Gale City is five days' journey from the Imperial City.
The four of them silently urged the horses to move quickly. After all, it was their first time to travel far away, and they all felt reluctant to leave.
In order to liven up the atmosphere, Jiang Kong told everyone a joke.
In his previous life, Jiang Kong was an otaku who used to hang out on the Internet. He had a lot of pornographic jokes in his stomach. He soon heard Jiang Yuanba laughing loudly, and Jiang Jingyi's face turned red and she was very angry.
Jiang Chen looked admiring, "Young Master knows a lot."
In Jiang Chen's heart, the young master is omnipotent.
…
Four days later, we were not far from the imperial city.
In the evening, Jiang Kong and several people rushed to the outside of a city. The three characters "Baoning City" were prominently engraved on the city wall.
Baoning City seems to be quite large. It is more than ten times larger than Dafeng City from the outside. It is the largest city that Jiang Kong and the others have seen along the way.
Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Kong decided to rest here, and then said: "Let's go in and have a look. We will rest here today and start our journey again tomorrow morning, just in time to visit Baoning City."
Several people rode towards the city gate, but were stopped by the city guards.
Jiang Kong frowned, "What are you doing?"
A city guard captain who looked like a leader came forward and said, "According to the regulations, any outsider who wants to enter Baoning City must pay an entry fee of five gold coins."
When Jiang Yuanba heard this, his eyes widened: "Damn, you guys are robbing this. I've never heard of a charge for entering a city. I'll give you five coins. This is enough for an ordinary family to live for half a year."
The captain of the city guard team was not angry after hearing this, and said in a calm tone: "This is the rule of our city lord. If you want to enter, you have to pay a fee. If you don't want to enter, you can leave. No one will stop you."
"Hey, I still don't believe it."
Jiang Yuanba jumped up and was about to have a good fight with these city guards.
Jiang Kong hurriedly stopped him and said, "Forget it, it's only twenty gold coins, so don't cause trouble and delay your trip."
After speaking, he took out twenty gold coins and gave them to the captain of the city guard.
The team leader also breathed a sigh of relief. He also saw that Jiang Kong and the others were not small characters.
Entering the city, you can see a sea of people on the streets that are tens of meters wide. There are many shops on both sides of the streets. It is a prosperous scene as far as the eye can see.
This Baoning City is truly extraordinary.
Several people came to an inn called "One Family".
A waiter with a pockmarked face came forward to greet him enthusiastically.
Jiang Chen handed the horses to the waiter who came to entertain him, and then ordered: "Waiter, arrange a few rooms for us, and serve some food and drinks."
"Okay, please come in and invite some guests."
Arriving at the private room on the second floor, Jiang Kong took out ten gold coins and said to the waiter: "Man, I want to ask you something. If you answer well, this is yours."
When the waiter saw him, his eyes widened. Ten gold coins were equivalent to half a year's wages. Now he could get them by just answering a few questions. The waiter had rarely met such a generous guest.
"Excuse me, sir, there is nothing in Baoning City that I, Wang Ermazi, don't know about."
It's good to be rich, and the title has been changed to uncle.
"First of all, please introduce Baoning City in detail and why we need to collect city fees."
"Hey, it seems that these gentlemen are not from here, that's what it is," the waiter said slowly.
It turns out that Baoning City can be said to be the gateway to the east of the Water and Fire Empire. It only takes three hundred miles to reach the imperial city directly after Baoning City. Therefore, the geographical location is very important. The Emperor of the Water and Fire Empire not only sent heavy troops to garrison here, but also sent a A high-ranking city lord named King Wu sits in charge.
Not only that, because Baoning City is the only way to enter the imperial city, after hundreds of years of development, a complete economic system has been formed.
In addition to the city lord's palace, there are two major forces developing here.
They are respectively the Dongfang family, which specializes in alchemy, and the Sima family, which specializes in weapon refining. In terms of elixirs and weapons, these two families basically monopolize nearly half of the market in the Water and Fire Empire.
This also allowed various chambers of commerce to establish branches here, gradually becoming the largest city in the Water and Fire Empire besides the Imperial City. Moreover, the two major families often cooperated with several chambers of commerce to hold various auctions, which also accelerated the development of Baoning City. .
Of course, as the second largest city after the Imperial City, Baoning City has an economic system headed by two major families. The city is prosperous and lively, and it is a good place for ordinary people to live. However, the city area is limited, so this resulting in an overcrowded situation.
Therefore, the city lord of Baoning City came up with a way to charge for entry into the city. First, it can generate income; second, it can set a threshold for entering the city to control the rapid population growth of Baoning City.
…
After the waiter's introduction, a few people got to know Baoning City initially.
The waiter was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something, "Oh, ladies and gentlemen, there is an auction at eight o'clock tonight. It is jointly organized by the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce and the Dongfang Family. If you are interested, you can go and take a look. ”
Jiang Kong was overjoyed when he heard this. He had heard the word auction from various channels in his past and present lives. He heard that it was a place where rich and young people spent huge sums of money. He never thought that he would have the opportunity to see it today.
After having enough wine and food, Jiang Kong waved his hand and said, "Let's go and see what good things there are in this auction, so that you can see the world."
