The heavy rain continued for more than 20 days before finally stopping.

After the rain, the sun shone directly on the water-filled ground, and the water vapor on the ground was steaming, and the air was filled with a heavy dampness.

With his hands behind his back, walking on the bluestone road in the back garden of the palace, Liu Wei said to Xu Shu who was following him as he walked: "Yuan Zhi has been looking for talents in Luoyang to take over the mundane affairs. ”

"Back to Your Highness!" Following Liu Bian's side, he heard Liu Bian ask him if he was looking for talents, and Xu Shu hurriedly replied: "There are quite a lot of talents, and many of my subordinates have been settled. ”

"I still have to find a few people to form a cabinet and take over the affairs of Yuan Zhi!" Stopped, facing Xu Shu, Liu Wei had an indifferent smile on the corner of his mouth, and said to Xu Shu: "When the military division settles the affairs, you can follow this king to the south and the north to pacify this chaotic world!" ”

"The Cabinet?" Xu Shu hadn't even heard the nouns that came out of Liu Wei's mouth, he was stunned for a moment, and asked Liu Wei: "Dare to ask Your Highness, what is the cabinet?" ”

"Ugh!" Being asked by Xu Shu like this, Liu Wei was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that for Xu Shu, the word cabinet was indeed so novel that he had never heard of it at all, so he explained: "The cabinet is a group of courtiers, forming a team, and exercising power for the king on weekdays." However, the military affairs of the Luoyang Army are still handled by the king himself, and they only need to take care of people's livelihood and public security. ”

"Ugh!" Liu Bian's explanation, Xu Shu seemed to understand something, nodded, and said to Liu Bian: "The people's livelihood has always been handled by His Royal Highness himself, and it is really hard, and it must be shared by the courtiers." ”

"It has been raining heavily for several days, and this king originally planned to convene merchants from the Western Regions to discuss the matter of Wusha, but he didn't want to delay it for so long." Turning around, while walking to the front yard, Liu Wei asked Xu Shu, "Has the military advisor discussed the matter of Wusha with these merchants from the Western Regions?" ”

"It's already been discussed!" Liu Wei asked about Wusha, and Xu Shu hurriedly said: "Due to the heavy Wusha, the merchants of the Western Regions are reluctant to bring goods, which is very difficult. ”

"Heavy!" Hearing Xu Shu say this, Liu Wei snorted coldly and said to him: "The merchant is just mercenary, and when he hears that this king is in urgent need of Wusha, he wants to sit on the ground and raise the price, how can he hide this king from such thoughts?" ”

"Your Highness can see through it!" Following Liu Bian, Xu Shu praised Liu Bian and didn't say anything more.

As soon as the merchants of the Western Regions said that Wusha was heavy and did not want to bring goods, Xu Shu had already seen what kind of calculations they were making in their hearts.

It's just that the minds of these businessmen are too easy to guess, so Xu Shu didn't say anything, just waited for Liu Wei to see it.

Sometimes, as a courtier, it is more appropriate to behave more dullly in front of the lord. At least in some inconsequential things, it can be a little duller.

Liu Wei saw the thoughts of the merchants in the Western Regions, but he didn't guess what Xu Shu was thinking.

One sentence broke the calculation of the merchants in the Western Regions, Liu Wei was still secretly proud in his heart, and when he saw it, he walked to the front yard with Xu Shu.

In the open space in front of the stairs in the front yard, one or two hundred merchants dressed in strange clothes were already waiting there.

When Liu Wei and Xu Shu walked out of the back garden, one of the guards raised his voice and shouted, "The king of Luoyang has arrived!" ”

Hearing the shouts of the guards, the one or two hundred strangely dressed people hurriedly bowed down and saluted Liu Wei, but what they did was not a fist salute from the Central Plains, but a variety of Western Regions etiquette.

Walking in front of the two hundred merchants from the Western Regions, Liu Wei waved his hand at them, which was regarded as a salute, and then said to them: "All the merchants have come from the Western Regions to my Han Dynasty, and the journey has been very hard, please enter the front hall to speak." ”

At Liu Bian's invitation, the merchants bowed down one by one, watching Liu Bian and Xu Shu go up the stairs first under the escort of several guards, and only after the two of them walked up twenty or thirty steps did the merchants follow the two and walk up the stairs.

Entering the front hall, Liu Wei strode to the main seat, turned around, and made a gesture of invitation to the merchants of the Western Regions who followed into the hall, and said to them: "Everyone, please take a seat!" ”

Everyone thanked Liu one after another, and on both sides of the main hall, according to the strong strength of the capital, they were divided into several rows.

When everyone sat down, Liu Wei, who had already sat down, pressed his knees with one hand, leaned slightly, and his eyes roamed around the faces of everyone in the hall, and then asked everyone: "Please come here today, presumably the military advisor has already informed everyone of the king's intentions, I don't know if you have any thoughts about ordering Wusha?" ”

"Wusha is heavy, and it's really not easy to come and go!" As soon as Liu Bian's words fell, sitting in the front row, a blonde and blue-eyed merchant from the Western Regions stood up, put his right hand on his left heart, and saluted Liu Bian, saying, "Your Highness wants to buy Wusha, I'm afraid the price will ......."

From the appearance and demeanor of the merchants of the Western Regions, Liu Wei could see that this person should be a native of the Great Qin Kingdom far away in Europe.

