Chapter 132 – A Great Killing Weapon is Introduced

At that moment, Zhu Di carried his hands behind his back and looked at these busy tents.

Solely, he had a chair moved aside and sat down.

Finally, it was time for the stars to fill the sky and the night to run deep.

Under the flickering candlelight, an old accountant finally stood up and sent the accounts to Zhang Anshi.

Zhu also couldn’t help but come over to look.

Just this look, but felt that the dense numbers in it, he could not understand, and at that moment said to Zhang Anshi: “You say.”

After Zhang Anshi read it, he had a bottom in his heart and said, “In the first few days, the merchant bank’s revenue in the bazaar was roughly in the range of a thousand taels per day.”

A thousand taels wasn’t a small amount, and it included the income from the rent, as well as some of the stores that the merchant house had opened itself.

Lin Lin totaled down, can have such a revenue, is equivalent to have a cash flow, 30,000 taels a month, a year also has 300,000 to 400,000 taels of grain silver.

Zhu Di had to admit that arranging Zhang Anshi in Qixia in the first place was definitely an extremely sage decision.

Zhang Anshi continued: “And today’s revenue, but even more frightening, and not counting the revenue from shipping, alone, the bazaar, today’s twenty-one newly opened stores, brought thirteen thousand taels of silver revenue. If we exclude the four treasures, almost no silver revenue, there are also more than five thousand two hundred taels, pure profit at least in two thousand taels of silver or more.”

When Zhu Di heard this, his eyes brightened even more and he laughed out loud in surprise, “There are so many?”

That’s definitely not a small gain, and most importantly, it’s stable.

Zhang Anshi said, “The main thing is that all kinds of liquor stores and book stores are amazingly profitable, the readers have strong consumption power, and they all have silver in their hands, although the literati did not earn silver, but in other places, it is doubled to earn, I intend to these days, and then open more stores, in addition to this, the streets here also need to be planned and repaired, only to attract more readers, and in the future, the earnings will only be more amazing.”

Zhu Di, however, said, “As far as I know, the readers love to be in the area of the Temple of Literature, and this time they only came to purchase the four treasures of the literary house, so I’m afraid that after some days, they won’t come.”

Zhang Anshi laughed, ”That’s why we need to enhance the attraction! Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will keep them here, and by tomorrow, a new thing will be opened, which will surely teach them to linger, and as long as they keep the people, this will be another source of wealth for the merchant bank.”

Zhu Di gave Zhang Anshi a meaningful look, but didn’t bother to ask Zhang Anshi what that thing that was ready to be opened was.”

Just at this time, I feel comfortable in my heart, so I got up and said, “I will rest here tonight, prepare bed for me and Duke Wei.”

Zhang Anshi was surprised, “Your Majesty, living here?”

Zhu Di said, “Where have I not lived before, what’s the fuss.”

Zhang Anshi busily said, “Then the minister will go and make arrangements.”

Xu Huizu had been silent, watching the way the eyes of this monarch and minister were glowing when they talked about silver, and when Zhang Anshi left, he couldn’t help but whisper, “Your Majesty, why don’t you ask what that new thing is?”

To be honest, Xu Huizu was a little curious in his heart.

Zhu Di laughed, also with a meaningful look at Xu Huizu, before saying: “You still don’t ask, I am the Son of Heaven, you are the Duke of the country, but also the Queen’s brother, some things, don’t ask to be good. I just sit and collect silver is, do not ask other. Otherwise …… if you ask carefully, it is out of order.”

This Zhu said mysteriously, more let Xu Huizu hundred claws scratching heart.

Other people, he was too lazy to care, but this Zhang Anshi, he had to ask, so at that moment he said, “Could it be that Your Majesty has guessed?”

Zhu Di with a smile under his eyes, with a banter Road tone: “you since you have to break the pot to ask the end, then …… I’ll talk to you about it, this Zhang Anshi, ten of the …… operation is a greenhouse. ”

Hui Zu Xu: “……”

Xu Huizu’s expression stiffened a bit.

Seo Hui Zu is a decent person, and he was a bit unable to accept it.

Zhang Anshi earn silver, he felt that this is also regarded as the economic way, even if sometimes, this means of earning money in a variety of ways, in fact, it is not a big deal, the economic way, as he is the Ming’s Guanzhong good.

But …… this …… made him breed hesitation, “Why does Your Majesty say this?”

