On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Emperor Song Yinzi took the nine princesses to the Hou Mansion to mourn the second girl. At the same time, the four old princes of the Four Great Palaces also came to the Hou Mansion on this day.

In front of the emperor, Xiao Ding took the initiative to ask for an official position, and planned to personally set up a water division, so that he could attack the Great Fusang Kingdom in the future and avenge Erniu.

Although Song Yinzi slandered Xiao Ding in his heart, he still sealed Xiao Ding on the spot as the head of the soldiers and horses of the Song National Water Division.

In the military system of the Great Song Kingdom, the position of the commander of the soldiers and horses is equivalent to the commander-in-chief of a military region, responsible for leading the soldiers of a certain branch of the country, such as the head of the infantry and horses, the head of the cavalry, the head of the archers, the head of the soldiers and horses, and so on. The authority is much greater than that of the commanders at the state level and the county level.

Although Song Yinzi sealed Xiao Ding's official position on the spot, he still needed to wait for the emperor to return to the palace, notify the ministry, issue the appointment document, and wait for the official department to hand over the official robe and seal letter to Xiao Ding, Xiao Ding was officially hired.

In the next few days, there have been court officials who have come to the Hou Mansion to pay respects and give generous gifts by the way. No matter how big or small the officials are, Xiao Ding doesn't know these officials, but for the sake of the gifts, Xiao Ding has all entertained them.

In fact, it's no wonder that even the emperor and the four old princes came to Xiao Ding's mansion to worship in person, how can these officials below them not go? What's more, they have learned that the emperor casually sealed the position of the head of the soldiers and horses of the Xiaoding Water Division, like this kind of big celebrity around the emperor, they are old fritters who have been mixed in the officialdom for many years, where is there any reason not to stutter?

Therefore, until the tenth day of the first lunar month, there was an endless stream of officials who came to Xiaoding's mansion to worship, and even celebrities and nobles in Zhongzhou City also came to take the opportunity to give gifts and wanted to tie Xiaoding's face.

Although these celebrities and nobles have not been officials in the court, their ancestors have also had ancestors who have been officials, or ancestors who have been famous ancestors. As a result, the descendants of these people became prominent families, or because they were talented or famous, they became celebrities in high society. Most of the friends they usually make are also wealthy nobles, or dignitaries.

Xiao Ding didn't care about the identities of these people, anyway, after coming, the gift list was accepted, and it would be a fool not to make money! You can't have a smile on your face and give you money, you have to kick them out of the door.

Therefore, in the past few days from the third to the tenth day of junior high school, Xiao Ding has made a lot of money. At this time, he had already seen that although the treasury of the Great Song Kingdom was empty, there was no shortage of money in this official's family!

In this way, he felt that the idea he gave to Song Yinzi was to let Song Yinzi copy the official's family to confiscate it, how correct this method was.

This trick must be quicker than any other taxation and trade to enrich the treasury.

It's just that the premise of using this trick is to seize the handle of the official and give him a reasonable reason to raid the house, otherwise, Song Yinzi's throne may not be stable.

During the seven days of resting the coffin, Xiao Ding kept watch in the mourning hall every night. During the day, he received guests, and at night he had nowhere to sleep in the mourning hall, so he meditated and practiced. Fortunately, he can also achieve the effect of restoring physical strength by running the exercises.

The coffin of the second girl does not need to be buried, so the link of the funeral and burial is omitted, and on the evening of the tenth day of the first month, after the guests all leave the Hou Mansion.

Xiao Ding came to the coffin, lit three incense sticks, bowed to the coffin, inserted the three incense sticks into the incense burner, and silently recited in his mouth: "Er Niu, I'm sorry!" In this life, after all, I am the one who bears you. For the rest of my life, see you or not, you will always be in my heart. I will always take you with me according to your wishes before I was alive. I owe you, and I will repay you in the next life. ”

After speaking, Xiao Ding bowed to the coffin a few more times, and then his mind turned around and put the coffin into his jade pendant space.

Fortunately, it was winter at this time, and the weather was cold, and Erniu's body was placed in the mourning hall for seven days and did not break.

Then, Xiao Ding called Steward Xia, arranged for people to demolish the mourning hall overnight, and wrote a letter telling the general story of Erniu's death, and asked Steward Xia to send someone to the post station, and asked the people from the post station to help send it to Luoxia Village, Yongzhou, to tell the family the news of Erniu's death.

