Villager of Daming

Chapter 1266 Family Happy Cheap Salt

"They robbed our home and gathered all our relatives together, saying that if we dared to speak out, they would kill all our family members..."

The person who played the role of family member with Kodama, no, Qiqili, finally told Zhu Dan about his situation after Zhu Dan's constant assurances and persuasion.

They included old people, women, adult men, boys, girls, and even a breastfeeding baby.

They were captured in a small temporary herdsmen's settlement. They were not from the same family, so they did not look alike.

"Do you think my family is dead?" a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl asked Zhu Dan in tears.

"As long as Qiqili is alive, your family will not die. If he wins..."

Zhu Dan looked at the girl and shook his head. He felt that Qi Qili had really won and would harm the girl and kill all her family members.

Kill the men and the elderly, leaving the women and children behind, this will increase the population.

"We probably have eaten all our sheep and cattle. They don't care if we live or die. They say we didn't resist you, so we are the enemy. But what can we do to resist?"

There was a hint of vicissitudes in the other boy's eyes, perhaps helplessness and emptiness.

"Yes!" Zhu Dan sighed, "The people don't care who is the emperor. They just want to continue to live their lives. If they meet a good emperor who can reduce the land tax, it will be considered a prosperous era.

Don't worry, once we capture the Qiqili people, we will compensate you for your lost livestock and you can continue to live here.

I think you know which place is important here. If you tell us the location, our Majesty will send people to build a fort here.

In winter, when you don’t have time to move, or when there’s a sudden snowstorm and the temperature drops, you hide in the fort.”

"Is it like the Ming troops further north? Oh, is it the city built by our army? Some people from Nahachu have passed by and came back to talk about it when they passed by our place."

An old man in the team asked with hope in his eyes, and the people around him looked at Zhu Dan together.

Zhu Dan understood what to do and nodded immediately: "We have driven Bei Yuan away, and Nahachu is also one of ours. When the time comes, other people will come to this area.

Build cities, build many cities, until they reach a place farther than Horqin, and caravans will appear between the cities.

Bring what you need to the city and buy your things. There is also a people's pharmacy to treat people's illnesses and livestock.

By then, you won’t have to worry about losing all your property when you encounter a bad situation…”

He had a big... beautiful blueprint for this makeshift group of family members.

As expected, the family members showed longing looks, including the baby who had been sleeping soundly before. He woke up and looked around with his big round eyes.

Another old woman spoke up: "Can we afford the things? How much is salt? The salt we eat is expensive. Sometimes a sheep can only be exchanged for half a bag of salt."

"Yes, it's expensive!" Zhu Dan knew how much a bag of salt cost. The wine bag used to hold wine could usually hold five or six kilograms of wine.

One sheep could be exchanged for about three kilograms of salt. According to the current salt price in the Ming Dynasty, it was simply terrifying.

But the sheep on the grassland are not valuable, and their salt is not sea salt, but lake salt obtained from salt lakes elsewhere.

There were special teams that went there to collect salt and then sold it everywhere. When they had collected enough sheepskins and other skins, they took the furs to big cities to sell.

They don't go to ordinary county towns because they can't sell at a high price, there are few wealthy people, and the purchasing volume is far from enough.

They had to go to the provincial capital, or even the capital, once a year, carrying a lot of things, and they had to pay bribes and give benefits to small people.

If you want three pounds of salt for a sheep, it depends on whether the other party wants to eat the mutton. If they don’t want to eat it, you can only exchange it with the sheepskin.

"No more than five coins per pound at most. Sheep are just as cheap. You can only get about a hundred coins for a sheep. We need to transport them. Horses and cows are more expensive, but they can work."

Zhu Dan recalled the situation and estimated the price. He bought the sheep and had to drive them away, taking care of them along the way. The price would not be high if he only collected the sheepskin. Now many places in Daming allow people to raise rabbits, pigs, bamboo rats, and sheep.

Only large animals are valuable and are used for plowing, pulling carts, and carrying goods.

"Twenty kilograms of salt?" The boy stared with eyes wide open, just like the baby next to him.

He did not consider whether the price of the sheep was appropriate or not. He directly compared it with salt. In his opinion, exchanging one sheep for twenty kilograms of salt was a crazy profit.

The old man who spoke earlier showed a skeptical look: "Can you still make money with this exchange?"

"It's not an exchange. You sell something and then buy something. You don't exchange directly. There has to be money in between, using treasure notes.

It's not us who make money, it's the imperial court. In the past, some people in the Northern Yuan Dynasty accepted bribes or made things difficult for others, so they asked the people who collected things on the grassland to give out extra things.

We don’t have that in the Ming Dynasty. If anyone dares to take it, we will kill them. Don’t worry!

We have our own caravans and armed protection. Anyone who dares to rob the Ming Dynasty’s department store fleet will definitely be tired of living.

Others come here to exchange things for other things because they want to make a lot of money, several times the money.

There is a limit to the amount of money a department store can make. For the people of our Ming Dynasty, they cannot sell too expensively, nor charge too low a price.

To make people live better and have a better life. But overall, they make more money, and there are department stores everywhere in Ming Dynasty.

As long as the number of transactions is high, the money will be high..."

Zhu Dan patiently told his family that he was not in a hurry, as someone was sending a telegram to tell them that Qi Qili had been caught.

The family members felt relieved and smiled, and the baby giggled.

Turning around, Zhu Dan came to Qiqili and said, "Kodamu! Do you want to know how I guessed it?"

"Hmph!" Qi Qili turned his head away.

"If you don't want to listen, forget it. I won't ask you how you arranged it because I already know it.

The reason you joined forces with Nahachu is because you are afraid that we will run away, but in fact you want to get rid of us yourself.

Your people are taking Nahachu's people everywhere, compressing our space for movement, that is, the place where we can walk.

You come here in person to lead us to your other encirclement. It looks like they are almost there, so there is no need to rush. Let's wait for our people to come.

You don't know that Nahachu is already a member of the Ming Dynasty? There are some of our people in the team he sent out to round up with you."

Zhu Dan spoke slowly. He was not afraid that the villain would die because of talking too much, as he was not moving.

The current location is very good. The water is shallow. If you lie down in the water to avoid the bullets, you will drown. Horses will face resistance when wading and charging. There are pebbles, sand and silt in the river.

This place is very stable, with plenty of water. There is a small hill nearby, which is perfect for defense.

"Traitor, huh! Do you know how many people I have ambushed here?" Qiqili finally spoke.

"Count the people you have sent to various places. How many people do you think you can mobilize? Do you know what will happen to your people if they are caught? They will probably be led into an encirclement or drugged while they are eating."

Zhu Dan smiled and said to the other party that once the telegram was sent out, they would wait for orders from the prince.

Those troops will be surrounded and they won't even know that Nahachu has surrendered.

(End of this chapter)