Luoyang has become very prosperous in recent years, but its prosperity and Chang'an's prosperity is slightly different, Chang'an's prosperity is a kind of prosperity led by the middle and low-class people, the middle class people like to go to Xi'anmen Street to shop and eat, even the bottom people will smash the holidays to take their families to visit Xi'anmen Street, crowd in the crowd to enjoy the flower boat parade, spend dozens of dollars on the street to buy some snacks to eat, the family can also eat.

And the prosperity of Luoyang is just the opposite, it is a kind of high-end prosperity, all kinds of silk and satin from the south of the Yangtze River are always in short supply, precious jewelry has never been short of sales, the powerful and wealthy compare with each other, and the carriages they ride in are more luxurious than one another.

At the night banquet of the wealthy, the long skirts worn by the ladies are longer than the other, and the jewelry is more expensive than the other, and the six long skirts known as the "skirt dragging six pieces of Xiangjiang water" have looked shabby, and eight long skirts are already standard, and even twelve long skirts are not uncommon.

Not only are the owners of the powerful extravagant families, but even the maids and maids are wearing gold and silver, and they are covered in Luoqi, and they have to take a carriage to go in and out.

A kind of atmosphere of poverty and luxury is blowing more and more fiercely in Luoyang's high society.

Contrary to the high-end prosperity, the middle and low-class people in Luoyang are poor, a Luoshui divides Luoyang into two worlds, the rich people in the north of Luoshui have moved to the south, and the ordinary people who originally lived in the south have to move to the north of Luoyang because they can't afford the high cost of living and taxes.

The south of Luoyang is bounded by Changxiamen Street again, the squares west of Changxiamen Street are the places where the magnates, high-ranking officials, relatives and big businessmen live, the mansions of twenty or thirty acres abound, and the giant mansions of one hundred acres are not uncommon, the brother of Zhu Jun's most favored concubine Chen Wenli, the mansion of the Ministry of Rites and the king of Liangjun Chen Wengui occupies half of the persuasion workshop, there are as many as three hundred acres, hundreds of wives and concubines, and thousands of maids and servants.

The squares east of Changxiamen Street are the places where the middle-class people in Luoyang live, but the middle-class people in Luoyang live extremely hard, fighting salt 650 wen, dou rice 300 wen, coarse cloth also needs 60 wen a horse, meat is even more expensive, the shelf tax is the same money per beam, and a family pays at least four or five yuan in taxes every year.

Of course, this is the new money issued by the Zhu Dynasty, and the old money of Chang'an can be exchanged for two new money in Luoyang, which does not seem to be ridiculously expensive if converted, but the problem is that the wages of Luoyang people are not twice that of Chang'an people.

The average monthly income of the bottom family in Chang'an is three times old money, and a family of three can earn five times a month if they work hard, and they can save two or three times a month without any problem.

The income of the middle family in Chang'an is five to eight yuan, and the life is relatively rich, and the whole family can go to the street tavern for a drink once in a while, or go to the Xi'anmen Street restaurant once a month to have a meal.

However, the monthly income of the middle-class people in Luoyang is also about three times, but it is new money, and it costs thirty percent to buy rice and noodles every month, which is only enough to make ends meet twice a day, and the rent is the same money, and no matter how frugal they are, they can't make ends meet every month.

This is still a middle-class people, and the people at the bottom dare not imagine that they have an income of 1,000 yuan or even a few hundred yuan a month, and they have to feed a family, how can they live a torment?

In the various squares north of Luoshui, there are large areas of low thatched huts and shacks, not because they have been dilapidated like this, but because many families cannot afford to pay the shelf tax, they have to demolish the houses and build them into grass huts.

The poor families in Luoyang dream of selling their children to a wealthy family to be maids and servants, or their daughters are a little more delicate, and they are sent to the music fang dance workshop to learn art, and when they grow up, they will be music girls and dancers, and become the playthings of the rich.

The capital of the Zhu Dynasty has long been reduced to a society that laughs at poverty and does not laugh at prostitution.

But if it is only the luxury of the wealthy and powerful, the people of Luoyang will not be so poor, after all, there is still the entire Central Plains, Jianghuai, Jingzhou can support the capital, the key is that Zhu Zhu has to raise 400,000 troops, 15 million yuan of army alone every year, as well as food, armor and various consumption, and tens of thousands of war horses to raise, the entire New Qin Dynasty is overwhelmed by heavy military spending.

In the evening of this day, the light was dim in a tavern in Luoyang Bailin Fang, which was the most common tavern in the east area of Changxiamen Street in Luoyang City, and there were five or six shabby tables in the lobby, I don't know how many years, it was covered with a thick layer of greasy, it was dinner time, but there were only two small businessmen sitting in front of a table, who seemed to be talking about business, and ordered two plates of side dishes and a pot of wine.

The shopkeeper sat lazily behind the counter, his eyes glanced at the inner room from time to time, the tavern also separated two small rooms to make the elegant room, the door hung with tattered curtains, one of which was empty, and the other room sat a man who looked like a businessman, he was an old guest of the tavern, and the shopkeeper knew that he was surnamed Zhuang, a native of Xiangzhou, and it was said that he did a small business.

The shopkeeper knows that in recent years, businessmen are boasting about how their business is big and how they have abundant capital, but when they drink and pay, they slip faster than one another, but if they say that they do some small business, it must be a big business, and most of them are illegal things for huge profits.

But people are their old guests, and even if the shopkeeper knows what the other party does, he will turn a blind eye, not to mention that he doesn't know.

The man in the room is about thirty years old, tall and strong, his name is Zhuang Ming, and he does some sheepskin business in Luoyang, but in fact, his real identity is Tian Yue's intelligence head in Luoyang, he is Tian Yue's personal guard, and he is deeply trusted by Tian Yue.

