(Book friends, collect it, it's okay to look at it again when you're fattened, collect it first)

The days fly by, and in a blink of an eye, the New Year of Tianbao's fifth year is coming, and at noon on the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, Wang Yuan asked Huang San. Accompany yourself to the West Market outside the square to buy some New Year's goods.

Wang Yuan couldn't stand the tattered bedding and clothes anymore, and he planned to use the hundreds of embezzlement money he had saved during this time, as well as the money from the sale of the bronze mirror in the wooden box under the bed, to buy some new clothes and bedding, and buy some necessities for the upcoming New Year.

Huang San's family also needs to purchase things for the New Year, so he readily agreed, and Huang San brought his eldest sister Huang Ying with him to help get some things. In the afternoon, the three of them went out from the west gate of Yong'an Fang and stepped on Yong'an Avenue in the north-south direction.

At noon, the winter sun shone warmly overhead, shining on the Yongan Canal dozens of meters wide artificially dug next to Yongan Street.

Wang Yuan officially set foot on the street outside the fang for the first time, even if he was mentally prepared for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, Ren Jiu was shocked by the grandeur and atmosphere of the buildings and layout outside the fang. The width of the entire Yongan Avenue is at least 1230 meters, with a level avenue of bluestone and rammed earth on both sides, and a Yongan Canal with a width of tens of meters in the middle. Such a wide street is not inferior to the streets of later generations.

In the afternoon, the streets were crowded with people, and those who walked walked on the bluestone road near the wall of the tall square; There is another rammed earth road more than ten meters wide that carries firewood and pushes Taiping cars; Those who ride horses and ride cars, and those who carry sedan chairs take a bluestone road along the river; The streets on both sides of Yong'an Canal are actually separated by people and vehicles, so although there are many people, they are not crowded and orderly.

The wide Yong'an Canal was also busy with boats, and the awning boats and pointy clippers were hurrying north with loads of goods, and their destination was Chang'an West City, which was four squares away from the land to the north. On the river, of course, there are many vermilion lacquered and bright corridor boats swaying slowly on the water; The literati and celebrities who sat around the bow and drank pointed out the scenery on and off the river, chatting and laughing wantonly, and from time to time there were laughter and the sound of silk and bamboo that could be heard clearly.

On both sides of the street are tall walls, occasionally you can see a huge vermilion lacquer gate open to the outside on the wall, the lion squatting in front of the door, the beast ring on the door is hideous, on the high stone steps, the big waist and round guard slave lazily leans against the powder wall to bask in the sun; Needless to say, this is the mansion of the noble family of the Tang Dynasty, only they are qualified to open the door on the wall of the fang, and ordinary people can only be kept in captivity by the fangmen.

There is not a single shop along the street. Wang Yuan already knew that shops were not allowed to open on both sides of the streets of Datang Chang'an City, which was exactly what was needed for security in captivity. The main commercial markets of Chang'an City are the East Market and the West Market, these two markets are unimaginably large, each occupying four squares, with as many as tens of thousands of shops, which basically meet the needs of trade in Chang'an City, and the rest is supplemented by the shops allowed to be opened in the square.

The West Market is the destination where Wang Yuan and Huang San and Huang Ying are going today, and in the afternoon it is the time when the two markets open, and most of the goods and people on the ships and streets are rushing to the West Market to trade. From Yong'an Fang to the north, along the right street of Yong'an Canal, go to the place of four squares, cross the 'Xishi Bridge' that crosses Yong'an Canal between Yanshoufang and Guangdefang, and arrive outside the east gate of Xishi.

Just standing on the square at the gate of the West Market, Wang Yuan had already flashed ten thousand exclamation marks in his heart; I saw a crowd of people outside the east gate of the West Market, and the voices of people were like a tide. In the south corner, rows of horse-drawn carriages are neatly arranged, and next to them are the places where the sedan chairs and other means of transportation and transportation are placed. Hundreds of cows, horses, mules and donkeys are tied to the rows of fences near the wall of Xishifang, and there are special people to add forage and water. From time to time, the brutes echoed each other and screamed, making the sound in the square even louder.

