The Wife is First - 101 Chapter 101 The twelfth lunar month

The matter with the Jiangzhou prefect was resolved smoothly. After all, Mu Hanzhang was not one of those fools who wanted to test the waters even though he knew there was danger. He followed the strategy of moving first if the enemy could not move, and defeated them one by one. Now he has captured Jiangzhou. Prefect, the maritime affairs can officially begin.

It was already evening on the way back, and the sky was filled with colorful clouds.

Mu Hanzhang leaned in Jing Shao’s arms, looking at the colorful clouds on the horizon in trance: “Xiao Shao, I have something to discuss with you.”

“What?” Jing Shao held the person in his arms, taking into account the soldiers following him, and did not rush Xiao Hei away, but just let him walk slowly.

“I want to build the Commercial Office in Luzhou,” Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips, “After all, it is close to the dock and is more convenient for merchants.”

Jing Shao frowned when he heard this. Although Luzhou is not far from Pingjiang, if you want to go to the Yamen for business every day, you have to leave early and return late. Emperor Hongzheng gave him a death order before setting off. Pingjiang City must not be lost, so Gu Huaiqing could not be allowed to attack Pingjiang no matter what. He could only fight farther and farther away from Luzhou.

“I only take care of business for half a day every day, and rush back at noon.” Mu Hanzhang looked up at him, knowing that he didn’t want to be separated from him, so he tried his best to coax him with nice things. In fact, there is nothing wrong with building the commerce yamen in Pingjiang. Small transactions and urgent matters can be handled by Qin Zhaoran on the spot in Luzhou. However, considering the pretentious contact between Jing Shao and Gu Huaiqing, if the yamen is built in Ruoshui Garden, If there are many people coming and going, it will be easy for others to see flaws.

“Jun Qing,” Jing Shao hugged the person in his arms tightly, “Are you still angry?”

“Huh?” Mu Hanzhang was stunned. What does this have to do with him being angry?

“I won’t doubt that you and Qin Zhaoran have anything to do with each other, really,” Jing Shao vowed, “I just don’t want you to work so hard every day.”

When Mu Hanzhang heard him mention Qin Zhaoran, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes at him. When he said something serious, he pulled him away again, so he closed his mouth and ignored him.

Jing Shao looked down at the person in his arms and saw that he seemed tired with his eyes closed, so he depressedly hugged the person into his arms again to make him sleep more comfortably.

Returning to Ruoshui Garden in the evening, Mu Hanzhang was really tired and went to rest after taking a bath. Xiao Huang was also washed softly and fragrant, and he followed his master consciously to bed. Ever since Jing Shao ignored Mu Hanzhang and hurt him, Xiao Huang was carried to the bed as a dividing line every day. After a month, he had become accustomed to it and refused to sleep in the cold and hard garden.

After taking a shower, Jing Shao’s face darkened a bit when he saw the pile of black and yellow hairballs on the bed. Jun Qing was offended that night. Later, when he saw him let him in, he thought the matter was over, but he didn’t expect that he would do it every night. I put the tiger in bed and let him see and touch him every day for a month, but I didn’t feed him. God knows, he was almost sick from the pain.

“Jun Qing, I have to drive Gu Huaiqing out of Pingjiang City in the next few days. It may be even later to go home.” Jing Shao pushed the tiger with its arms stretched out and lay down on the bed.

“Yes.” Mu Hanzhang lay on the inside, stroking the tiger’s head repeatedly. The big tiger squinted its eyes comfortably and swung its long tail leisurely.

Jing Shao looked at the jade-like hand pitifully and moved his head on the tiger’s back, hoping that the hand could touch him.

Mu Hanzhang glanced at Jing Shao, who looked aggrieved, and just pretended not to know, patted Jing Shao’s head, turned over and fell asleep.

Jing Shao tugged the tiger’s ears gloomily, and Xiao Huang bared his teeth at him. He put his flesh pad on Mu Hanzhang’s back in a show-off manner, rubbed his head on it beautifully, and tilted his head to get ready for sleep.

