Liu Biao ordered the waterway to be blocked, but it was not the whole waterway, and it was not difficult to find a ferry to cross the Han River.

Looking for more than ten ferries near Nanyangyin County, goods, livestock, and people crossed the Han River seven or eight times, and then dozens of miles to the south, and entered the boundary of Nanjun.

At this time, Nanjun has just started the autumn harvest, and there are many large and small caravans that come here to buy grain, and Zhao Yuan and them are mixed in and are not conspicuous at all.

With the origin of Zhao Yuan's caravan, this time from Henan, it should have gone east, and sold all the way back to his hometown through Yanzhou and Yuzhou.

It's a pity that the east of Dayuan is all Cao Mengde's territory, for this ferocious character, as long as you think about the corpse that blocked Surabaya at the beginning, who in Xuzhou doesn't have lingering palpitations? There is a risk in selling books this time, and Zhao Yuan doesn't want to provoke the butcher.

Therefore, he only asked the chief steward to lead a few cronies to rush home, preparing to quietly move his family to Henan.

There were a few less stewards in the caravan, and at the same time there were three more people, all of whom were entrusted by Zheng Ran, two were middle-aged people with vicissitudes of life, plus a fierce young man.

Zhao Yuan wanted to be polite to these three, but after the two middle-aged people joined the caravan, they immediately mixed into the group of guys, rushing to work all the way, only seven or eight days later, and even Zhao Yuan only regarded them as his own caravan buddies.

The sturdy young man named Lu Liang, who did not look like an ordinary guy in terms of skin, temperament, and body, stayed by Zhao Yuan's side as a guard, and was the only one who enjoyed the privileges of the caravan.

There were originally eight or nine guards with real skills in the caravan, but there were more travels to Henan, and most of the guards chose to leave the caravan and settle under Deng Mu'an's rule. Zhao Yuanhou is enveloped. In the end, only three remained. Now add another Lu Liang for the time being.

The caravan was originally decided by Zhao, but when he was in Nanyang, Lu Liang also suggested that for safety reasons, the caravan should go west after arriving in Nanjun, sell books along the way, and return to Badong through Zigui and Wuxian, although there would be many more checkpoints to consume. However, if you go back and forth between the two forces, it will be easier to escape if you are hunted down.

It's just that Lu Liang is not good at business, but when he arrives in Nanjun, Zhao Yuan is willing to take risks, and he is ready to enter Xiangyang directly.

Not only was Liu Biao, the ruler of Jingzhou, more lenient than Cao Cao, but this time the merchants selected the remaining books in Luoyang, and in the end, Zhao Yuan and a few others got nearly 2,000 copies each, and Zhao Yuan helped Zheng Ran to capture and work carefully, and he got 500 more books alone. Nearly 2,500 volumes. Small places can not be sold, and only by paying off the arrears before June of the next year can you get the status of a meritorious citizen. Remaining in the hands will only depreciate day by day. The road Lu Liang said was indeed safe, but Zhao Yuan had heard that other merchants who were going to sell books were also going to take this road.

Nanjun is located in Jiangling, but Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao only lives in Xiangyang City at the north end of Nanjun, after these years of governance, Xiangyang is much more prosperous than Jiangling, Jingzhou families, scholars also gather here, Xiangyang is the closest not to say, the book is easy to sell, it is estimated that others do not dare to come for a while, like Zhao Yuan is naturally good to ship.

2,500 books is a lot, and it is also a very huge wealth at this time, but it only needs five livestock to carry them all, and the rest of the livestock are all Henan honey that Zhao Yuan bought with his surplus money. Zhao Yuan decided to enter Xiangyang, the road was very close, and the caravan claimed to be selling honey, and paid expensive entry fees to enter the city within a day.

Staying in the city, Lu Liang went out to investigate the caravan, and returned in the evening to tell Zhao Yuan that no one in Xiangyang City had come to sell books, and there was no abnormality in the city, thinking that Liu Biao did not report the matter.

Early the next morning, Zhao Yuan sent the steward to lead the men to the city to sell honey, and he and three guards set up the bookstall far away from the honey stall, pretending not to know each other.

While Liu Biao didn't realize it, it was the safest time to sell books on the first day, but Lu Liang still helped him to watch the movement in front of the official temple.

Zhao Yuan knew that rare things were precious, and among the books he put out, there were nine Confucian classics in a collection of 100 volumes, and the rest of the books such as "Guiguzi" and "Qin Cao" were only three copies, and the rest were left in the container.

Even so, many people in the bazaar were still staring in disbelief when they saw the stalls with so many books, but they just watched from a distance, and no one asked him for a while.

Shizi rarely visited the market, but every morning the servants of the wealthy family came to the market to buy vegetables and food, and when they found his booksstand, they immediately rushed home to tell their master.

Two or three moments later, an old Maishi man who lived close to him came running with a limp and panting on one foot, and asked in a loud voice from afar: "That scholar, who copied your book?" ”

Anyone who has seen it at a glance can detect the difference between printing books and copying books, and this aspect cannot be kept secret, and when he ran to the stall, Zhao Yuan replied: "My book is made by the new law, and it is not copied by people!" ”

The old scholar swept the titles of the books one by one on the covers of each book with a balanced breath, and the light in his eyes became brighter and brighter, and when he saw Cai Yong's three small characters recorded under "Qin Exercises", he gasped even more, and reached out to take the book to watch.

Zhao Yuan hurriedly held down the writing, but the old scholar couldn't take the book, and glared at him angrily: "If you don't read the text first, how can you know whether it's true or not?" Mistakes or omissions? How to buy books and negotiate prices? ”

Zhao Yuan shook his head and said: "The books I sell, such as the collection of Confucian scriptures, are first imitated by the text of the Xiping Stone Scriptures, and then by famous scholars, there are few errors and omissions, and all books are like this!" However, there are also limitations: a book is only allowed to turn three pages of the text, and if you agree, you can buy it, and if you don't buy it, you are not allowed to take the book and read the text! ”

The old scholar read it on the covers of each book again, and felt that what he wanted most was the rare book of music and rhythm, so he nodded hurriedly and said, "That's it!" ”

When Zhao Yuan let go, the old scholar hurriedly pulled out the "Qin Exercise", opened the first page and watched it carefully, after a while, he had to read it, he was already in a trance, and wanted to turn to the second part, suddenly remembered the words of the bookseller, he couldn't help it, and read two articles from it and from behind, and felt very much in line with his own wishes, so he asked: "What is the price of this book?" ”

Zhao Yuan said: "Ten gold!" ”

"Ten gold?" The old scholar was furious and shouted, "You have this method of printing books, and it is very easy to make books!" And this book is unheard of, is it really written by Cai Bojiao? Is it worth the price? ”

Sure enough, the other party saw through the truth of the printed book, Zhao Yuan still said unhurriedly: "This is the daughter of Cai Zhonglang, how can it be fake?" ”

The old scholar was stunned for a moment, and asked tentatively: "Cai Bojiao's daughter is in the north?" ”

"Emperor Yuan was included in the palace, and I heard that I had given birth to a daughter!"

The Xiping Stone Scripture mentioned before is in Luoyang City, listen to this again. It's not hard to guess from the bookseller's roots. The credibility of this "Piano Exercise" suddenly increased a few points. It's just that the price makes people feel painful, and the old scholar turned his gaze to other books indignantly and asked, "What is the price of the Confucian classics?" ”

"The Confucian Classics are one episode and one gold!"

The old scholar wanted to take a look at his text again, but Zhao Yuan stopped again: "I haven't bought "Qin Cao", so I can't read the rest of the book again!" ”

Zhao Yuan's attitude was resolute, and the old man was so angry that he was like thunder, but people had already spoken first, and he could only endure the dirty words in his stomach: "How many points will the price be slightly conceded?" ”

"No less!"

Booksellers must compare baht. didn't give in, and the old man's resentment suddenly became heavier. He knew that books were expensive, and when he heard that there were book sellers in the market, he came urgently, and he didn't forget to bring the money, but if the other party was fortunate enough to copy it by hand, it would be fine, and at this time he understood the method of printing books, and wanted to be made so much by profiteers, how could it not hurt?

