I played as an assistant in ancient times

When Shen Xiaoye slid off the mule with the help of her uncle, Xin Laojiu had already taken a few steps into the crowd that had just surrounded her.

He pulled out a young man and just said, "The people from Jiuli Village are here to collect the cloth."

"They're really here to collect the cloth!" The young man's voice was filled with surprise, and he rushed into the crowd and shouted twice: "The cloth collector is here."

After a moment, these thirty or forty people turned around and surrounded the nephew and uncle, "Xiao Ye, get on the horse." The two uncles immediately dropped the animals, pulled out the short sticks they brought and stood in front of them to defend themselves.

But Shen Xiaoye did not get on the horse. Instead, she stayed closely behind them. Even the little black cat flew from the basket to her shoulders, and they looked at the people who were surrounding them together.

"Don't push and scare people." Xin Laojiu squeezed to the front of the crowd from the back, pulled the young man and shouted a few times. The people in the front saw the Shen brothers holding short sticks, and turned around to stop the people behind them and told them not to gather around again.

The crowd slowly stopped when they were about ten steps away from them.

When Shen Xiaoye and the other two breathed a sigh of relief, they saw a tall middle-aged man walk out of the crowd. He came a few steps forward and clasped his fists towards them, "Two brothers, each of us has three or five rolls of wide-loom coarse and fine cloth. Would you like to take a look?"

"Uncle Xin, what's going on?" The situation was unclear, and Shen Xiaoye spoke before her two uncles. She emerged from behind the two men and saw a little girl among the group of people opposite her.

In order to facilitate dealing with women when buying and selling cloth, Shen Xiaoye has been wearing women's clothes recently.

The middle-aged man obediently made way, and Xin Laojiu pulled the young man over and said, "Let my cousin Qi Zhi speak."

His cousin Qi Zhi did not refuse, and also clasped his fists and said: "The people behind me are from the two villages of Nanchen and Beiqi. Last year, many families received cotton thread and cloth from the head of the neighboring Wanzhuang, but only half of them passed the customs this spring.

Originally, the remaining cloth was waiting to be collected by the cloth merchant in the provincial capital, but the cloth merchant sent a message asking us to wait a while. He only came now and even found fault with it, saying that he could not accept the collection in an flexible manner.

And I don't know what news his subordinates reported just now, but they actually left the cloth they sent me, saying that they had something urgent to do and would take it back another day."

The middle-aged man then said: "Now that he has left, I don't know when he will come back to collect the cloth. It just so happens that you are here to collect the cloth from Qi Zhi's family. Why don't you come to my house to see what everyone has?

Oh, yes, my name is Qi Cheng, and I’m the head of Qi Village.”

Facing everyone's expectant gazes, Shen Xiaoye looked at his two uncles and said, "How about we take a look?"

The two brothers Shen Changshou looked at each other, and the eldest uncle said, "Let's go visit Brother Xin's aunt first.

If his aunt agrees, we can have it checked at the old lady's place."

"My mother will definitely agree." Qi Zhi was the first to express his opinion.

Xin Laojiu poked him, and he immediately reacted and said to the head of the village, "Brother Cheng, please make way."

How could Qi Cheng not agree? He waved his hand and the people behind him made way for him.

Under everyone's gaze, Shen Xiaoye went to Xin Laojiu's aunt's house. Although she did not look around, the little black cat on her shoulder kept telling her in secret that she knew how many women were watching behind each door or wall.

After seeing that Aunt Xin Laojiu had bought all five rolls of fine cotton cloth from her family, Shen Xiaoye naturally asked about the villagers weaving cotton cloth for others.

Old Lady Xin was a kind person. When she mentioned this, she sighed, "It was all caused by greed. At the beginning, the daughter-in-law of the head of Wanzhuang came to me to ask me to weave fine white cotton cloth for her. She promised to give me one bushel of rice and one pound of cotton for each piece of cloth. I was very happy.

At the end of the year, seeing others with looms earning two or three stone of rice and one or two pieces of cloth, how could I sit still and do nothing? But what should I do if I don’t have a loom at home?

