Nowadays, the workshop for the production of soap and soap has expanded several times, which can bring nearly 10,000 taels of income to the Zhao family every year.

The news of Zhao Yan's demotion only circulated in a small area in the capital, and few people knew about it in the small place of Shenzhou.

The first year of Jingtai has passed, and according to this time, Zhao Yan is already the year of the weak crown.

The old dreams, the past is in a hurry, after the New Year, Zhao Yan has a rare idle day, he sat in his study and pondered for a long time, thinking of the people and things he experienced after crossing, and couldn't help but think up and down.

In the end, he still didn't prevent the civil war from happening, and even participated in it himself, from beginning to end, he seemed to have changed the fate of only one person, and this person was the British Gong Zhang Fu.

According to the course of history, Zhang Fu should have died in the battle of civil engineering, but after Zhao Yan participated, by mistake, Zhang Fu was only injured, although he was old, but his foundation was very good, and he was almost fine after more than a year.

Zhang Fu was a person who knew how to repay his kindness, if it wasn't for Zhao Yan and Yuan Bin who rescued him from the siege, he would probably have died, so I heard that after Zhao Yan and Yuan Bin came back from Wara, Zhang Fu had his eldest son, Zhang Mao, who later inherited the title, come to visit Zhao Yan several times and brought a lot of gifts.

It's interesting to say, Zhang Fu is already almost eighty years old, but his eldest son Zhang Mao is only ten years old.

Zhang Fu actually has an eldest son, but his eldest son Zhang Zhong has a physical disability and is not suitable for the lord, and Zhang Zhong's son Zhang Zhong is not in good health, and he is suspected that he is not Zhang Zhong's biological flesh and blood, so in the end he cheapened Zhang Fu's eldest son Zhang Mao.

Facing a ten-year-old Xiao Zhengtai, Zhao Yan had to make a serious appearance, which was really awkward, but Zhang Mao looked like a young man, talking and doing things like a little adult, and Zhao Yan was used to it after coming and going a few times.

After coming and going, Zhao Yan and Zhang Mao are familiar with each other, for Zhao Yan, who has a life-saving grace with his father, Zhang Mao is still more respectful, I heard that Zhao Yan was degraded, and he was indignant to let his father go to Zhu Qiyu to reason, but it was just talking, Zhang Fuxun was highly virtuous, but he also had some suspicion of being a master, whether the emperor was Zhu Qizhen or Zhu Qiyu, he inevitably had some scruples about him, Zhang Fu knew this, but Zhao Yan saved his life after all, if he didn't express it, it would be inappropriate, So he finally asked Zhang Mao to bring a letter to Zhao Yan.

This letter was addressed to Li Chengzong, the commander of the Huguang Commanding Envoy, who had followed Zhang Fu to conquer Annam, and belonged to the military ministers of Zhang Fu's lineage, as long as Zhao Yan took Zhang Fu's letter to see Li Chengzong, he could naturally be protected by Li Chengzong.

The three divisions of a province are respectively the command of the embassy department, the political envoy division, and the prosecution and envoy division, which are in charge of the military, administration, and justice, and are not subordinate to each other, and each is responsible for the imperial court.

Li Chengzong, as the commander of the capital commander, naturally has great strength, with him taking care of him, Zhao Yan can naturally sit back and relax as a small county order, but Zhao Yan belongs to the civil official after all, if he gets too close to the military minister, it is a little inappropriate, so he only regards this letter as a killer weapon at the necessary moment, and does not plan to see Li Chengzong as soon as he arrives in Huguang.

After the New Year, Zhao Yan should also set off, he is not ready to take too many people to the post, but the security at this time is far from the future, and it is inevitable to encounter a few thieves who are not long-eyed on the road, so it is not okay to take Li Er alone, besides, Li Er is newly married, it is the time for you and me to go to the post, and Zhao Yan does not plan to take him there.

Years ago, Zhao Xin had finalized the candidates for Zhao Yan's entourage, a total of four people, Zhao Yan knew them, one of them was called Zhao Gou, when he was in Taocun, he used to herd cattle with Zhao Yan, the other two are brothers, and they are also members of the Zhao clan in Taocun, the elder brother is called Zhao Yin, and the younger brother is called Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yin and Zhao Yi brothers have a straightforward temperament and have never seen much of the world, although Zhao Gou has not seen much of the world, but his temperament is quite clever, and his mouth is also very sharp, and he has a talent for seeing people and talking nonsense.

As for Zhao Jiu, after he was sent back to Shenzhou by Zhao Yan, the Yan family took pity on him, and felt that he was too young to work in the workshop, so he let him enter the Zhao family as a small servant, usually mainly to run errands, and then follow the housekeeper Wang An to learn to settle accounts, and plan to train him to be a steward in the future, in addition to managing food and housing, there is also a salary of one silver per month, this treatment is not low, far better than he was a beggar before.

A few years ago, he heard that Zhao Yan was going to the post and lacked an entourage, Zhao Jiu volunteered, Zhao Xin felt that he was clever and sensible, although he was a half-grown teenager, but he was young and old, and sometimes he might be more useful than an adult, so he agreed to his request.

Everything is in order, this is a long way, except for a few entourage, the family will definitely not be brought, farewell to the family, a group of five people on the road in a carriage.

