Yangzhou, also known as Guangling, one of the ancient nine states, has a long history, convenient land and water transport, the street hanging a thousand paces of willow, Xia Ying two cities, prosperity and prosperity of the world, there is “the world’s prosperity, Yangzhou for the first” said.
At this time, although it is already a cold winter month, but the street traffic, shoulder to shoulder, vendors and shops hot business.
Li Shu sat in the sedan chair, surrounded by white fox fur, holding a set of embroidered hand warmers with fat ducks playing in the water, looking out through the curtains of the sedan chair lifted by Qin’er, seeing a blacksmith shop called “Longquan Shears Shop” in front, stretching out her delicate hand to point out, and commanded to Qin’er in a petite voice, “Stop in front!Stop in front.”
“Stop in front of the blacksmith shop.”Qin’er lifted the curtain of the sedan chair to send a message to the outside.
After passing on the message, Qin’er asked in doubt, “Miss, is it wrong, Yangzhou has three shops that the master married off to the young lady, and the nearest one of them, the ‘Longshengxiang’ ready-made clothes shop is a hundred metres in front of it.”
“What’s there to see in those three shops, just have the bookkeeper check the accounts on time every year.”Li Shu said unconcernedly.
“This blacksmith shop is noisy and chaotic, there’s even less to see right ……”Qin’er said weakly, “Inside the blacksmith shop are all mangy men covered in stinking sweat, don’t run over Miss ……”
“I am also too lazy to look at them, but brother Zhu needs them, these mangy men covered in stinking sweat in brother Zhu s eyes are a thousand times tighter. Forget it, you won’t understand even if I tell you, go call Wang Xiao Er.”
Li Shu glanced at the blacksmith shop outside the palanquin and lazily said to Qin’er, halfway through saying that she waved her hand and instructed Qin’er to go and call Wang Xiao Er over.
“Wang Xiao Er, Wang Xiao Er, hurry up and come over, Miss has something to find you.”Qin’er lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and called out to the outside.
Soon, the palanquin stopped in front of the blacksmith shop, and Wang Xiao Er, who was following behind, jogged all the way over.
“Miss, you’re looking for me.”Wang Xiao Er bowed his waist outside the palanquin.
“Can you confirm that this ‘Longquan Shears Shop’ is the blacksmith that you said opened it?”
Li Shu faintly asked through the palanquin.
“Back to Miss, yes. I have carefully investigated, this ‘Longquan Shears Shop’ is opened by a person named Ou Zhiguo, it is said that Ou Zhiguo’s ancestor is the Ouji Zi who forged the ‘Longquan’ sword with the dry general, but in Ou Zhiguo’s generation his ancestor’s craft was lost long ago, Ou Zhiguo was determined to carry forward his craft.Ou ZhiGe was determined to carry forward the glory of his ancestors, when he was a teenager he learnt the craft of blacksmithing from his maternal uncle, he was good at research and hard-working, and soon became better than the blue, the iron he built was first class in Yangzhou City, and he was known as the ‘first blacksmith’ in Yangzhou City.”Wang Xiao Er bowed and returned in detail.
“Since he is the ‘number one blacksmith’, why is he so downtrodden, opening a scissors shop that is so narrowly held under a nook.”
Qin’er couldn’t help but wonder.
Seeing that Li Shu did not stop, Wang Xiao Er understood that the young lady also wanted to know the answer, so he replied in detail, “It’s like this, for one thing, Ou Zhi Ge learnt his craft from his maternal uncle, but he abandoned his cousin with whom he had a marriage contract since childhood, and instead married the daughter of a farmer’s family, and in a fit of anger, his maternal uncle declared that he severed the relationship between master and disciple, and put out the word that he taught Ou Zhi Ge to cast kitchen knives, axes,Hoes, swords and other common iron, if Ou Zhiguo still have shame, do not use these crafts to earn a living, Ou Zhiguo also really did not cast these common iron, not to mention sold a piece of it, because his maternal uncle taught casting too much iron, and only scissors and other few kinds of iron, so he opened this scissors shop to earn a living, his casting scissors in Yangzhou called the second, no one dares to call the first; Second, Ou Zhiguo aheart to restore the glory of his ancestors, has been drilling some strange iron, want to dedicate to the court to make a name for himself, to become a master like his ancestors that will remain famous in history, but ……”
Saying this, Wang Xiao Er paused, his face somewhat embarrassed.
