Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 214 Businessman

After entering the twelfth lunar month, the festive atmosphere becomes stronger day by day.

On the banks of the Zuli River, a convoy of chariots and horses came, the scale was not small, about twenty carriages, more than a hundred mules and horses, fully loaded with various goods, as soon as they entered the territory of Huizhou, it caused a sensation.

The last time a caravan of this size entered the country, it might have been when Shang Yanxin was still alive.

Since then, the various ministries in Tubo have been freed, and Jie'er and Wanhu have become Tubo kings one after another.Not only did they attack and kill each other internally, but sometimes they also sent scattered cavalry into the Tang territory to plunder the people.

Even after Huang Chao entered Chang'an, they colluded with each other, organized a large army, and captured the three prefectures of Yuan, Wu, and Wei.At that time, the borders of Qin and Cheng states were not peaceful, and there were frequent raiders entering and looting—it has to be said that their sources of information were indeed powerful. Huang Chao did not take long to enter Chang'an, and immediately started to do it. It can be seen that he still cares about the east.

In such a situation, how does the border area do business?Don't you want to die?No matter how good the cow and sheep skins of the Tubo people are, they dare not buy them.What's more, the Dingnan army also has cattle and sheep, the quantity is huge, and the price is not expensive, so it's better to go to Suizhou and Xiazhou to buy them.At worst, there are also Tubo tribes in Fengxiang Town, and I bought them from them, although the number is not enough.

In the second year of Guangqi, the king of Lingwu County returned to Lingzhou from Chang'an.When they returned to the division, they united with Binning Town and Jingyuan Town to destroy the Tubo who had rebelled in Yuanzhou and other places, and then recovered the two counties of Huizhou, and set up officials, sent troops, and emigrated, and formally controlled them.This is great news for the merchants in Qinzhou.

Therefore, after several months of tentative observation and found that the local situation in Huizhou had indeed stabilized, the first caravan from Qinzhou came over.

Businessmen are working hard to do business in a hurry!
There are quite a few internal tribes in Huizhou, whether they are Tubo-ized Dangxiang people, Han people or others, strictly speaking, their habits are not very good, and they might rob you all.But this caravan is powerful, the banner is Tianshui Zhao family, the handsome wife family, and this suddenly bluffed many people who wanted to take risks—even if someone wanted to make a fool of himself, others would hold him back, you and he Damn, don't kill everyone, the king of Lingwu County will not carefully distinguish who robbed, he will only punish together.

Of course, the banner is the Tianshui Zhao family, but the sources of merchants are actually quite complicated, mainly from Qinzhou, and also from Chengzhou and Longzhou.They are attached to the Zhao family, so naturally they have to benefit the Zhao family.And the Zhao family can't use the prestige of Lingwu County King to do business for nothing. The Zhao family has already discussed within the Zhao family that they will share the benefits with Lingwu County King's concubine Yuniang.

The caravan has dozens of guards, with strong bows and crossbows, long spears and big knives, which looks very reliable.As people described at the time, "A man who is a chivalrous man, a party who slays dragons and stabs dragons, a guest who is violent in Poyang, and a man who is strong and strong in Fuping." Of course, he can't deal with the army of economic control, but he can deal with mountain bandits, river thieves and rebellious soldiers. Kou's generation, but it is not a big problem.

"Let's all rest for a while." Zhao Cheng came back from the front on his horse and greeted.

It's not that people need to rest, but mainly because draft animals, mules and horses can't bear it anymore.There is still a distance from Huizhou City. If the livestock are exhausted, they have to go to the grassland tribe to buy them. They sit on the ground and start the price. Is it a loss?

After the caravan stopped, some tribes naturally came to buy goods.

They automatically filtered high-value goods such as mirrors, jewelry, and brocade, and mainly looked at small things such as tea, clay pots, ironware, needles, and brains.The people in the caravan were not too troublesome, and some merchants with small capital raised their spirits, wagging their lips and talking sweetly, and tried their best to sell their products.

