Chapter 101: Tea, Wine, Cursive Paper, and Great Momentum

There were three convenient ways to get from Jiangnan Road to Jiangbei Road, but no matter how you went, you always had to cross the mighty river. In today’s world, there were no concrete bridges that Fan Xian was familiar with, so he had to rely on the constant flow of ferries between the two banks to support the busy traffic along the waterfront.

The three major workshops of the inner treasury are in the north of Fujian, the office of the transfer department is in Suzhou, and Lord Fan is in Hangzhou, so it seems that the control of the inner treasury is in a kind of looseness, but only the officials and merchants who have the opportunity to get in touch with this part of the businessmen know clearly that the Supervisory Yuan and the inner treasury office join hands for the warehouses all over the south of Jiangnan, and the control of the special access road is how strict.

Especially the line to the north, deliberately to the west around a corner, from the Shazhou that crosses the river to the north, and then across the Jiangbei Road of the barren mountains, Cangzhou Road of the meadows, and then around the North China Sea, a steady stream of sent into the northern Qi border, and then for the Qing Dynasty to bring back the rich silver to purchase the side of the needs.

Most of the goods traveling the northern road were under Xia Mingji’s control. Xia Qufei had made several large bids with Fan Xian’s help, and had secretly integrated the small merchant houses and gangs in the Jiangnan area, and had gradually gained power.

The reason why he chose to cross the river in Shazhou, from the eyes of the officials, naturally because the Jiangnan navy was stationed in Shazhou. But only Fan Xian and he is clear, choose Shazhou because Jiangnan water fortress the strongest strength in this, these internal library goods, although you can let the court to send supervisors to send, but …… inside the clip of those things, but do not feel comfortable with all let the court watch.

Xia Qufei sat in the tea store outside the city gates of Shazhou, sipping tea on one side, looking at the ships transporting goods to and fro on the gentle river, squinting slightly. The second young master in the north has suddenly increased his appetite for goods, but not so much that he can’t take it, after all, the door of the inner treasury is now completely open for them, Fan Xian’s cronies, it’s just that to ship all the goods over there in such a short period of time, while still not letting the imperial court get suspicious, it would require a very meticulous arrangement.

Good in the court practice, monitoring the operation of the inner treasury, by the Supervisory Yuan single-handedly responsible for. To this day, the concerns of the ministers in the courtroom have finally become a reality, Fan Xian monitors himself, how can this not be a problem?

Xia Qufei put the tea cup down, slowly savoring the bitter taste in his mouth, but his heart did not have the slightest bitterness. Looking back on this year and a half, he sometimes felt as if he was dreaming. Since he climbed onto the lap of Lord Qin, the family feud that had been biting his heart like a viper for more than ten years had been averted, the Ming family had returned to their own hands, and their own identity had changed from the unseen leader of the Jiangnan water fortresses to an official of the Supervisory Yuan, a rich merchant who had shaken the south of the Yangtze River.

The things in this world, indeed some marvelous.

Just he is also clear, today’s Ming family has long been not the year of the Ming family, although the court did not directly intervene in the middle of it, but if the little Lord Fan really sent the word, he can only do everything.

Thinking of this, he put himself to meet the eyes from the river boat in those crates back, slightly frowned, do not understand some things – to the Northern Qi East Barbarians smuggling of goods in the treasury, is undoubtedly the world’s most lucrative business, but to the identity of Lord Fan, why would he want to be so greedy? Lord Little Fan explained back then that the reason why the Eldest Princess was greedy for silver was because she wanted to seek power in the dynasty, to lay the foundation for the imperial sons, and to buy people’s hearts in the army.

However, Little Lord Fan himself is a royal son, and is unlikely to take over the throne when he returns to the Fan clan, so what does he need so much silver for? What’s more, His Majesty just didn’t like the fact that the Eldest Princess secretly moved her own inner treasury almost empty back then, could His Majesty allow Lord Fan Jr. to do so now?

Since Eldest Princess Li Yunrui lost her power, this not-so-small shockwave faintly swept through the hearts of the nobles in the world, and then did not stir up any more ripples. Of course, this is only the surface of the calm, secretly what people are thinking, no one is clear.

