Big man: I am the Champion Marquis!

Chapter 21 Curiosity

Huo Xian happily enjoyed life outside the palace. Living outside the palace was a free life.

Looking at Zhao Hexi, Huo Xian asked, "Did Uncle Chen send Uncle Feng back to the farm?"

Zhao Hexi replied with a smile, "Old Feng, that useless man, can't even walk, so we can only send him back. Old Liu and I are lucky, we are not incomplete, so we don't need to send Old Feng back."

Huo Xian smiled and joked, "You guys, when you can't see each other, you miss each other in your heart, and when you see each other, you want to curse each other to death."

Zhao Hexi did not object to this statement. Brothers in life and death are not just a casual remark.

"Your kid is still a little young. Take Uncle Feng's kid first." Huo Xian restrained his smile and said, "If I really want to lead troops out in the future, I definitely can't take you four with me. Your kid can just follow me."

Zhao Hexi was anxious, "My Lord, it's okay for Old Feng to stay in Chang'an. I just lost an arm, but I can still ride a horse! If it doesn't work, I can still block the sword and the gun for you! The boy from the Old Feng family is good, but he can't follow you, I'm worried!"

"That's not up to you!" Huo Xian said, "You or Uncle Liu should go and fetch Feng Qi back later. He will follow me when I go out."

Zhao Hexi thought for a moment and said, "My Lord, is he the only one missing?"

"A little less?" Huo Xian laughed and teased, "You are not even forty yet, why can't you go out?"

Hearing what Huo Xian said, Zhao Hexi became a little worried. "Sir, if it was an ordinary family, it would be fine. People like us with disabilities can't follow them everywhere. It would be better to call a few people from the farm. It will definitely be enough."

"No need, you guys are enough." Huo Xian said helplessly, "If I don't come back, you guys will stay in the mansion and won't want to go out. I'd better take you with me, so that I can feel at ease, and you can feel at ease too."

As he was speaking, Liu Mo brought a chubby girl into the room carrying a food box and a tray.

This is the cook Jiang Xiaoniang, who was a skinny little girl when she first entered the mansion. Now, she looks very blessed.

Jiang Xiaoniang placed the food on the table and whispered, "My Lord, please eat."

"I heard that you two didn't want to be separated, so you came to live in the mansion together." Huo Xian said with a smile, "Now your mother is not in the mansion all the time. Are you still worried about her?"

Jiang Xiaoniang immediately replied, "I miss you from time to time, but I also know that you are kind-hearted. No one dares to bully the servants who leave the Guanjun Marquis's mansion!"

"You don't have to call yourself a slave. Just be casual in the mansion." Huo Xian said with a smile, "In the future, eat a plain breakfast with egg custard."

Jiang Xiaoniang immediately took note. Whenever the prince returned home, the mother and daughter of the Jiang family would usually show off their various skills and all the dishes they had learned.

Life in the Marquis of Guanjun's mansion is a good life, with enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear. The Marquis and Uncle Chen seem to have bad tempers, but they won't make things difficult for you.

But the mother and daughter of the Jiang family also have pressure. The cooking skills are learned from the Lord. If the cooking skills of the cook are not as good as the master, then there is no need for her to exist. So even though Jiang Xiaoniang is chubby now, she is under a lot of pressure.

Whenever I have time, I practice flipping the wok, thinking about what "wok flavor" is, and wanting to improve my cooking skills.

While eating, Huo Xian asked, "Is the carpenter's work ready?"

"My Lord, I'm looking for someone." Liu Mo replied immediately, "I'll be there tomorrow at the latest. I can't let you down."

Huo Xian nodded slightly and said, "Okay, after dinner, you two will accompany me to walk around the city."

Liu Mo immediately asked, "Are you going to Huayang Street?"

Huayang Street starts from the Hengmen on the north wall of Chang'an City in the north, intersects with Yongmen Street in the middle to form a crossroads, and reaches Zhichengmen Street in the south.

It is more than 3,000 meters long and is the main north-south street in Chang'an City. The east side of the street passes through Chang'an Market and Beique Jiadi; the west side of the street passes through the central government offices, handicraft factories, and Gui Palace.

The residential area is near Xuanping Gate in the northeast corner of the city. There are now more than 200,000 people in Chang'an City, and another 200,000 to 300,000 people living outside the city.

