The Road Back to Beijing (II) (Part II)

Gong Zhiyun likes the green tea in Jiangnan very much, especially the winter tea before the New Year, and the tea flavor of the old leaves is actually stronger than the spring tea that everyone is after. And in the past few years, the plum snow dew launched by the Aoki Tea House has made him even more pleased. The winter tea smoked by the plum has the heaviness of the winter tea itself, and the cold aroma of the plum, so you can drink a cup when you are irritable, which is very calm. This tea can not only be brewed with boiling water, but also can be brewed and frozen together in ice, which has a unique effect on decanting and rejuvenating. And these teas of the Aoki Tea Society are selected from the tea trees of the high-quality tea garden after frost and snow pressing, naturally absorbing the essence of winter snow, and then fumigating with plum hydrosol after the first stir-fry, and then after the second stir-fry, put it into the pottery jar, and then bury it in the snow of the plum forest, and stay until the end of the month, at the beginning of the new year, before the snow melts, take it out and put it in the ice cellar for collection. Because this one is very time-consuming, and it requires the selection of high-quality tea leaves and plums, as well as a good environment of plum forests, so it is not produced much every year, but it is sought after by many tea customers who like strong tea and coolness. The price on the market is several times to dozens of times that of the high-grade traditional Jiangnan spring tea, and there is no market for it, and it is difficult to find a product.

Every year because of the Chen family, he can get one or two cans. Today's can is also Xinjie's filial piety to the Chen family's uncle, and he was taken by the way. Gong Zhiyun put his fingers into the teapot and picked out a small pinch of brewed tea leaves, brought it to his nose and smelled it, although he had already brewed twice, the aroma was still very pleasant. He smiled slightly, This high-quality tea may be able to produce more, but the clever Young Master Tang San has let the Aoki Tea Houses in Beijing, Hangzhou, Xianyang and Luoyang ship less than a hundred cans a year in each store, and the palace purchases three hundred cans, one or two cans each, a total of less than thirty catties. Except for the famous masters, the emperor rewarded important ministers and kept a few cans for himself, and the others didn't say anything about drinking, but they were afraid that it would be difficult to even see the jars. If you can't get a can, you can only go to the Aoki Tea House to order, ten taels of silver a pot, enough for the small people to chew for a month. Despite this, it is often out of stock, generally around the New Year, after March and April, it is often sold out, even if it is the Aoki Tea House in the capital, after March, it is not often available, want to drink, please be early next year. Every year, in addition to the production of only 100 catties of plum snow dew, Aoki Tea House also has a variety of similar special teas to meet the needs of different tastes. Not to mention the rest, just Lamei Xuelu, the sales that can be seen on the market in a year is 100,000 taels of silver.

Thinking of those so-called patriarchs in the capital, he couldn't help but sneer at the mention of Tang Sangongzi's tone. The second lady of the Tang family is still very capable in this regard, and she smeared her unpleasant concubine in the social circle of the capital. But whenever the third prince has a little intersection with which Hualou woman, the social circle in the capital is in an uproar, and everyone knows the women in the back house, and the third prince is unruly and prodigal, only knows how to eat, drink and have fun, only knows how to fight bravely, and does not do business, etc., and those stupid people also believe it. Even Gong Zhiyun's mother is convinced.

His fourth sister has been unable to let go of Tang Sangongzi since she saw Tang San Gongzi in the palace, but her mother listened to the rumors in Beijing, and resolutely did not let her sister have an affair with such a frivolous and romantic person. Zhou Shilang has always been sleek, and he has been in the middle of the court, but he is not a person who has to be treated, and he has not moved his nest in the position of Shilang for so many years. The son of the Zhou family is very well-behaved in front of the elders, and he is very good at pretending, so his mother eats that set. As a peer, Gong Zhiyun had already seen that the qualifications of this squire family were mediocre but empty-eyed, and his eyes were low. Originally, I wanted to help him in my sister's face, but a scholar who talked about it had a strong self-esteem and didn't listen to persuasion. In the past few years, his political performance has been mediocre, even if Gong Zhiyun and the Gong family want to help him, it is difficult to improve quickly, and now he is only a county in Xishu. The fourth sister had to go to Xishu with Zhou Gongzi, and she didn't see each other for a few years.

Tang Xinjie followed the prince to envoy to foreign domains a few years ago, and had close contacts, whether it was officialdom or shopping malls, a good future was just around the corner. In this autumn hunt, although Xinjie is not in Beijing, the sons of the Tang family have made a lot of contributions, the tide is rising, and the voices of the descendants of the Tang family are rising. Seeing that the prince's position is stable and the queen mother is serious, will her mother regret it in the future.

Regarding his reputation, this cousin of the Tang family is also very calm, and has never denied the reputation that his mother has created for him, and he has indeed attracted bees and butterflies in the past few years. Never justify his name, bury his head in a low-key way to make money, and break out of his own world. This is rare in the Xungui family and the scholarly family like the Gong family. Second Mrs. Tang spared no effort to smear her concubine, just because she was afraid that he would find a good family in Beijing and rely on it, and he would surpass those cousins in the future. It's just that this cousin doesn't disdain those wealthy beauties in the capital at all, and he has been walking among flowers in the past few years, and he doesn't stick to the leaves.

Now he has the white girl he likes. The harmony and warmth between the two of them makes anyone feel envious when they see it. Such a self-reliant man does not need to rely on family affairs in exchange for benefits. Gong Zhiyun has always felt that he is lucky to be able to marry Ting Wei, although there is no earth-shattering relationship between the two people, there is no excited joy when they get married, but they have known each other since childhood, have the same temperament and personality, and live a quiet and warm life. Even so, seeing the tacit understanding between his cousin and the white girl, the kind of blending that flowed between them, he had to say that he was very envious of this peer.

