North and South groceries

At this moment in Changle County, Wu You, Wu Gao and others have arrived in the county following the team of tea merchants.

Tian Chonghu still stayed in Liangzhou. Luo Yong wrote to him earlier, asking him to wait for him in Liangzhou City first, and let him follow him back to Chang'an City after staying for a while.

Luo Yong is still busy with the water canal, while his disciples are preparing for the opening of the new Nanbei Grocery Store.

Luo Yong had chosen the address of the shop for them early in the morning. In a residential area near the main street in the city, he used a few shops along the street to build a house, exchanged land with several families, and knocked down the houses to flatten the vegetable field. , built a big house on it.

Considering that Changle County is mainly used by caravans, most of the people who come here to buy goods are wholesalers, so this shop is very large and spacious everywhere. There is also a large open space around the shop, which is convenient for customers. They are used to park camels, horses and vehicles.

This shop is also in the form of a courtyard, with a pavement in the front and a living area and warehouse in the back. The pavement in the front has two floors, while the other places have only one floor.

When building this new store, Erniang lent them a lot of money so that it could use the most advanced reinforced concrete technology.In the front shop, the floor between the wholesale shopping area on the first floor and the food and leisure area on the second floor is a reinforced concrete floor.

To go to the snack food area upstairs, you don't need to go into the downstairs shop, you can go up directly from the few stairs outside.

Most of the houses in Changle County have only one floor. Standing on the second floor of this shop, you can have a panoramic view of the surrounding residential area and the streets not far away.

These things are basically done by Luo Yong's disciples. Luo Yong seldom intervenes. He has been quite busy recently because of the canal.

In the storybook of "Xue Ling Canal", this canal was dug out by the claws of snow spirit beasts, but in the real world, people have to spend countless money, effort, blood, sweat and lives for such a canal .

At the beginning of spring, there were rocks rolling down the slope, injuring several civilian workers at the construction site. The injured had been transported to the city for treatment. Fortunately, everyone escaped in time and no one died.

After this incident, no one dared to take it lightly. Later, the weather got warmer, and when the spring plowing season came, many people from farming households went home to farm. Luo Yong recruited a lot of people from surrounding towns to supplement them.

There were some thorns among these newcomers, and they made a lot of noise.

The young man named Xia Yan who followed Du Gou from Laizhou to Changle earlier has been helping Du Gou to repair the canal for more than half a year. Almost got into a fight with Xia Yan and the others.

After Luo Yong heard about this incident, he arranged for Bai Qi and others to go there. It took a lot of effort to bring the progress of the project back on track.

A few days later, Luo Yong talked about the matter with Tang Jian, but Tang Jian said: "This little thing can make you a headache, why not the Chang'an County Magistrate?"

"Then how can I give up." Luo Yong said with a smile.

Luo Yong's current Changle county magistrate's rank is from the seventh rank, while the Chang'an county magistrate's rank is the upper sixth rank. At this moment, he has crossed: the lower rank of the seventh rank, the upper rank of the seventh rank, the lower rank of the sixth rank, From the sixth grade, four ranks, it means that he has been promoted to five ranks in a row, and he is still a Beijing official.

For a poor boy from a humble background, this is not an opportunity that is often available. According to the news from Chang'an City, the emperor seems to be planning to take Luo Yong back to those nobles this time?

But according to what Tang Jian said, the emperor's old son is about to start making plans for his son.

The new prince is still young, but the old emperor's body is getting worse year by year. The gentry are powerful, court Chinese and martial arts, and there are many old ministers and ministers. Not to mention the new prince, sometimes even the emperor himself feels strenuous.

Under such circumstances, the emperor wanted to entrust his eldest grandson Wuji to his orphan, but he was also worried that his elder grandson would hold great power arbitrarily and arbitrarily in the future, so that his son would have no real power.

So he let Luo Yong go back this time, not only to give Luo Yong a chance to be promoted to the court, but also to check and balance.Although Luo Yong has a tough temper, no matter how he looks at it, he doesn't look like a person with evil intentions. His young son has a good temper, so he should be able to tolerate Luo Yong.

Luo Yong came to Tang Jian whenever he was free, just to listen to him talk more about the Chang'an City.

Speaking of which, the 54 squares in Chang'an City are really under the jurisdiction of the Chang'an county magistrate, only the 54 squares on the west side of Zhuque Street, and the [-] squares on the east side are under the jurisdiction of Wannian County.

When Luo Yong was working as a teaching assistant in Chang'an City earlier, most of the places where he lived and walked on weekdays were in the west of Chang'an City, that is, in the jurisdiction of Chang'an County.

Wannian County in the east is mainly the living area of ​​the rich. Ordinary people seldom go there when they have nothing to do. Even Dongshi over there, not many people go there. High, ordinary people can't afford it.

The county magistrates of these two counties also have two completely different working statuses. The county magistrate of Chang’an can’t wait to be busy, but the magistrate of Wannian county is very leisurely. reason.

However, according to Tang Jian, the county magistrate of Wannian County is usually held by some seniors with high morals and high prestige. Ordinary people cannot be appointed, and generally young people who want to be promoted will not go to that position. After all, they can't do much. Achievements come.

If you want to be promoted, you still have to be the county magistrate of Chang'an, but this position has deceived countless people throughout the ages. Many people in this position, not only failed to get promoted, but instead gained a reputation of being incompetent.

