As night fell, the entire city of Chang'an suddenly fell into a magnificent world dimly lit.
Especially in Qili, the lights here are bright and blazing, and the entire streets in Qili are even like daytime.
Those burning whale candles have become one of the props used by the Han nobles here to compare themselves with each other.
The size and brightness of whale candles are the objects of comparison.
And Anton's Chen Jiao also made a lot of money through this.
His whaling business flourished day by day.
Zhang Tang rode a carriage and got off at a mansion in Qili.
This is a luxurious house, even if it is placed on the most affluent street in the Han Empire, it is a top-notch mansion.
This house covers an area of nearly one hundred acres, and is completely the size of a house that only ten thousand households can enjoy.
And its entrance hall is even more gilded and covered with copper, so dazzling that people can't even open their eyes.
At the door, stands a statue with an angry look.
That was Guankou Erlang, whom the Shu people worshiped and worshiped. He was a legendary three-eyed god and the son of the virtuous minister Li Bing.
"Mr. Zhang..." At the gate, more than a dozen wealthy businessmen who had been waiting for a long time came forward with smiles on their faces. The two leaders in front of them smiled and bowed slightly to Zhang Tang: "Mr. Zhang Tang Your visit really makes this humble house look brighter!"
Zhang Tang walked forward with a smile, bowed to the two men and said: "Feng Renjun, Guiping Jun... I have admired your name for a long time, and I have been acquainted with it for a long time. Today I am very lucky to meet these two Ming Gongs. It is Tang's good fortune... "
Zhuo Wangsun and Cheng Zhengying listened to Zhang Tang's compliments with smiles on their faces and even more happy in their hearts.
These two people are no better than they were when they arrived in Chang'an at the beginning of the year.
At that time, who were they?
In this city of Chang'an, cats and dogs are nothing!
They had to rely on Princess Taichang's introduction to meet Jin Shang, and this was undoubtedly the most important investment in their lives!
Now among the merchants of the Han Dynasty, Lu Buwei's investment is almost the same as that of Lu Buwei's rare goods back then!
From then on, they broke free from comfort and became free and at ease.
Up to now, they have become the two largest businessmen in the Han Dynasty.
Their wealth is simply incalculable. There are hundreds of mines and workshops in their name alone.
Later, their respective daughters entered the palace, which changed their status from lowly businessmen to relatives of the Han Dynasty and relatives of the emperor.
Among the many relatives groups today, apart from the Yi family relatives, the Dou family relatives and the Bo family relatives, they are the most prosperous.
As the saying goes, wealth nourishes people.
Today, these two people have undergone earth-shaking changes from those days.
Both of them are already paunchy and impressively wealthy noblemen.
However, the two of them also know their status very well.
To put it nicely, he is the richest man in the Han family, the supreme emperor of southwestern Yi, and the master of the Cochin monkeys.
To put it harshly, it is just the black glove of today.
Many of the things the emperor wanted to do but couldn't do were done by them.
Do you really think that just by relying on them, you can stir up trouble in the southwestern Yi countries? Let the Yelang people be willing to be canine teeth, let the Bo people be obedient slaves, and let the South Vietnamese people help catch monkeys?
There is nothing so simple.
The fact is that Weiyang Palace is aware of all their major decisions and actions.
Especially two years ago, when the emperor sent his trusted eunuch Wang Dao to Linqiong.
On the surface, he claimed to the outside world that the king's way was illegal, that he deceived the king and ignored his superiors, so he was assigned to the Linqiong way.
But in reality, they are the eyes sent to supervise and monitor them.
Therefore, whether it is Zhuo Wangsun or Cheng Zhengying, they all know their own affairs.
Zhuo Wangsun is better off. After all, his daughter gave birth to a prince. Although he is destined to be unable to succeed to the throne, he will not lose his position as a prince in the future.
Cheng Zhengying is more depressed. His daughter has given birth to princesses twice in a row in recent years.
This made him anxious and unwilling.
Although the emperor seems to like the princess very much, after all, only his son is the guarantee!
Everyone chatted for a while and looked at each other.
Only then did Zhang Tang realize that the banquet the Emperor had invited him to attend was of such high standard.
It is not just the two wealthy businessmen Zhuo Wangsun and Cheng Zhengying from Linqiong.
Almost all of today's well-known big businessmen are on the sidelines.
For example, Shi Dan, the head of the Shi family, now controls the rail carriage transportation industry in Guanzhong.
For example, the number one businessman Bing Ji, the head of the Bing family, was moved from Lu to Guanzhong.
He also controlled the business of Chu State and was known as Wang Feng, the number one merchant in Wu and Chu.
There was even his wife's natal family, the head of the Tian family, the most powerful family in Guanzhong.
There are dozens of people, but none of them has a family income of less than 30 million!
The empire's big businessmen and businessmen gathered here, and Zhang Tang knew that these people, these guys who couldn't afford to get up early, must have smelled the smell of blood.
"Your Majesty called me here, what exactly do you want me to discuss with them?" With such doubts, Zhang Tang followed the footsteps of Zhuo Wangsun and others and entered the inner house.
