When Zheng Haizhu came to the south of the Yangtze River in the late Ming Dynasty, he often listened to Yiyang tune in addition to Kun tune.
When he was in Songjiang, Zhang Dai, who studied opera intensively, predicted to Zheng Haizhu that Yiyang tune was a high-quality tune and several famous troupes were willing to adapt to the northern language, so it would be more popular in the north than Kunqu tune.
This time, Zheng Haizhu was quite surprised to see that Prince Lu's Mansion invited the Yiyang Opera troupe.
As someone who has been traveling around for two generations, what she is most willing to appreciate is the integration of cultures and an open mind.
But now, she only listened to a few high-pitched words from Fang Band's lead singer, and interrupted him, asking him to go with Zhu Yipai's personal entourage to the Jingguo General's Mansion to thank Zhu Yipai and his wife.
Wu Bondang understood that Zheng Haizhu wanted to take advantage of today's events to get acquainted with him in front of His Highness.
He immediately gave the two guards some benefits and asked them to lead the way to Yanzhou Official Posthouse so that Zheng Haizhu could pick up the gifts.
After all this trouble, it was already dark when they arrived in front of Zhu Yipai's mansion.
But the old woman who was in charge soon came out and took the three adults and one child to the small warm pavilion in the atrium, and ordered the little maid to bring a food box, which contained pancakes filled with tofu skin and pork stuffing, white flour steamed buns, spicy spicy soup, etc. Please politely invite Zheng Haizhu and others to have dinner first.
The mother-in-law was very kind-hearted. Although she was very dignified, she gently told Teacher Fang to feed the baby slowly.
After everyone finished eating, the mother-in-law left Nuange. After a while, she led Zhu Yipai and Guo over.
Behind Guo was a wet nurse, holding a baby girl who was older than Xiaotang.
Zheng Haizhu saw that the girl's appearance was that of Zhu Yipai, who had shrunk several sizes.
"Yan'er," Zhu Yipai turned around and said, "This is the little sister that father and mother met today. Give her the cloth tiger."
Yan'er slipped from the nanny's arms and walked to Xiaotang and said, "My mother and I picked a big one. You can sleep with it at night. It will be very comfortable. With a tiger guarding you, no one dares to catch you." "
Leader Fang hurriedly grabbed Xiaotang and thanked her.
Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bangdang stepped forward at the right time and met Zhu Yipai and Guo.
Zheng Haizhu explained his relationship with Leader Fang and Xiaotang, naturally referring to his own experience in Jiangnan, and then opened the box and presented a handkerchief embroidered with landscapes, flowers and birds in Song Dynasty that best embodies the characteristics of Han Yuan embroidery.
Shandong's Lu embroidery is the most famous in the north, with bold and gorgeous colors and majestic patterns. It is also the hard work of skilled craftsmen of the past dynasties.
But everything has its own law of "distant fragrance and near smell". Guo has been used to seeing Lu embroidery since he was a child, and there is nothing new about it. At this moment, he suddenly saw that the Xuanhe painting calligraphy, which was highly praised by the royal family, was actually embroidered on the high-quality, The silk handkerchief looked like dancing thin clouds. I suddenly felt it was novel and elegant. I was full of praise for a moment. I picked up the handkerchief and gently rubbed the thread on it. I also asked some expert questions on how to cut silk.
Zheng Haizhu gradually became more confident.
Although Zhu Yipai has a strong personality and is prone to losing his temper in official matters, his inner class concept may not be very deep. Judging from the fact that he took the initiative to invite himself and Wu Bond to attend a banquet with Zhang Yaofang yesterday, as well as his attitude toward the servants and maids in the mansion. In terms of training, you can see it somewhat.
However, social interaction should also be done gradually.
Zheng Haizhu stared at the exquisite red copper basin of Rui Tan in the house, and did not intend to mention the coal in Chaitan Mountain in a hurry.
I and Wu Bondang will go investigate first.
…
"Miss Zheng, most of these fields and lakes belong to King Lu, and some of them were given by King Lu to princes and generals, or as dowries for princes and counties. The land is very fertile, and the lakes and ponds are very fertile. The output is also quite a lot.”
On the mule carriage from Yanzhou Fucheng to Chaitan Mountain in the east, Mu Zaohua pointed to the scenes on both sides and reported to Zheng Haizhu.
Zheng Haizhu looked at the fertile fields of the village and asked, "Who are the princes?"
