Cold comes and heat goes, spring comes and autumn comes, and two years pass by in the blink of an eye.

For individuals, two years is enough to change the living conditions of many people and even determine their lives. Some people suddenly get rich, some people lose their feelings, and some people die for some reason during these two long years.

But for the world, two years are very short, so short that nothing can be changed. The people are still the people, the powerful are still the powerful, the farmers are still working hard in the fields just to support themselves and their families, and the merchants are still busy everywhere.

As for the Caogang, which makes a living by boat, their ships still travel up and down the Caohe River as before. From the south of the Yangtze River to the northern border, as long as there are waterways, you can see the merchant and cargo ships with the big flag of "Cao" hanging on the big "Cao" and the Caogang ships that travel on the river every day seem to be more dense than two or three years ago.

On late September, at the Watergate Wharf set up along the river in Luoyang, the capital, there was still a busy scene of boats and boats flying around and crowds. Until a large passenger ship with a grandeur slowly landed, the ordinary merchant ships hurriedly walked away and made way for it to get out of the docking position. The most important ability of those who do business here in the capital is to be accurate in their eyes, otherwise one look and one action would offend a big man, let alone making money, maybe even one's life would have to be taken.

In everyone's eyes, this big ship that slowly docked is a powerful person who cannot be offended. After all, it is a high-ranking official in the court, so naturally he dare not delay its itinerary.

Standing at the bow of the big ship, wearing only a light robe, with a slightly beard on his lips, making him look at Li Ling, who was more calm than two years ago, without much reaction when he saw this. Under the local customs, he, a time traveler, has become more and more in line with this era, and no longer has the advanced concept of equality for everyone. However, because he has been in a high position for a long time, he has a strong aura that others dare not be looked down upon. When he sees his eyes, many people on the boat around him are busy lowering their heads and dare not look directly.

"It's been three years since I returned to the capital. Everything here seems to be nothing different from the beginning." Li Ling muttered softly, yes, whether it was the lively scene at the dock, the majestic city walls over there, the soldiers guarding the walls, all the macroscopic things were exactly the same as when he left the capital that day. Maybe everyone had changed, but the atmosphere was the same.

This time he entered Beijing, he reported his duties as the prefect of Yangzhou.

The official rules of the Great Yue Dynasty were that every three years, officials from the prefect and above had to return to Beijing to report their duties. On the one hand, this was to allow the court to better control the local area, so as to prevent the news from being blocked by the officials under the jurisdiction of the border holding power; on the other hand, it was also to give these local officials a further opportunity. After all, only after entering the capital could they be appreciated by the emperor or the prime minister and be promoted quickly.

Of course, Li Ling didn't have such thoughts at this time. He was quite comfortable with the prefect of Yangzhou for three years. Moreover, he was still young. He really never thought about leaving a relationship and changing his official position.

Two or three years ago, the continuous chaos in Jiangnan did cause many officials to suffer, but after these storms, the entire Jiangnan had already come to great success. In the next two years, all parts of Jiangnan had good weather, good harvests, and the people lived and worked in peace. The officials naturally benefited from it. Not only did they feel much easier, but they also achieved excellent results in the subsequent external inspections. They also gained a lot of benefits from their salary with their positions.

In such a wealthy environment, not only Li Ling, but many officials in Jiangnan had no intention of being transferred. They just wanted to stay in office and accumulate wealth and political achievements... By the way, taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Ling and his family's Zongheng Bookstore business has been growing. Now they have five or six branches in Jiangnan. In addition to important cities such as Yangzhou, Jinling, Lin'an, and Shanyin, there are already Zongheng Bookstores. Their Zongheng newspapers are even issued hugely, and they can sell as many as 400,000 or 500,000 copies every month, which is enough to make the Lu Xie family, who have invested a lot of money in the early stage, feel worth the money.

After experiencing Wen Ming's incident, Li Ling finally buried the last unrealistic ideal in his heart and became a qualified Great Yue official. When it comes to the benefits of being together with the light, he naturally would not be embarrassed by himself.

So in just two years, Li Ling's net worth had increased more than ten times more than before. He did not accept bribes, but only relying on his salary, rewards and dividends from bookstores in various places, his annual income reached an astonishing more than 500,000 taels of silver in silver, which was more and faster than the legendary "Three years of Qing Dynasty prefect, 100,000 snowflake silver".

Just as he thought of the huge amount of wealth brought to him by Zongheng Bookstore, Li Ling heard a cheerful hawking sound from the dock ahead: "Sell newspapers, sell newspapers! New Zongheng newspapers, who will be the courtesan this year? What are the five masters competing for the wind? After reading my newspaper, you will know that the big and small things in Luoyang City, and you can make a fortune in business and business..."

