Domineering husband

Chapter 86 I Made a Lot of Money and Fang Zi Almost Leaked

  Snow is small snow particles, accompanied by the cold wind, hitting people's faces painfully.

In this kind of weather, few people are willing to go out.

But Pingcheng was different. When Zhifu entered the city, he found many pedestrians coming and going on the street.

Although these passers-by were in a hurry, they were wearing thick clothes. Apart from passers-by, there were also a small number of carriages on the street.

Mingzhifu couldn't help sighing, even in such a ghostly weather, many people go out, so how lively is Pingcheng on weekdays.

He took people straight to the county government office.

Mingzhifu came suddenly, without saying hello to Jiangzhi County in advance. When he arrived, the people from Jiangzhi County were not in the county office, but went to the sweet potato workshop.

Today is the winter solstice, and it is customary to eat dumplings.

There are many workers in the sweet potato workshop, and they eat big pots of rice. These workers bring their own food like when they were in corvée. No one is willing to bring fine grains with this kind of big pot of rice. What they bring is coarse grains.

But today is the winter solstice, and Liqiao donated 3,000 catties of wheat flour, 3,000 catties of corn flour, and 14 pigs to the sweet potato workshop in the county to make double-mixed bread—there are too many workers, and the cook can't make so many Dumplings, but the big buns are barely available.

So Jiangzhi County went to patrol Zhuangzi one by one to see if the buns had been implemented.

After hearing the words of the magistrate, the Mingzhifu stopped the magistrate from going to Jiangzhi County. He planned to go to the sweet potato workshop in person.

The sweet potato workshops in Pingcheng are actually seven big villages, each of which can accommodate 3,000 people. Knowing that the prefect picked the one closest to the county seat, he entered the village in a carriage, dangling in the cold wind.

Jiangzhi County is not here, so he didn't disclose his identity, but wandered around in Zhuangzi under the leadership of the person in charge.

Zhuangzi is full of adobe houses, and the rooms are very large. Whether it is the Datongpu dormitory, the big kitchen or the production workshop, each place is very large and can accommodate many people.

Knowing that Zhifu was most interested in the production workshops, he randomly entered one of them.

This house is very big, there are more than a hundred people in it, the floor is paved with adobe bricks, and at a glance, it is neat and clean.

The pots and utensils used by the workers are also very clean, and it can be seen that they are cleaned every day.

As for these workers, each of them has a cotton towel wrapped around his head to prevent hair loss, and a piece of cloth over his mouth, which is a mask to prevent saliva from being sprayed into the vermicelli when talking.

Hot water is needed to make vermicelli, so the entire production workshop is filled with white smoke, and it is not cold at all for people to stay inside.

Mingzhifu wandered around inside and was very satisfied.

After leaving the production workshop, he went to the area where vermicelli were dried. The Zhuangzi was also paved with adobe bricks, which had been swept clean, leaving only snow particles on the ground.

The vermicelli drying area is full of wooden shelves, and the vermicelli is hung on the wooden shelf. These vermicelli are frozen hard in the cold wind, and a layer of ice balls hangs on the surface.

Mingzhifu raised his hand and poked the ice ball with satisfaction.

It's noon now, and it's time for dinner. Because there were so many people, Zhuangzi ate at different peaks.

Mingzhifu walked to the big kitchen.

The big kitchen was filled with hot air, and it was crowded with workers who were eating, and those who couldn't get in stayed at the kitchen door.

Meal time is short, and the dormitory is locked, so I cannot go back.

So the workers usually eat in the kitchen here.

Today's lunch is millet porridge, cornmeal pancakes, and two mixed with bread.

Millet porridge and cornmeal pancakes can be eaten casually, unlimited, and two mixed with bread per person, each is as big as a bun, and the filling is radish and pork.

There is not much pork, most of them are radishes, but because there is enough oil and water, and half of the skin of the buns is white flour, which is delicate and soft, these workers are quite satisfied. With a smile.

Mingzhifu stood at the door of the kitchen and did not enter the kitchen.

He didn't let the person in charge of the village follow him, so as not to make the workers uncomfortable.