Since the Silk Road, the Han Dynasty opened several stations with the Xiongnu, reducing the control of the Xiongnu to a minimum.

In order to obtain luxury goods such as silk and bronze utensils transported from the Han Dynasty, the Great Qin in the West also often sent troops to war with the Xiongnu.

The Han Dynasty and the Great Qin Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu in the east and the west, although the Xiongnu were not completely wiped out, but they also ensured the smooth flow of the Silk Road.

There are often Han merchants, in order to make high profits, they travel thousands of miles to Daqin to sell silk, bronze and other luxury goods. There are also often merchants from Daqin who come to Dahan from afar to buy goods from the East.

The reason why there are so many merchants would rather risk being hijacked by the Huns and being covered with wind and sand along the way, but also send goods to a foreign land, for nothing more than profit.

The Great Qin merchant stood up, and before he finished speaking, Liu Wei waved his hand at him and said to him: "Everyone has come to my Great Han Dynasty from thousands of miles away, just to seek more benefits. This king also knows that silk, bronze and other goods are extremely popular in Daqin, and once they arrive, the profit will be 100 times. ”

When Liu Wei mentioned the luxury goods of silk and bronze, all the merchants in the hall turned their eyes to him.

Merchants from the Western Regions, due to the lack of currency, came to the Han Dynasty to trade, mostly using silver and gold. However, the common people of the Han Dynasty did not agree with these two precious metals very much, so in the process of trading, they spent a lot of money.

"One pound of gold, for thirty pounds of Wusha!" Looking around at everyone, a faint smile appeared on the corner of Liu Wei's mouth, and he said to the merchants in the hall: "All the Wusha is directly exchanged for Shu brocade and Jiangnan silk, I don't know if everyone is interested." ”

"I'll do it!" The merchants were still looking at each other, thinking about whether they could get more benefits from the King of Luoyang, when a merchant of the Great Qin State who was sitting in the back row stood up, put his right hand on his left heart, and said to Liu Wei: "Your Highness has offered rich conditions, but I don't know how much Wusha Your Highness needs?" ”

"Purify Wusha, three thousand catties a year!" With a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, Liu Wei raised his hand to point at the merchant and said to him, "You go to the front and sit!" ”

After Liu Wei's order, among the merchants, this merchant of the Great Qin Kingdom, whose strength was originally very poor, strode out from behind several rows of merchants and knelt in the front row.

"Three thousand catties of Wusha a year, you can eat it alone?" After the merchant of the Great Qin State sat down, Liu Wei bowed slightly and asked him a question.

Three thousand catties of Wusha, if calculated according to Liu Bian's exchange value, is three hundred catties of gold.

If a merchant walks the Silk Road all the year round, 300 catties of gold is nothing.

But the businessman who took over Liu Wei's task was a businessman who had just taken a trip to the Silk Road and had just made little profit.

But fortunately, Wusha is not a particularly cherished commodity in Daqin, and a piece of silk can be exchanged for more than 100 catties of Wusha.

In this way, the purchase of 3,000 catties of Wusha is not much capital.

What's more, this time to the Han Dynasty, this merchant also brought thirty or twenty pieces of silk, and he only needed to exchange all these silks for Wusha, which could supply Liu Wei's needs with Wusha at one time.

After roughly estimating the cost of transporting Wusha, the Great Qin merchant sat cross-legged on the ground, leaned over, and made a Great Qin salute to Liu Bian, and said to Liu Bian: "Your Highness will deliver as much as you need." Although Wusha is heavy, the profit is quite large......"

"Good!" Without waiting for the Great Qin merchant to finish speaking, Liu Wei stretched out his hand and patted the table in front of him, and said to him: "This king is happy to associate with a sincere businessman like you, and follow this king to the back to talk!" ”

As he spoke, Liu Wei had already stood up and walked towards the main entrance of the front hall, and was about to walk to the door, when he stopped again, turned his head and said to Xu Shu, who was still in the hall: "Open a wine banquet, please all the merchants of the Western Regions have a banquet in the palace today!" ”

"No!" Xu Shu, who was still kneeling on the side of the main seat, got Liu Bian's order, hurriedly stood up, clasped his hands into fists, bowed deeply to Liu Bian, and responded.

I didn't expect Liu Wei to make a decision so quickly, and the merchants from the Western Regions present looked at each other one by one, not knowing what to do.

When Xu Shu told them that the king of Luoyang needed to buy a batch of Wusha, these merchants from the Western Regions felt that a huge profit was beckoning to them.

As the so-called lack of people's hearts swallows elephants, most merchants in the Western Regions are still waiting to sit on the ground and raise the price, but they didn't expect that someone would take the lead and take all the Wusha that the king of Luoyang said he needed, and monopolize this business exclusively.

The merchants of the Western Regions, who had no chance, looked like ashes, and they were constantly annoyed in their hearts, why did they let people get the first prize.

The Daqin businessman, who was designated by Liu Wei on the spot to transport Wusha officials and merchants, also stood up after Liu Wei got up and walked to the main entrance of the front hall.

While walking towards the main entrance, the merchants of the Western Regions also saluted the merchants of the Western Regions sitting in the hall on both sides very politely.

However, although his demeanor was polite, his expression showed a heavy sense of pride.