A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 23 Bull Price
Wang Dou and Han Zhong were driving the ox. They put the plow and hoe on the ox, drove the ox and rode back slowly.

On the way, Han Zhong mentioned the matter of the small school just now, and thought of the beauty, he couldn't help laughing. He had been outside the gate before, and when he was staring at the small school, a man in a hundred official uniform When he came out of the official hall, he couldn't help but point at the little school and swear at him, and finally slapped him hard. At that time, the little school turned green.

In addition, Han Zhong who was next to him kept watching his jokes, and the little school could be said to be ashamed and angry. Thinking of this, Han Zhong felt extremely happy in his heart.

Han Zhong asked Wang Dou, "Wangtou, you made those hundreds of households beat that guy. What kind of trick did you use to make those hundred households help you?"

Wang Dou scolded him with a smile: "You talk too much, hurry up."

Han Zhong cracked his mouth and started to giggle, Wang Dou smiled, this kind of thing is just a small episode, it is no longer worth his troubles, it is right to take the cattle and farm tools back and start the work of the fort as soon as possible.

The cow walked slowly, so the two had to ride slowly. It was almost evening before they reached the outside of Jingbian Pier.

At this time, the diwozi built by ten families outside Dunwai had already looked decent. Seeing Wang Dou coming back, Yang Tong, who was gesticulating non-stop, hurriedly greeted him. He drove the cattle back to the pier diligently, still saying that the king's head is powerful, and as soon as he got out, he got back a lot of things.

Wang Dou also breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that there were already nine cows in the pier, it would not be able to accommodate any more. It seemed that a cowpen had to be built outside.

When asked about Han Chao and Qi Tianliang, they have not returned yet.When Wang Dou and Han Zhong went to Shunxiang Fort this morning, they also went to Baoanzhou City. Before leaving, they picked a few young men from military households to go with them. To show loyalty, it is natural to go enthusiastically.

Presumably when the two came back, they would bring back some cattle and supplies. Before they came back, they happened to build a cattle pen outside. This task was naturally handed over to Yang Tong. For a while, Yang Tong ordered the military households Build cattle pens outside.

At noon three days later, after the simple bullpen was built, Han Chao and Qi Tianliang also returned from Zhoucheng.

In addition to bringing back a large amount of cattle, farm tools, rice and noodles, the two of them also had a large number of people traveling with them.When the two went to Zhoucheng that day, they only brought six young people with them, but when they came back now, there were more than twenty people.Look at these people, all of them are dressed in shabby clothes, men and women, old and young, or they are carrying their families, or carrying their own simple luggage, and some young and strong young people are helping to pick rice and drive cattle .

Judging from their appearance, they were actually a group of refugees.

Wang Dou was surprised and delighted, and asked about Han and Chao. It turned out that when they went to Baoanzhou City, besides buying all kinds of goods, they also randomly recruited five or six families of refugees from the city. Someone posted a notice in the state city, informing that Jingbian Fort needs to settle down.

Regrettably, there were many refugees in Baoanzhou City at that time. Many people were excited when they heard that they were recruiting people. However, when they heard that the village households were going to join the military households, most of them retreated.In the end, only these five families were willing to come.

But this was already a surprise, Wang Dou ordered the materials to be moved into the pier.

It seemed that there were quite a lot of things. In addition to ten cows and dozens of bags of rice noodles, various dustpans, shoulder poles, baskets, hoes, plowshares, plow stands, ox yokes, drying mats, etc. were piled all over the ground.Except for the cattle, which are stored in the cattle pen outside, the rest are piled into the warehouse inside the pier.

The new families of refugees stood aside anxiously, Wang Dou comforted them for a while, ordered two women to cook porridge for them, and then asked Yang Tong to instruct them to build a nest in the ten military households. On the opposite side, the two sides are facing each other, which is equivalent to leaving a street.

After drinking the sweet rice porridge, and immediately building a place for themselves to live in, these families of refugees felt at ease.The previous ten military households already regarded themselves as old people, and their testimony reassured the new residents.

Although it is hard to be a military household, it is better than starving to death. It seems that Mr. Wang seems to have a good heart, maybe he can live better here.

……

Wang Dou recruits Han Chao and Qi Tianliang into Dunnei and asks them the details of their trip.

Qi Tianliang took out a list with squiggly words written on it, detailing the items purchased, the unit price, how much money was spent, how much was left over, and so on.

Qi Tianliang said: "After the young ones went to Zhoucheng, they didn't care to rest, so they went to the rice store to buy cattle and rice. Finally, according to Wangtou's order, they bought ten strong cattle, ten stones of rice, and ten pairs of plows. I also bought a lot of baskets, hoes and other things for working.”

When he talked about what he saw and heard during this trip, he said bitterly: "I could have bought more, but the prices are so high, so I can only buy these."

Wang Dou looked at the list, while Qi Tianliang explained that the ten shi rice was bought at a rice store called Wanshenghe, and they had gone to several rice stores in the city, even if the price of this rice store was the most reasonable .But having said that, a bucket of rice costs five taels of silver, a stone of rice costs five taels of silver, and buying ten stones of rice costs 50 taels of silver.

Wang Dou frowned. When Ming Dynasty was rich, one tael of silver could buy two shi of rice. Even in normal years, a shi of rice usually only cost one tael of silver. Although the price of rice has dropped now, it is still so expensive that it costs five Two silver coins per stone is really outrageous.

