Chapter 182: River of the Moon

It was still early, and Li Qing'an left the mansion. He planned to go to the scene to see the forces of the Han and Tang dynasties in Beiting. When he walked to the mansion, he saw that Ruhua's stall had been collected and the women who were buying things had dispersed. Ruhua, Xiaolian and Yunu were sorting out the goods, and several male servants were helping them carry goods and copper coins.

It can be seen that although they were very tired and could not speak, the excitement of making money made their faces shine with a red glow of joy.

"picturesque!"

Li Qingan stopped, waved to her, Ruhua ran up and said with a smile: "Does your brother have something to do with me?"

"I'm going to see a few shops. Are you interested in going with me?"

"Okay!" Ruhua clapped her hands with joy, "Wait a minute, I'll tell them."

She turned around and ran back. She said a few words to Xiaolian and Yunu, then turned around and ran back, holding Li Qing'an's arm and smiling, "Let's go!"

Li Qingan turned around and smiled at more than a dozen personal soldiers, "Everyone get on the horse!"

Everyone turned over the horses, and Ruhua also rode a red horse on the jujube, and headed towards the most prosperous Chang'an Street in Jinman County.

"Ruhua, when will you ride a horse?"

"I've been able to do it long ago. In Anxi, Wu Niang taught us, Rushi and Xiaolian, and we all ride horses except for dancing clothes."

"Haha! Is Mum Wu married? I haven't heard from her for a long time."

Ruhua curled her lips and said, "It's said that men are ruthless, and this is not bad at all. Gao Wu has been waiting for you, but you asked if she got married. If she knew, wouldn't she be so sad?"

Li Qingan smiled bitterly, but did not respond, but Ruhua refused to let go of the topic, and continued: "Brother, you are twenty-eight years old this year! It's time to get married and get married. I think Wu Niang is good, generous and straightforward, and sincerely treats others. She is Gao Xianzhi's daughter, and she is very compatible with you. Brother, go to Anxi!"

When marrying Gao Wu as his wife, Li Longji would probably not agree to the first one. He shook his head and smiled: "Why don't you mention Wu Yi? Can't she be my wife? There are Rushi and you, the wife you can all be, why do you have to mention Wu Niang?"

Ruhua heard Li Qing'an take him for him and blushed, saying, "My sister and I don't have this blessing anymore, so it's impossible for Wuyi."

"Why? Is it because her engagement with the Choi family has not been resolved?"

"I don't care about any dead engagement, but my sister said, you are not an ordinary civilian. If you forcefully marry Wuyi, scholars in the world will not tolerate you, and your official position will not be able to be your official position. So after all, the only woman around you is Wu Niang the most suitable. She is deeply in love with you and has also come to Beiting to find you."

"Have you come to see me?" Li Qingan was very surprised, "When, why don't I know at all?"

"More than a month ago! When you went to the north to fight, Wu Niang came once and said she was visiting us, but in fact we all knew that she was actually here to find you. Unfortunately, you were not here. She went back disappointed and repeatedly told us not to tell you, hey, poor woman!"

The news that Gao Wu came to Beiting made Li Qing'an feel a little confused. Gao Wu was the first woman he met in the Tang Dynasty. In his impression, she was a somewhat rude and boyish girl. He also knew that Gao Wu was a little interested in him, but he never really took Gao Wu to heart. In his opinion, Gao Wu was just a girl who was in love with her for a while. He would forget him after a while. He would like a real tough man like Li Siye. However, three years passed in a flash, Gao Wu was still infatuated with him. She was eighteen years old this year. If she delayed this way, she would be so delayed.

Li Qingan sighed secretly, and couldn't help feeling a little guilty towards Gao Wu. He should have told her openly.

Li Qingan remained silent. Ruhua saw that he was in a bad mood and did not say anything more.

Soon, they arrived at the end of Chang'an Street, which is the widest one among the four major streets in Jinman County and the most prosperous one. Merchants gathered here, from all over Beiting, even Anxi, Hexi, Lingxi and Chang'an Central Plains.

Because Sogdian's journey from Chang'an was long and the road was very unsafe, many merchants stopped in Beiting, sold goods from Sogdian here, and bought goods from Chang'an to return. Similarly, many Han merchants also sold goods from the Central Plains here, bought goods from the Hu people and returned to the Central Plains after buying goods from the Hu people.

