Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, more than two years have passed, and it is the autumn of the ninth year of Jiayou!

Quanzhou, within Quanzhou Bay.

However, in more than two years, Quanzhou Bay has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to more than two years ago.

In the bay, in the port along the coastline, there are rows of huge ships with lowered sails docked, stretching for several miles.

These sea-going ships, those to the north, are all very deep-draft sea-going ships. They have just returned with full loads and are preparing to go north to Hangzhou, then turn into the inland river, or go up the river, but turn from Yangzhou into the canal, all the way

Go north and go straight to Bianliang, Tokyo.

The ones to the south, with shallower drafts, are all ready to go to sea. However, before going to sea, they have to load some of the sea salt produced by the Quanzhou Salt Factory in Quanzhou, as well as the cloth produced by the cloth mills and dyeing houses under the name of Jihai Company, and also

There are porcelain shipped from various places, fine silks and satins produced in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and tea produced on Fujian Road.

Today, Quanzhou, in addition to being a port, has also become a transfer station like Hangzhou.

Above the pier, the ground is paved with bluestone slabs, and plank roads nearly ten feet wide extend from the port, forming excellent ferries for loading and unloading goods.

Every ferry is guarded by officers and soldiers wearing armor and holding staffs, two shifts a day, from the beginning of Mao hour to the right hour of You hour.

Right between the wharf and the county town, on the official road that is more than five feet wide, to the west is the newly built market. There is everything in the market. All kinds of tea stalls, restaurants, small stalls and hawkers are all concentrated here, criss-crossing and orderly.

In an orderly manner, the yamen also hired special personnel to maintain order during the day, and someone was responsible for cleaning every night, working day and night.

To the west of the market, there are rows of warehouses next to each other, also arranged very regularly, like well fields, with three-foot-wide avenues crisscrossing them, on which carts are pushed and donkey carts are driven back and forth.

Continuously.

To the east of the official road is the Quanzhou Seventh Floor, which is now famous in the entire coastal area.

The full name of Quanzhou Seventh Floor is Anlefang. It is a square city centered on seven high-rise buildings. It is now the largest gold-selling cave in Quanzhou. Businessmen from all over the world gather here, spending money like water and making love!

If you look down from a high altitude, you can see that the seventh floor is in the shape of the Big Dipper, and the seventh floor is connected by a two-story corridor.

The first one is called Taibai Tower, which is a restaurant. There is a pair of couplets in front of the building, which are written by two lines of poems by Li Taibai from the previous dynasty: There will be times when the wind and waves break, and the clouds and sails will rise to help the sea.

This couplet was inscribed by Wang Chong, the general magistrate of Quanzhou today.

Because this building was built by the Jihai Chamber of Commerce and borrowed the name of Li Taibai, these two lines of poetry were used.

It is said that the Jihai Chamber of Commerce, the owner behind Taibai Tower, is inextricably linked to Wangjiang Tower in Yangzhou, because besides Wangjiang Tower, Taibai Tower is the restaurant with the most delicious cooking in the entire Song Dynasty.

Even Fanlou in Tokyo is inferior to the cooking skills.

Thirty steps southeast of Taibai Tower is Baihua Tower. As the name suggests, it is a flower tower. The women in the tower come from all over the country, including Khitan, Xixia, Goryeo and Tubo. There are even blond and blue-eyed beauties from the Western Regions, and many more.

She is a woman from the Jiaofang Division in Quanzhou.

The remaining five floors are a treasure building, an auction building, and the remaining three buildings are inns. There are small courtyards lined up next to each other around, guarding these seven tall buildings.

Although Anlefang has just been established for only half a year, it has already become the largest gold sales cave in Quanzhou, and most of the people coming and going are wealthy people with millions of dollars.

There are also those wealthy men and women in Quanzhou City who are also frequent visitors to Quanzhou Seventh Floor.

Chen Jun, the incompetent son of Zhizhou, lived there for more than half a month, which made Chen Jun so angry that he went to Baihua Building to arrest him in person. It is said that Chen Jun gave him a good beating and was beaten to death.

