There is a dirt road outside Youlan Gate in Nancheng, Guangzhou, leading directly to the river. It originally had no name - the people in the city called it "Youlan Gate". When the Australians came to check the household registration and nailed the road signs, they named it according to its geographical location and common name.
, named "Youlankou Wai Street".
It is called a street, but it is just a wider dirt road. However, this place is not far from Baietan, and it is also located in a gathering place of merchants and restaurants outside Nancheng, Guangzhou. It has been a tourist place for small businessmen and merchants in Nancheng City many years ago.
Most of the shops in the area are engaged in the business of eating and playing. At a glance, restaurants are connected to restaurants, and teahouses are next to teahouses. When they get up early in the morning, they are all packed and crowded. In the large and small casinos scattered throughout the street,
Business is booming. People not only gamble on cards and dice, but also on cockfights, cricket fights, and quail fights. In the theater, gongs and drums are noisy, and new plays are being performed one after another, including plays from the north.
The "Yiyang tune" and "Kunshan tune" from here are also used to sing "local opera" with the local tune. As for the people who rely on this street market to make a living and find food, they are all kinds of people, from those who clear the guest strips, those who tell fortune-telling, those who carry sedan chairs
There are boat operators, jugglers and singers, flower and fruit sellers, pedicure and hairdressers, monks and Taoists, aunts and sellers, and naughty idlers. They hang out in the market all day long, hoping to buy clothes and accessories.
Try your luck with the gorgeous and lavish guests and get lucky.
At the end of Youlankou Wai Street, close to the river embankment, there is a gatehouse with the word "Lefang" engraved on it. After entering the gatehouse, there is a long stone alley. The alley is very narrow. If the two sedans are
We can only meet each other by mistake. On both sides of the alley, there are courtyards one after another. These courtyard doors with copper rings are usually always open. There are benches on the left and right, and there are a few idle people sitting with their chests and belly folded.
...This is the courtyard.
Most of these courtyards are deep houses with several courtyards. The houses inside, regardless of size, are all decorated with carved railings, painted sills, and beaded curtains and windows. The more sophisticated ones also dig ponds, plant trees, and build stone plants in the courtyards.
Flowers. Every courtyard has a double-decker painting boat outside the river embankment, which is connected to the back building of the courtyard by a suspension bridge. It is used for people to cool off in the summer and enjoy the landscape lights. At night, the fishing fires on the river sparkle, and the courtyard and the painting boat are lit up.
It is bright, the moon is hanging in the sky, the moonlight is reflected, the boats are shadowed, and all those who come are intoxicated and forget to return.
The courtyard here is the first-class place in Guangzhou. There are famous people who come here to enjoy a comfortable life, and there are noble people who have no worries about food and clothing... There are also Qingqing who rely on their lives to help them. Although they spend a lot of money here to seek beauty.
It's expensive, but the sons, princes, grandsons, wealthy merchants and wealthy guests in the past still flock here. They meet friends here, receive guests, discuss business, discuss poetry and essays. Naturally, they also indulge in drinking, gambling, prostitution, watching plays, and thinking of all kinds of ways to have fun.
The dance makes the most flashy and luxurious corner of the first city in the South even more colorful and colorful.
Since the Senate entered the city, it has been depressed for a while. However, as the situation stabilized, the wealthy gentry and merchants who had been dormant gradually resumed their original living habits. Not only did Youlankou Wai Street regain its former prosperity,
It seems to be a little better.
In the blink of an eye, it has arrived in June in the Gregorian calendar for Australians. It has passed the beginning of summer and the weather is gradually getting hotter. The sunshine in early summer in southern China is hot and spicy. As soon as the sun rises, people feel unbearably hot.
It is afternoon now, the time when the sun is at its highest and the heat is overwhelming. Even ordinary people in the city do not go to the streets if they have nothing to do. There are few pedestrians on the streets. Only the cicadas on the willow trees by the river are shouting lazily.
The Chunchun Yuan on this street is also a drowsy scene. The "old men" are scattered in their own rooms and sleeping, and the maids and mothers who are serving them are all relying on each other as long as they have no work at hand.
On the couch, he leaned on the chair and dozed off. Even the "mentou haizhang" who was responsible for guarding the door at the gate sat on a stool and dozed off. Only people in the backyard were busy, and the kitchen yard was busy preparing food and drinks for the evening.
Stop, the smoke building has been smoking all morning, and it hasn’t stopped yet.
In the main room of a small courtyard in the Spring Visiting Courtyard, the madam of the hospital was talking to someone.
Sitting on the couch in the middle is a woman who is nearly forty years old, wearing a white silk jacket and a blue satin skirt. The outer cover is agarwood-colored golden armor. The middle-aged woman's slightly fat face can still show the beauty of her youth.
A thin layer of powder was applied on the face, which effectively covered the sagging and yellowing skin, and the "Zizhenzhai Lipstick" was used on the lips, which not only had a positive color, but also had a slight pearlescent color.
She held a book in her hand and slowly looked through it. A maid was kneeling under the couch, gently beating her legs.
The one who put on such a big show was none other than Sister Han Qiao, the bustard of Visiting Spring Hospital, the owner and operator of this hospital. She was originally from Lehu, and she was also a famous prostitute in Yangcheng in her early years.
