After more than a month's trip, the Shen family and Hui Niang finally left the territory of Jiangxi and set foot in the north of Jiangbei.

The hard work along the way made Hui Niang feel very tired. She thought she could withstand the hardships, but she didn't know that after working hard in the past few years, her body could no longer hold on. Even if she couldn't stay up too late at night, even if she was on a carriage, the bumps made her dizzy.

However, Hui Niang did not complain because she didn't want to be looked down upon by Zhou.

On the other hand, Zhou did not come out to escape, but traveled around. As long as he stayed in the road, he could hear Zhou's voice cursing his son and daughter at the top of his voice. Hui Niang couldn't help feeling distressed for Chen Xi's younger brother and sister.

This is not like the mother raising her, but like the stepmother raising her children.

"Mom, I want to go and play with my younger brother." Lu Xier was in good spirits along the way, because she was about to meet her brother Chen Xi and sister Dai'er, and she would live in the capital for a long time in the future without having to go back to Tingzhou, so she could play with three people as happily as before...

Silly daughter, don’t you know that your brother Chen Xi is already married!?

Even if he is not married, he is now a high-ranking official in the court. He is so busy on weekdays, how can he have time to play with you?

This time, when we arrived in the capital, we mainly took the official road in Jiangxi, from Ganzhou to Ji'an and Nanchang, and crossed the river from Jiujiang. When we arrived in the northern part of Jiangbei, we were still mainly by land, from Dingyuan, Zhongdu Fengyang, Kaifeng, Handan, and Zhending to the capital. The reason for this was that there were too many horse-drawn carriages in one team, and we could not rent so many boats for a while. In addition, if we were on the Grand Canal, we had obvious goals. Once we were targeted by the people from the Fujian Provincial Administration and the Ministry of Administration and requested Nanjing to handle the case together, they would probably not be able to reach the capital.

Hui Niang has been enduring hardships along the way, but she has no complaints. She chose to go north by herself. No matter whether it is good or bad, she cannot blame others. Moreover, she has made up her mind that if the matter of the Chamber of Commerce really may affect Chen Xi's career, she would rather die than implicate Chen Xi.

After a serious illness, Hui Niang always wanted to think more about herself, but when it comes to Shen Xi's issues, she would rather give more, because she felt that it was all Chen Xi's credit for her to have today and the Chamber of Commerce would have today.

You should not be ungrateful in life!

"Look, there is a town in front of you, Ma Jiu, hurry up, let's not leave the town today, I want to go to the city to buy something..."

Along the way, Zhou's family must stay if they pass by the town. Usually, when she arrives at the inn, her butt is not warmed up, so she takes Xiaoyu and a few brothers from the carriage and horse gang to "purchase goods".

Hui Niang can only describe Zhou's shopping using "purchase".

There are local specialties in every place, most of which are related to food. It is delicious but it will deteriorate when you don’t get to the capital. Every time, Zhou’s family buys them, and people have no appetite at all. Besides, even if they have a good appetite, Zhou’s family doesn’t eat them, and they don’t let everyone eat them, so they insist on keeping them for her eldest son.

The emotional money is blowing from the strong wind. Your son has made so much money for you to waste it on the road, right?

In the past, Hui Niang thought that this sister was saving. The two of them worked together in business, discussed with each other, and were thrifty, and soon they made the industry bigger and stronger. Now they realized that this sister would spend money too much. In the past, she was thrifty because she dared not show off under the control of the old lady. Of course, it was also possible that she had never had so much money in her hands, and now she was a nouveau riche mentality.

Zhou’s idea is very simple: “I bring so much money, even if the food, clothing and expenses are the best, it is enough to spend my whole life. Why are you mean by yourself? If you have money, you must spend it happily!”

Hui Niang couldn't see it at the end and quickly reminded Zhou: "Sister, let's save some money. We have to go back to the capital, which requires a lot of money... Besides, when you are unfamiliar with your place, you always need to spend more money on it."

