This was ancient times.

Despite the appearance of peace and prosperity in the Wexing Province, there were many wars in other places.

In a place like this, if you don’t have enough power in your hands it will only make you uneasy.

Jiang Zhen and Wen Ming become merchants together. While Wen Ming spent his money at home or bought land, Jiang Zhen was different. He was always gathering and training manpower.

Nowadays, Jiang Zhen had thousands of men who knew some martial arts that were trained by him. Some of them were working as escorts for the Jinzhen Escort Agency, while others followed him to the sea.

After returning home, he gave those who followed him to the sea a few days off but now it was time to start training again.

In the mountains near Yabian Village, there was a special training ground where Jiang Zhen trained his men. Today he went there early.

In the training ground, hundreds of men, led by Zhu Erlin, were already waiting.

It was still early so they sat lazily on the ground or on the logs wiping the knives in their hands.

Jiang Ming, who was only 17 or 18 years old when he first started following Jiang Zhen, was now a very strong man with muscular arms, but instead of a knife he was holding a spear.

Initially, Jiang Zhen had very little money on hand, so he asked his men to use bamboo poles as weapons. Jiang Ming liked the feeling of stabbing people with bamboo poles so later when he received a large knife made of steel he wasn’t willing to change his weapon and several others felt the same way.

Jiang Zhen then decided to ask someone to make them some spears.

“Jiang Ming, I heard that you are going to marry?”Zhu Erlin looked at Jiang Ming and asked: “Have you already seen your wife?”

“You’re stupid!” Jiang Ming glared at Zhu Erlin. The wife his father and mother found for him was from Hecheng County. He got the news at the same time as Zhu Erlin so how could he have seen her?

Zhu Erlin looked at Jiang Ming with an air of seriousness: “Little Ming you must be nice to your wife, otherwise when we go out for months she might run away.”

“Do you think my wife is willing to run away when I look like this?” Jiang Ming looked Zhu Erlin up and down, then said: “However, you should be careful.”

“I’ll beat you up!” Zhu Erlin kicked Jiang Ming.

Seeing that the two of them were about to fight, someone suddenly ran from outside: “Stop it, put your shirts back on! Hurry up!”

“What’s wrong?” Zhu Erlin and Jiang Ming let go of each other and looked over in bewilderment.

“The boss is here!” The man said.

“If the boss is here, he’s here.” Zhu Erlin said. Their boss was even more unpretentious than them. After going to sea last time, he even cut his hair short. If they hadn’t been at sea for a long time and he didn’t have five months to grow it back, their boss would have been scolded for coming back with such a hairstyle!

“He is with the Young Lady!” The man said.

“Miss?!” Starled, Zhu Erlin hurriedly stood up and straightened his clothes.

When Jiang Zhen was at sea, he spent his days telling people how cute his daughter Zhao Mingzhu was, so although they had hardly seen Zhao Mingzhu, they could not help feeling affection for this child.

Under such circumstances, they naturally did not want to show their unkempt side in front of Zhao Mingzhu.

As soon as Zhu Erlin and others had cleaned up, Jiang Zhen came over with Zhao Mingzhu.

Zhao Mingzhu, who was now more than four years old, was no longer as fat as she was before. Her face was still a little round and her eyes were big, so she looked very adorable.

“Boss, why did you bring the young lady here?” Jiang Ming looked at Jiang Zhen in bewilderment.

“She will come every day from now on.” Jiang Zhen said.

Jiang Ming and others were a little dumbfounded. He will bring Zhao Mingzhu over here everyday?

Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge were now considered people of status, so their daughter should be raised with a group of maids to serve her as she learned zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, housekeeping and dabble in embroidery but now… she was brought to them?

Wasn’t their boss afraid of the Miss becoming too tan?

His men felt helpless, but Zhao Mingzhu was very interested in everything.

Wooden towers you could climb up and down, high and low wooden stakes, a rope bridge that stretched across the river…

“Mingzhu, father took you here to play today!” Jiang Zhen said to Zhao Mingzhu.

He also wanted to bring Zhao Chengyu, but the child was less than three years old and was too young after all.

Zhao Mingzhu nodded vigorously.

In some situations Zhao Mingzhu could “play by herself” while for others Jiang Zhen would take her with him. When they came across something she could not play with by herself, he strapped her to his chest and went to “play“.

Leaning against Jiang Zhen’s chest, Zhao Mingzhu giggled very happily.

But when Wen Ming came over and saw this scene, he was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Jiang Zhen actually took his daughter to climb such a high wooden stake!

Although Wen Ming often went out to sea with ships, he rarely did the same things that crew do. He has never climbed the mast and was even a little afraid of heights.

“Wen Ming, what’s the matter?” When Jiang Zhen saw that Wen Ming had brought people over, so he climbed down from the stake while urging his men to continue to practice.

“Yes, something is wrong.” Wen Ming said.

Jiang Zhen carried Zhao Mingzhu in his hands and walked together with Wen Ming to a nearby place where he could take a short break. He then looked at Wen Ming: “What is it?”

“There are two things. One is the Wen family ships. If we want to buy them in future I am afraid that it won’t be so easy.” Wen Ming told him. For many things it was impossible to not involve interests. the Wen family originally loved Wen Yingniang, but now . . .

Wen Father and Mother, as well as her several brothers, still had feelings for Wen Yingniang at this time but no else did… if they wanted to maintain goodwill, it would be best not to involve those with further interests.

Jiang Zhen had already anticipated this and even made some preparations for the fact that he might no longer be able to buy ships from the Wen family in the future. He just nodded in agreement: “I see. What else?”

“There is also Cheng Yongzhen of Pingzhou Province who is doing a good job.” Wen Ming said: “I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse.”

Wen Ming talked about the situation in detail.

The matter had not yet spread to the outside, and was told to him by a sea merchant he used to know.

The country of Daqi had a sea ban, which stipulated that domestic goods could not be sold overseas.

But the sea merchant business was too profitable, even a Daqi ordinary kitchen knife after being sent to the east could be sold for a hundred times the price!

As a result, the local officials on this side of the Yangtze River have been turning a blind eye, giving birth to a lot of big sea merchants.

This also had a lot to do with the increasing population south of the Yangtze River and the serious land annexation – many people no longer could rely on the land to make a living. Therefore they could only seek a living by relying on the sea.

This side of Wexing Province was still good but further south, the sea merchants became very powerful.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

Support translation: