C47

Although the commoners had not been able to witness the peerless charm of the singing and dancing group, it did not affect their popularity and fervor in the capital in the slightest. It had been pushed up a few steps more! Especially the shallow lead singer of the singing and dancing group. With a unique charm and unique temperament, not only had he conquered countless top listeners, but he had also created and promoted Zhang Zhou to become famous throughout the capital! The shallow reputation of the Nine Prefectures' Yao Tai was no less than that of the entire capital, with countless circles around it!

In the Nine Regions, business was doing the lottery in front of the Flowing Water Pavilion as scheduled! At the beginning, it was good that they were able to maintain order even with a large number of people. But as the winners continued to cash in the coveted prizes one by one, the commoners gathered more and more, the atmosphere became more and more lively, and there were signs of overcrowding. Cao Yi, who was in charge of the scene, decisively dealt with the situation. After the incident, Zhang Zhou also felt some lingering fear, which was something he was very proud of.

Only eleven lucky people completed the award. For those who are not present or who have not accepted the award in time, the Nine Prefectures Business makes a declaration that the winning number will be posted outside each of the major shops of the Nine Prefectures for inquiry. In the future, you can hold a valid poster and go to the Zephyr General Store to exchange.

In short, the singing and dancing group's trip to the capital had been a great success.

After a series of actions, such as poetry gathering, beauty pageant, singing and dancing group, the business effect of Jiuzhou was unstoppable! Within the circle of officials and nobles of the capital, there was already a trend. If one's family did not have a set of family properties with the unique insignia of the Nine Regions, it was definitely a matter of losing face! If he didn't know how to hum a few lines of Yao Tai's melody, how could he have the ability to chat with others about Feng Yue? Drinking wine without drinking He Zhou, how can you say drinking wine to your heart's content, and how can it be poetic? How could You Fang, who had no smell of zhenqi on her, have the face to ask her to meet her sister? He had never been to Hezhou before, nor had he ever seen Hezhou City in person. How could he dare say that he was experienced and knowledgeable? In the winter, I came to Hezhou to see the snow! Under the propaganda, He Zhou became the tourist target of countless people.

According to Qu Thirteen's statistics, the number of times the capital's pier had been used to transport ships to Hezhou had increased threefold. Not to mention the tourists from the south! The amount of goods shipped from Hezhou to the capital had increased fivefold. Furthermore, the shops in the capital responded the most with this request: Request for an increase in the quantity of goods supplied!

The officials of Hezhou Prefecture's political yamen, Tang Wenxuan, and Zhou Ru led a large number of officials from Hezhou. They welcomed the masses and personally went to the dock to welcome the return of the singing and dancing group.

On the way back to the city, Zhang Zhou told Tang Wenxuan about his plan to open a dancing and singing academy. Naturally, Tang Wenxuan agreed with both hands. In the end, it was decided that the Prefecture would provide free land for the Nine Prefectures' business investment and start the construction of the Jiuzhou Dance Academy!

In addition, the production base of the Nine Prefectures' business had already experienced a shortage of manpower due to the huge increase in the supply of goods. The scale of the workshop was also insufficient.

As for the shortage of personnel in Zhang Garden, it was definitely different from the merchant caravan recruiting. The recruitment requirements were stricter, and Zhang Zhou did not want to lower the standard as the price to solve the problem. He planned to establish the Jiuzhou Technical Academy to recruit qualified personnel after two months of training. Because of the popularization of culture, there were 7 or 8 people who would not even know their own names. Zhang Zhou had asked for this: "Mainly focus on actual ability, do you know the rules and regulations of the Nine Prefectures, and just learn to write your own name!" For literate people, after training, they will hold a higher income position.

As for the problem of the workshop's expansion, it naturally couldn't do without Tang Wenxuan's support. With a wave of his hand, not only did Zhang Garden's land area become three times larger, he also linked it together with Zhang Zhou's proposed plan to reform the western part of the city. He simply said, "I'll leave the western part of the city up to you, you can do whatever you want with it!" He had solved the land problem.

