In the early morning, Princess Lin'an woke up quietly, feeling warm all over. She stretched her waist comfortably, and her feet "clanged" against the table legs.
She opened her misty eyes blankly and saw the pale sky. At this time, the sun had not risen yet.
Bian Bian was like a hangover in a nightclub. Her eyes went from confused to confused. She wondered if she had seen it wrong. Why did she see the dawn sky instead of the embroidered bed curtains?
She said "hmm" in a somewhat innocent way and moaned slightly.
The scenes of last night flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern. She remembered that she had been boating in the pond with Xu Ningyan at night, drinking and chatting.
Perhaps she had never had such an experience before, so she agreed to Xiao Tongluo's proposal at once. For an unmarried princess, such a bold behavior was enough to ruin her reputation.
Later, perhaps because she drank some wine, she relaxed her vigilance more and more. According to his words, she lay down on the boat board.
After seeing the sky full of stars, Bian Bian was drunk, and her mind was filled with the artistic conception of "After being drunk, I didn't know that the sky was in the water, and the clear dreams on the boat were overwhelming the stars".
Intoxicated.
She didn't want to get up again, and fell into a deep sleep under the influence of alcohol.
It was so warm. Even in the dead of winter, she didn't feel cold sleeping on the boat, but instead felt a kind of warmth returning to the mother's body.
But she was not in the mood to pay attention to this now. Bian Bian sat up in panic and found that she was covered with a brocade quilt. She subconsciously wanted to lift it up, but stopped again. She nervously touched her body in the quilt to make sure that her clothes were intact and her body had no adverse reactions.
For example, the pain of breaking the gua often mentioned in books.
Bian Bian breathed a sigh of relief, looked around, and saw the palace maids guarding the shore, so she changed from the drunken nightclub Bian Bian back to the dignified Princess Lin'an.
She called the guard waiting on the shore, asked him to jump on the black-sailed boat, and helped row to the shore, and asked casually: "When did Lord Xu leave?"
"He left before dawn." The maid answered softly.
Lin'an nodded somewhat disappointedly, remembering the warm feeling yesterday. After careful comparison, he found that it was not caused by the bedding, and asked with a stern face:
"What did he do last night?"
"Yes, yes."
The maid, who had dark circles under her eyes and had not slept all night, took the opportunity to complain: "She flirted with the princess."
"Ah?" Lin'an looked terrified.
"He kept holding the princess's hand." The maid said hatefully: "Before leaving this morning, he slapped my... buttocks and threatened me not to tell the princess."
So excessive? Lin'an's eyebrows were raised, and he felt ashamed and angry that he had seen the wrong person.
"Second Princess..." The guard hesitated.
"Hesitated." Lin'an glanced at him unhappily.
"It's freezing cold, the princess is sleeping on the boat, and a blanket alone can't keep her out of the cold." The guard explained:
"I saw clearly last night that Lord Xu didn't sleep all night, holding the princess's hand, he was passing the Qi machine to you to dispel the cold."
Passing the Qi machine... didn't sleep all night... Bian Bian was stunned, remembering that she did sleep comfortably last night, and said suspiciously:
"Why haven't I heard of such a thing, and no one has passed the Qi machine for me."
"This..." The guard smiled bitterly, "Passing the Qi machine all night is a waste of energy, who can hold it. Unless you are a mid-level warrior or a high-level warrior.
"Besides, the princess is well-dressed and well-fed, she doesn't need this."
Bian Bian bit her lip and asked tentatively, "How tired are you?"
The guard replied, "If it were me, I would have died of exhaustion long ago. "
Her watery peach blossom eyes suddenly rippled, soft and tender.
"When Lord Xu left, he seemed... exhausted." The maid recalled: "But why didn't he let me say it?"
Lin An did not answer this question, and suddenly walked out: "He is leaving Beijing for Yunzhou this morning. What time is it now? I want to see him off..."
For some reason, she felt an inexplicable wave in her heart, and she wanted to see that dog servant very much.
"Your Highness, it's past the hour of Mao..." The maid chased her: "Besides, how can a princess send a gong? If it gets out, it will be bad for you and him. "
This sentence made the willful Lin'an pause.
For me, at most I would be scolded by my father... But if it concerns my reputation, he, a small copper gong, will definitely be oppressed... Lin'an glanced at the palace maids and guards, and his round oval face rarely revealed the majesty of the royal family:
"It concerns my reputation. You must not spread what happened last night, otherwise you will all be beaten to death."
"Yes."
...
From the capital to Yunzhou, the journey is long. In order to save time, this imperial envoy team heading to Yunzhou chose to take the waterway and abandon the land route.
The official ship cut through the waves, and the sails were flying.
Xu Qian'an stood on the deck, facing the wind blowing from the river, and large and small ships sailed on the river. There were both official ships and merchant ships.
"You look unwell, overworked." Jiang Luzhong came to the deck, shoulder to shoulder with him, looked at Xu Qian'an sideways, and chuckled.
"Did you go to the Jiaofangsi yesterday? "
"....Yeah." Xu Qian'an was speechless.
He did go to the Jiaofangsi and had a parting talk with Fuxiang. But the real reason for his tiredness was that he was drained of his energy by Bian Bian, but he couldn't say it out loud.
"Look at you, you are still too young and your eyes are shallow." Jiang Luzhong supported the railing with both hands, smiling like an old driver:
"Yunzhou also has a Jiaofangsi. The women in Jiangnan have soft bodies and soft voices. The taste is different from that of the women in Beijing. I will take you to experience it later."
