Taiping Inn

Hearing this, Li Xuandu finally understood what Xiao Yan meant. She was using the talented man and beautiful woman to imply Li Xuandu's identity.

The stories of so many talented men and beautiful women are all empty. Why is it empty? Xiao Yan gave several reasons. One of them is that there is only a personal maid by the daughter of the daughter, which is unreasonable. When it came to Li Xuandu, the dignified Central Plains envoy actually came to the royal court alone, which was a joke. Although Li Xuandu gave a seemingly reasonable reason, this reason could not be completely trusted by Xiao Yan. As a woman who has been standing in the royal court for many years and has been standing firm, Xiao Yan is not so easy to trust others. If she were such a person, she would have probably become a pile of dead bones in the royal court.

Another point is that Xiao Yan has many maid servants with great powers. It is not difficult to find out where Li Xuandu came to the royal court. I think Xiao Yan has sent someone to investigate, and there has been a result.

After understanding the implication of Xiao Yan's words, Li Xuandu had a decisive idea in his heart and said, "As a child of the Qin family, he is indeed a little bit of cultivation, but it is more about protecting himself. Otherwise, I would not dare to come to the king alone. For the people of the Central Plains, this place is no less than a dragon's pond and tiger's den. As for why I have to be alone, I also have to say something more to the Yan family. We people of the Central Plains say: 'If the king is not secret, he will lose his ministers, and if the ministers do not If you are secret, you will lose your virginity. 'The alliance matter is related to the reputation of the ministry, and the reputation of the ministry is also related to the general trend of the people. You must be careful. Naturally, the fewer people who participate, the better. I hope you can understand it."

Xiao Yan nodded, as if he agreed with Li Xuandu’s statement, and said with a smile: “Zhao Butang is still so cautious.”

Li Xuandu pretended to hesitate for a moment and said, "It's true that the Master is going to come here in person, but the Master is about to be promoted to immortality, and the eldest lady and Mr. Li are going to get married again. At that time, all kinds of heroes will be When we gathered in Liaodong, the master, as a landlord, was in a lot of thoughts. He really couldn't get rid of his body and was in a hurry to follow the power. This was why I was an unknown man, and it was not that the ministry did not pay attention to this matter."

Xiao Yan frowned slightly, but then he regained his smile, "The Qin Sect Master is here in person, this is a great decent."

Li Xuan said casually, "By the way, the tribe asked me to bring a gift to the sage."

Xiao Yan raised his eyebrows and said curiously: "What gift? Is it an antique calligraphy and painting? Or something strange? Recently, a kind of glass mirror has been circulated from the Central Plains, which can be clearly visible to the human shadows, far better than a bronze mirror, and even more so on the water."

Li Xuandu shook his head: "I want to disappoint the Yan family. After all, I am here alone and can't carry too many things, so I can only send some yellow and white things. I hope the Yan family will not be disgusted for the sake of the Ministry of the Ministry. .”

Xiao Yan smiled and said, "I heard that the messenger once visited Naita Khan and paid two thousand taels of gold for it."

Li Xuandu was surprised at Xiao Yan's omniscience, which in a sense showed that the maid Wang Ting under Xiao Yan's omnipresent was invasive, but he was not at all visible and said, "Although Naita Khan has a noble status, But after all, he is a son and cannot be compared with the mother of the Yan family. The ministry prepared five thousand taels of gold for the Yan family, and it was just a little bit of rouge money. It was not respectful, so I hoped that rouge would accept it with a smile."

Xiao Yan smiled faintly and said, "The golden tent is bitter and cold. Even the most prosperous royal court among the golden tents is not as good as the imperial capital. These five thousand taels of gold are actually not a small amount when placed in the royal court. I heard that Governor Zhao was an honest official and all rely on the support of the Qin family. It was not easy to be able to give out five thousand taels of gold. I asked the envoy to return to Liaodong and thank Governor Zhao on my behalf."

Li Xuandu naturally heard some dissatisfaction in Xiao Yan's words, which meant that he disliked the lack of gold. For ordinary officials and powerful people such as Na Yan, five thousand taels of gold are of course a considerable amount, but who is Xiao Yan? Even if he looks at the whole world, he is one of the powerful people. How could he make a living? Five thousand taels of gold are in mind. Even if one tael of gold is exchanged for ten taels of silver, it is only fifty thousand taels of silver.

An ordinary little girl, two taels of silver per person. The top stunning beauty was able to sell for 200,000 taels of silver, and then was given to the Sili Supervisor, Eunuch Yang, and the 200,000 taels of silver opera troupe given to the cabinet chief, which was a temporary brilliance.

