Chapter 141 The Hu people in the West City! Assassins emerge!
Both women are smart people, and after careful consideration, they discovered the differences.
Lu Pheasant looked at Li Qian with his pretty eyes and said hesitantly: "Your Majesty, could it be because you didn't give him an official position last time, but Gao Langzhong got your official position this time?"
Li Qian nodded thoughtfully: "I also think it's probably because of this."
He said with emotion: "Last time Gao Langzhong came to see me, although he asked me for help, he only had a hope. If I didn't help him, he wouldn't lose anything."
"But it's different when he comes to see me this time. I made his nephew the governor of Yongshou County, and promoted him to the fourth rank of county governor. Now he has what I have given him, and he is afraid of losing it. His mentality Naturally, I will be more careful."
Wu Meiniang smiled sweetly, came close to Li Qian, took his arm and said softly: "There are so many people in the world who want to be granted official positions by Your Majesty. As long as Your Majesty issues an imperial edict, those people can line up from the capital all the way to Persia." "
"Gao Shilian is the luckiest one. He should be extremely happy now."
Li Qian felt the warmth from his arms and smelled the faint fragrance from the tip of his nose. He felt a little better and looked at Wu Meiniang with a smile: "Gao Shilian is Guanyin's uncle. I promoted him, but I can't treat him right." You favor one over the other.”
He smiled and put his arms around Wu Meiniang's soft waist, and then hugged Lu Pheasant beside him.
After hearing the meaning of his words, Wu Meiniang didn't know what she thought of, and her face darkened.
Being held in Li Qian's arms, a blush appeared on Lu Fei's pretty face, but a trace of hesitation flashed in his dark eyes: "Your Majesty, Gao Langzhong has been the doctor of the Ministry of Justice for seven years, and your Majesty promoted him. The courtiers will not have any objections."
"But my father and brother are just common people. Your Majesty does not need to do this for them."
Li Qian naturally knew the situation in his family and said with a smile: "The eldest grandson Fuji does not have an official status, but I can still make him a Dianshi."
"I can also let your father and brother become a minor official in the local area now!"
Lu Pheasant had two sisters named Lu Changshuo and Lu Yu, and two brothers named Lu Ze and Lu Shizhi respectively.
The latter two were the founding heroes of the Western Han Dynasty in the previous life. According to records, "Lu Shiya's ancient book believed that Emperor Gao had conquered the world and made great contributions." From this, it can be roughly inferred that both of them were men of great military exploits, skilled in military tactics and brave in battle.
Of course, there seems to be no shortage of people in Da Gan who are brave in battle and skilled in military tactics, but these people may not listen to Li Gan's words...
With an idea in mind, Li Qian looked at Wu Meiniang in his left arms and sighed softly: "Meiniang, I also know the situation at your home."
Wu Meiniang buried her head in his arms, not knowing what she was thinking.
Li Qian frowned slightly: "I won't care about your two half-brothers for the time being."
"But your mother and your sister, I have already had them taken out of your home and placed in another house. You don't have to worry about them being wronged."
Li Qian held the beauty's delicate body and clearly felt her body stiffen.
"You don't blame me for making my own decisions, do you?" Li Qian smiled and hugged her tighter.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Wu Meiniang tightly hugged Li Qian's waist and buried her head in his arms, her voice a little abnormal.
After comforting her for a while, Li Qian began to deal with today's memorial.
After being delayed for a while today, it is obviously impossible to leave the palace.
But Li Qian was still thinking about going to see Hu Ji... No, he was going to see Hu Shang.
So he ignored the old eunuch's dissuasion and left the palace early the next morning. He sat in the small black cloth sedan and came to the Western Market.
The bustle here was not inferior to the Dong Market yesterday, but Li Qian stood at the street corner and looked carefully, and frowned again.
"Old Wei, the West Market and the East Market are very different!"
He looked at the people walking on the street suspiciously: "You didn't see any barbarians, either?"
