On this day, Lin Qingyun was dressed neatly and ordinarily, and took people out to visit the gathering place of foreign businessmen, and was very lucky to meet a merchant ship that had just docked.

The ship came from Ceylon, Ceylon is very famous for its precious stones, Lin Qingyun tried to send people to inquire, and the goods they brought really included fine red sapphires and cat's eyes, so she exchanged some of the brocade and official kiln porcelain she used. These things were all sent by the prefect of Guangzhou, and there were people sent by the king of Nanjun after learning the news, although they were only received once, but the amount was also very considerable. According to the previous example, she did not plan to bring these things back to the capital, and directly exchanged them for local customs or traded with foreign merchant ships.

Lin Qingyun picked a total of two boxes of gemstones, red and blue, the gems are large, the color is rich and even, very rare. But these gems are not enough, when Lin Ruhai gave him a dowry, there were two boxes of gems, mostly red, and even several were the size of pigeon eggs, which was a rare good thing. Later, she became a prince and princess, and the filial piety of others and the reward of the emperor and queen did have a lot of good things. She bought so many more, most of them were for Daiyu, and on the other hand, Ceylon's cat's eye was very good, especially this time the Ceylon shipowner brought a batch of high-quality ones, which was a grade higher than the opal she had obtained in the past.

These cat's eyes are all golden green cat's eyes, which are the best of the opals.

She asked for a total of boxes of opals, all of which were honey-yellow, with thin and narrow eyeliner, and the cat's eyes opened and closed flexibly with the light, which was the best opal. She planned to use the cat's eye with some other beads and make some handbags as gifts to distribute to the sisters. After thinking about it, I chose another box, the cat's eyes are very good, but the color is not limited to honey yellow, the light yellow-green, brown yellow, green, and even very white yellow, very white green have been selected, these are prepared for Anle.

Back at the post house, he was accustomed to entering the door and reported today's harvest to Tu Yan.

"What do you think I've gotten up today?" Saying that, he opened the box and put it in front of him, which was full of honey yellow cat's eyes, "These are good cat's eyes, I think An Le will like them, last time she was still asking me for cat's eyes, and I want to wear a bracelet." She's weird, the best in the cat's eye is honey yellow, and I have a lot of it there, but she doesn't want it, she must choose one of various colors, and she says that it looks good on a string. ”

Tu Yan plucked the cat's eyes in the box and smiled: "Her skewers have already been obtained." Earlier, she asked her eldest sister to ask for it, but the eldest sister didn't like cat's eyes, and she gave it away, and she went to look for you again, but you didn't. Later, she went to beg the queen mother, and said that it was not pitiful, and the queen mother directly brought out a lot of beads for her to choose. But she was weird, and deliberately made a purse to give to the queen mother, who praised her for her filial piety. It's hard for her, too. ”

An Le's temperament is a quiet one, how can he like to sit obediently and be a female celebrity? So her female popularity is very poor, the eldest princess loves her, and she has had such a disease since she was a child, so she didn't force her to do it, and she didn't know how much effort it took to make a purse for the queen, how could the queen not know.

Lin Qingyun saw that his expression was a little different from before, so he let the egret collect the box, and asked him when he was gone.

Tu Yan handed her a piece of paper directly.

Then I took a look, it was news from Beijing: "Jia Zheng ordered a school errand?" ”

In the original book, Jia Zheng's errand has always been a member of the Ministry of Works, and the only change was to go to Beijing on a school trip, so she was very impressed. Without Jia Zheng at home, Baoyu became a wild horse, and no one controlled him, and since then he has been playing and writing poems with his sisters in the Grand View Garden, which is the most carefree and good time. At that time, when she was reading a book, she wondered, she had not moved her position for many years as an official according to Jia Zheng, how could she suddenly order a school trip to Beijing?

Looking further down, a person appeared in the letter - Jia Yuanchun!

Yes, Jia Yuanchun is one of the concubines, she has been very favored since the beginning of the year, and she is pregnant with a dragon heir, although she has a miscarriage, but it is different in the end. The emperor did not deal with Jia Yuanchun, not because he didn't want to, but because the emperor spoke, not only did he not punish him, but he also had to be appeased. Since then, Jia Yuanchun often went to Shangyang Palace to ask for peace, and he had more contacts with Concubine Zhen Gui than before. You must know that Zhen Jia's two families are old relatives, but Jia Yuanchun was not close to Concubine Zhen Gui when he first entered the palace, how can this change not arouse suspicion.

