Chapter 454: Dividing the troops into two groups

On the dock of Yangzhou Canal, a large number of officials were waiting here early.

The array of people who had been working on the pier for years could not help but mutter, wondering which big shot had arrived in Yangzhou.

Their doubts were soon solved. As the officials and non-members gathered and stood, a huge official ship slowly sailed over on the river in the distance.

Just look at the officers and soldiers who were the first to come down from the deck of the official ship. They held high the black pink plaques with the words "Retreat" and "Quiet" in their hands. The knowledgeable people could not hide their shock. .

An imperial envoy came to Yangzhou City again! But I don’t know why I came.

“Wu Zhirong, the magistrate of Yangzhou, led the officials from Yangzhou Prefecture to greet the imperial envoy!”

In the middle of the dock, on the road, I saw people in official uniforms on the official boats. As people walked down, a middle-aged man with a medium build and a slightly bulging belly took the lead and stepped forward, bending down to salute.

No one responded for a long time. Just when Wu Zhirong thought that the imperial envoy was going to give him a slap in the face, he only heard a very gentle voice about his age.

"Hahaha, it turns out to be Mr. Wu. I have admired him for a long time. I have admired him for a long time."

Wu Zhirong then stood up and looked around, and saw the person walking towards him. Although he was dressed in civilian clothes, , but only wearing a green robe, and not matching his age, it is obvious that he cannot be the famous Zhenyuan Hou Jia Lian.

I glanced behind him subconsciously. Although there were two or three civil and military officials, they were all dressed in the attire of a junior official.

The leading civil servant seemed to know what he was looking for and did not rush him. He just stood there with a smile on his face.

Wu Zhirong reacted quickly, immediately calmed down his expression, smiled at the visitor and said: "This is Mr. Yang, Mr. Yang, I have admired him for a long time."

"I dare not not Dare, you are the official."

Knowing that the imperial court sent people to supervise the salt administration, Wu Zhirong and other local officials, of course, had to check the background of the main people to feel at ease.

After exchanging polite words with Yang Xun, Wu Zhirong couldn't help but said: "I heard that the Imperial Envoy has come down, and the officials and colleagues in Yangzhou have prepared a reception banquet for the Imperial Envoy. Do you dare to ask Yang My lord, I wonder where the imperial envoy is now?"

Yang Xun smiled and said: "Master Wu, thank you for your trouble, but the imperial envoy is not in Yangzhou now, so we can skip this reception banquet."

"Not in Yangzhou?"

Not to mention Wu Zhirong, several subordinate officials who had a say in Yangzhou official circles stepped forward at this moment.They couldn't help but look at each other with doubts on their faces.

Yang Xun naturally knew what they were thinking, and simply said: "The imperial envoy is temporarily busy with other matters, so I entrusted my subordinates to go to Yangzhou first. Your Excellency, he will arrive in a few days."< br />
Anything else?

This statement is a bit perfunctory.

An imperial envoy is an imperial envoy who is commissioned by the emperor to deal with an important matter. How can he be delayed by other things?

I bet, the imperial court is really serious about it this time. The legendary imperial envoy didn’t even bother to spend time dealing with them. As soon as he got to Jiangnan, he went to various places to investigate and collect evidence. ?

This is an easy guess, so for a while, not only was the Yangzhou chief official silent, but the big and small salt merchants who were standing behind and heard the news all looked worried. panic.

The imperial envoy didn’t even give them a face, so how could their preparations be put to use?

"I wonder if Mr. Yang might inform the Imperial Envoy whereabouts? In this way, I can arrange for someone to receive and serve me, lest some blind person bumps into the Imperial Envoy, which would be bad."

"Well, I don't know about this, the imperial envoy has never talked to me. But Master Wu, don't worry, the imperial envoy said that he will arrive in Yangzhou immediately after finishing his trivial matters. ”

Seeing that he couldn’t get anything out of Yang Xun, Wu Zhirong did not bother, burying his doubts in his heart, and smiled and asked Yang Xun to settle in the palace first.

Who knew that Yang Xun said that the imperial envoy had an order to let him and his entourage live in the Yanzheng official residence to facilitate investigation and retrieval of files.

This kind of direct and unconcealed behavior made Wu Zhirong and others even more uneasy. They arranged a separate dinner that night and invited Yang Xun and one of the accompanying Beizhen Fusi Baihu , after some hospitality, each received a large amount of silver.