The old eunuch kept wiping his sweat with a handkerchief and said with a smile: "Sir, this West Market is actually similar to the East Market. They are both places for buying and selling things. What's the difference?"
"As for the barbarians...you should be able to find them if you walk further in, right?"
"There should be Hu Ji too." Lu Bu added.
Li Qian hesitated: "Then let's go and have a look."
There were many more food stalls in the West Market than in the East Market. Li Qian enjoyed eating there, but the more he wandered inside, the more something was wrong, and he always felt familiar.
"Old Wei..."
Li Qian looked at the "durable groceries store" in front of him and frowned: "When the East and West markets were originally built, were they based on symmetrical specifications?"
"Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from the master."
The old eunuch said with admiration: "Whether it is a square or a city, when Grandpa Taizu sent people to build it, Zhuquemen Street was used as the central axis, and the two sides are the same."
"I see!"
Li Qian then chuckled: "I wonder why the streets in the West City are so different from those in the East City? It turns out there is a saying."
"If I hadn't known this, I would have thought that we were visiting the same place today as we were yesterday!"
The old eunuch and Lu Bu laughed and agreed with him: "Yes, they are a bit similar."
Suddenly, Lu Bu pointed to a shop in front of him: "Master, look, there are barbarians!"
"oh?"
Li Qian didn't care about anything else and hurriedly looked in the direction he pointed.
The shop's signboard had the four characters "Wanli Carpet" written on it. The person standing at the door soliciting customers was indeed a Westerner with deep eye sockets, a high bridge of nose, and blue eyes.
"Master, this is a barbarian, there is really nothing to see."
The old eunuch smiled at Li Qian and said: "If you really want to see it, I will buy a few more Hu slaves, castrate them and send them to the palace... No, they will serve as servants in the house. Today we should go somewhere else to visit Let’s go shopping?”
Lu Bu also laughed and said: "Don't send them over. These people are ugly. Sister Yao will have to pay extra to pick them up. What should I do if I send them to my house to scare them?"
Li Qian looked at them both speechlessly: "Do I want to see Hu people? It's Hu Ji!"
"No, it's not Hu Ji either!"
His face straightened, and he corrected: "I just want to experience the customs and customs of the Western Regions, and then learn the Hu language."
Lu Bu nodded, as if he understood.
"Come on."
Li Qian knew that he couldn't clean it well: "Let's go to this store first and see if there is anything special about this carpet shipped from the Western Regions."
The strong sun burns people, so there is a square umbrella that sticks out from the top of the door of the carpet store, retaining a precious touch of shade.
The boy also fanned out in excitement, but when he saw the three of them, his eyes lit up and he immediately came to greet them.
"Three distinguished guests, please come in!"
He spoke so fluently that Li Qian couldn't help but take another look at him.
If you just listened to his voice, you wouldn't think he was from the Western Regions.
Walking into the store, Li Qian looked around. The space inside was not very large, and there were rolls of colorful Persian carpets with complex and beautiful patterns on the shelves.
The shopkeeper of the carpet shop was also a Hu man, but he was older than the boy. He was also wearing a turban on a hot day and had a big beard on his chin. When he saw the three people coming in, he smiled and said: "What do the three guests like?" ?Let’s take a look first?”
Li Qian once again expressed surprise at his wandering words, but he didn't take it too seriously.
After all, you are doing business in Da Da, how can you make a living if you don’t have any skills?
He nodded to the shopkeeper, looked left and right in the store, and soon selected three rolls of carpets, one with khaki bird patterns, one with sapphire blue tree patterns, and one with dark red carpets. There is no name pattern on it.
This carpet has a unique sense of weight. It is made of wool, cotton and other materials. Some high-end products also add gold and silver threads.
After buying this thing, you can put it in the bedroom, and it will definitely create a different atmosphere when sleeping with the concubines.
Well, that kind of serious sleep.
The old eunuch hurriedly paid the bill, and then had someone come and move the carpet away. The master and servant left the carpet shop again.