But now that people knew how the powerful minister of the Southern Dynasty, Fan Xian, had gained the favor of the Emperor of Qing, and how much power he had in his hands, they could not help but be wary and hopeful – no matter what, Fan Xian was still a scholar in the hearts of the people of the world, and especially because of his performances on the stage in the past few years, it was clear to the people that he had a lot to do with the ordinary sons of the powerful and noble people of Qing. The performance of Fan Xian on the stage over the years has made it clear to people that he is a little different from the ordinary sons and daughters of the powerful nobles of Qing, or at least not as hot-blooded and warlike.

Beiqi and Dongyi naturally hoped that Fan Xian would be able to last a long time. Even if the young emperor of Northern Qi wanted to bring Fan Xian to his side as a prince, he knew that Fan Xian would benefit himself the most if he stayed in Southern Qing, and he hoped that Fan Xian’s power would be bigger and bigger, and his favor would be deeper and deeper, and that he would be strong enough to influence the Qing Emperor’s decisions.

However, this was only extravagant hope and idealism, no emperor would be so foolish as to place his hopes for peace on a vassal of a foreign country, peace between nations was ultimately reflected in strength, and the strength of a nation, naturally, was its military power!

Since the beginning of spring, north of yanjing, east of cangzhou in the open wilderness, the northern qi generation of male generals ShangSuHu was lifted from house arrest, parachuted into the southern line, in a very short period of time set up their absolute authority in the army, began to day and night drills and exercises, maintain a strong deterrent to the southern army, suppressing the ambitions of the southern Qing people.

Clashing head-on with Uesugi Tiger was one of the great generals of the Kingdom of Qing, Yan Xiaoyi, the Great Governor of the Northern Conquest. As these two bulls collided, how could there not be some sparks and the smell of blood gradually rising. Although there is no war on the border line, but some small friction, some deliberately create a tense atmosphere, gradually diffuse.

Xia Qifei presided over the Xia Mingji to the north to deliver the goods in the library, the reason why in Cangzhou South to the North Sea side around, in fact, is because the situation in Cangzhou has been some tension.

However, all this has completely changed in this month, for some reason, the Uesugi tiger suddenly withdrew his troops back to the north more than 50 miles, deployed troops, set up a lazy posture of not defending and not advancing, seemingly not caring that Yan Xiaoyi is leading 100,000 troops in the middle of the area between Yanjing and Cangzhou, staring at him like a cow and wanting to come up and take a bite at all times.

Tension suddenly turned into leisure, the two countries’ soldiers’ posing suddenly turned into an outing, the instantaneous change made the military of Southern Qing feel irritated and stunned for no reason.

What exactly were the Northern Qi people thinking?

Yan Xiaoyi knew exactly what the Northern Qi people were thinking, he picked up a cup and took a sip of the strong wine produced on the grassland further north of the North Sea, the wine slightly wetting his beard, the cold aura in his eyes gradually flourished.

Ever since the news from Kyoto had reached Cangzhou, Yan Xiaoyi had been clear that he was facing a crisis. While his own cronies lowered their voices at night to come up with ideas, he remained calm and did not utter a word.

When Uesugi Tiger led the Northern Qi’s army to slowly withdraw and assume the posture of a naked woman reclining on a couch, Yan Xiaoyi was neither surprised nor puzzled, but only sneered.

The Northern Qi people naturally also knew about the news of the Princess’s loss of power, and knew that the Emperor was bound to take himself down, so at this very moment, Uesugi Tiger deliberately showed his weakness and withdrew all the pressure bestowed on Yan Xiaoyi, just so that he could preserve all of his strength and spirit.

Save these for what? Naturally, it was to deal with his own Emperor.

Yan Xiaoyi slowly put down his wine cup, a cold smile floating at the corner of his lips. If the Emperor of Northern Qi suddenly wanted to go after Uesugi Tiger at this moment, he would do the same. The enemy country has internal problems, as your own side, of course, to stand by and give the enemy as much space and strength, so that the other side can be tossed up, after killing each other, reap the benefits of the fisherman, can not be said to be unpleasant.

But Yan Xiaoyi seems to have done nothing to prepare, he seems to be just waiting for that day, waiting for a few eunuchs with deeply wrinkled old skins to come riding in, tired and down, hoarse and full of fear, yet forcibly calmly announcing His Majesty’s will to himself.

“Yan Xiaoyi …… is …… here.”

The Eldest Princess had fallen, and as the Eldest Princess s close confidant heart, he was the biggest help in the army …… His Majesty would naturally not allow him to still be in charge of the ten percent of the elite troops of the Northern Conquest Army, and Yan Xiaoyi was well aware of this.

