Tibet

Shi Qianquan's carriage slowly drove into the palace from the left Yintai Gate, drove along the Hengjie Street, and entered the harem from the Penglai Gate. The heavy palace complex in front was the Penglai Palace where Empress Dugu lived.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of the steps. Dugu Xinyue had been waiting on the steps for a long time. Yang Yuhuan and Liu Qingyu were standing beside her.

Li Chenghua helped Shi Qianquan get off the carriage. Li Chenghua stepped forward to greet Dugu Xinyue, "Your humble servant pays respect to the Empress!"

Dugu Xinyue pulled her arm and smiled, "Why did Sister Chenghua become so dark?"

"Don't mention it. The wind and sand in the river are strong, the sun is strong, and there is no shade. I wear a veil hat every day, but it is still blown black. Look at my arm, it's dark."

"But Sister Chenghua has to stay in the river for a long time, what should I do?"

Li Chenghua smiled and said, "Just get used to it. Anyway, I will never marry again in this life, so it doesn't matter if it's a little dark."

She slightly turned her body to let Shi Qianquan out, and Shi Qianquan stepped forward Performing a great ceremony, "Shiguo's daughter Qianquan pays respect to the Queen!"

Dugu Xinyue hurriedly helped her up, "It's inconvenient to perform a great ceremony in a skirt, Princess, please stand up!"

Qingyu whispered on the side: "Second sister, I just realized now that she is still a princess, the heir to the king, not our sister."

Yang Yuhuan smiled slightly and said: "Everyone knows it well, don't be too restrained by etiquette!"

Dugu Xinyue looked up and down at Shi Qianquan and saw that she was about the same height as herself, with a plump but slender figure, long blonde hair, a pair of big eyes, long eyelashes, blue eyes, and skin as white as cream, delicate and incomparable.

Dugu Xinyue secretly praised in her heart, worthy of being a peerless beauty who combines Chinese and Western cultures, Chenghua really has a good eye.

She took Shi Qianquan's hand and introduced her to Yang Yuhuan and Liu Qingyu. Shi Qianquan heard from Li Chenghua that these two were the emperor's first two concubines, and now they are both imperial concubines, one is Huifei and the other is Xianfei, especially Yang Huifei, who is extremely favored by the emperor.

She did not dare to neglect and bowed respectfully.

Dugu Xinyue smiled slightly and said, "Princess, you will live in our palace temporarily. Concubine Liu will take care of you. Go take a bath and change your clothes first. You will meet your family when we have dinner together in the afternoon."

Shi Qianquan nodded, and bowed to Li Chenghua again to thank her for her care along the way. Li Chenghua's nose was a little sour. She and Shi Qianquan had been together for several months and had treated her as her own daughter. Finally, they were going to part, and she was a little reluctant in her heart.

"Princess, go! I will visit you again when I have time."

Liu Qingyu took Shi Qianquan's hand and left. Yang Yuhuan asked in surprise, "Doesn't the princess have maids?"

Li Chenghua hurriedly said, "There are four maids. I will temporarily arrange them in the post house. I need the consent of the Queen Mother before I can send them to the palace."

Dugu Xinyue nodded, "You can let them enter the palace and continue to take care of Princess Qianquan!"

At dinner in the evening, everyone saw the Princess of Shiguo, some liked her and some didn't.

However, they got along well. The key was that Queen Mother Pei Sanniang accepted Shi Qianquan, and everyone had nothing to say.

The wedding date was also set, on the first day of November twenty days later.

Shi Qianquan also knew that she was about to become a member of this family, so she settled down and worked hard to learn everything. Especially after she learned to play mahjong, she quickly integrated into this family.

In October, many things happened in the court. The most important thing was that the first batch of 200,000 silver coins were issued to the court officials as salaries.

Silver coins were issued according to the current official market price, and one tael of silver was exchanged for three strings of coins.

One tael equals ten coins, so one silver coin is equivalent to three hundred copper coins.

From ancient times to the present, the court has two sources of finance, one is taxation, and the other is the issuance of currency.

But the Tang Dynasty did not issue paper money, but real precious metal currency. All things in nature are nothing more than five things: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The so-called trade and commodity exchange are nothing more than the exchange between these five elements, or a little artificial added value.

