Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 460 The Wonderful Journey to Kaifeng City ([-])

The so-called time flies like an arrow, and the sun and the moon fly like a shuttle.

In a blink of an eye, it was April [-]th, the first year of Maode; more than a month had passed since the initial division of labor by Hu Biao and the others.

After passing this time, it is more scientific and there is a reasonable division of labor.

Or to put it another way, after Hu Biao's deadly rush to the street squeezed a lot of netizens even more crazily, after I don't know how many greasy old men's heads were bald, everyone's work efficiency also became higher.

As time goes by, the situation here in Kaifeng City is still a bit difficult, but it is getting better day by day...

Location: On the Caihe River, one of the Grand Canals leading to Kaifeng City.

Du Baojun, who was in the cabin at that time, suddenly heard the boss outside the cabin yelling at the top of his voice:
"Shopkeeper Du, in two more hours, we will be able to reach Kaifeng City; by then it will still be early and it will not be completely dark yet."

After hearing such news, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Du Baojun, a 30-year-old man with a gentle appearance, is more like a scholar than a businessman in the market.

In fact, it is not wrong to say that he is a scholar.

He himself comes from the Huzhou area in the south of the Yangtze River, a direct descendant of the Du family's big house; he has been studying in the family's private school since he was a child, and his mentors are all famous local gentlemen.

What is helpless is that his personal reading talent is limited, and it is far from enough compared to other brothers in the family.

Seeing that there is no way out by studying, he has taken over many businesses of the Du family, and he can be regarded as a person who is like the money bag of the entire Du family.

Regarding this point, in the Song Dynasty, where commerce was extremely developed, it was nothing new at all.

Counting it, Du Baojun has not come to Kaifeng City for more than two years.

The reason is very simple. In the past year or so, the Jinren have attacked Kaifeng city twice. At first, it was too dangerous because of the chaos.

After the second golden man left, Kaifeng City's wealth of hundreds of years was looted.

These businessmen, to put it bluntly, are all unprofitable and early generations. Some people do the business of beheading, but absolutely no one does the business of losing money.

Du Baojun drinks and listens to music at home every day, and leans against the red and green, which is no better than facing the poor ghosts in the dilapidated city of Kaifeng.

The problem is that in this situation, there was an amazing change almost a month ago.

On that day, the Wu family, who had privately controlled the largest salt bar in Huzhou, hosted a banquet for some powerful families in Huzhou, and went to the largest 'Qingping Building' in the local area for a banquet.

After half of the banquet, the Patriarch of the Wu family took out a rare item, which surprised everyone on the spot.

There are all kinds of crystal clear cups, which are simply ingenious treasures; there is also a mirror that is the size of a palm, but can reflect people to the slightest.

There is also a kind of soap called soap. After washing the hair and skin, it is not only clean and refreshing, but also leaves a scent of flowers that lasts for a long time.

Immediately, the sensitivity of being a businessman.

Du Baojun realized the huge commercial value of the above items almost immediately.

Mirrors and soaps are just for men, they are dispensable things, they will only buy them at any price for the treasures such as cups and cups.

But for all the female relatives, it is simply a heavenly temptation.

But it is very normal for a man to spend a lot of money for a woman, so all of the above is definitely an excellent business.

The situation is indeed the same. I bought a palm-sized mirror from the Wu family at a price of 600 hundred guan that day.

After I went back to send my wife off, there was a woman whose uncle served as the general judge in Huzhou, and who was usually aggressive at home.

On that night, he was gentle in every way, deliberately flattering him, and even promised him that he could bring a certain outer room raised outside into the door as a good thing for his concubine.

In this way, Du Baojun's determination to get this business into his own hands became more and more firm.

Then he used some money and means, and finally found out the way:
It turned out that the Wu family immediately organized 20 catties of old grain and transported it to Kaifeng City by means of water transportation after hearing the news of the new salt introduction method reported by the new imperial court of Empress Maode in Kaifeng City.

At first, I just planned to return from Kaifeng City immediately after changing some salt.

