On March 14, the selection of the winery was carried out as scheduled. As in previous years, each winery in Dongcheng District brought a jar of fine wine to the selection venue, and after tasting it one by one, the wine tasters on the scene tasted it one by one, and then voted for the winery that paid tribute to the king of the county this year. Jiang's Distillery, which had been qualified for tribute for three consecutive years, did not participate this time, and the people of Dongcheng District also tacitly did not be surprised or discussed about this matter.

Jiang did not participate, and Qinghui, who controlled more than half of the wineries in Dongcheng District, naturally won with the highest number of votes. Looking at the triumphant appearance of Qingximen on the stage, the guys of the Jiang Brewery were very unhappy in their hearts, if it weren't for the problem with Wanlixiang, the winery that paid tribute to the king of the county this year might not be anyone. But Jiang Xiaobai, who was the young master of Jiang's Distillery, didn't care in his heart, and when he saw that Qinghui Distillery won, a cold smile crossed the corner of his mouth.

On March 15, Qingximen led a group of men from Qinghui Liquor Workshop and more than a dozen city defenders sent by Wang Yunlin to escort a cart of wine out of the north of the city and sent it to the county king's mansion.

The six counties of the Yue country, each county has a city garrison, the number of the city garrison depends on the location of the establishment, some of the county governments close to the border of the Yue country, in addition to the regular army guarding the border pass, the number of the city defense army is also quite large. For a county like Lingnan County, which is located in the southernmost part of the county, far away from the borders of Yan, Liang and Montenegro, the number of city defenders is usually only about one or two thousand. Although paying tribute to the king of the county is not as strict as paying taxes and silver to Kyoto, it is also necessary to prevent some bandits in the mountains and forests from making up their minds, and it is natural for Wang Yunlin to send more than a dozen city defenders to assist in escorting.

...

Generally, the county king will choose the palace in the capital of the county, but the king of Lingnan County is different from ordinary people and chooses the mansion in Shaocheng in Lingnan County. Shaocheng is located in the north of Lingnan County, and is the northernmost city of Lingnan County, bordering Xiangnan County, one of the six counties of Yueguo.

There are more than 200 miles from Guangfu to Shaocheng, passing through the two counties of Qingyuan and Jinxian in Lingnan County. Among them, the terrain of Jinxian County is extremely difficult to walk, and it took nearly a day for a group of people and horses to bypass Wanshi Mountain to the official road of Jinxian. Although it was a bumpy road, Qingximen's mood at the moment was surprisingly good, and when he thought of the unwillingness and anger on the faces of those guys in the Jiang Brewery under the stage yesterday, he almost wanted to laugh out loud: "Jiang's Liquor Workshop!" I didn't expect you to have such a day. Hum! When my Qinghui Wine Shop is praised by the king of the county, there will be no more status of your Jiang clan in this Dongcheng District."

The official road passes through the big forest that stretches for thirty or forty miles in Jinxian County, and you can reach Qingyuan County after walking through this official road, and then you can reach Shaocheng in one day. Qingximen is now full of ambition, thinking about the praise of the county king, and seeing the jokes of the Jiang family, he did not order to rest in Jinxian, but rushed to Qingyuan County at night. Although there was a crisis on the night road, Qingximen thought in his heart that no mountain bandit would dare to rob on the official road, not to mention that there were more than a dozen city defenders to follow.

The convoy walked more than ten miles on the official road, it was late at night, Rao is Qingximen sat in a comfortable and comfortable carriage, after a bumpy road, he was already a little tired at the moment, so he opened the curtain and asked the next person: "Where are you, how long will it take to get to Qingyuan County." ”

"Back to the young master, I have already walked more than ten miles, and I can arrive at Qingyuan at dawn," the subordinate on the side replied respectfully.

"It's dawn..."Qing Ximen muttered, and asked again, "There is an inn ahead of this to rest, Young Master Ben is tired."

"Back to the young master, there is an inn not far ahead."

"Okay, let's everyone go quickly and go to the inn in front of us to rest," Qingximen said a little tiredly.

After walking a few more miles, I saw that the lights were lit not far ahead, there were several very simple houses connected together, a bamboo pole held up a flag, and there was a lantern fire, and the flag said "Tongfu Inn"

Seeing that there was finally a place to rest, everyone in the convoy breathed a sigh of relief, and after a day and a half of the night, even the city defenders felt a little tired at this time, not to mention the Qingxi Gate and his buddies at the Qinghui Wine Workshop.

Although this inn is in the suburbs of the mountains, it is also very simple, but the guys at the inn are very enthusiastic, two guys in wide shirts saw a convoy coming, and immediately greeted them with a smile and asked: "Do the officials want to stay in the hotel, how many people, don't look at this inn Although it is small, there are enough empty rooms." ”

One of the leaders laughed roughly, and scolded with a smile: "We have more than 30 people, do you have so many empty rooms in this shabby shop, hurry up and clean up a room, just give our young master, and move all the food and drink in the store!" "Because of Wang Yunlin's orders, this tribute must obey the orders of Qingximen, and the city defenders also call Qingximen the young master like the guys in Qinghui Winery.

