?"

The boss said: "You are not the nobleman you used to be, how much money do you have now, don't put yourself in it anymore."

The woman resolutely said: "I'm not afraid, anyway, I'm in control!"

Fengling used to be a nobleman of the Jinhua class, and the Jinhua class was the romantic place where the famous Sai Jinhua opened.

As mentioned above, Qingyin Xiaoban is the highest-level brothel, and the girls in it are performing arts but not themselves, so they are the so-called "clean men".

But things are not so absolute, and some donors are willing to spend money to "do tricks".The so-called "making a flower head" is similar to giving a reward to the anchor now, starting with at least 10 taels of silver at a time.

If you give a lot, then you can get close. In fact, the old bustard sold the girl to the big brother.

This kind of ceremony is very solemn, commonly known as "combing", and many red lanterns will be put on, many red colored silks will be used, and there will be dragon and phoenix candles.

Jin Xiangyu, played by Maggie Cheung in "New Dragon Gate Inn", sang "Light candles on August [-]th".

And from now on, the Qing courtiers have become "hundred officials", and the "muddy" who fish in troubled waters are also called "red courtesans".

It would be fine if the big brother on the list really kept her as a concubine, but some big brothers on the list are afraid of the main family when they go home even though they are having a good time outside; or for some other reasons, such as being attacked by political opponents, they have to abandon them.

Hong Guanren will definitely never be able to return to Qingyin's small class, and can only enter the tea room one level lower.

But after all, she is from the small class of Qingyin, Fengling is beautiful online, and she knows piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, which is obviously much higher than other women in the teahouse.

In addition, she is from Sai Jinhua's Jinhua class, and she is even more sought after.

Sai Jinhua used to be the concubine of the No. [-] Scholar in the past, and after she entered the sea again, she became known as the "No.The women she trained are also more bookish, and they are quite popular with dignitaries.

(End of this chapter)