These days, Xiao Ding has been busy, and he doesn't have time to go to the back house to see the civet. Today's coffin is over, and Xiao Ding plans to go back to the back house to sleep well. After so many days of not sleeping, he only relied on practice to restore his physical functions, but in fact, he still felt a little tired.

The civet cat rarely comes out these days, she knows that Xiao Ding is busy, and because of the death of the second girl, she has something to do with her, so she has been bored in the back house and does not come out.

When she saw Xiao Ding come back tonight, she knew that the coffin was over. I was about to have a good talk with Xiao Ding, but when I saw Xiao Ding enter the house, he didn't even take off his coat, and lay down on the bed directly, and then fell asleep.

The civet cat knew that Xiao Ding was overworked and too tired. and did not bother him. just silently helped him take off his boots, and pulled a quilt to help cover Xiaoding.

On the night of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, although the Hou Mansion also celebrated, because of the death of the second lady, there was no big operation, just a simple formality.

Xiao Ding didn't go to the street to see the lanterns this night. He remembered that he had promised to take Erniu to see the lanterns in Kyoto on the night of the Lantern Festival, who would have thought that now this has become a wish that will never be realized.

He thought again that during the Lantern Festival last year, he was sad to see the figure of the civet on the Mochizuki Tower, and this year, the civet came to his side, but the second girl left him forever.

This is really, things are people and people have changed over time!

Before finding the civet, he often secretly cried because he missed the civet day and night, but after finding the civet, the second girl left her forever, her own life! It seems that for the rest of my life, I will live in the pain of missing the second girl.

Seeing other princes and generals in this era, they can all have three wives and four concubines, hug left and right, and enjoy the blessings of Qi people, but when it comes to their own bodies, they can't even get the relationship between two women, alas, ......, this is really the deeper the love, the deeper the injury!

Xiao Ding thought about it, and felt that it was better to rush to Yangzhou and Yuezhou as soon as possible to take office, start to build a water division as soon as possible, and also attack the Great Fusang Kingdom as soon as possible, and cut off the hatred in his heart.

Therefore, he tentatively set the departure date on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, leaving two days to prepare. The official uniform and seal letter of the head of the sailor and the soldiers, as well as the appointment documents, have already been sent to Xiao Ding, when to take office, it all depends on his own time, and neither the emperor nor the officials have a clear request.

Originally, the Great Song Kingdom did not have a naval division army, and Xiao Ding is currently said to be the commander of the light pole, which is not much worse. Previously, he had mentioned to the emperor the formation of a naval division to fight pirates, and recommended the commander of the Yuezhou soldiers and horses to make Di Wan's army to organize the recruitment of troops. At the same time, he ordered the governor of Yangzhou to arrange shipbuilding.

Therefore, this time, Xiao Ding plans to go to Yangzhou first to see the shipbuilding situation, and then also notify the governor of Yangzhou and recruit a navy by the way. Finally, go to Yuezhou to see how many soldiers Di Wan's army has recruited so far.

Since it is to form a naval team, this will definitely not be completed overnight, and it may be for a long time in the future, and he will stay in Yangzhou and Yuezhou.

So, early the next morning, while everyone was having breakfast together, Xiao Ding said the idea of preparing to officially leave for Yangzhou on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, and asked everyone who would like to go with him.

Listening to Xiao Ding, this trip may not come back in a short time, and everyone here wants to go over to help Xiao Ding with him.

Xiao Ding is naturally happy to have them by his side, at least there are some things he tells them to do, and he doesn't have to go to everything himself.

As a result, the list of those who followed Xiao Ding to Yangzhou was determined.

The civet cat is Xiao Ding's wife, so naturally she wants to go with her. Xiao'e is Xiao Ding's sister, she just wanted to come out to see the world, Xiao Ding is not in the Hou Mansion, she is not interesting here, of course she also wants to follow her brother.

Ou Muyun saw that Xiao'e was going to follow Xiaoding, so he naturally didn't say a word, and wanted to go with him.

Fan Sanpang and Sun Dasheng have always followed Xiao Ding wherever he goes.

Bai Junfei and his wife saw that everyone had followed Xiao Ding, and it was not interesting for them to stay in the Hou Mansion, so they also thought about going along.

Although when the emperor arrived that day, Xiao Ding had already told Song Yinzi about their affairs during the chat, and Song Yinzi also agreed at that time, and later he would write a special letter to talk to Song Yuanfang, the king of Yanzhou, and Zheng Ji, the governor of Yanzhou, about this matter, so that they would not continue to pursue the matter.

