I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 88 Zhang Wei Almost Choked to Death
Because of the new students, Song Shen no longer felt sleepy, and he sat all the way to the three camps in high spirits.

Zhang Wei next to him was actually quite puzzled. He didn't know why he was so sleepy that he almost fell out of the car window just now, but now he kept trying to chat with him. However, he had no choice but to continue to explain to Song Shen what kind of gossips were going on in the homes of those high-ranking officials.

“Hey, here we are.”

The carriage stopped. Zhang Wei lifted the curtain and looked out. The driver turned around and nodded to him, indicating that they had arrived.

He helped Song Shen get off the carriage and introduced him as he walked slowly:

"Do you smell the wine? It's still a hundred steps from here to the store, but the smell is so overbearing that you can smell it from a long distance away."

In fact, he didn't need to remind him. With Song Shen's improved sense of smell after he became blind, he could already smell the aroma of wine before he got out of the car. Now that he was closer, the smell of the wine became stronger, and even just getting close made people feel a little intoxicated.

Song Shen sniffed again subconsciously and said:
"It smells really good. How much wine do they have at home? Could it be that they brew it themselves? If it wasn't stored in large quantities or the winery was opened here, it would be hard to have such a strong smell."

Zhang Wei raised his eyebrows in surprise, and quickly pulled Song Shen's sleeve, pulling him closer, and whispered:

"Just guess it, but don't tell anyone about it."

"Although this place claims to be a century-old brand, in the final analysis, 80% of the time-honored brands in Yingtian Prefecture are owned by the royal family. Your Majesty will not let go of anyone who has anything to do with alcohol."

"When the Ming Dynasty was first established, His Majesty set many rules to ban alcohol. One of them was the Saiyuan Law, which prohibited the people from growing glutinous rice, because glutinous rice is needed as the raw material for making wine. I don't really know how to make wine, but I know this."

"That's probably what it means. Even if the imperial court issued a ban on alcohol, it would be difficult to completely eradicate the people from secretly brewing wine at home. So in addition to collecting taxes on the wine koji used for brewing and the wine sold, there are also very strict laws on private brewing. If you secretly brew wine and don't pay taxes, you will be flogged once you are reported."

"Everyone knows that this Shaodaozi brews its own wine, and his nose is not blocked, so everyone can guess it, but why didn't anyone report it?"

"Because it is a royal property, whether it is taxed or not, it will be transferred from the left hand of the royal family to the right hand. Why bother to bring bad luck. You must not mention it to anyone. Our situation is already serious now. If someone with ulterior motives hears it, it will not be fun!"

Thinking of what happened in history three years later, Song Shen's face became solemn and he nodded repeatedly.

Seeing this, Zhang Wei also breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course he knew that with Song Shen's current status in His Majesty's heart, as long as he didn't kill or burn people in the streets of Yingtian Prefecture, His Majesty would do his best to protect him no matter what he did.

But things cannot be done this way. Being arrogant due to being favored will never end well.

Since the teacher and His Majesty have entrusted Song Shen's daily affairs to him, he must do his best. No matter whether it is for the teacher's kindness, the emperor's kindness or his family's nine clans, he must be careful and extra careful!

Influenced by Zhang Wei's cautious whisper, Song Shen also lowered his voice.

He said stealthily, like a thief:
"Brother Congming, since you said that this Shaodaozi was brewed by their family, do you think there is something to brew wine in their backyard?"

Zhang Weiyi was stunned:
"How would I know? In any shop that sells alcohol or cloth, you can't just go into the backyard. They're afraid you'll steal the recipe!"

Song Shen nodded in agreement and said:

"If I can help them improve this recipe, do you think they will let me in?"

Zhang Wei was numb:

"What are you going to do in there? You can't see. Even if you can go in, what can you do? Are you going to take a bath in the wine vat? Moreover, although they are already imperial merchants, they have been doing this business for decades or even a hundred years, and it has been passed down from father to son. You were just studying at home, so could you learn how to improve the winemaking recipe from the books?"

Don’t tell me, don’t tell me, this is a good excuse!
Song Shen admitted it immediately:

"To be honest, when my eyesight was still good, I did read a recipe in a book that could make this burning knife more useful."

"Even though I have forgotten a lot of things, I still have some vague memories of some of the things I read in the book, so today I actually want to see if this recipe for burning the knife can be used."

Zhang Wei's mind was full of question marks.

He didn't understand it, but he was shocked.

Then Zhang Wei started looking around on the spot, trying to find a familiar face, but found nothing.

He was a little sweaty.

What Song Shen said just now was obviously nonsense, but His Majesty had already told him that if Song Shen made any move, he should report it to His Majesty immediately. Now Song Shen said that he wanted to make the burning knife more useful, so there must be something wrong, something big, but Zhang Wei looked for people from the Yiluansi to let them report it, but he didn't see anyone at all.

At this moment, he wanted to greet Mao Xiang's entire family in his heart.

