Hearing that it was the benefactor who had collected grain and rice from her family a few days ago, Xie Da's daughter-in-law hurriedly knelt down to pay her respects.
Seeing that my daughter was still stupidly chasing the escaped rabbit, I cursed a few times, poured out a few ladles of glutinous rice, and filled it with a carefully polished gourd.
The woman asked them cautiously what their purpose was and said that Xie Da had gone out to get some wine and would not be back for a while.
Li Chongrun whispered a few questions to Rui'er in a low voice and asked her to help ask. Unexpectedly, the woman actually understood.
It turns out that this woman used to do business with merchants from all over the country when she was working in a wine shop by the Guan River, and she learned Mandarin as she went back and forth.
Once the language is spoken, communication will become smoother.
Li Chongrun asked nothing more than a few questions. One was whether the money for sesame oil loaned out from the temple was given in kind, money, or cloth.
Xie Da's family makes a living by making wine, so the loan from the temple is naturally rice.
However, when repaying the loan, the temple only accepted actual copper coins.
When the grain was produced, the price of grain was very low. However, when spring came after the New Year and the harvest was slow, the grain loaned out was priced at 8 or even 10 cents per bucket. Over time, the difference was four or five times.
More than anything.
So although the interest rate is not high, the price difference between the entry and the exit is huge.
Li Chongrun's second question was whether Zhuangzi had been doing some small crafts recently, and he was living such a hard life.
The eldest daughter-in-law Xie counted on her fingers for a long time and found that there were not many people in Zhuangzi. There were only a few dozen households, and half of them relied on small crafts to make a living. Life was indeed not as easy as before.
Some of them were even forced by the temple to take over their fields, and their people were trafficked to Renyazi and sold to others as slaves.
Li Chongrun's last question was whether any monks were building temples nearby recently.
The woman couldn't answer this question. She just said that there was only one blind Taoist temple nearby. Although the old Taoist couldn't see, his medical skills and fortune telling were quite effective. But I heard that he had an argument with some monks some time ago.
After a few words, he died like this.
Thanks to everyone, only women and children were at home. It was really inconvenient for Li Chongrun and the others to stay for a long time, so they prepared to get up and go home.
Xie Daqu just came back. When he saw Li Chongrun's figure, he recognized him as the good man who had collected his grain and rice a few days ago. He kept shouting something, and hurriedly knelt down on the ground, holding the bag in his hand.
Things were spilled all over the floor.
After being helped up by Wei Anshi, Xie poured down all the bowls of glutinous rice while cursing.
Li Chongrun just took a few sips of the glutinous rice wine. It was mixed with some icing sugar and dried osmanthus, and it tasted very good. Seeing him throw it away like this, he felt a little regretful.
Xie Da very carefully took out a wine jar and took out a few rough porcelain cups. Although they were a bit crude, they were wrapped tightly with several layers of red gauze and looked like they were cherished.
A ladle of hot water was poured out from the brewer's house. Xie Da carefully heated the wine, knelt on the ground and respectfully handed a cup to Li Chongrun with both hands, and toasted another cup to Governor Wei.
Li Chongrun felt that it was strange. Xie Da's posture looked like he was worshiping God.
However, the fragrance emanating from the contents in the cup made Li Chongrun's eyes light up.
The aroma of the wine has some fragrance of bamboo and a long aftertaste of osmanthus.
I took a careful sip and found that the taste was very long, but the taste was a little weak and it was not satisfying to drink.
Seeing that Li Chongrun liked it, Xie Da hurriedly pushed the wine jar into Li Chongrun's arms. Li Chongrun really liked the drink, so he asked Gongsun Lan to take it.
But of course you can't drink wine for free. Ruiniang was in the painting boat business before, so she naturally knew the price of the things in this cup. However, the couple refused to accept the money and could only go to the side of the girl who finally caught the rabbit.
Reese goes.
The girl didn't understand the official language they were talking about. Seeing that the chubby nobleman dressed as a lady stuffed so much money into her arms, she thought she was going to buy her own rabbit, so she dumbly held the rabbit's ears and handed it over.
After being polite for a long time, everyone walked out of the door amidst the praises of thanks for their kindness, returned to the entrance of the village, picked up the young monk Jianzhen, and the group went back to Yangzhou.
On the way, Li Chongrun kept looking back in the direction of Xiejia Village, his eyes wandering here and there. Gongsun Lan and Li Chongrun had been together for a long time, and knew that he was interested.
"What do you mean, Your Majesty?"
"I was thinking, we were just planning to open a semi-colon. We didn't even choose this shop, so we just spent all the money. If Wang Rong knew about it, I'm afraid he would cry."
