Dingjiangshan

Zheng Shaohui felt that something was not quite right.

He is now sitting in the guest room of the inn on his way from Liangzhou to the border city, with the doors and windows closed on all sides, and his subordinates are sitting unconsciously in the hall downstairs, while he is holding a piece of fluffy letter paper in his hand.

——It was Ning Yan's letter.

When Zheng Shaohui sent a letter back to Ning Yan, he felt a little uneasy.

Household registration is not like a family tree, which can be changed at will by anyone. These private items are stored in government offices in various places and entered from birth.The buying and selling of servants at home, and the marriage of children, all have to be written clearly on the government's household registration.This is not only to expose the family relationship, but also to leave a record of life, so that if something goes wrong in the future, many things can be found out through the household registration.

The household registration status of Liangzhou and Biancheng did not match, which means that the water in at least one prefecture has begun to become muddy.The border town is where Xie Jiajun belongs, and Zheng Shaohui never doubted it, so Liangzhou is the only one left.

Someone intervened in the government office, this matter can be said to be big or small, and it is easier to be vigilant when people are walking on thin ice like this.

But Zheng Shaohui didn't expect that Ning Yan seemed to be aware of this matter.

In his reply letter, he was not surprised by Jiang Xuan's background, but only told him that since he had already reached this point in the investigation, he might as well continue the investigation along this line and go to the border town to find out about Jiang's family.

In Ning Yan's reply letter, he didn't mention anything about the Liangzhou government at all, and he didn't know whether he was afraid of being blocked halfway through the letter, or if he really knew it in his heart, and he didn't think about sorting out those things that were eaten inside and out.

Not only that, Ning Yan also very calmly pointed out a clear way for Zheng Shaohui, saying that he should go to the border town and go directly to the Xie Mansion in the border town—someone is already waiting for him there.

Zheng Shaohui held the reply letter in his hand, feeling surprised and uncertain.

Throughout the ages, emperors have held high positions, like chess players, who can see the overall situation at a glance, and have big plans in their hearts when they are in balance.

Zheng Shaohui's life at home has not been good these years, and he has to make a living in the hands of his biological father and stepmother every day.He hibernates, hides the front, and fights against his own blood every day, coming and going comprehensively, and his heart is exhausted.

In contrast, Ning Yan, who was younger than him, seemed to never get tired.He seems to always be able to do a job with ease, with a well-thought-out plan, and every move, between retraction and retraction, seems to have ulterior motives.

Even in Liangzhou, which is far away from the capital, Ning Yan seems to have seen more things earlier than Zheng Shaohui who was here.

——Does Your Majesty really need us to investigate the case? Zheng Shaohui suddenly thought, regarding Jiang Xuan, the Empress Dowager, and even the court and the country, how much he has already "knowledges".

Zheng Shaohui didn't dare to think any further.

Whether you are a king or a minister, jealousy is a big taboo.Suspicions are born secretly, and suspicions are easy to arise. No matter what the reason is, Ning Yan did give him the only way out of the quagmire, and Zheng Shaohui is still grateful in his heart.

He shook his head to get rid of the premonition of chills on his back, then folded the letter paper in his hand a few times, and lit it on fire.

Zheng Shaohui has been dormant these days, but he has not been idle, and roughly sorted out the situation of Jiang's family.Except for Du Xiucai, who knows nothing, the Jiang family has three or five shops in Liangzhou, and they are not big businesses. They are just small shops like silk and satin shops, which are narrow and small, and they don't really go on the stage.

According to the information obtained by Zheng Shaohui, the Jiang family's main family in the border town is similar. They have a wealth of wealth, but they have few land and shops. It seems that most of the money has been invested in illegal goods.

In the past few days, Zheng Shaohui has also found a way to the Northwest United Defense Mansion.There was a mistake in the household registration of the Liangzhou government office, so Zheng Shaohui didn't dare to investigate the case in the government office. Fortunately, the defenders of the Northwest Defense also had some impressions of the Jiang family, so they helped him a little.

The Jiang family travels abroad all the year round. Although most of the time they travel along the border, they will go to the Central Plains to stock up on goods in the spring and autumn every year. It can be as fast as one or two months, and as slow as three or four months. When they come back, they will go to the border town first. The family on the side rested, and then organized the caravan to come to Liangzhou.

The Jiang family's caravan was small, only about [-] people, and they traveled back and forth twice a year on the road between the border town and Liangzhou, both in the early summer and winter.Recently, it was time for business and trade, and in another month, the Jiang family caravan would return to Liangzhou, so Zheng Shaohui guessed that they would go back to the border city to supply supplies, and wait for the shopkeeper from the Central Plains to come back.

He has stepped on a little bit, knowing that they have always been hurrying, and at the latest they will pass by the section of the official road where he is.

Zheng Shaohui watched silently as the flames engulfed the letter paper in his hand, and the fragile paper turned into whitish ashes in the flames, fell on the table in fine pieces, and was wiped away by Zheng Shaohui's hand.

He extinguished the fire pocket, wiped off the remaining embers on the table with his hands, then opened the bundle, and found a set of coarse linen clothes from the inside.