On the wharf under the river, extending to the wide stone steps below the Yong'an Canal, dozens of cargo ships docked and unloaded, hundreds of men carried the goods up and down, and some of them were also shirtless in the cold winter and the moon, with hot steam on their bodies, looking hot.

Seeing Wang Yuan staring at a dark-skinned black man in the crowd, Huang Ying, the eldest sister of the Huang family, asked with a smile: "Brother Wang, do you know who that is?" ”

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "Let me guess, this is the Kunlun slave worth tens of thousands of dollars." ”

Huang Ying clapped his hands and smiled: "That's right, the slave has only seen it twice, the last time was when he and his mother watched the dragon boat during the Dragon Boat Festival the year before last; How these people were born, black as charcoal-burning. The teeth are so white. ”

Wang Yuan smiled on his lips, but his heart fluctuated, there were not only black people in the crowd, but also Hu merchants from the Western Regions with high noses and blue eyes wrapped in turbans, as well as several Ryukyu samurai with shaved yin and yang heads, pigtails and bamboo swords. Even the locals of Chang'an are all kinds of people of all walks of life, in addition to most of the ordinary people who are in a hurry, there are rich young people in luxurious clothes, solemn and dignified literati with graceful demeanor, and the Tang ladies who are plump and gorgeous and full of fragrance hugging each other, as well as the handsome young men and elegant sons who follow them in capable clothes and flattering each other.

All the people formed a stream of people slowly poured towards the entrance of the West Market, laughing, noisy, calling for children, scolding and scolding poured into their ears, coupled with the color of the scene in front of them, making people dizzy.

"This is the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty, exactly the same as what I imagined in my mind." Wang Yuan sighed and followed Huang San and Huang Ying into the flow of people.

……

The three of them entered the West Market with the crowded flow of people, and dozens of shops and streets crisscrossed the city, and the shops were thriving with business.

The street next to the wall of the East Square of the West Market is the famous orchid wine shop, I heard the melodious Qiang drum dong of silk and bamboo, and I can see a lot of men and women dressed in gorgeous clothes sitting in the lobby drinking and drinking tea to rest, walking in the street to look at these wine shops, if you are lucky, you can also see the figure of the orchid girl with a strong body and waist like a thin willow performing songs and dances in the lobby.

The three of them took a shortcut from here to the pawnshop street in the north, but Wang Yuan was attracted by what he saw and heard, and he couldn't even take a step.

"It would be nice to be able to go in and watch the singing and dancing, it seems to be very good-looking." Wang Yuan smacked his lips and said.

Huang San was startled, and hurriedly pulled Wang Yuan forward, muttering, "Crazy?" This is not the place for us to go in. Do you know how much the spirits of the Western Regions are sold in the orchid shop? It costs 150 yuan, and one cup of wine is enough for us to buy three jars of turbid wine. Watching these women dance also has to give a tip to the head, and it will cost at least five or six hundred wen for a trip in. ”

Wang Yuan also knew that it was unrealistic to want to join in the fun now, so he smiled as he walked: "San Lang, I will take you in to play in the future, I know you must also want to see it." ”

Huang San smiled bitterly: "What's the use of thinking?" We don't have that life. ”

"Falling flowers fall everywhere, laughing into the orchid wine shop, life is there, I'm afraid I don't have that heart." Wang Yuan smiled and whispered, and walked quickly through the wine shop street.

