Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 31 Get rich!
East to spring, two months in the blink of an eye, the frozen earth finally slowly warmed up, Song Qingshu came to this era is considered to have come to the second year, the second year of Chongzhen!

But this year is not much better than last year, the spring is still shivering with cold, and in two months, there are only two thin spring rains, after a long time of waking up, the Grain Rain only lasts for an hour or two, and spring rain is as expensive as oil, Looking at it now, Shaanxi will be hit by another severe drought next year. Many elderly people have already started to worry. Mr. Xing also shook his head with emotion. Fortunately, he didn't go out of the city to farm.

However, Song Qingshu's credit was not given to him, and he was hiding from farming, so he still had to follow along.

Sweet potatoes are almost sold out in spring, and as the weather warms up, coal burning for heating is much less. In the past, Song Qingshu would give a few copper coins to the children to pick up unburned coal cores, and then dig them out to make fuel. In the spring, fuel became a problem again.

Fortunately, there is a large garden behind the Foreign Monk Church.

In the last years of the apocalypse and the early years of Chongzhen, the Jesuits in Macau were invited by the capital to cast red cannons for the northwestern frontier defense of the Ming Dynasty. In return, the imperial court allowed the Jesuits to spread Catholicism in China. An area with temples built.

But after eating the fruit of wisdom, Adam and Eve, who knew how to dress and were shy, became the original sin. They really conflicted with the traditional Chinese Confucian dress etiquette. The devout men and women supported him in building a church, and they only built a broken wooden house, and it was strange to be alone. Old man Xing proposed to plant the land together, and the foreign monk agreed immediately.

The rectangular garden of about ten mu was planted with high-yield crops brought from Europe by foreign monks and passed down from America. At this time, the foreign monk became an instructor, directing Song Qingshu and others how to prepare and sow.

Song Qingshu had never done these tasks in his previous life, and he was quite interested when he came into contact with them at this time. For example, to plant potatoes, you need to buckle the sprouted potato triangles and bury them in the ground. Bury it in the sand, wait for the sweet potato to grow long sweet potato seedlings, then dig out from the root, and insert three seedlings in one bed to ensure the survival rate.

Corn sticks are fairly simple, just sowing seeds. At the beginning, Song Qingshu did it with gusto, and the little radish, Xing Hongniang, and Scarface went to the ditch one by one, but after just two rounds, this guy was tired Sweating profusely, lying on the ground pretending to be a dead dog.

"Hmph, look at your promise! It's not enough just for that!" While carefully burying the potato sprouts in the ground, Hongniang Xing was angrily poking her nose at Song Qingshu, but her nose was also glowing red at the moment Yes, there are little beads of sweat dripping on it, which looks quite playful.

But right now Song Qingshu really didn't have the heart to appreciate women, rubbed his shoulders and said with a bitter face: "It's not because you used too much force in the morning, it's all bruised here!"

These words are a bit ambiguous. It is easy to get confused about what the couple are doing in the morning. The little radish burst out laughing. After being glared at by Hongniang Xing, he quickly shrank his neck and bowed his head, and then went to plant rice seedlings.

But looking back, looking at the humming Song Qingshu, Xing Hongniang also blushed pretty, because two months ago Song Qingshu's martial arts crash request, Xing Laoguan arranged actual combat drills for him every morning, Xing Hongniang is also a teenager at heart, Annoyed that Old Man Xing didn't teach her a lot of real kung fu, he beat Song Qingshu to the ground every morning.

Women who beat their husbands these days don't have a good reputation!Seeing Song Qingshu groaning and pretending to be dead on the ground, he gave him a helpless look, kicked this guy's ass and kicked him over, and he was busy on his ditch again.

But at this time, a sweet voice from outside came crisply and melodiously.

"Brother Song, drink water!"

With a towel wrapped around her little head and a set of paddy field clothes, Caiwei bounced in with a big bamboo tube, and handed the bamboo tube to Song Qingshu like a treasure.

"Caiwei is so good!" Immediately, he laughed into a flower, pinched Caiwei's face, took the water canister, Song Qingshu raised his head, and gulped down more than half of the canister, but before he could burp comfortably, Unexpectedly, there was a cold snort behind him.

"Father! The fool's physical growth has been very slow recently! In order to train him, I suggest that this field be given to him to plow!"

Listening to Xing Hongniang's small report behind, and old man Xing still nodding his head, Song Qingshu fell down in the mound with a mournful grunt.

The foreign monk's garden is neither big nor small, and with Han Juan'er's peppers, it is enough for Song Qingshu and the others to work hard for five or six days, and they finally planted the land. There was a large piece of idle land near the post, and he wanted to fill it up, so scared that Song Qingshu ran away, looking for a reason, but went outside the city.

He didn't want to live this kind of life with his face facing the loess and his back facing the sky. After failing the exam all winter, some plans had to be implemented.

The shop was still bustling during the car trip to the south of the city. Although the troubled times had just kicked off, the last gleam of the Ming Dynasty’s peaceful and prosperous times still spread here. There were salt merchants and coal merchants from Shanxi, leather goods merchants and jade merchants from Turpan. Spice merchants, tea, silk and Sichuan brocade from the Western Regions, the traders coming and going are bustling, and the prosperity here is actually not inferior to that in the city.

