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Text 401. Emperor Yuan

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    The first day of August.  ¡Æ.  ¡Æ As soon as the genius was revealed, a crowd began to gather outside the door of Zhen's Mansion. Many merchants carried large boxes of copper coins and placed them on the open space in front of the door.  The business owners, stewards, clerks, and big money boxes one after another blocked the door of Zhen's mansion.  At the beginning of the morning, a warning was posted in front of the mansion, and it turned out that it was not the guards of the Luoyang Official Temple, but the famous Black Iron Guards.  Seeing this posture, many people who still had doubts began to beat their drums again, hesitating whether to go in or not.  No matter how you look at it, it looks like someone trying to steal money!  Although the door of Zhen Mansion was open, the black iron guard in front of the door did not let anyone in. Zhao Yuan could only wait patiently among the crowd.  At three o'clock in the morning, a young man came out of the mansion and rushed to the businessmen outside the door: "I am Zhen Yao, the younger brother of Zhen Zhongqin. If you want to enter, please pay money to the concierge first. One person is allowed for every one hundred thousand yuan.  , If you have no intention of purchasing the goods afterwards, please return the money." After saying that, the young man turned around and returned home.  Zhao Yuan, for his part, would not hesitate. After the young man returned home, he immediately asked the waiter to carry the box to the concierge to pay.  Two scribes, led by a gloomy-looking young man, carefully inquired and recorded each person's place of origin, number of visits to Henan, and age.  So many copper coins cannot be counted clearly in one or two hours. There are only three accountants in the porter's office. The handling of the paid copper coins is simple. The money owner is only asked to report the number of coins, and then the weight is clearly weighed. The estimate is roughly right, so each one is piled up.  At the top, a piece of paper is inserted to indicate the owner, quantity and weight of the money. ??????????????????? There were too many people wanting to come in. It was not until the middle of the night that the number of people paying money started to become less and less, and then people came out of the house again and asked people to come in.  Zhao Yuan paid more than 300,000 yuan, and still had nearly 80 taels of gold in his arms. He only entered the house with the chief steward.  There were more than 300 people who came through the door in the first wave. It was expected that the living room of Zhen Mansion could not accommodate these many seats. The door of the living room was closed tightly, and everyone was allowed to stand in the courtyard.  Zhao Yuan sniffed.  He smelled a faint scent of ink among the crowd.  "Do you want to sell ink sticks?" Zhao Yuan was not the only one who heard this. Someone in the crowd even asked directly, but no one answered him.  People are still entering intermittently outside the gate for a while.  There is a new fragrance introduced into the nose.  Zhao Yuan heard a soft sound in his stomach, and then he saw Zhen Yao leading a few big men at the courtyard gate, carrying two large steaming steamers, placing them in the courtyard, and opening the lid.  They are all white flour cakes, and Henan people have recently begun to call them steamed buns.  Zhen Yao shouted loudly: "We haven't all gathered yet, please go ahead and get food to satisfy your hunger!" Zhao Yuan had already been hungry since he got up early in the morning, and the water and rice hadn't come in yet. He hurried forward and grabbed five or six noodles, and turned around to share them.  Give it to the old steward and devour it together.  The big men carrying the steamer turned back and brought four buckets of warm water with honey, leaving behind a dozen water ladles, allowing those with thirsty mouths to help themselves to water.  Zhao Yuan swallowed two steamed buns.  After drinking a large ladle of honey water, I felt much better. However, I immediately felt that my urine was bloating again. I asked someone to go to the toilet and drained the urine, and then I felt refreshed all over.  Back in the hospital, he looked around at the eaters, the tight security, and the people who were still coming in. He didn't feel uneasy at all.  "Only the three people in the corridor are slightly eye-catching. The one who makes the decision is the young man dressed as a scholar leaning against the railing in the center. On the left is a tough and ugly man sitting on the ground.  The left hand is playing with three hand halberds, and the right hand is holding a pancake and chewing it. It seems that he is the young man's guard; on the right side stands a pretty and beautiful woman.  Like the ugly man, the young man leaning against the railing was also stuffing noodles into his mouth.  Zhao Yuan saw that he was passing the half-bitten noodle cake to the beautiful woman. The woman stamped her feet and refused to take it, with a look of embarrassment on her face.  "The Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty really wants to steal his wealth, what are a few guards worth?"  The merchants who enter Zhen Mansion today are either alone.  Or lead a steward, and there are very few people with guards like this young man.  ??And merchants do not take their families with them when they go out, and it is even more unique for young people to take their wives with them.  