Standing on the deck, watching the canal wharf gradually moving away, Shen Rui's heart was quite agitated.

I can get to the capital in another month, what is the capital like now, Shen Rui was a little expectant, and he was a little hesitant, and he inexplicably gave birth to a mood of "hometown timidity".

If you go to the capital and bury a wooden celestial body in the places such as Baita Temple and Tanzhe Temple, which will be passed down to future generations, and be discovered five hundred years later, will there be scientists who attribute this to the alien civilization brought by the "extraterrestrial visitors" five hundred years ago?

If you left a parchment scroll and named it to your relatives in 500 years, would you get your wish?

Shen Rui's head was full of imagination, and the last thing was silence.

Five hundred years is not fifty years, it is too far away. Will the world be the same after 500 years?

Next to him, Shen Jue and He Taizhi gathered together and were looking at the Yellow Horse Clipper in front of the fleet.

It is now a shallow water season, and it is winter, and there are few boats going south, and most of the boats on the canal are heading north. Except for the fleet formed by the children of the Shen family, the other ships all walked on the right side and gave way to the middle waterway.

Sailing down the river, with no ships in front of them, the fleet moved very fast.

"This boat is moving so fast," Shen Jue exclaimed, "How many miles does it take to come down in an hour?" ”

When He Taizhi went south, he took a boat, and he knew a little about the speed of the boat, and replied: "If the wind is enough, it will be fifty or sixty miles an hour." ”

"Wind?" Shen Jue looked up at the sails, although the wind was beautiful today, he could still see a slight northerly wind.

"It's going against the wind right now, but the boat is pretty fast." Shen Jue took a look and said: "There are more than 2,000 miles of waterway from Suzhou to the capital, so if it is smooth, won't it take more than ten days to arrive?" Why is my aunt in such a hurry and not stopping for a day? ”

He Taizhi glanced at him, and pointed to the six or seven whizzing ships in front of the team, and the hull of the six or seven ships with cast iron on their hulls: "Cousin Jue, what are those?" ”

Shen Jue looked over: "Isn't it a guard ship, opening the way ahead?"

He Taizhi sold Guan Zi and refused to say it immediately.

Seeing Shen Rui beside him, with a thoughtful look, He Taizhi said: "Does Cousin Rui know?" ”

Shen Rui nodded and said, "That's an icebreaker." When we arrived in Shandong, there was ice floe in the canal, and we needed to use this to clear the ice. However, even if there are icebreakers following, the waterway can only go to Shandong. Out of Shandong, it's time for the North Canal to freeze. ”

I don't know how much the climate of the current capital is different from that of the capital in later generations.

In the capital of later generations, the river water freezes at the end of November of the Gregorian calendar every year, and it is counted as the middle of October after the lunar calendar, and now it is the end of November, and the water must be frozen.

Shen Jue smiled: "I forgot that it is cold in the north." No wonder the eldest aunt once said that Shandong changed the land route, it turned out to be this reason. ”

The water was already wet and cold, and it was this season, and the boat was moving with the wind, and the three of them stood on the deck, and were called back to the house by Xu.

The fleet they took this time consisted of a total of 14 or 5 ships, in addition to the three tribute ships, there were also 6 or 7 escort ships, and the remaining five or six large and small official ships were all following the tribute ships and rubbing the waterway.

On the canal, there is a sequence of boats, the tribute ship is the first, the cao boat is second, the official ship is again, and the civilian ship is the last.

In order to prevent people from borrowing tribute ships for profit, the imperial court had a decree that the tribute ships that transported the imperial tribute from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital were "not allowed to carry people and goods", and the search of the tribute ships was also extremely strict at the locks along the way.

However, there are policies and downstream countermeasures.

Nanjing is a cold yamen, and there are few places to fish for oil and water, and the 998 tribute ships belonging to the yamen in Nanjing have become cash cows.

Tribute ships are not allowed to carry people, so they are not carried; If you are not allowed to carry cargo, then you will not load it, but in the fleet of tribute ships, you can stuff only official ships and the like.

Along the way, the tax eunuchs and others, for the sake of Nanjing's ceremonial supervisors, also "turned a blind eye" to these ships and let them go.

Coming and going, this has become the unspoken rule of the tribute ship team, and the price of personnel and goods is almost clearly marked.

In order to match the speed of the tribute ships, the accompanying ships are not large, but they are not small.

Shen Rui and others boarded this official ship, with a length of 27 zhang and a width of 8 zhang.

On the boat, in addition to the nephews and nieces led by the Xu family and the younger generations of the Shen family, there were also the family of the Nanjing Ministry of Industry who returned to their hometowns with the original products, the three officials of the six departments of Nanjing who entered Beijing to ascend to His Majesty, and the young eunuch of the imperial prison who came to Suzhou to return to Beijing after the completion of the duke, and the 1,000 households and 100 households of Nanjing Jinyiwei who were ordered to enter Beijing.

The young eunuch of the royal prison is from the fourth grade, the Jinyi Wei thousand households are the fifth grade, and the Jinyi Wei hundred households are the sixth grade.

The power center of the Ming Dynasty was nominally in the hands of the emperor and his ministers, but in fact the emperor had the right to exercise discretion through the factory guards.

Because of the existence of the factory guard, the internal officials and the brocade guards are arrogant, which makes the officials and the people talk about it.

On this official ship, there are three floors of cabins on the deck, the top cabin is used by the young eunuch and the two brocade guards, the second floor is the first floor where the Xu family and the Shen family are located, the first floor is the family of the Zhishi squire, and several officials are on the lower deck.

Because the upstairs is the factory guard, and the downstairs has the official eunuchs, the Xu family restricts the juniors, except for going to the deck to let the wind when the ship is parked, the rest of the time is on the second floor.

