Chapter 77 fourth quarter

Chang'an City is divided into two cities, the East and the West, and each has a large government-run market. The one in the east city is called Dongshi, and the one in the west city is naturally called Xishi.Dongshi is located in the best part of the city, covering an area of ​​two squares, 600 steps from east to west, north to south, and 100 steps wide on all sides. It was one of the largest markets in the Tang Dynasty.There are two gates on each side of the market, vertically and horizontally forming a well-shaped inner street, and merchants are surrounded by mansions. They are known as two hundred and twenty lines of money and goods, and only the Dongshi Bureau, which is in charge of the business, can figure out how many retail shops there are.

Jiulang's Kaiyuanji is located on Donger Street in the city, occupying nine shops.Coming out of the goods store, Jiulang looked up at the sky, then turned to Lin Songzhi and said, "Brother Lin, it's going to snow." "Don't dare to be." Lin Songzhi still couldn't let go of his wariness about this rich man of unknown origin. A bit of displeasure appeared on Kuro's originally stern pink face. "It's just a title. I've humiliated you. You are really awkward, and it's not pleasant at all." "Please forgive me for this." Lin Songzhi thought through his relationship with Jiulang. He probably wanted a helper, or a deceptive helper, but he didn't have such a crooked talent. "I've always been a poor boy, and I live by my ability. I don't want to take advantage of it for nothing. Let me go." He politely bowed his hands to Jiulang and Xiao Niuzi, and turned to leave.

"Wait." Xiao Niuzi's warm little hand gently held Lin Songzhi following Jiu Lang's voice. Jiulang put a finger on his cheek, pondered for a moment, and suddenly that bright smile appeared on his face, crossed his hands, saluted Lin Songzhi deeply, and said: "This brother, Li Jiu, who is called Jiulang, today I am lucky to know Jingjing." For Lin Songzhi, he knew what Jiulang was doing.In Datang, when two good friends unfortunately had a disagreement, smart people would choose to re-engage. "Nice to meet, glad to meet." Lin Songzhi returned the salute with his arms crossed, feeling somewhat fond of this sometimes rude, sometimes gentle young man in his heart. "But stop making fun of me for being poor, I've had enough of that."

Three hundred steps north from East Second Street is Dongshi North Street. As Jiulang beckoned, two men came trotting over with three horses. "I don't treat you as a poor person," Jiulang said seriously. "Don't think of me as a rich man, we are just very simple friends for the time being?" Seeing Lin Songzhi's face calmed down, he said again: "If you are a friend, you have to help your friend. Come out of the city with me." Less than five li away from Chunming Gate, the three of them came to an abandoned garden by the Longshou Canal.Since Chang'an was established as the capital in the Sui Dynasty, countless luxurious manors have been built along the Longshou Canal in the east of the city. However, many of them fell into disrepair with the decline of the owner's family.

This abandoned garden occupies a large area, and many people are busy in the empty field. In the middle of the field, three decent furnaces stand there.When Lin Songzhi and the others were catching up with the copper production, four cows pulled a huge crucible and came towards them panting, but the color of the copper liquid in it was wrong.Lin Songzhi helped the foundry when he was a child, and he knew that it was because too much tin and river sand were mixed in the copper liquid. "How is it?" Jiulang was in high spirits. "This is our profitable business." Seeing Lin Songzhi's complexion was unkind, he hurriedly said, "Yes, it's my business alone."

"I don't want to have anything to do with illegal things." Lin Songzhi was a little worried for Jiulang.He shook his head vigorously, what does Jiulang have to do with him, this young man is clearly a daring criminal, why should he worry about him?But he still couldn't help feeling uneasy. Kuro clasped his hands behind his back, his face raised slightly. "This smell, this heat, how good and exciting!" He glanced at Lin Songzhi who was full of disdain, and said again. "You don't need to worry. It's against the law for others to do it, but I'm not hurt when I do it."

Passing through the busy crowd, the back yard is filled with women of all ages picking up freshly minted copper coins.Jiulang grabbed a handful, twisted one with two fingers and handed it to Lin Songzhi. "Didn't you work as a Jinwu Guard? See what's wrong?" Qian Wen is an ordinary "Kaiyuan Tongbao", but it is extremely rough and light in the hand. "Although it was privately minted, there is a lot of this kind of money on the street." Lin Songzhi said. "Want to learn more?" Jiulang asked with a smile.He took Lin Songzhi's arm and walked out of the courtyard, and said slowly: "This Kaiyuan Tongbao is a system established by Gaozu Wude in the fourth year, and it has been used until now. You see, my money stove is not comparable to In the old days, Gaozu and Taizong used to reward meritorious officials. At that time, the money for rewarding a furnace was thousands of coins, and mine was less than a hundred coins."

Suddenly, a large snowflake floated in the sky. The snow was moist, soft, and big and lovely.Kuro pulled up the hood and put it on his head, not intending to enter the room to avoid the snow. "I think that since the day when there were copper coins, there have been private castings. It's just that the ancients privately cast copper coins, always wanting to be similar to the money, so that they can be circulated smoothly, so, like the one I'm casting now. Shashi money, which the common people call 'sand shells', was not available at that time." "Why did money become so bad?" Lin Songzhi couldn't help being attracted by Jiulang's topic.