"It's different." Xu Qian'an shook his head.
"You are an infatuated person?" Jiang Luzhong said in surprise.
This has nothing to do with infatuation, it has something to do with freeloading... Xu Qian'an said in a deep voice: "Unless Jiang Jinluo treats us."
"What?" Jiang Luzhong was stunned.
"If you treat us, it will be the same. "Xu Qiyan's face was serious.
Jiang Luzhong thought for a moment and pointed at the river: "What do you think of the water here?"
Xu Qiyan looked down at the river and answered honestly: "Not very good, dirty."
Jiang Luzhong nodded: "It's good that you know."
Xu Qiyan: "..."
After a while, Jiang Luzhong said: "Going south along the canal, when we reach Qingzhou, we have to change to land. It will take about ten days to reach Yunzhou by land."
"Master Jiang, it's not appropriate to tell me this secret route." Xu Qiyan said.
"It doesn't matter. With your talent, you will be a golden gong sooner or later." Jiang Luzhong smiled indifferently.
Friends are friends, and I will be angry if you put a flag on me...Xu Qiyan smiled in return: "Thanks for your good words, um, why do you want to change to the dry road?"
"It's land. "Jiang Luzhong corrected, and then explained: "Although Qingzhou is adjacent to Yunzhou, there is no canal connecting the two states. If you want to go by water, you have to go around the sandbar next door, which is faster than going by land."
The previous dynasty once built a large waterway and dug a canal. Two large canals were built that ran through the north and south and the east and west, respectively. There were countless tributaries, which led to the current developed water transport in Dafeng. Qingzhou and Yunzhou are not connected by a canal?
"No waterway?" Xu Qian'an expressed his doubts.
"Originally, there was a tributary connecting Yunzhou and Qingzhou, but more than ten years ago, the river suddenly changed its course. "Jiang Luzhong explained.
The route has been changed... Xu Qiyan nodded slowly.
Water conservancy projects have always been a headache for the court. They flood from time to time and change the route from time to time. Even in the previous life, floods were still a headache. It's okay for this man to change the route, at most it will go through his intestines. Once the river water changes its course, it will harm thousands of miles and the people will suffer.
At this time, a black smoke rose in front of him. Xu Qiyan tried his best to look far away and found that it was a small boat docked on the shore, and several people were burning goods.
"What's going on? Why are you burning goods?" Xu Qiyan said in a deep voice.
His first reaction was that someone was doing evil and destroying the merchant's goods.
Jiang Luzhong took a few glances and suddenly said: "Generally, in this case, the merchant does not intend to pass the customs and burns the goods to return. "
"We will be in the capital soon, why do you do this? "Xu Qian'an didn't understand.
"Oh, the court set up many customs along the canal, and every time you pass a customs, you have to pay a tax. As you pay, many merchants will find that even if they reach the destination and sell the goods, the silver they earn is not enough to pay the tax. So they simply burn the goods and return, because if you carry goods, you have to pay taxes again when you return. Empty ships don't need to. "Jiang Luzhong sighed:
"Burning goods along the river is a common thing."
"It's so ugly." Xu Qian'an raised his eyebrows.
"There are even uglier things, because small merchants can't afford the canal tariffs, they can only rely on the canal merchant associations, and those merchant associations will swallow the goods at a low price and sell them at a high price. Take the saltpeter mine you once took over in Taikang County as an example. The local ash households quarried stones and burned ash. The capital couldn't eat such a large amount, so they could only transport it to various states for sale, but the tariffs were so heavy that they couldn't afford it.
"The Chamber of Commerce took the opportunity to buy lime at a low price and transport it through its own channels. The lime farmers could only get 10% or even less profit. It was barely enough to feed themselves.
"The interests involved behind this are unimaginable. Even Duke Wei has many concerns. "
Xu Qian'an was silent.
He thought of another thing. Emperor Yuan Jing spent a lot of money on practicing Taoism and refining elixirs, and the money did not come from the Ministry of Revenue, but from his own small treasury.
So, how could Emperor Yuan Jing have so much money for him to spend like crazy?
He did not ask this question, but returned to the cabin to breathe and recover his energy. It was almost noon, and he was already starving.
After leaving the room, he heard the lively chatter on the deck. It turned out that the boatmen caught many fat river fish and scattered them on the deck, jumping around.
Led by Jiang Luzhong, Song Tingfeng and other twenty Tongluo joined in the fun, happy to have fresh fish soup at noon.
The governor who led the team came out when he heard the sound, frowning.
He was the assistant censor of the Censorate, a fourth-rank official. In the Dafeng officialdom, the governor was usually the censor, with great power.
The Censorate was controlled by Wei Yuan, and the blue-clad official also had an official title, called the Left Censor-in-Chief, a second-rank official.
This censor, who could be said to be one of his own, had been seasick all morning, dizzy and dazed. He was resting when he was woken up by this group of warriors, and he was very unhappy.
"Pick a few of the fattest river fish for the governor to stew." Jiang Lvzhong said with a smile.
The governor, who had a goat beard and a refined temperament, waved his hand and frowned, "The river fish smells too strong, I have no appetite."
After rejecting Jiang Lvzhong's kindness, he glanced at the gongs unhappily, "Be quiet, shouting is not decent."
After that, he returned to the cabin with an agitated look on his face.
"Tsk tsk, scholars are weak, they can't stand it. "A Tongluo teased, but was glared at by Jiang Luzhong.
There is fresh fish soup to drink... just in time to add some chicken essence for seasoning... Hungry Xu Qian'an is looking forward to lunch.