Just like their Luo family, they cheated two Chang'an county magistrates one after another. With such a black history, Luo used this time to go back to be the Chang'an county magistrate. Someone sympathized with him.

But even so, Luo Yong never had the idea of ​​retreating. The so-called seeking wealth and wealth, since he has already entered the officialdom, there is no reason not to go to the top.

The higher the status, the greater the energy, and the more things he can do.

After leaving Changle Academy, Luo Yong went to the medical center. Most of the people who were injured in the accident earlier had recovered and returned home. Only two people are still living in the medical center.

Both of them came from farmers in Changle County. One had a leg bone broken by a stone, and the other was swept by a broken log, and his flesh was scraped off.

When Luo Yong passed by, the two were sitting on the side of the street in front of the medical center to enjoy the shade, and a few workers from the city came to chat with them.

A few people were talking, and when they saw Luo Yong coming, they quickly greeted him, and now everyone in the city knew that their county magistrate Luo would soon be transferred away, and they were going back to Chang'an City to be the county magistrate. Although it is reluctance to give up, it is also honorable.

Luo Yong saw dried beans with rice wine on a bearded stool among them, and said, "The dried beans are hair, the wounded should eat less."

"It's just greedy, I can't stay idle." One of the injured said with a smile and a little embarrassment.Regarding dietary taboos, the medical officers in the medical center also gave advice on weekdays. They were greedy today and secretly ate some, but they were caught by the county magistrate.

"Is your appetite okay?" Luo asked with a smile.As long as you have a good appetite and can eat, there is generally no serious problem.

"It's fine." The two of them live in this hospital to recuperate from their injuries, and they eat with the people in this hospital. Besides, there are a few pennies for nutrition every day. They will spend today It was rice wine and dried tofu bought with this money.

"Don't eat too much wine."

"Hey."

"Can the county magistrate sit down for a while?"

"Don't sit down, I'll go to the new shop to have a look."

"The county magistrate is fine."

"it is good."

After Luo Yong left, these people sat down and continued talking.

"Magistrate Luo often comes here?"

"I have to come here every now and then."

"He's also very busy. He usually just comes over to take a look and then leaves soon."

"Earlier, the medical center here was short of some medicinal materials. The county magistrate Luo entrusted the people from Zhao's business to buy them from Liangzhou City."

"Tsk, the price must not be cheap."

"The price is very expensive, and ordinary people can't afford it."

"I heard from the medical officer here that when the Luo county magistrate first took office a few years ago, there were not a few medicinal materials in the medical center, and they were bought one after another over the years."

"Don't talk about anything else these years, just to buy these medicinal materials, I don't know how much money I put in."

"..."

When it comes to the situation when Luo Yong first took office, these people are also full of embarrassment.

As they were talking, an officer who followed Luo Yong just now turned back and brought two paper bags, and shared one bag with the two wounded, saying that the county magistrate asked him to bring it.

"What is this?" It smells very sweet.

"Tao is a cricket, but a kind of pastry. It will be sold at North and South Grocery later. I will try to make a batch today." The guard said.

cricket?The name of this cake is also weird.

Although they were a little confused, they didn't ask any further questions. After the guard left, they opened the paper bag and took a closer look. They were cakes the size of copper coins, yellow and orange in color, and smelled very sweet. The people ate a few pieces, and then the two wounded put the things away and refused to share any more.

This bag of cakes was not too much, so the two of them kept them away, and occasionally they would take out a piece or two when they were hungry, and they were not willing to eat more.

After a few days like this, the wife of the young man whose skin was rotten by the broken wood came to visit him. The two of them were only in their 20s, but they had been married for seven or eight years, and they had two sons and a daughter.

This woman has a rather strong physique, because she has been working in the fields all year round, her whole body has been sunburned, if you look closely at her face and facial features, there is still a bit of beauty.

The two met in the medical hall, and her husband took out the bag of cakes to eat with her.

The woman liked this kind of cakes very much, and while refusing that she was in good health and didn't need to eat these, she couldn't help but took one piece after another from the paper bag.

"You just eat, my body is almost healed, I can eat and drink in this hospital, I don't miss these few cakes." The wounded man sat aside and watched her eat with a smile.

The woman saw that her husband was in good health, and she was very happy. The pastry in her mouth was also very sweet. This was the most delicious pastry she had ever eaten in her life.

That night, in a small village not far from Changle County, the mother and son were secretly eating alone in the house.

"Mother! Why do you have cakes?" The three or four-year-old girl was sleepy and staring, when her brother pushed her awake and told her to eat cakes, thinking she was dreaming. Look, there really are cakes!But the little girl was so happy!

"Hush!" The woman motioned her to whisper: "Your Aye told me to bring it back for you, you guys just eat it quietly, don't go out and talk too much."

"Hmm!" She didn't talk too much, the last time my aunt secretly boiled eggs for my sister, but she didn't give them to eat.

This bag of cakes was not very much originally, their Aye ate some in the city these few days, and their mother also ate some today, and brought them back at this time, and then divided them into the hands of the three children, each of them was only a few block only.

The children were just like the little mouse, holding the pastry in their hands, nibbling bite by bite, giggling from time to time, looking very happy.

"Aniang, what kind of cake is this? It's delicious!"

"You Aye said that this cake seems to be called a cricket."

"Crickets?"

"Mother, this cricket is delicious!"