That woman was really beautiful, and her sudden appearance on today's occasion attracted people's attention. Some even looked at her blatantly, until their faces turned red.  A hand halberd can also be turned into a murderous weapon. Which merchant's guard can hold it openly in his hand when he enters this place without anyone noticing?  Zhao Yuan only looked at the woman twice before turning his attention to the strange young man.  Zhao Yuan watched for a long time, and the young man noticed it, raised his head and smiled at him.  There was a hint of naughtiness in the young man's smile, but Zhao Yuan was startled, and he turned around, not daring to continue staring.  Finally, no one came in anymore, and they just kept waiting like this. Even Zhao Yuan felt a little impatient. After other merchants filled their bellies, they started to talk to each other and inquire about each other. The scene wasIt gradually became chaotic.  After a while, the gloomy young man who had been asking questions in the concierge came in from the door, followed by more than ten black iron guards.  The young man pointed out the two people in the crowd, and the Black Iron Guards immediately swarmed them.  The one who didn¡¯t react in time was knocked to the ground in an instant; the other person was quick and jumped up and ran around the crowd.  While running, the man shouted: "Deng Muan wants to take away our wealth, why don't you save yourselves?" The sudden turn of events has frightened all the merchants, and even Zhao Yuan began to wonder, could this really be the case?  The gloomy young man said loudly: "Don't worry, there is absolutely no such thing in the Yuan Dynasty! However, these two people have traveled to Henan several times. It took a long time to sell some goods, and many people have inquired about the reality of the military and political affairs of the Yuan Dynasty. I am afraid that they are Cao Mengde and Liu Jingsheng.  Careful work, careful questioning now!" As he spoke, a sharp knife was found in the arms that were knocked over on the ground.  As a merchant, it is possible to hide gold and silver, and the ones carrying sharp blades should be the guards.  After hearing the gloomy young man's statement that the arrested person was indeed acting suspiciously, Zhao Yuan immediately felt relieved.  The escaping man was still running around in the crowd, so slippery that the Black Iron Guards could not catch him for a moment. When Zhao Yuan looked at him and ran past him, he suddenly flew up and kicked him on the waist and hips, causing him to  Stumbled and fell out.  This man was unusually agile. He pressed his hand on the ground and stood up again. He had already taken out the short blade from his arms, stared at Zhao Yuan with a fierce look in his eyes, and was about to pounce on him.  Seeing his ferocious appearance, Zhao Yuan immediately felt guilty and took a step back.  But just as the man jumped out, a cold light shot towards him, hitting him in the thigh.  The man screamed and fell to the ground again. He was held down by the black iron guards and could no longer move. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????: A hand halberd is nailed to his thigh, three or four inches deep into his flesh.  There were blood stains under the robe. Zhao Yuan was frightened, and with a thought in his heart, he looked back at the ugly man next to the young man in the corridor.  As expected, there were only two halberds left in his left hand.  The gloomy young man led the Black Iron Guards to drag away the two suspected spies. Most of the merchants were still in shock. Zhao Yuan relaxed a little, walked to the corridor and saluted the young man, saying: "Thank you for your help!" The young man shook his head.  He actually said: "I should be grateful for this!" He heard that his accent was mixed, but it was probably Nanyang accent. Zhao Yuan didn't understand why the other party said this, so it was difficult to continue talking.  Seeing that he looked confused, the young man asked again: "Where are you doing business?" Zhao Yuan then said seriously: "Donghai Zhao Yuan, courtesy name Ziting." When the other party asked for his name, he thought he wanted to make friends.  , but unexpectedly after his name was announced, the young man just nodded and stopped talking.  ??The young man is somewhat disrespectful.  It was just that the tone of voice was natural and did not mean to be contemptuous, which made Zhao Yuan unable to get angry and get off the stage.  He couldn't move forward, he couldn't retreat. Just when he was feeling uncomfortable, the living room door of Zhen Mansion, which had been closed, suddenly opened a crack with a creak, and two people squeezed out, standing side by side on the steps.  These two people are known to those who often do business in Henan.  The first one is Zhen Yan Zhen Zhongqin, the head of Luoyang Commercial Bank and the owner of Zhen Mansion; the second one is Wang Wei and Wang Deliang, the former manager of Luoyang Commercial Bank and now the Minister of Industry of Dayuan Dynasty.  After the two of them walked out, the open door of Zhen's living room door closed again with a "squeak".  Zhen Yan and Wang Wei first saluted the crowd with clasped fists, and then saw two acquaintances coming forward.  The merchants finally felt more at ease, and Zhao Yuan also took the opportunity to retreat into the crowd.  Once Wang Wei became an official, he immediately felt different. When Wang Wei stood still and glanced around, the courtyard suddenly became silent.  However, Zhao Yuan noticed again when Wang Wei looked down the corridor.  