Zhu Di with his hands behind his back, the wisdom of the pearl: “You ah you, really confused ah. Since childhood you have been honest, and now the brain is not bright, I come to ask you, what is the favorite thing of this reader? ”

Hui Zu Xu: “……”

Looking at Xu Huizu’s momentarily dumbfounded look, Zhu Di said: ”Do you know why many scholars linger at the Fuzi Temple? Because there …… is adjacent to the Qinhuai River. This Qinhuai ten miles long embankment, I look at the report from the jinyiwei, really night and day.”

“Zhang Anshi both said to attract readers to this, then …… in all probability, is related to this Qinhuai’s green house, I dare to be sure, Zhang Anshi tomorrow to open this store, will be related to this.”

Said, Zhu Di not without complacency, then said: “This Zhang Anshi …… want to sell a pass with me, but I do not know, Dao high feet, the devil high ten feet, I have long expected his calculations. I did not continue to ask, after all, this kind of business is not decent, but there is no way ah, I really lack of silver ah, so …… have to Zhang Anshi to do this bad guy. Anyway, I do not ask more, when there is no such thing happened.”

Xu Huizu felt his heart clogging up.

Isn’t that tantamount to being a tortoise?

Xu Huizu could not help shaking his head and laughing bitterly, “The young people …… Chen can not understand now.”

“What, regretting your family’s Jingyi’s marriage?”

Xu Hui Zu looked complicated and didn’t say anything for a moment.

Zhu Di laughed loudly and said, “I know people well, Zhang Anshi has good and bad in him, his little tricks, I am familiar with it.”

The two of them were also tired, and at that moment, without much deeper conversation, they rested peacefully in the place arranged by Zhang Anshi.

Perhaps he slept late last night, but when he woke up the next day, it was nearly noon.

Zhu opened his eyes and called out, and a man scurried out from outside: “Junior Zhang San, serving here by order of uncle.”

Zhu raised his eyes to look at him and said, “Where’s Yilungha?”

“Off to bring hot water.”

Zhu added, “What about that Zhang Anshi kid?”

“There’s a big deal to be opened, so Uncle went early in the morning to get ready, and this is the time of year when it’s supposed to be open for business, so ……”

Zhu Di’s body shook and he couldn’t help but curse, “Into his mother, doing this in the daytime.”

At that moment, he was so excited that he asked Zhang San to go and call Xu Huizu.

Xu Huizu met Zhu Di and saluted, “Your Majesty, it’s getting late, after being out of the palace for so long, it’s time to return to the palace.”

Zhu Di said, “There is no hurry, first go to that place to stroll around, I will see him this green house, and other green houses how different.”

Xu Huizu immediately felt a bit of blockage in his heart, we are fucking in-laws ah, with his great-uncle to hang out with such places, this is what people do?

But Zhu Di is now the emperor, with a harem of 3,000 beauties and debts.

At that moment, the two of them brought a cadre of guards and soon appeared on the street.

Today’s bazaar, more lively than yesterday, apparently because yesterday a lot of readers will be the news back to Nanjing, many readers heard the wind, that is, some merchants and wealthy families also followed to see the fun.

Even the ordinary people, looking at the freshness, came with the mindset of catching a fair.

Zhu Di looked at these people coming and going and only felt as if there were countless Yuanbao flowing.

He thought of something violently, “There at the Temple of Fu Zi, I have heard that it is also very lively, but why can’t it bring revenue to the treasury and to me?”

Thinking like this, Zhu Di’s heart felt a little less wonderful up.

On the one hand, the people are poor and in dire straits, so they need to be given lighter levies and tax cuts.

On the other hand, there are people who are throwing away their money in fine clothes.

Such world conditions, it is difficult to avoid the original Emperor Taizu was angry at every turn, right.

And this Qixia, nothing more than the future may be the second FuZiMiao just, the only difference is that it really can bring wealth to Zhu Di.

Snapped ……

Just then, the sound of firecrackers came from a distance.

There was even a cupola that boomed and shook the rubble.

At that moment, Zhu Di and Xu Huizu headed towards the more remote corners of the northeast.

The road is much more spacious here, and in the distance, there is a huge building.

Zhu vaguely remembers that the building, it seems that in the last year, has begun to level the land in the construction of something.

At that time, Zhu Di thought it was creating Zhang Anshi’s residence.

But now look at this huge building with rows of fellows standing to welcome customers.

Many readers stood hovering suspiciously in front of the door.

It covers a large area, tens of acres.

Soon someone could be heard yelling, “Come in, come in …… Today is free, it’s free ……”

It didn’t take long for Zhu Di and Xu Huizu to arrive at the door.

Looking up, I was surprised to see a huge plaque, “The Sutra Library.”

Books ……

Zhu Di and Xu Huizu looked at each other.

“Your Majesty, what kind of name is this? Are all greenhouses called libraries nowadays?” Xu Huizu was perplexed.

