Out of the first month, the Jiang family left Wuxi and set off for the capital by boat.

The beginning of February in the south is much warmer than in the north, but the river breeze is wet, and it feels extra cold when it blows on the body.

Taohua held the stove, wrapped her cloak, and watched the scenery on the side of the ship. There are already dots of greenery on both sides of the river, with early budding willows in the near distance and new grass in the distance, which is indescribably comfortable to look at.

Jiang Bohua was held by Sanqi and also watched the scenery on the deck. The Jiang family couldn't afford to rent a big boat, the place on the deck was not spacious, Taohua was afraid that he would fall into the water, and he was not allowed to walk around on the deck by himself.

Taohua was amused by him, and reached out to pinch his little chubby face: "The boat is shaking, what if you fall and fall into the water?" Then you can't get it. When you arrive in the capital, my sister will take you out to see the street scene. ”

Jiang Bohua is still a very coaxing child in essence, Taohua casually wrote a blank check, and he was satisfied. However, the scenery on both sides of the strait was not very attractive to a two-year-old child, and after a while, he got tired of seeing it, and pulled Taohua's shirt and asked: "Swing the board." ”

The pendulum board he said is the ancient tangram, and now it is still called Yan Jitu. In fact, he can pose himself, but he must pull someone to watch from the side, so that he can show off at any time.

"Okay, let's go set the board." Taohua took him in her arms and walked to the cabin. This kid is heavier again, and Taohua hugs him so often that she feels that her strength is also a little bigger.

In the middle of the ship were two large cabins, which were connected by doors. Jiang Xi and the Cao family lived in one room, Taohua and Jiang Yanhua took Jiang Bohua to live in one room, and the rest of the people had to squeeze in the small cabin. Fortunately, the whole family did not get seasick, although the boat was smaller, but there was no discomfort.

Taohua carried Jiang Bohua into the cabin where she lived, and heard Cao's voice faintly coming from the cabin next door: "This side, this side is not tight." ”

There is only a bamboo curtain between the two cabins, Taohua lifted the curtain and glanced at the next door, and saw Cao and Jiang Yanhua together, hearing the sound of the curtain, Jiang Yanhua quickly pulled a cloak next to him and covered the thing in front of him, looked up and smiled: "Sister is not looking at the scenery from above?" ”

"Brother Bai is coming back to play." Taohua smiled slightly and asked deliberately, "My sister still does needlework on the boat?" Look carefully. ”

Jiang Yanhua laughed dryly: "It's just that I want to embroider a side on the cloak, and I'm idle when I'm idle." ”

Momoka nodded and lowered the curtain. At that glance just now, she had already seen that Jiang Yanhua was in front of her a piece of silver-red yarn, with a pattern the size of a copper coin embroidered with black silk thread, but she didn't see what the pattern was. Looking at the size and texture of the yarn, it seems to be a table screen or something, but since she has embroidered a tent for Mrs. Jiang, who is this thing embroidered for?

Shouldn't it be embroidered for the lord of Nanhua, right? This thought only flashed in his mind for a moment, and he was thrown away by Taohua. The capital is not as good as Wuxi. When Jiang Heng goes out to play, he may visit one or two people in the market, but when he returns to the capital, he will never walk around with a five-grade official. What's more, they have only lived in the capital for a few months, and they should not have the opportunity to meet the Nanhua County Lord again, so let Jiang Yanhua embroider whatever she likes.

In fact, Jiang Yanhua and Cao's got together to secretly embroider, which made Taohua very worry-free. Jiang Xi spent most of the day on the deck, following the owner of the boat to ask about the customs and experiences on the water, and sometimes wielding a rod to fish, although most of the time he caught nothing, but he enjoyed it, if he caught a few small fish one day, he would proudly show off in front of his wife and daughter.

