On the outskirts of Beijing, in the Red Lotus Temple, Yan Shuyu sat quietly in her own meditation room, holding a rosary in her hand, closing her eyes and gently chanting Buddhist scriptures, while turning the beads in her hand.

When she was a girl, she came here because she had a troubled conscience after killing her own hands for a year.

A few years ago, she came here because she was in a difficult situation and wanted to climb up.

Now she is here again because she doesn't want to die.

The monks of the Red Lotus Temple were naturally very respectful to the Empress Dowager who suddenly came, and they picked out the best Zen room for her to live in, which is a single courtyard, with carefully planted flowers and plants in the courtyard, as well as small pagodas and Buddha statues, which looks very beautiful in the garden, and has the meaning of ancient Buddha.

But Yan Shuyu just stayed in her room all day long, never went out, and always spent it in chanting.

I don't know how long it took, the door of the meditation room creaked open, and a woman dressed as a palace maid came in with a food box, brought out the dazzling array of vegetarian food inside, and put it on the table.

"Mother, it's time to eat!" The palace maid said.

She always felt that Yan Shuyu was a little abnormal recently.

Although it seems that there is a little change in status from the queen to the queen mother, Yan Shuyu is not so depressed.

Yan Shuyu opened her eyes slightly, and suddenly asked, "Is Master Miaofa back?" ”

"Not yet!" Master Myeho is said to be the most profound Buddhist monk in the entire Red Lotus Temple. Yan Shuyu is now desperate to see Master Miaofa and ask him to solve the doubts in her heart.

"But I heard that Master Miaofa will be back in two days, and when the time comes, he will just settle down in a hurry and travel again." The palace maid knew that Yan Shuyu had been paying attention to the news of Master Miaofa, so she hurriedly added.

Yan Shuyu smiled faintly, and her heart finally stabilized.

She stood up, couldn't even care about a table of exquisite vegetarian food, and said, "Follow me to the main hall, I want to draw a lot!" ”

Master Miaofa said that he would come back the day after tomorrow, but this kind of wandering monk may come back at any time, and he may leave at any time. She has to draw her own life lottery first, and then wait for the magic method to unsign it for her.

When I arrived at the main hall of the Red Lotus Temple, a little monk immediately greeted her, knowing that Yan Shuyu was here to draw lots, so she was respectful and should be in front of the Buddha.

Yan Shuyu bowed three times and bowed nine times, muttering a wish to the huge golden statue of the Buddha before taking the sign in the monk's hand.

Shake and shake, the lottery holder that is usually easy to sign is not a sign, Yan Shuyu was irritable, her eyes swept away, and she fell on another sign holder next to her, and said coldly: "Hand that over." ”

The little monk was shocked!

The lottery holder in his hand is specially screened, and it is all the lucky lottery with the highest number, specially prepared for the nobles, so as not to shake out the bad lottery and dislike it. And the stick holder that Yan Shuyu pointed to is an ordinary stick holder, which has all the signs from the top to the bottom, and what kind of sticks can be shaken is all up to God's will.

However, it is said that the lottery holder that Yan Shuyu pointed to seems to be inexplicably accurate, and can always point out the fate of the person seeking the signature - although this fate is not necessarily good!

The queen mother's words, the little monk didn't dare not listen, he trembled and picked up the sticker and handed it to Yan Shuyu.

Yan Shuyu shook it gently, and before a few clicks, a bamboo stick fell to the ground.

Twisting the bamboo stick with her hands, Yan Shuyu read silently in her heart: If you lose a chess game, go and return it, the spring flowers will fall, and you will leave the hateful sky!

Her face changed suddenly!

This is definitely not the next sign in this tube! And according to the meaning of the sign, didn't she curse her to give up her previous efforts and die!

Thinking of the death of the eldest prince some time ago, Yan Shuyu's face was as black as the sky before a storm.

She took several deep breaths, still not controlling her emotions.

Seeing that Yan Shuyu's face was difficult to look at, the little monk hurriedly wanted to step forward, wanted to see the content of the stick, and tried to say a few auspicious words, but saw Yan Shuyu rub it twice and broke the bamboo stick, which was not enough, so he broke the bamboo stick into a pile of broken bamboo pieces, and then snorted coldly, patted the crumbs on his body, and walked out.

This little monk was shocked, could it be said that Yan Shuyu couldn't win a very bad sign?

Although the stick was destroyed by Yan Shuyu, there are still clues to follow. The little monk waited for Yan Shuyu to leave, and put together the bamboo sticks that she had broken, and only by looking at a few broken handwritings, he knew which one it was. He couldn't help but be surprised and grew his mouth, this sign is a mortal life!

Yan Shuyu didn't expect that she would actually draw such a bamboo stick, and she was so irritable that she even felt a little uncomfortable in her stomach.

The child is already seven months old, and has a life of its own, although it has not yet been born, but it can probably feel the mother's thoughts.

