Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 394

After inspecting the sour jujube wine, Zhu Fu invited Zhao Zhen and his wife to the hall and told them in detail about the recent developments of the winery.

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said to Zhu Fu and others, "The winery has worked hard to make wine. Each winemaker will be rewarded with two gold melon seeds and a piece of colorful silk, and each apprentice will be rewarded with half a piece to a piece of coarse cloth."

When everyone heard this, they all came forward to give thanks.

Just when the party was getting lively, they heard a laugh outside, and saw Xiao Rang and Pei Xuan come in together.

“Sir, today the sour jujube wine is ready, my brother Pei Xuan and I are here to ask for a glass too.”

Zhao Zhen said, "I have something to discuss with you at the county office. I will buy two jars of wine and send them to your residence. I will buy another pot and send it to the county office while I talk to you two brothers."

As he said this, Zhao Zhen dismissed everyone from the winery and the clinic, and took Xiao Rang and Pei Xuan back to the county government office.

Zhao Zhen sat at the top, Cheng Wan'er sat beside him, and below them were Xiao Rang, Pei Xuan, and Yu Baosi.

After everyone sat down, Zhao Zhen asked someone to pour wine while he told everyone what Jin Cui Lian had said to him. Zhao Zhen asked, "What do you two brothers think?"

Xiao Rang said, "It's hard to force this. Most of the heroes in the county only like to learn how to use spears and sticks, and they don't care much about women. Besides, these women have some relationship with Wu Erlang, so we have to ask him."

Pei Xuan said: "Yes, more than half of the heroes in the county have never been married. Although the master has good intentions, it depends on the brothers' willingness. In my opinion, these few people can be invited to the county. If the brothers are interested, they can find someone to propose marriage."

"It's not a big deal for Wu Erlang. He is an upright man, and these weak women didn't provoke him, so he definitely won't make things difficult for them."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen said, "Even so, I still have to tell him. I'll write a letter and have it delivered to Wu Erlang in Shouzhang County. We must not let the Wu Er brothers have any quarrels."

After drinking a pot of sour jujube wine, Xiao Rang said, "I have something to report to you today. In Wangtai Township, the stone carving workshop managed by Brother Jin Dajian has begun to produce. Today, a soldier from Jijiaopu brought a letter from Brother Jin Dajian. Some merchants from outside came to the township to buy Jinshan inkstones and asked if they wanted to sell them."

Zhao Zhen said: "It's fine for ordinary inkstone workshops and individual dealers to sell them. The good ones can also be sold in small quantities, but the top-quality ones should not be sold at all."

Seeing Xiao Rang nod, Zhao Zhen said, "There are mostly farmers in the county, but few small traders. Restaurants, teahouses, grocery stores, cloth shops, and jewelry shops are all run by farmers. Speaking of which, Liangshan County doesn't even have a proper county town, and there are even fewer people doing business. It's much worse than Shouzhang."

Xiao Rang said, "Sir, Liangshan County is different from other places after all. Liangshan is surrounded by water, and the villages are scattered everywhere, so it is impossible to gather them into a county town. Now the East and West River Villages plus the permanent soldiers have a large population."

"Although there is no market, the people are much more simple. In addition, the high officials are kind and lenient, and they impose light taxes and levies. There is no miscellaneous tax to collect from the people. The shops everywhere can meet the needs of farmers, so there is no need to deliberately make them the same as other places."

Pei Xuan continued, "Now the location of the city wall has been chosen, and a lot of blue bricks have been fired. We will start building it after the autumn harvest."

Xiao Rang said: "Speaking of shops, the county is going to open a pawn shop."

"Although the county government now has a green seedling loan, it cannot take care of the various situations where farmers are in urgent need of money. If there is a pawnshop, it would be the best for farmers to deal with emergencies. It also saves them from looking for rich families, nine out of ten will go, and then they will never be able to get back on their feet."

Zhao Zhen said, "Brother, what you said is true, but how can we open this pawn shop? After all, there is no master of the court."

Xiao Rang said, "The grocery stores can take on the responsibility. They just need to collect the collateral and then pay. For smaller cases, the grocery store owner can decide, and for larger cases, they can report to the county. Then ask Brother Jiang Jing, the "Divine Calculator", to check. I can't say it's foolproof, but it can make the farmers live better." Zhao Zhen said, "What you said is right. Especially in the villages on Liangshan, because they are isolated from the outside world, most of the farmers on the mountain have never left Liangshan in their lives. Although they are simple, there are also differences in wealth in each village. Pawn shops can be used in emergencies, and I think they can be of some use to the farmers. I will notify the grocery stores and see how the situation is."

The three of us worked together to improve the implementation details and asked all places to follow them.

When Zhao Zhen returned to Bai Shi Manor, it was already time for dinner.

As usual, after dinner, Zhao Zhen's family began their daily chat in the hall, each talking about what had happened that day.

Hearing that Jin Cui Lian and Dong Ping's concubines Guiqing and Guijie were going to recruit some beautiful women, several people became interested and asked many questions.

Jin Cui Lian kept a close eye on Chu Yan and Chu Yuan. She was waiting for the three of them to come to the county and go see them together.

At night, Zhao Zhen rested in the room of Chu Yan and Chu Yuan.

The next morning, just after breakfast, Zhao Zhen asked Wu Yong to send someone to invite him out.

Before Zhao Zhen could sit down, Wu Yong said, "Sir, there is news from Qingzhou."

"What's the situation?"

"The entire Qingzhou was occupied by Song Jiang. Yun Tianbiao, Wei Huchen, Xie De and Lou Xiongxiang led their troops to retreat to Zibo. The letter mentioned that Song Jiang's troops were attacking Weizhou."

Zhao Zhen said: "It seems that Song Jiang has given up going west and is heading east instead. I have never heard of any powerful people in the east of Jingdong."

Wu Yong said: "If Song Jiang really occupied the eastern part of Jingdong, he would become a huge bandit. Fortunately, he is now heading east, so I don't have to be on guard here for the time being."

Zhao Zhen nodded: "I'm afraid the Grand Master won't give up. He will definitely send troops to attack again."

Wu Yong said, "Sir, in a little over a month it will be winter. It will be freezing cold, not a good time for fighting. The Grand Tutor attaches so much importance to this, I think there will be a large army coming before the New Year to suppress it. I wonder which army it is."

Zhao Zhen said, "It won't be me waiting here. Now that Song Jiang is invading from the east, we can relax a little bit."

Wu Yong said, "Sir, would you like to send someone to Bianjing to find out something?"

Zhao Zhen shook his head and said, "That's not necessary. Soldiers coming from the west will have to pass through Dulonggang Wa Si. Let Zhu Gui keep an eye out. Then, he will know. I wonder how many soldiers Song Jiang has now?"

Wu Yong heard this and said, "Now, Song Jiang has about 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers under his command. Apart from the most combative Old Camp, the surrendered soldiers from Qingzhou and Yizhou account for the majority. Most of the garrison soldiers are selected from the surrendered soldiers. With the soldiers from the Old Camp as the backbone, the army can be expanded quickly to achieve the current situation."

As the two were talking, Zhao Yuanli came in and said, "Sir, there is a big man outside the village who wants to seek refuge."

(End of this chapter)