When Zhang Xuan walked out of the wine shop, dozens of guards hiding in an alley came out surrounded by a carriage, and the guards also pretended to be warriors in the martial arts hall, and the carriage was also ordinary, no different from the carriage on the street. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling sat in the carriage one after another, Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "I haven't drunk in a wine shop for a long time, especially I miss the Luoyang Tiansi Pavilion Restaurant, although the wine in the palace is not worse than there, but that feeling is gone." ”

"If you have gains, you must have lost, those who sit in the Tiansi Pavilion Restaurant and drink must also envy Your Majesty who sits in the palace and drinks!"

Zhang Xuan laughed, "The military advisor is right, it's my hypocrisy." ”

The carriage went out of the West City Gate, slowly going in the direction of the West City, the west of the Central Capital is expanding the city, the farmland on both sides of the official road has just been leveled, the outline of the new city wall in the distance has appeared, the new city will be expanded to the West City, and will be connected with the West Market.

"Your Majesty met that Wang Junya today, is it just to encourage him?" Fang Xuanling asked with a smile.

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly and said: "Wang Shou's eldest son is a county magistrate in Pengcheng County, the second son is an official in Zhuo County, and the third son is in the Jianghuai Yantian Division. ”

Fang Xuanling frowned and said: "Wang Shou is Li Yuan's best friend, it was Wang Shou's great help back then, Li Yuan was able to successfully raise troops in Taiyuan, Li Yuan also named Wang Shou as the prince of Taiyuan County, and his brother served as the prince of Taiyuan County." ”

"But don't forget, cousin Wang Shou is the general of our army, and he is still the governor of Goguryeo."

Fang Xuanling was silent, and said for a while: "Your Majesty is right, Wang Shou sent his four sons to the Great Zhou Moushi, this is an obvious sideline, does Your Majesty want him to help us capture Taiyuan?" ”

"To be precise, I hope for a peaceful handover in Taiyuan."

"I'm afraid that Qu Tutong won't surrender easily."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "If Qu Tutong is really so loyal, he will not surrender to the Tang Dynasty, the situation is stronger than people, once the general trend of the world is clear, he will not sink with the ship of the Tang Dynasty, the key is that we must be patient, do not be rash, and focus on the world, not personal grievances." ”

"Your Majesty is right!"

The two didn't continue talking, Fang Xuanling looked out the window, but he felt quite emotional in his heart, he obviously felt the changes after the Holy Lord ascended the throne, the kind of domination of the world was not obvious when he was the king of Qi, but now Fang Xuanling felt an indescribable pressure.

Fang Xuanling suddenly regretted a little, he really shouldn't have made that joke with the Son of Heaven just now.......

The carriage slowly arrived at the gate of the West Market, and all kinds of carriages and mule carts were parked in front of the gate of the West Market, mainly for transporting goods, and there was a lot of traffic everywhere, and the crowds were crowded.

Fifty guards who followed Zhang Xuan out stayed in front of the gate, and only five personal guards followed Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling into the West Market, which was even more lively, with shouts and shouts one after another, all kinds of goods piled up, and almost all the shops were crowded with bargaining customers.

After several years of development, the business of Zhongdu has comprehensively surpassed Chang'an and Luoyang, becoming the largest commercial center in the world, especially the area of Zhongdu West Market exceeds three Luoyang West City, with a circumference of more than ten miles, tens of thousands of shops, nearly 100,000 businessmen and men do things in the West Market, and the daily guests flow like a sea, from Hebei, the Central Plains, Bingzhou, Xuzhou, Liaodong, Guanlong and even the Western Regions and overseas guests gather here.

In addition, there is a canal behind each store, so you can transport goods directly to all parts of the world by water. Horse-drawn carriages and mule carts were confined to the central capital, and water transportation was the real main force of transportation in the western city, and even many Sogdian merchants transported their goods to the Hexi corridor through the Yellow River, and then transferred them to camels.

Zhang Xuan is still dressed as a bearded man, no one can recognize him, but the five personal guards are still vigilantly guarding the left and right, as the Son of Heaven, Zhang Xuan does not need to check the market in person, as long as he gives an order, there will be his subordinates to do it for him immediately, and he does not dare to deliberately conceal it, but Zhang Xuan still has to come out in person, he actually does not want to see anything, but to erect an attitude to the imperial court, everything must be investigated and studied, and he cannot sit in the official room and pat his head to write a recital.

"Isn't Your Majesty going to see the price of rice?" Fang Xuanling pointed to Mi Xing in the distance and asked in a low voice.

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "I won't go today, I want to buy some stationery." ”

"Stationery?" Fang Xuanling was confused, and didn't understand why the saint thought of stationery.

Zhang Xuan smiled, and walked to the southeast direction of the four treasures of the study, the four treasures of the study is also a shop selling pen, ink, paper and inkstone, there are about 30 shops on both sides of a small street, operating all kinds of study and four treasures, their business is especially hot during the imperial examination, and the business is not even crowded into the street at the best time.

