At this time, the "Yihong" Kung Fu Tea, with its tight and thin lines, golden quill, bright red soup color, mellow and sweet characteristics, gradually opened up the market, and was accepted by foreign businessmen, and became famous.

The two of them turned the topic to the Wanli Tea Road, and Nonglu said, "In the past 100 years, this history was written by tea merchants. As latecomers, we should work hard. ”

It is precisely because of the unremitting efforts of countless tea merchants that China's trade volume with Russia has grown from more than 10,000 rubles in the sixth year of Yongzheng to 830,000 rubles in the 20th year of Qianlong. In twenty-five years, it soared to 1.35 million rubles. This has to be said to be a miracle created by the tea merchants.

That night, Nonglu told Wu Qing about what he had seen at the Hankou tea market.

After hearing this, Wu Qing was quite touched: "Yes, the bitterness of the tea merchant in the meantime, like a fish drinking water, knows its own warmth and coldness!" ”

Nonglu is already a little worried: "When the country is prosperous, the tea industry is prosperous." The decline of the country's fortunes will also suffer from this tea! ”

Wu Qing said: "No, without a country, how can there be us tea merchants!" It's hard to do business. ”

Nonglu has already felt the difficulties of the times: "Now the country's fortunes are not good, and it is starting to go downhill." A lot of students are making noise on the streets, I think the situation is unstable, and our business will also be affected! ”

Wu Qing said: "Then we can only wait and see what happens." ”

Nonglu also said, "Let's see." ”

On this morning, Nonglu saw a piece of information in the Hankou Library, and also heard Han Zhinan talk about it, so he told Wu Qing a legendary story:

According to legend, in the spring of the twenty-third year of Qianlong, a tea merchant personally led a camel team to transport tea to Kyakhta, suddenly, the desert was windy, the yellow sand rolled to cover the sky and avoid the sun, the Luo team was afraid of being buried in the sand dunes, and did not dare to stay for a while, so they walked in the wind and sand for six or seven days, only to know that they had lost their way, the water they brought had already been drunk, there was little dry food left, there was no oasis everywhere, and more seriously, they couldn't even distinguish the direction, and the dry bones around them seemed to tell everyone clearly: die desperately here! Suddenly, everyone was lazy and at a loss.

At this critical moment of life and death, the leader of the peak of the camel, suddenly got up and ran wildly, the leader camel is the soul of the camel team, if lost, the consequences are unimaginable, the tea merchant took people to chase the peak of the camel, has been chasing out of three or four miles, the camel suddenly stopped, carefully sniffed the sand with his nose, sniffed for half an hour, and began to use his front hooves to dig up the sand, and, no matter how the camel driver shouted, it refused to stop.

With his many years of experience in getting along with camels, this tea merchant suddenly realized that there must be groundwater in this place, so he took a shovel and dug it up desperately, and everyone also helped to dig it together, but the male camel hissed on one side, dug to a depth of more than eight feet, and really saw the wet soil, and then dug down, a stream of clear spring water finally gushed out, and soon overflowed the ground, forming a small water pool along the ground, its shape was like a crescent moon, and the tea merchant named the pool of water "Crescent Spring".

Everyone was saved. After another day, the wind finally stopped, and with the starry sky, the tea merchant determined the direction, and realized that it was the closest route to Kulun, which is now the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, but in the past there was no water here, and the tea merchant did not dare to go.

Later, this route became a special line for transporting tea from Zhangjiakou to Kulun on the Wanli Tea Road, and the male camel who was looking for water on that peak was also supported by this tea merchant as a meritorious man, and was carefully fed by a special person every day. A few years later, the male camel died, and the tea merchant buried it by the crescent moon spring and erected a tombstone with the word "divine camel" engraved on it. From the beginning, even if this tea merchant no longer ran the tea business, as long as the camel team walked here, he would burn incense and make offerings to the "camel god" and thank the "camel god".

After Wu Qing heard this, he sighed for a while.

