After the completion of Daxing City, except for the imperial palace located in the north of the city, the other east, west, and south were the areas inhabited by hundreds of officials and ordinary people in the empire, and these residential areas were divided into separate squares and cities by neat streets.

There are walls and gates that are closed and guarded by the city guards when it gets dark, and no one is allowed to move on the streets outside, and anyone can be arrested if they violate the curfew, and even slashed on the spot.

Although everyone is trapped in the fang market at night, the scale of these fang markets is not small, but it is similar to the community with special business districts inside, especially the east and west markets as special commercial places, and people's activities in them are not affected in the slightest.

Even Yu Cheng is going to a market in the south of the city, in fact, there was no south market in the original city, only two specially set up east and west markets, but these two markets are specially prepared for the powerful and wealthy people of the east and west, and most of the items sold are valuable items such as silk cloth, beautiful jade, and treasures.

Most of the eastern markets are fine wines, spices, and specialties of the South and Western Oceans, while the western markets sell Kunlun Khotanese jade, Persian glass, and even wine from the Western Regions.

Only Nanshi is because most of the people living in the city are poor, so the overall situation of this later Fang City is relatively scattered, and there is no neatness of the East and West Fang City, and most of the products sold here are ordinary daily necessities, such as grain and meat.

With Lian Yucheng's ten years of operation, the wealth he currently controls can choose a better location in the eastern and western cities, but he finally decided to set up his own intelligence point in the southern urban area.

Because any business that can have its own shop in the east and west cities is basically related to the powerful ministers and nobles of the Great Sui Empire, if it is just an ordinary local official, you may not be qualified to gain a firm foothold there and get a fang market.

If Lian Yu Chengzhen set up his own strongholds in the eastern and western cities, I am afraid that it will not take long for his true identity to be discovered, and then the intelligence system he established within the Sui Empire will be completely destroyed, and others will also eat the business he currently established alive.

"Big shopkeeper!"

As soon as Yu Cheng entered his shop, seven or eight shopkeepers and men greeted him, and some hired coolies unloaded the contents of several carts brought by the caravan.

"Why did the big shopkeeper only bring such a little pool salt this time?" An old shopkeeper in his sixties looked at the goods that had been transported, and he was immediately surprised when he knew that Lian Yucheng was the purpose of this trip, "Could it be that the government doesn't let private people sell illicit salt?" ”

Lian Yucheng took a sip of hot tea, and said unhurriedly: "Don't mention it, this year's drought in Hedong (now Yuncheng, Shanxi), as a result, the salt production of the pond is very unsatisfactory, and in the past two years, Changguang County in the eastern part of Sanqi has also had friction with the official army from time to time, and the sea salt production in Qingzhou has not been able to be mentioned for a long time, and the government intends to strengthen the monopoly control of the pond salt!" ”

"That's what happened!" The old shopkeeper pondered after hearing this, and it didn't take long for him to suddenly raise his head and say to Yu Chengdao, "Big shopkeeper, this natural disaster comes quickly, but I don't think this matter is so simple!" ”

Even Yu Cheng saw that the old shopkeeper wanted to speak and stopped, and when he brought the old shopkeeper indoors, he arched his hand and asked: "Please also ask the shopkeeper Meng to make it clear!" ”

The old man known as the shopkeeper Meng said quietly: "Thanks to the kindness of the big shopkeeper, my old man's life was sold to the big shopkeeper, and I am afraid that the big shopkeeper has a lot to do with the East China Sea over the years, but the government suddenly strengthened the salt monopoly, I'm afraid there is a big mystery in it!" ”

Lian Yucheng was in a cold sweat at first when he heard the words of the shopkeeper Meng, but he knew that the old shopkeeper would not harm himself, the shopkeeper Meng used to be the shopkeeper of a powerful family in Chang'an City, and later the owner made a mistake because he stood in line when the Great Sui replaced the Northern Zhou, and finally the family died.

