Daming Yinghua

Chapter 121 The man in the cage makes his own key
As soon as Zheng Haizhu stepped into Qingyuan, she saw Lu Xiangsheng standing there holding a piano.

With a smirk all over his face, he forcibly retreated from his iconic handsome and fortitude, making him seem quite popular.

Zheng Haizhu, who had just received a few matchmakers in the Wenzhe Garden and was talking about marrying a daughter-in-law for the servants from Shandong, had a dry mouth and drank the tea that Cui Yuer offered before turning to greet Lu Xiangsheng.

"Why, Miss Wang's piano will be sold out of the shade house so soon?"

Lu Xiangsheng walked over and said in a tone as if offering a treasure: "It can be exchanged for money, but you should take a closer look at this piano."

Zheng Haizhu glanced over and realized something was wrong.

Even if she is a layman to the guqin, she can still see the traces of time on the panel.

Definitely not new.

Lu Xiangsheng caught the change in Zheng Haizhu's eyes, and turned Qin over with a smart gesture: "Look again."

"The meaning of the pine stone..."

Beside the four powerful running scripts, Zheng Haizhu quickly saw a series of words that made his heart beat faster:

In the second year of Shaosheng, Dongpo layman.

She raised her head and asked Lu Xiangsheng with a look of disbelief: "Is it the second year of Shaosheng in the Song Dynasty? Is it Su Shi's Su Dongpo?"

Lu Xiangsheng was overjoyed: "Which layman Dongpo could it be? Look at the inscriptions of the people next to you. Tang Yin, Shen Zhou, (Zhu) Yunming...you all know each other, right?"

Zheng Haizhu only felt that Lu Xiangsheng's voice at the moment was extremely pleasant.

The charming magnetism has been doubled, which is like listening to fairy music.

No, to be precise, what is fascinating is not the sound quality of the Jade Faced God of War, but the smell of money.

This is Song Qin!

At the auction of later generations, a guqin from the Song Dynasty was sold for over [-] million yuan, which is a good deal.

But now, in this era of one page of Song books and one or two gold coins, this era when Qin is the highest point of elegant music, if a piece of Song Qin has been collected by Su Dongpo and endorsed by Tang Bohu and others, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a rare treasure. .

Zheng Haizhu carefully touched the plain guqin with a "billion" face, and said word by word: "I don't study much, don't lie to me, where did you get it? Can it really be sold?"

"It can be sold." Wang Yuesheng came out of the house and replied with certainty.

"Miss Wang arrived at Songjiang by boat this morning and night." Lu Xiangsheng said to Zheng Haizhu.

Zheng Haizhu realized something instantly, and looked at Wang Yuesheng: "You went to Hangzhou to get this piano?"

Wang Yuesheng took the piano, put it flat on the stone table, and said quietly: "Miss Zheng, I don't want to say more about the reason for the decline of the family. It is because I can't bear to look back. Although the Wang family is now a craftsman or a prostitute, but This piano was named Wang when Lord Jiajing was in power, and it belongs to me."

As Wang Yuesheng said, his jade finger touched the Lingling silk string.

It's like hearing the wind in the pines of thousands of valleys, like seeing how heavy the autumn clouds are.

Lu Xiangsheng's soft sigh sounded at the same time: "Those who know the sound hope, who can cherish it, and who can make the most of the piano, but only the best."

Zheng Haizhu doesn't know how to recite Ji Kang's "Qin Fu". In her heart, there are only these four words: so valuable.

There is no need to ask "whether this is a fake", the sound quality of the piano says it all.

Even a layman like her can tell that this piano can crush the thousands of taels of silver in the collection of Dong Qichang, Han Zhongwen, and Gu Shouqian.

Time cannot be faked.

And Wang Yuesheng's sincerity is even more true.

After she finished playing a piece, she said to Zheng Haizhu: "Such a good piano, with such a long history, how can it not be worth tens of thousands of silver? Miss and son, go and deal with it."

Zheng Haizhu was calmer now.

She has such a precious piano, but she didn't exchange it for money as soon as possible to redeem herself, which shows how much she cherishes this piano.

Zheng Haizhu then said seriously: "Miss Wang, if you want to thank me for taking care of me, those good pianos you cut yourself are really enough to repay your love. This pine and stone is after all, it is your family heirloom..."

Wang Yuesheng smiled slightly, and interrupted: "It used to belong to Su Dongpo, but now? Is it still from the Su family? Miss Zheng, I may be the last generation, and no one can pass it on. Why leave it in the dust of a friend in Hangzhou?" How about it? A few days ago, I thanked Miss Zheng for protecting me, so I went to get this piano. Now, if Miss Zheng appreciates my not being stingy, let me make suggestions on the matter of firearms, okay?"

Zheng Haizhu finally believed that he was not dreaming today, and said happily: "That's natural, I never thought that women can't control the craftsmen in the firearms workshop."

Wang Yuesheng waved his hands hurriedly and said: "No, no, how can I take on this important task. I just listened to you discussing Mr. Lu's rural examination next year, and seeing that Miss Zheng was busy with everything, I remembered that when I was still in Qinhuai River last year, I was in front of those officials. I heard about a well-learned man who was unemployed in Hangzhou, Li Zhizao and Li Gong."

Li Zhizao...

Zheng Haizhu suddenly realized.

That's right, since I thought of Sun Yuanhua, why did I forget about Li Zhizao!
Both of them are disciples of Xu Guangqi, and both like to study Western learning, especially the firearms among them.