Zhou said proudly: "That's what sister, you should worry about it... I have thought about not doing business anymore. Find a place close to Hanwa'er's house, buy a yard to live in, and don't disturb his life. If there is anything at his family in the future, I will go over to help. If there is a child, I will take care of him."

Hui Niang frowned: "Sister, Lord Shen has Yun'er and Dai'er to take care of, as well as maids, housekeepers, slaves, what's wrong with you in the past?"

Zhou scolded: "I gave birth to him, what's wrong with me taking care of his child? In the past, my child wanted his grandmother to take care of him, but his grandmother didn't even look at me. I was willing to help him, so he should be secretly happy. Those housekeepers, maids, etc., where do I have the heart to do? I might train his child to be a scholar, a juren or something..."

After hearing this, Hui Niang really wanted to wake up this arrogant sister. With your virtue, she also wanted to teach a scholar and a juren, so she should not lead other people's children astray.

It is said that a dragon gives birth to a dragon and a phoenix. It depends on your youngest son and his father’s character, but your daughter is carved from the same mold as you, and there are too many things to do. No matter how you look at it, Lord Shen is also a good fortune given to you by God. You don’t know how to cherish it. Children brought by others who are knowledgeable can become kings, princes, generals, and ministers. If you help, you will be able to take care of them. The result is that the dragon and phoenix that should have spread their wings and fly high will make you teach them to be a mouse to dig holes!

After Hui Niang returned, she thought angrily, why don’t I have a son like Xiaolang? If it were me, I would definitely not be so silly with this sister... When I went to the capital, I would just tell my son, and I would rather live my own life well, do business and make money to support the family, so that my son has the time to go over and take a look.

Now, it’s not just about escaping to the capital, but about disturbing your son’s peaceful life and affecting his future.

...

...

Hui Niang was so angry that she forgot to remind Zhou that she had thought about before... She wanted to tell Zhou that the biggest taboo on this long journey was to reveal money.

Did you spend money all the way, but didn’t you attract the attention of thieves?

Although I forgot to say it, Hui Niang was in a state of silence. Later, when she remembered it, she was too lazy to remind Zhou...

When a woman loses her temper, it is simply unreasonable to become selfish. Even if she is as virtuous as Hui Niang, she will occasionally lose her mind.

Of course, Hui Niang thought that now she had crossed the river and was far away from the people in the Fujian Provincial Administration and the Ministry of Education, and in Jiangxi and Nanzhili, she saw the local weather and the people living and working in peace and contentment, and there was no tragic situation in Fujian's insect disasters. She intuitively thought that the Central Plains was also peaceful.

But she didn't know that the more she went north, the greater the danger, and the more bandits and bandits.

Thieves also have to eat, and have their own business models. Robbing in poor mountains and rivers will become like Zhu Shan’s father Zhu Qi. Even if they do a beheading business, a group of people can only eat braised vegetables and live a life without covering their clothes and food. Only in the Central Plains have frequent business deals and fat sheep pass by at any time, and it is enough to be a bandit.

Moreover, even if the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty was rich, due to frequent plagues and natural disasters, many areas were often deserted.

From last autumn to this summer, there was a severe drought in the Central Plains and almost no crops were harvested. Logically speaking, after the government sent people to provide disaster relief, the situation would be much easier. The actual situation was not the case. This started with disaster relief in Gaoming City to the capital, Henan, Shandong and other places at the beginning of the year.

Although Gaoming City was recognized by Emperor Hongzhi in managing the disaster, the method he adopted was very extreme, which was to disperse the victims and place them separately.

In fact, it cannot be considered resettlement, it means driving people to a certain area and allowing these people to die on their own.

On the surface, the refugees heading to the capital have been greatly reduced. If the victims are dispersed, they cannot cause trouble. At the same time, they have saved money and food for the court. This has achieved multiple goals in one fell swoop, and Gaoming City has regained the trust of Emperor Hongzhi.

Look, I was using it wrong to use people at the beginning. This is a capable person. Even if he is greedy for some money, he will hand it over to the public. I will continue to use him without any grudges.

