Tan Ke heard Ma Ningyuan's words and didn't stop him. Seeing that Tan Ke did not object www.biquge.info the officials escorted those people and began to move forward.

Ma Ningyuan bowed his hand to Tan Ke on the horse, "The next official retires." With that, he limped forward.

"Retire!"

"Retire!"

Chang Boxi and Zhang Zhiliang saw Ma Ningyuan leaving alone, and they also said goodbye to Tan Ke.

The people saw that the red-robed officials no longer spoke for them, and their relatives were arrested by the officials again, so there was no choice but to gather together and follow Ma Ningyuan.

"With so many people, if you really follow Hangzhou, things will make a big fuss." Chang Boxi was sweating on his face, and he caught up with Ma Ningyuan and said.

"It's already a big deal! Do you think that with such a Zuodu Imperial History, things will be good? Ma Ningyuan strode away, "Go back to Hangzhou, and talk about it when you see Lord Ministry!" ”

The hall of Jiangnan Weaving Bureau

The drums are not beating people's ear drums one by one, but beating people's hearts one by one.

This kind of drumming can only reach this state without fireworks during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.

Accompanied by the sound of the hall drums, there is the kind of flute sound that can only be found in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, which is clearly played by the flute master sitting in front of him, but it makes people feel that it comes from the distant sky above the huge hall.

This was when one of the greatest art forms in Chinese history – Kunqu opera was just coming of age.

At this time, the first class of Kunqu opera from the world invited from Suzhou was played here.

Like a cloud, like a canal of water, a long silk horse floated up the long staircase in the middle of the handrail in the middle of the lobby. From afar, the silk that swept the stairs seemed to have color, and it seemed to have no color; As if there is a pattern, and as if there is no pattern; One zhang, two zhang, three zhang, illusory like a dream.

The end of the silk was draped over the shoulders of a slender woman.

The music played by the sound of the drums and the flute was so seamless that the woman in silk had just reached the end of the second staircase, and with a smile in her eyes, the song was over.

There was applause on the north side of the hall on the ground floor, on the opposite side of the long staircase.

The people sitting in a long row of chairs stood up with a smile.

In the middle were four first- to third-grade officials, and on either side were five richly dressed merchants.

At a glance, you can see that these wealthy businessmen are "not of my race", two of them have high noses and deep eyes, and the other three have particularly dark skin, and the applause just now was taken by them.

"Palm Candle!" The eunuch with a woman's face among the officials said with a shrill laugh.

The speaker was Yang Jinshui, the supervisor of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau and the Zhejiang City Shipping Bureau.

Immediately, two attendants approached through the two doors on either side of the hall with a lighted candlestick in his hand. Yang Jinshui, two officials, and a few wealthy merchants from other foreign lands, each received a candlestick from an entourage.

Only the clear-faced middle-aged official standing in the middle did not take the candlestick. The other two officials looked at him.

The official smiled tiredly: "Gonggong Yang and you will lead it and watch." ”

That Yang Gonggong smiled and continued: "Lord Mintang has always been really tired, but we don't dare to let you go." You can sit here and rest first, and then you will have to decide how much silk you can sell and ship to the West, and how many ships you can send to escort you. Speaking of this, he smiled at the official and the foreign merchants beside him and said, "Come, come, let's go and see the goods." ”

The ministry was the title of the governor of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The origin of the title is because the chief of the Ming Dynasty government offices handled important official affairs in the lobby of the government offices, so they were called hall officials. The lord of the ministry here is Hu Zongxian, who is the governor of Zhejiang and the right attendant of the military department at this time.

As he was talking, Yang Jinshui held the candlestick in front of him, walked towards the silk horse that was still blowing on the stairs, and said sharply as he walked: "Turn off the lights!" ”

It had been prepared for a long time, and the people who had stood next to each lantern that had hung high in the cloister on the second floor immediately extinguished those lanterns.

The tall hall immediately darkened, and only the candles held by the few men appeared in a circle of light in the center of the hall.

The candle in his hand illuminated his face, and Yang Jinshui's face became clearer, which was a typical eunuch's face. He led the way to the staircase in the middle of the hall with a candle in hand.

The candlelight on the left behind him illuminated the face of the officer on the left. This person is Zheng Michang, the political envoy of Zhejiang.

The candlelight on the right behind him illuminated the face of the official on the right. This person is He Maocai, the envoy of Zhejiang.

The merchants followed them, and the group approached the staircase with the candlestick, and approached the silk.

The afterglow of the candle shimmered and shone on Hu Zongxian behind them. He sat down again alone in the middle of the row of empty chairs, and slowly closed his eyes.

A seven-rank officer standing at the door of the hall hurriedly came over with a cloak on his arm, gently covered Hu Zongxian's body, and quickly retreated.

Yang Jinshui led Zheng Michang, He Maocai, and a few merchants up the first few stairs along both sides of the silk, and immediately two attendants pulled up the silk at the bottom of the stairs.

The front of the silk horse was more than a foot away from the steps.

"Please." Yang Jinshui shone the candlelight in his hand.

Several others also shone the candle light in their hands:

-- The wings of butterflies and the wings of bees are like being able to see through the wings of the wings, and what is even more rare is that the patterns and colors on each butterfly and each bee are different, and the amplitude of each wing and each wing is different, but they are all really flying, flying around the buds that have not yet bloomed.

