In the twelfth year of Tianfu, at the end of August, Huaiyang.

After more than a month of turbulence, the sea-swallowing giant ship finally came to Huaiyang.

Those who have seen the Sea-Swallowing Giant Boat can't help but exclaim softly when they see it, and those who have seen the Sea-Swallowing Giant Boat for the first time have their surprises written on their faces, and they patted the shoulders of the people around them incoherently, asking them to look at the huge ship together, and the people around them have exactly the same expressions as them.

Bai Jiujiu stretched and stood on the deck, Ye Yuhui followed behind him, they all raised their heads together, looking at the scenery of this richest place in the world - there were white seabirds flying and circling around the port, they stopped on the mast, on the side of the ship, on the port, turning their round little eyes, constantly scanning the surrounding situation, trying to snatch some food from people's hands; The idle workers would get together to talk and laugh, they would talk loudly about what had happened recently, even what they had eaten yesterday, what beautiful women they had seen, and whenever a cargo ship came to shore, they would rush to the side of the ship to take some work, but most of the time it was the strong ones who were chosen, so they had to sigh and go back to the corner where they had just gathered, lost for a while, and then continue to talk and laugh.

This arc-shaped port is docked with large and small ships, from fishing boats of less than one zhang to behemoths as long as swallowing the sea, which occupy almost every corner of Qingpu Port, but the most are those medium-length, more than ten zhang cargo ships, they travel between various states, the farthest, even to the mysterious, primitive Yunzhou, from where they bring out one cargo after another, and then return to Huaiyang, selling at sky-high prices.

As far as the eye can see, there are rows of houses on the shore, there are big red lanterns hanging all the time, and on the east side of the harbor, there is a raised hill, which is said to be a mountain bag, but in fact it is more appropriate to say that it is a protruding cliff, on which a high tower of four or five feet is built, which is specially designed to light the way home to the port for those night ships.

On that hill, there is an old sycamore, now its leaves are half red, when the wind blows, it will bring down a few fiery red maple leaves, falling lightly, becoming a small boat in this vast sea area, an inconspicuous boat.

"Ah Yue," Ye Yuxuan suddenly called Bai Jiuyue.

Bai Jiujiu continued to stretch his waist and said without looking back, "What's wrong?" ”

"I'd like to go over there." Ye Yuxuan pointed in the direction of the hill, Bai Jiu looked in the direction she pointed, and said in her heart, this tower, a tree, what is there to see?

But he still said, "Let's go, it's still early anyway, and when you get down from there, it's probably time for dinner." ”

......

......

Wang Kun and his entourage got off the boat, first went to find a place to rest, although the sea swallowing giant boat has been considered stable compared to other ships, but Wang Kun slept very uncomfortable, he has not slept a few good nights for more than a month, always wakes up in the middle of the night in the turbulence, the food on the boat is also, it is those kinds over and over again, today it is a fish, tomorrow it is a crab, and the day after tomorrow it becomes a fish, it is difficult to eat some vegetables.

So now Wang Kun's top priority is to find an inn to rest well, and then have a good meal.

As for the brother and sister who helped on the boat, although Wang Kun was curious, he did not delve into it, until now, the appearance of that girl has almost been forgotten in his mind.

Wang Kun walked and walked, suddenly stopped a person in front of him and asked, "This little brother, do you know any delicious restaurants in Huaiyang City?" A few of us were new to the city and wanted to find a good place to eat. ”

The lean man in a short coat with dark skin smiled and said, "If you have a lot of money, then go to Huayan Street in the city and find the most conspicuous Manhan Building, where you can eat all the dishes in the world, whether it is flying in the sky, swimming in the water, or running on the ground, as long as you are famous, people can get it for you." ”

"If you don't have money, then go to the food street next to Huayan Street, although they are all small stalls and shops, but the taste there is good, and it is down-to-earth, in Huaiyang, the people who go to eat the whole street are not less than those who go to Manhan Building."

