A sunny morning with a warm breeze.

Li Shuchu, the governor of the Central Plains, and Qi Guoyuan, the chief soldier of Kaifeng Town, changed their bodies, one wearing a moon-white Confucian robe and a square scarf, like a middle-aged scribe. One is dressed in brocade, like a nursing dart who practices martial arts. The two did not play a guard of honor to put on a show, and each brought four members to enter Kaifeng City.

Zhuxian Town is a very prosperous commercial town, but compared with Kaifeng City, it is very small. Even if Kaifeng City is in the country, it is one of the best prosperous cities, especially here according to the Yellow River, Shahe, Sui River, etc., Luoyang in the west, Xuzhou in the east, Jinan and Linqing in the north.

Originally, as one of the nine governors of the dignified Han Empire, Li Shuchu was a real feudal official. As the governor, he has twelve pairs of royal flags, as well as gold and silver arrows, and Shangfang swords, which not only govern the local civil affairs of Henan and Shandong provinces, but also lead military affairs, and also manage the river and be responsible for Cao Yun, etc., which can really be described as a hot power.

Such a feudal official has a set of special guards to rely on and escort when traveling. If you fight with all your pomp, it will be very majestic.

However, Li Shuchu is not the kind of person who likes to show off his majesty, although Qi Guoyuan is an upstart in the new dynasty, but he is not good at those false names.

The two of them took a few guards who were dressed all the way into Kaifeng City, in the Chongzhen Dynasty, Henan was robbed and burned by bandits several times, and Henan suffered several disasters, and even Kaifeng such an important town once the people rushed to flee.

But now, Kaifeng City has been full of shops under the guise of swaggering, businessmen gathered, people everywhere, and it has recovered its vitality.

Li Shuchu, who was walking on the street, was very satisfied with all this in Kaifeng, the new emperor established the country, and the Central Plains, the heart of the world, did not immediately break out into large-scale turmoil. In addition to the bandits in western Henan, they are still suppressing bandits. The eastern part of Henan and Shandong are very calm.

Under the new policies and good governance, people are returning to their hometowns one after another, and all prefectures and counties are also actively carrying out post-disaster reconstruction work. However, compared with the prosperous scene of Kaifeng at the time of Wanli, there is still a bit of a gap.

If you want the people to return to their hometowns, you have to let the people live a good life, and he, the governor, still has a long way to go, first of all, he has to be rich. And we can't disturb the people, and the people can't increase their burden at all.

How to have both, it seems that it is also as Qi Guoyuan said. The only way to do this is to attack the clans of the former dynasty first. Knocking down these clans, not to mention the capital for the reconstruction and restoration of the two provinces in the Central Plains, can even hand over a large amount of funds to the imperial court.

However, it is very sensitive when it comes to the clans of the previous dynasties, and it is not a simple matter to make the clans spit out the wealth of the land that should no longer belong to them, and not to force them excessively.

After Li Shuchu entered Kaifeng, he did not rush to the original Zhou Palace, but first walked around the city with Qi Guoyuan, especially went to the Four Seas Bank, salt shops, grain stores and other places, and asked about the situation.

Kaifeng Sihai Bank is doing a prosperous business. Li Shuchu queued up at the counter and tried to ask for a 1,000 yuan silver dollar coupon to be exchanged for a silver dollar, but the counter met his request. A thousand silver dollars were exchanged for him.

Qi Guoyuan followed and asked to exchange one hundred silver dollar coupons for copper dollars, and one silver dollar for two hundred copper dollars. Qi Guoyuan specifically requested that Tongyuan should be a part of one article, two articles and five documents.

The man behind the counter called their counselor, who did not refuse his request. Two saleswomen were called and cashed in all the copper dollars as he requested.

At this time, Qi Guoyuan asked for another 10,000 copper dollars.

"I'm sorry, officer. According to the bank's regulations, the bank can only exchange less than 100 copper dollars at a time. ”

"Then exchange all these 10,000 silver dollar coupons for a silver coin assembly."

"I'm sorry about that, guest. To redeem more than 10,000 silver dollar coupons, you need to make an appointment one day in advance. For more than 1,000 coins, you need to make a reservation three days in advance, and if you exchange more than 10,000 dollars, you need to make a reservation seven days in advance. The middle-aged Xiangli in a robe explained to them politely.

"If I want to exchange a million dollars, how long will it take?" Li Shuchu asked with great interest.

