Li Zhang saw a group of Japanese people entering the city at the gate of the Imperial City. He was very strange at the moment. The reason why he could recognize the other person at a glance was because the other person's hairstyle was so special. The piece on the top of his head was shaved off, and the hair behind it was tied into a bun and pressed on his head. It is said that this is called Tang Round Head. It was a hairstyle of a man from the Tang Dynasty in Japan who learned from the Tang Dynasty, but for some reason he turned into this when he arrived in Japan.

"Strange, the one who can enter the imperial city should be the envoy of Japan, but when will the envoy of Japan come to the capital?" Li Zhang said to himself again. He was not ordinary interested in Japan. It was just that the two countries were far apart and there was a sea separation between them. Li Zhang never thought that the Japanese would appear in the capital of the Song Dynasty.

Out of curiosity about Japan, Li Zhang did not go to the firearm prison, and turned around and entered the imperial city to follow the Japanese. However, he found that these Japanese finally went to the Political Affairs Hall, probably received by ministers such as Wang Zeng. After all, not all envoys could meet the emperor of the Song Dynasty, let alone Liu E in power, so it was even more inconvenient for her to meet the envoys, just like her.

Li Zhang stood outside the Political Affairs Hall for a moment, hesitating whether he wanted to go in. Speaking of which, the Political Affairs Hall is not something that ordinary people can enter, unless there is something particularly important and only enter after being allowed. After all, it is the core of the Song Dynasty. I am afraid that the first person who follows foreign envoys to come to the Political Affairs Hall like him is probably the first person.

"Master Li? Why are you here?" At this moment, a familiar voice suddenly came. When Li Zhang turned his head and looked, he found that it was Wang Zeng coming from outside. Seeing his hurried steps, he seemed to have something important?

"See Wang Xiang. I just saw a team of Japanese people entering the Political Affairs Hall. I was curious and followed me." Li Zhang did not hide it at this time. He smiled and said to Wang Zeng that the other party was in charge of the Political Affairs Hall, so he should know about these Japanese people.

Sure enough, when he heard Li Zhang mention the Japanese, Wang Zeng immediately smiled and said, "It turns out that you came for the Japanese. In fact, those were envoys of the Japanese. This year, they came ashore from Mingzhou, so the governor of Mingzhou sent them to the capital. However, the empress dowager did not conveniently see them, so he asked us to meet these Japanese envoys on her behalf and send them back."

Li Zhang nodded clearly when he heard this. Although after the founding of the Song Dynasty, although it was not as good as the Liao Kingdom in military terms, it beat the surrounding countries in terms of economy and culture, so many foreign envoys came every year.

The Song Dynasty was also very generous at the beginning. After receiving the gifts brought by the envoys, they usually gave them twice as much rewards. As a result, these small countries around them tasted the sweetness and sent envoys to come almost every year, and some even several times a year. Now the Song Dynasty could not stand it anymore. After all, no one was willing to be a sucker. Therefore, the Song Dynasty also began to restrict the number of times the small countries that paid tribute to the Song Dynasty, and at the same time, the rewards were much less, but no matter how small they paid more tribute, it was still a sure profit for small countries.

"But I heard that many foreign merchants often pretend to be envoys in exchange for rewards from the court. Will these Japanese envoys be impersonating?" Li Zhang suddenly asked his own question at this time. This was not his making a fuss. In fact, such as impersonating envoys happening from time to time. For example, at the beginning of this year, a Japanese caravan used to pretend to be envoys, but was driven out by the Song Dynasty because he could not get a letter of nationality.

"This year, someone pretended to be an envoy from Japan, but this envoy has a letter of state, and the envoys have a huge team and sent a lot of tributes. It should not be fake." Wang Zeng replied with a smile.

When Li Zhang heard the other party say this, he didn't know what to say. Moreover, judging by Wang Zeng's appearance, he didn't seem to have any intention of inviting him into it. After all, the Political Affairs Hall is not a place that ordinary people can enter, and Wang Zeng is a very principled person. Even if Li Zhang helped him before, he would not be favored for it. So Li Zhang had to say goodbye and leave, and Wang Zeng also smiled and sent him away.

However, although Li Zhang left, he always cared about the Japanese envoys. To be precise, he was actually remembering another thing from Japan, that is, the silver mine. You should know that the Japanese Shijian Silver Mine is one of the few large silver mines in the world, and it is very easy to mine, and it can be exchanged for money after it is mined.

Although silver could not be circulated directly in the Song Dynasty, it was of great use to Li Zhang. Money issued paper money, but it lacked a real basic currency. Later generations implemented the gold standard, and gold was the guarantee of paper money. Although later paper money could not be directly exchanged for gold, it still could not affect the essence of the gold standard.