As he spoke, he raised the meat bun in his hand again, shook it, and said with a smile, "Fragrant, right?" Eat all over the street to buy, a lot of meat, a big cake, and only three pennies. ”

Wang Kun nodded and smiled, and said, "It's a good deal." ”

However, he weighed it and felt that it was the first meal in Huaiyang, and he had to eat something good, so he still asked, "How to get to Huayan Street?" ”

The lean man pointed in the direction and said, "Follow this street until you reach the first intersection, turn right and walk a few more steps." ”

"Thank you." Wang Kun hugged his fist towards this man.

The man waved his hand and said, "It's okay, it's okay, then I'll go first." ”

After a while, everyone came to the Manhan Building, and as soon as they walked in, the shopkeeper immediately understood that it was a big customer, so he greeted him in person, and asked with a smile on his face, "Guests, do you want to eat?" ”

None of them spoke, they were all very tired, and one by one they found an empty table, and then sat down listlessly, and when they heard the voice of the shopkeeper, they just nodded.

"The yellow-lipped fish that has just arrived in Hainan is very fresh, and now it is being raised in the backyard? How about a few guests? Do you want to ......?"

Wen Yan immediately raised his hand to interrupt the shopkeeper's words, he glared at the shopkeeper, and said angrily, "We just got off the boat, and we have been eating fish every day for more than a month, and we are going to eat and vomit. ”

Wu Ji straightened up, looked at the shopkeeper, and said, "Shopkeeper, let's do it, you order food for us, as long as the dishes on each table do not exceed twenty taels of silver, except for those who swim in the water, you can go to the rest casually, we have no taboos." ”

Wang Kun was not present now, he took a few people to find the inn, saying that he wanted to rest first, anyway, a table of dishes, he couldn't come up for a while, and the price of a table was no more than twenty taels that Wang Kun told Wu Ji.

The shopkeeper nodded, retreated with a smile, and said in his heart that he was really a big customer, and he was generous, and then he shouted loudly, "Xiao Er, come, serve tea to you!" ”

......

......

Along the way, everyone who saw Ye Yuyi's appearance was quietly talking about her.

"Did you see that little girl?"

"Which one?"

"It's really a beautiful embryo! I look like that, compared to Miss Hara! ”

"I'm afraid it's a little better than Miss Yuan."

"Really? If you want me to say, Miss Yuan should be good-looking! Miss Yuan sank into the fish and fell into the geese, and the face of the flowers in the closed moon was ashamed...... "Don't think about it, the person who said this must be a loyal supporter, suitor, and admirer of Yuan Trip.

Although there is a high probability that Yuan Tripping Heart does not know the existence of this person.

"Speaking of which, where did this little girl come from? How do I feel like I haven't seen her before? ”

"Maybe it's from Xuzhou, isn't there just a sea-swallowing boat to Qingpu Port?"

"Do you say, should we ......?" said one of the people in the crowd who were discussing.

"I think it's better to forget it, the boy next to her doesn't look like it's easy to mess with." The other man shook his head.

"What do you think! We're readers! It's a serious person! That young man looks like someone else's brother, go up and ask, if the marriage is matched, in case...... Hey, hey, hey. The man laughed to himself.

"Okay, okay, you don't pee on yourself, even if there are such good things, will it be your turn?"

"Hey, you're ......"

Bai Jiu listened to the words of those people, but pretended not to hear them, fortunately, that person was persuaded by others just now, otherwise if he dared to come up, he would definitely feed him a full fist, these scholars, they couldn't get their fame tested, they were full of bad water, they didn't know what kind of books they were reading, and they thought about beautiful women every day.

When I got to that hill bag, I sent it

The road up is hastily separated by a wooden fence, the lighthouse is overgrown with weeds, but there is a path stepped out by people, Bai Jiujiu walked forward, looked at the wooden fence, and found that if this thing was demolished, it would have to be demolished, so he naturally turned around, picked up Ye Yuxuan, and took her across the wooden fence, and then put her down.