The herdsmen know very little official language and have no cash, so they can only exchange livestock, leather, tendons, and horns.But how could they survive these old and cunning businessmen, the cattle and sheep they brought were thought to be thin, and the leather was thought to be of poor quality, and the price was repeatedly lowered, and they almost became angry from embarrassment.

Zhao Cheng watched from the side with a smile, but did not participate.He is in the wholesale business and looks down on the petty profits of these retailers.There are many products from their family in those cars, such as mirrors.

How can grassland herdsmen afford this thing?
However, something unexpected happened...

"Is there a bronze mirror?" A man dressed as a Han squeezed over and asked after much hesitation.

Zhao Cheng was startled and asked, "Do you really want to buy a mirror?"

Wang Quan opened his mouth, stomped his foot for the last time, and said, "Of course I want to buy it!"

"Bright mirrors are very expensive, how about showing you some dark mirrors?" Zhao Cheng tentatively asked.

"What is the explanation for the bright mirror? What about the dark mirror?" Wang Quan asked.

"The bright mirror is so clear that it can't hide the light for a second. It's not suitable for beauty." Zhao Cheng replied.

The meaning is very clear. The bright mirror is a high-end product, and it can illuminate relatively clearly. It can't hide the blemishes or physical defects on the face. Doesn't it mean that ugly people are asking for trouble when they use it?

"A faint mirror shines like fog, with no blemishes. Its beauty is self-generated. It takes several photos a day, and it is said to be beautiful. Generally, ten mirrors are cast, one of which is bright like fog, and the other nine are like fog. Do you want to buy a bright mirror or a dark mirror?"

Several people behind Wang burst out laughing.

The merchants are really interesting and smart.

Among the women in the world, there should be only eleven beauties, and this bright mirror is sold to beauties.The remaining nine people bought the dim mirror and went back. They were also very happy to see them, and felt that they were very beautiful. This business is really doing well.

"I bought a bright mirror." Wang Quan waved his hand and said imposingly.

"Really? This thing is very expensive."

"You merchant, do you look down on Tianshe Hanye?" Wang Quan got angry and shouted: "Da Lang, bring a piece of silk here."

When Wang Jiao heard that he was buying a mirror for his mother, he immediately responded, picked up a bolt of silk, and handed it over.

Zhao Cheng took a rough look, then shook his head and said, "This is Peacock Luo in Hengzhou, but you can't buy a bright mirror."

Wang Quan was taken aback for a moment, he didn't expect mirrors to be so expensive, so he hesitated.

"If we put on the Xuanzhou red thread carpet in the little man's bag, it will be almost the same." Zhao Cheng also has sharp eyes, and he saw the famous brocade with only a corner exposed in Wang Jiao's bag.

"You trafficker, aren't you deceiving me?" Wang Quan asked.But his tone was obviously hesitant, because he didn't know how much Jiaojing should sell for.In other words, the price of the same mirror varies greatly in different places.He is not very clear about the price in Huizhou.

He is still hesitating on this side, but Wang Jiao has already passed the piece of silk over there.

Wang Quan was tongue-tied, this cheap son was quite towards his mother.

Zhao Cheng took the red thread blanket carefully, looked at it carefully, and said with a smile: "The colored silk is fluffy and fragrant, and the thread is soft and the flowers are too much to be seen; the beautiful woman stepped on the song and dance, but the embroidered shoes with socks disappeared. It's true." I didn't expect such a famous brocade to be found in this poor and remote area of ​​Huizhou. How did you get such a good thing, you common people?"

Wang Quan was in a heartache, but someone behind him said: "People in the city are only after profit, how can they look down on people? Commander Wang went deep into Weizhou several times, beheaded more than ten Tubo bandits, and even killed one member of a hundred households. The bandits heard the name of Commander Wang. , terrified all day long. The head of the horse tribe even offered a reward of a hundred cattle and sheep, and bought the order of the king's command. How do you compare? Huizhou is poor, but there are generous and heroic people, single-handed and horse-ridden. , Kill the general and return, and keep one side peaceful. Don’t look down on people, this is a reward from General Yang, the envoy of the Xinquan Army, and only the warriors are rewarded!"

