Chapter 1 Ju Xian Prince Chang Hongquan and his Daughter Chang Huaiyin Visit Danyang Again

Chang Hongquan, the Ju Xian Prince, and his daughter, Chang Huaiyin, had once again arrived in Danyang. Chang Hongquan was there to finalize the details of Lotus Consort Chang Ling's return to her homeland for a visit, while Chang Huaiyin, who had come along for the ride, simply wanted to enjoy the sights.

Although it was a very serious official matter, Chang Hongquan, wanting to understand Dongping's current situation firsthand, had not displayed the full pomp and ceremony of a prince before arriving in Danyang, instead disguising himself as a prominent figure from a wealthy family in Chunnan. From Yu Hang to Danyang, there was already a major road with ample traffic capacity, and the branches extending from it had brought prosperity to the towns along the way. Before reaching Danyang, Chang Hongquan hadn't noticed too many changes, except that the post stations along the way seemed more courteous and easier to deal with. The minor officials rarely displayed flattery towards wealthy and powerful families, and rarely showed arrogance and unreasonableness as government officials. But upon arriving in Danyang, in this city he hadn't seen for several years, the father and daughter were both astonished by the changes in this capital of the Dongping kingdom.

Due to Danyang's prosperity, the large number of travelers and vehicles crowding at the city gate to complete the inspection of documents and collect city gate taxes had greatly reduced efficiency. Now, all these procedures were carried out at a special City Gate Office set up outside the city gate. Afterwards, travelers and vehicles could directly pass through the city gate and enter Danyang with their entry permits. When processing documents in large quantities, everyone knew how sincere the minor officials were when they said "Welcome to Danyang," but replacing the original shouts and curses with such greetings was certainly much more comforting. And at the City Gate Office, people or vehicles from Danyang's larger inns, hostels, and hotels waited, so that travelers unfamiliar with Danyang could settle down as soon as possible, avoiding the trouble of running back and forth. After a little inquiry, they learned that to be able to set up such a reception station at the City Gate Office, one had to pay a considerable "management fee" to the City Gate Office. And these hostels and inns that were qualified to set up reception stations generally had a very good reputation, and cases of price gouging were rare.

Also because of prosperity, Danyang had even developed a specialized industry to facilitate transactions for merchants. Merchants entering Danyang could deposit their goods in a warehouse called Tianan Property, while they could take their personal belongings and stay in a much nicer inn, without having to constantly worry about the safety of their goods. For traveling merchants carrying small amounts of goods, or for large businesses and wealthy families with their own warehousing and logistics systems, the services provided by Tianan Property were superfluous. But for those mid-sized merchants stuck in between, Tianan Property's services could be said to be extremely considerate. Merchants could go sell their goods with samples, and when the time came, buyers could go to Tianan Property to pick up the goods with their deposit and withdrawal vouchers, transaction records, and tax payment records. As merchants from various places gradually learned about and became familiar with Tianan Property, there had already been several cases where goods had changed hands multiple times, with the price doubling or even more in the process. In the end, the people who came to pick up the goods held a thick stack of transaction and tax payment records and a deposit and withdrawal voucher that had been transferred countless times.

As some local trading companies discovered that streamlining their organization and focusing on their core business was more profitable, they simply laid off the workers in their own shops responsible for handling goods, sold the warehouses used for stacking goods, and entrusted all warehousing work to Tianan Property. And as merchants with shops in Danyang repeatedly became the final overall sales target for goods from foreign merchants, another logistics company was spawned: same-city express delivery. The business of same-city express delivery was originally based on this kind of large-volume same-city transportation, which was really a head-scratching thing, but this first same-city express delivery company still had a name that made Ye Tao and Tan Weixin chuckle: "Shun Feng Express".

Tianan Property and Shun Feng Express were just two companies with very small business scopes, but when Chang Hongquan, half-jokingly and half-testing, deposited all the Xuan paper, silk, lacquerware, dried fruit, and candied fruit that they had brought along as gifts into Tianan Property's warehouse, he naturally asked in detail how to store them, how to calculate the storage fees, how to extract the goods in batches as needed, and how to calculate the fees if he wanted Shun Feng Express to deliver the goods. And when he received detailed replies in a very short time, including not only the storage fees and procedures for batch storage and retrieval, but also the fact that after the goods were reduced, Tianan Property would solicit his opinion before sorting his goods to free up space, both to reduce Chang Hongquan's storage costs and to allow Tianan Property to have more space to serve other customers. The sorting process could be carried out by Chang Hongquan himself or by someone he sent to supervise, and Tianan Property had detailed compensation clauses for any contamination or damage caused by improper operations by Tianan Property's staff during sorting or normal retrieval of goods. Such detailed and rigorous replies really surprised Chang Hongquan. He was afraid that the warehouse management of many armies in Chunnan was not as rigorous and standardized as Tianan Property, and the material delivery of the Chunnan military was much worse than what Shun Feng Express could do...

