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Volume 3 Spreading Wings Chapter 226 Visiting Zhongzhou

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    Chapter 226 Visiting Zhongzhou

    The next morning, Wen Shen, who had nothing to do, wandered around this city that blends Chinese and Western things.  Mi:Mi Piao Astronomy Network Mi Wang Mi left the inner city, entered the outer city, and walked slowly along the street.

    In addition to shops on both sides of the street, there are also a large number of small vendors setting up stalls on the roadside.  At an intersection, Wen Shen unexpectedly found a stall selling breakfast.  Chinese crispbreads, soy milk, and steamed buns, Middle Eastern steamed buns, mutton, and milk, and Western breads and cheeses are all very comprehensive.

    Seeing this, Wen Shen was startled and murmured: "It's not that the material life in ancient times was very poor and they didn't even eat breakfast. Why are there so many? Buy breakfast."

    After careful observation, I found that most of the people who came to have breakfast were Song people from the inner city.  Come to think of it, except for people from the Song Dynasty, how could anyone else be willing to spend money to have such a sumptuous breakfast?

    Ding dong dong dong¡­

    A young man in Zhongshan uniform rode a bicycle, passed by Wen Shen, and stopped in front of a stall.  After parking the car, I ordered a tofu puff and started eating it.

    Wen Shen touched his stomach and felt a little hungry, so he came to a stall and shouted: "Shopkeeper, here are three steamed buns and a bowl of soy milk."

    After finishing speaking, he found a free table and sat down.

    Not long after, a white girl held a bun in one hand and soy milk in the other hand, placed it in front of Wen Shen, and said in broken Song dialect: "Guest officer, your bun and soy milk."

    Wen Shen turned around and looked at the girl. She looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old. She had just grown up and was still very young.  Then he looked up at the boss who looked like a Song Dynasty man who was making sesame seed cakes, and asked loudly: "Shopkeeper, how long have you been here?"

    The shopkeeper looks to be about thirty years old, wearing a Chinese tunic suit, his hair is shaved short, his face is clean and beardless, and he is very energetic.  Hearing Wen Shen's question, he smiled and said: "I have been here for almost a year. I originally came to build the canal, but later I found that doing this is much more profitable than building the canal. You know, many people from China are not used to the food here.  , so my restaurant specializes in Chinese dishes and snacks, and the business is extremely good. Hahaha."

    Wen Shen picked up a bun and took a bite. The meat filling felt good.  It should be made of mutton, and it is accompanied by chopped lotus root, which is very fragrant and tender.

    "Shopkeeper, your buns are really good. It would be even better if you had some hot sauce."

    "Yes, yes," the shopkeeper said loudly, and then shouted to the girl, "Xiangmei, quickly serve this guest a plate of hot sauce."

    "The steamed buns with hot sauce are really delicious." Wen Shen chuckled, "I haven't eaten so much in a long time. Shopkeeper, give me three more steamed buns."

    The shopkeeper smiled and said: "My guest, you have a great appetite. You look very friendly. Did you just come here yesterday?"

    Wen Shen nodded and said, "Yeah, I heard it's easier to make money here, so I came to take a look."

    The shopkeeper put a basket of wrapped buns in the pot, then came to sit down at Wen Shen's table, wiped his hands with the towel tied around his waist, and said quietly: "It's much easier to make money here than in China.  Back home, people like me are grandsons. Here, hey, those white people and black people treat us like uncles."

    The shopkeeper glanced at the white girl and said, "This girl's parents ask me to find a Song Dynasty person for her every day so that she can marry into our Great Song Dynasty and rise to the sky."

    Wen Shen chuckled and joked: "If you harvest it, you will get the rich water and not let it go to other people's fields."

    Hearing this, the shopkeeper hurriedly took a look inside the shop and whispered: "Sir, please don't talk nonsense. If my wife hears it, I will definitely not get any good results."

    Wen Shen Yile said, "I can't tell, you are quite afraid of guilt. Then why did you think of taking in this girl?"

    "It's not like the business is good, but we don't have enough manpower." The shopkeeper said with some pride, "In a couple of days, I plan to recruit a few. Girls like this can be paid one yuan a month for food and accommodation."

    "One dollar? It's almost one tael of silver. It seems like it's really easy to make money in this place." Wen Shen thought to himself.

    At this moment, a customer stood up to check out.

    "Sir, please take your time and get busy."

    ¡­¡­

    After breakfast and paying the bill, Wen Shen continued to wander along the street.

    Suddenly there was a shouting sound behind him. Wen Shen looked back and saw a group of white people holding swords and escorting hundreds of black people who were tied up and slowly walking forward.

    Seeing that the man standing in front of him was a Song Dynasty man, the white man in the leader smiled hurriedly and said: "I have met the Lord of Song Dynasty."

    Wen Shen was startled and said with a smile, "You speak Song very well."

    The man chuckled and said, "I have put a lot of effort into learning Song dialect. However,It's well worth it.  Since I learned Song dialect, my income has been dozens of times higher than before, and I have a lot of extra money from time to time.  No, I took this group of people to the market in the north to sell these black slaves.  "

    "Oh, I just have nothing to do to go to the market."

    Soon, everyone came to the slave market in the north.

