Thirty taels of silver for a glass of wine, this wine is quite valuable, but what Zhao Fuxiang values ​​​​is not the wine. He smiled as he watched Mother Wu stand up and pour herself a glass of wine, and when she was not paying attention, she hugged her in.

In her arms, Mother Wu suppressed her nausea and said with a smile: "Master Zhao, I can drink with you, but I won't spend the night with you!"

Zhao Fuxiang laughed: "Mother Wu, let me tell you the truth, Master Zhao, I have fallen in love with you, you can tell me a price, Master Zhao, I am ready to redeem you and become a good man!"

Mother Wu was stunned when she heard what Zhao Fuxiang said. She had been working in the industry for more than ten years, and she had never seen a benefactor who was obsessed with him and wanted to redeem him. But this was the first time for a nouveau riche like Zhao Fuxiang to be so ugly and unaware of it.

See.

When Zhao Fuxiang saw that Wu's mother was silent, he thought she had agreed. He was happy at the same time and at the same time, his subordinates began to be dishonest. His fat hands touched Mother Wu so hard that she got goosebumps all over her body. She quickly pushed Zhao Fuxiang's hand away and said with a smile: "Master Zhao is joking.

The slave family is already free, but they cannot afford to be redeemed by Master Zhao! What’s more, the slave family is like Pu Liu, who is qualified to serve Master Zhao!"

Zhao Fuxiang smiled slightly and asked: "Mother Wu, you are also a smart person. You should know that you can't do this kind of business for a lifetime. The right way is to find someone to rely on while you are still good! Mr. Zhao, although I am not a scholar, I am good at it.

If you are a highly educated person and rich in wealth, it is not an exaggeration to marry you as a concubine!"

Mother Wu was stunned for a while after hearing what Zhao Fuxiang said, and then she started laughing. Of course, she was not laughing happily after hearing that Zhao Fuxiang wanted to take her as a concubine, but she was laughing at Zhao Fuxiang for overestimating his ability and wanting to eat swan meat.

Zhao Fuxiang felt a little unhappy when he saw Mother Wu laughing so much. He frowned and asked, "Mother Wu, why am I not worthy?"

Mother Wu stopped laughing after a while, then looked at Zhao Fuxiang with a smile and said: "Master Zhao is certainly qualified, but the Nu family made a poisonous oath when they left Nandu. If a man wants to take the Nu family as a concubine, he must

Take out ten thousand taels of silver! I wonder if Mr. Zhao has so much silver?"

Li Zhengdao heard Wu's mother speak loudly, and was about to speak angrily, but Zhao Fuxiang grabbed Li Zhengdao and smiled: "Isn't it just ten thousand taels of silver? It's simple! But Mother Wu has to promise me, and she must keep it when the money is all together."

oath!"

Ten thousand taels of silver is not a small amount. The taxes paid by Qiongzhou Prefecture in the summer and autumn of a year are only 50,000 taels of silver. Mother Wu did not expect that Zhao Fuxiang agreed lightly, but Mother Wu did not take it seriously. She thought it was just Zhao Fuxiang deliberately bragging in order to find someone under the stairs.

That's all.

"Please rest assured, Master Zhao. As long as Master Zhao prepares ten thousand taels of silver, I will immediately take off my red clothes and send myself to Master Zhao's bed!"

"Okay, if it can be as late as a year or as early as half a year, I can raise enough money!"

After Zhao Fuxiang finished speaking, he drank all the wine in his hand. Mother Wu did not expect that Zhao Fuxiang would really agree, but it was probably because he was just shitting hard, and he probably ran back to the countryside immediately after leaving. Mother Wu also drank a gulp of the wine in her glass.

After drinking it all, he reached an agreement with Zhao Fuxiang.

Seeing Wu's mother go out, Li Zhengdao said anxiously: "Brother, are you crazy? Ten thousand taels of silver! How are you going to prepare?"

Zhao Fuxiang stretched out his chopsticks to take a bite of the food and ate it, then smiled and said: "Don't worry, brother has a plan in mind!"

