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Just after the New Year, the time came to the 13th year of the Qingli period of the Song Dynasty, which was 1053 AD.

This day in history is the fifth year of Huangyou in the Northern Song Dynasty. In this year, the situation in the Song Dynasty was temporarily stabilized and prosperous.

However, it was very passive in the international arena. It was defeated three times in a row by Li Yuanhao in the northwest and was forced to sign the "Qingli Peace Agreement".

Later, he was blackmailed by the Liao Kingdom and signed the "Chongxi Increased Currency", forcing him to send a large amount of annual tribute abroad.

After suffering repeated invasions from the Vietnamese Ly Dynasty in the southwest, Guangxi's ethnic minority leader Nong Zhigao was dissatisfied with the court's tolerance of the Vietnamese Dynasty's oppression of them, so he angrily started a war.

It can be said that in history, the diplomatic situation of the Song Dynasty was very bad in the fifth year of Huangyou. Not only were there wars, but there were also many conflicts with neighboring countries.

But now the situation in the Song Dynasty has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Not only was the country peaceful and stable, but the Song Dynasty also had no rivals in the international environment of East Asia.

In particular, the grand military parade on the eve of the New Year was so awe-inspiring that it not only struck fear into the hearts of East Asian countries, but also shocked countries in Central Asia, the Indian Peninsula, Southeast Asia, Europe and even Africa.

None of them had imagined that when they were still in the feudal era or even the tribal slave era, civilization had already shown a qualitative leap.

Compared with the Song Dynasty, other countries in the world seemed to be in a barbaric era, lagging behind by far more than one civilization.

So just after the New Year, before the Lantern Festival on the 15th, envoys from some countries began to bid farewell to the Song Dynasty court one after another, and immediately send back the intelligence from the Song Dynasty.

However, they were basically envoys from neighboring countries, such as Dali, Vietnam, Goryeo, Japan, Liao, etc. They wanted to buy weapons, but the lifeblood of the entire country was controlled by the Song Dynasty. Without the Song Dynasty's approval, how could they have any autonomy?

As for other countries, they were all waiting for the Song Dynasty to ship the goods they purchased to Guangzhou.

You have to know that this is not a small amount. Many of the top domestic tycoons only transport goods worth hundreds of thousands of strings of cash at a time, and at most no more than one or two million strings of cash.

This batch of goods was worth over 100 million strings of cash. In addition to firearms, there were many other commodities, including Song Dynasty tea, porcelain, books, paper, pencils and even telescopes. It would take at least two or three months to transport them to Guangzhou.

Therefore, from December last year to January this year, just over a month, became the busiest time for the Bianliang Firearms Bureau.

The inventory was too large, requiring a lot of temporary maintenance and transportation. The goods had to be shipped to Guangzhou in batches according to the return time of the envoys from various countries. Otherwise, if they were shipped all at once, it would easily block the canal.

Just after the New Year, Bianliang experienced a brief period of depression.

Factories stopped production, shops closed, government offices were at a standstill, and Jiaozi shops were unable to exchange coins. People were eager to exchange their currency for food. Many families posted slogans at their doors to express their demands, and the streets were filled with the smell of gunpowder from explosives.

Most people had nothing to do and stayed at home all day drinking and playing cards. There were also fewer people walking around the streets. It was as if the economy of Bianliang, the once prosperous capital of the Song Dynasty, suddenly became depressed overnight.

The Chinese call this kind of scene the Chinese New Year.

People in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen should have experienced this the most in future generations. When the Chinese New Year arrives, the big cities that originally had a population of 10 to 20 million will immediately become empty, every household will close their business, and there will be few pedestrians on the streets.

This situation is gradually emerging in Bianliang today.

After all, the local population of Bianliang was actually very small before the Jingyou period, only 200,000 to 300,000, and most of them were migrant workers.

Originally, many of these migrant workers settled in Bianliang, but most of them were from the counties and prefectures surrounding Bianliang, and they were willing to spend a day or two going home during the Chinese New Year.

It’s just that there were fewer people at that time and the city construction was not that large, so it naturally didn’t seem that serious.

After the Qingli year, the population of Bianliang soared from one million to three or four million. By the twelfth year of the Qingli period, it was close to five million. It was only a matter of time before it exceeded five million this year.

There are so many migrant workers in the city and few native residents. There are many holidays from the first to the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year. With the New Year holiday, Tiansheng Festival holiday and Lantern Festival holiday, a large number of people leave Bianliang and go home to celebrate the New Year. Doesn’t it seem depressed?

However, this depression only lasted for a few days. Basically, after the Tiansheng Festival holiday, that is, after the third and fourth days of the Chinese New Year, migrant workers began to return to Beijing one after another.

The official roads are now well-maintained, and many people ride bicycles to travel between the prefectures and counties surrounding Gyeonggi-do. The extensive roads connect in all directions, and you can see a fleet of bicycles everywhere, just like the fleet of motorcycles that returned home for the New Year in the millennium.

Basically after the seventh day of the New Year, Bianliang quickly regained its former prosperity, and the depression of those days seemed to have never happened.

Shops opened for business one after another, factories returned to work, and the two major transportation hubs, the docks and the train station, were crowded with people. The bustle returned to Bianliang again, and the city and streets were full of vitality.

Zhao Jun didn't have many days of leisure this New Year. He had to hold celebrations on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and he had to go to the palace to have dinner with Zhao Zhen's family on the second and third days of the New Year.

Later, the Cao family came to pay New Year's greetings and brought their entire family with them. In addition to Cao Cong, there were also brothers Cao Xiu and Cao Ren.

Zhao Jun has few relatives in this world, and his relationship with Zhao Zhen can only be described as distant relatives of twenty or thirty generations ago. Naturally, he can only be closer to his wife's family.

Moreover, the Cao family also had to rely on the Zhao family. Whether it was Zhao Zhen or Zhao Jun, they were both the thighs they had to cling to, so it was normal for the several families to visit each other frequently.

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