The tsamba is fried and ground into a fine powder with highland barley, and when the tsamba is eaten, it is mixed with strong tea or milk tea, ghee, cheese, sugar, etc. Tsamba is easy to store and carry, and it is also convenient when eating.

When Tashi went out to shepherd the sheep every day, he would go out all day, so every morning when he went out, he would use a small sheepskin bag with tsamba, and then put ghee and cheese on it, so that he could eat it whenever he was hungry, and he would not have to come back for the whole day.

His wife was a little surprised to see Tashi bring back a dozen strangers.

However, when they heard that these people were Han businessmen, they also became enthusiastic. The herdsmen living here have been isolated from the outside world for a long time, and the new Mongolian and Han outsiders who have recently entered the country have a different way of doing things, which makes the herdsmen have a better impression of the Han people. Herders, in particular, are generally very enthusiastic about the merchants who walk the grasslands.

Zhang Huangyan took out two daggers, a dozen wooden bowls, and an iron pot for Tashi's family as a gift for visiting the house, and these things together were not worth a silver dollar. However, in the eyes of Tashi's family, this was a very precious commodity, and they were reluctant to accept such a heavy gift anyway, and in the end they only received eight wooden bowls.

This kind of wooden bowl is not afraid of the bowl, and it is not afraid of hot milk tea, which has always been the favorite of herdsmen, and the key is that it is not expensive.

When the other herders at the lake heard that Tashi had brought back a caravan, they rushed over as well.

Tashi's black tent, spun from cow hair and wool, was bustling with activity, with oil lamps lit and laughter abounding.

Zhang Huangyan also stepped into the role of a merchant, and let the guards act as assistants, fetching loadloads of goods from yaks and horses to sell to the herdsmen.

Waist knives, daggers, wooden bowls, iron pots, tea, salt, sugar, cloth and other commodities are all favored by herdsmen.

Three sheepskins for a pound of tea bricks, a sheep for a pound of tea bricks, and a horse for eight pounds of tea bricks. A yak is exchanged for ten catties of tea bricks, and a camel is exchanged for fifteen catties of tea bricks.

These tea bricks are actually just relatively ordinary tea leaves, a tea brick is just one catty, and the silver is less than a silver dollar. However, the transaction in the Qinghai-Tibet pastoral area naturally cannot be the same as the purchase price in the city, and the price given by Zhang Huangyan is actually far beyond the purchase price of the usual herdsmen and caravans.

Since the herdsmen's property is all cattle and sheep skins and furs, and there is very little gold and silver and other currency, they are more likely to barter when trading. The two parties agreed to use tea and sheep as the currency settlement unit, and the transaction was converted and converted.

All caravan cargo. Tea is used as the price, and the herdsmen's goods are marked with sheep, and then the exchange ratio of tea and sheep is agreed, and the transaction can be happily.

Three sheepskins or a sheep can be exchanged for a pound of tea bricks, this price is very fair, and the herdsmen want to take the opportunity to buy more goods.

The herdsmen exchanged more cowhides and wool, as well as cow wool, as well as some wild sheep, foxes, wolves and other skins, and there were relatively few who were really willing to trade livestock.

Livestock in their eyes. It is the most important property and the foundation of a family's survival. Tashi's family has more than 200 sheep, more than 40 cows, and two horses. In addition, the family also has five dogs, which is a very wealthy herdsman for hundreds of miles in the vicinity.

Tashi exchanged the fur of cattle and sheep and the fur of prey accumulated at home for a lot of tea bricks.

Rather house three meals. Without giving up a single meal of tea, the herdsmen have a great demand for tea.

Taking advantage of the good quality and low price of tea bricks, Tashi bought twenty-four tea bricks at once. It's enough to eat for a long time. Then he bought a few more knives and two wool shears. Wool is also an important source of income for the Tashi family, who used to cut wool with a sharp knife, but it was easy to cut through sheepskin.

The wool shears brought by the Han merchant were very sharp, and he tried them and found that they were much more convenient than using a knife, and although the price was not cheap, he still bought two.

In addition, he also bought a little salt and sugar, and under Zhang Huangyan's recommendation, he bought a few more pieces of cloth. The brightly colored floral cloth is much better than the cloth woven by the herdsmen themselves from wool spinning.

In addition, he bought some of these needles, and finally found that the fur was not enough to pay for it, but he was reluctant to sell the livestock.

"Or you exchange jerky and ghee!" Zhang Huangyan gave a solution. Although he is not a real businessman, he also knows that the transaction should be fair, and even if he is willing to give it, Tashi will not accept it.

Tashi's tent was hung with a lot of dried meat and dried blood sausages, which were considered homemade by the herders, and they were better carried than live livestock. Ghee, in particular, is a pastoral treasure.

The amount of ghee in each family has even become a symbol of wealth. Ghee is made from milk, which is very troublesome, pouring the fermented milk into the ghee barrel and holding it until finally the ghee is separated from the milk, the process is long and arduous, the herdsman's wife has to milk at least three times a day, and has to spend half a day in the process of milking and wheezing.

