The official ship docked outside Yangzhou City, and many officials, gentry, and people were watching from a distance.
The news that Duke Yuan Zhang had arrested the emperor's messenger had been spread by the subordinate officials.
People were surprised and felt very relieved at the same time. When they heard that the ship was coming, they rushed to tell each other and rushed to the riverside to watch the excitement.
"Alas, Mr. Zhu is in big trouble this time!" Zheng Lan frowned.
Fatty Zheng said: "Weng, although I am very stupid, Mr. Zhu is a smart man. I know that this is a disaster, how can Mr. Zhu not know about it? He must have a way to solve the disaster."
Zheng Lan shook her head: "No matter what, let's wait and see. I won't send you to Tokyo for the time being, for fear of being implicated by the Zhu family and his son."
Zheng Hong disagreed and said: "Who in Yangzhou doesn't know that my family is doing business with Daming Village? Even the method of frying tea was taught to my family by Mr. Zhu. If there is really a disaster, can my family escape?"
There must be officials and merchants who take the opportunity to make false accusations and take away my family's business. At this time, sending the younger sister to Tokyo to marry the older man as his concubine will show our family's sincerity. If we wait until next year, we can try to get that person.
Wealth, what would Zhu Dalang think in his heart?"
Zheng Lan hesitated, but insisted on her opinion: "Don't take risks."
"Weng Weng!" Zheng Hong was a little anxious.
Zheng Lan said: "Don't say it again."
Zheng Hong really wanted to say, "Shu Zi is not as good as he is clever", but Shu Zi was his own grandfather, so it was really hard to curse him.
Fatty Zheng searched his guts to sort out his words and asked: "Weng Weng, how is Mr. Zhu doing?"
Zheng Lan said: "It's good."
Fatty Zheng exhausted what he had learned throughout his life and elaborated: "Zhu Xianggong recruited the poor, gave them land, and lent them seeds. This is benevolence. Sweet potatoes and corns are extremely productive, but he is willing to promote them to all counties in the prefecture. This is also benevolence."
Ah. The method of frying tea can yield tens of thousands of gold, but I kept my promise and taught it to my family this year. This is righteousness. The magistrate of Yangzhou, the prefectural magistrate, the magistrate of Xixiang, the chief bookkeeper, and the head of the academy, Min Shan,
There is also the Confucian Mr. Chen who admires Mr. Zhu very much. With so many smart people admiring him, how can Mr. Zhu not be smart? This is wisdom. Is it possible that such a person would not be able to do anything to detain an eunuch?
?”
This discussion is not very exciting and rigorous, but it still makes Zheng Lan somewhat moved.
However, Zheng Lan still refused to bet: "Our family has learned how to fry tea, and we will definitely become richer and richer in the future. It is said that officials favor eunuchs. If Zhu Xianggong arrests eunuchs, he will probably get burned. The Zheng family must not be involved."
Go in."
Fatty Zheng was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood, so he asked again: "Weng Weng, how many years does it take for Yangzhou to produce a Jinshi?"
Zheng Lan said: "Sometimes it takes ten years, sometimes it takes twenty or thirty years."
Fatty Zheng said: "Three Jinshi were born this year. If we wait for the next time, won't we have to wait twenty or thirty years? If the Zheng family wants to marry Jinshi in the future, they will have to rely on those from outside. Those Jinshi from outside.
, how many of them are willing to marry a merchant? They said that Li Tongpan’s son, the young girl, was married off as a second wife, but everyone else refused! If you want to get married, we can only marry a girl from our family as a concubine. To a young and unmarried man.
Is Zhu Dalang's concubine the same as marrying a foreign official? Without the protection of an official, can our Zheng family's business go smoothly?"
Zheng Lan was even more hesitant and couldn't make up his mind for a while.
Of course he understood what his grandson said, but as people get older, they tend to be conservative, and thinking too much can lead to dilemmas.
Zheng Lan thought about it over and over, took her granddaughter's birth date, and ran to the goddess in the city for divination.
Don't think it's ridiculous, divination was so popular in the Northern Song Dynasty.
According to Wang Anshi's "Bian Shuo", there are over 10,000 people who rely on divination for a living in and around Tokyo alone.
Zheng Lan was looking for the goddess Zigu, which was a mainstream divination technique in the Song Dynasty.
