After leaving Shangshui County, Wen Shaobo planned to go straight north, but Jie Ziyu suggested that he go east.

"Shangshui to Sanchuan, how can it be thousands of miles? If you take the land route, it may be difficult for you and me to return to our hometown before the end of the year, so we can only take the water route. ”

Jie Zilu was a native of Chu, and in the Chu State, the waterway was the most important means of transportation, and he told Wen Shaobo that the Shangshui army stationed in Shangshui County was vigorously opening up the river port on the east side of Shangshui County.

Wen Shaobo listened to Jie Ziyu's suggestion, and the two drove the carriage to Shangshui Port.

When I arrived at the port, I saw that there were banners of the Shangshui Army everywhere nearby, and thousands of Shangshui soldiers commanded the citizens of Shangshui County during the labor period, and worked together to build the Shangshui Port.

After all, within a radius of hundreds of miles, Wen Shaobo had never seen such a huge project.

"Why did King Su expand the Shangshui River Port?" Wen Shaobo asked puzzled.

At this moment, I believe that almost no one knows that Zhao Hongrun is planning to build Shangshui County into a free trade port city connecting Chu State, and few people know that Shangshui County is about to become the fiefdom of Suwang Hongrun, but Jie Ziyu can still vaguely guess a few points.

After all, during this period of time, Zhao Hongrun's private transaction with Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Chu Xuancheng, although it was hidden from the vast majority of Wei people in Wei State, it was still more difficult to hide from the people living in Shangshui County. In fact, many Chu people living in Shangshui know that during this time, ships loaded with goods temporarily docked in Shangshui County from time to time.

And the ships anchored in the port of Shangshui River are also quite interesting, there are not only ships from the Wei State, but also ships from the Chu State.

According to the residents of Shangshui County, every few days to ten days, a fleet of ships of the Chu State will secretly come to the Shangshui River Port, although these ships have put away the flag representing the Chu State, but the people of Shangshui County can still see through it at a glance.

Think about it, after all, almost all of the people who live in Shangshui are Chu people from the Chu country, how can they not be familiar with the ships of the homeland?

After the arrival of these Chu ships, there will be some transport ships flying the Wei flag one after another, these transport ships are loaded with grain, nominally sent to the granary of Shangshui County, but in fact, the Shang Shui soldiers who received the secret mission transported the grain from the Wei warships and put them on the Chu ships that deliberately concealed their whereabouts, and from the latter's ships, lacquerware, bronzes, and whole boxes of pearls were transported to the Wei ships.

Subsequently, the fleet of the state of Chu disappeared one night, and the ships of the state of Wei also quietly set off for the north one day.

It seems that this kind of private transaction has almost become a strange thing in the eyes of the county residents of Shangshui County.

But as a Wei person, Wen Shaobo learned about this matter for the first time from Jie Ziyu's mouth, and exclaimed: "Do you dare to have fornication with foreign countries?" Ship my Great Wei's grain abroad? ”

Jie Ziyu shook his head helplessly, and hurriedly reminded Wen Shaobo, after all, this matter involved the merchant army, as well as those transport ships flying the banner of the Wei court, this is obviously not 'smuggling' in the usual sense, behind this matter, it may be promoted by King Su Hongrun and the Wei court, and even with the tacit approval of the King of Wei.

"Why did King Su secretly support the State of Chu? …… Meson, I don't mean anything else, I'm just wondering. As soon as he heard that King Su was also contributing to this matter, Wen Shaobo's hostility decreased a lot, after all, in Yingshui South County, King Su Hongrun, who had once defeated the army of Chu Xuan Chengjun's attack, was in full swing here.

And Jie Ziyu naturally understood the difference between 'Wei State privately funded Chu Xuancheng Jun' and 'Wei State funded Chu State', and vaguely guessed Zhao Hongrun's purpose, so he secretly told Wen Shaobo his judgment, which made Wen Shaobo impressed.

After all, Wen Shaobo just doesn't like to read, but people are not stupid, of course he can imagine that if Zhao Hongrun secretly supports Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu City, who is now weak in Chu State, to compete for the position of King of Chu, there is a chance that Chu State will fall into civil strife, and once Chu State falls into civil strife, Wei State will naturally be able to profit from it.

"It's worthy of King Su, far-sighted, it's not like we people can catch up, hahaha. …… But then again, Jie Zi, you are also from Chu, aren't you worried about the hidden dangers of the Chu State? ”

"I'm a merchant from the water." Like the vast majority of Chu people who moved to Shangshui, Jie Ziyu corrected Wen Shaobo's words, and then said with a long sigh: "You who have lived in Great Wei since you were a child will not understand the feelings of the Chu people. …… Chu State, that is a very dim place. In fact, in our opinion, Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, is already a relatively benevolent Yi monarch, but his benevolent government is still not as good as the county officials of Great Wei. …… This is still in Chuxi, if it is Chudong, hehe. ”

In the end, Jie Zilu sneered twice, not wanting to continue to talk about Chu Dong's situation.

Indeed, Chu Dong, that is something that the civilians of Chu do not want to mention, because the situation there will make every Chu person who still loves or misses Chu in their hearts feel sad and hopeless.

"Forget it, let's not talk about it. Let's rent a boat and ask the boatman to take us to the girder. Pointing to the edge of the river harbor, where many small ships were moored.

