Chapter 321

Da Wang sharpened his knife, eyeing the aristocrats, thinking they could work for him on one hand and thinking of robbing the rich on the other. After much thought, he decided not to be too greedy and to take things step by step.

Da Wang was having a great time stirring up trouble in Beijiang, while Bai Li Jing began to suffer greatly.

His coronation ceremony was finally held as scheduled, and he invited Da Wang to the capital to catch him in a trap, but Da Wang had vanished from Youzhou, and the southern rebel king showed no sign of resting.

Bai Li Jing had long awaited his coronation, but before the heavenly sacrifice could begin, part of the Western Garrison stationed in Chang'an mutinied. Before this unrest could be quelled, some imperial relatives from the clan came out to oppose his ascension as a concubine's son.

Bai Li Jing angrily ordered these idle eaters to be dragged away, not expecting that they were not merely shouting opposition—they were serious!

In the end, an old man rammed his head into the coiling dragon pillar in the Jianzhang Palace and died.

By seniority, this man belonged to the same generation as Bai Li Jing's royal grandfather.

The entire coronation ceremony proceeded without Da Wang's participation, chaotic as flying dogs and jumping chickens, and the southern rebel king indeed did not let him off.

Bai Li Jing relied on the Jinwu Guard and the Hu Ben Guard under his command to smoothly ascend the throne he had long dreamed of. After the ceremony ended, seeing the Minister of Revenue's grim face, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the end, I still won!

He dismissed the ministers first, but Bai Li Jing did not rise.

From now on, the myriad rivers and mountains of the Jin Dynasty will be firmly in Bai Li Jing's hands!

This day has finally come.

He sat on the dragon throne in the Jianzhang Palace, just cracking a smile at the corners of his mouth, when he heard the sound of a little eunuch washing the coiling dragon pillar outside. That smile vanished instantly, as if it had never appeared.

If Da Wang were sure to come rushing over to ask, why bother? It would be better to just behave properly early on, and he wouldn't lack a brother's support.

Bai Li Jing gritted his teeth, slammed his hand on the desk, and knocked over the paperweight: "Bai! Li! Heng! It seems I must speak falsely. No matter, Father Emperor will understand me." Old Four and the Prince of Jiangxia kept moving frequently, Old Two remained still, and he had thought Old Two had no troops and would not act rashly!

What then?

Without the Hu Ben Guard, how many of the officials in the hall today would support him without hesitation?! The ceremony was nearly scattered by that sinister, copper-stinking traitor!

Outside, a splash of water washed over, and the strong smell of blood spread again from outside the hall.

"Really ill-omened! When did Old Two join forces with the clan?" After a long while, Bai Li Jing calmed down and asked.

The attendants kneeling inside the hall heard the question, and the chief steward beside him hesitated before replying: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger! The Jin family has plenty of silver, and fallen clan members can be won over. They are short-sighted, and I believe they will not stir up any major storms."

Bai Li Jing sneered: "Won't they? I've been pointed at and scolded all day as a usurping concubine's son, illegitimate in position! How many in the court voluntarily speak for me?"

"Convey my edict: Rebel King Bai Li Heng conspired with the clan, intended to forge an imperial decree—grant him death!"

After saying this, he felt these two words were wonderfully beautiful.

"Send that man who rammed himself to death, and send all his sons and grandsons to prison for me!"

Bai Li Jing had a strategist arranged by the Wang family beside him, who had remained silent until now, when he finally spoke: "Your Majesty, please reconsider! That clan member is a branch of the Shangdang Prince, of high seniority. Bai Li Xian is already dead, yet Your Highness insists on punishing his family relentlessly, risking offense to the Shangdang Prince. Shangdang lies between us and Beijiang, its geographical position extremely special..."

He was not hinting—he was stating it outright.

Do not offend the buffer zone.

The Shangdang Prince's title has been passed down for several generations in that family, operating as tightly as an iron barrel.

Many clan members with fiefdoms not far from Chang'an often reside in the capital. If they suddenly came from their fiefdoms, Bai Li Jing would not be completely unprepared for these old men. Now the situation has made him lose face, although the ceremony was barely completed, he always felt a suffocating anger in his chest.

He stubbornly declared: "I say it, and it shall be done!"

"As for Bai Li Jing that little thief, let him be arrogant for a few days first. After I deal with Old Two and Old Four, it will be his turn!!"

Da Wang: "Ah—choo! Cover the Sky, go quickly check if Elder Brother Biao is still in the mansion? Isn't he secretly sneaking out to spend our money?"

That absolutely must not happen! Cover the Sky vanished with a swoosh—

Bai Ze:...

