"Shaobings—Shaobings for sale!"
After traveling for a long time, Jiang Miao and his companions arrived at Cangzhou City. As soon as they entered the city gate, they heard hawking. Jiang Miao lifted the curtain of the car and looked out. He found that the stall selling sesame cakes was set up at the foot of the city wall. An old man looked at the passers-by and shouted in a long voice.
"Park the car over here. I'll go buy some sesame cakes." Jiang Miao said. It was noon and they hadn't eaten yet. If they went directly to the government office to handle the formalities, they wouldn't be able to eat for a while. It would be good to buy some sesame cakes to fill their stomachs.
The driver stopped the carriage on the side of the road. Jiang Miao jumped off the carriage, walked to the stall, and asked, "Uncle, how much is this sesame cake?"
Seeing the business coming to his door, the old man said cheerfully: "These sesame cakes are four cents each, they are freshly baked from the oven, fragrant and crispy."
"Then please give me 40 first." Jiang Miao said. Although there were less than 20 people in their group, he reported based on 20 people, two for each person. Then those with smaller appetites and those with larger appetites could complement each other, and everyone would be able to eat their fill.
"Forty?" The wrinkles on the old man's face smoothed out a lot. He quickly wrapped the baked ones in oil paper, and then quickly kneaded a few more doughs, wrapped the fillings in them, flattened them, and put them in the oven.
Jiang Miao paid the money, sent the wrapped buns back to the car for them to eat, and then returned to the sesame cake stand to wait. While the buns were cooking, Jiang Miao started chatting with people again.
"Uncle, how many years have you been here?"
The old man flipped the pancakes in the oven with a pair of wooden tongs and said, "I don't remember how many years it has been, but I just remember that when I first started selling pancakes, I was about your age."
Jiang Miao's eyes instantly turned into admiration: "Your store is a time-honored brand. People of all ages in Cangzhou are really blessed."
The old man felt relieved when he heard this, and said with a look of pride: "Don't tell me, this pancake stall has been around since my father's generation, and it has been passed down to me for decades, so it deserves to be called a time-honored brand. Young man, you are not from Cangzhou, right?"
"We are from other places and we are here in Cangzhou for business." Jiang Miao's words were rather vague. When the old man heard what he said, he looked at him in confusion. Where did we come from? Isn't this just one person? But then again, there weren't many people, so how could they need forty sesame cakes
Jiang Miao saw his confusion and pointed to several carriages parked on the roadside not far away, indicating that these were the people with him.
The old man was busy kneading the dough and didn't look over there. When he saw it, his expression changed immediately and he said, "Hurry up, let them drive the carriage away. It will be too late if we don't leave now!"
However, it was too late. While they were chatting, two patrolling yamen runners walked towards the carriage excitedly like cats smelling blood.
"Stranger, your carriage is parked in the wrong place. Be honest and come with us." The taller yamen runner said to the coachman.
The coachman was from the Duke of Zhongguo's mansion, so how could he be frightened by two runners from a small place? He immediately said, "Our carriage is parked on the side of the road, not on the road. How can it be parked in the wrong place?"
Seeing that a driver dared to challenge them, the short yamen runner immediately became angry. He took off the knife from his waist, knocked on the carriage rudely, and said, "Let your master come out and talk!"
The car he knocked on was the one Pei Che and his friends were riding in. Pei Che and his two children were sitting inside eating cakes and had no intention of paying attention to what was happening outside. When he heard the man's voice, he lifted the curtain and walked out.
"I am the owner of the carriage. What's the matter?"
When the two yamen runners saw the person getting off the carriage, their eyes widened immediately, and they were so shocked by Pei Che's appearance that they were speechless. They didn't know how to describe it, but they felt that the person in front of them looked imposing and noble. They didn't expect that these carriages looked ordinary, but there were such people sitting inside!
This is not something they can afford to offend! The two immediately became alert.
They looked at each other and forced a smile, saying, "It's okay, it's okay. It's just that this carriage cannot be parked on the side of the road. Please go to that street. There is a place to park the carriage there."
"Horse-drawn carriages are not allowed to stop on the roadside? Is there any official notice?" Pei Che frowned. Even in Liangjing, there was no such rule. As long as the carriage did not block the road, what was the problem with it stopping on the roadside
The tall man said, "This is an order personally issued by the newly appointed prefect, and the official document has not yet been posted."
Jiang Miao happened to hear this when he came over, and laughed out loud at the time. Isn't the newly appointed prefect here? He didn't know when Pei Che came over and gave such an order.
"Since it's an order from the prefect, we can't disobey it. Let's just follow the two brothers." Jiang Miao looked up and asked Pei Che's opinion, looking a little timid.
Pei Che knew what Jiang Miao was planning at first sight. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Well, we are new here, so we don't want to offend the prefect."
The two yamen runners were a little confused. They had just thought that this was a remarkable person, but now looking at him again, it seemed that only his eye-catching appearance was left.
Hearing them surrender, the two men regained their momentum and said, "Then let's go!"
Jiang Miao asked a guard to wait for the remaining sesame cakes, while the others drove the carriage and followed the two yamen runners. After walking around for a long time, the two yamen runners finally stopped.
