Nancheng, Lvdiaozi Hutong.
The north city of the capital is where high-ranking officials and nobles live.
Nancheng is the residence of children from poor families, businessmen, people who drive carts, sell pulp, farm and collect dung.
Children from poor families are not poor. It refers to the descendants of noble nobles who are in decline, the kind who have no nobles to attack. For example, Chang Feng.
Later generations often say that "it is difficult for a poor family to produce a noble son." In fact, the poor are confused with the poor.
A poor family must at least have a door. At least there should be a single-family courtyard house in the capital. In the words of later generations, you must have a villa within the third ring road.
After getting off work, Chang Feng led Hu Zi to the entrance of the alley. It was already the moonlight above the willow branches.
The night market in Beijing is very prosperous. On a street outside Lvdiaozi Hutong, there are dozens of stalls, large and small.
"The candied haws on ice is coming..."
"The pork head meat is delicious..."
The crisp hawking sound can be heard from three streets apart.
Chang Feng bought a pound of pig head meat, two pounds of cakes, and a candied haws. Let the three stall owners each wrap them in lotus leaves. Tie with string. Carrying it into the donkey diaozi alley.
Chang Feng's home is deep in Ludiaozi Hutong, a neat courtyard house. That was the only property his father left to him and his sister.
The family hired a woman named Huang to take care of Chang Feng's six-year-old sister Tangtang during the day.
Tangtang was playing with a goat's crutch in the yard at night. Mrs. Huang stood beside her and watched.
Seeing that Chang Feng was back, Mrs. Huang made a blessing ceremony: "Mr. Chang is on a mission."
Chang Feng said: "Yeah. I'm on a business trip. You go home."
Tangtang immediately hugged Huzi: "Haha. Huzi, the meat you ate for lunch, I left the bones for you!"
Huzi belongs to the Laizhou red dog breed, which is similar to the wolfdog of later generations and is very fierce.
When he saw Tangtang, he was as docile as a rabbit, wagging his tail and rubbing his head against Tangtang's chin.
Little Tangtang is innocent and cute. Looks like a porcelain doll. The big eyes are twinkling, very beautiful.
Chang Feng shook the lotus leaf bag in his hand: "I bought pork head meat and your favorite candied haws."
Tangtang is a snack foodie. When he heard that the pig head meat was disappointing, he drooled: "Okay, okay! Tangtang will help brother pick the garlic, and brother will make the garlic paste for Tangtang!"
Chang Feng changed out of his soap clothes and put on cloth clothes. The brother and sister were sitting on the threshold, busy picking and pounding garlic. The moonlight shines gently on the siblings' faces.
Tangtang peeled the garlic while looking up at the bright moon: "Brother, is dad really in the sky?"
Chang Feng said: "Here he is. Maybe he is sitting on the moon, drinking wine, looking at us right now."
After pounding the garlic, it’s time to eat.
The pork head meat was placed on a colorful plate from the Jingde official kiln. Minced garlic is served in colorful fighting cock cups. As for the container for holding the flatbread, it is a Ru kiln celadon sea bowl from the Song Dynasty.
Although the Changfeng branch is a branch of the Marquis family, some of the good porcelain from the Marquis Mansion has been passed down from its ancestors.
"Tangtang eats."
"Brother, let's eat."
The brother and sister began to feast. Tangtang's mouth is full of oil.
In the Ming Dynasty, the only pancake you can eat every day is pig head meat, which is definitely considered first-class.
Today, famine is raging in the world, afflicting the poor people.
Last year there was a severe drought in Shandong and people died of hunger thousands of miles away. The number of people who died of starvation reported to the emperor by the Ministry of Household Affairs was 352, with some parts to the whole.
Jin Yiwei secretly investigated the actual number of deaths, which was about 40,000.
Naturally, the purpose of investigating this number was not to report it to the emperor. Wantong, the big shopkeeper of Jinyiwei, relied on this figure to extort eight thousand taels of silver from the governor of Shandong at once.
There is a folk nursery rhyme: Chenghua Dynasty, ten years of prosperity, ten years of bearishness.