★

★

★

This section adds 3000 characters~~

………………New Chapter………………

………………New Chapter………………

………………New Chapter………………

Da Wang wanted to grind an ink stick, but Bai Yang Supermarket mainly sells daily necessities, and their ink sticks and ink stones are only available in large stationery stores. Nowadays, aside from professional calligraphy and painting, ordinary people rarely use them; he himself had only ever used bottled ink as a child.

Bai Yang went out again to help Da Wang search on the shopping website, returned, and cached some options for Da Wang to choose from.

From ancient-method restored suhe oil soot in thousands of pieces at three qian, ancient-method pine soot in one hundred pieces at three qian, to various prices of tung oil soot, Huangshan pine soot, etc., all available, with exquisite craftsmanship not inferior to ancient handmade ones.

Da Wang glanced at the prices with his big eyes, headed straight for the shop selling at fifteen yuan per piece, buy five get three free...

"This! This one still has gold-plum blossom carving, beautiful! Is it gold powder?"

Bai Yang: "……At this price, it's impossible to be hand-carved; it's pressed, machine-pressed!"

Da Wang: "Doesn't matter, we don't care about handmade or not." Everything here is handmade, right? There's no concept of machinery replacing this yet, his workshop is still in its infancy, lacking talent!

Can't think about this, head dizzy.

Bai Yang reminded again: "This cheap one might be even harder to use than your cheap goods over there, lots of glue, writing might feel sticky?" The cheap things we make here involve a lot of hard work.

Da Wang waved his hand: "Not important, what matters is cheap! Few families in Beijiang can afford to study, the king has lowered paper prices, ink must be lowered further too. If it's hard to use, as long as it can write, it's fine."

Upon hearing this, Bai Yang rummaged behind the counter, found a pencil.

"This is the truly cheap one. Our children here no longer start with brush writing, we only use pencils. Speaking of which, now everyone uses computer and phone pinyin input, I pick up a pen and forget how to write characters.

Look at this, if you want to eradicate illiteracy and teach characters, let the children in your school use pencils—this can also practice writing. One yuan treasure can buy two hundred rods, still brand goods, wholesale can be even cheaper, this one rod can last a long time.

This pencil is simple to make, learn it and you can make your own too."

Da Wang took the signature pen from Bai Yang to write in his little notebook, asked the price—three yuan. After converting the price, Da Wang was shocked at the time. After all, that pen retracts freely, can be pressed back and forth, looks like it has extremely complex craftsmanship, yet one yuan treasure can buy over thirty of them.

This pencil can actually buy two hundred rods?

Da Wang leaned on the counter, sliding back and forth experimenting, Bai Yang taught him how to hold the pen, and Da Wang soon wrote with proper form, his small posture still quite standard.

"In my past life, I must have studied well, feels very familiar!" Da Wang found the pencil quite easy to handle, he increasingly felt it was feasible.

After hearing again that even usable brushes from later generations weren't cheap, Da Wang firmly resolved to promote pencils. As long as he started using pencils in Beijiang, there would always be merchants imitating production for profit, so he didn't need to worry about it.

No one stipulated that the imperial examinations must use brushes; they in Beijiang didn't stick to one pattern when recruiting talent, so these were trivial matters.

Da Wang waved his small hand: this one, this one, this one—all needed!

He ordered thirty thousand pencils, and also some 'primary school stationery': character practice books, erasers, rulers. Plus various grades of brushes and ink sticks—even the aristocrats' leeks needed harvesting.

Da Wang discovered that later generations had many ink varieties; this guy didn't need expensive old ink, since no one was older than him, Da Wang only wanted those with exquisite shapes and gimmicks that dazzled the eyes.

After placing a frenzied order and restocking Zhuti's goods list, Da Wang sobered slightly: "……My balance is only three digits now—roughly how much are these?"

Bai Yang roughly estimated: "Around twenty thousand treasure?"

"Too little?"

Da Wang stopped guarding his wallet and started guarding his chest instead.

Bai Ye smiled warmly as he handed Da Wang a cup of milk: "Come on, come on, have a sip! Da Wang, you're my big client—I can accept IOUs! Given your liquidity, twenty thousand isn't a big deal? Selling two pieces of your dad's estate could empty his supermarket."

After finishing his milk, Da Wang pulled out his income ledger, planning to top up first.

"Mengmeng will earn Da Wang's money again—better exchange it for silver!"

Bai Yang pointed at his small bundle: "Originally you planned to sell what, again?"

Da Wang pulled open his bundle to show him: "Just ink—three pieces Zhao Bao took from the mansion, two pieces from the Wang family collection."

Da Wang wasn't stupid either; he had Taifu estimate a price for him, planning to go to Phoenix Market and resell at double.

"This piece is over a hundred years old from now, which for you guys is over two thousand years—how much could it be worth?"

Bai Yang didn't understand this; he purely admired it as exquisite antique: "A cultural relic with two thousand years of craftsmanship this exquisite—surely… hundreds of thousands? Meeting someone like me, I could offer this amount; meeting someone who likes it, not necessarily."