In front of me was a small house. There was a table in the open space in front of the house, and a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar was sitting behind it. The middle-aged man wrote something and handed it to the person waiting at the table. The person took the note with a sad face and walked away with his head down.
"Gaotou, this is a big business." The middle-aged man looked at the three carriages behind the tall man and smiled with interest.
The tall man said, "I haven't touched it for several days. If you don't bring someone here, I'll have a hard time."
After they chatted for a few words, they turned around and shouted at the carriage, and Jiang Miao got off. He followed the yamen runner to the table, and the middle-aged man said, "The carriage cannot be parked on the roadside. Violators will be fined two taels of silver per carriage. You have three carriages in total, so it will be six taels of silver."
"What?" Jiang Miao shouted exaggeratedly, "Just stopping for a while, you want six taels of silver, are you robbing me?"
The middle-aged man was obviously not surprised by his reaction. Hearing this, he said, "You violated the ban before, so it is normal to be fined. If you don't fine more, who knows if you will do it again next time? You don't have to pay, but the carriage will be detained here."
Jiang Miao pretended to be angry but dared not speak, and after thinking it over, he pinched his nose and paid the money. The middle-aged man weighed the silver, and when he found it was enough, he poured the silver into a small box and said, "Let's go."
"Wait a minute," Jiang Miao said, "I just saw that the people in front of me got a note, why didn't you give me one? You didn't give me a note but you took my money. What if I don't admit it?"
The middle-aged man sneered, "The man's ox cart was moored here, so he asked for a receipt to take it. Your horse cart is not moored here, so why do you need a receipt?"
"No, if you take the money you have to give me a note. Otherwise, what if I leave and someone else brings me back..." Jiang Miao listed a lot of reasons why he needed a note. The middle-aged man was annoyed by him and wrote a note and threw it to him.
Jiang Miao took the note, got on the carriage and left with satisfaction.
In the carriage, Pei Che held the note and saw the four big words "cash six taels" written on it. His face became terribly dark.
"A carriage costs two taels. This is a way of making money. Even the richest man in Liangjing would be far behind."
"That's right. We can't park on the roadside. Who dares to take a carriage to the street?" Jiang Miao was also very angry. He had spent more than ten taels of silver on clearing the road before, and now he had spent another six taels of silver on parking. This Cangzhou should be renamed Qiangzhou!
"The most hateful thing is that they are still doing things under your name. You have already been smeared before you even took office. No wonder no one comes here!"
Pei Che said, "Before I came here, my grandfather told me about the situation in Cangzhou. I only thought that it was in a remote location, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and that the people's lives were difficult because of the scarcity of fertile land. Now it seems that corrupt officials are the main reason for the difficult lives of the people here."
Jiang Miao sighed. As an ordinary citizen, the tyranny and oppression of those in power are indeed fatal. I don't know if Pei Che can manage this place well? Anyway, no matter what, he will be by his side and face it with him.
The two looked at each other in silence for a while, with a warm and tender feeling lingering around them. Suddenly, Xiao Shitou's shout broke the silence: "Ah, it's the uncle who was also fined."
Jiang Miao looked out along the curtain he had opened, and saw the man in front driving the ox cart with a depressed look on his face was the one who had paid the money and received the note before.
"Brother, wait a minute." Jiang Miao called out.
The man looked back in confusion and drove the carriage slower. Jiang Miao's carriage moved forward and formed a parallel posture.
"Little brother, is there something wrong?"
"Brother, I want to inquire about the rules of this city. I was fined six taels of silver when I first arrived, and I'm afraid I'll break the taboo again in the future." Jiang Miao stuck his head out to chat with him.
The man was surprised and said, "Six taels? You got ripped off. I only fined this ox cart two hundred coins."
Jiang Miao: I have a dirty word in my mind but I don’t know whether I should say it or not! It seems that I still treat people differently!
He tried to put on a smile and said, "Brother, were you also fined for parking your ox cart on the side of the road?"
The elder brother recalled the incident and became visibly angry. "How could local people like us make such a mistake? At first they said we were not allowed to park on the roadside, then they said people were not allowed to sit on ox carts carrying goods, and then the ox was fined again for peeing on the street. Last time I caught it, but who would have thought it would raise its head and roll up a few leaves to eat, which happened to be what they saw, so they said the ox would be fined for eating leaves! I didn't have any money on me, so they confiscated the ox cart and only let me take it back after paying the money!"
He poured out basin after basin of bitterness, and after that he used a bamboo stick to gently hit the ox that had made the mistake, saying, "Don't dare let it go out on the street again. It has wasted a month's work!"
Jiang Miao was shocked when he heard this. After a long while, he asked, "Is there no one who wants to file a complaint with the government?"
The elder brother looked at Jiang Miao with an expression that said you are still too young: "They are the ones who asked you to collect the money, who can you sue? I don't know where this new prefect came from, he only knows how to take money from the people!" After he finished speaking, his expression was embarrassed, and he must have regretted his outspokenness.
Hearing the title of the newly appointed prefect again, Jiang Miao couldn't help but be curious: "Have you met the new prefect? Shouldn't he have not taken office yet?"
The eldest brother curled his lips and said: "He hasn't arrived yet, but his confidants have arrived. They are just taking advantage of the power of their masters—" He closed his mouth in regret. How could he have said it again by accident!
The governor's confidant? Who is this person
(End of this chapter)