Unexpectedly, after seeing the above-mentioned ingenious utensils in the newly established Commercial Department of the imperial court, the youngest of the Wu family who led the team immediately used all the money and food with him to replace them with these new utensils.

Sure enough, after he came back, he sold it in just two or three days, and the profit he made in one trip, even if it wasn't a staggering one hundred times.

At least fifty or sixty times as much, that is definitely there.

Driven by such a huge profit, Du Baojun's trip to Kaifeng City was naturally there.

Even though this time he came here, he did not prepare a large amount of rice like the Wu family did, but he is still full of confidence in this trip.

As the leader of the Du family's Huzhou cloth industry, he brought 20 bolts of linen and [-] bolts of fine silk and satin this trip.

A person's life is nothing more than basic necessities of life.

It is true that Kaifeng City is in ruins and lacks food, but as long as Kaifeng people want to wear clothes, his batch of fabrics are also useful...

After listening to the boat boss outside, the one in his mouth is still two hours away, and he will arrive at the back of Kaifeng City.

Immediately, Du Baojun couldn't sit still in the cabin, and he immediately walked out of the cabin after being greatly relieved.

The main reason was that Du Baojun, who had been to Kaifeng City five or six times before, encountered such a busy situation in the canal for the first time.

I saw that in the huge canal, tank boats and Shenzhou boats of various sizes were like weaving.

Various goods such as food, wine, lacquer, leather, minerals, cloth, and livestock were transported on it, all of which were destined for the city of Kaifeng.

Presumably, there are smart people everywhere, who have also seen the huge wealth hidden in Kaifeng City, and are now taking action one after another.

Originally, this was nothing. The place in Da Song is so big, and their Du family can only occupy Huzhou at present.

But after there were more ships, the speed of the boat was much slower than before. Compared with the past, it took at least three or five days longer to get here.

Fortunately, it was almost here, and Du Baojun's eagerness gradually relaxed.

Even standing on the bow of the boat, letting the river wind blow on him, he was also in the mood to look at the scenery on both sides of the Cai River.

It was also under such a situation that he suddenly saw not far from the left bank, except that there were a large number of men and women working in the fields.

Not to mention an extra mound of large size and size, there is also a huge stone tablet made of white marble on the mound.

Reflecting the golden light under the sunlight, the huge stone tablet looked extremely dazzling.

Immediately, Du Baojun couldn't help asking: "Boss Shen, what is that place? If I remember correctly, there shouldn't have been one a few years ago, right?"

Under such a problem, the boss of the ship, who is always smiling when he talks on weekdays, and is a man in his 40s, suddenly became serious.

After standing up straight, he first looked at the place from a distance, and bowed his hands respectfully.

In the following time, it was explained:

"Dare Shopkeeper Du to know that the last time the Jinren entered the bandits, Her Majesty Empress Maode, Hu Shumi envoy and other ministers were besieged on the Cake Cake Mountain.

Although the golden soldiers killed and injured tens of thousands, they were still unable to attack by force.

However, after a long battle, soldiers, food fodder, wound medicine, etc. were all about to be exhausted. Fortunately, the righteous people in Kaifeng braved the rain of golden arrows and stone cannons to swim forcibly to support Cooking Cake Mountain. guard down.

However, under the blockade of the Jinren, the number of righteous people who successfully supported the Cake Cake Mountain was often not one in ten.

After the Jin people retreated, the soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng had extra time to come downstream to collect the corpses.

According to the statistics of the leading brother, Ma Xianggong, a total of 27 volunteers went out of the city to support, but in the end only 210 people made it down the mountain alive.

Except for the corpses that sank to the bottom of the river and were eaten by river fish, a total of 350 corpses were collected.

Together with those righteous people who didn't even have corpses, some clothes and hair from their lifetime; these righteous people were all buried in that mound.

On it stands a large stone tablet made of a piece of white marble dismantled from the imperial garden.

In addition to the four names of 810 engraved on the stone tablet, there is also a line of big characters written by Hu Yitong's privy envoy: Kaifeng righteous people will live forever.