This time when Zhang Zhou came back, not only did he have to arrange for the Nine Regions' business to be arranged, he also had to settle the matter of the yamen's imprisonment. As Zhang Zhou was in the rear, he had to maintain a single voice, inside and out, up and down. This was something that Zhang Zhou absolutely could not allow to happen.

The yamen of the criminal arrest, which was held by Zhou Zhu, was now used to letting Zhang Zhou take charge! Although they could not rely on eating the commoners to earn money, the subsidy provided by the Nine Prefectures' businesses was more objective and generous. Just by this point, the entire yamen's idea was to follow Zhang Zhou! Youjiu was promoted to the top of the hunting list, Lin Jiu replaced the head of the constable and helped Youjiu to stand guard in Hezhou. When Zhang Zhou asked if You Nan seven wanted to follow him to the capital's torture camp, He Nan was naturally willing, but Zhang Zhou requested that he must wait until after his wedding before he could transfer. You Nan seven could only agree. Before this, Cao Yi had already told Zhang Zhou that he could arrange a few of his trusted aides to join him in his duties. After all, in the capital, if he wanted to develop, he would need the assistance of a few close friends, so Zhang Zhou readily agreed. Feng Xiaoxiao continued to stay in the yamen. The Nine Regions Business Mission had left him with no means of escaping.

Guan Yu-niang, as the head of the family, reigned in Hezhou, commanding the businesses of the Nine Regions, with the support of the Seventh Elder. Old Yellow had already landed in the capital. Feizi also began to carry out department, hall type management of the underground forces, stop the previous pot of porridge management model.

Qu Thirteen had also moved the headquarters of the river merchant caravan to the capital's pier. Because of Zhang Zhou's operation and Empress's assistance, the Nine Prefectures would take over a large project to reconstruct the dock on a large-scale basis. The scale of the project was larger than that of Hezhou, and they would need someone to oversee it.

After Zhang Zhou received the return payment from the Queen, he came up with this plan. He would fund the reconstruction of the Kyoto pier, but when it was completed, he would need ten years to manage the terminal. The fame and credit for the construction of the prosperous capital was given to the empress. The Queen truthfully informed Zhao Qianyuan that he had received detailed reports about the remodeling of the Hezhou Pier, and that it was inevitable that he had thought of reconstructing the pier. However, such a large project could not be solved with just the use of words. Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhou had delivered himself to his doorstep. Furthermore, there was no need for the imperial government to contribute, so they were naturally in favour of Zhang Zhou's proposal. They also ordered the Ministry of Work to cooperate fully!

Tang Long also sent back the news in Nanping Prefecture that the Sima family had agreed to the Nine Prefectures' request and had also confirmed the location of the land they would buy. It was near a salt lake in Nanping Prefecture. But there was some trouble with labour. After all, there were very few people in Nanping Province, and the number of business employees in the Nine Prefectures was very large, making it difficult to solve the problem. Furthermore, in order to enjoy the benefits of the commission, the Sima family didn't want to give this piece of meat to any other family and couldn't meet the requirements of the Nine Prefectures. Tang Long dared not make up his mind. He reported the situation to Zhang Zhou and asked for advice.

After some thought, Zhang Zhou thought about the Huyan Family and came up with a plan. He wrote a letter to Liu Qingshan, Huyan Dongya and Tang Long, confirming Liu Qingshan's position in the Northwest and had him take charge of the implementation of the plan …