So Taohua is equivalent to occupying a cabin alone, except for playing with Jiang Bohua, the rest of the time can be used freely. On the road, you don't have to worry about the housekeeper and the director, and you don't have to check the accounts, it's like a vacation. Jiang Bohua turned two years old in September this year, and she plans to make a set of literacy cards for Jiang Bohua, so that she can start teaching him to read.

"Girl, it's time to put on a mask." Mint came in with a cup of mixed powder. This is the Jiang family's white-skinned formula, but as for the word mask, she learned it from Taohua.

Taohua was a little big: "Mint, you don't need to apply it every day......

Mint looked stern: "The girl has been standing on the deck these days-"

"I didn't stand for long...... "It's just a matter of getting some sun and vitamin D." Besides, Mint didn't urge her to apply her face so actively before.

"Girl, let's go to Beijing." Mint stared at Taohua very patiently, looking like she couldn't give up, "That day, the slave maid heard from Jiang Gongzi's little guy that the girls in the capital were all raised in vain. ”

Taohua was quite surprised: "Are you still talking to Qingzhan about this?" ”

"It's just casual talk." In fact, when I went out to walk the moon that day, Qingzhan chatted with Mint, and casually said that Jiang Yanhua was like a lady in the capital, and Taohua was slightly tanned.

In fact, Qingzhan wanted to ask if Taohua often went to the medicine hall, and it was harder than ordinary girls, so that they all got tanned. He didn't want to evaluate the complexion of other girls, but he just wanted to ask Taohua if he was proficient in medical skills, so as to satisfy his son's curiosity.

But when I heard these words, I felt very piercing in Mint's ears, as if saying that my girl was not as fair-skinned as the second girl, so since there was nothing to do on the boat, I caught Taohua and whitened frequently.

Taohua had to raise her hand in surrender, put down the pen and paper, and let Mint slowly apply the paste to her face and neck, and even the back of her hand, and then lay down and mummified. Jiang Bohua looked funny, giggled and ran over, lay straight next to Taohua, closed his eyes and laughed silly.

"You nerd." Taohua scratched his little belly, "Sister tested you, which one is the human character?" ”

There were a dozen palm-sized pieces of paper spread out on the table. This piece of paper is glued together with several layers of bamboo paper, which is hard and hard to hold in the hand, and has a bit of texture. The front of the piece of paper has words written on it, and the reverse side has a corresponding picture. There are some of the simplest words such as sun, moon, fire, man, etc.

Jiang Bohua flipped up, crawled to the table like a puppy, looked at the piece of paper for a while, reached out and took one, and crawled back to Taohua's side, holding the piece of paper in front of her: "People! ”

Taohua opened her eyes and looked at it, and smiled: "That's right." Bai Ge'er is so smart. So, which one is the fire word? ”

Jiang Bohua climbed back with a sense of accomplishment and took another card back. In his opinion, literacy is a fun game that he enjoys. He memorized more than a dozen words in a few days, and urged Taohua to teach more.

The two siblings were playing a game when the hull of the ship suddenly shook and seemed to stop.

"What's wrong?" Taohua listened attentively, and there seemed to be a faint commotion outside. Mint looked through the porthole for a while and said, "There seem to be two boats fighting for the waterway ahead, blocking the road." ”

The history of this time and space took a turn in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was not Zhu Yuanzhang who established the Ming Dynasty, but the son of an official eunuch surnamed Shen. He claimed that the genealogy of the Tang Dynasty can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty writer Shen Jiji, anti-Jin was to restore the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, so the capital was finally settled in Chang'an, not like the Ming Dynasty known by Taohua, first set the capital in Nanjing, and then moved the capital to Beijing.

The Jiang family set out from Wuxi, took the water route through Jiujiang to Hanyang, and then changed the land route from Hanyang to Chang'an. This waterway is a major transportation lifeline of this dynasty, and the Jiujiang Estuary is a place where many ships must pass, and traffic jams here are commonplace. Taohua didn't care, and continued to play literacy games with Jiang Bohua, but until she could get up and wash her face, the boat still stopped.

