The twelfth day of the last month is the Founding Day, which is also a memorial day for Taizu's ascension to the throne. It has some similarities with National Day a thousand years later, but the difference is that on Founding Day, apart from the government hanging lanterns and decorating, officials in the government have something to show, but ordinary people do not have much enthusiasm.

  On this day, more than a thousand catties of tea from the Gu family arrived in Jiangning. With the tacit consent of Qiufu and Lin Mengde, the merchant ships carrying tea cargo sailed along the waterway without encountering any unexpected events. Wu Qi and others also came with the ship.

  At first, Wu Qi disguised himself as a horse trader and went to the Upper Lin's Huai Shang Liu Ma Kou with seven people, including Wu Qi. This time, four of them came over, leaving three people in the Upper Lin, staying by Madame Gu's side. Although Madame Gu had Gu Wu Chen to rely on, Lin Ting Li, Lin Zong Hai, and Lin Xu Zong would not excessively offend her, but they still needed to guard against petty people making sneak attacks behind their backs. Moreover, Madame Gu's side also needed someone to serve her.

  On the twelfth day of the lunar month, the weather was overcast. When Wu Qi and others came, the north of the river had already started to snow, but it was still the first snowfall on the south bank this winter.

  "The day before yesterday, Shen Rong, the magistrate of Dongyang, arrived at Shanglinli on an official boat for inspection. He said that he was going to petition the Proclamation Pacification Commissioner's office to reward Lin Zonghai, the commander of the local garrison in Shanglinli, with a hat of a seventh-rank military officer... Wu Qi had just arrived in Jiangning and had only had time to take a sip of tea when Lin Jingzhong rushed back from the tea shop. He mentioned some things that had happened in Shanglinli recently, but there were some things that couldn't be written about in detail in letters, and someone would have to come over to ask about them in person."

  "Shen Rong never gave up his efforts to incorporate the Xiangying troops into the Dongyang Prefecture army," Lin Jingzhong shook his head and sighed, "He had done this kind of thing before..."

  "A first-class seventh-grade military officer's hat is useless," Zhao Hu said, having stayed in the Shanglinli Garrison for two years and knowing what it was like. He looked down on Shen Rong's efforts and spoke roughly, "The 500 strong men of the Shanglinli Garrison are raised by the Lin family with nearly 10,000 taels of silver every year. If Shen Rong can take out that much silver every year, even if he forces the garrison to be incorporated into the Military Command, what can the Lin family do? If Shen Rong cannot take out the silver to raise troops and still wants to incorporate the garrison into the Military Command, the Lin family will cut off their support, leaving Shen Rong with a big headache."

  Although Zhao Hu did not see the problem as meticulously as Lin Jingzhong, he understood the simple truth that raising soldiers requires a lot of silver.

  Lin Jie shook his head and said, "When Lin Tingxun was in charge, Shen Rong's small actions didn't amount to much. The key issue now is Lin Zonghai - Lin Zonghai is not a direct descendant of the Lin family, so no matter who becomes the master of the Lin family in the future, it will never be Lin Zonghai's turn. On the contrary, when others become the master, they will have to guard against Lin Zonghai first; Moreover, the backbone of the village militia is the Lin clan descendants, and the village braves are mostly from the Lin family, so generally speaking, Lin Zonghai cannot leave the Lin family and independently control the village militia... I'm afraid that if Shen Rong shows a little kindness, Lin Zonghai will eagerly welcome him..."

  "What attitude will Second Master take towards this matter?" Lin Jingzhong asked. Lin Tingli was the vice prefect of Dongyang Prefecture, and his status in Dongyang Prefecture was second only to Shen Rong. Even if he strongly vetoed Shen Rong's proposal to grant a military title to Lin Zonghai, it would be acceptable.

  "It's hard to say, if it was just a request to grant Lin Zonghai a military title, Lin Tingli would have had a hard time opposing it - Shen Rong may not necessarily want to immediately make the Lin family's rural camp part of the prefectural army. I think this light move of his is just meant to make the situation in Lin's village more complicated and the Lin family more divided." Lin Xuan said, thinking to himself that Shen Rong should know the principle of being impatient and unable to eat hot tofu, what he fears is that Shen Rong will take advantage of the internal strife within the Lin clan to plot against them.

  Of course, Lin Xuan thought this way, not to worry about the future of the Lin family. In any case, the fragmented Lin family was also beneficial to him. The more united and cohesive the Lin family was around Benjia, the more he would be marginalized as a collateral branch, and the less he could utilize the resources of the Lin family. If Lin Tingxuan were able to properly manage the affairs of the Lin family, his idea of transporting tea goods to Jiangning with the help of Seventh Madame and Lin Mengde was just a pipe dream.

