Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 108: The big meeting that went astray
For several days, Zhao Guangmei has been busy recruiting investors and franchises in Fanlou.

The whole of Kaifeng, and even all corner restaurants outside Kaifeng, as long as they are willing to pay the franchise fee of [-] guan per year, they can eat Fanlou's signature. Fanlou will also send chefs to work and teach, and the brand advantage will be established immediately. The seventeen kinds of fine wines that suddenly appeared are even more frightening. Zhao Guangmei adopts a model of unified selling prices and unified rebates for franchise stores afterwards. The key is that they are of high quality and low price, and everything is available from low-end to high-end.

The franchise fee is so cheap, so those who don't join would be unscrupulous. Besides, almost all of the chefs sent by Fan Lou are from trading companies, and all of them are cooks who have retired from the Forbidden Army.

When you open a restaurant or wine shop, there are a lot of troubles caused by people breaking open fires. There is a person in the shop who has served as a soldier and has a business background, so he can take care of things to some extent, and Fan Lou really teaches you new dishes. .

Not to mention, Zhao Guangmei even came up with a secret weapon. All franchisees can get a magical black mysterious water. Add a little when cooking, and it will be extremely fragrant (soy sauce made in a small scale).

It is said that these new stir-fry dishes were invented and taught by His Highness the King of Qin, so that people all over the world are now talking about it. His Highness, who can govern the country, run the army and make money, how come he is so good at cooking?

This sneak attack made the Thirteenth Floor dumbfounded. They had never thought that Meishou would come back, but the worst case scenario would be to lower the price. Meishou is also a high-end drink, as long as they have the channels, They will definitely still have a monopoly on the mid- to low-end wines on the two east and west streets of Beijing. They have already formed an interest alliance with those small corner stores in terms of channels.

Who would have thought that he would actually play this trick!

After those franchise stores have such artifacts as soy sauce, some of the dishes they fry or stew are really more delicious than those in high-end restaurants.

This is simply beyond their comprehension.

They might want to steal it, but after all, soy sauce has not been produced on a large scale. Only the Crane Control Army has secretly produced it on a small scale, and they won't be able to steal the secret recipe for a while.

This time on their thirteenth floor, they had become a complete joke.

"Your Highness, Shopkeeper Li from Linxian Building wants to see you."

Zhao Guangmei didn't even raise her head: "No, can any cat or dog see me?"

"He has been waiting for you all day. He said yes. They have given up and are willing to withdraw from the wine industry. They will sell the thirteen wineries to the trading company for a total price of 100 million yuan. If the trading company is not satisfied, the price is okay. talk."

Hearing this, Zhao Guangmei glanced at Sun Liancheng with a half-smile and said, "You are also a veteran in the mall. Do you think the price he gave is honest?"

"That must be dishonest. Their funds should be in trouble now. The wine shop almost loses money every day it opens. I heard people say that they may also plan to reduce the price of wine and food on the [-]th floor, or to transform. , engaged in... flesh and blood business."

"Buying business? Selling business is illegal. Tell him, I will kill anyone who dares to do this."

Yes, in the Song Dynasty, at least in the early Song Dynasty, it was illegal for private merchants to blatantly engage in pornography.

The brothels are government-run, and the women are all prisoners of war, basically Khitan women. Neither Chai Rong nor Zhao Kuangyin would treat Han women as prisoners of war. One thing that many people don’t know is that not only did the brothels in the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty The Liao people came to the Central Plains to harvest grass and valleys. In fact, they all robbed each other, and no one was more civilized than the other.

Then there are the restaurants. Strictly speaking, the girls in the restaurants are actually accompanying the guests with drinks, meals, performing dances, and singing with the guests. They really are not selling themselves. As for whether there are cases of selling oneself, yes, but they are not. It's secretive, and it's nominally consensual. The most important thing is that these women must be voluntary. There is no such thing as a contract to sell one's body, and forcing a good girl into prostitution is a serious crime among serious crimes.

It seems like this thing will be called a princess in 1000 years.

As for the more advanced ones, such as ordering flowers and drinking wine, high-end products similar to those of Master Li, and so-called masters of lyrics and music, such advanced ways of playing did not exist in the early Song Dynasty.

Of course, are there any private prostitutes who sell their bodies secretly?Of course there is, but if a business as big as the thirteenth floor dares to do this blatantly, then I have to kill them.

Our Song Dynasty can't fall so fast.

In fact, in most feudal dynasties, at least in the early days of the dynasty, it was illegal to engage in pornography. A little bit of trivia: the dynasty that punished pornography the most severely was actually the Qing Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, the crackdown on pornography was strict, and brothels were opened. Those who want the Yi tribe are more ruthless than modern times, and they are really arresting and killing, not just shouting slogans.

It's just that, there is no beginning, and there is an end. Generally, when the country is first founded, there will be a severe crackdown. After the early stage, various legal side businesses will become popular, and in the middle and late stages, they will turn a blind eye. In the later period, it will be completely legal. At the end of the dynasty, all women in the city will be for sale.