In other words, today is not the first or fifteenth day of the lunar new year, nor is it a new year's day.

Otherwise, shopkeeper Du, you can see how many people in the city spontaneously come here to offer incense, which is probably a little more prosperous than the incense in Daxiangguo Temple. "

After listening to the above statement, Du Baojun was speechless for a long time.

After coming here so many times, he is naturally no stranger to the original appearance of the people in Kaifeng City.

What did you say?Even traffickers and pawns have the arrogance of being the emperor's feet, the people in the capital of the Song Dynasty, with their eyes on the top of their heads.

Because the business here is extremely developed, it also has a strong market spirit.

Unfortunately, there is no such a heroic spirit.

"After the two invasions by the Jin people, the people in Kaifeng may have changed astonishingly."

In the end, with the same thought in mind, Du Baojun bowed respectfully to the place where ten thousand righteous people lived, and his heart was filled with indescribable respect.

It is true that he is a profit-seeking businessman, but he has never forgotten that he is also a Song person.

It's just that even if he has made some preparations for today's Kaifeng City, it is quite different from what he remembered.

But compared to the actual huge changes in Kaifeng City, there are still some far from enough...

******
As expected by the captain of the ship, after nearly two hours, the fleet led by Du Baojun arrived at a pier outside Kaifeng City.

At this moment, it was already around two quarters in the afternoon.

There is still more than an hour at most, and seeing that the sky is about to get dark, it seems that there is no way to trade today, and we can only talk about it tomorrow morning.

However, Du Baojun has been living on the boat for many days, and he has long been bored, so he thought of going to the city to find a cottage to have a good time.

Unexpectedly, Du Baojun got off the boat with a family member who acted as a guard, and several people who were all dressed up as small officials rushed over in a hurry.

One of the leaders shouted loudly from a long distance away:
"Where did you come from, what kind of goods and how much are you carrying? Hurry up and let me register here and pay the corresponding commercial tax."

After hearing such a statement, Du Baojun did not dare to be careless at all.

Their Du family has a little reputation in Huzhou and even Liangzhe Road, but they are nothing in Kaifeng City; these petty officials are not even considered officials, but they must not be offended at will.

After hastily greeted him, he smiled and said:

"Gentlemen, you are very polite. I am waiting for the Du family business to come from Huzhou on the Liangzhe Road. The fleet has 15 pieces of high-quality linen and [-] pieces of silk."

While talking, the guy was gone, and he took out a small purse from his pocket.

Inside were pieces of silver worth a total of tens of pennies, and they secretly delivered them to the chief official, and then whispered in his mouth:
"You officials have worked hard, use the money to drink tea, and you will be rewarded later."

The reason for Du Baojun to do this is actually very simple, but he hopes that after managing these people, he can pay less commercial taxes to the Judiciary.

In the past, these petty officials were also happy to do so, and such an operation was nothing more than a common thing.

However, this method that has been tried and tested in the past has hit a snag today.

The head official put on a straight face, pushed the money bag away from his hand, and said, "What do you want to do? As court officials, we have our own court salary to support us, how can we accept your bribes?" .

I think you should have arrived in Kaifeng early this year, so let’s forget about it this time.

If you still want to do this next time, I will pull you back and give you a board. "

Hearing the above words, Du Baojun's heart skipped a beat, there is no such thing as a dog not eating a dog and a cat not stealing fish.

It's nothing more than the fact that these petty officials have too much appetite, and they don't like ten dollars.

Under the apprehension in his heart, he was already ready to bleed a lot.

What he didn't expect was that after some inspections, these petty officials didn't make it difficult for him at all. According to the tax ratio stipulated by the Song Dynasty, they prepared to leave after issuing a note.

But before leaving, the chief official said:
"Tomorrow, people will pay the above business tax early, and please remember, don't do it again next time.

According to the latest regulations of the imperial court, food, liquor, cloth, large livestock, ores, etc. are all monopolized by the imperial court and can only be sold to the imperial court, and the price is definitely quite fair.

