The late Ming Dynasty in the living room

Chapter 20 Mr. Fang is definitely better than her man
The news that the refugee, who was usually avoided by people, has now become a wealthy man suddenly broke out in this small county town.

Pang Tiande, the city gate commander who accompanied them, originally looked hateful, but now he is recognized as a good and kind person.

Although he also drew his knife on all the merchants, business people don't care about this. As long as there is money to make, you can pull it out a hundred times a day!

As for Liu Scissors and those "miserable" tailors, people in the county now understand that they are just trying to make a lot of money and deliberately hide the news.

Unexpectedly, Liu Scissors, who is usually down-to-earth, is actually this kind of person!
Fang Yu and his party bought a bunch of things and placed a bunch of orders. He only sent two people out of the city to notify them to pick up the goods, while he continued walking to Dongshi.

Mulan Ci said: Buy horses in the east market, buy saddles in the west market, buy bridles in the south market, buy long whips in the north market...

Most of the functional planning of ancient cities cannot escape these words, and the livestock market in Laishui County happens to be in Dongshi.

Cattle, horses, and mules are all the big items that need to be purchased today.

There was no steam engine at this time, so if we wanted to speed up the work, we had to rely on these animal power.

Because Mongolia in the north was a major threat during the Ming Dynasty, starting from the Yongle period, Shuntian Prefecture, Hejian Prefecture, and Baoding Prefecture in the north were all forcibly assigned the task of raising horses.

By the current Chongzhen period, not to mention northern Mongolia, even Monan was already under the control of the Manchus. If the Ming army wanted to obtain a large number of horses, they had to rely more on private horse breeding.

Therefore, the stock of cattle and horses in Laishui County is now sufficient. Fang Yu and the others found a fenced livestock farm without much effort.

Boss Ma probably also heard about the glorious deeds of this "luxury shopping group". Without any hesitation, he abandoned the others and came over with a smile.

"Does the guest want a horse or a cow?" Boss Ma asked.

Fang Yu saw that horses and mules accounted for the majority here, and there were about forty cattle (the horse administration was supported, and there were also many cattle in Laishui County).

Fang Yu asked about the price, and Boss Ma replied: "Medium size, 25 taels for horses and 35 taels for cattle."

Amazing, right?At this time, the prices of cattle and horses were not much different from those during the Wanli period. Compared with the rising rice prices, the prices of cattle and horses were as stable as old dogs.

It’s not as expensive as one stone of rice in places like Henan and Shaanxi.

However, no one present felt that it was cheap, because they only had the right to use these cattle and horses, but not the right to eat their meat.

And the most powerful thing is: you spent a lot of money to buy them back, and treated them with delicious grass and feed, but as soon as the government waved, they had to return them.

In the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign, the government's price for recruiting cattle and horses from the private sector was six taels for horses and seven taels and five cents for cattle...

Fang Yu took a closer look and saw that these cows and horses were indeed branded with the mark of the government.

Fortunately, Fang Yu only wanted them to work, not because he was greedy for their bodies.

"Young Master Fang is here. Why didn't you send someone to tell him in advance?"

Just as Fang Yu and Boss Ma were discussing the price, a nice female voice suddenly sounded from behind.

Fang Yu turned around and saw Gong Yishi, the young mistress of Xiangyun Buzhuang in the city, standing behind with a smile.

Well, last time Fang Yu entrusted Pang Tiande to buy cloth. Because the purchase was large, Gongyi personally followed Pang Tiande outside the city and met Fang Yu once.

This was the first time for Fang Yu to hear the compound surname Gongyi, and he was deeply impressed by this woman. He never expected to meet her here today.

"Um...Hello, Mrs. Gongyi."

Fang Yu knew that in ancient times it was best to address a married woman with her husband's surname in front of the wife and madam, but he still didn't know the surname of the owner of Xiangyun Buzhuang.

Fortunately, Gongyi didn't mind and just smiled and said, "Master Fang, are you here to buy cattle and horses?" Seeing the arrogant look on Mr. Ma's face towards Gongyi, Fang Yu realized that this cattle and horse market was also Her family's business, she nodded.

Gongyi said: "The Qiao family has a villa right in front. If Mr. Fang is not in a hurry, can you go with the slave family and have a cup of tea to discuss it in detail?"

This woman was very smart. He saw Fang Yu's difficulty and deliberately mentioned her husband's surname in his words.

Fang Yu walked all morning and wanted to take a rest, so he nodded and said, "Then I won't bother Mrs. Qiao."

Fang Yu hugged Axiu and followed Mrs. Qiao to drink tea with Pang Tiande, sophomores and seniors. Old Zhao and a few refugees were left to continue selecting cattle and horses.

Old man Zhao patted his chest and said he had experience, but Fang Yu didn't know whether it was true or not...

The villa arrived soon. Mrs. Qiao said she wanted to go in and change clothes, and then a maid brought tea and snacks.

After all, they are young people in their second and third year of high school. They would look at the two maids intently and make them blush.

Fang Yu was about to remind them, but he heard the second graders and third graders chatting in their ears. The second grader said, "While you are just shopping, no one thinks that Mr. Fang doesn't have a woman to take care of him."

The senior high school student nodded: "These two maids are pretty good."

Gao Er said: "It's good-looking, but not as good as Mrs. Qiao."

The senior year student said: "But Mrs. Qiao already has a man."

Second year of high school: "You can go to the county government and Heli. Mr. Fang is definitely a better man than her..."

Well, Fang Yu thought that these two people were having sex, but who knew they were thinking about him.

But why did you get involved with Mrs. Qiao after all this? Do you two have any luck?
It was illegal to have extramarital affairs in the Ming Dynasty!

Fang Yu coughed loudly, and then the two of them realized that their words had fallen into Fang Yu's ears.

Mrs. Qiao didn't know that someone was already looking forward to her divorce even though she had been married for less than three years. She changed her clothes and came out and sat opposite Fang Yu.

From the casual conversation, we learned more and more that the Qiao family may be the second largest household in Laishui County. His family not only owns a cloth farm and a livestock farm, but also a rice shop, a restaurant, and a pharmacy...

And the business is not only in Laishui County, there are also warehouses in Fucheng Qingyuan, Hejian Prefecture, Shanxi and other places.

Because the master of the Qiao family is old, the young master of the Qiao family is taking care of things outside, while Mrs. Qiao is in charge here in Laishui County.

"In other words, the two of them spend less time together and more time apart..." The sophomore and senior high school students looked at each other thoughtfully.

Fang Yu heard that the Qiao family's business was quite extensive, and he had an idea in his mind, so he asked: "Isn't it difficult to do business in rice stores nowadays?"

Fang Yu is not a fool and knows that the more expensive the rice, the easier it is to do business.

Just like in the Jiangnan area today, one stone of rice costs about five taels of silver, while the price of rice in Henan and Shaanxi has soared to dozens or hundreds of taels.

Then whoever transports rice from the south of the Yangtze River can make a fortune, right?

Alas, the food shortage in the north of the Ming Dynasty cannot be entirely blamed on natural disasters. What is worse than natural disasters are: bureaucratic corruption and war.

Even in the water transportation channels designated by the imperial court, they dared to set up checkpoints privately to take advantage of them, and they actually raised the five taels of silver and one stone of rice to ten taels.

There are even more checkpoints on the way to Henan and Shaanxi inland.

(End of this chapter)