Lu Ming

Chapter 154
In March of Yangchun, the light rain is like crisp, which is the benefit of a year's spring.

The city of Hangzhou is shrouded in a misty mist, small bridges with black awnings and pedestrian tile eaves are looming, and the mountains and rivers are misty.

A sedan chair is slowly moving forward on the bluestone road.

The brand-new fine woolen sedan chairs are exquisitely decorated, and the body, windows and bars of the sedan chair are all made of exquisite materials. At first glance, they seem to be belongings of a wealthy family for their own use.The four bearers who carried the sedan chair wore the same fine cloth livery. They walked neatly and cooperated tacitly, obviously well-trained.

Leading the way in front of the sedan chair were two tall and strong slaves with slender faces and silk brocades all over their bodies; behind the sedan chair was an easy-going young man holding an oiled paper four gentlemen umbrella made in Suzhou, also covered in silk silk.

This line of extravagant teams with the words "poor ghosts retreat" written all over their faces are walking on the bluestone road outside Taipingfang.Located in Taipingfang, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, rich households gather and officials and gentry get together, so people often repair the street. The Qingshiban road is smooth and smooth. A group of people walked quickly in the light rain. Not long after, the sedan chair turned into a roadside street. In the side alley.

This side alley is called Guliu Alley, and at the entrance of the alley there is an old willow with coiled curls and crouching dragons.Both sides of the alley are full of five-foot-high walls, and there are only four families in the whole alley. This is called one family and four families, which sounds a bit low-key, and it is not as awesome as the later generations.

The speaking team came to a vermilion lacquer gate. At this time, the door had already opened the side door. Some were in charge of coming up to greet them, and some were in charge of turning back and entering the house.

The sedan chair didn't stop all the way, smoothly turned into the side door, and came to the sedan chair hall. At this moment, the four bearers stood together, shouted softly, and slowly got off the sedan chair.

At this time, the long follower bowed beside the sedan chair door and said softly: "Master, you have entered the mansion."

Hearing a "hmm" from inside the sedan chair, Chang Sui gently rolled up the curtain of the sedan chair, and two people behind the sedan chair slightly raised the pole of the sedan chair in an extremely tacit understanding: Tianqi Seven Years Ding Maoke Hangzhou Township Examination No. 30 Three Master Huang Ping, Huang Zhicheng, a famous candidate, stepped out of the sedan chair.

Mr. Huang, whom I haven't seen for a long time, already has a short beard under his chin. At this moment, he is wearing a black gauze square scarf and Sufang's jade-colored lake silk large sleeves with straight sleeves. There are pendants, sachets, finger Wearing a jade ring, he has a rich complexion and a calm body.

After the master got off the sedan chair, he entered the mansion all the way under the greeting of the big housekeeper of Huang's mansion who came over after hearing the sound.Along the way, the stewards, servants, nurses, wives, servants, and maidservants in the mansion stood respectfully and solemnly in front of the door, waiting for the master to return to the mansion.

The main house of Huang's Mansion has three entrances, with seven or eight side courtyards on both sides, and two gardens, one large and one small, in the back house, which occupies a vast area and is of extraordinary style.

Master Huang didn't look sideways, followed by the butler, the chief entourage, and the servant, all the way across the three entrance gates, and returned to the study of the inner house.As soon as they entered the house, four or five maidservants dressed up like butterflies and began to serve the master to change clothes, wash, serve water and drink tea.

After washing his face, Huang Ping changed into a plain soft muslin robe and a pair of straw slippers. He went to the back room and tried to see if the water in the celadon tea bowl on the table was still hot, so he picked up some letters and name cards on the table, Take them apart one by one.

Huang Zhicheng has gradually adapted to the current life of being a master in the past six months after winning the examination.Just like those people who became popular overnight in later generations, suddenly your every move is watched by someone and you suddenly feel like living under the spotlight. At first, it was really not so easy to adapt.

Fortunately, there is still a difference between the Ming Dynasty and later generations. Master Huang soon discovered that he didn't need to worry about anything: in his own house, he was the emperor, and he controlled the life and death of more than 100 servants in this house.

In the late Ming Dynasty, due to population growth, a large number of rural unemployed people entered the cities, and the social environment underwent drastic changes.In the Jiangnan area, even Hansu people are "ashamed to wear cloth", "the family has no rice, and the clothes are fresh".

At the same time, slavery became popular in society, and it was common for middle and lower classes to employ slaves, let alone the gentry.It is not uncommon for the rich and powerful families to spread their rice paddies across the fields, buy a lot of land, and have hundreds of servants in their families.

After Huang Zhicheng was elected, according to the order from the senior officials, he began to take root in Hangzhou step by step and establish his own contacts.

To take root, the first is the house.

Because Mr. Huang has many "friends" in three mountains and five mountains, all kinds of weird things are expected to happen in the future, so Mr. Huang's house must not be too small.Although theoretically these friends would not disturb him, but one has to be prepared in case the brothers want to open Hangzhou City one day, how can Master Huang's family also ambush a company, right?

In line with this principle, after Huang Zhicheng was elected, he began to officially meet the house in Hangzhou.Fortunately, at this time, the master no longer needs to be troubled by himself. The newly hired housekeeper and stewards gathered together and ran around the city. It took only a few days for Master Huang to buy the big house in Guliu Lane.