Moreover, he wanted to hear the voices of the workers.

A group of workers at the door of the kitchen held buns in one hand and bowls of millet porridge in the other, chatting while eating.

They didn't know Mingzhifu, but judging from Mingzhifu's clothes, he should be a wealthy businessman.

Anyway, this is the entrance of the kitchen, and there is no vermicelli recipe involved, so these workers only glanced at him a few times before turning their attention.

"Li Qiao is really generous. He actually donated so much food to us, and there are two pigs in one village!"

Although the two pigs were distributed to 3,000 people, each person could not get a piece of meat, but it was meat anyway.

"Li Qiao is the most generous and kind-hearted rich man I have ever seen. He is willing to drag his fellow villagers when he is rich. A person like him should get rich every day. A good person must be rewarded with good rewards. Now my whole family prays for him every day. , I hope he keeps getting rich, so that not only will he do well, but we will also be able to benefit from it."

Another person said.

As soon as this person's words came out, they immediately caused quite a stir among the crowd.

Good guy, can you still do this?

But after careful consideration, this method is wonderful!

God has appeared in Sanliu Village to punish Zhao Erniu, which shows that God has been paying attention to Sanliu Village.

If they prayed more, God would surely hear their voices.

"A rich man like Li Qiao is indeed rare. I will pray to God to bless him every day from now on. He is worthy of the blessing of getting rich every day." "The next time

my father comes to visit me, I will tell him this so that From now on, he will bring his whole family to pray for Li Qiao."

"I not only pray that Li Qiao will get rich every day, but I also pray that he will give birth to a son soon, and his roots will be here."

Li Qiao and Tao Zhu have been married for two years It was halfway, but Tao Zhu's stomach didn't move at all.

Now everyone in Pingcheng knows that Li Qiao must rush all the way to the palace examination to stand in front of the Holy Majesty. If Li Qiao stayed in the capital or went to other places after becoming an official, let alone Pingcheng, even Sanliu Village and him It doesn't matter much anymore.

Li Qiao's parents are gone, and no matter how close the remaining Li family members are to him, they are still two families with separate household registrations.

As for Tao Zhu, Tao Zhu has no relationship with the Tao family, so it's tantamount to a broken relationship.

Under such circumstances, if Li Qiao and Tao Zhu stayed in other places, how much contact would the couple have with Sanliu Village?

But if the two have children, there will be an extra layer of involvement.

In the future, the children will come back to find their roots.

Or the Li family is missing a child and drags the family to go out to see the child.

Anyway, no matter what, if they had children, Li Qiao and Tao Zhu would have more ties to Sanliu Village and Pingcheng.

It's not just one person who thinks this way, inheriting the family, this is an instinct rooted in the minds of everyone in this time and space.

But even a blind person can see how much Liqiao attaches importance to Tao Zhu.

Li Qiao took Tao Zhu with him wherever he went, and often held hands in public, not caring about the sight of others at all.

Moreover, Li Qiao even wrote Tao Zhu's name on the land deed, and now half of Li Qiao's 500 mu of land belongs to Tao Zhu.

The sweet words on the lips can be faked, but the addition of the name on the Tian Qi does not seem to be faked at all.

Therefore, Li Qiao not only valued Tao Zhu in his mouth, but actually couldn't do without Tao Zhu.

Under such circumstances, who would want to be a villain and rush to Li Qiao and say that Tao Zhu can't give birth to a son?

No one wants to!

But this problem really exists, so now the first person mentioned the problem of son, and others responded one after another.

Tao Zhu hasten to give birth to a son, even if he can't have a son, he can still give birth to a daughter or a younger brother. When the time comes to have a baby kiss with the locals, Li Qiao will have more connections with Pingcheng.

...

Mingzhifu never expected that the topic of the workers would be abducted to children, he was a little bit dumbfounded, shook his head, and walked away.

In terms of Li Qiao's temperament, it doesn't matter whether he and Tao Zhu have children or not, they will help the villagers.

These workers really worry too much.

However, these people also sincerely hoped that Li Qiao and Tao Zhu would be well. Li Qiao's efforts were not in vain.

