It was already noon when Sun Tu came out of Hubu, and the sun above his head was already blazing like fire. The aroma of wine and food was constantly coming from the restaurants and restaurants on both sides of the street, which made his stomach growl for a while, but it was already gone. hungry.
After eating a bowl of vegetarian soup cakes in the inn early in the morning, he walked a lot in the past few hours, but he didn't eat anything again. But now Sun Tu's body is growing and developing, and he gets hungry faster. This makes him unable to wait for another hour or two to go back to the inn for dinner.
However, the hotels in the inner city looked like they were high-end places with their decorated facades. They were not places where ordinary people like him could go in and spend money. Sun Tu walked a few steps until he returned to the outer city and found a nearby hotel. It's a simple restaurant, but it's actually a foot shop.
The imperial court of the Song Dynasty had always issued an explicit order prohibiting private brewing and selling of alcohol. Even those who opened restaurants had to bid for a license from the government before they could make their own wine and sell it. This was the law of buying wine. This was the reason why the Ji family behind Zhang Chuan thought of trying to seize the Sun Hotel.
In Bianjing City, people call the inns that can brew and sell their own wine the main store, and the others are the foot stores. If the latter want to sell wine, they can only buy it from the main store, and the price is Naturally it will be much higher. Of course, the main store also has to pay a considerable amount of wine tax to the government every year. It is said that there are as many as 72 regular hotels in Kaifeng City, each of which is a high-end hotel with a good reputation. It will be at least four-star or above in later generations, and there are no less than 100 foot shops.
In a city with a population of one million, there are no less than 200 hotels. From this alone, we can infer how luxurious Bianjing is and how wealthy the people are. In fact, people living here are happy to enjoy life, and eating out is commonplace. For example, now, in this small foot shop restaurant, more than ten tables are almost occupied by customers, and only one table in the corner is empty.
Sun Tu went in and sat down, and a waiter came up to greet him with a smile on his face. Sun Tu wasn't particular about food, so he only asked the other party to serve him a bowl of vegetarian soup cakes and two side dishes. He didn't order any wine. Because firstly, the price of wine nowadays is really not cheap, and secondly, he is not used to drinking the bad wine from the Song Dynasty.
After sitting down, his mind started to spin even more. Thinking of the situation in front of him, Sun Tu became a little worried. What should he do next
Just waiting until the second day of next month will cost a lot of money. The inn where I live costs more than two hundred dollars every day, plus the food and drink expenses for the two of them, it will cost at least dozens of taels of silver in a month. More importantly, Li Duzhi said that the amount of silver he had to pay was more than two hundred taels. How could he afford it
Originally, he thought that with a warehouse and a hotel, he would no longer have to worry about money. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived in Tokyo, something went wrong. And he had to do this errand, otherwise his sins would only be worse when he returned.
Sun Tu was so depressed that he had no appetite for food. He just stuffed vegetables and noodles into his mouth randomly without caring about the taste. At this moment, he suddenly heard someone next to him call Sun Sanlang, which made him suddenly startled and quickly looked back.
As a result, he only saw two men having a drink, and neither of them glanced in his direction. Obviously, the Sun Sanlang the other party mentioned was not his Sun Tu, but another person with the same surname. But this way, he could clearly hear the two people chatting -
Only one person said: "Sun Sanlang has been really unlucky recently. Not only did his wife die of a sudden illness, but his little daughter also disappeared two days ago. What a sin."
"Are you talking about the four-year-old girl? The one who looks very watery?"
"It's her. Two days ago, for some reason, she was playing in front of the door and suddenly disappeared. Sun Sanlang was so anxious that he searched everywhere for her, but couldn't find her anywhere."
"Could it be that the person was stolen by the people in that ghost building?"
Hearing this statement, Sun Tu couldn't help but feel a little strange. He already knew where Fan Tower was and had even looked at it from a distance, but where was this ghost Fan Tower
"Hey, it's probably the people there who have done this. In the past two years, more and more women and children have gone missing in our city of Kaifeng. It must be the guys there who abducted people."
"You said the court doesn't care about it, so what will you do if this continues?"
"Guan? The Ghost Tower is too complicated. Even if the officers and soldiers go down, they may not be able to find those people, let alone the Kaifeng Prefecture servants. In the early years, when Bao Xiaosu was appointed as the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, they could restrain themselves. , but even so, Gui Fanlou could not be completely eradicated, and today, of course, no one can do anything to them. And I also heard about one thing..." As he said this, this person deliberately lowered his voice to appear mysterious.
"What's the matter?"
"I heard that someone in the ghost mansion colluded with the family of a high-ranking official in the DPRK. Otherwise, how could those families have a taste of something new..."
What this person said was a bit cryptic, but Sun Tu understood it clearly. It was obvious that the thieves in that ghost mansion had found support from high-ranking officials in the court, and that was why they were so unscrupulous. At the same time, the Kaifeng Mansion and other Yamen had no way to deal with them. As for the price, it should be to select the abducted women or something and give them to the families of high-ranking officials to enjoy.
Just hearing about the way a family of officials and thieves harmed the people will make people feel horrified and indignant at the same time. But these two people are also ordinary people. They can just talk about it in private under the influence of alcohol, but they dare not publicize it.
However, when the two people's words fell into Sun Tu's ears, they made him feel even worse. In just one day, his view of Bianliang, Tokyo, had already drastically changed.
When he entered the city yesterday, he was still yearning for this prosperous city. He thought that this place was worthy of being called the first choice place for time travel by many people in later generations. He felt that it would be good to live here for the rest of his life.
But now, he realizes that it is just the imagination of the literary young people of later generations, and it is a filtered view.
To say how prosperous and open the Song Dynasty was, and how prosperous the people living here were, is only referring to those who were successful in reading, or even passed the Jinshi examination. As for the vast majority of the people at the bottom, they still live a difficult and even precarious life.
This can be seen only from my own experience today. Yamen officials are difficult to deal with. It costs a lot of money just to get in, and they can't help you solve the problem. This will be left to posterity. A video and a report are enough for some people to drink.
The existence of Gui Fanlou made Sun Tu even more incredible. In the majestic Bianjing City of Kaifeng, under the emperor's feet, there is still such a terrifying organization that threatens the safety of the people, and the government actually lets it go, and some people even collude with it. What kind of era is this!
Don't listen to what that person said. The terrain of Guifan Tower is complicated and no officers and soldiers can do anything against them. That's bullshit. If the government really wants to deal with an underground organization, it won't be an easy task. In the final analysis, it was just because someone wanted to use Guifan Tower to satisfy their own shameful desires.
The openness and prosperity on the surface are completely intertwined with the filth and sin in the dark. This is the real Bianjing City! Sun Tu even had a feeling that this was the best epitome of the Song Dynasty today.
Under the prosperous scene of blooming flowers and burning oil, there are countless internal and external troubles. At this time, the Song Dynasty had already reached its most dangerous moment, but the monarchs and ministers in power still turned a blind eye to this, and just lived in their own dreams, until the golden people stepped across the Yellow River with their iron hooves and came to the city of Tokyo. , they would wake up, but by then it was too late.
I don't know where he came from, but Sun Tu once read a saying that the lavish Republic of China was like a beautiful and noble cheongsam, but it was covered with lice and fleas, and everything inside had been eaten away. As far as he was concerned, the current Song Dynasty was just like ordinary people. Under this bright brocade robe, how much dirt, blood and tears, as well as countless lice and fleas were hidden...