In order not to be noticed, Zhai An did not go to meet Jin Feng immediately even though he knew that Jin Feng had boarded the ship. Instead, he remained on the deck giving instructions.
It wasn't until the cargo ship sailed three or four miles out of the dock that Zhai An walked into the cabin.
In the cabin, Jin Feng, Tang Xiaobei and others had changed into boatman's clothes and were making the beds.
"Sir, Madam, it's great that you are okay!"
Zhai An knelt down with red eyes: "I was worried that someone was staring at me on the pier, so I didn't dare to come and pay my respects right away. I hope that you, sir and madam, will forgive me!"
Out of sympathy, Jin Feng bought many domestic slaves and maidservants from Yahang who were forced to sell themselves, and Zhai An was one of them.
Male domestic slaves have always been a hot commodity in dental shops, but Zhai An has not been sold because of his inconvenient legs and feet, weak body, and frequent illness. When Jin Feng bought him, he was almost dying of illness. He was killed by his mother.
He and his wife carried out tooth extraction.
Zhai An thought that Jin Feng would leave him to fend for himself, but who knew that Jin Feng helped him arrange for a doctor to see a doctor and rescued him.
When Zhai An was a child, he herded cattle for the landlord, and the landlord's children attended private school. He followed for a few months and learned some words, so when Tang Xiaobei was training the female shopkeeper, he took him along with him.
Later, he was given two ships and made him the shopkeeper, specifically competing with the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce.
Although he is not the shopkeeper of the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce and cannot sell valuable goods such as soaps, perfumes and water jade beads, he can only sell some more ordinary goods such as ironware and coarse cloth, but Zhai An is also very satisfied.
The ironware made in the Xihewan Iron Smelting Workshop is sharp and hard, and the coarse cloth is of high quality and low price, making it extremely popular.
Moreover, the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce will cooperate with him to jointly develop the market.
For the same product, the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce sells it for ten cents, but Zhai An opens a store next to it and sells it for thirteen cents. With comparison, customers will be more likely to buy.
At the next market, the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce sold another thirteen coins, and Zhai An opened a store selling ten coins.
Relying on this method, both Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce and Zhaijia Shop have developed very well.
After becoming the shopkeeper, his income and social status have been greatly improved, and his family has also been well settled. Therefore, Zhai An has always been grateful to Jin Feng from the bottom of his heart.
When he learned that something happened to Jin Feng in the East China Sea, Zhai An felt sad for a long time and felt very depressed.
Now that I see Jin Feng again, you can imagine how excited I am.
"Get up quickly, we have already told you that we in Jinchuan are not in the mood to kneel down and worship!"
Jin Feng winked at Tie Hammer and asked Tie Hammer to pull Zhai An up.
"Old Xuan, why did you bring Mr. and Mrs. here?"
Zhai An wiped his tears, frowned and looked at the middle-aged man next to him.
This is the cabin where the boatman lives. There is not even a window, only a small light hole. It is difficult to see clearly in broad daylight.
"I told the husband and wife to let them go to your cabin, but the husband is unwilling and insists on coming here..." the middle-aged man said with a helpless look.
"Sir, my cabin has been vacated. Can you stay with me?"
"Since I'm pretending to be a boatman, I naturally have to live in this cabin, otherwise my secret will be exposed?" Jin Feng smiled and waved his hand.
"Listen to sir." Tang Xiaobei also said.
"Yes!" Seeing that both Jin Feng and Tang Xiaobei insisted, Zhai An had no choice but to nod.
After Zhai An left, Jin Feng placed a table under the light hole and started working at the desk.
During the few months on the island, he had too many ideas in his mind, but there was no pen and paper at the time, so the ideas were accumulated in his heart. Now that he has time, he must write them down as soon as possible.
Zhai An knew that Jin Feng was eager to return, so he raised the sail when there was wind, and when there was no wind, he arranged for people to go to the shore to find trackers to pull the boat, and rushed on as quickly as possible.
On the afternoon of the fourth day after leaving the Navy Pier, the cargo ship encountered the first hurdle.
It is said to be a checkpoint, but it is actually a fleet of large and small fishing boats spread out in a row, blocking the river surface.
There were some people standing crookedly on the fishing boat, many of them holding weapons such as knives and sticks in their hands.
"Are water bandits so rampant now?" Jin Feng asked with a frown.
"Sir, they are not water bandits, they are soldiers from the county on the south bank."
Zhai An sighed and said: "Since King Wu rebelled, there have been many checkpoints on the Yangtze River, and each checkpoint has to collect money."
"These are soldiers and bandits!" Jin Feng also sighed.
"Sir, please go back and take a rest. I'll just go and send them away."
Zhai An asked his deputy to bring two strings of copper coins and walked to the edge of the deck.
The group of government soldiers accepted the money, but they didn't feel too embarrassed. They moved the fishing boat away happily, and the big boat passed the first checkpoint smoothly.
What Jin Feng didn't expect was that just a day and a half later, they encountered the second level.
Although Zhai An tried his best to hurry, they were going upstream after all, and they only traveled less than thirty miles in a day and a half.
"Aren't these levels too dense?" Jin Feng frowned and said, "There are two levels in less than thirty miles. How many levels do you have to go through to walk back to Sichuan?"
"There is no way, the world is in chaos, and the soldiers in every place want to make a profit. Anyway, if you don't make it, it will be nothing."
Zhai An said: "Many businessmen have stopped working recently."
"Isn't this the territory of King Wu, and he doesn't care about it?" Jin Feng asked.
When Jin Feng came to the East China Sea a few months ago, there would still be congestion on the river from time to time.
But these days when he came out to get some air, the river was completely empty. Except for their two boats, it was hard to see even fishing boats.
"The King of Wu is currently busy fighting for Haizhou with the King of Chu. How can he take care of such a trivial matter?"
"Alas!" Jin Feng sighed when he saw Zhai An's assistant coming over with a money bag and returned to the cabin.
In the following days, I would encounter a checkpoint almost every day, and I would ask for more and more tolls.
At first it was just two strings of copper coins, but after a few days it had grown to six strings.
Because the soldiers who set up the card also discovered that there were fewer and fewer cargo ships on the river, and knew that such money could not be collected for long, so they became more and more ruthless.
These are not the most uncomfortable things for Jin Feng. After all, Dakang is a small-scale peasant economy, and many farmers are self-sufficient. Even if there is not a single boat on the Yangtze River, the impact on the people will not be great.
Those who are really affected are those in power.
Without transportation, goods would not be able to circulate, and the powerful people in Sichuan and Shu would not be able to eat dried salted fish from the East China Sea, nor fruits from the south.
What really makes Jin Feng uncomfortable and worried is that in recent days, he has often seen corpses floating down the river.
I saw hundreds of them yesterday, and each corpse had hideous wounds. It was obvious that there was a fight between two parties upstream. These corpses were all soldiers who died in the battle.
In addition to corpses appearing from time to time, Jin Feng often saw bandits robbing villages along the coast.
Now standing on the deck, he could see thick smoke billowing from three places on the left and right banks.
It wasn't a fire, but the bandits set fire to the huts for fun or to show their authority after robbing the village.
Jin Feng didn't know whether these bandits were real bandits or pretenders.
All he knew was that what he worried about most had happened.