Yang Shixiang's family banquet that night was very exquisite. There were not only five or five seats, but also lion candies. The dishes were elegantly decorated. Twelve small plates of appetizers, plus ten hot dishes. Local flavor.
It is mixed with Guangdong's official cooking methods to create a unique style. Although Li Luoyou only tasted it briefly, he still felt that it had a unique flavor.
After dinner, tea and fruits were served, and two singers sent by Yang Shiyi accompanied them, singing songs and giving orders. Although Quark knew nothing about this, he was excited when a woman was around, and he kept giggling and cheering. He actually had sex that night.
* Asked Sao Ye with a straight face if he could get a woman to sleep with him? This made the group of people look down upon him.
Li Luoyou was tired from the journey and got up very late the next day, getting up close to noon. After lunch, he told the steward who came to serve him that he wanted to visit the county seat and Dongmen City and see the local scenic spots. No.
Do you know if the ground here is quiet? How many people should be taken out?
The manager smiled and said: "The ground is very quiet, the gentlemen just want to play." After that, he hurriedly called people: "Prepare the car!"
Li Luoyou worked as a mule driver in the capital, and he was so shocked that his insides almost turned inside out. When he heard that he was about to be driven, he frowned. Sao Ye hurried over and whispered a few words to the steward.
"It's okay," the steward said. "This is an Australian carriage, not a large saddle carriage from the north. It's more comfortable to sit on than a sedan that doesn't lean on all sides."
The car is naturally a Hongqi carriage, but the model has been improved: the number of leaf springs has been increased, ball bearings have been installed on the wheel axles, and the interior of the carriage has also been improved to some extent. As for the appearance of the car, it was imported from Zizhenzhai from Guangdong.
Decorated with fine workmanship by skillful craftsmen, it is generous and luxurious.
Because the number of horses was limited, only two of these carriages were built. They were not used on weekdays and were only used for concierge purposes.
"This is very similar to a European carriage." Li Luoyou sat in the carriage, with a spring cushion under his butt that was trying to resist the welcome - the springs rolled out by the factory are not qualified for use in the manufacturing industry, and they are barely suitable for making sofas.
used.
"It's much lighter and more comfortable than the British carriage." Quark looked at the interior of the carriage, "It looks like the cool sedan we have ridden in." The weather in Lingao was relatively hot, so this carriage abandoned the traditional carriage used by the first Hongqi.
The interiors such as velvet and satin are replaced with cool and smooth bamboo, rattan and gauze.
The windows are inlaid with glass, covered with green screen frames, and there are thin bamboo curtains for sunshade. In addition to the two rows of chairs facing each other in the car, there are also low stools on the side. This is specially designed for the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty.
It was designed. The carriage was very fast, and it was impossible for the servants and maids to follow it on foot like a sedan. If they were riding in the same carriage, how could the average gentleman be willing to let his servants sit shoulder to shoulder with him, so two low stools were specially designed.
Saoye was sitting on this low stool, and suddenly his eyes lit up: "Master, this car is really strange!"
The so-called strange thing is the hidden cabinet on the wall of the car. When you open it, you will find two rattan-shell bottles inside - they recognized them in the room yesterday. They are thermos bottles. Put boiling water in them overnight and pour them out.
So hot.
With this thing, you can carry it wherever you go, and you can have hot water anytime and anywhere. Sao Ye feels that this Australian product is much more practical than mirrors and other similar things.
One bottle contained boiling water, while the other large-mouth bottle was filled with crushed ice. In addition to hot water and cold ice, there were several glass bottles of kvass sealed with corks, and several bottles of red drinks. I don’t know what they were. Quark was impatient and simply opened a bottle and drank it.
"What does it feel like?" Li Luoyou teased him.
"It's sweet, sour, and has a strange aroma." Quark licked his lips, "It tastes good."
After drinking a bottle of kombucha, Quark became drunk again, but there was no rum in the cupboard. The British man called him "stingy".
