When servants or stewards like them come and go, unless they are old people who often come and go in the house, they are generally not maids or servants with familiar faces, so they have to carry their waist badges when they go out.
Otherwise, they won't be allowed in easily. This is also for the safety of the children in the backyard.
After Xiaoju greeted the concierge, Qingyan said goodbye to them and left.
Qingyan came out of the side door alone and looked at the wide and deserted street in front of her.
Although this is the end of West Street, it is different from the end of the road in Hancheng before.
Although there is an open space and a drainage ditch, the opposite side of the drainage ditch is not directly opposite the city wall, but a forest. The trees inside are not dense, probably because they are afraid of hiding people inside.
Qingyan withdrew her gaze and looked at the street again. It was wider than yesterday. It must be because it was not as bright at night as it was during the day.
There are not many people here either, just a few people walking on the road. Judging from the simple clothes on their bodies, they should be servants from various mansions on business.
In ancient times, classes were very strict, and ordinary people would not wander around in the streets where wealthy families gathered.
One is that he is afraid of accidentally bumping into a noble person and causing unnecessary disaster, and the other is that he is afraid of being thought to be a craftsman or thief with ulterior motives.
Those people were doing their own thing and didn't pay attention to others, but Qingyan, a girl who didn't look like a servant at first glance, was quite conspicuous at that station, and people not far away subconsciously noticed Looked over.
Qingyan retracted her gaze and walked east along the same route she took yesterday.
Her pace was very fast. It was dark on the way here. Even though they were driving a donkey cart, they were still groping forward, so they walked for more than half an hour. But now she was walking alone, and knowing that Direction, it only took about twenty minutes to walk to the intersection yesterday.
The crossroads where people come and go is much wider than that in Handeng. If the street in Handeng can carry three carriages abreast, the one here can carry four carriages abreast, which is one carriage wider. distance.
Standing at the crossroads, Qingyan didn't even need Chou Chou to use her spiritual sense to explore. She could see far away at a glance.
Sure enough, the east and south sides are also the busiest. They came in from the north gate before and knew that there were no shops there. They should be where some of the soldiers and their families who were guarding the city lived. Now, except for the west side, it is the most deserted place.
Qingyan quietly glanced at her watch. It was now 8:24 in the morning. The sun had already risen very high, but it wasn't too hot yet.
There are already many people on the east and south sides, especially the south side, where you can see the crowds of people squeezing in and out.
At this time, Chou Chou said to her: "Yanyan, this city is quite interesting. Didn't we see a lot of villagers going out from the north gate yesterday? I thought they would also come in from the north gate today, but it turned out not to be the case. , they actually came in from the south gate.
And I saw that the city gate on the north gate is still closed. It seems that the four city gates are not opened and closed at the same time.
The south side is like a farmer's market, selling grains, vegetables and the like. The farmers who set up stalls come here before dawn, so the south gate is the first to open. I guess it is closed at night for better management. Also early.
The city gate on the north gate opens late and closes late. Those who leave the city late can only go out through the north gate. "
After hearing this, Qingyan asked curiously: "Can't you see this? Is this all your guess?"
Chou Chou said proudly: "Even if I guessed it, it should be almost the same. Don't you think it makes sense?"
Qingyan nodded in agreement, "That's true. Have you looked at the west gate and east gate? What's the situation at those two gates?"
Chou Chou looked at both sides and replied again: "The west gate is also closed now, and there are far fewer people guarding it than the north gate, only six.
The east gate is open, and there are people and vehicles coming and going. Did you know that there is a big river not far outside the east gate, and there is also a man-made moat outside the city gate. It seems that the city is over there. The main entrance of the city. "
Qingyan recalled that when they came from Hancheng before, they seemed to have been walking in the southwest direction. The east gate was not necessarily due east. It might be northeast, which happened to be facing that way.
Generally speaking, except for some places where a moat is built around the entire city wall, in places with little water, defenses such as moats are mostly built facing the direction of the enemy.
The back of this kind of city is usually either against a mountain or on one's side of the city. Just like in a war, the back is left to the comrades, with shields and weapons facing the front.
