One person ascends to the Pure Huang Court

"A few years ago, the King of Qiuci ordered people to dig a small canal to bring water from the Dongchuan River into the city, passing through Yancheng from west to east, making it more convenient for residents to use water."

"There's nothing to see in other places in Yancheng, only the market in the northeast is very lively."

"Kucha is located in a strategic location with many connections, so the countries in the Western Regions have the habit of transporting their own specialties here in exchange for goods from other countries. Therefore, the merchants here come from all over the Western Regions, and almost all the specialties of the Western Regions can be found there."

Gao Yue talked eloquently in front of Hu Xiuwu and Chen Duo, introducing them to the situation in Yancheng. In contrast to his mature and taciturn appearance on the road, he knew everything about Yancheng like the back of his hand.

Chen Duo didn't react to Gao Yue's words, her history was not very good. Hu Xiuwu was different, he found the words in Gao Yue's mouth worth studying.

The former dynasty and the latter market,

This is the characteristic of Chang'an's structure, coupled with the concept of "market" where merchants gathered to trade, which was unique to Chang'an of the Han Dynasty.

This Kucha Royal City was built based on the layout of Chang'an!

Moreover, the designers were able to adapt to local conditions and build it according to the terrain just like Chang'an. The palace is on the high side overlooking the entire city to show its magnificence and demonstrate the majesty of the king.

The canal flows from east to west, which not only ensures drinking water for residents in the city, but also guarantees the water needs of the blacksmith shop, and the sewage discharged from the blacksmith shop will not pollute the water source.

Hu Xiuwu praised: "The person who designed this Yancheng is a master. This Yancheng has both the charm of Chang'an and the style of Qiuci."

Gao Yue revealed an imperceptible smile, feeling proud of it.

Although he didn't say anything, Hu Xiuwu had already guessed who the designer of the transformation of the Kucha Royal City was.

Gao Yue was just a warrior, good at fighting but not good at conversation. He could remember the characteristics of this city by heart and introduce it to others fluently. He must have heard it often, so these words were deeply imprinted in his mind.

There are a few people around Gao Yue who have such talent, only Gao Gu.

Despite the exploitation of the Jingjue Kingdom, Yancheng is still able to maintain its current bustling situation, and Gao Gu should be credited with 80% of the credit.

Hu Xiuwu was somewhat emotional. If the Zaklama tribe had not been cursed, after Zhang Qian's successful mission to Dayuezhi, when Emperor Wu of Han began to recruit talents regardless of their background, Gao Gu could have at least become a high-ranking official with a salary of more than 2,000 stones.

Following behind Gao Yue, Gao Yue led them to Yancheng Market.

“Great wine, great wine!”

"Sesame, top quality sesame! Price is negotiable!"

"Beautiful jade, mutton-fat jade!"

The market town in the northeast of Yancheng was indeed quite lively as Gao Yue had said. The merchants and buyers who came and went wore different clothes, and although they all spoke in the Kucha language, they all had different accents.

It's like a small expo with the theme of specialties from the Western Regions.

All the Western Region specialties you can think of are available here, such as raisins, wine, various dried fruits, and medicinal herbs such as sesame and saffron.

It was just like the Northern Bazaar that Hu Xiuwu had once attended, or rather, it was the prototype of the Northern Bazaar.

There were also some smart local people in Kucha who came to buy some fresh pomegranates and other fruits. These were things that only nobles from various countries who came with the caravans would buy some to try, as the local people in Kucha were tired of eating them.

Hu Xiuwu even saw a stall displaying musical instruments and jewelry unique to Kucha, but few people were interested in these things.

The Queen of Jingjue has caused great trouble to the thirty-six kingdoms in the Western Regions, and few people have the leisure to play musical instruments and study music.

People's lives are hard, how can there be music?

After Gao Gu led Hu Xiuwu and Chen Duo over, he looked at the market and couldn't help but say:

"The last time my brother and I came here, this place was ten times more lively than it is now. I didn't expect it to become so deserted now."

