A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 460 Lychee Comes

After returning from the suburbs, Huaiyu deliberately went to the house of her eldest sister who was also in Xuanyangfang.

Wu Yu'e is now also Zhuguang Baocui, and has just been conferred the title of Lord Gaotang.

"I haven't eaten since I came back. My sister will make you some scrambled eggs with Yuqian."

She was very happy to see her younger brother coming to Wu Yu'e, and insisted on cooking noodles for Huaiyu herself, and scrambled eggs with yuqian. Although she was ordered by the county lord now, she was still agile.

Huaiyu hugged his little nephew and teased him. The little guy looked a lot like the elder sister, and also had a bit of Ma Zhou's shadow.

Soon a bowl of ramen Hoto was ready, served with freshly fried yuqian scrambled eggs, it smelled delicious, especially the smell of sesame oil, which smelled delicious.

"Brother-in-law hasn't left yet?"

"I'm busy now. I have several jobs. I won't be home until the closed city drum sounds. I often sleep in the yamen." The eldest sister has nothing to complain about.

"What about Yingsu and Hansu?"

"I went to Yongyefang to see my mother. Recently, I was at Wei Xianggong's house with my younger sister, learning etiquette from Mrs. Pei."

Wei Zheng's wife, Mrs. Pei, came from a famous family, so it goes without saying about etiquette. Her family also has several daughters. Nowadays, the younger brothers of the Wei family often come to study with Huaiyu, and Wu Yu'e's two daughters and younger sister often go to see Peiyu Learn etiquette and these.

What's more, the fourth lady of the Wu family is also engaged to Xiao Erlang of the Wei family. Wu Siniang is Pei's prospective daughter-in-law who has never been married, and the two families are neighbors. Dali.

"My two nieces are growing up day by day, and they are becoming more and more beautiful. Has the eldest sister started to find a good home for them?"

Yu'e sat beside her, watching her younger brother eating noodles with a happy face.

"There are indeed many people who want to propose marriage. I told your brother-in-law about it. Although their surname is Han, but now they are in the Ma family. It is up to your brother-in-law to make up their minds about the marriage. Your brother-in-law said there is no rush, just choose one." People."

Ma Zhou is very busy now.

He had just been promoted to serve as the censor, and became No. [-] Yushitai. Then he also served as an admonishing doctor in the province, and then he added the prince You Shuzi, and also studied national history.

One person holds four jobs.

In addition to advising the doctor and revising the history of the country, the duties of advising the doctor and compiling the history of the country are slightly lighter, but the official fourth-rank book duties of the prince and the right concubine are still very important. The main officials of the Eastern Palace are now the prince Zhan Shi, Shao Zhan Shi, and the left and right concubine. Although the left and right concubine each have two People, but the prince is getting older, and the duties of the East Palace officials are also getting heavier.

Basically, Ma Zhou and another concubine on the right took turns to be on duty in the East Palace, each for a day.

And the duty of governing the book and serving the censor is even more important.

I am so busy that I don't have time to take care of my wife and children, and I don't have time to accompany such a cute little son.

After eating Butuo and Yuqian scrambled eggs, Ma Zhou still hasn't come back.

The siblings were chatting, and it could be seen that Wu Yu'e is very happy now and is very satisfied with her current life. She used to be a very hard-working woman, and she married three times in a row. As a result, all three husbands died shortly after marriage. In the end, only two daughters.

She was even driven back to her natal family for a time. Fortunately, her parents and brothers treated her very well, but no matter how good her natal family was, she sometimes felt like duckweed with no sense of belonging.

Married to poor scholar Ma Zhou, who would have thought that he would be so prosperous now.

Being a fourth-rank official and bestowing purple gold won the emperor's appreciation and trust.

"Is my brother-in-law still drinking?"

"I quit early. I don't drink at all. Since you persuaded him to drink less, he stopped drinking. Now he drinks tea,"

"Although drinking tea is better than alcohol, it should not be too strong,"

Huaiyu took out a list and gave it to the elder sister.

"What is this?"

"I chose a piece of land for you, near Mingdu Spring,"

Three hundred acres of fertile land, and it is contiguous, can set up a good farm.

Although Ma Zhou is only a son of Gaotang County, he also holds several positions, including a fourth-rank position. This time, he has a subscription of [-] mu.

Wu Huaiyu just used his power to pick a good land for Ma Zhou.