"Because of greed. Copper coins are easy to preserve, unlike cloth that will be bitten by insects and burned. Therefore, the emperor's Taifu must deposit high-quality copper coins, and officials, gentry and wealthy households must also deposit good money, but copper is scarce, and official casting consumes money, so , the people can only use this kind of privately minted bad money. There was such an incident in the past, because there was too much bad money, the government issued an edict to exchange it with good money, one good money for five bad money. You Guess what, the common people are all hiding their bad money and spending it when the ban is lifted.”

Lin Song's family is poor and can understand this kind of thing. "In the Great Zhou Dynasty of Empress Wu, because there was no other way, they simply announced that bad money could be used for general use. Now, the world started to mint money, so that even an iron pot could not be found in the countryside, and all of them were minted into money. Later, you even cut skins and paste paper as money, have you ever heard of it?" Jiulang seemed to be telling a story, with a sweet smile, but Lin Songzhi was terrified when he heard it. "This year the emperor will ban evil money again."

"What will happen?" "Who would know?" Jiulang seemed to be a little emotional. "In the past, everyone said that I was smart and capable. I always wanted to find a real friend to ask, is it considered capable to make money like me?" Lin Songzhi put his hands in his thin sleeves, laughed and said: "You are looking for the wrong person. In my family, I have never had more than one hundred Wen. I don't know what it feels like to be rich." "Then are you my friend?" Jiulang's eyes were full, and he was extremely lonely inside. "You gave me this heinous crime. I don't want to be your friend, so I can only report to the government." For the first time, Lin Songzhi put on Hexi's smile. "Forget it, I will suffer a little and make you a bad friend." "Really?" Kuro revealed a surprised expression. There was a burst of people shouting and neighing, and a group of officers and soldiers rushed towards the abandoned garden stepping on the thin snow. "Someone betrayed you, come with me." Lin Songzhi never expected that this new friend would bring him trouble so soon. Jiulang didn't move at all, he just stood in the snow and looked at the group of officers and soldiers.The officers and soldiers came to the gate of the manor in a hustle and bustle, but they turned a blind eye to the money-making furnace in the garden, and ran straight to the Longshou canal. "They're going to catch coin smugglers. Look at the rafts on the water, that's them." Lin Songzhi struggled through the snow curtain and saw more than a dozen rafts scattered in the water in the distance. Unlike the fisherman, thick gray smoke rose from the rafts from time to time. "Those people are pouring out tin money, and there is no copper in it. Within a few days of being listed, the words on the money have been polished." Jiulang slowly turned to Lin Songzhi, and said softly: "I know you have something on your mind. Of course it doesn't taste good to be entangled by criminals, but it doesn't matter, I'll take you to see how I spend my money tomorrow." Fatty Jinyi was shocked when he saw Gao Tiancheng, "How did you find me?" "Don't ask such nonsense, our brothers won't let you play tricks until we know your details?" Gao Tiancheng clamped the fat man's wrist with his big and thick hands, and the sword hilt inserted obliquely at his waist pressed against the fat man's lower abdomen. "One of our brothers died, is it a good thing you did?" Fatty fell to his knees all of a sudden, "God can learn from me, I have done nothing wrong." Fatty dare not be careless towards these desperadoes from the Western Regions. "Have you settled down again? Where do you live?" "Stop talking. We work, you pay, why ask so much?" "I'm afraid I won't be able to find you." "No need, we will come to you, and if we don't get the money, we will find your home." Gao Tiancheng's face suddenly became fierce. "I will kill your whole family. Now, I want to see if our money is safe." The snow on the ground was already very thick, and the two of them rode to Kaiyuanji with a thick layer of snow clothes on their bodies. "Oh, Jiulang, I've been thinking about you these days." The fat man saluted a handsome young man with a somewhat indifferent appearance. "Old He, you are willing to run out even in heavy snow, you must have a good deal." Jiu Lang teased, and at the same time glanced at the man behind the fat old He. Lin Songzhi had never seen the fat old He, but Gao Tiancheng following behind him caught his attention.Based on his shallow experience in the Jinwu Guard, he could also smell a kind of over-vigilance and nervousness in this person, which is the breath only found in the kind of truly heinous villains. Gao Tiancheng's feet were slightly turned outward, and he stood firmly on his heels. The hilt of his sword pointed obliquely from his waist to his chest, his arms were slightly bent, and his hands were clasped. Eyes and shoulders.He was even more nervous than when he was facing fierce Turkic people on the battlefield. He had never dealt with such people in front of him in his life. The only person in the room who might pose a direct threat to him was the tall young man behind Kuro , When the eyes of the two met, there seemed to be a crash. Jiulang looked Gao Tiancheng up and down, and was amused by his nervous expression. "Where did you get such a raw body!" Fatty Lao He has as much as two thousand coins in Kaiyuan Ji, which makes Gao Tiancheng feel relieved.Back on the snowy street, Lao He stood on tiptoe and whispered into Gao Tiancheng's ear: "Have you seen that Jiulang? He is the master of Kai Kai Ji, and also belongs to Song Wang Li Chengqi..." "What?" Gao Tiancheng was really surprised this time.There are really all kinds of strange things in the capital. "That person also participated in this matter?" "I didn't say anything." Old He said emphatically.