He had already prepared himself for this, so he did not take the anger that filled the faces of his own cronies into his eyes. However, to his surprise, His Majesty’s decree was delayed. Worry surfaced on his face, thinking to himself what kind of charges that emperor was trying to set for himself, to have delayed for so long?

The strong wine burned his heart, burning Yan Xiaoyi’s heart so painfully, could it be that His Majesty really trusted himself so much? However, His Majesty knew very well that back then, he was nothing more than a hunter in the mountains, and if it wasn’t for the Eldest Princess, I’m afraid that he would have spent his entire life in obscurity.

What’s more, Fan Xian had a vendetta against himself for killing his son. Although Yan Xiaoyi had not been able to catch any evidence, he believed that in the internal part of Qing, the only people who dared to kill his own son, other than His Majesty, were two madmen, and other than the Eldest Princess, of course, it was the crazy Fan Xian.

It was always impossible for His Majesty to kill his own illegitimate son to avenge his own son’s death. This was the biggest irreversible conflict between Yan Xiaoyi and the Emperor – and Yan Xiaoyi’s ferocious character doomed him to not fold his arms and die of old age in Kyoto from now on.

But neither would he lead his troops to the Northern Qi monarchs who were watching the show in the north, for that would be a humiliation.

Yan Xiaoyi once again lifted up the wine cup containing strong wine and drank it all in one go, letting out a long sigh, truly not knowing what to do. Then he received a letter, and the one who wrote it was a character he had never expected.

Looking at this letter, his hand that was pinching the letter paper began to shake, that pair of hands that had always been as stable as a mountain, that pair of hands that controlled the strings like a god’s hair, that pair of hands that were still as steel as iron when the shadow and Fan Xian were attacked by the two ninth-grade masters, they actually shook.

Qing is still the end of spring, and far south of the border, is already very hot, around the dense forest are by the high altitude of the sun’s breathless, hitching soft on top of the rocks, while those rocks on top of the vines but early by the stone on the high temperature of the baking of the fast withered.

The heat wasn’t scary yet, what was scary was the humidity in the dense forest. The south somehow have so many rainstorms, although the rain does not last long, but the rain falls to the ground, before it has time to seep into the soil, it will be baked by the high temperature into water vapor, wrapped in the woods, animals and people walking on the road, so that all the living beings have become difficult to breathe up.

A large group of people were lazily walking on the official road. Responsible for the face of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Ministry of Rites, Honglu Temple officials have torn open the lapel, do not care about decency, military discipline has always been strict, bright armor bright hundreds of forbidden army also distorted wearing clothes and hats, even surrounded by the center of several carriages of the palace tiger guards, the eyes also began to flood a tired and helpless feeling.

In the center of the carriage, sitting in the Prince of the Kingdom of Qing.

At this time from his departure from the capital has been more than a month’s time, Nanzhao country’s funeral is very smooth, in that dead king’s spirit in front of the coffin to support the fake cry a few scenes, but also gently with that small child king said a few words of gossip, witnessed the ceremony of the ascension to the throne, the Crown Prince His Highness and his entourage will set off to the north to return.

The reason why they chose to travel under such a big sun is because when the sunlight is strong, the forest is not easy to get foggy, and in the dense forest at the border between Nanzhao and Qing, the most terrible thing is those poisonous fogs.

Crown Prince Li Chengqian knocked on the window pane of the carriage, signaling the entire procession to stop, then stepped out of the carriage with the eunuch’s assistance and whispered something to the officiating official of the Ministry of Rites.

One of the tiger guards respectfully said, “Your Highness, take advantage of the daylight to walk, lest you be invaded by the poisonous fog.”

The Crown Prince smiled and said, “Take a break, everyone is tired.”

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to make it to the stage in front.” The tiger guard said with difficulty.

“Didn’t we say yesterday that there is a small one before that post station?” The Crown Prince said amiably, “It would be good to stay there tonight.”

That official from the Ministry of Rites who had been questioned earlier dissuaded him, “What kind of status is Your Highness, how can you just stay in the middle of nowhere? The post station in Tian Cheng County is really too shabby, and the great post that was drawn up last night is already ready to welcome Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince insisted that he would not allow it, only saying that the attendants around him were already tired. The official of the Ministry of Ceremony could not help but ask with a slight fear: “But it is a mistake to return ……”

“This palace will bear it, we can’t let these generals get sick from exhaustion.” The crown prince frowned and said.

