A powerful minister of the Song Dynasty

Chapter 42: Tea
Although Song Xuan has the nickname of "Timely Rain" in Lema Town, he does not help with everything.

"Constable Gao, what trouble have you encountered?"

Constable Gao briefly recounted what had happened after he parted with Song Xuan last night.

Yesterday he was invited by the surgeon Qiao Chen to the half-closed door, and Constable Gao usually wouldn't refuse such a thing.

The salary of a constable is not much, so he lives on gray income.

But when he finished and was resting, waiting for the next round of CD, he was grabbed by the ghost.

He said he received news that the poisonous scorpion was robbing people, so we should take the opportunity to rescue Song Twelve.

Constable Gao had drunk a lot of alcohol at the time and his mind was in a mess. He was dragged into the territory of the poisonous scorpion by the knife-wielding ghost in a daze.

Then the ghost with the knife took advantage of it and said that something had happened. Now the presence of Constable Gao is proof of that.

The home of the Poisonous Scorpion was raided by the Knife Ghost and his men. Amidst the chaos, five silver ingots were stuffed into his arms.

But before he could be happy for long, a group of yamen runners from Yingtian Prefecture rushed in and arrested them all.

But the real person who was in charge of the operation ran away.

Song Xuan nodded. It turned out that his second brother was being used. How could he be brought along on such a good opportunity to divide the money?

Now I can be considered to have escaped a disaster in disguise.

"Shi Er Lang, I really wasn't involved in any conspiracy to take your money. I know how you treat us brothers on a daily basis."

Constable Gao was so anxious that tears were about to come out: "Hey, where is the poisonous scorpion?"

"Constable Gao, the venomous scorpion wanted to kill me, but I subdued him.

But one of the passengers on my ship is the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, so this matter is beyond my control."

When Constable Gao heard this, he thought of the young men that Song Xuan had entertained at the banquet, and he staggered and fell to the ground in fright.

The prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, that is the sky of Songcheng!

Poisonous scorpion, you are really blinded by greed.

Why did he have to intercept Song Twelve? Now it’s no use for anyone to plead for him.

Song Xuan watched the yamen runners and their group leave. Miss Lei looked up at Song Xuan:

"Twelfth Brother, you were robbed yesterday, why didn't you tell me?"

"I dealt with that little rascal in just a few moves. There's nothing to say."

Song Xuan took out a paper fan and fanned Miss Lei:

"Let's go quickly, or you'll get tanned when the sun comes out."

Miss Lei wanted to say something, but there were so many people on the street that she couldn't say anything, so she followed Song Xuan.

Mr. Lei has quite a lot of businesses in Songcheng, dabbling in various industries. The most profitable one in the past was the shipbuilding industry, but it has declined now.

After the unification of the south, the Bian River water transport reduced the burden on Jingdong Road, and the annual water transport volume of the Guangji River was reduced to 620,000 shi, while previously it had to transport 3 million shi every year.

Jingdong Road had abundant financial resources, but due to years of drought, the river was shallow and many places were inaccessible to boats.

It can be said that after Song Renzong ascended the throne, the earth's environment began to fall into a cold cycle again, with natural disasters occurring frequently. This also indirectly led to the disaster relief experience of the Renzong Dynasty becoming a benchmark case for all dynasties.

Song Xuan entered the Lei Mansion. With Miss Lei leading the way, he did not encounter any difficulties.

Mr. Lei was checking the account books in the study with a frown on his face.

The world is peaceful now, but business is becoming increasingly difficult.

"Daddy."

Miss Lei pushed the door open and walked in, grinning and saying, "Look who's here?"

Mr. Lei closed the account book, saw Song Xuan coming, and quickly stood up:

"Twelve is here, come and sit down, and let someone know in advance so I can go and greet you."

"Meet Mr. Lei."

Song Xuan bowed politely.

"Xiaoduo, go get my good tea and the dragon and phoenix cake and make some tea." Mr. Lei was a little fat due to overwork, and he sweated a lot after moving for a while.

"This dragon and phoenix cake was created by Prime Minister Ding Wei. I usually can't bear to drink it, but I have to taste it carefully once the twelfth hour comes."

Song Xuan waved his hands repeatedly: "I have never tasted such good tea. If you give it to me, it would be like a cow chewing a peony."

The main reason is that the tea nowadays is all tea cakes.

It needs to be crushed and drunk together with the tea powder and tea.

Song Xuan used to spit out the tea leaves when drinking tea.

He is very unaccustomed to drinking this kind of tea now.

"Hahaha." Mr. Lei laughed and pointed:

"Twelve still has his sense of humor."

Today's tea is not loose tea, but steamed green tea cakes, which have a complete set of production and grading systems.

Longfengtuan tea has pushed tea to a peak of aesthetics.

From the emperor to the ministers and the common people, everyone in the Song Dynasty highly praised tea-fighting.

When Cai Xiang made the small "Dragon Ball and Phoenix Cake", it was worth a fortune.

It was not until Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, that he lost his favor for the luxurious round cake tea.

After all, tea-drinking competitions are a refined hobby for people with money and free time.

We in the Ming Dynasty don’t care about what is elegant or not. From now on, we must be frugal!

So he ordered the production of this kind of tea cakes to be stopped, and loose tea became popular on a large scale.

When Miss Lei saw Song Xuan reminiscing with his father, she simply took out the latest updated version of Dream of the Red Chamber and started reading it again.

Mr. Lei carefully ground the dragon and phoenix cakes and asked about the affairs of Lema Town.

"I heard you sold that cold paste shop. Don't you want to go back?"

"There's nothing to worry about there."

There was no need for Song Xuan to reveal his relationship with Gang Leader Cao.

Lei Yuanwai nodded and said, "That's good. You'll be more decisive in the future. Lema Town doesn't have much of a future. You should have graduated from the Song family private school long ago, or even gone to Ningling County School."

"I came out this time because I felt I had learned enough and was planning to take the entrance exam to Yingtianfu Academy."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Lei paused in grinding the tea.

He knew that Song Xuan was a smart man, a prodigy among prodigies.

But he is not that concerned about studying.

He simply didn't study at the Song family private school, so he always ranked last in every test.

"Twelve, as far as I know, it is quite difficult to get into Yingtianfu Academy." Mr. Lei put the tea into the teapot:

"My fourth child was lucky enough to get admitted, but I don't have any connections with the teachers in the academy, so I'm afraid I can't introduce you to someone."

"Hahaha." Song Xuan took the hot water and poured it into the teapot:

"Mr. Lei, I'm talking about taking the test, not using connections.

The new prefect is very particular about the academy, so how could anyone possibly try to cheat and get in under his watch? That would mean they have no future."

Mr. Lei stroked his beard and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It’s good that you know it.

He thinks smart people are good at taking shortcuts!

But Mr. Lei really didn't believe that Song Xuan could be admitted to Yingtianfu Academy.

After all, studying is something that requires hard work.

However, Song Xuan had nothing to do with hard work when it came to studying.

"I think Brother Twelve will definitely be able to get into Yingtianfu Academy." Miss Lei raised the script in her hand:
"Dad, if Twelve Brother fails the exam, it means the teacher is blind."

(End of this chapter)