The carriage left the county town and went straight to the main road. It was a sunny day, neither hot nor cold, with good weather. Farmers were all going to the fields, working and doing business, walking or pushing carts to carry loads, and there were many pedestrians on the road. Horses and carriages passed proudly through the middle of the street, and in the shadow of the wheels and whips, people kept pointing. Li Luoyou turned a blind eye and just sat steadily. He secretly regretted that going out like this was too ostentatious!
The carriage stopped after a short while, and the steward got down from the driver's seat and announced: We have arrived at Dongmen City.
"Please tell me, sir, should I get off the car here and enter, or should I drive directly to the city?"
"Get off right here."
After getting off the car, I saw a gray dam across the river. The river sloped down from the top of the dam, with white water vapor swirling around it. The scene was quite magnificent. Not far away, I saw a large number of red houses on the river bank. Outside Surrounded by a high earthen rampart, there are many towers above.
In the center of this pile of houses stood a tall iron tower that he had never seen before. On the other side of the river was another set of red houses, continuous like sawtooths, with large and small red brick chimneys standing high and low into the sky. Thick black, yellow and white smoke was spitting out. Li Luoyou almost forgot about it. This kind of scene has never appeared even in the weirdest dreams.
There were faint rhythmic roars and hammering sounds in the wind. A pungent smell floated in the air, vaguely like the smell of sulfur. Li Luoyou shuddered, the sunshine under the blue sky Even though it was shining brightly, he felt the smell of hell.
Quark couldn't help but cross himself.
"Masters, please leave here."
The prosperity of Dongmen City quickly attracted them. Of course, the prosperity here is not as good as that of Foshan, Guangzhou. But the neatness of the houses and the smoothness of the roads are unprecedented. The weather in the city is a hundred times better than that of Foshan, Guangzhou. The roads are dry. It is clean, not to mention garbage, not even a peel can be found, and there is no accumulation of water on the street. Although the street trees on both sides are not big, they can already provide some shade.
What is puzzling is the tall poles along the street, with iron mesh and glass covers on top.
"What is this?" Li Luoyou asked.
"It's a street light," the steward replied.
Li Luoyou also guessed that they were street lamps. However, with such a line along the street, this kind of boldness was probably only found in the palace. When he listened to the eunuchs chatting in the capital, he said that there were stone walls on both sides of the Yongxiang in the palace. Lanterns are lit every night to illuminate.
It would be too extravagant to light street lights in such a town. Even if the night market is prosperous, merchants will light the lights themselves, so why bother. Li Luoyou disagreed.
Walking on the street, there are many people on the road, both rich and poor, running around and busy. Among them are local aborigines, foreign traders, and Australians wearing blue, gray, and khaki coats with short hair like monks.
People. At a glance, there are quite a lot of Australians. Just from the accents they speak, you can tell that most of them are from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian. This is probably the so-called "fake Kun".
There is no way to verify the number of real ones. However, there are many fake ones. If you pay close attention, you will find that although the fake ones are dressed similarly, you can still tell their specific occupations in the details.
Those who wear brimmed hats, belts around their waists, and daggers hang from their waists are soldiers; those who wear rattan helmets with open chests and rolled sleeves are probably craftsmen in workshops; those who wear straw hats and rolled up trouser legs do not use
They were said to be farmers working in the fields. The last category was neatly and meticulously dressed, and most likely had a bag on their shoulders. Li Luoyou couldn't figure out where they came from, so he asked the manager.
"This is the office of the Australians," said the manager. "It specializes in handling affairs and administration for the Australians."
"They are the scribes in the yamen." Li Luoyou nodded.
"Yes, and no." said the manager, "It's complicated inside. This book office alone has three, six, and nine ranks, which are called 'cadres' internally. There are many tricks in it that we outsiders can't understand. But
Sir, you see, if you are a 'cadre', your jacket will have four pockets. If it is an ordinary bookstore, there will only be two pockets on the bottom."
Looking over, it was true. Li Luoyou nodded and suddenly saw another woman wearing similar clothes.
"What? Australians still have female clerks?"