Hu Xiuwu looked at the crowds coming and going:

"There are only nine markets in Chang'an. In a place like the Western Regions, which is vast and sparsely populated, it's good to have such a large market. Don't you think so, Duo'er?"

He wanted to chat with Chen Duo, but Chen Duo did not respond to him. Hu Xiuwu turned his head and found that Chen Duo, who had been following him, was standing at the door of a shop next to him. There were several guards with knives at the door of the shop.

Hu Xiuwu curiously went over to see what could have fascinated Chen Duo so much.

After a closer look, Hu Xiuwu discovered that this store sold accessories used by girls in the Western Regions.

In Kucha, both men and women cut their hair to the same length as their necks, except the king.

In the Kingdom of Kucha, both men and women had hair that only reached their necks. Only the King of Kucha had long hair. Therefore, the people of Kucha had no need for hairpins, and there were no hairpins for tying hair on the stalls.

There are only earrings, headdresses, some necklaces and bracelets, with very different styles. Different from the implicit and freehand beauty of the Central Plains style, it has some heroic style of the desert, which brings gorgeousness and luxury to the extreme.

In addition to these jewelries, there is a pile of wooden boxes in the store. On top of the wooden boxes is a small open wooden box. In the box is a bright yellow block of powder. If you get close, you can smell a strange fragrance that is neither smelly nor stinky.

"what is this?"

Hu Xiuwu did not recognize this thing, but Gao Yue recognized it at a glance and said calmly:

"This is orpiment, used to make pigment."

Hu Xiuwu suddenly realized: "This is the realgar in the lies."

In addition to being used as a pigment, orpiment is also used as a correction fluid to alter articles, hence the term "false accusation" which means talking nonsense.

Gao Yue said casually, "In the Western Regions, only Gumo can produce realgar. It seems that the owner of this shop should be from Gumo."

Gumo Kingdom, that’s not a coincidence.

"Don't just stand at the door and look. You are different now. Come on, go in and take a closer look."

Hu Xiuwu's heart moved, and he took Chen Duo's hand and went into the store. He picked up a pair of earrings and pointed them at Chen Duo's ears:

"How's it going? Do you like it?"

Chen Duo protected the earrings Liao Zhong gave her and shook her head slightly: "This is a gift from Uncle Liao. I don't want to change it."

"Oh, so that's how it is. I saw you had no other jewelry on, so I thought you only liked earrings."

Hu Xiuwu put down the pair of earrings, pointed at the jewelry on display in the store and said, "Then choose a piece of jewelry from this stall as a gift from me."

Then he waved his hand proudly: "Pick any one you want!"

Hu Xiuwu still has some gold in his hands that he got from the evil Luo Haicheng and the horse bandits. If all else fails, he still has Gao Yue, the wealthy man behind him. If all else fails, he can borrow some from him first.

This time, Chen Duo was a little hesitant. She rolled her almond-shaped eyes around and looked carefully at the goods on the stall, with a serious expression as if she was about to make some major international decision.

Hu Xiuwu found Chen Duo's little expression very interesting and couldn't help but grin and admire Chen Duo's conflicted little expression.

The shop owner had already seen Hu Xiuwu and the other two, but he saw that Hu Xiuwu and Chen Duo had extraordinary temperaments. Although their clothes were dusty, it did not hide their high spirits. It was obvious at first glance that they were not people who would be under someone else's command for long, so he did not let anyone stop them when they came in.

Although he didn't understand what Hu Xiuwu and the others were saying, he could tell from their actions and expressions that they were very interested in the jewelry in his store.

While Chen Duo was choosing jewelry, the owner attentively took out a luxuriously carved box from the cabinet.

The box was placed in front of Chen Duo and the copper box was opened in front of her. The copper box was lined with soft black wool, and on top of the black wool were jewelry of obviously higher quality.

"Wow!"

Even Chen Duo exclaimed in amazement and fell into a new round of entanglement.

"I go!"

Hu Xiuwu looked at the box of fine jade, and then glanced at the shopkeeper who was diligently taking care of Chen Duo. When Hu Xiuwu looked at him, this guy actually had the nerve to give him a kind smile.