Two of the strips were severed, and Chen Liulang was beaten so hard that he couldn't get out of bed for several days. After that, he was even grounded at home and couldn't go out for several months. Suddenly, he became a talking point among the people.

In the private room facing the sea on the third floor of Anlefang, Taibai Building, Wang Zhong and Chen Jun sat opposite each other.

Chen Jun looked at the ships moored in Quanzhou Bay and the constant flow of people on the pier! Then he turned to look at Wang Zhong, whose face was always calm and calm, as if nothing in the world could move him.

I felt inexplicable for a moment.

"Zihou returns to Tokyo this time to report on his work. Will he never come back?" Chen Jun couldn't help but ask: "Today's Quanzhou cannot be separated from Zihou!"

"Ming Gong is joking!" Wang Zhong said: "Whether to go or to stay, the court has its own decision, how can it be decided by Zhong!"

Chen Jun smiled bitterly and said, "Zi Hou, please stop joking with me!"

Wang Zhongdao: "Now that the first three-year plan has been completed, all infrastructure construction has basically been completed. Next, we just need to steadily and step by step continue to implement the next three-year plan we formulated. Three years later

, it will naturally produce results!”

Chen Jun immediately complained to Wang Zhong: "Having said that, if Zi Houruo really left, now such a big stall in Quanzhou will have to fall on me alone. I am already at an age where I am about to know my fate. How can I

So much energy!”

Wang Zhong shook his head and said: "Ming Gong has served as the magistrate of the state for two terms. Although our dynasty has the practice of re-election, it has never been re-elected for more than three terms. In recent years, Quanzhou's wealth has doubled in one year.

Several times, based on Ming Gong’s resume and Quanzhou’s achievements in the past few years, I am afraid he will be directly transferred to Tokyo this time!”

"Hey!" Chen Jun sighed, his eyes flickering, and he sighed: "Although Tokyo is good, it is not a good place at this time."

Wang Zhongdao: "Master Cai has been gone for two years, and he will soon make a decision to come to the official family!"

Chen Jun looked at Wang Zhong: "Which prince do you think the official family will choose?"

Wang Zhong did not answer, but asked: "What do you think, Duke Ming?"

Chen Jun said: "King Yong is old and has many heirs. You don't have to worry about heirs in the future. I think it will be him!"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Although King Yong is only half a year older than King Yan, not to mention half a year, it is one day, one hour, one stick of incense, and the longer he is!"

"But that's not necessarily the case!" Wang Zhong suddenly changed his voice and said: "After all, they are adopted children from the clan. Since they are adopted, it doesn't matter if they are older or younger! As long as they are adopted into the official family and the eldest daughter's lap, it will be natural.

It’s the direct lineage, the direct lineage is the lineage, the lineage is in front of the lineage! Why should we care about the age?

From ancient times to the present, when there are no children, the adopted heirs from brothers or sons of brothers of the same clan only look at the elders and not the character and virtue? If they only look at the elders, what else do the officials have to worry about, and the courtiers still have to worry about it?

What's the fuss about? Just let the official adopt King Yong."

"In fact, whether it is King Yong or King Yan, compared to other clans, their bloodline is closer to the official family."

Chen Jun cupped his hands at Wang Zhong and said, "What Zi Hou said makes sense."

Wang Zhongdao: "In fact, whether it is King Yan or King Yong, in the final analysis, the official family has the final say as to who will be crowned prince. Even if the two kings are fighting, what they are fighting for is also the official family's opinions, likes and dislikes, and the official family.

What does it have to do with us being ministers?

As a minister, as long as you do your duty and don't make mistakes, is it possible that after the new king ascends the throne in the future, he can blame us with an unfounded crime?"

Chen Jun said: "Zihou is still a little younger after all. Although it can be said that, the princes in the court will not think so, nor will King Yan and King Yong. Do those courtiers who joined the two kings early on

Don’t you know this?”

Wang Zhongdao: "It's nothing more than trying to achieve the feat of serving the dragon and gain the status of an old minister of Qiandi!"

