Although the Jingzhao City of the Song Dynasty no longer had the east and west markets of Chang'an City, the Song Dynasty had already demolished the walls of the workshop, and shops could be opened along the streets, unlike the Tang Dynasty, which required a designated market, making the Song Dynasty's economy more developed and commerce more prosperous.

However, in addition to the shops along the street, the Song Dynasty also had commercial concentrations, and the tile shop played this role, which was more of a complex in later generations, eating, drinking and playing together, but it was larger and more colorful than the complex of later generations.

There are six major tile shops in Jingzhao City, among which the West City Wanjiawan tile is the largest one in Jingzhao City, covering an area of about 300 acres, there are thousands of shops of all kinds, there is a Keju court in the northwest corner, there is also a song shed that can accommodate thousands of people, it is seen that it is going to the New Year, the people in Wanjiawan tile are weaving, and the shops are selling all kinds of goods from the south and the north of the world, and it is very lively.

Li Yanqing walked casually in the tile shop as usual, he was not a micro-service traveler, although he was a strategic envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the highest military and political chief of Shaanxi Road, but he was also like ordinary officials, he had a normal life, shopping, going to a restaurant for a drink, or going to a teahouse to sit or something, it was a normal thing, and the people were not particularly afraid of him because he was the supreme official.

The Song Dynasty was a typical civil society, and the gap between the government and the people was not very deep, and the people were not afraid of the officials, and the officials did not bully the people, which was a very common thing in the Song Dynasty.

Li Yanqing wears a stiff head, wears a white shirt, a leather belt around his waist, and holds a folding fan, a typical scholar's dress, although he is relatively tall, but his appearance is very ordinary, change to an ordinary person's dress, no one on the street really recognizes him as Li Jingluo, and Li Yanqing is accompanied by the new Jingluo Mansion Lord Bo Cao Ye, Cao Ye is the son of Cao Yan, who completed his studies three years ago, and was born as a Jinshi and served as an assistant teacher of Huangzhou Official School. Cao Ye was transferred from Huangzhou to Jingzhao as a professor of classics.

However, because a large number of officials under Li Yanqing went to Hedong Road to take up their posts, there was a serious shortage of people in Jingluo Mansion, so Cao Ye was transferred to Jingluo Mansion as the chief bookkeeper.

Cao Ye has a cheerful personality, works steadily, and is a child of the Cao family, who is deeply valued by Li Yanqing, and will take him with him every time he travels, he is equivalent to the position of secretary in later generations.

Not far behind him were a few retinues of personal soldiers, and if they encountered any trouble, they had to rush forward.

"The official is still going to Guangji Rice Shop today?" Cao Ye asked with a smile.

Five days ago, Li Yanqing heard the housekeeper complaining that the price of rice had risen too fast, so he went to a rice shop in this tile shop to buy rice, and the price rose by 50 percent, because there were rumors that Song Xia was going to start a war again, causing the people to panic and stock up grain, resulting in a general rise in grain prices.

Now that the rumors have subsided, Li Yanqing made a special trip to see the price of grain today.

"Let's just take a look!"

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "You can't ask me about everything, otherwise the prefect should be dismissed." ”

"Jing Luo is right, it's not a good thing to meddle too much in these small things."

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of banging artillery explosions not far away, and many people ran over, "It seems that a new store has opened!" Cao Ye said with a smile.

In recent months, many shops have indeed opened, mainly because the Song army seized Hedong Road, which made Shaanxi Road safe, and the first consideration of merchants was safety, and when the safety problem was resolved, business quickly returned to its former prosperity.

The one that opened today is a fur shop, and the name of the store is 'Helan Old Sword', which is indeed eye-catching, and the name makes people guess that this shop may be related to Western Xia.

Li Yanqing immediately became interested, you must know that in addition to furs, livestock, medicinal herbs, and wine in the Western Xia goods, the weapons and horse harness of the Western Xia are also extremely famous.

