At the beginning of October, Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi, Qingyuan County.

In the morning, several carriages entered the boundary of Qingyuan County under the escort of a group of big men.

On a moving carriage, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin talked and laughed, this time he did not set off with his two uncles in Beijing, but chose to go to Taiyuan Mansion with Zhao Xin first, and then go to the capital.

According to Li Hongyu, it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read 10,000 books, so he wanted to take the opportunity of Zhao Xin to return to his hometown to worship his ancestors.

In fact, Li Hongyu did this for two reasons, one is to cheer for Zhao Xin, after all, Zhao Xin has done so many things for him before, and now he naturally wants to repay the favor and come to Zhao Xin to support the scene.

Second, he also took the opportunity to expand his business in the north, especially with the Liaodong Jurchens, only in this way could he send people to break into the interior of the Jurchens, and the so-called knowing himself and knowing the other side could not be defeated in a hundred battles.

To be honest, Zhao Xin didn't expect that Li Hongyu would follow her to Qingyuan County, after all, at this time, everyone wanted to rush to the capital to prepare for the exam as soon as possible, and they would definitely not waste time on other trivial matters.

Therefore, Zhao Xin was very happy about Li Hongyu's decision, which meant that she was more important in Li Hongyu's heart than she would have been examined, otherwise she would definitely rush to the capital with her two uncles.

Zhao Xin left Qingyuan County in anger, so she didn't want to come back to save herself from seeing the sulking of life she didn't want to see, but she had to come back again, in addition to taking the Zhongxiang test Yayuan Guangzong to show her ancestor, it was more important to solve the hidden dangers in her identity.

Although Zhao Xin was raised as a boy by Zhao Deyi since she was a child, and few people knew about it, she was a daughter after all, and there was no impermeable wall in the world, so Zhao Xin and Zhao Deyi had to deal with it properly so as not to encounter any trouble in the future.

"Brother Zhao, I have long heard that the Jin merchants are rich in the world, and Jinzhong is the most prosperous place for the Jin merchants. While talking and laughing, Li Hongyu said to Zhao Xin with a smile that the towns and villages he passed through after entering the Jinzhong area gradually became prosperous.

"Shanxi is a bitter cold land, although the Jin merchants are rich, but the people are poor, compared with the land of Jingxiang, which is outstanding and prosperous." Zhao Xin smiled slightly when he heard this, opened the curtains and looked at the crops on the roadside that looked a little desolate after the autumn harvest.

There is a good saying, "Huguang is ripe and the world is full", which shows that Huguang, which is rich in rice, has an important position in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, and 13 provinces, which is not comparable to remote areas like Shanxi.

Li Hongyu smiled when he heard this, Zhao Xin was right, although the Jin merchants were so rich because of their business, the ordinary people could not benefit from it, and the living standard was much poorer than that of the people of Huguang.

The rise of the Jin merchants was because of the "open system" policy formulated by Emperor Hongwu.

The so-called "opening of the center" means that the state uses the monopoly privilege of salt in its hands to attract merchants to buy millet on the side, support salt in the field of sitting, and sell goods in limited places.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu set up nine military towns to defend against the attack of the remnants of the Mengyuan Dynasty on the Central Plains, commonly known as "Nine Sides".

Due to the remoteness of Jiubian, the logistical supply was difficult, so the Hongwu court reached an agreement with Shanxi merchants, Shanxi merchants sent grain to several remote border fortresses such as Datong and Juyongguan, and then the imperial court gave them "salt introductions" of equal value, so that they could sell salt in designated areas.

It has to be said that although the implementation of the "open middle system" reduced the burden of the imperial court to supply the nine sides to a certain extent, it lost a considerable share of the salt tax.

The Jin merchants not only monopolized the salt introduction of the salt pond in Hedong, but also got involved in the Lianghuai Salt Road, and almost competed with the Hui merchants in the salt business.

Not long after, when the convoy came to pass through a small town, several men guarding the entrance of the town saw this and hurriedly greeted the middle-aged man with a mustache in the lead, blocking the way of the convoy.

"Third master, you're back!" The middle-aged man with a small beard asked a few words from the entourage of the convoy, and then walked quickly to the carriage in which Zhao Deyi was riding, and bowed to Zhao Deyi excitedly.

"Why are you here, I didn't tell anyone when I came back this time?" Zhao Deyi smiled and helped the middle-aged man up, and asked with some surprise.

Although Zhao Deyi and Zhao Xin returned to their hometown this time, Zhao Deyi did not return to his hometown quietly, and the Fuxiang semicolons along the way did not even get news.

After all, Zhao Deyi didn't want the outside world to think that he came back to demonstrate to his family, and he didn't care about the messy things in the Fuxiang now, and the first thing was to protect Zhao Xin.

Speaking of which, Zhao Deyi is also quite proud in his heart now, not only Zhao Xin was admitted to the Huguang Township Test, but Li Hongyu, the future uncle, was also admitted to the Huguang Township Examination Xie Yuan, which is a rare thing that has never been seen since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, which is enough to go down in history and be remembered for eternity.

Now Zhao Deyi's attitude towards Li Hongyu is very contradictory, originally he didn't want Zhao Xin to follow Li Hongyu in the officialdom, but since the retrial of Mingyue Pavilion's case, he changed this idea, never expected that Li Hongyu would be able to perfectly judge the truth of the case in a short period of time, which shows that Li Hongyu will be able to protect himself in the officialdom in the future.