Therefore, it is normal that there are more soldiers guarding the city at the east gate and north gate.
Knowing the topography of the city, Qingyan couldn't stand on the cross street all the time. People would still suspect that she was a spy who came to survey the topography of the city!
Especially her clothes are quite eye-catching. After all, there are soldiers patrolling the city from time to time.
Chou Chou: "Where should we go first now? Should we go to the south or the east?"
"Of course we'll go to East Street first. There are pawn shops and banks there. Let's go and exchange the gold for silver notes first. This will save us a long night and a lot of dreams, should anything happen unexpectedly."
Qingyan walked towards the east while talking to it.
Chou Chou: "Yanyan, I suddenly thought of a question."
Qingyan: "What's the problem?"
"You didn't tell Xue Minghua before. I still feel a little inappropriate when you suddenly gave her the banknote. How about we find another excuse?"
Of course, Qingyan knew that there was a problem with giving it directly, but it wasn't because she didn't have enough time to make careful arrangements. Of course, it would be okay even if she didn't give it. Anyway, no one would know that she took it. The main reason was that she couldn't get over the hurdle in her heart.
"Anyway, I want to give it out. I just said it was from the Chen family. She doesn't believe it or not, but I don't mean to give it to her right now. I'm too lazy to push it around with her. When we leave, I'll give it to her directly. Just give it to her and leave, and I won’t be able to find it if I try to look for it then.”
Although Qingyan can also ask Chou Chou to help and put it silently in the baggage they brought before, but it is not good to not explain clearly, and it is more likely to cause misunderstandings.
Of course, you can also write her a letter or something and leave it behind, but thinking about your calligraphy, you might as well forget it and don't want to be embarrassed.
For traditional Chinese characters, Qingyan could understand and read them, but it was almost impossible to write them. She was either missing an arm or a leg.
There are too many strokes in traditional Chinese characters, and she often misses them when writing. If they are even slightly different, the characters may not be the same.
And she doesn’t master the calligraphy very well. Although she has learned calligraphy from her father, she can only write couplets and blessing characters during the Chinese New Year. She is asked to write in small letters on a small piece of stationery. She can’t come, or It’s better to give in person.
"Wait a while, after we have exchanged the banknotes, we will walk around Dongda Street, visit all the shops, and buy some things, and then we will go to Nanshi to ask about the price of donkeys.
When the time comes, we will sell the donkey and the cart to him. We can’t take it with us anyway. I think Xue Minghua and the others won’t be able to use it. When the time comes, people in the Xue Mansion will definitely not want it, so we might as well just sell it. . "
As she spoke, she was already standing in front of a shop with the word "pawn" written on it, and Qingyan walked directly in.
He said to the shopkeeper inside the high wooden fence counter: "Shopkeeper, how do you collect the gold here?"
The shopkeeper raised his head and looked at Qingyan, first looked at her clothes, and then asked slowly: "Girl, you want to make gold? You can use it to see the quality. The price of good quality will naturally be higher."
Qingyan took out a small piece of broken gold. The shopkeeper took it and looked at it and said, "Yours is of excellent quality. I can give you a high price, one tael of gold and ten taels of silver. How much do you have? This is not the same as the money from the bank." It’s all the same, absolutely no loss.”
Qingyan didn't take back the piece of gold, and said to the shopkeeper: "Let's exchange this into silver first."
She didn't finish her words, and planned to go to the bank to ask again. If the price was higher, she could exchange it there. If it was the same, she would see what the banknote they gave her looked like. If it was new, Just come back here.
The main issue was with the banknotes. She was afraid that the bank, like banks in later generations, would give new notes that would be too fake at first glance, so she went to the pawn shop first.
This banknote is older, and it looks like it has been used. Originally, she thought that even if she lost a little here, she would still be here. She didn't expect that one tael could be exchanged for ten taels, which was what she expected.
In fact, this is because Qingyan doesn't understand the market. Although gold is mostly exchanged for silver at a ratio of one to ten, it also depends on the purity. If the purity of the gold is high, the price will also go up. According to this pawn shop, People will only accept your gold if you make a profit. If you don't make a profit, it's impossible.
