On the same day, everyone spent the night on the ship and arrived in Yangzhou City the next morning.

Yangzhou Binhai Canal, near the river, has been the world's top commercial metropolis since ancient times, and the world's businessmen live here, creating the thousand-year-old prosperity of Yangzhou City.

In this dynasty, although the status of Yangzhou's economic center was replaced by Jinling, Suzhou and Hangzhou, it was still the salt transportation center of the country.

Every year, more than one billion catties of sea salt are transported from Yangzhou along the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River to all parts of the country for sale. It is no exaggeration to say that half of the people of the Ming Dynasty are eating Huai salt shipped from Yangzhou. There is no doubt that now this is a prosperous city because of salt, and there are more than 100 large and small salt merchants in the city, among which the Hui merchants are the most.

Hui merchants in Yangzhou to transport salt, two Huai to lead 16.9 million odd, all of which were undertaken by more than a dozen Hui merchants, and then distributed to the following small and medium-sized salt merchants.

These big salt merchants have huge assets and make money from the ground. There is no pain in business, and money is naturally regarded as dung, and there is no longer the diligence and thrift of traditional Hui merchants. They lived in luxury in Yangzhou, competing to build gardens, raise thin horses, build opera troupes, and engage in collections...... Of course, in addition to these personal enjoyments, they will also actively build bridges, pave roads, build schools, and donate generously to public utilities.

Salt merchants also especially like to help students, not only Yangzhou and Huizhou poor students will get their financial support, but all from the Grand Canal to Beijing to catch the exam, as long as they settle in Yangzhou, there will be salt merchants hospitality, before leaving will also send a lot of Cheng Yi.

Therefore, the reputation of the salt merchants in Shilin is not as unbearable as ordinary people imagine, but it is very popular with readers. Among the people who traveled with Zhao Hao and them, there was no shortage of people who had received funding from salt merchants.

Passenger ships with yellow flags have arrived at Dongguan Wharf in Yangzhou one after another.

Every time they arrived, the lifters were waiting for the salt merchants on the wharf for a long time, vying to invite them back to their gardens, feasting and entertaining them.

Zhao Hao: They are naturally no exception.

And they have the most yellow flags on their ships, and the scramble caused by them is also the most intense.

In the end, it was the Ye family, one of the eight chief salt merchants in Yangzhou, who stepped forward and divided their boat into two, half of which was divided by the rest of the family, and the other half was rounded by the Ye family.

Zhao Hao and the others sat in a luxurious and comfortable eight-lift sedan chair, crossed the streets and alleys in the sound of gongs and opened the road, and were carried into Yangzhou City.

Waiting for everyone to get off the sedan chair, I saw that I was already in a luxurious and beautiful garden, everywhere is the brocade curtain mink curtain, calligraphy and painting Zunyi, decorated with precious jade, hidden with famous incense, the arrogance of its taking, the essence of the pool, invincible.

At this time, the warm sun was shining at noon, and the host's family set up a banquet in the water pavilion, Zhao Hao and others sat down, only to feel that the room was warm like spring, and the surrounding water and trees were clear and the scales were swimming. There are also a number of stunning female histories, warm nephrite, and soft voices. There is also a pear orchard opera troupe, in response to the garden, the hall is called, and the song responds, the silk and bamboo are long, so that the lifters seem to come to heaven from the world, only to feel that the surrounding gold and blue shine, five-color light, and human shadows and flowers, blurry and messy.

Zhao Hao's father and son are like pins and needles. For Zhao Hao, he is still young and can't see this kind of messy scene; For Zhao Shouzheng, in front of his son, he can't do such a messy thing.

Fortunately, the master's family was very understanding, smiled slightly, and whispered a few words to the concubine who was like a fairy concubine on the side. The concubine invited Zhao Hao's father and son to follow her to a flower hall at the end of the corridor.

"Someone is waiting for you, please come in and see you." The concubine bowed slightly and made a gesture of inviting in.

