In early spring in the capital, it is warm and cold.

In this early morning, under the bridge in the east of the city outside the Beijing Division, the former Shangbao Sicheng, the Zhongshu Sheren Li and the Rite Department member Zhu Fanghe, and the three sons of the Military Department Lu Shangshu said goodbye.

Li You didn't want to cause too much movement, so he walked very low-key, and only these two came to see each other off.

"Brother, I am frustrated in the sea and have fallen into a foreign land, and I bid farewell to my two brothers this morning. It was yesterday that the banquet was in the same hall, and it was said that the people of thousands of miles were far away after many years, and they were lonely and lonely..."

Seeing Li You searching his intestines and scraping his stomach and piling up all his words, Zhu Bulang, who knew him well, was very speechless. You, Lord Li, have a great reputation, and go to Yangzhou City, the world's first wind and moon capital, only 200 miles away from your hometown, to be the chief official... Let others hear your complaining words, and think that you are going to be sent to the frontier. Although everyone's parting is this routine, you are also going too far.

Besides, how can the nineteen-year-old official of Liupinjiangdu County be regarded as a frustrated eunuch?

Zhu Bulang didn't know how to answer, but Lu Sangongzi said with a straight face: "Brother Xian is going to shepherd one side, Baili Hou is also, an official close to the people, and the responsibility cannot be underestimated." We should remember to encourage the wind to soothe the people, be cautious in prison, be a promising, and be a promising, and be praised by all the people, so that we can live up to our lives. There are a few proverbs for my brother, you know..."

The strong middle hand is even stronger the strong middle hand, Li You was preached by his cheap wife and brother, and he was defeated miserably. He quickly arched his hand and said "Farewell", and jumped into the carriage and headed east.

There was nothing to say all the way, and when they arrived in Tongzhou, Li You and his party of six people transferred to a boat and went south along the canal. The waterway was still the same waterway, and he had to go back to the route he had taken when he entered Beijing, and by the way he had distributed a number of letters that he had brought with him.

Of course, the circumstances of the two journeys are completely different, Lord Li was unknown when he entered Beijing, and he was silent all the way, but when he left Beijing, Lord Li was definitely not lonely.

Although because the time is still short, it has not reached the point of being famous all over the world, but it is also a small minister. Both sides of the canal are the most well-informed areas in the world, and after Li You registered his name at each post station along the way, many magistrates were moved by the wind and held a banquet to invite each other.

The reason why she is not lonely is that with the little lady Cheng with fine skin and tender meat, she will not be empty at night during the long road.

On the second day of going south, on the dark and windy night of that month, Li You was full of interest, so it was logical and natural to break the crying Cheng Xiaoniang and accept her as the fourth concubine.

When the boat stopped at the Linqingzhou Water Station, Cheng Xiaoniang lay on the small case in the cabin and secretly wrote a letter to the Ten Princes Mansion in the capital to report: "Recently, there has been a lot of entertainment, and its strength is not as good as before, and it is less than half an hour..."

At this time, Master Li suddenly appeared behind him, took off the pen tube, and was quite unconvinced to erase half of the words and change them to three characters.

The boat swayed in the canal, until it passed Huai'an Mansion, and Li You kept a low profile again, and did not go to the post station to log in to eat and drink.

Because after Huai'an Mansion, he entered the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Prefecture. Although he will soon arrive at the place where he will work, Li You does not want to go directly to Jiangdu County to take office, he plans to return to Xujiang County first, and then set off from his hometown and then go to Yangzhou City.

However, if you go along the canal, you will inevitably pass through Yangzhou, so Li Da wants to cross the border quietly incognito, so as not to cause trouble. If you don't go home first, if you are known by some unsightly officials, you will definitely use this impeachment, although Li You is not afraid, but more things are better than less.

There are three counties directly under the central government and three subordinate prefectures under the Yangzhou Mansion of the National Dynasty, starting from the Great River in the south, reaching the Huai River in the north, reaching the sea in the east, reaching Hongze and Gaoyou Lakes in the west, and there are water in all directions, which is a large mansion in the world.

The three counties directly under the central government of Yangzhou are Jiangdu County, Yizhen County and Taixing County, of which Jiangdu County is the first county, that is, where the capital city is located. The three subordinate prefectures are Gaoyou Prefecture, Taizhou and Tongzhou, and these three subordinate prefectures have seven counties under their jurisdiction.

