Zhao Defang's road to the virtuous king

Concubine Di smiled and nodded, Defang patted Weiling, Baili approached and said, "My lord, empress, little princess, someone from the restaurant has delivered food."

"Okay, bring the food and the wine."

"Yes, my lord." Baili ran to pick up Xiao Er who delivered the food, then warmed two pots of wine with hot water, and Xiao Er set up the food and said, "My lord, ma'am, this fish is freshly caught this morning. , the rice is cooked in high broth, it is very fragrant, you guys should try it."

"Well, the aroma of this food has already made my stomach growl. Listening to Xiaoer's words, my saliva is about to flow out, hehehe." Defang motioned to Baili, who took out three small pieces of silver and put them on the In the second hand, De Fang said, "Young Lao, the second brother, brought so many plates of food over here. Look, the soup is not spilled, the dishes are not in a mess, and they are all steaming. It's really hard work."

"It's not hard, it's not hard, thank you, master, thank you, master" Xiaoer happily held the broken silver and thanked him.

"Second Brother" Defang asked, "I heard that children were often used to repay debts in this area in the early years. I wonder if it still exists today?"

"There were indeed many early years. Three or forty years ago, that is, at the time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, there were not only Jinghu North Road, Jiangnan East and West Roads, Liangzhe Road, and Fujian Road. Well, it’s really disgusting. Of course, some parents not only sell their children to serve others as slaves for the sake of money, but also sign a life-long life-and-death contract, which is too cruel.” Xiaoer continued, “But our Great Song Dynasty Afterwards, such things became much rarer, and the government ruled the land very strictly, and I heard that the imperial court issued an edict last month, whoever used other people's children as debt repayment would be released, and those who dared to hide would be punished severely. For those who pay off debts, all children must be fourteen years old, and they must not work for more than three months. Anyone who violates the rules will be sentenced to jail. The imperial court also sent a supervisory censor to inspect various places, and His Majesty even ordered the eight sage kings to go south in disguise."

Defang looked at Concubine Di, and said, "Well, I don't know where the Eight Worthy Kings are now. I really want to meet the real person."

"What this master said is true, everyone wants to see him." Xiao Er bent over and whispered, "Our boss bought a mansion newspaper a few days ago, and heard that the Eight Sage Kings have been to Heitugang and Wabu. It should be on Jiangnan East Road."

"Dibao?" Defang asked, "Can this be bought?"

"Yes, sir, don't you know? The imperial court publishes the court report twice a month, and the officials in the capital will copy it and send it to their respective state capitals. Every time the official report is copied by someone, it will be passed through the merchants. To sell it in various places, the government usually only announces the major events in the court, and we ordinary people don't know about it. Since someone copied the Di Bao, we can know a lot not only about the big and small events in Beijing, but also in various places. "

"Oh? It sounds like it's convenient. Officials in Beijing usually only record certain things when they send out reports. If someone specially copied these and took them to the state capitals, wouldn't the officials in various places get more substantial news."

"Yeah, although merchants sell a lot of news about these copied mansion newspapers, it's just a little longer. After all, merchants are going around, and there are not many people selling them. The news about mansion newspapers that our boss bought was almost half a month ago. It's over." -----------