North and South groceries

The little lady Huang looked at Luo Yong with a smile, but said in her mouth, "I want to eat beans too."

Luo Yong thought for a while, took out a few beans from his arms, and put them in the little girl's fleshy hands: "I'll give you the rest of these beans, but after you put them away, there will be no more."

Miss Huang happily put those open-mouthed smiles into her arms, and went to look for her mother.

After all, these children in their county yamen are considered to be from official families. They usually dress cleanly and are quite polite. Although there are times when they are mischievous, they are still somewhat gentler than the children on the street outside.

Yeniangs of each family also taught them in private not to let them make mistakes in front of Luo Yong, so these children would politely call the county magistrate when they saw Luo Yong, and the older children would bow to him.

Just this little lady Huang, who is still young and a girl, her mother is in the room all day long urging her eldest son to study, she doesn't care much about this little one, but the concubine room of Huang Xiancheng takes more care of her .

It is also a crime to say that the concubine of the Huang County Prime Minister is only 16 years old this year. I heard that she was sold to the Huang family by Ye Niang when she was less than ten years old. She has been with Mrs. Huang for four or five years. Well, the Huang family didn't do too badly, so they gave her a title anyway.

In the Huang family, apart from a rough servant and a servant who stays with Huang Xiancheng all day long, the rest is the lowest status of the concubine, who has to work all day, and Mrs. Huang often loses her temper with her .

That Mrs. Huang has a bad temper, and she was going to blow it up every now and then. Once Luo Yong passed by his yard, he suddenly heard a bang, followed by a burst of hysterical cursing, which shocked Luo Yong. .

Luo Yong couldn't hear this, he was sold to the mountains when he was a child, and the couple who bought him used to yell like this all day long, and now he still feels a little anxious when he hears this kind of voice.

After returning to the front yard, Luo Yong sent someone to call Huang Xiancheng over, saying that it was not suitable for his family to live in the county government office, and he would find a yard in the city and move out.

How can Huang Xiancheng want to, his family is now living in the county government office, and his wife, children, concubines and servants all eat big pot meals, and he doesn't know how much money he can save all year round. Once he moves out, he and his servants can still live together. Eating in the yamen, other people don't have the face to come over and eat.

Besides, the county government office is very safe, and he doesn't need to worry about the safety of his wife and children when he goes out with his servants on weekdays.

Huang Xiancheng repeatedly assured Luo Yong that he would definitely restrain his wife and children in the future, and would not let them disturb the county magistrate. Luo Yong saw that he was good at handling official duties and was a hardworking person, so he did not insist. Let their family move out to live.

And Huang Xiancheng did what he said, and he did control his wife. As for how to control it, there is a saying in the yamen that after Huang Xiancheng returned to his house from Luo Yong, he treated her well. His wife said that if she continues to make trouble like this, she will be sent back to her hometown.

Since then, Mrs. Huang has stopped making trouble. I don't know if she is afraid or disappointed.

The concubine still works diligently every day.

Women in this era are probably like this.

For Erniang and the others, Luo Yong didn't know what was the best way to treat them. If they were married, they would inevitably be bound by many restrictions. If they were not married, they would inevitably be treated as a different kind.

According to Luo Yong, if there is a suitable candidate, recruiting a wife should be a relatively good way out.

But no one can say anything about feelings. If they meet someone they like, whether it’s marriage or recruiting a son-in-law, as long as they are willing, if they don’t meet someone they like, there is no need to force it. Luo Yong will definitely not urge marriage .

Correspondingly, they shouldn't even think about urging Luo Yong's marriage the other way around, and everyone shouldn't urge the other, and each of them will fight their own bachelors, which is not very good.

After eating, Luo Yong went to the bacon workshop. The weather has been cool recently, and the bacon workshop in Changle County has already started work. However, mutton is expensive now, and the main thing is to smoke some pork.

It is said that the bacon in Changle County has been sold at a [-]% discount since the last time the price was reduced, and the price has never increased again, and Luo Yong has no plan to increase it again.

