Chapter 40: A Turn of Mind, Ten Thousand Taels of Silver

  "Of course I'm a hero...I was destined to be a hero...Alright, no more joking around, how did you guys get here?" Zhang Lei asked as soon as Xu Min boarded the ship.

  Xu Min's face revealed a sly smile, and she said coquettishly: "Hmph, I won't tell you, let's go catch the bad guys." She drew out her treasured sword, made a horizontal sweep that could cut through thousands of soldiers, cutting off a pirate's long spear into two segments. Then, taking a step forward, she smoothly inserted her sword into the pirate's chest.

  On the other hand, the pirates, who had originally taken the upper hand and thought they had already won, believed that this treasure-filled ship was theirs for the taking. However, they did not expect so many unexpected events to occur, and dozens of armed soldiers suddenly appeared on the deck, which had previously been almost empty.

  "Ah Wen cried out in terror: "What's going on? There are actually government soldiers." He retreated backward, looking around at the water's surface, but apart from that official boat, where were his other brothers?"

  "He cursed in his heart, but it was too late. Under the siege of the imperial army, they only resisted for less than two moments before some jumped into the water and others were killed. The surroundings returned to calm once again. Only the corpses on the deck and the blood with a strong fishy smell seemed to be telling the story of the thrilling battle that had just taken place."

  After finishing all this, Zhang Lei and his men started cleaning the ship. All the corpses were loaded onto the small boats of the pirates and then burned with the help of matches. The cargo ship, which still had a bloody smell, seemed unsuitable for human survival. Under Xu Min's arrangement, except for those who opened the boat, everyone else boarded the official ship.

  Inside the cabin, Zhang Lei was sitting opposite Xu Min, with two cups of Longjing tea emitting a faint fragrance on the tea table.

  "How did you know that pirates appeared here?" Zhang Lei asked curiously, and according to the style of official departments liking to shoot after the horse has bolted since ancient times, today's performance was really too unscientific.

  Xu Min laughed and said, "These are not pirates, they are lake bandits. They are more troublesome than pirates, without a large scale or unified group, doing whatever they want. Some collude with local officials, even letting their plots succeed repeatedly. Xi Hu has always been a heavily guarded place, defending the western entrance of the Yangtze River and the sea entrance. The reason I arrived on time today is because Uncle Qin received the news early."

  "Oh, I'm really quite lucky then. Thank you to that Uncle Qin for me." Zhang Lei thought about it and still felt scared. This hadn't even left the sea yet, and already such a thing had happened. Recently, it really wasn't very peaceful. It seemed that in the future, when going out, it would be better to bring more guns and cannons and whatnot. Zhang Lei instantly made up his mind.

  "Alright alright, actually, I was the one who went to call them. Hehe, Uncle Xu thinks so highly of you, if something were to happen to you like this, he would be very heartbroken."

  Zhang Lei's face showed a gloomy expression, and he said: "So you saved me just to not let Lord Xu be disappointed? Is there anything else? Like, you didn't want me to die or something..."

  "Oh, of course not! I don't want you to die, hehe, just kidding earlier, don't make that face... come on, give me a smile... just one smile... won't you? Fine, I'll give you one instead..."

  “……”

  With the arrival of the official boat, those lake thieves naturally did not dare to appear again. Many ships that had been frightened appeared one after another on the surface of the water, and a busy scene reappeared on Lake Tong.

  Upon arriving at the dock of Songjiang Prefecture, Jiang Yuyang sent someone to unload the cargo from the boat. Zhang Lei asked Xu Min, "Miss Xu, where are you headed now?"

  Xu Min sniffled, then shrugged and said with a nonchalant expression: "I came here to have fun, of course. You go ahead and busy yourself, I'm leaving."

  She turned around and left, but walked very slowly. She lightly bit her lip, and her fingers fidgeted with each other. "Why hasn't this fool followed me yet?"

  After a while, there was still no movement. She couldn't help but feel a little sad and secretly stomped her feet, just as she was about to leave, Zhang Lei's voice came from behind: "Miss Xu."

  Xu Min's heart suddenly surged with excitement, and she involuntarily stopped in her tracks. Just as she was about to turn around and head back, Zhang Lei continued, "The world is chaotic now, be careful and pay attention to your safety."

  "...what a wooden head, big wooden head, smelly wooden head, rotten wooden head..." Xu Min suddenly had the urge to rush over and slap him, but she restrained herself. For the sake of so-called feminine dignity, she calmly responded with an "oh" before turning around and disappearing into the crowd.

  After a while, a man in his forties, dressed in a suit and tie, appeared beside her, looking mature and capable.

  "Uncle Qin." Xu Min said gloomily in greeting.

