Great Tang Idyll

Book 1: Chapter 87

Zhou Kong, Zhou Xi'hu, and the bailiff got up. Someone of course came to help them comb their hair and wash their faces. After being busy for a short while, the bailiff was taken to another place to eat while Zhou Xi'hu and his uncle were invited to a separate dining area. All of the food was arranged on the table already. The porridge was steaming in the bowl, and at first glance it can be told that it was just served.

There were more than a dozen types of small pickled veggies, and next to those were fried dough sticks, meat buns, and plain steamed buns. In addition to the two kinds of porridge, there was also soy milk and silken tofu, fermented bean curd and chives placed there.

Zhou Kong originally thought that he would have to drink wine again in the morning, but he didn't expect that some ordinary foods were prepared here. The small dishes were only meat and vegetables, and did not seem like a feast.

This time, the old Grandfathers of the Zhang and Wang families did not come out. Only Father Zhang came to sit and accompany them so there were only three people in the entire dining hall. Looking at the food on the table in front of him, Zhou Kong felt that there were to many types so he said,

"Brother Yong'cheng, there are so many dishes that I don't know which one to choose. How about we remove some of them and give them to the servants so that they can it eat at noon; they would be hungry by then."

Yesterday Father Zhang had still referred to him as Lord Zhou, but after Zhou Kong refused, he started calling him by his given name.

When Zhou Kong heard this, he was in a daze for a while. He picked up a bun, and brought it to his mouth and said, "Could it be that the Zhang Manor is also in charge of the servants' breakfast?"

"Brother Miao'ran have never been here before, so naturally, you do not understand the situation here. Not just the Zhang Manor, but the Wang Manor is also like this too. In addition to three meals a day, the night guards also gets a midnight snack." Father Zhang spoke to Zhou Kong.

"Why do you do this? A lot of food is eaten everyday, right?" Even Zhou Kong didn't do this in his own mansion and his servants only had two meals a day, but at this manor, he learned of such an unbelievable matter.

"Brother Miao'ran definitely doesn't believe me. How about we let Little Hu go and have a look." Father Zhang said to Zhou Kong. In fact, Zhou Xi'hu just needed to go check, but didn't feel like this was appropriate; however, his uncle had nodded his head, so he had no choice but to stand up and leave. He went to the yard to have a look, and as he left, he looked longingly at the food on the table. He understood clearly that the small dishes on the Zhang Manor tasted much better than the foods outside.

When Zhou Xi'hu left, Zhou Kong saw that he and Father Zhang were the only two left in the hall and only then did he say, "Brother Yong'cheng, I wonder what plans your Manor has this time?"

"It's not much of a plan, but there are a few things that I have to trouble Brother Miao'ran with. The two businesses that Manor and Little Hu run together will continue to operate in the future. However, in terms of income, the Manor has taken too much advantage, especially on the sugar sales. The Manor has already recovered the capital, so let's change it to 10% profit."

"Brother Yong'cheng, I can't make decisions about this matter. When the time comes, the Manor should send someone to discuss with Little Hu. Whether Little Hu thinks it is feasible or not is up to him." Zhou Kong didn't care about this matter; a bit more money or a bit less money didn't matter since it did not affect his position.

When Father Zhang learned that he did not have to worry about this matter, he spoke again, "There's one more thing. The three Zhang, Wang, and Ge families have pitched in money to build a restaurant together at the Little Bridge. It's a remote place, so when the time comes, I ask that Brother Miao'ran could help promote the place. Brother Miao'ran does not have to worry; the dishes that restaurants make will not ruin Brother Miao'ran's reputation."

"Oh, so that is the case. Okay then. I've seen the place when I came here, and it seems to be pretty good. When the time comes, I will definitely bring people there." Zhou Kong also didn't care about this matter. It will be good enough for him to just find an excuse to come here. This was not the first time that he had to help support others.

This matter was considered to be properly negotiated and there was only one last thing left. Father Zhang was a little bit at a loss as to how to speak. According to his plan, he wants to just send out the grains, and attain a peace of mind, but according to the wife's intention, not only should they send it, but they also had to sell it. That way, the cost of giving it away can be negated by the money earned, and there will be no money loss.

He hesitated and said, "There is one more thing. There are droughts here and in Tai'hang Mountains and He'nan. There is still surplus grain on the Zhang Manor. I don't know if it can be sent there to relieve the urgent needs there. The Zhang and Wang Manors want to buy a mountain here that is a bit more than 1,000 Mu using 1,500 taels of silver. Magistrate Cheng could use this money to suppress the prices of goods."

When the third thing was said, Zhou Kong entered deep thoughts. At this time, he finally knew why he was informed by Magistrate Cheng to postpone the land investigation until after summer fall. It turned out that the Zhang Manor had this idea. At the end of summer, there would be a shortage of food there. As long as the Zhang Manor sold the grains at a fair price, they would be able to get a lot of benefits. From the looks of it, it seemed like the Zhang Family wanted to give it away for free.

