"This is a family rule, not a word of frustration!"
Li Jinglong grabbed his wife's hand and said, "The key to the basement will be in your hands from now on, which means that the roots of the Li family are in your hands!"
Madam Deng suddenly grabbed the key tightly, her eyes gleaming, "Don't worry, boss, I won't let outsiders know if I die!"
Li Jinglong nodded and walked to the other side with his wife, where a dozen bulging snakeskin bags were placed in the corner.
"I brought it back from this trip!" As he said that, Li Jinglong knelt down and opened a bag.
With a crash, gems of five colors rolled out of the bag, rolling all over the ground.
"Oh my God!" Deng exclaimed, "That's all?"
Li Jinglong grabbed a handful and let the gems fall from his hand, making a tinkling sound, and said with a smile, "They are all top-notch things!" He said, holding the gems in front of his eyes, "I gave these to you two.
With this in our family, even if our children and grandchildren lose power in the future, they will still be their mother’s masters!”
Mrs. Deng's heart surged with tenderness, and she said softly, "Head of the family, I know that you are doing this for this family. But these things are dead things, so there is no need to focus on them. Although I am a woman, I also know that the family business
The evil obstacles of older descendants are also greater. If there are too many of these things, it may not be a good thing!"
"Hehe!" Li Jinglong laughed a few times, "You are a woman after all. Remember, it doesn't matter if you don't have power, but you must not be without money!"
"If you don't have money, how can you have relatives and friends? Who will look up to you? With a family like ours, as long as we don't have money, people will laugh at us behind our backs, and we might even make things worse when we do things."
"If you have money, who wouldn't think highly of you? Friends are friends, relatives are relatives, and favors are favors."
Mrs. Deng looked at her husband, sighed and said nothing.
~~~
The news that Li Jinglong, Duke of Cao State, has returned to the capital has spread like wildfire. It stands to reason that when this gentleman comes back, he will be full of friends in the capital and lively for several days.
But what is surprising is that after meeting the emperor, he stayed at home and did not go anywhere. He also asked the butler to explain that he was not feeling well and closed the door to thank guests.
For a while, someone was talking privately.
"Could it be that Duke Cao Guo contracted some undisclosed disease in Fan State?"
"Is it because of what happened at Taibai Tower that you have lost the Holy Family now?"
Anyway, I said everything, but no one came to the door to say a sincere greeting.
It really echoes what Li Jinglong said, people are all people who avoid interests and disadvantages, and they all look at what others are doing.
A few days later, we arrived at the Nanguan Water Transport Terminal outside the capital.
Several official ships docked at the dock, under the banner of Cao Guogong's Li family. The sailors on board were extremely domineering. They drove away the surrounding merchant ships and occupied a piece of water. They impatiently urged the tax officials to let them go.
Want to transport goods into the city.
The water transport terminal in the capital is the most prosperous and busy place in the world. Even if the tax collectors stay on the ground, they are still busy.
Besides, they were officials, and no matter how big the merchants were, they were always polite. The sailors on the Li family's ship were so ignorant, which also made these tax collectors angry.
The tax collectors scolded the sailors a few times, but no one knew that the sailors from the Li family were so stupid that they actually quarreled with the tax collectors in front of countless people.
There were ships going back and forth on the canal, and there were countless laborers on the shore. When they saw someone dared to quarrel with the tax collector, they all surrounded him with cheers.
I saw a shirtless sailor standing on the trestle, akimbo and shouting to the tax collectors, "What are you checking? We still have to transport goods to the city. If time is delayed, who can afford it?" As he said,
He raised his head unruly and said, "On the boat, there are all the goodies brought back by Cao Guogong from overseas in Southeast Asia!"
Two tax collectors and a dozen soldiers were so angry that their noses were crooked.
The taxes collected from the canal docks in the capital originally went directly to the emperor's inner treasury. Later, after the new emperor ascended the throne, they were transferred to the direct management of the Ministry of Household Affairs. These tax officials are usually very overbearing, and they have never been angry like this.
The leading tax collector is in his early thirties. Being an official in this position brings countless opportunities, and it is not something that ordinary people can hold.
The tax collector's surname was Xu. He was a member of the Xu family of Wei Guogong, and was a relative of the Xu family within five generations. His father followed the previous generation of Wei Guogong, Lao Shanwang, and died in battle. That's why he was able to get such a lucrative job.
