On the docks of Datong Town in Tongling Prefecture, Song Jiyun stood at the steeply raised bow of the ship, watching the goose-feather-like snow falling heavily, and drew his gray rat fur cloak closer around him before asking Shao Qing, "What did the people from the Inspection Division say?"
They had been out for thirteen days. Initially, they had a smooth journey and quickly arrived at Anqing Prefecture. But as soon as they passed Anqing Prefecture, the wind started howling, and by the time they entered Tongling Prefecture, it had begun to snow.
They simply decided to stop for a day, buy some food and tea at the docks of Datong Town, and rest for a day before continuing on their journey.
Who knew that the next morning when they got up, they were stopped at the dock: "A high-ranking official is passing through here, and all the boats must give way!"
As a result, they waited nearly a whole Shichen and still did not see the high-ranking official’s boat pass by.
If they continued to wait, they wouldn’t make it to the next dock, and it was unsafe to travel by night.
So they would have to stay here for another day.
Song Jiyun frowned.
Seeing this, Shao Qing said, "Then we won’t wait anymore!"
All eyes fell on him.
He went back into the cabin, took a name card, and proceeded to the Inspection Division.
"We can go now!" Shao Qing smiled and said, "It’s good that our young master has a name card from the Prefect of Huizhou."
Tongling was under the jurisdiction of Huizhou Prefecture.
Everyone was pleased.
Once the people from the Inspection Division came and stamped their travel pass and tax deed, they passed through the large and small ships that were still waiting there and left the dock at Datong Town.
Zhou Zheng couldn’t help but feel fortunate: "We really owe Young Master Shao this time."
Shao Qing waved his hand: "What does it have to do with me? I’m just following orders."
Zhou Zheng shook his head and said, "You can’t say that. Your young master definitely didn’t anticipate we would run into trouble in Tongling. It’s your thoughtfulness that allowed us to proceed so smoothly today."
He was also someone who performed tasks for others, and when there was a decision made above him, he had to implement it, but how to carry it out required his own thinking and ideas.
Not wanting to hear Shao Qing be modest any further, Zhou Zheng promptly clasped his shoulder, cutting off the topic, and with a smile said, "Haven’t you been fishing everyday on the river lately? Count me in today, let’s see if I can catch a two-foot-long green fish like you did yesterday, to add a dish for everyone."
This was something Shao Qing was particularly proud of.
He couldn’t help saying, "You can’t learn this in a day or two. This skill I learned from my father. And my father, he learned it from my grandfather. When my grandfather was learning, he was living in Yibin with Old Grand Master Zeng. Do you know where Yibin is? It’s in Sichuan..."
He rambled on, dragging Zhou Zheng to the stern to get the fishing rods.
Song Jiyun just shook his head with a smile.
But in three days, they arrived at Wuhu.
Wuhu has always been a place where merchants congregate, especially near the Spring Festival, which is the busiest time of year for business. Yuxi dock in Wuhu was bustling with ships coming and going, and a dragon-like queue of boats waiting for inspection formed, inevitably with those regular merchants in Wuhu and familiar faces from the Yuxi Inspection Division who got inspected and departed early.
Song Jiyun found it to be ordinary.
But Shao Qing, looking quite puffed up, went to the cabin again to take another name card, and said to Song Jiyun, "I’ll be right back."
Song Jiyun eyed the large red seal in his hand, asking, "Whose name card is that?"
Shao Qing chuckled and replied, "It’s the name card of the Prefect of Taiping Prefecture."
Wuhu was under the jurisdiction of Taiping Prefecture in Nanzhili. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Alright then!
Their boat quickly left Wuhu, heading for Ma’anshan.
The Zhengpu Dock at Ma’anshan is an important dock for entering Nanjing, so there are even more boats there.
When their boat arrived at Ma’anshan, Shao Qing simply took a name card and went straight to the Inspection Division.
