Shen Mo didn't take the official boat, didn't wear official clothes, only took a few guards, quietly hired a family's boat, and went to Songjiang, a hundred miles away.

Leaving the city of Suzhou that was killed that day, Shen Mo felt refreshed, and his sorrow was gone, and he was unhappy and comfortable for a long time, and even the sorrows that crushed people were all left behind.

Standing on the bow of the boat, looking at the black cypress and Xinhe on both sides of the river, the farmer and the village woman, the clothes in the sun, and the blue sky, white clouds and blue Zhu Lin, are all reflected on the clear blue water, with each oars of the boatman, they will swim with the fish in the water, rippling together in the brilliant light, dissipating and shaking, expanding the harmony, and returning to the original state; As soon as it recovered, it dissipated, and with the boat crossing the water, the cycle continued, and the corners of Shen Mo's mouth were always with an innocent smile.

Sanchi asked strangely, "Why are you so happy, my lord?" ”

Shen Mo laughed, held the canopy, and said in a clear voice in this water village: "Don't you see the chickens, leading the group to peck and cry?" The rice sorghum has grown fat and fattened, and the feathers have fallen off to fill the kitchen. Don't see the crane in the cage, and hang your head with your wings down? Once the cage is opened, once it enters the stratus clouds, thousands of miles soar from Liao Kuo. ”

As he spoke, he put his hands behind his back, took a deep breath of fresh and intoxicating air, and said happily: "Life must be serious, and Hu Weili will entangle him?" The high cars and horses are all shackled, and the Yuntai Lin Pavilion is dusty. Yi holds a grudge against the floating river, how can he escape from the seashore by boat? ! ”

It's a pity that the bosom friend is hard to find, no one listens to the broken strings, and the iron pillar and the three feet are waiting for the round big eyes, but there is no half reaction.

But it's hard to find it, it's hard to find, and you can still find one after all--his clear poetic voice, handsome figure, and charming smile hanging from the corner of his mouth all made the little boat lady in the rear cabin with a green bamboo apron and a long black braid dazzled, a goose egg face and even excited white and red, a pair of big watery eyes, shining with a light full of worship.

When the silence was finished, she applauded desperately and applauded excitedly.

The crisp voice of a yellow bird snatched the limelight from the silence at once, and several feet looked over.

The little boat lady was only fourteen or fifteen years old, born and raised on a boat, and saw a lot of passengers coming and going, and she did not have the shyness of ordinary women, but looked back at them with big eyes.

Her mother was washing vegetables, and when she saw this, she scolded: "Crazy little lady, disturbed the guest's Yaxing, and didn't pay compensation to the guest officer." ”

The little boat lady muttered in a low voice: "It's good, the poems made by Childe are good." ”

At this time, Shen Mo laughed and said: "This is not a poem I made, this is a masterpiece of Yang Minggong." ”

"It's still a good child." The little boat lady shook her head and said, "Actually, if you don't understand it, you think it's good." ”

Shen Mo laughed, beckoned, and said to the little boat lady, "Come here." ”

The little boat lady quickly glanced at the old lady, meaning, this is not that I am lazy, it is the guest who asked me to go. Then he said simply: "It's coming!" "Jump around like a bunny.

Shen Mo smiled, took out a few ingots of silver from his arms and said, "Come, I will rush you to be my bosom friend of the son, the head of five taels of silver." ”

The little boat lady's white and tender little hands, holding the white silver, said happily: "Thank you, son!" ”

"Leave it to your mother!" Silent laughter.

The boat lady came out of her mother's womb, how have you ever seen so much money? I saw her thank you and thank her, stood up and dangled her long braids, jumped to the tip of the boat like a rabbit, and then there was a string of silver bells of laughter, thinking that she was telling her mother about this proud pleasure.

The old boatlady over there hurriedly brought her daughter over to thank her, and after a while, she set up a table of extremely sincere wine and food, and said apologetically: "Now the rice, noodles, vegetables and meat are too expensive, and the boat can't afford to buy them, so I can only take some fish and shrimp to make up the number." ”

He smiled silently: "There are steamed silver carp, blackhead fish soup, and so many wines and clear mouths, and the boat on the river, what more can the husband ask for?" ”

The boat lady let her daughter serve on the side, the little girl is sharp-toothed, bold and unscrupulous, perennial on the river, and there are many stories in her stomach.