"Since Zihou has no intention of following the dragon, he should be more careful when going to Tokyo!" Chen Jun reminded.

Wang Zhong was awe-inspiring, raised his hands and said seriously: "Thank you Ming Gong for the suggestion!"

No wonder Chen Jun suddenly talked about the dispute over the establishment of the crown prince. It turned out that he was trying to remind himself not to get involved.

Chen Jun smiled: "Since Zihou already knew it, I feel relieved."

As he spoke, he picked up the wine glass and said, "Then I will lend you this thin glass of wine. I wish you a safe and smooth journey."

"Then it's a sign of your good fortune!"

Wang Zhong raised his glass, touched it lightly with Chen Jun, and drank it all in one gulp.

Early the next morning, Wang Zhong boarded the ship at the pier, taking only Yu Chuer and Wang Erxi, carrying simple luggage, all the way north to Hangzhou and taking the overland road to Jinling. He then transferred to Youyang to attend the Shengjia Conference two days later.

The old lady's birthday party.

Sheng Wei naturally welcomed Wang Zhong's arrival. However, he and Mr. Li had to organize a birthday banquet for the eldest lady and were extremely busy with the reception, so they could only let brothers Chang Song and Chang Wu entertain them.

Wang Zhong.

But Changsong also had a lot of things to do, and the job of entertaining Wang Zhong could only fall on Changwu, an idle man.

In the past few years, the father and son Sheng Wei and Chang Song have been staying in Quanzhou. Only during the Chinese New Year can they take time to go back to their hometown in Youyang, but they can't stay for only a few days each time. This year is the eldest lady's sixtieth birthday.

On his birthday, the business at Jihai Company gradually entered a stable stage. Only then did Sheng Wei lead Changsong back to Youyang and personally organize the birthday banquet for his biological mother.

In the past few years, Chang Wu has been practicing martial arts at home with Sheng Wei's tutor, studying the art of war, and preparing to participate in the martial arts class in the coming spring.

There are only three levels of martial arts, which are the interpretation test, the provincial test and the palace test.

The examination is held at the local level, while the provincial examination and the palace examination are both held in the capital. The former is administered by the Ministry of War, while the latter is conducted by officials.

However, Chang Wu is a straight person, his brain doesn't work very fast, and his mind is not lively enough. Such a person is not suitable for hanging out in the officialdom, but he is quite talented in martial arts, and Sheng Wei does not expect Chang Wu to achieve much in the future.

, anyway, he has a share of Dafang’s family fortune, so it won’t be a problem to ensure that he has enough food and clothing for several lifetimes. Sheng Wei only wants Changwu to be an official. In addition to hoping that his son will become a successful man, there is another reason, that is, as long as he grows up,

Wu has an official status and the Sheng family is no longer a merchant family.

Although the status of merchants has been improved in this dynasty, those wealthy families still look down on merchants in their hearts.

Sheng Wei asked Chang Wu to entertain Wang Zhong, so Chang Wu took Wang Zhong to practice martial arts at home, competed with Wang Zhong, and asked Wang Zhong for martial arts and Wang Zhong's advice.

Wang Zhong came here to celebrate the birthday of the old lady, not for fun. He didn't feel anything wrong about staying in the martial arts arena.

But I never thought that on the day of the birthday banquet, there would be quite a disturbance at the banquet.

The person who caused the trouble was none other than Sun Zhigao, the husband of Sheng Wei's eldest daughter Shulan.

Because the Sheng family is considered a prominent family in Youyang, and Sheng Hong, the second wife, is now an official in Tokyo. When the old lady of the Sheng family's eldest family celebrated her 60th birthday, the magistrate of Youyang came to celebrate her birthday with gifts. Sheng Wei personally Reception, inviting people to the main table.

It was nothing at first, but when Sheng Wei introduced Wang Zhong to the magistrate of Youyang, the magistrate of Youyang was stunned for a moment, and then he came to his senses.

At that time, the magistrate of Youyang looked at Wang Zhong and asked, "But Wang Zhong, Prince Hou, who is now the general magistrate of Quanzhou?"
To be continued...