"This guest officer, if you have such a large silver dollar to exchange, you need to make an appointment in advance, and we will award you the most distinguished five-star guest treatment. If it is a million silver ticket to be exchanged for a silver dollar coupon, if it is a ticket issued by a foreign branch, it will take ten days, and it only takes seven days for the silver ticket issued by this branch to be exchanged. If it is to be exchanged for silver coins, then according to the rules, it takes one month in advance for the tickets of foreign branches to be exchanged for such a large amount of silver dollars, and it takes 20 days for the bank's silver tickets to be exchanged for silver coins. ”

Li Shuchu is more concerned about whether he can cash it out, "One million is all cashed into silver dollars?" Not a silver dollar coupon? ”

"Absolutely."

"What about three million, five million?"

Xiangli kept a smile on his face and said very confidently, "Don't say three or five million, our Kaifeng branch can also exchange ten million silver dollars, but according to the decree of the imperial court, the exchange of more than 100,000 silver coins and one million silver dollar coupons needs to be reported and registered with the government." ”

Li Shuchu nodded with satisfaction, and finally deposited all the silver dollars and copper dollars that had just been exchanged with Qi Guoyuan into the silver dollars. Xiangli was not dissatisfied with their blind tossing behavior, and still completed the deposit procedures kindly, and even promoted them to a one-star customer.

Walking out of the door of the bank, Qi Guoyuan smiled, "The guys from these banks have a very good attitude. ”

Li Shuchu took a formality slip and raised his head, "We just took it out and then deposited, and in just a while, the bank charged two handling fees for withdrawal and deposit. ”

Li Shuchu then went to the government-run salt shop, grain store, tobacco, liquor and tea shop, and by the way, he went to visit several markets. It was found that whether Kaifeng City is an official or private store, all kinds of luxury goods and daily necessities are sufficient, and the prices are relatively stable.

In particular, several daily necessities such as grain, salt, oil, and cloth have maintained a stable price.

Seeing this, Li Shuchu was very satisfied.

The price of goods is stable, which shows that the situation in Kaifeng is very good now, and the people's sentiment is also very stable. Whether a place is stable or not can be known by looking at prices. If turmoil is imminent, then the clues can be found in the fluctuation of prices.

After walking around, Li Shuchu and Qi Guoyuan finally came to King Zhou's mansion.

The palace of the king of Zhou covers an extremely wide area, like a city within a city. Now, although the plaque of the palace has been removed, it has been replaced by the plaque of the Zhu Mansion. But it still shows its wealth and extraordinary.

The Zhumen has high walls and a continuous courtyard.

The two of them, dressed in ordinary clothes, approached with a few long entourages in ordinary clothes, and someone immediately came up to them in front of the gate and stopped them.

"Stop, what kind of person, I didn't see that this is the Zhou Palace, what are you doing at will."

Qi Guoyuan stood still and sneered twice, "Zhou Wangfu? Isn't there a plaque of Zhu's Mansion hanging on this door? As far as I know, this dynasty has not yet been crowned a king. This King of Zhou, is it the King of Zhou of the Han Empire, or the King of Zhou of which dynasty? ”

The few guards at the door also seemed to be shocked by the momentum of Qi Guoyuan's words and his one-eyed eye.

The attitude changed slightly, "My master is the prince of Zhou in the previous dynasty, although the dynasty has changed now, but the current saint has also issued an edict to treat the clan of the previous dynasty well, after all, the current emperor has also entered the genealogy of the clan of the previous dynasty." ”

"Who are you? But do you want to meet my master? ”

Li Shuchu took a step forward, "Master in the Lower Governor's Mansion, this is our Governor's personal soldier. We were ordered by the Governor to come to meet Mrs. Zhu. There is a letter from the Governor to give. ”

An older man came over and looked at Li Shuchu and Qi Guoyuan again, and finally glanced at the eight entourages behind the two.

Nodding his head, "Is there a post?" ”

Li Shuchu shook his head.

The old man frowned, and finally said. "You go and sit down in the porter over there, and I'll go inside and ask for instructions."

The Zhou Palaces are very large, and the gatehouse of the Zhou Palaces is naturally also very large. The concierge in their house was even divided into left and right.

They are all for people to rest and wait when they are waiting, but the two gatehouses are not simple, but there is a mystery inside. The gatehouse on the left, in the past, was used by people of status to visit and stay when they met, and it was beautifully decorated, with iced sour plum soup in summer, a stove and hot tea in winter, and even domestic servants waiting.

The one on the right is different, the one on the right has only two rows of benches next to the wall.

A family member led Li Shuchu and the two inside, and at this time, the eight guards wanted to follow in, but he stopped them.

"You're waiting outside, and there's no place for you inside."