It wasn't until the sun was about to go down that the three of them were full of wine and food, and the little boat lady cleaned up the table, soaked in incense, and then went to eat with her father.

Shen Mo gave her a silver reward again, but this time she didn't want it, and said with a sweet smile: "Mother said you can't be too greedy." And he jumped to the back.

Seeing that the adults were in a good mood and there were no outsiders, Tie Zhu asked in a low voice: "My lord, we can't ask for it everywhere, how do you know that Songjiang will have it?" ”

"It's like I didn't make the poem," Shen Mo smiled, "I didn't find out that there is grain in Songjiang." As he spoke, he took out a letter from his bosom, shook it in front of the two of them, and said, "It was my daughter-in-law who told me." After speaking, he felt a little faceless and said: "Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm inferior to her, but this and this ......"

Sanchi hurriedly answered: "The bystander is clear." ”

"That's what it means!" Shen Mo gave him an approving look and said, "I'm a fan of the authorities." Said with a somewhat embarrassed smile: "Actually, I am dark under the lamp, just thinking about Huguang Zhejiang, but I didn't expect that Songjiang, which is close at hand, must have food here!" ”

"Why can Matsue buy rice?" The two scratched their ears and cheeks.

"Because Matsue produces rice." Shen Mo slowly stretched out two fingers and said, "Although they must have been intimidated by those people, there are at least two big families who will not buy their accounts." ”

"Which two?" The two asked in a whisper.

Shen Mo dipped the tea in the cup and wrote the words 'Xu' and 'Cao' on the table.

Seeing that the two muscular men were still confused, Shen Mo had no choice but to decompose for the two of them: "Xu is the Xu family of Huating." Their family is the largest landlord in Nanzhili, and even in the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which is a real fertile land, and almost the entire Huating County is a tenant of their family. In the family of such a big landlord, even if he can't buy a grain on the market, he has to have a grain store of more than 100,000 stones. Saying that, he sighed with a smile: "What's more, relying on Xu Ge's face, they don't have to care too much about the Lu family, this is where our hope lies." Of course, he also knows that this hope is very unreliable, although there is no Xu family among the eight families that Lu Ji said, it is difficult to ensure that there is no collusion between these intertwined big families.

"What about 'Cao'?" Sanchi asked, "Is there such a surname in the hundred family names?" ”

"Stupid," even Tiezhu despised him at this time, "Cao is the Cao Gang!" ”

"That's right," Shen Mo nodded, "It's the Cao Gang." ”

When it comes to the Cao Gang, we have to mention Cao Yun, the so-called Cao Yun, is to transport the materials in the south of the Yangtze River through the Grand Canal, to the Beijing Division, in order to ensure the supply of materials in Yanjing and the border passes, the amount of transportation is extremely terrifying, every year there are six or seven million stone grain from Nanzhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang and other places are concentrated, through the Cao transport to the north, the need to serve the manpower can be imagined.

Of course, the degree of fatness of its oil and water can also be imagined.

Officially, it was the governor of Caoyun and the chief military officer of Caoyun who were the same as Caozheng, leading a total of 127,600 people in the 12 guards, who were full-time in transporting grain, called the transportation army. There are also about 100,000 people who are responsible for collecting and transporting grain.

These 200,000 people are distributed in the Grand Canal for thousands of miles, all of them are burdened with heavy forced labor, abandoned in times of famine, hardships, drifted by wind and waves, extorted by officials, bound to pay debts, and even ruined families. Even the lower echelons of the general army suffered the same hardships and were bullied by their superiors.

Moreover, the officials, inferior gentry, and local snakes along the way regard it as fat, and if they do not satisfy their greed, they will make things difficult in many ways and delay time...... Because unfortunately the deadline was missed, it was the Caochuan himself who was responsible, so he was not afraid that he would not comply.

