Chapter 772

Early in the morning, Princess Lin An woke up and her whole body was warm. Stretching her waist comfortably, her feet kicked the table leg with a 'kuang dang' sound.

She opened her misty eyes in a daze and saw the pale sky. At this time, the sun had not risen yet.

Lian Pan was like a hangover from a night in a nightclub. Her eyes turned from confusion to confusion and she suspected if she had seen wrongly. Why was it not a beautiful bed curtain but the dawn sky.

She let out a small moan, "En" in a rather innocent manner.

The scenes from last night flashed through her mind. She remembered that night when she was on the boat with Xu Ningyan, drinking and chatting.

Perhaps it was because she had never had such an experience before, she readily agreed to the little gong's suggestion. For an unmarried princess, such a daring act was enough to destroy her reputation in a day if it was spread out.

Later on, perhaps it was because she drank some wine, she became more relaxed and followed his words and laid down on the deck.

When she saw the sky full of stars, Lian Pan's heart was intoxicated and her mind was only filled with the concept of 'one does not know the sky is in the water after being drunk, a boat full of clear dreams pressing down on the milky way'.

She was intoxicated.

Unwilling to get up again, she fell into a deep sleep under the influence of alcohol.

It was so warm. Even in the middle of winter, she did not feel cold when she slept on the boat. Instead, there was a warmth of returning to the mother's body.

But now she was not in the mood to care about this. Lian Pan sat up in a panic and found that her body was covered with a brocade quilt. She subconsciously wanted to lift it but paused and nervously touched her body under the quilt to confirm that her clothes were intact and there was no adverse reaction.

For example, the pain of a broken gua that was often mentioned in books.

Lian Pan sighed in relief and looked left and right. When she saw the palace maid guarding the shore, she changed from the hangover from the nightclub Lian Pan to the dignified Princess Lin An.

She called the guard on the shore and let him jump onto the black awning boat to help row to the shore. She casually asked, "When did your excellency Xu leave?"

"He left before dawn," the palace maid replied in a soft voice.

Lin An nodded her head in disappointment and thought of the warm feeling yesterday. After careful comparison, she found that it was not brought by the quilt and asked with a straight face,

"Did he do anything improper last night?"

"Yes, yes."

With dark circles under her eyes, the palace maid who did not sleep took the opportunity to complain, "He molested the Princess."

"Ah?" Lin An looked terrified.

"He kept holding the Princess's hand." The palace maid said hatefully, "Before he left this morning, he slapped my … butt and threatened me not to tell the princess."

Lin An's eyebrows were raised and there was a kind of anger. Lin An's willowy eyebrows were raised, and she felt ashamed and angry as if she had misjudged someone.

"Hemming and hawing." Lin An looked at him with displeasure.

"Stuttering." Lin An gave him a displeased look.

"The weather is freezing. The princess is sleeping on the ship. A blanket alone is not enough to resist the cold," the guard explained.

"Last night, I saw it clearly. Lord Xu didn't sleep at all. He was holding the princess's hand to help you get rid of the cold."

"Transferring Qi … I didn't sleep for a whole night …" Pan Fan was stunned. He remembered that he had indeed slept well last night and asked suspiciously,

"How come I've never heard of such a thing? No one has ever helped me transfer my Qi before."

"This …" The guard said with a bitter smile, "Who can stand it? It takes energy to transfer Qi all night. Unless they were middle-ranked martial artists or high-ranked martial artists.

"Moreover, the Princess lives a luxurious life. You don't need to be like this."

Lian Lian bit her lips and asked tentatively, "How tired?"

The guard replied, "If I were you, I would have died of exhaustion."

Her watery peach blossom eyes rippled in an instant, soft and velvety.

"When your excellency Xu left, he seemed … tired." The palace maid recalled and said, "But why didn't he let me say it?"

Lin An did not answer this question and suddenly walked out, "He will leave Jing City for Yunzhou this morning. What time is it now? I'm going to send him off …"

She did not know why there was an inexplicable wave in her heart. She just wanted to see that slave.

"Your Highness, it's past five o 'clock in the morning …" The palace maid chased after her, "Besides, how can the Princess send a gong? It's not good for you and him."

This sentence caused the willful Lin An to stop in his tracks.

"For me, I will be scolded by my father at most … But if it concerns my reputation, he, a little gong, will definitely suffer …" Lin An glanced at the palace maids and guards, and her round oval face showed a rare majesty.

"It concerns my reputation. What happened last night must not be spread, or you will all be beaten to death."

"Yes."

…

It was a long way from Jing City to Yunzhou. To save time, this imperial envoy team chose to go by water, abandoning the dry road.

The official ships cut through the waves, and the sails flapped fiercely.

Xu Qi 'an stood on the deck, facing the wind blowing from the river. Ships of all sizes sailed on the river. There were both official ships and merchant ships.

Jiang Lvzhong came to the deck and stood side by side with him. He looked sideways at Xu Qi 'an and chuckled, "You don't look well. You must be overworked."

"You went to the Musical House yesterday?"

"… Yes." Xu Qi 'an was speechless.

He did go to the Musical House and had a conversation with Fu Xiang before they parted. But the real reason for his fatigue was that he had been drained by the framing, but he couldn't say it out loud.

"Look at you, still too young and shallow." Jiang Lvzhong put his hands on the guardrail and smiled like an experienced driver.

"Yunzhou also has the Musical House. Jiangnan women have soft bodies and soft voices, which taste different from those in Jing City. I'll take you to experience it later. "

"It's not the same." Xu Qi 'an shook his head.

"You're an infatuated man?" Jiang Lvzhong asked in surprise.

