Chapter 42 Caobang
Without the two girls, Ou Zanghua and his group were indeed much faster.

Starting from Cangzhou, passing through Qingxian County, and then passing by Bazhou, they arrived at the northern Zhili region. The journey was extremely difficult in the snow, but Ou Zanghua and his party only took three days to reach Tianjin.

In the second year of Jianwen, Prince of Yan Zhu Di crossed the Grand Canal here and went south to compete for the throne.

After Zhu Di became emperor, in order to commemorate the "Jingnan Campaign" that was launched from here, he renamed this place Tianjin in the second year of Yongle, which means the ferry where the emperor passed.

This is the origin of the name of Tianjin, the great city in the north.

Since Emperor Yongle moved the capital to BJ, more than 400 million shi of grain have been transported to BJ via Tianjin every year. Whether it is transporting grain by sea or by inland rivers, Tianjin is a must-pass place.

In order to protect the capital, Tianjin was not only a transit point for grain transport, but also an important military town.

If Tianjin is unstable, the capital will be unstable.

If the capital is unstable, the whole country will be unstable.

Therefore, in the second year of Yongle, Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty formally ordered the establishment of Tianjin Wei. In just one year, craftsmen and laborers built a city wall in Tianjin with a circumference of nine miles and a height and width of twenty-four feet each, and stationed more than 5,000 troops there.

As time passed, the flow of merchants and tourists in Tianjin became increasingly dense, and the imperial court gradually added officials such as the Censor in Tianjin to manage civil judicial disputes, tax management and other matters in the Tianjin area.

When Ou Zanghua and his four companions entered Tianjin City, they all smiled knowingly as they looked at the busy streets and the numerous restaurants and teahouses.

Ou Zanghua immediately saw the Tongfu Inn, which was known as the "Martial Arts Chain of All Universes", and immediately led everyone in.

The waiter was as enthusiastic as ever, trotting over and asking, "The four guests, please come in. May I ask if you are staying in the hotel or just stopping by for a meal?"

"Stay in the hotel, and please take care of the horses for us and use the best feed." Ou Zanghua waved his hand and gave the order in a rather heroic manner.

When the waiter heard this, he immediately said cheerfully, "Great! Please rest assured, our groom has learned skills from the groom for three years and will definitely take good care of you."

The so-called Yu officials are officials in the court who are in charge of horse breeding and grazing. They have a famous colleague, Comrade Bimawen, Sun Wukong.

So when Ou Zanghua heard that the person had such a professional background, he felt more reassured.

The four of them rented a small courtyard and just as they settled in, Qu Yang told Ou Zanghua that Tianjin was a crossroads of the world with all kinds of people, making it the most suitable place to gather information.

So he decided to go out and see if there was anything big happening in the world recently.

Ou Zanghua didn't care about it, but since Qu Yang wanted to go, he let him go.

After Qu Feiyan packed her luggage, she brought three buckets of hot water to Ou Zanghua one after another. After adjusting the water temperature, she put the soap aside before closing the door and walking out.

Ou Zanghua immediately took off all his clothes and sat in the bathtub. The hot water submerged his whole body and he immediately felt so comfortable that it seemed as if all his pores had opened up.

"call"

Ou Zanghua exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, and felt that his internal energy was flowing more smoothly than usual.

Then he picked up the soap, rubbed it, and began to wash his body.

Many people don’t know that soap actually appeared as early as the Song Dynasty.

The ancients would crush and grind natural soapberries, add spices and other ingredients, and make them into orange-sized balls for use in washing the face and bathing. They were commonly known as "soap balls."

In his "Wulin Jiushi" (Old Things in Wulin), Zhou Mi of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded that there were businessmen specializing in "soap balls" in Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The method of making "soap balls" was also recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen, a doctor in the Ming Dynasty. After washing with a fragrant scent, I felt that the water was a little cold.

After he stood up, he put on a single piece of clothing, then used his internal energy to evaporate the water stains on his body, and then quickly put on the clean thick clothes prepared by Qu Feiyan.

"Internal energy is really useful!" Ou Zanghua sighed, and tied his long hair into a ponytail. When he opened the door, he saw Qu Feiyan sitting beside him, seemingly waiting for him.

"Sir, have you finished washing?"

Qu Feiyan looked up at Ou Zanghua, then pushed him into the house: "I knew that you wouldn't take good care of your hair, so I didn't leave. If you go out like this and are seen by outsiders, they will say that you don't care about your appearance."

As she spoke, the little girl skillfully combed Ou Zanghua's hair and put on a crown for her.

She looked sideways and smiled with satisfaction: "Well, this is what a young master should look like."

"Well, but sometimes I feel it's quite comfortable to wear it." Ou Zanghua laughed and said with some emotion.

Qu Feiyan thought about it seriously and suggested, "Then we can wear it when we are not seeing guests at home in the future. What do you think, sir?"

"Why think so much? Just do whatever makes you feel comfortable. I'm not worried, and Feiyan doesn't need to worry either." Ou Zanghua didn't care at all, and then urged: "Feiyan, maybe you should wash up! It will be more difficult to wash up at night when the temperature drops."

"Okay!" Qu Feiyan responded. Anyway, she couldn't win the argument with her own young master.

After Ou Zanghua persuaded Feiyan to leave, he took out a copy of "Collected Works of Marquis Chengyi" and started reading it. This was the work of Liu Ji, one of the three great poets of the early Ming Dynasty. It included more than 1600 fu, sao, poems, and lyrics, and more than 230 articles of various styles.

As the sky gradually darkened, Qu Feiyan washed up and returned to Ou Zanghua's room. She lit the lamp and the stove for him, and then went to the small kitchen nearby to prepare dinner.

Seeing this, Xiang Danian also went in to help her cut vegetables and light the fire.

Fresh fish soup, fried yellow mutton, fried ham, pearl jade white jade soup, braised pork with radish, one home-cooked dish after another was brought out and placed on the table.

When Qu Feiyan brought out the white rice, Qu Yang, who had gone out to get news, came back.

"Uncle Qu, have some fish soup to warm yourself up." Ou Zanghua looked at Qu Yang who looked a little tired and said gently.

"Thank you, sir."

Qu Yang sat down and drank half a bowl of delicious fish soup, and he felt a lot more relaxed.

Then, the old man said with some excitement: "Sir, not long after I left home, I heard some incredible news."

"The leader of the Beggars' Sect, Jie Feng, will compete with the leader of the Cao Sect, Zai Fu Wang, at Yang Er Zhuang at 11:00 tonight!"

Ou Zanghua asked in confusion: "The Beggars' Sect and the Cao Clan? Why are they fighting?"

"I heard that it was about salary."

Qu Yang slowly explained that it was the Cao Gang that hired people from the Beggar Gang to do work in the early days. But as time went by, the Cao Gang started to employ its own people and reduced the salaries of the Beggar Gang members many times, showing a completely ruthless attitude.

The conflict between the two sides became more and more serious, and finally broke out at this time.

However, both the Military Commandery and the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office have made it clear that conflicts should be resolved on their own, but if anyone turns a small problem into a big one, don't blame the officials for personally reshuffling the deck.

Therefore, the two sides agreed to have a fair, just and open competition, and whoever wins will be the one to rule.

(End of this chapter)