Chu: “……”

There were quite a few readers who went in.

There are a lot of people who come to buy literary treasures, thus wandering in this street, here is a big movement, and hangs the name of the library, but also claimed that today is free, and all of a …… sudden attracted a lot of attention.

As for Zhang Anshi, that is ironclad will not appear in front of the door to welcome customers, after all, …… now Zhang Anshi solicitation role is negative, may be beaten.

Zhu Di also did not hesitate, squinted his eyes and whispered, “I have to go in and take a good look, what is the name of this place.”

With that, he entered the mansion and saw that in this mansion, there were a dozen or so attics situated.

Every attic, there are hanging signs, there are “Tang and Song Poetry”, there are “Confucius, Mencius, Cheng and Zhu all the academic collection of notes”, there are “sound and rhythm of the words”, there are “Qin and Han all the remains of the book”, there are “twenty-three histories and the wild history of the remains of the book”, there are “Tang, Song and Yuan the remains of the book”, there are “the collection of the writings of the present dynasty” ……

One sign after another is a sight to behold.

Zhu took a look and frowned, “What …… is this ……”

But …… not far away, there are readers surprised, “Look …… look, go, let s go there.”

The men who spoke were none other than the Tsang Kai guys.

They this time about more of the same year together, at this time, these seven or eight readers, has been all of a sudden rushed into the Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Chu Zhu Zhu science collection of notes.

Soon, someone was greatly surprised and said, “My God, there is even Liu Xiang’s Liu Zi Zheng Collection here. I have searched for many years without seeing ……”

Many gazes looked eagerly at the shelves of books lined up in this building.

The number of volumes inside is overwhelming.

Tsang Kai’s face changed.

He prides himself on being the number one young talent in Jishui today.

This is certainly because of the family schooling; the Tsang family had their own study hall for the sake of education, which also housed a large number of various books that had been copied from their ancestors.

This cultural influence, coupled with Jishui County’s strong literary culture and frequent exchanges with others, is what created the anniversary of Zeng Kai.

But …… even so, when he saw this vast sea of books, he couldn t help but be overjoyed by it.

And that’s just a small building.

And there are more than a dozen small buildings like this one, divided into sections, a section of books, too many to count.

This is like a person who, all of a sudden, walks into the middle of a treasure trove, and this kind of joy cannot be replaced by an ordinary person.

In this era, because of the high cost of printing, all the people for the thirst for knowledge, rely on the family learning, the knowledge learned in the school, by and large, are relatively shallow.

Many families, therefore, pay great attention to the collection of books.

They would try to find all sorts of books, even many orphan books, to make copies, and then hide them in their homes and keep them secret, only for their children and grandchildren to read.

But even with a distinguished family history, the family’s collection of books is actually limited, on the one hand, the family may fall, the books lost, but also may be improperly stored, the children and grandchildren do not love and cherish.

Of course …… the biggest possibility is that no matter how hard a family tries, it can t get the books of the world in its pocket.

A person like Mr. Tsang Kai is already considered to have a profound family background, but the books he has read are, in essence, only one in ten thousand, or even one in a hundred thousand, relative to this vast sea of books.

For a reader, it would be enough to get a book that he has admired for a long time, because books are precious, and searching for them, time-consuming and costly, is too expensive.

It is this same information asymmetry that the readers are essentially capitalizing on to get high.

It’s too hard for the average person to read a book.

Even if one is a well-off family, such as Tsang Kai, looking at these many books, the vast majority of them have never been read.

There are some books that he has heard of for a long time, but he can’t go to read them, and inevitably, his heart gives birth to endless regrets.

Available here ……

“Ah …… is Liu Xiang’s Liu Zizheng ji (Collected Works of Liu Zizheng) of the Western Han Dynasty? Is it included in it, “The Strategies of the Warring States – Narrative Records”? I have been searching for this text ……”

Liu Xiang was a member of the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty, and was once ordered to repair books in the imperial court. Moreover, he was also a disciple of Xunzi, who was the most important figure in Confucianism, and to study Xunzi’s thoughts, one can get hold of a lot of first-hand information through the collected works of Liu Xiang.

“Look, here’s Liu Yun’s Ancient Writings of Shangshu.”

“Haha ……”

“No clamor.” Someone shouted.

So then, everyone’s voices were much lighter.

Everyone even tiptoed up as they walked.

Every one of them was secretly excited, and beside this bookshelf, a table and chairs were being set up, so they searched for the book, and sat down at the heel of the table, and went to look at it in detail with their heads bowed.

It’s a bit of a rat in a rice bowl really.

Soon, a dozen buildings were actually full.

