King Miaozhuang looked at this big stone tablet and sighed, "Alas, I finally got out of this country of broken leaves that uses money like water." ”

As soon as he entered the Kingdom of Jin, a miracle appeared.

There are no shops and restaurants, let alone inns and restaurants, they don't seem to know what buying and selling is, only bartering products, they regard pearl agate as waste, gold and silver as dung.

You can trade your clothes for fish, meat, wine and food, but don't want to buy leaves or straw for gold or silver.

On the first day, the coachman could not find an inn, so he had to exchange the old horse for a night's accommodation.

Ten days and a half later, they had replaced almost half of their surplus for food and shelter.

King Miao Zhuang began to worry again, he was worried that the gold and silver treasures were not enough, but now the treasure was not as good as the stones on the mountain.

If you can't get out of Jinguo for another year and a half, and change all the clothes you carry with you, I'm afraid you will really have to walk barefoot barefoot......

Needless to say, the two imperial aunts should not be ugly!

King Miao Zhuang felt that the common people here were really stupid, and they didn't understand that money was a medium of exchange of goods, and they were simply uncivilized.

The two imperial aunts felt that the cheap Jin Kingdom simply wanted to starve the pilgrims from afar to death on the way.

Li Chefu was so anxious to scratch his head when he got to the dark all day, he really didn't understand, why it was also the only way to go to the west and the South China Sea, the people of the Broken Leaf Country were asking for money and shameless, their creed was "Money is life, life is money, money and life are closely linked, if life is to be bought with money, it is better to lose your life and keep money; On the other hand, the subjects of the Cheap Gold Kingdom will consider it a great insult to their personality if you try to exchange it for gold.

At first, Coachman Li, like King Miaozhuang, thought they were stupid. He said that stupid is really a bit stupid, as long as you pay a little attention, you will find that their men are black, women are chubby, children are stupid, and old people are confused. Boys use pearls as marbles to play with birds, and girls use gold bricks to build small stoves to "play house". When an adult sees a bubble of dog shit, he will definitely wrap it back in leaves to fertilize the field, but when he encounters the gold ingot, he kicks it far away with his foot.

Peculiar habits are often formed through peculiar experiences.

As time passed, Coachman Li slowly discovered that the people of this golden country were not stupid, and their peculiar habits were originally developed in natural and man-made disasters.

Jin Guo is not their oldest country name, a long time ago, this place was called Jin Guiguo, from the king to the subjects all regard money as their life, the people in the city are all engaged in buying and selling, and most of the farmers in the countryside make a living by trafficking.

Unfortunately, the natural conditions of Jin Guiguo are very harsh, there are flooded six times in seven years, and there are nine famine years out of ten. The disasters of war, floods and droughts, the white waves are monstrous when the water comes, the fish and birds live, and the birds have no whereabouts.

Although there is a pastoral, I don't distinguish between the south and the north, and even if there are houses, they are all crooked. The goods engaged in business went to the ocean, and the grain and oil people who farmed the fields were in the sea.

The drought has been for months, the land has been bare for thousands of miles, the lakes and ponds have cracked, the whole country is barren, and the hungry people are everywhere in the city and countryside.

Don't say that books can save the poor, and white-faced scholars put down their pens together; The slow track worker can get by, and the red-faced woman also stops the needle. Needless to say, the common people, even the princes and grandsons starved to death.

This year, the flood is about to pour into the city.

The civil and military officials only cared about fleeing, and the king had no one to protect him, and he became a veritable loner.

Seeing that the situation was not good, King Jin Gui also left his mother, concubine and prince alone, picked up a bag of gold and silver treasures and ran.

When disaster came, anyway, the mother only cared about the mother, and the son only cared about the child, and the king carried the gold and silver treasures all the way to the mountains, and saw that the road was in front of him, but was blocked by a big river.

Because he was a step too late, the bridge over the river had been washed away by the flood half an hour earlier.

King Jin Guiwang was about to swim across the river when someone suddenly shouted, "Slow down, the king." "

Looking back, it turned out to be Lord Ding, the Governor of the Sailors.

Governor Ding advised King Jin Guiwang to lose the bag of gold and silver treasures and swim in the water again, otherwise he would lose both people and money.