He bowed slightly.  Who is this young man?  He was still suspicious, but Wang Wei had already spoken on the steps, and he was busy and listening attentively.  Wang Wei said: "The first-class meritorious service of the Great Yuan Dynasty is not given lightly! Let me tell you first, the things you want to sell this time are not trivial. If you are not careful, you may be killed!" Just listen to these few words of Wang Wei,  Many people's hearts tightened before they remembered that it was difficult to obtain business registration here. This time, the risks involved would certainly not be small if they came up with a clear explanation. Even Zhao Yuan's previous enthusiasm had subsided a little, and Zhen Yan opened his mouth to continue.  Above: "Those who enter the house today want to leave at this time, but they can do whatever they want. They can just go to the concierge to collect the money and leave! When you hear what happened to me, you must act according to the agreement. If there is any violation, you will be punished in the future.  You are not allowed to enter Dayuan to do business! Please think twice!" After Zhen Yan finished speaking, some people hesitated for a while and then walked out of the house. As expected, no one stopped them.  With the leader taking the lead, people kept leaving one after another, and some walked to the door, hesitated, and then returned.  Forty or fifty people left before and after, but there were still about three hundred left in the courtyard, representing more than one hundred and sixty caravans.  Wait for a while and see no one wants to leave, Zhen Yan nodded and said to his brother Zhen Yao: "Close the door!" Soon, the outer door of Zhen Yan was closed, and Zhen Yan and Wang Wei turned around and opened the living room door in person.  As the hall door was pushed open and the contents inside were clearly seen, many people couldn't help but utter a cry in their throats: "Wow!" There were rows of neatly stacked paper books. The number was so huge that it almost filled the entire living room.  There are probably tens of thousands of books, and there are more than thirty black iron guards guarding the books with weapons.  As the hall door opened, the scent of ink in the air seemed to be much stronger.  Zhao Yuan had also read a few books, but he never thought that he would see so many paper books in person in this life. Looking back at the big steward, the old man's face was full of horror.  How big a fortune is this?  Pointing to the books in the hall, Zhen Yan proudly said to everyone in the courtyard: "Except for the Chun Qiu Zuo Zhuan, all Confucian classics are collected into nine volumes, each with 6,000 volumes; the others are Zhou Bi Suan Jing, Gui Gu Zi,  "Qin Cao", "Yin Wenzi", "Xinyu", "Excerpts from Lienu Zhuan", "Excerpts from Shuoyuan" and other ten books have 2,000 volumes each! Please be at ease, each book may be a Chaxi Pingshi Jing, or a famous scholar may read it carefully.  Excellent proofreading, there are very few mistakes and omissions!" Wang Wei then said: "The Confucian classics are collected in nine volumes, and each volume is sold for 2,000 yuan; each volume of "Guiguzi" and other texts is sold for 5,000 yuan!  It's so rare that eight out of ten people who are truly educated and literate are from wealthy families. If you really meet someone you like, it's only common to ask for a book worth a hundred gold. Upon hearing this offer, the courtyard suddenly burst into cheers.  Cheers and shouts.  Some people stamped their feet and held up their partners' arms to cheer, some anxiously touched the gold and silver in their arms and counted, and some shouted hoarsely.  What Ruo Zhen Yan and Wang Wei said is true.  The danger is not yet known, but the merchants first see the huge profits.  The most hateful thing is that books are luxury goods, and the prices given by Dayuan are not cheap either.  With a minimum capital of 100,000 yuan, you can only buy fifty books. With so many goods in front of you, you can only buy a small part of them with the money you have.  Zhao Yuan noticed that several merchants from the same state who had lent him money before were constantly looking over.  Thinking that he was so regretful, he touched the gold in his arms and pretended not to see it through gritted teeth.  Wang Wei said again: "The price of books is high, and you may have limited funds, so the merchant house also offers benefits. For the books you buy today, you only need to pay half the price, and the rest can be paid before June next year!" Get the goods at half price,  The other half will be paid back later. Is there such a good thing?  There was another burst of cheers and screams from the crowd.  Zhao Yuan was startled, thinking that people's hearts are unpredictable.  Be on the lookout for villains who fail to keep their word and fail to pay back the balance, and then you realize that Dayuan really does not grant first-class meritorious service lightly. He must have made a profit by selling books for half the price, swallowing up the other half-price merchants, so he is naturally not qualified to be granted this household registration.  The crowd cheered, and while Zhao Yuan was thinking about it, Zhen Yan had already walked into the living room, casually picked up a book from the pile of books, and then went out and raised the book high.  The words on the cover are big.  Zhao Yuan could see clearly that it was a collection of "The Classic of Filial Piety" and "Mencius".  Zhen Yan flipped through the book from right to left in mid-air. There were hundreds of pages with small handwriting.  