Perhaps when he thought of Wang Rong, who usually looked like a little adult, with the word "cry" written all over his baby face, even the usually serious Gongsun Lan couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"You can't talk about people during the day, and you can't talk about ghosts at night." Li Chongrun smiled a little and touched his nose. "Don't really read him."
Returning to Her Royal Highness the Princess's villa, Li Chongrun ordered the palace officials to shave the heads of several children according to the original standards, and then bathed them carefully.
The clothes were originally covered with lice, so they were simply thrown into the fire and burned.
But this time, Li Chongrun took Gongsun Lan and Wu Qi with him for the ideological work.
After all, more and more people may be needed in the future, and Li Chongrun can't do everything by himself, as that will tire him out.
It's just that the direction of Gongsun Lan's efforts seems to be a little skewed. Several children were stunned by Gongsun Lan's deception, and their heads seemed a little square when they came out.
When he looks at others, he can't hide the murderous look in his eyes, as if everyone is the murderer of his father.
In addition to the future great monk Jianzhen, there is also the current little monk Jianzhen.
Ah Huang, who has been renamed Chunyu Jianzhen, still has clear eyes and is still pure, just like the little dog in his arms.
The thin dog he called his sister was still hanging around, but after all, he had been in contact with it for a long time, and the eyes he looked at Li Chongrun were not as wary as before.
Several palace servants who had followed Li Chongrun for many years were responsible for the education of several young men. However, although the eyes of the young monk Jianzhen were still clear and pure, Li Chongrun still felt uneasy.
So Li Chongrun took Jianzhen with him to educate him himself.
I was busy negotiating with the families of those dandies, and got some promises I couldn't see in person, and I also got a few shops.
Several dandies were released one after another from the underground secret room, except for the young man with a broken leg.
The other party has been strangely silent since he accepted the things that Li Chongrun returned. Li Chongrun knew that he had the chips in his hand, so he was not in a hurry, so he just let them hang out.
Every night, Li Chongrun had to settle accounts and summarize the information he had visited over the past few days. Without a computer, these trivial tasks were very time-consuming. Although Wu Qi and the others helped, they still had to work until late every day.
Gongsun Lan has noticed that his young prince fell asleep several times while taking his midnight snacks.
Li Chongrun, the little monk Jianzhen's education, was not left behind. He drove in a donkey cart every day. The large lacquered ceiling in the small carriage was very suitable for use as a blackboard. Li Chongrun used chalk to write and draw on it for Jianzhen to see.
.
After a few days, Jianzhen already recognized a lot of words, and was able to handle simple conversations in Mandarin. Li Chongrun no longer had to instruct Gongsun Lan to do many tasks of serving tea and pouring water, but left it to Jianzhen.
The information has been compiled almost, and Li Chongrun has roughly concluded that various temples should have collected a large amount of copper coins through sesame oil money. However, there have been no new temples built recently, and Governor Wei may not have issued excessive ultimatums for a long time. These people
What did the monk want with so much money? Could it be that he buried it?
There is a temple not far from the Guan River. It is not big. Several monks received this distinguished guest from the divine capital with smiles.
There is a small pagoda in the temple with seven floors. It has yellow walls, black tiles, and some copper bells hanging on the eaves and brackets. When the breeze blows, it makes many soft sounds like Sanskrit sounds.
In the name of worshiping Buddha, Li Chongrun looked around this small temple inside and out, but could not see anything strange.
Several Buddha statues in the temple seem to be old and have many cracks. Although they have been repaired many times, the golden bodies have long been dilapidated and look very pitiful.
Several of the monks were a bit old and very thin. What they said were all vague Buddhist maxims, and the smiles on their faces were mysterious and mysterious.
However, Li Chongrun felt a vague sense of danger, as if those kind-hearted monks were standing on a high cliff, coldly looking down at himself as he was sinking into the abyss.
After coming out of the temple, the cold sweat on his forehead was warmed by the midday sun, and Li Chongrun felt vaguely that he felt more alive.
The last note with the name of the person I visited was from a not too remote village in the east of Yangzhou City. The village was at the foot of a somewhat short mountain. The name of the mountain was Fangniu Mountain, so the village was called Fangniu Camp.
Since the distance was not far, Li Chongrun put his visit to last.
But when he got a little closer to the cattle camp, Li Chongrun felt vaguely that the atmosphere was a little strange.
Jianzhen's eyes were not as clear as before, and the peaceful and tranquil smile on his face was no longer there.
Even the thin dog named sister seemed to be in some kind of danger. She lay low with her limbs curled up under her body. A few sharp teeth protruded from under her lips, and she whined in her throat.