To the south of Huai'an Mansion is Gaoyou Prefecture, and if you continue south along the canal, you will reach the boundary of Jiangdu County. The boat slowed down again, and Lord Li and Cui Jing took a closer look at the customs and customs on both sides of the strait, after all, this is the future rule, and it is good to be familiar with it along the way.

Because of the water transfer and irrigation of Hongze Lake in the upper reaches, the water volume of the canal between the Jianghuai River and Huai River has always been very large, and the water surface and the embankment are relatively high.

Cui Jing pointed to the village in the distance and said: "Yangzhou Mansion is a big mansion in the world, and Jiangdu County is also a big county in the metropolis, but looking at its township, it is far worse than Jiangnan." Yesterday, I found a record, the entire Yangzhou Mansion is not more than 300,000 stones, Jiangdu County does not know, the proprietor will know when he takes office. ”

Three hundred thousand? Li You was shocked by this number. Although this figure is only based on the taxes paid on the land and the mouth, which is generally called the positive tax on money and grain, and does not include taxes such as industrial and commercial salt, it is still too little.

You must know that Suzhou Prefecture is endowed with nearly 3 million dollars and grains, while Xujiang County is 320,000... The well-known Yangzhou Mansion is only equivalent to Xujiang County in a year? This is still the whole of Yangzhou, and there are even fewer in Jiangdu County.

Cui Jing continued: "I went ashore last night to ask the locals, and it turned out that the rivers and lakes in the west between the Jianghuai River and the Huai River are dense, the water conditions are complicated, and disasters are frequent, while the sea in the east is full of salt pans. Therefore, the rural farming is much more withered than in the south of the Yangtze River, and the money and grain are naturally less. ”

When Master Xinzha Cui Jing told Li You about this, it was obviously not without purpose, and he believed that the proprietor must have understood the meaning.

Li You has worked in the yamen of the prefecture and county, and even if he realizes a bad problem.

Yangzhou City is definitely a place where gold and silver are like the sea, with millions of taels of salt and hundreds of thousands of taels of tariffs every year, but the problem is that neither of them belongs to Jiangdu County... What he can collect in Jiangdu County is that he doesn't know tens of thousands of stone of money and grain and a little money on the street.

Forget it, the ship will naturally go straight to the bridge, anyway, if you can collect money and food on time this year, you are qualified, whether it is more or less, you have to hand it over to the court, and it is useless to think so much... Li You put his mind at ease, looked at the scene with Master Cui for a while, and then got on the boat and continued to move forward.

At the beginning of April, the new Yangzhou Prefecture General Judge and Acting Jiangdu County quietly arrived at the Dongguan Ferry Port in Yangzhou City (that is, Jiangdu County).

The canal goes around the city from the east and south of Yangzhou City, forming two gates that can enter the city through the canal, namely the Lijin Gate (Dongguan) in the east city and the banknote gate (Rujiang Gate) in the south city.

In this era, Yangzhou prospered because of the salt industry, and more than 300 merchants of the salt industry in Xin'an and Shanxi made millions of profits and paid salt taxes every year. A huge amount of money flowed into Yangzhou City, and a metropolis with prosperity comparable to Suzhou City was built in Jiangbei.

One in the south of the Yangtze River and the other in the north of the Yangtze River, Suzhou City and Yangzhou City can be called a pair of the most dazzling twin stars. In fact, the length of Yangzhou's city wall, the area of the city, and the population are one size smaller than that of Suzhou City, but the degree of development of Yangzhou City is by no means inferior to that of Suzhou City.

If Yangzhou has to be compared with Suzhou, the world's largest metropolis outside the two capitals, Suzhou seems to be an all-round champion with all-round development of agriculture, industry and commerce, while Yangzhou is more like a single champion in commerce.

Yangzhou's products are not abundant, and the only ones that can barely be listed are salted fish and "thin horses", and the surrounding hinterland is not as rich and prosperous as Suzhou. However, Yangzhou City is a pure consumption city that relies on the rise of huge salt industry profits, and there are many rich and leisure classes, which support the existence of a large number of green buildings, tea houses, bathhouses, painting boats, and gardens in Yangzhou City.

In this era, the three words of Yangzhou City represent the city of poetry, the city of dreams, and the capital of fireworks. There are countless well-known poems about Yangzhou. Spring breeze ten miles of Yangzhou Road, life only in Yangzhou death, fireworks in March under Yangzhou, twenty-four bridges and moonlit nights, ten years of Yangzhou dream, Huaizuo famous capital Zhuxi Jia... This is the place where Master Li will take office.

(To be continued)