There are not many pedestrians on the streets of Chang'an City, but there is no bustling bustle outside the city wall, and there is a deep and distant ancient city. Everywhere there are tall warehouses, storing grain, cloth, spices, porcelain, jade, tea and other goods. Occasionally, a motorcade of wagons pulled up on the side of the street, porters with white towels on their shoulders, carrying baled goods, sometimes unloading them from the wagons, sometimes loading them from the warehouses onto the wagons. Even in the cool weather of early October, these porters were still sweating profusely.

Outside the city, there are Wei, Jing, Feng, waterlogging, Wei, Zhu, Chan, Ba eight rivers around Chang'an. The Longyou Guanzhong is widely covered with forests, reducing the sediment content of the river, and the Prime Minister's Mansion will also organize the people to dig up the old silt at the bottom of the river every year and sell it to nearby farmers to supplement the land. The Caoyun channel was originally mostly blocked at the end of the Tang Dynasty, but the Prime Minister's Office used the people of Guanzhong to dredge it again. Nowadays, there are wharves everywhere outside Chang'an City, especially the Guangyuntan Wharf, which can be used by 300 boats at the same time. The goods transported by water from all over the country are loaded into carts at the wharf and transported into the warehouse in Chang'an City, and then the goods needed are taken out from the warehouse and loaded into a boat, or transported to Dunhuang by a horse convoy, and then changed to a camel team before the Yumen Pass, embarking on a difficult and distant journey.

Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue came to a place that looked like a restaurant in Bianjing, and saw many businessmen coming in and out, and the two of them stepped forward to watch curiously, but they saw notices posted on the two photo walls at the door, one of which said "Reward" on the head, the notice means that now the Ordnance Department of the General's Mansion is trying to produce artillery, whether it is Xia Guo or a foreigner, under the condition of keeping the power of the artillery unchanged, how much can each recruit reduce the weight of the artillery, and there is no problem with repeating the manufacture according to his method, The same weight of gold was awarded. In addition, for each cannon cast by the Ordnance Division, thirty percent of the price of the cannon was given to the conscripts in accordance with the rules of paying apprentice fees.

Several merchants of the Xia Kingdom were also reading the notice, and one merchant sighed: "One catty is sixteen taels, one catty of gold is about one hundred and sixty taels of silver, and the artillery can easily cost thousands of catties, if the weight of the thousand-pound artillery can be reduced by three percent, then a reward of 300 catties of gold, equivalent to forty-eight thousand taels of silver." If the weight of each type of artillery is reduced a little in the same way, the bounty will add up to hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Ordnance Si Mo is not a hot hand with a lot of money. His mental arithmetic was admirable, but another businessman next to him said: "Do you say that this money is easy to make, the essence of artillery casting in the world is no better than that of our Ordnance Division, how easy it is to surpass what they cast." Even if the artillery is not cast in bronze, only iron, every time you try to build one, the cost is not trivial, and if you fail a few times, no matter how rich your net worth is, you will have to lose it. ”

There was a middle-aged man who also stood in front of Bangwen, his face was a little swollen, and there were a few stains on the hem of his robe, and the words of the businessman behind him just now pierced his pupils, and he took his gaze back from Bangwen, and muttered: "That's it, people can see the results at a glance, but I am greedy for profit, I think I am superior to others, and I deserve to be ruined." He turned around and walked out dejectedly, walked not far from Zhao Xingde's side, and suddenly pulled out a short knife in his arms. Zhao Xingde was taken aback and hurriedly blocked Li Ruoxue behind him.

The clinker man did not commit the murder, but stabbed the short knife in the left chest, and was about to kill himself. Zhao Xingde took a step forward, he didn't have time to snatch the dagger, and pushed the man violently with both arms, and the man staggered and fell to the ground, and the short knife also fell out. He was bent on dying, and since he had no time to care who pushed him, he stood up and slammed his head against the pillar. Several people around him hurriedly stopped him by the waist and hugged him. The man looked like he was mad and cried out, "What stop me, I don't owe you any money." The businessmen persuaded him: "Brother, there are more people who have lost money in the bond market." "I saw that the person carrying the bag across the street didn't lose all his net worth, and now he is living well." "Stay in the green mountains, and there is still a chance to turn the book." After struggling for a while, the man ran out of energy, and then sat on the ground panting.