What seemed to him was a normal move, but it made Ye Yuhui blush, she gently brushed the hair that was blown away by the sea breeze, pulled them behind her ears, followed behind Bai Jiu, and walked towards the fiery plane tree.

Bypassing the lighthouse, they found that there was a person sitting under the sycamore tree, to be precise, a little girl, she was about six or seven years old, with two small balls and a red dress, but it matched the color of the sycamore leaves.

There was a small handkerchief in front of her, and there were two pastries left on the small handkerchief, the green one was probably mung bean cake, and the red one was probably osmanthus cake mixed with rose petals. She sat under the tree, looking at the sea from afar, and when there was not a single boat coming from the south, she would crane her neck and watch the boat come to shore, and then watch the ant-sized people go up and down between the boat and the dock.

I don't know why.

Bai Jiu stepped forward quietly, squatted beside the girl, looked at her line of sight, looked for a long time, and found nothing, so he coughed lightly and said, "Child, what are you looking at?" ”

This sound startled Yan Bailu, she protected the pastry in front of her, and then looked at the two people in front of her vigilantly without speaking.

Bai Jiu smiled bitterly, looking at her and baby fat little face, he remembered the night he met Ye Yuxuan, and said in his heart that people gave me their osmanthus cake, you are good, you are so stingy to protect it in your arms.

Ye Yuhui also came up, she looked at this cute little girl, and an urge to reach out and pinch her little face suddenly surged in her heart, but fortunately, she still held back, she looked at the little girl, and said with a smile, "It's okay, we are not bad people, we just came up to enjoy the scenery, we went to Huaiyang for the first time, and we want to see what Huaiyang looks like." ”

Yan Bailu turned his head to look at Ye Yuxuan, suddenly stunned for a moment, and then said, "Sister, you are so good-looking!" ”

Ye Yuyi was stunned for a moment, and then laughed again, did she still hold back, stretched out her hand and touched Yan Bailu's little head, and said, "Really?" Thank you, you're so good-looking, you're so cute. ”

"Would you like a snack?" Yan Bailu suddenly held the small handkerchief and put it in front of Ye Yuyi.

Dim Sum? Ye Yuyi looked at the two pieces of dim sum of different colors, she didn't seem to have eaten dim sum for a long time, and she was really a little greedy, but she still shook her head and was about to speak, but Yan Bailu picked up the piece of rose cinnamon cake, handed it to her, and said, "This piece is for you!" Delicious! Originally, I was going to save it for the last to eat, so I'll give it to you now. ”

Ye Yuxuan had no choice, just took it, whispered thank you, and then asked, "Why do you want to give it to me?" ”

Yan Bailu closed his eyes and knocked on his head, and only after a while did he say, "Because you are good-looking!" ”

Ye Yuxuan couldn't help but cover his mouth and chuckle, "Really? ”

Bai Jiu looked at the two of them, and suddenly patted Yan Bailu lightly on the shoulder, teasing her, "Then why don't you give me a piece?" ”

Who knew that Yan Bailu grabbed the small handkerchief again, protected the mung bean cake in his arms, snorted softly, stood up and said to Ye Yuxuan, "Sister, I'm going back, I will come here every day, if you are okay in the future, you can come here to play with me!" ”

As she spoke, Yan Bailu crossed the two, and she skillfully walked between the paths that the person had stepped on, bouncing like a deer.

Ye Yuxuan looked at Yan Bailu's figure, and suddenly asked again, "Then why do you have to come here every day?" ”

"Wait for my brother to come back!" Yan Bailu said without replying.