According to the records of Chang'an, it is said that a calf fell into the east spring, and later the calf emerged from the west spring. It turned out that the east and west springs were connected underground, and it was named calf spring later.

This place is located between Dongbailuyuan, Shaolingyuan, and Baliyuan, with the Chan River in the east and Fengqiyuan in the back. It is located in the Sichuan Plain.

The thousand-acre land next to Xiangji Temple that Doulu Huairang selected for Wu Huaiyu is also next to the land of Mingdu Spring.

In the future, the Zhuangzi of the two families can still be neighbors.

"How much does it cost for three hundred acres of good land?"

"Land in Gyeonggi is more expensive, especially for this kind of contiguous land, which costs about four to five thousand acres."

"That's not expensive."

Ma Zhou used to be a poor scholar. The house he lives in was originally worth more than 200 million yuan, which was bought by the emperor as a reward, but Ma Zhou is not poor now.

He concentrates on becoming an official, but Wu Huaiyu will always remember this brother-in-law, and the business he does is often carried by Ma Zhou, asking him to invest money. Although the investment is not much, it can't support the businesses Wu Huaiyu runs, which are very profitable.

Regardless of Ma Zhou making money and running these things, Wu Yu'e basically helped him take care of them. In fact, Wu Huaiyu was in charge of them.

Fifteen hundred bucks is no longer a problem.

Before that, Huaiyu helped Ma Zhou in his hometown, buying him [-] mu of land, and [-] mu of land in Gyeonggi. In addition, he also bought some real estate in Shuofang and Longyou. Ma Zhou was also a rich man. The landlord of thousands of acres of land.

However, the value of these [-] acres of land is even higher.

There is no need to say so many polite words between siblings, Ma Zhou also trusts his brother-in-law very much, and all the family's money is directly handed over to Huaiyu.

Previously, Wu Huaiyu organized a group to open a mine in Shaozhou, and Ma Zhou also got a share, so he followed the arrangement without any hesitation.Now Duzhi Shiya is responsible for the renovation of the street shops in Chang'an Square, and Huaiyu asked Ma Zhou to invest money, and Ma Zhou also asked Huaiyu to take care of it.

Wu Yu'e is very concerned about the family business, but she is also very relieved to hand it over to her brother. She is a gentle and virtuous woman. She is not greedy for money, but just wants to save more gifts and dowries for her children.

With Ma Zhou's current status as an official, especially the favor of the emperor, there are many people who want to bribe Ma Zhou and give gifts, especially after he has become the deputy censor of the censor, he has given more gifts.

An official under investigation sent a box of gold directly, but Ma Zhou directly refused.

The man didn't give up, so he added another box and sent it to Wu Yu'e, but Wu Yu'e ignored it.

Her greatest support for her husband is that she will never hold back, and she will never respond to all kinds of gifts, bribes, and entrustments.

She didn't even go to the gatherings of flower arrangements, tea tasting, and incense tasting held by the ladies of the noble families.

She now focuses on raising her youngest son, teaching her two daughters, and taking care of housework.

The huge change in status did not affect her original simplicity.

"If you want to eat something else, my sister will make it for you."

"I'm full, my sister's cooking is so delicious, I ate a big bowl, and the yuqian was fried tender."

In the eyes of the eldest sister, no matter Huaiyu is now the prime minister and respected by everyone, but in her eyes, it is still the little Erlang she hugged and carried on her back, the little boy she brought to get married. follower.

Although she had lost her brother for nine years, and those nine years were also the most difficult and difficult days for her, but after all, the clouds will see the moon.

"Da Lang doesn't know what to do in Shaozhou."

From Chang'an to Guangzhou, it takes a full five thousand miles.

Shaozhou, which is in the south of Wuling, is a place that makes most people in Chang'an change their colors.

"Brother is doing well in Shaozhou, and the Meiguan Ancient Road in Dayuling has been repaired,"

"It's fixed so soon?"

"Actually, it's only a few tens of miles away. The most difficult thing to repair is a section of valley. This time, not only Shaozhou came to repair it, but the imperial court set up a project. The sage ordered the Ministry of Industry to help. Don't dare to neglect, it will be fast."

What Wu Huaiyu said was simple, but in fact, it took a lot of effort to build this road.

With the full support of the imperial court, they even specially transferred a batch of gunpowder from Shenjifang to blow up rocks.And Wu Huaiyu organized a group of nobles and relatives to go to mines, and they also paid for people to help build roads together.

Otherwise, how could it be fixed so quickly.

The rapid opening of the Meiguan in Dalingling is also the high efficiency that surprised the emperor of Chang'an. He also specially gave Wu Huaiyi a commendation for the governor.

The governor of Shaozhou, the fourth rank, directly gave Zijin.

There is another Zijin in the Wu family.

Once the Meiguan Road is connected, it is now convenient for Jiangnan to Lingnan. The Ganjiang River is connected to the Pearl River, and a new golden commercial road has emerged. The sucrose from the Feng family, the Xian family, the Chen family, the Ning family, and the Qiu family in Jiaozhou are the first batch of sucrose to pass through this Meiguan road. Off-road merchandise.

The Chang'an United Mining Firm organized by the Wu family also officially started mining in the mountains of Qianzhou in the south of the Yangtze River and Shaozhou in the south of the Lingnan Mountains on both sides of Meiguan.

The imperial court also built the Danquan Copper Mine by the Danquan of Censhui in Shaozhou. Iron materials extracted from the Lingnan Iron Mine are flowing to Shaozhou through the Pearl River, where they are leached into copper by Wu's secret method.

The establishment of the Censhuidan copper mine also promoted the mining of Lingnan iron ore.

Shaozhou, which was originally a remote frontier state, suddenly became extremely lively, with new commercial routes, and a continuous stream of goods, and new mines were being built, and a large number of miners poured in, making the price of goods in Shaozhou very low. Give it a lot of lift.

Wu Huaiyi, the governor, is very busy now, but his political achievements are also soaring.

"Lingnan lychees will be ripe soon, brother said he would send some to us soon."

"Fresh lychees? How can they be sent four or five thousand miles away? It will take a month or two on the way, and they will go bad soon?"

"Water and land alternate along the way, delivered by fast horses and express boats, along the way, prepare ice cubes in advance, change the ice all the time, and deliver fresh ice. It takes about eleven or two days to go from Guangzhou to Chang'an. If you bring branches, it is better to send them. Fresh."

Wu Yu'e was amazed, although the noble family can use ice in summer, but the ice is stored in the ice cellar in winter, and the cost is not low. It takes [-] or [-] days to travel [-] miles, at least [-] miles per day.

"Isn't the cost of eating lychees too high?"

"Well, the cost of transporting it from Guangzhou to Chang'an is indeed quite high."

Anyway, Wu Huaiyu had figured it out. It took four hundred miles a day, nearly five thousand miles in eleven or twelve days, and the lychees had to be kept fresh. They could only use double-layer refrigerators, with ice cubes on the outer layer and lychees in the inside. To ensure the supply of ice cubes, the ice must be changed before the ice melts, basically every [-] to [-] miles, almost every station.

It is necessary to arrange for people to take over the delivery every few tens of miles, especially to prepare horses and boats in advance, so that they can run around without sleep.

But each horse can only hold two jars at most, because ice needs to be added, so there can only be fifty lychees with branches in one jar, and the two jars can only hold a hundred pieces, which is about four catties.

This speed keeps changing horses along the way, and the cost is extremely high.

Not to mention having to change players midway.

There is also the need to use boats, and the cost of ice in summer is also high in Lingnan and Jiangnan.

In short, after this trip, if it is guaranteed to deliver ten horses, if there is no loss in the end, it will be a thousand pieces, forty catties.

But it costs at least a thousand guan.

A fresh lychee from Guangzhou in the south of Lingnan is delivered to Chang'an within [-] days, and each piece will be discounted to [-] yuan.

This is still a private organization of nobles, well-prepared and efficient. If the government is to send it, the various costs will have to be at least three to five times higher.

The eldest sister was stunned when she heard that a fresh lychee from Lingnan would cost [-] yuan to send to Chang'an.

"Don't ask Da Lang to give it to you. It's too extravagant. After so much hard work, I just want to eat a Lingnan lychee."

"Actually, it's nothing. A thousand lychees are sent as a tribute to the emperor, and some are distributed to the nobles and relatives of Chang'an, so that everyone can try something new."

It can also show the strength of the Wu family. In [-] days, not only will the Lingnan lychees be sent to Chang'an, but the key is to keep them fresh. This is not only about having money, but also about being skilled and efficient.

Let the nobles in Chang'an also know the good things in Lingnan, and let everyone pay more attention to Lingnan.

(End of this chapter)