Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

Li Zhen quickly negotiated a price with Manager Zhang. After closing the box of the Buddhist beads, he handed it to Yue Peng and then asked if there were any other good items.

Shopkeeper Zhang thought for a moment, then brought out several more paintings and calligraphies from the inner room. This shows that, regardless of the era, what's displayed in the open isn't necessarily the best; the best items are always kept at the back—simply because they're expensive!

Soon, a painting of winter plum blossoms caught Li Zhen's eye. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar slender gold calligraphy, Li Zhen asked the shopkeeper, "Is this painting...?"

Seeing that he had met someone who understood, Manager Zhang nodded and said, "It's his."

Emperor Huizong of Song created the "Slender Gold Script" or "Slender Gold Calligraphy," which has a unique artistic style.

This font has an elongated shape, with fine and vigorous strokes, strong hooks, and the beginning of the stroke goes directly into the paper. The strokes are decisive and completed in one go, and there is often a return stroke at the end, which makes the strokes noticeably thicker than other parts of the strokes.

The overall style of the Slender Gold script is consistent but slightly different, divided into two categories: the delicate and graceful and the vigorous and powerful. The former seems to be his early style, while the latter should be his mature style in his later years. The slenderness and strength of his later works are particularly sharp, and it has been described as "bending iron and breaking gold".

It was Emperor Huizong's unique calligraphy that deeply attracted Li Zhen. If he could bring this painting back, wouldn't it be a true treasure?

The painting depicts a wintersweet tree with a slightly curved yet strong and upright branch that stretches upwards, with a few yellow plum blossoms blooming on the branch. A pair of mountain birds nestle together on the wintersweet branch, creating a vivid and charming scene. This painting is none other than Emperor Huizong of Song's "Wintersweet and Mountain Birds Scroll".

On a branch of wintersweet, a pair of white-headed bulbuls nestled together, both facing to the left of the picture, drawing the viewer's eye beyond the frame. One bird turned its head to look at the plum blossoms on the branch, while the other hunched its neck and slightly raised its head to look forward; both appeared vivid and lifelike.

Wasps flit among the branches, adding life to the scene. At the bottom of the painting, a sapling or orchid with pure white buds contrasts with the winter plum blossoms, highlighting the transition from winter to spring depicted in the painting.

In the lower left corner is a poem inscribed by Emperor Huizong of Song in the slender gold script: "Mountain birds display their carefree posture, plum blossoms play softly. A pact has already been made with painting, pointing to white hair for a thousand autumns." The first two lines of the poem describe the content of the painting, while the last two lines express Huizong's true mentality as an "artist emperor."

The painting bears several seals at the top, including "Treasure of Tianli" and "Treasure of Kuizhang Pavilion". The last inscription at the bottom right reads "Imperial Composition and Writing of Xuanhe" with the monogram "The One Under Heaven". Above it is a red seal that reads "Imperial Writing".

Even Li Zhen, who was not knowledgeable about painting, could see the implied meaning, which shows that Emperor Huizong of Song, the emperor of calligraphy and painting, had extraordinary skills.

After some haggling, Li Zhen finally acquired the Buddhist beads and the "Winter Plum and Mountain Birds" scroll for two hundred taels of silver. Manager Zhang also took out one hundred taels of silver, and both parties parted happily.

After leaving Jubaozhai, Li Zhen and his companion went to several grain shops in the county town. They saw countless bags of mixed grains, often containing bran, being sold. Long queues formed outside the grain shops, and the people waiting to buy grain looked extremely anxious.

Although Tangyin is now under the jurisdiction of the Jin Dynasty, most of its grain is still transported from the south. The recent war closed the canal, causing a food shortage in the north. Now that the canal has reopened, only a small number of grain merchants risk transporting grain for trade, making the supply far from meeting the demand.

Li Zhen didn't come here to buy grain; he wanted to sell it. He had stored a large amount of modern grain in his spatial dimension during his transmigration and wanted to sell it to acquire some of his gold reserves.