Li Qian looked at the busy street, then turned around and looked back at the sign of the carpet shop, frowning slightly.
I don’t know why, as long as the three of them are in the store, no more customers will come. What is the principle?
The three of them continued to walk forward, but never saw a single barbarian again.
Just when Li Qian was wondering, Lu Bu pointed to a store in front and reminded in a low voice: "Master! Another store!"
Li Qian looked over again and found the four words "Huamei Liuli" written on the plaque of that house.
He immediately became interested.
As far as Li Qian knows, the current colored glaze is the glass from the previous life. He has also seen many such tributes in the palace. There are even many palace windows that are not made of paper, but are made of colored glaze to block wind and rain. .
Most of the glass was made by Da Qian himself. Even if it was a tribute, the quality was hard to describe, and it was very different from the glass Li Qian imagined.
He also thought about getting a telescope and peeking into the homes of the ministers from a high place to see if there was anything good... Of course not.
Telescopes have many uses, such as marching and fighting, surveying the enemy's situation, etc. It is just a convenience to satisfy Li Qian's hobby, well, a convenience.
But what stands in front of Li Qian is the problem of raw materials.
Most of the glass in the palace is colored glass, colorful glass, with large and small bubbles inside.
Even if there are colorless ones, they are turbid and full of bubbles, far from meeting the standards for a telescope.
What if I don’t know about the glass from the Western Regions?
Li Qian walked in with the old eunuch and Lu Bu. The shelves inside were filled with a dazzling array of colorful glassware, including pots, cups, lamps, long bottles...
However, these gadgets were nothing new to Li Qian. He looked over them like a fleeting glance, looking at all the goods inside.
"Sir, are you looking for something you like?"
The store owner is also a Hu man, older than the Hu man in the carpet shop just now, and he also speaks a wandering language.
Li Qian was a little puzzled this time, thinking to himself, are all barbarians nowadays so curled up?
Everyone is so good at learning Da Gan talk?
"just looking around."
He looked at the glassware in the store, focusing especially on the colorless glass. The result made Li Qian a little disappointed, but not very surprised.
The glass here is similar to the ones in his palace, on the same level.
After all, the Silk Road had been open for so long, and not only goods were exchanged with each other, but also technology.
The technology of making glass must have been spread on both sides for a long time.
Of course, if there were such things as Venice Island and Murano Glass in this life, Li Qian would also consider himself unlucky.
Behind the counter, the shopkeeper Hu saw that these three people were just shopping but not selling, so he didn't care. He just smiled and asked, "What do you think of me? Since you are the first customer today, I'm sorry. I can make the decision and make it cheaper for you!"
Li Qian looked up and down, then frowned and said, "Do you have any transparent glass here?"
"I want something that is completely transparent and has no flaws at all."
After hearing Li Qian's request, the shopkeeper also hesitated, frowned and thought for a moment: "There is such a thing, but I don't know if it will suit your wishes, sir."
Li Qian's eyes lit up: "Take it out and have a look."
The old eunuch and Lu Bu were also a little curious, not about Hu Shang, but about His Majesty the Emperor's request.
Completely transparent glass? What is it used for?
I saw the old Hu businessman rummaging through the boxes under the cabinet, and finally turned up a wooden box.
Opening the wooden box, Li Qian was startled by what was inside.
Isn’t this horse riding glasses just like glasses?
Golden frames, clear lenses, but the temples are not made of metal, but are connected to two thin ropes...
Old Hu Shang carefully took out the glasses on the red velvet cloth and looked at Li Qian tentatively: "Sir, is this thing still to your liking?"
A combination is a combination.
But where did this thing come from?
Could it be that they were also imported from the Western Regions? The technological level of the Western Regions seems to be a bit beyond Li Qian’s imagination...
"this……"
Li Qian hesitated for a moment, took the glasses and looked at them for a moment, frowned and asked: "How do you make such transparent glass?"