It has been a while since the end of the imperial examination, and now the business of the four treasures of the study has entered a low ebb, and there are not many customers in the shops, but there are still Tang Dynasty scholars in twos and threes in front of the shops.

As soon as Zhang Xuan and the others arrived at the intersection, the guy from the first store ran out to stop them, "A few distinguished customers come to the small shop to have a look!" It doesn't matter if you buy it or not, add a little atmosphere, and the small shop will be grateful. ”

The guy is very good at talking, so Zhang Xuan smiled happily: "Okay then! Just go to your store and have a look. ”

"Come with me, a few distinguished guests."

Zhang Xuan followed him to the store, Fang Xuanling looked up at the store sign, and wrote three words 'Wushan Yun' on it, Fang Xuanling laughed, "Man, your proprietor is surnamed Wu?" ”

The guy asked curiously, "How does the gentleman know?" ”

Fang Xuanling pointed to the signboard and said with a smile: "It is clearly written on the signboard that the owner of this shop is called Wu Yu." ”

The guy applauded and praised: "It's really amazing, Mr. is the first to take the initiative to see the secret in the signboard of the shop, and most people only understand it after the villain introduces himself." ”

Zhang Xuan also smiled: "It's worthy of dropping the book bag, and even the name of the store is so exquisite, but it's still a little childish, I think it's better to call it a scholarly door?" ”

"Good!"

An old man in the shop stood up, stepped forward and bowed and said, "Down there is Wu Yu, the owner of this small shop, may I ask this brother's noble surname." ”

He saluted Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xuan said lightly: "Don't have your surname Zhang." ”

"It's the same surname as our Son of Heaven!"

Wu Yu sighed and said: "Brother Tai criticized correctly, in fact, I also think that the name of the store is not good, the name of the store hides the word 'no rain', rain is a flowing thing, representing customers and money, but I don't have these two things, how can the business go on, I have been thinking about changing a store, Brother Tai's 'scholarly door' is excellent, can you ask Brother Tai to leave a piece of ink treasure?" ”

Zhang Xuan pointed at Fang Xuanling and said with a smile: "My handwriting is not good, so please ask this gentleman to leave a handwriting!" ”

Fang Xuanling knew that Zhang Xuan refused to leave words, so he smiled and said: "If the proprietor doesn't think the calligraphy is rough, I will be ugly." ”

Wu Yu hurriedly asked the guy to lay out the paper and study the ink, Fang Xuanling picked up the pen and waved it, his study was written with a dragon and phoenix dance, the standard was extremely high, no less than everyone in the world, everyone was a person who knew the goods, and praised again and again, the proprietor Wu Yu was even more excited, and hurriedly asked the guy to take it and paste it.

Wu Yu arched his hand again: "Thank you two for giving you the name, I don't know what you can do for the two of you?" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled and said: "Actually, I just want to know about the market of the four treasures of the study, how does it compare with previous years?" ”

Wu Yu invited them to sit down and let the guys serve tea, he sighed and said: "If the business is actually good, but it is difficult to make money, the profit is too low, and it can't be compared with the previous years, one day at a time." ”

"Why is that?" Jang Hyun asked quietly.

"The main reason is that a few years ago, the imperial court set up several large workshops and made a large number of four treasures of the study, and the price was lowered all of a sudden."

Wu Yu took two stacks of paper and put them on the table, "What is the difference between these two kinds of paper?" ”

Zhang Xuan flipped through it, pointed to one of the stacks of papers, and said, "This one is slightly better." ”

"Yes! This one is indeed slightly better, and the other is slightly worse is officially made, but the price difference between the two of them is ten times, which one is Brother Tai willing to buy? ”

Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling both smiled: "Of course it's cheap." ”

"The problem is here, everyone buys cheap, so what money do we make, and the pen and ink inkstone is also, the imperial court is also making a large number of things, although things are very ordinary, but they are really very cheap, there is no profit at all, you can only sell some fine products, how much you can make some money, but there are too few people who buy fine goods, everyone buys cheap goods, so although the business is good, it is not profitable."

Zhang Xuan said with a smile: "The reason why the imperial court manufactures a large number of stationery is to make more people afford to read, now the number of readers is a minority after all, and reading is no longer expensive in the future, and the children of poor families can also read, and the number of readers will increase exponentially, although the money earned per piece of paper is less, but the amount of sales has increased, in fact, it is the same thing, this is called small profits but quick turnover, and the business should not have a loss." ”

"Who's the one who lost it?" Wu Yu asked with wide eyes.

"The family!" Fang Xuanling said on the side.

Fang Xuanling finally understood why the saint came to inspect the stationery, and also understood why the saint insisted on the large production of stationery paper by the government, once the family no longer monopolizes knowledge, then the family will slowly disappear, this is indeed the best way to deal with the family, and the bottom of the kettle will be drawn. (To be continued.) )