Beiyang new warlord

In this bloody and cruel era, rare warmth!

When the leader is always good and those young people are enjoying the romance while blowing the cold wind underneath, Mao Jue can hug left and right, sitting in the warm third-floor captain's cabin, looking through small pieces of mosaic glass , Looking down at the most beautiful scene.

On the table, ice cubes were soaked in wine, occasionally making crackling sounds, and in the stove, dry firewood was surging violently, changing light and shadow in the dark room, leaning on the big soft sofa, Mao Jue was also I was fascinated for a while.

God is really fair, he deprived Mao Jue of his comfortable life, dragged him away from the world of feasting and feasting, and even changed his identity to another person, but this kind of right, this kind of tranquility is something he never had experienced.In later generations, he didn't even have a girl who looked at him directly, not to mention hugging left and right, but now, he has two confidante, to use an ancient saying, what more can a husband ask for!

But just when Mao Jue was thinking about it, there was a groan, Su Yi, whose face was flushed with excitement just now, turned his head and fell asleep. Looking at the girl with a smirk dripping from the corner of her mouth, Mao Jue pinched her little nose amusedly.

"Help her in! I'll wipe it!"

Nodding to Adelaine, he hugged Su Yi, turned around and went into the bedroom next to him, stuffed Su Yi into the bed, covered her with the quilt, and watched her sleeping soundly, Mao Jue After struggling for a while, she patted her little face, then turned and went out.

With his back on his back, he exited the room and closed the door. Just as Mao Jue turned around, a burst of bright red with fragrance suddenly passed in front of his eyes. He stopped and looked forward in disbelief. For a moment, the only impression that echoed in his mind was the Venus with a broken arm that had enchanted him for thousands of years in the Aegean Sea.

"Adelaine, what are you?"

The creamy white skin was flashed with pieces of butter yellow by the fire, and two blushes appeared on the cheeks. With his hands behind his back to support his attractive body, he sat gracefully reclining on the leather chair, with his slender legs crossed. Together, Adelaine's expression is still so calm, with a faint smile on the corner of her mouth.

"Although it is a bit different from the sorghum field that the young master always thought about, but this time, the young master will not leave in a hurry, right?"

"Why tonight?"

"This time the master arranged for the young master to go to the south of the Yangtze River. I'm afraid it's not as simple as worshiping the ancestors?"

"In our west, for a big family to prosper, marriage is essential! And if Dongjiang is to be passed on to the young master, the young master also needs to have enough heirs to continue the object of allegiance of the generals and retainers! Regardless of the east and the west, Everyone pays attention to the right family, concubine body and plain clothes, their status is obviously not qualified!"

After a pause, a charming smile appeared on Adelaine's face.

"So, the concubine has to leave an indelible impression before the young master leaves!"

Mao Jue was really a little scared. This woman was rational enough to be scary. After Mao Wenlong told himself about it, he didn't mention it to anyone except for telling Wen Meng, Su Changmei, and Kong Youde to follow the steps and stay safe. This girl figured it out.

Swallowing, Mao Jue turned his head slightly with some difficulty.

"She in plain clothes"

"That's right, I drugged her wine!"

Standing up abruptly, in the white shadow, a pair of heavy and oppressive hands pressed against Mao Jue's chest, her blue eyes were full of lustful smiles, Adelaina seemed to have really transformed into a high-ranking woman at this moment. The God of Beauty looked down at Mao Jue's panicked eyes.

"Women are selfish, aren't they?"

This kind of passivity is by no means Mao Jue's character, what's more, the dry wood has already ignited a raging fire, what else needs to be said! He hugged the girl violently, and in her exclamation, the two fiercely Stuck on the sofa just now.

The flames danced, the shadows lingered, and in the floating sea, pieces of festive lanterns drifted further and further away with romantic blessings. In the swaying waves, I didn't know and covered up and continued to whisper.

The absurd and impulsive night passed like this. After the celebration, the villagers in Dongjiang picked up their mood again and started a busy new year. On the edge of the port, those large fishing boats will be in the middle of the fisherman's chant. The nets are collected, and the dock workers are also sorting the vats. Everyone starts to fight for the next year, just as their Lord Mao said, because they love life, they are fearless!

At the port, Adelaine's body is a little weak, but leaning on the window of the carriage, watching the backs of five large sailboats and eight lucky boats going south, there is still a victorious smile on the corner of her mouth, women are really shrewd No matter what kind of love affair Mao Jue has in Jiangnan this time, he is destined not to forget the one-night affair last night. This is the guarantee of her future.

The Black Pearl, poop, captain's cabin.

"It's over, master's stuff!"

After sleeping for a long time, the girl suddenly woke up when the light was still shining on her ruddy face.A Gu Lu got up, Su Yi screamed and rushed out.But as soon as the door was pushed open, a large pile of luggage came into view by the big sofa by the window. Mao Jue, who was dressed as a Confucian scholar, was stuffing one by one into the cabinet when he heard this girl When he came out, he turned his head and showed a bright smile.

"The luggage Wen Bo has delivered, there is nothing to worry about."

At the end, Mao Jue added another sentence.

"Happy travel!"