The number of these things is actually basically proportional to the degree of oppression and exploitation in society. All dynasties are the same. No one is nobler than anyone else, and no one is lower than anyone else.

Of course, this is just a characteristic of ancient feudal dynasties.

"If you can't change your career to a leather butcher shop, then... I think the price they gave is really not very honest. If I say 20 yuan to buy their winery, they should be able to sell it. To be honest, they , in fact, we have been forced to the end of our rope.”

Zhao Guangmei smiled and said: "You, you, are still so kind. Please tell him for me, just meet him once. I will pay 30 yuan, not only to buy their winery, but also their restaurant. If they If you are willing to sell, just talk to them and I won’t come forward. If they don’t sell, forget it.”

"Three... 30? This is the... price for buying Thirteenth House?"

"Nonsense, can we still be a family?"

"How is this possible? How could they sell it?"

"How is it impossible? They must have been paying a lot of compensation recently. Huainan is currently suffering from floods. I heard that they bought 10,000 shi of grain before? This is considered hoarding. Should it be released? In addition, they have previously purchased The winery has also been expanded. I made a rough calculation and found that the thirteen restaurants spent a total of [-]+ yuan in the past six months. However, in the past two or three months, they probably have not made any money and cannot even earn wages. , it should be almost empty, otherwise he wouldn’t take the initiative to come to me and admit defeat.”

"But even if we are short of money, there is no reason..."

"Didn't they borrow the money from the public house from Kaifeng Mansion? Do they have to pay it back with interest? If the money from the public house is not repaid, can they send someone to catch the money? Kaifeng Mansion, isn't it right now? Brother Pu is in temporary charge. Is he the Privy Council envoy? Should one-third of the firm’s profits be allocated to the Privy Council for military expenses?”

"Ah~"

Sir, I understand.

The so-called money catchers are those who specialize in collecting debts for local governments. After all, the money from public servants has not been taken out clearly in all dynasties. Some dynasties even banned it at one time and just released it secretly. Naturally, the local government That means you can't collect accounts blatantly.

Therefore, this money will often be released and collected through a money catcher. As for this money catcher, it is generally said that it is a squire or a patriotic businessman from various places. But in fact, at all times and at home and abroad, , Aren’t the bill collectors all the same kind of people?

It's just that these money-catchers who collect money from public servants have the support of local officials and will be more arrogant in their actions. Anyway, there is definitely no problem in forcing people to sell their children and daughters. They are all quite skilled in that business. "The public money of 20 guan, including principal and interest, is [-] guan a year. I'm afraid they really can't get it out. And besides our trading firm, who in Kaifeng Mansion would dare to buy their property? So... if... If the Kaifeng Mansion really sends money catchers to collect money from their public servants, they really have no other choice but to sell the restaurant at a low price. Your Highness, you are very clever."

In fact, the reason why the Thirteenth Floor borrowed the 20 guan was to show goodwill to Zhao Guangyi and the Kaifeng Mansion. In fact, they did not touch the money at all. Ordinarily, with their turnover, it would be easy to make a profit of [-] guan in a year. thing.

Who would have thought that Zhao Guangmei's move would become a talisman for their lives.

If Zhao Guangyi was in charge of Kaifeng Mansion, he might not have made things so difficult for them, but who told him that Zhao Pu is now in charge of Kaifeng Mansion? Zhao Pu and Zhao Guangmei are the ones who really wear the same pants in this matter.

So when Sun Liancheng went out to talk to Shopkeeper Li, Shopkeeper Li immediately rolled his eyes and fainted. It is said that after being rescued, he suffered a stroke and became hemiplegic.

The shopkeepers of two of the thirteen restaurants hanged themselves that night. However, the wife, children and servants divided up the property and had to go to Sun Liancheng to sell it to Sun Liancheng the next day with the property deeds of the restaurant. .

The remaining few companies didn't have any trouble. Although they were unwilling to give up, they were really at the end of their rope at the moment. They couldn't sell the wine, they bought the wine license in vain, and no one came to eat at the high-end restaurants now. There are only a few people in the family, and they have already surrendered. How can we blame His Highness the King of Qin for killing them all?

30 yuan to buy their 200 restaurants and breweries. To be honest, with the current housing prices in Kaifeng, they can be resold at will. One or two million yuan is just like playing games.

At this point, the Thirteenth Floor has completely become history, and the farce came to an end without even a splash of water.

But to be honest, if the tax reform had not been piloted with Kaifeng's liquor tax, how could these people have the right to let Zhao Guangmei waste so much energy on them, and let Zhao Kuangyin and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty waste their energy on them?

Originally, he was not a rival of the same level as Zhao Guangmei, nor was he a person. It was just a matter of chance and chance. Although the methods used by Zhao Guangmei could not be called aboveboard, they were indeed purely commercial methods rather than using power to oppress. People, even the censors who are always looking for trouble with him, can't find anything wrong with him.

