Do you know: I, a commoner prime minister

Chapter 44 Lu Wang Arrives in Beijing

Before we knew it, the Lunar New Year was here.

The New Year did not make Qinghe County more prosperous; on the contrary, it was much quieter than usual.

Although the Spring Festival is the most important holiday, it is more about family reunions and celebrations.

After the New Year, people are busy visiting relatives and friends, and the gifts for the festival are prepared before the New Year, so it's not as lively.

Speaking of which, the most lively festival of the year is actually the Lantern Festival.

On this day, those who can afford it will come to the county town to see the lanterns. The crowds are dense and the lights are bright until dawn the next day.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhou An accompanied Shulan back to her parents' home, where they received a warm welcome from the entire Sheng family.

The next day, he returned to Youyang, paid New Year's greetings to some elders of his clan, and then settled down to study behind closed doors.

During this period, I have been somewhat lax in my studies due to getting married and family matters.

After the New Year, around mid-March, will be the time for the provincial examinations. There are only a little over three months left, so it's time to start cramming.

The day before the Lantern Festival, Stone returned.

After Zhou Ancheng got married, he sent Shitou back to his hometown to celebrate the New Year with his brother and sister-in-law.

Upon learning the news, Zhou An summoned Shi Tou.

"Young Master!"

Zhou An looked at Shi Tou, whom he hadn't seen for almost a month, and waved his hand, saying, "Why don't you come back after the Lantern Festival?"

"Hehe, I just wanted to rush back to see the lanterns!"

"They're probably worried about my safety when I go to see the lanterns."

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, young master!"

Shi Tou scratched his head. He had no idea how much this was going on; it was all thanks to Che San Niang's reminder.

Che San Niang knew very well that the reason Zhou An valued Shi Tou was because Shi Tou had some martial arts skills.

Ordinary servants can buy them, but those with good martial arts skills are hard to find.

"What did your brother and sister-in-law say about what I asked you to tell them?" Zhou An asked.

Shi Tou said, "My brother and sister-in-law said they are willing, but they need to find out what the others think first and ask the young master to give them some time."

"Well, it's good that they agreed. There's no rush for now."

Zhou An smiled and said, "You must be tired from your long journey, go and rest!"

"This humble servant takes his leave!"

After bowing, Shi Tou withdrew.

Zhou An watched Shi Tou leave, then fell into deep thought.

On his way back last time, he chatted with Shi Keng and learned that they had a loose organization called the Canal Gang. Afterwards, he came up with a way to make money.

Zhou An hasn't thought about making money all these years, partly because he's worried about losing his job, and partly because he has no one to rely on.

His parents were honest, hardworking farmers. They might not even be able to run a small business well, let alone travel around to different places to do business.

Moreover, the security situation was not good, and he was worried about something unexpected happening, so he didn't bother to do anything.

He needed to study for the imperial examinations, so it was impossible for him to go into business directly.

Shi Keng gave him inspiration, and it just so happened that he and his wife were a good match.

After Zhou An returned and perfected the plan, he asked Shi Tou to tell his brother and sister-in-law when he went home for the New Year.

His method of making money is actually quite simple: resource integration.

On the Yangtze River canal, cargo ships can be broadly divided into two types.

One type is the ships owned by wealthy merchants, and the other is those like Shi Keng who buy their own ships to transport goods for others.

Those who run boats are also divided into large ship owners and small ship owners like Shi Keng, who own only one boat.

The jobs that large ship owners take on are mostly those with a lot of cargo.

People like Shi Keng only work on small or medium-sized cargo ships, and can only take small jobs or temporary shared jobs.

This kind of work is very inefficient; sometimes, you have to wait at the dock for several days just to get the goods.

Zhou An thought that since the Canal Gang was an unaffiliated organization, it had people at various docks.

It would be better to integrate them, which would not only avoid them competing for jobs and waiting at the dock, but also increase transport capacity.

If planned and managed well, it could also handle the delivery of private letters and items, much like the express delivery services of later generations.

Such large-scale industries do exist, for example, express delivery services based on the post station system.

However, this was an official institution responsible only for delivering official documents. Later, when the court opened up the business, it only accepted the business of delivering letters for officials.

If connections can be established, even non-officials can use express courier services to send letters.

But this was limited to letters.

For ordinary people and unrelated people who want to send letters, there are two methods.

One option is to ask someone to help carry it, and the other is to arrange for a servant or employee to deliver it directly.

For the former, let alone timeliness, it's hard to say whether you'll even receive it.

Unless it's a direct route, there are many intermediaries involved, making it very likely to get lost.

The latter is too costly.

That's why there's the saying, "A gift of a goose feather sent from afar carries great meaning."

This is just an exaggeration. If you really sent a goose feather from afar, under the current conditions, the cost would be enough to buy a whole flock of geese.

If those individual boat operators could be integrated, they could cover not only the entire country, but at least the areas near the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal.

This kind of business won't attract attention because no one can do it anymore; otherwise, the cost and manpower requirements would be too high, and it would only be possible through resource integration.

If Zhou An wants to become an official, he will have to make some connections in the future.

Even without giving money as bribes, regular social interactions still represent a significant expense.

Although the salaries of officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty were high, they were only enough to support their families.

He knew that such things couldn't be rushed. Shi Keng was just a minor leader, and it would naturally take time to open up the entire canal and the Yangtze River basin.

Zhou An was already tired of the Lantern Festival in Qinghe County; in previous years, he wouldn't have bothered to go.

However, this year we imported some items to our home, and the whole family went out to enjoy the lanterns together, which made our mood a little different.

Yu Jie was overjoyed and wanted to join in on everything she saw. Shu Lan, afraid that she would get lost, followed her with her maid.

"My daughter-in-law is so patient."

Seeing this, Mrs. Hao was very happy and said, "I was worried that my daughter-in-law was too young and wouldn't be able to take care of the children in the future."

"Mother, I think you're worried about not being able to get along with her, right?" Zhou An joked with a smile.

"go!"

Hao slapped Zhou An in an annoyed tone, then looked somewhat guilty in Shulan's direction.

She did have these concerns before Zhou Ancheng's marriage.

The main reason was that she had heard of people like Zhou An, who came from humble backgrounds, passed the imperial examinations, and then married daughters from wealthy families.

As a result, after the new daughter-in-law entered the family, she showed all sorts of disdain for her parents-in-law. Although she didn't dare to openly show her displeasure, her tone of voice and eyes were very infuriating.

.........

After the Lantern Festival, the New Year celebrations will be completely over.

While Zhou An was studying at home, he received an unexpected invitation.

Sun Zhigao's wedding invitation.

Zhou An asked his parents and learned that Sun Zhigao had also attended his wedding.

This is normal, after all, Sun Zhigao is one of only two scholars among the younger generation in Youyang.

Before Zhou An passed the exam, he was the only one.

The others were all too old and had given up on the path of the imperial examinations.

Zhou An was too lazy to go himself, so he asked his father to return the favor.

.........

汴京

The end of the New Year did not significantly affect the prosperity of Bianjing.

The Great Zhou Dynasty has been established for a hundred years, and the permanent population of Bianjing has now exceeded one million. Considering the floating population, the total population of Bianjing is about one and a half million.

Such a large population has made Bianjing extremely prosperous.

At the docks outside Bianjing, the shouts of laborers rose and fell, and boats with sails unfurled came and went in an endless stream, a scene of chaos yet orderly.

An official ship slowly docked. Lu Wang stepped out of the cabin and stared at the bustling scene on the dock, somewhat lost in thought.