Mother Wu went out and returned to her house. She was seduced by Zhao Fuxiang just now and remembered the past. Mother Wu's maiden name was Qi. Her father was originally a magistrate of Nanchang Prefecture in Jiangxi Province. During Wei Zhongxian's reign, he offended the eunuchs and was beaten to death.

After rebelling against the party, he and his eldest son were beheaded and abandoned the market, his mother hanged herself, and her only brother was exiled three thousand miles to the northwest because he was underage. There is no news whether he is dead or alive.

Mother Wu was sold to the Nanjing Jiaofang Division as an official prostitute at the age of eight. Because of her beauty, she was picked by Wu Lizhen, the foreman of the Wu Family Class of the Jiaofang Division, and became Wu Lizhen's goddaughter. The Wu Family Class of the Jiaofang Division trained

Many famous prostitutes, including Kou Baimen in the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, came from the Wu family class.

However, Wu’s mother did not have the same luck as Kou Baimen. Wu Lizhen originally had great feelings for Wu’s mother, but Wu’s mother grew taller and taller. By the time she reached adulthood at the age of 16, she had grown to 1.7 meters. The average height of men in the Ming Dynasty was only 1.6 meters.

At around five years old, Mother Wu's height would not make her a top official prostitute. Therefore, Mother Wu's business as an adult was tepid. She was far from the beautiful scenery of Qinhuai on the Qinhuai River. She could only become an ordinary boat girl on the Qinhuai River.

.

The Qinhuai River in Nanjing is a romantic and gentle town, and many scholars go to Nanzhili every year to take the exam. Although Mother Wu was born in a humble background, she is a young and beautiful girl after all. In a place like Confucius Temple and Qinhuai River where literary style flourishes, Mother Wu also met herself

of the right person.

This person was Song Zhengyu, one of Yunjian's three sons. However, at that time, Song Zhengyu was passionately in love with Liu Ru, the concubine of the prime minister, and Wu's mother was just in love with her secretly.

This relationship ended in vain because of a secret love. After all, Mother Wu was just one of the thousands of ordinary official prostitutes on the Qinhuai River. How could a talented man like Song Zhengyu fall in love with her? So when she was twenty years old, Mother Wu saved enough money for herself.

I redeemed my life. I left Nanjing and came to Qiongzhou sadly, hoping to forget the relationship back then.

Back in her room, Mother Wu took out a piece of yellowed rice paper from the closet, with a poem "Die Lian Hua" written on it, written by none other than Song Zhengyu.

Mother Wu gently stroked the rice paper and recited: "The treasure pillow is light and the autumn dream is thin. The red moths are gathered together, and the golden bird hangs upside down. The new clothes are discarded, and I still look for the old spring clothes. But it is

Heartbroken flowers never fall. People are miserable and sad, and the face in the mirror is not the same as before. I once mistakenly made a date with a young girl, but I am thinking about it today in the frosty night! Mr. Song, how are you now? Do you remember that I begged you to write this poem on the Qinhuai River?

Boat girl?"

Zhao Fuxiang didn't know about the sad past of Mother Wu. He and Li Zhengdao were drinking and sleeping with prostitutes. They lived so happily that they completely forgot about their parents, wife and children.

If Zhao Fuxiang returns to Baishamen at this time, he will find that the place has changed. A large open space has been opened in front of the simple Zhao Mansion, and hundreds of acres of woods have been cut down. Zhao Heng is leading a group of strong men at this time.

He was chopping wood in full swing, cutting down the suitable wood, sawing it into sections and stacking them in one place.

In the first month of the year in Hainan, the daytime temperature was only around ten degrees Celsius, but Zhao Heng was shirtless and steaming all over. The intense labor of the past few days made him feel like he was back to the time of physical training at the police academy.

It was already noon. Zhao Heng stopped the ax in his hand and looked at the sun, and then said to the strong men: "It's noon, let's eat first, and the rest of us will work in the afternoon!"