Therefore, gold and silver are the best of the gold element, and of course they can buy everything. They are put into the market as a rare resource, not a credit currency created out of thin air. Its own scarcity is destined not to cause any inflation problem.

However, in order to stabilize the market, the court issued 200,000 silver coins and melted the first batch of 60,000 copper coins issued in the Tang Suzong era at the same time. This kind of copper coin has a low copper content and a relatively poor appearance. It has always been called rotten money by the people. Together with the big money called evil money, it is extremely unpopular and no one is willing to accept it.

Li Ye has always been worried about the situation where bad money drives out good money, that is, good money is collected and circulated in the market.

But it seems that this silver money did not appear in this situation this time. On the second day of the trial issuance, silver money appeared in the West Market and was quite popular.

In the imperial study, Wei Gao, who was ordered to investigate the market, came back and said, "Your Majesty, I and my men went to a total of 23 shops to inquire, and 16 of them received silver, mostly rice shops. Judging from the reactions of the shops, silver is still quite popular. We used up all the 500 silver coins we brought, and it went smoothly."

Li Ye nodded and asked, "Didn't they suspect that this was fake silver?"

"No doubt, the court had done publicity before, and all the shops knew that the court was going to issue gold and silver coins, and everyone was looking forward to it."

"Why didn't they suspect it?"

Li Ye continued to ask: "After all, he sold things. What if the money is fake? I want to know, how did they determine that the silver and money are real? Why do they trust it? This question is very critical."

Wei Gao was speechless and could not answer.

"Your Majesty, let the merchants answer this question!" Wei Jiansu's voice came from the door.

Li Ye smiled and said, "Please ask Prime Minister Wei to come in!"

Wei Jiansu walked in and said with a smile: "I am going to the East Market to investigate. Your Majesty, are you interested in going with me?"

Li Ye happily said: "I will put on some makeup and go with you!"

The Jiqing Jewelry Shop in the East Market is one of the five largest jewelry shops in Chang'an, specializing in high-end business. In the afternoon, two men who looked like wealthy businessmen walked into the shop, one was about sixty years old and the other was about thirty years old, and they were followed by two guards.

Seeing that the two men had extraordinary demeanor, the clerk quickly notified the shopkeeper, who greeted them with a smile.

"My two distinguished guests, if you need anything, just ask!"

The two were Emperor Li Ye and Prime Minister Wei Jiansu. Li Ye was wearing a mask and could not be recognized at all.

When Li Ye saw that the other party was a glass counter, he was immediately interested, so he knocked on the counter and asked with a smile: "Is this glass or crystal?"

"Of course it is glass. It is difficult for crystal to be so large and so clean. Maybe there is, but ordinary people can't see it."

Li Ye nodded and smiled: "Very good! Glass is installed on the counter."

"We are mainly inspired by windows. Windows can be equipped with glass, so why can't counters be equipped with glass?"

"It makes sense. I believe it will be promoted soon."

The shopkeeper shook his head, "Not necessarily. It's very expensive. It costs me fifty strings of money to install this one. Ordinary stores can't afford it. It's also because I'm a jewelry store and have this need."

Li Ye nodded, "I want to buy a high-quality jade pendant. Do you have it?"

"Yes! Yes!"

The shopkeeper hurried to get the box.

Li Ye really wanted to buy a jade pendant for his eldest son Li Fang, asking him to be a modest gentleman, as gentle as jade.

Of course, he had a lot of treasures in his own treasury, and of course, buying it for his son personally had a different meaning.

The shopkeeper came over with a box and said with a smile: "Since the court lifted the ban on ordinary jade pendants, the sales of jade pendants have increased a lot. This box is the highest quality Khotan jade in my store, and there are only three pieces in total."

The shopkeeper opened the box, and there were three jade pendants inside, which were pure white, smooth and delicate. They were indeed top-quality jade.

Li Ye nodded, "How much do you want?"

"We dare not deceive you, the minimum is three hundred strings of cash!"

This price is not expensive, Li Ye thought it would cost at least a thousand strings of cash.

"Do you accept silver?" Li Ye finally asked the main question.