Xiao Yan was not ignorant of the Central Plains court, and had heard of it. Compared with 50,000 taels of silver, it is really too little.

Xiao Yan is a woman who doesn’t care much about fighting on the battlefield, she cares more about things like money. She deeply understands one truth: in war, it is actually a battle of money. Why did the army of gold tents go south every year? It’s not that there is a shortage of money or food. Why can the governor of the Great Wei proclaim himself king? After all, it is because the Wei court has no money and wants to quell the rebellion. It can only allow the governors and governors from all over the country to raise money and recruit soldiers. The recruited soldiers ate the governor's food and received the governor's salary, so they are naturally the governor's general. Where did the governor’s money come from instead of the imperial soldiers? It is obtained from the hands of local tyrants, so the governors will be controlled by local tyrants.

Because of this, Xiao Yan was extremely concerned about the various prices in the Central Plains, such as silver prices, gold prices, and the most important food prices, as well as the prices of salt, iron, tea, horses, fur, cattle and sheep. In addition, she also pays attention to people's prices.

People are cheap in troubled times, and ordinary slaves and maids are not expensive. However, there are people in the Jiangnan area who specialize in the business of "skinny horses". Because wealthy merchants and wealthy businesses gather, it is a place where fireworks are flourishing, and this "skinny horse" was born at the right time. The top-grade "slim horse" learns piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, songs and essays, which are more talented than ordinary ladies, and poetry is no problem. Although the middle-grade "slim horse" cannot be said to be talented, it is proficient in accounting affairs. Help the housekeeper. Although the lower-grade "slim horse" is illiterate, it specializes in female red cooking and can also be gentle and gentle.

No matter what kind of appearance it is, it must be raised from a young age, and it takes more than ten years to train it by a dedicated person, and then sold at a high price. When they reach age, they can't sell it, and then they flow into the upper courtyard, which is on the banks of the Qinhuai River. Many girls on the ground on the ground of the pleasure boats are also from this "slim horse" business.

Xiao Yan remembers clearly that the celestial and human posture of 200,000 taels of silver is hard to come by. A top opera troupe in the world is unique, but a pair of twin sisters who are not inferior to the moon parting is only 10,000 taels of silver.

Could it be that her dignified hostess of Wang Ting is just the price of ten ordinary prostitutes in Zhao Zheng's eyes? Even a castrator in the Great Wei court was not as good as?

Li Xuan heard the dissatisfaction of Xiao Yan's family, so he had to respond temporarily and said, "Of course not. The five thousand taels of gold are just the powder money given to Yan's family by the Ministry of War. After all, the Ministry of War is honest and has no permanent property, so I can't come up with too much. In addition, the master also prepared a gift for the Yan family."

Xiao Yan's face was slightly relaxed when he heard this, and he said, "I want to have a good understanding of Mr. Qin's gift."

It was said to be Qin Qing's gift, but in fact it was Li Xuandu's private property. At this time, he was forced to lose money. Li Xuandu first took out five thousand taels of gold from the "Eighteenth Floor". The gold was cast into gold nuggets, which were not much different from ordinary green bricks, so it was not much, only ten yuan.

Then Li Xuandu took out the brocade box that Xu Zaiyuan gave him.

Xiao Yan took the brocade box and opened it to see a pair of finely carved purple mandarin ducks placed in it, about the size of an eyeball, lifelike.

Li Xuandu said: "This pair of mandarin ducks is made of jade. The Great Wei does not produce jade, and it is only produced overseas. Jade is divided into different grades according to the texture. The most top-quality jade is almost as transparent as , very rare. According to the color, it is also called: "Emperor Green", "Blood Jade Red", "Purple Eyes", etc. It is rare in decades. This pair of jade mandarin ducks are carved with "Purple Eyes". It is very difficult to get it."

Although Xiao Yan's status is noble, after all, Xie Zhi, the empress dowager of the Great Wei Dynasty, suddenly saw such a valuable treasure, and his eyelids twitched slightly and said, "I don't know how much this valuable treasure costs?"

Li Xuandu said: "Youdao is that gold is priceless and jade is priceless. This pair of purple mandarin ducks, just raw materials, is worth 6,000 yuan. After asking the top carving master to carve this pair of mandarin ducks, you will sell it for 10,000 yuan. , but with the Qin family's signature, it has been a lot of money, and it only costs 8,000 yuan."

Of course, Xiao Yan knew the value of Taiping Money, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Ten thousand Taiping Money, 300,000 taels of silver, okay, okay, okay. The messenger came this time, and he was indeed full of sincerity, and I was very satisfied. Lao Khan will definitely be satisfied, and in the end, both of our countries will be happy.”