You are not there when you should be there, and when there is no need to eavesdrop, you are on the beam taking notes.

What's the use of your Yiluansi!!!

"...Okay, okay, I'll talk to the store owner for you later."

Zhang Wei wiped the sweat that had already run down his chin and agreed without thinking twice.

Not long after.

The two walked slowly, but because the Shaodaozi restaurant was not far away, they finally walked to the door slowly.

Zhang Wei whispered to Song Shen at the door of the store:

"Ziwei, this is where we sell Shaodaozi, but we also sell food. The braised dishes are pretty good. Since you want to stay here for a while, why don't we go in and sit down and eat and drink first?"

Song Shen's arrangement for him was meaningless:
"Okay, Brother Congming, I'll listen to you." After the two of them went in and sat down.

Zhang Wei said to the waiter:
"Give me some of your best-selling stewed dishes and a pot of Shaodaozi—I want good ones, because this isn't my first time here."

Judging from their attire, they were not ordinary people. The waiter immediately nodded and agreed, then trotted to the backyard to greet them.

Song Shen listened carefully for a while and said to Zhang Wei:

"From the noise, there aren't many people here right now, right? Business isn't very good here?"

Zhang Wei was pouring tea for himself, and said as he poured the tea:

"It's not that business is bad. This place is next to the military camp, so how can there be no business? It's just that drinking is not allowed in the military camp. Some people will come to the store in disguise to inspect, and the soldiers who are greedy for alcohol dare not sit here to eat and drink. They can only buy and hide away."

Song Shen heard the waiter's footsteps trotting away and asked again:
"Did the waiter just now run to the kitchen to serve us food and wine? Their kitchen is next to the wine-making place?"

Why are you talking about brewing wine again? Didn’t I tell you not to talk about it outside?

Zhang Wei wished he could sew this ancestor's mouth shut, but he couldn't do anything about Song Shen.

"No, no, no, stop talking about brewing! Keep your voice down!"

After another warning, Zhang Wei lowered his voice and replied:

"Of course. Each shop has only one backyard. Where else can they be if they are not together? But I guess most likely one is in the yard and the other is in the kitchen. They are both clean anyway, so don't worry."

Song Shen kept his mouth shut, but he had almost vented all the anger in his heart.

Are you still relieved?
A workshop that brews and sells its own wine, with strong liquor and an open fire kitchen in the backyard, you would be foolish to believe that you can be assured.

If there is a spark from the kitchen, the house will burn down faster than the cook can run.

These days, is there really no sense of safety at all?

He secretly took this matter into consideration and decided that if he could get in touch with the shopkeeper later, he would find an opportunity to talk about it.

…………

Zhu Yuanzhang originally came out of the palace in a carriage, and there were several people from the Yiluansi following him on horseback.

But he soon discovered that Song Shen was going to the vicinity of the three major camps by carriage. He was already a little slow, and if he rode even slower, everyone would probably have left by the time he arrived at the three major camps.

So Zhu Yuanzhang unreasonably stole a horse from the Yiluansi and took a shortcut to the three camps.

Riding a horse was indeed much faster. When he arrived near the place where Shaodaozi was sold, he saw Song Shen and Zhang Wei eating and drinking at the door.

Zhu Yuanzhang dismounted from his horse and was helped by someone beside him. He turned his head and saw that it was Jiang Huan who had just gone to the palace to report the matter.

"Not bad, you can actually keep up with our horse."

He praised, dusted off the dust on his body, and asked:

"We remember that this Shaodaozi is a royal property. Do you know the owner?"

The Yiluansi was the emperor's face, the emperor's ears and the emperor's sword. At the same time, they were also responsible for a lot of messy things that could not be seen in the light.

Including supervision of royal properties.

The so-called imperial merchants were actually the emperor's secret treasury. It was true that Zhu Yuanzhang himself hated merchants, but he did not hate money. Therefore, in and outside Yingtian Prefecture, he would arrange for his people to get involved in all industries related to food, clothing, housing and transportation. However, it was naturally impossible for all the people in these industries to have seen the emperor.

When there are more people, there are more hands. Even if it is the emperor's purse, there will always be dishonest people who want to get some money. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Yiluansi to help keep a closer eye on it.

Jiang Li cupped his hands and whispered:
"Yes, the boss asked his subordinates to introduce many people to him before he went to farm. Among them was the owner of this Shaodao shop."

"Do you want to..."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand:

"It's enough to know him. We can talk about the rest after we go in. If Song Shen needs anything, just show up."

As he said this, he strode into the shop.

The footsteps were heavy and regular. Song Shen, who had just started eating braised food, moved his ears when he heard them.

Song Shen fumbled and patted Zhang Wei who was stuffing food into his mouth with his mouth open:

"Brother Congming, I heard Chen Guorui's footsteps."

Zhang Wei:

"Ah? Cough cough cough!!!"

He almost choked to death on the chopsticks of braised food.

How come Your Majesty is here so soon? !
(End of this chapter)