Great Tang Southern Emperor

"Indeed." Wang Tingchu recalled it, and indeed found this incident in his memory. When Li Zhen first came here, in order to buy people's hearts, he did hold a free clinic, but the free clinic did not last long at that time, because it was very Soon Linyi called, and the imperial doctor followed Li Zhen on the expedition, so the free clinic stopped.

"It turned out to be the reason." Li Shimin understood: "So, those shops bearing the name of His Royal Highness are all beneficiaries of that free clinic?"

"How can there be so many?" Qi Wujin laughed: "Among all the people, only Lao Wu was the beneficiary of that free clinic, and the rest of the people sincerely thanked His Royal Highness. In fact, it is not only them, but also the whole Yuezhou , Almost every house has a portrait of His Highness the Crown Prince hanging, even the villain’s house, but it’s just not hanging out, kowtow three times in the morning and evening every day, burn incense in the morning and evening, keep burning incense, and pray for His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Chapter 883 The Sky of Lingnan

Chapter 243 The Heaven of Lingnan

"Did His Royal Highness miss anything?" Li Shimin was a little apprehensive. His son was so popular here. Wan Jia Sheng Buddha, this is not as simple as a word. Throughout the ages, Wan Jia Sheng Buddha, how many more?

Qi Wujin stared: "How is it possible? Who is the prince? He is the future Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He is an immortal from the sky. How could he make a mistake?"

Li Shimin said in disbelief, "That's not necessarily true. Even if the prince descended from a god, he is still a mortal body and eats whole grains. How can he not make mistakes?"

"Anyway, we didn't see it." Qi Wujin's face was ugly: "Master, you are a high-ranking official and know more truths than us, but the villain still has something to persuade you. You can say this elsewhere. It’s okay to say it, don’t say it in Yuezhou, or someone will trouble you sooner or later. We people are dead, and we die, but you are delicate and expensive, in case something goes wrong ...It's not worth exchanging your precious body for a life like ours."

"Is it so serious?" Li Shimin asked noncommittally. In his opinion, Qi Wujin was Li Zhen's fan. How could the matter be so serious?

Qi Wujin said seriously: "Of course, if you don't believe me, look around, how many people are friendly to you?"

"Hey... what's going on here?" Li Shimin looked around as he said, and was shocked. He saw that the diners who were eating lively all around were looking at him with unkind eyes. The people who were thankful to him also put down their spoons, and some of them even clenched their fists. It seemed that if he talked nonsense, they would rush up and attack him.

"I don't know everyone, it's my nonsense that disturbed everyone's pleasure. I have invited you today. I'm really sorry. Let's continue." Li Shimin was startled, and quickly gave an apologetic smile, then turned around and asked Said: "What's going on here? Why do they look like I owe them 1 taels of silver?"

"These are all people who have been favored by His Highness the Crown Prince, and His Highness the Crown Prince is their benefactor. If you question their benefactor here, it's no wonder they aren't angry." Qi Wujin rolled his eyes before continuing to whisper: "To put it bluntly, in Yuezhou, His Highness the Crown Prince is the sky. A word from His Highness the Crown Prince is more effective than the emperor's imperial decree."

"Bold." Wang Tingchu furiously said, "How dare you say that? This is disrespectful."

"I don't know what disrespect is. I only know who treats us well, who brings us a good life, who is our food and clothing parents, and who is our benefactor." Qi Wujin obviously didn't care about Wang Tingchu's reprimand : "The current emperor is indeed a good emperor, but the emperor is far away in Chang'an, hundreds of thousands of miles away from here. No matter how good he is, it's none of my business? But His Royal Highness is different. He just came to Lingnan and conquered Linyi , Battle Zhenla, destroy the queen, cut down the white head... The southern and northern wars brought countless Nanyang treasures to Lingnan.

At the same time, because of his pioneering war, he gave us more opportunities to make the lives of the people in Lingnan better and better. God, whoever dares to say a bad word about the prince will really be beaten to death.Some time ago, there were rumors in the downtown area that the prince had an accident at sea and would never come back. As a result, he was beaten to death by a few violent people. The government finally locked up those people. On the contrary, none of the beating people were arrested. penalty. "

"Master, do you know how the situation in Yuezhou will be in the future of His Royal Highness the Prince?"

"I... don't know." Of course Li Shimin knew about the situation before Yuezhou, but it was a secret of the Tang Dynasty. If he showed too much here, it would arouse people's suspicion.

