Dongxia approached.

The first to step into was the town of Junction, a new town with neat houses, wide roads, and a sudden increase in livestock being enclosed to the edge of the town and vented in front of the open water and grass flats. Large, large areas of fertile fields are divided into blocks, one by one the fields are neatly organized, it is the season of farming, the people of Dongxia all wear eight hats, in the field to drive cattle and horses, waving whips. The group sometimes met children and women who were going to the fields to deliver food on the way, often wearing hats and riding horses, as if they were born to do so.

The curious Chen Tianyi leaned on the window of the carriage, full of envy.

After crossing the border, it is not far from the Northern Plains.

They lived in a small town on the outskirts of the North Plains for the first night, and the trade and business trips that passed through made such a small town seem boiling, and then they went on the road during the day, and the endless stream of livestock and people made the caravan and the group slower, except for a few people in the government who often came and went, Zhu Wen and his party did not have much contact with high-backed camels and northern bison, and every time they encountered it, they were afraid to bypass.

After entering the North Plains, the group couldn't believe it.

They are all from Changyue, in their opinion, Changyue brings together the prosperity and majesty of Zhongzhou, and when they see the majesty and prosperity of Changyue City, the city with a population of hundreds of thousands is no longer called a city.

However, when you get here, it is a very different city.

It is simple, because many areas are isolated by stones and fences, although the houses are neat, but not high, and even show the pattern of farmhouses, there are no tall doors, they are all Chaimen courtyards, but this simplicity reveals a pattern that can not be seen in Changyue City, the proportion of houses and roads appears to be open, and the houses appear low, so the field of vision is wide, unobstructed, herds of livestock, a large number of caravans can pass without hindrance, especially the carriages and horses, almost can gallop on the special road without stopping......

It is also peaceful, there is no tall city wall battlements of Changyue City, only wooden buildings are built one by one in key places, and soldiers with bows and arrows on their backs stand to guard, but it is not lacking in force, there are often martial arts training grounds and weapon racks in the open space, and horse stakes on the side of the road can be seen everywhere; It is also a strange hue, compared to the long moon blocked by high-eaves buildings, because of the wide line of sight, the city is actually more lively, merchants from the north and south, all kinds of ethnic groups, a variety of goods, plus a large number of livestock, will make people feel that this is also a metropolis.

The eight monsters said by several people in the government have been verified in the same way, and the people salute each other with their hands, hugging, touching their hearts, and making waves, and few people meet and kneel down......

There are even more strange customs, the people in their official mansion do not have the words of the big round cake of Jingkang's clothes, and the rank of the officials does not depend on the official robes of the imperial court in the shape of the auspicious beast pattern, you can't distinguish their rank at all, a few officials who often come and go sometimes answer questions for a group of people, saying that their official uniforms are also very easy to identify, different types of public offices, the color will be different, although the same type of public office is the same, but there will be different bronze medals on the robe, as for the chest without other bronze medals, you don't have to see them as people in the official palace, Because some young people are like fashionable, they will wear the same clothes, and their government does not interfere.

And their officials, the quality of the official uniform is better, the style is more restrained, they will also hang a lot of bronze medals on their chests on formal occasions, especially the generals, will also wear brown half-leather cloaks; Their children and adults sometimes look through the parchment books printed in color, these books are half pictures and half text, and I don't know how to print them, the pictures are bright, the text is simple and white, and they are mostly used for edification, like the three-character scripture of the Central Plains; They are young boys and girls, they can't help but go together, and they can often see girls who sing very well or teenagers singing outside their sweetheart's house in the middle of the night; The people of Dongxia went out one after another in the evening, looking for a martial arts training ground or an empty torch, dancing, wrestling, playing, each bringing wine and food to eat and drink with each other, and some people said that they were books, playing the huqin, it is said that these storytellers are not the three elders of the township arrows and the Lu officials of the town, but they want to start from the three elders and the Lu officials, they want to tell some stories of current affairs and ancient romances, and express their views on the current local affairs, so that the people agree with their opinions......

Several people in the court said that these people behaved a lot and were easy to become officials.

In order to experience the customs, Zhu Wen took the master and the children to see them, but he was still suspicious of their words.

But there is one thing, they are very sure, the atmosphere in Dongxia is very good, and it will be very safe for outsiders to hang out at night, but when they come out, they should pay attention to it, once they make a mistake and are caught by the patrol people, in addition to the symbolic fine, they must also carry a basket on their backs the next day, go to the street to pick up dung balls, and clean up.

However, these outsiders can also understand.

The city has not much but the most livestock, and if it weren't for such punishment, the streets would have been full of dung and mud.

They got in touch with the people of the imperial court in the Northern Plains, and also met and dined with some Jingkang merchants here.

