That year, that cicada, that sword

Chapter 472

It was dawn, and Xu Beiyou was walking alone by the Luoshui River with his sword box on his back. It was the chilling autumn. The closer he was to Shanzhou, the more he could feel the vastness of the sky and the vastness of the sky, and the more he could feel his own insignificance when he was in it.

Not far from Xu Beiyou's side, the torrential Luo River connected Shanzhou and Yuzhou. At this time, the thick water vapor diffused, and a layer of mist was vaguely shrouded on the river surface.

Xu Beiyou looked forward through the mist, and could vaguely see a ferry, where a boatman was punting people back and forth. When he got closer, he found that the punters were a pair of poorly dressed grandparents. The old man and the child were all dressed in dirty clothes. Xi's sheepskin jacket, the difference is that the old man is standing on the bow with a pole in his hand, while the child is sitting in the cabin, showing a not-so-clean face, yawning softly.

After seeing Xu Beiyou, the old man smiled and asked, "Is this young master going to cross the river?"

Xu Beiyou was stunned for a moment, glanced at the sheepskin jackets on the old man and the child, agreed with a smile, asked the price, handed the old man the money, and boarded the boat.

Seeing someone boarding the boat, the child rubbed his sleepy eyes, and looked curiously at Xu Beiyou with a pair of rolling eyes.

The water here is gentle, but the river is open, and it takes about half a stick of incense to row a boat to the other side. Xu Beiyou sat on the boat and asked casually, "Is the old man a local?"

The old man who was on the boat grinned, "The old man is from Shanzhou. He moved to Yuzhou when the times were bad a few years ago. He has no skills and no land, so he can only make a living by ferrying. It is thanks to him." This big river not only gave the old man a bite to eat, even the cavalry who caught up with the prairie barbarians headed south would not pass through here, and it has been safe and sound all these years."

Xu Beiyou was a little surprised: "Nowadays there is peace and prosperity, how dare the cavalry of the grassland barbarians make trouble?"

The old man sighed, "In the early years when the late emperor was alive, those prairie barbarians really didn't dare to make trouble, but in the past ten years or so, it's not the same as before. Every autumn and winter, there are always prairie cavalry going south to plunder, and they don't dare to make trouble. How to kill and set fire is to rob food."

Xu Beiyou's face was a little dignified, and he asked: "Shaanzhou and Central are both the garrisons of the imperial court's Northwest Army, don't they care?"

The old man smiled wryly: "We are just common people, how can we know what those generals think."

Xu Beiyou remained silent.

The old man went on to say: "Several merchants in the past who went to the grassland to do business once told the old man that the bitterly cold land on the grassland snows in June, and after winter, it is completely white, and people, cattle and sheep have to pay attention to it." Frozen to death, those prairie barbarians have no choice but to go south to plunder."

The child who hadn't spoken all this time suddenly asked, "Grandpa, what else is there in the grassland besides grass? What business can you do there?"

The old man was at a loss for words. About the grasslands, he was just hearsay. He had never been to the grasslands in his life, and he had never even seen half of the grassland barbarians. How could he know what business those passing merchants went to the grasslands for.

Xu Beiyou didn't want the old man to be embarrassed, and explained with a smile: "In fact, there are only a few things in the grassland business. We have tea, iron, and salt here in Daqi, and cattle, sheep, and horses on the grassland. They usually sell a few things here. The tea leaves that are worth [-] yuan can be sold for a tael of silver in the grasslands, while the horses that are everywhere in the grasslands can be sold at a high price of tens of taels of silver in Daqi. Those merchants exchanged salt, iron, and tea for horses. Then bring the horses back to the Central Plains to sell, and the profit will be more than ten times the profit. However, no matter whether tea, iron, salt, or horses, they are all strictly controlled by the imperial court. If smugglers are caught by the frontier soldiers, according to the law, their heads will be beheaded."

"Behead!" The child was taken aback, and asked again: "Since the head is going to be beheaded, why do people still go into business? Aren't they afraid of death?"

