Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 275 Li Er was humiliated and jumped into the pit
Li Er felt heavy-hearted. Now that he was here, he was really anxious about the affairs of the Tang Dynasty, but he had no way to deal with them.

He now only hopes that Fang Xuanling and others in Chang'an can realize what Li Yuanji is doing. Even if they can't realize it, they must feel that there is something fishy. Otherwise, he will really chop people when he returns.

Li Er actually had no idea what Li Yuanji was going to do, but if he bought grain on such a large scale and paid a premium from the people, how much grain would be left in the hands of the people?
It's not enough for the aristocratic families, and they have to buy such large quantities from the Tang Dynasty. No matter how you look at it, it's not a good thing.

Just imagine that after a few months, the people’s food will run out and they will have to go around buying food with their money but still cannot find any. Li Er felt a chill when he thought about that scene.

However, it would take two months to deliver the message back from here, even by fast horse. During this time, he just hoped that he could make it in time.

He returned to the carriage and continued walking towards the city. At this time, he had no interest in other things in the city.

He also asked many traveling merchants about the issue of food, but they all got the same answers, which made Li Er feel heavy-hearted.

During the next three days, Li Er learned a lot and prepared to go to other places to take a look. Now that he was here, he had no intention of going back so soon.

He also wanted to see if other places were the same as here in Panyu.

After all, Panyu is the seat of a prefecture, so it is normal that it has developed well. However, as for other places that are not near the sea, how people live in those places is what Li Er is more concerned about.

Arriving at the street, Li Er immediately looked at Li Junxian.

"Go prepare the supplies. Next we will go to Sihui, then to Huaiji, and finally head south to meet up with the fleet in Enzhou."

Li Junxian immediately went downstairs to start making arrangements. In less than half an hour, seeing Li Junxian coming back, Li Er immediately prepared to set off.

However, after walking a few steps, Li Er saw people on the street running in one direction, and he was full of confusion.

"Go and see what happened."

Li Er was not only confused but also felt heavy in his heart. He really wanted to know what Li Yuanji was up to again. Such a big fuss was obviously not something that could be caused by ordinary people.

After a while, Li Junxian hurried back.

"Boss, big news, the government has issued a document that copper coin transactions will be completely abolished and replaced with silver and silver coins. The people can exchange their loose change for silver coins at the place designated by the Ministry of Finance.

From now on, all copper coins will be abolished in the King of Qi's fiefdom, and anyone who continues to use copper coins will be punished if found."

Li Er was shocked. Completely abolish copper coin transactions? Use silver and silver coins instead?

He was not too surprised by the first one. Nowadays, all large transactions were paid in silver. This had been announced long ago. He brought silver and a few copper coins with him for this purpose.

However, Li Er never imagined that copper coins would be cancelled for small transactions among the people. So what exactly was this silver coin?
Nowadays, copper coins are the main currency used in the Tang Dynasty. Because of the trade here, the circulation of silver has become active, but copper coins are still the main currency in circulation.

Now the copper coin transactions are being abolished here. Li Er is very unhappy. This is obviously a part of the Tang Dynasty, but everything here seems to stand out from the crowd and is so different.

Look at Li Yuanji's Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, he had never heard of them. The most important thing is that only the imperial court can use the word "Ministry" to name the functional departments, but Li Yuanji actually used it in this way.

Where would his face as an emperor be? This was clearly a sign that he was going to rule the Tang Dynasty, right? All preparations had been made.

Although he actually had no control over this and could not control what Li Yuanji did, he was just unhappy.

It was obvious that he was the emperor, Li Er was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but a king of a fiefdom was too lazy to even save his face and openly went against him.

He didn't want to think about the impact of stopping the copper coin transaction here on the Tang Dynasty for a moment. Anyway, the great Tang Dynasty would never compromise with Li Yuanji.

"Come on, take the copper coins and go see what this silver coin is."

Li Er gritted his teeth. At this moment, all his self-restraint was thrown aside. He wanted to see why this silver coin could replace the copper coin.

