Two months later, the auction was held in Beijing.

The auction was held for three days, starting on time at the 9:00 am every day and ending at the 17:00 am. On the first morning, at the 12:00 am, there was still one hour before the auction. The outside of the venue was filled with people. Not only the wealthy merchants in the capital had arrived, but the salt merchants in Huai'an, Yangzhou, silk merchants, tea merchants, sea merchants, and grain merchants in Huguang were all here. Even the Zheng family in Fujian sent people.

"Lord, I have investigated it. Among the people who came, Jiannu's detailed work was mixed in. Will they be arrested?" Zhang Shuheng walked to Li Guodong and whispered in his ear.

Li Guodong shook his head: "There is no need to catch people at this time, just see what they are going to do. When Jiannu Xizuo leaves the capital and plans to leave the confinement, it is not too late for you brothers to take action halfway. It is best if Jiannu Xizuo can buy our things and then grab them back halfway!"

But Li Guodong didn't know that Huang Taiji didn't plan to take pictures of those rare treasures at all, but for Zhu Cizhao's steam bicycle and Zhu Ni's music box, the Qing Dynasty had to buy these two items no matter how much the price it cost. Huang Taiji keenly felt that if he could buy the steam bicycle and go back to study it, he might be able to build an enlarged version of the bicycle to transport supplies and even pull the red cannon, which was an excellent transport vehicle; as for the music box, this was Huang Taiji wanted to get inspiration from it, creating the wooden ox and flowing horse invented by Zhuge Liang that he could walk by himself.

In fact, Huang Taiji's imagination is too rich. It is impossible to build a steam car that can pull people by studying such a simple steam car. It is still far from it. This is not a simple matter of enlarging it. For example, an ant's strength is one hundred times its weight. If an ant is so big, it can kill a tiger in seconds? Wrong, if an ant can have someone so big, its shell will not be able to support its weight and it will collapse first. Therefore, steam must be able to push vehicles, and this simplest steam turbine will be useless. It must be built with cylinders and reciprocating steam engines to promote vehicles. If it wants to develop to that point, it is not something Huang Taiji can think of.

As for creating a wooden ox and flowing horse through the principle of the music box, it is even more unreasonable. Huang Taiji, who is familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, has been thinking hard. What is the principle of the wooden ox and flowing horse that can automatically walk? The music box gave him a reminder that it might be a power storage device. But even Li Guodong couldn't figure out what the wooden ox and flowing horse is, but he felt that it should not be a self-propelled device, but a means of transportation that can save effort through machinery and gears.

The auction time is coming soon, outside the shop, teams of Jinyiwei beat gongs and drums, and firecrackers are noisy.

Li Guodong stood at the door of the store, holding a tin in his hand and shouted: "Dear guests, the Royal Auction Store is about to open! Welcome everyone! Li thanks you here!"

Then, someone lifted the red cloth on the door with a bamboo pole, and a red-bottomed gold-plated sign was displayed in front of everyone: The Royal Auction of the Ming Dynasty.

"Will this auction store be opened in these three days?" someone asked.

Li Guodong replied with certainty: "Of course it will open! These three days only some items in the palace will be sold. There will be many good things sold here in the future, all of which are not available on the market."

After the door opened, people who had been impatient outside rushed to flock to the venue, but the Jinyiwei at the door stopped him: "If you want to enter the venue, go there to queue up to buy tickets, and you can enter the venue with your ticket."

As the Jinyiwei looked at the direction of his finger, he saw a row of windows with the words "ticket office" written on it. The people who were stopped rushed to the ticket office one after another.

The ticket is ten taels of silver, which is really not cheap, but for those wealthy businessmen who come from afar, this amount of money is nothing. Many of them heard the news and rushed to the distance just to be able to take a photo of their favorite product. Even if they can't take photos of the product, they can be feasted on the eyes to witness the legendary treasures.

There are more than ten rows in the ticket window, and the people in line can just pay the money and get the tickets in the other hand. However, at this time, the silver transactions must be weighed, and the amount of silver needs to be found. The amount of silver needs to be retrieved, and the weighing must be completed before retrieving it. No one will trade with copper plates. Ten taels of silver are equivalent to ten taels of copper plates. It is extremely inconvenient to carry so many copper plates on their backs. However, the ticket sellers are quite efficient. In a short while, they sold more than a thousand tickets. The ticket fee alone reached more than 10,000 taels.

The people behind him still wanted to buy tickets, but were told that the tickets today have been sold out. I am really sorry, please come again tomorrow.

The people who bought the ticket walked into the gate. Under the guidance of the signs, they walked through the building on the facade and came to the courtyard in the middle. The auction venue was inside the courtyard. There were benches in the venue, and there were a stage like a stage in the front, with a long table on the stage and a few chairs behind it. However, the auction had not officially begun and there was no one on the rostrum.

The auction officially began after all the participants sat down in the venue.

A Jinyiwei Liss carefully brought a box from behind. When he opened the box, a bead crown made of pearls appeared inside. Under the sunlight, it emitted a dazzling light, and the people in the venue screamed.

"The first one to auction is the pearl crown, with a starting price of 200 taels of silver. Now you start bidding!" Zhang Shiwen, who acted as an auctioneer on the stage, shouted loudly.

The people who came to the auction had already learned the rules of the game in advance. As soon as Zhang Shiwen finished shouting, someone in the venue raised his hands: "Two hundred and ten taels!"

"Two hundred and twenty taels!" Another person raised his hand.

"Two hundred and thirty taels!"

"Two hundred and forty taels!"

Soon, the bead crown was called to 430 taels, and this time, no one continued to bid.

"Four Hundred and Thirty Tales for the first time! Four Hundred and Thirty Tales for the second time! Four Hundred and Thirty Tales for the third time!" Zhang Shiwen shouted. After the third time, the wooden hammer in his hand hit the table hard and shouted loudly: "Four Hundred and Thirty Tales for the deal!"

"Congratulations, this guest official, for taking the pearl crown!" Zhang Shiwen congratulated the person who raised his hand in the end.

The second auction item was a large celadon vase that was high for one person. In the end, this celadon vase was sold by a wealthy businessman from Jiangnan for a price of 400 taels.

The third auction item was a set of porcelain tableware, which was the tableware left during the Hongzhi period. It was valuable and was finally sold by a salt merchant from Yangzhou for 400 taels of silver.
Chapter completed!