Seeing that Li Zhen and his companion entered the shop without queuing, a shop assistant said with some dissatisfaction, "Go out and queue up. Can't you see that everyone is queuing?"

Yue Peng said somewhat irritably, "How dare you speak to our young master like that? Our young master isn't here to buy grain. Quickly call your manager over here!"

A short while later, the grain shop owner came out with a smile: "May I ask what brings you here, young master?"

It's said that you can't hit a smiling face, so Li Zhen said, "I noticed that you have a shortage of grain here, so I specially transported a batch of top-quality grain from the south. I wonder if the shopkeeper would like it?"

The grain shop owner looked at Li Zhen with some surprise, somewhat disbelieving that he had grain in his possession. After all, the war had just ended, and merchants without resources simply couldn't transport grain.

The Jurchen invasion caused immense destruction and turmoil in the northern regions of the Song Dynasty, severely impacting the economy and causing dramatic fluctuations in grain prices. The war severely damaged the northern regions, leaving farmland abandoned and drastically reducing grain production. Furthermore, the war resulted in the abduction of large numbers of farmers and artisans by the Jurchen army, further diminishing the food supply.

Li Zhen gestured to Yue Peng to place the bag he was carrying on the table, so that the grain store manager could open it and check it himself.

As soon as he opened the bag, he saw the finest white rice displayed before him, its quality exceptional, even surpassing that of the original tribute rice. He then untied another bag, revealing white flour that emitted a fragrant wheat aroma. He grabbed a handful and examined it closely; the flour was completely free of impurities.

The grain shopkeeper was now in a panic. With trembling hands, he asked, "How much of this grain do you have, sir?"

Li Zhen said in a deep voice, "This time we didn't bring much. There's only about 100 shi of rice and about 100 shi of flour. I don't know if you can finish it all."

One jin in the Song Dynasty was equivalent to 640 grams in modern times, and one shi in the Song Dynasty was equal to 92.5 Song jin. According to Shen Kuo's "Dream Pool Essays" Volume 3, "The standard for shi is 92.5 jin, which is 341 jin in the Han Dynasty."

Therefore, the weight of one shi (石) of rice is 59.2 kilograms.

Upon hearing the quantity Li Zhen stated, the grain shop manager immediately said, "What we lack right now is grain, especially the finest grain like yours, young master. To be able to transport such a large quantity of grain here at once, may I ask about your family background?"

Li Zhen had already thought this through. He smiled and said, "I am from the Li family of Jiangling Prefecture. I am here to gain experience. I am currently staying in the mountain stronghold south of Tangyin City."

This put the grain shop owner at ease, realizing that only powerful families had the means to do so in this day and age. The two sides then negotiated the price. Ordinary grains had risen to 3,000 coins per shi (a unit of dry measure), and based on the quality of the grains Li Zhen presented, the grain shop owner offered 7,000 coins per shi for rice and 4,000 coins per shi for wheat flour.

To facilitate settlement, Li Zhen proposed that the transaction must be conducted in gold, and he would be responsible for transporting the grain to the south gate of Tangyin City, where the grain shop would be responsible for inspecting and receiving the goods. After all, with soldiers guarding the city gate for such a large transaction, no one would dare to act recklessly.

After agreeing on the time and other details, Li Zhen left Tangyin City and headed back towards the mountain village, which should now be called a mountain stronghold, because with the improvement of various facilities, a quasi-military stronghold had begun to take shape.

Yue Peng didn't care where his leader got so much food, because he knew his leader possessed great supernatural powers; otherwise, how could he conjure up so much food and supplies? It was thanks to these things that the more than one hundred people in the mountain stronghold were able to eat their fill and stay warm. Many people speculated that Leader Li Zhen must be a deity who had descended to the mortal realm for training, because only this explanation could clarify the origin of those things.