Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

Of course Zhang Xin didn't know that her father-in-law and mother-in-law had a fight and then made up because of her.

She didn't even know that her mother-in-law had given her help and cleared the way for the female doctor, allowing Yao Niang to become half a member of the palace and saving her from a series of boiling frogs in warm water later on.

She put aside the matter of treating her mother-in-law and called Zhao over to start counting her shop items one by one.

"Teahouses and restaurants are nothing special. The city is quite peaceful right now. There are more merchants coming from the South, and fewer people from Jinling."

"Tell the waiter to keep an eye on what the people from Jinling say."

"Okay. Yao Niang's clinic has also lost some income because it is not open every day."

"If Yao Niang's eldest sister can handle it, then let her take charge. When the dog days of summer arrive, Yao Niang must come to the mansion every day."

"Yes, the second sister is also okay, the two of you can take turns. The grain and tea shop is the same as before, and the merchant caravan should be halfway."

"Well, the same old saying, keep it within the range, not too big, not too small."

Zhao finished talking about all the small matters and only made a summary report in the end. Zhang Xin also told Zhao what she needed him to do later, and finally the income from the shop in the past six months came.

"Is it still five stone of grain for two hundred catties of salt? What about tea?"

Zhang Xin glanced at the total income in Zhao's account book, which was less than four digits.

Not long after my grandfather founded the dynasty, the imperial court began to recruit merchants to transport grain in exchange for salt permits because border areas such as Shanxi were in urgent need of military grain. The merchants used the permits to transport and sell salt in designated areas, which was called Kaizhong.

By the fourth year of Hongwu, this had become a regular rule, called the "Zhongyan Law", which stipulated that five stone of grain could be exchanged for two hundred kilograms of salt permits from the imperial court.

Later, the Nachao Salt Law, the Nama Salt Law, the Natie Salt Law, the Nano Tea Law, and the Tea-for-Horse Law were successively implemented.

This is what she is doing now in her grain and tea shop.

Several shops joined together to organize a caravan to transport grain, tea and some sundries to the border areas.

Grain and tea were exchanged for salt permits.

The sundries were sold locally, and some things that were not available in Yan were brought back.

The scale of the whole thing is not too big. It is so inconspicuous and unpopular, but it is still very stable in Yan area.

Every shop makes money, but not much.

"Yes, we are familiar with each other, so we won't be shortchanged. The same goes for tea. There has been a lot of rain in the past two years, so the tea produced in the tea garden has decreased by 10%."

Zhao used to be a person who only stayed around the house, but she has changed a lot in this year. She speaks crisply and clearly, and is also in high spirits.

"I won't touch the food for now. As for the tea, I have some other ideas."

Zhang Xin said this, motioning to roll up her sleeves.

"It smells so good, like the scent of osmanthus flowers. Is it the osmanthus flowers I gave to my sister last time? Is this jasmine?"

What was presented with rolled-up sleeves were obviously tea cans. Zhao opened one of them and saw dots of dried flowers in the tea leaves and smelled the fragrant scent of osmanthus.

I rolled up my sleeves and opened the other one, and the two scents mixed together, filling the room with a sweet and greasy smell.

"Well, this is the scented tea I made that imitates the scented tea made by the Song Dynasty. I've written down how to make it. You can take it back and ask the tea-making master in the tea shop to see if it can be made and how to make it better. If it works, you can use the empty shop in the east of the city to open a scented tea shop."

"Yes, I'll ask you when I leave the house. Is it because you want to make this tea that you grow jasmine and osmanthus?"

Several plots of land in the woods that Zhang Xin included in her dowry were planted with various fragrant flowers. Zhao thought they were used for offerings in the mansion, but she didn't expect that they were actually used to make tea.

"Well, I've read The Classic of Tea before, and I think scented tea is elegant. I didn't have the conditions before, but now I have them, so I'll make them myself. When other flowers bloom, you can ask the masters to pick them and try. The more varieties, the better. Give them nice names. If they sell well, you can buy more land to plant flowers."

"Yes."

Zhao agreed cheerfully and talked about some trivial matters before leaving the house.

After Zhao left, Zhang Xin crossed out the line about tea in his schedule, scooped a spoonful of tea leaves and brewed it.

The fragrance of flowers soon filled the whole room. Zhang Xin blew away the hot air and took a sip. The faint aroma of tea and the lingering fragrance of flowers lingered between her lips and tongue.

According to Zhang Xin, the floral scent is still a little too strong, overpowering the tea scent.

There is a lot of room for improvement in the recipe.

This time, Zhang Xin made the scented tea following the methods of people in the Song Dynasty.

If you mix dried flowers with tea leaves and leave them there for a long enough time, the fragrance of the flowers will be absorbed by the tea leaves, and the fragrance of the flowers will be strong without losing the flavor of tea.

Officials in the early Yuan Dynasty who could afford to drink tea were not interested in the elegant and refined style of the Song Dynasty people.

Ordinary people who can't afford tea just want to make a living.

The choice of scented tea had been relegated to the sidelines in the previous dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty, it had basically been discontinued.

After my royal grandfather founded the dynasty, we fought wars for so many years and people's livelihood was in decline. The first twenty years were spent restoring people's livelihood. It was only in the past one or two years that people began to pay more attention to food and clothing.

Zhang Xin wanted to seize this opportunity to occupy the market of scented tea.

Although it is said that because my royal grandfather hated businessmen who only sought huge profits and did not work for the country or their families, he always implemented a policy of suppressing business.

But businessmen are the best at surviving in desperate situations. By the time of Zhanji's generation, commercial taxes had already become very considerable.

The commercial tax is one-thirty.

There shall be no tax on items used by military and civilians for weddings, funerals, and sacrifices, as well as boats, carriages, silk, and cloth.

The imperial court also stipulated that merchants should not be exploited when "hiring" or "purchasing" together.

No matter how many social etiquettes are involved, the general direction is still very friendly to small businessmen like them.

The ones who really make money are still big businessmen.

If you want to be prepared for the deduction of your father-in-law's annual salary, and support the expenses of the entire palace and your father-in-law's army, you must be a big merchant.

So the problem arises: the big businessman Zhang Xin can't do it, and dares not do it.

The Prince of Yan’s Mansion will be in trouble if it is accused of competing with the people for profits.

So she wanted to set up a unique business in advance that could cooperate with other princes.

There is little that can be done about food, and it is easy to arouse taboos, so Zhang Xin can only start with tea.

In my previous life, after my father-in-law came to power, from the Yongle Dynasty to the Xuande Period, scented tea was popular in the two capitals for several decades.

The most famous tea is jasmine tea, followed by osmanthus tea. Their main features are their pleasant fragrance and low price.

The dried floral tea she made was the original version of the scented floral tea that King Ning had come up with in his previous life after being cheated by his father-in-law and had to cultivate his mind and character in a remote village.

King Ning even wrote "The Classic of Tea" specifically for this purpose.

Zhang Xin felt that her father-in-law had cheated her, and if she took away her achievements from her previous life, then the palace would be really unfair to her.

So, this time, she kept a trick up her sleeve and only imitated the Song Dynasty method of making tea, intending to use this to lure King Ning into doing it together.

It can be regarded as a way to establish good relations in advance, and it can also be regarded as bringing people on board the ship of Prince Yan's Mansion.

I just don’t know whether King Ning will accept the challenge.

[Small science: He-Ji means the government offers to hire people. He-Mai means the government buys goods from the people.]