Knowing that the Zhifu didn't stay long, he got into the carriage and went back to the county government.

After eating a hot meal at the county government office, he slept for a while until it was dark, and Jiang Zhixian came back.

Jiangzhi County was shocked when he saw the Mingzhi Mansion, and hurriedly pleaded guilty.

Knowing that the magistrate's government would not blame him, the magistrate Jiang went out for a day in this weather, and it was not for the sake of the people.

When the Mingzhi government came over this time, there were a lot of things to discuss with Jiangzhi County, which involved Li Qiao, so Jiangzhi County sent people to Sanliu Village overnight to let Li Qiao come to the county tomorrow.

When Li Qiao received the news, he and Tao Zhu had already fallen asleep. He thanked the big yamen servant who came to inform him and settled him down. Then the couple went back to the backyard to continue sleeping.

The two of them didn't worry about anything, they slept soundly, and before dawn the next day they set off for the county with the elder brother of the yamen servant.

Overnight, the little snow grains turned into snowflakes.

But there was little snow on the adobe road.

Because this time was the time when the Wangyuelou transport team went to Sanliu Village, the nearby villagers cleared the snow on the road early.

However, it was snowing, the road was slippery, and the ox cart was moving slowly. It took them more than an hour to reach the county seat.

The two went to the county government to meet the prefect.

Seeing Li Qiao, the Ming Zhifu first did the accounting.

Mingzhi Fu didn't come from Fucheng, he came from Pingcheng from Yongxing County.

Before going to Yongxing County, he went to Peishui and other three counties for a tour, checked the account books of these three counties, and calculated the money that should be distributed to Li Qiao.

Although the magistrates of the three counties of Peishui were not as smart and capable as the magistrates of Jiang County, they were much better than the magistrates of Sun County of Yongxing County.

Although not as hard-working as Jiangzhi County, but after two months, he has made a lot of vermicelli and earned a lot of money.

Mingzhifu asked his subordinates to bring the ledger.

One county has one account book, and the first thing to look at is the account book of Peishui County.

The arable land area of ​​Peishui County is about the same as that of Pingcheng City, but because the magistrate ordered it late this year and missed the season for planting sweet potatoes, the farmers planted other grains, so the number of acres of sweet potatoes planted in Peishui County is far less than that of Pingcheng City. 150,000 mu.

The lack of rain this year has reduced the production of sweet potatoes, and the yield per mu is only over 1,200 jin.

Based on 1,200 catties, the sweet potatoes produced by 150,000 mu of land are less than 200,000,000 catties.

These sweet potatoes are made into starch and turned into vermicelli, which weighs about 30 million catties.

But these are only ideal numbers.

In the process of actual operation, there are many losses.

For example, some people made starch containing impurities out of luck, which wasted some starch.

Moreover, in addition to loss, the speed of making vermicelli in these three counties is also relatively slow.

Not every magistrate has the same ability to coordinate the overall situation as Jiangzhi County. Although Jiangzhi County has unreservedly imparted experience, these three counties still have many problems in the actual operation process.

The management is chaotic, the supervision is not strict, the products are substandard, and the speed is slow... Anyway, there are no problems in Pingcheng, and these three counties have encountered them.

Fortunately, the magistrates of these three counties have a correct attitude and correct their mistakes in time, so the vermicelli business in these three counties is slowly on the right track.

Now after two months, Peishui County has sold a total of 9 million catties of vermicelli.

One catty of vermicelli Li Qiao can get more than one penny. Calculated according to one penny, the nine million catties of vermicelli Li Qiao can get a total of nine thousand taels of silver.

After finishing the accounts of Peishui, the Mingzhi government calculated the accounts of two other counties. The level of these two counties was similar to that of Peishui County. They are ten thousand taels of silver and eight thousand five hundred taels of silver.

Adding these three counties together, Li Qiao can get a total of 27,500 taels of silver.

As for Yongxing County.

Mentioning Yongxing County, the prefect first sighed.

This is a long story.