Sun Yuanhua later built Ningyuan City and used cannons to help Yuan Chonghuan win the Ningyuan victory against the Jin army. A few years earlier, Li Zhizao bought cannons from the Portuguese of Macau at his own expense and transported them to the capital, in order to realize Xu Guangqi and Sun Yuanhua and others had the military thought of "restraining slavery with artillery".

Therefore, it can be inferred that the relationship between Sun Yuanhua and Li Zhizao should be good.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yuesheng's fighting power was beyond the charts. He not only donated the piano, but also went to find Li Zhizao.

Just listen to Wang Yuesheng's gentle way: "Those mediocre people in the Nanjing officialdom said that Mr. Li was ignorant of current affairs, and they defended the Thai and Western missionaries in various places who were in trouble. I must be unhappy to be able to work in my hometown in Hangzhou. However, when I visited this time rashly, Mr. Li was clearly in good spirits, and he was leading several children to write works of Western learning. I told Mrs. Zheng and Mrs. Lu the story of Mrs. Zheng and Mrs. Lu In the firearms workshop here, the two elders boasted that the younger generation is awesome. It can be heard that Mr. Li wants to come and see it."

"Great!" Zheng Haizhu said, "Then there is no need to hesitate. I will ask my aunt and lady to prepare a courtyard in Wenzhe Garden today. Xiang Sheng, we will leave in a few days to invite Mr. Li to Songjiang. "

Lu Xiangsheng nodded, and reminded Zheng Haizhu: "Sister, just now Miss Wang discussed with me that we can't let us sell this piano. It is best to ask Mr. Dong for help, and announce it to the official circle, but the transaction is in the hands of merchants."

Zheng Haizhu certainly agreed with his thinking.

Of course the literati must know the piano, but the merchants can offer a higher price.

Several merchant groups in the south of the Yangtze River, Huaiyang merchants and Suzhou merchants were conceited and elegant, and liked to build gardens, while Huizhou merchants and Zhejiang merchants liked to collect antiques to show that they were cultured.

Let me ask, on the battlefield where rich people compete for taste, what else can be more proud to stand on top of the local tyrants than to receive a piano used by Su Dongpo?

But Zheng Haizhu slightly corrected Lu Xiangsheng: "Let's invite Master Huang to bring the piano, and let's make an appearance at the literary meeting of Donglin Academy first."

Lu Xiangsheng was surprised: "Ah? Why? Didn't Mr. Dong collect everyone?"

Zheng Haizhu looked at Wang Yuesheng: "Yuesheng can understand, why don't I ask Mr. Dong?"

Wang Yuesheng said: "Even a master like me who is determined to give the qin to me, after playing the qin, still feels reluctant. When Miss Zheng goes to invite Dong Gongxuanzhi, she must first go to the door to meet Dong Gong. In such an occasion where there are no outsiders, Dong Gong In this way, the senior who is obsessed with collecting calligraphy, painting, qin and ink, after looking at this qin, he offers a fair price to Miss Zheng, such as fifty or sixty thousand silver, will Miss Zheng agree or not?"

Lu Xiangsheng got it right: "Understood, we can sell one hundred thousand silver, why should we sell five or sixty thousand silver?"

Zheng Haizhu said: "Yes, Mr. Huang is on our side and supports us to build firearms in Songjiang. It's very expensive to sell."

Lu Xiangsheng smiled shyly: "Miss Wang is thoughtful and sophisticated."

This sentence was repeated by Zheng Haizhu and Lu Xiangsheng on the boat to Hangzhou a few days later.

She took Lu Xiangsheng to Hangzhou together, on the one hand to show the etiquette of the Confucian juniors to Li Zhizao, on the other hand, to have a heart-to-heart talk with him on the way.

Zheng Haizhu saw Lu Xiangsheng's loneliness.

The reason is understandable. Lu Xiangsheng knew that he would have to leave Songjiang in three or four months for the township examination, and Li Gong, Miss Wang, and perhaps Sun Yuanhua were going to take over the Huoqifang.

"Xiang Sheng, you and the masters of the Ge family made the first machine gun in the blacksmith's shop in Fuyuan. I know you are reluctant to part with that place. Don't worry, there is Miss Wang who is as smart and tough as you The stewards are here, with Li Gong and the others leading, cannons of all sizes will definitely be built.”

At the tea table by the window on the second floor of the passenger ship, Lu Xiangsheng listened to Zheng Haizhu's heartfelt words while looking at the white water surface with complicated eyes, and finally sighed softly: "I'll tell you the truth, sister, I didn't expect to see you in the past few days." When it came to Yuesheng, the admiration for her before had turned into a bit of jealousy, and she even thought that she had already escaped from the cage, but I seemed to be going into the cage."

Zheng Haizhu shook his head and said: "You are not right. In fact, all of us are in a cage, but we can also try our best to hold the key to open the cage in our own hands. After coaxing those self-righteous people , we may not be able to enter and exit the cage freely. Even, we can open other people's cages."

Lu Xiangsheng withdrew his gaze from the misty rain and mountains and rivers.

Zheng Haizhu stared at him: "But first of all, you have to get the key. You get the key when you do business, you get the key when you make firearms, you get the key when General Qin Ma is the commander of the soldiers, and my old brother Yan is the chieftain in Taiwan. It is to take the key, and if you become an official, it is even more important to take the key."

Lu Xiangsheng remained silent, but his brows relaxed a little.

"Xiang Sheng, in fact, even if the firearms factory develops and becomes a large artillery factory with more people than the imperial court's military bureau, I will not guard the gate of the factory like a hen guarding a nest of eggs. I There are still more things to do. After welcoming Li Gong to live in Songjiang this time, I have to go to Zhenjiang to see the situation of the insurance company, and maybe I have to go north with my own goods."

(End of this chapter)