Therefore, for the purpose of protecting the military and civilians of Caoyun, the Cao Gang came into being, and after more than 100 years of development, it has been inseparable from the lower-level officers and soldiers, and has a hall in each important Caoyun city! They are quite tightly organized, and when dealing with the outside world, they are all in charge of the gangs, and they only need to strictly obey the command.

The 'Cao Gang' has developed to this day, and even the governor and general soldiers of Cao Yun cannot ignore its existence, so they simply entrust all the errands of expropriation and transfer in various places, and only supervise them by local governments and imperial historians, but the specific affairs are all handled by the Cao Gang.

Ruohan told Shen Mo in the letter that Songjiang produces rice, and when Jiangsu and Zhejiang meet, the waterway is extremely convenient, so Songjiang's Cao Gang is a big gang, and it should also be a rich gang. But only because he is big and rich, he has become a fat sheep in the eyes of officials. The Songjiang Cao Gang, which has been exploited for a long time and has a bright appearance, has a huge deficit in public funds and has become a 'tired gang', which needs to be reversed urgently, otherwise it will be a problem for tens of thousands of people to eat.

Ruohan finally said that the Cao Gang people are very righteous, and if they can help them with this, they will definitely be rewarded with a drop of water, and they will be reciprocated by the spring.

After reading Ruohan's reply, although there was no mention of how the Cao Gang could help, Shen Mo knew that she was fighting the idea of Cao Liang!

As soon as he received the letter, Shen Mo checked the relevant copywriting and knew that the grain in Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou was all under the responsibility of the Songjiang Cao Gang. In order to make the Cao Yun normal and not affected by drought and floods, the Cao Gang will store grain in the warehouse, although it will not be too much, but there will always be hundreds of thousands of stones.

"If we can get all the rice in these two places, plus the ten boatloads of rice that Hu Butang raised for us, it will be enough." The iron pillar and the three feet said happily.

"Don't be too happy." Shen Mo was not very optimistic and said: "Whether it's the Xu family or the Cao Gang, I don't really know much about it, in case they have something to do with those people, we will become a joke." ”

"But since Madame said it, there must be a way." Tie Zhu was very determined.

"Oh," Shen Mo smiled, "You have more confidence in her than I do?" ”

"Shaoxing people who don't know that when Mrs. is not out of the cabinet, they are business wizards!" Tie Zhu said with a look of adoration.

Early the next morning, the boat arrived at the Songjiang Wharf, and saw the familiar oil wall car at a glance, and couldn't help but exclaim excitedly: "Ruohan! ”

The curtain of the car opened suddenly, revealing Rou Niang's surprised little face, and after a while, the car door opened, and Ruohan, dressed as a bride, appeared in front of Shen Mo.

"The concubine came to see the father-in-law." In front of so many people, Ruohan obviously suppressed her feelings, but Tingting bowed in front of Shen Mo, but on that pretty face, there was a clear expression of bitter longing and joy of reunion!

As soon as he saw the person he was thinking about, Shen Mo suddenly became impulsive, and he didn't wait for the boat to stop, so he jumped onto the shore, landed in front of Ruohan, and hugged her in his arms without any scruples.

Ruohan didn't expect him to be so bold, and whispered nervously: "Everyone else is watching." ”

"What are you afraid of," Shen Mo hugged her vigorously and said, "Except for my own people, no one knows us!" As he spoke, he lowered his voice and whispered in her ear, "Baby, do you miss me?" When he looked down, he saw that Ruohan's appearance had decreased, and he couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart.

Ruohan nodded vigorously, and said like a mosquito humming: "I thought about it......" The fair face was full of crimson, obviously not used to this kind of public intimacy.

How could Shen Mo bear to see her embarrassed, hugged her hard, let go of his hand, and said, "How do you know that I am here?" ”

Ruohan smiled and said nothing, but Rou Niang on the side smiled: "Madame comes over every morning to wait and see, I can't imagine that I am really waiting for the master today." ”

There is no need to express his affection, he glanced at Ruohan silently and gratefully, and said, "Let's go, let's go back." As he spoke, he turned back and waved his hand to the family of three on the boat to say goodbye.

Ruohan nodded, and got into the car with Shen Mo, while Rou Niang got into the latter car with interest. As for the iron pillars, two...... The guards accompanying the mistress were all their men, and they had already brought the horses over.