Gong Zhiyun came to Jiangnan, not only as a patrol of the officials, but also as the queen mother's handpick, and many people wanted to get closer to him. Whether it is the prince's family or the power of any prince and prince, they all want to win him over, no matter what the long-term plans of these people are, the vast majority of them choose to have a good relationship with him first, at least on the surface. But this Third Young Master Tang was not. Except for him following the young masters of the Chen family to attend normal entertainment, he never specially invited Gong Zhiyun. Even knowing that he liked this kind of tea from the Aoki Tea House, he didn't send a can.

As a martial arts master on the rivers and lakes, a young and super successful businessman, a descendant of a family of military generals, and a prince's staff, no matter what kind of identity it seems to need to win him over as a new star of the imperial court, the official patrol, the most promising upstart of the Great Zhou Dynasty, even if it is to accumulate popularity for the prince as a prince's staff, he should win him over. However, he didn't, a gentleman's friendship as light as water, a decent family exchange, no flattery, no deliberate intimacy, just a plain relationship. It's peaceful and unusually natural.

It's such a person, who comes softly and walks gently. He has enough ability to make him shine in Hangzhou, but he deliberately keeps a low profile; He has enough charm to make the ladies of Hangzhou flock to him as in the past, but he did cut off all the flowers and plants around him for the woman he liked; He can rely on the power of the Tang family, the Chen family, and even the grandfather's family to do whatever he wants in the rivers and lakes or in the business field, but he is independent of these forces and creates his own business and power; He can use the background of the Tang family to mix up an official position in the officialdom, but he is only a staff member similar to a bodyguard by the prince's side; As a close confidant of the prince, it was within his duty to win over the power of the prince, but he was as indifferent to him, a hot patrol in Jiangnan, but his popularity as a cousin was two points higher. Except for a conversation when Gong Zhiyun just arrived in Jiangnan, the two did not deliberately contact each other afterwards. People who don't know outside still think that the two of them have the wrong appetite.

is such a person who makes people feel very indifferent to fame and fortune and disdain to form gangs, but without any prior communication with him, without any discussion and planning, handed him a knife, and handed it very smoothly, very logical, interesting! Gong Zhiyun clearly remembered at this time, At the send-off banquet given to him by his son's friends, the cousin gave him a light but warm smile and said, The weather in Jiangnan is getting hotter and hotter, and I am afraid that my brother-in-law will be irritable if I stay here for a long time, and I wish my brother-in-law to finish his errand as soon as possible and return to the capital to enjoy a cool summer. The assessment of officials in a place is often over in a month, and at this time it is just spring, but he predicted that he would only return to Beijing in the summer, because he had long known the depth of the water here, and it was not so easy to get out. He came to Jiangnan, and the Queen Mother told him to find Xinjie for something, but Gong Zhiyun had no intention of deliberately befriending him, let alone making the Queen Mother feel that he had to rely on external forces to do things, he wanted the Queen Mother to know that Gong Zhiyun was capable. Could it be that he was too confident, overestimated himself, and missed the opportunity?

He twisted the tea leaves in his hand, played with them for a while before throwing them back into the pot, wiped his hands clean with the towel in the tea tray, stood up, walked to the desk, and once again focused his attention on the map of the two rivers that he had received today. This picture is very accurate in time, just on the same morning that the news of Tang Sangongzi's attack on the Liangjiang boat was transmitted back to Hangzhou, and the people of the Aoki Society went to Liangjiang to supervise and deliver the paper, it was also when Gong Zhiyun received the flying pigeon summons, knowing that Tang Sangongzi and his fiancée were safe and sound, and continued to move forward in the boat, leaving the waters of the Liangjiang River. This waterway map was obviously prepared by someone a long time ago, and it marked the location of Tang Sangongzi who was attacked by boat, and some of the locations were specially marked, and Gong Zhiyun didn't fully know what it was yet. Someone was sent to investigate, and some did not come back. But the people who came back, the news they brought was amazing enough. There is a property of the Dahe Gang, in which more than 40 girls from good families who have been abducted and trafficked are being secretly transported to Annam, but they have not yet set off; One was a workshop for refining weapons, and when his people went to investigate, the workshop had obviously just been given to it for a short time, leaving only obvious physical evidence and clues, and a few cold and hard corpses, indicating that a large number of weapons forbidden by the imperial court had been refined there; One is a silver mine that has been mined half of it without permission, and the silver mine is mined privately. I don't know anything more striking in a few other places.

The person who sent the map not only marked these places, but he also knew the location where Tang Xinjie was attacked on the boat, could it be that the people in Pingluan Pavilion already knew that Tang Xinjie's boat would be attacked? Or was Tang Xinjie cooperating with Pingluan Pavilion and passed the news to Pingluan Pavilion after being attacked? Judging from the ink, it is clear that someone had prepared this picture for a long time, marked the location after the accident, and then sent it to him. Is it to give him a credential? Then it's good to notify the governor of Liangjiang directly? Tang Sangongzi was attacked in the waters of the two rivers, he could naturally use this as an excuse to let Sun Dufu investigate thoroughly, and then conduct a thorough investigation of Sun Dufu on the grounds that Sun Dufu was not doing well. This has already given him enough excuse to purge Sun Dufu and his family, why would he send him such a complicated picture?