Shopkeeper Meng escaped because he was only the shopkeeper hired by his family, but unfortunately he lost his livelihood since then, and the family was extremely poor, until Lian Yucheng reached out to help him when he was forced to pay a debt, and he followed Lian Yucheng until now.

"That's it, shopkeeper Meng, you have been with me for more than ten years, I am actually from the Xia Kingdom, but we Xia people are all decent Han people, not the court said that we are Han people disguised as barbarians!" Lian Yucheng looked at Shopkeeper Meng with a sincere face.

"Of course I know that!" Although Shopkeeper Meng is only three or four years older than Lian Yucheng, because of the difficult life in the past few years, he looks ten years older than Lian Yucheng, "We don't know the news that millions of people in the Kanto region have gone to the East China Sea!" ”

Seeing that Lian Yucheng was sincere, and the shopkeeper Meng didn't sell Guanzi, he said with a straight face: "I said before that there is a big mystery, because although this salt is very important, but we have a large number of salt ponds in Hexi and Shuofang in the north of Dasui West, and there are also a large number of salt ponds in the local area after the Tuyuhun was destroyed, and the salt produced by these salt ponds is not only high in yield, but also has a higher quality of salt than in Hedong.

Although these pond salts are very difficult to transport because of the distance, this is not the main reason for the increase in the price of Hedong pond salt, and now the government has only one reason for doing this, that is, to prepare for war! ”

"War?" Lian Yucheng was stunned, "Won't it?" Didn't the imperial court issue an edict before, saying that there would be no more wars in five years? ”

Although Lian Yucheng believed in the strength of the Xia Kingdom himself, but in the Great Sui Empire for more than ten years, the more he understood it, the more he was frightened by the comprehensive strength of this huge empire, once the two countries went to war in an all-out way, it was likely to be a big war for one or two decades! UU Library

Shopkeeper Meng glared and said, "How could it not?" Since ancient times, except for the words of the imperial court when Shang Wei Gong changed the law, the words of the imperial court can be believed, and now in the past hundreds of thousands of years, how many emperors dare we take the words seriously? ”

Saying that, the shopkeeper Meng muttered: "In the past few decades, our old Meng has come all the way from the Western Wei Dynasty, as long as this court is fighting, it has to monopolize salt and iron, this is the most profitable business, I don't believe you look at whether it is iron during this time, and the price of food is rising!" ”

Although Lian Yucheng has been in business for so many years, he has always focused on collecting intelligence, and this is the first time he has seen the intelligence within the Sui Empire from business, and he immediately became wary of the Sui Empire's actions.

The Great Sui Empire has now been destroyed by Tuyuhun in the surrounding area, although there are still remnants of the Qiangtang (Qinghai-Tibet Plateau) part of the savage Qiang, from time to time to harass Xihai County (Qinghai's West Lake), Heyuan County and other places, but these local garrisons can deal with it.

The Western Turks in the northwest and the Dulan Khan in the north were all firmly contained by the Xia State, and in addition to this, only the Xia State was the enemy of the Great Sui Empire, so that the only one who could make the Sui Empire activate the combat mechanism was the stronger Xia State.

Thinking of this, Lian Yucheng finally couldn't sit still, but he still had to know something about the situation inside Chang'an, after all, it was not easy to contact the outside world once, and he had to sort out all the information inside Chang'an and send it to the East China Sea together.

After hurriedly saying goodbye to the shopkeeper Meng, Lian Yucheng called Sun Hai, who was following him in the old department in Pyongyang City, the shopkeeper Tong who followed Lian Yucheng at the beginning had passed away, and Wang Da also retired and rested because of old age, only Sun Hai still followed him, and the young man who was only seventeen years old at the time has now become a middle-aged man in his thirties.

"Xiaohai, do you have any news from the fine work we sent to the Jin Palace?"