Tang Long had finally suggested that they pay the Sima family a commission of five hundred thousand taels of silver a year and requisition twenty thousand laborers. If they couldn't satisfy this number, they would choose to withdraw from Nanping Province. This caused the Sima family to feel somewhat embarrassed. They were still trying to find a way out when Huyan Clan representative and Huyan Dongya's sister finally gave up. They surrendered to the Sima family, and were willing to become a vassal of the clan. Originally, the Sima family hoped to obtain a large number of Huyan Cavalrymen to increase their strength, but now there was such a great opportunity for them to earn a lot of money. In comparison, the army raising money was not worth much. Furthermore, the imperial government had not approved for the expansion of the army. It wasn't every day that someone offered a pillow to him in order to sleep. How could he miss the chance to do so? That would be earning five hundred thousand silver taels for nothing. It wouldn't be any different than picking up money for free. After some investigation, there were less than twenty thousand Huyan Family members, so he decided not to pick them up and give them all to the Nine Prefectures to work for. Tang Long on the other hand, not only were there less than twenty thousand people, but they were all old and weak, too much to the point that he couldn't even afford to go back! In the end, the Sima family, knowing that they were in the wrong, reduced the commission to four hundred and fifty thousand, as well as used a portion of the prisoners and slaves to make up for the amount.

Huyan Dong Hedge was naturally very grateful towards Zhang Zhou, he naturally knew what it meant to support 20,000 people in Nanping Province. Huyan Dong Hands was naturally very grateful to Zhang Zhou, he naturally knew what it means to support 20,000 people in Nanping Province, the northwest plan originally involved only around 5000 servants, but now, in order to protect his clan, Zhang Zhou had to spend close to a million silver a year. Zhang Zhou naturally wouldn't say. He had the method to purify the salt, and that would be a huge gain. Also, with more people, there would be more planning, so naturally it was not a wasted effort to support him. If he didn't suffer a loss and took care of the Huyan Family Clan, killing two birds with one stone, why wouldn't he do it? In order to reduce the risk of Huyan East Fence being exposed, Zhang Zhou had him secretly go to Dragon State, temporarily taking charge of the task of transporting medicine to the border army.

When Huyan Dongya fled back home, he didn't dare to say a word. He had only met with his sister and a few elders, so most of the clan members believed that Huyan Qinghai was in charge of all of this. Some of the clan members left in anger, but only a few of them did so, which didn't have much of an impact on Zhang Zhou's overall plans. Just like this, nearly twenty thousand Huyan clansmen moved to the areas that the Nine Prefectures had bought and started to build the northwest base. At this point, the Huyan Family had been incorporated into the Nine Prefectures' business.

There was another surprise. That female bodyguard, Xia Qingyi, who came from the Sword Valley, had actually taken the initiative to find Guan Yuniang and ask her to stay. The reason was that she really liked doing business in the Nine Regions.

Xia Qingyi was tall and slender and beautiful, but because of her height, she went against the aesthetics of this era. Although she had mastered profound swordsmanship, it was difficult for her to gain the respect of others in the martial arts world. This was the first time she realized that she had always been beautiful, so she didn't need to feel inferior. In addition to Zhang Zhou's actions and words, women were rarely discriminated against in the Nine Regions' business. This was a rare occurrence in the Great Tang Empire. As the head of the family, Zhang Zhou had never bullied anyone from Guan Yuniang to the little girl. Who would personally run out to the streets to buy candied fruits to curry favor with a girl who had been reprimanded by the matriarch for making a mistake? Who would set up a break just for a woman? Who would specially go to the kitchen to stir up trouble and cook delicious food for the women in the courtyard? Even though she felt that Zhang Zhou's culinary skills weren't that good …