Can't see the content clearly.  After flipping through, Zhen Yan held the back cover in his hands, raised it high and shouted: "Everyone, look at it!" The back cover was normal. No one knew what he was looking for. When everyone was confused, Zhen Yan straightened the paper again.  Holding the back cover and shouting: "Let's take a look!" Now everyone in the front row of the crowd could see it clearly and shouted in surprise: "Hey!" Zhen Yan handed the book to the businessman in the front row, walked back to the living room and took out more than ten books.  They were distributed to everyone to read, reminding: "Pay attention to the back cover!" When one of them was passed to Zhao Yuan, he reached out and touched the back cover first. It was much thicker than the cover paper.  The outside is stitched with thread, and there are gaps on both sides of the upper and lower edges. Through the gaps, you can see that there are about ten pieces of paper inside.  Why are books bound like this?  The book was expensive and Zhao Yuan couldn't open the back cover to read the contents for fear of damage. Although he had doubts, he had no clue. Zhen Yan and Wang Wei would explain later, so he just flipped through a few articles.  Every word in it is slightly smaller than a pinky fingernail, which cannot be called beautiful, but they are all the same size and neat. Each page has about 200 words, which does not look like handwriting. It also has Dayuan's strange punctuation marks and sentence fragments.  Reading a few sentences is correct.  It seems like a seal, is it printing?  Zhao Yuan was not the only one. Everyone in the hospital had a clear mind and figured out the key in an instant. Some people couldn't help but regret it - such a simple method, how much money would they have made if they had figured it out earlier?  Or if you buy fewer books today, take advantage of the fact that the price of paper has dropped significantly, and immediately imitate this self-printed book for sale after leaving Henan, how much profit can you make from those nerds?  I just don¡¯t know how long it will take to engrave and print the book. After the wave of crazy sales in the Yuan Dynasty, will the price of the book still remain high? ?Zhao Yuan's guesses were not complete before. At this moment, the household registration of Dayuan's first-class meritorious citizens and the imaginary huge profits are the key to people's real struggle. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? With various thoughts, more than a dozen books were quickly circulated among the crowd, and when they finally returned to Zhen Yan's hands, Wang Wei added another fuel: "The texts hidden on the back cover of each book are the legal system of my Great Yuan Dynasty.  After reading for a long time after the purchase, the scholars must have noticed it, or they may have complained to the officials, or there may be outside details in the courtyard today. It is difficult not to leak this matter.  Or there may be a case of arresting, killing, or imprisoning the book seller, so everyone should be Xiaoyi!" After listening to what he said, Zhao Yuan and others understood why he said there was a risk of death, and they could not help but speculate on the possibility of this happening and weigh it.  Pros and cons.  It's just that the door of Zhen's Mansion has been closed. It has been made clear before that if the merchants who stay in the courtyard want to leave, they can only spend more than 100,000 yuan to buy books. As for buying more, buying less, whether it will be released in the future, it will be sold out.  Whether to come back, or to ask craftsmen to print books when leaving the country, or to directly sue the officials, can only be considered after leaving the country.  For those like Zhao Yuan who only want to register as a first-class meritorious citizen, they have already begun to figure out how to make this trade route safe enough.  Now that things have come to this, Wang Wei ignores the faces of the merchants in the courtyard and says again: "You can go in now to pick out books. Those who have paid more will go in first. All money paid will not be refunded. If you don't have enough money, you can add more. You can invite after you have picked.  The black iron guard arrived outside the house. " Zhen Yan took the money account and started reading names one by one. Zhao Yuan was ready to go into the hall to pick books.  Unexpectedly, someone pulled his sleeve and said in a low voice: "Please wait a moment, Mr. Zhao!" Zhao Yuan looked back and saw that it was the ugly man who was next to the young man in the corridor earlier, and he saw that the young man was no longer in the corridor.  He stopped with suspicion.  After Zhao Yuan, the ugly man invited about ten more people, most of whom looked familiar.  " Let the housekeeper wait in the courtyard for a while. After the ugly man has invited enough people, Zhao Yuan and others followed him through the corridor and the two courtyard doors.  Finally enter a side hall.  The young man who was suspected to be a nobleman was sitting on the chairman's seat. The beautiful woman was kneeling beside him. At the guest table were Zhen Yao and the gloomy young man who had arrested someone earlier.  When Zhao Yuan and others entered the door, Zhen Yao was talking to the beautiful woman with beaming eyebrows. He stopped talking when he saw them entering.  The ugly man introduced Zhao Yuan and others, but the young man did not stand up to greet him. He spoke from his seat: "I am Deng Ji." With just one word, all the merchants were speechless. Zhao Yuan had guessed that this young man had a distinguished status.  