Since ancient times, the Central Plains has been windy and rainy, but there are always a few days of rain at the turn of spring and summer and autumn and winter. If the season is right, this old rain can be a good rain. For example, at the end of March and August, it coincides with spring plowing or autumn harvest, and the wheat grain has been sown, and the rain is wonderful for a few days. However, if the season is not right, Lao Linyu will be a big disaster.

As soon as this year enters May, the sky will be surprisingly wet. The wind does not blow the trees and does not shake, the mountains and rivers of the four fields are silent and sluggish like stone carved terracotta figurines, and only the steaming humidity of the hot wave wrapped in Luoshui and the big river will overflow. The ploughmen in the fields, the craftsmen in the streets, and the ministers and officials of the government palace are all covered in slimy sweat all day long, panting like cattle at every turn, and their hearts are always beating suddenly in their chests.

The old Zhou people called this kind of grotesque weather "nightmare", saying that the heavens were so bad that they lost their breath by nightmares.

At the moment when the people of Chengzhou were worried and frightened, at the third watch at the end of the first half of the night, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the rain curtain shrouded Luochuan. Since then, it has been out of control, stopping and stopping, day and night, until the beginning of June, when the sound of the rain is stopped. At the sunrise of Yunkai, Luoshui turned into a surging giant river, the plain became an ocean, and the golden wheat waves all over the field turned into grass seedlings in the green forest and wilderness in the white mist. The houses of the village community collapsed, the yard was full of holes, and the eyes were all over the place, and there was no boundary.

In the cold of June, the old Zhou people put their leather robes, cotton robes, and cloth jackets in autumn and winter on their bodies indiscriminately, while digging out the remnants of old grains like bean sprouts from the broken grain hoards to fill their hungry stomachs, while silently gathering to the ancestral hall of the village community or the largest courtyard in the middle of the village, tightening their belts and looking forward to the relief food or materials brought back to the government by the old people of Lizheng Township who waded back from the muddy water.

In fact, people also know how unrealistic it is to wait for government relief. In this era of material scarcity of slaves, but there is a famine and slaves have to be sold and killed, which is stretched, and the ruling center is in Fenghao and Liangjing, how much help can the Zhou people in the Luohe Plain provide? Everyone is not optimistic, but there is still some hope.

However, this year's waterlogging, not only are the officials nowhere to be seen, but the pavilion chiefs are running back and forth in the muddy water to and from various government offices, and the officials in charge are also at a loss, so they only say with a sad face: "Fathers, but wait a few days, there is no news from Hojing."

Isn't something wrong with Ho Kyung? Lao Zhou's people invariably gave birth to an ominous premonition, and when he remembered a nursery rhyme that was circulated when Lao Linyu was circulating: "The southeast wind stops, the center of the sky cries, too white and loses, shrinking three and one." The last two sentences of this nursery rhyme are so secret and obscure that no one understands its meaning, but only the first two sentences that have obviously been fulfilled are enough to make the hearts of the people of Lao Zhou tremble.

The first two sentences are about the windless weather at the beginning of May, which eventually attracted a month of rain. According to the astrological division, the "center" naturally refers to the Luohe Valley, which is in the middle of the world! "The center of the day crying" is naturally a disaster in the Chengzhou area. Although the meaning of the last two sentences is difficult to understand, everyone knows with certainty that what they say is not a good thing.

Taibai is the closest star to the sun, belongs to the west, and is the autumn of the main slaughter. After the appearance of the White Star, it disappeared for two hundred and forty days, during which it stayed in eighteen of the twenty-eight Nakshatras; If you should leave a certain house but do not go out, and you should enter a certain house but do not enter, it is called "losing your home", which is an abnormal operation. If you lose your home, there will be great distress in the direction of your lordship.

Some people who are familiar with the stars said that before the rain, the Taibai Star had been hidden for three days and appeared briefly overnight, and then there has been no Taibai coming and going, which is a loss.

As for "shrinking three and earning one", there are different opinions. Some people say that this refers to the surplus and contraction of the country's fortunes since King Mu of Zhou. Some people say that this is a matter of the future, how can the heavens be able to predict it? Some people say that nursery rhymes are not deceitful, but I am afraid that they should be in front of them. The speaker and the listener have their own words, no one can explain it thoroughly, and no one is convinced, but they all think that it is not a good thing, and the deputy of Da Zhou is going to be tormented.

Just when people were arguing endlessly about the nursery rhyme celestial phenomena, an astonishing news from the Hangu Pass spread throughout the Chengzhou area on the day of the beginning of autumn: the mountain collapsed, the mountain collapsed, and the dead were counted! The skyblazer, the meteorite rain also. Ground crackers, big earthquakes too. Mountains collapsed, mountain floods and mudslides.

While the people were surprised, the hearts of the people of Luoyi were much calmer. Qishan is the land of Longxing in the Great Zhou Dynasty, but there are disasters, so it naturally responds to the heavenly prophecy. The disaster was fulfilled, the matter was understood, but the people did not panic,

Instead, he let out a long breath and came back to life.

The silent Chinese people went out, the shops in the private market that had been closed for two months quietly opened, the rural farmers also hurried into the city, and the crowds of people entering and leaving the four gates of Luoyi continued day and night. For a time, the price of corn cloth and salt rose quietly, and there was a rare big stuffy market in three or five days.

