"Eunuch Wang, a little bit of gift is not respectful." Li Guodong, who came to pay New Year's greetings, respectfully handed a gift box.

Wang Kun pretended to refuse and accepted the gift box. When he took the gift box, Wang Kun weighed the weight and was quite heavy. He was a little happy: this general recruited by a horse thief outside the border was quite sensible and knew how to come to pay New Year's greetings. Last year, although he did not come to pay New Year's greetings in person, his younger brother's caravan sent 1,000 taels of silver.

Li Guodong hugged his fists and said, "I was originally a horse thief outside the border, and I had no relatives and no reason in the court. Meeting the prince and the prince was like finding the backbone. Jiannu regarded me as an enemy, and the general wanted to serve the court with all his heart. I hope that the prince and the prince could help him and say a few good words in front of the prince and the prince in the court."

Wang Kun laughed: "The prince and the father-in-law in the court are our godfather. When our family has time to return to the capital, they can naturally bring a message."

Li Guodong held a gift box that was slightly larger than before and presented it with both hands: "Eunuch Wang, this is a gift to the Prince of the Court. I hope you can bring it there."

Wang Kun was covered with wrinkles, and his pale and beardless face smiled into a trumpet flower: "It's easy to say, General Li is dedicated to the country. He first defeated Jiannu and helped the governor of the three sides to suppress the thieves. Our family naturally understands his desire to serve the country. It is rare that General Li is so sensible. Since it is a gift to the prince and the prince in the court, our family will definitely bring it."

"At the end of the year, I will come to visit Eunuch Wang at the end." Li Guodong bowed and said goodbye.

After Li Guodong left, Wang Kun first opened the gift box for him, and saw that there were heavy gold jewelry, as well as precious items such as red sapphires, east beads, etc. He then opened the gift box for Wang Chengen, which also contained gold jewelry and various jewelry, but the portion was a little more than the one given to him. Wang Kun had no complaints about this, after all, it was given to Wang Chengen, and the specifications were definitely higher than those given to him.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Chongzhen, Li Guodong took He Xing and Han Dashan, and brought fifty elite soldiers to the night without taking over, and followed Zhao Feng's caravan south.

The caravan arrived at Chongwenmen outside the capital on the 16th day of the first lunar month, and took a boat from Tonghui River to the south at the pier.

"It's a pity that it's one day late. If it's a day earlier, you can see fireworks set off on the Lantern Festival in the capital." He Xing said with some disappointment.

"If you have a chance in the future, let's go find a boat first." Li Guodong said.

"For Beizhi! Beizhi has become familiar with them in the past two years." Zhao Feng was responsible for finding the ship. Not long after, he found the ship.

The ship Zhao Feng found was a high-priced official ship, and he hung a lantern by Yang Yipeng, the governor of the canal transport and the governor of Fengyang. Although the price of renting the official ship is much more expensive, renting the official ship can save a lot of trouble. He dared not check all checkpoints on the road, and the thieves along the way dared not attack the official ship of the canal transport.

However, Yang Yipeng has not had a few years to live, and there are only three years left. At that time, Zhang Xianzhong conquered Fengyang and destroyed Fengyang's imperial tomb. Yang Yipeng would be chopped off by Chongzhen.

The group changed into clothes. Li Guodong changed into a white silk robe, a square scarf, and a jade pendant around his waist. He looked like a handsome young man. Han Dashan and He Xing changed into businessman's outfits. The fifty people in Ye Busuo changed into clothes of businessmen. After changing their clothes, the group boarded the boat.

Li Guodong knew that at this time the Wuqiao mutiny occurred in Shandong, and Kong Youde and his gang should have captured Dengzhou. However, the court did not allow Li Guodong to send troops to wipe out Kong Youde's rebels, and Li Guodong would definitely not be able to send troops privately. Li Guodong could only help Sun Yuanhua's miserable end. The only thing he could do was to make money first, and when he had the money, he would invite Sun Yuanhua's family to do his own things.

This is a large ship, twelve zhang long and three zhang wide, with three floors above and below. Under the main deck is the bottom cabin, and sailors and others live in the bottom cabin; on the first floor is the hall, kitchen and guard cabin, etc.; on the second floor is the cabin of the ship boss and guests, as well as the observation deck, etc. Although this ship is large, it is an inland river boat with a flat bottom, shallow draft, and low waterline height. There are oars extending out from the bottom cabin, and there are sloops and sails on the top of the ship, which are dual-purpose boats for sailing. When the wind is smooth, the speed can reach more than 300 miles a day and night, or against the wind or against the wind, and can sail more than a hundred miles a day and night. However, when facing the wind and against the wind, you need a boat on the shore.

Zhao Feng and the caravan took cargo and horses went south on cargo ships, and the cargo ships were also rented official ships. Li Guodong broke up with Zhao Feng's caravan here, and he led two generals and fifty men from Ye Busuo to take south on passenger ships, and their horses were temporarily handed over to Zhao Feng's caravan to take away.

"It's much faster to take a boat. The cavalry marched quickly. The average daily journey of 150 miles is already very harmful to the war horses. The boat rides two or three hundred miles a day, and it's not tiring at all." Li Guodong sat in the cabin and drank with He Xing and others.

However, it was not smooth every day. The boat sailed from Tongzhou to Tianjin. It took only one day to arrive. After passing Tianjin to Shandong, they were walking against the current, and the wind was not strong. The boat speed was slow, and it took half a month to sail for more than one thousand miles. After passing Shandong, the boat speed increased again.

On February 15th, the official ship that had been walking for nearly a month finally arrived in Huai'an.

Li Guodong, with two generals and fifty men, said goodbye to the boat owner and the sailors, and got off the boat here. After that, they would hire a small boat to arrive at Gaojiayan, and then walk along the lake to Tawau.

"Bun, steaming big meat bun!"

"Living fish pot stickers, fragrant live fish pot stickers!"

"Dumpling wontons, hot wonton soup."

These are all kinds of snacks sold on both sides of the canal. There are many shops on both sides of the canal. Here, all kinds of delicacies from the north and south can be eaten. Huai'an is the location of the Governor's Office of the Canal Transportation Governor and a gathering place for salt merchants in Jianghuai. The canal brought prosperity to this city. It was not until the Jinpu Railway was opened that Huai'an gradually declined.

On the streets on both sides of the canal, people wearing various brocade silk and sat in luxuriously decorated restaurants to eat and drink. Some canal boatmen wearing short-dressing clothes stood in front of various snack shops, ordered a piece of cooking cake or a piece of mixed grain pancake and started eating randomly.

Although the boatmen had poor food, their lives were very happy compared to those refugees from the northwest and central plains, and they could at least have enough food and clothing.

There are countless luxury houses in Huai'an City, some of which are from salt merchants and river officials at all levels. Although this place is not as prosperous as Yangzhou, it doesn't seem much worse.

——
Chapter completed!