Chapter 128: Hitching a Ride 2/2

As soon as Wu Baichuan saw Li Qingzhi, he smiled warmly and greeted him, “Mr. Li, what brings you here?”

“Wu Baichuan, I have something I’d like your help with,” Li Qingzhi said.

“Mr. Li, please go ahead,” Wu Baichuan immediately replied.

However, Li Qingzhi didn’t rush to speak. Instead, he asked, “Wu Baichuan, your fleet in the capital should have connections. Are those connections… related to Lu Qingxi?”

When Li Qingzhi was in Linhu County, he had already planned to ask for Wu Baichuan’s help, so he had the Chang brothers inquire about it.

The fleet Wu Baichuan followed belonged to the Shen family in the provincial capital, and according to the information he had gathered, the Shen family had no dealings with the Lou family.

The Shen family specialized in business in the capital and must have some backing there.

If their backing was related to King Jin or officials close to him, it wouldn’t be possible for them to have no dealings with the Lou family and not buy any white tea from them.

It’s worth noting that some officials from King Jin’s faction would come from afar and spend a lot of money to buy white tea from the Lou family!

If the Shen family’s backing had nothing to do with King Jin, it might be Lu Qingxi or some neutral officials… Li Qingzhi felt that the probability of it being Lu Qingxi was higher, so he asked.

If he asked correctly, Wu Baichuan would be more cooperative, and if he asked incorrectly… he wouldn’t lose much.

Of course, it seemed that he had asked correctly—Wu Baichuan looked surprised.

Li Qingzhi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Wu Baichuan’s expression, and he felt considerably lighter in mood.

The patron of Wu Baichuan’s merchant caravan was Lu Qingxi… Things would be much easier from now on.

“How did Mr. Li find out?” Wu Baichuan asked.

Everyone who had dealings with the Shen family knew about this, but they wouldn’t tell others, not even their wives.

After all, Lu Qingxi didn’t have a very good reputation.

Li Qingzhi smiled, “I guessed. Mr. Wu, I have a batch of goods that I want to ship to the capital on your ship. I also have someone who will accompany them.”

Li Qingzhi could easily guess that it was Lu Qingxi’s doing… Wu Baichuan became more cautious, “Mr. Li, there’s no problem with that, but I’ve already bought a lot of goods. If he brings too much, there might not be enough space on the ship.”

“The items he brings are not bulky, but they should be quite heavy,” Li Qingzhi said. They couldn’t print too many books in such a short time, so each book would probably have about a thousand copies.

Seven thousand books with two to three tens of thousands of words each shouldn’t take up much space.

Thinking this way, Li Qingzhi calculated the approximate weight of those books and told Wu Baichuan.

“If they don’t take up much space, it’s fine!” Wu Baichuan said, “I have two ships. Some of the goods on one ship take up a lot of space, but they are not heavy. I can rearrange the goods. Even if the items are a few times heavier, it should be fine!”

“Trouble Shopkeeper Wu, please,” Li Qingzhi said with a smile.

“Not a bother at all, not a bother,” Wu Baichuan immediately replied, “In the past, when my own goods couldn’t fill my ship, I would always have others accompany me to the capital.”

After signing the contract, Li Qingzhi left Wu’s house and went to Zhu Qian’s.

Knowing that he wanted to rent a house on the new pier, Zhu Qian said, “Nephew, I have plenty of houses over there, let me give you one.”

“Uncle Zhu Qian, there’s no need…”

“I insist! I have plenty of land on the new pier, no shortage of houses!” Zhu Qian smiled, “And I also have a request, when you pass the imperial examination, I’d like you to mentor my two incompetent sons.”

Since Zhu Qian said so… Li Qingzhi thought for a moment and did not refuse.

He really needed Zhu Qian’s help now.

However, after this matter passed, he could find a way to repay Zhu Qian, such as by making soap or giving him the recipe for making glass.

Of course, even with the recipe, these two items couldn’t be mass-produced in the short term.

After all, they lacked materials, such as the fats needed to make soap, which were hard to obtain.

As for glass, Daqi actually had glass, but because of some issues with craftsmanship and raw materials, the glass at this time was of poor quality and colorful, usually used to make various ornaments.

It’s not that the craftsmen didn’t want to produce transparent glass, it’s purely that the raw materials and craftsmanship couldn’t keep up.