"Why is the front still blocked?" Momoka was a little surprised. There are indeed many ships here, but because of this, no one dares to block and move, because if a ship stops, there may be a string of boats blocked behind it, and even the entire river cannot be moved, which is not a trivial matter, "Let's go to the deck and see." ”

The girl put her hat on. Mint undoubtedly handed over the hat, "There are a lot of people outside, so you can't just show your face." ”

Taohua couldn't cry or laugh: "Mint, where did you learn this?" "In Wuxi before, did she go to the medicine hall to Zhuangzi, so she didn't show up?

Mint said resolutely: "Isn't it what Miss Lu said in the letter?" It's like this in Jinling City, and when you enter the capital, there are more rules. The girl will learn now, and she will not have the time—"

Taohua felt speechless for a while: "What about then?" After Lu Ying came to the letter that was depressed and depressed to the extreme, the letters behind seemed to have regained their previous liveliness, and they talked about all kinds of trivial things about learning rules from Mama, as if the rules were extremely interesting. Momoka could see a determination in those sentences, and Mint actually used those rules as a yardstick to measure her actions.

Mint hesitated for a moment before muttering, "There are still a few girls in the family of the eldest lord in Beijing, don't be at that time, they say that the girl - that the girl doesn't understand the rules." ”

Jiang Zhu, the third master of the long house, is married to a merchant girl, and the whole family is away, so Mint is not worried. But in addition to the eldest daughter Mei Hua who entered the palace, the eldest lord Jiang Jun also has a second daughter Jiang Danhua and a concubine Jiang Xinghua.

"The slave maid heard that ......," mint said with a mouthful, "I heard that it was the fifth girl who put the girl back then...... This time she saw the girl, in case ......"

Taohua sighed softly: "If you don't say it, I'll really forget about it." ”

What Mint said was the reason why the original Jiang Taohua was stupid. It was Jiang Danhua who pushed the original Jiang Taohua down because of grabbing toys, which made her stupid, and drowned three years later, giving Tao Hua a second life.

"However, at that time, they were all children and they were not sensible. Now that the fifth girl is also thirteen, she shouldn't do such a thing again. At that time, Jiang Danhua was only a little more than three years old, two months younger than Taohua, and he was able to push his sister down domineeringly, and he was indeed temperamental enough.

Mint whispered, "That's not necessarily...... In the past few years, the people who have come to the capital to give New Year's gifts, the slaves and maids have also said a few words to them, and I heard that the fifth girl is the most favored at home, so that the fourth girl can't raise her head. ”

Taohua smiled, took the hat and put it on: "Okay, okay, it's just a hat, and it's so far." Don't worry, I'm not a three-year-old child now, can't I protect myself? The fourth girl, Jiang Xinghua, is a concubine, Taohua asked herself, thinking that if it was herself, I am afraid she would not be very good to the sister of a concubine.

Walking on the deck, Taohua found that the river was really blocked enough, and the two big ships in front of him were on their heads, and no one would give in. It was the narrowest part of the waterway, and the two ships were so big that no one could get through them when they went there.

"It looks like an official ship." Mint tiptoed over, "The slave has seen a similar one on the dock, and it is said that only an official like the prefect can sit." ”

Taohua stared at it, the two ships were about the same size, and they both looked very imposing, and at this moment there were several people standing on the bow of the boat, shouting in front of them, obviously no one wanted to retreat.

Lanterns were hung on both ships, but they were not lit during the day. Momoka looked at it for a while, and made out the word "Cui" from the lantern on one of the ships, but the lantern on the other ship was not written.