When the shopkeeper heard what she said, he knew that the other party might not have much with him, so he used this piece of gold to explore the way first. This was not bad. He put the gold on the scale and weighed it, and it happened to be five taels.
"This gold is fifty taels, so I will exchange it with you for fifty taels of silver."
Just as he was about to get the silver ingot for the little girl, he heard the other party say: "Shopkeeper, can you exchange it for me a silver note? It's not convenient for me to carry the silver with me."
The shopkeeper nodded, "Okay, then I'll get you a fifty-tael silver note."
He took a bunch of keys from his waist, unlocked a drawer in the cabinet at the back, took out a fifty-tael silver note and handed it to Qingyan.
Qingyan stretched out her hand to take it and took a look. It was just as she thought. This banknote was not brand new. Now she had to go to the bank to see what it was like. If it was this kind of used banknote, it would be worse than this one. If the exchange rate there is high, then exchange it at the bank.
After thanking the shopkeeper, Qingyan happily left the pawn shop with the banknote.
The pawnshops and banks here are not close to each other, unlike the ones in Handeng which are right across the street. It takes more than a hundred meters to find one.
The banks here are much larger than those in Handeng, just like the difference between a head office and a branch.
Qingyan went inside and still asked about the exchange rate when she took out a piece of broken gold. The shopkeeper of the bank looked at the gold in his hand, checked the purity, and then said to Qingyan: "Girl, this gold is very pure and fine. A good one tael of gold can be exchanged for twelve taels of silver, how much do you want to exchange?"
Qingyan was stunned when she heard this, it was so different! I couldn't blame the pawnshop owner for being so happy, it turned out to be so profitable, he made ten taels in one fell swoop!
Qingyan sighed and said, "I'll redeem this piece first, and I have to go back and get the rest."
You still need to see what the banknotes here look like first, and then say to the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper, I want to exchange it for a banknote, and don't show any money."
The shopkeeper nodded to show his understanding. Like the previous pawnshop shopkeeper, he took out the key and opened a cabinet behind the counter. From it, he took out a fifty-tael and a ten-tael banknote.
Qingyan took it and glanced at the two banknotes in her hand. Fortunately, they were the same as the previous banknotes. It turned out that the banknotes in this bank were freshly made and had been prepared before.
The pattern is very complicated, and there are many details. It should be for anti-counterfeiting. There is no date or anything on it.
After taking the banknote and leaving the bank, she planned to find a deserted place to take out the gold and come back to exchange it.
Suddenly she heard Chou Chou calling her: "Yanyan, I suddenly thought of a very serious problem!"
Qingyan asked as she walked: "What else is on your mind? Tell me."
Chou Chou: "I suddenly thought, now is the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, why are there banknotes? Shouldn't these banknotes only appear during the Song Dynasty?"
Qingyan was immediately put on the spot, and she suddenly reacted, yes! Although her knowledge of history was only passable, she was rather interested in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms at the time, and she also looked up some information on the Song Dynasty. She really knew this!
It’s just that I have ignored this before. Silver notes were not produced by merchants until the Northern Song Dynasty, and even after a period of upgrading, they became universal. Anti-counterfeiting was the most difficult part to overcome.
But looking at the banknotes in his hand, as well as the banknotes found on the dead spy before, it is obvious that the promotion and anti-counterfeiting techniques are very proficient, so that they can be redeemed nationwide.
"Could it be that what we are traveling through is not the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in history? But a parallel time and space? Or a parallel time and space with different development trajectories!"
Chou Chou said with some uncertainty: "It's hard to say, after all, we have only found this one doubt now. Some major events here, the city, and some famous figures don't seem to have changed much.
Of course, we have only visited two cities and haven't seen any big people. Even if some characters have changed, we can't tell.
In fact, many figures in history are fabricated or exaggerated. They are not necessarily real people. At most, they are just prototypes.
If you want to explore this time and space, we can stay for now. Anyway, your vacation is still more than a month away. We can go back next month, so we don’t have to be in such a hurry. What do you think, Yanyan? "
"No, I have to go check out the new school in advance. If something unexpected happens and I can't go back next month, it will delay my start of school."
Qingyan directly rejected this proposal.
