The bad emperor of Tang Dynasty

After spending the night at the Orion's house, Guo Nuan and his party thanked the host's family for their warm hospitality, and then they continued to set off in the car.

It is said that at sunset, Guo Nuan and the others had already arrived in Gaozhou. I heard that there was a heroine in the history of this county——Xian Ying. 200 years ago, it was the end of the Liang Dynasty. The tribe quelled the civil strife in Lingnan, and the people in several counties in Lingnan finally elected her as the "Holy Mother". After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Xian Ying was named "Mrs. Guoguo", and the local people honored her as Mrs. Xian Tai.

At this time, the area where the four of them were located was very close to the Leizhou Peninsula, only about 120 miles away.After another day of rough mountain road bumps, the three people in the carriage were all shaken, staring at each other.

After Guo Nuan entered the Lingnan Mountains, he heard about Madam Xian's fame from the Orion farmers, so he went to Gaozhou to visit Madam Xian's Ancestral Temple, where he burned incense and kowtowed. Loves money, Guo Nuan spends a lot of money, and the old man is in a happy mood. He can't talk for a while, and he even explained the signature for an hour.However, Guo Nuan doesn't think that his official luck is good, and now he is on the way to be demoted.

The four of them stayed in the Taimiao for a long time, and when they walked out of the threshold, the afterglow of the setting sun on the west side of the forest ridge had already tilted.Hearing from the old Taoist that there is a large Liaoshi trade stall and a clean inn by the side of the road more than ten miles away, everyone simply rode their horses and planned to stay in that inn.

I wanted to go to the Liao market before sunset, but unexpectedly, due to the rain just the day before yesterday, the wheels of the carriage were sunk in the mud puddle on the way. After the four of them managed to pull the wheels out of the mud puddle, it was already late at night. Everyone was forced to camp in the wild.

A felt tent was set up on the grass beside the road, and the four of them got into it and fell into a drowsy sleep. Ah Fu, who was sleeping on the outside, suddenly felt something hard against his arm. Dare to move around, quietly opened his eyelids and narrowed his eyes to take a look.

The east is gradually brightening, revealing fish-belly. The curtain at the entrance of the tent has been half-opened quietly. There is a pig-like animal with rough skin and thick flesh. It is a little guy with a single horn on his forehead and weighs about seventy or eighty Jin, is arching Ah Fu's arm, humming and chirping from time to time, there are a lot of wild rhinos in the south of the Lingnan area in ancient times, it is estimated that this little wild animal came to the tent to find food, and broke into the tent of the four of them by mistake .

Little Guxi put its head like a pig's face close to Ah Fu who was dozing on the mat, the breath from his nostrils brushed Ah Fu's face itchy, and there was a line of saliva dripping from his mouth on his face, Ah Fu thought that as long as he If I don't startle and offend the little rhino, it will go away quietly. Unexpectedly, the rhino is still very curious, and arches the body of Ah Fu who is pretending to be dead.

"Ah—rhinoceros!" Ah Fu couldn't hold it anymore after being tossed, and then yelled, and suddenly woke up Guo Nuan, Yan Zhuang, and Fatty who were sleeping on their sides in the tent.

However, Ah Fu's screams also frightened the little rhinoceros. Frightened, it was frightened by Ah Fu's high-decibel cry and turned around and ran into the bushes.

Fortunately, there were no large rhinos, bobcats, cheetahs and other dangerous animals. After being awakened by Ah Fu's screams, it was just dawn, so the four of them packed up and set off early.

Passing by what the old Taoist called Liaoshi, that is, the market where ethnic minorities in the south do business.Laoshi is set up in the wild road stalls, mainly gathered at the edge of nearby towns and jungles. Residents of coastal towns and Liao people living in the southwest rainforest often exchange goods and do business in Laoshi.

For Guo Nuan and his group living in the Central Plains, it is very novel for Liaoshi to be a place of business and trade.The market is very simple, it is only set in the wild, surrounded by a few tile-shed huts and family huts, this is an inn that can barely be regarded as an inn, and the goods are placed on the grass next to it, and the business can be started , there are no market pavilions or stalls here in Liaoshi.

Guo Nuan and the others were lucky. They happened to be going to the market early in the morning. Although the sky was just getting brighter, the Liao market on the roadside grass was very lively. There were more than 100 Liao people, Han people, Miao people, and Li people. Waiting for the ethnic groups to set up street stalls.

Liaoshi does not use coins for business, because the aborigines who live in remote mountains rarely have access to money, and rarely go to towns, so Liaoshi only conducts barter transactions.

On the day of the market, customers came from the road and the jungle one after another.There are no mules and horses in the Lingnan area, but the local people use water buffaloes and yellow cattle to carry goods, and people install cushions similar to saddles on the backs of the cattle.

Although buffaloes are not as fast and light as horses, they are hard-working, docile and strong. A person riding high on a cow looks more powerful than a horse, at least Ah Fu thinks so.

The stalls in the market were full of dazzling items, and Guo Nuan was dazzled. As a hunter with a lot of experience in the deep mountains, Fatty was also amazed at the prey he got from the stall, many of which he did not know.

Yan Zhuang, who is knowledgeable, has a lot of research on human geography. He said that the salt here in Liaoshi is a sought-after commodity. The ethnic minorities live in the mountains, which are far away from the sea, so there are no salt fields to produce salt, and the deep mountains in the southwest of Lingnan are useless to mine brine. Salt wells are used to make salt, so salt is very precious to the indigenous people in the remote mountains.

Sure enough, on a stall set up by a Han citizen, there were several piles of round cakes and salt just piled up, but they were sold out by the natives who went to the market after a while. After the scalper cart, he left happily.

There are many items that can be exchanged in Liao City, and Guo Nuan's heart is itching to see that the items that the Liao people fiddled with in the mountains are extremely rich.Lots of odd shapes.

Like those placed on the ground stalls, there are animals growing on them, such as ivory, deerskin, and rhino horns. In addition to those in the deep mountains, there are also pearls from the seashore, sea turtles, dried sea snakes, seahorses, dried mussels, and squid.

Deer hair, mountain mouse beard and beard are also sold by Liao people, which are purchased by the Han people in the south to make brushes.In addition to these, there are also dried bacon, such as cured ham, salted eggs, and dried pickles.

The medicinal materials picked by the Liao people in the mountains are of good quality, and pharmacists often come to the market to purchase.The leaders of the deep mountain tribes in Lingnan often took their tribesmen to Liaoshi to do big business with the Han people, such as bronze wares, iron wares, and labor tools for farming.

In Liao City, a wild boar of about [-] catties can be exchanged for three bolts of cloth. If the wild boar is sold to towns and converted into taels of silver, at least seven bolts of cloth can be obtained. Silk made from silk has always been very popular among the Han people. Indigenous welcome.

Since the government strictly controlled the sale of armaments and weapons, such as military bows and arrows, swords were strictly circulated among the people, and occasionally Liao chiefs would communicate with some Han arms dealers who smuggled weapons in private. Liaoshi was undoubtedly the best place for trading.

Although the Liao people have a strong demand for the salt, cloth, and iron products of the Han people, the Han people also like the treasures of the Liao people.For example, Ganoderma lucidum and matsutake excavated in the deep mountains, tree roots sawed in the forest, sandalwood, huanghuali wood, jadeite, agate, turquoise and other raw ores picked up in the mountain stream.

There are a large number of jade carving, wood carving, and wooden furniture handicraft workshops gathered along the coast of Guangdong. The raw materials of these workshops must be mined by ethnic minorities in the virgin forest to be transported out of the mountains.