At this moment, many boats have stopped on the water nearby, and there are their own nossy strings to and fro to chew their tongues. Next to the Jiang family's ship was a merchant ship, and the sailors on the merchant ship were also very eager to inquire about the news, and they were already laughing loudly at this time: "That ship is the ship of the Cui family of the Fuzhou prefect, and it is said that it is to send their daughter to Beijing to get married." Hey, you know what? That Miss Cui is going to marry the prince! ”

The merchant ship obviously often ran on this waterway, and the boat next to it immediately burst into laughter: "I said Feng Bald, you can blow it." You can inquire about the ship of the Fuzhou prefect, and you can also inquire about his daughter in it, who is the girl in Beijing to marry, can you still find out? ”

Feng Bald is actually not completely bald, but his hair is a little less, and he can see that his hair is thin when he covers it with a turban, and his forehead is as high and raised as a pot, and it is shining against the sun. He habitually wiped his head with his hand and grinned: "Mo lame, if you dragged this lame leg forward just now, you can also know." It was the people on the Cui family boat who said it themselves, saying that their girl would be the princess in the future, and asked the boat on the other side to get out of the way quickly. ”

At this time, the people on both sides of the boat were surprised: "Is this true?" ”

The owner of a boat next to him looked quite young, and muttered, "I'm afraid it's true." I used to do business in the capital, but I've heard a little about it. The first emperor had three adult princes, the youngest prince was the marriage that the first emperor personally pointed out to him before his death, and the female family seems to be surnamed Cui. At that time, it seemed that he was still an official in Beijing, and he was later released to be an official. ”

"Tsk, the boat on the other side is not out of the way. No matter what kind of official he is, how can he compete with the prince's Yue family? The sailors obviously believed in the owner of the ship, and their attitude was really different from that of Feng Bald just now.

However, when it comes to inquiring about the news, it is obvious that Feng Bald is superior, and everyone sighed at the Cui family, and immediately someone asked Feng Bald again: "What kind of official is the ship opposite?" ”

Feng Bald scratched his head: "This, I really don't know." There was no official lantern on the ship, but I just went up to take a look, and there were a few female dependents on the boat, all of whom looked dressed as maids, but the clothes were not ordinary, and they didn't look like ordinary rich and noble people. ”

Someone joked: "What else can you see that is unusual, isn't it just wearing gold and silver?" It's to see that other people's daughters are beautiful, this is not ordinary, right? ”

Feng Bald gave him a blank look: "Nonsense! My old Feng's eyesight is not given for nothing. Wearing gold and silver is also okay with the rich man's family, and the ladies on this ship are definitely different. If you want to tell me, I don't know, but it's the momentum -- it's different anyway. I don't believe you look at it, the Cui family has revealed their identities, and the ship has not returned, so it must be a bit of a doorway. ”

Momoka leaned against the side of the boat and listened with relish. I thought that gossip is human nature, and both men and women are inevitable. It's also thanks to this Feng bald man, who really has a hand in inquiring about the news.

Jiang Xi originally took advantage of the boat to stop the boat and ran to the stern to fish, but at this time, seeing that the front was blocked and could not move, and the fish could not be caught, he had no intention of sitting, so he went to discuss a few words with the boat owner, and then came over and said to Taohua: "The boat owner just said, even if we get out of the way for a while, we are afraid that we will not be able to catch up with the accommodation today, but we will rest here for a day now and visit Jiujiang City." ”

"Okay!" Taohua raised her hands in agreement. When the boat arrives, it is very pleasant to go ashore and take a walk, see the local scenery, and taste the delicious snacks. It's a pity that it's quite expensive to charter a boat, otherwise they would stop at every pier for sightseeing, which is like tourism.

The owner unhooked the anchor and moved closer to the shore. At this time, the two big ships that were entangled over there also moved, the Cui family's ship sailed forward, and the other boat, which had not hung the official lantern, slowly turned its head and also approached the shore.

The waterway was finally cleared, and the boats that had been blocked up hurriedly untied their cables and sailed, and they should go and berth, like a swarm of hard-working bees.

Jiujiang is a big wharf, and there are many ships on the shore, and I don't know how many there are. The Jiang family's boat turned around and didn't know what was going on, and finally docked with the nameless big ship that was with the Cui family.