"Okay, okay!" Jiang Jingyi had never left Gale City since she was a child, and had never seen such a strange thing. She clapped her hands happily after hearing this.
Jiang Yuanba also rubbed his hands, nodded his head, and strongly agreed.
"Well, the auction is about to start, let's go!"
The Inn is not far from the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce where the auction is held, just around the corner.
The Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce is one of the three major chambers of commerce in the Water and Fire Empire. It is second only to the Tianling Chamber of Commerce in the Water and Fire Empire. Its headquarters is located in the imperial city of the empire. It has branches in larger cities in the empire.
Several people came to the auction site, which was crowded with people, and many people were holding invitations in their hands.
After a little inquiry, it turned out that entering this auction was not something you could just enter. You also needed to show an invitation issued by the organizer.
"What should we do? We don't have an invitation! That doesn't mean we can't get in," Jiang Jingyi said with a frown.
Jiang Kong thought for a moment, smiled slightly, and said, "Don't worry, there is nothing in this world that your brother Jiang Kong can't handle."
Jiang Kong's head turned. He had read so many online novels in his previous life. When encountering this kind of situation, he usually took out some good things and participated in the auction. Not only would he have money to buy things, but he might even get a VIP room seat. .
As for whether to allow more items to be auctioned when the auction is approaching, Jiang Kong has not considered it at all. Who would refuse if there is a good thing, unless he is a fool.
"Come here," Jiang Kong walked directly to a guy who looked like a steward.
""Master, I wonder what's the matter with you," the guy replied casually."
"Show this to your manager," he said, throwing a pill to the guy.
Seeing Jiang Kong's attitude, the clerk was about to get angry when he suddenly realized that the pill in his hand was not simple. After all, as the head clerk of the Shuiyue Merchant Guild, he still had some discernment, so he took the pill and reported quickly.
Soon I saw an old man who was half a century old walking out quickly. The guy was leading the way. When he saw Jiang Kong, he immediately said, "My lord, that's him."
The general manager of the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce immediately showed a smile and said: "This young master, my surname is Gu, is now the general manager of the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce. I don't know your surname."
"Haha, I am Shao Jiang Kong."
"It turns out to be Mr. Jiang. I have admired him for a long time. Mr. Jiang, please come in."
Several people and the manager of Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce walked into the inner hall.
The waiter served the fragrant tea. Manager Gu couldn't help it immediately. He took out the elixir that Jiang Kong had just given to the waiter and asked, "Master Jiang, I'm sorry for my poor eyesight, but I don't know what the significance of this elixir is. What's the point of this elixir?" Please give me a thumbs up. "
Jiang Kong looked at General Manager Gu and said, "General Manager Gu, this elixir is called the Breaking General Pill. The so-called Breaking General means the elixir that breaks through military generals. After taking it, a martial artist of any level can instantly break through generals without any side effects. "
Manager Gu was stunned, is there such a pill now? Isn't this an upgraded version of the Breaking Realm Pill? It is rumored that this elixir has been lost for a long time, but I didn't expect that it is still spread in the world.
Jiang Kong saw the expression on Gu's manager's face and immediately knew how precious the Po Commander Pill was. He was secretly shocked. Fortunately, he didn't take out the Po Commander Pill, otherwise it would cause a bigger sensation.
This Po-General Pill was redeemed by Jiang Kong in the system mall. Each pill cost 8,000 exchange points. With Jiang Kong's current financial resources, he could only purchase a dozen pills, which shows how precious it is.
Manager Gu came back to his senses and his attitude became more respectful. The identity of a person who can possess such a treasure must not be simple.
"Mr. Jiang, when you handed such a precious elixir to me, could it be that you wanted to auction it here?"
"Of course, I still have a few of these pills. I hope to cooperate with the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce to see if there is anything I need at the auction house, and then exchange them for some heavenly materials and earthly treasures." After speaking, Jiang Kong exchanged four more pills. He took out the elixir and gave it to General Manager Gu.
"no problem."
Manager Gu stood up and took the four Bad General Pills. He was ecstatic and said, "The auction is about to begin. I'm going to make arrangements now. Someone will bring a few of them to the auction site later."
After saying that, he hurried down.
After a while, a middle-aged man in his forties came over and said respectfully to Jiang Kong, "Mr. Jiang, the auction is about to begin. The Chamber of Commerce has prepared a private room for you. Please come with me. "
"Hehe", Jiang Kong thought to himself: "Sure enough, there is a private room. Today I, Jiang Kong, also want to enjoy the feeling of a rich man spending money like water."
The auction was set up on the top floor of the Chamber of Commerce and was jointly organized by the Shuiyue Chamber of Commerce and the Dongfang Family.
The entire venue is half the size of a football field. There are a total of twelve private rooms inside and about two hundred ordinary seats outside.
The middle-aged man respectfully led Jiang Kong and others to private room No. 10, and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Mr. Jiang, the private room in front has already been booked, so I can only aggrieve Mr. Jiang and others."
Jiang Kong lay on the sofa, stretched out comfortably, waved his hands and said: It's okay, it's not bad here. "
"Then I wish you guys a good time and take photos of the treasures you like."
After saying that, he exited the private room.