“But what?”Qin’er asked.
“But the iron he drilled was too strange and dangerous, once he experimented with iron and accidentally broke a leg. Moreover, he has presented iron weapons to the government a few times, the first time the government still valued it, but when the scene was verified, something went seriously wrong and burned one of the government’s storehouses, and then there was nothing more to come ……”
Wang Xiao Er said with slight embarrassment.
“This is still the number one blacksmith?”Qin’er breathlessly rolled her eyes.
“The strange iron tools he researched, but firearms?”Li Shu’s voice resounded within the palanquin.
“Yes miss, he researches something like ‘Fire Crow Arrow’, ‘Shocking Heavenly Thunder’, and so on, firearms mostly.”
Gu</span> Wang Xiao Er returned.
“That’s him then, go tell him to give him a thousand taels of silver per year and invite him to serve in the Zhejian army.”
Li Shu commanded, directly using the ability of money.
“Ah, one thousand taels ……So much ……”Qin’er uttered in heartbreaking surprise.
“If he is useful to brother Zhu, one thousand taels is a bargain that can’t be cheaper.”Li Shu said in disbelief.
“Yes miss.”Wang Xiao Er led the order and went to meet the shop, after about a tea time Wang Xiao Er came back with a grey head.
“Ahem, Miss, Little’s incompetence, failed to do the errand. I went in and said, Ou Zhi Ge he is like a stone in the pit stinks and hard, threatened to enter the barracks casting ordinary blades, no interest, drove me out.”
Wang Xiao Er grey head, resentful back to report.
“Did you not tell him to give him a thousand taels of silver per year?”Qin’er opened her mouth wide in disbelief, this small broken scissors shop of his, can he earn twenty taels of silver a year, a thousand taels of silver don’t even want.
“Said.”Wang Xiao Er smiled bitterly.
“Then it will go up another thousand taels of silver, two thousand taels of silver per year.”Li Shu said in disbelief.
“Two thousand taels ……Xiao Er didn’t hear it wrong.”Wang Xiao Er all smacked his lips, thinking he had heard wrong.
“It’s two thousand taels, and you can also pay a year’s remuneration in advance, go quickly.”Li Shu impatiently urged.
Just smelling the smell of the charcoal fire here was a bit revolting.
“Yes, yes, Junior will go now.”Wang Xiao Er nodded repeatedly, jogging all the way into the scissors shop once again.
This time, he came out very quickly, obviously being pushed out, staggering out of the shop.
“Ahem, Miss, I told him to give him two thousand taels of silver per year, and to pay a year’s remuneration in advance, and he disliked me for interrupting his study of ironware, and kicked me out.”Wang Xiao Er said with an aggrieved face.
“Really useless, aren’t you quite capable of fighting ……”Qin’er rolled her eyes without any good reason.
“His strength is too big, I didn’t defend ……”Wang Xiao Er saved himself.
“Give him these two pages, tell him I have the full version here, if you want to read it, follow me.”
Li Shu took out two sheets of paper and handed them to Qin’er, signalling her to take them to Wang Xiao Er.
“Miss, two thousand taels of silver won’t work, can these two pages work ……”Qin’er handed the paper to Wang Xiao Er and returned to the sedan chair, after holding back for a while she finally couldn’t help herself and whispered to Li Shu.
“No later, we will directly call someone to knock out and tie away ……”Li Shu slightly smiled, slender jade hand covered the cherry mouth, softly said, “I have an ancestral ‘Fire Dragon Scripture’ was stolen and torn two pages, people stolen.”