He also lived up to Tian Yue's expectations, and obtained a lot of important information in recent years.

But there is one piece of information that he has not been able to break through, that is, the formula of Zhu Zhu's army to develop iron fire and thunder, this is the top intelligence, and they can't get it in Chang'an anyway, they can only think of a way on Zhu Jun's side.

At this time, a middle-aged man walked in from outside the tavern, dressed in rough clothes, but his head was slightly raised, with a proud look.

The shopkeeper only glanced at it and understood that this person was probably a petty official, and his life was embarrassing but pretentious.

But when business came, he was about to greet him, so he hurriedly gave the bartender next to him a look, and the bartender greeted him with a smile on his face, "Welcome to the small shop for dinner!" ”

The middle-aged man snorted through his nose and walked directly to the dilapidated private room next to him.

The shopkeeper suddenly remembered that this person had come once, and he was looking for the person in the back room to do small business.

The middle-aged man walked into the room and saw Zhuang Ming who was drinking, he immediately changed his appearance, squeezed out a smile that was almost flattering, nodded and said, "Brother Zhuang has been waiting for a long time." ”

"Sit down!"

Zhuang Ming didn't have a good impression of this person, this person was really a mercenary villain, if it weren't for his position to have access to Iron Fire Thunder, Zhuang Ming wouldn't have looked for him anyway, and he didn't know if he was sold.

The middle-aged man is called Li Ashui, who was originally a small official in Luoyang County, and was admitted to Zhu Zhu's court officials, and was appointed as the master of the seven products of the craftsman as the supervisor, managing the various documents and files of the craftsman supervisor, under Zhu Jun's national policy of the first army, the craftsman is also for the army, and has undertaken a large number of military weapons manufacturing, mainly focusing on auxiliary weapons such as armor, shields, war drums, flags, spear shafts, etc., and direct offensive weapons still rely on professional weapons supervisors.

Although Li Ashui is a Zhengqipin official, he only has four yuan a month, to support his family, and to satisfy his bad habit of occasionally visiting the Qinglou, life is really poor, like other officials, he also has the idea of using his position to make money.

But he is just the main bookkeeper, in charge of a bunch of documents and files, and he does not match the valuable physical objects, but since someone introduced Zhuang Ming to him half a year ago, he finally has the opportunity to make extra money.

He sold the drawings of the shield and armor and the recipe of the manufacturing process to Zhuang Ming, and got a lot of silver, just two months ago, Zhuang Ming gave him a chance to earn five hundred taels of silver and get the formula for Iron Fire Thunder.

Li Ashui racked his brains and tried to find out the news, and finally found a breakthrough point for him.

Li Ashui sat down, poured himself a glass of wine, drank it all, ate a few mouthfuls of food, and drank two glasses of wine, and then reluctantly put down his chopsticks.

He took out a cloth bag from his arms and handed it to Zhuang Ming, "This is what you want." ”

Zhuang Ming glanced at the cloth bag and said quietly: "Tell me the origin." ”

"If I tell you that the research of iron fire and thunder in the imperial court has actually regressed, will you believe it or not?"

"You go on!"

"The year before last! They have successfully developed the porcelain bottle fire thunder, but Zhu Tianzi is not satisfied, and ordered the firearms craftsman to make the iron fire thunder within half a year, otherwise they will be killed, but after half a year, it is still not made, Zhu Tianzi was furious, killed more than a dozen craftsmen and officials, and ordered another group of officials and craftsmen to go up, who knows, after killing that group of craftsmen and officials, the people behind can not even make the porcelain fire thunder. ”

"Why, isn't there a written record of the recipe?"

"The formula is there, but it has been tampered with, it's not right at all, and the people who did it were also killed, there was no way, they had to develop it from scratch, and it wasn't until this spring that the paper fire thunder finally succeeded, but it will take at least two years to recreate the porcelain fire thunder."

"And what are you?"

"This is the recipe for paper fire mines, as well as the manufacturing methods of gunpowder and fire ropes, although it is not a porcelain bottle fire thunder, but without these basic things, you can't make anything."

Zhuang Ming hurriedly picked up the cloth bag and opened it to take a closer look, there were three rolls of paper inside, which were densely filled with various recipes.

"How did you get it?"

"It's not easy, in order to get it, I became drinking friends with the master of the armory, and once I got him drunk at night, and it was only then that I found the file in his desk drawer and copied it down."

"But it's not your handwriting." Zhuang Ming said coldly.

Li Ashui was a little annoyed and said angrily: "You don't care how I got it, just give me the silver." ”

"You tell the truth, I will give you five hundred taels of silver, if you don't tell the truth, you can only give half first, and when the test is true, I will give you the other half."

Li Ashui had no choice but to say: "Yang Miao, the chief bookkeeper of the Ordnance Supervisor, also wants to sell secrets to make money, which I stole from his study." ”

Zhuang Ming's eyes lit up, this is a good way, Yang Miao is more effective than this Li Ashui.

He took out three ingots of gold from his bag and pushed it to him, "This is thirty taels of gold, and after verifying that it is correct, I will give another twenty taels." ”

Li Ashui suddenly became anxious, "You just said that you gave it all to me." ”

Zhuang Ming said coldly: "If it's fake, I'm going to lose my head, what is your money?" If you don't want it, forget it. ”

Li Ashui hurriedly grabbed thirty taels of gold, scolded and scolded, got up and walked quickly.

Zhuang Ming shook his head, almost all of the officials in the Zhu Dynasty were corrupt and bribed, and they couldn't make a big deal.