Kai Fu Han

Chapter 218 Private Visit 5
"This..., although it's only thirty miles away, it's not close. It's already past noon. If we go there now, we probably won't be able to return to Penglai before dark. Otherwise, we just wander around today. Get up early tomorrow, let's hire a carriage and we can go back and forth in one day." Jiang Bin suggested to Xu Han.

"Let's go over now. Is there a place to stay over there?" Xu Han did not agree to Jiang Bin's suggestion.

"There are, but there are temporary resettlement sites for refugees, and the conditions are very poor." Jiang Bin replied.

"It's enough to have a wall to keep out the wind and a tile to cover the roof. Let's go, and take a look at the scenery along the way." After Xu Han finished speaking, he asked Jiang Bin to lead the way.

Jiang Bin could only take Xu Han to the north first. After walking for more than a mile, he turned west at an intersection and then continued along the official road. The two of them walked and stopped. There would be some resting places about ten miles apart on the pipeline. The shop sells tea, wine, meat, etc. to passers-by.

The two stopped in a shop on the way, drank some tea and rested their feet.

Jiang Bin saw that Xu Han was getting older and could no longer walk, so he went to the kitchen to find the owner of the shop.

"Excuse me, I'm Jiang Bin, an official in charge of ceremonies. This is my certificate. Please take a look." He said and handed over his certificate. The first page contains Jiang Bin's job description, and the second page contains Jiang Bin's physical description such as height and appearance.

"I'm illiterate, what's the matter with you?" The store owner was a middle-aged man with a loyal face. He waved his hand without taking it and asked directly.

If you can open a store on this pipeline, it is impossible to be as honest as he is. Jiang Bin does not dare to underestimate the store. If he cannot gain his trust, he may not agree to his request, so he continued:
"You can ask someone who knows how to read to come and take a look."

"No, I don't think you are a bad person. If you have any questions, just tell me and I will help you if I can," the store owner said.

"The old man who came in with me outside is a guest of our ceremony. I need to take him to Yangjia Village by the Yellow River. The old man is a little exhausted after walking here. I see a large cart tied next to your shop. It must be that the shop There should be animals pulling carts here, could you please take the old man and me to Yangjia Village by the Yellow River, and I will pay you." Jiang Bin expressed his request.

Now the dividing line between Penglai and Huang County is Huangshui. The west side of Huangshui belongs to Huang County and the east side belongs to Penglai.

Yangjia Village is located to the east of Huangshui, and there are ferries on both sides of the river between Yangjia Village and Liujia Village to the west of Huangshui. Most of the refugees from the west cross the river from this ferry to Penglai, so the Xinghan League set up a refugee resettlement site to the west of the ferry. .

After hearing Jiang Bin's request, the store owner thought about it for a while, looked at Jiang Bin and Xu Han again, and saw that neither of them were brave people. They both had thin skin and tender flesh. They looked like scholars at first glance, and agreed:

"I can't leave, but I can ask my son to drag you over. The price has been agreed upon in advance. I want ten kilograms of food stamps."

The price is not expensive, Jiang Bin agreed: "Okay, you can set up the car, we will set off right away."

The store owner hurriedly greeted his son, who was working as a waiter in front of him, and the two of them started busy tying up the car. Jiang Bin returned to the table, sat down and took the time to rest and drink water.

"Hire a car?" Xu Han asked.

"Yes, I think you really can't walk." Jiang Bin replied.

"Old man, I'm so tired after walking so far." Xu Han sighed.The two chatted for a while, and the cart outside was already harnessed. The cart was pulled by a horse, which looked quite old.The store owner carefully placed two straw mats on the cart so that the two of them could sit more comfortably.

When Xu Han and the two got into the car, the shopkeeper's son sat on the shaft. With a flick of his whip, the cart started slowly and headed west on the official road.

"During this journey, I found that the official road is very smooth, with very few potholes." Xu Han said.

Before Jiang Bin could reply, the son of the store owner who was pulling the cart was a lively human being and replied directly: "It wasn't like this before. The road was so bumpy that when it rained, it was impossible to move the cart. Several hundred people came to Penglai County some time ago. , reorganized the road surface, and pressed it again and again with a roller weighing several thousand kilograms, so that it is now smooth."

"He is talking about captives and prisoners. The Xinghan League will not keep captives and prisoners in prison in vain. It will arrange for officers and soldiers to escort them out to build roads, bridges, city walls, etc. On the one hand, they will make the best use of them; on the other hand, they will These people will be given some remuneration. However, these remunerations will not be given directly to them. The government will save them for them and hand them over to them when they are released or released from prison, so that they will not be empty-handed when they enter society." Jiang Bin added.

"Aren't you afraid that someone will run away?" Xu Han asked.

"Every time I go out to work, there are officers and soldiers escorting me. Among the officers and soldiers, there are officers who have received immortal magic. No one can escape from their guard." Jiang Bin explained.

I thought of the officers I saw on the boat all the way north from Yangzhou, each with extraordinary courage and agility.Xu Han nodded, ordinary people really couldn't run away from them.

The four legs are indeed faster than the two legs. The journey originally took more than an hour, but the cart arrived in half an hour.

Helping Xu Han out of the car, Jiang Bin saw the shopkeeper's son looking at him blankly. Jiang Bin realized that he hadn't paid yet. He quickly took out a stack of food stamps from his chest pocket and counted out two Five kilograms of food stamps were handed to him.

"Thank you! Thank you!" The store owner's son took the food stamps and thanked him quickly.

"We should thank you. If it weren't for you, it would have been dark even if we walked here."

The two sides said goodbye and watched the cart drive away. Only then did Xu Han ask, "What did you give him? Doesn't it look like a 'money guide'?"

"Qianyin" is the paper currency of Zhao State.

The State of Zhao issued iron coins, but the iron coins were too heavy. A thousand large coins weighed 25 kilograms, and their circulation remained unchanged. So merchants issued a paper currency, initially named "Jiaozi", to replace the iron coins.In the beginning, it was only issued in Sichuan, and some large merchants opened Jiaozi shops to consciously maintain circulation and the credibility of Jiaozi, so the value of this "Jiaozi" is fairly guaranteed.

However, due to the convenience of this kind of paper money, it developed rapidly. As the influence of Jiaozi gradually expanded, the demand for standardized management became increasingly prominent. Zhang Yong, the then magistrate of Yizhou, rectified the Jiaozi shops and eliminated the lawbreakers. , operated exclusively by [-] wealthy businessmen, and the issuance of "Jiaozi" has been officially recognized by the government.

Later, during the operation, Jiaozi shop owners discovered that using only part of the deposits would not endanger Jiaozi's reputation, so they began to use a small part of the principal as "reserves" and issue "Jiaozi" in multiples.

(End of this chapter)