However, the old Hu Shang smiled and showed his yellow teeth: "Sir, this is not colored glaze. How can anyone make such transparent colored glaze?"
"This thing is ground from East China Sea crystal!"
Li Qian was startled, then came back to his senses and looked at Old Hu Shang in disbelief: "Is it the Donghai County in the south of Qi State?"
"good."
The old Hu Shang nodded and smiled like a pure profiteer: "Sir, this thing is called Jiji, but it is absolutely worth the money! There are double images when you see things at night. If you can't see clearly, you only need to wear it once Get on it and everything will be clear!"
"As long as forty taels of silver a piece, you can be a good boy!"
"no……"
Li Qian was still a little uneasy. He looked at the old man wearing a turban and a gray-white straight skirt in front of him: "You are a Hu businessman, why are you still selling goods from Donghai?"
"Who said Hu businessmen can't go to the East China Sea?"
This old profiteer... No, Hu Shang has an expression that says don't make a fuss: "Sir, I see what you said, when you open a store and do business, you can naturally sell whatever you want!"
"This little old man didn't go to the East China Sea to buy this. He bought it from someone else. Even after buying it for a month, he didn't sell it... This is the only one left for sale."
The old Hu Shang smiled and said: "It originally cost fifty taels, but the guest can take it with only forty taels."
"You might as well go grab it!"
Before Li Qian opened his mouth, the old eunuch couldn't help but speak up. He shouted angrily: "Such a piece of crap, ten taels of silver is enough to break the sky."
"Your Majesty, this is just a joke."
The old Hu Shang smiled and said: "The crystal of this raw material alone is far more than this price."
"Besides, sharpening this thing is a craft. If you don't practice for ten or eight years, how can you make such a beautiful thing?"
He held up the glasses in his hand and praised: "Look at this beautiful clear crystal piece..."
Just as Wang Po was about to start boasting, she was stopped by Li Qian: "I can buy this thing from you, but you have to introduce the mirror grinder to me."
"Master..." The old eunuch became anxious and turned around to persuade him, but was stopped by Li Qian.
Old Hu Shang had a bitter look on his face: "My lord, this little old man also picked up this thing by chance. It will be extremely difficult to find it again..."
Li Qian raised his eyebrows: "Can't find it?"
"no……"
There was a bit of shyness on Mr. Hu's dark old face: "I have to pay more."
"You want to eat shit when you step on the horse!"
This time, even Lu Bu couldn't stand it anymore. He banged the table and stared with a pair of bull's eyes: "Don't push your nose in the face!"
"okay."
Li Qian said speechlessly: "Just give him money. How much do you want?"
Old Hu Shang seemed to be frightened by Lu Bu, an ugly smile appeared on his face, and he stretched out two trembling fingers.
Li Qian raised his eyebrows: "Twenty taels of silver?"
The introduction fee is really not cheap.
Under the eager gazes of the old eunuch and Lu Bu, old Hu Shang smiled uglier than crying: "Just two coins."
"That's pretty much it..." The old eunuch's expression improved a bit, and he dug out the banknotes from his bag.
Li Qian took the newly acquired glasses and walked out of the store to take a good look at them.
The lens was crystal clear, and the frame was engraved with wonderful patterns. I pinched it a little harder with my hand, and nothing came out. I don’t know if it was gold or copper.
Li Qian looked in the mirror and looked at the pedestrians walking on the street. His readings were not low.
As he looked at it, a faint cold light came into his eyes behind the lenses.
Li Qian was startled, this shouldn't be the light of glass, right?
He quickly took off his glasses and saw a dark-skinned strong man standing in front of him, lining up the crowd and walking towards him.
The source of the cold light was the strong man's waist, where a long strip-like thing was covered with linen cloth. At this moment, a corner of the cloth spread out and fluttered in the wind, revealing a blade glowing with cold light at the back.
Li Qian's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly remembered the legends of countless assassins, such as the sight of a dagger, the white rainbow piercing the sun, the sharp edge of a fish...