The merchants also gradually dispersed, but Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue stopped to watch from a distance, saw the resolute look in his eyes, and touched the knife that fell to the ground. Zhao Xingde looked at Li Ruoxue's compassionate eyes, sighed, and said in a deep voice: "Friend, life is too short, why bother to die." He stepped forward and stepped on the dagger.

The man raised his head and stared at Zhao Xingde viciously, and shouted: "Although I am down, I don't want people like you to be pitied. After speaking, he pushed Zhao Xingde's leg with one hand, and desperately tried to pull out the dagger with the other. Zhao Xingde practiced and exercised his body every day, and the Hebei army deliberately strengthened the strength of his waist and legs in order to practice riding.

Just as the two were at a stalemate, Shi Wenhu was accompanying Qiu Shiliang out of the ticket shop market, and greeted loudly: "Zhao De, what's going on?" ”

Chun Yuzhen recognized the captain's attire and immediately withdrew his hand, but he still sat on the ground, looking like a wooden. Zhao Xingde smiled awkwardly: "This friend may have mistaken business, and he actually has misanthropic thoughts, so I will persuade him here." He said easily, still firmly on the dagger under his feet, afraid that Chun Yuzhen would suddenly snatch the knife and kill himself.

Shi Wenhu said with a smile: "This kind of persuasion is similar to my Kansai sergeant's style. Zhao Xingde arched his hand and smiled: "This brother just can't think about it for a while." When he comes to his senses, he will definitely be extremely afraid of what he just did. ”

The soldiers of the Xia State value righteousness, but they look down on the self-defeating Han who looks for short-sightedness when he suffers a setback. Qiu Shiliang's eyelids swept Chun Yuzhen, who was paralyzed on the ground in a daze, and said to Zhao Xingde with a smile: "Are you also here to visit Chang'an's Ticket City?" He paused and said with a smile: "Young people still have to be down-to-earth to get their future, play with these things, but subsidize some pension money." After that, he took Shi Wenhu to do other things, and he didn't look at Chun Yuzhen underground. According to his concept, this kind of coward seeking death is not too much, and one less is not less.

Zhao Xingde looked at Chun Yuzhen on the ground, then looked at Li Ruoxue's somewhat unbearable eyes, sighed again, and said in a deep voice: "Brother, I just promised my friend that I would persuade you, it's not easy to talk here, you and I will go to the restaurant to eat and drink first." After speaking, he pointed to a store in front of him with a wine curtain.

Maybe it was the pointing and pointing of the travelers in the ticket square market that made Chun Yuzhen feel uncomfortable, or maybe he wanted to eat and drink again before he died. He listened to Zhao Xingde's words, did not refuse, stood up, and patted the soil on his body. Zhao Xingde picked up the dagger under his feet, checked it in his hand, and there was a slight drop in his hand, he looked at the hair-like carbon lines on the dagger, and couldn't help but secretly praise, good knife. He didn't dare to return the sharp weapon to Chun Yuzhen now, as soon as his hand reached out in front of him, he said in a deep voice: "Bring the scabbard." Chun Yuzhen is a person who seeks death, how can he care about the gains and losses of a small knife, he was slightly stunned, sighed, and called the scabbard in his arms to Zhao Xingde, and sighed: "This treasure knife can pierce the transparent light armor, even if it repays you for saving your life." ”

Zhao Xingde took the knife into his arms and glanced at Chun Yuzhen with deep meaning, but he didn't expect that this person had reached the point of insisting on begging for death, and he refused to owe others a favor, and the idea of "persuading him" became stronger and stronger.