1. During the Guangxu Period

November of the 34th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty.

In Zishui County, Xi'an Prefecture, Qin Province, at dawn, snow began to fall in Bailu Town, with heavy snowfall. Looking around, there were white crystal snowflakes everywhere, covering the tender green wheat seedlings emerging from the fields, and also covering up the bare mountains. Mao, ravine.

Bai Gui tried his best to cover the tattered fur. There was a layer of dirt on it, and there was a sour smell. He tried his best to prevent the heat from the collar from being blown away by the cold wind.

The howling north wind blew.

Even though he was covered with a felt hat, the top of his shaved head was still freezing.

He was carrying a bunch of mountain products in his hand, strung with hemp rope.

At a quick glance, there were four rabbits and two pheasants, all of which had just been slaughtered. Blood was flowing along the fur, and they jumped up and down from time to time. However, by the time Bai Gui walked to the restaurant in the town, the rabbits were already frozen. .

This pheasant is all white and is a bit larger than an ordinary domestic chicken.

"Hey! Xiao Guizi, are you going to the mountains to get wild goods again? You may have killed all the wild rabbits on this mountain." The shopkeeper Wang of the restaurant was sitting behind the counter, making calculations and keeping accounts. Hearing Hearing the noise from the door, he looked up and then said jokingly.

"Isn't this all luck? Not long after I entered the mountains, these stupid rabbits got into the noose and strangled themselves to death. I thought that I had to bleed them first, otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat the rabbit meat... …”

"These two pheasants were even more stupid and crashed directly into the tree."

Bai Gui scratched his head, smiled honestly, and casually explained the reason why all these beasts had their throats cut.

After he walked two or three steps into the restaurant, a waiter stopped him calmly and blocked him outside the door.

Bai Gui frowned and didn't say much.

Although this Wangji Restaurant only has a two-entry courtyard, the front hall serves as the canteen, and the back is the kitchen. There are no legendary private rooms, and all dining is done in-house.

But it is the only restaurant in the barren countryside.

The diners sitting inside were all wearing long-sleeved satin shirts, white cotton jackets, and melon-pipe hats.

If he goes in, it will probably affect business.

The hot coal stove was burning, and mutton soup was simmering on it. It was steaming, and the smell of mutton mixed with the aroma of meat entered people's noses.

Bai Gui listened to their conversation attentively. Even though they were in the countryside, the diners who might have spare money to go out to restaurants were not ordinary diners. They were all squires in the town, some were landowners and wealthy people, and some were scholars and ministers.

"Hey! Have you heard that Guo Juren from Jiangjun Village exchanged seven buckets of wheat for a concubine?"

"That little concubine is so pretty, she's only thirteen years old."

"It's useless to talk about these things. I heard from my distant cousin who came back from doing business in Yanjing. The Queen Mother used photo diplomacy to negotiate with Roosevelt in Kenya and returned the Boxer indemnity of more than 10 million U.S. dollars!"

"More than 10 million cuts, why don't you kill people? Not even the Boxers are so cruel!"

"Knife! It's the currency of my country, called dollar in English!"

"Amei Kenguo must be using the language of Amei Kenguo, why are you using English again? Nonsense! You are talking nonsense!"

"I heard that the Queen Mother of the West is seriously ill. She is in her seventies. It seems that she is going to die..."

"Be careful what you say! Be careful what you say!"

"But this Guangxu is ignorant. Two years ago, he and the new party wanted to abolish the imperial examination. This is an attempt to destroy the foundation of our Qing Dynasty and the ancestral method! This imperial examination has been in existence for more than a thousand years... Fortunately, the Queen Mother of the West turned the tide and finally We will not let this new party succeed..."

"I heard that the mausoleum of the Queen Mother of the West is being built in Gantian Town, Zhongnan Mountain..."

"Why, not in Yanjing?"

"I heard that when the Queen Mother of the West and Emperor Guangxu were hunting in the west, they felt that Yanjing had been attacked by foreign devils and the dragon spirit had escaped, so they planned to build a mausoleum in Guanzhong, so as to preserve their health for thousands of years. I heard Mr. Yin Yang said there was dragon spirit there. Yes, our richest man in Qin Province donated 100,000 taels..."

"Which week's richest man?"