The inside could have held hundreds of people, but now there were thousands of people coming in and out.

Those who didn’t have a seat simply stood and looked down at their books.

Zhu Di and Xu Hui Zu exchanged a glance, then Zhu Di realized that Xu Hui Zu was looking at him with a look of a monkey.

This makes Zhu Di’s heart indignant, he whispered, “Book …… book …… Zhang Anshi this guy, got so many books, it seems …… that he has early prepared …… this thing, more powerful than the green house.”

The large reading hall was terribly quiet, but it was densely packed with people.

Quite a few people heard about it.

Wandering from building to building, shelf to shelf, looking for books of all kinds.

On top of that …… then there are many fellows that go through the head of the place.

Serve pastries and tea to the readers.

The readers, one by one and without making a sound, were mesmerized.

Zhu Di jaw jaw, look at the appearance of these readers, obviously …… here is indeed more attractive than the green house …….

Occasionally, someone whispers in a low voice, excited about the contents of the book they are holding.

Just then, Zhang Anshi appeared.

Zhang Anshi wordlessly smiled at Zhu Di.

Zhu Di carried his hands behind his back and followed Zhang Anshi in a matter-of-fact manner to a bookstore in the back.

This should be a place for librarians.

They are responsible for categorizing various books and carefully marking the bookshelves with book lists for easy access.

Of course, there is also a part of the people, is to give people pouring tea and water, people here to study, it is inevitable to sleep and eat, tea always need to drink two mouths, pastries also have to come to two pieces.

Zhang Anshi smiled and said, ”Your Majesty, in order to let all the readers in the world have books to read, I really took great pains. I have asked people to go to all parts of the world, searching for books, and there are many orphaned books. Fortunately, the agents of the bookshops in the provinces, who sell books locally, may not be able to help with other things, but when it comes to searching for all kinds of books, they do have a few skills.”

Sometimes books are like specialties; they may be in a certain county, where all the readers here have read the book, but hundreds of miles away, many of them will have never heard of it.

In fact, it is not difficult to understand, after all, this era of information exchange has a natural barrier, even after hundreds of years, in the logistics industry has not been completely developed before the word specialty, or people go out in the hometown gifts must be.

Not to mention in this day and age where information is virtually isolated.

Zhu Di said, “How many books have you searched here?”

“After searching to, immediately ask people to copy, the books have 97,000 books of the great majority, of which more than 400 are common books for readers, the rest of the …… are many private collections and ancient orphan books, the agents of the provinces, but dug out of the heart, the minister here, up and down, the cost is also in the more than one hundred thousand taels of silver!”

More than a hundred thousand taels of silver, this silver …… is enough to make anyone s jaw drop.

But that’s the way it is in this day and age, books are just so expensive, and not only that, you have to go through the trouble of finding someone to copy the stash.

So much so that the rulers of all dynasties, have to repair the book, the so-called repair of the book, in fact, is to search the world’s books for classification, often need a prime minister level to do the general compilation, but also need to spend a lot of human and material resources.

As the saying goes, ‘repairing the canon in times of prosperity’ actually means the same thing, and when the country is not in its prime, this kind of thing, which costs a lot of manpower and material resources, can’t be done at all.

Zhang Anshi used more than 100,000 taels to get more than 90,000 books, have been considered cheap, after all, he holds the resources of the world’s bookstores!

But if someone else were to do it, even if they spent 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver, I’m afraid they might not be able to do it.

Zhu said, “Just for the readers to read here?”

“Exactly.” Zhang Anshi said, “These books …… are worth hundreds of thousands of taels, put here, for the readers, are priceless, your majesty think about it, these readers, they are still willing to go?”

Zhu Di said, “Do you mean …… that in the future here, will converge a large number of readers?”

“Exactly.”

This point, Zhang Anshi can ensure, after all, the readers are still very roll, now in front of hundreds of thousands of silver smashed out of the library, you do not see, it is a waste.

And readers tend to deal only with readers; if everyone else is erudite and conversational with you in large numbers with all sorts of allusions you’ve never heard of, and you can’t respond to them, then it’s inevitable that you’ll be ostracized.

You don’t have any choice when trying to fit in with this group.

Zhu Di, however, said, “In that case, wouldn’t it be a loss?”

Zhang Anshi laughed: “Where is the loss? This library, at a glance, will take a few hours, and in these few hours, they will always need to eat and drink! If it is late, can not catch the ferry back to the city how to do? This clothing, food, housing and transportation, everything can not escape.”

“I have already planned to open up a piece of land in this neighborhood and build more inns for people to live in. Furthermore, in the future, there will be more and more scholars coming here, and the annual revenue of this Qixia will only earn back the hundred thousand taels of silver.”