A few businessmen laughed back, but remained reserved.

"Please look up." Yang Jinshui led the group up the second step again.

The two attendants downstairs took a step back by tugging at the two corners of the silk, and the second section of the silk was pulled out of the steps.

Several candles shone at the same time:

-- It's still the butterflies, it's the bees, it's the flowers, the butterflies and the bees are still flying around the flowers.

Several businessmen glanced at each other, and although they were still smiling, they showed some disapproval.

Yang Jinshui also smiled: "Take a closer look." ”

The candlelight and the head leaned closer to the silk. Yang Jinshui's womanly white and soft hand pointed to a flower in the middle.

――The flower is indeed a little different, compared to the buds of the previous paragraph, the petals have opened slightly.

"It's on!" This was blurted out by the dark-faced merchant, who apparently often came to the Ming Dynasty to do business, and could speak Chinese, but with an awkward Wu Yin.

"Okay!" Yang Jinshui smiled and praised, "The previous paragraph is worn at seven o'clock in the morning according to your Western clock, and the flowers are still flowers, so butterflies and bees just fly around." ”

These magical and exquisite silks are the reason why the Yan father and son want to destroy the grain and change the mulberry. Under the hands of these foreign merchants, they would exchange them for silver taels, a small part of which went to the state treasury, and most of them went to the private treasury of the Yan family and bureaucrats at all levels.

Outside the gate of the yamen of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau

As the highest eunuch yamen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the yamen of the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau is very strict, and today because the highest officials of a province are inside, the pro-soldiers of the governor, the political envoy, and the pro-army of the envoy are all on guard outside at this time, and it is even more strict.

The seven-rank military attache who gave Hu Zongxian a cloak was the captain of the Governor's Yamen, and of course he stood here to preside over the guard.

At this moment, a rapid sound of horses' hooves came from the street on the left side of the yamen, and the captain of the personal soldiers frowned, and immediately a group of personal soldiers ran in the direction of the sound of horses' hooves—several horses appeared, and Chang Boxi was at the forefront.

The team of personal soldiers did not stop him, Chang Boxi ignored them, and galloped until the gate of the Yamen of the Weaving Bureau before stopping.

Although the captain of the pro-soldier is not very familiar with Chang Boxi, he is familiar with Ma Ningyuan, the prefect of Hangzhou, and Chang Boxi often follows behind Ma Ningyuan, and the captain of the pro-soldier greets Chang Boxi with a smile.

Chang Boxi turned over and dismounted, threw the whip at the people behind him, and asked loudly to the captain of the pro-soldiers, "Is the Lord of the Ministry inside?" ”

"Yes." The captain of the pro-soldier continued, "What's going on?" ”

Chang Boxi: "It's not good! Mafutai led people to implement the policy of changing grain to mulberry, and as a result, a second-grade member of the imperial history of the left capital appeared. indiscriminately whipped Mafutai with a horsewhip. Now, Mafutai is coming to the governor's yamen with the imperial history of the left capital and thousands of people! ”

The captain of the pro-soldier did not dare to delay, and quickly led Chang Boxi in.

Outside the hall of Jiangnan Weaving Bureau

Walking from the gate to here, I knew how big the Yamen Mansion of the Weaving Bureau was, Chang Boxi was led by the captain of the personal soldiers, and he didn't even have to say hello to the heavily guarded doors one by one, so he broke in all the way.

The captain of the pro-soldier led Chang Boxi to Hu Zongxian's side. Hu Zongxian sat there with the cloak covered, his body still sitting upright, but he was already snoring slightly.

Chang Boxi hesitated in place, not knowing what to do. At this time, Hu Zongxian shivered and woke up.

"What's going on?" Hu Zongxian glanced at Chang Boxi a little strangely, he remembered this magistrate. It's just not very familiar.

"Lord Ministry! Oh no! Chang Boxi was about to cry. He attached himself to Hu Zongxian's ear and made the situation clear.

"Big things are not good!" Hu Zongxian slapped the wooden table and immediately stood up.

Hu Zongxian recruited the captain of the personal soldiers, "You go and tell Gonggong Yang that I have to go back to the Governor's Mansion in advance!" I'll talk about it later! ”

After speaking, Hu Zongxian didn't look back, and followed Chang Boxi out of the weaving bureau.

On the second floor, Yang Jinshui was still discussing silk with a group of merchants.

A merchant who could speak Chinese asked, "Lord Yang, if we want 500,000 horses, what price can you give us?" ”

Half a million? Yang Jinshui blinked his eyes, this is big business. He thought about it for a while, and said to Fanshang: "Seven and a half million taels of silver, and 500,000 pieces of silk, you will take them all!" ”

A few more exotic merchants muttered. The fanshang, who knew Chinese, said to Yang Jinshui again: "Lord Yang! You can rest assured! As long as there is a stock, the silver is indispensable to you! ”

Yang Jinshui was overjoyed, he turned around and walked down the stairs, ready to tell Hu Zongxian the good news.

"Hu Butang! Hu Butang! Strange, what about the Hu Butang people? Yang Jinshui was strange, a little eunuch ran over and told Yang Jinshui where Hu Zongxian was.

After listening to the little eunuch's report, Yang Jinshui's face turned pale. (To be continued.) )