With less than an hour before dark, Zheng Shaohui still had time to prepare.

There is a subtle difference between the border towns and the Central Plains. When the sky is still bright in the border towns, the sky in the Central Plains is already getting dark.

Ning Huaijin sat down in a comfortable position on the wide tree branch, staring at the sign on the carriage thoughtfully.

The sign was hung on the side of the carriage, and it seemed to be the size of a man's fist. It was an unconventional circle with a thin ear similar to a plant stem carved in the circle.

Just a few hours ago, Ning Huaijin had seen this sign by accident—it was among a group of boats at the pier.

At that time, Ning Huaijin was busy making friends with the local guys and boatmen, and didn't pay much attention to the surrounding environment. Now she calmed down and recalled for a while, only to find that the boats were parked quietly by the pier at that time. A tall and thick man guarded him, he didn't look like the shopkeeper of someone's house, but more like a nursing home.

Those few boats were not big, and they were inconspicuous among the fleets of fleets crowded at the pier. Thanks to Ning Huaijin's good memory, otherwise it would be impossible to remember them.

The guys in the medicine garden were still moving things out one after another. Ning Huaijin found that the boxes in their hands seemed to have something special. In the carriage.

This is probably due to the difference between medicinal materials and tea leaves, Ning Huaijin guessed.

He frowned slightly, and while patiently watching them move the goods one by one, he distracted himself from thinking about this strange matter.

The guy on the pier told him before that there are two types of pier in Anqing Mansion. The large pier he went to was used to import and export large items such as salt, iron, and grain. Should not have entered that pier.

What's more, transporting grain and medicine have different requirements on the ship. The ship transporting grain does not need to consider whether the medicinal property will be lost, so it will empty out the bottom warehouse and try to hold more things. In order not to mix up the nature of the medicine, the ship that specializes in transporting medicine will be more careful when choosing a ship.

Although the pier was chaotic at that time, if there was a boat that was out of place with the others, Ning Huaijin believed that she would definitely notice it.

That said, the ship hadn't accidentally sailed into the wrong dock.Instead, they deliberately made a disguise to deceive others.

Ning Huaijin originally thought that Ning Zheng circled such a piece of land with bad intentions, but now she is almost convinced.

It's a pity that he has been in the capital all year round, and the number of times he has been to Jiangnan can be counted on one hand, and he doesn't understand the dialect of Anqing Mansion. Pick out any effective news from it.

The amount of medicinal materials produced in the medicine garden does not seem to be very large, neither of the two carts is full, and the cart with the ebony box is only half full.

Ning Huaijin waited patiently, seeing the last guy come out of the medicine garden and put the lock on the door.

The accompanying guys took the harness and returned to the car. The shopkeeper of the medicine garden flicked the abacus for the last time, then walked over with the abacus in his arms, and pointed out the numbers on it to a tall and burly guy.

Ning Huaijin paid attention to small things like clothing, but she didn't see how special the guy was, and she didn't know why the shopkeeper showed him the accounts alone.

The guy glanced at the abacus, and finally said: "How come this crop is [-]% less than before?"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Ning Huaijin froze.

Those who spoke before counted as one, and they all spoke an authentic dialect. Even if Ning Huaijin even guessed, it was very difficult to hear.

But when the guy opened his mouth, he spoke authentic Mandarin, which sounded like a capital accent.

Ning Huaijin accidentally connected some small clues and news, and suddenly came up with an extremely bold guess.

When he was rejected by the peasant woman before, he only noticed the unusualness of this place, but forgot another sentence of the peasant woman.

These items are "not for sale outside," she said.

Uncle Rong once told him that ordinary people don't know these medicinal materials, even if they find a doctor, they still know little about them, let alone how to prescribe them.

However, the vicinity of Yuanjiang Mansion in the south already produced such medicinal materials, and they would not travel all the way to Anqing to buy them.This medicine has never been seen in the northern area, and it has no use. Naturally, medicine dealers will not collect such unpopular medicinal materials and store them in the warehouse to accumulate dust.

——Who did Ning Zheng sell all the medicinal materials that Ning Zheng has regularly ordered over the years.

The shopkeeper not far away is still explaining, saying that there is a lot of rain this year, the weather is bad, and a few delicate mother plants died, so the output is so much less than usual, but Ning Huaijin has no intention of listening to them Rambling.

As long as he thought that these things might enter the palace in circles, Ning Huaijin couldn't sit still.He carefully and cautiously pushed aside the leaves, stepped back from the tree lightly, and then rushed out of the village quickly.

It must be too late to go back to Huaiyu's pawn shop to make other arrangements. Ning Huaijin went back to the village entrance one step ahead of those people, untied the horse that had been tied earlier, found a beggar nearby, gave him two coins, and ordered Go back to Huaiyu's pawnshop and send him a message.

Time is urgent, although this method is not safe, Ning Huaijin has no other options.

"Tell the shopkeeper of Huaiyu's pawn shop, please." Ning Huaijin said, "Just say that their young boss has something to leave Anqing temporarily, and ask the servants to follow along the official road."