Deeper into the alley, occasionally there were still households with lanterns hung in front of their doors. On the dark stone-paved street with only a hint of dim light, the sound of horseshoes came clattering.

  Lin Xie and Lin Mengde negotiated the terms and left Dongyang Guild Hall, still somewhat drunk. He walked with Lin Jingzhong, leading his horse.

  "In the future, I want to establish myself in Jiangning, you stay and help me."

  "I'm a stranger in Jiangning, what can I help you with?" Lin Jingzhong said.

  "What's unfamiliar about life?" Zhao Hu wrapped his arm around Lin Jingzhong's shoulder from behind, "I was also a bit nervous when I arrived in Jiangning, but after staying for two days, I found that the people in Jiangning City are not so formidable..."

  Lin Jingzhong silently gazed at the distant, unyielding blackness of night, thinking about the events that had transpired over this period. Lin Xuan was forced to kneel by Lin Jingzhong's knife in the horse market of Upper Lin, and Lin Jingzhong had worried at the time that Lin Xuan was just acting on impulse. But today, seeing Lin Xuan force Lin Mengde to agree to secretly help him establish his own power base in Jiangning, Lin Jingzhong finally understood that the scholar was no longer the same as before.

  The mule market rushed to the crown and drew its sword, which can still be said to be a matter of momentum, but today Lin Xie is borrowing power to force Lin Mengde into an irreversible dead end. This kind of tactic, Lin Jingzhong thought that even if he could think of it, he might not dare to take risks on Lin Mengde's body. He thought that compared to the showy talent, his heart couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

  "Madam asked me to come to Jiangning to broaden my horizons, how can I agree with you to stay?" Lin Jingzhong said hesitantly.

  "Just agree, Seventh Lady," Lin Xie patted Lin Jingzhong's shoulder and said with a smile. "You should also be clear about the current situation. As long as the master is still breathing, the Lin family can maintain its current momentum, but it's hard to say how much longer he can hold on..."

  "Yes, once the master of the house passes away, and Madame Seven has no children, she won't have any claim to continue holding power. It's precisely this point that Second Master and Sixth Madame are counting on, which is why they're letting Madame Seven take charge," Lin Jingzhong said. "Rather than fighting with Lin Mengde for control of Jiangning at this time, only to have someone else come along and snatch it away later, wouldn't it be better to just set up your own household... Ah, Xiaoxiu, you think more clearly and see further ahead than I do. If you explain the reasoning behind this to Madame Seven, she'll agree with you setting up your own household in Jiangning."

  Lin Xian smiled and said, "Since that's the case, let's go back and discuss the matter of setting up our own business...". He patted Lin Jingzhong's shoulder and asked him, "You've been doing accounting work in the warehouse for two years, do you dare to be the manager of a Jiangning business?"

  "What's there to be afraid of?" Lin Jingzhong took a deep breath and said heroically.

  "You just said you're not familiar with Jiangning..." Zhao Hu teased him.

  "Life is unfamiliar, isn't it more necessary to lift one's spirits in adversity?" Lin Jingzhong laughed and said. Once he made up his mind, he couldn't calm down and didn't have time to return to Jiyun House. He started discussing business matters on this long street that night. "After Gu Wudu was released from prison, the Gu family regained their tea merchant qualifications, but under the suppression of the Lin family, the Gu family's self-produced tea and collected tea could only be sold at a low price through Linji Warehouse in Shiliang County, earning meager profits. The Gu family has been resentful about this for a long time. Now that Gu Wudu has come to Jiangning as the vice censor-in-chief, the Gu family will naturally not be able to hold back. However, the Gu family has been too bleak for the past decade. Even if they gain power today, they lack money and people. Moreover, other powerful families in Shiliang County are all connected with the Lin family. As long as the Lin family secretly creates some obstacles, it will be enough to make it difficult for the Gu family to move forward. What can Gu Wudu do even if he is a fourth-rank vice censor-in-chief? The Lin family also has connections in the imperial court. If we can get the support of Madame Qi and Lin Mengde, we can help the Gu family transport their tea out of Shiliang County. The only problem is that neither we nor the Gu family have much capital to collect tea, nor do we have ships... It's impossible for Madame Qi and Lin Mengde to openly let the Lin family's ships help us transport tea."

  "I have 5,000 taels of silver in my hands. The tea production of the Gu family is not large, and apart from collecting the principal amount of tea, we can also add a few more ships... How to use these 5,000 taels of silver, I want you to plan carefully for me," Lin said, "It's impossible to buy new ships in one or two days. There are still 40 horses at Madame Qi's place, which can be used to transport the tea to Jiangning for distribution first." Using warhorses to carry goods is really a waste of good things.