Perhaps, some people are born to step into the official career to guide the country, and Li Hongyu, who is a blockbuster, is undoubtedly this kind of person, who is low-key by nature and knows how to keep his head and cultivate obscurity, and his career is unlimited.

What is especially important is that Zhao Xin has unexpectedly come together with Li Hongyu since he came to Baihe Town, and accompanied Li Hongyu all the way to "birth and death", the two sides can be described as a lifelong friendship, otherwise Li Hongyu would not have made a detour to help Zhao Xin.

This made Zhao Deyi feel quite relieved in his heart, although he made a mistake and failed to go to the Li family to pay respects after Li Renhai's death, but Zhao Xin's affection for Li Hongyu undoubtedly made up for his mistake.

Zhao Deyi is very conflicted now, he naturally knows that the sooner Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin's marriage is clarified, the better, but his face is not so thick, it is really not good to open his mouth to the people of the Li family, so he can only wait and see what happens, anyway, there are still four years before Li Hongyu's weak crown, and he is not in a hurry at this time.

"The old lady said that the third master will come back in the next few days, let me wait here." After listening to Zhao Deyi's question, the middle-aged man with a mustache replied excitedly, "I didn't expect the third master to really come back, this is really good, we are all looking forward to the third master's return." ”

"Uncle Dong!" At this time, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin got down from a carriage behind, and Zhao Xin was overjoyed when he saw the middle-aged man with a mustache, and hurriedly shouted.

"Congratulations to the young master for passing the Huguang Township test Yayuan, if this is in our Shanxi, it will definitely be Xie Yuan." The middle-aged man with a mustache bowed to Zhao Xin with a smile and said, and then his eyes fell on Li Hongyu behind Zhao Xin, and he couldn't help but look at Li Hongyu with some curiosity.

He naturally could see that this young man and Zhao Xin seemed to have a very close relationship, not only riding in the same carriage, but also helping Zhao Xin when he got off the carriage just now, which made him quite surprised.

The middle-aged man with a mustache is Zhao Deyi's confidant, so he knows that Zhao Xin is his daughter, so Zhao Xin usually keeps a certain distance from men and does not appear so intimate.

"Uncle Dong, he is Li Jieyuan of the Huguang Township Exam, and he went to Beijing with me to take the exam." Zhao Xin saw the middle-aged man with a mustache looking at Li Hongyu, so he introduced Li Hongyu's identity with a smile.

"Uncle Dong." Hearing this, Li Hongyu stepped forward and bowed silently.

"Li Jieyuan, the grass people in the next generation can't afford your gift." Seeing this, the middle-aged man with a mustache hurriedly dodged away, waved his hand and said to Li Hongyu with a smile.

"Uncle Dong, you are Zhao Yayuan's elder, and you are also the elder below, so you deserve this gift." Li Hongyu's face turned pale when he heard this, and he solemnly saluted the bearded middle-aged man again, he came to support Zhao Xin this time, so he would naturally treat Zhao Xin's elders politely.

Otherwise, in the identity of Li Hongyu Xie Yuan, the middle-aged man with a mustache would have to salute him.

"Uncle Dong, since Li Xie Yuan has spoken, don't shirk it." Seeing this, Zhao Xin smiled and persuaded, feeling very happy in her heart, Li Hongyu's move could give her a lot of face.

You must know that don't talk about Xie Yuan, it's just that a casual person usually looks like a high man in front of the people, and he doesn't think of himself as a scholar, and he doesn't look down on the bearded middle-aged man who is engaged in business and trade.

"Then it's disrespectful." The middle-aged man with a mustache smiled when he heard this, and happily arched his hand to Li Hongyu as a return of courtesy, feeling happy for Zhao Xin in his heart, it was obvious that Zhao Xin and Li Hongyu had a good relationship, otherwise he would treat him as a stranger politely!

"Quick, go back and report to the old lady, not only the third master and the young master are back, but Xie Yuanlang from Huguang Township is also here." Then, the middle-aged man with a mustache remembered something and hurriedly shouted at a young man standing behind him.

When the young man heard this, he bowed to Zhao Deyi, ran to the horse tied to the tree beside him, untied the reins of the horse, turned over and rode up, and drove away with his legs between the belly of the horse, and went home to report the news.

After greeting for a while, Li Hongyu, Zhao Deyi and others got into the carriage and continued to hurry, and the middle-aged man with a mustache naturally got into the carriage that Zhao Deyi was riding, and reported to him what happened to the Fuxiang after Zhao Deyi left, and Zhao Deyi couldn't help frowning again and again.

Over the past year or so, many hard-working old people in Fuxiang have been transferred back to the general number of Qingyuan County and supported them for a vacant position, which has made those old people have a lot of grievances in private.

Although it is said that it is an "old man", it is talking about the time when he entered the Fuxiang, in fact, the age of those people is not too big, and Zhao Deyi's age seems to be when he is in the prime of life.

But this is also something that can't be helped, the so-called once a son of heaven and a courtier, since Zhao Deyi has lost power, then there must be some people who follow him in the Fuxiang to follow the bad luck, which can be described as the inevitable law of the development of things.