Yang Xun and the others did not refuse, which undoubtedly made Wu Zhirong and others secretly relieved in their hearts.

　……

As for Jia Lian, when he was about to enter the boundary of Yangzhou, he asked Yang Xun and others to go slowly. He himself took Daiyu and others first. One step, enter Yangzhou Mansion.

Just when Yang Xun and others entered Yangzhou City, he had already taken Daiyu across Yangzhou and headed towards Suzhou.

At this time, he seemed to have no idea that the entire Yangzhou Prefecture was uneasy because of his disappearance.

It was better for him to let Zijuan and others set up the Taishi chair, put out a fruit plate, and took Daiyu to enjoy the breeze on the deck of the lucky ship.

Daiyu sat on the high stool next to Jia Lian, with her feet on the leg rings of the stool. She looked sideways with some joy and some speechlessness. She lay on her back on the Taishi chair and asked Xiangling to peel grapes for him to eat. Jia Lian even straightened her legs and asked Xue Yan to beat her legs!

"Zicuckoo, are you the laziest? Didn't you see that your girl is crying? Why don't you peel some fruits and feed her."

Zicuckoo is standing there. Behind Daiyu, hearing this, she looked at Jia Lian helplessly.

Why didn’t you realize before that Second Master Lian actually had such a side? In her eyes, the former Mr. Lian, although he was kind and gentle, was also very serious. Except in front of the old lady and others, he was also a serious person.

How should I put it, it’s just a bit self-indulgent.

But since he proposed to marry his own girl, especially after boarding the lucky boat, as his relationship with the girl became more and more intimate, Master Lian became more and more lazy in front of them.

I don’t know if he has such a temperament to begin with, or if he behaves like this on purpose in order to get closer to the girl.

When Daiyu heard Jia Lian's joke, her face flushed a little, but she didn't show anything.

For more than half a month, she has been staying with Jia Lian every day, and she has become more aware of Jia Lian's personality that she didn't know before.

She is also like Zijuan, and some people speculate that Jia Lian did this just to get close to her. But no matter what, she has indeed been very happy in the past half month, and her sense of alienation from Jia Lian has indeed been reduced.

Of course, at the same time, respect for Jia Lian has also decreased!

Daiyu even felt that Jia Lian used to act like a cousin in front of her, but now he is the real him!

Although she felt a little cheated, who told Brother Lian to be so kind to her? Even if she was cheated, she could only admit it. Anyway, compared to the previous Jia Lian who was as loving and considerate as her father, she preferred this cousin who was like a peer and would tease her or tell her a novel joke from time to time.

Therefore, she didn’t mind Jia Lian calling her maids. Instead, she tilted her head and asked, “Second brother, if you don’t go into Yangzhou City, please accompany me to Suzhou first. There really won’t be any trouble.” "?"

Daiyu grew up in fine clothes and fine food. Both her parents were first-class figures. Even when she came to Jia's family, although her life was not happy at times, materially, Jia's family was not happy. Her mother always gave her almost the best. As a result, she was a little ignorant of the sufferings of the world, and could write poems such as "In prosperous times when there is no hunger and discouragement, why bother farming and weaving?"

But that doesn’t mean that she is exactly like Jia Baoyu, completely ignorant of worldly affairs.

On the contrary, Daiyu is very smart. She has some knowledge about secular affairs and even social and official circles, but she just doesn't bother to show it.

After all, she is Lin Ruhai’s daughter. She has been exposed to many rules since childhood and knows many rules that others don’t know.

Of course she knew that Jia Lian was on this trip as an imperial envoy and had the emperor's orders, but now he left most of his entourage to accompany her to escort her father's coffin to Suzhou. Wouldn't it delay Jia Lian's official business? If someone knew about it, wouldn't it be a crime to impeach him in front of the emperor?

"No, what trouble can I cause if I escort my uncle? Or you don't believe in your husband's ability, and you are worried that I will take the emperor's job in just two or three days. The errand can't be done?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? What kind of husband...jun...is frivolous~!"

When Daiyu heard that Jia Lian claimed to be her husband, her face turned red. He suddenly turned red with embarrassment and glared at Jia Lian fiercely.

For her now, this kind of title is still too embarrassing for her. Unless, after getting married, it would be almost the same...

In response to this situation, Zijuan smiled and said nothing, while Xueyan, who was kneeling on the futon on the ground, stared blankly at the two masters. At one glance, he was kicked by Jia Lian's feet, and then he continued to massage Jia Lian's calves.