Bai Jiujiu looked at Yan Bailu's figure gradually moving away, and remembered what she had just looked, so he suddenly laughed and couldn't help but say, "This little ghost is quite funny, it's the second time I've met such an interesting child." ”

Ye Yuhui broke the piece of rose cinnamon cake in half, handed it to Bai Jiujiu, and asked with a smile, "Then who is the first child you met so interesting?" ”

"It's you." Bai Jiujiu ate the piece of rose cinnamon cake in one bite.

......

......

At this moment, Yunzhou is far away in the sky.

Su Jingchen held the bow and was stunned for a long time, but he didn't shoot out.

The eagle grabbed a small stone, smashed it on Su Jingchen's head at once, and asked angrily, "Are you still practicing?" ”

Su Jingchen turned his head and smiled, and said, "Practice." Then he drew his bow again.

"What's wrong?" Arin raised his arm and poked him in the waist and asked in a low voice.

Su Jingchen also smiled at him and said, "It's nothing, I just suddenly remembered my sister, she is a little younger than you, and now she should grow into a big girl, right?" ”

......

......

Lou Qi was doing some work on the dock at the moment, and just watched the sea-swallowing giant boat arrive here, he thought that the big ship should live more, so he came here, as expected, there was indeed a lot of work here.

Recently, Old Man Tang doesn't give himself money, so he has to wait for him to be idle, and when he doesn't need to practice martial arts, he secretly comes out to find some work, earn some small money, save it, and buy some snacks for Xiaobailu if he has more, although Old Man Tang always takes her to buy pastries, and he doesn't lack himself.

But she's a dust brother and sister, and when the dust brother is not there, he has to take care of her.

But she still doesn't seem to like herself very much, as for the reason...... He couldn't even figure it out if he wanted to.

When he finished moving the goods and was idle again, he sat in the corner, scratched his head, and suddenly remembered the original stumbling heart for no reason.

Miss Hara actually ...... It's cute, he said to himself.

Since Su Jingchen went south to Yunzhou, Lou Qi has not slackened his exercise for a moment, and he has been able to master the opening style, but Old Man Tang still refuses to teach himself the dragon style, just saying that the time has not come.

Lou Qi also learned from Old Man Tang that his opening style and the opening style of the Daxi military system are not the same, if you have to say it, the one of the Daxi military system should be an improved version of himself, which is more suitable for ordinary people, but the power has also been greatly weakened.

After sitting for a long time, Lou Qi suddenly stood up, he flipped his pockets, and decided to buy a box of snacks for Xiaobailu before going back.

......

......

I heard that the leaders of several rebel armies have recently held a formal meeting, and all the rebel armies have been combined into one unit, calling themselves the Taiping Army, and there is no shortage of powerful characters in the Taiping Army, the most powerful of which is the Taiping Ten Generals, each of them has the combat power of not losing the commander of ten thousand masters, if it were not for the uneven combat strength of their soldiers, I think that the entire Xuzhou is already theirs now.

Now that Xuzhou will fall, Yuan Yuxin's shops, raw material factories, warehouses, and many things in Xuzhou have to be transferred, and he has sent all his ships and chartered twenty big ships, just to send his goods and men back safely.

But I don't know if it's still too late.

Now there are only two counties left in Xuzhou, Donghai and Guangling, which must not last too long.

Yuan Yuxin was pacing back and forth in the study, he was thinking about one thing, one thing that might decide Huaiyang's fate.

As the situation is chaotic today, but it is almost clear, several major lines have already determined the trend.

The rebel army was originally north of the Chijiang River, pulling back and forth with the Youbei Sanzhou and Yingzhou Army, and rarely encountered the Xiliang Army of Tuoba Yan, and now they crossed the Chijiang River, which can be regarded as completely getting rid of the pursuit of the Yingzhou Army and the Youbei Sanzhou Army, because now all states can only sweep the snow in front of their own doors, and other people's affairs are destined to be out of control

The edict issued, except for the three states of Youbei, almost no place responded, and now Tuoba Yan has launched an offensive, presumably it will be entangled with the army of the three states of Youbei, Yingzhou does not belong to the sphere of influence of the three states of Youbei, Yingzhou Mu Xu Muzhi is a person with too much ambition, he is destined not to be subservient, but with his strength in one state, he is destined to not be able to fight against either Tuoba Yan or the alliance of the three states of Youbei, so he can only choose to temporarily attach to one of them.