Adhering to the spirit of humanitarianism, Zhao Zhikuan is far better than the evil-minded Zhao Fuxiang. Zhao Zhikuan stipulates that these strong men should be given three meals a day, dry rice in the morning and noon, and each person will be provided with a salted fish at noon. To the migrant workers

Having a full meal was originally a very common treatment in later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Zhikuan earned the title of Zhao Dashanren.

Although three meals a day consumes a lot of food, having enough food gives the strong men greater enthusiasm for work. At the same time, Zhao Zhikuan also hired the old and weak in the village to cook at the price of two taels of sea salt per person per day.

More than half of the more than 100 villagers in Baisha Village are working for the Zhao family.

The man who led the young men to work was a fisherman in his thirties. He was the fisherman Lao Liu who was caught by Zhao Heng a few days ago. He was the son of the village elder Xu Tou, and his name was Xu Liu.

At this time, Xu Liu no longer resented Zhao Heng. Zhao Heng was kind to them and had no airs at all. At the same time, the most important thing was that the Zhao family allowed them to have enough to eat. You must know that the working people of the middle and lower classes in ancient China were very difficult.

Unfortunately, throughout the year, only during the busy farming season can one eat a dry meal a day. This is still the treatment of laborers. As for the old and weak, it is good if they can only drink two bowls of gruel a day.

Haidian Island is an island formed by the alluvial erosion of the Nandu River over millions of years. The soil on the island is very fertile, but all the cultivated land on the island is military settlement. Shangbaisha Village is all military households attached to Zhang Qianhu, which actually belongs to the Zhang family.

Tenants, so even if the island's food production is good, they can't have enough food throughout the year.

The Zhao family hired them to work, and not only provided them with food, but also provided them with three meals a day, two of which were dry rice. This kind act really made these simple military households feel a little guilty.

When Xu Liu heard Zhao Heng telling him to go back to eat, he stood up and wiped the sweat from his head, and said with a smile: "Master, we are fine. Let's go back to eat after we finish!"

These strong men have been working since six o'clock in the morning, and it is already twelve o'clock at noon. They have not stopped to rest for six hours. Zhao Heng said with a smile: "Brother Xu, the body is the capital of the revolution. Only when you have a good rest can you be full."

Work better! Everyone, please stop and eat first and then come back and continue working!"

Xu Liu didn't understand what revolution meant, but he still understood what Zhao Heng said. Xu Liu smiled and told the other strong men to take a rest and prepare to go back for dinner.

Now the Zhao family courtyard has changed. With the help of manpower, Zhao Zhikuan built a shed in the courtyard and also made some seats and benches.

When Zhao Heng returned home and put the ax in his hand aside, he saw his grandfather Zhao Zhikuan looking at the drawings in his hand in a daze on the table.

Zhao Heng walked up to it and took a look. It turned out to be a drawing of a brick kiln. Zhao Zhikuan drew a structural diagram of a brick kiln according to the one in his notebook. Although there were various data, the structural diagram of the brick kiln in this manual was very simple.

, Zhao Zhikuan, a layman, couldn’t understand it after reading it for a long time.

"Grandpa, why is this brick kiln so difficult? Didn't my dad say to invite the brick kiln master to come? Can't we just let the master take a look at it then?"

Seeing his grandson come back, Zhao Zhikuan relaxed his frown and said: "The manual says that this kind of brick kiln is called a wheel kiln. It saves fuel and has a large output. But the drawing is too simple and I really can't understand it. It seems that I can only send it by mail."

I hope your dad can hire a brick kiln master!"

Zhao Zhikuan looked at the strong men who had returned and asked: "How is it? How is the level of the field?"

Zhao Heng picked up the teapot and poured a large bowl of tea into a large porcelain bowl, and then drank it all in one gulp. The well water was drinkable after being filtered through the filter bucket, but it still had a slightly strange smell that could not be suppressed without adding tea leaves.

Live the smell of water.
Chapter completed!