Jing Shao stared at the hair ball with his eyes open for a long time. It was not until the breathing of the person on the side of the bed became even that he reached out from under the bed and took out a piece of spiced dried meat and shook it in front of Mao Hu’s nose. The tiger, who was snoring contentedly, suddenly opened a pair of big glazed eyes and stared at the dried meat that was swaying left and right. He opened his mouth to bite, but the dried meat was thrown out.

The big tiger immediately jumped out of bed after the dried meat. Jing Shao glanced at it and quickly occupied the center of the bed. He carefully stretched out his hand towards the side of the bed and slowly pulled the sleeping person into his arms. The person in his arms moved, but did not wake up. His slender and flexible body carried a faint fragrance, with a few strands of black hair hanging around his neck, and he slept warmly.

Jing Shao buried his nose into the warm neck, took a few greedy breaths, and murmured softly: “The battlefield is far away from Pingjiang. If you go to Luzhou again, the time we will be together will be even shorter. Why are you so cruel? …” He said hummingly, hugged the person into his arms again, rubbed the black hair a few times, and fell asleep aggrievedly.

The person trapped in his arms slowly raised the corners of his lips.

The next day, Mu Hanzhang asked people to tidy up the front yard of Ruoshuiyuan and prepare to turn it into a commercial yamen. Jing Shao, on the other hand, took Xiao Huang to the Wading Garden, saying that he was learning to hunt from the lions.

In August of the fourteenth year of Dachen Hongzheng, King Cheng Jingshao led his troops to the south of the Yangtze River to resist the invasion of King Huainan. It was originally a battle to remove the feudal vassal, but due to the mistake of the fourth prince Jing Yu, the King of Huainan invaded the hinterland of Jiangzhou. Emperor Hongzheng issued an order to recall the fourth prince Jing Yu, and publicly reprimanded him in the court hall for his excessive joy and ordered him to go to the ancestral temple to reflect on himself.

In September of the same year, Marquis Wenyuan investigated the case of the Jiangzhou magistrate’s exploitation of maritime merchants and privately raising troops. Emperor Hongzheng ordered a thorough investigation. Someone in the court found out that the eldest prince was impeached and had something to do with the Jiangzhou magistrate.

“Your Highness, we are cousins, you can’t ignore it!” The young master of the Jiangzhou magistrate’s family knelt in the eldest prince’s house and cried bitterly.

“You idiot who can’t stand up to the stage can’t even handle a weak scholar!” Jing Rong looked coldly at his kneeling cousin in front of him, “Go back, the prince has his own sense of responsibility in this matter. .”

After the noisy maternal relatives left, the eldest prince Jing Rong took up his pen and wrote at the end of the book: “My sons and ministers are frightened and petition to kill the governor of Jiangzhou.” After writing, he slammed the jade pen in his hand. On to the bluestone tiles.

In October, Luzhou Wharf was renovated, and Wenyuanhou Mu Hanzhang established a trade office in Pingjiang Ruoshui Garden to handle overseas merchants’ buying and selling goods and collecting maritime taxes.

The war lasted until the twelfth lunar month before a city could be recovered. King Cheng reported that Jiangnan soldiers had lost countless horses and weapons due to the consumption of the previous four princes, so he requested the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate funds to replenish horses and equipment.

Jiangnan is not warm in winter. All the flowers in the Ruo Shui Garden have withered, and only a few wintersweet blooms are in full bloom.

At the end of the year, the maritime merchants returned to their voyages one after another, and the maritime merchant yamen had a lot of leisure time. Mu Hanzhang calmly arranged for his servants to prepare things for the New Year in his house.

Pingjiang City is peaceful, and the people are not affected by the war at all, and everyone is happily preparing to celebrate the New Year.

King Huainan was quite famous in the Jiangnan area. When the people heard that it was King Huainan who was attacking the city, they were not very frightened. On the contrary, when they heard that King Cheng came to lead the army, they were very nervous for a while.