  Lin Jingzhong knew that Lin Xian's family was not wealthy, and it would be difficult for him to come up with even 5,000 copper coins, let alone 5,000 taels of silver. He thought that Lin Xian's decision to set up his own household in Jiangning might have been at the instigation of Qiuren, or perhaps had something to do with those outsiders who sold horses - those outsiders had sold twenty fine horses to the Linli Village militia for 3,000 taels of silver. He decided not to bother with this for the time being and said: "We need a shop in the city as a front; our main business will be distribution, so we won't need to bring tea goods into the city, but we'll still need to find a warehouse outside the city to store the tea packages..."

  "I think our business should have its own warehouse," said Lin Lian. "When we enter the city, we come in from the Jinchuan River waterway and feel that the geography of the Jinchuan River estuary is convenient. How about buying land there to build a warehouse?"

  Lin tied up in Jiangning to run a business is for cover, cargo transshipment and storage must be controlled by oneself, this can quietly supply materials to Changshan Island, this warehouse is an important part of it, naturally cannot be entrusted to others.

  "Ah?" Lin Jingzhong's eyes turned to Lin Fu, he didn't expect Lin Fu to have other plans, in his heart he thought: a business needs a store, a warehouse, a ship, and a horse team, this is not about being independent, it's clearly about the Lin family splitting up. He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Jinchuan River mouth, I passed by there on my way here, let alone other things, that place has a vast water surface, if we build warehouses there, what will happen when pirates from Yangzi River come to attack?"

  The wider the water surface, the more convenient it is for pirate ships to turn around and attack. Outside the mouth of the Jinjiang River is the Chao Tian Tang, a hundred-mile radius, where warehouses are built to store goods, which will attract river pirates to visit frequently.

  "It's already late tonight, let's go to Jin Chuan River mouth in two days and see if it can be done or not..." Lin said.

  **********************

  The next day, Lin Jingzhong wrote a letter to the porter of the goods shed and asked him to take it back to Shanglinli to explain the matters that had been left in Jiangning. Lin Xian was thinking of writing a letter to Madame Qi, but he did not dare ask the Lin family members for help to send it back. He waited until Wu Qi and others obtained their status at Shiliang, and then they would send someone to Jiangning to contact him.

  Invite Yang Pu to attend the washing dust banquet, which is indeed effective. In the following days, there are Dongyang Township parties coming to the house to visit and connect with the countryside. On the third day, Lin Fu and his party set out early to look at the terrain at the mouth of the Jin River in the east gate of the city.

  The Jin River estuary is only 11 or 12 miles away from the northeast corner of Jiangning City, with a low ridge in between. The city wall cannot be seen, but after the thin fog clears up in the early morning, the watchtower on the northeast corner of Jiangning City can be clearly seen. To the south lies Xuanwu Lake and the majestic Purple Mountain, while to the north are the vast Yangtze River and Chao Tian Dang.

  Lin Jingzhong was weak and afraid of the cold, so Zhao Hu packed him into a horse-drawn carriage. Lin Bing and Zhou Pu, Chen Enze all rode horses, galloping out of the city with whips cracking, feeling extremely exhilarated.

  Come down to the ground, Lin Xie stood on the steep stone bank, overlooking the Chao Tian Tang in the north, and said to Lin Jingzhong: "Here is open and convenient for transportation. Building a warehouse and distributing goods into the city or transporting them to other counties are all very convenient. Such a convenient place, yet no one dares to use it to build a warehouse, is because they fear that Chao Tian Tang's vast water surface can accommodate pirates from all sides." Lin Xie said, "So those business owners in Jiangning City would rather go through the trouble and build docks and warehouses upstream of Longcangpu outside the south city wall, or directly enter the city through the water gate and unload their goods at the warehouse inside the city.

  "It's a pity that Muling Lake is listed as the emperor's forbidden land, otherwise the lakeside of Muling Lake would be a good place to build warehouses." Lin Jingzhong sighed as he sat at the head of the horse carriage.

  Although Jiangning has a water gate that can enter the city, goods entering and leaving the city from the water gate must pay taxes and levies. Merchant ships that transit through Jiangning to other places will not enter the city to bear twice the exploitation; in addition, some merchants need to hoard goods for speculation and seek exorbitant profits, requiring a larger warehouse area to store large quantities of goods for a long time, and are naturally unwilling to bear the high land rental costs within the city. Furthermore, the water gate and the river channels in the city cannot accommodate large ships, so there is a need to build warehouses outside the city.

