Starting from Guizhou, there are two options to get to Yuzhou: land and water.
To travel by land from Qiandi to Xinzhou, one has to pass through Luzhou, Yizhou and Suizhou, which is the same route taken when they were exiled.
From Suizhou, go southwest, pass Tahui Pass, and then go east, and you will reach Yuzhou.
If you go by water, you only need to board a boat from Xinzhou Wharf, cross the Xin River, and you can directly reach Tahuiguan.
Gu Yan hurriedly told Song Wan about the two options, "Which path do you want to take, Wan?"
Song Wan said without any hesitation, "Of course we'll go by water!" I've already been on the land route once, so what else could be fun?
She has never been on a boat in her life.
"Okay, then let's go by water." Gu Yan quickly agreed.
They left Xinzhou in a hurry last time, and they didn’t know how Zhang Sheng and his people were doing in governing the country.
This time I passed by Yuzhou and went to take a look.
Since the real Yao Xu was taken away, Zhang Sheng let the fake Yao Xu stay in Xinzhou and serve as the prefect of the state.
In order to prevent others from discovering the flaw, the fake Yao Xu dismissed all the concubines in the mansion. Fortunately, the real Yao Xu's wife had divorced him long ago, otherwise it would not have been so smooth.
The fake Yao Xu is named Wang Er, and he is Zhang Sheng's right-hand man. He is used to fighting and killing, and it is his first time wearing a scholar's robe, and he is not used to it at all.
"Brother, can I roll up my sleeves?" Wang Er raised his hand and looked at the wide sleeves of his robe, which made it inconvenient to eat and drink.
"Which prefect do you think can roll up his sleeves?" Zhang Sheng has been in Xinzhou City for a long time. You know, his job is not to teach people how to be a prefect.
Wang Er said dejectedly, "Then can we find someone else to take over as Big Brother? My younger brother Wang Wu looks a lot like me."
Zhang Sheng: "Wang Wu only looks like you, but his height is much different."
He had already planned to arrange Wang Wu, who was naturally thin and frail, to Chunfeng Tower. When the time came, Wang Er would disguise himself as Yao Xu and go to Chunfeng Tower, so he would be received by his own people without being exposed.
Wang Er asked again, "How long will I be able to serve as prefect?"
Zhang Sheng: "We will do this until the young master no longer needs us."
The hope in Wang Er's eyes suddenly disappeared. "That won't take a long time."
Zhang Sheng: "You live in such a big mansion, and you don't have to suffer hardships. You still have the nerve to complain."
Wang Er flicked his long robe sleeves and said regretfully, "Then I'd rather go out and suffer."
Having been a rough man for decades, Wang Er was forced to learn the art of speaking for nearly two months when he suddenly became a scholar.
When Song Wan and the other four arrived in Xinzhou City again, Wang Er had already pretended to be decent. If Song Wan did not have mental power and could not sense that his aura was different from that of ordinary people, she might not have recognized him.
This time when he came to Xinzhou City, the city had changed again, and Song Wan heard many noises along the way.
For example, the prefect may have a change of heart and issue an official notice to cancel many unreasonable taxes that had been set previously, and also demand compensation.
The profits from the prefect's several shops in Xinzhou and the output of his farms over the next five years will be distributed as compensation to the people of the city.
This was what Gu Yanji instructed Zhang Sheng to do after discussing it with Song Wan.
Song Wan liked silver, jewelry and food, but she preferred that everyone in the world could have three meals a day like she did now.
Along the way, the vendors at the street stalls had more smiles on their faces. Song Wan was walking in front, holding a bowl of wontons in her hand. She brought her own bowl, but bought the wontons from Mrs. Zhang's house.
Gu Yan hurriedly led her horse, half a step behind her, holding a bag of fried crispy meat in her hand.
"Since there's no wonton tax, there are a lot more dried shrimps in the wontons." Song Wan scooped up a spoonful of wontons with soup and dried shrimps, swallowed it in one gulp, and squinted her eyes as usual to enjoy the smooth and delicious taste.
"Have another piece of fried crispy pork." Gu Yan hurriedly handed it over with one hand, "It won't taste good if it gets cold."
"Okay, okay!" Song Wan leaned over and opened her mouth.
Seeing this, Gu Yan was anxious, so she handed her horse reins to Song Qi to hold, then picked up the bamboo chopsticks given by the vendor, picked up a piece of fried crispy meat and fed it into her mouth.
Walking behind, Song Qi and Gu Wu, who were each leading two horses, looked at each other, wondering which hand they should use to eat the dry food?
Without the messy taxes, snack stalls are more willing to use more oil than before.
This time when I came to Xinzhou, this fried crispy pork stall can be said to be the biggest gain. The lean meat was cut into strips, marinated with seasonings, and finally coated with flour. It was thrown into the oil pan, fried for a while, taken out, fried again, and eaten while hot. It tasted very good.
Song Wan bought two bags of fried crispy pork and a bowl of wontons. Except for the two she fed to Gu Yanji, she ate the rest by herself.
Zhang Sheng knew they were coming, so he asked his confidants to wait at the door early in the morning.
After Song Wan and the others entered the mansion, they saw Wang Er, who looked identical to Yao Xu. Song Wan circled around him twice and said curiously, "You know what, they really look alike!"
Wang Er's face, which is almost identical to Yao Xu's, was created through special makeup techniques, and it looks more real than □□.
"Miss Song, you are too kind." Wang Er is now very good at pretending to be a scholar. Coupled with Yao Xu's scholarly face, which is still acceptable as long as he doesn't do anything obscene, he looks quite decent.
He was tense and under pressure from nowhere, letting her look at him.
"Yeah." Song Wan touched his chin and said seriously, "But your voice isn't as vulgar as his."