You are also very lucky, tomorrow the Commercial Department just happens to have a new product launch event, and there are a lot of new products for sale.

I'll give you a note here, you go to the Commerce Department tomorrow to participate, whether you want to exchange cloth for money or various products. "

After hearing such a sentence, Du Baojun couldn't even care about the surprise of "dogs don't eat flying, cats don't steal fish".

With thanks again and again, there was only one thought in my mind:
This time, Kaifeng City itself is right. Originally, those old products were surprisingly profitable. If there are better new products that can be brought back, then it’s worth it...

Because I was thinking about the strange-sounding new product recommendation meeting in the Commerce Department tomorrow.

Du Baojun even thought about Washe for a long time along the way, so he didn't bother to linger at night.

Seeing that the sky was about to get dark, he immediately planned to go to the city to find an inn, and after a good rest, he would be refreshed tomorrow.

correct!It's best to find out what kind of business department this is and what it is.

What kind of person is in charge of it, and who likes it very much.

No matter how heavy the price is, as long as the Du family gets the exclusive right to sell Yiying products in the Huzhou area in the future, it will definitely be worth a thousand dollars.

Needless to say, this Du Baojun is really a qualified businessman.

There were no problems with vision or decision. The problem was that his plan to recharge his batteries tonight and take a good rest unexpectedly failed to come true.

First of all, after he entered the city gate, he immediately discovered the difference in the city.

Not only is the city extremely clean, but there are no sundries to be seen on the huge street.

A businessman who entered the city with him looked like an outsider, but he just spit out a mouthful of old phlegm when he was caught by an old woman with red sleeves.

Not only was he fined a penny, but he was also caught and reprimanded. He should pay attention to hygiene and not spit or defecate anywhere, which can reduce illness.

More importantly, Du Baojun could tell that the people in Kaifeng City, whether they were soldiers, civilians or officials.

Everyone is in a hurry, even the steps under their feet are faster, and there is an indescribable spirit on their faces, which is very high-spirited.

Not at all like the numbness he imagined.

Secondly, in the process of searching for a good inn, a child who was only seven or eight years old flew up to him and said:
"Your official, do you want the latest 'Da Song Times'? I also have it here in the past, and it is very complete."

After hearing such a sentence, Du Baojun immediately became energetic.

He also came halfway along the way, and only when he went ashore at night to have fun, did he know about the "Da Song Times", a new gadget in Kaifeng City.

The rest of the above content is nothing more than that, but one of the novels called "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" fascinated him.

The problem is that each newspaper has a limited number of items, and the ones that can be bought are not the latest ones.

Under Du Baojun's deliberate collection, so far I have only seen the eighth episode of "Wang Situ's clever tricks and Dong Taishi making trouble at Fengyi Pavilion".

Every time I think of the following plot, I feel really uncomfortable like scratching my heart and scratching my liver.

Hearing the latest Da Song Times, he immediately said: "After the fourth chapter of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", give me a copy of everything."

In this way, a total of 450 Wen was spent.

Du Baojun just bought the serial No.17 "Yuan Gonglu's Rise of the Seventh Army, Cao Mengde's Confluence of Three Generals", a total of nine new newspapers.

Each copy only costs 50 Wen, which is not expensive at all for him.

Unexpectedly, the child still didn't leave after doing a lot of business. He secretly glanced left and right, and said mysteriously:
"Master, do you still want the two novels "Jin Ping Mei" and "Rou Pu Tuan"?
It is also written by Master Huansheng who wrote "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Not only is the plot extremely fragrant, but there are also many illustrations drawn by famous artists.

Although there are no villains here, someone can bring them to you for only ten bucks a copy. "

Ten strings of money is in Huzhou, but it can be used by a poor family for a year.

But after hearing such a sentence, Du Baojun, who seemed to have been beaten with chicken blood, didn't care about money or not, and pointed to an inn not far away and said firmly:
"My surname is Du. I'm staying there tonight. You should have someone deliver it earlier. I want both copies..."

(End of this chapter)