Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 218 Arrival at Yongjia Prefecture

In fact, it was Hua Lei who was responsible for talking, and Liang Xiangyi was only responsible for listening and nodding.

On June 8th, all the books bound for Yongjia Prefecture were loaded onto the ship. Similarly, grid-shaped exercise papers were also loaded on board. There was still a lot of empty space, so Hua Lei put all the remaining soap, toothbrushes, quill pens, and goose feather fans from the farm on board. She also loaded a batch of rice wine and salted duck eggs, and the ship was finally full.

Hualei brought Qingying, Qinglian, Pei Zhongsheng and Manager Liu onto the boat, followed by eight guards, four on the boat and four with Hualei. With Madam Pei's earnest concern and repeated instructions, Hualei headed for Yongjia Prefecture with all her might, facing the rising sun.

Before boarding the ship, Hua Lei had done a lot of preparation. She had also read the regional chronicles of various places in the Dasheng Dynasty. At this time, several regional chronicles related to Yongjia Prefecture were also placed on Hua Lei's bedside.

Because the ship was relatively large and it was sailing on an inland river, the wind and waves were not strong, the ship sailed very smoothly, and no one on board suffered from seasickness.

At this time, Hualei and Qingying Qinglian were also on the boat. They were grinding ink and spreading paper, copying the county and prefectural examination papers that they had obtained from the printing house in the past two years.

Manager Liu and Pei Zhongsheng watched, and at first they didn't understand why Hua Lei copied the papers of the county and prefectural examinations. After Hua Lei understood, they couldn't help but admire her. This boss really wanted her to succeed, and he thought of such a far-reaching thing.

Moreover, he was diligent and copied the papers by himself every day. As the managers, the two of them felt a little embarrassed to just stand by and do nothing. So, the two of them also joined the team to help copy the papers.

In this way, Hualei was busy every day on the boat, copying papers, taking notes, reading regional chronicles, and writing plans. She was really busy. When she was really tired of writing, she leaned on the railing and looked into the distance for a while, did some stretching and yoga on the boat board, and the day passed quickly. During this time, the goose feather pen came in handy. It was much faster to copy papers than the brush, although the words were not as beautiful.

At this time, on the transport ship heading south, Liang Xiangyi was doing the same thing, but copying papers every day made her dizzy and her wrists sore.

Fortunately, Hua Lei gave her a large bag of quill pens before boarding the ship. Compared with the brush, the quill pen is also very easy to use. Although the handwriting is not as beautiful as the brush, it is much faster. Liang Xiangyi still feels very stressed when she thinks of the scale of two prefectures, twenty states, two hundred counties and even two thousand villages. But when she thinks of Hua Lei's instructions, she still grits her teeth and dares not relax every day.

Although Hua Lei said that if they could catch 20% or 30%, they could just give up on the lowest villages, because they really couldn't take care of them. If that still didn't work, they could just give up on the counties and just capture the states. But when Liang Xiangyi thought about the government transportation rights that Hua Lei had fought so hard for, and his future revenge plan, he couldn't just lie down and do nothing. So even though he felt dizzy and his wrists were sore, Liang Xiangyi still worked hard every day.

Fortunately, the maids and servants around her were literate. Although their handwriting was not beautiful enough, Liang Xiangyi did not dare to have high requirements. As long as the handwriting was neat and the words were clearly visible, it was fine. As for whether it was beautiful or not, Liang Xiangyi simply ignored it, so these people were also conscripted by Liang Xiangyi. Every day, they worked on the boat to grind ink, spread paper, and copy papers. They had no spare time.

Hua Lei's boat sailed on the river for thirteen days, and the west pier of Yongjia Prefecture was already in sight. Along the way, Hua Lei had no time to spare every day, and her cloth bag was already bulging with a large stack of information.

At the West Pier, Pei Jingxuan's wife, Gu, had already sent someone to wait for Hualei. Four days ago, she received a letter from her mother-in-law, Mrs. Pei. She was very curious about this fourteen-year-old girl.

Privately, Pei Jingxuan and his wife also discussed that the news of the imperial examination book printing was passed on by this girl, and the suggestion to open a bookstore was also proposed by this girl. Now that they have obtained the agency rights of six states, if they do well, not only will they have outstanding political achievements, but they will also make a lot of money, so Pei Jingxuan and his wife are very grateful to Hualei.

However, when she received a message from her mother-in-law saying that Hua Lei would personally take the boat to Yongjia Prefecture to help her and her husband to open a bookstore, she was totally surprised. She originally thought that this smart girl was a boudoir lady who never left the house, but she never thought that she was a practical lady who could take such a long boat ride just to help her. Gu was very happy, so she estimated that Hua Lei's boat should be arriving soon, so she sent people to wait at the dock for the next two days.

Because the transport ship had large wooden plaques with the words "Official Science Transport" hanging on the bow and stern, it was very easy to spot. Before the ship docked, two young yamen runners from the government office and people arranged by Gu had already lined up on the shore.

Hualei packed up the things she needed to take with her and led everyone off the boat. Hualei hadn't been on land for more than ten days, so she was a little unsteady on her feet. Qingying, who was standing beside her, quickly supported Hualei.

After the two young yamen runners from the government office's etiquette room confirmed that the official ship carrying the imperial examination books had arrived at the dock, one quickly returned to the government office to report the news, while the other came up to invite Hua Lei and the others to go to the Wangjiang Tower near the dock to rest for a while and wait for the person from the etiquette room to come and hand over the books to Hua Lei.

The people sent by Gu had already arrived on the boat and began to load the contraband that Hua Lei had brought from the capital, including rice wine, salted duck eggs, soap, toothbrushes, quill pens, goose feather fans and other items, onto the carriage and sent them back to Pei Jingxuan's private residence near the Yongjia government office. Hua Lei left Pei Zhongsheng on the boat to watch over them.

I took Qingying and Qinglian with me, and followed the little yamen runner who introduced himself as Du to the first floor lobby of Wangjiang Tower, where I sat and drank tea while waiting. After more than half an hour, a group of seven or eight people came hurriedly in a carriage, led by a middle-aged handsome uncle in his mid-thirties.

He was about 1.78 meters tall, and was slender. He was wearing the fourth-rank dark crimson official uniform of the Great Sheng Dynasty, with cloud and wild goose embroidery. He had a square face, clear eyebrows and eyes, and a little stubble on his chin. He should be the prefect of Yongjia Prefecture, Pei Jingxuan of the Marquisate.

Hua Lei stood up quickly and straightened her dress. She put her hands on her waist and respectfully performed a standard salute, saying clearly, "Hello, Master Pei, and everyone else." Pei Jingxuan, who was opposite her, had already raised his hand to support her and said, "Miss Hua, you have come all the way here, thank you for your hard work.