    As soon as the team appeared, a group of people gathered around and looked around at the black slaves.  Soon, hundreds of black slaves were sold out.  Wen Shen exclaimed: "This black slave is so in demand."

    The white man was counting the silver coins in his hand. Hearing this, he raised his head and said with a smile: "Although it costs sixty silver coins to buy a black slave, you can earn ten silver coins a month by dragging such a strong black slave to the canal.  It will pay back its capital in half a year and double the money in a year. Of course it is very popular.

    Wen Shen secretly calculated in his mind that if a black slave cost sixty yuan, how could there be five hundred in this group? That would be thirty thousand yuan, which was a huge sum of money.

    "Your business is good"

    The white man said with some worry: "I don't know how many days this good life will last. When the canal is repaired, so much labor may not be needed. By then, life will be difficult."

    Wen Shen smiled lightly and said, "There is no need to worry unfounded. There will be many places to use labor in the future."

    When the white man heard this, his eyes lit up, he came close to Wen Shen and asked in a low voice: "Do you have any inside information? It must be true. You are from Song Dynasty. You may have information that we don't know. Can you reveal a little bit?  ah."

    Wen Shen looked at his expectant eyes and said, "Have you noticed that there are more and more steam ships in the Song Dynasty?"

    "Yes, I discovered it." The white man nodded and asked with some confusion, "What does this have to do with labor?"

    "These steamships require a lot of coal"

    "Oh, I know." The white man laughed, "Digming coal mines does require a lot of space."

    ¡­¡­

    Leaving the slave market in the north, Wen Shen came to the west gate.

    There is an artificial ditch at the west gate, which leads to the distance with twists and turns.  The ditch is not wide, about six meters wide.  The water in the ditch is clear, and there are many people on both sides fetching water for washing.

    Wen Shen stepped forward to ask and found out that the water in this ditch was drawn from the Nile River and was the main source of fresh water for consumption in Zhongzhou.  There used to be a lake near Zhongzhou, but it was later used as a canal waterway, and the fresh water in it gradually became salty.  In order to solve the drinking water problem, Zhang Long built a diversion canal from Zhongzhou to the Nile River.

    The ditch has branches from Zhongzhou in the north and south directions, supplying fresh water to Xiaguan City and Shangguan City respectively.  The aqueduct to Xiaguan City has been built, but the one to the north to Shangguan City has not yet been built.

    A group of white children who were taking a bath in the ditch saw a Song Dynasty man wearing Zhongshan clothing standing by the ditch. They all came ashore and gathered around the man. They stretched out their little hands and shouted: "Tangsugar"

    Wen Shen was startled, shook his head, and said with amusement in his heart: "These little boys really have eyes. It seems that they have not done this for the first time. But from the side, it can also be seen that the people of Song Dynasty do have great status and wealth here."

    How could Wen Shen have candy on his body at this time, but seeing these expectant eyes, he touched his pocket and found two silver coins in it, so he took it out, threw it to them, and shouted at the same time: "Go and buy it yourselves."  !¡±

    oh

    The children shouted excitedly, and then followed the child who picked up the silver coins to the store to buy candy bars.

    ¡­¡­

    It was already noon when we returned to the inner city government office.

    Seeing Zhang Long and Chao Chao drinking tea and chatting in the garden pavilion, they walked over, found a chair and sat down, and said with a smile: "You guys are very comfortable."

    Zhang Long chuckled, "I haven't seen Brother Wang for a long time, so we had a lot of fun chatting."

    Wen Shen picked up a tea cup, poured a cup, and took a sip, "That's right. I went out for a walk in the morning and found that you manage Zhongzhou well."

    ¡°It¡¯s all as it should be¡±

    Although Zhang Long said this, he was still extremely happy in his heart, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

    At this time, Chao Chao praised: "I just chatted with Brother Zhang and learned that Zhongzhou can now collect more than 300,000 yuan in taxes every month, and this number is increasing every month."

    "Compared with the money spent to build the canal, it is nothing." Zhang Long said modestly.

    Wen Shen smiled and said, "You don't have to be so modest. I think you have done a good job. It is not something ordinary people can do to build the canal to this extent in less than two years. Money is meant to be spent."  . People who don¡¯t know how to spend money will definitely not make money.¡±

    "By the way, many people want to buy the Arms Commission during this period."?Can it be sold in large quantities?  If arms can be sold in large quantities, it will be easy to make tens of millions a year.  "

    "You have to remember that things are more valuable when they are scarce. No matter what it is, if it is too much, it is worthless." Wen Shen thought for a moment, "After we have acquired all the delta areas in the west, we can sell arms on a large scale."

    Zhang Long slapped his thigh and shouted: "By the way, the envoy from Baldwin II is still in Zhongzhou. They said they wanted to purchase a large amount of arms. They have been busy welcoming the commission these days and forgot about it."  He looked at Wen Shen and said, "Commissioner, why don't you meet me?"

    Wen Shen thought for a while, nodded and said: "Okay, let's set the time in the afternoon."

    "No problem, I'll make arrangements now."

    Having said that, Zhang Long went down to arrange for people to rule over the envoys of Baldwin II.

    Chapter 226 Visiting Zhongzhou

    Chapter 226 Visiting Zhongzhou, go to the website @ya
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