Wang Er, who was almost defeated, “…”
Is this meant to praise him?
Although she was already used to Song Wan's unconventional words and actions, Gu Yan couldn't help but laugh when she heard this. "Ah Wan, Zhang Sheng prepared some snacks for us from Xinzhou. Let's go check them out."
Speaking of eating, Song Wan's attention was successfully diverted. "Okay, let's go."
After a few people left, Wang Er suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the people he would have to face in the future were not like Miss Song, otherwise he would always have a feeling that they saw through him from inside out.
Song Wan and the others didn't stay in Xinzhou for long, but before leaving, she remembered something and called Zhang Sheng, "Go find Yao Xu's former concubine Yu and ask her if she's willing to go to Qiandi to reunite with her son."
It was impossible to let Yao Lixuan go because Song Wan found that he was suitable for farming, but the other concubines did not separate from their sons, and Song Wan did not want to let him become an orphan without a mother.
Zhang Sheng said that he understood that although Yao Xu's concubines were dismissed on the surface, they were actually secretly kept under the supervision of their own people to prevent them from running to the capital to inform on the matter.
There were not many of them, so they did not charter a boat. The Xinzhou wharf was not big, and there were only ten large, medium and small boats coming and going.
When Song Wan and others arrived, the last large ship was about to depart in less than a quarter of an hour.
Without renting the boat, each person would have to pay eight taels of silver, so for the five of them it would cost forty taels!
Song Wan reluctantly gave the boatman four ten-liang silver ingots. No, this time she went to Yuzhou, she had to "earn" back the money she spent!
Several people pretended to be rich young men and women who were out for a trip. Gu Yanji was the eldest brother, Song Wan was the second sister, and Qi Fu was the youngest brother.
As for Gu Wu and Song Qi, they were sent by their family to protect the three of them.
Rather than being a brother or sister, Gu Yanji actually wants to play the role of a couple with Song Wan.
"Gu Yan is anxious, is it fun to return to the tower?" Since we are pretending to go out for fun, how can we not say something related.
Song Wan sat in her seat, her chin supported by her hand, looking out of the boat. Their seats were right at the stern, which not only made it convenient for getting in and out, but also allowed them to see the entire river.
"The customs of the people in Tahui Pass are similar to those in the southwestern border areas, and they are quite simple." Gu Yan thought for a moment and said.
Simple means poor.
Due to years of war on the southwestern border, there are not many people left in the city, and most of them are from extremely poor families.
Most of those who have the ability to leave home will choose to return to the tower, so that they don’t have to worry about being affected by the war, nor do they have to really leave their hometown.
Over time, the people of the two cities gradually merged together. Except that the people on the southwestern border were poorer than those in Tahui Pass, there was not much difference between them.
"Then when we take the tower and return to the pass, we can make the people there eat potatoes as well." Song Wan whispered in his ear.
"Okay, let everyone plant potatoes then." Gu Yan smiled anxiously.
However, it is not enough to just plant potatoes. Although potatoes can be used as staple food, Song Wan thinks they are more suitable for cooking. Sweet potatoes are the real staple food.
Song Wan had been itching to do it for a long time, but Gu Yan said anxiously that it was not the right time yet, so she had to endure the itch.
But now she couldn't help but wonder what to do. Ahead was the Tahui Pass. Gu Yan said anxiously that the guarding general was King Yu's uncle, and he had helped in the previous abduction of Qi Fu. In this case, as Qi Fu's master, how could she not avenge her beloved apprentice?
On the river, in addition to boats like the one they were riding in, there were also some people rowing simple small boats that could only accommodate one or two people and using fishing nets to catch fish.
The boat had been sailing for half a day. Song Wan was hungry. Seeing that the fishermen had caught a lot of fish, she also wanted to eat fish.
There were also many people on the boat sitting by the boat with their pre-prepared fishing rods, fishing to pass the time. It would be best if they could catch something, but it didn't matter if they couldn't.
"Gu Yan is in a hurry. Let's have fish for lunch today!" Song Wan said and did it. "I'll go find a long rope and a stick."
"Let Gu Wu and Song Qi go buy a few from them." Gu Yan was anxious and thought that there was no need to go out of his way to fish, and it wasn't long before noon.
He was afraid that he would delay her meal and make her hungry.
"It's just a few fish, why spend that money." Song Wan felt that Gu Yan was good in every way, but he just didn't know how to manage the household. This might be because he was a rich second-generation before.
Song Wan thought that he must change this bad habit in the future.
"Fishing always requires bait. We don't have any prepared, so we can only buy it from others." Gu Yan said helplessly.
"I don't use bait when fishing." Song Wan found a thin long rope and a suitable stick from the boat's utility room. "If you tie it up tightly, the fish will behave."
She tested the strength of the rope and found it was strong enough for fishing.
Despite this, Gu Yanji secretly asked Gu Wu to buy two bags of fishing bait, so that if he couldn't catch any fish, he would have more bait to use.
Song Wan tied one end of the rope to the stick and said as she did so, "It's a pity that Xiao Sanzi can't see me fishing."
The third child is Qi Wu. He is the youngest among the three, ranking third, so Song Wan temporarily decided to call him the third child.
"Third brother really doesn't have this blessing." Thinking of Qi Fu who vomited all over the place due to seasickness after getting on the boat, Gu Yan curled her lips anxiously. No wonder he was so listless when they met for the first time in Chunfeng Tower. It turned out to be because of seasickness.
"He's not unlucky. A small private room costs fifteen taels of silver." He had already spent over fifty taels before even reaching the tower. She said with deep regret, "Young people are really wasteful."
Gu Yan couldn't help laughing when she heard Song Wan keep calling him a young person. She must have forgotten that she was also a young girl.
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