No matter how good this bacon is, it is also a kind of bacon. There is no shortage of bacon in the surrounding areas of Changle County. If it is sold at a high price, the sales volume will definitely not increase, so the price should be set lower, with small profits. Although the income may not be much higher than before, at least it can provide a few more jobs for the local people.

In fact, if bacon like this can be obtained in Chang'an City, the price must be much higher than theirs in Changle County, and the sales volume is not to worry about.

It's a pity that the journey is really too far, thousands of miles away, at least three or four months, and the manpower and material resources are added, it's not worth it.

"Is the county magistrate going to the bacon workshop?" On the deserted beach a little in front of the workshop area, there were a few people in the city who were tending the vegetable fields.

This barren beach was not suitable for farming originally, it was full of big rocks and small rocks, but since their county town rebuilt the wall to enclose this land in the city, many nearby residents came here to start farming. On the ground, first clean up the stones, and then pick some soil from other places to spread it.

In just half a year, this barren beach has been reclaimed into large and small vegetable fields. Except for some large rocks that cannot be moved, other large and small stones have been cleared out and piled up. Large and small piles of stones, and some people carried stones from here to repair the courtyard wall.

"Exactly." Luo Yong asked a person on the side of the road who was watering the radish field, "Is your reed growing well?"

"Not very good, the soil layer is too thin. In two days, I have to go to the city to push a few carts of soil back to cover it." The man smiled at Luo Yong, and replied a little shyly.

"It doesn't matter if it grows smaller. It will be harvested before winter, cut into finger-thin reed strips, dried and fried with bacon. The taste is the best." Luo Yong said.

"..." The man didn't seem to know how to answer, but he still smiled at Luo Yong.

Luo Yong didn't care, he waved his hand, let them just do their own work, and then went to the bacon workshop.

On the way to the bacon workshop, he had to pass the cashmere workshop. Luo Yong came and went there, but rarely went in. The main reason was that there were so many young ladies in the cashmere workshop. What's wrong, it's bad for their reputation.

"Why is the county magistrate here?" Seeing Luo Lai, the steward of the bacon workshop rushed out to greet him.

"I'm free today, so I'll come over and have a look." Luo Yong walked in, looked around, and asked, "Did you collect the meat today?"

"Two pigs were collected today, and they were all slaughtered. The pork is being marinated at the moment, and the water has not been cleaned up. After it is cleaned up, I will send some to the county government." The steward replied.

"Thanks for your hard work." Luo Yong said, "This year you will hire more people here, and I plan to make more bacon."

"Compared to last year, how much more?" The steward asked.

"Twice as much." Luo Yong said.

"Here." The steward agreed.

"Have you cleaned out all the bacon rooms?" Luo Yong asked again.

"It's being cleaned for the past two days."

"What about the smoked ingredients?"

"It's all ready."

"You show me something."

"County magistrate this way."

"..."

This year they will not build the city wall in Changle County. Luo Yong has no money or food in hand, and he does not plan to do any large-scale projects.

After the autumn harvest, each household has finished paying this year's taxes, and in recent days, farmers have come to the city one after another to find work.

The tofu workshop now has stable employment and basically no longer accepts people. These people now mainly go to the cement workshop, but the cement business is not as good as it was when Luo Yong first came to Changle County more than a year ago. .

If things go on like this, as more and more farmers go to the cities to work, it is estimated that some people will soon be unable to find work.

After leaving the bacon workshop, Luo Yong went to the needle workshop again, and stayed there for an afternoon...

Two days later, the government took office.

Rao Weng and the others finished harvesting the grain in the field and paying the rent for this year. They had some free time in the past two days. They were planning whether to go to the city to stay up for the night and buy some wine tails to sell. The servants in the mansion came again.

When the tenant farmers saw these men in official clothes riding over from a distance, they felt a little uneasy, worrying that there was something wrong with this year's land lease.

Rao Weng couldn't figure out what these people were doing here at this time, so he went up to ask.