The room was quiet, because Yan Shuyu was in a bad mood today, and the people who served her were all driven out of the door, and none of them dared to come in.

Yan Shuyu put her hand on her restless belly, and a sneer appeared on her face: "My life is up to me!" What is a bamboo stick, I, Yan Shuyu, have experienced so many storms, this time, it will definitely succeed! Child, you wait, you will definitely be the emperor of the Great Zhou in the future! ”

At this time, in King Ning's Mansion, Yan Qingge was making the final inventory of the things he was going to Qingzhou.

Originally, she asked someone to purchase countless things that might be used in Qingzhou in the future, but there was no one there, but after Le Yi took the list, he laughed and checked most of the things in it and canceled them.

"Qingzhou now has three sea ports, not only to trade with those small foreign countries, but also to rely on shipping to and from other ports in my big Zhou. Although it has only been two years since the opening of Haikou, the prosperity of those two places is no longer what you can imagine! Even if the barbarians were rampant, the merchants there spontaneously paid for warriors and weapons, and the iron barrels operated there were never broken and plundered by the barbarians. ”

Before Yan Qingge was reborn, there was no talk of opening the sea ban, but she didn't know what the result would be if the sea ban was opened. The capital is deep inland, although with the opening of the sea ban, there are a lot of Fanbang people in fancy clothes in Beijing, and there are many novelty goods, but what the real port looks like, she has never seen.

Hearing Le Yi's description, Yan Qingge couldn't help but be speechless: "Uncle, they are just merchants, can they really use their own strength to fight against the barbarians and protect an entire city?" ”

"That's nature! Money talks. Yan Xiuyu could see it, and said with a smile: "I heard that those merchants just took a sea voyage, bought things from us and sold them, and then bought some exotic specialties to sell when they arrived at the place, and the goods of a medium-sized ship could have a surplus of a few thousand taels of silver, and if they sold some in-demand goods, they would make more profits!" And each time they are a dozen large ships in the fleet, back and forth, it is tens of thousands of silver in hand. At least three or five times a year, do you say you make money? ”

Yan Qingge was shocked, this silver is too easy to earn, it is even more convenient than robbery!

Le Yi smiled: "This is still the result of their tax deduction, do you know how much tax these businessmen have to pay to me Da Zhou?" The ships that go to sea pay the seventy-one tax according to the price of the goods, and when they return, they do not collect silver, but only the goods they bring back, which is also one out of seven. ”

Yan Qingge was very surprised: "In this way, Qingzhou's annual tax revenue is even more than that of the real capital!" ”

"The first ten who have already arrived have inherited! There are dozens of merchants with more than a dozen large ships as my uncle said, and there are hundreds of small merchants with three or five medium-sized boats, as well as countless ordinary small merchants who only have small boats and make small profits by running bulk cargo. Yan Xiuyu said.

Yan Qingge couldn't imagine such a beautiful scenery of the ship, in the end, all she could do was to honestly follow Le Yi's advice and cross off the list all the things that Le Yi didn't let her bring.

With such a stroke, Yan Qingge was surprised to find that she was originally going to take hundreds of cars and form a large convoy to go, but now it has been reduced to only more than twenty cars to put everything down.

In this way, Ning Wangfu pulls more cars than things. There are also many cars with consumables such as food on the road. In any case, it's considered light.

Before leaving, as long as one more thing is done, Yan Qingge will no longer have any knots.

She found Yan Xiuyu and told him that she finally saw Lan Tong and Chen Baoyu's uncle in the palace that day.

After listening to this, Yan Xiuyu asked her, "What are you going to do with these two children?" ”

Yan Qingge sighed slightly: "They have been locked up in Yanjia Beizhuang in the suburbs so far, I don't really want to embarrass them, although they are grounded, but they don't have to worry about food and clothing, and the master teaches them to read, but it is unrealistic to lock them up for a lifetime." Let's find their uncle now. ”

The uncles of these two children were mysterious before, but now that they know that he is trusted by the prince and have some friendship with Zhu Liubao, they can find out soon.

Although Yan Qingge's informant in the palace was not too secure, he replied to Yan Qingge a few days later. Gai is because this person has sprung up, after the crown prince ascended the throne, he was promoted quickly, and it didn't take long for him to become one of the chief eunuchs of the Heart Cultivation Palace, and he was a smash hit and entered the eyes of everyone, so he was quickly found out.

Yan Qingge looked at the information about this eunuch on the paper and smiled slightly.

This eunuch is now known as Niu Qisheng, and he is called Niu Steward, and he is often ordered to go out of the palace to do business, and sometimes he does not return to the palace at night, and there should be a house outside the palace.

In this way, it will be easier to catch him!

Yan Qingge ordered to go down and let his people keep an eye on him at the palace gate, and be sure to find this Niu Qisheng's house as soon as possible, and then let her decide when to attack him. She must be surprised, just like when Niu Qisheng did it to her a few times before!