"Of course they are afraid of death." Xu Beiyou said with a light smile, "but money is touching, as long as one transaction is completed, there will be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in profit, which is money that ordinary people can't earn in their lifetime."

"Silver!" The child swallowed subconsciously. He has grown up so much, and he has never seen what silver looks like. He only heard people say that it is white, bright, and dazzling.

The old man was afraid that the child would ask some questions that shouldn't be asked, so after glaring at him, he said with a smile to Xu Beiyou, "Master, you are a scholar, right? Learning is great."

Xu Beiyou smiled, "I have indeed read some books, but I can't be regarded as a scholar. The ancient books of sages don't teach these businessmen's ways."

Could it be that the young man in front of him is a merchant's son?But no matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like it!The old man didn't take it seriously, he just took it as the young man's modesty.

The child rolled his eyes and asked again: "My lord, my lord, have you ever been to the grassland?"

Xu Beiyou paused for a moment, showing a bit of reminiscence, "I have been there. In the 20th year of Taiping, I traveled with Master. After leaving Zhongdu, I went to Xiliang Prefecture, then went to Dunhuang City through Wushaoling, and left Yumen Pass. It is Xiulong Grassland, where the caravans come and go frequently, but if there are more caravans, there are also more horse thieves, each of them is vicious, coming and going in groups like the wind, specializing in killing people and stealing money."

The old man sighed softly: "At first glance, the young master is a person who has seen the world. Back then, there was a scholar who was traveling across the river and said a polite word to the old man. It was called..."

Xu Beiyou smiled and said, "Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles."

"Yes, reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. Look at my memory." The old man patted his forehead and said, "Young master must have been to many places."

Xu Beiyou nodded and said: "When my teacher was there, I followed my teacher to the Northwest and Liaodong. Later, when my teacher was gone, I went to Jiangnan from the northwest by myself."

The old man was quite fascinated and said: "It's really quite a lot. The young master has traveled all over the country at a young age. It's amazing, really amazing."

Xu Beiyou smiled, but did not speak.

The old man asked, "Where is the young master going on this trip?"

Xu Beiyou laughed at himself slightly: "Going to the imperial capital, in the past two years in Jiangdu, I have become a bit of a man, and I have accumulated some property. My old father at home has arranged a marriage for me. He sent a letter urging me to go and get married."

"The imperial capital! That's a good place. You are a lucky person to start a family there." The old man smiled and said, "The old man will congratulate you first."

Xu Beiyou thanked him with a smile.

While talking, the ferry boat had arrived on the other side, which could be regarded as the boundary of Shanzhou. After Xu Beiyou got off the boat, he took out a small bag of copper coins from his arms and threw it to the child, saying, "Old man, I know the rules. Can cross the river, this time you only crossed me as a guest, after all, I took advantage of it, this is the boat money for you."

The old man immediately said anxiously: "Young master, what are you talking about? The old man is also idle when he is idle. How can he ask for more money from the young master?"

While talking, the old man bent down to take the money bag from the child and return it to Xu Beiyou, but when he bent down, he turned around and found that the young master had disappeared.

While the old man was in a daze, the child snatched the money bag from the old man, opened it, surprised, took out a copper coin from it, and said joyfully, "Look, grandpa, it's a Taiping copper coin."

Copper coins can be divided into official casting and private casting. Usually, official casting copper coins can be worth several times as much as private casting copper coins. Among the official copper coins in Daqi, Huanglong copper coins are the most expensive. Eight copper coins and two lead coins can be exchanged for five hundred coins. One tael of silver, followed by Taiping copper coins, copper six lead four, seven hundred coins for one tael of silver, and Taiping copper coins, copper four lead six, one thousand coins for one tael of silver, as for those private castings of copper two lead eight Copper coins cost [-] Wen to exchange for one tael of silver.

This small bag of Taiping copper coins can be exchanged for almost two renminbi of silver.

The old man took the money bag from the child and saw that it was full of Taiping copper coins, and murmured: "This young man is a good man."

(End of this chapter)