Duke Cao Guo did not dare to offend others, but he, a little tax collector, was not afraid as long as he enforced the law impartially.
At that moment, Tax Officer Xu sneered and said, "It is national law to inspect the cargo of passing ships. Since it is an inspection, all cargo ships must be opened. I am checking you, not you telling me how to check?"
The sailor, in full view of everyone, shouted, "What are you paying for? Just tell me how much money you have and let us unload the cargo!" He pointed to the cabin and said, "There is a gift from Cao Guogong in there."
A treasure for the Emperor!"
As soon as I heard this, there were more people watching the excitement around, and the three floors inside and outside were filled with water.
"Huh, don't scare people with Cao Guogong? Since it is dedicated to His Majesty, do you have a book?" Tax Collector Xu scolded, "I look at you, you are obviously pulling a tiger skin to make a banner!" He said, waving his hand, "Here.
Yeah, let me open a position for inspection!"
"Here!" A dozen soldiers heard the sound, drew their swords, and boarded the opponent's merchant ship.
On the deck of the ship, packed things were piled up.
After tax collector Xu boarded the ship, he sneered at the sailors, "What are these goods?"
The sailor rolled his eyes, "My lord, these packaged goods are all placer gold from Southeast Asia!" Then he added, "Under the tax laws of the Ming Dynasty, I haven't heard that placer gold also has to pay taxes!"
"Oh? Haha!" the tax official laughed, then turned around and ordered, "Open it all. If it's not sand gold, I will take this guy down!"
"Here!"
Several soldiers agreed and drew their knives to cut off the ropes on each package.
After tearing it open, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the knife actually pierced a sack.
With a crash, yellow gold sand came out and immediately filled the deck.
There was silence on the shore, and then there was a loud exclamation.
"Is it really gold sand? Duke Cao Guo brought back so many ships of gold sand from overseas?"
~~~~
A few hours later, the back house of Song Guogong Feng Sheng.
The old man was drinking some wine with Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding, and reminiscing about the glorious past.
There were footsteps outside and the butler's pleading.
"The marquises, the marquises, you can't force your way in!"
"go away!"
"Ouch!"
Feng Sheng and Guo Ying put down their wine glasses and looked at each other.
"It sounds like Idiot Cao's voice?" Guo Ying said.
"Why is he so hysterical that he comes to my house to show off his power?" Feng Sheng was furious.
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Jingchuan Marquis Cao Zhen and a dozen old assassins rushing over. The Marquis of Huining had become hotter. He usually used a cane, but now he was walking as fast as flying.
Guo Ying stood up abruptly, "Fool Cao, who died again?"
Cao Zhen was stunned when he entered the room, "No one died?"
"No one's going to kill you. What the hell are you saying in such a hurry?" Guo Ying said angrily.
Feng Sheng's face was also full of anger, "Fool Cao, how can you do it? You can beat up my housekeeper?"
"I don't stun the road, I won't beat him!" Cao Zhen sat down, dried a glass of wine first, and looked at each other, "Brother Feng, Brother Guo, dare you, you don’t know?"
"What's going on?" Guo Ying asked angrily.
"Didn't Li Jinglong go to sea a few days ago? What do you think he brought back?" Cao Zhen imitated other people's sales, but the sales were not very good. "There are more than a dozen big ships, all of which are treasures!"
"What baby?" Guo Ying wondered.
"Gold! Gold!" an old man behind him shouted, "He brought gold back!"
Cao Zhen stuffed another piece of donkey meat into his mouth and clapped his hands, "The people at the dock really saw it. More than a dozen boats came from the waterway, bringing things to Li Jinglong's house, saying they were treasures brought back from Nanyang!
"
"The laborers at the dock went to carry it, and a sack was full of gold sand. Ivory, rhinoceros, tortoiseshell, lake, agate, coral, beeswax... Two brothers, Li Er's girl is really big this time
Sent!"
Feng Sheng thought about it, "Then you come to me?"
"My dear second brother!" shouted other military princes from behind, "Why should he allow Li Jinglong to go to sea? We are also heroes of the Ming Dynasty. Let's go and beg the emperor to let us go too!"
This chapter has been completed!