"Exactly." The steward told him as if it was news, "There is no distinction between men and women in Australia. Women can also be officials and manage affairs. Some factories and workshops even recruit female workers. It is not surprising that there are several female bookstores."
There are none of the beggars and gangsters that are common in bustling markets. There is not even a figure in the world such as horse racing and selling solutions. Li Luoyou looked at it and secretly wondered: Could it be that the cleaning and rectification here was specially made for him? Come to think of it.
I don’t have such a big reputation myself.
At the moment, he was just strolling around the market, and saw that there were many shops here, with all kinds of goods. Li Luoyou randomly walked into a few to take a look, and there was nothing unexpected. All kinds of Australian goods sold here can also be bought in Guangzhou.
But the houses here left a deep impression on him.
Almost all the houses are two stories or above, and three stories are very common. They are densely packed next to each other, and their styles are different from those in the Central Plains. Quark shook his head after looking at them, saying that they were slightly similar to the houses in Europe.
But they are never the same.
It's hard to say whether the house is good-looking or not, but this kind of house is obviously very land-saving. Li Luoyou has always been puzzled. There is so much wasteland in Lingao, why is it necessary to be so economical?
In front of me was a large shop with five bays, which was very busy with people coming in and out. As I walked past, I saw a few female waiters in blue cloth dresses at the door of the shop greeting customers in various dialects from time to time, some in Cantonese and some in Hakka.
He talked for a while in Leizhou dialect and then in Fujian dialect... Li Luoyou frowned secretly. Do you still use female assistants in this business? It's almost like recruiting with sex.
But when I walked in, I found that the so-called lustful solicitation was nonsense. All of these female waiters were big-bodied and round-waisted, and none of them were graceful. They had wooden name tags hanging on their chests. But there were three big characters on the back of their clothes:
"cooperative".
"Is this your first time here, sir? All kinds of fresh and easy-to-sell goods are available in whole or in pieces. Our store also packs and consigns them on behalf of customers. We offer discounts for large quantities!"
A female waiter saw Li Luoyou stopping to watch and quickly came over to enthusiastically promote it. Li Luoyou didn't refuse and simply went into the store to have a look.
The store is very large, with an atrium in the middle that reaches directly to the roof, and the second and third floors are all walking-horse buildings. Standing in the middle of the room, the majestic aura makes people speechless.
The most surprising thing is the roof, which uses open tile skylights.
Of course, open tile skylights are not uncommon. In order to let in light, some people use translucent mica, horns or thinned large clam shells to make open tiles on their roofs. But it is only a small piece.
Here are the open tiles of glass, and they are very large - the entire atrium is made of a frame made of iron bars, with a whole piece of glass inlaid on it. The sunlight penetrates from the open tiles, illuminating the three-story building.
The lighting is extremely bright, which is very different from the dark feeling in ordinary stores.
"What a great gesture!" Li Luo couldn't help but praise.
Hanging on the three-story building is a large plaque with gold and black background, which reads "Cooperative" in three large characters. On both sides of the large plaque, there are wooden pillars with the inscriptions: "High quality and low price" and "No counter-offers."
”.
Li Luoyou asked the manager: What does this cooperative mean?
"Even the little ones don't know." The manager said, probably he brought the name from Australia.
There is a circular counter in the atrium, and there are five or six female waiters in blue skirts. These few are different from the waiters outside. They are all beautiful-looking women in their 20s and 40s. There is a small box in front of each of them.
The same thing. When a customer came over, the female waiter would press something on it from time to time, and then she would hear a crisp "ding-dong" sound, and a drawer would pop out of the box. Li Luoyou watched with rapt attention, but didn't
See what this is doing.
"This is collecting money." The steward said, "The money must be put into this drawer."
Li Luoyou didn't know the meaning of this, and asked the manager, but the manager didn't know either. However, Australians seemed to like using this thing very much, and they would use this pop-up drawer box whenever collecting money.
Outside the counter, there were female clerks standing all over the atrium. When they saw some customers who were standing still and didn't know what to do, they went up to greet them and guide them in the direction of shopping and viewing.
