After Ning Yuan left with the people, Song Qingyue felt a little worried. When no one was around, she quietly asked Zeng Maozhi: "I'm so shameless to Mr. Ning today. Will the fourth Mr. Ning do something to me?"

?”

Song Qingyue always gave up after finishing her act. Zeng Maozhi suppressed a smile and said: "Don't worry, Crown Princess, Fourth Young Master Ning won't dare. Unless he can guarantee to kill us secret guards one by one. As long as we have a brother

As long as he is alive, everything he has done will be exposed. Not to mention Your Highness, even the prince will not spare him."

Zeng Maozhi acted very confident. Song Qingyue blinked her big almond-shaped eyes a few times, but still said uneasily: "Maybe one day his brain will break and he will take action? Aren't there only fifteen of you? Isn't it difficult to deal with?"

Zeng Maozhi raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

Song Qingyue glanced at him first, then reacted and looked at Zeng Maozhi with round eyes: "That kid Qin Jifu didn't tell me the truth, there are more than fifteen?"

Zeng Maozhi touched his nose and said sweetly: "You are the one who is dear to His Highness's heart. His Highness... His Highness also doesn't trust you. In addition to our group, there is also a group of secret guards that Eunuch Xiao Qin doesn't know about, and his subordinates don't know about it either."

Where are they specifically? In addition, the prince has also sent a few people to protect you. Unless there is a large-scale siege, assassination is unlikely to hurt the Crown Princess. Please relax, Crown Princess!"

Song Qingyue nodded. With so many people, it was safe, but it felt scary. If someone she didn't know suddenly emerged from under the bed in the middle of the night, she wouldn't be scared to death...

~

Time flew by quickly, and it was November in the blink of an eye. Prince Jing finally reached an agreement with the Ministry of Household Affairs, received 500,000 taels of funding, and led an army of 70,000 to Jiangnan to clean up the mess.

And the cold northwest monsoon blew in the East China Sea. Li Zhao stood on the iron-clad steam battleship and looked at a group of merchant ships in the distance slowly heading towards the Japanese country with a super high-power telescope that needed to be fixed on a tripod, revealing his big white teeth.

The lenses of the telescope are polished by jade craftsmen, and the effect is very good.

When the old man imposed the maritime ban, he probably had the intention of cutting off the Lingnan Navy's financial resources.

But the sea ban can only ban the ships of ordinary merchants, but not the ships of the royal family.

The crazy rise in prices of raw silk, wood, spices, porcelain and other goods caused by the maritime ban will only make Prince Su's house more hungry.

Li Zhao heard that his fourth uncle, Prince Jing, had already killed several local officials above the fourth rank after he went to Jiangnan at the end of September. No wonder it was already November, and there were still cargo ships going out to sea to do business regardless of the wind and waves -

—I didn’t dare to do it in the summer, so I could only risk being knocked over by wind and waves in the winter and smuggle secretly while avoiding Prince Jing’s eyes and ears.

Li Zhao licked the corners of his lips.

Since it's smuggling, I'll forgive him for being rude!

The sea surface in winter is very stormy. Isn’t it common to encounter a shipwreck and never come back?

The new cone-shaped cannonball, whose shape had been modified by Song Qingyue's golden finger, swirled, cut through the cold and humid sea wind, broke through the rough sea, and flew past the edge of the last merchant ship.

In the narrow field of view of the ultra-high-power telescope, Li Zhao clearly saw the panic look on the helmsman's face.

"Go at full speed! Let's take down all ten cargo ships!"

Li Zhao raised his fists high. Amidst the cheers of the sailors behind him, thick black smoke rose from the thick and large chimneys. Three black ships without sails and wheels quickly fled forward like ghosts.

The cargo ship drifted away.

"It's water bandits, water bandits! Fire, fire!"

The sailors on the lookout on the tall mast of the cargo ship shouted at the top of their lungs, waving their arms and making cannon-firing gestures.

But the captain thought he was crazy. At such a long distance, their shells couldn't even touch the other side's ship!

Li Zhao, on the other hand, moved forward at full speed without fear. Traditional artillery shells were just iron lumps that would not blossom. Not to mention that they could not reach their ship, even if they landed on their ship, nothing would happen.

call out--!

Another cone-shaped cannonball cut through the salty, damp air and flew towards the cargo ship in the front row.

Bang!

The cannonball landed next to the main mast of the opponent's ship. Just as the opponent was patting his chest and thankful that the mast was not hit, there was a loud bang and the cannonball that landed on the deck actually exploded!

The huge shock wave directly blasted a big hole in the wooden deck, and the main mast lost its support and fell sideways.

The mast and the huge white canvas fell down and covered the deck. The crew who lost their vision suddenly fell into panic.

Li Zhao used his binoculars to proudly admire the opponent's frightened appearance for a while, then loudly ordered the five iron-core and copper-bodied human rifled cannons on this side of the warship to fire in unison.

