"Your Majesty, you put so much effort into acting in such a huge drama, you can't just come here to fish on the Yangtze River."
Wu Qi was dressed like a young boy, with a huge bamboo hat on his head, and he was sprinkling some glutinous rice soaked in wine into the river water.
Li Chongrun was holding a fishing rod made of purple bamboo in his hand, wearing a raincoat, fishing in the somewhat shrill east wind by the river.
"Fishing is good. Fishing can relax your mind, nourish your mind, and allow you to think about things." Li Chongrun tilted his head and glanced at Wu Qi: "You girl, why can't you focus on using your brain when you put on makeup?
, I’m a driver and I’m pretending to be dead, could it be that I came here to catch some fish?”
"You caught it but didn't eat it, so you put it back in the end." Wu Qixian glanced at the bamboo basket soaked in the water. It was empty except for a half-dead four-cheeked bass wagging its tail feebly inside.
"I do it for fishing, not for fish."
Li Chongrun has been fishing here for several days.
That night, guessing that the monk might assassinate him, Li Chongrun decisively used a trick to smooth things over.
Li Chongrun is naturally afraid of death, but people all have mental inertia. For example, when you assassinate, your attention must be on the target, and you will not pay attention to the whereabouts of the boy who knocked on the door.
Of course, the boy who knocked on the door was Li Chongrun, who was wrapped in several layers of blankets wet with water.
For another example, since the prince is injured and lying at home, the stalled plan can be implemented as soon as possible.
Another example is that the governor made such a big fuss in Yangzhou City, so he thought it would be safer to go somewhere else.
Thanks to the makeup skills of Wu Qishengui Piyi and the help of Taoist Li from Qingyun Temple, who Li Chongrun should call his uncle, Li Chongrun was able to come here to fish.
This is a bank adjacent to the Yangtze River in Runzhou. On the small island in the river opposite, a somewhat majestic temple is busy being built. On the already built main hall, there are blue-black tiles and ocher-yellow high ceilings.
The wall is very eye-catching.
"Today, there are far fewer ships than before."
A strong wind blew by, and the rain became much fiercer. Seeing that fishing was impossible, Li Chongrun packed up his fishing gear and walked back to the ferry not far behind him on the somewhat muddy river bank.
A small Wupeng boat was waiting there. Yang San, dressed as a boatman, saw Li Chongrun coming back, so he put the gangplank over and took the two of them aboard.
The boat rowed across the river in the curtain of rain and slowly swung towards the other side.
A sailboat emerged from the rain, its sails filled to the brim by the strong wind. Because of its deep draft, it didn't move particularly fast, but was very steady.
"This is the second ship today. I guess they have almost transported everything they want to transport. At this time as usual, at least four or five ships will have passed by."
Li Chongrun took out a small knife and made a heavy stroke on the fishing rod. Then he wrote another straight character.
After returning to the workshop on the bank of the Yangtze River, Li Chongrun took off all his clothes, carried a bamboo pole and walked into a room vacated in the workshop.
In the room, Ruiniang was leading a few girls to sort out the scattered information. It turned out that Li Chongrun had moved the office location from the secret room in the garden to here.
"I don't know what Her Royal Highness thinks. She likes to build secret rooms everywhere. Isn't an open and bright office like this more comfortable than hiding underground?"
This room, which was used as an office, was in the middle of the workshop's area used to store wine. It was surrounded by some thick wine jars, sealed with oil paper and yellow mud, and just laid flat on the ground. It was covered by a large bamboo shed.
There was a somewhat dim skylight, blocking out all the wind and rain.
Although Ruiniang was a subordinate of Princess Taiping, she could only smile awkwardly when the current leader teased the previous leader, and then continued to work on the paperwork.
Although these people have received training before, their daily work is still focused on collecting intelligence. Bing'er, who is best at analysis, was sent to Luoyang by Li Chongrun to deliver the news. Now these things can only be burdened on them, which will inevitably cause some headaches.
, and some dark circles.
"Is there any news about those owners in the past few days?"
"Back to my lord, the city of Yangzhou has been in an uproar these days. Those shops are so stubborn that they don't even dare to open their doors."
Ruiniang looked through the information collected previously and reported it to Li Chongrun.
"Be honest with me. In the past few days, I have only been fishing on the riverside for a few days, and I have seen a few boats going back and forth forty times."
Li Chongrun showed Ruiniang the fishing rod in his hand. The eight characters on it were a bit shocking.
"A single-masted ship made of one hundred materials, even if it only makes these forty trips, can still bring in a huge sum of eight hundred thousand dollars."
"Your Majesty, why don't they use the big boats like when we came here? Why do they always use these small boats to pull them back and forth?"