After some time, the farm will go to Hankou to learn about the operation of the tea shop. On this day, when Nonglu and Qin Yuhe went to the library to consult materials, they found:

In 1848, the British East India Company sent botanist Robert Fuqiong to Wuyi Mountain, Fujian Province, to steal the art of making black tea.

It is said that Fu Qiong brought tea seedlings and tea seeds and 8 tea workers to India, and since then Indian black tea has ushered in a technological leap. Only 60 years later, in 1900, Indian black tea used tea varieties and tea-making techniques from Wuyi Mountain to replace the monopoly of Chinese tea in the world market.

When they saw this text, they were very angry, and then they sighed: The country is gradually declining, and its strength is not good, so they are bullied!

The two of them also saw an interesting story about a fellow villager in Xiazhou:

When Wang was a teenager, he didn't like to read, so he liked to go to casinos, and often went under the gambling table to pick up small money, which accumulated and hid deeply. Usually silent, light etiquette, raunchy, and bold temperament. When his wife gave birth, he did not take the midwife, but delivered the baby by himself, and did not shy away the local "unlucky" saying. Wang first learned slaughtering in his early years, and then through the recommendation of his cousin, he met the supervisor of a big tea merchant, and began to carry scales to the countryside and buy black tea. Because of his quick work and ability, he was quickly appreciated by his supervisor, and Wang was accepted as an employee, and soon became a celebrity.

Later, due to the obstruction of the tea business, the boss was robbed by bandits, and the family of the director was also kidnapped, and the tea business deteriorated. The supervisor told the old man to return to his hometown, and when he left, he gave the remnants of the tea number to his protégé Wang at a low price, hoping that he would make a difference. So Wang was able to set up his own tea number.

Qin Yuhe said, this is a bit interesting.

Nonglu said, yes, business is like flowing water, changeable!

Soon, Nonglu hired an experienced old partner Mr. Yu to manage the account room, Wu Zicai, who was exquisite, was the general manager, Yang Zheren, who was scheming, was the broker, Nong Tianyi was responsible for the specific accounting and business, and Qin Yuhe was in charge of the affairs of the Hankou Tea Store and managed the tea store in an orderly manner.

In order to effectively control the main tea-producing areas, Nonglu has successively set up branches in Qinglian Town and Xianning near Hankou, and strictly stipulates that the semicolons are used to collect tea according to quality, and tea collectors are not allowed to stop collecting or reduce prices to make profits. Deposits are allowed in advance, and small shops are also opened to provide tea for the convenience of tea farmers. Nonglu used a lot of money to invite tea masters, set up a preliminary factory in Longyan Village, Nanyi County, and transferred it to Nanyi County for refining after the initial production, and then rented a ship to transport it to Hankou "Sanjitang Tea Company", sold directly to foreign businessmen, or shipped to Zhangjiakou, Shanxi, and then sent to Russia.

During this period, Nonglu invited the Russian tea master to Nanyi County for inspection, and the Russian tea master said that "Yi black tea is the top grade, not only the color, fragrance and taste are good, but also the degree of soaking is better", and then the tea merchants took it as a sample. This move further enhanced the influence of the brand for "Yi Black Tea" to go abroad, and laid the foundation for becoming a Russian royal tribute at that time.

The rise of any merchant gang and nation must be marked by the rise of culture. As an ancient and emerging business gang, Chu Shang inherits the spirit of Chu people's "blue threads, openness and inclusiveness, advocating literature and wisdom, trustworthiness and righteousness", and relies on the value pursuit of "nine heads to do things, one heart and one eye to be a man".

At this time, the business scope of the farm continued to expand, in addition to operating Tianxin tea series products and "Yi black tea", but also on the Wanli Tea Road and Han Zhinan joined hands to open a mule and horse shop, set up a cloth village in Nanyi County, in addition to opening a tea shop in Hankou, but also concurrently operated a hostel, gathered money, and was later called the "King of Tea".