Phew—bang!

Phew—bang!

Phew—bang!

After a round of shelling, Li Zhao observed with a telescope and found that the ship on the opposite side still wanted to escape!

You actually want to run away after being encountered by him?

What are you dreaming about?

Li Zhao pointed to the fastest escaping ship and said: "Aim for that ship and focus on bombing it!" Li Zhao ordered loudly.

The messenger began to wave flags.

After three more rounds of shelling, several masts of the smuggling fleet fell down.

Li Zhao laughed excitedly and ordered to fire the cannons on the ships: "Try to extinguish all their cannons!"

The crew members on those merchant ships had already started crying for their fathers and mothers. They had never seen artillery with such a long range!

And I don't know what's going on with those cannonballs. Not only are they fast, but they also spin. The hard ship's planks are about as fragile as egg shells in front of these cannonballs.

After several rounds of heavy fire bombings, the ten merchant ships of the caravan were so frightened that they did not dare to move anymore.

After the three armored warships on Li Zhao's side approached the cargo ship at an alarming speed, the crew member with the loudest voice on the ship shouted with a loud loudspeaker: "Hey! Surrender quickly! Surrender without killing! Put it down."

Weapons, surrender without killing!"

The sailor next to him carried a hand-cranked generator on his back and shook the handle vigorously.

Two other black armored warships surrounded the front of the fleet, blocking their way.

After understanding the disparity in combat power, ten huge freighters with copper cannons, like big fat sheep being driven by sheepdogs, were surrounded by three iron-clad steamships that looked one size smaller than them.

Huddled together in aggrieved manner.

"Put down the ejaculation device~stab la~stab la~it's not a good idea! thorn la~stab la~put down the umm device~stab la~stab la~it's not a good idea to invest in the bank! thorn la~stab la~..."

The electric loudspeaker once again emitted its unpleasant noise intermittently.

…

Half a month later, Li Zhao exchanged ten ships of silk fabrics, medicinal materials, various porcelain, spices, and soap from the Japanese country for more than 2.5 million taels of high-quality Japanese silver cakes and more than 100,000 taels of gold.

Cakes, as well as several shiploads of high-purity quartz stone, limestone, and wood, returned to his stronghold in Xiaoliuqiu.

Of course, there were also ten large cargo ships picked up for free and more than 1,200 captured merchant seamen.

On the way, they also sank two Japanese pirate warships wandering in the East China Sea, which was regarded as doing something good for the people of Zhejiang as compensation.

As time enters the twelfth lunar month, there are several rows of cement brick houses at the foot of Baoen Temple.

There was a charcoal-burning earthen kiln set up in the yard. Zeng Maozhi was leading his men to put the dried shrub branches into the earthen kiln and simmer them. After the branches were carbonized, they were all carried up the mountain to the Crown Princess and her adopted children.

They use it for winter.

In a hurry, it had been more than a year since Li Zhao left. The weather was so cold that day that Song Qingyue couldn't cheer up. She didn't want to compile science textbooks or read her account books.

She wanted to give her mind a vacation, so she sat by the stove and sewed underwear for the dead ghost who still had no news.

Does she miss him?

I kind of think about it, but not particularly.

Sometimes she even felt that living alone for the rest of her life would be more comfortable than living with that dead ghost by her side.

There is no great joy or great sorrow. You don’t have to work hard to be coquettish to please him. You don’t have to worry about what to do if he suddenly changes his mind. You don’t have to face his group of annoying concubines. You can be relaxed and comfortable by yourself, and live a fulfilling and interesting life every day.

.

What do you want a man for?

Of course, she also knew that the reason why she was so comfortable now was because the damn ghost was still alive.

In this damn ancient society, if there is no one to support her, no matter what she does, someone will dare to bully her.

~

On the day of Laba, every household of the powerful people in the capital cooked Laba porridge early and started serving the porridge as soon as dawn.

This year, the porridge shed in Prince Shenjun’s Mansion is extra large and conspicuous, and it is even built on the Royal Street!

It is said that this act of porridge was praised by the emperor, and all the cabinet ministers were called into the emperor's palace to discuss the matter of promoting Prince Shen to the title of prince.

Mr. Wu was so frightened that he hurriedly went to find Song Jianming who was still at home recovering from illness before it was dark.

What is Song Jianming doing at home?

He was using his talent as a prostitute to summon up the momentum to write a military message for his in-laws, and he has now written the fourth version.

The first version accuses the eldest prince of having no talent, no virtue, and being unworthy of being a king;

The second version is about the crusade against King Xin’s arrogant ambition and the Duke of Jing’s house who committed many evil deeds. Prince Su’s house only raised troops to defend his father and the Qing monarch;

The third version is almost identical to the second version, except that King Xin was changed to King Yu.

The version I am writing now was prepared for Prince Jing.
To be continued...