Among them, the most prosperous one has a lot of customers at the door, and there are four large characters written on the golden signboard, Qu's Cars and Horses!

It was only later that Song Qingshu found out that the Shanxi old Xier Qu Botao who came to his place to eat chili peppers on the first day was not an ordinary person. He was a wealthy businessman in Qixian County, Shanxi Province, and had quite some assets in Qixian County. In this city of Xi'an, Qu Botao Bo Tao can also be regarded as a big merchant, running a car and horse dealership, and also selling cloth, tea and fruit.

However, the more low-key a rich person is, it is really reflected in him. The best part of the street where Song Qingshu lives is Zhou Lao Liu, who only opened a dim sum shop, and his monthly income is not necessarily more than that of Song Qingshu selling roasted sweet potatoes. How much, this silk dress is also put on, and a fan is used everywhere to show off, those who don't know think he is the county magistrate!Can this really be his millionaire?Song Qingshu had known him for so long, and he hadn't changed his old sheepskin jacket a few times, and he was dressed like a laborer carrying bags here.

When Song Qingshu arrived, Qu Botao was doing some calculations, and Song Qingshu was an old acquaintance in the car dealership. Seeing him outside, the acquaintance clerk yelled outside, this old Xier immediately put aside his calculations and greeted him warmly. past.

"Hahaha, Brother Song, why don't you have the time to sit here with my brother today? Come here, I just haven't had lunch yet, so let me have a drink or two with my brother!"

After half a year, I've become acquainted with this stingy old Xi'er, who happened to be gurgling with hunger, Song Qingshu nodded politely: "Then bother my brother!"

It is not wrong to say that Qu Botao is stingy at all. The lunch was actually a small dish sent by Song Qingshu in the morning, peanuts soaked in vinegar, some dried wild vegetables and radishes made after imitating Sichuan pickles in later generations. If you like it, just pour some aged vinegar and you're done.

The clerk set down the bowl, Qu Botao enthusiastically poured Song Qingshu a glass of wine, filled a small glass himself, and immediately toasted Song Qingshu: "Come on, let's have a drink!" As he spoke, he drank proudly do.

Qu Botao is a rich man, equivalent to the CEO of future generations of entrepreneurs. It is actually an anomaly to be so polite to Song Qingshu, who sells breakfast, but there is a reason why Qu Botao is so polite.

For half a year, Qu Botao would tell Song Qingshu about his business affairs in occasional spare time. He always listened to him. At first Qu Botao felt displeased, but when he went back to think about it, he found that what Song Qingshu always said was quite reasonable, if he improved it, the business would be better.

Especially at the beginning of this year, when Qu Botao was going to Fugu for business, Song Qingshu immediately pulled him to persuade him not to let him go, but he didn't say the reason. Originally, according to Qu Botao's character, everything would not delay the business, but before going out, After pondering for a long time, in the end, he made a mistake and pushed the business to the opposite side of the street. The Huizhou old man came to him, but it turned out to be good. After returning home, the body has not been found until now, and he watched their family hold a funeral two days ago, which made Qu Botao feel terrified for a while.

This also made Song Qingshu, a fool, mysterious in his eyes.

After two glasses of wine, Song Qingshu politely picked up peanuts for Qu Botao, and asked politely, "Brother Qu, how is business doing recently?"

As soon as he said this, Qu Botao couldn't help but sighed, and shook his head helplessly: "What's the matter?"

"It's strange this year. There has been a severe drought for two years in a row. Our side near the Yellow River is okay. Going north, Jin County and Fugu seem to be plagued by locusts. There is almost no harvest. The year before last was busy. To build a ancestral temple for Eunuch Wei, last year I heard that Long Live Lord would increase Liao’s salary, and taxes increased instead of reduced, so that those poor children in northern Shaanxi sold their sons and daughters and couldn’t raise enough money. Now the villages in Mizhi They are all bandits, not counting those who pull up flags to rebel, and some villages look like nothing, but no one enters! Many businesses dare not leave at all!"

With a sigh, Qu Botao finally shook his head in distress: "If this momentum continues, it won't be long before my brother can't continue this business. It's better to go back to my hometown in Shanxi!"

Hearing Qu Botao's words, Song Qingshu felt a chill running down his back. This devastating peasant uprising had begun to show its signs. In a few years, the entire Shanxi Province would become a big battlefield.

"Okay, let's not talk about this, my brother is here today, I'm afraid it's not as simple as talking to me about old times, right? What's the matter, tell me?"

After all, the big battlefield will take a year or two later, and you still have to live now, and you have to work hard to save some money, otherwise you won't have to worry about fleeing to the south in the future. When you calm down, Song Qingshu is a little embarrassed and bows to Qu Botao Fist: "Well, the little brother thinks, let's do some business with my brother!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as these words came out, Qu Botao slapped his thigh excitedly: "Hey, if I knew earlier, you would definitely be unwilling to be lonely, brother, I have everything ready!"

Song Qingshu's eyes widened when he said this immediately.

What the hell?

(End of this chapter)