The reason why he built sweet potato workshops in the entire Hexi Prefecture was to accumulate political achievements. Therefore, when he received a report from Jiang Zhi County, knowing that Sun Zhi County was holding him back, he was so angry that he took people to kill Yongxing County.

After arriving in Yongxing County, he first reprimanded Sun Zhixian, and then forced Sun Zhixian to rectify according to Pingcheng's experience.

This rectification process added countless anger to him.

During his tenure in Yongxing County, Sun Zhixian has always muddled through. He believes in not seeking merit, but seeking no faults, so he does not engage in bullying men and women. , he drank a little wine by himself, tasted delicious food with his concubine, and lived a happy life.

He also handed over the sweet potato workshop to his subordinates, and he didn't care about it himself.

Without him as the magistrate supervisor, the people in Yongxing County were so daring that they made a mess of the workshop and starch.

Knowing the situation at that time, Ming Zhifu had a bad premonition in his heart, and he immediately arrested the group of people in charge of the sweet potato workshop.

He interrogated them one by one, and this interrogation really revealed something:

the county magistrate and magistrate of Yongxing County actually sold the vermicelli recipe.

And not only sold once, they sold the prescription to several merchants.

It really is one who dares to sell and one who dares to buy.

These merchants were quite far from Hexi Mansion, and they thought that when they transported the vermicelli back to their hometown, they would sell the vermicelli they bought together with the ones they made themselves. This way they should be able to earn a lot of money.

This can make Mingzhifu half dead.

But it's useless to be angry, the problem must be solved. Two of the merchants had already left after receiving the goods.

The county magistrate and county magistrate of Yongxing County were also put in prison, and he led people to take over Yongxing County in an all-round way.

As for Sun Zhixian, this is a seventh-rank parental official, and Sun Zhixian did not violate the law, but disobeyed his orders, so he has no right to put Sun Zhixian in jail, he can only reprimand severely, and then in this year's official assessment Zhong gave Sun Zhi County a big failure.

Under his strong pressure, the sweet potato workshop in Yongxing County slowly got on the right track.

The two businessmen who left with vermicelli walked slowly because they had too many vermicelli, and were quickly caught up by his men.

Therefore, the vermicelli recipe is temporarily kept.

Speaking of this, Ming Zhifu coughed lightly and asked people to bring all the bank notes that Li Qiao deserved.

Before that, he uttered big words, saying that every catty of vermicelli produced in Hexi Prefecture had half of Li Qiao.

He also assured Li Qiao that he would keep the vermicelli recipe.

As a result, he underestimated Sun Zhixian's ability to poke holes, and overestimated Sun Zhixian's sense of responsibility.

As a county parent official, he couldn't even care about this kind of thing. He really knelt down.

Before that, he felt that the people of Sun Zhi County were good, although they could not compare with Jiang Zhi County, but at least they would not harm the people.

As a parent official, the emperor of Tu, it is very good and has a bottom line if he can not ignore the people.

But this time, he found that he was very wrong.

As a parent official, if you don't do anything, you are actually doing nothing to the common people!

"Little Li, I'm sorry for you this time, but fortunately I got Fangzi back. The money that these merchants bought Fangzi, and the money that I fined them, are all handed over to you. Let's leave it at that for now."

"Yongxing County only made one million catties of vermicelli, so you deserve one thousand taels of silver. Those merchants each spent five thousand to ten thousand taels for the recipe, and together there are three Thirteen thousand taels. If the fine is tripled, that's 99,000 taels." "

Together with this, you should get 133,000 taels of silver." "

Plus the 27,000 taels of the three counties of Peishui Five hundred taels, and in the end you will get a total of 160,500 taels of silver."

"You husband and wife count it, and a penny is not a lot."

Mingzhi Fu said and pointed to the several police officers who were carrying the money box. Ask Li Qiao and Tao Zhu to count the silver bills.

Li Qiao: "..."

Good guy.

It's so tortuous.

The last time Jiangzhi County mentioned Yongxing County to him, he also worried that the prescription would be leaked, but the matter of vermicelli was out of his control long ago, and it was useless for him to worry, so he put the matter aside back.

I didn't expect this prescription to really leak out.