And in the south of Chijiang, it is only a matter of time before the rebel army captures Xuzhou, and when Xuzhou falls, the rebel army will presumably launch the next round of offensive after regrouping, and their next target is most likely Huaiyang, Huaiyang has money, people, land, and grain, and meets all the things they want, as for Jingzhou and Yuezhou south of the Chijiang River, they will probably only seek self-preservation, and those two states have never been qualified to compete for the world.

Therefore, Huaiyang's top priority now is to expand the armament and recruit more men, and when the day comes, when the rebel army captures it, it will not be embarrassing to deal with it.

"Old horse." Yuan Yuxin suddenly shouted.

When the old horse heard the voice, he put down the things in his hand, trotted all the way to the study, and said, "Yes, master." ”

"You send someone to inform the major families in the city, as well as the top five merchants, ah, the top ten," Yuan Yuxin pondered for a while, but changed his words, "Tell them that I have something important to discuss with them when I come to the original mansion tonight." ”

"Yes." The old horse said yes and slowly exited the room.

Yuan Yuxin stopped, he no longer paced, but clenched his fists, and said, "I hope that none of you want to go against me." ”

It's going to take a little bit, but I'm going to get you done.

......

......

In the evening, a table of banquets was set up in the living room of the original mansion, and the dishes on the table alone were afraid to cost thousands of taels of silver, and the wine was forty years of aged Huaiyangchun, and each jar was worth a hundred taels of silver.

Huaiyang's surname is the Yang family, the Ma family, the Duan family, plus the ten richest businessmen in Huaiyang, some of them were flattered by the invitation of the original desire, and prepared the gifts early, and waited at the gate of the original mansion, for these gifts The original desire Xin has always been disdainful, but it can not be returned to others, so he asked the horse housekeeper to the treasury to bring thirteen pairs of obsidian, each guest will get a pair before entering the original mansion, saying that it is too early for the banquet, this pair of stones is a small gift from the lord to you to play.

One obsidian is eight hundred and eighty taels of silver, and a pair is one thousand seven hundred and sixty taels, thirteen people, and Yuan Yuxin gave out more than 20,000 taels of silver casually!

After everyone sat down, Yuan Yuxin slowly appeared, he stood at the wine table, raised his wine glass, and said, "Someone is late, so punish yourself first." ”

So saying, he lifted his glass and drank it all.

Seeing this, the few low-ranking wealthy businessmen hurriedly got up, followed the example of Yuan Yuxin, and raised their wine glasses to drink in one go.

Yuan Yuxin smiled at them, then slowly sat down, and said, "Everyone eats." ”

The atmosphere at the banquet was very harmonious, after drinking glass after glass of wine, the smiles on everyone's faces became more and more intense, everyone was slightly drunk, and Yuan Yuxin never talked about the topic he wanted to talk about, but everyone knew that Yuan Yuxin's banquet was by no means simple.

Suddenly a light rain fell outside the house, Yuan Yuxin put down the wine glass and cleared his throat, and said, "Everyone, I think everyone knows that I called everyone here today because I have something to discuss." ”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Yuan Yuxin.

Yuan Yuxin said, "Now the situation in Xuzhou, you must be very clear, the Taiping army to capture Xuzhou is only a matter of time, and when Xuzhou completely falls, the next target of the Taiping army should be our Huaiyang, now Huaiyang has soldiers, only me, and the Yang family, and the state pastor, the rest of you are just holding some of the family members of the courtyard, and when the Taiping army kills, you are afraid that it will be difficult to protect yourself." ”

"So what I mean by inviting you to dinner today is to tell you that I want to expand Huaiyang's army and recruit more new soldiers, and I will report this matter to the state pastor, and the recruitment will also be carried out in three ways, I am responsible for one here, the Yang family is responsible for one, and the state pastor is responsible for one, and all of you here, I hope you can show your sincerity, have the money to contribute, and make a strong contribution."