He thought about the countless ways he died, including being stabbed through the heart with a knife, having his head cut off, and the worst of all, being cut in half directly...
The assassin seemed to realize that he had been exposed, his face trembled, he smiled ferociously at Li Qian, and moved a little faster.
Li Qian began to panic, but he still tried his best to stay calm. While retreating, he called for support from the store behind: "Fengxian! There are assassins!!"
Suddenly there was a loud banging, banging, and cracking sound in the glass shop, as if Lu Bu was rushing out.
The whole street suddenly became chaotic!
The sounds of things overturning, roars, crowds clashing and crying...
But Li Qian didn't care about anything else. While retreating, he kept a close eye on the assassin's movements, fearing that he would throw a long knife and stab him through.
Sure enough, the assassin seemed to be anxious, with a trace of panic on his face. He drew out his long knife, pushed away the crowd with long strides, and rushed to Li Qian's side in three steps and two steps.
Damn it! So fast!
Seeing that his life was about to be saved, Li Qian didn't care about what was good or bad, he just wanted to do a donkey roll to avoid the long knife that was coming!
But before he could squat down, the assassin suddenly turned around, turned his back to Li Qian and started to retreat.
This operation suddenly made Li Qian confused.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Could it be that this assassin wanted to hit me to death? Clamp me to death with his butt crack?
Or is it that he has practiced some kind of back knife skills and wants to stab me and run away?
As I was thinking about it, a loud shout suddenly came from behind: "Stop, thief!"
Lu Bu suddenly jumped out from Li Qian's side and opened his hands to protect him.
Being covered by this tall figure, his eyesight went dark, and Li Qian felt a little more secure. It was better to let Lu Bu deal with the assassin who behaved strangely.
But when he came back to his senses and looked around again, he was stunned.
It turned out that he was not only blocked by one tall figure, but by several people.
Looking out from the gap between these people, Li Qian was dumbfounded.
The cloth vendor here lifted up his stall, took out a bright long knife from under the stall, and rushed towards him.
From the grocery store on the other side, two guys wearing little hats also rushed out. They pulled out two sharp white blades from the basket at the door and rushed over with a fierce expression on their faces...
Even in the carpet store we just visited, the boss Hu and his waiters rushed towards us with long knives!
The whole street instantly turned into a mess!
Li Qian's mind went blank. Could it be that he had entered a den of thieves today?
Can Lu Bu deal with so many assassins by himself?
The scene was extremely chaotic for a moment, with overturned food stalls, flying cloth, and fierce assassins...
The old eunuch ran over from behind, hurriedly pulled Li Qian's arm, protected him and ran towards the glass shop at the back, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Your Majesty, be careful of cold arrows! Be careful of cold arrows!"
He ran to the door of the store and was about to rush in, but Li Qian was a little slower and gradually stopped.
"Wait a minute."
He gradually realized that something was wrong.
Lu Bu and the assassin didn't fight at first. They were leaning side by side, scanning the front with a vigilant look.
The "salesmen" and "vendors" who rushed over from behind did not fight with them. They also turned their backs to this side, looking ahead warily while slowly retreating.
This doesn't look like an assassin at all. Instead, it looks like another profession...
"Your Majesty, go in quickly! It's safe inside!"
The old eunuch held his hand and tried to persuade him.
"Father, please go in first, there is a cloth outside!"
Lu Bu said loudly without looking back: "By the way, foster father, where is the assassin? Go and kill him!"
He searched for a long time but couldn't find any assassins.
Li Qian looked at the chaos on the street, and thought of all the strange things he had seen while shopping these past two days. His face suddenly darkened, as if he understood something.
No wonder, the boy who served the noodles the first day had calluses on his hands and was very nervous. There were only a few places in East Market and West Market, and there was this East Market and West Market with the same layout...
I’m afraid we’re all visiting the same place, right? There’s just been a change of people, not even a change of people, just a change of stores!
"What do these people do?"
