Li Zhang saw a group of Japanese people entering the city at the gate of the imperial city, and it was very strange at the moment, the reason why he could recognize the other party at a glance was that the other party was a Japanese person, because the other party's hairstyle was so special, the top of the head was directly shaved off, and the hair behind it was tied into a bun and pressed on the head.

"It's strange, it should be the envoys of the Wa Kingdom who can enter the Imperial City, but when did the envoys of the Wa Kingdom come to the capital?" Li Zhang said to himself again at this time, he was not generally interested in the Wa Kingdom, but the two countries were far away, and there was a sea in between, and Li Zhang usually never thought that the Wa Kingdom would appear in the capital of the Great Song Dynasty.

Out of curiosity about the Japanese state, Li Zhang did not go to the firearms prison, turned his head and entered the imperial city to follow those Japanese people, only to find that these Japanese people finally went to the political hall, which is estimated to be received by Wang Zeng These ministers, after all, not all envoys can meet the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, not to mention that now that Liu E is in power, it is even more inconvenient for her to see the envoys as a woman.

Li Zhang stood outside the political hall for a moment, hesitating whether he wanted to go in, speaking of which, the political hall is not something that ordinary people can enter, unless there is something particularly important, and they will only enter after getting permission, after all, it is the core of the Great Song Dynasty Hall, and it is probably the first person like him to follow foreign envoys to the political hall.

"Captain Li? How are you here? At this moment, he suddenly heard a familiar voice coming, and when Li Zhang turned his head to look, he found that it was Wang Zeng walking from outside, looking at his hurried steps, it seemed that there was something important?

"See Wang Xiang, just now I saw a group of Japanese people entering the political hall, and I was curious so I followed." Li Zhang didn't hide it at this time, and said to Wang Zeng with a smile at the moment, the other party is in charge of the political hall, so he should know about these widows.

Sure enough, when he heard Li Zhang mention those Japanese people, Wang Zeng immediately smiled and said: "It turns out that you are here for those Japanese people, in fact, those are the envoys of the Japanese State, and they came ashore from Mingzhou this year, so the Mingzhou guards sent them to the capital, but the Queen Mother was inconvenient to see them, so let us meet these Japanese envoys on her behalf, and send them back by the way." ”

Li Zhang also nodded knowingly when he heard this, after the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, although it was inferior to the Liao State militarily, it was economically and culturally beating the surrounding countries, so many foreign envoys came every year.

The Great Song Dynasty was also very generous at the beginning, after the gifts brought by the envoys were accepted, they were generally doubled and rewarded back, as a result, these small countries around them tasted the sweetness, and almost every year they would send envoys to come, and even some were even several times a year, and the Great Song Dynasty couldn't stand it, after all, no one wanted to be wronged, so the Great Song Dynasty also began to limit the number of times to the small countries that paid tribute, and at the same time the rewards were much less, but no matter how little it was, it was still more than what they paid tribute, so for small countries, tribute was still a surefire deal.

"But I've heard that there are many foreign merchants who often pretend to be envoys in exchange for rewards from the imperial court, could these Japanese envoys be impersonations?" Li Zhang suddenly asked his own question at this time, this is not something he made out of nothing, in fact, this kind of thing pretending to be an envoy happens from time to time, for example, at the beginning of this year, there was a caravan of the Japanese State pretending to be an envoy, but because he couldn't get the certificate of state, he was driven out by the Great Song Dynasty.

"This year, it is true that someone pretended to be an envoy of the Wa Kingdom, but this envoy has a national credential, and the team of envoys is very large, and the tributes sent are also very rich, so it should not be fake." Wang Zeng also replied with a smile at the moment.

Hearing what the other party said, Li Zhang didn't know what to say, and looking at Wang Zeng's appearance, he didn't seem to have any intention of inviting him in, after all, the political hall was not a place where ordinary people could enter, and Wang Zeng was a very principled person, even if Li Zhang had helped him before, he would not be favoritistic because of this, so Li Zhang could only say goodbye and leave, and Wang Zeng also sent him away with a smile.

However, although Li Zhangren is gone, he has always remembered those envoys of the Japanese Kingdom, to be precise, he is actually remembering another thing of the Japanese Kingdom, that is, silver mines, you must know that the Japanese Shijian Silver Mine is a rare large silver mine in the world, and it is very easy to mine, and it can be exchanged for money when it is mined.

Although silver can not be directly circulated in the Great Song Dynasty, but it is of great use to Li Zhang, the money bank issued paper money, but it lacks a real standard currency, the later generations implemented the gold standard, gold is the guarantee of paper money, although the later paper money can not be directly exchanged for gold, but still can not affect the essence of the gold standard.

In contrast, the money line is actually still the copper standard, although copper is also a precious metal, but that is mainly because of the lack of copper in the Great Song Dynasty, the output of copper is too small, so it is regarded as currency, but if the economic exchanges with the outside world are getting bigger and bigger in the future, it will be a bit of a loss to use the copper standard.