Xiangling, on the other hand, looked at Daiyu, who was blushing and more beautiful than a peach blossom, and thought to herself: Miss Lin is more beautiful than a flower when she is shy. Only the second master can be worthy of a beauty like Miss Lin!

Originally, Xiangling didn’t know about Jia Lian and Daiyu, but after spending so many days of close service and seeing the growing relationship between Jia Lian and Daiyu, Xiangling couldn’t be more insensitive. , you will also see some problems.

Finally one day, when I was serving Jia Lian to take a bath, I couldn't help but ask Jia Lian, and then I knew the truth.

Xiangling is very grateful to Daiyu. When she was rescued from the kidnapper by Jia Lian, she received a lot of care from Daiyu, who was only eight or nine years old. When she arrived at Jia's house, Daiyu became her mentor under Jia Lian's help.

For Xiang Ling, being able to study is one of the happiest things she feels, second only to following Jia Lian.

Therefore, Daiyu’s status in Xiangling’s heart is very high. Therefore, when she knew that Daiyu would become Jia Lian's second wife in the future, Xiangling was not jealous at all, but was secretly happy.

Because in this way, in the future, she can repay Jia Lian's kindness and perform her filial piety to Daiyu at the same time, without having to worry about the problem of loyalty and filial piety.

After all, Daiyu didn’t care much about worldly affairs. Seeing that Jia Lian was confident, she put her worries aside. oppositeIndeed, she was happiest that Jia Lian was willing to put aside other things and accompany her to Suzhou first.

Before, she was still worried that if Jia Lian disembarked in Yangzhou, she would continue to stay in Yangzhou and wait, or return to Suzhou first.

This is the best outcome for her.

With gratitude in her heart for Jia Lian's benefits to her, Daiyu found it inconvenient to care about Jia Lian's verbal advantage over her. But after all, he was shy because he was heard by the maids, and he couldn't stand Jia Lian's comfortable appearance, so he wanted to get up and go back to the house.

Who knew that Jia Lian happened to peel a grape himself, leaned up, handed it to his mouth, and said with a smile: "Zicuckoo is too lazy, ask her to peel a grape for you." They all refused. I really don’t know how you treat such a girl as a treasure? I have to do it myself."

Daiyu rolled her eyes at Jia Lian, but she was used to Jia Lian. Fuck Zicuckoo. If it's not too much, she also likes to watch Jia Lian fight against Zicuckoo. Who knows that Zicuckoo is the person assigned to her by Jia's mother and controls her everywhere, like an old mother.

After hesitating for a moment, he still didn’t want to waste Jia Lian’s efforts, so he bowed his head, opened his mouth slightly, and put the white and tender grape pulp into his mouth from Jia Lian’s fingertips. , and started chewing it in small mouths.

Although she usually doesn't like eating grapes very much, at this moment, she felt that the one Jia Lian peeled for her was particularly sweet, and she couldn't help but smile slightly.

But she soon regretted it.

As if Jia Lian had found something interesting to do, he stopped letting Xiang Ling serve him. He sat up and concentrated on peeling grapes for her. After peeling one off, he fed her one. When she showed an expression that she didn't want to eat, he still coaxed her with gentle words.

But Daiyu was Daiyu after all. Even if Jia Lian tried to coax her, after eating the third pill, she still stubbornly tilted her head and firmly rejected Jia Lian's kindness.

She was even a little angry.

Perhaps because she had fed greedy squirrels, she could probably guess why Jia Lian did this. Because she used to catch two little squirrels and feed them food with her own hands.

Just because, watching the little squirrel eat, its mouth is round and bulging, it is very cute.

She suspected that Jia Lian regarded her as a small animal.

Of course, there was also the reason why every time she took food from Jia Lian’s hands, her lips would easily touch Jia Lian’s fingers, which made her a little embarrassed.

"Hahaha..."

Jia Lian did this because he saw Daiyu eating in small mouths, which was very flattering, but when he saw that Daiyu was not cooperating, , but I don’t force it.

At this time, Aqin and the stairs came over. Although they did not speak, their expressions indicated that something was wrong.

Jia Lian casually threw the fruit in his hand into Xiangling's mouth, stood up and said with a smile: "Sister Lin continues to watch the scene here, I'll go down and have a look."

In front of Xiangling and others, Daiyu can still be more casual. But when others were around, Daiyu was stingy about showing her closeness to Jia Lian, so she nodded slightly, agreeing with Jia Lian, and watched Jia Lian go downstairs.