But I never expected that he was the emperor of the Yuan Kingdom, let alone that his self-introduction was so direct and simple.  This is at the Zhen family¡¯s house. Zhen Yao and the gloomy young man who led the Black Iron Guards to arrest Zhen Zuo are both present. The beautiful woman must be the concubine Zhen sent to the palace by the Zhen family. There should be no one who dares to pretend to be the emperor, right?  Zhao Yuan and others had not figured it out yet, and were hesitant about whether or not to salute. The young man who claimed to be the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty said again: "You have been doing business in Henan for a long time. I trust you, so please come and meet me." Zhao Yuan  At a loss for words, he hesitated for a long time before he knelt down.  The young man spoke again and said, "Although I am the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, I don't like the old etiquette very much. I abolished many of them when I became emperor. You are not my people. You just need to use the common etiquette." The gloomy young man at the guest table  Interjected: "Your Majesty has personally decided on the new system of the Yuan Dynasty. Everyone in front of the emperor can just address him as your majesty. No more courtesy is needed!" Zhao Yuan and other merchants are often in Luoyang and have heard about the affairs of the Yuan Dynasty court. After listening to this person's words, they were trembling with fear.  stand up.  Bow and salute, saying "Your Majesty".  The Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was not bad-tempered, and he invited a few people to sit down with a smile. After all the merchants took their seats, he spoke again: "There are a lot of printed books this time, so I will give them half price. It is difficult for outside merchants to buy them all at the same time. I don't know, you guys."  "How many books do you want to buy when you enter the house?" Hearing his question, more than a dozen merchants present at the table reported the principals they had prepared. As expected, in addition to the money collected by the concierge, they also had secret reserves, with the largest number totaling more than one million.  The money was only 200,000 yuan, and Zhao Yuan's more than 700,000 yuan was not conspicuous among them.  The emperor listened to them one by one and said with a smile: "You have been transporting goods to Henan for a long time, and you have also made great contributions to the Yuan Dynasty. You cannot treat them the same as the others. Pay half the price now and then discount them by half. The remaining people will pay before June next year."  How about paying it off?" Everyone thanked him again, and the gloomy young man interjected: "When the balance is paid next year, I will be granted Dayuan household registration, but I also have something to worry about!" Zhao Yuan relied on his previous help!  He captured the suspected spy and bravely stepped forward to answer: "Although Your Majesty has not yet conferred citizenship, we have already called ourselves the people of the Yuan Dynasty, and we dare not call them troubles! The government only has orders, and we will follow them!" Zhao Yuanye  You're not stupid. All the old merchants who went to Henan were called here and offered benefits first. This man also said in front of the emperor that he had something to ask for. He didn't know anything about official or private matters.Considering the degree of danger, he could only use the word "official" in his words.  The other merchants also nodded in agreement with Zhao Yuan. That man also understood what Zhao Yuan meant, changed his gloomy expression, and said with a chuckle: "My surname is Zheng Mingran.  I am a junior official at Yushitai. I would like to send you some people who are close to you to travel to various places to expand your knowledge. However, this is a private matter. I wonder if I can get permission?" Hearing this, Zhao Yuan suddenly recalled what was happening in the previous courtyard.  The word "careful work" suddenly flashed in the minds of the two people captured by the Black Iron Guard.  This is definitely not a private matter!  However, all the merchants who had to enter this side hall only wanted to obtain the first-class meritorious residence registration. At this time, no matter whether they understood it or not, they all pretended to be confused and agreed happily.  After the business was finished, Emperor Dayuan spoke again: "You haven't chosen the books yet. In response to this matter, the remaining books after the purchase by the merchants can be divided among you on credit!" After everyone heard this, they thought of the profits and suddenly became excited.  ecstasy.  Although most of the merchants carry funds secretly to prevent accidents when they go out, except for a few well-known large merchants, they all have limited funds. Before, some people outside were frightened by the risks mentioned by Zhen Yan and Wang Wei. More than 70,000 books should be  Endless sales.  This is obviously giving a huge sum of money to yourself!  After leaving the side hall, many other merchants were still waiting to select books. Zhao Yuan found several previous creditors among them and paid off all the debts first.  (I originally thought it would be one chapter, but I didn¡¯t expect it ended up being two chapters. Is this considered two chapters in one?) (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please visit http://m.piaotia.net
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