Sailing down the river, sailing day and night, he arrived at Jinling, 300 miles away, in the afternoon of the next day.

Jinling is the most prestigious city in the south of the Yangtze River, its prosperity even exceeds that of Chang'an in the northwest, thousands of pavilions are like pictures slowly unfolding, eighteen miles of Qinhuai beauties are like clouds, and have left the footprints of countless literati and ink writers.

At dusk, the boat entered the Qinhuai River estuary outside Jinling City, not counting the vast river full of painted merchant ships. Even outside the city, there are still buildings on both sides of the river, various manor gardens are hidden in them, literati and ladies walk on the riverbank, and there is no shortage of scholars dancing and writing on the riverbank.

Xu Buling followed his future daughter-in-law out, not wanting to dominate the crowd, but wearing a white scholar's robe and a square scarf on his head, dressed as a young scholar, standing on the edge of the deck, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the riverbank.

Mrs. Lu was obviously a little excited, stood beside Xu Buling, and pointed to the suburbs behind the riverbank: "...... There, there is also that Zhuangzi, from the boundary between Jiangjun Mountain and Dragon and Tiger, all belong to my Lu family, I often went to the mountains to play when I was a child, and I also went to the temple with your mother to burn incense...... "looks like a little rich woman who introduces her own things."

Xu Buling stood with a smile and listened to Mrs. Lu's introduction, and slowly came to Nanshan Port outside Jinling City.

In order to protect the water gate of Jinling City from foreign enemies, large ships are not passable, and it is very cumbersome to enter the city, and it is necessary to report to the yamen to remove the iron piles under the water, so the merchant ships are loaded and unloaded in the port outside the city, and the ships of the wealthy are also anchored outside the city.

Watching the ship slowly sail towards the port, Mrs. Lu glanced at it a few times, raised her hand and pointed to several watchtowers built at the entrance of the river bay, and said softly:

"When did the government build the watchtower? The people walking around above are not like officers and soldiers......"

Xu Buling squinted his eyes, but saw that there were many black-robed men with knives on the huge port, and the uniforms were obviously not from the government, but they were dressed very uniformly, and they obviously belonged to an organization.

"This is a private port?"

Xu Buling asked, not sure. After all, the scale of Nanshan Port in front of us is a bit large, and the ships from the south of Jinling have to dock here to unload, otherwise they have to go around half a circle, and with the scale of Jinling City, the throughput can be imagined. The Xu family's collection of import and export tariffs in the Western Regions is an important source of finance, raising 200,000 troops, if this Nanshan Port is private, it cannot be described as a huge wealth.

Mrs. Lu was also a little puzzled, and said softly: "Nanshan Port has been here since ancient times, and it wasn't dug up by anyone, how could it be private." In the past, my family's boat used to stop here, and there was only a storehouse on the shore, and I didn't see these messy people......"

Between words, Xiao Qi walked out of the cabin, glanced at it, and explained:

"Nanshan Port was assigned to the Yang family by the Jinling prefect, and it was like this a few years ago."

Mrs. Lu was stunned when she heard this, and said with a little displeasure: "What is the Yang family?" The whole world is not the king's land, and the things of the court can be assigned to others? ”

Xiao Qi's expression was flat, and he said softly: "A few years ago, there were some bandits, and there were people who were forcibly seized in Nanshan Port, and the merchants were panicked, and the government couldn't catch people, and then Yang Yingxiong of the Yang family volunteered to find some people to watch in Nanshan Port, and built these things, and the bandits stopped making trouble." After that, he said that he was trying to make a living, and he collected some money for passing in and out, and the government acquiesced. ”

Xu Buling pondered: "It sounds a little strange. ”

Xiao Qi naturally understood the strangeness, and said a little helplessly:

"I secretly asked people to check, the bandits were arranged by Yang Yingxiong, killed people and kidnapped tickets to intimidate businessmen, and took Nanshan Port as their own. Yang Yingxiong's sister is the side concubine of King Wu, and with King Wu as her support, it will not be possible to make trouble in front of the Son of Heaven, and the prefect of Jinling has no choice but to compromise. ”

When Xu Buling heard this, he frowned slightly: "Since you know, why don't you care." ”

Xiao Qi was a little helpless and shrugged her shoulders: "What do I do?" ”

When Mrs. Lu heard that there was the shadow of King Wu behind her, she was not very happy, and explained to Xiao Qi:

"Xiao Qi has no official status, and it is not easy to interfere when it comes to King Wu. For this matter, if you really write to Xiao Xiang, you will inevitably have a bad relationship with King Wu. The Xiao family lives in the south of the Yangtze River, which is the same as the family in Suzhou City, who exposed King Su's trickery to the imperial court, and directly offended people to death. ”

When Xu Buling heard this explanation, he understood a little bit - the most taboo thing for the vassal king was that someone made a small report to the emperor, especially the people below him. The family gate valve has always been family-oriented, taking the way of long-term prosperity, knowing how to forbear and analyze the situation, and dealing with things smoothly and not easily dealing with evil. Xiao Qi will definitely not have a bad relationship with King Wu for these things, even if he knows, he can only turn a blind eye.

The ships slowly sailed into the harbor, and after a brief look, there were hundreds of boats moored in them, and there were thugs leading the bookkeeper to stand on the shore, counting the number of people from house to house and collecting money.

Xiao Qi has always been low-key when he walks in the south of the Yangtze River, but he just passed by Jinling, and he didn't notify the people of the Lu family to come to greet him. At this time, before the shore, a few gangsters stood on the dock with knives and waited.

Hua Jingting, the accompanying housekeeper, didn't say anything, raised his hand and asked the housekeeper to fetch some money, and arranged for the boatman to prepare to lower the deck.

Xu Buling saw this scene and frowned slightly.

Xiao Qi pondered for a moment and said, "I'm really not easy to manage. However, King Wu is here for you this time, and he has a request for you, and if you knock Yang Yingxiong a little, King Wu should not take it to heart. As a prince of a vassal king, he should do the same. ”

Mrs. Lu felt the same: "What's wrong with King Wu, a group of old soldiers under his hands can't be compared with King Su." This is the public land, and it is not a matter of how much silver it is......"

King Su is not a gate valve, as a vassal king guarding the frontier, facing the imperial court and strong enemies outside the border, he must not give an inch. To put it simply, you can spend a few taels of silver today to avoid small troubles, and tomorrow you can make peace with relatives, cut land, pay tribute, and call ministers to avoid big troubles, which is a matter of attitude.

Xu Buling didn't respond, and turned his head to look at the nightingale next to him:

"Nightingale, take Aunt Lu in and wait."

"Okay son."

The nightingale naturally obeyed the order and helped the puzzled Mrs. Lu into the cabin.

The ship docked, the deck was lowered, and Xiao Qi retreated and did not show up, looking like he wanted to see how Xu Buling did things.

Xu Buling let the maid guard wait on the ship, and walked off the deck alone.

The thugs and bookkeepers on the shore saw that it was a boat carrying people from a large family, and the gangsterism on their faces was slightly restrained.

The man who took the lead saw a handsome and weak scholar walking down, and raised his hand:

"How many people did Childe bring? The port draws silver according to the head, one person has one penny of silver, and the draft of the ship is not deep, and the goods are forgotten. ”