  From the Jin River waterway, go in seven or eight miles to reach Muling Lake. In the middle of Muling Lake are three islands, which is a forbidden place for the Jiangning House Department to store household registration yellow books. Since the opening of this dynasty, fishing and navigation have been prohibited on Muling Lake. Otherwise, it would be an excellent inland dock warehouse. When the river bandits want to enter Muling Lake to plunder the warehouses, they first consider whether the government soldiers will come to catch them off guard.

  It is not possible to build a warehouse on the shore of Mulan Lake, so many merchants in Jiangning choose to build warehouses upstream of Longcangpu.

  Longcangpu originates from the southwestern mountains of Jiangning, and when it approaches Jiangning City, it splits into two branches. The inner water flows into the city through Nan Water Gate, while the outer water surrounds the western city wall and then merges with the inner water outside Xi Water Gate to flow into Yangzi River. Longcangpu is located at the mouth of Sanjiao River in the southern city, which has become the most concentrated area for Jiangning's warehouses. Although it takes a detour of several dozen miles along the river course, these several dozen miles of inland waterways and the effective defense by the Jiangning Garrison General's Water Camp stationed at the river mouth have restricted the invasion of the Jiang pirates.

  Lin Yu looked out at the vast river, thinking that it was indeed a sad thing. Jiangning was the southern capital of the Great Viet dynasty, the number one famous city in the world. There were nearly 30,000 troops stationed nearby, and the naval fleet had over 3,000 people, with hundreds of warships. However, for decades, they had been unable to shake off the harassment of the river pirates, and even the lake pirates from Dongting Lake upstream, the Taihu thieves downstream, and the East Sea pirates would occasionally come to the outskirts of Jiangning City to hunt and fish.

  Lin tied his breath and said: "In Jiangning City, there are many shops, each industry has its own guilds and local factions. We want to set up our own business, but it's not an easy thing to do. The land at the mouth of Longcangpu River has been divided among several large merchants, and if we try to squeeze in and get a share, I'm afraid other warehouses will unite to suppress us. Moreover, the waterway of Longcangpu has become shallower due to siltation over the years, and ships with three masts or more are worried about being stranded when entering. Now, using the river to transport goods, the bigger the ship, the less transportation costs, but it's rare to hear that there are still eight-masted giant sails crossing Jiangning..."

  Lin Jingzhong looked at Lin Fu's expression, seemingly having made up his mind. He thought to himself: Although the situation of Jiang's bandits plundering and looting doesn't happen all the time, if a warehouse is robbed once, they would have to fully compensate the merchants for their stored goods, which would be enough to bankrupt the owner of the warehouse. Moreover, they didn't have enough financial resources to build a crack militia like the one in Shanglin Township. Furthermore, Jiangning was the southern capital of the imperial court, and building private troops outside the city walls was not as easy as it was in Dongyang. Even if they had private troops under the guise of protecting merchant caravans, there would be strict restrictions.

  Lin Jingzhong didn't dare to directly attack Lin Xie's confidence, so he stood up and pointed at the boats sailing across the river, asking Zhao Hu beside him: "Do you think there are people on those boats who make a profit without investing anything?"

  "Maybe they won't raise their flag again," Zhao Hu said. "Besides, it's not unheard of for ships to trade during the day and rob at night."

  "There's no need to worry too much," Lin Xuan knew what Lin Jingzhong was worried about, pointing to the Jiangxin Island not far away. "That is the prison of the Procuratorate, and there are guards stationed on the island. If we can persuade Gu Wu to add a bit more guard power to the prison, or even add two warships, this place will be much safer. In addition, when we build warehouses in the future, try not to leave valuable goods that are easy to steal... And I'm sure there won't be just one or two companies that want to build warehouses here. After all, Longcangpu has too many restrictions, and someone will dare to take the lead, who knows how many more companies will flock in."

  "It's hard to say," Lin Jingzhong still didn't have confidence, but since he had already set foot on the boat, he didn't have too many worries and said, "Since you've chosen this place, then let's make plans based on this location..."

  At this time, an official boat was drifting towards the surface of the water on the Chao Tian Tang River. Looking at the golden crow's head plaque on the bow of the boat, it was exactly the official boat that Gu Wu Chen was riding in.

  Lin tied his horse to the river embankment and watched as the official boat sailed into the Jin River. Several people surrounded him, and Gu Wu dust wore a black gauze hat with two straight wings on his head, wearing a crimson official uniform with a curved collar and wide sleeves of the fourth rank, with a cowhide belt decorated with gold, silver, and jade inlays around his waist. He stood proudly on the bow deck, today being the auspicious day for him to officially enter the city and take office.

  ***************

  P.S: Red envelope, collection.