In addition, whether it’s making glass or making soap, pure alkali is needed, and extracting pure alkali from wood ash is too inefficient!

With just a little pure alkali from wood ash, it’s difficult to produce perfect soap and glass.

However, he knew the location of a natural alkali lake… Daqi’s geographical environment was similar to where he originally lived, perhaps he could find it?

Thinking about this now is a bit far-fetched, after chatting with Zhu Qian, Li Qingzhi declined Zhu Qian’s invitation for dinner, hurried back home, and continued to focus on writing his book.

While Li Qingzhi was busy writing, County Magistrate Gou, wearing a straw hat and accompanied by a group of government officials, was measuring the land.

Actually, County Magistrate Gou didn’t really intend to measure all the land in Chongcheng County, his main targets were the wealthy families in the city.

He wanted these wealthy families to pay their taxes in full!

As for the common people, there was generally no difference, they usually had less land, not more.

Their vegetable gardens and soybean fields along the riverbank, which didn’t belong to them, County Magistrate Gou didn’t plan to bother with.

In places like Miaoqian Village, he wouldn’t measure, but if there were cases of common land being registered as paddy fields and taxed by the minor officials, he could be approached for complaints.

Regarding this, the wealthy families in Chongcheng County were naturally unwilling, but over the past year, County Magistrate Gou had already gained control of the real power in Chongcheng County, coupled with the fact that Zhang, the prefect, had been killing people in the neighboring county these days…

It’s better to just pay the taxes, after all, County Magistrate Gou had said that he wouldn’t pursue past matters.

With grim faces, the wealthy families let the government officials measure their land clearly.

Because County Magistrate Gou was measuring the land, Chongcheng County was particularly lively, whether it was in the restaurants, tea houses, or theaters, people were discussing this matter.

For ordinary people, this was a good thing!

In the theater, the story of County Magistrate Gou punishing the malicious landlord was being performed.

Many of the theatergoers had seen this play before, and now they were chatting quietly, “I heard County Magistrate Gou is measuring the land and finding a lot of hidden fields.”

“County Magistrate Gou is truly dedicated to the people!”

“Since County Magistrate Gou came to Chongcheng County, our days have been much better!”

…

As they were talking, a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy asked them in words they couldn’t quite understand, “What are you guys talking about?”

This boy was Guo Ying.

The day he returned from Li Qingzhi’s house, he didn’t immediately go to see the book Li Qingzhi gave him, after all, it was too late.

But the next day, he took out the book to read it.

Upon reading it, he realized that all these books were about his father!

He never thought his father had done so many things!

At this age, youth admire heroes, and the more Guo Ying read, the more excited he became, seeing his own father as a hero.

Since County Magistrate Guo was busy these days and had no time for him, he finished reading all the stories in one breath.

He was a bit unsatisfied, hearing that there were still plays to listen to, so he took his servant out to listen to the play, but… he couldn’t understand a single word.

He couldn’t understand the dialect here, let alone the lines in the play!

However, it seemed like people around him were talking about his father… so Guo Ying inquired.

Though the two sides couldn’t communicate well verbally, they managed to communicate through gestures.

Seeing everyone around praising his father, Guo Ying decided to let go of his previous grudges and promised to be more obedient in the future.

Then, on his way home, he bumped into County Magistrate Guo.

County Magistrate Guo had been running around all day and was very tired. Seeing his son coming back from who-knows-where with an excited look, he immediately scolded, “Where have you been running around again? All you do every day is play, don’t you know you should be studying…”

Guo Ying endured for a moment, then County Magistrate Guo kept on talking, “You’re already this big, but you only know a little bit of book knowledge. I don’t know what you’ve been doing for the past ten years, and your grandfather doesn’t even discipline you…”

Unable to endure anymore, Guo Ying coldly snorted and turned to leave.

County Magistrate Guo couldn’t help but feel annoyed. This kid… couldn’t he listen to a few words from him?

The conflicts between the Guo father and son were unknown to Li Qingzhi.

After returning from outside, he only went downstairs to have lunch and spent the rest of the time writing his book.

However, during dinner, he planned to rest for an hour or two.

Otherwise, even with his extraordinary body, his mind would suffer.

These stories were too tragic, and as he wrote, he was constantly immersed in sadness.