Chapter 1224： friend or foe (3)

   This should be a stall belonging to a tribe or caravan. Xiaobao judged from their personnel and the goods on the stall that they belonged to the largest stall in this area.

The two ran to their booth with the mentality of giving it a try, pulled up a piece of fox fur and asked the price in gold.

The stall owner just glanced at them and quoted a price in golden language.

Little Treasure and Little Bear raised their eyebrows slightly. It was really feasible. They looked at each other and began to pick up things seriously. They had to pick up the fur and medicinal materials they liked and ask for the price.

The stall owner just let them choose, and had to deal with other guests. Seeing that they asked more and more, and seeing that they had so many guards behind them, he turned his attention to them, beckoned to call the two of them, and let them Responsible for other guests.

Xiaobao and Xiaoxiong were satisfied when they saw it, and chose them more carefully. With three points of regret on their faces, they said in golden language, "Unfortunately, there are still too few medicinal materials here. Although the fur is good, the amount is also small."

The stall owner glanced at the guards behind them and the clothes on the two of them, and said after a while: "If the two of you want to grow bigger, we still have some goods in hand."

"Oh?" Little Treasure asked enthusiastically, "I wonder if we can have a look?"

The stall owner got up, pointed to the things that Xiaobao and Xiaoxiong had asked for the price, and said to the opponent: "Leave these," and then turned around and said to the two of them: "Please come with me."

The stall owner took them to the curtain at the back. Behind each large stall, there was a place surrounded by the curtain on three sides. There was also a curtain hanging over the opening. closed space.

The two thought it was for their rest at first, but now it seems that it is a place to talk business.

Little Bear asked curiously, "Why don't you just make a felt bag?"

The people on the grassland carry the felt bag with you. Wouldn’t it be better to do that?

"It didn't rain today," explained the stall owner, "our lamp oil is precious!"

This thing with four curtains has an empty head, and it is bright when sitting inside, but if the inside of the felt bag must be dark, and when the time comes, you will have to light an oil lamp to see the goods. I don’t know if this business will be successful or not. They don’t need to spend such a big cost. .

Little Treasure and Little Bear did not expect that they would save even this, and they were both funny and sad for a while.

There were five or six large parcels piled up inside. The stall owner didn't even ask them to sit down. He just pulled the parcels over and opened them. Four of the parcels were full of furs, and two were medicinal herbs.

The stall owner said: "These things are very valuable. When you take them out, many people see them, but few people buy them. But I think you have this ability. How about it? Do you want it?"

Only two guards followed Xiaobao and Xiaoxiong in. The others were guarding outside. The stall owner didn't look at them, but directly looked at Xiaobao and Xiaoxiong.

The two teenagers squatted down to look at the goods, and said, "These furs are really good, we have seen many stalls before, and there are very few such goods. If I asked the price early and bought it, you should not hide it. Get up and put it out to know if anyone buys it."

The stall owner snorted: "These are too expensive. Most of the Han people touch it, ask the price, and then leave. I find it annoying."

Xiaobao smiled and said, "When it comes to business, if the price is not suitable, you will naturally give up. How much are you asking for?"

The stall owners quote one by one.

Xiaobao said with a bitter face: "It's really too expensive."

Xiaoxiong also interjected, "This is different from the price my uncle reported."

"When did your uncle do this business?"

Xiao Xiong lied confidently, "The first two years!"

"That's it, now the price has gone up!"

"Then it can't have risen by nearly 30% all of a sudden. It wasn't that expensive even in the first two years of war. Now that it's settled down, why is it more and more expensive?" Both Xiaobao and Xiaoxiong showed dissatisfaction on their faces.

The stall owner's face was not good-looking, and he hummed: "Do you think we are willing? Although there were wars in the past two years, there are still caravans from Daqi that can enter the grasslands, tea and silk can be bought, and Jinting still has a lot of salt. Mines, so salt is not difficult to buy, but now that the war is over, the big gold is gone, but the caravans of Daqi no longer enter the grasslands, we can only buy tea and satin from the farm, and salt can only be Going into the town to buy, each person is not allowed to buy more than two kilograms of salt per day... The things you have in Daqi are too expensive, we have to raise the price. "

The stall owner saw that the two teenagers opened their mouths, their mood was slightly better, and their expressions softened slightly, and then said: "And our life on the grassland is not easy. The weather has changed rapidly in the past two years. Last winter, it snowed heavily, and we beat less fur. There are a lot of them, not to mention the medicinal materials, the ones you see now are the good ones that our tribe has saved up to now, if you want more, I will give you a cheaper price.”

The stall owner lowered his voice again and said, "But if you have tea, satin or salt, we can also barter directly, and it will be cheaper at that time."

Xiaobao asked innocently, "Isn't it true that only the imperial court can sell salt?"

The stall owner whispered: "The imperial court will not care about the amount of one or two catties."

The bear was full of regret, "Salt needs salt, so we didn't bring it, but there are some tea leaves and satin."

The stall owner immediately became happy. Although there was no salt, tea and silk and satin were also good, so as not to take the money to buy it in the stalls or shops of the Han people. Those people's things are very expensive.

Xiaobao immediately asked the guards to go back and fetch all the tea and satin that had not yet been released. They continued to pick the goods, asking for the price while quietly inquiring about the news on the grassland.

The various tribes on the grassland did not have much better life because Dayuan replaced Dajin. At the beginning, Wo Kuo cancelled a lot of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, but they began to collect them again after a few months.

In the end, we still have to blame Qi Xiuyuan and the others. They captured Daejin's capital ahead of time and directly took Daejin's treasury.

There is no money to reward the heroes, no money to appease the army, and no money to help the victims. Wo Kuo does not have a brother who can earn money and wholeheartedly help him, so he can only increase his taxes. In addition, he also sent troops to attack Xixia, let him It's better for them to go to the battlefield than to leave them there and force themselves to reward them, right?

Therefore, the people on the grasslands do not have much sense of belonging to Dayuan now. Life is miserable, and they are rushing to make a living every day. Even so, God does not appreciate the face. From time to time, the grasslands suffer from severe droughts and heavy snows, although they are only localized. , but the impact is also significant.

If there is a natural disaster in Daqi, the court will provide relief and tax reduction and exemption, but this is impossible in Dayuan, so everyone can only try to get closer to Daqi, so the border area is like this.

Although Daqi's army is strong and strong, there is no need to fight with these people on the grassland every day, and directly set up a farm for private transactions, so as to prevent them from teaming up to fight grass and valley when they have no tea, grain or salt.