The canteen soon brought out a lot of fish soup. Jiang Zhen and other people who came back also got a big bowl.

In winter, a bowl of hot fish soup was really wonderful and tasted very good. Unfortunately, there was no pepper at this time; otherwise, he would not only eat boiled fish but also hot pot.

Jiang Zhen was not a person who especially liked spicy food, but he still liked to eat spicy food from time to time. After not eating it for a long time, he missed it even more.

While eating the fish soup, Jiang Zhen gave Zhou Mingzhu a small piece of the meat from the belly of the fish.

Zhao Mingzhu was already nine months old and could eat supplementary food, but other than rice porridge, Jiang Zhen did not dare to give her other food to eat for fear of giving her a bad tummy.

Zhao Mingzhu was very enthusiastic about the fish, and after testing a small piece, she opened her mouth with an: “Ah ah ah” and continued to ask for more. But Jiang Zhen didn’t give her more and only gave her a small piece of steamed bun to chew.

Zhao Mingzhu took the steamed bun with a bit of dissatisfaction, but seeing that Jiang Zhen did not continue to give her fish meat to eat, she could only continue to aggressively nibble on the steamed bun.

 New Year was the most important holiday for the people, so in the first few days of the new year, Jinzhen Escort Agency would not take on any business. Jiang Zhen gave all of his people a few days of holiday and planned to rest for a few days himself too.

The Zhao family rested and thought only about what to eat every day, but something happened in the other part of Daqi.

After Zheng Yi distilled a high-quality wine, he immediately sent it to the capital, so the wine was presented at the palace before the New Year.

Although the Zheng family said they made wine according to ancient recipes, but it could not be denied that this wine was not made for a long time and had no reputation at all. The empress dowager himself also did not like to drink. So the wine was then casually sent to the imperial dining room, which did not attract the attention of the empress dowager at all.

But in the end, not sure if it was because the Zheng family was lucky, but due to these circumstances, the wine has become famous.

Before the New Year, the north sent messengers to Daqi.

Daqi and the people of North Rong were always in constant friction and fought often. During these frequent battles, Daqi often lost, losing many things like food, livestock and human lives. This was why the method of suturing wounds provided by Jiang Zhen attracted the attention of so many military generals.

This year, Daqi and North Rong had been at war again while civil unrest was happening in North Rong’s side . . .

The people of North Rong were originally a little bit overwhelmed by the civil unrest when they suddenly remembered Daqi. They sent an emissary to Daqi, asking to marry a Daqi princess and have peace talks.

This was originally nothing, but the scholars of Daqi looked down on Rong, and Rong looked down on the people of Daqi; so it ended up in another conflict between the two. Those Rong people in the end, when the Empress Dowager hosted a banquet for them, said that the wine of Daqi was too “soft“ and weak, just like the people of Daqi. They said that even their women would not drink this stuff.

Using the wine as a pretext, Empress Dowager became furious on the spot, and it was at this time that he suddenly remembered the strong wine given to him by Second Master Zheng.

The empress dowager immediately asked someone to bring the wine.

In fact, at this time, Daqi already had some methods of purifying wine, but even with the purification, the quality was not high. After Zheng Yi learned the method provided by Jiang Zhen and kept distilling, he brewed a high-quality wine.

When the wine came up, the rich fragrance of wine left these Rong people with nothing to say, but after they tried to drink it, it left them filled with sarcasm . . .

The Rong people who were previously boasting that they wouldn’t be able to get drunk  with Daqi’s wine, got drunk one after the other. Some of them even got so inebriated, they couldn’t even get up and made a fool out of themselves.

Only for the Rong people to ask for this wine again the next day.

Second Master Zheng was one of the empress dowager’s confidants, who always worked in line with the empress dowager’s wishes. The empress dowager had always attached great importance to him, and this time, he immediately rewarded him for his meritorious work and made the Qingfeng wine a tribute. In the future, the price of Qingfeng wine would undoubtedly rise again.

Of course, this news had not yet reached He Cheng Country. At the moment, the officials and merchants in Hexing Prefecture were attracted to another matter.

Before Zhou Maohe went to the Zheng family, looking for Jiang Zhen to make trouble. Most of the people in Hexing Prefecture didn’t take it seriously. After all, it had nothing to do with them and was a small matter but this time it was different.

Zhou Maohe caused a big headache this time!

He was sent to the south because the empress dowager felt he was too much of an eyesore. But he challenged the problem of private salt, which even the former imperial envoy who was sent there to straighten out the salt affairs, did not dare to challenge it!

What was even more astonishing was that he not only dared to talk about it, but he even led people to raid the Hongjiang Salt Farm in a speedy manner.

The famous Hongjiang Salt Farm was raided by Zhou Maohe!  Him doing something like this, even shocked Zheng Yi.

“I asked someone to mention this matter to him in a few words, but I even haven’t had time to do anything more . . .” After Zheng Yi got the news, he  went to Hexi village especially and spoke to Jiang Zhen with an odd expression on his face.

He was preparing some incriminating evidence about the Hongjiang Salt Farm, but even before he could send them, Zhou Maohe already did something he did not expect at all.

“What the hell is going on?” Jiang Zhen couldn’t help asking.

Wasn’t the imperial envoy under Zheng Yi’s monitoring? How could he suddenly occupy Hongjiang Salt Farm without Zheng Yi knowing anything?

“I really didn’t expect that he could be so . . . decisive.” Zheng Yi sighed and then added, “But it is his case, it’s normal to do something like this.”

Zhou Maohe raided the Hongjiang Salt Farm not because he found out about the matter of illegal salt.

After he made trouble in Hecheng County, there were many people who were observing him, so even if he wanted to check on things, it was too inconvenient to do so. Although he felt that this salt matter was very messy, even if he wanted to check it out properly, it was already too late.

His arrival at Hongjiang Salt Farm was, in fact, for another reason . . . and this was started with the Hongjiang Salt Farm lording over the sea.

When Jiang Zhen followed other people to buy sea products, Hongjiang Salt Farm’s people had charged a lot of money and were even ruder to the people living in the seaside.

They sold their own private salt but did not allow others to get involved in it. The people in the seaside villages, if someone boiled the salt and tried to sell it privately, they would then be attacked, often not even given a chance to defend themselves, and were directly killed .

Sometimes they would even massacre entire villages.

Hongjiang Salt Farm hired a lot of people who helped them catch people who sold salt privately but not under their auspices, as well as those who controlled large areas of the seaside. These people, under their inclusion, became no different from water bandits and pirates.

They would not only kill people who sell private salt but also go to ordinary villages to wreak havoc.

Of course, they would not kill for no reason and usually only wanted to play with village women and gers or something.

When Zhou Maohe learned that private salt was still rampant after being repeatedly banned, he did not suspect the Hongjiang Salt Farm. Who would have thought that the salt farm built by the court itself would sell private salt?

But he decided to go to the sea to see.

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

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