"Let's put it this way, before His Royal Highness came to Yuezhou, although our Yuezhou was also known as Shangzhou, it only met the conditions in terms of population. In fact, the life of Baixing in the state is not good. It can't be said that the people are struggling. But it's not much better, at most there is only one bite to eat, and you can't even manage your fullness. As for other prefectures in Lingnan, they are far inferior to us, and there are even rumors of people starving to death... Sucking.... "

Qi Wujin took a sip of porridge and continued: "Don't talk about anything else, let's just talk about this old Wu. He lost everything to save his son, and he couldn't find a penny. He even borrowed a penny from his relatives and friends. , no one is willing to lend it to him at all, given his condition at the time, even if he received treatment from a famous doctor and received a life-saving prescription, his son would still be dead if he had no money to buy medicine.”

"Then why..." Li Shimin's heart skipped a beat, as if he understood something.

"What the master wants to ask is, where did Lao Wu get the life-saving money?" Without Li Shimin asking, Qi Wujin understood what Li Shimin wanted to ask.

"Exactly."

"It's because of this pier." Qi Wujin pointed to the still busy pier and said: "At that time, the Yuezhou port had not yet been built, and there was even only one pier that had taken shape, which was far less prosperous than it is now. But because Datang and Linyi During the war, a large amount of materials were transported from the Central Plains to Lingnan, requiring a lot of labor to unload the goods. During that time, Lao Wu made money by carrying bags for the army. Each bag cost two Wen. He had to carry more than 100 bags a day. His son's life continued. Later, when the Yuezhou port was completed and Luzon was discovered, more businessmen flooded into Yuezhou, which not only increased the prosperity of Yuezhou, but also brought countless opportunities. , Lao Wu also resumed his old business and set up a booth on the pier."

"But I still don't understand why a small stall can have a daily turnover of 250 Wen." Li Shimin asked in confusion: "This bowl of bean porridge is only two Wen. Could it be that he can receive [-] Wen a day?" A guest? He only has three pots, even if he cooks and sells them now, can he bring so much food?"

"It turns out that this is what you asked, master...but take a closer look, master. Is there only one bean porridge on Lao Wu's stove?" Qi Wujin pointed at the boss's stove: "There are three stoves in total. Do you think that all it sells is bean porridge?"

"Isn't it?" Li Shimin looked and saw that the boss had three stoves in total, each with a pot on it, the first pot was open, and there was bean porridge in it, while the remaining two were cooked. It was so tightly covered that even the top was pressed with stones, so it was hard to tell what it was.

It's just that Li Shimin saw the bean porridge written on the signboard, so he thought that the two pots were also bean porridge. Now it seems that there seems to be something tricky.

Chapter 884 I don't want to divide into chapters, just two in one

Chapter 244 I don’t want to divide into chapters, let’s just combine them into one

"Aren't they all bean porridge?" Li Shimin asked, but immediately confirmed his guess, it was indeed not bean porridge. Although the pot was tightly covered, there was still a faint smell of meat, and bean porridge was No need for meat.

"Of course not." Qi Wujin shook his head with a smile and said, "As you said, a bean porridge costs two cents. Even if Lao Wu is exhausted, he can't receive 250 guests a day."

"Then you mean..."

Qi Wujin didn't answer, but shouted to the boss: "Hehe...Old Wu, lift your treasure and let the master have a look."

"Hey! Master, please take a look." The boss did not refuse, and took off one of the pot lids, and suddenly a strong aroma came to his nostrils.

"Spicy braised pork." Li Shimin's nose twitched fiercely, and when he smelled the scent, he couldn't help but twitch his index finger: "Boss, you are not kind, you said you have braised pork, why should I eat it?" What about the bean porridge?"

"Master, you didn't ask, did you?" The boss said with a silly smile, "If you want, I will cut some for you."

"Cut two catties for me, and if there are cooking cakes, bring me some more."

I don't know how the boss did it. Li Shimin's smell became more and more fragrant, and even the saliva flowed out of his mouth. To be honest, although he is the emperor, the food bureau has also been reformed by Li Zhen. In addition to the taste, I pay more attention to the shape and color. After all, it is for the emperor and the nobles, so it must be more beautiful. In order to give consideration to both shape and color, the first two points must be sacrificed, so don’t look at the rice cooked by the imperial chef. Sai Yi is beautiful, but when it comes to delicious food, it may not be comparable to folk snacks.

The folk snacks may not look very good-looking in appearance, but the taste is absolutely unique, especially after Li Zhen spread the new culinary skills all over the world, the folk culinary skills have made a great leap forward, bringing the common people's tastes to life. The quality of life has been greatly improved.

"We don't have cooking cakes here, but Wang Er next door specializes in selling them. Master, please wait, and the villain will go over and get some for you." The boss was very happy. The braised pork finally opened, and he walked out of his stall.

After the boss left, Li Shimin asked, "Strange, since he has stewed pork, why did he write about bean porridge?"

