Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 221 Chang'an East City

Huan Xi burned incense and bathed, and led the ministers of the Liang Kingdom to worship at the General's Mansion and receive the decree.

Previously, the ministers of the Liang Kingdom asked Huan Xi to be granted the title of Protector of the Western Regions, but failed to do so. However, Huan Xi did not care about this matter.

Regardless of whether the imperial court was willing to grant him the title of Protector of the Western Regions, it could not change the fact that Huan Xi controlled the Western Regions in his own hands before and after his demise.

Everyone in the Liang Kingdom received the decree one after another, but now there is no etiquette of dancing to express gratitude.

This etiquette began in the Northern Wei Dynasty and was not formally established until the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Ministers need to dance gracefully to show their gratitude and joy, whether they are facing the saint or receiving an award.

Huan Xi said to Wen Shizhi:

"Mr. Wen has come a long way and is tired of traveling and traveling. It is better to rest in the city for a few days and appreciate the prosperity of Chang'an."

Wen Shizhi stroked his beard and said with a smile:

"I have good intentions, but I am disrespectful."

Huan Xi hosted a banquet for Wen Shizhi in Weiyang Hall, accompanied by important officials such as Wang Meng and Quan Yi.

Qiuci music and Kangju dance made Wen Shi mesmerized and mesmerized.

That night, Wen Shi stayed at the Jinling Pavilion.

Huanxi imitated the system of the Northern Wei Dynasty and set up four pavilions in Chang'an to accommodate envoys from all directions. The Fusang Pavilion was in the east, the Kuanxi Pavilion was in the west, the Jinling Pavilion was in the south, and the Yanran Pavilion was in the north.

The next day, Shen Chiqian came to Jinling Pavilion early, met with Wen Shizhi, and explained his purpose:

"Chiqian was ordered by Duke Liang to serve as Wen Changshi's guide."

Wen Shizhi nodded and said:

"In this case, Mr. Lao Shen will accompany you."

As for Huan Xi, he has official duties to attend to. Moreover, due to security concerns, Huan Xi has not appeared in the Chang'an market for many years.

Huan Xi has been running Chang'an for eight years, and it is no longer the depressed scene that it was after it was destroyed by the rebellion of Hou Zhao and Gao Li.

The permanent population of the city is no less than 200,000, and among them there is a mixture of good and bad. Even Huan Xi himself does not know how many enemy spies are gathered here.

Of course, Wen Shizhi, Shen Chiqian and others did not have such worries. After all, no one would risk exposing their own intelligence network to assassinate the two of them.

To reorganize an intelligence network in Liang State, where the household registration system is becoming more and more complete, is not as easy as it used to be.

Shen and Wen walked out of the Jinling Pavilion, taking only a few followers with them, and headed to the first destination of their trip, Dongshi.

In the carriage, Shen Chiqian introduced with a hint of pride:

"Chang'an has seventy-nine squares and two cities, East and West. Among them, the East City is the most prosperous. The shops here are adjacent and merchants gather there. There are 220 stores of goods and wealth. There are mansions on all sides, and all the rare treasures are accumulated."

Although Liang's commerce and handicrafts were booming, they were not to the extent that Huan Xi broke the city system. In order to facilitate management and collect commercial taxes, the commercial trade in Chang'an was still concentrated in the east and west cities.

The government placed the same types of goods in one area, called a shop, such as a wine shop, a calligraphy shop, a rouge shop, etc.

There are 220 rows in the East Market, with a dazzling array of products.

As for the di, it refers to the warehouse where goods are stored. It not only stores goods for merchants, but also handles wholesale transactions of bulk goods on their behalf.

Dongshi, Shuxing.

Within the bookstore, there are dozens of bookstores, one after another, and Guo Zhenyu’s Zhenyu Bookshop is one of them.

Guo Zhenyu is the younger brother of Guo Zhenyi. Back then, Guo Zhenyi and Zhang Anshi took a risk to surrender Zhang Chonghua and made contributions to Huan Xi. As a result, he was reused and received many rewards, and his family gradually became rich.