Zigu was originally a concubine in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. She was jealous of her wife and was killed in the toilet on the 15th day of the first lunar month. God was merciful and made Zigu the God of the toilet, also known as the "Third Miss".
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, people would welcome the toilet god during the Lantern Festival.
On the day before the festival, prepare a dung basket, put a ring on the dung hairpin, and place it next to the toilet for worship. Burn incense and candles. If the children come to worship, they will be blessed by Zi Gu and will not fall into the dung pit in the future.
Drown.
Now Zigu has evolved and is not only the god of toilets, but also the god of divination, calligraphy, and pot throwing.
Zigu Divination has two business specializations:
One is a woman asking for news about her sweetheart; the other is a scholar asking if he can pass the imperial examination.
It has the flavor of the God of Women and the God of Imperial Examinations.
There were even scholars who asked Zi Gu which questions to take before the imperial examination...
But he saw Zheng Lan leading his servants and following the goddess to the toilet.
The goddess is wearing many plants and vines, and her dress looks a bit like a druid.
She held a dustpan in her hand, which was Zigu's skirt. Then she wrote the requested information on the paper, and inserted the paper and pen into the top of the dustpan.
The two boys stepped forward to hold the dustpan, and the goddess began to ask Zigu to get on top of her.
After a period of trembling like an epileptic attack, Zigu finally got up and said in a solemn tone: "Who is coming?"
Zheng Lan quickly replied: "Miss Zi, I am Zheng Lan, a merchant from Yangzhou."
Zigu said: "I already know what you are asking for."
Zheng Lan asked: "Should I marry my granddaughter off?"
Zigu said: "This matter is extraordinary and the secret must not be leaked."
Zheng Lan asked the slave to take out a few strings of money and put them in front of the dustpan: "Please tell me something, Mrs. Zi."
Zi Gu is also a well-educated woman, and she actually started to recite a poem: "Because of the infinite beauty of the cloud screen, Fengcheng is so cold that I am afraid of the spring night."
Zheng Lan didn't understand and asked quickly: "How do you interpret these two sentences?"
The goddess trembled all over, but Zigu had already left.
Zheng Lan asked the goddess again: "Why is Yunping Wuxianjiao, Fengcheng... Fengcheng... how to explain this?"
The goddess added the next two sentences: "I married a golden son-in-law for no reason, and I live up to the promise of a long marriage. Congratulations to Mr. Zheng, the young lady of the Zheng family will be very rich. I am afraid that her husband will be able to become the prime minister in the future."
"Really?" Zheng Lan was overjoyed.
He already believed it, because he did not reveal any more information, nor did he say who he would marry his granddaughter to.
That sentence about ascending the pavilion to pay homage to the Prime Minister is probably true of Tan Hwa Lang!
Zheng Lan presented some more money and said goodbye to the goddess with a smile on her face.
After returning home, Zheng Lan called his grandson: "Take the young lady and board the ship immediately outside the city, and bring some gold collars for dowry. Then go with Zhu Xianggong. Don't say anything else, just take the young lady with you."
Mom is going to Tokyo to visit relatives."
Zheng Yuanyi was pulled into the carriage nervously, feeling quite reluctant but also somewhat looking forward to it.
Her personal maid also went with her.
There are also two rather strong young women, female sumo wrestlers from the Zheng family, who are also heading to Tokyo on this trip.
It can be seen that Zheng Lan really loves her granddaughter and even has two thugs to prevent her from being bullied by her real wife in the future.
There are also two strong men, who are also sumo wrestlers, who serve as Zheng Hong's bodyguards. Four more domestic slaves go to Tokyo together and are at Zheng Hong's command at any time.
The official ship is purchasing items and will not leave until dawn tomorrow.
Fatty Zheng took his sister and asked to board the ship in the evening.
"Where are you going?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Zheng Hong said: "Go to Tokyo to visit relatives."
Zhu Guoxiang frowned and didn't think much about it, just pretending to be traveling together.
The next day, we set off early in the morning.
When passing through Xingyuan Mansion, Zhu Guoxiang took the gold and silver and returned them to the transfer envoy and other officials.
Carrying the Ganoderma lucidum as a signboard, he took out the receipts from Yangzhou officials and asked the officials from Xingyuan Prefecture to also sign receipts.
We continued along the Bao River until we reached the point where we could no longer sail the boat.