There is also a cow, which the two bought at a cattle store called Yihechang. The Han and North Koreans have inquired everywhere, and the price of a big cow in the city is generally more than eight taels, and a calf is five taels. Buying one more cow and buying ten cows is considered a discount, and it also cost 80 taels of silver.

Wang Dou remembered that the price of a cow in the early Ming Dynasty was only three taels of silver, and the price of a cow in Wanli was only more than five taels, but now a big cow costs more than eight taels, and the price of cattle has risen so much.

Qi Tianliang continued to explain that after they bought cattle and rice, they went to a blacksmith shop to buy hoes, iron rakes, plowshares, plowwalls, etc.In addition, I went to the bamboo shop to buy dustpans, shoulder poles, baskets and other items, all of which were much more expensive than in previous years.

In addition to their food and expenses these days, when they came back, they had very little money left.

Qi Tianliang couldn't help yelling at the high prices of all kinds of goods, scolding those profiteers who took the opportunity to drive up prices. Even this year's charcoal is much more expensive than previous years. In the past, these charcoals only cost five renminbi.

Wang Dou was speechless for a while, thinking that more than 100 taels of silver would be gone, so he couldn't help but cursed bitterly: "These profiteers are stealing money."

When Qi Tianliang came back, he went to a woodware shop and bought a set of tables, chairs and stools for Wang Dou, which surprised Wang Dou.

But then Qi Tianliang talked about an interesting incident, which aroused Wang Dou's curiosity.

Qi Tianliang looked at Han Chao and laughed, and he said: "That day when I was buying rice in Wanshenghe, the shopkeeper of the rice store was a woman, and I heard she was a widow. I think she has a good impression of Brother Han. From time to time, she secretly looked at her and asked me about Brother Han's situation. I inquired about it. When she sold rice to us, the price of rice in the store was two cents cheaper than other rice stores. I think there is no lack of credit for Brother Han. Maybe in the future when we run out of rice in Dunnei, we can go to her store to buy some rice on credit."

He laughed loudly and said: "Or Brother Han just go out and use some handsome men to trick that female shopkeeper, so that he doesn't even need to pay the credit."

"Oh."

Wang Dou was also moved, he looked at Han Chao and said, "Old Han, this is also a method, it is worth trying."

Han Chao lost his composure a long time ago, his face blushed, and he just said: "Wangtou, you don't want to entertain the little ones."

Wang Dou sighed regretfully, Han Chao was unwilling to betray his appearance, so only his own pockets would be drained.

……

In the next few days, Wang Dou continued to recruit people while preparing materials.Perhaps Wang Dou's announcements in Dongjiazhuang, Shunxiangbao and Baoanzhou City worked. Within a few days, some refugees from military households came to Jingbiandun to ask to join.

As the number of households increased, Wang Dou felt the importance of scribes, so he went to Dongjiazhuang Castle again.

Two days later.

"Student Zhong Rong, I have met Master Zongqi."

In front of Wang Dou was a man wearing a green robe and collar as a petty official. This man was in his 40s, tall and thin, with a thin beard, and a malnourished greenish-yellow complexion. Tired, the robe on his body is also very old, with a few patches exposed.

He saluted and just stood there quietly. This man was the scribe Wang Dou had brought from Dongjiazhuang a few days ago, his name was Zhong Rong.There are three small officials in Dongjiazhuang, one is a secretary, and two are Zandian. Zhong Rong is one of the Zandian.

The officials of Ming Dynasty were divided into Zandian, Sili, Dianli, and Lingli, and Zandian was the last level of officials.In the Ming Dynasty, it was very difficult to promote officials. If everything goes well, you can be promoted to official after three years in Zandian, then you will be promoted to official after three years, and you will be the top official after another three years. Officials are still low-ranking officials.The difficulty of promotion for Ming officials can be seen.

Although the officials of the various forts of the Daming Guards are under the jurisdiction of the experience department of the Weisuo, their evaluation depends on the comments of the seal officials of each fort, which makes it more difficult for the officials to be promoted. Salary and rice were also paid by the forts, several buckets of rice per month, and they were often in arrears, so the officials of the guards in the late Ming Dynasty fled a lot.

This Zhong Rong also often lived a miserable life of full hunger, and he was quite excluded by the official Li Chao in the fort, so when the team officer Zhang Gui came to ask who would like to go to Jingbian Fort, Zhong Rong Rong volunteered to come.

After Zhong Rong saluted him, Wang Dou also sized him up and down. He saw that although he was describing a lost soul, his attitude was neither humble nor overbearing. In addition, he was also an official, who could write and calculate, and he was very happy in his heart. Keep his heart.

He stood up and smiled and said, "It's really a blessing to have Mr. Wang Dou's help. From now on, Mr. Wang will stay in Dunnei. From now on, I will pay the full amount of the monthly salary, and I will never deduct the arrears."

He told Yang Tong to find a room for Zhong Rong in Dunnei, let him sleep in the original Ma Ming couple's room, and prepare a set of tables and chairs for him.

Zhong Rong went down with Yang Tong, he had heard of Wang Dou's name, seeing that he was a martial artist but he also talked elegantly, he couldn't help but secretly surprised.

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Old White Bull:
One update today, three updates tomorrow.The time is 02:30 pm, [-]:[-] pm, and [-]:[-] pm. Thank you for your support.

(End of this chapter)