The drought control ended and the local treasury was roughly restored to peace, but the problem also arises. The number of bandits in the Central Plains suddenly increased. Those victims who had no way to survive were unable to rise up, but at least they could occupy the mountain and become king. In addition, there were already nests of bandits in the local area, and these bandits were considered "professional bandits". They took advantage of the disaster to recruit soldiers and horses. All the counterfeit villages are currently strong.

The prefectures, counties and garrisons, for their own peace of mind, adopted an attitude of not caring about the bandits... This has always been the case in the local area. Before the matter was too big, we wanted to take practical actions to solve the problem, but there was no way to go.

As a result, as soon as the group arrived at the ground of Guide Mansion, Henan, they were targeted by a group of robbers.

But it was just a target, because there were quite a few followers in this industry, especially Zhu Qi, who had worked as a bandit and had a lot of research on the robbery, was extremely cautious, which made many small-scale bandits sigh.

Be careful along the way, and have avoided several groups of bandits, but some large bandit forces cannot escape, especially in this industry, it is so ostentatious that Zhou spent money outside, and it is difficult not to attract attention.

On the fourth day of the winter moon, the weather is already very cold and the day becomes very short. I originally thought that I would not set off after noon, because I basically got up at the hour of Mao every day. Before the sun sets in the afternoon, I have to find a place to stay. This is a good way to avoid bandits.

The bandits were used to acting from dusk to the first half of the night, and did not say that they would go to rob without going to bed early in the morning.

Usually, the most dangerous period is around the intersection of Shen and You.

At noon that day, she happened to pass by a town, but when Zhou saw her son was anxious, she heard that there was another town less than twenty miles ahead, and there was an official post in the town. She advocated to continue walking so that she could arrive before dark.

Hui Niang also relaxed her vigilance and saw that the official road was flat and there were no mountains around her, so she thought about rushing more, so she agreed.

As a result, a group of seventy or eighty bandits suddenly rushed out of the grass on both sides of the grass.

When Hui Niang realized, the carriage was surrounded by someone.

"It's useless! It's useless! It's useless! It's poking you a few holes again!"

The words of Zhongyuan are very different from those of Fujian Hakka. They have a disagreement between the two sides. In addition, there are many bandits coming out, and the carriages seem very messy when they are surrounded.

These bandits are not like ordinary bandits, they all carry weapons, and their swords, guns, swords and halberds seem extremely messy, but they are all bright weapons.

Although Hui Niang's vocation was mixed with a large number of carriages and horse gangs who were used to fighting and killing brothers, in order to pass the level to welcome inspections, the convoy only brought some self-defense sticks at most, so they were at a great disadvantage in terms of weapons and numbers.

"What's going on here? Oh, you dare to rob us, my son is the imperial court!"

Hui Niang jumped out of the carriage, and from a distance he heard Zhou shouting there, his attitude was extremely arrogant... My son is an official, you kidnapped us and don't want to live anymore?

Unfortunately, no one can understand her words. When the Western Min dialect arrived in the Central Plains, it was not much easier to understand than the language in Java. Zhou had never been to a large place, so how could he speak official language?

However, Zhu Qi has experience and speaks the official language very smoothly. He quickly reported that he was a relative of the official family.

As a result, the bandits didn't care at all, looked at the arrogant Zhou family with a sneer, and shouted: "The ones who robbed you are the families of corrupt officials. We stared at her all the way, cursing people unscrupulously, and spending money everywhere to show off. We are simply a bad woman who is unkind and unkind, and we will never let it go."

"Brothers, rob the money and kill those who resist, so the female family must not touch it. As for this evil woman, you can take it back and let it be dealt with!"

************

ps: The first update is here!

This chapter is about 8 o'clock and the emperor got up at the beginning of the 8 o'clock code. As a result, it took four hours to finish the scheduling. The difference in condition can be seen! The emperor did his best and strived to update the four chapters today!
Chapter completed!