The days passed very quickly, and soon the end of the year came, and in a month, a group of prisoners had already entered the army through ideological education, and at the same time, the arsenal located in Longmen had created more than 5,000 muskets, plus the original muskets totaled more than 10,000.

There was a lot of snow, and a thick layer had accumulated on the ground, but even in such a cold weather, there was still a surge of people in Luoyang City, because today was the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and the next day would be the Spring Festival. The Spring Festival is very grand in China, especially in ancient times. Every household posted a door-to-door picture on the door, beaming with joy, and those who had some money even hung a lot of red lanterns.

On the streets of Luoyang City, the people walked left and right, or quickly bought some firecrackers, incense, candles, door paintings, etc., or went to buy a few catties of good meat for the New Year to improve their lives, and the whole street was full of noisy bargaining.

"The store cut three catties of beef for me!"

"Wait." With that, the shopkeeper picked up a small sharp boning knife and skillfully cut the large piece of beef that was placed on a table.

"Come on, come on, what about this fish, give me a scale."

"Okay, guest officer, this fish has always been worth thirty yuan."

"Why is your fish so expensive, and the one next to it is always money."

"The guest officer doesn't know, our fish here is the best Yellow River carp! The price is naturally more expensive, if you are too expensive, then look at this side, this side is cheap. ”

"No, I want this fish, you give me a cheap price, and this New Year also makes everyone happy."

"Oh, I said you, why are you like this? This fish is indispensable for this price. ”

Liu Xia Mengyu and the Tiger King Stone and others walked on it, and several people behind Liu Xia each held a number of things, listening to the bargaining of vendors and guests on both sides, Liu Xiaxin seemed to have returned to his childhood, when he was a child, he often heard such words when he went to the street.

Liu Xia and others went to the courtyard in the east of the city, Chen Yuanyuan because of his special status, so Liu Xia did not let her enter the Zheng Guogong Mansion to live, still placed in which small courtyard, today is Chinese New Year's Eve, Liu Xia felt that Chen Yuanyuan was a little lonely, so he led his henchmen to visit.

Looking at the Spring Festival couplets that had been pasted on the shops on both sides, Liu Xia couldn't help but read: Business is prosperous all over the world, and wealth is flourishing in Sanjiang. It was a couplet posted by a cloth seller, and many women in the shop were looking at the finished clothes.

"The general said that couplet? Hehe, general, the subordinates suddenly thought of an uplink. Meng Yu glanced at the red paper couplet pasted on the door frame of the cloth shop, and said to Liu Xia with a smile.

"Oh?" Liu Xia became interested for a while and asked, "Let's take a look." ”

"**** is spring, hehe" Meng Yu's face showed an inexplicable smile. The others laughed one after another. Liu Xia shook his head helplessly, thought about it, and said: "The next link is, thousands of rivers and mountains are in the sun!" ”

"Good!" Several people said in unison, and then applauded.

Liu Xia was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly waved his hand at them, and said, "Okay, okay, by the way, has our Guogong Mansion posted a couplet?" ”

Wang Shishi hurriedly said: "General, the Guogong Mansion has already posted a couplet, and specially found the successor of the wooden New Year painting of Zhu Xianzhen to carve a version of the New Year's picture for us!" ”

"Yes, I'll be back in a minute." Liu Xia said with a smile. "Do you know the origin of this Spring Festival couplet?"

When everyone heard this, they shook their heads and said they didn't know.

Liu Xia said: "Spring Festival couplets originated from peach charms. Developed in the Song and Ming dynasties. Legend has it that when Emperor Taizu became emperor, he liked pomp and circumstance, and he also liked the peach charms posted by large families every Chinese New Year's Eve, so he wanted to promote it. Before Chinese New Year's Eve one year, he issued an imperial decree requiring every household in Jinling to paste the Spring Festival on their door frames written on red paper to welcome the new year. ”

"What's next?" Meng Yu asked curiously.

Liu Xia continued: "On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Yuanzhang made a micro-service inspection and inspected the Spring Festival couplets door to door. Whenever he saw well-written Spring Festival couplets, he was very happy and full of praise. Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry when he saw that there was no Spring Festival couplet during the inspection, so he asked what the reason was, and the attendant replied: "This is a master who is engaged in killing pigs and cutting pigs for a living, and he is very busy during the New Year, and he has not had time to ask someone to write." "Zhu Yuanzhang ordered someone to bring pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and wrote a pair of Spring Festival couplets for this family, do you know what was written?"