"This... is actually not a big secret." Qi Wujin smiled mysteriously: "At the beginning, Lao Wu's main business was indeed bean porridge, but later he found that there were more and more foreign customers, and they sold them. They are all very generous. Bean porridge is easy to sell, but the price is not expensive. Later, I heard that stewed meat is easy to sell, and it costs more than ten yuan a catty, so I learned the method of stewed meat. Sell ​​braised pork."

Li Shimin became even more curious: "But since they sell braised pork, why don't you write the name of the dish?"

"It's not a secret, it's actually like this, because according to the port management regulations issued by the Shibo Department, in order to prevent everyone from selling the same vegetables and causing confusion in the market, the pier stipulates that each stall can only sell the same vegetable, not to mention With such a small stall, we can only sell one thing logically." The boss just bought the cakes for Li Shimin, and then said casually: "But later we found out that some things are very popular, but some things are very popular. The things are not recognized by the guests, which leads to some people making a lot of money, while others can barely make ends meet...so..."

"Oh... so your stewed meat is being sold secretly." Li Shimin finally understood, and said seriously: "This is illegal, aren't you afraid to investigate?"

"What law is it against? Everyone does it like this." The boss didn't care, and smiled slyly: "Besides, we pay a lot of taxes every day. The Secretary of the Municipal Bureau only collects taxes, and he doesn't care about what you sell. What are they all?"

"That's right." Qi Wujin next to him also chimed in: "And don't you think about it, sir. There are so many people coming and going in the whole pier, how can a booth be entertained? Let's take this stewed pork for example. If you follow the regulations , only Lao Batou's business in our entire pier is legal, but Lao Ba can only make less than a hundred catties of stewed meat in the first day, and it is often sold out in less than half an hour. The rest of the customers disembarked. I want to eat something good, but I can’t even eat braised pork. Is it strange to be in a good mood? Maybe you will have a bad feeling for Yuezhou, and you may never come again... This is not giving Are we discrediting Yuezhou?"

"..." Li Shimin smiled and said nothing. What Qi Wujin said earlier was very good, but what he said later was a bit nonsense. Businessmen value profits. Profit, they should jump and jump, let alone a small piece of stewed meat, there is no such thing on the pier, there are many in the city, how could it cause a bad impression?

"If you ask me, this management standard is not reasonable at all." Qi Wujin didn't know what Li Shimin was thinking, but continued: "This is probably the result of those officials and gentlemen above twitching their heads and patting their heads. decided to completely ignore the actual situation of the people. Of course, their intentions may be good, so as to maintain the harmony on the pier to the greatest extent. The problem is that they have not carefully investigated how saturated the market is. Can it really satisfy all the guests on the entire pier? Thinking about it is impossible."

"It makes sense, but why don't you respond to the above?" Li Shimin asked: "After all, this is a violation of the management system on the dock. Although you have formed a tacit understanding with the official, if the official really investigates it, Then you may be out of luck."

Although Li Shimin doesn't understand the following ways, but as a superior, he has experienced many ups and downs. Just by thinking about it, he can understand the way the subordinates act. No one will say no.

"We think, the problem is that there is no way out." The boss smiled wryly, "We are just a group of ordinary people with no power or background, how can we talk to those officials and gentlemen? Besides, there is no business, who wants to deal with them ? Anyway, we pay a lot of taxes every day, so they shouldn't bother us, right?"

"That's not necessarily the case. Money touches people's hearts. You make so much money a day, which is more than carrying bags. Do you think those gangster-like organizations will give up such a big piece of fat?" Li Shimin said in a deep voice. Before coming to the port, I made up for the situation of the port, so I naturally know that there are various forces in the port.

"No way?" The boss is a little unassuming, but he has already believed in eight points in his heart. He knows how bad those evil forces are. Knowing the reason, they didn't do anything yet, so they took a bit of luck.

But Li Shimin said firmly: "If you don't believe it, just wait and see. It won't be long before they will attack you."

At the very beginning, the forces on these docks were just for keeping warm and not being bullied or robbed of work, but as time went on, their nature changed, from self-protection to blackening slowly, although not As for robbing houses, they also form gangs, bully the weak and fear the strong, and become social scum who plunder the fruits of other people's labor, and moths among the common people.

You must know that there is a shortage of hard labor on the wharf at this time, which leads to high wages for carrying bags. A small bag of 150 catties starts at least [-] Wen, and a large bag of [-] catties is more expensive. It's no problem to carry fifty small bags, that's an income of [-] Wen.

But such a salary is supposed to be quite a lot, why should Qi Wujin envy the vendor owner?It was because the wharf gang he joined had to draw commissions, and the draws were very ruthless, as much as [-]%. That is to say, Qi Wujin earned two hundred coins a day, but he could only get one hundred coins. All will be taken away by the gang.