Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Yecheng is located on the vast Hebei Plain. The Zhang River runs through the city, and other rivers flow through the surrounding areas, forming a complete and prosperous water transport system, which allows people and materials from all sides of the river to flow in smoothly, forming the cornerstone of Yecheng's prosperity.

Yecheng has a long history of founding, and it really became a regional center during the Three Kingdoms period of the Later Han Dynasty. The three towers of Yecheng created during the Cao Cao period still stand in the northeast corner of the city, and the old city of Cao Wei is now Yebei City.

At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xiaowu fled west. In order to strengthen his control over the court, Gao Huan moved the capital from Luoyang to Yecheng, and more than 400,000 people from Luoyang also moved with him. Later, the Eastern Wei rebuilt a new city to the south of the original Yecheng, which is Yenan City.

The two cities together formed a brand new Yecheng, which was later completely inherited by the Northern Qi Dynasty and became the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty today.

As a model of city planning in the Middle Ages, Yecheng may be slightly inferior to Chang'an and Luoyang in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, but in the current time and space, it is the best in terms of city scale and prosperity, and its tolerance for personnel is far from comparable to Jinyang, which has a strong military color.

The roads around the city are bustling with cars and horses all day long, and both people and horses are sweating in the hot summer. A long queue formed in front of the city gate, and the people and goods queuing to enter the city were almost endless.

After the team separated, Li Licheng and his party joined the queue outside Yecheng earlier because they completed the procedures faster. However, they are still moving slowly step by step here, while Li Tang and his party have already gone straight to the city gate through a special passage.

The prosperity of Yecheng, or the prosperity of any place, will not be open to everyone fairly, so that everyone can enjoy the changes brought by this prosperity to life. People with different identities and status can also enjoy different prosperity and convenience.

In Yecheng, apart from the naturally superior officials and dignitaries, the Xianbei people are more likely to receive preferential treatment. Especially the Xianbei warriors and generals, the privileges they enjoy are reflected in all aspects, and entering the city first is just a trivial one.

The inspection of commercial goods entering the city is relatively slow, and in the busy season of business, you may even have to queue outside the city for several days. Fortunately, it is now July, the turn of summer and autumn. Even if you sleep outdoors at night, there is no cold wind. Except for the long wait, which is a bit torturous, everything else is fine.

Of course, it would be better if the Jinnei Imperial Guards could be strictly managed. While Li Licheng and his party were queuing, several groups of Imperial Guards had wandered by and asked for money and property from these merchants.

In the spirit of less trouble is worse than more trouble, when encountering such rogue extortion, Li Licheng also ordered them to give them some money and property to get rid of them. Similar situations also occurred in Chang'an, Western Wei. Li Licheng knew that nothing good would come of his entanglement with these soldiers. Unless his background was strong enough to make them afraid, he would suffer endless entanglement and revenge.

In addition, this visit to Yecheng still gave Li Licheng a sense of eye-opening. When he was young, he followed his relatives to the west, and his impression of Luoyang had long been vague. Moreover, Luoyang at that time had experienced several turmoils and had long lost the prosperity of the heyday of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Yecheng in front of him could be said to be the most magnificent city he had ever seen in his life.

Chang'an in Guanzhong and Tongzhou City, where the Bafu was located, were far less magnificent and prosperous than Yecheng. The cities under the jurisdiction of Shannan Road might be outstanding in vitality, but in terms of scale and prosperity, they were far inferior to Yecheng, the capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

Because there were so many amazing things, the wait became less difficult, and finally in the afternoon of the second day, they were finally able to enter the city.

The commercial procedure arranged by Fengshi of Bohai for them was to go through a temple, and Buddhism was also very popular in Yecheng. When the clerk in charge of checking the commercial goods at the city gate saw Li Licheng take out the temple documents, he did not continue to strictly check whether the goods were prohibited. Not only did he let them pass quickly, he even performed a solemn Buddhist ceremony to Li Licheng.

After experiencing this treatment, Li Licheng couldn't help but sigh in his heart. These monks seemed to have a very good market in other places except that they were a little unlucky under the rule of their Daxingtai.

He naturally didn't know that the monks in Hebei were not only popular, but also had the tyranny to unify the religious world. There were thousands of temples of all sizes around Yecheng alone. The monks and the monk households controlled by the temples, as well as the lay donors, etc., added up to a very terrifying number.

After entering the city, these merchants are not allowed to wander around the streets at will. There are special roads that can directly reach the area where the market is located. After settling in those stores, they can sell the goods they brought.

