Due to the approaching entrance examination, the athletes from all over the country who entered Beijing to take the examination have devoted themselves to the preparation of the examination, hoping to stand out in the examination and obtain the tribute.

Li Hongyu is naturally no exception, after meeting Zhu Wanting in the teahouse, he closed his door when he returned home, after all, everyone was busy preparing for the exam, and few people had the leisure to go outside for recreation.

After all, the opportunity to participate in the examination is not easy, it can be said that every reader dreams of things, as long as you skip this dragon gate, you can embark on a career with a bright future.

At the same time, Li Hongyu did this to avoid Zhu Wanting, he finally dumped Zhu Wanting in Wuchang City, but he didn't want to be stuck by Zhu Wanting in the capital, he couldn't afford to provoke the county lord of the royal family.

However, Li Hongyu did not prepare for the exam honestly like other movers, but concentrated on doing carpentry work in the wing room in the backyard.

This really surprised the people in the family, no one thought that Li Hongyu would have this kind of leisure at this time, as if he didn't take it to heart at all.

Not only those subordinates, but even Qin Yue and Rou'er didn't know Li Hong's intentions in doing this, the reason why Li Hongyu didn't tell them was that he couldn't explain to the two that his target for doing this was the imperial grandson Zhu Youxiao, and it was impossible to tell them that the crown prince Zhu Changluo was unlucky and died of illness after only one month of succession.

"Brother Yu, what kind of ship is this?"

Ten days later, Li Hongyu finished his carpentry work, and just as he was admiring his masterpiece with great interest, Qin Yue walked in with two plates of pastries, and couldn't help but look at a model of a wooden boat on the table in confusion.

Different from the ships that Qin Yue had seen, the wooden ship model created by Li Hongyu not only looked oblique and long, but also had three masts on the hull, and its style was obviously different from the ships of the Ming Dynasty, and it looked extremely delicate and beautiful.

"Yue'er, this is a three-masted sailing ship, built by overseas Westerners, although it is not as big as our Zheng He treasure ship, but it is very flexible, the capacity is not small, and it is easy to operate, so it is very suitable for sailing on the sea." Li Hongyu smiled slightly when he heard this, and opened his mouth to explain to Qin Yue.

"Three-masted galleon?" A suspicious look appeared on Qin Yue's face, it was the first time she had heard this strange name, and then she stepped forward and pointed to the small square holes like several rows of windows on both sides of the model ship and asked curiously, "Brother Yu, what is this?" ”

"Cannon window!" Li Hongyu smiled and replied, looking at the three-masted sailing ship with his hands on his chest, after all these days of busy work, he finally made a model that satisfied him.

"Cannon window?" The look on Qin Yue's face was even more puzzled when she heard this, and she couldn't help but look at the model ship in amazement, could it be that one ship could hold so many guns?

"Westerners also make artillery?" Then, Qin Yue suddenly remembered something, and couldn't help but ask in surprise, in her impression, all countries except for the Great Ming were barbarians, how could they create artillery that only the Great Ming Divine Machine Battalion deserved?

"Yue'er, after the Westerners got the manufacturing method of gunpowder, they improved it and used it in the manufacture of firearms, and now their level of making firearms is only stronger than our Ming Dynasty."

Li Hongyu bowed his head slightly when he heard this, and said solemnly to Qin Yue, the Ming Dynasty has been the **** of the country for more than two hundred years, and the ban on the sea has been issued to cut off overseas non-governmental exchanges, and even official exchanges are very few, so the people know nothing about the changes and development of overseas countries.

In fact, not to mention ordinary people, even the officials of the Ming Dynasty did not know the changes that had taken place in the outside world, so it was not surprising that Qin Yue had this question.

"How so?" After listening to Li Hongyu's words, Qin Yue's face was full of shock, and it was difficult to believe what Li Hongyu said for a while, how could there be a country in this world that was more powerful than Daming firearms.

"Yue'er, you ask someone to go to the Liuli Factory and find a shop to consign this model ship." Li Hongyu knew that he couldn't explain the outside world to Qin Yue now, so he smiled and said, "As for the price, less than one thousand taels will not be sold." ”

"Brother Yu, can it be sold for a thousand taels?" Qin Yue couldn't help but be slightly stunned, no matter how she looked at it, this model ship was not worth a thousand taels.

"As the saying goes, scarcity is precious, if this model ship meets someone destined, don't say 1,000 taels, even 10,000 taels will be correct."

Li Hongyu smiled and said confidently, the reason why he set such a high price was to transfer Zhu Youxiao out, if it wasn't for his soft spot for wood, it would be difficult for ordinary people to spend a thousand taels to buy such a model ship.

Moreover, if Zhu Youxiao really has a soft spot for carpentry as rumored, then the people around him will definitely pay attention to the novel woodware in the capital, and setting the price higher can also attract the attention of those people.

"Okay, I'll have someone take it to the glass factory." Qin Yue saw that Li Hongyu looked confident, and knew that Li Hongyu must have hidden secrets in doing this, so she smiled and agreed, she wanted to see who Li Hongyu wanted to lure out.

The next day, Liulichang Street.

Liulichang Street is located in the west of the outer city of the capital, not only the gathering place of the residence of Beijing officials, but also the halls of all parts of the country are also built nearby, which makes the officials and the examinees often gather here to visit the book market, so that the former prosperous front door, the entrance of the lamp market and the city god temple book market in the west city have gradually transferred to the Liuli Street factory.