When he arrived at an exchange point, he saw three long queues and Li Er felt a little confused for a moment.

He couldn't understand why these people didn't go to the government to make trouble?

This is about abolishing currency and using a new currency. Aren't these people worried at all? Instead, they are actively queuing here, carrying large and small bags of copper coins to exchange.

Moreover, these people are carrying money so blatantly, aren't they afraid of being robbed? Or are there no thieves here?
Li Er didn't say anything. Li Junxian looked at Li Er's determined eyes and immediately signaled the three of them to line up. One person went to each of the three teams.

Li Er was waiting on the side. After a while, he saw a man carrying a bag, passing by him, sweating all over. Behind him, there was a child. Suddenly, the man lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The copper coins in the bag fell directly to the ground.

But what surprised Li Er was the scene that happened. The man did not panic at all. He immediately started picking up the copper coins scattered on the ground, and the child also picked them up together.

When the people around saw this scene, they bent down and started to help the man pick up the copper coins. Soon, a lot of people gathered around, and those who stood slightly outside immediately looked back.

"Stop pushing, someone dropped some money and they are picking it up, why are you so impatient?"

The man on the outside stopped automatically, and soon all the copper coins that had fallen on the ground were picked up, and the man kept saying thank you.

Elsewhere, a man came over with several copper coins in his hand.

"Your copper coins are still here."

Looking at this harmonious scene, Li Er couldn't understand it. There was obviously no official organization, so could these people really return the lost property?
In the chaotic situation just now, even if someone picked up the copper coin, no one would notice it. However, these people were very conscious and did not swallow it at all. Li Er only felt that his worldview was impacted.

In his opinion, if such a scene happened in the Tang Dynasty, the place would become extremely chaotic. Even if government officials arrived, it would take a while for them to restore order.

But here, none of those situations happened at all, which Li Er found incredible.

At this time Li Er asked a man next to him.

"His copper coins fell to the ground, and no one could find them even if someone took them. How come no one took them?"

The man seemed to be confirming whether it was Li Er who was speaking. After confirming, he immediately showed a look of disdain.

"You are still a traveling merchant? You are the worst traveling merchant I have ever seen.

Fortunately, you are not a subject of the king and do not have a household registration here, otherwise I would report to the government and have your household registration revoked. "Li Er was choked so hard that his face turned gloomy. He couldn't figure it out. He just asked a question, why did this person do that? Is he sick? Why did he say that to him?
Li Junxian, who was standing by, couldn't help himself at this time.

"You'd better keep your mouth shut! My boss is just asking you a question. If you don't want to answer, then don't answer. But you're talking like that. Do you think the people of King Qi can only curse like that? It's really disappointing!"

What happened here immediately attracted the attention of everyone around.

The man became anxious when he heard this.

"You are talking nonsense. How could I scold you? I tell you, you said I can. If my words just now offended you, you can chop me up now, but if you dare to insult the king, I will take you with me even if I die!"

After the man finished speaking, he found a wooden stick from someone, used his right hand to hit his left wrist three times in a row. Not only Li Junxian was shocked, but Li Er was also shocked.

The people around them looked at Li Er and his group with increasing anger.

At this time, the man looked at Li Er and Li Junxian with sweat all over his forehead.

"My tone was not good just now, and my words offended you. These three hits are my apology to you.

Regarding the question you just asked, I can also tell you that everyone here can earn money as long as they work hard. We all know how hard it is for everyone to earn money, and we all know that everything we have now was given by the king.

We are all the king's subjects, and we live in the same city. Not to mention that we would not take his money if it was lost, even if it was the money of you merchants that was lost, no matter how much it was, we would not take a single penny!

Because we are the king's people, we represent the king's face in front of you.

This is also the case when I express my apologies to you at this moment.

But I can tell you that I still look down on people like you!

Now, it's your turn. You just slandered the king. You should admit your mistake to the king!

Haikang is beside you, the king is in Haikang, you kneel down to the west and apologize!"

