101 Chapter 101: The Twelfth Month

The matter of the prefect of Jiangzhou was solved smoothly. After all, Mu Hanzhang was not a fool who knew there was danger but still wanted to test the waters. He adhered to the strategy of "I will move first if the enemy does not move", and defeated them one by one. Now that the prefect of Jiangzhou has been captured, the business of sea merchants can officially begin.

It was already evening on the way back, and the sky was full of colorful clouds.

Mu Hanzhang leaned in Jing Shao's arms, staring at the colorful clouds in the sky: "Xiao Shao, I have something to discuss with you."

"What?" Jing Shao held the person in his arms, taking into account the personal soldiers following behind, and did not urge Xiao Hei, but just let it walk slowly.

"I want to build the trade office in Luzhou," Mu Hanzhang pursed his lips, "After all, it is close to the dock, and it 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 office every day to do business, you have to go out early and return late. Before leaving, Emperor Hongzheng gave him a death order that Pingjiang City must not be lost, so Gu Huaiqing must not be allowed to attack Pingjiang at any cost. He could only fight farther and farther away from Luzhou.

"I only take care of affairs 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, and tried to coax him with nice words. In fact, it was nothing to build the trade office in Pingjiang. Qin Zhaoran could handle small transactions and urgent matters on the spot in Luzhou, but considering Jing Shao and Gu Huaiqing's pretended war, if the office was built in Ruoshui Garden, it would be easy for people to see the flaws if there were many people coming and going.

"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 his anger?

"I won't doubt that you and Qin Zhaoran have anything going on, really," Jing Shao said solemnly, "I just don't want you to work so hard every day."

Mu Hanzhang couldn't help but roll his eyes at him when he mentioned Qin Zhaoran. He was talking about serious matters and was distracted by him again, so he shut up and ignored him.

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

Back in Ruoshui Garden in the evening, Mu Hanzhang was indeed tired, and went to rest after taking a bath. Xiao Huang was also washed fragrant and soft, and consciously followed his master to jump onto the bed. Ever since Jing Shao hurt Mu Hanzhang without caring, Xiao Huang was carried to the bed as a dividing line every day. After a month, he had already gotten used to it and refused to sleep on the cold and hard garden.

After taking a shower, Jing Shao saw the black and yellow fur on the bed and his face darkened. He had annoyed Jun Qing that night, and later thought that the matter was over when he saw Jun Qing let him in. Unexpectedly, he took the tiger to bed every night. He let him look at it and touch it every day for a month, but he didn't let him eat it. God knows he was almost sick.

"Jun Qing, I have to drive Gu Huaiqing out of Pingjiang City in the next few days. I may go home later in the future." Jing Shao pushed the tiger lying on its back and lay on the bed.

"Yeah." Mu Hanzhang lay on the inside, touching the tiger's head from time to time. The big tiger squinted comfortably, and its long tail swung leisurely.

Jing Shao looked at the jade-like hand pitifully, moved his head to the tiger's back, and hoped that the hand could touch him.

Mu Hanzhang glanced at Jing Shao, who looked aggrieved, pretended not to know, patted Jing Shao's head, turned over and slept inside.

Jing Shao pulled the tiger's ears depressedly, and Xiao Huang bared his teeth at him, and showed off by putting his meat pads on Mu Hanzhang's back, rubbing his head on it beautifully, and tilting his head to prepare for sleep.

Jing Shao stared at the furry ball with his eyes open for a long time, until the person on the inside of the bed began to breathe evenly, then he reached out from under the bed and took out a piece of spiced dried meat, and shook it in front of the furry tiger's nose. The tiger, who was snoring contentedly, suddenly opened a pair of large glass-colored eyes, stared at the swaying dried meat, opened his mouth to bite, and the dried meat was thrown out.

The big tiger immediately jumped off the bed after the dried meat. Jing Shao glanced at it, quickly occupied the center of the big bed, carefully stretched out his hand to the inside of the bed, and slowly circled the sleeping person in his arms. The person in his arms moved, but did not wake up. His slender and flexible body had a faint fragrance, and a few strands of black hair were draped around his neck. He slept warmly.

Jing Shao buried his nose in the warm neck, sniffed greedily, and muttered softly: "The battlefield is away from Pingjiang, and you go to Luzhou again. The time we spend together will be even shorter. How can you be so cruel..." He hummed and said, hugged the person again, rubbed on the black hair for a few times, and fell asleep aggrieved.

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

The next day, Mu Hanzhang asked people to clean up the front yard of Ruoshui Garden and prepare to change it into a trade office. And Jing Shao took Xiao Huang to Sheshui Garden, under the pretext of learning to hunt with lions.

In August of the fourteenth year of Dachen Hongzheng, King Cheng Jing Shao led his personal soldiers to Jiangnan to resist the invasion of King Huainan. It was originally a war of withdrawing the vassal, but it was because of the mistake of the fourth prince Jingyu that the King Huainan invaded the hinterland of Jiangzhou. Emperor Hongzheng ordered the recall of the fourth prince Jingyu, and publicly rebuked him for his vanity in the court, and ordered him to go to the ancestral temple to reflect on himself.

In September of the same year, Wenyuan Hou found out that the prefect of Jiangzhou had exploited sea merchants and privately raised troops. Emperor Hongzheng ordered a thorough investigation, and someone in the court impeached that the eldest prince was involved with the prefect of Jiangzhou.

"Your Highness, we are cousins, you can't just ignore it!" The son of the prefect of Jiangzhou 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 Jingrong took up his pen and wrote at the end of the book: "My son and ministers are frightened and petition to kill the Jiangzhou magistrate." 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. 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 people have seen King Cheng's behavior, and with Mu Hanzhang's dedicated protection, people's views on King Cheng 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, 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. He was clearly 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 away the account book 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 are staying 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, and then jumped 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. Those people 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 Fan people's goods, and then sell them to merchants from the Chen Dynasty at a higher price.

"How about I take a percentage 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 any letter from Jingchen recently?" Gu Huaiqing said casually.

"Brother, letters arrive 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.