The next day, the clouds had subsided and the rain had subsided, and the weather was refreshing and clear. I was going out for fun, so I planned to stay here for a day or two and walk around.
In the early morning, breathing the fresh air after the heavy rain, Li Mu, Su Tan'er and several little girls walked off the boat.
The bluestone road washed by the rain became bright and clean. Along the long street, a few people found a good restaurant to have breakfast and began to stroll around Changzhou City slowly.
After playing for a long time and buying a lot of snacks and local specialties, the little girls were obviously a little tired, so they returned all the way to Huafang.
On the other side, Lou Shuwan was dealing with the cargo ship again early in the morning. Due to a problem with the ship, it would take some time to repair and it would be impossible to set off in a short time.
Most of the goods on the ship are not that urgent, but there are a few that are relatively valuable. Since we have agreed with others and agreed on a delivery time in Hangzhou, we cannot delay here, so we must first rent a ship to transport it back.
Fortunately, this part of the cargo is not large and is easy to handle.
Lou Shuwan walked out of the pier and suddenly saw a familiar figure in the distance. When he saw the face clearly, he suddenly remembered who it was, Su Tan'er from the Su family in Jiangning. The two had met several times a few years ago, although it was not a big deal.
We are familiar with each other, and the conversation is quite comfortable.
Just as she was about to go over to say hello, Su Tan'er apparently noticed her and came over with a bright smile.
Old friends met, and they were both daughters of merchants, so they naturally got closer. The two talked about old times for a while, and agreed to go out to drink tea together in the afternoon before they parted.
Watching Su Tan'er and his entourage return to the boat, a young man dressed as a scholar and holding a folding fan hurriedly walked up to Lou Shuwan and said attentively: "Shuwan, what are you looking at?"
Lou Shuwan glanced at him: "Nothing, I met an old friend!"
The man followed his gaze and saw the huge boat at the first sight: "With such a grand pomp, whose noble family is traveling there?"
After saying that, he looked at Lou Shuwan again: "Isn't he the old friend you mentioned?"
Lou Shuwan nodded and didn't say much, but he was a little confused. The Su family was just a merchant's home, similar to hers, so the ostentation was indeed a bit grander.
"But..." She looked at the painted boat thoughtfully, "It seems that the painted boat is also heading south..."
…
One day later, the painting boat set sail again, heading towards Suzhou, but there was an extra Lou Shuwan on the painting boat.
Lou Shuwan and Su Taner had tea together in the teahouse yesterday afternoon and reminisced about the past. After knowing that Huafang would go south to Hangzhou, they talked about the damage to the cargo ship yesterday. A batch of goods needed to be transported to Hangzhou for urgent delivery. Can Huafang carry it along the way?
.
Su Tan'er did not agree immediately. When she came back, she asked Li Mu for his opinion. In fact, she was planning to agree. Not to mention that they were old friends, the Lou family was a big family in Hangzhou. The Su family wanted to expand the scale of its industry in Hangzhou and establish a good relationship with the Lou family.
Very necessary.
Li Mu just smiled and said: "It's no problem to put the goods on the boat, but the main purpose of our trip is to travel. We pass by Suzhou, Taihu Lake... we have to stop and play in these beautiful places for two days. It's impossible for her to rush to pay
If I want the goods, I will rush to Hangzhou non-stop. Ask her if she can accept it?"
Lou Shuwan was competing with her husband, so naturally she had to listen to her husband. They didn't have a deep friendship at first. They only met when they were girls. Both of them had strong female characters, so the impression was quite deep.
What's more, this trip was originally meant to be a trip, traveling around, and rushing all the way to Hangzhou for an old friend was not in line with her original intention.
So, I expressed my meaning tactfully.
Lou Shuwan was surprised by Su Tan'er's attitude. Both of them are career-oriented strong women. The Su family also needs to establish a good relationship with the Lou family to expand their business in Hangzhou. Even if the two did not meet this time, when they arrived in Hangzhou,
I will also go to Lou’s house to visit her.
I thought Su Tan'er would agree and not delay her family business just to travel around.
Lou Shuwan was helpless, her batch of goods could not wait for them to travel all the way, so she could only spend money to hire a smaller cargo ship.
I wanted to take a cargo ship back to Hangzhou to see Su Tan'er's three-story boat and then the cargo ship. The conditions were completely different.
So she let the cargo ship return to Hangzhou alone, and she took the boat back with Su Tan'er.
There is no problem with this, so Su Taner readily agreed.
Li Mu had no problem, but he had been vaccinated in advance. Lou Shuwan and her maidservant took the boat on the way and had no problem.
But those friends who are no-nonsense should not come.
Su Tan'er was a little confused at first, until she saw Lou Shuwan flirting with a man. When they were drinking tea and chatting yesterday, she knew that Lou Shuwan was married. She thought he was her husband, so she asked someone to find out.
After a while, she found out that her husband was still in Hangzhou, and the identity of this man was unknown.
After seeing that Lou Shuwan actually planned to take the man on the boat, Su Tan'er finally understood what Li Mu said about Lou Shuwan's unscrupulous friends.
The two of them didn't have a deep friendship to begin with, and they probably wouldn't have a deep friendship in the future, but there was no need to break up, so they could only talk politely.
Lou Shuwan hesitated for a long time. It was still far away from Hangzhou. Whether it was a cargo ship or a passenger ship, the conditions inside were indescribable compared to those on a painting boat. In the end, he left the man dressed as a scholar in Changzhou and boarded the painting boat with his maid.
.
Li Mu did not delay, and then set off for Suzhou.
It was on this day that the news of the Jin-Liao war finally spread to the south, causing countless waves.
Some people are shocked, some are excited, some are worried, some are scared...
Some people shouted that the snipe and the clam are fighting, the fisherman will benefit, and both Jin and Liao will suffer; some people excitedly asked the court to send troops northward to join forces with the Jin Kingdom to attack the Liao Kingdom, and take the opportunity to regain the sixteen states of Yanyun that had been lost for hundreds of years, completing the
This is a great achievement.
Some people also looked at the Jin Kingdom with vigilant eyes. The Liao Kingdom was not the opponent of the Jin Kingdom. The Wu Kingdom could not even defeat the Liao Kingdom, but could it beat the Jin Kingdom? When the Liao Kingdom was gone, would the Jin Kingdom continue to move south?
No one knows the answer, and no one can affect the situation in Jin Liao. Everyone can only watch silently, hoping that the court will cheer up, seize the opportunity, or recognize the reality.
Similarly, as the news of the war between Jin and Liao spread throughout the country, there was also a less eye-catching news. Qin Siyuan, who had signed the Blackwater Alliance, was officially restored by the imperial court and directly promoted to the right servant of the minister.
She Jian and Tong Zhongshu's subordinate Ping Zhangshi, that is, the right prime minister, is only inferior to the official family and the left prime minister. It can be said that he is inferior to the two and superior to ten thousand people.
The reason for the resumption was not made clear to the world, but many people thought that the rumors about Qin Siyuan's instigation between Jin and Liao some time ago seemed to be confirmed, and his reputation suddenly increased.
At the same time, as the power of the Liao Kingdom weakened and its control over the grassland weakened, a nomadic tribe on the grassland also began to conquer the south and the north. Although it was still weak, it gradually showed its strength.