Li Qian pointed at the "salesmen" and "vendors" who suddenly rushed out, and asked the old eunuch beside him with a dark face.
The old eunuch's face was still anxious: "Your Majesty, now is not the time to worry about this, it is better to be careful of assassins! Go in quickly!"
"Watch out for the assassin!"
"There is no assassin at all. I admitted my mistake!"
Li Qian had a dark face and looked at the "assassin" at the beginning, who was standing next to Lu Bu with his back to him, holding a knife in both hands and glancing back and forth nervously.
Lu Bu seemed to know him well and was not surprised at all...
"Admit a mistake?" The old eunuch was startled: "Your Majesty, what if it is true?"
"It's better to go in! It's better to be careful!"
Li Qian glared at him, took a few steps forward, and shouted: "There are no assassins, please stop!"
"Um?"
Lu Bu was startled and said anxiously: "Father, why did you come out again? It's better to go to the store for safety!"
Li Qian was speechless and pointed at the strong man beside him: "He is the assassin."
"I?"
The strong man was dumbfounded. Everyone around him, even Lu Bu, was startled and hurriedly took half a step back.
After regaining consciousness, the strong man hurriedly dropped the long knife in his hand: "Your Majesty, this villain is wronged!"
"The villain is Zuo Yu Lin Wei Feng Yu Chen Yuan. He was the first to rush to protect His Majesty! How could he be an assassin?"
Lu Bu frowned and explained: "Your Majesty, Chen Yuan often goes drinking with Bu, so he shouldn't be an assassin..."
When Li Qian saw that they knew each other, he was even more angry and wanted to vomit blood: "Are the people on this street also arranged by you?"
It was okay if he didn't say it. After he said it, the men and women on the street immediately cheered, half of them knelt down, and the rest also knelt down shivering.
"His Majesty……"
The old eunuch came from behind anxiously: "Actually...this...slave can explain..."
Li Qian didn't want to hear his explanation. He became very angry when he thought about playing monkey tricks with them for the past two days.
"You even specially found two barbarians to come here? You really worked hard!"
Li Qian's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he pointed at the waiter and shopkeeper of "Wanli Carpet".
The shopkeeper ran so fast just now that his turban ran away and half of his beard fell off, leaving only the smaller half stuck to his lips with batter and dangling.
"Your Majesty, don't you want to see the barbarians..."
The old eunuch knew that he was wrong, so he explained with a smile: "No matter how difficult it is, I still have to find the slave!"
"You fart!"
Lu Bu glared at him: "I'm obviously looking for this!"
"You're quite capable!" Li Qian glared at him.
Lu Bu suddenly retracted his neck and said weakly: "I can't bear it."
"Your Majesty, as soon as I heard that I was on an errand for Your Majesty, I rushed over here."
The half-bearded Hu man shopkeeper hurriedly raised his head to show his loyalty: "The villain Zhou Heilu leads the Yulinwei Xiaoqi School."
"Not only is the villain here, the villain also called my uncle to come over and open a shop!"
Lu Bu stared at him, wanting him to stop saying a few words, but Li Qian frowned: "Your uncle..."
Zhou Heidi smiled, showing two rows of big white teeth, and pointed to the shop at the back: "They sell glass in there!"
Li Qian was speechless and looked around: "Are these all your people?"
The old eunuch seized the opportunity again and came up to explain: "Your Majesty, that's not all!"
"Some craft stalls don't have it. Our people don't have this kind of skill, so we have to borrow it from outside."
Li Qian had a dark face and glared at the old eunuch and Lu Bu: "Go back to the palace first!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, I'll go back to the palace now, I'll go back to the palace now..."
The two of them knew they were wrong and did not dare to say any more. They followed Li Qian back to the palace with lowered eyebrows and eyes.
"Can't you explain it?"
In the Ziwei Palace, Li Qian stared at the worried old eunuch and Lu Bu expressionlessly: "Have you finished editing it? Why not tell me about it?"