Song Jiyun couldn’t help but tease him, "You’re not going to use the Magistrate of Taiping Prefecture’s name card again this time, are you?"
Ma’anshan also fell under the jurisdiction of Taiping Prefecture.
While watching Zhou Zheng skillfully deal with the people from the Zhengpu Inspection Division, Shao Qing smiled and said, "You might not know this, but although the Inspection Division is but a minor government office of the ninth rank, each has its own peculiarities. Although Ma’anshan is part of Taiping Prefecture, it’s close to Nanjing; the Inspection Division here is actually managed by Yingtian Prefecture. If you take the Taiping Prefecture Magistrate’s name card there, I’m afraid it won’t carry enough weight."
He said with some pride, "I brought the name card of the Chief of Staff from the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing."
Song Jiyun was dumbfounded.
Isn’t this using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
And yet there was Shao Qing, still enlightening her, "Nanjing is after all a secondary capital, quite different from the Capital City. The Ministry of Revenue has the heaviest flow of funds and astonishingly surpasses the Ministry of Personnel. In the Capital City, what’s the Ministry of Revenue? The Ministry of Personnel is the leader of the six ministries, commanding over all of them!"
His smug expression carried a touch of someone giving directives like a grand strategist.
Song Jiyun thought to herself, once they reached Nanjing, where high officials and nobles were as common as dogs on the streets, she’d like to see what kind of name card he could pull out then!
But she also had to reevaluate Yuan Yunzhong with newfound respect.
Even if others gave him the name cards, someone had to give them to him in the first place.
The next day, they reached the Xiaguan Dock in Nanjing.
From afar, Song Jiyun was awestruck by this ancient city of a thousand years.
A fleet of boats vied for the lead, sails set against sails in eager competition, seeming endless at a glance; peddlers and porters, government officials and yamen runners bustled about, an endless stream of humanity.
In her previous life, she had visited Nanjing more than once but had never witnessed such a bustling scene.
Deserving of its reputation as the number one city in Jiangnan, the capital of Nanzhili.
It took some effort for their boat to find a place to dock. Little did they know they would encounter Canal Transport boats needing to change course to the Grand Canal at this spot, and the people from the Inspection Division were all busy verifying procedures for the Canal Transport boats. They had to wait until the next morning to handle their own procedures to disembark and enter the city.
Moreover, someone from the Inspection Division came over and directed them to move their boat.
Shao Qing was unhappy and said to the newcomer, "Our boat is a million miles away from the Canal Transport boats; we aren’t moving!"
A million miles was, of course, an exaggeration. Their boat might be considered large on Poyang Lake and even the Yangtze River, but at the Xiaguan Dock, amidst a consecutive line of Auspicious Ships, it seemed somewhat insignificant.
They dared not collide with the larger boats, hence their mooring place was indeed a bit off from the dock.
The arrival, a man in his thirties, burly and strong, with squint eyes and nostrils flaring towards the heavens, coldly said to them, "If I tell you to move, you move. If you don’t agree, go to our Inspection Division and talk to our leader."
Shao Qing’s face darkened, and his eyes suddenly held a sharpness.
The usual boyish playfulness seemed just an illusion of Song Jiyun’s.
She was startled and hurriedly held him back, whispering, "There’s no need to stoop to this person’s level."
The pettier the person, the more arrogant they become, and the more troublesome they are to deal with.
What’s more, such people often accomplish nothing but create more problems.
They were away from home; there was no need to make enemies with these people.
Shao Qing seemed to think of something, glanced at Song Jiyun with some reluctance, and grunted an affirmative, allowing Dai Sishi to follow the man to arrange for the boat trackers to pull the boat.
Song Jiyun, worried that Shao Qing might still feel upset, comforted him, "I took a good look at his face. Once we’re ashore, we’ll find a loafer to put him in a sack and give him a beating! After all, even though we have no power, we aren’t short on money!"
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