  "Alas..." Lin Jingzhong let out a soft sigh, the idea that had been instilled in him since he was young was to put the interests of the Lin family first, and thinking about the bleak future of the Lin family naturally made him somewhat worried.

  "It's no use thinking too much about it," Lin Xian thought, the biggest uncertainty was Lin Tingxun who had a stroke in bed. Worrying too much would not help, and for now, he could only take things one step at a time on the Lin family side. The priority was to establish a foothold in Jiangning as soon as possible. He said to Lin Jingzhong, "The tea shop is short of a cart driver, I'll send someone over to help out, and also transfer two horses over. Make sure the person who goes is familiar with driving carts, don't let Gu Tianqiao and his people suspect anything..."

  "Lin, Lin Jingzhong already knew the identities of Zhou Pu and others, as well as their plan to establish themselves in Jiangning. If he were still in Shanglin, he would naturally be flustered and at a loss for what to do. But after arriving in Jiangning, his entire mindset changed. Under Lin's influence, even his cautious nature had some heroic tendencies. What else could he think? Taking Zhao Hu's words, he had already boarded the pirate ship. He looked at the thin, rustic-looking man pointed out by Lin and asked, "Old brother, what is your honorable surname?"

  "Lin Wuya, you're the one in charge of Ji Yun Society. Just call me Zhou Mangzi and it's settled." The man said, his left eye covered by an ugly scar that was startling at first glance.

  Lin tied, pointing at Zhou Mang's eyes, said to Lin Jingzhong: "Zhou Mang's left eye was injured by an arrow. To cover up the injury, he cut open his upper and lower eyelids with a knife..."

  Lin Jingzhong heard the two eggs below him slightly trembling, and thought to himself that these bandits were really ruthless towards him. No wonder they had been roaming free in Huaiyang for nearly ten years. Compared to those rascals in Jiangning City, these true fugitives were on a completely different level. However, he couldn't understand why Lin Xian would put someone like this in the tea shop as a cart driver.

  "Now we are in Jiangning City, just like walking on a tightrope..." Lin Tie continued to say. He wanted to say "tightrope" but was afraid that Lin Jingzhong and the others would not understand what a tightrope was, so he changed his words: "We must open up the situation in Jiangning as soon as possible, taking risks everywhere, like walking on thin ice, and who knows when we will encounter unimaginable dangers. I have placed Zhou Mangzi and two fast horses at the tea shop, as a reserve plan for emergencies. Unless you encounter particularly difficult situations, do not let Zhou Mangzi perform tasks other than driving the horse carriage..."

  Zhou Mangzi smiled and said, "I'm also a good driver."

  Lin Jingzhong nodded, thinking that Lin Xie's consideration was more stable. He said to Lin Xie: "I'll take him over and say he's your distant relative, very introverted and not easy to get close to..."

  "Let Zhou Mangzi take the horse to the tea shop himself," Lin Dai said, "you come with us out of the city."

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  Wu Qi and his men brought a number of horses with them this time, riding on the frozen muddy road. Lin Xie looked up at the overcast sky and thought to himself that it wouldn't snow on this side of the river as well, would it? He reined in his horse and slowed down, waiting for Lin Jingzhong and the others to catch up from behind.

  "The tea shops on the Jiangning side have started to open, and our next step is to open a tea shop in Chongzhou as well. This way, from Shanglin to Jiangning and then to Chongzhou, we'll have a rough outline of a trade route," Lin Fu said. "Next, we need to build a warehouse in Jiangning, where large quantities of goods can be transported from Jiangning to Chongzhou. Before the boats enter the county town of Chongzhou via the inland river, they will stop at the river fork to unload the cargo, and it will be easy to secretly transport the necessary supplies to Changshan Island..."

  Wu Qi's legs lightly clamped the horse's belly, and Zhou Pu followed from behind, chuckling: "It's a pity that for ten years, there hasn't been a Master Lin to plan for us bandits, otherwise we wouldn't have ended up like this, only able to be a mourner's dog."

  "It's easy to say, but hard to do. We must have an excuse to anchor the boat in the middle of the river and divide the goods." Lin said.

  "The ship is too big, I'm afraid it will run aground if it enters the inner river. It has to anchor in the middle of the river and transfer the goods to smaller boats..." Wu Qi said with a smile.

