"Have you heard of it, Luoyang New Town has been repaired."

"Is it better than Chang'an?"

"Not for the time being......"

After passing the Baqiao and entering the suburbs of Chang'an, the merchants in the eastern part of the country looked curiously at the street scene outside Chang'an City, the buildings on the edge of the road that were occasionally seen in the large white world covered with ice and snow, and the merchants were only allowed to walk on the edge of the road, because the road was for the emperor and the army, so that they could see the street scene of the village on the edge of the late arrival.

"If you haven't been to Chang'an for a few years, you'll find that Chang'an City has changed a lot." Zhuo Wang Sun said.

The merchant groups in the Kanto region did not know what was going on, they knew that Chang'an New City was very grand, and they also knew that the embankment erected by the Wei River was impressive, and what other changes would make people impressed, they did not know.

With the doubts in their hearts, the convoy gradually drove into the core area of Guanzhong, Chang'an, and soon they found that it was very different, walking on the streets of Chang'an City, you will meet passers-by in a hurry, the west city and the western suburbs of the city are lined with workshops, and you can see the four ** carriages pulling goods from the workshop at all times.

They pulled their cargo straight to the dock, where countless ships were parked on the shore waiting to be loaded, and their destination would be a small town in Kanto, thousands of miles away, or they could be scattered to the southern harbor at the end of the earth through the turnover of Shaxian City in Jiangxia County.

"You know what? Chang'an's iron is famous all over the world, pig iron processing and production technology is very good, surface carburizing is the specialty of Chang'an craftsmen, you can take your own bad iron farm tools to Chang'an's iron smelting workshop to exchange for brand new farm tools, and the price you have to pay is only to pay a part of the money, the price paid is slightly more expensive than repairing farm tools. ”

Zhuo Wangsun is a family of iron smelters. Having worked with swarthy iron ore all his life, he was deeply aware of the influence of the steel industry on the Han Empire. The popularization of iron tools can greatly improve the efficiency of agricultural production, in other words, it is easier to work. A few decades ago, most farmers carried a rake made of pure wood to plough the land, no matter how hard the wood is, it is impossible to compare with steel, and it will be very painful to dig the soil without a rake, and the wood is repeatedly cultivated in the cultivated land and the wear is serious, and the production efficiency is far less than that of iron.

The businessmen whispered to the discussion, and many people reacted coldly.

The era of windfall profits in iron smelting has basically passed, and it can be seen from the iron smelting workshops in Chang'an City that homogeneous competition has seriously affected the yield of iron smelting, and the price of iron tools has fallen again and again, from half of the original profit to only one percent of the profit. The income has dropped by an astonishing 80 percent, and the Kanto merchants are not stupid at all, but they are all monkeys, and they resolutely do not touch the unprofitable business.

"It's hard to do business these days, and you can't make money by doing anything!"

Merchants complained that business was not as good as in previous years, and they still remembered that before the second year of the Later Era, each piece of iron could be sold at twice the price it is now, and merchants from all over the country crowded into their workshops to discuss business, and it was really how much was sold. In short supply.

Zhuo Wangsun has a different opinion on this: "On the contrary, I think this is very good, at least it proves that our Han family is constantly developing, and the scarce iron tools in the past are rapidly popularized, and more people are benefiting from them." The area of land cultivated by peasants has skyrocketed from 40 mu per capita in the past to 80 mu, and more land is cultivated with less manual labor, and we have more people to work. Go into business, go to be a soldier. Isn't that a good thing? ”

The Kanto merchant was speechless and sat sullenly in the car and meditated.

The truth seems to be quite correct. But in the interests of the craftsmen, it seems that the income of the craftsmen is decreasing, and the profits of the merchants are decreasing, and the peasants who have nothing to do with themselves are benefited, and the merchants will not care about the interests of the peasants at all, or even if they do, they will only make money from the peasants.

I thought so in my heart, but I didn't dare to say it in my mouth.

Merchants are untouchables with city registration, farmers are authentic first-class citizens, farming is glorious, ploughing is glorious, the pride of the northern and southern armies, and the great idea of military merit seeps into the bone marrow, and how can a group of businessmen who talk about making money or not making money can put a gimmick, as long as the farming and warfare system of all the people is unchanged, the right to speak of businessmen is almost zero, which is exactly what the businessmen diligently pursue, and many Kanto businessmen do not hesitate to support Confucianism is precisely to wave the flag and shout for their own interests.

Merchants have no status in the Han society, the cause is precisely the four people's system of Shinong, industry and commerce, this system and Confucianism has no half-money relationship, the two sets of classics of the Huang Lao school focus on the four people's system, the original intention of this system is to divide four groups to ensure the system of farming and warfare, one of the two classics is "Guanzi", the other is the former Huainan King Liu An's "Honglie" also known as "Huainanzi".