Jiang Xi went down to the cabin and informed everyone that he was going to stay in Jiujiang for one night today. The little angelica went to the city to find an inn first, and the rest of the people packed their belongings in the cabin.

Taohua was standing alone against the side of the boat, looking at Jiujiang City on the shore, when she suddenly heard a young woman's voice overhead: "Master, the owner of the ship just said that there is a broken piece on the top of the ship, and I am afraid that it will have to be repaired before I can leave." ”

The voice came from the nameless ship. The boat was half as tall as the Jiang family's boat, and Taohua stood on the side of the boat, looking up and not seeing the person talking, only the wall-like hull.

"Then fix it, don't rush." The man's voice sounded like that of a middle-aged man, gentle and deep.

"Master-" The woman's voice was a little higher, "Fang Cai, what did you do to let the Cui family's ship go?" Even if his family is the prince's family, are we afraid of them? What's more, the four princes have never been taken seriously, but now that they are all adults, they don't even have a county throne, what is there to be arrogant about the Cui family! If you had just had someone tell me who you were—"

"That's it." The man said lightly, "The Cui family is also in a hurry for their daughter to be unwell, so what if they let them go first?" ”

"But they have wrecked our boat, and they are still disrespectful-" Before the woman could finish her sentence, another woman's voice interjected halfway: "Bailu, the master will just say it." Cui's boat is gone, and he still says what to do. The master wants to stay in Jiujiang for a few more days, you and Wu Gou go to find an inn. ”

Bailu hurriedly said, "How many more days does the master want to stay?" I have to find a good inn, although the south side is good, but it is too humid, and the bedding is always dry, I have to take a closer look. As he spoke, his voice went away, thinking that he had run to get ready to get off the boat.

Later, the woman's voice was not as clear as Bailu's, and she seemed to be older, but she had a gentle and bone-deep energy: "The master doesn't wear a cloak when he comes out, how can it be good when the wind blows." ”

"What's this little wind?" There was a little smile in the man's voice, "Hanzhang, you're too careful." If this is at the border, is it also afraid of the wind? After he said this, the smile in his voice gradually disappeared, but it seemed a little sad.

Hanzhang was also silent for a moment before he said softly: "Master, after all, it's only the first month, and the wind and humidity on the river are too heavy." The old man has lived in Jiangnan these days, don't you often feel leg pain, Lang Zhong said, you are not comfortable with the dampness in the south, and you should be careful. She deftly avoided the topic of border crossing, and there was utter concern in her words.

The man still couldn't get out of his sadness, and laughed briefly: "The climate in the south is warm, and I am still unwell, if I really go to the border pass, that bitter cold place, I have heard that many soldiers have frozen their legs due to lack of winter clothes, if I had gone, I still don't know what it would have been like." Maybe I'm just having ambitions, and even if I really have the opportunity, I may not be able to make a contribution. ”

"Master, why are you bothering to say this......" Hanzhang's voice trembled slightly, and it sounded especially like tears in the gentle waves of the river, "If you had the opportunity to go to the border pass, you would definitely be able to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions." ”

"Really?" The man said lightly, "Bailu is still angry about why I retreated. Although the Cui family is arrogant, I respect Lord Cui for being able to kill the people in Fuzhou. And what else can I do besides the identity of this county horse? ”

Taohua began to listen interestingly, and then the man's voice gradually became sad, and she had a feeling of peeping at others, and was about to sneak away quietly, when suddenly the word Junma came into her ears, making her feel a meal under her feet - Junma? Isn't that the husband of the county lord?

Since the beginning of this dynasty, the heirs have not been very prosperous, so until now, there are not many county lords, probably five or six. Listening to this man's voice, he is about thirty or forty years old, and the county lord of this age is the two. One of them is said to have settled in Shandong with the county horse, and the other is the lord of Nanhua.