But no matter how hard Hu Xiuwu looked, he could only read one word from this smile.

Fat sheep!

Kill the fat sheep!

Hu Xiuwu secretly hated: "This guy is going to make a killing from me."

Although he knew that the store owner had bad intentions, seeing Chen Duo's happy eyes and the serious look on her face while she was selecting jewelry, Hu Xiuwu could only swallow his bitter blood.

For the first time, I somewhat understood Hu Bayi's mentality when he pretended to be omnipotent in front of Shirley Yang.

Although he was sweating profusely and worried that he didn't have enough money, Hu Xiuwu still looked calm and asked Gao Yue, who was standing calmly beside him:

"People in Kucha live in poverty, so why is there a shop selling jewelry like this?"

Gao Yue sneered, "Humph, since when will the changes in the situation affect the lives of the noble families?"

"This is the case in the Central Plains, and the Western Regions are no exception."

After saying this, Gao Yue changed the subject:

"Besides, this shop is not set up entirely for other countries in the Western Regions,"

"The rest of the countries in the Western Regions can no longer survive, but there is still one country that is sucking blood from the other countries in the Western Regions and is thriving."

Chapter 129 Gumo Shop

After choosing for a long time, Chen Duo finally selected a double fish jade pendant carved from the finest mutton-fat jade. The sculptor also deliberately left a little yellow skin at the eyes of the fish as a finishing touch, making the two fish more lively and showing some signs of turning into a dragon.

Looking at the appearance of the jade pendant, Hu Xiuwu knew that it must be very expensive.

But seeing Chen Duo's delighted eyes, Hu Xiuwu could only sigh, and then asked Gao Yue to translate for the store owner and let the store owner make an offer.

Gao Yue asked the shopkeeper about the price, but the shopkeeper did not give a direct answer. Instead, he asked his men to take out a scale, put the gold-eyed double fish jade pendant on one end of the scale, and then put a weight of the same weight on the other end, and then took the fish pendant off.

He placed forty-nine identical weights on one end of the scale, then said to Gao Yue with a smile that his shop only accepted gold, and as long as Hu Xiuwu could bring out the gold that could balance both ends of the scale, the jade pendant would be his.

Simple and crude.

The situation in the Western Regions was chaotic, with many countries coexisting and no unified language, let alone currency. So apart from bartering, the only accepted form of transaction here was gold.

Gao Yue translated the shopkeeper's words to Hu Xiuwu. Hu Xiuwu took a deep breath and converted it in his mind.

In order to get this Pisces jade pendant, Hu Xiuwu must pay at least five kilograms of gold!

The store asked for a high price, but Hu Xiuwu did not bargain.

After hanging around in Wang Kaixuan's shop for so long, Hu Xiuwu is no longer the kid who just came down from the mountains. He has some understanding of the market price of antiques.

If such a jade pendant, which is smooth, creamy, and exquisitely crafted, were transported to Chang'an by the Gao family, it would be easily exchanged for a hundred times the value of gold.

If it were in modern times, the value would have quadrupled, and it could be used to buy a yard that is ten times larger than the small courtyard house that Hu Xiuwu owns.

However, Hu Xiuwu was short of money now, and there was no place for so much gold. He carefully searched his ghost tomb inside and out, trying to find something that could be sold.

Dried meat, water, scattered copper coins, and the scroll found on Shan Zeng...

Oh! What is this? It should be worth some money now, right?

Hu Xiuwu reached into his pocket, pretended to take out a bulging bag and threw it on the other end of the scale, directly tilting the scale towards him. No matter what was in the bag, at least his weight was far greater than the weights put by the store.

The shopkeeper curiously opened the bag, but found that it was not gold, but a bag of round, smooth silver beads that could even reflect his face.

The bag contains the steel balls that Hu Xiuwu used to launch from the Ghost Tomb. The steel balls he used were bought from a hardware store and are used to make ball bearings.

The bearing steel used for this kind of steel ball is one of the most demanding steel grades in all steel production. It has high and uniform hardness, good wear resistance and toughness, and good rust resistance.