Chapter 197: Rich businessman who likes to collect "princess"

"Seven hundred thousand coins!" Zhao Xing offered a reasonable price. Not long ago, in Sichuan, an emerald was sold for this price, but the identity of the buyer was not exposed. Qian Xie obviously heard this rumor. He smacked his tongue and looked at it for a long time, reluctantly returning the gem to Zhao Xing.

He can't afford it, of course, even if he can afford it, he dared not be so arrogant, because of the identity of Prince Qian, he has made him more concerned about doing things.

Qian Xie had a while in Zhaoxing's mansion. After dinner, he got up and said goodbye. During this period, he also tasted several new dishes that Zhao Xingxin got. After they left, Cheng Laoqi walked up timidly and bowed to Zhao Xing: "Brother-in-law, it's almost the end of the year. This year, Jiangxia worships ancestors, should my brother-in-law take the child back?"

Zhao Xing hurriedly stood up and bowed to Cheng Laoqi. Cheng Laoqi was cowardly by nature. He said this to ask Zhao Xing to take his children back to Jiangxia and be listed in the family tree so that the Jiangxia Cheng clan would recognize Zhao Xing's in-laws qualifications. However, Zhao Xing thought that it was cold and it was not safe to take his children to travel. With the lessons of Su Dun, he would rather go back to worship his ancestors one year later, so he answered politely:

"My father-in-law, it's cold outside now. Azhu is weak after giving birth. The child is young. How can she travel thousands of miles? Let's wait for next year."

Cheng Laoqi is a cowardly person, Zhao Xing refused to agree. He smacked his lips and replied: "My brother-in-law is right. Since that's the case, I will reply like this."

Zhao Xing did not plan to go back, but the Jiangxia Cheng tribe, plus the members of the Huangzhou Cheng tribe, all of them are going to return home. These days are the day to set off, so they just took them back to their letters.

Although Zhao Xing did not go back, he was fully qualified. The year's ceremony was still in progress. The gifts he brought back were filled with three ships. After these people left, the castle was empty and the Winter Solstice Festival was here again.

This year's Hangzhou Winter Solstice seems particularly strong because of Su Shi's existence. Zhao Xing also made a lot of contributions to the ancestors' ceremony. The three animals and three sacrifices were given very much. Su Shi and Qian Xie joined the priests together. The scholars in Hangzhou City celebrated a greasy and plump Winter Solstice Festival.

After a few days of the winter solstice, the Zhengdan arrived. Now, except for Jin Buer, Xiao’s father and son, and the Gurkha warriors, there is only one person left in the castle. The lack of manpower makes Zhao Xing take the initiative to open the castle gate. On the day of the Zhengdan, Zhao Xing opened the door and was still feeling in his heart: "I was wrong. It is not that it should be built such a large yard. If such a long courtyard wall is really necessary, how many people are needed to defend it? Isn’t this big and unscrupulous?"

Among the people present, only Jin Buer said the words. Because he was once Zhao Xing’s Tang Side Master, he could speak the words. While helping Zhao Xing pull the pulley, he said: “Dalang’s words are a bit interesting. If you want to defend such a city wall, it will take ten thousand people, but the wall is high and it is not easy to climb, so fewer people are enough, five thousand people are enough.”

Zhao Xing actually complained. He knew that the doomsday battle of the last Eastern Expedition of the Crusaders hundreds of years later. At that time, Egyptian Mubarak soldiers who defeated the Mongolian southern expedition army besieged the last crusaders. Six hundred thousand troops attacked a small castle that was several times larger than Zhao Xing's area. The people defended in the castle at that time, men, women, young and old, were only 30,000. The 600,000 troops attacked for several years until the other party had no ammunition and food.

In other words, this small town does not require too many people to defend. If it is really a besieged, Zhao Xing might as well escape from the dock by boat... Of course, this is not easy to say to Jin Buer. He smiled and pulled the rope of the pulley with Jin Buer.

The top gate of the castle were two tumblers. The stone hats on the tumbler were lifted up on the head of the tumbler. The two tumblers stood up automatically. Then Zhao Xing opened the stone fort gate layer by layer. Several Gurkha soldiers wearing thick furs and carrying bed chairs to the gate of the stone fort, and made a gesture of guarding the door. At the height of the castle, a Yici Leye man rang a bronze bell and informed the Yici Leye man on the other side to cross the bridge.

