Chapter 51: The Empress's Orders

  Xiao Furan pressed Liu Zhang's hand onto the palm reader and shouted at the old man, "You, calculate what kind of fate he has!"

  The old man looked at Liu Zhang's palm lines, pondered for a moment, stroking his beard and said: "Well, according to my calculations, this one must be a noble young master, too noble to speak of."

  "Really accurate." Xiao Furen was amazed, Liu Zhang looked at her with disdain, bringing so many followers, how could it not be expensive? However, he didn't want to disturb Xiao Furen's enthusiasm and didn't expose the truth.

  Xiao Furong stretched out her hand and placed it in front of the old man. The old man took a look, his face slowly revealing an incredulous expression, then suddenly widened his eyes and exclaimed: "Good heavens! You're a noble lady!"

  Xiao Furong was startled by the old man's action and asked: "What kind of expensive method?"

  The old man carefully examined Xiao Furen's face again, his face full of surprise: "Miss, your palm lines are rare in the world, with a phoenix pattern, and the two stars of Ehuang on your forehead, which is a symbol of being the mother of the heavens. You have the fate of an empress."

  "Emperor, Empress? Really?" Xiao Furen stared steadily at the old man, a joyful expression already rising to her eyebrows.

  "This old cheat, he really knows how to talk." Liu Zhang cursed the old man in his heart, and he was probably going to lose at least five taels of silver.

  The old man asked Liu Zhang for eight taels of silver and said a lot of nice words, so that Xiao Furan was coaxed into forgetting her own surname, and left with joy.

  Xiao Furen said with a smile to Liu Zhang: "You asked for trouble, wait until I become the empress of your Han dynasty, and I will punish you by making you a minor eunuch."

  "Yes, Your Majesty is safe now, can we go back?" Liu Zhang had never seen anyone so easy to deceive.

  "What's the hurry in calling me back?"

  "Sleep."

  "Huh?" Xiao Furan stared at Liu Zhang with wide eyes.

  Liu Zhang: "......" heavily knocked on Xiao Furen's head, "What are you thinking, I didn't sleep all night and now I'm extremely sleepy." Liu Zhang looked at Xiao Furen's energetic appearance and wondered if his son was telling the truth about not sleeping all night.

  After Liu Zhang and Xiao Furong left, the owner of a sewing stall next to "Tianji Shen" smiled at the old man and said, "You made a big profit today."

  The old man smiled with satisfaction: "The young master is good at coaxing beautiful girls, one is a big fool and the other is brainless. If you don't cheat, you won't be cheated. Those who see it have a share. Let's go to the wine house later and drink a cup, on me."

  Dongcheng Yinfu, Yin Bai returned to the mansion and saw his father, Yin Yuan, and Old Man Yan in the main hall. Yin Yuan looked at his son with a light step and a smile on his face, and asked sternly: "You good-for-nothing thing, how many times have I told you that joy and anger should not be shown on your face? What's making you so happy?"

  Yin Bai greeted Yan Lao Ye and walked up to his father, saying: "Dad, you have no idea, last night I saw so many new and interesting things, mahjong, poker, chess, checkers, five-in-a-row... it was so much fun, you can't even imagine, poker alone has over a dozen ways of playing..."

  Yin Bai hadn't finished speaking when Yin Yuan suddenly flew into a rage: "You good-for-nothing, is this what you came to see? So frivolous, how can you inherit the family business in the future? You're going to be the death of me, I'm going to die!" Yin Yuan was panting heavily, propping himself up against the table, and Old Man Yan hurriedly spoke up to comfort him.

  Yin Bo said discontentedly, "Dad, I haven't finished speaking yet. These things aren't for play, they're so novel that we can totally sell them at our store and make a big profit. And what about those chairs, steel pens, tables, stools? We'll definitely make a killing. Even the porcelain and fabrics are half the market price!"

  "Is it really so?" Yin Yuan hesitated and said: "In that case, we can try."

  "I told you so." Yin Yuan smiled and said, "I found that we were all wrong about the governor before. In fact, the governor is not as fierce as we thought, but rather gentle and approachable. The reason why the Jiangzhou aristocratic families suffered was because they didn't take the governor seriously enough. Father, Governor has already promised that except for the land decree and price limit decree, he won't behave excessively towards our aristocratic family...".