Famous products in later generations have gold saddles, cold forging armor and Xia swords, the swordsmanship of Western Xia was once the most in the world, even the sword of the Great Song Dynasty is the sword of Western Xia, although the saddle of Western Xia is not as famous as the good Khitan saddle, but it is also exquisite workmanship, very pay attention to the feeling of the knight, ride on the horse is more comfortable, can travel long distances.

In addition, the iron armor of the Western Xia is also very famous, and the cold forging armor draped by the iron harrier is even more famous in the world, which is mainly due to the use of a large vertical double-fan bellows in the Western Xia, which can make the furnace temperature higher and create better quality ironware.

However, the output of iron ore in Western Xia was very low, and the Great Song Dynasty imposed an embargo on pig iron in Western Xia, so although the quality of Western Xia swords and armor was high, the output was extremely low, and only nobles could wear it in Western Xia, and cold forging armor was only worn by the three thousand core guards of Western Xiazi.

Therefore, it is reasonable for Li Yanqing to feel very strange when he saw that this shop was actually called 'Helan Old Sword', you must know that Helan is almost another name for Western Xia.

The door of the shop is made of red satin into all kinds of silk flowers, several guys are warmly greeting customers, the war has been endless in recent years, people generally lack a sense of security, the business of weapons is really good, as long as you do not buy and sell long weapons and crossbows and other prohibited goods, the government does not interfere.

Li Yanqing walked into the store with great interest, the layout of the store is no different from the general weapon shop, the shelves, the wall is full of all kinds of swords and bows, although it is called Helan Old Sword, Li Yanqing did not see a sword from Western Xia.

At this time, the shopkeeper greeted him and said with a smile: "What does the guest officer want to buy?" ”

Li Yanqing glanced at him and saw that he was not a member of the party, but an authentic Han with a Sichuan accent, so he smiled and said, "Since it is called Helan Old Sword." Is there Xia Guojian here? ”

"Yes, there is, but the amount is very small and the price is very expensive, so it is not put out."

"Can you take it out and have a look?"

The shopkeeper hesitated, but still carried out a box from under the counter with his buddy, and several guests next to him heard that there was Xia Guojian and surrounded him.

The box was opened, and eight swords were taken out inside, the scabbard was wooden, and a layer of luxurious leopard skin was sewn on the outside, the sword length was moderate, Li Yanqing picked up a sword, pulled out half of it, and felt a cold air rushing to his face, the blade was shining cold, and he struck lightly on the stake of the sword, and the sword body sank into the stake.

"Good sword! Good sword! Li Yanqing praised repeatedly.

The other guests saw the sharpness of the sword with their own eyes, and they stepped forward to grab the sword, and the shopkeeper pressed the lid of the wooden box and said loudly: "I said ugly things in front, this sword is expensive, I can't afford to lose it, if you want to see the sword, let's go inside to talk!" ”

"Shopkeeper, how much does this sword cost!"

Li Yanqing returned the sword to the shopkeeper, and he also wanted to see the other seven.

"This is the authentic Xia Guo Sword, and the proprietor of my family has worked hard to transport it to the Great Song Dynasty, five hundred taels of silver, and nothing will be allowed!"

Everyone suddenly gasped, two thousand five hundred yuan, if it is iron money, it will cost five thousand yuan, and it will be rare silver on the market, who can afford it, everyone shook their heads, then turned around and dispersed, and when everyone left, Li Yanqing smiled at the shopkeeper: "Let's go inside and talk!" ”

"The officials are interested?"

Li Yanqing smiled and nodded, and the shopkeeper immediately invited Li Yanqing into the back room.

Li Yanqing tried the swords from the box, each sword was extremely sharp, which made him love it, Li Yanqing smiled: "I want these eight swords, and the price is a little concession, how about it?" ”

The shopkeeper was stunned, and only after a while did he ask: "Do you want eight swords for the guest officer?" ”

"This kind of Xia Guojian is something that can be met but not sought, since I have encountered it, how can I let it go?" Li Yanqing said with a smile.