In contrast, the money market is actually still in the copper standard. Although copper is also a precious metal, it is mainly because the Song Dynasty lacks copper and the output of copper is too small, so it is regarded as currency. However, if the economic exchanges with the outside world become larger and larger in the future, it will be a bit of a loss to use the copper standard.

For example, there is a place that produces copper abundantly, and the price of copper is very low. There are quite a lot of such places in the world. After all, the copper output is much stronger than gold and silver. At that time, people in this place can directly dig out copper and come to the Song Dynasty to exchange copper coins. Using copper coins to buy the materials produced by the Song Dynasty is also a huge loss for the Song Dynasty. In fact, later Spain used this method to buy many materials from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Of course, they used silver.

So Li Zhang had long wanted to change the copper standard to the gold standard or the silver standard, but unfortunately, the output of the Song Dynasty was not high, at least it could not meet the demand for a basic currency, which made Li Zhang very distressed. However, if the Shijian Silver Mine in Japan could be brought into the Japanese state, the silver standard would not be difficult. Although the silver standard was not very safe, after all, there was a lot of silver in the Americas, and the safest one was gold, but silver was much stronger than copper.

Of course, considering the development of money now seems to be a bit too far away, but if one does not have a long-term plan, he will have immediate worries. Li Zhang cannot only see what is happening in front of him, and he must also consider things a few years or even decades later. After all, he is familiar with the development process of history, which is also his greatest advantage. If he gives up this advantage, then what is the difference between him and ancient people?

So in the afternoon, Li Zhang deliberately left the firearm prison early and ran to Zhao Zhen to inquire about Japan. However, Zhao Zhen didn't know much about the arrival of the Japanese envoys. After all, this was not a big deal for him. I guess Liu E had the same idea, otherwise Wang Zeng would not have met the Japanese envoys on her behalf.

In this case, Li Zhang had to ask Zhao Zhen to pay more attention to the affairs of the Japanese mission, and then left the palace and returned home. However, just as he entered the house, he saw Li'er, Douzi and others standing in the yard in a group, and he didn't know what he was doing?

Li Zhang was also very curious when he saw this. He stepped forward and asked, "What are you doing?"

Hearing Li Zhang's voice, Li'er and others realized that he was back. They immediately saw Douzi coming over with a smile and said, "Look, brother, someone is giving you a gift!"

"Give gift? What gift?" Li Zhang was stunned when he heard Douzi's words. Then he found that there was a woman surrounded by Douzi and the others. The white powder on his face was painted in a ball, and his mouth was slightly red. When he saw Li Zhang, the woman immediately smiled and bowed to him, but the black teeth on his mouth were exposed, which scared Li Zhang almost pulled out his pistol and defended himself.

"This... where did the Japanese woman come from?" Li Zhang finally came to his senses and asked with a stern face. Today is really weird. It would be fine if he met Japanese envoys in the imperial city, but why did another Japanese woman come to his home?

"Didn't Brother Douzi say just now? This is what he gave to you by his elder brother. It just so happens that you still lack a maid with him. Otherwise, she can't let her down after all, she can't let her down." Li'er said mischievously at this time.

"If the little girl dares to talk nonsense, I will let her be your personal maid!" Li Zhang couldn't help but blanch her when he heard Li'er's words. This Japanese woman was as smearing as a ghost, and her teeth were also black. She could be shocked when she saw it during the day, let alone at night. If she was really allowed to be her personal maid, wouldn't she be a ghost movie every day?

Hearing Li Zhang's words, Li'er also stuck out her tongue mischievously. At this time, Xiuxiu came over and handed a gift list to Li Zhang and said, "Brother, this is a gift sent by the Japanese envoy today. This woman is also one of the gifts. I don't know what to do if you are not at home, so I let them put it here first."

"What the hell do these Japanese people do? It's okay to give gifts, why do you even give a woman?" Li Zhang couldn't help but frown when he heard this. He had heard of the envoy giving gifts to ministers, but it was the first time that he had heard of women as blatantly as Japan, and he also sent such ugly ones. Although he knew that ancient Japanese women regarded black teeth as beautiful, they were still a little unacceptable.

"I don't know this, but it's also strange. With so many mansions nearby, it seems that only our family has received gifts from Japan. Does the Japanese know their reputation?" Xiuxiu said again at this time. If the gifts given by ordinary people were just rejected, she would just refuse them. But this time it was a foreign envoy who came to give gifts, and she didn't know what to do.

"Return these things tomorrow. I don't know how to choose a better one for gifts." Li Zhang replied immediately. After saying that, he looked at the woman who was hard to tell the difference. The makeup on this woman's face was too thick and she couldn't even tell her age. Of course, Li Zhang had no interest in her. Douzi and Li'er probably looked at the mentality of rare animals and did not leave here.
Chapter completed!