The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 365 Doing business is one thing

Yue Wenxuan possessed Jing Ke's body to watch the spectacle...

Jing Ke took a few steps down the street and immediately noticed that everyone was staring at her. Her clothes were indeed too avant-garde, revealing more than a courtesan. How could she not attract the attention of passersby?
Many men stared, their eyes wide with amazement.

Some people stared blankly at the small patch of white thigh peeking out between her stockings and short skirt, completely mesmerized.

Some people stared blankly at her exposed cleavage, completely unable to comprehend that a woman would dare to dress like that.

Fortunately, it was only 1131 AD, and the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism had not yet become widespread. The requirements for female virtue in feudal society had not yet reached the perverse level of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Otherwise, someone would have rushed over and dragged her to be drowned in a pig cage.

Although Jing Ke was a plastic person, without emotions, he was not affected by things like shyness.

But she's an assassin!

The most important thing for an assassin is to "keep a low profile," and being surrounded by people like this clearly does not conform to the philosophy of an assassin.

Her assassin persona began to protest: "You can't be this attention-grabbing!"

Her eyes swept quickly across the women on the street, instantly memorizing their clothes and styles. Then, with a swift movement, she jumped over the wall back to Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi's temporary residence. She quickly searched the backyard, found a set of martial arts attire that Gong Erniangzi usually wore, stole it, and then quickly hid in the woodshed, covering herself with Gong Erniangzi's clothes...

I fixed my hair again!
In a flash, she transformed into a female knight-errant in the Song Dynasty.

Jing Ke chuckled: "After sheathing my sword, I'm still the carefree girl A'ke from the martial world."

When she returned to the street, she was no longer surrounded by onlookers. However, female martial arts heroes were rare in this era, and occasionally someone would still glance at her, but it was much better than her previous attire.

Yue Wenxuan followed her from his perspective, watching as she confidently left the city and went to the dock. There, she eavesdropped on the dockworkers' conversation and quickly learned that a merchant ship carrying cotton cloth was heading to Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou along the Grand Canal...

Taking advantage of the boatmen's inattention, Jing Ke swayed and boarded the merchant ship. He lay down among the cargo, crossed his legs, and looked at the sky, quite comfortably.

Yue Wenxuan looked left and right through her eyes and saw a large flag flying on the merchant ship with the character "Jiang" written on it.

It turned out to be Jiang Ziliang's merchant ship!
The Jiang family now employs 332 workers in Chuzhou City to weave large quantities of cotton grown in Chuzhou into cotton cloth, which is then transported via the Grand Canal to Xixi in Hangzhou and distributed to the Jiang family's various cloth shops.

Yue Wenxuan unintentionally boarded this ship and became interested, so he decided to see how merchants of this era went through the procedures.

The Jiang family's merchant ships soon left Chuzhou and headed south along the Grand Canal.

Not long after, they came across the dock managed by Zhang Jun. They paid a toll here, and Zhang Jun's men didn't care whether there were any Northern Song spies on board. They took the money and let them pass.

Continuing south, they arrived at Yangzhou, the port managed by Liu Guangshi. They paid another toll, but Liu Guangshi's men, regardless of whether there were spies or not, simply waved their hands and announced that they could pass.

Yue Wenxuan was lamenting the dilapidated state of the Southern Song Dynasty...

Suddenly, a group of people came galloping up from the dock. The leader, a civil official, shouted, "You lot, how can you let such a large merchant ship pass without even checking it?"

Liu Guangshi's soldiers immediately showed impatience, but the expression was fleeting, and they quickly put on a fawning face: "Lord Fu is right, we will investigate immediately."

The civil official was the newly arrived imperial envoy, Fu Songqing. He snorted angrily and said, "If I hadn't happened to be inspecting the docks, you guys would have let countless spies through."

The soldier lowered his head and muttered in a low voice: "Mind your own business."

He immediately raised his head and smiled, "Sir, we'll investigate right away, right away."

A group of soldiers, armed with weapons, boarded the ship and crawled into the hold, beginning to search the cargo. Jing Ke could no longer remain still; she swayed and ducked behind a large sack. As the soldiers approached from the left, she moved to the right. By the time the soldiers circled to the right, she had already retreated to the left.

Various spins...

After a while, the soldier finished his inspection and returned to the shore: "Lord Fu, there is no problem on the ship, it is all cotton cloth."

Fu Songqing's expression softened slightly, but then he put on a strange look again: "Merchants on the ship, where did you get so much cotton cloth from?"

The boatman from the Jiang family didn't try to hide it from him; knowing he couldn't, he honestly replied, "Chuzhou!"

Fu Songqing's expression darkened slightly: "Those traitors and villains from the north... how could you go to Chuzhou to do business?"

The boatman pretended to be ignorant of politics: "Aren't we all part of our Great Song Dynasty?"

His pretense worked, and Fu Songqing's expression brightened: "Of course, that's also my Great Song Dynasty."

In this way, Fu Songqing could no longer criticize the boatmen. It was understandable that ordinary people were unaware of the power struggles at the top and what the Northern and Southern Song dynasties were fighting over.

He could only say, "Try not to associate with those traitors and villains in the future, lest you bring trouble upon yourself."

The boatman continued to feign ignorance: "How did they become traitors?"

Fu Songqing could only explain in a simple and easy-to-understand way: "They rebelled and did not listen to the emperor."

The boatman pretended to be stunned for a moment and said, "Oh my, that's scary! But... right now, only Chuzhou can buy a large quantity of high-quality cotton cloth. You can't buy it anywhere else. Sir, you don't know this, but most of the cotton cloth in the Jiangnan region is supplied by Chuzhou. If we hadn't been transporting cotton cloth to Jiangnan, I don't know how many people would be freezing."

Before the Song Dynasty, cotton was mostly produced in the Central Plains and Northwest China.

There are some in Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces.

However, these territories have now all become the domains of the Jin Dynasty and the puppet state of Qi.

To put it bluntly, there are hardly any cotton plants left in the entire Song Dynasty.

The wealthy can wear fur coats to keep warm in winter, and they can also stuff feathers and down into the layers of their coats.

But if poor people don't have cotton-padded clothes, they can only wear linen clothes, stuffing straw into the layers of the clothes, which are far less warm than cotton-padded clothes.

Fu Songqing felt a headache after hearing what the merchants said. If they were not allowed to do business with the Northern Song Dynasty, would the Jiangnan region run out of cotton-padded clothing? This was terrible!

If he's a corrupt official, he doesn't care whether the people are freezing or not; he can just ban whatever he wants.

But he happens to be a good official, and a good official must be reasonable and considerate of the people's livelihood.

If you can't reason with him, he won't even be able to get over his own conscience.

Fu Songqing stood there blankly by the dock, momentarily stunned.

Yue Wenxuan secretly watched this scene from inside the cabin and couldn't help but chuckle to himself: How amusing!

In the end, Fu Songqing had nothing to say, and could only instruct: "Doing business is fine, since we're all doing business with my Great Song Dynasty anyway. But be careful not to bring any spies from traitorous officials over."

(End of this chapter)