In this way, Beiting became a huge commodity exchange center, among which Jinman County, where Beiting Jiedu Prefecture is located, is the most prosperous.

May to October is the golden season of commerce. Teams of camels slowly walked on the streets, and several Sogdians from the Jiuguo of Zhaowu were asking passers-by for shops.

Li Qing'an took Ruhua and more than a dozen personal soldiers to the end of the street. It is close to the Dongchengmen. There are several famous stores, which sell jewelry, tea, silk, silver, porcelain and other goods. Li Qing'an came to a large shop called "Lingxi Tea House". The owner came from Suiye. This is the shop of Li Huichun, the leader of the Han and Tang dynasties Association in Beiting. On the list of Yanzhuang, Lingxi Tea House ranked first, and it is the central stronghold of the Han and Tang dynasties Association in Beiting. Lingxi Tea House is also the largest tea merchant in the entire Western Region. It has branches in many towns in the Western Regions. The main store is located in Suiye. It monopolizes nearly 80% of the tea trade in the Western Regions, with amazing profits. The Han and Tang dynasties Association has strong financial resources, which is largely due to the huge profits of this tea house.

Lingxi Tea House in Jinman County is just a branch store. Despite this, Lingxi Tea House still covers a huge area, with a total of 50 acres. There is a large shop in front and a huge warehouse behind.

"Customer, do you want to buy tea?"

A friend came out. He saw more than a dozen soldiers coming, but he didn't dare to neglect them. He only recognized Li Qing'an when he ran closer. The guy couldn't help but be stunned. After a while, he stuttered: "General Li, are you doing anything?"

Li Qingan turned over and dismounted and said lightly: "Can't I come and buy some tea?"

"The general doesn't need to come in person. If you need tea, tell us and we will send it to you."

"I'll take a look first."

Li Qing'an threw the reins to his personal soldiers and walked directly into the tea house. The tea house lobby was extremely wide, with baskets placed beside the wall. There were all kinds of tea leaves in the basket, most of which were tea balls and tea cakes. Some of the best tea leaves were placed in porcelain jars for drinking by wealthy families. Here are just samples. After the transaction is completed, go to the warehouse behind to pick up the goods.

From the outside, there seemed to be few people in the shop, but when I entered the gate, I found that the lobby was crowded with people. Most of them were small vendors. Merchants from Tingzhou, Yizhou and Xizhou counties came here to purchase goods. Not only were Han people, but more were Hu people, local Hu people, as well as Gelulu people near Beiting, Tuqi Shi people, and Shatu people. Most of them came to drive horses, and the horses were in the stables in the backyard. They bought dozens of kilograms and hundreds of kilograms, and most of them directly exchanged horses for tea.

More than a dozen Sogdians from Kangguo were bargaining with the second shopkeeper. They wanted to buy 4,000 kilograms of tea, and people came and went in the lobby, and the business was very prosperous.

The arrival of the Beiting Jiedushi alarmed the shop owner. The shopkeeper was surnamed Song and was also a shattered Yehan. He quickly invited Li Qing'an to the distinguished guest room next door, poured a cup of tea with his own hands, and said with both hands: "This is the new Qimen tea that I just arrived yesterday. Please try it. If you feel it is good, I will send someone to send ten kilograms to the mansion."

Li Qingan took a sip of tea, squinted his eyes and said, "I heard that Qimen tea is always one or two, but the shopkeeper gave me ten kilograms. I feel guilty!"

"Where! Where! A little bit of thought will make you too humble."

Manager Song quickly smiled and said, "I often hear the boss talk about the envoy, and I am an old friend in Chang'an."

"Have you Dongzhu Li been here recently?"

"I came last month and went to Thunder Leaf again. He is old and can't bear the pain of the journey. He may be replaced by the young boss in the future."

"Oh! When will your young master come over?"

"This is not accurate. June or August are possible. The key is that the old boss is willing to let them do things."

Li Qingan smiled and the topic turned to today's purpose, "I came here today because I wanted to discuss something with the tea shop."

Manager Song bowed and said, "Encourt even though he ordered, he cannot bear the word "discussion".

