.

Soon, two years flew by, and Li Bai was five years old here. Under the teaching of Yuewa and Li Ke, Li Bai has already spoken the three languages of Tang, Turkic, and Qiuci in just two years; He can also memorize many poems, proverbs, and books of sages. But because of this, Li Bai felt very lonely at a young age, and often sat alone by the window, looking at the clouds and blue sky and contemplating. No one knew what he was thinking, and whoever asked him didn't say anything, just smiled.

At noon on this day, Li Bai was practicing calligraphy in the study, when a person quietly walked in from outside, blindfolded him, learned to whisper to a woman, and said, "Little master, guess who the old slave is?" If you guess correctly, I'll buy you rock sugar gourds to eat. ”

"Uncle Gui, I don't want to eat rock sugar gourd!" Li Bai Erling immediately recognized that the person behind him was Hou Gui, and said: "I want to eat flatbread, I want to eat turtle flatbread!" ”

"Little young master......" Hou Gui let go of his hand, his face was full of doubts, and asked, "Don't you like to eat rock sugar gourds the most?" Why don't you eat it now? ”

"Alas!" Li Bai suddenly let out a long sigh and said, "This matter is a long story! Anyway, I don't eat rock sugar gourd now, I want to eat turtle cakes, your uncle, you asked someone to bring the turtle cakes before. ”

This matter is indeed a long story, after the fire two years ago, Yuewa fulfilled her promise and bought a lot of rock sugar gourds for Li Bai to eat every day, all kinds of things. At first, Li Bai was very happy and ate very happily, but after a long time, Li Bai got tired of eating, and he didn't like to eat anymore, and sometimes he even felt scared when he saw it. Later, I fell in love with turtle cakes.

As for Hou Gui, he has been punished for two years to go to Qiuzi to do business. And his experience in the past two years is very interesting, not long after he went to Qiuci country, he was threatened by a local cult disciple, saying that if he wants to do business in Qiuci country all year round, he can do business, but he must join them and become a member of this cult; Otherwise, it will not end well.

As soon as Hou Gui inquired, he found that this cult was indeed a bit powerful, and many merchants were forced out of the country of Qiuci because they did not join them, and those who refused to join or leave either disappeared for no reason, or their corpses were traversed across the sea and river, which was very miserable. The strange thing is that the monarch of the Qiuzi Kingdom does not do much fine, and even turns a blind eye, and the cultists who were arrested in prison only before yesterday will be released to Xing the day after tomorrow.

Some merchants were puzzled and asked the king, 'Why are they released?' But the king said perfunctorily: 'These people are locked up in prison and waste official food.' Then the merchant asked: 'Then why not just put him to death?' Unexpectedly, the monarch said perfunctorily, 'I believe in Buddhism and don't kill.' ’

Desperately helpless!

Because of this, many businessmen simply do not come to Qiuzi Country to do business, even if they come, they will not stay for a long time, let alone join the cult. After Hou Gui heard about this, he also wanted to go elsewhere to make a living, but said that there was no place to stay here, and there was a place to stay here. However, because he followed Li Ke around in the early years, he learned a lot of business skills; So when he calmed down and thought about it, Hou Gui suddenly felt that this was an opportunity.

Qiuzi was considered a rich land among the foreign kingdoms of Cyprus, with many people and few merchants. Hou Gui thought that if he could gain a foothold here and do business casually, it would be the way to make a lot of money. So, Hou Gui sent people around to inquire about the cult, thinking that there must be a reason why they did this.

Sure enough, Hou Gui soon received news that the real master behind this cult was actually the monarch of Qiuzi Kingdom. Like the Turkic countries, Qiuzi also had the big problems of people moving from the east to the west, people from the south to the north, and the poor moving to the rich. But the king of the kingdom of Qiuzi was wise, and did not practice the retreat and seclusion of the country, nor did he adopt the foolish civil affairs of the high priest. Instead, such a cult was created to control business and govern the country, and to control business to curb cultural transmission, so that the people would not be influenced by the Tang Dynasty and voluntarily stay in the country of Qiuzi.