Zhu Guoxiang brought the tied eunuchs and imperial guards ashore and ordered: "Except for Fang Mao, all the rest will be untied!"
Before they were even loosened, they just pulled off the rag in their mouths, and those guys started shouting.
Zhu Guoxiang turned a deaf ear and asked Deng Chun to hold out Ganoderma lucidum and ask, "What is this?"
There was more than one eunuch, and one young eunuch said: "This is a thousand... thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum?"
Zhu Guoxiang said: "It's not just a thousand years? There are still three years left, and it will be ten thousand years of Ganoderma lucidum. If mortals eat it, they will be free from disease and disaster, and they will stay young forever! I originally planned to give it to the officials after three years. Alas... you force me
If you are too hasty, you will ruin the ten thousand years of Ganoderma lucidum and the elixir of life will be gone."
The young eunuchs were all dumbfounded. Regardless of whether this was true or false, if the officials knew about it, it must be true.
Fang Mao is dead!
The eunuchs all knelt down in unison: "My husband saved my life, but it was Fang Mao who forced him to save me, and it has nothing to do with us at all!"
The soldiers of the Forbidden Army also knelt down and cried out to Zhu Guoxiang for help. They were afraid that the emperor would anger everyone.
Zhu Guoxiang was noncommittal, and asked someone to bring tea leaves, and said: "I have developed a kind of black tea, which currently only has a few hundred kilograms and has never been sold on the market. The black tea, together with Ganoderma lucidum, is to be dedicated to the officials. There are not enough manpower.
, you all have to help carry the tea, and each person will receive ten kilograms as a reward for carrying the tea."
Tea for the emperor?
Give each person ten pounds?
The moods of the eunuchs and the imperial guards were like riding a roller coaster.
If Zhu Guoxiang is willing to send tea, he will definitely not embarrass them.
Once the emperor likes to drink this tea, the price will definitely skyrocket, and each of them can make a fortune from ten pounds of black tea in their hands.
The Imperial Guards had no psychological burden and hurriedly shouted: "We listen to Mr. Zhu, it's Fang Mao who is causing trouble!"
Zhu Guoxiang said: "This Fang Mao not only asked for bribes along the way, but also wanted gold and silver when he arrived at Daming Village. He heard that there was ten thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum, so he wanted to cut off a piece for his own consumption. You can only tie him up first!"
"Yes, this Fang is so ambitious that he actually wants to live forever." A eunuch immediately agreed.
Another eunuch said: "Xianggong Zhu said that Ganoderma lucidum would take another three years to turn into an elixir of immortality. But Fang Mao refused to wait. He didn't know to go back and report it to the officials, so he forced Xianggong Zhu to collect the Ganoderma lucidum in advance!"
Another eunuch said: "Fang Mao is still disrespectful to the officials. Let's urge him to hurry up and not delay the official's errands. But he said that the official's errands are not urgent, and the right way is to get more gold and silver. He also said that he left Tokyo , The officials are blind and deaf, no matter what we do, we are not afraid that the officials will know."
A Forbidden Army soldier said: "This guy Fang Mao was planning to ask for specialties from Yangzhou to be sold in Tokyo, but he didn't remember that the official told him to go back quickly!"
Another eunuch said: "Fang Mao also told us that the officials took a wrong look and said that Zhu Xianggong was definitely cheating. He did not think about being ordered to conquer the country, and had already planned to tie Xianggong Zhu to Tokyo."
These guys, every word you say and every word I say, are all trying to accuse Fang Maoan.
And the more he said it, the more outrageous it became. There was even an imperial guard who angrily accused Fang Mao of bullying men and dominating women and forcing women from good families to be concubines.
If so, Fang Mao did say it.
Fang Mao did indeed do some things.
But most of them are made up, and the worse they say about Fang Mao, the better.
Fang Mao was lying on the ground with rags stuffed in his mouth and tied up. He stammered and tried to refute, and his body twisted around, but he couldn't struggle at all. In the end, he could only shed tears.
Zheng Hong witnessed the whole process and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Xiangong Zhu is indeed extraordinary. He is very skilled in confusing right and wrong!"
Have a night's rest and go on foot.
The eunuchs and imperial soldiers all volunteered to work as tea-carrying coolies, happily marching along the Baoxie Road, and seemed to have become Zhu Guoxiang's subordinates.
This chapter has been completed!