Although the government had allocated acres of fertile land to the Guo family, Guo Zhenyu didn't like farming, so Guo Zhenqi had no choice but to fund a business for him, and thus the Zhenyu Bookshop was born.

Business at Zhenyu Bookstore was deserted, and Guo Zhenyu was also yawning boredly at the counter. Just when Guo Zhenyu was drowsy, an old man and a young man in their fifties walked into the bookstore.

The old man asked directly:

"Seller, do you have any rare manuscripts in this bookshop?"

Although he spoke the elegant dialect of Luoyang, he had a strong Yangzhou accent, and the visitor was Wen Shizhi, who had lived in Jiangdong for a long time.

When Guo Zhenyu saw that he was dressed luxuriously and spoke with a foreign accent, he thought he was a bookseller from Jiangnan who came to wholesale books. He immediately became energetic and hurriedly walked out of the counter to greet the guests. He explained:

"My husband was joking. Ever since the printing factory outside the city opened, Liang Gong has offered rewards for rare copies to benefit the public. How can Guanlong still have any treasures of rare manuscripts?

"Gong Liang said, this is called 'the swallows in front of the scholars' hall in the old days, flying into the homes of ordinary people.'"

Husband is an old man, not a title between husband and wife.

Huan Xi solicited orphan copies from the people, and the specific rewards were naturally based on the value of the books. Some people were awarded official posts, and some became rich.

Guo Zhenyu said, pointing to a bookshelf behind him and said:

"I specially ordered these books from the printing factory. In the past, they were actually worthy of being a treasure trove of rare manuscripts. My husband might as well take a look and you can always find rare books that are not available in Jiangdong."

When Wen Shizhi heard this, he nodded slightly. He went to the bookshelf and rummaged through it carefully, and Wen Shizhi found many books that he had never read before.

These books were naturally paid for by Shen Chiqian as gifts from Huan Xi to Wen Shizhi.

However, Guo Zhenyu was very disappointed with this. He thought that the other party was a bookseller from other places who came to buy wholesale.

Of course, when you open your door to do business, you always have to welcome people with a smile.

In any case, it can be considered as the first business of the day.

Shortly after Wen Shizhi and Shen Chiqian left, another young man who was tired of work entered the bookstore. He smiled at Guo Zhenyu and said:

"Zhenyu, why are you so listless?"

When Guo Zhenyu saw the visitor, his eyes lit up and he said happily:

"Didn't Yuan Ming go to Hetao to sell goods? When will he return to Chang'an?"

The visitor's name was Chen Yuanming, who was Guo Zhenyu's friend. They were both doing business, but unlike Guo Zhenyu, he was a businessman.

Merchants are divided into those who do business by doing business. The so-called doing business means doing business in a fixed place and waiting for customers to come to their door, just like the Zhenyu Bookshop opened by Guo Zhenyu.

Hongshang, on the other hand, does not have a fixed trading place and operates on the move.

Chen Yuanming replied:

"I've been away for a year and a half, and it's time to come back. No, I didn't even enter the house, so I came here to have a drink with you."

Guo Zhenyu was overjoyed. Anyway, his eldest brother was the backbone of the family. He ran Zhenyu Bookstore. As long as he could not starve to death, he could do it. He didn't put much effort into it. Now that his friend had returned, he simply stopped doing business.

It was still noon, so Guo Zhenyu closed the shop and went to the liquor store hand in hand with Chen Yuanming, planning to get drunk before resting.

As soon as he entered his usual wine shop, Guo Zhenyu saw two familiar figures. They were Wen Shizhi and Shen Chiqian who had bought books at his bookshop before.

Guo Zhenyu knew that the other party must have noticed him coming in, but turned a blind eye. He looked like he was rejecting people from thousands of miles away, and naturally he would not come forward to say hello to them.

　Next chapter at 6pm, three thousand words.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)