back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 489 Laba Season
The fine snow is falling, and the inside and outside of Chang'an City are decorated with silver.

Walking on the bluestone slab after snow, there is some slippery feeling.Under Gao Hao's umbrella, Lu Chengqi was wearing a huge cloak, strolling comfortably while admiring the strong atmosphere of the New Year.

Dashun's new year begins in the twelfth lunar month.As Gao Hao said, the street market is full of people selling New Year's goods.Such as the New Calendar, Tao Fu, Zhong Kui, Suan Ni, Tiger Head, Jincai Lianhua, Chuntie Bansheng, Xida Chunfan Sheng, Pepsi Jihuer and so on.

This "New Calendar" is the calendar for the new year, "Peach Fu" is the Spring Festival couplets, and "Zhong Kui, Suan Ni, and Tiger Head" are all New Year pictures.As for the "Golden Wisp Flowers, Spring Tie Ban Sheng" and "Xida Chun Ban Sheng, Bai Shi Ji Hu Er" are the mascots posted and hung during the Chinese New Year, which are no different from those of later generations.It's just that it looks quite old-fashioned now.

Lu Chengqi looked at it with great interest, and suddenly caught a glimpse of a pharmacy, it seemed that every customer who went in to get medicine, the pharmacy would send a small cloth bag.Lu Chengqi laughed dumbly and said, "Why, there are buy one get one free?"

Gao Hao was taken aback, and said, "My lord, what is buy one get one free?"

"It's not easy to understand. Just buy a pear and get another pear as a gift. Look at that pharmacy, isn't it like this?" Lu Chengqi pointed out, and another customer just happened to come out of the pharmacy, smiling all over his face.

Gao Hao finally understood what Lu Chengqi was referring to, and explained in a low voice: "My lord, that's not the case. It's almost Chinese New Year, and these shops will send some New Year's goods to regular customers. This is especially true for drugstores. Those cloth bags are called 'Tusu bag', the cloth bag contains the medicinal materials for brewing Tusu wine. I am not familiar with rhubarb, Atractylodes macrocephala, Guizhi, Fangfeng, Zanthoxylum bungeanum, Aconitum, aconite, etc. After the Tusu bag is made, use five-color Tie the thread into ribbons of "Four Goldfish Concentric Knots" and "Bai Shi Ji Knots", and give them to regular customers, or send them to your door. It is said that hanging the Tusu bag on the forehead can ward off evil spirits. Don't say that medicine shops are like this, it is The grocery store will also send some door gods, peach charms, and greeting cards for the Spring Festival, and the paper horse shop will print some New Year pictures such as Zhong Kui, Caima, and Huihuima, etc., as gifts to customers..."

Lu Chengqi suddenly realized it, and sighed: "Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. There is also a lot of knowledge in the market."

Gao Hao thought he had violated the little emperor's taboo, so he shrank his head in fright.As the saying goes, companionship with a king is like companionship with a tiger, and Gao Hao began to feel it as he became more knowledgeable.Fortunately, Lu Chengqi didn't blame him, but lamented that even though he had more than a thousand years of knowledge, if he didn't understand the worldly ways of today, he would still hit a wall.

A group of more than [-] people walked on the main street of Chang'an City, followed the flow of people, and unknowingly came to the front of Dazhuangyan Temple.Seeing the crowded crowds, Lu Chengqi couldn't help being very surprised: "Is today a temple fair? I remember, it's not the first and fifteenth day of the lunar new year, but the eighth of every month?"

Gao Hao was unresponsive, and before he could speak, the imperial guard behind him hurriedly said: "My lord, tomorrow is the Laba Festival..."

Lu Chengqi was taken aback, and said, "What does the Laba Festival have to do with the temple fair?"

Gao Hao originally wanted to explain, but suddenly thought of the words that a companion is like a tiger, so he stopped his mouth wisely.I just heard the imperial guard continue to say: "Young Master, the Laba Festival is here, and every household must cook Laba porridge. To cook Laba porridge, walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmons and other ingredients must be used. Don't say that the Dazhuangyan Temple will Laba porridge will be given away tomorrow, and every household in Chang’an City will also cook, and ingredients are essential, so a temple fair will be held today for pilgrims to buy ingredients.”

Lu Chengqi also knew that Buddhism in Dashun was very prosperous, and there was no restraint in preaching.Since Tianzhu preached to the Central Plains, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism were gradually mixed together.Dazhuangyan Temple is the largest temple in Chang'an City, so it is natural to win over pilgrims.Not only will Laba porridge be given to benefactors who come to worship Buddha on the day of Laba Festival, but also tiger head pills, Bashen, Tusu, etc. will be put into small cloth bags to make "cured medicine" and given to benefactors together.No way, temples rely on pilgrims to eat, and the amount of sesame oil added depends on the number of worshipers.Such ingenuity is the same as attracting customers.

What Lu Chengqi felt was that the folk customs at this time were simple and honest, not only various shops would give gifts, but even neighbors would also give gifts to each other.It's fun, a harmonious society.Of course, this is just the overall situation in Chang'an City, whether it is the case in other state capitals cannot be generalized.

The first snow in Chang'an City was very heavy.According to the old man, Chang'an City has never seen such heavy snowfall.Xu Chongguang, the chief assistant of the cabinet, also gave a memorial, saying that the imperial court should take into account the difficulties of the poor and distribute "snow money" to the poor in the north of Chang'an City.In fact, it is equivalent to a kind of relief money, Lu Chengqi stamped his own seal without saying a word, and agreed to implement it.Of course, as for the candidates for distribution, it will fall on the Supervision Department.

At that time, the wealthy households in Chang'an City would visit the lonely and difficult families along the door. At night, they would insert broken gold and silver into the cracks of the door to commemorate their suffering.Or send confidantes to chisel one or half taels out of silver, wrap them in paper, and pick them out of the windows or door cracks of poor houses in the middle of the night, and send them to Jiren.The recipients got up the next morning, and the exhibitors received it as if it had fallen from the sky, thinking that it was a sudden manifestation of God, but they didn't know which kind-hearted person actually sent the mercy.

When Lu Chengqi heard about this, he was a little silent.He has always thought that the landlord class is hindering the development of productive forces, and now he has to clarify his thoughts carefully.Are all landlord classes bad, and should they be completely banned?

That's why Lu Chengqi suddenly wanted to visit privately in micro-services on a "whim", but he just couldn't make up his mind.Dashun's business, under his single-handed promotion, has a very gratifying momentum of development.But this level of development has not yet touched the roots of the landlord class.After all, on the land of the Central Plains, landlords have existed for thousands of years.Even after the development of commerce, the number of landlords increased.Many businessmen have made money, and the first reaction is not to expand the scale of the industry, but to buy and enclose land.

Lu Chengqi had carefully read the investigation reports submitted by the supervisory departments of various states, and his heart was filled with a sense of powerlessness.

The Chinese are afraid of suffering, no matter how much money and silver there is, how can a thousand taels of gold or ten thousand taels of silver be worth a bucket of rice during a famine!Where does rice come from?From the land.Although the land of the Central Plains is prosperous and prosperous, there are floods, droughts, locust plagues... there will be several times in every dynasty.A lesson from the past is a guide for the future.The more frequent natural disasters, the more people like to enclose land and hoard food.How else could the landlord's family have no surplus food during the famine?

Just when Lu Chengqi was bored, he suddenly heard a sound of playfulness coming from the front, he frowned and said, "Go and see what happened!"

(End of this chapter)