Meng Yu shook his head and didn't know, Liu Xia smiled and said: "What Emperor Taizu wrote is" Split the road of life and death with both hands, and cut the root of right and wrong with one knife. "After I finished writing, I continued to make my rounds. After a while, when Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace after his inspection, he passed by here again, and saw that the butcher's house had not yet pasted the Spring Festival couplets he wrote, so he asked what was going on. The owner of the house replied very respectfully: "This Spring Festival couplet is written by the emperor himself, and we hang it in the middle hall and burn incense every day." Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to hear this, so he ordered the attendants to reward the family with thirty taels of silver.

After Liu Xia said that, Meng Yu suddenly said: "General, aren't we walking the path of Emperor Taizu now?" Meng Yu's words suddenly surprised Liu Xia, and he hurriedly said: "Now this is a street, and nonsense is not allowed." ”

Meng Yu laughed dryly twice and said, "The subordinates know the mistakes, and the subordinates know the mistakes." ”

"General, we're here."

"Squeak~" The door was pushed open by Meng Yu, and there were two guards standing behind the door, and the two guards saw that they were Liu Xia and others, and hurriedly saluted. The role of the two of them is to protect this courtyard, if ordinary people don't know it, they will directly arrest it and then the other guards in the courtyard will also come.

"Okay, you guys go down and find a place to eat a good meal, this Chinese New Year's Eve, you can't let you suffer so much, Meng Yu gave them fifty taels of silver." Liu Xia smiled slightly.

Fifty taels of silver is equivalent to 30,000 yuan, but Liu Xia is rich now, and these guards are quite tired, so Liu Xia is also very generous. After hearing this, Meng Yu hurriedly handed over five ingots and ten taels of silver from his arms to the two guards. Meng Yu complained: "The general's silver is really heavy, and his subordinates are tired of leading fifty taels of silver, and this silver is not the same size to toss people, and if you buy something, you have to cut the silver into small pieces, which is too laborious." ”

When Liu Xia heard this, his brows suddenly locked. Xindao: Meng Yu is right, but this silver is not easy to spend, and when local officials pay taxes in the future, it will take a lot of manpower and material resources to re-melt the scattered silver into a large ingot, which is really a waste, Liu Xia couldn't help but think of the silver coin. If it is Liu Xia's hairstyle banknotes at this time, it is estimated that no one wants to use them, but it is okay to issue silver coins. Liu Xia thought of this, so he secretly remembered in his heart that he would wait until the New Year to let the Department of Industry and Commerce and the Department of Finance join those merchants to start issuing silver coins.

In the small courtyard, those maids are busy at this time, today is the Chinese New Year's Eve Chinese New Year's Eve, which not only has to clean up and paste the Spring Festival couplets, but also to make a lot of delicious food. At this time, Chen Yuanyuan was embroidering in the house, and she had nothing to do now, so she was completely confined in this courtyard, so she could only use embroidery to pass the time.

Liu Xia walked into the house, Chen Yuanyuan saw it at a glance, so he hurriedly put down the things in his hand, stood up and walked to Liu Xia with lotus steps, and said softly: "I've seen my husband." ”

Now Chen Yuanyuan has accepted his fate, and Liu Xia is also good to her, so he has now fully recognized his identity, a concubine of Liu Xia. Therefore, it is called Liu Xia Fujun, Liu Xia smiled and went up and covered Chen Yuanyuan's jade hand, then Chen Yuanyuan did not shrink, because he was already used to it, Liu Xia smiled: "These days are okay?" ”

Chen Yuanyuan's face turned red, and he said softly: "Thank you Fujun for worrying, the concubine has been doing well these days, but she is just a little boring." ”

Liu Xia listened and looked at the small courtyard, but Liu Xia knew that Chen Yuanyuan could not be allowed to appear now, because Wu Sangui and Liu Xia had not yet solved it, and when Wu Sangui was solved, then Chen Yuanyuan would be able to appear openly. Liu Xia smiled slightly and said, "Wait, I'll take you out of this courtyard in a few days." ”

After hearing this, Chen Yuanyuan's face showed joy, and he said, "Thank you, husband." ”