During this time, when Liu'er was drinking with Han Daotai, Han Daotai said three or four times in front of Cheng Xin that it would be a pity for Liu'er to be an outhouse and confined in Chaifei courtyard. She can sing, dance and coax. As a human being, you should be a fake mother in charge of a brothel, and then you will not give in to your talents.
Han Daotai also patted Cheng Xin on the shoulder and told him sincerely that the great ancestor had set up brothels all over the Qinhuai River and collected a lot of money from flower taxes. Now the ports of Songjiang, Dengzhou and Tianjin in the south are open like Yuegang in Fujian. After the ships arrived at Shanhai Town and then headed outside the customs, merchants gathered far more than in the past. Among them were many relatives and nephews of officials from the capital and officials from other provinces. Not only were they rich, but they also had a collection called "The Book of Prostitution" on the market. of fans. Their prostitutes pay the most attention to both sex and fine arts. Like Shanhai Town and Datong Mansion, in addition to private houses and crooked prostitutes, they also have large brothels where they can get high-quality goods. The money is easy to come by and throw away. A happy businessman will spend a lot of money.
Every time Han Daotai said it, the fire in Liu'er's heart grew stronger. She was born into a family of farmers. Her father attended a private school in the village for several years and also taught his daughter how to read and sing. Liu Er originally felt that not to mention the shacks and private houses at the port, it was the small tile-roofed courtyard where Cheng Xin entered. It's not a place I'd really like to stay.
Liu Er insinuated Cheng Xin and said that if her benefactor was afraid of the power of the Yue family, she would not be able to go to the Cheng family in Dengzhou to be a decent concubine. It would be better for her benefactor to follow Han Daotai's advice and jointly build Shanhai Town with Master Daotai. A serious fireworks place, let me be the mother in charge.
Cheng Xin sneered at this, threw in an extra small ingot, and dismissed her Qingyun, oh no, Qinglou ambition.
Today, Liu'er, who was full of thoughts of helping the emperor to make meritorious deeds, was also shunned by Cheng Xin, and saw that the sparrows who used to look up to her had bad luck in a few days, as if they were flying to the Fairy Mountain of the Queen Mother of the West. Like a bluebird.
Liu'er's frustration escalated into resentment, resentment escalated into jealousy, and the jealousy eventually turned into a burning, desperate cruelty.
She saw Cheng Xin walking towards Han Daotai's horse with a flattering look and bowing before him, showing how conscientious a tax collector she was and that the acquaintance of Youxu was still patrolling around Chaoguan.
Liu'er gritted her teeth in the night and rushed into the circle of lanterns. She also rushed into the power of male power to pursue the meaning of her existence.
"Master Han, Master Han, the common people came to report the news," Liu Er shouted loudly, "The merchants from other towns kidnapped dozens of kiln girls from the pier! No, no, they haven't escaped yet, they are right there. side!"
…
Outside the city gate, with torches brightly lit, Han Daotai stared at the plainly dressed woman in her thirties.
When Zheng Haizhu took out the survey document he received from the Ministry of War and handed it to Han Daotai's entourage, he looked at Cheng Xin.
Cheng Xin shook his head and looked helpless, as if he wanted to defend himself, but how could he speak at this moment?
Zheng Haizhu's eyes turned away and stayed on Liu'er's face.
Moments ago, when she was surrounded by soldiers, Li Huaihua recognized Liu Er at a glance in shock and fear, and in a few words, she quickly told Zheng Haizhu the origin of this girl.
Zheng Haizhu didn't take a long look at this young and persistent informer.
Such a character was not worthy of igniting her anger at this moment, let alone occupying her thoughts.
"Oh, this is Mrs. Zheng, not an ordinary businessman." Han Daotai finished reading the document, and his greetings were cold.
After he identified the woman in front of him, who could not see the evil spirit, with the Zheng family who was well-known in the court officialdom, he glanced at the men with embroidered spring knives and showed off their Jinyiwei waist badges. There was no doubt that it was fake, but He, Han Daotai, is a fourth-rank official and is higher than the other party, so he still needs to show off his prestige.
"Why did Mrs. Zheng take away so many households in this town?" Han Daotai asked solemnly.
After all, he is a dignified civil servant with military skills. He cannot appear to be condescending to interfere with the escape of a prostitute from his private nest. He must start with his household registration.
Zheng Haizhu had let Xu San feel the details in the past few days, and he knew what he was doing, so he stepped closer and said warmly: "Mr. Han, the Western cannons in the firearms need fortune tellers to prepare for battle. Most of the fortune tellers under my command are women, so they load the weapons." , firemen and riflemen, and I also want to recruit some women with big feet and courage, so the march will be much cheaper."
When she said this, her voice became three points lower: "Mr. Han, I also asked about it. Although their husbands, father and brothers were guardsmen, after their death, I wonder if it was because there were no other men in the family, so their land was also The house is gone, the household has been closed, and he has become nothing more than a refugee, so..."
Han Daotai was stunned.
The guard system collapsed, and the land was annexed by the Jin gentry. Not to mention Ji Liao, the whole Ming Dynasty was the same. What was so strange was that Han Daotai did not expect that the household registrations of these women would also be cancelled.
To be precise, how can a fourth-grade official have time to care about this.
I heard the woman just a few feet away calmly add: "So, in that case, I will take them to join the army, not only to recruit refugees, but also because their father, brother, husband died before they could serve the country, and they also want to comfort them." I, the official of the Ming Dynasty, have a healthy spirit in the sky. Long live the Lord, if he knew that our Ming Dynasty has such good and heroic people, he would be extremely happy."
Han Daotai glanced at the group of women behind Zheng Haizhu who were cowering and bowing their heads. His face did not change color, and he looked calm and dignified, but he was not caring about being gentle in his heart. He had already cursed several times.
This person surnamed Zheng really knows how to talk about the truth on the table. In addition, if there is any flaw in the household registration, he and she will take the pen and ink lawsuit to the imperial court just for this nonsense. The chance of winning is not good. Let yourself lose your official reputation.
However, this bad thing is not something that can be laughed off.
If he lets them go like this tonight and spreads the news, won't he be even more embarrassed?
Besides, these bitches, if they are good enough, they will come back and trick the fellow villagers away. Who will take the money and silk?
Just when Han Daotai was about to rely on his rank to say, "I have to ask someone to verify their household registration," a middle-aged man in official robes came up from behind him and bowed his hand to Zheng Haizhu. , said: "I just heard from Mrs. Zheng that your headquarters is in Chongming County, South Zhili. If Madam wants to recruit women as camp soldiers, it is really unbelievable that she comes to North Zhili to choose."
Zheng Haizhu used the torch to shine and saw clearly that there was a quail on the patch of the other party's official robe. Then he raised his eyes and said kindly to the ninth-grade civil servant: "What's wrong? Back then, Qi Shaobao was the commander of the state guard, wasn't he also there? Soldiers recruited from Yiwu? Northerners can go to the south to recruit troops, why can't we southerners come to the north to recruit troops? Does this official, with a distinguished surname, work for the capital or a prefecture or county?"
The ninth-grade official's eyes were as bright as fire, and he spoke with a Cantonese Mandarin accent, as cold as ice: "Your Excellency, Yuan Chonghuan, the one-year term of observing the administration of the Ministry of Works has expired, and I have been newly assigned to the Ministry of Works to record things."