The total amount of these grains adds up to 800,000 catties. It can't be imagined that these grains could solve everybody's food problem, but it was not hard at all to solve the food problem of tens of thousands of people for a few months. The work credit of this will certainly not be small.

When Father Zhang saw that Zhou Kong was still thinking about things there, he didn't bother him. He placed his chopsticks on the chopstick rest and waited.

After a while, Zhou Kong finally spoke, "I heard people say that you have 800,000 catties of grain, do you plan to give it out directly?"

"This..." Father Zhang never thought that Zhou Kong knew this much. Indeed, just as Zhou Kong said, his family has been thinking of ways to store food the entire time so they did have that amount now.

However, he couldn't give out all of the grains to others for free, so he had to say, "My family's intention is to take out half of the food grain and send it there, and save the other half for others to help earn the money back. I don't know what rewards the court will have for doing this?"

With this said this way, Zhou Kong understood that the Zhang Manor wanted to sell the other half at a high price, and earn back the half of the money given away. If they did this, it would not be as simple as only earning the money back and there will be at least some profit that could be made.

Zhou Kong didn't feel the slightest surprise about this. Who will sell the grain then? There were plenty of large grain merchants who also wanted to earn money from the disasters. However, since they were able to disclose this to him, they didn't treat him as an outsider, so he spoke after thinking,

"If you can really give out so much grains, you must first ask Magistrate Cheng to report it, and I will also report it. One hundred feifs; not only can they be saved, it would not be impossible to ask for more. The only thing is that you must find a reliable person to sell the grains, and no mistakes can be made. I don't know who is dealing with the disaster this time, otherwise they can be great help."

He didn't know what he should say right now. To be precise, he didn't know whether or not he should follow the words of his wife or actually, his deity-like son.

All of Zhou Kong's reactions were predicted by his wife correctly. Even the content of his dialogue was inferred correctly. Although it was his wife that told him about this, he clearly understood only his son and daughter-in-law had this ability. From the arrangement of breakfast until now, that was not a slight inconsistency.

Father Zhang suddenly felt that Zhou Kong was a bit pitiful; he spoke so much but he was in the controlling hands of his son and daughter-in-law. They were true monsters, no, deities.

"Brother Yong'cheng, what's the matter? Is there something else that is difficult to do?" Zhou Kong asked when he saw that Father Zhang was sitting there in a daze.

"No, it's nothing. There may not just be a drought this time, but there may also be a locust plague. The Zhang Manor has already prepared nearly 10,000 chickens and ducks. They can go there and help at that time. The people sent by the court this time does not seem like ordinary people. I heard that Prime Minister Yao has always handled government affairs well, maybe the Prime Minister himself will take care of it."

Father Zhang had memorized these words. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't think of any prime minister that would personally take care of these things, but he had to believe his wife's words.

"A locust plague? Why did the locust plague happen again? Brother Yong'cheng, this matter can't be touched. Locusts are the emperor of insects1. If there is a locust plague, then it is an omen sent from the heavens. Your Manor has raised so many chickens and ducks, could it be that you have conceived this plan much earlier on?"

Zhou Kong was still talking and suddenly, it occurred to him that the Zhang Manor had raised a lot of chickens and ducks since last year, and they also created ponds and dug wells. Could it be that the masterminds on the manor have thought of this for a long time already? And thus, they made arrangements in advance?

The more he thought about it, the more fearful Zhou You felt. Not just because those masterminds were powerful, but more so because of the locust plague. If it becomes true, then the Prefecture will suffer a bit more loss, but the two other places, Tai'hang Mountains and He'nan, will be ruined. When the time comes, the price of the grains will not be just a few times more expensive; it will not be abnormal if the price increases by more than ten folds. .

"Brother Yong'cheng, who did you hear about this form?" Zhou Kong had to ask.

"I didn't hear anyone say this. I was just guessing randomly, it was just a random guess. Why does Brother Miao'ran ask this?" Father Zhang controlled himself as hard as he could and spoke with a smile.

"Brother Miao'ran is too polite. There is nothing good here; it's food that we normally ate. Little Hu should be back soon, right? Brother Miao'ran, eat first, or else it will turn cold soon." Father Zhang picked up a fried red shrimp and stuffed it into his mouth after he spoke.

He actually doesn't like to eat shrimps, especially these small shrimps that have to be eaten even with their shells, but his wife prepared some for him every day. If he didn't it, then his wife will complain to his parents. He didn't understand why his parented doted on Qiao'er so much. As long as she went to complain to them, he would definitely be lectured. He didn't even dare to throw a small temper tantrum. Qiao'er gave birth to a big chubby boy who was like a demon--like a deity.

1. "Locusts are the emperor of insects" ", "

As mentioned before, the word for locust and Emperor sounds the same in Chinese, so although this phrase literally means "the locust, the emperor", the words sound indistinct from one another. It was believed that the locust plague was a punishment sent by the Heavens, so trying to exterminate them is equal to rebelling against the Heavens. The only way to get rid of the locust plague is to pray to the Heavens and beg the Heavens for forgiveness.