Shaking his head, Yan Xu's face showed a strange look, "Brother, I'm afraid it may not be as you thought."

"Oh?" Yan Xu was slightly stunned and asked in surprise: "Why do you say this?"

"Brother, you overestimate the integrity of those people." Yan Xu shook his head, not without sarcastic expressions. "The strength and weakness are easy to be strong and weak, and Li Wu cannot be compared with Xuzhou at all. Everyone has to consider the future, especially those prominent families with the great families, behind which hundreds of family members are the lives of the family. How could they be willing to bury my father-in-law for his father-in-law?"

"Oh, there were signs before you came to pick me up?" Yan Xu narrowed his eyes.

"It's not just a sign? Before I set out from Yangzhou, I was already full of posts. They were all smart people. They all knew that the stupid birds flew first and established a good relationship with my younger brother who was in charge of the political affairs hall of the General Administration. Isn't we able to get more benefits in the future?" Yan Xu said lightly: "Sometimes I'm thinking, how can these people turn over at once without any scruples?"

"As you said, it is all about interests and is related to the fate of one's own clan. How can we not leave those things behind?"

Yan Xu smiled. If this is the case, his pressure would be much less, and he was afraid that too many old guys who were willing to suffer from face and live will come. If everyone can face all this rationally and realistically, it will take a long time to solve it.

"Brother, have you considered that when you go to Yangzhou, you have any other intentions besides soothing people's hearts?" Yan Xu glanced at his brother and lowered his voice.

"Of course there is." Yan Xu naturally would not hide it in front of his younger brother. "The purpose of encouraging people is very simple. To restore Yangzhou's livelihood as soon as possible and allow Yangzhou to regain its former prosperity and glory. It is expected that the prince of the county will soon establish a new Huaizuo Town. Hezhou and Chuzhou will probably be assigned to Huaizuo Town. The meaning of Huaizuo Town is to prepare for the future development of Jiangnan."

"It's the right thing to do." Yan Xu nodded, and he estimated that he had reached this point.

The chaos in Jiangnan is actually very beneficial to Xuzhou. The east of Jiangnan now gathers the Qian family of Yue, the Wang family in Fujian, and the Wang family in Fujian is already Li Wu, and there are several independent small forces. The ant thief is still watching the tiger in Xuanzhou. It can be said that this kind of situation of big and small control is very beneficial to Xuzhou, which is still unable to move south.

This is why Xuzhou changed its attitude and supported Li Wu to gain a foothold in Jiangnan, which was to prevent the Qian family of Yue from taking advantage of the situation to become bigger.

"Brother, when will the prince plan to go south to Jiangnan?" Yan Xu asked further.

"It's hard to say, it depends on the changes in the situation in Hebei and the Central Plains." Yan Xu shook his head, "The prince attaches great importance to Hebei and has always regarded the Khitans as the number one enemy. Brother Yu thought that the prince might have to deal with the Khitans first."

"Khitan people?" Yan Xu was surprised, "Isn't it Shatu?"

"The prince does not value Shatu people very much, and believes that Shatu people lack strength, and after entering the Central Plains, they will fall into the quagmire." Yan Xu shook his head gently, "Brother Yu doesn't know why the prince has such strong confidence. He doesn't value Shatu people, but he pays special attention to the Khitan people far away in the northeast."

"All of Hu people. Now no matter how you look at it, they should be more powerful, right?" Yan Xu was also puzzled. "Bianluo was occupied by Shatu people, and Shatu people are very powerful. The Khitans are still separated from Lulong Town and Chengde Town. Liu Shouguang of Lulong Town is said to be a brave and good warrior. No matter how powerful the Khitans are, they are afraid they cannot easily suppress Lulong, right?"

"It's hard to say, Chu Yang, now the main energy of the General Administration Office is to turn to Pinglu and Puzhou. The prince asked me to come to the front station. He would come to Yangzhou soon and then return north, so he was so anxious." Yan Xu touched the long beard under his jaw, "The prince intended to let Brother Yu stay in Yangzhou forever."

"Ah? What should I do with the errands in the Zhengshi Hall?" Yan Xu hesitated. Although it is a good thing to be stationed in Yangzhou, the position of the Chief Minister of the Zhengshi Hall is even more high-ranking, so he cannot give up.

"The prince's intention is to let me stay in Yangzhou for the time being, probably as the Chief Minister of the Government Affairs Hall and the Governor of Yangzhou." Yan Xu pondered: "But this probably won't be the norm. Duke Xun was the Chief Minister of the Political Affairs Bureau and the Governor of Xuzhou. That's because Duke Xun was in Xuzhou, and I was not suitable for him in Yangzhou."

"Well, if you are a part-time job, it's the best, but it won't last long, it's a difficult problem." Yan Xu's eyes had some hope, "Brother's intention..."

"Well, you have to perform well this time. The prince does not avoid being a father and son and brother in the same dynasty as officials. Xun Gong, Wang Xu, Wang Pu and his son are all like this. So you don't need to worry. As long as you perform well, Brother Yu will recommend you to the prince and Lord Chen. Even if you can't stay in Yangzhou, you can still go to Chuzhou or Chuzhou or Hezhou."

