At night, Zhou Kui quietly entered the palace.

"Your Majesty, those shopkeepers in Beijing invited me to Yangzhou to discuss the sale of salt."

"Go, eat and drink. Have a bigger appetite, as long as you have the ability to get your hands on it, it's all yours! ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zhou Kui subconsciously wanted to kneel down again, but he couldn't help but see Zhu Youzhen's frowning brows.

"Let's go back. Be strict, dare to leak the news, don't blame me for not caring about the love between my uncle! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Zhou Kui nodded and retreated.

In the matter of selling illicit salt, it is best for Zhou Kui to come forward.

The emperor's father-in-law, with a noble status. In addition, this person has a bad reputation, and he has the face of a villain who was once arrogant and domineering. Insatiable, unstoppable is his character.

Isn't it normal for a fortune teller who looks like someone on the street to become a relative of the royal family by relying on his daughter, and doing things that are detrimental to the interests of the royal family?

Early the next morning.

Shopkeeper Li prepared a carriage and came to Zhou Kui's mansion, and Zhou Kui, who listened to the housekeeper's report, finished breakfast unhurriedly before leaving the mansion surrounded by several domestic servants and guards carrying luggage.

Seeing the luxurious carriage that was already waiting at the door, Zhou Kui was not only not happy, but put on a stinky face, and said with some anger: "Just prepare a carriage?" Enough for whom? What about my servant? What about my guards? ”

After speaking, he ignored the ugly shopkeeper Li, snorted coldly and turned around and went back to the Guozhang Mansion.

Shopkeeper Li looked confused.

We have people, and we don't lack guards. Besides, what kind of people do you have to take a carriage? Wasn't it okay yesterday? What's going on today?

Seeing that Zhou Kui immediately entered the mansion, Shopkeeper Li hurriedly chased after him.

"Father-in-law, father-in-law, don't be angry, the little ones are not well thought out, right away! Schedule it now! ”

"Let's wait until you arrange it." After speaking, he went straight back to the house.

Shopkeeper Li wanted to chase again, but was stopped by the guards at the door. I wanted to be angry, but I didn't dare, and then I sighed and went back to the carriage, and arranged for an errand runner to fetch a few more carriages over. Then he stood in front of the carriage and waited.

After Zhou Kui returned to the house, he sat on the Taishi chair in the lobby, ordered the maid to serve a cup of tea, and drank it calmly. Your Majesty said, have a big appetite.

I am the father-in-law of the country and the father-in-law of the emperor, what's wrong with putting up a score? Didn't you beg me to go?

"Xiaocui, did you eat well during the New Year?"

"Huh? Uncle, you..."Xiao Cui saw Zhou Kui's eyes, her face turned red, and she lowered her head and didn't dare to speak.

"Come and let me measure the size has increased. Did you steal something from the house? As he spoke, he pulled Xiao Cui into his arms and put his hands up and down. Just as I was feeling like galloping, the voice of the butler came from outside.

"Uncle, shopkeeper Li outside has called a few more carriages and is waiting for you outside."

"Let him wait!" Zhou Kui, who had finally found some state, was interrupted and shouted angrily outside.

I wanted to continue, but I couldn't get back the feeling I just felt.

The irritable Zhou Kui walked outside, went out and instructed the shopkeeper Li:

"My people, one carriage per man!"

After speaking, he calmly faced the largest car in the front.

When he got into the car, Zhou Kui's face improved.

The interior of the carriage was spacious, the whole carriage was wrapped in blue silk, a seat that could accommodate two people lying horizontally, and a copper incense burner on the small table next to it, from which a wisp of smoke was rising.

Most importantly.

On the seat, there are people.

Woman.

Beautiful woman.

A beautiful woman who looked at him with silky eyes.

"You, who are?"

Zhou Kui was a little stunned and asked in a daze.

"Steward Li was afraid that the uncle would be lonely on the road, so he ordered the slave family to serve left and right and accompany the uncle to relieve his boredom. Come, uncle, sit~"

As he spoke, he stretched out Rouyi and took Zhou Kui's hand and invited him to his seat.

After Zhou Kui sat down, the woman lowered the curtain and said to the coachman driving the horse in front of her:

"Let's go, little brother."

Then there was a whiplash, and the carriage moved slowly. Zhou Kui came back to his senses.

"What's your name?"

"Uncle can call the slave family jade slave."

Zhou Kui nodded and did not speak, touched the decoration in the car, and felt the soft seats of the carriage. I sighed in my heart, this group of salt merchants on dog days will really enjoy it.

