"The reopening of the trade road will be the luck of Khotan and the luck of my inn! The luck of the world's businessmen! Sikong senior, martyr brother! For the immortal merits of the two, Jincheng thanked you first! ”

I raised my hands and drained the sake in my glass with Sikong Lie. Bookmark this site┏┛

"The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the foolish brother came to the Western Regions with his father without any intention to benefit the common people, just for a good word! Ha ha! If you take the business route that others dare not take, you will have a greater profit! ”

Brother Sikong Lie knew at a glance that he was a bold man who never pretentious, and compared to him, my previous words were a bit hypocritical.

"Yi family grandson, your grandfather and I are brothers! Although it is inappropriate for you to respect my Lie'er as a brother, you can not follow the usual law in the rivers and lakes, hehe! Why don't you two borrow a cup of sake from your house to become brothers of the opposite sex, and you can help each other on the trade road in the future! ”

Sikong Shou Lao stroked his silver beard and said with a smile, he is well versed in the way of the rivers and lakes and does not fall into the world, which makes me feel like a spring breeze.

"The senior's Meiyi Jincheng is grateful, big brother! Little brother is polite! ”

I raised the cup again and bowed to Sikong Lie.

"Hahaha! Good brothers! In the future, when the virtuous brother goes to Chang'an, he will have a big brother, and I will stick a knife in both ribs, and I will not give up! ”

Brother Sikong Lie laughed happily, raised the wine cup and drank it all.

I have no doubt about the sincerity of Brother Lie, since ancient times, the chivalrous man of "Toast dies for his confidant" in the Eastern Tuhan Land, although he meets in Pingshui, he can also be a friend of the neck.

In this way, I have two brothers-in-law in my ancestral hometown.

The other is Lin Jinxiang of Nan'an County in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, I don't know if this brother has already returned to his homeland.

Thinking like this, I thought of the two brothers Qin Chong and Liu Zhen'er again, and I couldn't help but feel a faint pain in my heart.

"Master Su, Brother Yi and Brother Wei Chi are not here, the young master of Jincheng is still young and lacks experience, and he still needs a lot of support from old people like you!"

Our guests and hosts chatted happily, and for respect, Uncle Su has been sifting wine beside him.

Uncle Sikong was afraid that he would snub Uncle Su, so he drank a cup with him.

"Hehe, brother Tai doesn't know! My young master has just returned from Rome, and he has already traveled a thousand times more than us old fellows! ”

Uncle Su's words lifted me to the sky, and the reverence was overflowing.

"Really? The old man has eyes and doesn't know Mount Tai! Blue out of blue! Very good, very good! Hehe! ”

Uncle Sikong smiled with relief, and pointed his words at Brother Sikong Lie.

"Lie'er, as a father often says, a husband stands in the world, and he should break thousands of books and travel thousands of miles! You only know how to make friends with chickens and dogs and thieves on weekdays, and talk about fighting and killing, you should learn more from the young master of Jincheng in the future! ”

It is said that few fathers in the world are satisfied with the actions of their children and grandchildren, even if they are as great as Sikong Lie.

"Daddy's lesson is that the child wrote it down!"

But when Sikong Lie stood up, he bowed deeply to his father, and then turned back to me.

"Brother Xian! The foolish brother was punished by his father because of you, and he should be punished with three glasses of wine! Hahaha! ”

A big brother's posture, there is a big posture of dominating the guests.

"Jincheng is ashamed! Deserved to be punished! Uncle Su, sift the wine! ”

Uncle Su poured me wine with a smile, and I did it three times in a row against Brother Sikong Lie.

"Hahaha! Joyfully! Good brothers! ”

Sikong Lie sat back on the futon in front of the dining table with satisfaction, this high-roller must be a demon king of the world that no one dares to mess with in Chang'an City.

"Senior Sikong, Brother Lie, how much jade are you going to buy this time? Give me an approximate number, so that I can let Chang'anfang organize the supply. ”

After a lively pleasantries, I finally got the conversation back on the right track.

"The more the merrier, of course! If the camels and horses we brought are not enough, we will ask the virtuous brother to find me a few caravans in Khotan that specialize in freight transportation, and the price is easy to say! If the supply is not enough, we will go and find it ourselves! For my brother, I even brought the master of jade Kanyu! ”

"It stands to reason that this jade trade in Khotan has always been the exclusive domain of your Qingfengze caravan, and our foreign merchants cannot intervene, and it is even more inconvenient to ask your government for help. Why hasn't your caravan gone to Chang'an in the past two years, so the old man organized a caravan to come to procure, and I hope that the young master of Jincheng will have a lot of Haihan! In this way, the old man only does your business in Chang'anfang, and we brought a thousand pieces of silk to replace them with the equivalent of high-quality jade materials and bring them back. He will wait for your caravan to go to Chang'an again, and the old man will no longer intervene in the jade merchants on this trade route! Hehe. ”

The remarks of Sikong father and son have the same goal but high opinions.

Brother Lie can be a general who raises his sword immediately, but he is indeed not good at the trade of merchants.

He didn't know that he had invaded someone else's territory, and for a long time, no merchant would want to live with him.

The old man is not only proficient in the rules and regulations, but also proficient in human feelings, and has a great business style.

"Young master, many of the transactions between my caravan and Sikong Trading Company in Chang'an are barter transactions that follow the market price! Master Sikong helped us buy silk and exchange the jade and sea pearls of my caravan! ”

Uncle Su was afraid that I would reject Uncle Sikong's barter suggestion, so he hurriedly explained on the side.