However, at this time, Bai Junfei and his wife did not plan to go back to Yanzhou now, but wanted to go to Yangzhou and Yuezhou with Xiaoding.

After all, young people like to play outside, and Yangzhou can be regarded as a paradise on earth in the Great Song Kingdom.

The geography of Yangzhou in this era was very different from that of Yangzhou in later generations. Yangzhou in later generations is just a city, but Yangzhou in this era is an administrative region of the Great Song Kingdom, its specific location is about the approximate location of Zhejiang and Jiangsu in later generations, on both sides of the Yangtze River estuary, including Yangzhou and Suzhou and Hangzhou in later generations. There are also scenic spots such as Taihu Lake and West Lake. As the saying goes: "There is heaven above, and there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below." ”

In the Great Song Dynasty, the beautiful scenery and beauties of Yangzhou are famous all over the country.

Therefore, Bai Junfei and his wife also want to go to Yangzhou, even if they can't help Xiaoding do something, it is pleasing to the eye to take a look at the beautiful scenery and beauties along the way.

In addition to the above people who will follow Xiao Ding together, the two personal maids of the civet, Qiu Lan and Qiu Ju, will also follow the civet when the time comes.

After determining the entourage, Xiao Ding told them to take advantage of the two days of 16 and 17 to prepare in advance, and everyone would go on the road immediately on the morning of the 18th.

Whether it is following the army or rushing from Yongzhou to Zhongzhou, everyone has already had the experience of long-distance travel, and what will be used on the way, everyone is naturally clear in their hearts.

Therefore, in addition to preparing enough silver taels, everyone also took advantage of these two days to purchase some things needed on the road.

However, this time, Xiao Ding decided to take the waterway and go down the Yangtze River to reach the boundary of Yangzhou. So, you should spend most of the time on the boat, and you may not need as many items as you used to need to travel. As long as you bring enough silver, you won't have to worry about not being able to buy things.

Two days passed quickly. On the morning of the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, after everyone had breakfast, they drove two carriages out of the house.

Although they took a boat, they still needed to walk a bit of land to Yangzhou City, so everyone still took a carriage to travel.

After coming to the edge of the Yangtze River, Xiao Ding contacted the ferry. Rushing downstream from Zhongzhou, the farthest ferry can go to Tongling County. Tongling got its name because of its abundance of copper ore. In the Great Song Kingdom, Tongling is also a relatively famous county.

Although it was impossible to reach the destination directly, everyone had to call it this big ship.

After catching the carriage onto the big ship, you need to pay a lot of extra money. Because on the ship, the horses are fed with water and food, and the crew is served. Xiao Ding: They just need to sit in the cabin and wait to reach the end.

The ferry is not small, with two levels of cabins. Xiao Ding and the others booked a total of several cabins and lived in them separately.

After the big ship lifted anchor, it sailed downstream.

Because almost all of the cabins ordered by Xiao Ding are on the second floor, everyone can watch the scenery along the way from the window.

At this time, the first month has not yet come out, because in the days of the New Year, it has snowed heavily for several days, and both sides of the strait are snow-white at this time.

It is much more comfortable to travel by water than by land. Not only do you not have to suffer from the wind and snow, but you can also lie down in the cabin and sleep a lot. When it's time for dinner, the big ships automatically dock on the shore, sometimes at the docks within the town, sometimes in the middle of nowhere.

There is a kitchen on board, and the price of eating on board will be no less expensive than on land.

If it is docked at the town store, many people on the ship will get off the boat and go to the town to eat, if it is parked in the wilderness, then there is no choice but to buy food on the ship.

The boat will stop to rest during the meal, and the crew of the rowing boat also needs to eat and change shifts. The second is that if the boat does not stop, there will be some bumps on the river, and it is easy to spill the food when eating.

Zhongzhou is not far from Tongling, and the big ship has arrived at Tongling after walking for a day and a night.

Everyone disembarked and changed again at the ferry to the boat that continued downstream.

This time, the boat we took was the boat from Tongling to Jiangning.

Jiangning in this era, let's say Nanjing in later generations, Nanjing City was called Jinling and Jiankang in the early days, and in the Great Song Dynasty that Xiaoding crossed over, it was called Jiangning.

On the way to Jiangning, at lunch time, the big boat stopped at a town, and Xiaoding and everyone felt a little tired of eating the food on the boat for many days, so they all got off the big boat, planning to go to the town to change their tastes.

As soon as they disembarked and entered the town, they found a large crowd in front of them.

The people around him are still shouting loudly.

Xiao Ding wondered, what are so many people looking at again?