"The big shopkeeper, this King of Jin is really amazing, not only reading poetry and books every day, and his literary style is quite praised by scholars, but he also insists on practicing martial arts every day, but he is a prince who is both civil and military; In addition to this King of Jin, in addition to being not good at martial arts, the crown prince Yang Yong is also relatively gentle, and he should be a promising monarch, but during this time, there have been many unfavorable news in Daxing City that is unfavorable to the crown prince Yang Yong! ”

As an old department that has followed Lian Yucheng for decades, Sun Hai was puzzled: "The big treasurer, now this Yang Yong is the crown prince, although some people have repeatedly spread rumors to frame him, but they will not be deposed from the position of prince, why does Your Majesty repeatedly explain that we want to focus on monitoring this King of Jin?" ”

"It may have something to do with Yang Jian's conspiracy to seize the country and win the country, so he is suspicious!" Even Yu Cheng didn't know Wang Ze's plans, he guessed that it might be related to the previous changes in the regimes of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, during which father and son killed each other and brothers were tyrannical.

"In addition, although Yang Guang, the king of Jin, is usually kind, but he has a violent atmosphere, and now he has made friends with the ministers, especially with Yang Su, once he attacks Yang Yong, it is very likely to seize the position of the prince!"

Before Lian Yucheng's words fell, Sun Hai's face changed and said: "By the way, I almost forgot, there was an intelligence report yesterday, saying that the number of messengers who have suddenly come and gone in the mansion of Yang Su, the Duke of Yueguo, has increased a lot in the past few days, I'm afraid what the Sui army will do next!" ”

"I'm not afraid of this!" Lian Yucheng finally determined that there must be changes within the Sui Empire this time, but since he had known in advance, the Xia Kingdom would have plenty of time to prepare.

Thinking of this, Lian Yucheng suddenly thought of something that Wang Ze attached more importance to, and he solemnly said to Sun Hai: "How many ancient books have you collected during this time?" If you collect more than 10 volumes, you will be sent away! ”

Lian Yucheng's collection of these ancient books was not because Wang Ze began to collect ancient books and engage in antique collection, but to protect China's cultural classics for thousands of years.

For thousands of years, there are many cultural classics in China, but because most of these cultural classics are collected in the hands of big families, these people will never take out the books for everyone to show in order to control their own cultural hegemony, which limits the cultural dissemination to a very small range.

Therefore, in the hundreds of years of war between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when these families were destroyed due to various disasters, they were often burned together with the collection of books, which caused serious losses to many ancient books.

After Emperor Wen of Sui ascended the throne, in order to protect the classics, he ordered to exchange a silk for an ancient book, which is a great price, in the original history of Emperor Yang of Sui is to carry forward this behavior, the Sui Empire collected 370,000 volumes, is the dynasty with the largest collection of books in ancient China, even if the descendants boast of the Tang Dynasty only collected 80,000 volumes, most of which were newly compiled during the Tang Dynasty.

It's a pity that most of these books in the Sui Empire were lost in the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, if these books can be preserved safely to future generations, I am afraid that Yang Guang's deeds are greater than Confucius.

In view of this lesson, Wang Ze also planned to take advantage of the relatively stable period within the Sui Empire to collect a large number of these precious ancient books, and then transport them to the East China Sea for printing and preservation, even if the books could not be circulated, the knowledge should be passed on.

After all, the Xia Kingdom considers itself a Han country, but the founding time is too short, and there are not even a few ancient books of Han culture, which is really unreasonable, which can also increase the cultural heritage of the Xia Kingdom.

"Big shopkeeper, look at it!" Sun Hai smiled slightly when he heard Lian Yucheng's inquiry, and then opened a small wooden box beside him, which was densely packed with ancient books, and several of them were still in the Eastern Han Dynasty!

"Well done!" Lian Yu Cheng looked at the open boxes, as well as the dozens of large boxes densely packed in the room, these books are probably more than a thousand volumes, "Your Majesty is going to be happy now!" ”