"That's right, Beiting has a batch of military rations to be sent to Yibohai for the castle under construction, but Beiting lacks transportation capacity for a while. Gui teahouse transports bulk goods between Beiting and Shuye for many years. I want to entrust this batch of military rations to you for transportation and pay a certain amount of compensation. I will send military guards at that time. I wonder if you are willing?"

Li Qing'an's suggestion made Manager Song very moved. In the past two months, they wanted to search for a crack in the Beiting affairs, but they just couldn't find an opportunity. Today, the opportunity actually fell from the sky, which made him happy. He hurriedly stood up and bowed, "Since you can respect our Lingxi Tea House, how can I refuse? I am willing to serve you."

"Okay, this matter is very urgent. The day after tomorrow, the grain will be set off, with a total of 10,000 shi. In addition, I will buy 2,000 kilograms of tea from your store and send it to the construction site together. I hope it will be completed within half a month at the latest."

"Rest assured that we are very familiar with the journey and can reach Yibohai within thirteen days."

"Okay, I'll listen to your good news. You will go to Beitingcheng to complete the procedures tomorrow."

Li Qing'an stood up and bowed his hand to say goodbye. He walked to the door, Ruhua also ran up and whispered: "It's simply huge profit."

"What did you find?"

Ruhua said angrily: "I just walked around, and their prices were so high. I remember that a pound of tea cakes in Chang'an cost 800 cents, but when they arrived, it turned out to be 300 cents per pound. After reading it, even if transportation is difficult, they would earn at least 300 cents per pound. They would have to sell several thousand pounds a day and at least 100,000 pounds a year. And they would sell horses to the Central Plains to sell them, and they would have to make another profit. This is still a Beiting store. If other stores were added, wouldn't they have to earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, or even millions a year?"

Seeing her agile mind, Li Qingan smiled and said, "It is impossible to have millions of coins. Although they make a lot of money, they also have a lot of expenses. Don't envy them. If you want, you can also do tea business."

Ruhua was stunned, "Brother, you are right! I asked me to do the tea business, I just set up a stall to sell a few extra skirts."

"Actually! I want to do it, but I can't find the right person. Today I see you selling skirts and are very flexible. I think you can give it a try, and don't want you to run to Chang'an. You just need to sit in Beiting and coordinate all aspects for me."

Ruhua couldn't help but scratch her head, and frowned and said, "But I think there are still many things that don't have, such as capital, shops, transportation, supplies, and who I will sell to in the end? A good cook cannot cook without rice. What do you ask me to do?"

Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "If you think of these, it means you have the ability. Don't worry! I have the capital. I will send troops to escort the tribute wine to Beijing soon. When they come back, they will bring a batch of tea. You can prepare the shop, recruit friends, and recruit all the women's soldiers. When the tea comes back, you can make a fortune, that's that simple."

"But, who will come to buy our tea?" This is the thing Ruhua is most worried about. With Lingxi Tea House here, can she get a share of the pie?

Li Qingan laughed silently and said, "You silly girl, you have to figure it out that I am selling tea, what are you worried about?"

After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms. Li Qing'an read the book in the study for a while, then put down the book and slowly took a walk in the inner house. After a while, he came to the yard where Wuyi lived. The yard was not far from his study. An old locust tree in the yard was as paved as a cover, covering half of the five or six rooms. When he walked into the yard, he heard a tingling sound of a piano. The sound of the piano was a little awkward, not played by Wuyi. He suddenly remembered that it was Wuyi teaching students.

Wuyi has five students. In addition to Yang Fengche and Yan Zhuang's daughter, there are two other daughters of two senior officials in Beiting. The five female students are not old and come to Wuyi to learn the piano almost every night.

Li Qingan was hesitant at a moment. It seemed a bit inappropriate to disturb him at this time. At this time, Yu Nu happened to come out of the room and saw Li Qingan at first sight. She was surprised and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "Young master, the girl said, if you come, please wait for her in the outer room, and it will be over soon."

"Okay, go and do it! I'll wait for her."

Li Qing'an walked into the west wing room, which was the piano room of Wuyi. It consisted of two rooms, one inside played the piano and the other outside rested. He sat down, Yu Nu gave him a cup of tea and whispered: "Young Master, please use tea."

"Thanks!"