Wu Qi had always been more straightforward when thinking about things, but now that Huang Mao and Gongsun Lan were too eye-catching to keep with him, Li Chongrun could only take this little girl who didn't see many outsiders as his secretary.
It's just that the little girl is a bit younger after all. Although she has seen a lot of things around Li Chongrun, for some reason, when Li Chongrun is present, the girl is too lazy to use her brain and gives full play to her cute mascot attributes.
"If the boat capsizes, won't all the copper coins that the monks have saved for so long be lost? Who can fish these hundreds of thousands of copper coins out of the river?"
Li Chongrun scratched her delicate nose, "And there are laws in the Six Codes. Ships with more than 100 materials have to be inspected by the shipping company, and taxes are paid according to the goods. Ships with less than 100 materials have to pay according to the ship. Naturally, the taxes can be paid.
Hang the sign on the bow of the ship and no one will check it."
"Then how did the prince know that they would send the money to the temple on the small island in the river?"
"This is not simple. Since I came to Yangzhou, in the surrounding state capitals, except for the Dayun Temple that was built under the orders of the emperor, there is only one new temple built with funds raised here."
Li Chongrun touched his nose: "The monks have saved so many copper coins, so naturally they have to find a temple to hide them. Is it possible that they should hide them in a Taoist temple?"
"What are these monks doing hiding so much money?"
"Let's catch the monk later and ask him directly." Li Chongrun was flipping through the collected information while chatting with Wu Qi.
A somewhat inconspicuous piece of information attracted Li Chongrun's attention.
"Where is this shop located?"
Li Chongrun drew a circle on the information with a pencil and asked Snake Ruiniang.
"Back to my lord, this shop is a bit remote. It's almost to the south gate of Fucheng. It's a bit far away from Guanhe River and Hangou."
Li Chongrun took the information and compared it with the map in his mind, and got a rough impression.
"This woman named Cui is really cruel. She kicked her eldest son out before her husband died, and she only left him this shabby shop."
Li Chongrun thought in his mind that he had let this boy out, but it had been some time. The man surnamed Song had kept silent, and now he was just hanging out with his cousin, and he was completely kicked out of the family.
After he came out, should I provide him with some help as I promised him?
However, theoretically, he was still unconscious, so it was inconvenient to arrange it directly. However, Wu Qi happened to be playing with her braids in boredom. Seeing her, Li Chongrun had some plans.
"Wu Qi, I have a small job, please come back to the garden with me."
"Hey, can you go back? That's great, I can go back and take a shower."
After traveling to this point in time, Li Chongrun was afraid of many things, but the one he was most afraid of was the excessive hygiene habits of this dynasty.
When Li Chongrun made his first invention, he made a shower head for bathing. The most important thing in the palace and the garden was that it was inconvenient to take a bath.
Even when these girls and boys entered the house, all their hair except their eyebrows was shaved off, and all their old clothes were burned. They were afraid of spreading fleas.
Li Chongrun pays attention to hygiene, and the girls in the family have also developed the habit of taking a bath. Even Qihu, who was trained by Yang San, has learned the carefree temperament of their master, but he only takes a bath once every few days.
of.
Unlike ordinary children, children may only go to the bathhouse once in the whole winter before the Chinese New Year, in order to wear the new clothes purchased for the New Year.
So Wu Qi, who had not taken a shower after being away for ten days, heard that he could go back, and his first thought was to take a shower.
"It's just that before I go back, I need you to do something for me."
"Okay, Your Majesty, it's up to you, Your Majesty."
In a wine shop in the south of the city, several dandies were gathering around Chongxun's cousin to drink. Naturally, the person who served him the wine was the tragic story of Mr. Song who was kicked out of his house in the Song Dynasty.
After a few tears and a few angry scoldings, several dandies heard that Song Shi wanted to borrow money to do business, but they all became obedient. Even the boss, who had always been generous with his cousin, began to consider the left and right.
He gets up.
After having enough wine and food, they wandered around looking for a painting boat and looking for a concubine. Only Song Shi was left alone, still drinking the leftovers coldly.
Drinking wine.
A boy dressed as a waiter in a shop came closer to Song Shi while cleaning the table, whispered a few words to him, and then left pretending to respond to someone else's greeting.
Song Shi continued to drink for a while, as if he was too drunk, talking nonsense and went into the alley behind the wine shop.
There was a lot of vomit and filth flowing on the ground in the alley. I think this place is often used as a place to sober up. Ignoring the mess on the ground, Song Shi walked straight through this pickled place that was filled with the sour smell and stench of alcohol.
We boarded a carriage with the very common carriage sign.