Because of the identity of the Xu family, there were also female dependents of the waiter's family in the Ministry of Rites who handed a post to pay a visit, and several officials in Nanjing handed a message to say hello.

Among the juniors, the older ones such as Shen Quan and Shen Zhu, who were already seventeen years old, were slipped out by the Xu family and followed the housekeeper of the second room to take care of the housework; The remaining young ones were taken by Xu's side, or reading, or playing card games, and they got along with each other for half a day.

Hearing is false, seeing is believing.

After two or three days, the Xu family had a little more understanding of the qualifications and conduct of the Shen family's children.

In terms of studying diligently, Shen Lin worked the hardest, Shen Rui followed, Shen Bao again, and Shen Qin and Shen Jue were the most slack.

It's a pity that Shen Lin, who is the most diligent reader, has the worst qualifications, belongs to the kind of wooden head who doesn't open his mind, and holds the book for a long time, but when he asks him, he doesn't know what he meant.

At the poker table, Shen Jue was the most active, Shen Qin was second, Shen Bao was again, and Shen Lin and Shen Rui were the quietest.

In the face of winning and losing money, Shen Lin is the most concerned, Shen Qin is second, Shen Bao is again, and Shen Rui and Shen Jue are the most indifferent.

usually treats people and things, Shen Rui is the most stable, Shen Lin is second, Shen Bao is again, and Shen Qin and Shen Jue are the most lively.

Shen Rui is not competing in front of his brothers, he is as sensible as a little adult.

Looking at Shen Rui, who was so quiet and steady, Xu only felt sour and soft in his heart.

When the Sun family first entered the second room, he was younger than Shen Rui now, just in his early tens.

Xu herself is just a bride who has just entered the door, the identity of the eldest daughter-in-law, respecting her in-laws, serving her husband in the middle, and taking care of the two uncles, she has already been careful. At that time, the Xu family had returned to her hometown, and she was only a few years old in the capital, and her sister, who was not close to her, was a little apprehensive in her heart.

Xu, who was born in a university scholar's mansion, was raised by a very good upbringing, even though he was exiled from prison by his father in the middle.

Originally, for Sun's arrival, Xu was worried about it.

First, the Sun family was born in a businessman, and the upbringing of the Shangjia family is different from that of the eunuch family, and the two are several years apart, so they are afraid of more friction; The second is that the Sun family is the daughter-in-law personally chosen by the third grandfather, and she is specially brought into the door to be raised, so under such a pampering, if she is willful, the Xu family must be careful when getting along with her.

As soon as she came into contact with Sun, Xu found that she was a quiet and well-behaved little lady, not pinching the tip to be strong, and she did not have the shabby stinginess that came out of a small family.

Although Xu is not the eldest sister at home, he also has a younger sister below, and seeing that Sun is so well-behaved, he went to the careful temptation and treated her as a sister.

For this reason, when the third old lady spoke to let the Xu family raise the Sun family, the Xu family was also willing to do their best.

Sun is like Shen Rui, he is very diligent in learning, has good qualifications, learns everything quickly, and is not as easy to be proud as other children.

The third old lady often said behind her back, "The businessman is vulgar, and the profit is less affectionate", but the Sun family has never had the bad habits of the businessman, and he doesn't care much about money and other things.

Xu should have been innocent and romantic, and she didn't know the world, so she didn't take gold and silver to heart; It was only after he bought a marriage for the Sun family and took over many of Mrs. Sun's industries that the Xu family knew that the Sun family was dustless at the moment, not because he didn't know the importance of money, but because he had been rich since he was a child, he never lacked this, so he didn't take this seriously.

With the Sun family here, the days of the four rooms were smooth in the early years, although there were some unsatisfactory in recent years, Shen Rui would not have much impact for a while.

Thinking of this, the Xu family was not worried that Shen Rui would be squinted by the prosperity of the capital, but was a little worried that he would not know that his livelihood was difficult.

Although the property left by Mrs. Sun is enough for Shen Rui to enjoy for a lifetime, no one can say what happens in life, and it is difficult to keep three ups and downs.

Although Shen Rui has suffered in the past few years, he is only treated harshly by his elders for a while, and he is still far from the people's livelihood economy. Now that he has enough money, he is so calm, what if the silver is gone? What will happen to him?

In good times, people will show their good side; Only when it comes to predicament can it be easier to leak shortcomings.

The Xu family is quietly observing the young people of the Shen family, and Shen Zhu is also secretly paying attention to the Xu family.

When he was first proposed by the Xu family to accompany Shen Quan to socialize with the housekeeper, Shen Zhu was secretly happy in his heart, and he was also conscientious in following the housekeeper. But he had always been smart, and it didn't take two days for him to realize that something was wrong.

Xu Shi paid attention to the small ones, but completely left the two older ones alone.

Is this not even probing, and leaving them out of the selection of heirs? When you think about it, it seems to make sense. After all, the two of them are the oldest, and their parents will not be able to raise them for two years.

On the contrary, it is better to be a few younger, and the parents of the heirs have been raised for a few years, and then they are released to study and become officials, and the relationship between the parents and the heirs is also deeper.

Shen Zhu's heart was sour, and he was uncomfortable for a long time.

However, thinking about the greedy faces of his father and mother's elders, Shen Zhu still did not give up, wanted to break through the predicament, and was unwilling to go to Xu's side to meet him.

What to do?

In the chaos, Shen Zhu saw He Taizhi, thought that he almost became Shen Luo's brother-in-law, and then thought about the little lady of the Xu family who had been closed in the inner cabin, and immediately became enlightened......