On the Jiangnan Canal, Li Xiu and their fleet moved forward slowly, after saying goodbye to Li Ke, their fleet was on the road again, but the target this time was Suzhou, and he had already contacted Zhang Shiyi before coming, in fact, Zhang Shiyi only spent a year in Chang'an last year, and then ran to the south, and brought Qu Yi's mother and daughter, after all, he was away all the year round, and it was not a matter to let Qu Yi stay alone in the empty room. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Jiangnan Canal is also known as Jiangnan River, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period has been excavated, and both sides of the river are planted with mulberry trees, there are a lot of silkworms on the tree, silkworms eat mulberry leaves, and then discharge the feces into the river water under the tree, attract fish to compete to eat, it is said that these fish that eat silkworm sand grow up are very fat, and there are many people on the canal who make a living by fishing.

It is worth mentioning that the sericulture on both sides of the Jiangnan Canal is prosperous, and it is also one of the most important sources of silk in the Tang Dynasty, especially the embroidery in Suzhou is known as Suzhou embroidery, and the fine products have always been tributes in the palace, and ordinary people can't buy them if they want to, even if they are people like Li Xiu, they can't buy Suzhou embroidery at any time, so this time they came to Suzhou, Pingyang and they have already discussed, they must buy more Suzhou embroidery back, even if they can't use it up, they can also take it to give it away.

The Jiangnan Canal connects Yangzhou and Suzhou, and also passes through Zhenjiang on the way, and there is a very famous scenic spot in Zhenjiang, that is, Jinshan Temple, that is, in the legend of the White Lady, the Jinshan Temple that was flooded by the White Lady, but in this period of the Tang Dynasty, the story of the White Lady has not yet appeared, but there is a story of a snake demon seducing scholars, and the ending is not very good, it is estimated that it is the prototype of the story of the White Lady.

Jinshan Temple was built in the Jin Dynasty, originally called Zexin Temple, but because the roof of the temple is full of glazed tiles, under the sunlight of the golden light, as if the whole mountain is gold, so it is called Jinshan Temple by the people under the mountain, and over time, the name of Jinshan Temple has replaced the original temple name.

Jinshan Temple was originally a famous local influence in Zhenjiang, although Li Xiu and his family did not believe in Buddhism, but Princess Pingyang was eager to ask for a child, so on the way to meet a famous temple Taoism, will go in to make a wish, speaking of which their old Li family was originally known as the descendants of Lao Tzu, Taoism is also the state religion of the Tang Dynasty, and the royal family also believes in Taoism, but in order to ask for a son, Princess Pingyang can't take care of these, whether it is Buddhism or Taoism, she will go in to worship, but Li Xiu knows that Princess Pingyang is the same as him, and she doesn't believe in any gods and Buddhas at all. The so-called wishing is just asking for psychological comfort.

Although Li Xiu does not believe in gods and Buddhas, he is also very interested in Jinshan Temple, not only because of the legend of the White Lady, but also because of the fact that Jinshan Temple was also built very grandly, after all, when the Northern and Southern Dynasties were in the early days, Buddhism flourished, so the major temples spared no expense when they were built, and it was worth looking at in terms of construction.

Since he came to Jinshan Temple, Li Xiu naturally wanted to tell Princess Pingyang and the children the story of the White Lady, which caused several women to smile and sad for a while, and the children felt very novel, all of them were attracted by the various monsters that appeared in the story, especially when Li Xiu talked about the White Lady's water flooding Jinshan Temple, and then was imprisoned under the Lei Feng Tower, which attracted Yiniang and Yuechan to wipe their tears secretly, and even the few maids who followed behind were also red-eyed.

But no matter how wonderful the story is, there is an end, and when Li Xiu finishes the story, and deliberately uses a happy ending, this finally makes Princess Pingyang feel better, but because of this story, their impression of Jinshan Temple has not become very good, and they left immediately after making a wish.

The Jiangnan Canal bypasses the east bank of Taihu Lake, and the scenery on both sides of the river is also very beautiful, if it weren't for the early search for Qi Niang, Li Xiu even wanted to drive the boat into Taihu Lake to have a look, but now Suzhou is in front of you, so it's better to go to Suzhou to find Qi Niang first.

A few days later, Li Xiu and their fleet finally arrived outside the city of Suzhou, compared to the delicate spirit of Yangzhou, the city of Suzhou in front of them looked very majestic, and even when they saw the city wall of Suzhou City, Li Xiu and they mistakenly thought that they saw Chang'an City, because the two are too similar, they are both the kind of tall and majestic city walls, which look extremely strong.

In fact, the city of Suzhou in front of us is indeed the same as Chang'an, which was built in the former Sui period, because in the former Sui period, there were often rebellions in Suzhou, which caused the old city of Suzhou to become very unsafe, so the great Situ Yang Su at that time ordered the construction of a new city between Hengshan and Huangshan in the southwest of the old city of Suzhou, and the governors of the state capital were all moved to the new city, that is, the Suzhou city in front of him.

However, it is worth mentioning that the majestic Suzhou city that Li Xiu and they saw was later destroyed in the war, and the location of Suzhou City also changed several times, and the location of Suzhou City in later generations was not the same as that of Suzhou City in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Xiu and their fleet came to the dock outside Suzhou, Zhang Shiyi had been waiting here for a long time, and when he saw Li Xiu get off the boat, he immediately greeted him and said with a smile: "Brother Li, it's been hard all the way!" ”

"Brother Eleven is polite, how is Qi Niang?" Li Xiu asked about Qi Niang's situation when he saw Zhang Shiyi's first sentence, in fact, after Qi Niang came to Suzhou, Li Xiu informed Zhang Shi and asked him to help take care of it, otherwise he would not be at ease with Qi Niang no matter what.

"Don't worry, Qi Niang is very well-behaved, she has been staying in the shipbuilding workshop to improve the skills and facilities in the workshop, which has greatly increased the efficiency of the workshop, and she has so many guards around her, I am afraid that even if an enemy country fights, there is no need to worry about her safety!" Zhang Shiyi smiled at this time, he and Qi Niang are business partners, so he naturally wants to speak for her at this time.

"Uncle Eleven, why is Sister Maya not here?" At this moment, Jin'er and Ping'anlang also got off the boat, and immediately surrounded Zhang Shiyi and asked, Zhang Shiyi's daughter is named Maya, and she is also Jin'er's playmate since childhood, but Zhang Maya followed Zhang Shiyi to the south after the New Year this year, so they also miss each other very much.

"Haha~, Maya, this girl heard that you were coming, and she was talking about taking you to play a few days ago, and now she is waiting for you at home!" Zhang Shiyi was also very happy to see Jin'er's children, originally Zhang Maya was clamoring to come to pick up Jin'er and them, but Zhang Shiyi felt that her daughter was too old to show her head often, so she rejected her daughter, which made Zhang Maya very unhappy.

Zhang Shiyi had already prepared the carriage and horses, Li Xiu and Princess Pingyang got into the carriage together, and came to Zhang Shiyi's house after entering the city, Princess Pingyang and Yi Niang were busy catching up with Qu Yi, but Li Xiu was anxious to see Qi Niang, Zhang Shi was helpless, so he had to personally take him out of the city again and come to the shipbuilding workshop to find Qi Niang.