Then, according to the plan, he tried to hire some horse breeders to go to the cattle market to select horses, planning to select the stallions first, and then the imperial court would come forward when they left the customs, make up the customs duties, and take the stallions away, but unexpectedly, let these people leave the horses in Beizhou to raise horses after taking them out of the country, and they all expressed their refusal. After repeated questioning, they said that their home was in Dongxia and they couldn't stay forever, and then asked to pick up their families, so they simply said: "Only the people from Beizhou moved to Dongxia, and no one moved from Dongxia to Beizhou." After persuading them one by one, they simply replied: "You live well in Dongxia, but in Beizhou, how can you drop the money?" If you have money, you don't live like a human being, in case you can't move back. ”

Everyone didn't think that Dongxia was good, and they were helpless about people who didn't want to settle in Beizhou.

In general, the selection of stallions is not a matter of one or two days.

Hearing that Dongxia was preparing for the dispatch of troops, and some things were good in front of him, Zhu Wen asked the maid to call Yuan Shangkai to his side, and planned: "I didn't say some ideas about raising horses in front of everyone, the imperial court conquered the Chen State, and if it is unfavorable, it will be even more lacking in war horses, and if it is defeated, it will be a large number of livestock, these horses and livestock will be ...... How will it be placed and kept in captivity? At that time, the military expenditure will surge, and the horses cannot be used for the army all at once, who can raise horses for the imperial court, guide horse breeding, and train military horses? Let the surrendered nomads raise horses? Give them a chance to repeat? ”

Yuan Shangkai was taken aback, and hurriedly said, "So Madame plans to do this?" ”

Zhu Wen smiled: "Yes." Once the imperial court is victorious, we can take the opportunity to buy a lot of horses and slaves. She whispered again, "Look at the big things in the world." Because of the successive wars, the imperial court seems to have recovered its vitality, but in fact, there has been no change inside, but it was temporarily suppressed by the emperor, and he continued to attack the big tycoons to maintain centralized power, and the gate valve seemed to be hit, but in fact, the manor continued unabated, and the annexation was serious, but after the chaos, the land was too barren and it was not so serious. In recent years, in order to prepare for the war, the imperial court tried every means to make the people rich and the country rich, repeatedly relied on grain from the south to suppress grain prices, secretly minted coins, kept running deficits, and absorbed grain and cloth into the state treasury, which was unprecedentedly abundant. ”

Yuan Shangkai smiled bitterly and said, "Madam is right. If it weren't for the big money village like Sanfentang to absorb the official currency in the middle and balance the price of the silver coin, because the official currency increased, the price would definitely skyrocket. Because the imperial court has stored a large amount of grain and cloth, it seems to be very rich, and the people will suddenly feel that they are particularly poor, and the contradictions will suddenly intensify. ”

Zhu Wen asked rhetorically: "But does the Sanfentang have the obligation to balance this contradiction for the imperial court?" So why does it absorb a large amount of official currency? ”

Yuan Shangkai said: "Sanfentang is also forced to do so, prices are soaring, and they will also suffer from it." ”

Zhu Wen shook his head and said: "They are suppressed, they are also hoarding food and cloth, they can buy official money on the one hand to show favor to the imperial court, on the other hand, they can in turn threaten the imperial court, but have you ever thought about how they themselves should digest the indiscriminate issuance of official court coins?" ”

Yuan Shangkai had a flash of inspiration: "Overseas trade?!" ”

Zhu Wen nodded and said, "Yes." It's foreign trade. They would use the money of the imperial court as a means of payment and circulate it abroad, and the hoarding of grain and cloth as a guarantee for overseas transactions, which in turn helped the imperial court. ”

She asked rhetorically: "But what if there is a war and foreign trade is cut off?" The imperial court still has to mint a large amount of coins, what should I do? How to digest Sanfentang? ”

Yuan Shangkai shook his head.

Zhu Wen sneered and said, "What if the Sanfen Hall is behind the Eastern Xia Imperial Court? Does he want to pay for the infinite Jingkang court forever? ”

Yuan Shangkai sighed and said, "No." ”

Zhu Wen said: "At this time, do you still dare to do business? It's time for them to think about how to get these official coins back to the imperial treasury. We should not think about how to do business now, but how to spend money from a different perspective. Spend money for yourself and spend money for others. ”

Yuan Shangkai nodded.

She whispered: "The imperial court is also happy to see the official currency circulate back, because there is a war, and the imperial court has to pay a lot of money to the soldiers. She said lightly, "Then let's be their middleman." I went to convince the people behind the Sanfen Hall that once the court was victorious, we would come forward to spend money for them and buy them the livestock, slaves, and horses they had obtained in the war. ”

She instructed, "Next I'm going to Yuyang." You just stay and get things done here. ”