In the beginning, booksellers from all over the world were the first to set up stalls, build offices, and sell a large collection of books on Rurichang Street, and the bustling market and convenient conditions gradually formed "Kyoto's elegant place".

This has made Liulichang not only gradually develop into the largest book market in Beijing, but also form a cultural market with a convergence of humanities, and culture-related pen, ink, paper, inkstone, antiques, calligraphy and painting and so on have also developed.

The reason why Liulichang Street got its name can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty, when Liulichang Street was not in the city but in the suburbs, and it was a village called "Haiwang Village".

The Yuan Dynasty opened an official kiln here to burn glazed tiles, and later built the inner city after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, because the construction of the palace required a large number of glazed tiles, so it expanded the scale of the official kiln in Haiwang Village, which made it one of the five major factories of the Ministry of Industry of the imperial court at that time.

After the construction of the outer city in the capital in the 32nd year of Jiajing, the location of Haiwang Village became an urban area, and the glazed tiles were naturally not suitable for firing kilns in the city, and moved to the outside of the city, but the name of "glazed factory" was retained and passed down to this day.

Although Liulichang Street is now a bustling market, crowds of people, and a lively scene, few people know that Liulichang was a dirt road back then, and there were low-rise shops on both sides of the street.

In one or two bookstores, there are bookshelves on all four walls of the door, filled with books, each with a label indicating the bibliography and price.

In the window of the inner room, there is an elm lacquered table of eight immortals, on both sides of the table are Taishi chairs, and couplets are hung between the walls, and the content of the couplets is naturally inseparable from the book.

For example, what is "getting friends is like the moon, and reading strange books is better than seeing flowers", "everything is better than being good and happy, and a hundred flowers are competing for the fragrance of reading", "the books of relevant countries are often read, and there is nothing to do for the body and mind", "nourishing the heart is not good for few desires, and the joy is not as good as reading"......

Liulichang except for the bookstore, is an antique shop, it is worth mentioning that at that time the "antique" was called "Gu Dong", that is, antiques, and later called antiques.

In fact, from the perspective of history and culture, this name is really appropriate, because antiques are not played by ordinary people, and they must have a certain knowledge of history and culture, otherwise they will be slaughtered.

At this moment, the ancient wooden hall specializing in woodwork.

"Master Zhang, you're here, hurry, please inside!"

When a sturdy man in blue walked into the hall surrounded by two big men, the shopkeeper who was standing behind the counter and dialing the abacus hurriedly greeted him, bowed down and said with a smile.

It can be seen from the shopkeeper's courteous attitude that the identity of this man in blue is not simple, but then again, the capital is a gathering place for Daming officials and nobles, and it is common to meet those people with deep backgrounds.

"Shopkeeper Liu, are there any rare new gadgets?" The man in blue asked lightly while scanning the various wooden goods on the shelves in the hall.

"Master Zhang, you came by coincidence, there was really a strange thing in the store yesterday, and the small one was specially kept for Master Zhang." Hearing this, Shopkeeper Liu smiled and bowed to the man in blue, stretched out his hand and made a gesture of please, "You are always tired, go to the backyard with the little one." ”

Zhang Ye nodded when he heard this, followed Shopkeeper Liu to the backyard, and entered a wing room in the backyard.

As soon as he entered the door, Zhang Ye's attention was attracted by a strange-looking model of a sea ship on the table, the reason why he knew that it was a sea ship was because from the model, the shape of the real ship was huge and not compared to the river boat, and the most important thing was that the model ship seemed to have a special keel for sea ships to resist the wind and waves at sea.

And the reason why it looks strange is because it is the first time that Zhang Ye has seen this kind of ship with a long oblique hull and three masts, which looks completely different from Daming's ships.

"Master Zhang, are you satisfied?" Seeing that Zhang Ye stepped forward and carefully looked at the model of the three-masted sailboat, Shopkeeper Liu stepped forward and asked with a smile.

"How much does this ship cost?" Hearing this, Zhang Ye nodded, looked at the three-masted sailing ship intently and asked.

"Master Zhang, this is a guest who put it in the store to sell, the seller offered 1,200 taels of silver, I only charge you 50 taels of silver for your hard-earned money, if you like it, 1,250 taels." Shopkeeper Liu said with a smile when he heard this, and quietly increased the price by two hundred and fifty taels.

Although it seems that Shopkeeper Liu is very greedy in doing this, but for a businessman, it is also a natural thing, he lives by the carpentry business, if he does not make the difference in the middle, then he will not have to wait to drink the northwest wind.

"Pack it up!" Hearing this, Zhang Ye bowed slightly, took out a few silver tickets from his arms and handed them to Shopkeeper Liu, and commanded in a deep voice.

For people like Zhang Ye, money is not a problem, the important thing is that things are good, he thinks that the three-masted sailing ship is worth the money, and naturally he will not worry about the price with Shopkeeper Liu.

Shopkeeper Liu happily accepted the silver tickets, instructed the guys in the store to pack the model of the three-masted sailing ship with a wooden shelf, and then nodded and sent Zhang Ye away, secretly expecting that Zhang Ye's master would like the three-masted sailing ship, so that he would definitely come to patronize it next time.

Of course, what Shopkeeper Liu has to do now is to deal with the craftsman who built the three-masted sailing ship, and only then can he continue to make money with the other party's craftsmanship.

It's a pity that the person who sent the three-masted galleon yesterday didn't report his home, so he didn't know the identity of the other party, let alone where the other party lived, so he could only wait for the other party's next visit.