"What does the Emperor mean?" Lin Qingyun sighed, and guessed the reason.

If Jia Yuanchun is close to Concubine Zhen Gui, and Concubine Zhen Gui intercedes with the Emperor Taishang, according to the Emperor's favor and the importance of the Zhen family, it is just a trivial matter for Jia Zheng to be sent abroad. And after receiving the words of the emperor, the emperor was unwilling and could not object, he must be extremely aggrieved in his heart, and he must be more eager to eradicate all the old nobles who are on the corpse and vegetarian meal!

Lighting the candle and burning the paper, what she was thinking about was Jia Yuanchun's actions.

complained in vain that Jia Yuanchun was smart and stupid.

Jia Yuanchun was able to keep a distance from Concubine Zhen Gui when she first entered the palace, which shows that she is sensitive to the fact that the emperor does not like her to be close to the concubines and concubines, and if the concubines are too close, they will be classified as one party and easy to cause trouble. At first, she did a good job of keeping a low profile, but the emperor didn't like her, and he couldn't find fault with her, and he sighed that she was born in the wrong place. But now that she has a miscarriage, she is close to Concubine Zhen Gui, just because she knows that the reason why the emperor favored her was that the emperor was the emperor, without the imperial heir, she was old, and there was basically no way out, that is, she could give up herself, but she couldn't give up the entire Jia family, she entered the palace for the family at the beginning, and now the Jia family is like that, how can she watch the family continue to fall.

In desperation, she thought of the emperor.

The Emperor Taishang cares about the old ministers, everyone in and outside the palace knows that Jia Yuanchun also has an advantage, she is not only the daughter of the Jia family, but also the granddaughter of Jia Daishan. This was enough for Jia Yuanchun.

Knowing the tense relationship between the emperor and the emperor, Jia Yuanchun's move was tantamount to quenching his thirst. Probably, Jia Yuanchun was blinded by the current well-being of the Emperor Taishang, thinking that the Emperor Taishang still had a few years of spring and autumn, but in fact, according to various hints in the book, the current improvement of the Emperor Taishang seems to be "returning to the light".

It seems that not long after this, Baoling Hou Shi Nai signed a provincial minister, so Xiangyun went to Jia's house again, and he lived permanently.

Can a Jia Yuanchun have such energy? No way! The only one who can do this, and can get benefits, is the emperor. These are still the two people mentioned in the book, and there are not many people who don't mention it, the emperor promoted the officials who were born in the old lord, not only to interfere in the government before, but like ...... War on the Emperor!

"What do you think?" Tu Yan saw her in a daze.

"Just read the news on paper, presumably Jia Zheng's release is not a special case, and the emperor's situation is not good." After all, the Emperor Taishang only dealt with the emperor alone, but the emperor had to deal with more than just the Emperor.

"It's almost September." Tu Yan sighed with emotion, and suddenly said: "Originally, my father wanted me to return to Beijing at the end of the year, but I felt comfortable outside, how about you and I return to Beijing next year?" ”

"You dare to disobey the will of the Divine Will?" Lin Qingyun smiled, not moved in her heart.

"When the matter of Guangzhou is over, I will go up to my son to ask my father for instructions." Tu Yan seems to be full of confidence, obviously having a plan.

Seeing this, Lin Qingyun didn't ask, but said: "If you don't go back, then you have to not only do the Halloween ceremony, but also prepare for the New Year's ceremony." It is easy to buy foreign goods outside, but it is inconvenient to buy them on the side, and you can't always deal with foreign goods. I'll have to think about what's in the house, buy some here, and add some from the house when the time comes. ”

"It's not September yet, it's early."

"It's still early, I'll do it slowly. How's going on with you? Now she's very comfortable and spends her days hanging out.