Zhao Hao was alert and grabbed Zhao Shouzheng.

Seeing this, the concubine couldn't help but chuckle, and said to the inside: "Zhao Gongzi, the person you are waiting for is here." ”

Zhao Hao's father and son were stunned, and they saw Zhao Xian, who was wearing a brocade robe and a jade hat inlaid on his head, dressed as a child of a rich family, and walked quickly to the door.

Seeing that it was his eldest nephew, Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help but be taken aback. "Oh, Zhao Xian, aren't you going back to Xiuning? Why did you get here? Did you see your grandfather? ”

Zhao Xian hurriedly saluted the second uncle, and then greeted Zhao Hao again.

The concubine was blessed and retired silently.

"Second uncle, this, is ......" Zhao Xian's mouth was clumsy, and in the face of the second uncle's continuous questioning, he didn't know where to start for a while, so he stomped his feet and said, "Let's go home and talk about it." ”

"Home?" Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help asking: "Go back to Nanjing or Xiuning?" ”

"Next door." Zhao Xian smiled bitterly and led the way, and said to the two of them helplessly: "You will all know when you arrive."

Zhao Shouzheng had no choice but to suppress his suspicions, and followed his eldest nephew through a white marble moon door hole on the wall, and came to another luxurious garden.

~~

Entering the garden, walking along the winding bluestone road, I saw thousands of green bamboo poles on the side of the road, flowers and trees.

When you turn a place called 'willow and dark flowers' of Taihu Lake stone, you will see that the eyes are suddenly open, a small lake with residual lotus reflecting water, is a very elegant curved corridor and secluded pavilion, flower hall study.

Although it is not as splendid and luxurious as next door, it is more elegant and stylish, and it is more in line with the ideal aesthetics of readers.

Zhao Shouzheng couldn't help nodding again and again, and smiled at his son: "When we settle down, we will also build a garden like this, and then our grandfather will enjoy the flowers and fish every day, and it will be beautiful to death......."

"Something that doesn't make a living!" But hearing a familiar scolding, Zhao Shouzheng was frightened.

The father and son were busy following the prestige, and they saw Zhao Liben, who had been absent for nearly a year, wearing a flat square scarf with black yarn on his head, and a lake silk robe with maroon and dark flowers, looking at his son with a red face full of feigned anger.

"Oops, father......"

Zhao Shouzheng's eyes were shallow, and when he saw Zhao Liben, who was worried about him day and night, he immediately burst into tears.

He pounced on him with tears in his eyes, and was about to hug Zhao Liben. "My son isn't dreaming, is he?"

Zhao Liben pushed him away with a disgusted face, and said angrily: "You are also a person of size now, you must pay attention to the system!" ”

"I'm the prime minister, and I'm also my father's son." Zhao Shouzheng saw that his father refused to hug, so he pulled Zhao Hao and knelt on the ground to kowtow to Zhao Liben.

"Alright, alright, get up." Zhao Liben reached out to help his grandson and said to his son: "Come into the house and talk." ”

The four grandparents walked into the flower hall by the pool called 'Listening to the Lotus Xuan'.

I saw that on the window of the flower hall, there was no common Korean paper, but five colors of glass embedded in it.

Looking inside from the outside, I couldn't see anything clearly. But when I went in and looked out, I saw the outdoor scenery, which was clear and colorful.

What surprised Zhao Hao even more was that there was a silver-framed glass mirror hanging on the wall of the study!

Looking at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Is this Taixi?" ”

"A good grandson is knowledgeable," Zhao Liben said with a pleased chin of relief: "This is a glass mirror smuggled in by the Franc machine, with five hundred taels of silver on one side." In Yangzhou, if you don't have a few such Western goods, you are embarrassed to greet people. ”

Zhao Haoxin said, this business is really profitable......

ps. Chapter 6, 1600 votes plus more delivery, ask for a monthly pass recommendation ticket ~~~~