Chapter 409
The Chao had already shipped out several batches. The third was intercepted by the Qin family army at Xiahai Pass.
Later, Qin Hengxuan sent troops to investigate and found it wasn't just this one group. He wanted to follow the trail, but the people had already fled. Left with no other choice, Qin Hengxuan ordered all cities and towns to strictly inspect incoming and outgoing carriages and horses.
Otherwise, if the Chao Kingdom shipped iron ore out of Da Xia and forged it into weapons to attack them, it would be like handing a knife to the enemy.
Guaizai looked at him, saw he wasn't letting them through, and knew they wanted to inspect. He wasn't angry and obediently moved to the side. Fang Zichen didn't say anything either. Seeing this, the soldier breathed a sigh of relief and led several other soldiers to the back to inspect.
The tarpaulin was lifted. The first cart held boxes.
The soldier opened one—inside was writing paper, white and clean.
Then there was...
He couldn't tell what it was. Clumps of something, no particular smell. Since it was the young master's convoy after all, the soldiers just did a quick spot check to show they'd made an effort.
The commoners waiting nearby craned their necks to look but couldn't figure anything out.
If they couldn't recognize it, they were even more curious!
The soldiers inspected according to routine. Seeing that Fang Zichen had the most distinguished air and was walking in front, but was really young... He bowed to Fang Zichen and said: "This subordinate has been disrespectful. Please forgive me, my lord."
Fang Zichen waved his hand. Enforcing the law was only proper.
The convoy slowly entered the city.
The commoners moved to the side. The convoy took nearly nine minutes to fully enter the city.
An soldier turned his head and couldn't help asking: "Captain, which lord is that?"
The token indicated its owner was a third-rank official.
But third-rank officials were mostly older. And Da Xia had quite a few third-rank officials!
The captain shook his head: "Don't know. Probably borrowed a family elder's token for convenience."
"That's possible, but." The man thought of the Ultraman token Guaizai had shown and said: "Could that token be fake too?"
"Fake? Even if that token were fake, didn't you see the guards following behind? They don't look like ordinary guards. Not someone you or I can afford to mess with."
"I heard the prefect of Hezhou is not yet twenty-three, and is also elegant and incomparably handsome. Could that person just now..."
"You're overthinking it. How far is Hezhou from our Shangyang? Why would he come all the way here? He's got goods with him—it must be the situation the captain mentioned. Besides, the newly appointed prefect of Yuanzhou is also young, isn't he?"
"In his forties and still young?"
"Well, true. But that prefect of Yuanzhou has a son who's also extremely handsome, and very accomplished. I heard he's only eighteen and already a juren. Maybe that young master just now..."
The captain pondered for a moment: "Go tell Guard Ji."
Da Xia had a law: tokens must never be lent out or sold. Apart from their owner, they were generally given to subordinates or others to use for travel or deployment.
Just like when they went back to Hezhou to transfer grain—if Fang Zichen wasn't there in person, even a trusted aide he sent wouldn't get the grain from the yamen soldiers without the token.
Seeing the token was like seeing the person.
So whoever could produce this kind of token was either a trusted aide or a family member the owner held in high regard.
In that case, if something happened in the city, it would be hard to explain.
---
Since they had brought many people, Zhao Ger had an imperial guard rush ahead to find an inn along the way. Otherwise, if the whole group entered the city first and then looked for lodging, where would they put all the goods? If the carriages stayed stuck on the street and blocked the road, the common folk would probably have complaints.
Following instructions, the imperial guard booked a small inn. It was in a rather remote location and usually mostly hosted scholars traveling for the imperial examinations. Normally there were few guests, the price was relatively cheap, and the back courtyard was large enough for them to unload and store their things.
Most people who ran this kind of inn were old locals of Shangyang. They had many rooms. Although there were usually few guests—sometimes not even one guest for two or three days—during the imperial examination season every year, these remote courtyards were the most popular. To avoid falling ill from unfamiliar climate and water, most exam candidates would set out one or two months early. But staying in inns along the main streets outside was too noisy and not good for studying, so quiet, remote places became the first choice. In past years, making a wave of profit during this season was enough to live on for three years, and afterward they did not need to worry even with no guests on ordinary days.
The imperial guards busied themselves unloading the goods, while Zhao Ger busied himself settling everyone in. He had the inn's attendant prepare some dishes and bring them up. Fang Zichen stayed in the room with the children. When the attendant brought hot water, Fang Zichen hurried to wash the two little ones. Gungun and Dandan were delighted in the bath bucket, laughing the whole time, but Fang Zichen wished he could grab a knife to scrape the dirt off them. Yesterday, when they had camped in the wild near a stream, they had just washed once, but today they stank again.
After washing and dressing them, Fang Zichen realized their clothes were already too tight. Rolls of fat bulged out layer after layer, as if the seams might split at any moment.
They say travel wears children out and makes them thinner — but there was no thinning here. Unless the clothes had shrunk.
In just one month, his two little boys had gotten fatter again.
Most of the clothes they had brought no longer fit. Fang Zichen took Guaizai’s clothes for them to wear, and they fit just right.
Fang Zichen: "…"
Exhausting!
When Zhao Ger returned to the room and looked at the two children, for a moment he did not know what to say either. He could only take the clothes and go find Uncle Tang to have them altered.
Uncle Tang was quite astonished: "They don’t fit anymore?"
"Mm."
"That can’t be! I look at the two young masters and they haven’t changed! When I first made these clothes, they were still a bit loose!"
But they truly did not fit anymore.
The children had practically played their way here the whole journey, running and shouting. With so much movement, they ate more, and naturally their bellies grew bigger. Their cheeks were chubby, and when they ran, they could even wobble. Zhou Ger loved to pinch them most, saying this was best—white and plump meant good fortune.
The children had gotten fat, but Zhao Ger and Fang Zichen had gotten thin. There was no help for it. When out in the wild with no village ahead and no inn behind, they always had to save food to feed the children.
Although Shangyang could not compare to Hengyang in liveliness, aside from the capital, Hengyang, and Jiangzhong, Shangyang was also one of the wealthiest. The streets were crowded with pedestrians and filled with constant noise. Wine houses lined both sides of the street, most of them three stories or taller, with magnificent-looking entrances. It was completely different from Hezhou. In Hezhou city, the wine houses and inns were uneven in height and arranged without order. Inns, wine houses, and other shops were not decorated so lavishly either. They were dusty gray, as if they had been built for decades. The red paint on the wooden boards had faded badly and looked dilapidated. It was a bit like the difference between a first-tier and an eighteenth-tier city. But later, after everyone rebuilt and renovated, Fang Zichen issued documents and had things standardized. On this return trip, Hezhou should have quite a different look.
Fang Zichen and Zhao Ger had spent time in the capital, so naturally they did not find Shangyang so remarkable. But the nine managers they had brought out could not get enough of looking around after entering Shangyang.
My heavens!
There was actually such a prosperous and wealthy place outside. The streets were paved with top-grade blue bricks. In their area, only when the master of the town built a house were bricks used! Yet here they were used to pave roads!
Although it had been the same when passing through places like Qinzhou, for some reason, the impact now was not as great.
Perhaps it was because Shangyang’s streets were broader and the pedestrians on the road were wealthier—all in fine clothes. Men wore long robes and feather caps on their heads, while women mostly wore hairpins, dressed in red and green, graceful and elegant.
In Hezhou city, most commoners still used cloth strips on their heads.
Shangyang also had many shops. Passing by a cloth shop, the fabrics inside were displayed hanging on the walls, red and green, so many colors it made one dizzy.
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