“Tomorrow during the Laba Festival, arrange for someone to set up a porridge shed outside the city.” Mu Hanzhang said to the housekeeper of Ruoshui Garden after checking the account books.

The housekeeper is a local in Pingjiang and knows a lot about things in Pingjiang City: “Yes, Lord Marquis. However, usually the wealthy businessmen in the city will set up porridge shacks in front of their houses. Why should our house be set up outside the city?”

Mu Hanzhang glanced at him: “The people who fled to Pingjiang due to the war are all outside the city.”

The housekeeper immediately understood what the princess meant and turned around to go do it. In the past six months, the common people have seen Cheng Wang’s behavior, and with Mu Hanzhang’s dedicated protection, people’s views on Cheng Wang have changed a lot.

“Tomorrow we will give porridge, I’ll have a bowl too.” A clear and melodious voice came from behind. Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another familiar voice.

“If you want to drink, please pay first.” Jing Shao glared at the man who wandered towards his princess without paying attention.

The man smiled and casually sat down at Mu Hanzhang’s table. It was the King of Huainan who was supposed to be having a fierce fight with King Cheng.

“The food and grass money allocated by Beijing has arrived. I wonder if my share is enough to buy a bowl of porridge?” Gu Huaiqing picked up an account book and flipped through it, saying with a half-smile.

“That should be enough,” Jing Shao took the account book away and said to his princess, “Just transfer the account over and refund him ten taels of silver.”

Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips and chuckled: “You stay here so blatantly, be careful of others looking at you.”

“I’ll pick this kid up to the wading garden.” Gu Huaiqing rubbed Xiao Huang, who was lying listlessly next to the heater. Ever since the weather turned cold, the tiger who was afraid of the cold didn’t want to leave the heater.

When Xiao Huang arrived at the hot spring pavilion in the Wading Garden, he immediately became energetic. He walked around the garden filled with hot spring water, then jumped up and down to find the little lion sleeping in the center of the garden.

Lions grow slower than tigers. Today’s little yellow is bigger than the lion cub. The whole tiger is lying on the lion. The thick fur completely covers the short-haired lion, leaving only a lion’s head outside. Xiao Huang couldn’t stop chewing on it. In the autumn, Jing Shao sent him here every now and then to learn how to hunt. Xiao Huang didn’t learn how to hunt in the end, but he learned from the lion and became more fond of sleeping.

Gu Huaiqing watched the two furballs rolling around in the garden, but did not accept the banknote handed over by Mu Hanzhang: “I heard that my brother-in-law is planning to do maritime business in the spring?”

Mu Hanzhang and Jing Shao looked at each other and said slowly: “Not really, I just opened a Wanbao Pavilion to help those people exchange goods.” This is what Mu Hanzhang has learned after being in charge of the maritime business for half a year. It took countless time for Fanren to travel across mountains and rivers. He was not familiar with the place and did not know how to exchange goods. Most of the people doing maritime business in Jiangnan were small businessmen and could not buy a shipload of goods in a short period of time, so he planned to invest in Luzhou. Open a Wanbao Pavilion to exchange large quantities of Fanren’s goods, and then sell them to merchants from the Chen Dynasty at a higher price.

“Is that okay if I add a share of this year’s share of the money?” Gu Huaiqing said with a smile.

Mu Hanzhang was worried that the share Jing Shao received was not enough, and he was thinking of taking out the one hundred thousand taels of silver given by his mother. Gu Huaiqing’s move relieved his urgent need: “Brother can trust me, so naturally he wants it. “

“By the way, has there been a letter from Jingchen recently?” Gu Huaiqing said casually.

“Brother sends letters every ten days,” Jing Shao glanced at him and asked his princess, pretending not to know, “The nearest one should have arrived today, right?”

Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips to hold back a smile: “I arrived early today.” With that said, he took out a letter from his sleeve.