Yan Xu did not have too many emotional fluctuations. He still has a clear understanding of his younger brother's talent. As long as he can give him a chance to show it, he will definitely shine. This time it is an opportunity.

"Don't worry, brother, I will not let my elder brother down." Yan Xu said solemnly: "I already have some ideas. After my elder brother has a rest, I will come one by one and ask my elder brother to take a closer look."

"Well, that's what you think."

The ship slowly landed, and the dock was filled with officials and gentry who came to greet him. Even Mei Kuang, the Privy Council Privy Councilor who arrived first, came to the dock to greet him. Yan Xu was surprised and got off the boat in three steps at a time. "How dare you take Privy Councilor's steward?"

"Haha, participating in politics is to come at the order of the king. Mei Kuang welcomes it." Mei Kuang also bowed his fists and laughed, lowered his voice: "It's been hard for participating in politics to be long, but it's still a little more. The gentry and merchants in Yangzhou are all worried, just waiting to participate in politics to comfort them. Mei Kuang is a martial artist, and no matter what, they can't let it go."

According to the regulations of the Xuzhou General Administration, the civil and military division system is divided into different systems, and the Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Hall are not involved. The positions of the Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Hall are comparable, so it is not said that anyone is higher than the other. According to Jiang Feng, military affairs are higher in wartime than anything else, but under normal circumstances, military generals are not allowed to interfere in government affairs, especially local affairs.

"The king is in charge, and he is obliged to do so, but if these former colleagues, relatives and friends do not know the current affairs, Yan will inevitably offend these elders in his hometown." Yan Xu's face showed a bitter look.

Although he knew that this was inevitable, he could not help but even add up bad words to these old friends and relatives who were ministers in the past. Only Yan Xu himself understood the feeling. But then again, if someone scolded him, then there would naturally be someone to praise him. If no one scolded him, it would mean that you are of no value. What's the point of no one caring about him?

Of course, Yan Xu was unwilling to be a good partner, so he had to carefully sort out the old friends of these former colleagues, so that they could understand the current situation, take the initiative to serve the princes, and use it for the princes. This is a very sophisticated craft.

Yangzhou is rich and luxurious, and the richest salt merchants are the best in the world. In addition to the famous salt merchant group in the world, there are several other groups that cannot be underestimated.

One is maritime business.

Yangzhou maritime merchants, Guangzhou maritime merchants and Quanzhou maritime merchants are the largest group of Hu merchants in China, especially Dashi maritime merchants, which is not inferior to Sogdian maritime merchants, while Persian maritime merchants are much inferior to Dashi maritime merchants.

The Hu merchants in Dashi and Hu merchants are one of the most important groups. Most of them have settled in the Tongdu Dayi in Guangzhou, Yangzhou, Quanzhou and Mingzhou since the early Tang Dynasty, married and had children, and have been there for many generations. To this day, they have become a very important group among the merchant groups in these metropolis famous for maritime trade.

In contrast, although Shouzhou has developed business in recent years, due to its geographical location, it is far from being in maritime trade compared with Yangzhou, Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Mingzhou. It still plays the role of a distributor, and most of them purchase goods from Yangzhou for distribution.

However, with the increasing development of Shouzhou's commerce, Xuzhou also deliberately developed the shipping of the entire water system such as Rushui, Yingshui, Woshui, Huanshui, Feishui and Huanshui, which further highlighted the advantages of transportation convenience. Many Hu merchants have begun to enter Shouzhou, especially Shouzhou's radiation force on the central and western Huainan Road and the central Henan Road has begun to show, which has accelerated this trend.

There are hundreds of Dashi Maritime Merchants in Yangzhou, and dozens of them are also available.

In addition to maritime merchants, there is also a large group of money merchants, or merchants who operate qualifying warehouses and cabinet shops. These merchants are actually the prototypes of money merchants in later generations, or the prototypes of bankers in later generations, while qualifying warehouses and cabinet shops are the prototypes of mixed operations such as lending and pledging.

Among this group in Yangzhou, Dashi Hu merchants still dominate. Most of them gradually evolved from maritime merchants who resided in the local area. Relying on their good reputation and strong financial resources, they quickly established their own customer business network system, and then formed guilds with local merchants, monopolizing the entire lending industry. Even when the Li Wu regime urgently needed money, they still had to borrow money from them.

In addition to maritime merchants and money merchants, Yangzhou also has two major groups, one is the shipbuilder group and the other is the silk merchant group.

Yangzhou's shipbuilding industry has been developed since ancient times, especially since the excavation of the Grand Canal, Yangzhou, as the central city for salt transportation and canal transportation, has developed rapidly and has become the most important shipbuilding center on Huainan Road. Shouzhou is far inferior to Yangzhou.

During the Dali period of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan, a salt and iron transport commissioner, built ten shipbuilding workshops for the construction of canal transport ships. After the middle Tang Dynasty, there were countless private shipbuilding workshops, but the official shipbuilding workshops were increasingly withered.

The silk weaving industry is also one of the ultimate pillar industries in Yangzhou. There are more than a thousand silk weaving workshops in Yangzhou alone. More than 30,000 women from poor families went to silk weaving workshops to work, and more than 50,000 at their peak.
Chapter completed!