She had been investigating her employer for the past three months! She was also tired of living a life of wandering aimlessly in the martial arts world! She could even see Zhang Zhou's dissatisfaction with her. However, when it rained heavily outside, he even specifically told her to hide inside the carriage to avoid the rain, saying that it wasn't good for her body if she was cold! As Guan Yu-niang's personal bodyguard, she knew too many secrets. Zhang Zhou's wealth could allow him to ride on countless beauties, but Zhang Zhou had never used silver to be inferior to any woman. Those women in the chorus were no different from geisha. Some of the girls were a bit stupid. They had seen Zhang Zhou call out 'grandaunt' with a frown on his face, but they had never seen him punish anyone. He even said that the girl's skin was thin, so he didn't say that it was too heavy! She had been to Zhang Garden with Guan Yuniang a few times. The order there was so perfect that even the people in the manor couldn't compare to her. The people in the manor, regardless of whether they were old or young, respected Guan Yuniang from the bottom of their hearts, had left a deep impression on her. Just based on the food in that manor, most of the employers in the world would die from shame! It wasn't like he had never seen it before, because when someone broke Zhang Zhou's bottom line and made him burn with anger, he would never vent out his anger on someone else! She decided to stay. She didn't ask for a heavy sum of money, but only to let the children in her hometown who were struggling to survive in the mountains have a good place to go. Guan Yuniang agreed without hesitation.

Zhang Zhou was naturally happy, but he also made a request. Up to today, he still did not know the true skill of this tall woman who would usually use a veil to cover her face. Zhang Zhou was already quite shocked by Old Daoist Yun Feng. How grand would it be to be able to become an expert within the clouds?

Xia Qingyi did not mind at all. Whether it was selling goods to the imperial family or to the rich families, they all wanted to show their worth. On the other hand, as long as you have the absolute capital, there will naturally be people willing to display his abilities in front of you. As long as the price was right, for a large number of people, protecting the emperor or other employers didn't make too much of a difference. Loyalty is the act of being willing to pay, of being able to pay, of not giving up one's responsibilities and honor in times of crisis, regardless of who the employer is.

Xia Qingyi came from a poor family and was adopted by her master when she was young. She had studied in the famous Sword Valley for twenty years. In the vast majority of sects, besides the direct line of descent, the rest were all vassals. If one wanted to gain status and develop within the sect, it would be difficult to ascend to the heavens through the narrow gates of the gangs. Therefore, many people walked out of their sects and entered the martial arts world to join the noble king's sect. As for how much you want it, that depends on how good you are. There were more than a hundred serious martial artists in the Nine Prefectures' business, but experts like Liu Qingshan and Chen Chaoying could only be found by chance. As for Daoist Priest Yun Feng's skill, no matter where he was, he would be treated like a secret treasure and unable to be hired!

In the back garden of Zhang Zhou's residence, Xia Qingyi's sword appeared, and her aura was completely different. Her sword style was not gaudy, it was wide open and large, like a rainbow piercing the sun, slashing out with the force of splitting the sea, instantly filling the courtyard with sword qi, cutting through the bones, Zhang Zhou even felt his own saber moaning and groaning. Suddenly, with the sound of a Buddhist prayer, a figure leapt over the wall and transformed into seven or eight figures that pounced towards Xia Qingyi. Zhang Zhou did not shout out to stop the monk from attacking, but instead concentrated on the change on the stage with incomparable seriousness. Xia Qingyi did not panic at all, with a cold snort, her sword trembled, then she drew seven sword flowers out of thin air, shattering the monk's illusions, then the sword strangely drew a half moon silver arc, forcing the monk to retreat, then the sword chased after him, thrusting towards the monk, the monk leaped into the air, once again chanting the Buddhist chant, his left hand struck down, Xia Qingyi's sword fingers shattered the monk's palm wind like a lotus, then the lotus flower exploded and formed a silver snake, wrapping the monk's left arm.

The monk landed on the ground, took three steps back and stopped moving. The biting cold murderous intent instantly vanished and the yard regained its original calm. The man in green was still standing there while the monk's broken sleeves flew in the air.

"Great Master has conceded the favor!"

"This old monk admires young lady's swordsmanship!"

Just a moment ago, the confrontation between the two had once again left Zhang Zhou dumbstruck. In an instant, an exchange between masters could determine victory or defeat, and determine life or death! Couldn't he just give himself a good thrill after a thousand or eight hundred moves?

However, now that an expert like Xia Qingyi had come to protect Guan Yuniang, Zhang Zhou naturally felt a lot more at ease.