Li Tang and his party had already entered the city yesterday, so they had found a store to stay in advance. These stores in the market not only provide food and accommodation services, but also purchase and consignment, and can help them find and contact buyers like brokers. The service is very comprehensive.

Even if it is the first time for merchants to come to Yedu, if they can find a reliable store to help, they can complete the transaction very smoothly and get a considerable return.

After learning this, Li Licheng couldn't help but sigh that the social development of Northern Qi was indeed far beyond that of Western Wei, and even under the rule of the Taifu, there was a lot of room for catching up.

However, they came to Yecheng just to get in touch with more current people and spread some information. Of course, they did not need the various agency services of these stores. After wandering around the market and observing, I selected a storefront with a relatively high flow of people to rent, and then officially started my career of setting up stalls and selling goods.

However, on their first day of business, they encountered a lot of trouble.

On this day, a group of heavily armed soldiers suddenly entered the market and searched various shops along the street. From time to time, servants in the stores were taken out. Although those people shouted that they were wronged, the soldiers ignored them and just took them out. Tie them up with knots and continue searching the streets.

"what's going on?"

Li Licheng watched these armored soldiers approaching, so he inquired about Zuo Jin's shop.

"This is the imperial army arresting escaped slaves!"

Because Li Licheng was polite and forthright, the nearby traders had a pretty good impression of him. After hearing his question, he explained, and then he came closer and whispered: "They say they are capturing escaped slaves, but they are actually raping them." Nuding. This summer, the imperial court will build a Great Wall on the border to prevent foreign invaders from attacking. I heard that the number of slaves in Xiazhou County is more than that of Yedu.

But the people of Yedu, Ding Na, all had their own masters, and they could avoid being imprisoned by joining a powerful family. These slaves have been protected, but His Majesty the Emperor's edicts must be followed, so we can only arrest these baseless foreigners..."

After hearing this, Li Licheng couldn't help but sweat broke out on his forehead. He thought he could hide in the city after sneaking into the enemy's interior, but he didn't expect that the dangers in the Northern Qi Dynasty were coming one after another. It was almost endless. Could it be that these Do the people of Northern Qi live such an exciting life every day?

Seeing the armored soldiers searching along the street getting closer and closer, Li Licheng didn't care about watching the excitement anymore and hurried back to the shop to discuss countermeasures with Li Tang. They don't know what the so-called basic standards are, but if they finally infiltrate Yedu, but are sent to the northern border to build the Great Wall for a few years, they will really want to cry without tears!

They haven't come up with a plan here yet, but unexpectedly, a dozen of the armored soldiers who were still far away came straight to their shop, shouting loudly as they walked: "Why are there so many Han people here?" Son? Come out, owner, who makes a living here!"

Li Tang walked out bravely, took out the goods that had been paid for at a high price and handed them over to him, and said repeatedly: "General, calm down, general, calm down. My lord is the governor of Chenggao Gong. Because he serves as the town in Heyang, his account There are more Han children..."

When the armored soldiers heard that the owner of the shop was a Xianbei general, their expressions softened. After verifying the procedures, they added another sentence: "You can earn a living after being appreciated by the owner. Don't steal." If you cheat and ruin your master’s reputation, you will be severely punished!”

Finally, the foundation provided by Princess Dongping's family was quite reliable. After shouting and threatening, the group of armored soldiers stopped conducting a rigorous search and bypassed the store to continue searching the city.

After this harassment, things finally developed smoothly. After being exploited by various personnel, the goods they brought were finally put on the shelves of Yecheng shops for the people of Yecheng to choose and buy.

Putting aside the products used to hide others, the most important thing about this trip is naturally the thousands of volumes of books, which are all representative classics and history books that have been carefully selected in Xiangyang. While other goods were inevitably exploited along the way, these books were preserved to the greatest extent possible.

But books are still a relatively small category after all, and there are many other bookstores in Yecheng's stores. Customers with such needs rarely wander around the market to search for goods.

Therefore, in the ten days since the store opened, some of the most in-demand goods were almost sold out. However, these books were still in a state of being ignored. Li Licheng and others were anxious and scratched their heads, but they did not dare to sell them in the street too ostentatiously. You can hope that fish will take the bait soon.

On this day, a young customer bought some insect repellent and mosquito repellent powder in the store. He casually looked around the hall and was quickly attracted by the scroll on the desk inside.

While the slave was paying for the goods, the young man walked to the desk. He lowered his head for a moment and saw the words in the scroll. His expression suddenly changed: ""San Rites Yi Sect", your grocery store actually has "San Rites". "Yizong"! Where is the shopkeeper? Are there any remaining volumes in the shop?