Chapter 166. The Liao People Are Suffering

He had never been to Jiangnan before crossing, and this was Mao Jue's farthest trip in more than [-] years. For this trip, he put on a lot of pomp and circumstance, including five sailing battleships including the Black Pearl, and borrowed six lucky boats from Dongjiang , the [-] soldiers of the fourth regiment of Pang Dahai borrowed more than [-] sailors from the original, and the total number of entourage reached [-].

The ballast stones were almost thrown away. The full-pack of corn wine, the upper box was full of ginseng, as many as big radishes, and the territory became more and more northward. In this era, wild ginseng has not been destructively harvested. Digging, ginseng is not so scarce, it is one of Mao Jue's cash cows.

Even so, Mao Jue didn't want to run out of water for fishing. Last year, he harvested a large amount of ginseng seeds and put them in the woodland. Next year or two, he probably will have more ginseng.

And the best deck warehouse on the upper floor is a pile of exquisite wooden boxes filled with urad grass. The inside is full of crystal glass lampshades, and there are dozens of lamp stands of different sizes outside. It's about the same size as the biggest one in his officers' club.

In fact, crystal lamps in this era are not practical. There is no electricity, so you can only add lamp oil. The brightness is not as bright as that of electric lamps. If you get two taels of silver, you will get 720 taels if you spend it on lamps a year.

However, this amount of money is probably not worth mentioning to those Yangzhou local tyrants and Jiangnan wealthy businessmen who cast the gold foil as snowflakes from the temple just to see what Jinxue is like. What they want is this row of noodles! noodle!

Finally, there are the treasures of the whole north, Mao Jue’s Beiyang mirror, this time a coat mirror that is one person tall, a full-length mirror that is half a person high, and a palm-sized face mirror. It was almost generous.

With these things, Mao Jue was very ambitious. This time, at least he wanted to kill those wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, and at least he had to bring 100 million taels of silver back to Tieyi.

And to equip such a fleet, Mao Jue's most important purpose is not to go through the canal.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, since the Yuan Dynasty, has been the largest thoroughfare connecting the north and the south. Qianlong’s seven voyages to the south of the Yangtze River took the Grand Canal. There is even a saying that the city of Beijing came from the canal. Most of the earthenware was transported to the capital through the Grand Canal, which can definitely be called the main artery of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

Mao Jue has read many novels in later generations. In order to collect money, the protagonist set up a card on the Grand Canal to collect taxes. However, this move is actually quite backward. Tax customs, layer upon layer, I don't know how many there are.

The Burning Grass chapter in the Ming Dynasty miscellaneous notes "Jinling Trivia" vividly reflects this social phenomenon.

Lu Er, a merchant in Suzhou, found out that Jinling lamp grass was out of stock and the price had risen, so he sold a batch of lamp grass in Suzhou and went north to Jinling to make a profit.

The price of this batch of lamp grass, plus the money for hiring a boat on the Grand Canal, is a total of eight taels of silver. Taking advantage of the night to go on the road and sit on the boat, Lu Er is still thinking happily, how can he earn ten taels of silver when he arrives in Jinling? Two taels of silver, but the boat hadn't gone ten miles when I heard the boatman yelling loudly.

"Tax collection!"

It's normal for officials to collect taxes these days. A few servants inspected Lu Er's goods and collected a few coins, but Lu Er didn't care. shouted again.

"Tax collection!"

This time, Lu Er felt a little annoyed, how far did he go, and he had to pay taxes twice?Just like the boatman inquiring, the boatman also had a bitter face: "This is the tax that the prefect sent to increase!"

Prefect?Unable to offend, Lu Er could only obediently pay the money, and the boat sailed north again, but within ten miles, the boatman yelled again: "Tax collection!"

This time, it was another card set by the eunuch Zhang, and he couldn't afford to offend him, so Lu Er had no choice but to find the money again.

After three steps and one stop, in the middle of the night, Lu Er had already paid taxes countless times. Sitting in the cabin, his face was ashen, but the boatman let out another cry.

"Tax collection!"

A face turned pale, and Lu Er went on the deck sadly. Fortunately, this time, the boatman smiled and told him that he heard something wrong. This is Shou Sui Mountain, homophonic!

But for this one, Lu Er has already paid a tax of four taels of silver, and his goods are only eight taels of silver. There is still a thousand miles away from here to Jinling. Two, even if his lamp plants were sold twice, he would have to lose his money, and he would have to pay a few taels. Thinking of this, Lu Er burst into tears, got off the boat at Shou Sui Mountain and burned all the lamps in the boat, empty-handed, sad Returned to my hometown.

On this Grand Canal, the big fish eat the small fish. Even the Fan family, a big businessman in Yangzhou, will inevitably peel off. Mao Jue was the emperor of the soil in Tieyi, but in Daming, there are too many lieutenants, who can eat Mao Jue Big fish don’t know how much. To give a recent example, during the Japanese Invasion in Jiajing, Hu Zongxian, the censor of Zhejiang Province, was only from the third rank at that time. It's a little bit related, but his biggest backer is Wei Zhongxian, who has already fallen, and Mao Jue has gone too far. If he walks the Grand Canal and adds political revenge, Mao Jue probably has to shave his underwear clean.

And there are still many things I want to scrape from Jiangnan in the future. This time I went to the sea, which can be regarded as exploring a way for the future.

However, Mao Jue's first stop was not going straight to Jiangnan, but heading south towards Li.