Don't think that more than 200,000 people are pitifully small. When the Western Han Dynasty was founded, there were only 13 million people, and when Emperor Liu Che ascended the throne, there were only 36 million people. Of course, this also includes the hidden households and foreigners who migrated to Han areas that were not included in the statistics, but the current population was already very astonishing in the feudal era. "Go and see what Chang'an is like. I rarely go to see it." Huo Xian said with regret, "I either stay in the palace or accompany the emperor on his tours around the country, and I can't see the whole of Chang'an."

After hearing what Huo Xian said, Zhao Hexi and the others naturally had no objection. They also knew that the prince had lived in the deep palace for many years and had not had many opportunities to see the prosperous Chang'an.

Glancing at Jiang Xiaoniang who was standing next to him, Huo Xian asked, "Do you want to come with us?"

Jiang Xiaoniang immediately shook her head and said, "I won't go. I will stay in the mansion to prepare some lunch for you, my lord."

Huo Xian didn't say much. It was unrealistic to pursue equality for everyone nowadays. All he could do was to treat the people in the mansion a little better, instead of making them feel that they could be the masters of the house and be on an equal footing with him, the Marquis of Champion.

After eating and drinking his fill, Huo Xian rode his horse to go shopping, taking not only Liu Mo and Zhao Hexi with him, but also some other people, a total of eight people in the group.

Looking at Huo Xian in gorgeous clothes and the guards with ring-handled swords hanging from their waists, no normal person would want to provoke them.

The handicraft industry in the Han Dynasty was relatively developed, and was divided into both state-owned and private enterprises.

In particular, the imperial court was lenient towards industry and commerce, allowing them to develop. Therefore, after years of sedimentation and accumulation, many large-scale handicraft workshops and wealthy merchants came into being, and the prosperity of industry and commerce can be seen.

For example, Zhuo Wenjun, one of the four great talented women, came from an iron smelting family. She made great fortune by casting tools from iron ore and selling them to the people of Yunnan and Shu. She owned thousands of acres of fertile land, magnificent mansions, fine carriages and four horses, as well as countless gold, silver, jewelry, antiques and curios.

However, she was also a love-brained woman. After becoming a widow, she fell in love with Sima Xiangru at a family dinner and eventually eloped with him. After Sima Xiangru became an official, he fell in love with other women and wanted to abandon Zhuo Wenjun.

Then Zhuo Wenjun angrily wrote a poem called "Complaint to My Husband". After reading it, Sima Xiangru felt so ashamed that he gave up his evil thoughts and reconciled with Zhuo Wenjun as before.

Huo Xian seemed to be curious about everything he saw, and he was curious when he saw others making lacquerware.

I was also very curious when I saw others making bronze mirrors. Bronze mirrors were already very common in the Han Dynasty and had begun to spread to ordinary families.

In the textile industry, the silk weaving industry seems to be on a smaller scale and is mainly used by the powerful and wealthy.

Linen and cloth are the main clothing materials for ordinary people.

Huo Xian even saw a paper shop, which said that Cai Lun's papermaking technology was one of the four great inventions.

But there was paper before that, but nowadays it is basically hemp paper. But this kind of paper is not very easy to use.

Nowadays, official correspondence, private letters, and classics are all written on bamboo slips and silk. Bamboo slips are made of bamboo and wood and are very heavy; silk is light but expensive.

History textbooks also recorded that Cai Lun invented paper using tree bark, broken fishing nets, rags, hemp heads, etc. as raw materials.

Huo Xian thought about it carefully, but he still couldn't remember the key points of some things.

There are some records on this site, especially about rice paper. It seems that some materials need to be soaked in water for several months or even one or two years, then picked up and mashed to get the paddle, then picked up and dried in the shade.
Huo Xian thought about it carefully and decided to go back and give it a try. After all, his family was big and powerful enough to withstand the hardship.

It seems that I am not only going to be the ancestor of cooking, but also very likely the 'paper god' or 'paper saint', one of the four great inventions.

If paper is really invented, there is no need to consider using bamboo strips, silk cloth or water. Even if the paper is a little rough, it is cost-effective. When I was in school, I often used textbooks to wipe my buttocks. With paper, it is much more convenient.

Thinking about these things, I feel full of motivation to promote the advancement of some technologies, which is very meaningful!

Liu Mo and the others could understand that their own prince found everything new. It was normal for young people to be curious, not to mention that the prince had been in the palace all the time and it was normal for him to not be involved in worldly affairs.

Therefore, they not only accompanied him patiently, but also explained from time to time. If he did not understand something, he would call the workshop assistants and managers. As long as the prince was interested, they would do their best to help answer his questions.

It's also nice to go shopping and watch the fireworks.

(End of this chapter)