"The young master of Sikong may not know that the trade of jade mining in Khotan requires a license issued by the king, and the total number of jade mining merchants on both sides of the Khotanese River has not exceeded five so far. In addition, the merchant is not better than the market maker, the thousands of miles of desert west of Yangguan, a skin of drinking water is sometimes more precious than 10,000 taels of gold, hehe. ”

Uncle Su is worthy of being the head of my family's caravan for decades, and his true colors are revealed when he speaks.

"Uncle Su's words are serious! It's all their own brothers, how can there be so many rules! As long as Brother Lie is willing, he can go to dig and mine at home, and he will use our Chang'an Fang's license, and the food and lodging brothers are all included! No matter whose jade materials are in the Wangcheng Jade Market, as long as the seniors buy it! The fare is not enough, and the juniors can help pay in advance! ”

I was young and frivolous and righteous first, and I felt that Uncle Su's words hurt the love between brothers, so I threw out all my thoughts.

"The young master misunderstands me, hehe. Every time my caravan crossed the Huanglong Sand Sea, each camel and horse carried no more than five pieces of jade, and drinking water, food, and fodder accounted for the majority of them. The young master of Sikong has no experience in long-distance business, so I kindly reminded him! ”

Uncle Su smiled lovingly at me, not angry at my confrontation.

"What Su Ye said is very true, and Lie'er's jade picking is also joking! The caravan will return to Chang'an within the year, otherwise the women and children at home will think that I will die outside, but it will be sad! Hehe! ”

Uncle Sikong and Uncle Su have long been acquaintances, and they stroked their palms and smiled to resolve the embarrassment at the banquet.

In the next ten days, Uncle Su and Sha Mihan and I accompanied Sikong and his son to every workshop in Wangcheng Jade City.

Khotan to Chang'an is separated by thousands of miles, and the Lantian jade and Qishan jade in the Hexi Corridor are also famous all over the world.

After such a long journey and tiring journey, it is not very cost-effective to come to Khotan in the Western Regions if you just buy ordinary jade materials and go back.

Therefore, at the suggestion of Uncle Su, Sikong decided to only purchase some Kunlun jade that can carve rare and rare jade.

At that time, the jade appreciation technique of Murong Qiu, the owner of "Chang'an Fang", has been passed on to our generation, but I only understand the fur.

Now the one who really gets the true inheritance of my great-ancestor should be the eldest son of Aunt Lu Dan, the owner of Murong Villa, my cousin Murong Zhang.

So I invited him over, and together with Sikong Laozhang's own Kanyu master, I selected a total of more than 200 top-grade jade stones for Sikong Caravan.

Next, how much wealth these jade materials can bring to the Sikong family depends on the creation of Sikong's father and son.

Whether a piece of beautiful jade can overwhelm the country and the city, in addition to having a jade knowledge, it also needs to have a genius who makes jade.

It's a pity that there are often jade in the world, mostly because of the mediocre skills of jade craftsmen and invisible, not as eternal as the pearl of Suihou and the wall of the family.

Listening to my grandfather, Murong Qiu's great-ancestor's biggest regret before his death was that he had handled thousands of Kunlun strange jades, but he did not leave one or two good products that could be passed on to the world.

It's not because his carving is not exquisite enough, what he lacks may only be time and fate.

In order to satisfy Brother Sikong Lie's curiosity, I also brought all the members of this Han caravan to Murong Villa, so that they could also experience the daily life of jade mining on the Khotan River.

Countless pebbles and rubble from the Kunlun Mountains have paved all the shoals on both sides of the river.

Like jade but not jade, like stone not stone.

When Brother Lie learned that the jade wool excavated by those jade miners had worked hard to salvage and excavate, and that it could eventually be used for a hundred times, he completely stopped the idea of picking jade at home.

Ten days later, Sikong and his son's caravan returned with a full load.

On the ancient road next to the tax card fort on the border between Khotan and Qule, I took Uncle Su, Shamihan, Uncle Men and others to bid farewell to Sikong and his son.

"Thanks to the young master's care these days, the old man is grateful! Last night, the old man asked people to trace a silk map of the route from Yangguan to your Khotan country through Ruoqiang, Jimo, and Qule countries. ”

After that, the old man asked the master to present me with a white silk scroll, which also exuded the fragrance of pine ink.

"Thank you, senior Sikong, you can go to the Eastern Han Kingdom with this scroll and you can have no worries from now on!"

I was overjoyed to accept this precious gift and bowed deeply to the old man Sikong.

"Business is hard, but someone has to go! I'm counting on you juniors from now on! ”

Old man Sikong stroked his long beard, looked at me and Brother Lie and sighed, full of affection.

"Jincheng has written it down, and it will live up to the expectations of its predecessors! Seniors, Brother Lie, have a good trip! See you in Chang'an one day! ”

I bowed deeply again and helped the old man onto the horse.

"Brother Xian! Su Ye! Ladies and gentlemen, young and old! There will be a period later! Weishui West Bridge in Chang'an City this autumn, Sikong Lie will be there waiting for you day and night! ”

Brother Sikong Lie turned over on his horse with a long sword saddle and a quiver, hugged his fists and laughed loudly at us, and his heroic spirit soared into the sky.

The two teams parted, and on our way back there was a train of geese flying overhead in the blue sky.

"Uncle Su! Guess where these gulls and geese are going to go! ”

I put my hand on the pergola and looked at the sky, and asked with a sigh and a smile.

"Fu Lou Sha! Sinhala! Poison Buddha Country! Young master! When will we leave? ”

Uncle Su seemed to see my thoughts, and deliberately made a list of southwestern states.

And my body has not moved, my heart is far away!