Li Shuchu turned his head to the guard and said, "You just go around the neighborhood, go to the nearby tea shop to have some tea, and come back to pick us up later." ”

Jia Ding led Li Shuchu and the two into the gatehouse on the right, threw down the two of them, and left a lukewarm sentence, "You sit here first, and when the upper side calls you in, I will come to inform." As he spoke, he looked at the two of them, waited for a while, and saw that the two of them didn't say anything, so he snorted dissatisfiedly and went out.

Sitting on the cold bench, Qi Guoyuan smiled, "My lord did it on purpose just now." ”

Li Shuchu has been in the sea for many years, and after several dynasties, he naturally knows the rules of these gatehouses. It is said that the prime minister's concierge is a seven-grade official, and the concierge of the Wang family this week is no worse than the prime minister's house. If in the past, as a staff member like him, he came to ask for a meeting, if he didn't give the porter some money, I was afraid that he would have to be hung for an hour or two before he would be informed.

"The top and bottom of this mansion still regard themselves as high-ranking royal clansmen, and even a small sect regards themselves as seventh-rank officials. It's okay, if he doesn't report it, let's sit here on the cold bench for a while. ”

Qi Guoyuan smiled, "Why bother, it's not interesting to sit here, I'll ask if there is any tea, I've been shopping for a long time, and my mouth is dry." ”

There was a teapot on the wooden table in the corner, but Qi Guoyuan carried it but it was empty. He walked to the door with a teapot, "Brother, if you have any tea, help get a pot." ”

The porter glanced back at him, and saw that he had a pot in one hand and an empty hand in the other, so he snorted again and turned back, ignoring him again.

Royal Palace.

Zhu Gongqiao changed into an ordinary satin robe and wore an ordinary scarf.

On both sides of his head, there are the original 36 county kings of Kaifeng Zhou and the heads of the families below.

"Didn't the governor say to come over today, why haven't you seen anyone at this hour?" One sat with some impatience.

"Yes, these guys are too pretentious, and the surname Li was just our emperor's son-in-law at the beginning, but now he is riding on our heads and sitting on the throne."

The voices of discontent are getting louder.

Zhu Gongyu coughed heavily, and his eyes swept over these nephews and brothers, "If you can't speak, shut up, if you don't speak, no one will treat you as dumb, don't you know where the trouble comes from?" ”

When everyone shut up, Zhu Gongyu turned his head to his eldest son and said, "You didn't remember the wrong day, they said that they came today?" ”

Zhu Shaoyang wiped the sweat from his forehead, "That's right, it's today." ”

Zhu Gongyu frowned, and he was also a little dissatisfied in his heart.

"Since they said they would come today, they will definitely come, and wait."

Yahuan came up, replaced everyone with new tea, and served snacks.

After another hour of sitting, many people finally grew impatient.

"I said, they won't stop coming, what time will it be, and it will be dark in a few moments."

"It's like, I don't think they're going to come."

"People are now the new upstarts of the court, who still takes us seriously."

"Just go back to their respective homes and stop serving."

Zhu Gongqi stood up, and everyone finally closed their mouths again, Zhu Gongyu's eyes swept over everyone, then flicked his sleeves and walked to the backyard.

The heads of the families of the Zhou family are drinking tea in the front yard hall, and the female relatives of each family also gather together today to drink tea in the backyard.

Today are not only the wives of each family, but also the young daughters of each family.

These original county lords, county lords, county lords, county monarchs, and township lords also have a fortune, and the county lord has 800 stone lu, and the journey is decreasing, and their sons-in-law are all called honor guests.

On weekdays, the county lords of the royal palaces, the county lords of the county palaces, and the county lords of the generals' mansions of the towns and countries, etc., which is not high.

The treatment of the Ming Dynasty has always been favorable, especially in the Ming Dynasty, which never made friends, so these clan daughters never had to worry about being married to foreign states, and their husbands were mostly children of local clans or official eunuchs.

There are even quite a few, and they directly recruit sons-in-law to the door, such as Li Shuchu, who was recruited by King Anton at the beginning.

But now, these clan daughters have lost their noble titles overnight and have become ordinary women. Even because of the identity of the former dynasty on their heads, their status plummeted.

In the past, the daughters of various families did not worry about getting married, but now no one dares to come to ask.

Originally, Zhu Gongyu still thought that he would take the opportunity of Li Shuchu's visit to Qi Guoyuan today, and by the way, let them meet the young unmarried women of various families, and maybe have the opportunity to marry these court nouveau riche and find a new backer.

But now, it's dark, but Li Shuchu and Qi Guoyuan are still nowhere to be seen.

sent 2.5 million silver dollars, in exchange for such a reply, Zhu Gongyu was very angry. (To be continued.) )