Then the matter passed, and no one mentioned it anymore. Although there must be someone behind these people, it would definitely be difficult for anyone to be in front of Zhao Guangmei.

However, when this happened, the other side pressed the gourd and picked up the gourd again. Zhao Guangmei did not expect that the civil and military officials of the court were not anxious about the floods in Huainan. Zhao Kuangyin specifically set the "In case of disaster, the local prefect "It is possible to release military food and provide relief to the victims on the spot without reporting and asking for instructions, and this will always be the norm." Such a big thing, we only talked about it for two days, and it passed just like that.

Of course, it is true that the military power of the Song Dynasty is very strong at the moment, and they will provide relief supplies and other supplies. Although Huainan is adjacent to the Southern Tang Dynasty, it lent Li Yu some courage. How dare he take this opportunity to return to the border?

So there is actually nothing to discuss about this matter. Just the benevolence of officials is the end of the matter. What everyone is competing for is who can flatter others and win the show.

It is unlikely that anyone in the prefecture these days would be so bold as to embezzle military rations in the name of disaster. Anyone who dares to do this will have to fly his whole family into a kite.

It is possible in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty.

At present, the civil and military officials in the DPRK, especially the civil servants in the DPRK, were talking about the most and arguing the most intensely. It was actually the storytelling and drama he asked Wang Pu to write.

That is to say, who should be a white-faced person and a red-faced person, Li Cunxu and Li Siyuan, who should be a good guy and who should be a bad guy, who should be a wise king and who should be a foolish king.

Anyway, these two people are not considered to have died. In the end, they are definitely not the kind of holy masters who are uncontroversial, so that this matter itself really has room for discussion and play.

In the beginning, it was a friendly exchange of literature and history, but later everyone became very intense in their discussions, and even openly quarreled in the political hall. This was something that even Zhao Guangmei was not expecting.

Even because of the revision of the play and the novel, it in turn affected the revision of Tang Huiyao and the serious history, and this matter inexplicably became a big dispute in the court.

The officials allocated their energy to disaster relief in Huainan to deal with this trivial matter.

Of course, everyone can see by now that this is not a debate, it is clearly a big discussion.

After all, history is written by future generations for future generations to read. Historiography and historical materials are not important in themselves. What is really important is the historical view behind these historical materials. How to evaluate Li Cunxu and Li Siyuan is involved. It comes to a question of historical outlook, and the essence of historical outlook is political ecological outlook.

Originally, Zhao Guangmei wanted to change the existing history of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties into the popular storytelling and drama of Yang Jiajiang. The outline was compiled by Zhao Guangmei, and Wang Pu was hired as the main writer.

After all, Wang Pu was born as a Jinshi, his writing skills are excellent, and he was a privy councillor. At least he must have the ability to talk on paper. In addition, he wrote the history of the Tang Dynasty, so he must know history best. So with this resume and experience , experience, not much better than Luo Guanzhong?In fact, he wrote carefully according to Zhao Guangmei's outline, and what he wrote was really no worse than the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Whether it is storytelling or opera, this history of the residual Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties written by Wang Pu is now very popular, and there is a consensus on this from both the government and the public.

The first half was fine, but in the middle and later stages when Li Cunxu reused actors and Li Siyuan led his troops to rebel, things suddenly became troubled, because in the traditional view of history, it has always been that Li Cunxu was a tyrant and a one-man husband, who brought disgrace to the world. It is his own fault, but Li Siyuan is a good man and a benevolent king.

This is actually the historical view of literati, and it is also in line with the set of Confucian values. A virtuous minister is far away from a villain. If an actor does not study, he is naturally a villain. This has almost put Li Cunxu in the level of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty. went.

But in this case, there is no need to perform this play at all. The soldiers in the army can't stand it just because there is some news.

Why is Li Cunxu, who rejected the Khitans and destroyed Liang and Shu, not a hero?

Then Li Siyuan, what did he do?What kind of recuperation and recuperation and gathering with the people's livelihood, wouldn't the Later Tang Dynasty still be finished?

Why does it make sense that he, a rebellious traitor, became a benevolent monarch?The simple outlook of the soldiers could not accept this.

Besides, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't live up to such a book. After all, Li Cunxu was brought down by a mutiny. In essence, arrogant soldiers drove away commanders, and strong generals drove away kings. What Zhao Kuangyin is most afraid of now are these ten words.

This play is for the soldiers.

How can this thing about the tooth soldiers' rebellion be beautified?If Li Siyuan is a good person, is it still right for him to start a rebellion?
In fact, it was precisely because of what Zhao Guangmei had done and Zhao Kuangyin adding fuel to the flames, that some scholars later figured out what they wanted and began to pressure Wang Pu on this matter. This pressure directly forced out a large group, Then, that was it.

This matter is no longer a matter of drama, but a question of whether the emperor should value virtuous ministers and far away from villains.

Then Zhao Guangmei was inexplicably dragged into the water: Who is the virtuous minister and who is the villain?Come on, come on, please explain it to me.

(End of this chapter)