Then, the castle was revived. The Israelis on the other side drove a distinctive carriage into the castle from the bridge. They also had their own resting points in the castle. The family entered the houses on the fort wall to make fires and heat the houses. The young and strong laborers drove a full carriage to the market to do business.

Jin Buer looked at the carriage of the Israelites and said a little disdainfully: "This group of people who are educating Yiye will never make enough money. If they have the opportunity to make money, they will never let it go. Isn't they earn enough money? They will be so embarrassing."

Zhao Xing laughed. Jin Buer came from Goryeo. He did not have the awareness of the Song people. In fact, most Song people were like the Israelites. They were not ashamed of doing business and always seized all opportunities to make money.

Speaking of which, the annual income of these Israelites is not low. This year, Zhao Xing and their banks have begun to take shape. The salary and dividends of these Israelites alone are enough to allow them to live a petty bourgeois life in the Song Dynasty. However, the Jewish desire for money is almost instinctive. Even the leader of them, An Yu and others, did not give up the opportunity to set up stalls and set up places, and almost seized all the time to make money.

Relatively speaking, Jin Buer's salary is not as good as this group of Israelites. In addition to the salary given by Zhao Xing, he only bought a few of his apprentices outside Hangzhou. However, these incomes have already made Jin Buer very satisfied. He is now proud of a Song man and says to everyone, "Actually, I am a descendant of the Han and Tang dynasties" and so on. Whoever dares to show his doubts will dare to speak with his fists.

Jin Buer recently married and used the standards of Song people to demand himself. In comparison, Zhao Xing seemed to be less like a Song people. For example, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, after Jin Buer opened the castle gate, he rushed home to worship his ancestors. However, Zhao Xing still had the leisure to sway on the street to feel the New Year atmosphere of Hangzhou in the Song Dynasty.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, there was no New Year atmosphere. Adults from all families were anxious to worship their ancestors. The children happily set off firecrackers on the street. Zhao Xing walked around. Except for a group of children surrounding him for sugar, he did not see an adult. After a while, he touched his nose and walked back to the castle.

It was getting darker and there were people coming and going in the castle. The Gurkha warriors guarding the gate were lazy and pretending to be guarding the gate, but they were only drinking wine. In fact, it was indeed a decoration. There were too many people in Zhao Xing's castle, except for the Israelites, there were thousands of workers who built houses.

After chatting with the Gurkha warrior at the door, Zhao Xing walked back to his house with his hands behind his back. Cheng Azhu was busy holding Chen Yiyi and Liao Xiaoxiao and holding the tablet. The wet nurse followed her with her child in her butt, keeping her away. Seeing Zhao Xing in, Azhu raised her handkerchief, greeted her, and focused on the work in the house.

Now, Cheng Azhu has experienced the benefits of this small building. Originally, she could only lie on the bed during confinement, occasionally walking down the ground, and walk in front of the bed and door. But this small building is different. She can walk around one room after another, running around the room upstairs and downstairs. The mountain girl Cheng Azhu, who can't stay, has a lot of exercise, which makes her recover quickly after giving birth. Basically, she can go up and downstairs by herself in a month, but the power of the rules is really great. She still maintains the habit of not going out for three months and cannot leave the small building.

During the New Year, Zhao Xing gave a gift for his child and formally named his child "Yi" and his nickname was "Xiaobao". After a busy life, it was the Lantern Festival in the blink of an eye.

On this year's Lantern Festival, Cheng Azhu was confident instructing his family to hang a lantern at the entrance of the castle. Although there was only one lantern, it was made of huge and without a shed. It was a candle mountain made of eighteen candles, and a red glass cover was covered with an outer cover, making the entrance of the castle look bright.

After hanging the lamp, Cheng Azhu held the child and looked at the child's fat face at the entrance of the castle with satisfaction, and said blamingly: "I have done my best for the Zhao family. I will see you in the future. Little girl, why haven't you moved yet?"

Cheng Azhu was purely promoting the power of the mistress. Liao Xiaoxiao was so embarrassed that she couldn't speak. Chen Yiyi stabbed someone with her index finger behind Zhao Xing, muttering: "It's eighteen, I'm eighteen."