Then there is an order to go down, let a line of hundreds of people rest on the ground, this night will be in Tiancheng County overnight should be able to catch up. Those soldiers and tiger guards were relieved to hear this, and after thanking the Crown Prince, they set up defenses on both sides of the road and rested in separate groups.

The people knew that it was the Crown Prince who was distressed by the hard work of the people, and they all cast grateful glances, but they just didn’t dare to let the Crown Prince see them. This more than a month, from Kyoto south to Nanzhao, and then return to the north, the road is far and dangerous, but the crown prince is not as delicate as people used to imagine, actually is not a word, and these subordinates have more persuasion encouragement, can not say amiable.

Along the way, all people have a new understanding of the crown prince, think his highness is really compassionate people, not only for his majesty’s will without complaint, but also everywhere not forget their own and so on.

The Crown Prince was ordered to go to Nanzhao to observe the ceremony, such a bitter and unprofitable mission, in the eyes of the world, will feel that His Majesty, even if it is not the banishment of the Crown Prince, is a warning to the Crown Prince, or a kind of chastisement in disguise. However, these generals and officials today are all a bit puzzled, such an excellent crown prince, what exactly is it that His Majesty is not satisfied with?

A green hanging scroll was drawn up in the forest for the Crown Prince to rest. In fact, we all know, mainly for the Prince to pay respect to the convenience, although the Prince and all the people on the way to share the sweet and bitter, but it is not possible to let the hall of a highness with everyone squatting on the side of the road bare ass poop.

Li Chengqian smiled helplessly at the forbidden soldiers who pulled the hanging scroll, lifted a corner of the green curtain and walked in, however …… he did not unzip his pants, but just waited calmly and slightly nervously.

Without staying long, a hand cupped a pill and sent it into the green hanging scroll.

Obviously this had happened more than once, the Crown Prince directly took it and chewed and swallowed it, and then delicately licked the gap between his teeth with the tip of his tongue to make sure that it wouldn’t leave behind any dregs of the medicine for those eunuchs who were named as serving and secretly watching to find out.

“Why can’t this medicine be offered to those sergeants?” After a moment of silence, the Crown Prince said to the faint shadow outside the green hanging scroll, some sadness in his tone, “Seven people have already died along the way.”

South imperial poisonous miasma is too much, although the imperial hospital has prepared excellent medicine, but there are still a few forbidden soldiers and eunuchs mistakenly use the drug mist and die.

The shadow outside the green hanging scroll paused for a moment before saying, “Your Highness, I find that I like you more and more.” After saying this, Wang XIII shook his head and disappeared silently.

The crown prince squatted down and frowned slightly, he knew that Wang X3 Lang was sent by Fan Xian, but he didn’t know exactly why Fan Xian was being so careful to protect himself, but the words that Fan Xian brought were very clear, and he himself didn’t need to appreciate any of his feelings, it was just that he somewhat disliked the feeling of an expert adorning himself from afar, and had once tried to get that person to give him all of the medication.

Just his day to day bedtime are eunuchs serving, if let a person find the prince with unknown drugs, is indeed a big trouble.

It was just that without medicine around him, he could not save people, and when he thought of those who died along the way, the Crown Prince could not help but let out a sigh.

He had behaved very well during these days, too good to be true, because he knew exactly what kind of person Father Emperor was. Father Emperor was looking for a reason, an excuse to abolish himself, and if he couldn’t find an excuse that could not damage the Emperor’s face, Father Emperor wouldn’t be in a hurry to do it.

Father Emperor loves face too much, Li Chengqian thought with a smile, stood up and threw the used paper on the ground, thinking what’s the difference between this kind of thing like face and wiping ass paper?

But it was indeed needed, at least because of this, Li Chengqian could hold out for a while longer. A hint of stubbornness surfaced on his face, Father, my son won’t give you too many excuses, if you want to abolish me, don’t want to still keep the face.

He pulled open the green hanging scroll and walked out, looking at the piercing sunlight in the sky, he suddenly thought of the small child beside the coffin of the King of Nanzhao, slightly lost in thought, thinking that all of them are being the crown prince, when the father died early, it is actually really a happy thing.

He whirled around and thought that he was going to stay in Tiancheng County tonight, and felt that the name of this county was really auspicious, and couldn’t help but smile.