Yu Nu seemed to want to say something, but she didn't dare to talk too much, so she stepped down. Li Qing'an took two sips of tea and stood up to the door. The lights in the inner room were bright, and you could see the situation inside through the curtain. The room was like a classroom. Five little ladies were sitting on the couch, with their waists straight. There was a piano in front of each of them. Yan Zhuang's eldest daughter Yan Xiaomei, who was sitting at the end, was playing the piano. The other little ladies were playing the piano with their fingers with their fingerings in a low voice. Wuyi stood beside Yan Xiaomei, listening attentively, and correcting her fingering from time to time.

As usual, she was wearing a plain white gauze dress and a bright red brocade. Her hair was tied in a bun and a green feather hairpin was inserted diagonally, revealing her white neck like a swan. She did not put any makeup on her face, elegant and refined, as bright as the autumn moon, beautiful and pretty, under the light, like the flowing wind returning to the snow, and the light clouds covering the sun.

Li Qingan couldn't help but remember the situation when she saw her in the Liyuan Villa. At that time, she walked out of the water, just like the fairy Lingbo descending to earth. The unparalleled beauty made people breathless and made countless people obsessed.

But Mrs. Yang Shenjin pointed out the miserable life experience behind her beauty. Time passed like flowing water. Nearly two years have passed. Qin Xian has become a memory of Chang'an, but Wuyi has followed him to Beiting. Li Qing'an actually felt like a dream.

Wuyi felt something, and she caught a glimpse of Li Qing'an standing behind the curtain from the corner of her eyes. He came to teach her to play the piano. After Yan Xiaomei finished playing a song, she smiled at the five little girls and said, "Okay, let's play here today. Let's go back! Remember to practice the key points I taught several times."

Five female students bowed together to thank him: "Thank you sir!"

They packed up their pianos and left one by one. The room became quiet. Wuyi cleaned up her room a little, sat back on her seat, played the piano in a 'Zheng!' and laughed sweetly, "Discounty outside the house, do you want me to come out to invite me?"

"Without the master's invitation, how dare I come in!"

Li Qingan walked in with a smile, bowed and said, "See the girl in dance!"

Wuyi burst into laughter, "You're wrong! I'm a student, you're the teacher. If the student doesn't move, how can the teacher salute him?"

"Oh! So I'm the gentleman."

Wuyi gave him a blank look, stood up and bowed, "Little girl, see sir."

"Um!"

Li Qing'an sat down like a big face, waved his hand and said, "Sage, play a song for the teacher first."

"You!" Wuyi was angry and funny. She took off the six-stringed zither from the wall. According to the posture Li Qing'an taught her, she held the zither in her arms, gently folded her hands slowly, and a song "Sad Spain" was played out from her hands like flowing water, sometimes full of enthusiasm, sometimes like a low whisper, with a hint of sadness, which fully exuded the charm of this song.

Li Qingan couldn't help but sigh. Although she taught her this song, the charm she played was far superior to her, and it was definitely not inferior to the first-class guitar masters in later generations.

After playing the song, Wuyi saw that Li Qingan was still immersed in the song. She was happy in her heart and said with a slight smile: "After playing the song, will you give me some advice?"

Li Qingan then woke up, smiled bitterly and shook his head and said, "You play better than everyone else, I feel ashamed."

Wuyi handed the piano to him, smiled and said, "Moon River!"

Li Qingan took the Qin and smiled, extinguished the candle, and the bright moonlight shone in the room, on his face full of manly charm.

He focused on the extremely quiet and romantic song "Moon River", and his fingers plucked the strings, like a quiet river flowing in front of them.

This is a quiet night in autumn. A small boat quietly drifts with the waves on the river surface. A bright moon shines in the water. The river water flows into the woods. The boat seems to be walking in the woods. He rows and pushes away a piece of vines. The eyes suddenly lit up. The boat actually came to a mirror lake. The moonlight on the lake surface is like silver, and a fairy with a white dress like snow, without any trace of mortal world quietly combs the long hair like a waterfall in the lake.

Li Qing'an's affectionate eyes turned to Wuyi. Wuyi held the snow cheek with slender hands, and looked at him intoxicatedly. She sat on the boat and drifted quietly with the waves in the moon river. Her eyes were covered with a layer of mist, revealing a kind of infatuated love, for this beautiful song and for the person who played this song.
Chapter completed!