Kasli looked indifferent and pretended not to understand Chinese. She looked at the lantern blankly and said Hu Yu: "I wonder what the scene should be on the street today?"

A loud shout came from a distance, and the fire illuminated half of the night sky. It was where the City God Temple was located. Those people shouted, "The dragon lantern is coming up the mountain!"

"The dragon lantern is up the mountain", and the people in the castle were also shouting in unison. Whether it was the Chinese Israelis, the Koreans, and the Japanese, they all hung the lights in their hands along the way, and then clapped their hands and shouted together: "The dragon lantern is up the mountain!"

The Lantern Festival in the Tang Dynasty only lasted for three days, but it was extended to five days in the Song Dynasty. The lanterns were tested on the 14th day of the first lunar month, the lanterns were fired for 15th, and the lanterns were lost. However, the Lantern Festival in Hangzhou was two more days longer than other cities, and became the 12-day lanterns and the 18-day lanterns. The extra two days of carnival time were bought by the Queen of the Song Dynasty. Since then, these two days have become the unique custom of "money sacrifices" in Hangzhou in the Song Dynasty.

On the 12th day of the lunar month, people in Hangzhou will carry the newly made dragon lantern to the Dragon Temple in Chenghuang Mountain. After worshiping, they will light their eyes with ink, which is called "consecration". When the dragon lantern is consecrated, the people of the whole city will shout "dragon lanterns up the mountain" and start hanging their own lanterns.

Then there is cooking dumplings. The moment the lantern cake was put on the lamp, and the lantern cake was hung on the lantern, the housewives began to cook dumplings. During the Song Dynasty, the Lantern Festival was made of glutinous rice, either solid or filled with filling. The fillings were bean paste, sugar, hawthorn, various fruit ingredients, etc., which could be cooked, fried, steamed, and fried when eaten. At first, people called this food "Floating Rounds", and later it was called "Tang Tuan" or "Tang Yuanyuan".

", the characters "reunion" are pronounced similarly, and they use the meaning of reunion to symbolize the reunion of the whole family, harmony and happiness. People also miss their parting relatives and express their beautiful wishes for future life.

On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, after a few dumplings were eaten, you could walk out of the alley and see the lights all over the streets. You could go back to the ancient lantern festival - this day is really happy.

These two people are not as familiar with Zhao Xing as Zhou Bangshi. At most, they are nodding friends when they meet, so Zhou Bangshi can make fun of Zhao Xing. These two people only need to nod. Zhao Xing laughed, first met Yang Chong, and then greeted Tang Di, saying, "Fifth Prince Concubine, why didn't you bring those five ladies out? Haha, I've long wanted to meet the five 'lady'."

Tang Di smiled proudly and replied: "Brother Li Ren was joking, others didn't know me, don't you know yet, so ashamed."

This Tang Di is a very interesting person. He is a collector and likes to collect princesses. He cannot collect authentic princesses, so he has to collect royal women.

Marrying a daughter in the Song Dynasty was expensive. Some unimportant royal families could not afford to marry their daughters, while the slightly more prominent royal princes even borrowed money to marry their daughters. This led to a unique phenomenon. The royal concubines who were not popular were the most popular. Rich businessmen liked to marry such a royal daughter the most, even if they didn't want to marry a dowry, they would be willing to pay, and Tang Di was one of them.

This guy is also a maritime businessman. He started running maritime trade since his grandfather. His family's capital is worth tens of millions. Sometimes, Zhao Xing felt a little ashamed of his other party's three lifetime accumulations.

With his strong family resources, Tang Di married five royal women in a row. These untitled royal women were actually not princesses, but the people didn't care about these things, so they called him "Five Prince Consorts", which means the prince consorts of the five princesses. This is the most proud of Tang Di. Although he didn't show off to the outside world, he always made him happy when he mentioned it.

Tang Di was not the most awesome "princess collector" of this era. The most awesome "princess collector" was in Fujian. A maritime merchant in Fujian collected eleven "legacy women", which people called "eleventh prince consort".