After learning the news, Hou Gui immediately decided to join this cult. But what he didn't expect was that the cult people said to him: "If you want to join us, we can do it, but in the future, you must give us ninety percent of all the money you get from doing business." ”

Hearing this, Hou Gui was shocked, and immediately understood why those merchants refused to join. Ninety percent of the money is not ordinary, it can be said that there is a loss and no profit, and even the old capital cannot be recovered. After thinking about it and hesitating, Hou Gui flew a pigeon to inform Li Ke of this matter, and wanted to ask how to stay. Unexpectedly, after receiving the letter, Li Ke didn't say much or explain too much, and directly asked Hou Gui to agree.

In the first half a year, Hou Gui lost all his money and almost lost his money several times. In this regard, Li Ke did not blame him, but told him to continue, and did not say much else. After another half a year, Hou Gui's business began to improve slightly, although he couldn't make any money, but at least he didn't have to lose anymore, and he could barely have food and clothing; At the same time, Li Ke also told him to continue. After another half a year, one day, the cult leader suddenly found Hou Gui and said that someone wanted to see him, so he didn't want to follow. As a result, Hou Gui actually met the monarch of Qiuzi Kingdom.

It turned out that although Qiuci was strong, the people in the country were not good at doing business, and they were not as good as Tang merchants, so they could not perfectly implement the system of controlling business and governing the country. Under the suggestion of many people, the monarch wanted to find a powerful merchant of the Tang Dynasty to lead the various trade routes of Qiuzi. However, the merchants he met were all short-sighted and selfish, and none of them passed the checkpoint assessment set by the monarch; Until Hou Gui appeared.

With Li Ke's secret help and guidance, Hou Gui finally overcame all difficulties, successfully passed many difficulties, and was appreciated by the monarch. Therefore, the reason why the monarch summoned Hou Gui to see him today is to hand over the business power of this Qiuzi to him.

After gaining this power, Li Ke secretly helped and instructed Hou Gui to teach him a deeper way of doing business. In just half a year, Hou Gui has made a lot of money and has become the richest man in Qiuzi Country, and no one can beat him.

Due to the fact that the turtle is located near the sea, a large number of ships are needed, and the best wood in this boat comes from the Tang Dynasty; Therefore, the monarch of Qiuzi State ordered Hou Gui to go to the Tang Dynasty. When he went, when Pegasus came, Hou Gui turned back to Qiuzi and the route happened to pass through the Turks, after all, the Turks also lived near the sea. So taking advantage of this opportunity, Hou Gui made a little rectification, stopped the boat and stopped the shore, and rushed back to Li's house to have a look.

So, there was a dialogue between Fang Cai and Li Bai.

Here, when he heard that Li Bai was going to eat Qiuci flatbread, Hou Gui was very happy and said, "Little young master, after the old slave returns to Qiuzi, I will ask someone to bring more back, how about it?" ”

"Uncle Gui, are you going to Qiuzi?" Li Bai was reluctant and said, "Didn't you just come back?" How do you want to go? ”

"Because the old slave still has other things to do, and he can't delay." Hou Gui paused for a moment and said, "Little master, let's not talk about these unhappy things, let's go, the old slave will take you to see a good thing, which the old slave brought back to you from Qitang." ”

"What's it?" Li Bai was curious.

"Little master, don't worry, you'll know when you go." Hou Gui pretended to be mysterious and said, "The old slave promises, you will definitely like it." ”

"Uncle Gui!" Li Bai looked harmless and asked, "What if I really don't like it?" ”

"This ......" Uncle Gui didn't expect Li Bai to ask like this, he was stunned, and said: "Little master, the old slave bets ten turtle cakes with you, you will definitely like it." ”

"No!" Li Bai shook his head and said, "Fifteen can be done?" ”

"Okay, just fifteen!" Hou Gui didn't think much about it, so he agreed: "Deal!" ”

"Deal!" Li Bai was happy and said, "Uncle Gui, then let's go quickly!" ”

Li Bai said, pulled Hou Gui and ran outside, and soon came to the hall; Li Ke and Yuewa also came at the same time. After asking each other and giving gifts, Hou Gui waved his hand and called the four big men to bring in a big thing, covering it with a black cloth, which was very mysterious. Hou Gui smiled slightly, and immediately stepped forward to pull it, and then saw that under the black cloth, it was actually a half-man long, ingenious and exquisite ship. Amazingly, the boat was not carved out of wood, but made of mud.