  It turned out that this middle-aged man was actually the one who had saved Zhang Lei and their lives. He looked ahead and said, "Young lady, what's wrong with you?"

  It's better not to say, as soon as he opens his mouth, Xu Min feels extremely depressed and says: "Why is this guy so tasteless? Anyway, he's also here and doesn't need him to do things. I said let's take a walk and he won't even accompany me."

  Uncle Qin immediately understood and a doting smile appeared on his face. He said, "So that's what's been troubling you, young lady. But I think this is completely unnecessary. You're the niece of the Minister of Rites, how could he be out of your league? If it were someone else, they'd be thrilled just to have a conversation with you for a long time. Where would they get such extravagant hopes? It's already quite an accomplishment for Zhang Lei to be able to remain calm."

  "That...he just doesn't understand people's intentions?" Xu Min said with a pout.

  "Haha, didn't I just say that? He's a commoner, you're a noble, even if he did take a liking to you, would he dare have any ideas? Besides, does he even know if you like him or not? What if he clings to you later and you don't like him, then you can just call Lord Xu to beat him to death with a stick. Wouldn't that be unjust?"

  "Waaah... What's going to happen now..."

  "I don't know... I just followed Mr. Xu's instructions and secretly understood him, but I didn't understand the romantic feelings..."

  The work of transporting goods on the dock has been completed. Since we had already received news from Bai Yang earlier, arrangements had been made to send someone over to receive the goods, so it only took half a time unit for the matches to be transported into the store.

  The lanterns had just been lit, and the owner of the store invited everyone to go home and have dinner together. Zhang Lei was unwilling to join in the fun, so he wandered alone on the streets.

  At night, because of the curfew, Zhang Lei didn't dare to go too far, otherwise when the time came he wouldn't be able to hurry back and that would really be a disaster, thirty big slaps are not pleasant.

  Walking slowly along the river, the summer night wind blows up layers of ripples on the river's surface, and the sprouting green willows gently sway. Although it can't compare to the Qinhuai River bank's melodious songs, it has its own unique charm.

  After walking for a while, Zhang Lei had already circled back to the residential area from the riverbank. At this time, most families had finished dinner and were closed at home. Due to the excessive quietness around him, Zhang Lei seemed to hear the sound of machinery working. Upon closer inspection, he found that many households had human shadows printed on their doors and windows, busy under the candlelight. After distinguishing them, Zhang Lei understood that this was the sound of looms. Out of curiosity, he walked closer to a household and carefully observed from the gap in the door.

  Before long, the sound of the evening drum echoed in the quiet night sky. Zhang Lei knew it was time to go back and reluctantly left, planning to come again during the day tomorrow to gain a deeper understanding.

  "Boss Zhang is back, I just heard the evening drum, and I was worried that you couldn't find your way. The room has been prepared downstairs, let me take you there to rest." This time, the person in charge of receiving him in Songjiang Prefecture was named Yang Yong, who had several shops under his command and was a notable figure in the area. However, he showed great respect towards Zhang Lei, the inventor of matches, cigarettes, and other things.

  "Boss Yang," Zhang Lei asked, "just now when I was outside, I saw a family weaving at home and felt quite curious. Don't tell me that everyone works like this at night?"

  "Everyone is busy with their business during the day, all these shops are open, who has time for this stuff during the day? It's just at night after dinner that we do some of it, just as a sideline." Yang Yong replied.

  "So that's how it is. So all the cloth they weave is sold in their own shops?" Zhang Lei suddenly became somewhat excited, if Songjiang Prefecture had developed to this extent, then there would be quite a bit of impact on his own industry standards.

  "Basically, they all sell it themselves, some also sell to silk shops and the like. This kind of thing is quite common. I don't know why Boss Zhang suddenly asked about this?" Yang Yong said curiously.

  "It's nothing, just asking. Alright, it's getting late, Mr. Yang should get some rest."

  The next morning, Zhang Lei went out to investigate the matter after breakfast. The result of the investigation shocked him greatly. In just this one ward, there were dozens of silk reeling, spinning and weaving machines. Roughly estimating, in the 108 wards of Songjiang Prefecture, these machines numbered in the tens of thousands, a truly staggering number.

  But what made Zhang Lei feel more relieved was that these machines were all relatively simple and ancient, compared to the precise instruments of later generations, the gap was not small.

  "If I could design a better machine than this and sell it to them, the profit..." Zhang Lei secretly gloated in his heart. These tens of thousands of machines, each earning them one or two silver coins, that's ten thousand taels of silver, if they were to be sold at a higher price...

  Thinking of this, he couldn't hold back the surging passion in his heart, and when he returned to the village, he began designing with his head down.

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