Tang Di is a rich man. Originally, Zhou Bangshi couldn't get along with such a person, but recently Zhou Bangshi brought Yangchong to Yangchong, who specialized in the business route from Hangzhou to Luzhou. At the same time, he and Zhao Xing's overseas trade have gradually become richer and can talk to the rich. The sea of ​​lights in front of Baochu Tower was sponsored by him and Tang Di and Yangchong. The hanging lamps are ever-changing and dazzling.

This sea of ​​lanterns is also one of Tang Di's prides. He originally couldn't talk to Zhao Xing, but now when he saw Zhao Xing taking the initiative to show his affection, he enthusiastically invited Zhao Xing into the lantern shed and watched nearby.

It is worthy of being a lantern shed built by wealthy businessmen. It is magnificent and outrageous. There are "(大) bead lamps" made of five-color pearls, "skin lamps" dyed with exquisite five-colored tiles, "horse lamps" with five-color wax paper paste and flying rotating "horse lanterns". The special production of this boneless lamp is made of silk bags, which uses silk bags to store millet as the body, so it is burned and burned into a hard shell to remove millet, and it is like a glass ball. The scenery is ingenious and unparalleled.

The lanterns in the Song Dynasty were actually a political satirical tool. On the lanterns, "many paintings of characters are painted, sometimes sneering, hidden words, and old Beijing rhetoric, teasing pedestrians."

Zhao Xing browsed a few characters on the lamp and found that Zhou Bangshi seemed to have a loose political stance recently. The above sarcasm no longer frequently attacked the old party figures, but instead focused more on the people's sentiments and customs. Instead, he was unbiased in the disputes in the court, and Zhao Xing felt that it was reasonable.

Seeing Zhao Xing nodding, Tang Di was very happy. He shouted, and the five wives all came out and saluted Zhao Xing. None of the five wives were named. Tang Di named them "Shufang Xianjingyi" in order. This guy breathed a sigh of relief, married, and married the fifth royal family woman. I guess the royal family was also afraid, for fear that he would learn from the Fujian man, so he simply gave him a official who sent a fortune - Xiuzhilang, who was the 36th level of civil servants, which was the second to last.

After obtaining the rank of Xiuzhilang, Tang Di took it as soon as he got it and did not continue to marry him. This Xiuzhilang was from the ninth rank, and was the first rank higher than Di Gonglang. Because of this rank, his five wives had formal official edicts, so Zhao Xing did not dare to accept the salutes of the five wives easily. He turned sideways and respectfully returned the other party's five greetings. This scene fell in Tang Di's eyes, which made him very happy.

Tang Di likes to tease others with his wife. He is a big businessman, yes, and he only has the second-to-last official title on his head, but his five wives are really awesome. Although they do not have the title of princess, they all have the identity of "first-rank lady". Whenever they meet someone who looks down on him, Tang Di likes to call out his five wives together, salute to the other party, and to be rude to others.

Others are often embarrassed by Tang Di's excessive politeness, but Zhao Xing has seen Zhao Qiner, who is even more awesome, so his return gift is just right and he does not let others find fault.

After the ceremony, Tang Di grinned and slapped his round belly, like a drum beat. He narrowed his eyes proudly and said, "I heard that Brother Zhao recently bought a batch of seafood, but unfortunately the price is too high and it is not easy to deal with it for a while. I heard from Lord Qian that there are some emeralds, which are very valuable. Brother Zhao, why not buy some for me? These five ladies are all money-consuming goods. If they are placed there, I can't treat them badly."

"Oh, does Lord Qian have a good relationship with you?" Zhao Xing asked back.

Tang Di looked at his five wives with satisfaction and replied: "That's right!"

"Oh," no, if it weren't for your five royal women, Qian Xie wouldn't have looked at you in person. Zhao Xing curled his lips in his heart, smiled on his face, and was very happy.

Can Zhao Xing not laugh? He finally caught a big fat sheep. Looking at Tang Di, he seemed to look at a pile of gold bricks, and explained diligently: "Yes, they are all emeralds from China and Baiqi (Egypt). They were polished by the craftsmen in India. They have more than a dozen facets and are extremely exquisite in workmanship. Each gem is like a pear blossom. Tsk tsk, it is simply beautiful to the extreme."

Zhou Bangshi was extremely curious and asked tightly: "How much does it cost?"
Chapter completed!