This Spring Visiting Hospital - naturally, no matter how generous the benefactor was at the beginning, it was impossible for her to open such a large-scale hospital with her financial resources. Naturally, there was a huge threshold to support her.
Sitting in the guest seat diagonally opposite, slowly drinking the herbal tea brewed in our hospital, was an old man. He was quite decently dressed, but the green scarf on his head showed that he was of low status and that he was a man from a Lehu family.
This old man's surname was Fang, and his identity was the temple blessing of Guan Zhong Temple in Lefang Street. It is said that Guan Zhong established "Seven Hundred Women" to obtain "Yehe's capital" and "to assist the military and the country". This became the earliest publicly recorded large-scale establishment in history.
He was an advocate of local establishment, so he was regarded as the ancestor and god by prostitutes of later generations. Therefore, there is a small Guan Zhong Temple on the street of Lefang Street. Guan Zhong Temple is not only a place where prostitutes and bustards burn incense and pray, but it is also a local trade guild responsible for the conduct of business.
On weekdays, Miao Zhu handles many matters such as inter-hospital dispute management, prostitutes' registration and sales, etc., and handles various errands and requests. He can be said to be the landlord of Lefang. Naturally, Old Man Fang does not have him in the north and south.
His colleagues in Beijing are so majestic, with serious official titles such as "Shao Wu" and "Feng Luan", but he is also a very important figure in this band.
Old man Fang's daughter was originally a senior member of the guild, but was later "combed" away. Now she has left her family status and becomes a concubine. She always gets some property every year to serve her parents. He also enjoys the whole life.
He was the "incense money" of Lefang, and his life was very smooth. After the Australians came, they appointed him as the head of the first group of Lefang. Old man Fang only felt that everything was going well.
It's just that under the rule of this Australian, affairs are very complicated. Within a few months of being the leader of this group, he had to go to meetings almost every "week", and after each meeting, there were inevitably many things to deal with. From street sanitation to
to public security management, from household registration to hotel guest registration... there are endless things to mention, and they have to be implemented one by one. The old man was so busy that he was on his feet.
"If we all follow the above, we people are still not allowed to drink from the northwest wind." Sister Han Qiao finally put down the book and sighed.
The brochure contains the "Regulations on the Business and Management of Customs Industry in Guangzhou Special City" recently issued by the city police station. The regulations have a total of 18 sections, and there are detailed details below, which are very detailed.
Some items have been arranged and implemented in the past, such as the industrial and commercial tax registration required by the hospital; all personnel who live in the hospital for a long time must register their permanent residence; each hospital must establish a personnel roster and report it to the municipal bureau, etc.
wait……
Other items, although trivial, can be easily accomplished by spending some time and money. For example, health and construction matters.
The clauses that really made Sister Han Qiao feel "unable to continue" were related to personnel management, especially regarding Lao Ju.
The first article of the management regulations prohibits buying women into prostitution. Employees must follow the principle of "voluntariness".
This will kill the life of the brothel, because the only people who voluntarily work as prostitutes are Lehu and Danmin. Danmin prostitutes mostly work on flower boats, and they never bind their feet, which naturally does not meet the needs of the brothel. This is so
Once they arrived, there were only girls from the Lehu family.
It is not uncommon for women from the Lehu family to be prostitutes from mother to daughter for generations, but the number of sources is limited after all, and most women from the Lehu family do not "sell out" their bodies. Most of their personal rights are in the hands of the "leader". The leader.
There are biological mothers and adoptive mothers, but they are all mother-daughter relationships in the household registration. Such a "self-owned" Laoju sells his body in Dazhai, which is equivalent to "affiliation", and the prostitution money obtained is also divided with the court. The old madam can
The benefits that can be extracted from her are limited. Regardless of whether it is "combing together" or "conforming to good deeds", the biggest benefit is obtained by the Lehu leader.
Therefore, in addition to the "own bodies" sent by the leader's family in the brothel, the madam also has to try to accumulate a group of old women whose personal rights are controlled by themselves.
Such old people are either bought from people's teeth or adopted from charity halls. Many of them are young girls, commonly known as Pipa boys. Pipa boys are usually carefully trained by "Liaokou Sister-in-law". They have good looks and good qualifications.
Teach them reading, singing, and even playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting. They are also served by maids and sisters-in-law on weekdays. Their daily life and diet are the same as those of rich girls, cultivating their body shape and temperament. Girls with low qualifications will not waste their money, and they will be treated according to their own needs.
If you have the ability, you can teach the nuns skills such as cooking and staying in the courtyard to serve as maids - those who are exclusively looking for women and don't like red flowers but green leaves - or they can be sold to rich families as concubines. They will never lose money.
Although it costs a lot to train him from an early age, because he is "selling his body", it is a hugely profitable business for the old madam - especially when Pipa Tsai is seen as being "combed", it is a windfall.
Regulations now ban the buying of women as prostitutes, which is tantamount to tapping the roots of the brothel's biggest source of income. Why is Sister Han Qiao not in a hurry?
Old man Fang smiled and said: "Sister Han, this is also an official task assigned by the superiors. Whether it works or not is your own business. I just took care of it and let it go." (~^~)