Tashi's family can produce about 100 catties of ghee a year, and there is a wooden box in his tent to store clumps of ghee, like a baby.

Herdsmen usually can't do without ghee whether they make glutinous rice cake or butter tea, especially ghee made from yak milk, which has higher taste and nutritional value, and is more popular with herdsmen.

Even the Tibetan tusi levied taxes on the herders for ghee and sheep.

Zhang Huangyan had heard from a military doctor that yak ghee is very helpful for living in Qinghai-Tibet, which can strengthen the body and make people more adaptable to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Yak ghee is now also a tight commodity in the Central Plains, and it is more expensive than ordinary beef and sheep ghee, and is more loved by the Central Plains people.

"Two catties of yak ghee for a tea brick, five catties of sheep ghee for a tea brick!" Zhang Huangyan quoted a price.

"Okay, I'll change." Tashi was pleased with the exchange price.

When the other herders heard the price, they were also very impressed and expressed their willingness to give some more ghee in exchange.

Tashi finally got all the goods he wanted, and he was satisfied with the goods he piled up in a corner of the tent. Then he asked his wife to make butter tea with new tea bricks and freshly exchanged sugar, and at the same time called his father to go outside and catch a sheep and come back.

Tonight he is going to kill sheep and feast guests, which is also the hospitality of the simple herdsmen. Transactions are transactions, and hospitality is hospitality. They don't care how much it's worth to kill a sheep.

Tashi's sister brought the freshly washed intestines, and Tashi's mother stirred the freshly chopped lamb and barley flour together, mixed it with the fresh sheep's blood, and poured it into the intestines, and the fresh blood sausage was ready.

Tashi's wife has blown the cow dung fire with a wool blower, and the water in the iron pot that has just been exchanged has been boiled, this pot is very large, Tashi's wife likes it very much, such a big iron pot is much more convenient to boil water and cook rice, and the price is extremely fair.

The blood sausage was put into the pot and boiled, and Tashi took a knife and began to chop the sheep into large pieces with bones, and after a while, they directly stewed them in large pieces, they preferred to eat the mutton stewed rather than the roasted meat.

Zhang Huangyan liked the hospitality of the herdsmen, and he also took out several jars of wine.

With wine and meat, plus butter tea and glutinous rice cakes, everyone had a very enjoyable dinner.

The night was so cold and long, but the hot and fragrant blood sausage, mutton and butter tea, paired with fine wine, made the blood boil.

This dinner was eaten for a long time, and it was eaten by about 20 herdsmen in the vicinity, who brought barley, ghee, jerky, salt, sugar, etc. from their own homes to make this sumptuous dinner together.

The herdsmen did not disperse immediately.

They lit a bonfire and began dancing outside the tent.

The dance danced by the herdsmen is more like a tap dance, with a distinct rhythm and heroic liveliness.

At this time, Zhang Huangyan, who was a little drunk, found that the women who helped make dinner just now had changed into colorful clothes at this time, which were colorful and colorful.

Especially by the dim light of the fire and the moonlight, he found that the women's faces were covered with makeup, below the eyes and above the mouth. With a layer of orange covering the face, it is said to be boiled with ghee and sugar.

Herdsmen have always had the habit of applying ghee to their faces, and their faces are smeared with ghee, which is bright red and shiny, and can protect against wind and cold. Now I add cosmetics made of precious sugar to my face, and it looks a little unusually solemn.

After a while, these women, dressed in colorful clothes and cosmetic with a mixture of ghee and brown sugar on their faces, took the initiative to invite Zhang Huangyan and his subordinates to join the dancing crowd.

Zhang Huangyan, who used to be a showman, was a little embarrassed, thinking that it was not intimate with other people's wives and daughters, but Tashi and other herdsmen didn't mind, and even took the initiative to let their wives and daughters pull them down to dance.

It was the first time for Zhang Huangyan to dance like this with a strange woman in his arms, which was both novel and a little exciting.

Half-drunk and slightly smoky, the more he jumped, the happier he became, and the more he jumped, the more he let go.

The moonlit night gradually hid into the clouds, I don't know when, the dance had stopped, the herdsmen went home, Zhang Huangyan and his subordinates were helped into the tent by their dance partners.

When he woke up, the tent was already bright, and the sunlight shone on Zhang Huangyan's face through the skylight opening above the tent, stabbing him awake.

Opening his eyes and rubbing his head, which was still a little hungover, Zhang Huangyan suddenly sobered up.

His mind flashed back to the images of last night, and he sat up quickly, his upper body naked. Then he lifted the woolen blanket, and it was bare.

Finally, everything came to mind, wasn't his dance partner last night Tashi's wife Baima.

They, they seemed last night

Those images flashed through his mind, reflecting his conjecture. It's over, how did you do that kind of thing? (To be continued.) )