During the first ten years of Emperor Chenghua's reign. He reused Shang Ren, Peng Shi, Li Xian and other virtuous ministers. Great rule of the world.
In the past ten years, Emperor Chenghua reused a lot of mediocre ministers and evil officials. The country's power is declining year by year.
Of course, who the emperor favors and how powerful the country is have little to do with Chang Feng being a positive seventh-grade general.
What he is worried about now is that he will not be able to hand over thirty thousand copies to Wei Li.
Although the official position of Jinyiwei General Banner is small, it has great weight. In addition, he is engaged in the job of confiscating homes, so he can get a lot of "outsiders".
The annual salary of the general banner is forty-five taels of silver. The gray income of "wailuo'er" can reach nearly 200 taels.
If you lose this official position, you won't be able to eat even the whole grains and steamed buns, not to mention the pork head meat.
What's more, this seventh-grade official hat is the only way for him to realize his ambition.
The more Chang Feng thought about it, the more worried he became, and the chopsticks in his hand stopped in mid-air.
There was only one piece of pork head meat left on the colorful plate.
As soon as Tangtang picked it up with chopsticks, she realized it was the last piece. She said in a sweet voice, "Wow! It's the last piece! Brother, eat it."
Chang Feng said casually: "You are growing taller. You can eat it."
Tangtang stood up and fed the pig head meat to Chang Feng's mouth: "Brother is working hard to raise Tangtang! Brother, eat it!"
Chang Feng took the pig head meat into his mouth and said, "Well, Tangtang is good. You are so sensible. It's delicious."
The brother and sister had enough to eat and drink. Tangtang suddenly remembered something: "Ah! How could I forget! Sister Liu Mansion asked the maid to send you a letter!"
After speaking, Tangtang took out a letter from the hat tube placed at the foot of the wall and handed it to Chang Feng.
The sister of the Liu family she was talking about was Liu Xiaoyan, the daughter of Liu Bingyi, the chief envoy of Northern Zhili.
Before Liu Bingyi failed to become a Jinshi, he was a neighbor of the Chang family. Chang Feng has been playing with Liu Xiaoyan since he was a child, and they can be described as childhood sweethearts.
At that time, the Chang family was on good terms with the Liu family. The two parties agreed to have a baby kiss.
However, ten years ago, Liu Bingyi, a middle-aged high school scholar, was elected to the Hanlin Academy. Moved away with Liu Xiaoyan.
In recent years, Liu Bingyi has been ingratiating himself with Liu Ji, the "Mian Mian Pavilion Elder", and joined the sect, rising step by step to become a vassal in the province.
He was a snob, and felt that the Chang family was just a sideline of the nobility, with no title or family background, so he simply broke the engagement.
Liu Xiaoyan is so beautiful that she will be admired all over the country. Those who proposed marriage to the Liu family naturally crossed the threshold and were all children of high-ranking officials.
But Liu Xiaoyan resisted with death. Want me to get married? Don't blame me for cutting my neck with scissors and dyeing my wedding dress red with blood!
Liu Bingyi was helpless. He had to postpone his daughter's marriage. But she would never let go and not allow her to marry Chang Feng.
Liu Xiaoyan is the same age as Chang Feng, and is already in her twenties. This has become an old thing in the capital.
But in order to wait for Chang Feng, she would rather stay in the boudoir and watch her age grow old.
Chang Feng opened the letter. Liu Xiaoyan said in the letter that her father had told her about her relatives again.
She still used her old method of fighting with death. This family relationship is naturally yellow. She asked Chang Feng to work peacefully in Jinyiwei and seek a promotion as soon as possible so that she could propose marriage to her father and marry her.
Chang Feng smiled bitterly after reading the letter.
It’s still rising! It’s up to you whether Jin Yiwei’s waist card can be kept or not!
Chang Feng thought to himself: It's a pity that Cai Zhong used to be a poor official in Taichang Temple. It was only last year that he fell in love with the prince and was recommended by the prince as the Minister of Household Affairs.
If he had been a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue for ten or eight years, thirty thousand taels of silver would be more than enough. If I want to keep my official position, I can only hope that Cai Zhong is a huge corrupt man and has a good way of amassing money!