From the North Zhili Zhending Mansion to Huguang Baoqing Mansion, the nearest route is naturally straight through Henan, and then enter Huguang to reach Wuchang Mansion, Wuchang Mansion is the station of the three divisions, just go to the political envoy to verify the official certificate, and then take a boat from Wuchang Mansion along the Yangtze River upstream, cross Dongting Lake to Changsha Mansion, and finally pass through Changsha Mansion to Baoqing Mansion.

Thousands of miles is not a joke, adding up to four or five thousand miles, if you don't know how to get to the Year of the Monkey and the month of the Monkey just by walking, even if there is a carriage to travel, it will take at least more than two months from Shenzhou to Xinning County.

There are boats and cars along the way, there is a post station to live in a post station, there is no post station to live in an inn or in the wild, which is hard to mention, from the fifth day of the Lunar New Year to the middle of March, it took more than two months, Zhao Yan and his party finally crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, walked into the boundary of Baoqing Mansion, and came to Baoqing Mansion City.

Although Xinning County belongs to Wugang Prefecture, it is under the rule of Baoqing Prefecture with Wugang Prefecture, so when you arrive at Baoqing Prefecture, you need to visit the prefect, and record it in the government with the official seal, and then go to Wugang Prefecture to find the governor to report, which is very cumbersome.

The prefect of Baoqing Mansion is named Sun Da, a native of Runing, Henan, who is in his fifties this year, and is a Jinshi in the first year of orthodoxy, but he did not do well in the exam, and only got a top three with the Jinshi background, and then started from a certain county and county, and was promoted to the prefect of Baoqing for nearly 20 years in the officialdom.

Zhao Yan walked all the way from the inn, and saw that the market was bustling, the flow of people was surging, and the faces of the people who came and went were quite comfortable, so he judged that this Sun Governor's Mansion should still be very capable.

After arriving at the mansion, he met this Sun Governor's Mansion smoothly, and everything else was fine, but Zhao Yan always felt that there was always something wrong with the eyes of this Sun Governor's Mansion when he looked at him, and there seemed to be a little bit of a man's taste of seeing beautiful women, after three times and twice, Zhao Yan couldn't help but guess that this Sun Governor's Mansion was really as fond of the market as rumored**, and when he thought of this, he couldn't sit still, and hurriedly dealt with a few words and left.

On the way back to the inn, when he thought of Sun Da's eyes looking at him, Zhao Yan's hair stood on end, fortunately, his direct boss was the governor of Wugang Prefecture, not the governor of Baoqing Mansion, otherwise he would have to meet every few days, which was really a bit embarrassing.

With this matter as a foundation, Zhao Yan didn't want to stay in Fucheng for a long time, so he rushed to Wugang early the next morning.

Wugang has been more than 1,500 years since the establishment of the county in the Western Han Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty is here where the Wugang Road Governor's Office is located, its subordinate Wugang, Suining, Xinning three counties, belongs to Hunan Road, the beginning of the Ming Dynasty changed Wugang Road to Wugang Mansion, and later changed to Wugang Prefecture, under the jurisdiction of only Xinning County, belongs to Baoqing Mansion.

Wugang Prefecture is a scattered state, and the grade of Zhizhou is from the fifth grade, and the fief of Zhu Yang, the king of Min, is also here.

Zhu Yang is the eighteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, who is easy to kill, was sealed in Minzhou at first, and then was sealed in Wugang, and the title is still King Min.

With such a prince on the top of his head, Wugang Zhizhou is naturally not easy to do, but fortunately, in the first year of Jingtai, this Min Wang, his second son Zhu Hui, the king of Zhennan, took the title of prince and became the new Min king.

This Xinmin King Zhu Huixuan is much easier to get along with, far less domineering than his father, Yuan Yu, the governor of Wugang, put his mind at ease and lived his little life happily.

Now the Ming Dynasty began to spread a proverb, Huguang is familiar with the world, from which it can be seen that Huguang is a large food province, but although Wugang belongs to Huguang, it is not among them, because Wugang is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the territory is dominated by mountains and hills, although it also produces food, it is difficult to achieve even self-sufficiency.

Zhao Yan went over the mountains and mountains along the way, and finally came to Wugang Prefecture City, and then found an inn to take a bath, and rested for a while before picking up his spirits and coming to meet Yuan Yu, the governor of Wugang.

This Yuan Zhizhou is the same age as the prefect Sun Da, but his appearance is far less elegant than Sun Da, he is slightly fat, fair-skinned, and always likes to look at people obliquely when he looks at people with two small eyes, giving people a feeling of being cunning and clever.

After the two met, it was a nonsense without nutrition as usual, and then Zhao Yan felt that what he said was almost enough, so he planned to say goodbye and leave.

Yuan Yu said: "The official has not returned to the capital for a long time, Zhao Zhixian has come here since his new appointment in the capital, but the official wants to invite Zhao Zhixian to have a light meal, and by the way, ask about the customs of the capital, I don't know if Zhao Zhixian can appreciate his face?" ”

"Is the envoy a native of the capital?" Zhao Yan asked.

Yuan Yuxiao's eyes narrowed, and he said with a smile: "Exactly, this official is from Daxing County." ”

Daxing County is the attached county of the capital, and it is rare to meet a person who is geographically close here, and he is also his direct boss, Zhao Yan had to say: "Then the lower official is respectful and better than obeying his fate." ”