When His Majesty had wanted to strike at Jiang Zhen, why hadn’t he advised him against it? 

 If Jiang Zhen had not left Daqi, the Liaoning Iron Cavalry would not have been short of food and grain. If the Liaoning Iron Cavalry had not been short of necessary essentials, they would have been able to stop the Rong. If the Rong army had been stopped, would they still have to flee south of the Yangze river?

Not only that, when the imperial court sent a large army to quell the rebellion, the main reason for their defeat was a shortage of food and grain. If they had managed to keep Jiang Zhen around… 

Over the years, Qi Qing often thought of this and could not help regretting the situation very much. He often woke up in the middle of night from dreams about that night. 

But time could not be turned back after something was already done, so it was useless to regret it.

Jiang Zhen was not a vicious person, so he could only hoped that after he apologized, he would be able to relieve Jiang Zhen’s anger so he would agree to help Daqi deal with the Rong people. 

Qi Qing thought like this, but Zhou Maohe thought differently.

Zhou Maohe felt that Jiang Zhen should help Daqi as a matter of course!

At this moment, he was stopped from saying more by Qi Qing, but he only became even more upset. “Marquis Qi, why are you so timid?”

“I’m not being timid.” Qi Qing replied.

Zhou Maohe didn’t listen to him and instead just turned to the man who came to greet him from the Republic of China. “Where is your Prime Minister? Why didn’t he come?”

They were the emissaries of Daqi, shouldn’t Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge come and greet them personally? 

 The person who came to greet the emissaries of Daqi was Wen Ming.

When Zhao Jinge left Wexing Province he was with him. Afraid that something bad would happen, he decided to follow Zhao Jinge and left Daqi with him. 

He had thought that if he had nothing to do with this matter he would be able to go back to Wexing province and continue to live his life, however, later something happened to make that impossible!

They all become  fugitives!

After that, Wen Ming felt quite regretful.

Of course, he didn’t regret that he followed Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge and ran away. Instead, he regretted that after earning money he actually used it to buy land!

Those good lands ended up being given for free to the government!

Just thinking about it made Wen Ming feel heartache, but after seeing various Daqi sea merchants repeatedly suppressed he felt that losing some money was nothing. 

He at least survived, and even lived a good life.

Now he was the Minister of the Foreign Trade department, who specialized in all kinds of trade business with Daqi. His wife was also here, doing wherever she wanted to do and his son was very  promising!

As a matter of fact, the emissaries of Daqi didn’t need to be received by him, but because he had some friendship with Zheng Yi, he came over. Even though he came to greet them, he was still resented.

There was no telling what would happen in Daqi next, but Zhou Maohe still dared to flaunt his power in their territory?

However, after so many years, Wen Ming’s temperament was good, so after giving Zhou Maohe a glance, he no longer paid attention to him. Instead he talked to Zheng Yi. “Brother Zheng, long time no see.”

“Long time no see.” Zheng Yi said.

The two looked at each other and had a lot to talk about, but at this point, they felt that there was nothing they could talk about. 

Wen Ming smiled and finally said: “Brother Zheng, let me show you around and give you a tour of Wangxiang port.”

“This port is called Wangxiang? Since it is called Wangxiang, why not go back?” Zhou Maohe immediately asked. 

Wen Ming became speechless for a while.

They missed their hometown, but going back?

They would never go back.

Life in China was better and continued to become more so, so who would want to go back to Daqi?

“Wangxiang Port is the largest port in China, but it’s not the only one. There are also two other ports.” Wen Ming said, pointing to some buildings not far away, “see them? This is our Republic of China’s Coastal Defense University, where all the elites of our country study.”

Wen Ming showed them some places that could be seen from the docks, such as Coastal Defense University and the shipyard. 

After this chat, the feeling of familiarity finally came back and Zheng Yi decided to ask, “Lord Wen, what is it that we are stepping on under our feet?”

After going ashore, Zheng Yi had already seen it up close and the stone under his feet really looked like it was cut from one piece! 

Of course, some of them had cut marks. 

Yet even if there were signs of cutting, each piece was very huge. How on earth did they lay such a huge piece of stone slab on the ground?

Or, was it not a piece of stone slab?

If it was not actually a stone slab, what was it?

“This is cement.” Wen Ming said. “This cement was made by the research institute and can be used for many purposes.”

“Cement?” Zheng Yi mulled over the name for a while, secretly surprised. This shouldn’t be made of mud, right?

He wondered about it in his heart, but in the end didn’t say much. Wen Ming had already brought them to the nearby guest house.

This guest house was specially used to entertain people from foreign countries, so Jiang Zhen spent a lot of effort on decorating it. 

