Zhang Lun also became a little worried because of this. He was not worried about himself, but he was very worried that Qin Song would be implicated.
But no matter how worried he was, since he wanted to stay in the capital as an official, he had to have his own house and servants even if he didn't want to. He couldn't always live in his son-in-law's house and use his servants. Although Qin Song's father Qin Shoushan also
He is welcome to live in the Qin family. Senior officials of the second rank are allocated houses by the court and do not need him to buy them. The only thing left is to buy some slaves, both for his own convenience and to fill up the facade. Zhang Lun declined Qin Song's kindness to give him a few people.
, I found out where the market was and planned to buy a few people someday.
He had not originally planned to buy slaves today, but there was a Jingwei stationed nearby, and his family members all lived near the camp. The commander of the Jingwei was an old friend of his. When he was visiting this friend, he accidentally mentioned this matter, and Zhang Lun
I thought it would be better to choose the day than to catch it, so I came here. On the way, I happened to meet Yu Qi who also wanted to buy a slave, so we came together.
The clerk in the shop saw that they spoke with foreign accents and that there were not many servants around them. He carefully observed their speech and behavior and judged that they were military generals who had just entered the capital from other places. Their official positions could not be higher than the third rank. Zheng.
On the surface, the third rank seems to be quite high. If he is a civil servant, he will definitely be treated grandly. However, when Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the official titles and grades, the rank of the generals was falsely high. The left and right governors of the Five Military Governor's Palace, who are equal to the six ministers, are the first rank, which is higher than the minister.
Two levels, so in everyone's mind, the official position of a military general is not that valuable, so when people treat military generals, their treatment is two or three levels lower than that of a civilian official. As for a fourth-level civil official, as long as he is not an official in charge of these shops,
Don't really care anymore.
So of course the waiter's attitude is still very good, but he is unwilling to compromise on the price, and Shopkeeper Liu is the same as him.
But while Zhang Lun was bargaining with Shopkeeper Liu, a waiter walked out of the door of the store, glanced at the servants following Zhang Lun, and was immediately startled: He had seen these people before, and they were all servants of the Qin Mansion.
, why would you follow this old hater from out of town?
He came forward to chat for a few words and learned that Zhang Lun was Qin Song's father-in-law. He immediately approached shopkeeper Liu and whispered to him. Shopkeeper Liu asked him to go to the backyard to tell Xiao Zhuo, while adjusting his tone, and in a few words he
I'm willing to give in.
Xiao Zhuo rushed over immediately and told Zhang Lun that six hundred guan was enough. Zhang Lun was a little hesitant, but Xiao Zhuo immediately cited various reasons and said that the price of 600 guan was just right.
Zhang Lun didn't know that the people in this shop had recognized the servants of the Qin Mansion, but he also felt that the shop had given him a lot of advantage, and he felt a little uneasy. But then he thought about it because he had paid.
Feeling something, he said: "Thank you very much to the store. Six hundred guan is just 600 guan."
Xiao Zhuo's smile became even brighter, and he asked the waiter to dress the more than thirty servants, and then said diligently: "It is difficult to accommodate these many servants in your home. Why don't you send five or six of them to your residence today, and the rest will come later?"
I'll deliver it every day." Then he said to Yu Qi again.
Zhang Lun thought that he was living in Qin Song's mansion now, so it was not easy to put all his servants in Qin's mansion. Although the imperial court also arranged accommodation for officials who came to Beijing on official business from other places, the area of public rental housing was not large, so there were so many servants.
He couldn't arrange it, so he handed over his hand and said: "Thank you very much to the store. But we didn't buy all these people. Today we will take away twelve people, and the rest will be temporarily stored in your store until I send someone to pick them up.
." As he said, he asked his entourage to take out a bag: "This is sixty taels of gold and fifteen hundred guan of banknotes, which is the money to buy these slaves. The expenses they kept in your store will be spent on these servants.
I'll check it out with your store after I take it back."
"Okay, we don't lack this kind of space in our store." Xiao Zhuo originally wanted to say that their expenses are not much, but then he thought about how he said at the beginning that the expenses of raising these people were not small.
The words didn't match, so I didn't say much.
Zhang Lun and Yu Zhen divided the slaves into different categories. Zhang Lun took eight of them and Yu Zhen took four, and left the Xiao family's shop.
At this time, Xiao Tong stepped forward and asked about the background of the two of them. When he heard that one of them was Qin Song's father-in-law, he remembered something and said, "Yes, I remember talking to Xue Xiyang when I was chatting, Qin Song's marriage is today."
Your Majesty personally acted as a matchmaker. Because Qin Song's eldest brother Qin Nan died in the battle of Mobei in the 28th year of Hongwu's reign, he later promised Qin Song the daughter of a commander in the north. It should be that commander who was transferred to the capital."
"How much more can you and Xue Xiyang talk about? It seems that you two have a good relationship." Xiao Zhuo noticed other aspects.
Xiao Tong regretted his mistake, but he couldn't take back what he said. He could only say: "Xue Xiyang was born as a military general after all. Although he is studying for the imperial examination now, he still has the temperament of a military general. It happens that I can also do martial arts, and I am taking the imperial examination with him.
They are the same, so the relationship is closer."