"There are King Taixing, King Ningde, and King Changtai. However, the person who manages Zhuangzi the best is a general who controls the country, and is the legitimate son of King Taixing. In the village of this general, the fields and orchards are very neat, and there are It’s such a big deer park. A fellow villager said that when the deer antlers were cut, the general would personally come to see the deer antlers. Instead of taking the deer antlers back to the house, he would ask a drug dealer to collect the deer antlers in exchange for money. Several times, he encountered Lu Bei fleeing. of hungry people
, they gave porridge to provide disaster relief. "
Mu Zaohua answered fluently, but it was hard for her to remember the names of several princes so clearly.
While Zheng Haizhu was quite satisfied with the two intelligence agents, he couldn't help but sigh again. Among the princes' descendants, Zhu Yipai was indeed a bright sight.
In this generation of Lao Zhu's family, no matter those who live in the Forbidden City or the sects from all over the country, there are very few people who are not just worms waiting to die, who are keen on making money through diversified businesses, and who can treat the people well.
Wu Bondang, who was on the side, listened expressionlessly all the time.
Suddenly, he saw a large bluestone with the words "Yunshan Camp" engraved on the side of the road and asked, "Is there a garrison nearby?"
Mu Zaohua said: "Daniu and I also went to explore. There were three forts with the word "camp" along the way. They were all old and weak military households. They guarded the tombs of the previous kings of Lu. They were as powerful as General Qi. The camp is not the same thing. "
Mu Zaohua's tone became cautious and her eyes lowered.
After meeting a refugee that day and being severely reprimanded by Wu Bondang, she no longer dared to look into his eyes when talking to this "bureau chief."
Wu Bondang's eyebrows relaxed: "Why are you nervous? Your investigation this time was very meticulous. Didn't you see Miss Zheng nodding her head with satisfaction?"
Mu Zaohua bit her lower lip, and the corners of her mouth quickly turned up into a cheerful smile.
When the car arrived at Chai Tan Mountain, there was a strong smell of coke in the air.
Another intelligence officer, Li Daniu, pointed to the countless oval cocoon-like earthen kilns on the hilltop to the west and said: "Miss Zheng, the firewood cut from the mountain is transported into those kilns and burned into charcoal. The mountain belongs to the Lu Mansion, and the charcoal is only Send it to the Lu Mansion. Because the palace uses charcoal, it is very particular. There should be no firewood or wooden mouth, so as not to smoke when burned. Therefore, a single cave can only produce charcoal once every five or six days. But there are ten kilns in total, and the charcoal is produced in turn. In the afternoon every day, there are big mule carts going to Yanzhou City to transport charcoal."
Zheng Haizhu squinted at the terrain of Chaitan Mountain and asked Wu Bond, "How does it compare to the Capital Xishan Mountain?"
Wu Bangdang said: "If there is really coal underneath, we will have better luck digging it out than in Xishan. The mountain road here is gentle, but I don't know if the water will leak through it."
Zheng Haizhu said: "Let's go, according to what the guy at the Boshan Inn said, go east to look for the coal seedlings he mentioned.
Going up the small river in the east, I saw the bluestone array and dense forest that Boshan mentioned.
Walking further to the mountainside, you will see large pieces of shale.
Wu Bondang took out the coal prospecting guy.
A few black lumps are magnetite.
He found thick branches on the ground, tied them with magnets, and distributed them to several people.
But as a modern person, Zheng Haizhu doesn't really believe it.
How can coal be magnetic?
But since Wu Bondang said he had seen this method before and the innkeeper also said so, let’s give it a try.
The four found a large piece of shale and used magnetic sticks to probe around the rugged rocks.
After working hard for a long time, I tried many rocks and found no clues.
Zheng Haizhu thought for a while and said to Wu Bangdang: "Didn't the innkeeper say that their boss hired someone to dig coal secretly? We can just try to find their coal cave. Although the mountain is big, it is not steep, and most parts of it are unobstructed. , they must have dug holes near shale that can obscure the view."
Wu Bondang felt it made sense, nodded and said, "Let's go to the highest point first so we can see clearly."
Unexpectedly, the group of people had just walked a short distance along the mountain road when they heard shouts in front of them.
Soon four or five men in dirty clothes ran down, each carrying a large basket covered with Gebu.
Wu Bondang went up to meet him, cupped his hands and said, "Brothers, what's wrong?"
As he asked, he took a closer look. The men's hands were all black, and their clothes were stained with black ash.
This look was familiar to him.
Coal digger.
Among the men, the older one took a look at the Confucian scarf on Wu Bondang's head. He looked slightly evasive and said vaguely, "The people from Prince Lu's Palace are driving us down the mountain."
After saying that, he called his companions and ran away in a hurry.
Zheng Haizhu is very sensitive to language. She heard these people say "King Lu
"The pronunciation is different from the pronunciation of people inside and outside Yanzhou Fucheng, but it is somewhat similar to the Boshan guy.
She said without hesitation: "Let's go and take a look."