Zhang Anshi, as if counting, continued: “In addition, let the readers read here, the country also has great benefits, if you let go, these people can not help but to cause trouble. I also thought well, in this library, every three to five days, but also to get some activities, such as reading club, such as lectures, to invite some well-known people, such as my senior brother, to give lectures, so that, again, can increase the popularity of it.”

Zhang Anshi paused, then said: “Also, I have some arrangements, next door there is a vacant lot, I intend to build a clear discussion hall, so that the readers tea rest with, where …… they let them exchange reading insights, they do not like to do such a thing? And then far away, is that I created the school hall, just this school hall has to build a strong and solid some, or inside the prisoners …… not, inside the readers escaped how to do? So that school, I’m afraid it will take a year and a half, to be completed …….”

Zhang Anshi excitedly continued to talk about his plan: “There are four treasures here, there are libraries, next, we must also build a school of monks, your majesty, look at this place gathered so many readers, the literary style is flourishing, if the children in this study, will not also dip this literary spirit? I don’t know how many people will be eager to send their children here to start their studies. ”

“With these as a foundation, the roadside of the road in this neighborhood, have to plant some trees, to make this place green, not only so …… next door to the Qixia Mountain …… I also intend to repair some of them, so that the literati to go to The mountain is used to send love to the landscape!”

“Your Majesty, the readers have silver, they don’t do anything productive in the capital, they don’t do anything, they all rely on the silver sent from their old homes to feed them, they have so much land at home, the returns are amazing, food, clothing and shelter are all thrown in here, they will never lose money.”

Said Zhang Anshi pulled out a sketch from his sleeve, and then said, “Your Majesty, please see, here is the bazaar, this side is the center of the library and the academy of the literati distribution area. Farther away is the ferry, over there is the scenic area, and here …… I intend to run it as a residential area, each area is different, the bazaar is to be lively, and the ferry is to be rebuilt!”

“In order to facilitate the coming and going of merchants, the wharf is to be built in a big way, and in this area, in order to supply the Qixia, there is also to be a big building of hundreds of acres of warehouses. As for the place where the literati are concentrated, I want to plant trees in this neighborhood, in large numbers, to be green and shaded, even along the way! There should also be a rockery, a pond, and thirteen pavilions. In short …… come and don’t want to go, stay here have to leave the silver behind.”

Zhu Di’s eyes are going to fall off, this motherfucker actually has a sketch.

Look at this Zhang Anshi’s appearance, can really will be the psychology of the readers are touched through, think of those readers, Zhang Anshi scolding endless, on the other hand, Zhang Anshi touched their mentality to make a big profit in the appearance of the Zhu Di for a moment I do not know whether to cry or to laugh.

Zhu Di said, “This was all thought up by Secretary Zhang?”

Zhang Anshi blinked and said, “Your Majesty, is something wrong?”

“I ask you if you came up with this?” Zhu Di suddenly snapped.

Zhang Anshi looked embarrassed and seemed to hear that Zhu Di was quite angry, so he busily said, “It was Li Xiyan who came up with some ideas.”

Zhu Di was shocked: “Mr. Li has been living in seclusion, I did not expect to have this talent of governance?”

Talent for governance?

Zhang Anshi immediately said, “In fact, the main thing is that I came up with it, Master Li is old and usually doing his studies, he doesn’t have the heart to care about this.”

Zhu Di said angrily, “Then why did you turn the corner and push Mr. Li’s head?”

Zhang Anshi awkwardly said, “Your Majesty, you are so startled, I am somewhat …… afraid.”

“Damn it!” Zhu Di scolded, “What’s there to be afraid of, do you think I’m an imperial examination? I can still kill you three clans not, have you seen when I randomly kill people three clans?”

This question, Zhang Anshi would, “Fang Xiaoru, and ……”

“Enough.” Zhu Di glared at him and said, “They are different, they are damned, you don’t want to mess around in front of me!”

After a pause, Zhu Di’s face gradually eased some, then said: “This library, very interesting, but too much money, I was two years ago, had ordered Xie Jin, Yao Shi Fu presided over the compilation of the “Documentation Dacheng”, the inclusion of the world’s books, all the books since the book deed since the book of history, history, and the collection of the book of the hundred, as for astronomy, geography, yin and yang, medicine and divination, monasticism, the words of the skills are included in them ……”

“Your side …… let people with Xie Jin …… no, or go and Yao master contact, and see what other books, is this ‘literature Dacheng’ in the book, and your side does not have, can save a little is a little! Haha, we have to be diligent and thrifty.”