"Guanzi" is one of the core ideas of the Huang Lao School, and it is the highest academic classic in the Huang Lao New School. ”

Another "Honglie" mentions: "It is a person who is not an official, an official who is not a businessman, a farmer who is a businessman, a farmer who is different from another state, who is a farmer and a farmer, who is a man and a man, who is clever in his words and deeds, and who is a businessman and a businessman." ”

The two classics mention that the "scholar" is not the group of scholars who are selected from the imperial examination, but the selection of military merit and the selection of filial piety, virtuous and square, the original meaning of the national scholar is a brave man of a country, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period did not have the power of the scholar at all, Confucius himself is also a warrior who advocates the six arts of the gentleman with a sword, if you want to become a scholar, you must have a strong ability to cure and solve troubles.

Merchants are unwilling to be bound by the farming and warfare system, and the strong commercial atmosphere hinders the inheritance foundation of the simple farming and warfare culture, so the merchants from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are a group of low-status untouchables, and there are deep reasons for this discrimination, which is not unreasonable discrimination, let alone discrimination when the businessman makes money, and the people of the Han family do not have a hatred of the rich.

Perhaps it was what they saw and heard that dampened the interest in playing, or maybe the conversation just now was depressing, and the dull atmosphere of the merchant group remained until they entered the East Market.

As the host of the Kanto merchant group, Zhuo Wangsun chartered the top floor of the most famous inn in the East City for the guests of the Kanto region, from where you can overlook the panoramic view of the East City, Chang'an in late winter is still surrounded by the cold of the north, and a group of merchants stand in the attic on the top floor with great interest blowing the icy cold wind.

"If I'm not mistaken, Chang'an City should be limited to high orders, why does this inn have five floors?"

"You found out, and I wonder too."

Zhuo Wang Sun said absentmindedly: "The imperial court issued a decree that civil houses are allowed to be built up to five floors, and the maximum height shall not exceed eight zhang. ”

"This is a good thing, by the way, I think of one thing, Weiyang Palace and Changle Palace are being renovated, and His Majesty invited the Queen Mother to Jianzhang Palace to live temporarily."

"Jianzhang Palace was repaired so quickly?"

Zhuo Wangsun shook his head and said: "That's not it, only half of it is repaired and you can live, Weiyang Palace is demolished first Yongxiang and Jiaofang Palace, I heard that Queen Chen went to Changmen Palace again." ”

"Hehe, I remembered the story I heard last time in Chang'an City, and it's still being passed on?"

"It's even more powerful." Zhuo Wangsun looked around and saw that there were no strangers, and quietly told the most popular story in Chang'an City in the past half a year, and the protagonist of this story was Wei Zifu, who had just given birth to the eldest princess.

How favored is Wei Zifu? It is said that when she was confined, the emperor was undressed and accompanied her, which can really be described as hot, the Son of Heaven is obedient to Wei Zifu, holding it in his hand for fear of falling, and holding it in his mouth for fear of melting.

And this woman is very smart, she can always find opportunities to show her gentle and considerate side, the emperor looks at the well-behaved and gentle new love Wei Zifu who can give birth to a princess, and then compares with the strong and domineering old love Chen Ajiao, you don't have to think about it to know how much the emperor's attitude has changed.

The emperor dislikes Chen Ajiao more and more, and constantly finds fault and reprimands Chen Ajiao's words and deeds, Chen Ajiao found that the previous methods of playing tricks or spoaching or begging for mercy in the past are gradually ineffective, and her grievances and anger are vented on Wei Zifu, but she never expected that Wei Zifu is not good at stubble, and the woman who was carefully cultivated by Princess Yang Nobunaga showed extraordinary tenacity and scheming.

So since Empress Gao Lu Pheasant tortured and killed Mrs. Qi, another unprecedented court battle of the Han family began.

The two sides of the vicious fight have gone from the quarrel of greeting and seeing each other every day, to gradually tearing off their disguises and competing for the opportunity to attend banquets and sacrifices, to using various resources to constantly attack and weaken each other's reputation.

The love and hatred of the emperor's family is like a royal farce that is pleasing to see, not only becoming the talk of the people after dinner, but also touching the hearts of the people of Chang'an all the time.

What's more interesting is still to come, with the popularity of the royal farce that can be called the most attractive BC, two groups of supporters of the palace nobles quickly formed in Chang'an City, most of the people who firmly support the orthodox empress Chen Ajiao are middle-aged and elderly, and some women are very sympathetic to Chen Ajiao who has lost favor in middle age, and most of the young people in the other group support Wei Zifu, and Wei Zifu's personal image is very good, and he has followed the Son of Heaven out and went out several times, wearing a gorgeous phoenix robe that is impressive.

The two sides fought for their own interests, until a few days ago the emperor forcibly divided the two into two places, Empress Chen was sent to the Changmen Palace outside the south gate of Chang'an City to live temporarily, and Wei Zifu went to the hot springs of Linguang Palace in Ganquan Mountain to spend the winter, on the surface it seems that the two sides are tied and shake hands and make peace, in fact, Wei Zifu still has the advantage, and the women who can go to Lin Guang Palace are all extremely prominent, and the once favored Empress Chen has to go to Lin Guang Palace several times a year to visit the Empress Dowager.

Her opportunity was deprived by Wei Zifu, which is equivalent to the Son of Heaven supporting Wei Zifu in disguise. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!)