The shopkeeper pondered for a while and said, "If the guest officer is willing to pay gold, then four hundred taels of silver will be a mouthful, which is the lowest price." ”

Li Yanqing also knew that the gold of Western Xia was valuable, and if he paid for gold, it would actually become six hundred taels of silver, which was also to earn the difference in the price of gold between the two countries, but it was a big skill to be able to transport the gold back to Western Xia.

However, the other party was able to transport the Xia State Sword that was strictly forbidden to be exported from Western Xia to the Great Song Dynasty, and he did have some ability.

He nodded, "Then three hundred and twenty taels of gold, I'll send it when I get back." ”

He gave an order to the two soldiers, and the two immediately went back.

Li Yanqing sat in the store and waited, and the shopkeeper served him a cup of tea, and asked with a smile: "Listening to the accent, the official doesn't seem to be from Jingzhao?" ”

"I am from Xiangzhou, Hebei, and now the world is in chaos, and everyone is leaving their hometown."

"Yes! Last year, Western Xia suffered a snowstorm that was rare in a century, and various places suffered heavy losses, and it has not yet recovered. ”

"The shopkeeper is a party member?" Li Yanqing asked tentatively,

The shopkeeper shook his head, "I am Han Chinese, I have lived in Western Xia for a few years, and I only came to Jingzhao this year." ”

Li Yanqing pondered and said, "I want to order another hundred Xia Guo swords, is it possible to do it?" ”

The shopkeeper hurriedly shook his head, "Xia Guojian is also difficult to buy in Western Xia, let alone smuggling it to the Great Song Dynasty, I can't agree to this." ”

Li Yanqing smiled again: "The four forbidden items of Western Xia, Xia Guo Sword, Cold Forging Armor, Bamboo Horn, Helan Horse, I am interested, can we cooperate?" ”

The shopkeeper got up and closed the door, and said in a low voice: "Xia Guojian and Cold Forging Armor are controlled by the palace, so they basically can't get it, but Zhu Niujiao and Helan Ma are a bit possible, if the officials are willing to trade with gold, let's think of a way." ”

Bamboo horn is a kind of horn called bamboo cow, only produced in Western Xia, is the best raw material for making bows, handed over to good craftsmen to make bows, one stone bow can achieve the lethality of three stone bows, there are no good archers in Western Xia, the Song Dynasty has the best bow makers, but there is no such bamboo horns, so everyone wants to try to solve it with smuggling.

As for the Helan horse, also known as the mountain horse, the war horse that can run in the mountains is also of great strategic value, especially very practical for scouts, and is known as the treasure of scouts.

Li Yanqing nodded, "These two, how many goods can you get?" ”

The shopkeeper thought for a while and said, "Now I can't answer the official, let's wait a few days!" If the officials come again, maybe I'll have news. ”

At this time, two personal soldiers brought two bags of thirty-two ingots of yellow and clear gold, and Li Yanqing pushed the gold to him, "We make a deal!" ”

Looking at Huang Chengcheng's gold, the shopkeeper smiled and narrowed his eyes, hugged his fists and said, "I believe that in a few days, there will be news that officials are interested." ”

Li Yanqing said goodbye and left, he no longer went to the market, and returned directly to Jingluo Mansion, sent someone to find Zhang Shun, and said to him: "There is a newly opened weapons shop in Wanjiawan Wazi, called Helan Old Shop, you sent your right-hand men to keep an eye on them, I suspect that they are smuggling pig iron to Western Xia." ”

This kind of smuggling contraband is mutual, since they can transport the forbidden goods of the Western Xia to the Great Song Dynasty, they can also transport the contraband of the Great Song Dynasty to the Western Xia, and the first thing that the Great Song Dynasty embargoes on the Western Xia is pig iron.