At daybreak, the gates of Suijiang city opened.
The three carriages of the Wei family left from the east city gate along with the crowd.
After traveling more than three miles along the route to Liangzhou, the carriage turned into a secluded road and headed north again towards Chongzhou and Lianzhou.
Perhaps because he got up too early, not long after they set out on the road, little Jiayan yawned loudly and fell asleep beside Wei Yunlan.
"After riding in a mule cart for a long time, I finally realized how comfortable a horse-drawn carriage is."
Gao said, taking out a thin blanket from the small cupboard under the seat and covering Jiayan with it. "If it was the mule cart we took earlier, the child wouldn't have fallen asleep so easily."
That's right, a carriage.
The two mule carts of the Wei family had been disposed of in Suijiang. The three carriages were purchased in different places in the city in the past few days. The first one was pulled by two horses and could seat four people. Now Wei Yunlan, Gao Shi and Wei Maolin were all in it.
In the car following closely behind were Cheng Yue'e and Xiao Jiarong, with Ningshuang and Tingxue also serving them in the car.
Behind them were Guixiang, Steward Wang, and Nanny Wang. The two fine horses that Tianshu Pavilion had given to Wei Yunlan were temporarily ridden by Dong Da and Liu Quan, who followed beside the carriage.
The guards of Tianshu Pavilion, who had originally lagged far behind the Wei family for fear of being discovered by the officers, were now closer. Yu Qi and Pei Hu even changed into ordinary guards' attire, wearing blue-gray cloth clothes, and rode their horses on both sides of the carriage.
Inside the carriage, on the table between the seats, the feng shui map that Wei Maolin had hand-painted earlier was spread out.
"Chongzhou has three major copper mines. Nearly 70% of the copper coins minted by Dayong came from Chongzhou. The word Chong in Chongzhou is derived from this."
Wei Maolin drew a circle with his finger in the northwest of Chongzhou in the map. "Copper mines are probably scattered all over this area. There are also two large copper smelting sites nearby, both heavily guarded by the imperial court."
At this point he recalled, "If I remember correctly, the current supervisor of Chongzhou Tongshan should be Yan Yan, the son of Duke Yan's mansion."
"Duke Yan's Mansion?" Wei Yunlan raised his eyebrows slightly.
That person is the true confidant of Emperor Xiaoming, and is more trusted by Emperor Xiaoming than the Ling family and the Empress Dowager's family. With the Yan family watching, I'm afraid not anyone would dare to lay their hands on the copper mine.
Wei Maolin obviously didn't think that a merchant who made his fortune by placing concubines in the houses of the powerful would dare to cause chaos in Tongshan, which was highly valued by the court. He frowned and pondered for a while, then pointed to another place on the map.
"If Mingxuan was captured in Chongzhou, there is another possible place."
"There are several charcoal kilns here. Most of the silver frost charcoal that is specially supplied to the emperor and used by the nobles in the capital comes from here."
The price of silver frost charcoal is ten times that of ordinary white charcoal, and the price of ordinary white charcoal is several times that of the black charcoal used by the people.
If the Liu family could really get involved in the business of silver frost charcoal, it would explain the origin of their wealth.
But Wei Yunlan felt that compared to these two places, Mingxuan was more likely to be in Lianzhou. "Compared to Chongzhou, the court paid relatively less attention to Lianzhou. Although Lianzhou has iron ore, it has not been mined on a large scale. The room for manipulation here may be larger than that of Chongzhou."
Gao was a little puzzled. "Like salt, private sale of iron is strictly prohibited. The imperial court has very strict control over this. Even if the Liu family dared to privately mine iron ore, they would have nowhere to sell it, right?"
Moreover, the price of pig iron is only one or two taels of silver per hundred catties. Even for refined iron, it does not exceed five cents of silver per catty. Compared with the silver frost charcoal mentioned above, this is a completely thankless business.
unless……
"They are not selling this iron ore to Dayong!"
The three members of the Wei family showed horror in their eyes.
At this moment, they would rather Mingxuan was abducted to the charcoal kiln in Chongzhou. If it was really the Lianzhou iron mine, the situation involved would be serious!
…
West of the capital.
A team dozens of times larger than the Wei family's was marching on the wide official road.
Leading the way were twenty armored cavalrymen, followed by more than thirty carriages. The most eye-catching one was the gilded-roof carriage in the middle, pulled by five horses. It was magnificent and majestic. Apart from other things, just by looking at the number of horses pulling the carriage, one could tell that the people sitting on it were of noble status.
Carriages and horses passed by, kicking up clouds of dust.
The people whispered, "But which duke is leaving the capital?"
"How can a duke or marquis be escorted out of the capital by the people of the Divine Camp?"
"The person sitting in the carriage is the former crown prince who was just named King You, right? It looks like he is heading west. The fiefdom of Tanzhou given to King You by His Majesty is in the west."
The convoy moved forward towards the sunset. The prosperous capital city became increasingly smaller behind them, and finally disappeared completely from sight.
In the evening, a Saker Falcon flew down from the sky at a very fast speed.
Feng Ping avoided the sight and untied the letter tube tied to the bird's claws.
It was Yu Qi who reported the situation that Miss Wei had inquired about and analyzed to the master.
Feng Ping was shocked when he saw the contents of the letter.
Who could have imagined that there were such hidden dangers in Chong and Lian states, which were adjacent to the disaster-stricken states but had never been noticed by anyone?
And this hidden danger was discovered by Miss Wei.
He had previously lamented that Miss Wei was a good wife of a marquis, but she insisted on getting a divorce and leaving the capital to suffer exile. Now, looking back, it was really a good divorce!
Look at how many things Miss Wei has discovered along the way and how much help she has given to their master!
After calmly glancing at the changing expressions on Feng Ping's face, Qi Xu said, "Let Ying San get ready. We'll switch tonight."
Feng Ping's eyes flashed with surprise, but he still nodded and said, "Yes."
The note in his hand burned up in the candlelight.
Qi Xu then ordered: "Let us mobilize all the people in Chongzhou and Lianzhou to find the whereabouts of the young master of the Wei family first."
…
The Wei family's carriage drove to the border of Suizhou and Chongzhou, but did not continue forward. Instead, it turned and took a short detour to Suining, the worst-hit area on the Suizhou border.
The carriage stopped outside the city, and Steward Wang and Dong Da entered the city with the petition letter written by Wei Maolin.
The rest of the people stayed outside the city and waited for a while.
Looking at the half-collapsed city wall and the devastated scene in the city through the broken wall, Gao sighed, "Only 30 miles away, the situation in Suining is much more serious than that in Suijiang."
The city was desolate, and the situation outside was even more miserable, with hundreds of ragged and numb-looking refugees gathered.
As night fell, the guards at the city gates had forbidden the refugees from approaching. Fortunately, there were still wealthy families distributing porridge outside the city gates.
All the refugees were gathered on one side and lined up to receive porridge.
"We shouldn't stay here for long. Once Steward Wang comes out, we'll leave immediately."
Wei Yunlan stood beside the car, staring at the direction of the city gate.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the line at the front of the queue for porridge was getting chaotic.
An old man with silver hair had just received his bowl of porridge when he was pushed by someone and his bowl was snatched away. However, the old man was not to be outdone, he stood up straight, put his hands on his waist, pointed at the person who snatched the porridge and cursed.
Wei Yunlan's gaze naturally fell on the old man's face, and he felt vaguely that he looked familiar.
After taking a closer look, he couldn't help but be surprised, "Why is it him?"
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