Zhao Cheng was also a little moved when he heard it.Qinzhou has been trapped in Tibet for decades, and everyone knows how the people live.The court envoys came over several times, and before leaving, everyone only dared to hide behind the crack of the door and peek, wishing they could follow them back to the Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Cheng had such an experience when he was young. His old father with braided hair and left lapel cried bitterly after the imperial envoy left, which left a deep impression on him.It's a pity that my father passed away early, and it was a pity that the imperial court did not recover the six prefectures and seven gates in Dazhong.

"It turned out to be a warrior who killed the bandits..." After thinking for a while, Zhao Cheng gritted his teeth, put the bright mirror into Wang Quan's hand, and said: "This mirror is melted, and it can't make much money, so I gave it to the strong man I just want to kill a few more bandits in the future and restore the old land."

"How does this happen?" Wang Quan was still waiting to decline, but Wang Jiao had already picked up the mirror.

Wang Quan smiled wryly, and said: "Forget it, I don't want you to give it away either. I gave you these two pieces of brocade. If General Yang can reward a certain one, he can reward it twice. After a while, so-and-so will go to Weizhou again, Capture a few Tibetans and come back alive."

Wang Quan said it was easy to capture life, but how did Zhao Cheng not know the danger?In the past few decades, the two sides have sent rangers to each other to capture people. Sometimes people go out to collect firewood in the morning and never return.When we meet again in the future, maybe it will be 20 years later, but luckily, most of the people who disappeared will never be seen again.

"Commander Wang is really a heroic man." Zhao Cheng sighed.

Are there no people in Han?No.Can't the officers and soldiers fight?No.But it just can't regain the lost ground!Generals and generals, fly battalion dogs, and eat vegetarian meals in the corpses, in the end they are not as good as ordinary people.

During the Fengxiang Festival, handsome Zhu Mei builds mansions, collects beauties, and feasts all day long.The three prefectures of Wei, Min, and Dang are just at the gate, but they refuse to send troops, thinking that spending is useless.Such an attitude only makes the teeth of hot-blooded people cold.In the future, the Central Plains will change, Guanzhong will fight endlessly, and if Tubo invades again, do you expect Zhu Mei to keep Qinzhou peaceful?Zhao Cheng didn't dare to think about it.

If the general dares to fight, Zhao Cheng has the confidence to return the business to the rebel army and even the Western Regions. What a great advantage this is?I can't explain the reason to these warriors!

According to the news I got, after regaining Huizhou, the king of Lingwu County should still have some ideas, and wants to capture Lanzhou and other places.If it can be done, he can do the business there himself, and even help some military supplies.If the Xuanzhou red thread carpet in hand is sold to Xizhou, and then bought local products back to the Central Plains, it will be dozens of times more profitable.

It's hateful that the general Gongqing is short-sighted, has no eyes, and let this benefit be lost in vain, isn't it ridiculous?
During the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu occupied the Western Regions, and the trade routes were cut off.At this time of the country, Tubo ruled the Western Regions, and the trade routes were cut off, forcing Hu merchants to go to the grasslands or even Bohai to do business.

Silk, paper, tea from the Central Plains, gold and silverware, crystal, frankincense, carpets, gems, rhino horn, ivory, tortoiseshell, indigo, jewelry and even barbarian-style armor from the Western Regions. How profitable are these things?
After Wang Quan and others left, Zhao Cheng sat blankly for a while.Soon the caravan set off again, Zhao Cheng cheered up and planned to go to Huizhou to have a look.Next, he will go to Lingzhou and Xiazhou. He still has a lot of things to do.

(End of this chapter)