"Hey, Mrs. Yipin Gaoming, the Queen Mother of the West recognized her as her adopted daughter when she was hunting in the west."

"..."

Bai Gui still wanted to listen carefully, but was interrupted by the shouts of the restaurant waiter.

The clerk took the rabbit meat from his hand and weighed it with a quick movement. Before Bai Gui could see it clearly, he shouted to shopkeeper Wang: "Fifty-four kilograms and eight taels of fresh rabbit meat, ten kilos of exotic fresh pheasant meat." One pound and seven taels.”

Snap! Snap!

Shopkeeper Wang fiddled with the abacus, and the abacus made a clicking sound, "It's been snowing these days, and rabbit meat can replenish energy, so I can sell more than usual. I'll give you thirteen cents per pound, which is two cents higher than usual. In addition, this Exotic pheasant meat is a rare thing, and it costs you thirty cents a pound, my dear nephew, what do you think?"

In the late Qing Dynasty, a pound of pork cost about 20 cents. Rabbit meat was cheap and had a grassy smell, so 13 cents was considered appropriate.

As for the 30 pieces of exotic pheasant meat at the back...

It’s obviously too low!

Bai Gui pursed his lips for a while and said nothing.

As Shopkeeper Wang spoke, he complained: "This pheasant is all white, and it can be considered a rare animal. If it were alive, I would at least count it as one or two for you. Unfortunately... it is dead, and it is worthless if it is dead!" "

He smashed his mouth, with a look of distress on his face.

A few years ago, this snow-white pheasant would have been considered auspicious and could be reported to the capital and sent to the palace. If you send auspiciousness to the government, you can get hundreds of taels of silver at least.

But even if this snow-white pheasant dies, it can still be sold at a good price in the town!

Auspicious!

If you eat it, you will be blessed!

He had already thought about how to promote this exotic pheasant.

The pheasant that the fool had sent earlier was cooked in a hurry. When Mr. Fang, who was passing by, heard about it, he felt very sorry. When he saw the few pieces of chicken left in the pot, he threw down a silver nugget.

That silver nugget weighed at least two and a half taels!

A few pieces of chicken weighed two taels of silver, and those two pheasants could be sold for at least thirty taels of silver!

"It's one thousand and sixty-three wen. I'll round it off for you and give you one tael and one qian." Shopkeeper Wang smiled and narrowed his eyes. He took out a silver ingot from his sack, weighed it with his hands, cut off a corner with scissors, and put it on the silver scale. One tael and one qian was exactly right.

He was going to hand the silver with a corner cut off to Bai Gui.

Bai Gui did not take the silver. He was silent for a while and asked, "Uncle, do you have any dragon silver here? I will exchange this tael and one qian of silver for a dragon silver."

"No problem! I didn't expect that my nephew also knew about this new silver dollar. I just happened to have a silver dollar given by a guest from the city a few days ago." When Shopkeeper Wang heard this, he quickly retracted his outstretched hand.

Since the two crows, foreign silver dollars have flowed into the Xia Kingdom. Because foreign silver dollars have the same appearance, standard prices, and are easy to use, once they enter, they quickly lead to chaos in the financial system of the Xia Kingdom. The Qing Dynasty was unable to stop the circulation of foreign silver dollars, and in the 16th year of Daoguang, the circulation of foreign silver dollars was legally recognized.

Later, in the 15th year of Guangxu, that is, in 1889, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, opened the Guangdong Province Money Bureau and made a sample silver dollar of seven cents and three cents. The back was a coiled dragon pattern and the front was Guangxu Yuanbao, so it was commonly known as the dragon silver.

Shopkeeper Wang smiled even more.

One silver dollar is not worth one tael of silver, let alone one tael and one qian.

This thing is just for the sake of novelty.

He searched around the counter and finally found a dragon dollar and handed it to Bai Gui.

"My dear nephew, it's freezing outside, why don't you stay and have a cup of tea before leaving." Seeing that Bai Gui had made a lot of money for him, Manager Wang ignored Bai Gui's tattered fur coat and kindly invited him to work in.

"No! Uncle, I'm going to the grain store to buy some rice and prepare for the tuition."

Bai Gui muttered casually, strode out of the restaurant and headed for the grain store in Bailu Town.

'Study? '

'With your silly appearance, you still have the ability to study? If you want to study to get ahead, drink! Pah! '