Da Wang was delighted; he prepared to markup tenfold and set up a stall!

Could twenty thousand treasure rely on these few ink sticks? Maybe it could work?

Da Wang carried his bundle steadily to Phoenix Market; Qiao Yi wasn't there today, so he went himself to the old spot to set up.

To avoid monotonous goods, the prodigal Da Wang again took out a box of his father's collected brushes. The old man didn't much like practicing calligraphy, but his supplies were plentiful.

Exquisite brush holders of golden-thread nanmu, pure white crystalline jade carvings of beauties as themes, bronze chi tigers as paperweights—one row of treasures after another laid out; passersby who liked or disliked them would glance twice.

Whose child carried off their father's study to sell?

Many people glanced, few asked prices.

Until a middle-aged scholar approached, this person in wide-sleeved long robes, beard fluttering, Da Wang sensitively sensed Xie Yuan's aura on him.

Moreover, black hair and black eyes; though this outfit was simple in style, it looked of quite good quality.

This guy's eyes lit up, and without changing expression he greeted: "Sir, take a look at my ink! Those who understand ink can tell good from bad at a glance—all made by masters; here we have models and seals."

The middle-aged scholar turned these brushes and ink over, eyeing Da Wang, noting Da Wang's dark dragon embroidery, his head wearing a fine jade crown; then looking at his stall's display—chi tiger golden-thread nanmu—this child's identity was obvious.

Royalty.

That scholar picked up Da Wang's chi tiger paperweight and examined it carefully, marveling inwardly.

Exquisite craftsmanship, skillful enough to rival heaven's work—not an exaggeration; the hairs on that tiger were clearly visible, such fine things were indeed rare among the populace.

He tentatively asked the price; Da Wang feared quoting would scare him off, hesitated a moment without directly stating the paperweight's price: "Sir, would you also like to look at brushes and ink? Here I have one item at original price, two for ten percent off, three for twenty percent off~ Don't misunderstand—my goods are all good, just that I'm young and eager to go home to sleep; children who don't sleep won't grow tall."

Da Wang treasured this person who looked like same civilization, different timeline; those passing by with yellow hair, red hair—didn't seem like they could understand these things.

That scholar, hearing this, lifted his head and glanced at Da Wang—this kid was still quite interesting.

Da Wang revealed a bashful smile, pinched his own fair little finger, presenting a pure and honest appearance—a stall tycoon posing as a novice.

The goods were indeed good; that scholar then picked another piece of Wang family-collected ink and Ning De Emperor's brush holder, placed them together, and asked Da Wang to quote.

Da Wang took out his 'location-restricted' calculator and began clicking: "This bronze chi tiger paperweight is my Father Emperor's beloved object, crafted by the finest artisans of Jin Dynasty over many years as tribute—selling price 18,000 treasure; this ink is the mountain-sealed work of world-renowned ink master—selling price 3,000 treasure; finally this brush holder, likewise my Father Emperor's treasure!"

That scholar raised his eyebrows, glanced again at Da Wang, and indeed it was a prince……selling the Emperor Father's beloved object like this, not afraid of going home to get spanked?

He didn't know Da Wang was well-versed in the 'allure' sales tactic—his father's 'beloved objects' might not even have been seen by the concerned parties.

"……This fully carved fine sheep-fat jade beauty brush holder, selling price 32,000 treasure—not looking at carving, just the jade material is worth it! Three items at twenty percent off equals 42,400 treasure, I'll also give Sir a Wang Xizhi character practice book!"

Da Wang reached into the warehouse and pulled out the character practice book Bai Yang gave him—those where each character has a grid drawn after it for him to fill in by aiming. Da Wang had many of these, basically couldn't finish writing them, couldn't finish!

All Bai Yang's bad taste, like giving kids summer homework psychologically.

Da Wang saw this person buying stationery, assumed he liked writing, and generously distributed one copy.

Earlier that person, upon hearing the quote, just shook his head—goods were good, just too expensive. When Da Wang produced the gift, he instantly forgot to haggle, flipped through it, and grew more and more excited.

"……This! This, this is whose masterpiece? Do you still have this character practice book? Are you selling it?"

Da Wang, what's on your mind? He adopted an honest expression and shook his head: "Not for sale, only give. Buy three items, get it." Side dishes suddenly became valuable—delighted!

The character practice book made him feel like he'd gained a treasure; that scholar gritted his teeth and took all three items.

Da Wang's payment for goods came in; he happily packed them into a box for the person, still not forgetting to pre-cut for next time: "Sir, you must definitely come again next month—then I'll give you new character practice books, from a master named Yan Zhenqing, also very capable!"

Scholar: ……

Next month before sending—is it to let him save money?

。