Once, in a foreign goods store on the street, I bumped into a concubine of the king of Nan'an County. The concubine was probably accepted here, with an official accent of Cantonese, born to be charming, and was talking to two women. The two women are like daughters-in-law doing errands, dressed very well, their clothes and jewelry are like the style of Beijing, and the voice they speak is also authentic Beijing's official dialect. She didn't go in, she only let Bai Ling listen to it, it turned out to be someone sent by Concubine Nan'an, the concubine was a person who had never been to the capital, and she was very flattering to the people sent by the old lady.

Of course, Bai Ling not only listened to this, but also heard the concubine's unintentional complaint.

The king of Nan'an County actually received a Western woman by his side, blonde, blue-eyed and white-skinned, who was the sister of a certain merchant shipowner.

Lin Qingyun was secretly surprised and told Tu Yan about it.

Tu Yan was also surprised, and inquired secretly, but there was not the slightest rumor outside, or he didn't say anything about it. This kind of thing is no longer a simple affair, because of their different identities, they are a little more sensitive, not to mention that the king of Nan'an County holds a heavy army to control the West Sea. I don't know why, Lin Qingyun is very concerned about this matter, and wants to ask Scarlett to inquire, they are all foreign businessmen, and they will have some circulating news inside. It's a pity that Lawrence's merchant ship cargo has long been loaded, and the husband and wife have returned home with the ship.

In desperation, Lin Qingyun prepared to make friends with foreign businessmen here as he did in Quanzhou.

Seeing her ask about Guangzhou, Tu Yan shook his head slightly: "It doesn't seem to be a problem." ”

It is precisely that there is no problem that is tricky, can the prince of Nan'an be so peaceful?

The weather was cool in the past two days, and Tu Yan saw that things had not progressed for a long time, so he simply ignored them and invited Lin Qingyun to go shopping after nightfall. The two of them changed into their regular clothes with ease, and went out from the back door of the hotel, accompanied by only Egret Hongya and Gaoyang Li Li.

Guangzhou was still lively at night, Xu was worried, and he walked in the direction of the port unconsciously.

Lin Qingyun couldn't help but persuade: "I'm not in a hurry, I don't have to worry so much......" Suddenly a surprised female voice interrupted her words. Lin Qingyun is only limited to a few oral words of French, and she learned it with a French girl in Quanzhou, and the feeling of her tongue rolling is still fresh in her memory, so she immediately heard which country the other party was, and guessed the identity of the other party according to that familiar voice. Sure enough, when he saw a young foreign girl in a blue satin lace dress walking over with a smile on her face, she called out the other party's name.

"Louise?"

"Good evening, Your Royal Highness." Louise lifted her skirt and saluted, and saw Tu Yan standing beside Lin Qingyun, dressed in a different temperament from those guards, so she guessed the identity of the other party, and hurriedly saluted again: "Good evening, Your Royal Highness." ”

Louise's Chinese was newly learned after coming to the East, she knew very little, and her pronunciation was very blunt, but she was a warm and beautiful French girl, although she knew that she was facing a noble royal family, she did not show fear and flinched, and she was still down-to-earth and generous. This is also the reason why Lin Qingyun liked her at the beginning, Louise has the advantages of a Frenchman, warm and cheerful, beautiful and romantic, yearning for freedom, and chatting with Louise is a kind of enjoyment. Of course, their conversations can only be in English, Louise's family is engaged in seafaring trade, not only to the East, in the early days their family has been traveling to and from European countries, Louise can speak several Chinese, very intelligent.

At this time another young man, decent and handsome, came and knew each other under Louise's introduction. It turned out that he was Louise's fiancé, Bruce, and the two got engaged at the beginning of the year, and they came to the East to experience different cultural customs.

Louise was very considerate, and when she saw that the husband and wife were going out together, she did not bother too much and offered to leave.

Lin Qingyun suddenly remembered something and hurriedly stopped her: "Louise, I just have something to ask you." I've heard that the owner's sister is following a prince here, do you know that? ”

Who knew that Louise immediately realized: "Lisa." ”

"Who?"

