Zheng Yunming paced back and forth at the entrance of the yamen a few times, but he didn't come up with a way at all. Bai Yijie said with a smile: "These things can't be thought of for three years, Brother Shi, you come with me and tell me all the circumstances of your master, bit by bit, don't miss a little." ”

Shi Wenhu was shocked, he knew that this white senator was Zhiduoxing, but if the situation of the Lai family was sold, would he be considered to have turned his back on his master?

Bai Yijie saw the doubt in his eyes, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, if you can jade the good deeds of Chengdu and the Lai family's lady, in the future, Lai Zhangren will only be grateful for your kindness, and will never blame you." ”

"When will we figure it out?" Zheng Yunming was pacing and rubbing his hands anxiously, Bai Yijie laughed: "With such a panicked appearance, how can he be called a famous general on the side of the unified army?" All the capital is a little restless, and there will be a decomposition tomorrow. ”

On the second day, when Bai Yijie pushed the door into Zheng Yunming's study, Zheng Yunming, everyone from the Jinghu Transfer Division and Liu Kezhuang were discussing passionately.

Bai Yijie leaned over and looked at Zheng Yunming, who was on the table, which was a map of the Jinghu area, which was densely marked with the location of gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, stone and other products.

"You're here at the right time." Zheng Yunming said to Bai Yijie: "I told you about the mine-workshop plan that connects Hanyang, Pingxiang, and Daye to the Jinghu Transshipment Division and listened carefully, and everyone thinks that this plan is quite desirable. ”

"Feng Hucao, you can talk about it."

At this time, Feng Fang has been trained by the Xiangyang Incident, and is much more mature than before, and with Zheng Yunming's protection, he has been officially promoted to Hu Cao of the Transshipment Division. He pointed to Daye County in Huangzhou and said: "I have been to Daye Mine, and the ore is of high quality and easy to mine. If the supervision is effective, the goal of 200,000 catties of iron born a year can be fully achieved. ”

Cao Anzhi, a Chang Ping household, also said: "I have checked the coal brought back by Senator Bai from Pingxiang to the craftsman, and it is indeed a high-quality coal stone, if according to Senator Bai's description, it should not be a problem to supply more than 100,000 catties of coal to the upstream of Lu every year, but it is still the premise, first to solve the bandit trouble in Yuanzhou." ”

"It's far from that simple." Zheng Yunming supported his chin with his hand and watched the winding route of the Yangtze River on the map.

"To transport these materials, at least hundreds of transport ships are needed, and thousands of people are lost.

"You're taking the businessman's business up to you again." Bai Yijie said: "When the imperial court was in the north, it used to mobilize merchants to transport grain to the border areas and then distribute salt introductions. ”

"At that time, the imperial court had salt farms in Shaanxi, Hedong and other places, and they could use the huge profits of salt to attract merchants." Feng Fang made a difficulty: "There is nothing valuable in Xiangyang that can be worth these businessmen running back and forth on the river. ”

"If there is no good goods, make good goods." Zheng Yunming turned around and took down a booklet from the bookshelf, and there were only four small block letters on the cover, called "The New Law of Cotton Spinning".

"A new way of spinning cotton?" Bai Yijie said: "Nowadays, the price of cotton cloth exceeds that of silk, not because of how difficult cotton planting is, but because the textile link is quite difficult, labor-intensive and time-consuming. ”

Zheng Yunming said slowly: "The south of Liangguang is the land of the barbarians in Lizhou, although they are barbarians who drink blood, there is a skill that is much better than the Central Plains, this is the ability to spin cotton weaving, the cotton cloth, quilts, cotton mattresses and other fabrics they produce, the patterns are complex, bright and picturesque, far better than the pure color cotton cloth of the Central Plains. Knowing such benefits of the Li people, the merchants of Liangguang and Guangxi transported grain, pottery, and iron tools from Guangzhou to Yazhou, and exchanged them for Li cloth in the market and sold them back, so that they could get eight or nine times the profit. ”

"So this method actually comes from the Li people?"

"Exactly." Zheng Yunming's ability to tell stories has become more proficient after many times of nonsense experience: "About 60 years ago, there was a woman in Huating County, Jiaxing, who was sold as a child daughter-in-law, because her husband's family beat and abused her, she could not endure it, and fled to a merchant ship that traveled far away, fled to Yazhou, where she lived for more than 20 years, and learned the skills of the Li people's 'wrong yarn color matching, heald thread and flowers', as well as various ingenious machines such as seed removal, rolling, cotton spinning, and weaving. Later, she returned to her hometown and was denounced by the original owner's family, so she had to come to Lin'an to take refuge, because of the coincidence of the relationship and I knew, she taught me this set of skills, and now it comes in handy. ”

Bai Yijie praised: "The Metropolitan Department must write the deeds of this old woman into a concert and submit it to the imperial court, and His Majesty will issue an order to praise those who have made meritorious contributions to the country, so as to encourage more capable people to come out and contribute to the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Zheng Yunming waved his hand awkwardly and smiled: "This Huang woman is quiet and not good for fame and fortune, otherwise why don't you go to the rich businessman to teach her with such a good technique?" Besides, she has been dead for several years, and even if the state wants to praise her, she can't see it. ”

Bai Yijie was surprised: "I see, it's really a pity." ”

Zheng Yunming saw that he no longer asked, and his heart was slightly relieved, although Huang Daopo is not dead, but there are still decades before she was born, if the government really investigates, this lie will inevitably be exposed.