The little girl Huang Ying looked at Wang Yuan's back enviously and said: "Brother Wang is a sentence, it's good to have read the book, although the slave can't understand it, but it feels very handsome." ”

Turn right on the road ahead and you'll come to Pawnshop Street. Holding the bronze mirror, several pawnshops asked one by one, but Wang Yuan was depressed, the bronze mirror in his hand was exquisite, but the black-hearted courtiers in the pawnshop said that it was worthless. A good brand new bronze mirror is said to be 'poor in quality and rough workmanship', and the one with the highest price is only willing to pay 280 yuan.

What's more, one of the courtiers actually suspected that Wang Yuan's bronze mirror was coming from the wrong way, saying that Wang Yuan was dressed shabby, and it was impossible to be the owner of this bronze mirror.

"This gang of black-hearted pawnshops, a new bronze mirror is at least worth a lot of money, but they are only willing to pay less than 300 yuan, which is really hateful. Brother Wang is not angry, let's ask a few other families, maybe they have a good conscience. Xiao Huangying pulled Wang Yuan's sleeve and whispered comfort.

Wang Yuan shook his head and said: "Don't ask, I won't sell this bronze mirror, eldest sister, forget about the bronze mirror for you, keep it for your makeup, it's not cheap for these profiteers." ”

Huang Ying hurriedly waved his hand and said: "No, no, no, the slave doesn't dare to ask for it, we are all combing our hair with a basin of water, and we are not used to this precious thing." ”

Huang San also said: "Yes, we are not used to this thing, and you want to buy bedding, clothes and furniture for the New Year, where will the money come from if you don't sell this thing?" Erlang, why don't we go to a shop that sells copper mirrors and sell them at a discount, maybe we can sell them at a good price. ”

Wang Yuan felt that what he said made sense, it was unrealistic to send Huang Yingyunyun, not that he was reluctant, but that he was currently poor, and he could only sell the only valuable mirror to buy something that was urgently needed, and he was also forced to be helpless.

The three of them turned around again and came to a street to the south, where there were several shops selling newly cast bronze mirrors, and presumably some of them would be willing to accept the most new bronze mirrors.

However, it turns out that this is wishful thinking, these businessmen in Datang seem to lack a string in their brains, and when they saw Wang Yuan coming in with a bronze mirror, the first thing that came to mind was the word return, and before Wang Yuan opened his mouth, he immediately made a statement: "The goods in the small store will not be returned or exchanged when they go out, why didn't you see it clearly when you bought it?" ”

Let Wang Yuan break his mouth and explain that he sold them for depreciation, but they said in unison: "There is a pawnshop for old goods for money, if you want to exchange money, you should go to a pawn shop, take the old bronze mirror to mess around, teach people to think that all I sell in this store are old goods, and ruin the reputation of my store?" ”

Five or six in a row, all of them are the same mixed up, Wang Yuan is anxious and awkward in his heart, he doesn't understand what happened to these businessmen? The currency in circulation in Datang is copper coins, and the copper mirror in his hand is also made of copper, which is like exchanging jewelry made of gold for gold coins in circulation, even if it is not equivalent, at least it will not lose much; The brains of this group of Tang Dynasty businessmen are afraid that they will be kicked by the donkeys one by one.

There is a shop that is willing to recycle, but the price is only two hundred and fifty yuan, as soon as he heard this auspicious number, Wang Yuan immediately raised his feet and left, he was afraid that he would stay for a moment and punch the red garlic nose.

"Erlang, why don't you go to the pawnshop to exchange money, talk about it, maybe there are pawnshop owners who are willing to pay a few dozen more." Huang San said with a sad face.

Wang Yuan stomped his feet and said, "Why? What the hell, the bronze mirrors in these shops are about the same size as mine, and the lowest price is 900 Wen, and my semi-new copper mirror is worth at least 500 or 600 Wen, right? Why do you make them black money? ”

"What then?" Huang San didn't have any tricks.

Wang Yuan looked at the people coming and going on the street, and suddenly had an idea: "Let's sell on the street, there may be many people on this street who come to buy mirrors, let's sell them directly, and the price is cheaper than in the store, will no one buy it?" ”