"It's almost time for Zhong Xiang to come ahead, right?" On a small boat, a man was asking the boatman who was holding the boat. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

This man had a black-red face, with a long scar on his face from the left forehead to the left corner of his mouth, two small eyes squinted, but occasionally when they were opened, they were very bright, very much like a beast that wanted to choose people to eat, he was not tall, but his hands were very long, and both hands were full of calluses. At his waist hung a long green sharkskin scabbard.

"Second master, it's almost here, to put it mildly, this is already in Zhongxiang's territory." The prickly replied. Coming along the Han River from Hanyang is on the water, and although there are sails on the boat, there are some places where you still have to rely on the support of people one by one.

The second master looked at the two sides of the river, it was already early summer, the trees on both sides of the bank were already full of green leaves, and some paddy fields in the farther away were already green, and some people could be seen working in the fields from a distance. The second master nodded and said: "It is rumored in the rivers and lakes that King Chuang is now doing the cause of suppressing officials and the people, you look at these farmers, and they look like this." ”

The boatman smiled and said: "Now in the streets and alleys of Wuchang, those who are about to die of poverty are spreading the word 'open the gate to meet the king, and the king will not accept food when he comes'." ”

"Oh?" The second master raised his eyebrows and said, "The government doesn't care?" ”

"Whatever, what's the matter?" "Wuchang Mansion lined up more than 20 station cages at the entrance of the yamen, and dozens of people died in one go, but there was no use for fart." People have eaten the last meal but not the next meal, and after today there is no tomorrow, who is afraid of death. I'll just say, if the Ming Dynasty is still like this, catch up tomorrow, Li Zicheng will call over, and if it doesn't work well, Wuchang City can make trouble and open the city gate, believe it or not? This Ming Dynasty, I think it will be over sooner or later. By the way, second master, this army is in chaos, you are still running here, what kind of business is this? ”

"There are few people who do business in a hurry, so that they can make money." The second master said unconcernedly, "In this world, if you want your wife to live peacefully, sooner or later you will starve yourself to death!" ”

"What the second master said is that in these years, it is to starve the timid to death and support the bold." "Actually, I took the second master to run this way, didn't I want to make a few more money?" The dog's days are getting more and more sad day by day, and I can't say that one day, my grandfather will also go to be a rogue! ”

"Wang Qi, you are still far from having nothing to eat. If one day, life is not good, follow the second brother and me to smuggle goods, as long as I have a bite to eat, I can definitely let you have something to eat, how about it? The second master smiled.

"Second master, thank you so much. With your words, the villain slept soundly. ”

As Liang Ran was talking, he saw a small pier in front of him from a distance. There are several small boats parked on the pier, and there is a flagpole standing by the pier, on which is a big bucket of "Yuan" characters. Under the flagpole, there were also a few people with knives and guns basking in the sun there.

At this time, these people also saw the second master's boat, and these people got up one after another, took knives, guns, bows and arrows, and a leader took these people on a small boat and came over to meet them.

"Second master, this thief is here!" The hand holding the boat shook a little.

"Wang Qi, keep your mouth shut! Call the army! The second master said, "We are here to do business with them, what are you nervous about?" Besides, since King Chuang said that he wanted to 'calm the people' and would not kill indiscriminately, what are you afraid of? ”

"It's not like I've heard it before...... Also, Lao Tzu is dying of hunger, what are you afraid of? Wang Qi suddenly gritted his teeth and said.

At this time, the boat that broke into the army was slowly approaching.

"Anchor." The second master said.

Wang Qi didn't say much, lifted the anchor at the stern, and threw it into the water. This action is actually to tell the other party again that I have no bad intentions.

The intruding ship came closer, and a soldier stood at the bow and shouted, "Where did you come from, and what are you here for?" ”

"We came from Wuchang to do business. You're General Yuan's people, aren't you? The second master suddenly shouted in Shaanxi dialect.

The answer in Shaanxi dialect was obviously beyond the expectations of the other party, and the people on the boat chattered, and the boat got closer. After a while, the leader on the opposite side said, "Brother, where are you from?" ”

"My brother is from Yanchuan. Where is this brother from? The second master smiled.

"You are from Yanchuan, brother, I am from Mizhi, to the north of you. There is a Suide in between. The leader on the boat over there said, "Counting the fact that he is out of the house, he is also a fellow countryman." Now that the army is in chaos, what are the brothers doing here? ”

The second master smiled and said, "What I do is a chaotic business." How many brothers are General Yuan's subordinates? Last time, the brothers sold a lot of salt and pig iron to General Yuan. This time the brother came, and he still did this deal! ”

The intruder who took the lead looked at their boat and said, "What is this brother's name?" Brother, you don't seem to have much cargo on this ship. ”

"Brother, my surname is Xie, and everyone calls me Xie Er. I don't know what this brother is called? I heard that you are going to stay here again, I don't know if it's true, this is the first time I've come here, and of course I don't have much to bring. The second master explained.