"It's true, it's true," Gu Baocheng, a young man who had never seen such a formation before, blushed, "it's not a serious place."
"This can be considered a kind of business." Li Luoyou didn't think so, "If there's no real money to make money, what's the use of just a few women?"
"The manager of this shop is a female Australian, so all the waiters in the shop are women." The manager interjected interestingly.
"Oh? This is a strange woman."
"Who says otherwise!" the manager said as if it was news, "This old lady is very powerful! Each business idea is better than the next. Look at this shop, from building a house, selecting employees to setting up shop rules... everything comes from
Her handiwork."
"I would like to meet him if I have a chance," Li Luoyou said.
There is no counter in the store, only treasure racks inlaid with glass, on which various goods are displayed, which can be seen but not touched. Next to each goods is a piece of cardboard with the price written on it. Li Luo
After taking a look, there are three prices, retail, whole piece and whole batch. Finally, there is a "large quantity" that says "negotiable".
The variety of goods is dazzling. Looking closely, most of them are daily necessities and local products. It is the same as Li Luoyou's guess: the so-called Australian goods are actually Lingao goods. The cooperative is probably mainly wholesale.
Customers choose goods in front of these treasure racks. When they like something, the female clerk writes the ticket on the spot. The customer takes the ticket to the counter in the middle to pay, exchanges it for a small ticket, and walks back. I don’t know what the trick is?
"The rules here are like this," the manager explained to him, "you can see the sample in front and pay the invoice, and you can pick up the goods with the ticket in the back."
Quark asked: "We only have samples of the goods, but the quality of the goods we get does not match the samples. What should we do?"
"This is absolutely impossible. The most important thing about the goods here is that they are genuine." The manager said: "The biggest advantage of Australian goods is that the quality of the goods is exactly the same. What the goods look like is what they are. Even if there is a slight difference.
Within millimeters.”
He then asked another question: "What is the 'yuan' in the price? I see that silver and copper coins are not used to collect money."
"It's a circulation certificate."
After hearing what the manager said about circulation coupons and seeing the actual sample of circulation coupons, Li Luoyou fell into deep thought. What he saw and heard today surprised and shocked him a lot, but nothing could compare with the circulation coupons.
Plant something.
Li Luoyou is not an economist and does not understand what monetary economics is. But with his businessman's mind, he will not fail to understand the difficulty of promoting paper money and the huge benefits it will bring once the promotion is successful.
The entire Ming Dynasty paid little attention to coining money, and the people suffered from a lack of coins and inconvenient circulation. Therefore, privately minted small coins and bad money were rampant, and the government could not help it. Tokens similar to circulation coupons were also used in some places, but they were not used on such a scale, and they have never been used.
The stewards knew that the Australians had a strict system for the use and exchange of circulation coupons, and even set up a grain store to manage them. These measures were by no means an ordinary expedient to solve the shortage of money.
The Australians have tried their best to promote circulation coupons here. This effort is not as simple as settlement trade. Li Luoyou has another layer of doubt in his heart.
The second floor of the cooperative still has various glass display racks, but the third floor is full of small rooms with the doors closed. Occasionally, people come in and out. The manager said that if there is a big business, the clerk will invite people to this small room.
Come, offer cigarettes and tea, and someone will naturally talk to you slowly and in detail.
"...Our shopkeeper also did business here."
"Mr. Yang also purchases goods here?"
"No, it's selling goods."
It turns out that this cooperative not only sells and wholesales various Australian products, but also purchases goods from the local area. Runshitang produces a large number of "umesu balls", "secret tangerine peel", "lotus leaf tea", "hay grass tea", and "stew spices"
Some of this stuff is also sold through here.
In the past, many traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies sold many things that were neither medicine nor medicine, and they did not account for a large part of the business. The pharmacies did not try to make money through this, but mainly to win over local customers. Therefore, the prices were not high, and the people
It is also convenient for home use and very popular. Liu San attaches great importance to this business and believes that these products have a great market in the rural market, so he manufactures them in large quantities and sells them in unified packaging. Although the profits earned from this are limited,