The house is in Shangcheng District, and it was sold from a senior official. It occupies a large area, which is suitable for Huang Zhicheng's requirements.After buying the house, he spent a lot of money to renovate the house, which also included some seemingly ordinary but profound changes.

After moving into the house, Huang Zhicheng hired more than 100 servants of various colors to show his appearance.In such a large house, more than 100 people are theoretically a bit shabby, but Mr. Huang's first wife died young, and the back house has no owner, so this number of people will be enough for now.

While purchasing real estate and increasing production, Huang Zhicheng's most important job was of course not left behind: making friends.

Mr. Huang, who is charged with spying on social intelligence in the Jiangnan area, puts a lot of energy into welcoming and sending off, making friends and socializing.Starting from the same year of the imperial examination, Mr. Huang used the original network of relationships that came with him after becoming a Juren to expand his network step by step.

The reason why he came back from outside today is because he went to the painting club early in the morning to socialize and socialize, and he will return in the evening.

Huang Zhicheng spent a cup of tea time, after reading the two letters and some famous posts on the table, he turned his head and told the servant girl to call the housekeeper in.

The housekeeper's surname is Wu Mingchi, and he is in his forties. He has a round face, and he looks happy when he looks at it.

Hangzhou, a big city in the Ming Dynasty with an extremely developed service industry, is just like New York in later generations. The high-end service industry market has long been formed.

For a professional manager like Wu Chi who is capable of managing a large house, as soon as Huang Zhicheng won the exam that day, seven or eight came to him.There are self-recommended wild roads, and there are regular soldiers holding a letter recommended by a certain master-the triennial rural examination is also a carnival in the service industry market. Establishing a household, recruiting soldiers and buying horses, and setting up a full set of subordinates—the so-called give me a person, and I can create a family.
Butler Wu is such a professional manager.He is a native of Hangzhou, and his father and brother are housekeepers, that is to say, the whole Wu family are housekeepers. The so-called family knowledge is a bit convoluted.In fact, Butler Wu used to work in a big family in Suzhou Mansion, and later encountered a career ceiling - but any smarter family would not arrange for his younger brother to be the butler of the outer house when his elder brother was the head of the house.

Butler Wu competed for the butler of the outer house and failed.Of course, this is a non-war crime, and the host family also wrote a letter of recommendation for him to find a job.

After investigating the background of Butler Wu, the newly released Huang Xiaolian felt that this person is very suitable for the current situation: Mr. Huang is different from the other dicks who won the election. What is missing is contacts.

People like housekeepers and Master Shaoxing belong to the same concept, and they belong to an important link between the past and the future. A local snake from a housekeeper family like Butler Wu is exactly what Master Huang needs, so Butler Wu is on the line.

"Those country folks haven't left yet?" Butler Wu asked the master face to face before he had time to salute after entering the back room.

"Master, I haven't left yet, I'm nestling in the locker room." Butler Wu straightened his expression at this moment, and stood up to return.

The reason why the time-traveling people chose Huang Ping, a poor scholar, to replace him was because Huang Xiucai's family was dead and he had no relatives.However, when Mr. Huang was elected, the news of the victory came back to Taizhou, and people from the poor villages under Tiantai Mountain began to come to Hangzhou—all kinds of so-called relatives, all kinds of so-called friends, and all kinds of so-called fellow villagers.
Mr. Huang, who originally had ghosts in his heart, naturally would not meet these people who came to fight the autumn wind.It’s not that he’s afraid of showing flaws in his appearance: in this era of wrinkled faces at the age of 30, Huang Ping, who has been away from home for more than ten years, will not be recognized by these so-called old villagers even if he passes by.

What Huang Ping was afraid of was some other uncertain factors, such as accidentally misrepresenting the identity and seniority of some family members back then.Besides, is it necessary for Mr. Huang to come into contact with these mud legs?Master Juren's face is so easy to see?

Butler Wu knew his master's attitude towards these neighbors.As far as he privately guessed, when the master left his hometown, he had some trouble with these folks. It is said that after the master buried his forgotten wife, he sold the land on the spot and never returned to his hometown.

"Now the retribution is coming, you bastards!" Steward Wu was standing in the room at this time, seemingly expressionless, but in fact he was secretly happy.From his point of view, his master's attitude towards the village is the best. What if the second fool from Taizhou came to him one day and became the master's confidant?
"Well, let's do it according to the old rules. It's better to assign the person to Manager Zhao." After thinking about it, Huang Zhicheng still couldn't find a good solution.These dog-skin plasters cannot be killed or scolded, and if they are driven away, they are afraid of ruining their reputation and affecting the "personality" that they have worked so hard to build, so they can only be handed over to Manager Zhao.

Steward Zhao is Zhao Wutian, the Pingfeng Mountain bandit back then, and now an inconspicuous steward in the Huang Mansion.

Guanshi Zhao is the only one in Huang's mansion who knows the true identity of the master.As the bridge connecting Huang Zhicheng and Hangzhou Station, Zhao Wutian shouldered a heavy responsibility. It was inconvenient for Mr. Huang to come forward for all matters related to crossing. On weekdays, Zhao Wutian would come forward to handle it.

(End of this chapter)