When some people were planning to buy a loom together, the Wan family's wife came again and said that she could rent the loom to everyone. If they didn't want to rent it, they could just weave a hundred pieces of cloth in exchange for a loom.

Just think about it, if you are fast, you can weave a piece of white cotton cloth in a day, so you signed a contract with someone.

At that time, I was also tempted, but my nephew Qi Cheng persuaded me that there are not so many bargains in the world, so I should wait and see. "

"Then the Wan family started to be picky when it came to collecting cloth?" Shen Xiaoye couldn't help but ask.

Old Lady Xin nodded and continued, "Not at the beginning, because when we changed the looms that year, the women worked very hard to weave cloth for the whole winter and spring, and everyone put a lot of effort into it.

But the next year, when he got a loom and took on cloth from tens of thousands of families, he only had a bushel of rice but not a pound of cotton. When the work was delivered, there were still problems of one kind or another, and finally he had to sell the remaining cloth at a low price.

I wanted to grow some cotton and weave cloth on my own, but I had signed a ten-year weaving contract, so I had to finish weaving other people's cloth first.

This would tie people to the Wan family's cotton fields. Weaving is equivalent to buying half of the cotton cloth from his thread. The profit from selling it is not much, but it can break even.

If we don't weave, we have to pay them money first. Alas, we ordinary people can't win the battle of wits.

But my nephew has also tried to find out who collected the cloth."

"Who?"

"Tongzhou Prefecture Derun Cloth Shop."

"Does the Wan family know them?"

"I don't know about that, but it was indeed the Wan family's wife who recommended that everyone sell the inferior cloth to Derun Cloth Shop. She said that the cloth she collected was also sold to this shop."

Shen Xiaoye knew that Wan Jiaying had made a profit. A loom was said to be worth five or six taels, but that was the retail price. Buying in bulk, three taels would be enough.

Not only did they sell the loom, they also received a lot of free cotton cloth.

She asked again: "Who is the head of Wanzhuangtou? Uncle Xin said he is a high-ranking official."

Old Lady Xin glanced out the window, drove her daughter-in-law and granddaughter out of the room, and whispered, "The officer of the Imperial Guards around the Emperor. Some say his surname is Wan, some say his surname is Lu, and some say his surname is Hu.

Little girl, my old man said that your uncle is a student, but I think it doesn’t count unless he passes the imperial examination and becomes a Jinshi.

You have to consider whether to accept the cloth from those people and how much to accept. "

Shen Xiaoye got off the kang, clasped his fists and bowed: "Thank you, old lady."

Then he added: “After paying the cotton thread deposit, they can have full control over the cloth they weave, right?

Can we borrow the deed from a neighbor and have a look at it?"

"The deposit is actually the money to buy cotton thread. Since Wanzhuangtou doesn't accept the cloth, naturally the cloth belongs to everyone.

As for the deed, we have to ask my nephew Cheng for help." As soon as Mrs. Xin finished speaking, many villagers came in with cloth in their arms. She got off the kang and said, "Come on, I'll check it with you."

"Well, thank you." Shen Xiaoye really felt that his uncle was very capable. He had won over Uncle Xin, and all his relatives were kind-hearted.

By the time they left the room, the yard was already full of people, all staring at the two uncles, hoping that they would accept the cloth.

Shen Xiaoye took a rough look and found that there were about 200 pieces of cloth. Fortunately, her grandmother gave her ten taels of silver when she set out, saying that it was for precaution. Otherwise, the silver she brought today would not be enough to buy these cloths.

When she saw Old Lady Xin talking to Head of the Village Qi, she approached Shen Changsui and said, "Uncle, do you want to take all or half? I think half is more appropriate.

It not only makes it easier for us to ship out the products quickly, but also helps us filter out the ones with poor quality.”

"I'll take it as you said." Shen Changsui just agreed and wanted to communicate with the head of the village Qi, but unexpectedly, a man ran out of the gate and said loudly: "Head, a group of horsemen came to the village and asked for you."

Another person ran up behind him and said, "Head, you, the village head and the cloth merchant have been tied up and brought into the village."

When Captain Qi led his men out of the door, Shen Xiaoye and his two uncles looked at each other: The head of Wanzhuangtou!