The city water system was still being studied and hadn’t been installed yet, but he replaced it with a water tank and put several large water tanks on the top floor, letting the building have its own water supply. 

The house was tiled and had glass windows to allow sunlight to enter, making the whole main living room extremely bright.

After going in, they all could see simple furniture. 

However, why were there no toilets in the rooms? What were those oddly shaped things?

Zheng Yi and others were surprised, but the service staff of the guest house explained. 

The attendant was raised under the original nation of Toyo but now she no longer looked like she was from Toyo at all. She also spoke in pure Daqi Mandarin. “This is a flush toilet. Next to the toilet is a place for washing and on this side for bathing. After you turn on this switch, cold water will come out. If you want hot water tell me and we will bring it right away.” 

She said all this with a smile, as she used each item in front of Zheng Yi and others. 

Zheng Yi was amazed, and so were Zhou Maohe and Qi Qing.

This Republic of China wasn’t quite the same as Daqi!

They walked around the room, amazed. An attendant brought some more paper with words printed on it and a book.

“What is this?” Zheng Yi asked again.

“These are newspapers from the past few days and this book is an introduction to the country of China, so you can understand it.” The service staff said.

“Newspaper?” Zheng Yi took one and looked at it. At the first glance, he saw news related to the royal family on it.

In the newspaper, it was written that His Majesty’s third son officially enrolled in preschool this year.

There were some nice words written about it, but lacking in annoying flattery. As he continued to read happily, he noticed that it mentioned what happened in various places and what the local government did about it. 

All of it was very clear and straightforward. After turning a few pages he saw quite a few interesting stories published in the back.

 Although all of this was written in very simplified characters that were different from the Daqi language, Zheng Yi was still fascinated with reading it. 

However, even if he was fascinated, his two companions were not.  

Qi Qing’s brow furrowed. He felt that Jiang Zhen had changed the Daqi characters to one missing arms and legs, which was really not very good looking.

But Zhou Maohe became even angrier. 

He had long known that the people over here had changed the words, but he didn’t know that they had changed them into something like this. Jiang Zhen was simply doing something nonsensical!

“Really outrageous, outrageous!” Zhou Maohe was so angry for a while that he couldn’t finish his sentence.

The attendant’s expression stiffened, and Zheng Yi felt that she really wanted to hit someone. 

However, she probably felt that it was not good to hit these people, so she didn’t do anything and just spoke stiffly, “since there shouldn’t be anything more to do I will leave first.”

The attendant left, leaving the Daqi emissaries alone. 

Zhou Maohe was still ranting, saying that Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge had no manners and righteousness and didn’t even come to greet them. Zheng Yi did not bother with listening to him anymore and went straight to his room.

Zhou Maohe could only pull Qi Qing to talk with.

Qi Qing was also dissatisfied with some of Jiang Zhen’s practices, but looking at the newspaper in front of him and thinking for a while, he felt that although Jiang Zhen changing words was not right, this newspaper still had some merits.

Jiang Zhen really had some skills, if he had persuaded his majesty… 

Qi Qing couldn’t help feeling regretful again. Because of the lack of food, the Liaoning Iron Cavalry soldiers starved to bone, but still had to participate in the battle. It was a scene he did not want to recall.

He was wrong, really wrong.

If he had only known…

Covering his chest, Qi Qing laughed bitterly.

However, Zhao Maohe still firmly felt that he was right. 

If the emperor wants his subject to die, the subject has to die. In his opinion, Jiang Zhen shouldn’t have resisted at that time.

Qi Qing and the others rested in the guest house for a day and the next day got in a carriage and headed for the capital of China.

Before they arrived, all kinds of things they did had already been placed right in front of Jiang Zhen’s eyes.

Jiang Zhen and Zheng Yi have always remained in contact, so he knew exactly why Zheng Yi comes here. There was no need to guess Zheng Yi’s intention. He still needed to look into the various reactions of Zhou Mao and Qi Qing.

After reading the report, Jiang Zhen softly laughed. 

Different ideas, sometimes they were really difficult to communicate.

“What did you let those people do?” Zhao Jinge frowned.

He still held a grudge with Zhou Maohe and Qi Qing. They had hurt Jiang Zhen before, so he couldn’t wait to beat them to death with a stick. He also did not want to meet them at all. 

“I invited them to show off,” Jiang Zhen said.

Zhao Jinge was a little confused at first but Jiang Zhen held his hands. “When the time comes, I will also give you a surprise.”

Zhao Jinge saw Jiang Zhen’s strange expression and knew that he most likely figured out something new and strange again. So he just smiled and said, “Good, I’ll wait.”

Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge’s daily life did not change because of the imminent arrival of the emissaries from Daqi.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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