The affairs of the land of Longxing are of course important, but the people's hunger and hunger must always be filled, the collapsed houses must be repaired, the land sealed by silt must be turned over, and the livelihood of the coming year must be managed. The people have to live.

The Zhou royal family and the ruling Zhaogong who are far away in Haojing obviously can't spare their hands, if the people carry it in a muffled voice, won't they be hungry and waiting to die? For the first time, the old Zhou people, who have always been heavy and courteous, no longer waited for the government's relief, and they did their own way to save themselves.

As soon as the big stuffy market opened, Luoyi East City, where foreign businessmen gathered, immediately became lively.

Luoyi is located in the heart of the world, and is the confluence of Luoshui and the big river, since ancient times it has been a prominent place where wealth and goods flow around and merchants gather, and it is the most prosperous business and travel metropolis in the Central Plains. Although it is not a royal capital, it has the cultural heritage and business travel tradition like the capital of the great princes; In addition, compared with the strict bureaucratic and municipal system, there are almost no trading restrictions here, and there are no many official and joint entertainment requirements, and as long as the merchants pay taxes, no one cares about anything else.

In this way, over time, Luoyi gradually formed a pattern of eastern and western cities. Dongshi is a place where merchants and travelers from all countries in the Central Plains gather, and Ronghu merchants are also like carps crossing the river, and there are all kinds of materials and goods that cannot be traded with other national capitals in Hojing. The big market during the day, the sea market at night, swallowing gold and spitting jade, producing iron and salt, accumulating wealth and goods drunk and dying. Every moment in the East Market is a life-and-death juncture for businessmen who are fascinated and frightened.

Compared with the East Market, the West Market is called the Guanshi Fang, which is much more lo. Luoyi is the deputy capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the Central Plains no matter what, and it can't be that the whole city is a private business free economy, which is incompatible with the official market system in Guanzhong. Hence the West Market of Luoyi.

The name of the West Market has existed since the time of King Mu. Different from the commercial street of Dongshi, this place is close to the city wall, occupies five miles of space, there are no shops but only a continuous variety of sheds, which can be dismantled on rainy days and can be supported on sunny days, and six animals such as cattle, sheep and horses can be directly bombarded to trade under the sheds in the city. Although it is extensive, it is the most suitable for farmer trading, and it has gradually become a different agricultural market for merchants in the East Market. The Luoyi government office set up an official and market officials to manage the west market, and the goods in the shed, whether large or small, had to be traded according to the unified pricing of the government, so as to facilitate the extraction of fixed taxes. Therefore, the people of Luoyi, who love novelty, still prefer Dongshi on weekdays.

As soon as the rain ended, the people of Chengzhou rushed to the market, and there was a rare stuffy market in the world, and the merchants in the east city were not overjoyed. Trading companies in various countries immediately waved the banner of "disaster relief bazaar" without any discussion, and invariably lowered prices and sold them cheaply, and made an exception to open the old barter market, which had long since disappeared. In this way, the hungry people of Lao Zhou, who poured into Luoyi like a tide, were naturally attracted in one fell swoop, and rolled up a more vigorous rush to buy and trade in the market. The already cold West Market is even more unpopular.

In this way, it was difficult for Yigong, who had just temporarily received the official city official of Luoyi, to sleep and eat peacefully in order to hold the Rongyi book. In a large, brightly lit tent in the tent area outside the West Market, he was convening his subordinates to discuss the matter, and everyone's face was full of confusion and uneasiness.

"If you let the Zhou people buy like crazy, where is the face of the Great Zhou Dynasty? In my opinion, it is better to open the official market and throw out the goods in the official warehouse at a low price, than to teach these female businessmen to ruin my hearts and minds!" A young official shouted angrily.

Another middle-aged official sneered, "How easy you say! Not to mention that Cheng Zhou Guocang does not have so much inventory at all, even if it is like a mountain warehouse, there is no edict from the Prime Minister at a low price, do you dare to take responsibility?"

Seeing the endless strife, Yi Gong shouted: "What's the use of you arguing here all day long, with this kind of effort, why don't you divide the major warehouses and stock them, and count the storage materials?" How much is the loss? Go ahead!"

Under the hazy moonlight, a curtain cart flew lightly into the tent area under the western city wall.

The chariot clattered to a halt in front of the brightly lit tent, and as soon as the curtain was lifted, Yi Gong, who had lost more than a lap, hurried to the front of the car

He arched his hand and said, "The master came just in time, and the disciple is trying to teach."

Rong Yi, who was dressed in a natural linen robe, pushed away the hand that Yi Gong was about to help him get out of the car, and glared at him on the carriage: "Business warfare is like a battlefield, you are helpless, can you not come to the town for the teacher?"

Yi Gong smiled, "Master, please come in!"

Before he could sit down, Rong Yi asked, "Tell me, what is the intention of the merchants in the East Market to sell at a low price?"

Yi Gong arched his hand and said, "The Luoyi Rebellion started from the market robbery, and the reason for the market robbery was that the merchants in the East Market threw things at a cheap price. The cheap price into the market is not that the merchants of the East City have a heart of love and relief on behalf of the government, but are trying to squeeze the market power of the Zhou people, so as to squeeze the West Market out of the Zhou Shang Market. What's more, the merchants in the eastern market may raise prices sharply at any time. Once a cheap city becomes a noble city, the people of the indignant Zhou may immediately change the people, and things will be out of control."