Zhang Xuan went out and looked at the residential areas in the south and west of the city just one street away, and the gap between the rich and the poor was extremely obvious.

The houses in the south of the city are all a few in and out of the house, row upon row, scattered and magnificent, the more south the building is higher, the pavilion and attic are more elegant, in the center of the most, the whole is like a yurt.

On the other hand, in the west of the city, most of them are one-story low-rise buildings, and occasionally there are two-story buildings that stand out from the crowd, and the loess wall is covered with coarse tiles or even thatch, which is its norm, and the arrangement is also crooked, which makes people look awkward.

"My family can have a three-in-three-out mansion in the aristocratic area in the south of the city, although it is at the end, but it can be regarded as an ancestral cloud. Zhang Xuan secretly sighed.

He knew from Bao'er that the trading area of the county seat was in the north of the city, so Zhang Xuan went north along the street.

With more and more people flowing, as there are more and more shops on both sides of the street, and the field of vision is getting narrower and narrower, Zhang Xuan has integrated into this ancient pedestrian street.

The streets are crowded with people, shoulder to shoulder, the river is endless, there are vendors who set up stalls at both ends of the street, there are those who sell kitchen knives, scissors and other kitchen utensils, there are those who pinch the Tang people, there are those who sell groceries, there are fortune tellers, there are those who sell rouge gouache and bead hairpin jewelry, there are also stalls that sell fruits, and there are a few tables and chairs, and there are two burdens parked to sell chaos.

Looking at the shops at both ends, it is more high-end and atmospheric. There are tea shops, wine shops, foot shops, butcher shops, fat powder shops, silk villages, garment shops, temples, public offices (xie, government offices) and so on.

The streets are bustling with people, mostly pedestrians, but also those who drive donkeys to carry goods, or push wheelbarrows and shout to give way, or carry flat poles to sell. Occasionally, there are nobles who sit in sedan chairs, ride horses and ride carriages, and everyone consciously gives way, and these people are either rich or expensive.

Zhang Xuan turned around, and soon found a stall selling words in front of the lively City God Temple.

Compared with the juggling and trick-making stalls that surround the three circles inside and three circles outside, it seems too quiet here, and even the fortune tellers next to them are not as good.

Looking at the people setting up the stalls, there were seven or eight middle-aged and elderly scholars with weathered faces, wearing shabby coarse cloth shirts, sitting on a broken chair, and there were tools such as paper, ink, pens, and inkstones on the table in front of them.

The people who come out to set up stalls to sell words are obviously all scholars who have no reputation, just like Zhang Xuan, who has no other titles, only the fig leaf of "reader".

However, they are all old, obviously they have failed many times, and as they get older, they will give up the idea of the imperial examination, and they have no means to make a living, so they can only come out to set up stalls and sell words, after all, the face of the sage book is not as important as eating, right?

In the Dayong Dynasty, Xiucai was not like the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, he was a "poor and sour talent".

When the founding Taizu of the Dayong Dynasty ascended the throne, he once said: "I and Aiqing ruled by the arch!"

And Xiucai is the lowest level of scholars, can wear blue Confucian shirts, instead of the black or variegated clothes of ordinary people, it can be seen that the official does not worship, just give his hand to show respect, and can also wear a sword to study, without all the troubles of ordinary civilians traveling.

Moreover, in addition to the 20 proliferation and the 20 epiphytes, the first class 10 were given 30 acres of endowment field (for the high-grade good land and used as grain), the second class 20 were awarded 20 acres of endowment field, and the third class 30 were awarded 10 acres of endowment field. It will not be taken back until the death of the person, and it can be said that he has no worries about food and clothing for the rest of his life.

It can really be done, and it is the realm of only reading the books of the sages.

Zhang Xuan stood under the tree and paid attention for about half an hour, and these office stalls also opened one after another. The largest one is only three groups of guests, all of whom read letters and write letters on behalf of others, which shows that in this similar ancient world, literate readers are still relatively scarce.

