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As dawn broke, the gates of Suijiang opened.
The three carriages of the Wei family left through the eastern city gate along with the flow of people.
After traveling more than three li along the path to Liangzhou, the carriages turned down a quiet path, heading north towards Chongzhou and Lianzhou.
Perhaps it was too early; it wasn’t long before little Jiayan let out a big yawn and snuggled against Wei Yunlan, promptly falling asleep.
“The mule cart was so uncomfortable that I didn’t realize how comfortable the carriage was,” Madam Gao remarked, taking a thin blanket from the small cupboard under her seat and covering Jiayan with it. “If it had been the mule cart before, the child wouldn’t have fallen asleep so easily.”
Indeed, the Wei family’s two mule carts had been sold off in Suijiang. The three carriages they were using now had been gradually acquired in various places around the city over the past few days. The leading carriage, pulled by two horses, could seat four people, and currently, Wei Yunlan, Madam Gao, Wei Maolin, and Jiayan were inside.
The following carriage carried Cheng Yue’e and little Jiarong, while Ningshuang and Tingxue attended to them.
Further back were Gui Xiang and Manager Wang, along with Granny Wang and her husband. The two fine horses given to Wei Yunlan by the Tianshu Pavilion were temporarily ridden by Dong Da and Liu Quan, keeping pace beside the carriages.
In the center of the carriage, laid out on the table, was the divination map that Wei Maolin had drawn earlier.
“Chongzhou has three major copper mines, and nearly seventy percent of the copper coins cast in Great Yong come from Chongzhou. The name ‘Chongzhou’ comes from this.”
Wei Maolin pointed to the northwest area of Chongzhou on the map, “The copper mines are roughly spread out in this area. Nearby, there are also two major copper smelting sites, all guarded by heavy military presence from the court.”
At this point, he recalled, “If I’m not mistaken, the current official in charge of the copper mountain in Chongzhou should be Yan Guogong’s heir, Yan Liang.”
“Yan Guogong?” Wei Yunlan raised her eyebrows.
He was a true confidant of Emperor Xiaoming, trusted even more than the Ling family or the Empress Dowager. With a member of the Yan family keeping watch, it was unlikely that any commoner would dare to stretch their hands toward the copper mines.
Wei Maolin clearly didn’t think that a merchant who rose by supplying concubines to powerful households would dare to cause trouble in the court’s important copper mines. Furrowing his brows, he pointed to another area on the map.
“If Mingxuan was caught in Chongzhou, there’s another place where he could be.”
“There are several charcoal kilns here, primarily supplying the imperial court and the noble households in the capital with silver frost charcoal.”
Silver frost charcoal was priced ten times higher than ordinary white charcoal, while ordinary white charcoal was already several times the price of the black charcoal used by commoners.
If the Liu family could indeed get involved in the silver frost charcoal trade, it would explain their immense wealth.
However, Wei Yunlan felt that compared to these two locations, Mingxuan was more likely still in Lianzhou. “Compared to Chongzhou, the court pays relatively less attention to Lianzhou. While Lianzhou has iron mines, they haven’t been extensively exploited yet, which might provide more room for maneuvering than Chongzhou.”
Madam Gao looked puzzled, “Iron, like salt, is strictly forbidden for private sale. The court controls this very tightly. Even if the Liu family dared to mine iron, they wouldn’t have anywhere to sell it.”
Moreover, the price of raw iron was only around one or two taels of silver per hundred jin. Even refined iron wouldn’t exceed five qian per jin, which was hardly a lucrative business compared to the previously mentioned silver frost charcoal.
Unless…
“They’re not selling this iron in Great Yong!”
The three members of the Wei family were filled with alarm.
At this moment, they would rather Mingxuan had been taken to the charcoal kilns in Chongzhou. If it was really about the iron mines in Lianzhou, the situation could become serious!
“……”
West of the capital.
A convoy significantly larger than the Wei family’s was moving along the wide official road.
Leading the way were twenty armored cavalrymen, followed by over thirty horse-drawn carriages. The most eye-catching was the gilded carriage pulled by five horses in the middle, grand and imposing. Just considering the number of horses pulling it, one could tell that the person sitting inside held a high status.
As the convoy passed, clouds of dust stirred up.
The townsfolk whispered among themselves, “Which noble is leaving the capital?”
“A noble leaving the capital? Why would the Tianshu Brigade escort them?”
“Isn’t that the former Crown Prince, now Prince You, sitting in that carriage? It looks like he’s heading west, and the fief granted to Prince You, Tanzhou, is just in that direction.”
The convoy moved forward against the backdrop of the setting sun, with the bustling capital growing smaller behind them until it completely vanished from sight.
In the evening twilight, a sea eagle swooped down swiftly from the sky.
Feng Ping averted his gaze and untied the message tube attached to the bird’s talon.
It was a message from Seventh Lady Yu, conveying the situation that Wei Yunlan had investigated and analyzed to their master.
Upon reading the content of the message, Feng Ping couldn’t help but be taken aback.
Who would have thought that right next to the disaster-stricken provinces were Chongzhou and Lianzhou, concealing such hidden dangers that had gone unnoticed?
And this danger was discovered by Miss Wei.
He had previously lamented, naively wondering why a young lady of a marquis’s household would leave her position and endure exile. Now, looking back, it seemed she had made a wise choice!
Just look at how much Miss Wei had uncovered and how much help she had provided to their master!
Noticing the varying expressions on Feng Ping’s face, Qi Xu spoke up, “Have Ying San prepare. We’ll switch over tonight.”
Feng Ping’s eyes flickered with surprise, but he nodded, “Understood.”
He burned the paper in his hand in the candlelight.
Qi Xu then commanded, “Have our people in Chongzhou and Lianzhou mobilize to find out the whereabouts of the young master of the Wei family.”
“……”
The Wei family’s carriage reached the border between Suizhou and Chongzhou but didn’t continue forward. Instead, they took a detour and arrived at the severely disaster-stricken area of Suining.
The carriage stopped outside the city, and Manager Wang and Dong Da entered the city with a petition written by Wei Maolin.
The rest remained outside the city, waiting.
As they gazed at the half-collapsed city wall and looked through the broken walls at the devastated scene inside, Madam Gao sighed, “It’s only thirty li away, but the situation in Suining is much worse than in Suijiang.”
The city was desolate, and outside was even more tragic, with hundreds of ragged, numb-looking refugees gathered.
As night fell, the guards at the city gate had already prohibited refugees from approaching, but fortunately, some wealthy citizens were distributing porridge outside the gate.
All the refugees were herded to one side, lining up to receive their share of porridge.
“This isn’t a place to linger. Once Manager Wang comes out, we should leave quickly.”
Wei Yunlan stood by the carriage, her gaze fixed on the city gate.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the queue for porridge suddenly becoming chaotic.
An elderly man with silver hair had just received his bowl of porridge when he was shoved, causing him to lose his grip on it. However, the old man was not willing to back down; he steadied himself, placed his hands on his hips, and pointed at the person who had snatched his porridge, shouting angrily.
Wei Yunlan’s gaze landed on the old man’s face, and she felt a sense of familiarity.
After studying him closely for a moment, she was astonished. “How could it be him?”