"It has nothing to do with infatuation, but with freeloading …" Xu Qi 'an said in a low voice, "Unless Jiang Jinluo pays."

"What?" Jiang Lvzhong was stunned.

"If you pay, then it's the same." Xu Qi 'an looked serious.

Jiang Lvzhong thought for a while and pointed to the river. "What do you think of the water here?"

Xu Qi 'an looked down at the river and answered honestly, "It's not that good. It's dirty."

Jiang Lvzhong nodded. "It's good that you know."

Xu Qi 'an: "…"

After a while, Jiang Lvzhong said, "We'll go south along the canal. When we reach Qingzhou, we'll have to take the land route. We'll reach Yunzhou in ten days if we take the land route. "

"Mr. Jiang, I don't think it's appropriate to tell me such a secret route," Xu Qi 'an said.

"It doesn't matter. With your talent, you'll be Jinluo sooner or later." Jiang Lvzhong smiled carelessly.

"Friends are friends, but I'll still be angry if you give me a flag …" Xu Qi 'an smiled back. "Thank you for your kind words. Well, why do we have to take the land route?"

"It's the land route." Jiang Lvzhong corrected him and then explained, "Qingzhou and Yunzhou are neighbors, but there's no canal connecting them. If we want to take the water route, we'll have to go around the sandbank next door. It's better to take the land route."

The previous dynasty used to develop waterways. They dug canals and built two grand canals that ran from north to south and from east to west. There were countless tributaries, which made Daibun's water transport developed today. Qingzhou and Yunzhou were not connected by a canal?

"There's no water route?" Xu Qi 'an expressed his doubt.

"There used to be. Yunzhou and Qingzhou were connected by a tributary, but the river suddenly changed its course about ten years ago." Jiang Lvzhong explained.

Changed course … Xu Qi 'an nodded slowly.

Water conservancy projects had been a headache for the imperial court since ancient times. They would flood and change their course from time to time. Even in his previous life, floods were still a headache. If a man changed his course, it would be fine. At most, his intestines would be pierced through. Once the river changed its course, it would harm thousands of miles, and the people would suffer.

At this moment, a plume of black smoke rose in front of them. Xu Qi 'an tried his best to look into the distance and saw a small boat docked by the shore. Several people were burning the goods.

"What's going on? Why are they burning the goods? "Xu Qi 'an asked in a low voice.

His first thought was that someone was committing a crime and destroying the goods of the merchants.

Jiang Lvzhong looked at it and said, "Usually, in this case, the merchants don't want to pass the customs, so they're burning the goods and preparing to return."

"We're almost at the capital. Why are they doing this?" Xu Qi 'an didn't understand.

"Heh, the imperial court has set up many customs along the canal. Every time they pass a customs, they have to pay a tax. As they pay, many merchants will find that even if they reach the destination and sell the goods, the money they earn is not enough to pay the tax. So they burn the goods and return. If they carry the goods, they have to pay another tax when they return. They don't need an empty boat. "Jiang Lvzhong sighed.

"Burning goods along the river is a common occurrence," Wang Chong said.

"How unsightly." Xu Qi 'an raised his eyebrows.

"There's something even more unsightly. Because the small merchants can't afford the tax, they can only rely on the Water Transport Chamber of Commerce. Those chambers of commerce will buy the goods at a low price and sell them at a higher price. Take the saltpeter mine you once took over in Taikang County as an example. The local households quarried and burned the ash. The capital can't afford such a large amount, so they could only transport it to other provinces and sell it. But the tax is so high that they can't afford it.

"The chamber of commerce takes the opportunity to buy the lime at a low price and ship it out through their own channels. The households can only get ten percent, or even less. Barely enough to fill their stomachs.

"The benefits involved in this are hard to imagine. Even Duke Wei has to worry about it."

Xu Qi 'an was silent.

He thought of another matter. The Yuanjing Emperor's cultivation and alchemy cost a lot of money. The money was not from the Ministry of Revenue, but from his own treasury.

Then, how could the Yuanjing Emperor have so much money to spend like crazy?

He didn't ask this question. He went back to the cabin to breathe and recover his energy. It was almost noon, and his stomach was rumbling with hunger.

When he came out of the room, he heard a lively conversation on the deck. It turned out that the boatmen had caught a lot of juicy river fish and scattered them on the deck.

With Jiang Lvzhong taking the lead, Song Tingfeng and twenty other brass gongs joined in the fun, happy to have fresh fish soup for lunch.

The inspector leading the team came out with a frown.

He was the Imperial Censor of the Imperial Censorate, a Rank Four official. In the officialdom of Daibun, the inspector was usually the Imperial Censor and had great power.

The Imperial Censorate was under Wei Yuan's control. The Great Green Dress also had another official title, the Imperial Censor of the Left, a Rank Two official.

This Imperial Censor, who could be said to be one of them, had been seasick the whole morning. He was dizzy and was resting when he was woken up by this group of Warrior. He was very displeased.

"Pick a few of the fattest river fish to make soup for the Inspector," Jiang Lvzhong said with a smile.

The Inspector, who had a goatee and an elegant temperament, waved his hand and frowned. "The smell of the river fish is too strong. I have no appetite."

After rejecting Jiang Lvzhong's good intentions, he glanced at the brass gongs in displeasure. "Be quiet. Don't make a fuss. What a scandal."

After saying that, he went back to the cabin angrily.

"Tsk tsk, scholars are so weak. They can't take it anymore." One of the brass gongs teased, but Jiang Lvzhong glared at him.

"There's fresh fish soup to drink … I can add some chicken essence to taste it …" The hungry Xu Qi 'an was looking forward to lunch.