  Yin Bai had not finished speaking, when Yin Yuan slapped the table and pointed at Yin Bai in anger: "Do you want to infuriate me to death? Can you even trust what officials say? Especially Liu Zhang, who killed Yu An in Fu Cheng and slaughtered seven tribes in Jiang Zhou. Were there any signs beforehand? When Wang Fu had Yu An's entire family executed, none of us knew what was happening.

  Liu Zhang is used to hiding a knife in his smile, killing people with a smile. How can you be so foolish as to believe his words of consolation? If we compromise with him today, he will force us back another step tomorrow, and eventually drive us into a desperate situation.

  The land deed has almost cut off the space for our clan's expansion, do you think selling a few new trinkets can make up for it? Remember, no matter how much money you make, it's not as important as land. You can't spend all your money, and one day when the government raises taxes, increases minting fees, or issues new currency like Wang Mang did, your money will be worthless.

  "Land is the foundation of our clan, without land, we are nothing. Moreover, with the four categories of imperial examination and official appointment, our clan's opportunities for advancement have been squeezed out by more than half. If this continues, we can only decline. Liu Zhang is digging at our roots, and you're still speaking on his behalf? Have you lost your head?"

  Yin Bai looked at Yin Yuan's furious appearance and felt unhappy in his heart, but he couldn't say anything else, so he smiled and said: "Father, one should not show joy or anger on their face."

  "You..."

  "Old friend, calm down, calm down." Old Master Yan comforted Yin Yuan and sighed: "I think this land order is not something to be rushed about. As you said, Liu Zhang's smile hides a knife, his cruelty is rarely seen, and resisting him will only lead to disaster. It's better to let these descendants of ours cater to Liu Zhang's policies, open up trade, which won't harm us, and also make the prefecture feel at ease with us."

  I have lived for so many years, and I have never seen any official who defies the will of the people able to last long. Liu Zhang is acting against the current, and one day Western Shu will be in great chaos. We just need to wait for the right moment to take action."

  Mr. Yan remembered Liu Zhang's words: "It's not the time to harvest now..." Unfortunately, Pang Xi was not up to par.

  Yin Yuanshen nodded silently, it's all they can do now.

  More than a month has passed, and apart from official business firms, almost all the shops of various ethnic groups in Chengdu have imported goods from Yu Shu Street. Ordinary citizens soon followed suit, and within less than a month, chairs and tables were being sold on every street corner in Chengdu, with buyers flocking to them non-stop. The San Zi workshop expanded fourfold but still couldn't meet the demand.

  With the fountain pen, officials and non-traditional scholars threw aside their brushes, articles that used to take an hour to write were now finished in the time it took to burn an incense stick, greatly increasing the efficiency of official business and article output. Mahjong and poker appeared in gambling dens, and business suddenly boomed.

  What delights the common people most is that everyday items like cloth and soap, although slightly inferior in quality, are now priced at least 50% lower than before, greatly reducing living costs.

  Facing such an enticing price, despite the merchants from other places having a resistant attitude towards Yizhou, they couldn't help but rush to purchase goods. The endless orders caused the official workshops to expand rapidly, and the types of products increased from ten to over thirty, almost covering all aspects of people's daily lives. At the same time, the assembly-line workshops set up by aristocratic families and wealthy households sprouted up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

  Low prices, combined with relatively high wages for farm laborers, allowed the lower-class citizens of Yu Shu Street to escape poverty, and Chengdu became more prosperous, with capitalism beginning to sprout.

  In a few days, it will be the day of the imperial examination in Chengdu. Candidates (military officers, artisans, doctors and scholars) have been arriving one after another, pouring into the city of Chengdu.

  Gan Ning cut through the passes and beheaded generals all along the way. Now he arrived in Chengdu dressed in magnificent attire, with an air of unmatched arrogance.

  Aguda silently prayed at the city gate that Chengdu would be like Jiangzhou and never test him on writing Chinese characters.

  Only Zhang Zhongjing and Zhou Buyi looked disheveled, with Zhou Buyi occasionally casting a glance at Zhang Zhongjing, resentful of his lack of concern and sorrow for his misfortune.

  He didn't expect that Zhang Zhongjing, who was already very poor, would treat a peasant woman who had fainted in the fields of Fucheng for free and even gave her money, spending all the travel expenses given by Jiangzhou, and not allowing himself to cheat people out of their money, so that the two of them almost begged their way to Chengdu.

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