"Master Yuan is right! The villain must give his full support! The person who spoke was a shopkeeper surnamed Zhang, who had several jewelry stores and small restaurants in Huaiyang City, and among the ten wealthy businessmen here, he should be ranked seventh.

"The villain must do his best!" This time it was the ninth-ranked businessman surnamed Li, who was in the leather and meat business in Huaiyang City, Yuan Yuxin helped his forehead, and said in his heart How did he invite this guy, he knew that he should have told Lao Ma.

Next, a few more people stood up and hugged their fists at Yuan Yuxin, showing their supportive attitude, although the head of the Yang family did not get up, he also nodded slightly, which can be regarded as a recognition of Yuan Yuxin's approach.

"Master Yuan," this time he spoke in addition to Yuan Yuxin, the second-ranked wealthy businessman surnamed Wang, the largest Manchu Han Building in Huaiyang City is he is operating, in addition, there are many large and small restaurants and inns in Huaiyang, he probably accounts for half, and the other half is in the hands of Yuan Yuxin, so the two are opposites, and it is understandable that Master Wang and Yuan Yuxin are against each other, "We have a small family business, not as big as the original master's family, tens of thousands of taels of silver casually, without blinking our eyes, we are different, If we want to take out 10,000 taels, it really hurts. ”

Master Wang looked at the reason, there was a burst of yin and yang weirdness, and the other people secretly sweated, they wanted to reconcile it, but they didn't know how to start.

Yuan Yuxin looked at him coldly and said, "Master Wang, I just asked you to show sincerity and make some efforts, and I didn't let you sell your ancestral house, I just want you to set an example for the people of Huaiyang, you don't have to worry about money, the big head is naturally mine." ”

When Master Wang heard this, he didn't know how to refute it for a while, so he had to snort coldly and stop talking.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what objections do you have? Or if you have any opinions, you can also mention them. ”

"Original...... The original master. A thin man stood up tremblingly, he looked at Yuan Yuxin, and said, "Master Yuan, I really want to help, but I really have no heart, I am doing a small business, and the business has been ups and downs, I heard them say, the two stones you just sent are worth more than a thousand taels of silver, this is already my half a year's income, I, I ...... I'm ......."

The man said, sighed to himself, stood in place and didn't know what to say, Yuan Yuxin nodded to him, motioned for him to sit down, and then said, "You don't have to worry about this, Boss Qi, right?" From now on, I bought your shop, and now you are my staff, you can't do anything, I just need you to step in when I need you. ”

"Don't worry, I will pay 20% more for the money I bought in your store, and all the workers in your store don't need to be replaced, they will still be the same."

"This ......" The boss surnamed Qi was speechless for a while, I don't know if it was excitement or other reasons, and in the end he still owed to Yuan Yuxin, and said, "Thank you Master Yuan!" ”

Yuan Yuxin nodded, did not speak, but turned his head to look at the head of the Yang family, and said, "Everyone, someone Yuan has thanked everyone here." ”

Everyone stood up again and greeted each other, Yuan Yuxin also smiled and returned the salute, and then let the rich businessmen leave first, leaving only three big families, Yuan Yuxin owed to the three of them, and said, "Everyone, the task of recruiting troops and horses can start from tomorrow, and the standard of military salary I will send someone to your house early tomorrow morning, I want you to remember only one thing, the soldiers we recruited this time are for the people of Huaiyang, not your private soldiers!" If I find out about your recruitment of private soldiers, I don't care if you are a big family or something else, your fate will not be very good. ”