Although Louise didn't know what she was asking about this, she thought that a prince was involved, and Lin Qingyun's husband was also a prince, so she thought it was an internal family matter, so she didn't ask. "Her name was Lisa, Lisa de Lorraine, or so she said she was a nobleman. I know no one from the Lorraine family, and there is absolutely no Lisa de Lorraine. At the end, he added with great irony: "Unless she is an illegitimate daughter who is not recognized by the family." ”

"I thought she was the owner's sister?" Lin Qingyun frowned, and his expression became stern.

Louise shook her head: "No, no, Your Highness the Princess, she only knew the owner of the ship, or rather, the owner of the ship, Mr. Matthew, was once one of her suitors. I only know her name, she claims to be a nobleman, she is said to have been born in Paris, and the rest is not known. ”

"Thank you Louise, if there is any other news from her, please tell me, it's important to me." Lin Qingyun solemnly asked.

"Of course, I'm willing to help, I don't like Lisa." Louise is very straightforward, and there are two aspects to this dislike, one is that Mr. Matthew is in competition with the Louise family, and the other is that Lisa's personality is very unpleasant.

Saying goodbye to Louise, the two didn't have the heart to continue wandering, so they went back to the inn. Tu Yan has been learning English for a while, but Lin Qingyun and Louise spoke very quickly, and he only listened and guessed. Lin Qingyun relayed Louise's words, and Tu Yan also realized that the king of Nan'an County had a lot of inside information about supporting a foreign woman.

Lin Qingjun has always felt that she has overlooked something, the key is to find out Lisa's identity, if there is no certain background, even if she catches the king of Nanjun? Dumping the shipowner, Matthew, aren't you afraid of annoying him? Unless Lisa doesn't plan to return home for the rest of her life. Or did Matthew benefit from it?

Tu Yan suddenly said, "Maybe you can contact the owner of the ship named Matthew." ”

Having said that, it is not easy, even if you create an opportunity to meet by chance, how to get the news you want from the other party's mouth? The two of them knew English, but they were not suitable to appear in person, and the others were not suitable. As she turned out, Louise came to visit the next day and surprised her with a gift.

"Guns!" A flintlock pistol, to be precise, has a wooden butt with a warm luster and smooth lines, and the wrought iron parts are shiny with a metallic sheen and are delicately carved.

Lin Qingyun also noticed that there was a small round badge engraved on the iron plate, with a flower in the center and a capital letter "V" in the stamen. She immediately understood that it was supposed to be a family crest, but Louise's last name was Robert, and the initial letter was not a V, as if her fiancé's surname was Vincent.

Seeing her staring at the family crest, Louise said apologetically: "Your Royal Highness, please forgive me, this is a custom-made □□ of the Bruce family, and the body of the gun has their family crest." Last time, the princess said that she liked small □□, and Bruce happened to have a new one, and he was willing to give it to the princess. Said with pride: "The Bruce family is a nobleman, and their family can customize the best guns in the country, and the princess knows that I definitely didn't lie to you after trying it." ”

Lin Qingyun picked up the gun and sank his hand slightly, inevitably excited for a while. This was the first time she had touched a gun.

"Louise, I love it, it's a great gift." Lin Qingyun admired, and a flash of inspiration flashed in her mind, and she asked, "Louise, is there a control on gun ownership in your country?" ”

Louise shook her head: "As far as I know, most European countries have no restrictions, as long as you have the money and can afford to buy a gun." Of course, the price of a gun is not low, the average person cannot afford it, and there are only a limited number of good gun-making craftsmen, and only the nobles have priority to have the right to order guns. ”

Therefore, although there is no restriction on the ownership of guns in Europe, civilians still cannot own guns, and even businessmen are limited to big businessmen who have the money and the way to get guns. Like Louise's family, their merchant ships are equipped with firearms, otherwise they can't resist the elusive pirates on the sea, and they can afford the force of an ocean-going ship, which not only means that their family has financial resources, but also has certain connections in the authorities.

Seeing off Louise, Lin Qingyun immediately came to the Tuyan Courtyard with the conjecture in her heart.

"Lord Wang, look at what this is." Lin Qingyun handed over the wooden box in his hand.

Tu Yan only thought that the French girl had given some beautiful jewelry, but when she opened the box, she was stunned, it was actually a handful of □□! Tu Yan had seen the guns of the owners of those foreign merchant ships, and because he had not seen the power of those guns in front of him, he had not paid much attention to them, but now this gun was obviously different, and the workmanship was exquisite. In vain, he immediately ordered someone to take the □□ and pull the trigger on a tree in the courtyard.

