Late Tang

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Shopkeeper Cui wrapped his hands in his long sleeves, walked through more than a dozen tents, and slowed down in front of a white cowhide tent.

"Shopkeeper Li, I'm Lao Cui, can I come in?"

"Please come in!" Shopkeeper Li's voice was respectful.

Shopkeeper Cui opened the curtain to enter the account, but immediately bowed to the young shopkeeper Li.

Shopkeeper Li was gently wiping a horizontal knife, and there were more than ten people sitting under him, but they were all the leaders of the guards.He gently waved his hand at Shopkeeper Cui, "It's agreed, I'm Shopkeeper Li outside the Great Wall."

"Yes, yes!" Shopkeeper Cui quickly responded in a low voice.Although this is the case on the surface, the mouth is still respectful.The person in front of him is not Shopkeeper Li, the natal nephew of the third wife of the Patriarch of the Cui family, but an officer arranged by Marshal Li in his caravan.Although he didn't know the true identity of the shopkeeper Li, he knew that this person was a general trusted by Marshal Li.

The caravan this time was actually organized by Dashuai Li. Although he and the dozens of caravan leaders who often travel outside the Great Wall are old acquaintances, this trip was actually requested by Dashuai Li. here.All the goods and guards are from the [***] town, and only a dozen or so of them are real merchants.

He didn't know what Marshal Li was going to do, but he dispatched 3000 people at a time and mobilized so many merchants into the plug, it was impossible to just come to do business with the Khitan people.However, he also knew that he should not ask what should not be asked, and what should not be said should not be said. The head of the Cui family also warned him to obey the orders of the shopkeeper Li before he set off.

When he was in Dengzhou, he keenly saw that the town [***] was mobilizing for war, and the scale of the mobilization was definitely preparing for a big battle.The Patriarch also hinted that this time he was going to send troops to Liaodong.The Goguryeo people in the middle of the Liao Dynasty cannot protect themselves now, and they don’t need to dispatch too many troops to deal with them. Therefore, shopkeeper Cui faintly guessed that this time, the drunkard’s intention was not to drink, and on the surface he wanted to deal with the Goguryeo people. It should still be aimed at the Khitans, with the goal of regaining the territory of the Anton Metropolitan Protectorate.

He speculated along the way that maybe this 'caravan' came this time to spy on information, or to assassinate the Khitan leader.Although the future is dangerous, there is nothing he can do about it.

Shopkeeper Li put the knife into its sheath, poured a cup of hot tea for Shopkeeper Cui, handed it over, and said with a gentle smile, "How about it, the Khitan leaders are done arguing?"

Shopkeeper Cui smiled and nodded. The goods brought by the caravan this time were indeed in high demand. It was the first time he saw these Khitan nobles scrambling for food so recklessly, just like a pack of wolves fighting for meat.

"After arguing for a long time, it was finally distributed. The wine was divided into four parts. Bala Khan and Yelu Rude Weng's son-in-law shared half equally, and the other half shared equally among the other [-] departments. In addition, silk and silk, porcelain , glass ornaments, etc. have also been allocated."

This time the caravan has a lot of goods, but almost all of them are luxury goods and consumables.None of the most important ironware, swords and armor in previous transactions.This disappointed the Khitan people very much. The Khitan had just begun to settle down and farm, and the population was expanding rapidly.The Khitan wars continued, and there was a huge demand for weapons and armor, but the Khitan people were not good at smelting. Every year, they bought a large amount of iron from the Central Plains, Bohai Sea, Silla, and even the Western Regions.

In the past, the Khitan people mainly bought ironware from Duli Town and other places. Shopkeeper Cui entered the fortress every year. The biggest commodity sold was ironware, followed by tea, silk, porcelain and other items.

Shopkeeper Li just smiled after hearing this.

"I explained to them that there were wars in several places this year, and the weapons and armor were checked on the road, so I didn't bring them with me. Bala Khan and others also discussed with me, saying that I have the opportunity to get another batch before the year. Said It doesn’t matter how much, they are willing to buy at a high price. They also want to buy binoculars, magic fire and so on.”

"Hahaha!" Shopkeeper Li burst out laughing.

These Khitan people really have a good idea, but this caravan is in the town of [***], how could it be possible to sell their weapons and armor.Selling tea, wine, perfume, glass, porcelain, silk, etc., in exchange for cattle and horses, and selling ironware, only fools will sell them.

"Since the Khitan people have allocated the purchase share of the goods, has the transaction price been negotiated? What will the Khitan people trade with?" Li asked the treasurer.

The caravans that come to Khitan to trade will not accept money, they basically barter.All kinds of goods are transported from the Central Plains, and after being sold, they are exchanged for various cow and horse skins, and then transported back to the Central Plains.Shipping money back, this is the most stupid transaction, and the Khitan people don't have so much money to trade.