Naturally, Chang Hongquan would not react to the name Shun Feng Express unless he had also transmigrated. But he at least knew something about the situation in Dongping, and with a little thought, he knew that this Tianan Property and Shun Feng Express were probably created by the very talented Princess Tan Weixin or the equally imaginative Ye Tao. Naturally, he did not think that the appointment of Ye Tao as the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner was nepotism, as the officials in Chunnan thought. When he learned that Ye Tao had married Tan Weixin and was subsequently appointed as the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner, Chang Hongquan often wondered what kind of tricks this couple could come up with. For Chunnan, even the understanding of the original territory of Dongping, as an ally, was not enough, let alone Yunzhou, which was farther away and more detached from Chunnan.

"Huaiyin, didn't you want to see your good friend? Princess Xiu is in Yunzhou now, would you like to go see her?" Chang Hongquan asked after meeting with Lotus Consort Chang Ling and paying his respects to the Dongping King Tan Xiaopei.

Chang Huaiyin turned to look at Chang Hongquan and said, "Father, how could you let me go to Yunzhou? ...Can we stay in Dongping for a long time? It will take at least three months to go back and forth, right?"

Chang Hongquan smiled and said, "Just go play with Princess Xiu. Yunzhou has beautiful scenery, with endless plains and grasslands, scenery that you can't see in Chunnan. If you want to go to Benlang Plain, just go. I'm sure Miss Tan will warmly welcome you, and the Dai family in Yunzhou and Ye Tao and the others will definitely treat you well. ...As for other things, you don't need to worry about them."

Chang Huaiyin frowned, and immediately understood. She was naturally innocent back then, but after all, she grew up in a country where the power struggles between various parties in the court were much more complicated than in Dongping, and she had grown up in that environment, hearing and seeing all kinds of things, and she had her own growth. Chang Hongquan had tried his best to ensure that she was not involved in complex and dangerous struggles, and she naturally could not stop Chang Hongquan's various actions that were actually directly or indirectly protecting her.

Chang Huaiyin hesitated for a moment and asked, "Can A-Jin go with me? Can I bring Yue'er and Xuan'er?"

The A-Jin that Chang Huaiyin referred to was her husband, Sun Jin. Sun Jin used to be an ordinary scholar, teaching the children of the clan in the clan school established by the Ju Xian Prince's residence. Among them, there were naturally royal children with quite high status, needless to say, they were very difficult to serve. But when Chang Hongquan discovered that Sun Jin's lectures actually had an extremely high attendance rate, he couldn't help but pay a little attention to this young man from a humble background, who didn't seem to have shown any performance in Chunnan's complex and difficult imperial examination system. Then he noticed this interesting person who was able to enjoy himself with very little reward. Sun Jin was able to explain the extremely boring classics and history in a simple, clear, and passionate way. He had beautiful calligraphy, his painting skills were very exquisite, and he even played a good Xiao... When Chang Hongquan selected Sun Jin into his study and made him his staff, many children in the clan actually pestered their families to protest to him, which really made him laugh a little. And even when Sun Jin became a staff member of the Ju Xian Prince's residence, which others envied, he still had that unhurried appearance, seemingly more interested in Chang Hongquan's vast collection of books and paintings than in advising Chang Hongquan. Chang Hongquan's other staff members were too lazy to squeeze him out, but Chang Hongquan appreciated this maverick guy very much. And when he discovered a few years ago that his daughter Chang Huaiyin often went to "consult" Sun Jin on some questions that obviously didn't need to be asked, he had this idea... He ignored the many families in Chunnan who sought marriage for their children, and chose this poor boy alone, letting this guy who couldn't come up with a betrothal gift at all marry Chang Huaiyin. Chang Hongquan's reason was very simple, his sons did indeed marry into aristocratic families, that didn't matter, anyway, if the marriage was not harmonious, there were concubines and many... other solutions, but for a woman, whether the marriage was happy was something that could not be solved by conventional means. And Chang Hongquan gave up the opportunity to make a strong ally, choosing to maintain the status quo instead of further strengthening his influence in the court, which really relieved those who were wary of him. And his departure from the Chunnan court, taking the initiative to request to contact Lotus Consort about returning home to visit, and leaving for a considerable period of time at once, fully demonstrated that he had no intention of controlling Chunnan's politics... However, he was still Chang Hongquan after all, and the necessary research still had to be done.

And Yue'er and Xuan'er were Sun Jin and Chang Huaiyin's two children... After all, many years had passed, and things had changed like this. Chang Huaiyin couldn't help but find it strange that Tan Weishi, who was about the same age as her, was not only unmarried, but didn't even have a definite prospect.

Regarding Chang Huaiyin's question, Chang Hongquan simply shrugged and said, "Just go together, by the way. You can just make it in time to give a gift to the wedding of Ye Jinglue and Military Supervisor Dai."

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...Many years have passed, and the loli has grown into a mature woman.