"It's true. How many scholars are good at martial arts? Most of those who are good at martial arts are from military general families. But even those who are admitted to the martial arts hall are required to be literate, and there are some who haven't even memorized the "Thousand-Character Classic", like
There are not many guards in the entire capital who are able to pass the examination as a scholar like Xue Xiyang. You happen to be good at martial arts, but you just fell in love with him." Xiao Zhuo said with a smile: "At first, your father didn't want you to practice martial arts.
, I’m afraid it will affect my studies, but now it seems that practicing martial arts is quite useful.”
He also joked: "If I had met someone like Xue Xiyang after passing the scholar examination, I wouldn't have wandered around in the world."
He and Xiao Tong were joking for a while, and then suddenly turned to the topic: "Since you are so compatible with Xue Xiyang, you should make friends with him even more. Naturally, you can't fall behind in studying. Even if Xue Xiyang fails to pass the examination and is a Jinshi studying in the Imperial College, as long as
Your Majesty will have a bright future through promotion, but you can't. The most important thing is to study hard."
"Yes, Uncle Six." Xiao Zhuo spoke so seriously, and he could only agree like this.
Xiao Zhuo nodded, and after thinking about it, there was nothing wrong. There were not many customers now, so he asked shopkeeper Liu to call all the clerks to express his gratitude to the clerks who were still working during the New Year on behalf of the Xiao family, and distributed a dozen taels to each of them.
Silver red envelope.
The clerks are all very happy. Now the number of clerks in the whole store is less than one-fifth of the usual number. They all really want to make money, otherwise they would go home to celebrate the New Year. Of course they are happy to hear that in addition to wages, there are extra red envelopes.
After distributing the red envelopes, Xiao Zhuo really had nothing to do this time, so he was about to take Xiao Tong back. But as soon as he walked a few steps towards the gate of the square, he ran into someone. Xiao Zhuo said hurriedly: "Master Chang, I wish you a happy new year.
Already."
"I also wish Brother Xiao Sixth New Year's greetings." The man also said something, and then said: "Who am I? I'm just a servant. I took the master's surname, but I don't dare to be called a master. Besides, we don't
You're quite familiar, just call me by my name."
Xiao Zhuo joked with him for a while and asked: "What, are you going to have a servant in your house? Why is it in the first month?"
"Master Jifeng is fifteen this year and is about to reach adulthood. The second master wants to teach him how to behave with others and arrange for several servants to follow him. Naturally, the personal ones will be chosen from the mansion, and the rough servants will buy two from the market.
In addition, Master Jifeng is fond of his companion, who has been with him since childhood, and plans to buy a family property in the capital for his companion and two servants."
"Although the ones sold in your store are a bit expensive, don't worry. The four people I bought this time also bought from you. You have to give me a little discount."
"Oh Brother Chang, unfortunately our store is sold out. You can go to the Zheng family's store to buy it."
"All sold out?" The man was a little skeptical: "Is business so good in the first month of the year?"
"Two military generals came just now, probably from other places and just came to Beijing, and bought all the rest. Because business was so bad in the first month of previous years, we didn't prepare much, so the new servants had to be transferred from the Shanghai Shipping Department. These days
There won't even be one in the sky." Xiao Zhuo said.
"Then I'll go to Zheng's house and have a look. I hope there will be good products."
Xiao Zhuo said a few more words to him and was about to say goodbye; but the man suddenly remembered something and said to him: "Brother Xiao, there is something I almost forgot. Didn't your family want to leave from Shanghai?"
Is the Shipping Department bringing in goods? I want to bring in someone who doesn’t understand Chinese at all and doesn’t know Chinese characters. My master wants it. Remember, it must be someone who doesn’t understand Chinese and doesn’t know Chinese characters at all. If you buy it back, you’ll find out
It doesn’t matter if you can understand Chinese characters.”
"Brother Chang, don't worry, there will definitely be no problem. Our Xiao family has been doing business for so many years, and this kind of problem has never happened before." Xiao Zhuo assured him, patting his chest, and then asked if he had any other requirements.
"You can't look ugly, you should be fifteen or sixteen years old, not too big, not too small, and have a well-proportioned body..." He made many more requests.
Xiao Zhuo was a little surprised when he heard this. He originally thought that the Chang family was buying a servant who was responsible for cleaning the room where confidential documents were stored, so he must not understand Chinese and not know Chinese characters. But there are so many requirements for appearance and age, so there are some
Strange.
He couldn't help but ask. Seeing that there was no one around, the servants of the Chang Mansion said to him softly: "Years ago, the current emperor asked the second master to enter the palace, but he didn't know what he ordered. After he came back, the second master spent the whole day thinking about things, and even asked for help.
Many generals came to the house to discuss matters, and this servant was prepared to serve them tea and water while they discussed matters."
"As for what we are talking about, don't ask me. I don't know. Even if I knew, I wouldn't dare to say anything."
When Xiao Zhuo heard that the emperor was involved, he didn't dare to ask. He chatted with him casually and took Xiao Tong away.
But he was thinking in his mind: 'It seems that the emperor is going to make a big move against the generals in the next year, but I don't know what it will be. Fortunately, our family has nothing to do with the generals in the capital, so it should not be affected, but there is no guarantee.
It's better to have someone inquire about it. If it involves the commanders of the several guard posts in Jiaxing Prefecture, make preparations as soon as possible.'
'But we can't involve Xiao Tong. Even if the Xue family definitely has news, we can't let him pry.'