  "Then we should buy a five-masted ship to run the cargo," Lin Xian asked, "We can't just say that a three-masted ship is too big and afraid to enter the inland river."

  "Uh, it's a five-masted big ship," Wu Qi nodded and said, "In addition, the side of Chongzhou should use people who are not related to Jiangning as much as possible. This way, we can avoid revealing our true intentions when dividing the goods..."

  "From now on, you'll be in charge of the Chongzhou side," Lin Tie said, reining in his horse at the edge of the official road. "I don't have time to go to Chongzhou again; the Jiangning Ministry has already sent a document summoning me to report tomorrow for questioning. After becoming the Judicial Officer, it won't be easy to leave Jiangning... As for the Chongzhou side, either you, Hei Ya, will go personally or send two people over to take care of things..."

  "I'll stay in Jiangning, Lin Ye you need more manpower," Wu Qi thought for a moment and said, "Anyway, Mr. Qin and the others are close to Chongzhou, during this time although Mr. Qin hasn't sent anyone to look for us, I think they should have also sent someone to land at Chongzhou, I just need to send one person to make contact, bring all these plans to Mr. Qin and they can handle it..."

  "Hmm!" Lin Xie nodded, he was only with Zhou Pu and Zhao Hu, and always felt that there were not enough people, Zhou Mangzi as a dark chess piece did not move, and with Wu Qi's two men, it would be more comfortable to do things.

  At this time, hundreds of knights came over with five or six horse-drawn carriages. The two leading riders at the front of the team were carrying two red silk flags. The flags were wrapped in the wind and did not unfold, nor could it be seen who was sitting in the carriage. Judging from the momentum, the leader was quite impressive. Lin Xie and his men dismounted their horses and pulled them to one side to give way to the people entering the city.

  The carriage and the cavalry approached, a gust of north wind blew, and the flag was unfolded. Lin Xie took a look and was shocked to see that the flag read "Jin'an Hou Fu Jiangning Jin Pao Shi" in two rows of large and small brocade characters. Unexpectedly, apart from Qingfeng Hang, the Xiao family had openly sent someone to enter Jiangning. It's worth noting that the imperial edict conferring the title of Jin'an Hou on the Xiao family had only arrived in Jiangning for less than two days and had not been officially announced publicly yet.

  The Jinshu Yuan was roughly equivalent to the later Liubu, and served as a liaison office in the capital for the three branches of government (Xuanfu Si, Ancha Si, and Tidu Fu) from each province. Each branch had an officer stationed at the Jinshu Yuan who was responsible for reporting military and civilian intelligence from their home province to the imperial court, presenting memorials from their province, and transmitting imperial edicts and documents back to their province.

  As the only hereditary title with real power to govern and command troops in this dynasty, Jin An Hou's status is not lower than that of the three officials in each prefecture, so he naturally has the right to send personnel to the Institute of Advanced Studies.

  This morning, in the two capitals of Yanjing and Jiangning, a memorial hall was set up. However, Jiangning is far from the center, and the officials guarding the mausoleum are all out-of-favor individuals. The Jiangning Memorial Hall has been empty since the capital was moved, and no three-government office of any county would send an envoy to Jiangning after eating their fill.

  There has never been a precedent, but it is not that there will be no one after. The Xue family, who had just surrendered to the imperial court and was enfeoffed as a marquis, actually sent an envoy to Jiangning to make a proposal. How could Lin not be surprised: what did the Xue family want to do?

  As the team slowly passed by, those guard knights vigilantly stared at Lin Xie who was wearing a sword on his waist. However, the people inside the carriage didn't seem to care at all. Lin Xie heard the voice of a woman coming from the second carriage: "I heard that Second Brother secretly came to Jiangning last time and met a beautiful woman, after which he couldn't forget her. I don't know what Second Brother did, but anyway, he got scolded by Father; Sister-in-law urged Second Brother to come to Jiangning as an imperial envoy, isn't she afraid that Second Brother will go find that woman again?"

  The voice was indeed clear and pleasant to listen to, but Lin's eyebrows were slightly furrowed.

  "Men are always insatiable, wait until you get married and you'll know, I don't have the energy to bother with this, he can marry as many wives as he wants, just don't come over here and fight me for the position of eldest...” Another soft and lazy-sounding but sharp-tongued woman's voice came out.

  At this moment, the people in the car wanted to take a breath of fresh air and lifted the curtain to look outside. Two delicate faces were squeezed together, revealing their desire to see the scenery outside the car, but they collided with Lin's gaze.

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