For example, there is a place rich in copper, the price of copper is very low, this kind of place is really a lot in the world, after all, the output of copper is much stronger than gold and silver, then the people in this place can directly dig out the copper can come to the Great Song Dynasty to exchange copper money, with copper money to buy the materials produced by the Great Song Dynasty, it is also a huge loss for the Great Song Dynasty, in fact, the later generations of Spain used this method to buy many materials of the Ming and Qing dynasties, of course, they used silver.

So Li Zhang has long wanted to change the copper standard to the gold standard or the silver standard, but unfortunately, whether it is gold or silver, the output of the Great Song Dynasty is not high, at least it cannot meet the demand as the standard currency, which makes Li Zhang also very distressed, but if you can get the Iwami silver mine of the Wa Kingdom, then the silver standard is not a difficult thing, although the silver standard is not very safe, after all, there is a lot of silver in the Americas, and the safest is gold, but silver is still much stronger than copper.

Of course, with the current development of the money bank, it seems that these are a little too far away, but people have no foresight, there must be near-term worries, Li Zhang can not only see the present, a few years or even decades from now should also be considered, after all, he is familiar with the development process of history, this is also his biggest advantage, if he gives up this advantage, then what is the difference between him and the ancients?

So in the afternoon, Li Zhang deliberately left the firearms prison early, and then ran to Zhao Zhen to inquire about the affairs of the Japanese State, but Zhao Zhen did not know much about the arrival of the Japanese envoys, after all, this was not a big deal for him at all, and it was estimated that Liu E had the same idea, otherwise Wang Zeng would not have let Wang Zeng see the Japanese envoys on her behalf.

In this case, Li Zhang had to ask Zhao Zhen to pay more attention to the affairs of the Japanese mission, and then left the palace and returned home, but as soon as he entered the house, he saw Tanuki and Douzi and others standing in the courtyard in a circle, and they didn't know what they were doing?

Li Zhang was also very curious when he saw this, and immediately stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing?" ”

Hearing Li Zhang's voice, Tanuki and the others found out that he was back, and immediately saw Douzi come over with a smile and said, "Big brother, look, someone has given you a gift!" ”

"Gift-giving? What ceremony? Li Zhang was also stunned when he heard Douzi's words, and then found that there was a woman surrounded by Douzi and them, only to see this face covered with white powder, eyebrows were painted together, but the mouth was a little crimson, and when he saw Li Zhang, the woman immediately smiled and saluted him, but showed a mouth full of black teeth, and Li Zhang, who was frightened, almost pulled out his pistol to defend himself.

"This ...... Where did this woman come from? Li Zhang finally came back to his senses, and immediately asked with a straight face, today is really an evil sect, and it is just enough to meet the envoys of the Japanese Kingdom in the imperial city, why is there another Japanese woman in the family?

"Didn't Brother Douzi say just now, this is a gift from someone to your eldest brother, it just so happens that you still lack a maid to carry with you, or just her, after all, you can't live up to the kindness of others." Tanuki also said very naughtily at this time.

"If the little girl dares to talk nonsense, I'll let her be your personal maid!" Li Zhang couldn't help but glance at her when he heard Tanuki'er's words, this Japanese woman was painted like a ghost, and her teeth were also black, she could be startled when she saw it in broad daylight, let alone at night, if she really made her a personal maid, wouldn't it be a ghost movie every day?

Hearing Li Zhang's words, the raccoon dog also stuck out her tongue mischievously, and then Xiuxiu came over and handed a gift list to Li Zhang: "Big brother, this is a gift sent by the envoy of the Japanese State today, and this woman is also one of the gifts, I don't know what to do with you when you're not at home, so let them put it here first." ”

"What the hell are these Japanese people doing, even if they give gifts, why do they still send a woman?" Li Zhang couldn't help frowning when he heard this, he had heard of the envoy giving gifts to the minister, but it was the first time he had heard of such a blatant gift to a woman as the Wa Kingdom, and it was so ugly to send it, although he knew that the ancient women of the Wa Kingdom regarded black teeth as beautiful, but it was still a little unacceptable.

"I don't know about this, but it's also very strange, there are so many mansions nearby, it seems that only our family has received a gift from the Japanese country, can it be said that the Japanese also know the fame of the eldest brother?" Xiuxiu spoke again at this time, if she directly refused the gifts given by ordinary people, but this time it was a foreign envoy who came to give the gift, so she didn't know what to do.

"Return these things tomorrow, I don't know how to pick a better one for gifts." Li Zhang replied immediately, and after speaking, he also looked at the woman who was difficult to distinguish between people and ghosts, the makeup on this woman's face was so thick that she couldn't even tell her age, of course, Li Zhang didn't have any interest in her, and the beans and raccoon dogs probably also looked at the mentality of rare animals so they didn't leave here.

Hearing Li Zhang say this, Xiuxiu also immediately wrote it down, but at this moment, he suddenly saw Han Qi coming in from outside the door, and when he saw the widow standing in the middle of the crowd, he couldn't help but exclaim: "Why are there widows in the house?" ”