Arriving at the bow cabin, his bodyguard, his deputy, and others, as well as Lin Youquan, were all here.

Although he did not bring all the more than fifty personal guards with him on this trip, he did bring Captain Zhang Yong, Deputy Leader Zhao Sheng and Liu Xianglian.

Of course, Aqi originally held the position of deputy captain, but she only protected Jia Lian personally and did not care about the affairs within the personal unit.

Even so, Zhang Yong and others respect Sister Aqi. Not to mention that they can follow Jia Lian at all times, it is said that the eldest princess of the country has appointed the two of them as the third-class bodyguards of the princess palace. It has also spread in the Jia family.

People with serious official status naturally have an extraordinary status.

In addition to his own personal guards, the Fu Ship was followed by three small boats, containing dozens of Imperial Guard officers and soldiers. This was a clipper hired before the border of Yangzhou in order to cover up others' eyes.

"The second master expected it to be true. We were indeed discovered. Just now, news came from the Forbidden Army brothers, saying that they had discovered a sneaky speedboat trying to follow us. It has already Being dispersed."

As soon as he entered the door, Zhao Sheng was the first to speak.

When Jia Lian heard this, he frowned slightly.

The power of Yangzhou salt merchants was well-known throughout the world. It's not unusual. Money can make all the difference. The profit of at least tens of millions of taels of silver every year is divided among twenty or thirty companies. It's strange that the power of those salt merchants is not great.

So it’s not surprising that he could be found so quickly.

But he was not worried at all. The reason why he and Yang Xunbing were separated was naturally to accompany Daiyu to Suzhou and help her sort out Lin Ruhai's funeral affairs. The second point is to put a smoke bomb into Yangzhou officialdom.

After all, there is a real problem in Yangzhou officialdom. It has been so long. The other party must have dealt with the beginning and the end of the matter, and they will not wait in vain for him to investigate. So arriving in Yangzhou one day earlier or arriving in Yangzhou one day later is the same.

It would be better not to go to Yangzhou, the base camp of the salt merchants, because there may be more accurate news in other nearby state capitals.

ThatIn this case, it will be easier to open up the situation.

Even if we knew his traces, it would be nothing. Originally, he had never thought of concealing his whereabouts. Lin Ruhai was a second-rank official, and it was a big deal for his coffin to go south. It would be very easy for others who really wanted to investigate.

This was his second smoke bomb, leaving those people unsure whether he was leaving to escort Lin Ruhai’s coffin to Suzhou, or to avoid them and investigate their pain. foot.

The imperial court sent people down to investigate the case in such a high-profile manner. The people in Yangzhou Prefecture must have gone all out to prepare for the investigation.

At this time, the more unconventional the tactics are, the more likely it is to make people in Yangzhou Prefecture feel guilty and uneasy. As long as they can't be sure about him, or the true intentions of the court, over time, the person with real problems will probably get into trouble and expose his flaws.

As for how to solve the Yangzhou salt policy and An Siyuan's death, Jia Lian had already made some calculations when he was in Beijing. At present, as long as he solves the problem within the time limit set by the emperor, Just try to do things as well as possible, that's all.

Liu Xianglian began to wander north and south after her parents died. She also visited Yangzhou and saw its prosperity.

Because of his own ability, he also made friends with some Yangzhou celebrities and knew some things about Yangzhou officialdom.

Seeing that Jia Lian seemed to be taking the salt policy lightly, Liu Xianglian couldn't help but remind him: "Master Hou, my subordinate has been to Yangzhou before, and even met Wu Zhirong, the prefect of Yangzhou, so for Yangzhou I also know a thing or two about it.

Because the Lianghuai Salt Administration was established in Yangzhou, Yangzhou has long become one of the most prosperous and prosperous state capitals in the entire Jiangnan.
< br />The most famous among them are naturally the major salt merchants, especially seven of them are the most famous.

It is rumored that these seven salt merchants all have profound backgrounds and amazing power.
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Since Lord Marquis has come down under the emperor’s order to supervise the salt administration, he should be more careful in everything he does.”

Liu Xianglian said and looked at Jia Lian’s expression.

Although Jia Lian took a fancy to him and took him under his command, he still had to judge Jia Lian's abilities and methods based on Jia Lian's reactions and actions on major events. This can be used to judge whether he should work hard to be loyal and strive for a great future in the future, or whether he should be conceited and spend these three years in peace before leaving.