Taiping Inn

Anqing Prefecture is adjacent to the Yangtze River. After crossing the river, it is the real Jiangnan. Therefore, Anqing Prefecture is the last big city from Jiangbei to Jiangnan, and it can also be regarded as the southernmost part of the Jiangbei region.

After Li Xuandu calculated his fortune in his spare time, he continued to stroll on the streets of Anqing Prefecture, his mind was empty. Although he was in the world of mortals, it was a rare moment of peace.

The only flaw was that after Li Xuandu used the "Human World", not only was the sea of ​​​​qi in his sea of ​​​​qi churning, but the "Heaven-Defying Tribulation" also corroded his body more and more deeply. It only took half an hour to suppress it before, but now it takes an hour, like pulling silk from a cocoon, which is extremely laborious.

In order not to be discovered by Liu Chen, he deliberately said a time limit of one hour, just to resolve the backlash of the "Heaven-Defying Tribulation" during this period of time, but Li Xuandu also knew that the harder he suppressed it at this time, the more violent the backlash would be next time, and the rebound in the future might not be suppressed even if he used all his strength.

Fortunately, Li Xuandu has learned a lot, from "Xuanwei Zhenshu" to "Zuowang Zen Gong" to "Chunyang Ziqi". It can be said that he has practiced both Buddhism and Taoism, which has many indescribable benefits for the body and spirit. It is not time to use all his skills.

An hour later, Li Xuandu and Liu Chen met in front of the South City Gate. At this time, the spirit in Li Xuandu's body had completely calmed down, like a quiet lake, without any waves. Liu Chen had a small bag on his back, which was tied in a knot on his chest. After all, not everyone's Xumi treasure can be as big as the "Eighteenth Floor". The smallest Xumi treasure is the size of a money bag and cannot hold too many things.

After the two left the city, they walked about twenty miles and came to the surging river. The river was as wide as an ordinary lake.

There were ships coming and going on the river, and the sails were like clouds. The so-called hundreds of boats competing for the current were just like this.

After crossing this river, they arrived at the border of Jiangnan and entered the jurisdiction of Jinling Prefecture.

Speaking of Jinling Prefecture, Li Xuandu could not say how familiar it was, nor how unfamiliar it was. After all, he had been here before, and a local friend had given him two cans of Mingqian tea, some charcoal made of sandalwood, a small red clay stove, and a small copper tripod that could be used to cook wine. Otherwise, according to Li Xuandu's personality, he would never spend money to buy these things.

As for that friend, he could be considered a son of a noble family, with the surname Qian and the name Yulong.

Since the founding of the Wei Dynasty, there has been an iron Qian family in Jiangnan. The ancestors of the Qian family were also meritorious officials who followed the dragon. They could have been granted titles and honored their descendants, but the ancestors of the Qian family asked the Emperor Taizu of the Wei Dynasty for a red-lettered iron certificate, and then returned to their hometown of Jinling Prefecture to start business.

I have to admire the foresight of the Qian family's ancestors. When Emperor Taizu first founded the country, he conferred titles on meritorious officials of other surnames, and a total of ten dukes were conferred. However, when Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, a bloody storm deposed five dukes. Today, only three dukes remain and can be inherited, but they are not as free and easy as the Qian family.

The Qian family, as the name suggests, is very rich. As for how they are rich, in the city of Jinling, where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, there are two streets of shops owned by the Qian family, and half of the merchant ships docked at the dock outside the city of Jinling belong to the Qian family.

Qian Yulong once boasted to Li Xuandu about his family's property, which was spread across various prefectures in Jiangnan. There were roughly 33 antique shops, 13 printing houses, 32 gambling houses, 9 bookstores, 29 brothels, 35 grain stores, 44 restaurants, 28 pharmacy shops, 15 porcelain shops, 40 blacksmith shops, 37 pawnshops, 40 inns, 13 banks, and 30 weaving workshops. That's not all. The cash that can be taken out at any time is as much as 10 million taels. There are also eight mansions in Jinling City and three villas outside the city. There are more than 1,000 houses, more than 30,000 acres of land, 28 farms, more than 3,900 tenants, more than 400 large and small ships, and four docks. Not counting the children of the family, there are more than 3,000 hired servants.

In fact, the Qian family does not have much land, and they do not make money from land. The key is that the Qian family has intervened in the trade of salt, iron, porcelain, copper, cotton yarn, silk, tea, etc., which are truly profitable industries.