King Jin Guiwang had long been dissatisfied with Governor Ding's act of fleeing for his life regardless of the safety of the monarch, and now he was even more furious when he saw his idea of wanting to fight the bag of gold and silver treasures again. If it weren't for the fact that he was beheaded at the noon gate by a decree during the flight, where would he have listened to the advice of "chaotic ministers and thieves". Before Governor Ding could finish speaking, he had already jumped into the surging river with a "plop".

As the saying goes: fire and water are merciless. It doesn't matter what kind of king you are or not, as soon as he jumped down, he didn't even have a blister, and he changed from King Jin Gui to "King of the Sea Dragon".

After the death of King Jingui, his son "King Jingui II" succeeded to the throne.

The second only sat on the throne for three years, and when there was a great drought, he went out with a cart of gold and silver to escape the famine, and if it wasn't for an experienced old minister with a bag of fried noodles, I am afraid that he would have died in a foreign land.

The lessons of the father and son made King Jin Guiwang II realize that gold and silver treasures were useless, and immediately vowed that as long as he did not die in great trouble, he would desperately change the previous situation of only valuing money and not materials.

Sure enough, the sky did as people wished, and not long after, it rained through God, and the refugees returned to their hometowns one after another.

After returning to China, the first thing he did was to change the name of the country to "cheap gold", drive all the merchants in the city to the countryside to grow grain, and gather the merchants in the countryside to open rivers and dig canals to prevent floods.

At the same time, he ordered all localities to dig ponds, build weirs, store water to fight drought, and build granaries in the mountains to accumulate grain to prevent hunger.

The effective measures have brought about a good momentum of bumper harvests and prosperity of six animals every year. The "King of Jin Gui II", who was deeply affected by money, took this opportunity to issue a holy decree, abolished commerce, abolished money, strictly prohibited peasants from trafficking and doing business, and changed the name of the year to the first year of the Cheap Gold, known as the First King of Cheap Gold.

Since then, although eighteen generations of kings have changed, the custom of cheap money and heavy material things has become more and more admired.

This strange custom can be tormented by the pilgrims.

I don't know how many pilgrims have even changed their shoes and socks, and they are still not allowed to go back.

Although King Miaozhuang and his entourage brought a lot of things, they also changed out of all the jackets, cotton clothes and single clothes and trousers and skirts that could be changed out of the six horses, two carriages, and finally walked out of the Jin Kingdom.

Seeing that they were about to arrive at the fish basket country, everyone was overjoyed, but King Miaozhuang ordered a stop. Coachman Li said: "We will be there after walking three or five miles, let's go quickly, wait a few more days, we will have to take off our clothes and change food." ”

King Miao Zhuang said: "It's not wrong to be careful, we are still in these two places, it is better to make more fish baskets and then go." "

Seeing that everyone looked at him very incomprehensibly, King Miaozhuang said: "The broken leaf country regards the broken leaf as a treasure, and the cheap gold country regards gold as dung, and the people of this fish basket country may like the fish basket." Why don't we make some fish baskets and bring them, in case no one wants to change the food, it's called being prepared. Anyway, in this bamboo forest at the junction of the two countries, no one will ask us for clothes and money. "

As soon as everyone heard that this was reasonable, they all started to do it together.

Coachman Li smiled and said, "Our Long Live Lord has now learned to barter. This is called eating a trench and growing wisdom!" After saying that, everyone laughed.

Some of them cut bamboo, some chop, some weave baskets, and dozens of fish baskets were woven in half a day.

Miaoqing and Miaoyuan saw that there were still some bamboo strips left, so they each made a small fish basket and carried it in their hands, very proud.

As explained earlier, King Miaozhuang and his entourage originally had a brocade cart for sitting people, two wagons loaded with gold, silver and jewelry, and a few horses pulling carts. Now, except for a cart of treasure and two horses, the rest of the carriages and horses are all exchanged for food in Jinguo.

Originally, the weight of a cart of treasure was not light, and with dozens of fish baskets placed on it, it was even more impossible to sit on people.

At this time, except for Li Chefu and King Miaozhuang, who each sat in a car, the other three had to walk.

The order of entering the fish basket country is: Miao Qing and Miao Yuan each carry a small fish basket in front, a coachman carries eight fish baskets in the middle, and King Miao Zhuang and Li Cheman ride behind. Looking at the situation, it is more appropriate to look at the pilgrims than pilgrims and the merchants who sell fish baskets.