The man nodded and said, "Brother, my surname is Yuan, Brother Xie, you follow us, and then we will go to the shore first." ”

The second master nodded and said, "It's easy to say." Wang Qi went to lift the anchor, supported the boat again, and followed the small clipper that broke into the army, and docked.

The leading soldier came over and said, "Brother Xie, we want to get on your boat and have a look." Official, nothing else. ”

"Brothers, please." Second Master Xie hurriedly said, he estimated that most of the people surnamed Yuan were Yuan Zongdi's righteous sons or something, so he hurriedly stuffed a silver dollar into his hand, "A small gift, not a tribute." ”

The man surnamed Yuan took the silver dollar, glanced at it, and said, "This is a new thing." ”

"This is the silver cake used by the overseas Tessie people, each of which is of general color, average weight, with patterns and Tessy characters on both sides, so that people can't scrape silver from these two sides, and there are lines on the outside, so that people can't scrape silver from there. It is especially convenient to use compared to broken silver. Xie Er explained in a low voice.

"Well, these foreigners really have a heart." The man surnamed Yuan smiled and put the silver dollar away.

Xie Er led a few intruders into the canopy, lifted a wooden plank, and dragged out two heavy sacks from it.

"Brother Yuan, look, this bag is salt, and this bag is pig iron." Xie Er opened the bag and showed it to the intruders.

The first bag was full of white grains of salt, and it did seem to be the best salt. The man surnamed Yuan stretched out his hand and pinched a piece of salt, threw it into his mouth and tasted it, "This is sea salt?" ”

"Brother Yuan knows the goods! Finest sea salt. Xie Eryi gave a thumbs up.

The Yuan brother didn't answer, but stretched out his head again and looked at the pig iron in another sack seriously, and reached out to pick up two ingots to take a closer look, and hit them against each other again, "These pig irons are not bad." ”

He threw the two iron ingots into the sack, smiled at Xie Er and said, "I'm a real person, don't tell lies, Brother Xie's goods are good goods, and they are indeed what we need." I don't know how many of these things Brother Xie can have, and what kind of price they want. ”

He saw that Xie Er was just smiling, but he didn't speak, so he said again: "It's the brother who is reckless, and this kind of thing will naturally be discussed in detail after going ashore first." With that, he turned around and asked the two soldiers to carry the two bags of goods, and several people got off the ship together and went to the dock.

"I don't know how many goods Brother Xie has in his hands." The man surnamed Yuan asked again.

"It depends on how much you want." Xie Erdao.

"Listen to your tone, do you mean you can have as much as we want?" The man surnamed Yuan laughed.

"How is that possible, it's not easy to get these things. But as long as the price is right, you can get a few thousand catties of salt and a few thousand catties of pig iron. Xie Er also replied with a smile.

Thousands of catties of salt and thousands of catties of iron are nothing in the eyes of future generations. In later generations, these two things were bargains, and when a certain island country began to implement the Ultraman and Little Monster cultivation plan, the salt panic descendants of the Red Rabbit Country heard the rumors that the sea was polluted by a certain island country and that there would be no salt to eat in the future, so there were a lot of jokes about buying several tons or even more than a dozen tons of edible salt in one go. As for steel, for those who are accustomed to the world's steel production in later generations, the first is Chitu Country, the second is Chitu Country Hebei, and the third is Chitu Country Hebei Tangshan; For those who are accustomed to the fact that crude steel prices are lower than Chinese cabbage, it is difficult to imagine the price of such things before the Industrial Revolution. In the Ming Dynasty, salt was quite expensive because of the high cost of government management and transportation, and metal, even if it was just the cheapest pig iron, was very rare. In fact, don't say that it is the era of my Ming Dynasty, that is, in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the kitchen knives in ordinary people's homes must also be passed down from generation to generation.

Hearing this number, the little officer surnamed Yuan immediately knew that this matter was not something he could call the shots, so he said to Xie Er: "Boss Xie has done a good job, but such a big deal is not something that a brother can manage." I also asked Boss Xie to wait a while, and my brother immediately sent someone to inform the general. ”

So the man called one of the soldiers to him, gave him two orders, and told him to hurry into the city on horseback. Then he poured tea and said, "Brother, there is really nothing to entertain Boss Xie, I don't know if Boss Xie can drink these coarse teas?" ”

"What, Boss Xie?" Xie Er said, "I'm just an errand guy." Brother, do you think, who can do such a big deal, which one is willing to spare his life, and which one is willing to run such a road by himself? ”