The newspaper seller is also a smart person. He knows that many people on the wharf come to Beijing to do business, so he specifically emphasized the help of his newspaper in business. Sure enough, many people bought newspapers with money at once, and newspapers worth more than a dozen are not expensive, so everyone is naturally happy to buy them and read them.

Seeing this, Li Ling smiled again. Although he and Wan Lang were not here, the people in the store still followed the rules set by the previous ones and finally did not follow the news about the imperial government.

At this time, the springboard leading to the shore was already firmly set up. As Wan Shenji reminded, Li Ling walked down the springboard. This time, only Wan Shenji and several other confidants came to Beijing with him, while Li Moyun stayed in Yangzhou to take care of his home.

After getting along during these days, Wan Shenji's relationship with him also changed from a simple superior and subordinate to half a friend. This time he followed him to the capital, in addition to personal protection, he also delivered the mission to the Imperial City Department.

After a few people got off the boat, Li Ling waved his hand, called the newspaper seller to the front, asked for a newspaper and read it. The manager around him paid for him. He quickly scanned several pages of the newspaper. Li Ling shook his head with a smile. The articles on it were mostly romantic, and of course there were also some advertisements and demands from merchants, which were indeed of great use for those who were doing business.

As for the content related to the officialdom, it was too few. I just mentioned in the corner that some court officials left Beijing for some reason. A friend sent him to the Shili Changting Pavilion and wrote poems. Anyway, it didn't seem to reveal the inside story of the officialdom.

Li Ling did not have much objection to this, because he had received many letters from the Beijing Bookstore in the past two years, and the on-the-spots were written very clearly. In the past few years, several newspaper-selling bookstores that opened with Zongheng had closed one after another. As for the reason, it was naturally that what he wrote offended the officialdom and was banned by the court.

Even if they have a backer behind them, as long as a certain article or a certain sentence offends a certain adult with real power, there will be 800 ways for the bookstore to be unable to be opened. From the content of these letters, Li Ling can clearly feel the respect of his shopkeepers for his early arrangements and not involving official rules. Therefore, this report rarely mentions the court now. It is all articles and news that the masses like, but it is also the newspaper that lives the most prosperous and lives the longest.

After Li Lingfei quickly scanned the contents of the newspaper, a carriage had been parked steadily in front of him, and the handlebar was waiting for him to get on the bus with respect.

This carriage is not an ordinary car that can be seen everywhere on the pier, but a luxury car with oil walls all over the body, as bright as new, extremely luxurious. There are four horses that pull the cart alone, and all of them are pure black horses without a single hair. The grade suddenly appears.

Li Ling knew that this should have been arranged by Caogang or Bookstore in the morning, so he didn't hesitate to be polite and walked straight into it on the wooden ladder behind the car, just said before the car was driving: "Go to the nearest inn."

"Boss, we are ready to get off the house in the city. There are also loyal servants there to serve us. Why go to the crowded inn?" The shopkeeper who came to greet us quickly persuaded him.

But Li Ling had his own insistence this time and waved his hands: "No, I'd better go to the inn. I'm not here to enjoy the capital. How could I be so extravagant? If I were found by some censors, I would be impeached." There was another reason he didn't say that there were many officials from all over the place in the official inn, so the information I could find was naturally much more flexible than living in a mansion alone.

Since his master has made up his mind, he will persuade his subordinates when he is not good enough to persuade him, so he can only follow his wishes and follow him on a carriage and head to the capital.

When they got ashore, it was just after noon, but when they officially entered Luoyang City and walked along the Changjie Imperial Road, they finally arrived at a large inn, and it was almost evening.

As the capital of Dayue, Luoyang has an astonishing number of foreign officials to receive every day, so three inns were opened here to accommodate them. This inn, located in Fumingfang, east of the city, is the oldest, and the facilities inside are the most complete, and the business is naturally the best. At this time, many people are coming in and out.

Now, Li Ling doesn't have to worry about the little things about staying in the hotel. When he got off the car, he looked around at the front door of the inn, but found a very interesting situation. Most of the guests who entered the inn looked like officials, but were businessmen one by one.

Obviously, like the official inns in the local area, the inns in the capital have also begun to entertain people who are not officials, which is considered to be income-generating. But what made him a little curious was that even with the Ministry of Rites providing subsidies, why should the officials here be willing to commit such business? It is not those inns in small places, where even the salary they should have is sometimes deducted.
Chapter completed!