Fortunately, the prefect was able to discern the details and act resolutely, so this prescription was saved.

"You don't need to count, the students trust you. You have worked so hard this time. The students are grateful and will always remember it in their hearts." Not only did

Fang Zi keep it, but he also got back 130,000 taels of silver.

Knowing that the prefect is worthy of being a prefect, he has some abilities.

Hearing Li Qiao's words, Ming Zhi Fu breathed a sigh of relief.

He wanted to accumulate political achievements for himself, so he wanted to go on a sweet potato frenzy in the entire Hexi Prefecture. If the recipe was leaked at this time, Li Qiao didn't hold grudges against him now, what about the future?

Li Qiao must take off.

He didn't want to offend Li Qiao.

Alas, he made a big mistake this time, and almost messed up Pingcheng's wealth that the Holy Majesty had just praised. I hope that the Holy Majesty and Li Qiao will remember his efforts to turn the tide, and forget that he misjudged Sun Zhixian's carelessness.

Before that, he really didn't know that Sun Zhi County was so "indifferent to fame and fortune" that he didn't seize such a good opportunity to accumulate political achievements.

It really screwed him over.

"Xiao Li, don't worry, those two people who ate their hearts and daring are already dead. I will kill the chickens to make an example to the monkeys, so no one will dare to steal the prescription. As for the county magistrate, he will probably be demoted for stabbing Lou this time."

"You can rest assured that you are a student."

Li Qiao said sincerely.

"That's fine, you husband and wife go to count the bank notes first, and after counting, I will test your knowledge to see if you have improved in the past six months."

Mingzhifu said with a smile.

"...Yes."

Li Qiao replied.

Then he and Tao Zhu went to the next room to count the bank notes.

He didn't want to count at first, but he knew that the government had to let him count, and Tao Zhu would definitely count it when he kept the accounts after returning home. In order to reduce Tao Zhu's workload, he counted seriously.

The bank notes are all one hundred taels, one hundred and sixty thousand five hundred taels, that is 1605 pieces, he and Tao Zhu quickly counted them all.

After the counting was over, Ming Zhifu seriously tested his homework. At first, the scope of questions was four books and five classics, but soon expanded to three histories and three biographies.

In the past six months, except for digging wells in summer, he has rarely done other things, and he has devoted himself to reading.

He is willing to work hard, and his own memory is good, so the results of his studies in the past six months are very gratifying.

Knowing that the prefect got more and more satisfied with the test, in the end he was already smiling from ear to ear.

Li Qiao is willing to work hard, is still smart, knows how to behave, and knows how to be grateful. With so many conditions added together, if Li Qiao does not fly, it will be unreasonable that day.

Before Li Qiao is flying at this time, we have to have a good relationship with Li Qiao!

It was rare to see Li Qiao once, and the prefect stayed Li Qiao and Tao Zhu for lunch.

When Li Qiao and Tao Zhu came here, they specially brought some duck products and snacks. When they were in Fucheng last time, because they were not familiar with the place, they only brought some tea when they went to visit Mingzhifu.

Now that Mingzhifu came to Pingcheng, they naturally wanted to prepare more gifts.

Ming Zhifu has been busy with the affairs of Yongxing County during this time. He has only heard about the popular duck products in Pingcheng, but he has not had time to taste it.

Now that he ate these ducks in his mouth, besides praising, he wanted to sigh more.

As far as Li Qiao's ability in this whole job is concerned, let alone in Pingcheng, even if he is put in the Northwest desert, he can also turn out different waves.

The future is limitless!

It is cold now, and the duck products can be stored for a few more days after they are ready. The prefect suggested that Li Qiao expand production.

This duck is so delicious, you should make more of it.

In this way, not only Li Qiao can earn more money, but the villagers can also earn more money.

After hearing this, Li Qiao nodded repeatedly. He and Tao Zhu were already recruiting people.

A few days ago, a man named Fang Shitong came to him, saying that he wanted to sell his duck products to Fucheng, hoping to bypass Wangyue Tower and get the products directly from him.

Fang Shitong also brought out his experience in reselling dim sum in order to gain his approval.