"Mr. Zhang, please take a seat..." Cheng Zhengying, as the host, respectfully brought Zhang Tang to the chairman and asked him to sit down.
However, Zhang Tang's powers of observation have always been amazing.
As soon as he sat down, he immediately discovered that there was an empty seat opposite him.
This means that there are still people who haven't come yet.
And the person who is about to come, at least in terms of status, does not belong to him.
And there are only a handful of such characters even in the city of Chang'an.
Zhang Tang Zidu, in this world today, apart from the three public officials and nine ministers, there are probably only a handful of people who can equal him in status.
And obviously, it is impossible for the Three Gongs and Nine Qings to come here.
Because they are the face of the court, representing the will of the country and the dignity of the country.
In any case, it is impossible to participate in a businessman's gathering openly.
Only high-ranking officials like him, who have a high status but have not yet entered the rank of Jiuqing, can participate.
Even so, he only dared to come here after receiving the emperor's order.
After all, businessmen are still cheap in today’s world.
Businessmen are still regarded as one of the five beetles.
Thinking of this, Zhang Tang became curious, who is it?
And his questions were quickly answered.
About half a quarter of an hour later, under the guidance of Zhuo Wangsun, a strange man in rich clothes and a ribbon walked to the opposite side of Zhang Tang.
Zhang Tang squinted his eyes, looked at the other person, and found that he was not Chinese at all.
This man had a round face and thick eyebrows, a short stature, even a few piercings on his nose, and his hair was sparse and was tied up with difficulty.
"Huns?" Zhang Tang was secretly shocked.
The identity of the other party has already been revealed.
Besides Guiyi Shanyu Xia Yi, who was canonized by the emperor today, who else could be there.
As expected, Cheng Zhengying raised his wine glass and paid homage to Zhang Tang: "I was about to introduce to Duke Zhang that this distinguished guest is the Shanyu of the Xiongnu Guiyi who has been registered by the Emperor of Heaven at the feet of Duke Xia!"
Xia Yi also stood up, raised his wine glass, and asked respectfully in half-baked Chinese: "Guiyi Chanyu, I wish you all the best, Mr. Zhang!"
Zhang Tang quickly stood up and bowed back: "Chan Yuan is well, Zhang Mou worships him..."
But Zhang Tang's inner doubts were even greater.
Almost all the great merchants in the world, plus the Xiongnu Guiyi Chanyu, plus him as the governor of Nanyang County, what on earth is the emperor going to do when he brings these three seemingly completely incompatible groups together?
Zhang Tang is currently unknown.
But he knew it must be a big deal!
It may even be a major event closely related to his blast furnace base!
"Mr. Zhang, Shan Yu..." As the host, Cheng Zhengying stood up with a smile and said: "Today is a good day and this is an auspicious time. I hope that Mr. Zhang and Shan Yu will not give up. I am deeply honored by the love you have gathered in this humble residence."
, I will prepare some wine and some singing and dancing to entertain you all!"
As he spoke, the music started, and dozens of graceful and charming singers waved their long sleeves and danced gracefully, presenting a dance full of beauty and lust to the crowd.
This is also the daily life of Han nobles and big businessmen today.
The singers are almost all from Zhao. They are the most beautiful and generous, and understand the hearts of men best.
However, Zhang Tang had no interest in this.
In fact, almost all Legalist ministers were not particularly interested in women.
For example, Chao Cuo, although he was as noble as the Third Duke, in his family besides his wife, he only had two concubines that his father forced him to marry.
Also like Zhao Yu, although he was a member of the Nine Qing Dynasty, he only had one wife.
Zhang Tang is no exception. He only has one wife so far and has no plans to take another concubine.
For Legalists, it is undoubtedly shameful to waste time on a woman's belly.
In this time, they have built a channel or accomplished something big.
But what made Zhang Tang strange was that not only he, but everyone present, including Guiyi Chanyu, turned a blind eye to these graceful and beautiful girls who were completely giving in to whatever they wanted.
Everyone had serious faces and solemn expressions, and seemed to be thinking about something related to their life, death, wealth and honor.
This made Zhang Tang even more curious.
There are not many things in this world that can make so many people give up their pursuit of beauty!
Apart from power, wealth and war, Zhang Tang could not even think of other reasons.
but……
"What on earth is going on?" Zhang Tang murmured in his heart, then turned his eyes to Cheng Zhengying and Zhuo Wangsun.
These two people undoubtedly knew what they were going to discuss today.
But these two guys were smiling slightly at this moment, stroking their hands and enjoying the singing and dancing, while holding up wine bottles and toasting continuously, as if it was really just a simple banquet, and their pursuit was for the guests to have fun.
.
"Old fox!" Zhang Tang snorted in his heart and simply stopped thinking about this problem.
He knew very well that these two guys would have to talk about that sooner or later.
Instead of worrying and thinking, it is better to think about the future political situation of Nanyang and the post of governor of Jingzhou that he will take up.
Thinking of this, Zhang Tang smiled, held up the wine bottle, and started drinking with everyone. (To be continued.)
