In October of the fourth year of Longqing, the northwest wind blew the hard sails of the three-masted Fu ship, slowly pushing the ship into deep water. Two large ships followed, protecting both sides, forming a flotilla heading south.

If this fleet is placed in the Yongle era, I am afraid that it is too small to be noticed. However, nowadays, there are no more giant ships like the Yongle Treasure Ship on the sea. These three big ships of 600 materials are enough to laugh proudly. There are 400 ordinary sea vessels, and these three are all warships built by the Kang family with their connections, which is enough to make ordinary pirates flee in despair.

Xu Yuanzuo stood at the bow of the ship facing the sea breeze, and behind him were the Songjiang gentry who came to see him off, as well as the employees under his command, and gradually moved away. Those "have a good trip" greetings became the background of the hustle and bustle in the sound of the seagulls, the tide and the sea breeze. He didn't feel that the road ahead was long before he set off, but standing here, sailing into the depths of the boundless sea, he finally felt the loneliness that filled the heavens and the earth.

"Zuo Ge'er, someone is diving, as if they are chasing us." Luo Zhenquan walked briskly on the deck.

Xu Yuanzuo turned around: "What's the matter?" ”

"The sentry saw someone jumping from the dock, as if they were chasing us." Luo Zhenquan said it again, but he still couldn't help laughing.

How stupid does this man have to be to jump into the water and chase the boat? Even if the wind is not full yet, the speed of the sailboat is not something that swimming can keep up with.

Xu Yuanzuo said: "Let a small boat go down to pick him up, maybe something important." ”

Luo Zhenquan took the order and left. He is now the captain of this ship, and there is a sense of comfort back in time. And he is even more high-spirited, because he was just a minion on the boat back then, and now he is the biggest on this boat except for Xu Yuanzuo.

The man who jumped into the water to chase the boat was soon picked up to Xu Yuanzuo's car. Mainly because the big boat hadn't gone too far, and at the same time, the small boat on the dock reacted faster, saved his life, and gave him a ride by the way.

After boarding. This man met Xu Yuanzuo.

His lips were purple from the cold, and he was wrapped tightly in a blanket of felt, and his hair was messy and sticky to his forehead.

"Zogoer?" His voice trembled as if it was about to break.

Xu Yuanzuo raised his eyebrows: "Are you?" "The man wasn't very old, he looked like he was in his teens. There's some flesh on it, but not much. Judging by his expression, he was a tired man. It's completely supporting your body with willpower and standing in front of yourself.

The boy's teeth were fighting, and he trembled as he removed the bamboo tube from his back. He almost cried and handed it to Xu Yuanzuo, and said, "The younger one is an apprentice in the marketing department of Renshoutang, and Brother Gu, Manager Gu, asked me to send this letter to Brother Zuo." ”

Xu Yuanzuo took the bamboo tube and gently unscrewed it, and there was some damp oiled paper inside. Inside the oiled paper is another oiled paper bag wrapped in felt. Layer upon layer, open the last layer, only to see a letter. Xu Yuanzuo thought that something was going on in Liaodong. Gu Shuisheng sent someone back to deliver the letter, but when he read the letter, he found that the letter was written by Songjiang to Jingshi.

It was more than half a year ago.

"You're this way...... Great work. Xu Yuanzuo felt quite turbulent in his heart, and he forcibly restrained his emotions.

The young man didn't have this skill, his knees were weak, he already knelt in front of Xu Yuanzuo, and cried loudly: "The little one is fortunate not to be dishonored, and finally sent this letter to Zuo Ge'er by hand." ”

This letter is that Gu Shuisheng had dinner with Shopkeeper An and got a lot of news. The main content of the report was the silver and copper business in the trade with Japan. At that time, Gu Shuisheng found an apprentice who could hurry. I didn't expect it to be so tortuous, and it took more than half a year to toss on the road before it was delivered to Xu Yuanzuo.

"What's your name?" Xu Yuanzuo motioned for the guards to help the boy up and take him into the cabin.

