When Zhang Xuan walked out of the restaurant, dozens of guards hiding in an alley came out in a carriage. The guards also pretended to be warriors in the martial arts hall, and the carriages were unusual and no different from those on the street.

Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling got into the carriage one after another. Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "I haven't drunk in a wine shop for a long time. I especially miss the Tiansi Pavilion Restaurant in Luoyang. Although the wine in the palace is not worse than that in there, the feeling is gone."

"If you gain something, you will lose something. Those who sit in the Tiansi Pavilion Restaurant and drink, I believe that you will also envy Your Majesty who sits in the palace and drinks!"

Zhang Xuan laughed, "The military advisor is right, I'm pretentious."

The carriage left the Xicheng Gate and slowly headed towards the west city. The city was being expanded to the west of Zhongdu. The farmland on both sides of the official road had just been leveled and the outline of the new city wall in the distance had appeared. The new city will be expanded to the Xicheng City and will be integrated with the Xicheng City.

"His Majesty met that Wang Junya today, just to encourage him?" Fang Xuanling asked with a smile.

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly and said, "Wang Shou's eldest son is the county magistrate in Pengcheng County, his second son is an official in Zhuo County, and his third son is in Yantiansi, Jianghuai. Now his youngest son is also sent to participate in the imperial examination, but none of them are in Bingzhou. What does the military advisor think he means?"

Fang Xuanling frowned and said, "Wang Shou is Li Yuan's close friend. It was Wang Shou's strong help that Li Yuan was able to successfully launch an army in Taiyuan. Li Yuan also named Wang Shou the Duke of Taiyuan County, and his brothers became the governor of Taiyuan County."

"But don't forget that the military advisor Wang Shou is the general of our army and is still the governor of Goguryeo."

Fang Xuanling was silent for a while and said, "Your Majesty is right. Wang Shou sent all four sons to the Great Zhou to make an official position. This is obviously a squad. Does Your Majesty hope that he will help us seize Taiyuan?"

"To be precise, I hope Taiyuan has a peaceful handover."

"I'm afraid Qu Tutong won't surrender easily."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "If Qu Tutong is really so loyal, he will not surrender to the Tang Dynasty. The situation is stronger than others. Once the world's general situation is clear, he will not sink with the Tang Dynasty ship. The key is that we must be patient and not act irritable. We must focus on the world rather than personal grievances."

"Your Majesty is right!"

The two of them stopped talking. Fang Xuanling looked out the window, but felt quite moved. He clearly felt the changes after the throne of the emperor. The demeanor of dominating the world was not obvious when he was the King of Qi, but now Fang Xuanling felt an indescribable pressure.

Fang Xuanling suddenly felt a little regretful. He shouldn't have joked with the emperor just now.

The carriage slowly arrived at the Xishi gate. There were all kinds of carriages and mule carriages parked in front of the Xishi gate, mainly for cargo transportation, with traffic everywhere and crowded.

Fifty guards who followed Zhang Xuan from the door were left in front of the gate, and only five personal guards followed Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling into the west city. The west city was even more lively, with hawking sounds one after another, and all kinds of goods were piled up, and almost all shops were crowded with bargaining guests.

After several years of development, Zhongdu's business has surpassed Chang'an and Luoyang, becoming the largest commercial center in the world. In particular, Zhongdu West City has an area of ​​more than three Luoyang West City, with a circumference of more than ten miles, with tens of thousands of shops and nearly 100,000 businessmen. They work in the West City. Every day, guests are like the sea, from Hebei, Central Plains, Bingzhou, Xuzhou, Liaodong, Guanlong, and even the Western Regions and overseas gather here.

Moreover, there are rivers and canals behind each store, and the goods can be transported directly to all parts of the world through water transportation. The transportation of horse-drawn and mule carts is limited to Zhongdu, and water transportation is the real main force of transportation in Xicheng City. Even many Sogdian merchants transport the goods to the Hexi Corridor through the Yellow River water transportation, and then transfer to camels for transportation.

Zhang Xuan was still dressed as a bearded man, and no one could recognize him, but the five personal guards still guarded the left and right. As the emperor, Zhang Xuan did not need to check the market conditions in person. As long as he had an order, his subordinates would immediately do it for him, and he did not dare to conceal it deliberately. However, Zhang Xuan still had to come out in person. He actually did not want to see something, but wanted to set up an attitude for the court, and he had to investigate everything, and he could not sit in the official room and slapped his head and wrote memorials.

"Your Majesty, don't you go and see the price of rice?" Fang Xuanling asked in a low voice, pointing at the rice shop in the distance.

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "I won't go today, I want to buy some stationery."