"Uncle, it's a long way to Yangzhou, we need to take a carriage to Zhuoxian first, where to take a boat through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal all the way south, and we can get to Yangzhou. We have to stay on the ship for many days, and Uncle will have more pity and pity on the slave family. ”

Book of Hundred Leagues

Zhou Kui looked useful and said with a smile:

"Well said, well said!"

Day 2

They boarded a ship in Zhuoxian County, and after nearly 20 days of sailing, they arrived at the boundary of Yangzhou.

At this time, it is the beginning of March, which is the most beautiful time of the year in Yangzhou. The grass grows and the warbler flies, and the willows are brushed. Along the way, Zhou Kui can be said to be full of eyes.

The fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March, and it really lived up to its name.

When the ship docked, Zhou Kui got off the ship with a few subordinates and escorts, including Zhou, the little flag of the Jinyi guard sent by His Majesty to help him.

He originally wanted to get off the boat with the jade slave, but he didn't expect to be rejected by her. The reason is that she has to wait on the boat so as not to delay Zhou Kui's enjoyment of the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. After getting along these days, Zhou Kui was still a little reluctant, but it soon disappeared.

Those who had come to meet him had been waiting on the shore for a long time.

The leader was a middle-aged man with a thin figure and a white face, who saw Zhou Kui go ashore and led someone to greet him.

"Presumably this is the national master. In Xia Xiaoquan, there is a loss of distance! ”

Yangzhou has been prosperous because of salt since ancient times. Liu Bi, the king of Guangling in the Western Han Dynasty, "opened the mountain to cast money, and boiled the sea for salt", and the national strength was strong. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yangzhou had become the center of salt transportation in the south. At that time, the salt produced in Lianghuai was transported here for storage, and then sold to the north along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, or up the Yangtze River to Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui and other provinces in the Central Plains.

Therefore, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, "Yangzhou was prosperous with salt". The crystalline and snow-white salt grains gathered into a mountain of gold and silver, making this famous canal city unprecedentedly prosperous. Although these merchants who sold salt and became rich because of salt, although their hometowns were very different, their surnames were different, and their cultures were different, they worked together with the gentry, literati, craftsmen, cloth clothes and other people to create Yangzhou's splendid culture......

History calls them by a specific name – Yangzhou Salt Merchant.

And Xiao Quan is the leading figure among the salt merchants in Yangzhou at this time.

His ancestors were originally from Anhui, and later went to Yangzhou to do business, and by chance he made a fortune by private salt, and since then he has been out of control and has earned thousands of family fortunes. By Xiao Quan, he is already the third generation, and his family's business has increased instead of decreasing. Yangzhou salt merchants have been headed by him.

It is said that in the past, even the prefect of Yangzhou was not qualified to let him go so far, but he is different today. It is the new lord of the Ming Dynasty, the biological father of the queen, and Zhou Kui, the national abbot.

After listening to Xiao Quan's words, Zhou Kui also arched his hand and said a few words of greeting.

At this time, it happened to be evening, and under Xiao Quan's arrangement, Zhou Kui bathed and changed clothes in a mansion, and then was entertained by Xiao Quan.

"Today, the grandfather of the country is tired of the boat and car, and he ordered someone to prepare a few delicious side dishes for the grandfather of the country to taste." I don't know if it's deliberate, just him and Zhou Kui at the table. But the banquet is not bad, especially a series of specialties such as bone-in abalone snails, horsetail fish breasts, and Taozhuang yellow finches, which make Zhou Kui's appetite greater.

Naturally, the dinner party cannot be without wine, and under Xiao Quan's song, Zhou Kui ate a delicious meal.

After three rounds of drinking, Xiao Quan got up and retired in a playful manner, allowing Zhou Kui to rest earlier.

After a few glasses of wine, Zhou Kui was also a little drunk, and returned to his bedroom under the arrangement of his subordinates.

A girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old was already waiting in the house, and as soon as Zhou Kui entered the house, he served the decanting tea that had been prepared long ago, and after Zhou Kui finished drinking, he began to serve Zhou Kui's wide clothes.

Zhou Kui took off his clothes and came to the bed, only to find that there was another one lying on the bed.

I looked back at the woman who had just served tea to herself, but saw that she was silently untying her pocket.

Zhou Kui look at this, look at that.

The breathing suddenly became heavy, and he opened the quilt on the bed first, and sure enough. The incomprehensible carcass glowed as white as ivory in the candlelight.

He couldn't take it anymore.

The Menghu in his heart is out of the cage.

When everything was over, Zhou Kui fell asleep heavily.

That's nice.

It was the last thought that crossed his mind.