At that time, Qian Yulong also invited Li Xuandu to see what the Ten Li Qinhuai is, and said that at least five of the Ten Li Qinhuai belong to their Qian family. If Brother Li likes a courtesan, just say it. It's just a matter of a word.

If someone else said this, it would probably be nonsense, but if Qian Yulong said it, there would be no exaggeration, just stating a basic fact.

Looking at the city of Jinling, the Qian family can be said to be a veritable "Qian Half City".

Such a large family business is naturally coveted. However, money can communicate with gods. The Qian family is located in Jinling. They have good relations with the Cihang Sect in the south and the Qingwei Sect in the north. They have extensive friendships with the Butian Sect in Liaodong and the Wudao Sect in the northwest. They have good relations with various dignitaries in the Imperial Capital. Even in the Golden Horde, they have a say. This shows the wide network of contacts of the Qian family.

In addition to the network of contacts, the Qian family itself is a large family comparable to the Zhang family of the Zhengyi Sect. There are many masters in the family. At the same time, they hire guests, worshippers, guests, and disciples with a large sum of money. Like Tingfeng Tower, Bailianfang, Wenxiangtang, and Wandumen, it is not a sect but better than a sect.

Because of this, in today's Jianghu, in addition to the twenty-two sects of the two paths of good and evil, and the many sects attached to these twenty-two sects, there are still a few that can barely stand out from the outside. Tingfeng Tower, Bailianfang, Wenxiangtang, Wandumen and other four families are counted as one, Qingyang Sect is counted as one, and the Qian family can also be counted as one.

The reason why Li Xuandu met Qian Yulong was because of business. At that time, the matter in Jiangbei had come to an end. Li Xuandu returned to the sect to recuperate and began to deal with the affairs of the sect. Because there was a business transaction with the Qian family, which should have been the job of the second senior brother, Li Xuandu took over and went to Jiangnan. Thus, he met Qian Yulong, the young master of the Qian family in Jinling Prefecture.

The Qian family's style of doing things is very interesting. They are conservative and unconventional. The two completely opposite styles of doing things are perfectly integrated in them. They are conservative because they abide by the ancestral precepts and dare not cross the line. They are unconventional because outside of the ancestral precepts, they adhere to the principle of freedom if not prohibited, and there is nothing they dare not do. Therefore, the most common thing done in the Qian family is to pick every word of the ancestral precepts and find loopholes in them. There are several interpretations of the last ancestral precepts, and each interpretation is reasonable.

In addition, the Qian family is not the kind of money-grubbing family that people imagine. If you put aside the wealth that rivals a country and the masters in the family, the Qian family can even be regarded as a family of scholars. They built a collection called "Yuhai Pavilion" at home, with a total collection of more than 600,000 volumes of books. It also collects the largest number of rare and rare books in the whole of Jiangnan. It is known as the four major collections of the world together with the Wenyuan Pavilion in the Imperial Capital, the Sutra Pavilion in Jingchan Temple, and the Baojing Pavilion of Zhengyi Sect.

All the children of the Qian family can enter and borrow books. At the same time, the Qian family also opened the largest elementary school in the whole of Jiangzhou, and hired famous scholars to teach. Whenever there are great scholars from other states passing by Jiangzhou, they will be invited to give lectures. Therefore, although not all the children of the Qian family can pass the imperial examination, it is not a problem for them to pass the imperial examination. The most surprising thing is that for so many years, none of the children of the Qian family have participated in the imperial examinations and no one has ever served as an official.

Qian Yulong once said to Li Xuandu that the red book and iron certificate can save one from death, but it can't save one from the crime of treason. If someone wants to harm the Qian family, they must start with the crime of treason. Therefore, the red book and iron certificate treasured in the Qian family ancestral hall is just for peace of mind. The real way to protect oneself is to stay away from the temple.

At the same time, Qian Yulong also told Li Xuandu many of their Qian family's ancestral precepts, such as not making all the money, and eating meat, you must know to leave a mouthful of soup for others. Maybe the original words of the Qian family ancestor were not like this, but when Qian Yulong said it, it became very vulgar.

Li Xuandu thought about these old stories and walked towards the dock with Liu Chen.

At this time, a three-story ship came down the river from upstream, and a large flag with the word "Qian" on it fluttered in the wind.