It was the boat of the fishermen of Shangshui County, and almost all of these fishermen moved here from the area of Chen County and Xiangcheng in Chu State.

These fishermen used to make a living from fishing, and even if they moved to Shangshui and the government gave them land, they would not be able to farm. As a result, these people sold or rented their fields to others, and they continued to do their jobs.

And Jie Ziyu now plans to hire a boatman to transport the goods of him, Wen Shaobo and the entire carriage along the Ying, Shuicai rivers to Daliang.

After hearing Jie Ziyu's suggestion, Young Uncle Wen turned his eyes to the transport ships flying the banner of the Wei Imperial Court.

"This ...... We can't go up, can we? ”

After hearing about Wen Shaobo's suggestion, Jie Ziyu couldn't help but be a little surprised, although he also understood that the speed of the big ship was faster, but it was a ship of the Wei Imperial Court.

"I have a way."

Wen Shaobo blinked.

Unexpectedly, when the two of them drove the carriage close to the ships of the Wei State Household Department, they were immediately stopped by the merchant army in charge of patrolling and guarding.

Thinking about it, the Shang Shui Army is in charge of the security here, how can it be possible to let the two civilians, Wen Shaobo and Jie Ziyu, get close to the fleet of the Wei Imperial Court?

During this period, Wen Shaobo proudly showed his identity as a child of the Anling Wen family, but the soldiers of the Shangshui Army did not buy it at all.

"Anling Wen family? Who's that? We only obey the orders of King Su! ”

The Shang Shui sergeant, who stopped Wen Shaobo and the others, pouted and snorted coldly.

You must know that the Shang Shui Army is the descendant army of King Su Hongrun, not to mention that you are a son of a middle-class nobleman in Anling, even if you are a side branch of the royal family like the King of Yuanyang, if you make an improper request, the Shang Shui Army will also reject it, will it care so much about you?

However, refusal is refusal, the soldiers of the Shang Shui Army were not too harsh on Wen Shaobo, after all, Wen Shaobo is a Wei person, and there is a clause in the military discipline of the Shang Shui Army, that is, it is forbidden to use force against the Wei people in any form, which can be regarded as a way to curry favor with the Wei people in disguise by the two generals Gu Liangwei and Wu Ma Jiao, who are in power in the Shang Water Army.

Because he was angry, Wen Shaobo quarreled with the merchant soldiers, and their quarrel attracted the attention of a scribe who was counting the goods not far away.

The man walked over and asked, "What's going on?" ”

"Your Excellency." I saw that the merchant sailant clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "These two civilians want to board the ship." ”

"Boarding the ship?" The scribe was stunned, looked at Wen Shaobo and Jie Ziyu and said, "Do you two know that this is the fleet of the imperial court, right?" ”

"I know, I also know that you have just made a private deal with the fleet of the Chu State and are preparing to return to Daliang." Wen Shaobo's words not only made the scribe and the nearby businessmen and sailors change color, but also made Jie Ziyu full of cold sweat, and hurriedly covered Wen Shaobo's mouth with his hand.

"Hehe, you two know a lot......" The scribe snorted twice without smiling, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.

In fact, there are not many people who know about this matter, but no one dares to say it in public.

At this moment, a soldier of the Shang Shui Army whispered a few words in the scribe's ear, which made the surprise on the scribe's face even stronger.

"You're from Anling?" The scribe looked at Young Uncle Wen in surprise.

"Yes, my lord, I am from Anling, my brother is from Shangshui, we heard about the matter over there in Sanchuan, and the joint venture got some goods that are ready to be transported to Sanchuan to sell, I hope that my lord will give me a convenience, so that our brother can take a boat by the way." Uncle Wen looked familiar, and said to the clerk with a smile.

The scribe was obviously a little dumbfounded, maybe it was the first time he had encountered such a bold guy, and he actually wanted to take the imperial court's tailwind.

But when they thought of the order they had recently received, they didn't object, but nodded and said, "Yes." …… However, there is a need to pay for the ship. ”

"No problem, no problem, thank you, thank you, thank you." Wen Shaobo nodded with a hippie smile.

Seeing that the scribe actually agreed to this, the merchant soldiers no longer stopped it, but helped to get the carriage full of goods on the ship.

And Wen Shaobo is also very good at being a person, and before leaving, he gave a few big sums of money to the merchant soldiers who helped.

"Sail!"

A moment later, with the order of the flagbearer guiding the bow, these ships moored in the river port of Shangshui County set off one after another and returned to Daliang.

Different from Wen Shaobo's excited look, Jie Ziyu looked at the household personnel coming and going on the boat, his face was full of consternation.

"We, really on the imperial court's ship?"

"We've paid the fare." Wen Shaobo said with a look of course.

Listening to his friend's natural tone, Jie Ziyu rolled his eyes.

Can I board the imperial ship after paying the fare? Are you kidding! That's the ship of the Imperial Court's Household Department!

"That scribe, he hesitated at that time...... When I heard Wen Bo mention that he responded to the call of King Su and went to Sanchuan to do business......

Holding on to the railing of the boat, Jie Ziyu pondered carefully, and his eyes gradually flashed with a little surprise and abruptness.

"It seems that King Su is indeed sparing no effort to support the private merchants, and even informed the household department to give convenience to the people......

"Why?"

The meson muttered. (To be continued.) )