"Thank you!" Wang Wenzuo was overjoyed when he heard this. He quickly collected the talisman and walked out.
When Wang Wenzuo prepared his men, it was already more than a quarter after Shenshi. When he left the Yanxi Gate, he turned south, passed Yongxing and Chongren 2nd Lane, and then turned west, following the east-west direction. The main street passes through Wuben, Xingdao, Guanglu and Taiping Squares. The cavalry is in front and the troops are behind. There was no one on the street, only scattered debris and corpses. From time to time, people could be seen poking their heads on both sides of the street, but they quickly disappeared into the alleys before Wang Wenzuo gave the order to pursue them.
"Stop!" Wang Wenzuo raised his arms and ordered his subordinates to stop at the junction of Yanshou, Taiping and Buzheng. This place was very close to the West Market. He could even hear the shouts of the thugs. I didn't want to just rush over with a hundred or so people in a daze and get caught in the whirlpool of thousands of mobs.
"Xiao Yi, tell me the truth!" Wang Wenzuo whispered: "What is going on? Didn't you take advantage of the Qianqiu Festival to assassinate the queen? How did it cause such a big thing?"
"Want to hear the truth?" Wu Xiaoyi glanced at Wang Wenzuo and said with a mocking look on his face: "This kind of request is really strange. Not many people in the court like to hear the truth!"
"That's them, not me. Besides, I can't be considered a member of the court!" Wang Wenzuo said, "Let's talk, don't waste time. Don't you pride yourself on being a knight who rescues people from danger? Now there are people everywhere every moment. Die!"
"Okay!" Wu Xiaoyi's face changed slightly: "I'm telling the truth, but I'm afraid you will be very disappointed. They only asked me to assassinate the queen. As for the rest, I don't know anything. In his eyes, I will definitely be caught. , knowing too much can be harmful!”
"Okay!" Wang Wenzuo sighed gloomily: "I have a premonition that it will be an unlucky day!"
"But I'm not surprised at all after seeing all this. Really, I'm even a little surprised why something happened today!"
"What do you mean?" Wang Wenzuo asked in surprise: "Didn't you say that you don't know the content of their conspiracy?"
"Liu Weili is not that capable of making so many people risk their lives to become robbers!" Wu Xiaoyi sneered and smiled: "The vast majority of these people are spontaneous!"
"Spontaneous? Are you saying that this riot has nothing to do with Liu Weili?"
"There may be a little relationship, but how do you put it? Wang Sima, do you know how much a dou of rice costs in Chang'an?"
"How much does a dou of rice cost?" Wang Wenzuo was stunned. He had never bought rice in Chang'an. How could he know the price of rice? He hesitated and guessed: "Seven or eight cents per dou, right?"
"Seven or eight cents per dou?" Wu Xiaoyi laughed: "Wang Sima, it's not surprising that you think so. After all, you have enough food and clothing, and you don't need to pay attention to the price of rice!"
"When I passed through Hebei this time, I saw that the price of rice was only seven to eight cents!"
"That's Hebei, not Guanzhong, and certainly not Chang'an. I noticed it when I passed by the West Market the day before yesterday. A bucket of corn cost eighty cents!"
"Eighty cents!" Wang Wenzuo was shocked: "How can it be so expensive? This is ten times the price of rice in Hebei!"
"Isn't it strange? Not surprising, this is Chang'an, where living in Chang'an is not easy!" Wu Xiaoyi sneered: "Did you know? The grain from the southeast is transported to Luoyang, and one bushel is worth eight buckets (the freight is 20%), and then it is shipped from Luoyang to Luoyang. To transport it to Chang'an, the shipping fee for a bucketful is fifty coins. If you include the store rent, warehouse servants, losses, and the merchant's interest, is this eighty coins a lot?"
"How do you know these things?" Wang Wenzuo asked.
"We Chang'an people don't have ten days' savings. If we don't pay attention to these things, we might have starved to death long ago!" Wu Xiaoyi sneered: "Wang Sima, do you understand now why you say that?"
"Listen to what you said, the city of Chang'an is just sitting on a pile of firewood!" Wang Wenzuo sighed. It can be said that Chang'an was the first capital city in ancient China to rely on water transportation to survive. The strong national power and developed trade of the Tang Dynasty made The scale and population of Chang'an City have reached an unprecedented level (excluding modern China). It is an absolutely international metropolis. The dense population exceeds the agricultural support capacity of the Guanzhong region. Most of them are craftsmen or wanderers who have been separated from agricultural production. man of. In order to make up for the food gap, the imperial government had to transport large amounts of food from other agricultural areas
.
But unlike Kaifeng, Nanjing, and Beijing in later generations, the water transportation conditions in Chang'an are much worse. Whether it is from Henan, Jianghuai, Hebei, or the southeast, the cost of transporting grain is extremely high. As a result, the price of rice in Chang'an fluctuates extremely. Large, periodic famines occurred. There have been many incidents in history where the granary in Luoyang, just around the corner, was filled with grain transported from the southeast, while in Chang'an there were thousands of dollars to fight for rice, and the dead were recorded. Even the emperor had to take dignitaries and imperial troops to Luoyang to escape famine, which was known as "the land of peace". grain. Even if the emperor is like this, you can even imagine the living conditions of the many ordinary residents in Chang'an City. When the price of rice is low, the poor people will be drunk now. If the price of rice fluctuates slightly, many proletarians in the city will pick up their coins. Yuan Gou is not surprising at all.
Just when Wang Wenzuo was thinking about whether to let Wu Xiaoyi go ahead and investigate, a man climbed out from behind the wall of the roadside and ran towards this direction. He was intercepted by the sergeant and pulled over. Wang Wenzuo was about to say something. After asking, the man suddenly shouted: "My Lord, I met you in Chang'an! Wang Canjun, please come to rescue me as soon as possible!"
Wang Wenzuo was stunned when he heard this. He took a closer look at the man kneeling on the ground and saw that he had a high nose and deep eyes. He was of medium build. He should be a foreigner. He didn't have the slightest impression: "You know me? Why don't I have any impression at all!"
"How forgetful, noble man!" The man said with a smile: "The villain is Cao Ye's companion. I saw him join the army twice when we were in Baekje. The villain has a humble status. It's not surprising that you don't remember joining the army! "
"Oh, oh! So that's it!" Wang Wenzuo nodded and asked casually: "Then where is your master now? Is he okay?"
"The villain is in the West City right now, surrounded by thousands of thieves, and is in danger!" The man kowtowed twice: "Please also ask Wang Shenjun to come to the rescue!"
When Wang Wenzuo asked, he found out that Cao Yena happened to be in the West Market today. When the riot broke out, many Hu merchants in the West Market fled into the Zoroastrian Temple and relied on its solid walls to defend themselves. Since the four walls of the Zoroastrian Temple were made of bricks and stones, outside thugs could not attack them for a while, so Cao Yena asked his servants to escape from the secret passage and ask for help from the government troops.
"This is strange. Since there is a secret passage, why didn't your master escape but still stayed in the Zoroastrian Temple?" Wang Wenzuo asked.