"The county magistrate said that the work of grinding needles should be distributed to all villages and towns, and the villages are going to go to the city to collect them in the past two days. If you are here, call Rao Weng to come over. If Rao Weng is not free, call your family. Dalang go." One of the guards said.

"This..." Hearing this, Rao Weng didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

It would be a good thing for them to earn some money at home in winter, but what if the government forcibly assigns them a task and asks each of them how many needles they have to grind every day, then...

"The county magistrate said, if anyone here wants to do this job, Rao Weng, you will go to the city to get it in two days. If no one is willing to do it, then you don't have to go. The road is difficult in winter, and the government will give you some Some subsidies." Another guard said again.

"How much can I give?" Rao Weng's daughter-in-law asked in a low voice.

"It's about one penny for every ten pennies you pay for the goods." The guard replied.

"Then I will go to the city tomorrow?" Hearing what they said, Weng Rao felt relieved.

Their county magistrate Luo was not an arrogant and unreasonable person at all, but he wanted to go wrong just now.In fact, it is also because they have seen so many such things that now that there is any movement from the government, they subconsciously want to be wary and resist.

"For the next three to five days, you can go at any time." The guards took the words with them and hurried to leave.

However, a few villagers who responded quickly brought hot water from the house at this time. The guards each took a bowl, gulped down a few gulps, rode on their horses, and quickly walked away.

Although the population of Changle County is small, the place is not small, and the distance between villages is quite far. In late autumn, the weather is getting cooler every day, and it is not comfortable to ride a horse in the wild.

They had notified the news early so that they could go back to the city early. Doing something in the city is better than doing something outside here, even if it is squatting in the vegetable shop to dry winter melons.

This time before they went out, the county government appointed the people in charge of this matter in each village. If there were villages with Lizheng, they would let Lizheng come over, and if there were no Lizheng villages, let them come over.

Because many villages are quite far away from each other, County Magistrate Luo discussed with Old County Magistrate Tan and others that if only Ge Lizheng was allowed to go to the county to pick up work and go back, many villagers might have to travel a long way. To go to Li Zheng's house to pick up the goods and deliver the goods, the county government should be more assertive and directly select all the candidates. If anyone has an opinion, let them come to the county to speak up.

When the few of them discussed this matter, it happened to be lunch time in the county government office, so it wasn't a secret, so they didn't avoid people.

Among these servants, some of them just ate a public meal in the spring of last year. Hearing how they discussed and thought about everything for the farmers, I also found it a bit incredible. Is this what these officials are like in the first place?Why did they have such a bad impression of being an official?

On the side of Zhitian, these tenants became happy after the servants left. In the past, the work of grinding needles was only distributed in the county town, and no one was allowed to take them out of the city. Now the people here If you can also take this job and do it at home, then this winter, you can earn some money just by sitting in the house and grinding needles every day.

That Rao Weng's daughter-in-law also had a happy face. In the past, her family, A Weng, and her man had always stood up for the affairs of their tenants. There was nothing good to say, and they were often worried. She was not without it. complain.

The hard work fee of one penny for every ten cents is not too much, but for people like them, it is not too little. The main thing is that they are not far from the county town, even if it is colder in winter, they can go back and forth. It's not too hard either.

Those villages that live far away have to work harder, but some villages have more registered households under their management, and they must earn more. The same is true for Muromasa Rimasa himself, who arranges for the younger sons of the family to come forward.

"Ah Weng, look..." After the family returned to the courtyard, Rao Weng's daughter-in-law brought out a bowl of hot water for the old man with a smile on her face. She had already begun to calculate how much income their family could make this winter. Yes, I'm really happy.

"The county magistrate is thoughtful." Rao Weng said at this time.

"Why did Ah Weng say that?" the daughter-in-law asked him.

"The county magistrate's statement is that the government will pay the hard-earned money of the villages, so they don't want them to collect money from the farmers." Her husband said.

"..." Rao Weng's daughter-in-law was startled, but she hadn't thought of this.