"According to your instructions, we require the Khitan people to trade mainly with war horses for this transaction. If war horses are not enough, they will use cattle, then leather goods, then draft horses, various ores, and gold and silver. This time all our goods The total value is 200 guan. In the end, it was traded with the Khitan people. It was agreed that a war horse would have [-] guan, a farm ox would have [-] guan, and a calf would have [-] guan. Wen, cowhide, horns, tendon, etc. have also agreed on the price."

Shopkeeper Li nodded in satisfaction after hearing this. Shopkeeper Cui is indeed an old shopkeeper, and the price is very good.A war horse is now at least [-] calibers in the Central Plains, and the best [-] calibers are even more expensive in the south of the Yangtze River.Even if Dengzhou is closer to Liaodong, a good horse will have to hit ten times.Although it is much cheaper to go directly to Khitan to buy horses.But now it's half cheaper, and shopkeeper Cui has a lot of credit for it.

"I will remember the credit for Shopkeeper Cui, and I will repay the credit to the commander when I go back."

"Actually, it is also because there are too few caravans entering the Central Plains this year, so the price is much cheaper than in previous years. Moreover, the Khitan ministries also hope that we can make more trips, so the price is so favorable this year."

After finishing talking, shopkeeper Cui took out a list, on which was the harvest of this trip, a total of 20 horses, [-] cows, another [-] horses, and a lot of leather goods.There is also the return gift from Bala Khan to the commander-in-chief, [-] horses and oxen each, and [-] sheep.

With such an addition, there are 11 war horses, 20 ordinary draft horses, [-] cattle, [-] sheep, and various leather goods.

"I'm afraid it's more than 200 million guan?"

"It's a bit more, but many of them are gifts from the leaders of the [-] Departments to the Marshal." Shopkeeper Cui said with a smile.

When shopkeeper Li heard this, he understood a little bit. Li Jing is so powerful and rich. The gift he gave Bala Khan was envied by everyone. Now they are vying to give Li Jing a gift, and of course they also want a gift in return. up.

Looking at this list, shopkeeper Li couldn't help but be moved. Ten thousand war horses are precious strategic materials. Even if there is no shortage of horses in the town [***], these horses will allow cavalry to have better choices of war horses. At the same time, the mobility of some infantry can also be greatly improved.The early infantry in the town [***] were all mounted infantry, but now the continuous expansion has led to a significant drop in the infantry's horse distribution rate.If there is a large amount of horse equipment, the infantry can be equipped with horses again, greatly improving mobility.

And 11 draft horses and [-] cattle are equally exciting.Not only can it be used by the military, but it can also be distributed to various military settlements below. With so many cattle, the land cultivated this year will definitely increase greatly.

Even these 20 sheep can be slaughtered directly in Khitan, made into cans and transported back to the mountain city on the front line in southern Liaoning, which is an excellent war preparation material.

"The Khitan people's demand for transactions has exceeded our expectations." Shopkeeper Li sighed.

"No, shopkeeper Li didn't know that Nabala Khan bought a lot of leather goods this year and also mined a lot of ore. Now, this batch of goods is divided into [-] parts, and he only bought a small part. His There are warehouses full of things.”

"We have to find a way to change it." Shopkeeper Li said heartily.

"This is not a big problem. I will talk to Bala Khan tomorrow. As long as we sign a contract with him and give him a little bit of profit. I think he will agree that we will buy his goods and ship them away. Then ship the goods to him next time." When it comes to doing business, shopkeeper Cui immediately becomes shrewd.

Shopkeeper Li nodded, and finally discussed with Shopkeeper Cui for a while, and decided to hire a group of people from Khitan to build a wooden barrel factory here, cut wood to make large wooden barrels, and then hire a group of herdsmen to kill sheep. Canned here to take home.

For this reason, shopkeeper Li sent people back to Liaonan to report to Li Jing, asking Liaonan to send another batch of goods, and sent people to receive horses and cattle.On the one hand, Cui shopkeeper was asked to continue to buy those old and weak cattle and sheep to be slaughtered from various Khitan tribes.

Shopkeeper Cui asked the tribes to talk about it, and the response was very enthusiastic.They were very happy that shopkeeper Cui was willing to exchange all kinds of spices, perfumes, tea and wine for those old cattle and sheep that could not be cultivated.Anyway, in the past, when winter came, the Khitan people also had to slaughter a large number of livestock.Now that these animals are sold to shopkeeper Cui, they can be exchanged for a lot of short-selling goods, how can they not be unwilling.

They also immediately agreed to recruit herdsmen to directly slaughter cattle and sheep and help transport the goods back to southern Liaoning. The delivery price given by the shopkeeper Cui is very high, and it is difficult not to be tempted.