Bai Yijie said: "I suggest that in the future, all fabrics produced with this Huang's technique should be printed with the words "Yazhou Huang" on a corner, which is convenient for publicity on the one hand, and can also show Huang's achievements on the other hand. ”

Zheng Yunming thought about it, and there didn't seem to be any flaws in this method, so he nodded and agreed. He dismissed the people and staff of the Transfer Division, leaving Bai Yijie alone in the study, and asked quietly: "Have you thought of the idea of saving the lady of the Lai family?" ”

Bai Yijie smiled dumbly, he laughed and said: "The lady of the Lai family is going back to her own home, and she was not kidnapped by some strongman, what kind of rescue or not, I have already thought of the way, but I am worried that Du Tong will not do it." ”

Zheng Yunming said loudly: "If you can get the permission of the Lai family's father-in-law to do this, even if the sword mountain is a sea of fire, what is there to fear?" ”

"That's fine. Bai Yijie said: "All of them come over with their ears." ”

Zheng Yunming looked at his mysterious appearance, leaned out and attached his ear.

Bai Yijie covered it with a feather fan and whispered something in Zheng Yunming's ear.

Although the voice was soft, Zheng Yunming was like thunder in his ears.

When Zheng Yunming was shocked by the boldness of Bai Yijie's strategy, Song Yichang was standing in the main hall of the county government office in Daye County, reviewing the case file for the innocence of a young scholar.

This matter is completely out of Bai Yijie's personal friendship, and Xiao Rong, who was accused by the Daye County Ya of killing and burning corpses, was Bai Yijie's partner when he was studying in Jinghu. Of course, this matter cannot be said to have nothing to do with official business, Bai Yijie is eager to clear Xiao Rong's name, because Daye's mine needs a principal.

Xiao Rong, an inconspicuous talent in Huangzhou, is the grandson of Xiao Zhongkui, the first household in Huangzhou, and the Xiao family has been operating mines in Huangzhou for several generations.

Although Xiao Rong is not proficient in learning, he has inherited the sensitive sense of smell of the Xiao family for several generations of business, and Bai Yijie wants to run the Hanyeping mining and metallurgical system, so he naturally thought of this classmate first.

But when he flew to the Xiao family's mansion in Daye County, he got the news that Xiao Rong had committed a crime. He originally wanted to rush to Huangzhou to rescue him immediately, but after all, there was something serious to deal with, and with his many years of acquaintance with Song Yichang, he thought that he might not be as good as Song Gongzi, whose mother came from a family of officials, in terms of judging the case.

"You seem to know a lot about these criminal documents." The head of Daye County looked at Song Yichang, who was looking at the case word by word, and said.

Song Yichang put down the case file and stretched his neck: "For me personally, I would rather stay in the various markets and discover the big plot behind it through the most vague clues and the most insignificant phenomena. It's much more interesting than being a boring civil servant in the local area. Sometimes a casual petty theft can touch the nerves of an entire state or county, and sometimes an ordinary brawl you see on the streets can involve a huge human tragedy, all in all, the mystery is indescribable. ”

After posting this set of strange discussions, Song Yichang leaned back in his chair easily, shrugged his shoulders and said: "The narrative of the case file can only go here, can I go to the prison to take a look at the prisoner?" ”

The head of the team said with a smiling face: "You have the official document of the Huangzhou Prefecture Ya, and there is no problem with casual arraignment." ”

Zheng Yunming, the deputy commander of Jing'e and Hubei, came forward to write a letter to Marshal Meng Hui, who was also the governor of Huangzhou, and then the Zhizhou Yamen issued an official document with special permission to assist in the trial of this strange case.

"Let's go right away." Song Yichang said: "After all, what is on paper is something on paper, and only the narrative of the person concerned can provide the most authentic details." ”

The prison in Daye County was dimly lit and gloomy, and the air smelled of mold. The head of the squad led Song Yichang to the front of one of the cells, and on the dirty straw behind the huge wooden fence sat a young man in prison clothes with a fair face, although his eyes were full of fear, but it seemed that the Xiao family was very effective in the prison, and this little scholar did not suffer much in the prison.

"Need to bring Xiao Gongzi for trial? Or "the head of the squad was obviously very polite to the prisoners in prison.