Generally, it costs one penny to read a letter, and five pennies to write a letter to the family. Reading a letter is a business without capital, writing a letter requires two pennies of paper and ink, almost an hour can have an income of five or six pennies, according to estimates, a day can set up a stall for about four hours, almost twenty pennies, you can also support your own family.

As for asking why you don't have more time? That's because in this world, people are adhering to the sunrise and sunset, so the time to write and set up a stall is generally from the hour to the time of the four hours.

Here, although there is no curfew at night, those who can come out at night to play are rich and noble people, except for businessmen, and you expect them to come to you to write letters on your behalf? As for the illiterate commoners who are in need, they are generally confined at home at night to work for the next generation of mankind.

In this world, one penny is almost equivalent to one yuan of the earth, one thousand wen is consistent, and the copper coin is equal to one tael of silver (silver of sufficient purity), and ten taels of silver is equal to one tael of gold.

However, since Yang Guangwei, Taizong of the Sui Dynasty, conquered the four seas and opened up the sea transportation, a large amount of gold and silver flowed in from overseas, resulting in expensive money and cheap silver, and one or two lines of silver could only be exchanged for 800 copper coins.

Seeing that the business of writing can be done, Zhang Xuan did not delay, found a flat marble as a cushion, took off the bookbasket on his back and used it as a table, and took out the four treasures of the study from the bookbasket, took a piece of white paper, studied the ink, and wrote the words "ghostwriter", using Zhang Xuan's favorite thin gold body in his previous life, which was both beautiful and atmospheric.

At this time, Zhang Xuan is afraid that someone will murder him because of the emergence of the new font, first, everyone is watching, and second, no one is sure that this font is Zhang Xuan's first creation, not from which everyone learned it.

After writing, Zhang Xuan pressed the paper on the bookshelf with an inkstone, and took out a copy of "Taizong Benji" from the bookshelf and studied it.

Before Zhang Xuan could get started, an old scholar in his forties sitting next to Zhang Xuan spoke: "Mao Caigong's handwriting is a good hand! The old man has been studying for 30 years, and he has never seen it, could it be that Mao Caigong created it himself? It's just that Mao Caigong is so talented, why bother with us to eat?"

There was a sour tone in his tone, in fact, he also knew that Zhang Xuan was not a showman, after all, a showman would not come to do such a first-class thing as setting up a stall. Calling Zhang Xuan Mao Caigong is just a kind of irony, although Zhang Xuan is not a showman, but he is only sixteen or seventeen years old, and the chance of the imperial examination is still very great, unlike them, who are basically hopeless in the imperial examination, and now they see Zhang Xuan coming to fight with them for this deduction, a little angry.

Zhang Xuan saw that several other writing gentlemen were also looking at this side, so he got up and arched his hand and said: "Everyone, the student is polite, Xiaosheng has been sick for a month recently, in order to treat Xiaosheng, there is no rice in the pot at home, so I have to come out to write to subsidize the family, and I hope you Haihan!"

Hearing Zhang Xuan say this, the old scholar also felt a little impressive, turned his head and closed his eyes to hide his embarrassment, and the others also concentrated on their own stalls, which was regarded as acquiescence.

And if Zhang Xuan really doesn't care about it, they have no way to control Zhang Xuan, at most they can only isolate Zhang Xuan and not give him a good face. But after all, he may have to get along with these people for two or three months, and Zhang Xuan didn't want to make the relationship too stiff, so he got up and explained.

"Sell pears! Sell pears! Sweet and crisp big duck pears, a penny a penny, delicious and cheap big duck pears, sell pears, come and buy pears! Crisp and sweet big duck pears!"

Zhang Xuan was fascinated by it, but was interrupted by the shouting sound passing in front of him. Looking up, it turned out to be a country man pulling hundreds of large pears with a board cart to sell.

After coming out for a long time, his mouth was a little thirsty, looking at the plump and plump big duck pear on the cart, the fresh pear stalks showed that they had just been picked, Zhang Xuan couldn't help but feel the liquid in his mouth, but when he touched the copper coins in his pocket, he still didn't chase after him - if he was thirsty, he could go home and drink water.