They also vaguely knew about Cui's canned food production, but the people on the grassland had a lot of cattle and sheep, and they could kill them if they wanted to, so it would be so troublesome.From their point of view, canned food is just cured meat, and no one cares.

Shopkeeper Cui has been negotiating business with people from various tribes day and night, and has bought a lot of supplies, many old horses, old cattle, old sheep, various leather goods, and various minerals.Anyway, even if it is something that is ordinary and inconspicuous in the eyes of the herdsmen, the generous and forthright shopkeeper Cui is willing to buy it.

Fine wine, perfume, tea, spices, salt, glass, porcelain, silk, cloth, rock sugar, poetry books, Buddhist scriptures, Buddha statues, gold and silver jewelry, etc., there is a long list of goods on the shopkeeper Cui's inventory, let these Khitan nobles see very happy.

But as soon as they mentioned medicine, food, ironware, weapons, armor, etc., shopkeeper Cui showed a embarrassed expression.Although several transactions were reached in the end, almost all of them were the most gorgeous and precious armor and precious weapons sold.Each piece is extremely precious, thousands of gold armor, unicorn armor, fish scale armor, mountain armor, horse spears, iron spears, treasured swords, etc., which are also as high as thousands of guns, these things are considered to be the Yili of various tribes. They can only buy a few sets of a few sets.

For shopkeeper Li, buying a hundred sets of such weapons and armor is nothing to worry about.This kind of equipment can only be worn by these leaders. For war, the Khitan people spent tens of thousands of sets of iron armor, and finally bought only a hundred sets of sophisticated equipment, which were scattered among the leaders. ***] is almost non-existent.

Shopkeeper Cui was busy discussing business all day long, but shopkeeper Li managed to get on fire with a group of Khitan nobles who were waiting for the Chai Chu Ceremony in the Khan Court these days.

In particular, Yelupu Guzhi of the Diela Department of the Khitan has become very good friends with shopkeeper Li, and he is about to marry Jinlan.

On the prairie, they rode their horses together for half a day, and both shopkeeper Li and Yelupu Guzhi had a great harvest, and they were immediately covered with many foxes they had hunted.Such a season is the best for hunting foxes, which are cunning and only the best hunters can catch them.And the fur of the fox is extremely valuable.

At the beginning, it was Shopkeeper Li's excellent arrow skills that attracted Pu Guzhi's surprise, but now, the relationship between the two has become very close.

When they reached the river bank, the two dismounted to drink water and feed the horses.

Shopkeeper Li handed his wine pouch to Pu Guzhi, who took a sip and breathed a sigh of relief, "I can never tire of drinking this wine, but unfortunately it's too expensive." His family also bought it last time There is a lot of white wine, but there are so many warriors in the tribe, everyone wants to buy some spirits that only warriors can drink, but after dividing it, he doesn't get much. He can only drink a little each time. How can he be like shopkeeper Li? , take it with you, drink as you want.

"Yelu Hande is about to hold a firewood book ceremony, so they will be fine after being stabbed by your clan brother Yelu Hande?" Shopkeeper Li asked casually.

Upon hearing the name of Yelu Runde, Yelupu Guzhi's expression turned ugly.

He took a big gulp of wine, exhaled for a long time, but didn't speak.

Shopkeeper Li pretended to be surprised and asked: "Could it be that after he became Yi Li Jin, he still refused to let them go? If that's the case, Pu Guzhi and your family will be in danger."

"My father's ninth minister, Yi Li Jin, Yelu Runde dared not touch us."

"Maybe not now, but since he dared to kill your uncle Yeluyun Deshi and threatened to kill all the men of Yeluyun Deshi's family, I am afraid that this person cannot be judged by common sense. He was just Bala Khan before. Your son-in-law dared to assassinate your uncle, and he refused to let go of your clan brothers. If he really becomes Yi Li Jin, the next one may be to deal with your family. After all, your father is the ninth Die Labu Yi Li Jin, he is also worried about being re-elected in three years."

Pu Guzhi said angrily, "He dares!"

"Why is he afraid? Your uncle has already been assassinated, so what else is he afraid of? I think this man is very domineering. When he distributed the goods last time, he didn't even give Bala Khan any face. Ah." Shopkeeper Li continued.

Seeing Pu Guzhi's face getting more and more gloomy, shopkeeper Li said while the iron was hot: "Actually, in my opinion, this matter is easy to solve."

"Brother Li teach me!" Pu Guzhi suddenly turned his head and looked over when he heard the words, and said eagerly.

"There is a saying in the Central Plains, that is, repay the other with the way of the other!" Shopkeeper Li said with a smile! (To be continued.)