At this time, the people around seemed to understand what was going on, and one of the old men came up to the man.

"Give me your hand, I'll rub it for you, or it will hurt you to death later. You too, what can you say to such people? They dare to slander the king. If you just shout, we will beat them up even if we are detained by the government."

"Which kid brought the medicinal wine? Bring it here quickly."

"Here, take it and use it, don't save it for me."

"You're thinking too much about saving it for me. Don't worry, I definitely won't save it for you."

After a while, the old man used medicated wine to knead the place where the man was beaten. Another man came over and took the man's copper coins in his hand, obviously helping him to carry money.

At this moment, the guards around Li Er were guarding Li Er tightly, with one hand already on the hilt of the knife, ready to draw the knife and chop people at any time.

However, the people around him were completely fearless and stared at Li Er angrily.

Li Er became even more furious when he saw this scene. This anger was not directed at Li Junxian, but at that man, at these people, and at Li Yuanji.

He was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and these people dared to say this to him. Especially the man's disdainful look, Li Er felt deeply insulted.

Finally, with Li Er's nod, Li Junxian had no choice but to kneel to the west with gritted teeth and apologize to Li Yuanji from a distance, and the people around him gradually dispersed.

Li Er had no choice. Now that he was here, he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. If he made a big deal out of it and his identity was discovered, that would be really troublesome.

After Li Junxian apologized, no one looked at him again, and no one pointed at him. It was just that everyone didn't want to get close to him, resulting in a vacuum within a one-meter radius around him.

Li Er was burning with anger. He felt that the behavior of these people was even more excessive than pointing fingers at him, and it made him feel more humiliated.

Li Er was about to turn around and didn't want to stay any longer, but he found an acquaintance, the Funan merchant who dropped food he met before.

The man walked straight up to Li Er and took out twenty taels of silver.

"This is what you helped me with that day."

After saying that, she walked away, as if she didn't want to stay with him any longer.

Looking at the twenty taels of silver in his hand, Li Er had never felt so humiliated. He, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was actually insulted.

If they were in the Tang Dynasty, none of these people would be able to escape, but here, he could only endure it.

Li Er immediately walked out of Panyu City and waited outside the city. After a long time, the three people in the queue exchanged their money for silver coins and came to Li Er.

After explaining all the information about the silver coin to Li Er, Li Er looked at the exquisite silver coin in his hand and suddenly an idea came to his mind.

If he exchanged a large number of silver coins with a face value of one, five, or ten cents, and took them back to the Tang Dynasty to smelt them, would he be able to get more silver?
At this time, Li Er no longer cared about the humiliation he was suffering here, and he was very excited about this idea.

"Send someone to take the money we brought, leaving behind 10,000 taels of silver, and exchange the rest into silver coins of 1, 5, and 10 coin denominations. 1 and 5 coin denominations will be given priority, and leave as soon as possible."

Li Er was all smiles. In his opinion, Li Yuanji must have hurriedly put in the silver coins in order to counter the impact of the Tang Dynasty's copper coins, and did not notice the problem.

Although the shortcomings of small transactions have been compensated by the use of silver, he must make good use of this loophole.

Li Er, with a smile on his face, had no idea that he, like the other smart people, had jumped into the deep pit specially prepared for them by Li Yuanji.

In the following time, Li Er traveled to many places, from Sihui to Huameng and Huaiji, from Huaiji to Enzhou, and finally from Enzhou to Nanzhou Prefecture. After looking around, Li Er immediately set out on the return journey with a heavy heart.

"Don't go back to Chang'an yet. Go directly to Dengzhou and send a message to Li Ji, Cheng Yaojin, Hou Junji and others, asking them to come directly to Dengzhou."

It is difficult for Li Er, who knows Lingnan well, to be happy. Precisely because he knows so much, he knows clearly to what extent Lingnan has developed.

Although he has not yet understood all the places in Lingnan this time, Li Er has a better idea of ​​it based on what he has learned.

(End of this chapter)