Chapter 3: The Wilderness (Mikami)

As soon as the first rays of sunlight in the morning came out behind the clouds in the southeast, Li Xu crept back to his tent. After listening to the introduction of Uncle Nine and Hao Laodao, he no longer had a contempt for the customs of the Xia clan in his heart. But suddenly he began to worry about whether the blue-eyed girl would be very angry if she woke up and found that she had slipped away. It would be a pity if that was the case, he had seen such a beautiful girl for the first time in his life, and it was a pleasure to be able to chat together.

There was no sign of the girl in the felt tent, and the large flower carpet that the man had lent was folded and placed neatly beside the pillow. The charcoal in the brazier had long since cooled, and the pale white ashes were swept up by the cold wind that suddenly blew in through the doorway, and gently drifted in the sunlight. Like fog, like smoke.

Everything last night seemed to have never happened, Li Xu felt as if he had a bizarre dream, and after waking up from the dream, there was no trace of everything except the morning sun.

Maybe that's just a dream! Li Xu thought dizzily. For two days in a row, he did not see the girl again. At Xu Dayan's suggestion, the vendors took the initiative to put together a sample of the goods and gave them to the tribal leader Su Si Si Sier and several respected elders, while the leaders and elders of the Su Si tribe gave the caravan gifts of higher value. In the three days before waiting for the arrival of several neighboring tribes, in order to show fairness, the Susi tribe did not take the lead in trading with the traders. The guests and hosts only drank and sang every day, and the women's singing and dancing were still the highlight of the banquet, but the blue-eyed girl evaporated like dew and never appeared in front of everyone again.

"What, Lord Zixi, I miss your Yue Nu again!" Xu Da saw that Li Xu was in a state of mind when he was drinking, and laughed in a low voice.

"No, I'm thinking about how to get rid of the goods as soon as possible tomorrow!" Li Xu shook his head and argued strongly. But the girl's clothes suddenly floated in her heart, and the Hu music in her ears also vaguely carried the rhythm of the ancients.

"What is the night? In the middle of the island, what is the day today? Gotta be in the same boat as the prince. Shame is good, not shameful. The heart was annoyed and unstoppable, and learned that the prince. There are trees in the mountains, there are branches in the woods, and the heart is happy! "Did Yin Zixi, the commander of the Chu State, and the Yue people who didn't understand the Chu language have the same misunderstanding?

"Everyone got together tonight to discuss, and the market will open tomorrow. What things are sold at what price, each other has a bottom in their hearts. Let's come here after all the hardships, don't smash your own stall! When Uncle Zhang heard Li Xu's words, he brought out the word "get out", and hurried over to warn him not to mess around. The spring dream of beauty is like a wine banquet in front of the vendors, even if you eat it. Whether you are drunk or awake, the first priority is to earn enough money so that your family will not suffer.

"The same goods, everyone sets the same price. Uncle Nine had already told the messenger to ask each ministry to bring raw hides and skins to barter as much as possible. Tomorrow, we will use raw hides as a scale, a few skins and a pound of tea, a few skins and a piece of cloth, and we have discussed them in advance. For other things, try to fold them with leather as much as possible! The opportunity to make a fortune is imminent, and Wang Mazi's mind is no longer only focused on the woman's waist, but he is very smart and makes a good suggestion.

The people of the Xia tribe did not have the copper coins of the Great Sui in their hands, and it was too troublesome to barter every item. Using the whole piece of leather as money is just the right solution to this problem. And now that rawhide is in demand in the Central Plains, traders who risk being frozen on the grassland are all coming for rawhide.

That night, the vendors crowded in front of the fire and boiled the pot. The goods brought by everyone are not the same, and they are uniformly folded with raw hides, and the quality gap in the middle is difficult to reflect. No one wants to earn less than others, and everyone is afraid that they will not get enough. Fortunately, the people couldn't understand the Central Plains dialect, and thought that the vendors were discussing the trip home. Otherwise, it is really possible to turn his face and beat out all these black-hearted guests.

In the end, it was Uncle Jiu, Zhang San and others who made the decision and divided the same kind of goods into grades according to the standards of the Central Plains. The price difference between each class is kept to a minimum, and as for the unique goods of individual traders, they will sell them casually, and no matter whether the price is high or low, it will not have an impact on other people's trading.

"I'm Su silk, how can his Shandong cloth be compared!" Someone muttered unconvinced. The silk of the Central Plains has been preferably Suzhou silk since ancient times, followed by Zhejiang silk. Ludi is cold, the silk of silkworm soil is brittle and thick, and the silk woven is the worst, and the rich have never worn it, and only the middle family sewed clothes to fill the façade. Therefore, the prices of the three kinds of silk in the market are also very different. Others, such as color, pattern style, width and narrowness, etc., will not affect the transaction price of the satin. However, the price set by Sun Jiu and others, but the difference between the silk and satin in the three places is limited, which naturally makes people with high cost of bringing goods dissatisfied.

"If you have the ability, you can explain the difference between Su silk and Lu silk to the people of Xia!" Uncle Zhang San's face instantly turned cold and scolded. "Otherwise, you set a high price for yourself, and finally smash it in your hands, and everyone won't stay here and wait for you to find a buyer!"

"Stay, stay, whoever leaves can't live!" The satin merchant shouted angrily, and finally sat down in despair. Discussing the difference between silk and satin with the people of Xia is similar to discussing the texture of mutton with the people of Jiangnan. Whatever you say about Guan Qiao, in the eyes of others, they are all the same thing.