Knowing that after the spread of calligraphy, the price of books will drop sharply in the next few years. But the favorite thing in life is right in front of you, how can you endure the itch in your heart?

See also that there are only three copies of "Qin Exercise". I'm afraid that it will be difficult to find a lone book in the future, in case no one prints it later, and you miss the opportunity to find it again?

In the end, I had no choice but to take out the gold and silver to buy "Qin Cao" first, and then flipped through the collection of Confucian classics that I had not read, and bought a total of five copies, and the rest were only expected to be collected when the price of the book dropped in the future.

The old man scolded the profiteer, stroked the book happily, put on one sock and the other clog, and limped home.

After the business opened, some curious businessmen in the city came to flip through and buy a few Confucian classics.

The next step was that the stall was completely surrounded by a crowd of taxis.

Books are the heritage of a family, and their importance is even higher than wealth, and one after another Xiangyang scholars came back and forth, even if they figured out this method of printing books, most people had to raise their necks to be slaughtered first.

The Confucian classics collection scholars are eager to have all the books, some of the family has a hand-copied copy also want to buy back to compare the errata, and some of them think that they are not knowledgeable enough to borrow the punctuation marks of Da Yuan, but where there is enough money in the pocket, everyone has to buy a few episodes, and some of them have to be complete.

"Guiguzi" and other cold books must meet the favorite to sell, but the price is expensive, sell a copy of the Confucian Sutra ten copies, "Excerpts from the Biography of the Daughters" There are many people to the sisters and daughters in the family to bring back as gifts or collections, these books are few, and when the last book is sold, there are often two people competing for the price of the situation, but Zhao Yuan did not dare to be too angry, and hurriedly took the book out of the box to make up for it to prevent the dispute.

Among the important civil and military ministers in Jingzhou, the Kuai family, the Huang family, the Cai family, the Wen family, the Huo family, etc., all came to buy books, and even Liu Qi, the eldest son of Liu Biao, also came to buy books in person.

After hearing the news, the scholars from the poor family who rushed to watch only smiled helplessly in the face of this high price of books, but there were more people who bought books, and they thought that in the future, they would have a lot more chance of borrowing books to copy by hand among their friends, and the world came out of this method of printing books, and the price of books could one day drop to a level that they could afford, and they were a little happy in addition to melancholy.

In this first day alone, Zhao Yuan sold more than 800 books of all kinds, not only to prevent Liu Biao from sending officials to arrest and punish the crime after knowing the hidden situation, but also to prevent the juniors in the city from seeing the wealth, and at the end of the day, he closed the stall and did not dare to sell it again, so he and the three guards rushed to pack up the remaining books and belongings, and ran out of the city before it was dark.

There are too many book buyers, among whom they are aware of the abnormality of the back cover, Liu Biao has been informed when it is dark, but there are already a lot of books that have been sold, and it is impossible to collect them one by one, so he can no longer prohibit the people from talking about the Yuan system, and then hunt down and kill the booksellers, but there is a mouth to prevent the people more than to prevent the heart of Sichuan, so that his reputation plummeted, although he gritted his teeth with hatred, but he could only let it go for the time being.

At the beginning, Luoyang told Zhao Yuan and other merchants that selling books might lead to death, "maybe they would", after all, no one could guess how the princes would react after learning the truth.

The caravan sold honey in Xiangyang for two days normally, Lu Liang and other parties inquired, the city has been widely discussed in the Sizhou system, and the Jingzhou government has not acted abnormally, so he can rest assured and go out of the city to seek Zhao Yuan.

A few days later, Zhao Yuan re-entered Xiangyang, and books were put up for sale in the city.

It's just that although Liu Biao is not punished, he is about to start collecting heavy taxes, and he has sent a city official to stand next to the booksstand, and every time Zhao Yuan sells a copy, he has to levy half the price as a tax.

After selling for another day, the profit was greatly reduced, and Zhao Yuan was also distressed, so he had to lead the caravan to leave Xiangyang and go to Jiangling, Wuling and other places, but he had to prevent being attacked and killed along the way, and the road was full of confusion.

(My cousin broke his arm and just came back from the hospital. This is the end of the story for another discussion, so I will ask for a recommendation ticket first. (To be continued.) )