"Look at what you said, although there are no more than 30 vacant rooms in this store, there are more than 10 rooms, and the officials can make do with it, and they can live, which is better than sleeping in this wilderness" The shop guy said with a smile, "There may not be much food, but the wine is enough, it is all old and good wine, so I will go down and send it to the officials." ”

The commander laughed after hearing this, and said to the people behind him: "I didn't expect this broken shop to be quite well prepared", the defenders of the city and the guys heard the guys say this, and their tired bodies suddenly became excited... After all, having meat to eat, wine to drink, and no need to sleep outside is a beautiful thing in this wilderness.

The people had been on the road for a day, and they were all hungry at this moment. When the wine and food came up, everyone ate happily and drank happily, and after a while, the meat and dishes on the table in the hall and more than ten jars of wine were eaten and drunk. After eating and drinking, the tiredness has already sprung up, and they all returned to their rooms to rest, except for Qingximen, which is an exclusive room, the rest of the more than 30 people are a few people together to sleep in a room, leaving only two city defenders and a man from Qinghui Wine Workshop to guard the carriage loaded with wine.

As soon as Qingximen returned to the room, he felt sleepy, and he thought about taking a big nap, wondering why he was so tired today... Originally, I was a little relieved, but thinking that there were three people looking at the wine, there should be no problems in the inn on this official road, so I didn't dislike the dilapidated room and fell asleep deeply.

In the dead of night, everyone slept soundly, making earth-shattering snoring. After a while, I saw the two guys in the inn leading the five people to the place where the carriage was placed in the Qinghui Wine Factory. The five men were also carrying a wagon with a jar of wine, which was exactly the same as the jar of the Qinghui Distillery's tribute wine! These five people are Jiang Xiaobai and Ah Qi, as well as three subordinates of the Jiang Mansion.

At this time, the two city defenders guarding the carriage and the guys from the Qinghui Wine Shop also fell asleep, and when Jiang Xiaobai and his party walked here, the three of them didn't react at all as if they were dead. Ah Qi gently kicked the Qinghui guy who was sleeping soundly next to the wagon, and exclaimed, "Young master, this group of people is really pigs, and they all slept to death." ”

Jiang Xiaobai smiled coldly and said: "They drank wine containing the juice of the wild snake sunflower, even if they wanted to die without sleeping, it was very difficult" As early as when he was in Wanshi Mountain, the old gentleman had popularized the poisonous weed of wild snake sunflower to Jiang Xiaobai, although it was a poisonous weed, but if it was only ingested in small amounts, this poisonous weed could help people fall asleep, just like the medicinal effect of sleeping pills in the world in his previous life. In the wine that everyone in Qingximen drank just now, Jiang Xiaobai put in a trace amount of wild snake sunflower juice.

Ah Qi is now full of admiration for Jiang Xiaobai: "Young Master, you are really a god!" How did you know that Qing Fat Man would choose to settle here. ”

This is also under Jiang Xiaobai's control, I saw a smile on the corner of his mouth and said: "Qingximen has a good face, and he is eager for quick success." Qinghui Distillery is rarely qualified to pay tribute this time, so I guess he must want to arrive in Shaocheng as soon as possible and will not stop in Jinxian" paused, "but he is a gentleman after all, and it is rare to have such a long distance bump on weekdays." So after passing through Jinxian, I will not be able to stand it for a while and a half, and I want to find an inn to rest, I have checked the official road of thirty or forty miles, and there is only this inn, so I rushed over a day earlier to buy the shopkeeper and the guy here. ”

Jiang Xiaobai waved his hand, and the two shopkeepers retreated. At this time, Ah Qi and three other Jiang Mansion men were already busy unloading the wine in the carriage of Qinghui Wine Workshop and putting the wine they had brought.

Ah Qi said while carrying the wine: "Young master, no wonder you instructed me to arrange a few strange-looking people to go to the Qinghui Wine Shop to buy wine a few days ago, it turned out that I had already thought of this clever plan to move flowers and trees."

If you are doing tricks and feet in the tribute wine of Qinghui Distillery, you have to pat open the sealing mud of the wine jar, which will inevitably fall some horses' feet, so Jiang Xiaobai asked Ah Qi to arrange for someone to go to Qinghui Distillery to buy their wine a few days earlier, and when he was in Jiangfu, he had already put medicine in the wine, and then reconnected the sealing mud. Qingximen did not have any suspicion about the fact that individual tourists came to buy wine in a car, and thought that after the accident of Jiang's Wanli Xiang, Dongcheng District would be their celebration of the world, and they were so happy that they couldn't close their mouths. As everyone knows, all this is Jiang Xiaobai's arrangement.

"They can make He Feng poison Wanli Xiang, and I will return a tooth for a tooth! I said earlier, if Qinghui Distillery dares to do something harmful to the Jiang family, I will let it disappear forever in Dongcheng District" Jiang Xiaobai's eyes flashed coldly.

Seeing Jiang Xiaobai's face cold, Ah Qi couldn't help swallowing the foam in his mouth, and said, "Less... Master, what you put into the wine shouldn't be poisonous, then... But the king of the county"

"You treat me as stupid, you are taking laxatives" Jiang Xiaobai glanced at Ah Qidao.

"Laxatives?!" Ah Qiyi thought of the nearly fifty years of the Lingnan County King's body, and his heart was already happy and smiled, "Young master, you are really damaged"

"Less nonsense! Hurry up and move, wait for them to wake up, it's going to be difficult."

....

The five of them had a clear division of labor, and in a short time, the wine in both carts had been exchanged. When leaving, there was only one person following behind him, erasing the path of the carriage's departure. In this way, Jiang Xiaobai and his party quietly disappeared into the night...