The three members of the boat looked at the distant convoy, and the old boatman said, "That lady is like a fairy walking down from a painting." ”

The old boat lady also sighed: "I was thinking on the way, what kind of beautiful man must be worthy of a beautiful man like Shen Gongzi, and now that I see it, it really looks like a golden boy and jade girl next to the Bodhisattva, and it is as tightly matched." ”

"Look, I'll tell you." The old boatman nodded and said, "My vision will not diverge." ”

Seeing that her husband still didn't take his eyes back, the old boat lady was so angry that she glanced at him, grabbed his ear and said, "I know how to look at fairies, but I never look at my yellow-faced woman!" ”

"It hurts! Pain! Pain! The old boatman had to be taken to the cabin by his wife and cleaned up.

The couple laughed for a long time, but they didn't see their second daughter, the fisherman girl with big black braids, with two strings of tears quietly hanging on her pretty face, crystal clear, beautiful and with a touch of sadness.

On the carriage, Ruohan finally abandoned her reserve, hugged her husband tightly, her body and mind were completely open to him, and she responded warmly to her lover's every movement. Every kiss...... There is a way that Xiao Bie is better than a newlywed, let alone a few months after the newlywed?

"Xianggong, hold on tightly! People are really afraid that this is a dream! After the excitement, Ruohan remembered that the car was in the downtown area, although he stopped his actions shyly, he was reluctant to let her husband go, and writhed in his arms like a coquette, and the cute little appearance made Shen Mo love it.

Seeing the appearance of her little daughter, Shen Mo came up again, and said with a smile: "Maybe it's just a dream." ”

Ruohan pouted her delicate little mouth, suddenly stretched out her little hand like a green onion, pinched Shen Mo's arm, and asked him, "Does it hurt?" ”

"I'm not wood," Shen Mo smiled, "Of course it hurts." ”

"Then it's not a dream......" Ruohan patted his chest with a relieved expression.

"Okay, little goblin, dare to tease your husband!" Shen Mo reached out to tickle her.

Ruohan was most afraid of this hand, giggling and twisting his delicate body, while begging for mercy, in order to make him stop, 'good brother, husband' called out.

After all, Shen Mo was pretending to be in trouble, so he was very measured, so he stopped after two troubles, took her in his arms and said, "How many days have you been here?" ”

"Let me think about it," lying in his arms, Ruohan said with his small hands supporting his pink cheeks, "Today is the fifth day." ”

"I'm sorry," Shen Mo said apologetically, "let you accompany me to worry about those things." ”

Ruohan gently covered his mouth and said softly: "Husband and wife are one, of course, there will be difficulties together." As he spoke, he sat up, clenched his pink fist and shook it in front of Shen Mo and said, "And in the past few days, I have gained a lot, I have basically figured out the bottom of the two families, and I have made an appointment for you, so we can go over today." ”

For the current silence, time is money is not enough to describe, it should be said that time is life! Hearing this, he was overjoyed and said: "If you have a wife like this, what more can your husband ask for?" ”

"It's good that you're not angry." Ruohan patted his chest and said, "I'm afraid you don't like women to make their own decisions." ”

"How can it," Shen Mo waved his hand: "We are husband and wife, Qi Li broke gold!" ”

"I don't want to do more of this kind of showmanship." Ruohan covered his mouth and chuckled: "How can you say that people are also a five-grade pleasant, and they must have a style." "She's a woman who knows what to say and when.

Shen Mo smiled and said, "It's okay, our family doesn't like that." Turning back to the topic, he said, "Where do we go first?" ”

"Cao Gang." Ruohan said softly: "No one thought that we could fight the idea of the Cao Gang, this is a good opportunity for us to do it......" said and looked at Shen Mo and said: "The Cao Gang is very sad, do you think how to help them?" ”

"Oh, my lady, don't sell it," Shen Mo smiled bitterly, "Tell me what you mean?" ”

"Aren't you a big man?" Ruohan's eyes were like silk and said: "If the old man doesn't speak, how dare the little woman talk nonsense." ”

(To be continued)