I heard a bang, and with a puff of black smoke, the bullet missed, grazing the edge of the tree.

"There is no crosshair." Lin Qingyun saw that he was not sure, so he said casually.

Tu Yan looked back at her and asked, "What is the crosshair?" What is the basis for aiming? Lin Qingyun didn't know how to explain this, but fortunately, Tu Yan only thought that foreign guns had this configuration, and did not doubt it, and looked at the flintlock pistol in his hand and sighed: "This gun is already very good." I've seen it from my father, it seems to be a tribute from England, but it was when my father was in the third year of his ascension to the throne, but it was far worse than this one. It's only been ten years. ”

"Without firearms, how can you cross the oceans?" It was because of the rise of maritime trade that Europe flourished and its ambitions swelled. Historically, China has missed out on this opportunity.

"How far is the range?" Tu Yan asked.

"About thirty to sixty." Lin Qingyun mentally converted the number of rice and zhang.

Tu Yan's eyes lit up again.

Seeing this, Lin Qingyun smiled half-teasingly: "How about this flintlock pistol?" Can you get into the eyes of the prince? How about sending it to the prince as a Chung Yeung Festival gift? ”

Tu Yan couldn't put it down, but finally said, "I do like it, but I plan to give this flintlock pistol as a Hallomy salute." ”

"It's fine." Lin Qingjun knew what he meant, and had no objection. "I almost forgot, I have something to say to you. Louise said that there are no restrictions on guns in their country, but it does not mean that everyone can have a gun, and this kind of high-quality flintlock pistol, you have to have money and background to get an order from a gun master. Louise's fiancé is a nobleman, and their family has an order, do you think that mysterious Lisa really has something to do with the noble? ”

"You mean, Nan'an County Wang Tong guò she bought guns privately?" If this is the case, it will be strictly true, if the prince of Annam trains a squad equipped with flintlock pistols, although it is difficult to compete with the army, it is definitely a sharp weapon as a surprise attack.

"It's just my guess." Lin Qingjun was not sure, after all, even if Lisa herself was a nobleman, could she have the right to get the order from the family? After all, what the prince of Nan'an wants is not only a few guns, but at least dozens of them.

"If he did, there would definitely be traces, and besides, if you want to buy guns from abroad, you have to use a boat, and they will definitely use Matthew's boat to carry it." Guangzhou is equivalent to the territory of the prince of Nan'an, and if Matthew's ship arrives safely, no one will find out that there is a problem with his ship.

With directions, it was much easier to check, and within a few days, he found out that Matthew's ship would arrive at the port in ten days according to the itinerary. If the speculation is true, then Matthew's ship can't tell that there are flintlock guns, and Tu Yan is unwilling to let those guns fall into the hands of the prince of Nan'an.

Lin Qingyun knew what he thought, but he was worried: "Matthew's ship is an ocean-going ship, and the firearms on board are very powerful, and it can repel pirates, and it is absolutely impossible to rob ships." Besides, you don't know if there must have been a gun on board, or how many guns. If you want to find those guns after arriving in Hong Kong, it will alarm the king of Nan'an County, so ......"

"So we still have to stand still and let Wang Shun of Nan'an County take those guns away." In vain Yan was helpless and aggrieved.

Lin Qingyun pondered for a long time, and asked him rhetorically: "Do you think the king of Nan'an County will personally pick up those guns?" ”

"No, it won't. Even if outsiders know that there is a foreign woman next to him, they will never admit it on the surface, let alone openly appear in the port together. Tu Yan glanced at her and smiled: "What do you have in mind?" ”

"I guess it will be Lisa who will pick up the boat and claim that she has entrusted her 'brother' to bring her hometown. The prince of Nan'an will send someone to escort him secretly, but the port personnel are mixed, and it is quite a long way to the prince of Nan'an, and there are many opportunities to create accidents. Of course, the best accident was to destroy those guns and make the prince of Nan'an turn his anger on others. ”

In vain Yan thoughtfully.