The nearest port to Hangzhou is set in Jiaxing County, and it is about a little more than an hour away by horse-drawn carriage. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Several large ships were docked on the water at the shore of the harbor, and there were boatmen carrying goods up and down. On the side of the road, there are also people who set up stalls directly on it, selling some treasures from overseas. Among them, not only the people of Daliang are setting up stalls, but also foreigners from overseas are also setting up.

It was the first time for Princess Jun and the others to see such a foreigner with curly hair, a big beard and blond hair, and as soon as they got out of the carriage, they pointed at them very curiously and said, "Father and Queen Mother, you see, there are a few people there who look so strange, their hair and beard are so curly, and their hair is white." ”

The Emperor smiled and explained to them, "They are foreigners, so they don't look like us. ”

Princess Jun was still a little curious: "But I have also seen Hu people from foreign lands, but they don't look the same as them." ”

The emperor said: "The place where they came is farther away than the Hu people in the Western Regions, so they naturally look more different. ”

Princess Jun nodded half-understandingly.

Along the way, the stalls are filled with glass, opal, ivory, spices, camel skins, and more especially glass and all sorts of novelties.

Princess Rui and the others are most interested in those transparent glass things, such as all kinds of glass cups and teapots, small screens with paintings painted on the glass, etc., picking and picking around in the stalls, this one and that one will be taken away.

Princess Rui smiled and said to Lin Yan: "Their teapot is so beautiful, I want to bring two sets back for the eldest sister and the second sister." ”

Lin Yan smiled and said to them: "It's up to you, but you have to see if you can get back after buying so many things." ”

Princess Jue, who was held by the emperor in her hand, picked up a cylindrical thing, then held it in her hand and squinted one eye to look inside, and then said in surprise: "Queen Mother, look, this thing is so beautiful inside." ”

Princess Rui and Princess Jun heard this, and they also squinted their eyes, and then chirped: "Hey, the image here is so beautiful, and when you turn it, the picture changes, which is very interesting." ”

The owner of the stall explained to them with a smile: "This kind of thing, they call it a 'kaleidoscope' by foreigners." This kaleidoscope can be turned around to create many kinds of images. If a few young ladies and young men like it, they might as well buy a few and go back to play at home. ”

Then Princess Rui and Princess Jue said they wanted one, and although Prince Huan didn't say he wanted it, the emperor also helped him get one.

Leaving the glass stall, the next one is a spice seller, and the children also asked for a lot. There are also paintings for sale, but the paintings sold here are different from ordinary ink paintings, and the characters and scenery painted on them are very similar, and the surface seems to be dyed with a layer of oil. There are also those who sell mirrors, furs, and pocket watches.

Lin Yan was most interested in the pocket watch, picked it up and opened the lid on it and looked at it, and then the emperor explained to her: "This thing is used by foreigners to record time, and it is called a pocket watch." It takes time for us to record time, and they foreigners use this kind of pocket watch to record one or two points. Saying that, he taught Lin Yan how to use the hour and minute hands in the pocket watch to convert the hour.

The owner of the stall gave a thumbs up and said to the emperor with a smile: "This uncle really knows the goods, this thing is from a foreigner, and not many people in our Daliang recognize it, I don't want me to meet you today, uncle, you are knowledgeable." ”

It is not difficult to convert the hour hand and minute hand with the hour, as soon as the emperor said that Lin Yan also understood, and then said with a smile: "It is convenient to have such a thing, and if you ask the hour in the future, you don't need to look at the leaky pot, just open the pocket watch and see it." ”

The emperor smiled and asked the little boss, "How are you going to sell this thing?" ”

The little boss said: "This thing is shipped from foreigners to sell, and we don't sell much of it, so it's not cheap, and it costs fifty taels of silver to say the least." ”

The emperor said, "How many you have, take them all." ”

As soon as the little boss heard this, he knew that he was a rich man, and immediately smiled and said, "Yes, yes, uncle, you wait a minute." Then he opened all the pocket watches in the box and let the emperor pick them.

The emperor picked one and helped hang it around Lin Yan's neck, and then helped Princess Rui and others hang one by one.

Princess Rui picked it up with great interest and looked at it, and asked the emperor with a skeptical smile: "Daddy, can this thing really see the hour?" ”

The emperor said: "Wait until you go back, my father will teach you how to look at it." As he spoke, he picked up another one and threw it into the hands of Gonggong Wan, saying, "This is for you." ”

Gonggong Wan smiled and said, "The slave thanks the master's reward." ”

Lin Yan also helped Lin Ying choose one by the way, and then asked Gonggong Wan to pay the silver.

The group continued to walk forward, and along the way there were pedestrians or traders coming and going, very lively and prosperous.

Lin Yan couldn't help but sigh to the emperor: "When the concubine came to Jiangnan when she was young, the sea ban was still implemented at that time, and the sea ports here were very depressed, as long as the army was stationed here. I didn't expect that now it is so prosperous that it is almost the same as in Hangzhou, and foreigners can find everything here. ”

The emperor said: "So this port is still the right one, and now the life of the people along the coast is much better." ”

They ended up in a boat and walked around the sea not far from shore. The boat was the banker's sea boat, because he knew that the emperor wanted to take Lin Yan and others out to sea, so he deliberately vacated it.

As soon as Princess Rui and the others arrived on the ship, they ran to the deck and looked at the sea and shouted. Mu Qing, Mu Zhi and the others were afraid that they would fall into the sea, so they took care of them one by one and stepped forward to lead them.

And Lin Ying and the people from the Zhuang family said to the emperor and Lin Yan on the side: "...... After the number of merchant ships going to sea increased, so did the number of pirates and pirates on the sea, especially in the waters of this area, where pirates and pirates often robbed passing ships. Now General Cui has arranged for warships and sailors to patrol the sea every day, which has made the pirates and pirates a little more restrained. ”

The emperor nodded when he heard this, and then said, "Thanks to the Cui family holding this side for me, otherwise I would really not dare to open the port easily." ”

In fact, it has been five or six years since the port was opened, and there are still people in the DPRK and China who oppose the opening of the port and want to restore the maritime ban policy, because the Japanese would often rob ships and harm the people on board.

Lin Yan was even more curious about how much silver a big ship could make by going to sea once.

The emperor smiled and said to her: "It depends on what they sell and what they bring back to sell, but generally speaking, they can make tens of thousands of taels of silver, and if they sell something to make money, they may also earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver." ”

Lin Yan was a little surprised when she heard this, she knew that the treasure business was easy to make, but she didn't know that it could make money like this.

Lin Yan asked the emperor with a smile: "After the opening of the port, I'm afraid that the taxes of the imperial court have also increased a lot, right?" "Trade has flourished, and nature has been taxed. In the past, I saw the emperor shouting poverty every year, but in recent years, I haven't seen the emperor shouting, and the silver used in the harem or elsewhere is also generous.

The Emperor smiled, but did not speak. (To be continued.) )