In the past, when meeting such a person, Li Qiao refused all of them, not only because he signed an agreement with shopkeeper Wang, but also because the dim sum his family made every day was limited, and they could be sold out in Wangyuelou, so there was no need to look for other people. sales channels.

But now, he was really scared by the mountains of eggs and duck eggs at home.

The duck business can fundamentally solve the problem of too many eggs and duck eggs, and it can also provide jobs for the villagers. Therefore, he began to think seriously about Fang Shitong's proposal.

At present, Tao Zhu's duck workshop can make a maximum of 400 ducks a day. When these 400 ducks entered the Wangyue Tower, it was as if the roast sausage had just been put on the market, and they were quickly sold out.

With such a high demand, Tao Zhu thought about continuing to recruit people.

But if we continue to recruit people, I am afraid that it will not last long.

Now because the sweet potato workshop is in operation, there are more foreigners in Pingcheng. When the sweet potato workshop shuts down, many foreigners will leave. At that time, the products produced by the duck workshop cannot be digested by Pingcheng, and Taozhu will definitely have to be cut. people.

He and Tao Zhu didn't want to give people hope and let people down, so they didn't recruit any more people before.

But now there is Fang Shitong, a person with rich reselling experience, who can open up a stable market in Fucheng for the duck workshop, so he and Tao Zhu don't have to hesitate.

In fact, many vendors can do the job of opening up the Fucheng market, but Fang Shitong not only came to him when he needed it, but was also very sincere. In this case, he handed over the business to Fang Shitong.

When Li Qiao and Tao Zhu came out of the county office, it was already dark.

The couple did not intend to stay in the county seat, and they drove the ox cart back to the village. When they arrived at the village, Li Dashan and others had already prepared dinner, and they were waiting for their husband and wife to come back for dinner.

First they lit a fire to get rid of the cold, and then they went into the kitchen for dinner. After dinner, Tao Zhu couldn't wait to go back to the backyard.

Today I brought back 160,000 taels of silver!

Moreover, this is only two months of profit, and the sweet potato workshops in the other four counties can still operate for another two months, and tens of thousands of taels of silver will be credited to the account by then.

Farmers in Pingcheng still planted 300,000 mu of sweet potatoes this year, and these sweet potatoes can bring him and Li Qiao about 60,000 taels of profit.

Therefore, if the 60,000 taels were added, even after paying the commercial tax, he and Li Qiao could earn 200,000 taels of silver this year just relying on vermicelli.

God!

Before Li Qiao said that he could earn 200,000 taels of silver this year by relying on vermicelli, he thought it was a dream. Moreover, the 200,000 taels that Li Qiao said at that time was the 200,000 taels that had not been taxed. There are only 140,000 taels left.

Later, the production of sweet potatoes decreased, and he and Li Qiao felt that it would be great if they could earn one hundred thousand taels of silver.

But they never expected that the two of them would bring back 160,000 taels of silver just today!

A lot of money wow!

He had little experience, and from the moment he got the money, his heart was beating violently. Now, looking at these money boxes by candlelight, his heart beating even more violently.

Standing beside Tao Zhu, Li Qiao saw that his eyes were so bright and his cheeks turned pink with excitement, so he stretched out his hand and pulled him into his arms.

"So much money, how should we spend it? Buy you clothes and jewelry?" "

...don't spend it for the time being, just put it away."

Tao Zhu turned to look at Li Qiao: "This time the magistrate kept the vermicelli recipe, but next time What? The vermicelli recipe may be leaked at any time, so let's save this money and spend it wisely in the future."

He has no hobby of spending money, and he is just purely happy to see so many silver notes at this time.

A lot of money~

"Okay, listen to Brother Zhu!"

Li Qiao hugged the person in his arms tightly, Tao Zhu said no flowers, then he would not.

"Then sleep with the box open like this tonight?"

Tao Zhu looked at the boxes of bank notes, reluctant to put them away.

Li Qiao immediately laughed when he heard the words: "Okay."

He couldn't help kissing Tao Zhu on the cheek, brother Zhu who loves bank notes is so cute.