The young man couldn't help crying: "Little Xing Mingfan." ”

Xu Yuanzuo smiled: "You have suffered a lot along the way." ”

Xing Mingfan remembered that he set off from Songjiang, was kidnapped by rebels in Huai'an, and escaped only after being a porter for more than ten days. The entanglement on his body is all gone, and he finally didn't lose the letter.

He continued north. mistakenly threw himself into a black store in Shandong, and was almost chopped off with a bun. Fortunately, the local yamen just exterminated the thief's den, took the black shop, and rescued him. The inspection of the director saw that Xing Mingfan was still young, which was quite strange. It took a lot of questioning to believe him. Feeling Xing Mingfan's loyalty, the inspector also gave him five taels of silver to enter Beijing with the army.

The squad army is a unit of Shandong military households that entered Beijing to serve, and no one dares to provoke it. Xing Mingfan finally entered Beijing with TOEFL, but he couldn't find the Xu family's shop. It wasn't until the silver ran out that I found out that the Yunjian Hall was originally opened by Songjiang people. He arrived at the Cloud Hall, met the shopkeeper Xu Ping, checked his identity, and wanted to cry without tears - Zuo Ge'er had already gone to Liaodong.

Although Xu Ping knew that Xu Yuanzuo had gone to Liaodong, he did not know that the fleet had docked at Liangfangkou. And at that time, the ships going to Liaodong did not reach Liangfangkou, only to Lushunkou. So he prepared a coil and sent someone to send Xing Mingfan to the merchant ship bound for Lushunkou.

The merchant ship owner received Xu Ping's silver, but there was no loyalty...... When Xing Mingfan went ashore, he knew that Lushun had already passed, and this place was called Zhenjiang Fort. There were hundreds of military households in the fort, as well as Korean merchants who came to trade.

"I'm for your own good, it's closer to Shenyang from here." The captain insisted.

Xing Mingfan didn't even know where Zhenjiang Fort was, and he worked in the fort, and finally waited for a North Korean caravan to go to Fushun. As the caravan traveled through the mountains of Liaodong, Xing Mingfan learned the military dialect of Liaodong, learned some Korean, learned to ride horses, and learned to shoot a bow and arrow...... I just didn't remember the way - the caravan was like going round and round in the mountains.

Fortunately, the caravan arrived in Fushun safely. Xing Mingfan got the news from Zuo Ge'er here: a team of wealthy businessmen was going to Liangfangkou from here. Of course, when Xing Mingfan chased him to Liangfangkou, he could only see the young man who stayed behind as a supervisor. Xu Yuanzuo had already sailed back and returned to Jiangnan.

Xing Mingfan couldn't find a boat at Liangfangkou, so he had to go to Lushun by land. In Lushun, he took a boat to Dengzhou, and he was no longer penny. Begging and working all the way, and hiding on a boat returning from the north to the south, Xing Mingfan finally arrived at Liujiagang. Seeing that he was pitiful, the two Suzhou merchants did not bother to verify the truth of what he said, so they gave him some coils so that he could go home.

Back in Tang Xing, Xing Mingfan has been sullen and saddened that he can't complete the task. As a result, when I arrived at the general counter, I knew that Manager Gu had already been sent to Liaodong to preside over the overall situation, and Zuo Ge'er only went to Shanghai today to take a boat south to study in Fujian and Guangdong. Xing Mingfan is like being amnestied - he hasn't done this errand yet! He didn't have time to go to the account office to pay for the entanglement, so he hired a ship to rush to Shanghai with the remaining silver around him, and finally saw the slowly departing fleet on the dock.

Xing Mingfan didn't know what he thought, so he stripped off his winter coat three or two times and jumped into the cold and biting seawater.

The people on the boat looked from afar, thinking that he was swimming and chasing the boat, but only the people on the shore knew that the child was simply splashing in the water, so he almost shouted "help".

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*(To be continued.) )

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