"Stationery?" Fang Xuanling was confused and didn't understand why the emperor thought of stationery.

Zhang Xuan smiled and walked towards the four treasures of the study in the southeast direction. The four treasures of the study in the study, which is a shop selling pens, ink, paper and inkstones. There are about 30 shops on both sides of a small street, operating various four treasures of the study. Their business was particularly popular during the imperial examination period. When the business was the best, it couldn't even squeeze in the street.

It has been a while since the imperial examinations ended. Now the business of the Four Treasures of Study has entered a low period. There are not many customers in the store, but there are still scholars from the Tang Dynasty who appear in front of each store.

As soon as Zhang Xuan and others arrived at the intersection, the first shop's guy ran out to stop them, "Several distinguished guests come to the small shop to see it! It doesn't matter whether you buy it or not, add some atmosphere, and the small shop will be very grateful."

The guy was very good at talking, so Zhang Xuan smiled happily and said, "Okay then! Let's go to your store to have a look."

"Several distinguished guests, please follow me."

Zhang Xuan followed him to the store. Fang Xuanling looked up at the store sign with three words "Wushanyun". Fang Xuanling laughed, "My man, is your boss surnamed Wu?"

The guy asked curiously: "How do you know sir?"

Fang Xuanling pointed to the sign and smiled: "The sign is written very clearly. The owner of this store is Wu Yu."

The guy applauded and said, "It's true that the gentleman is the first to take the initiative to see the secret in the store's signboard. Most people need villains to introduce themselves to them before they understand."

Zhang Xuan also smiled and said, "It's worthy of being a book bag. Even a store name has so many things to do, but it's still a bit petty. I think it's better to be called Shuxiang Family?"

"good!"

An old man in the shop stood up, walked up and bowed, "I'm here, Wu Yu, the owner of this shop. May I ask this brother, the surname of the noble brother."

He saluted Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xuan said lightly: "Don't have your surname Zhang."

"The same surname as our emperor!"

Wu Yu said with emotion: "Brother Taiwan criticized correctly. Actually, I also think the store name is not well named. The store name contains the word "no rain". Rain is a mobile thing, representing the source of customers and money. But I don't have these two things. How can I continue to do business? I have been considering changing a store. Brother Taiwan's "scholar family" is very good. Can you ask Brother Taiwan to keep a piece of ink?"

Zhang Xuan pointed to Fang Xuanling and smiled and said, "My handwriting is not well written, so please leave your words!"

Fang Xuanling knew that Zhang Xuan would not leave his words, so he smiled and said, "If the boss doesn't like his calligraphy being crude, I will be ugly."

Wu Yu quickly asked the clerk to lay paper and grind ink. Fang Xuanling took the pen and took it. His study was written in a very high level, no less than that of the world. Everyone was a person who knew the goods and praised it repeatedly. The boss Wu Yu was even more excited and asked the clerk to use it to paper it.

Wu Yu bowed again and said, "Thank you for giving the names and words. I wonder what can I do for you?"

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "Actually, I just want to know the market of the four treasures of the study. How is it compared to previous years?"

Wu Yu asked them to sit down and asked the guy to have tea. He sighed and said, "If the business is actually pretty good, it's just difficult to make money. The profit is too low. It's impossible to compare with the previous few years, one land a day."

"Why is this?" Zhang Xuan asked without saying a word.

"The main reason is that the imperial court set up several large workshops a few years ago and built a large number of four treasures of study, which suddenly lowered the price."

Wu Yu took two stacks of paper and put it on the table, "Look at what the difference between these two papers?"

Zhang Xuan flipped through it, pointed to one of the stacks of papers and said, "This is a little better."

"Yes! This one is indeed a little better, and the other one is a little worse is the official one, but the prices of the two are ten times different. Which one would you like to buy?"

Zhang Xuan and Fang Xuanling both smiled and said, "Of course I bought a cheap one."

"The problem is here. Everyone buys cheap things, so what else can we make? There are also inkstones. The court is also making a lot of things. Although the things are average, they are really cheap and there is no profit at all. They can only sell some fine products and make some money. However, there are too few people who buy fine products. Everyone buys cheap goods, so although the business is good, they don't make money."

Zhang Xuan smiled and said, "The reason why the imperial court made a large number of stationery was to make more people afford to read. Now scholars are a minority after all, and studying is no longer expensive in the future. Children from poor families can also read, so scholars will increase exponentially. Although the money earned less per piece of paper, the amount sold increased. This is actually one thing. This is called small profits but quick turnover. Merchants should not lose money."

"Who is the person who lost?" Wu Yu asked with wide eyes.

"Aristocratic family!" Fang Xuanling intersected.
Chapter completed!