There were also a few people with lacquerware and painted pottery, and they were also dissatisfied with Sun Jiu's decision. Seeing that the silk merchant couldn't make sense, and he was afraid of provoking Zhang San, a black-faced man, to get angry on his return trip, he had to give up. On the contrary, the vendors who brought exclusive goods were elated, and they were full of joy and thinking about how to make a lot of money tomorrow.

The goods brought by Li Xu's goods are relatively simple, except for dozens of catties of coarse tea, which is a few horses of Shu brocade. That coarse tea is a popular commodity on the grassland, and both buyers and sellers know its market. Even if the vendors want to take the opportunity to raise the price, they can't raise it much. And Shu brocade is not produced in the north, and the price is already ridiculously high in Shanggu County, and no one will sell such thick, heavy, and high-cost things as traders who want to make quick money. So he had no conflict with the crowd, and withdrew from the crowd early, and sat down by another fire to drink and relieve his boredom.

"Don't mix with them tomorrow, those few Shu brocades, find a way to sell them for silver!" While people were not paying attention, Xu Dayan leaned into Li Xu's ear and admonished.

Li Xu was worried about this matter, frowned, and asked in a low voice, "How to change it?" Everyone is in exchange for raw hides! ”。 He knew almost nothing about the way of doing business, and the original plan was to fold all the brocade in his hand according to the price of brocade and silk in Shu in the Central Plains, and bring it back to Shanggu by Sun Jiu, and then his father would exchange it for copper money to make up for the family's shortfall. But judging from the price set by everyone tonight, the amount of hides that can be exchanged tomorrow far exceeds the estimate before the stopper. Entrusting others to bring such heavy goods back is a bit too unkind.

"Fold the Shu brocade into silk cloth at the price of the Central Plains, then fold the silk cloth into raw hides at the price of tonight, and then fold the raw hides into silver pieces at the price of the Xia people. The people here are decorated with silver bells, and it is estimated that the price of silver will not be too high! According to his observations in the past few days, Xu Dayan took a blackened branch and wrote on the ground.

Soon, he calculated the price ratio of Shu brocade and raw hides. Let Li Xu memorize the number, and then wipe it off the ground with the sole of his boot.

Li Xu silently recited the numbers given by Xu Dayan twice and agreed with the other party's suggestion. If Uncle Tuo Jiu brought money to his family, the road would not be too tiring. And with Sun Jiu's character, no matter how much silver taels he gave him, he would not swallow him halfway.

"I have to change one or two horses tomorrow, otherwise there will be too many hides, and Uncle Nine will not be able to help me bring them back!" Then change some cheese and fried rice for them, and if you live here, you can't always eat and drink for nothing. Li Xu said to Xu Dayan very frankly.

No matter how enthusiastic the people are, there is a limit in the end. In the Central Plains, a person who lives in his relative's house for a long time will be disgusted, not to mention that at the moment, he and Xu Dayan have no relatives and no reason.

"I asked Uncle Jiu to help inquire, every year at the beginning of winter, all the men in the tribe have to go out hunting in groups. This year, the wind and rain are smooth, and there are many yellow sheep nearby. So, what we eat shouldn't be a big problem! "As for how to survive on the grassland, Xu Dayan has long been prepared. But for Li Xu's talk about buying a horse, he made a very ridiculous suggestion: "It's okay to buy a horse, try to buy a horse that is small and slow." You can carry the goods, don't buy the tall ones! ”

"Why?" Li Xu asked in surprise. Xu Dayan refused to explain to him, but just asked him to do it no matter what. Li Xu was originally easy-going, and when he saw that Xu Dayan said solemnly, he had to agree to it.

The next day, the people of several nearby tribes rushed to hear the news and packed the camp of the Su Si tribe. This place is too far away from the Great Wall, and there is a Xi tribe in the middle, and the Central Plains goods have always been in demand. In addition, the trade routes are cut off every year when the snow falls, and other caravans may reappear until May next year. Therefore, the elders of many tribes personally led the team to come, on the one hand, to express their gratitude to the leaders and elders of the Su Si Tribe, and on the other hand, to prevent their own Erlang from falling into the Central Plains merchants because of his lack of experience.

Rawhide is a cheap thing on the grassland, and every autumn, the tribe culls out a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled animals according to the amount of hay accumulated near the pasture. These skins can't be used up, and the people don't have the patience to remove them one by one. If you keep it in your hand for a year or two, the hides will be full of worm holes and become worthless. Therefore, although the price of the goods in the hands of the traders was a little high, it was still within the affordability of the Xia people. Moreover, the vendors brought all new goods, and even the worst quality was far more high-end than the second-hand goods trafficked by the Xi merchants.

Wang Mazi, Du Scarqi and others made a smile, and even the tone of voice when talking to people was three points more polite than usual. As Uncle Nine said, with a surplus, the traders' hands and feet are much more generous than before. Especially Du Scar, Li Xu saw with his own eyes that this miser secretly wrapped a large tea brick when closing the stall on the first day, and stuffed it into the hands of the woman of the Xia tribe who helped him take care of the stall.

The woman thanked each other repeatedly, although she and Du Scarqi didn't have too many words to communicate with each other, but in a moment's eyes, they were extraordinarily gentle.

That kind of gaze Li Xu has also seen. At that time, Yanyan was carrying a bowl of medicine, complaining that her uncle's body was not strong enough, and she was always sick and dragged her to suffer. The words in his mouth were very ugly, but the gaze he looked at his uncle was no different.