Volume 1: Looking Northwest, Shooting the Sirius Chapter 52: Ming Hong
It took two days to leave the inn. As the postman said, there are very few inns in this northwest province.
"Woooooooo, I don't want to eat glutinous rice and pickles, I want to eat mutton, I want to eat green vegetables!"
I didn't encounter a single inn in two days, and there were no turnoffs on both sides of the road, let alone nearby villages and towns. I was just confused every day. Chai Man'er couldn't stand it anymore and started to act a little bit.
The two of them have lived a really good life for the past six months. As the saying goes, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. She has long forgotten about eating food.
"Keep on holding on. According to my judgment, in a day or two, there should be, maybe, roughly, a post station will appear."
Thanks to his good teeth, Chaitino gnawed the flatbread vigorously and still managed to eat it vigorously. One or two meals of it would be okay if it was reduced to a paste, but more would make him sick.
"What you said is totally wrong!"
The little girl looked at the batter in the pot and felt sick in her stomach. She also followed Chaitino's example and picked up the pie and took a bite!
"...Uuuuuuuuah, I can't chew it anymore!"
Chai Man'er covered her cheeks and cried. Chai Tiannuo opened her mouth and took a look. It turned out that one of her front teeth was missing.
For four days, there was nothing but loess everywhere. Chai Tiannuo couldn't help but sigh. If it weren't for the Huanglong River flowing through it, this northwest would definitely be a dead end!
"Man'er, there's a post station ahead!"
Under the sun, a black shadow appeared at the end of his sight. Chaitino immediately became energetic. The originally sluggish little girl also straightened up her body and shouted excitedly:
"I want to eat meat and vegetables!"
"Rabbit, run!"
"咴咴~"
These days, some wilted rouge rabbits neighed loudly and jumped out.
The shadow of the inn became clearer and clearer, and further away, there seemed to be a market.
When there were still four or five miles away from the inn, Chai Tiannuo frowned. There were many people gathered in front of him. It seemed that there was a dispute, and fierce shouts came and went.
When the horseman came closer, he saw that there were seven or eight Tatars on horseback, waving scimitars and circling a caravan. The caravan members also faced them with swords and guns.
Both sides seemed a little excited, but they were relatively restrained and did not really fight.
"Put this guy away. If you dare to make wild gestures again, I will kill you!"
Chaitino rode his horse and rushed directly to the side of the caravan. His angry voice made the Tatars suddenly stiffen, while the people in the caravan breathed a sigh of relief.
It can be seen from Chaitino's clothes and weapons that he is a Chinese soldier.
The slightly broken thin armor stained with dried blood, the staggered scars on the face, and the unusual mount of the divine horse all prove that this is an elite veteran who has been on the battlefield for many years!
The grassland Tatars who have been dealing with the Dahua frontier army all year round can see it clearly. The length of the large horizontal knife is far longer than that of an ordinary horizontal knife. The color of the rope around the handle is mixed, and it looks like it is soaked with old blood.
The machete put away the spear and stood up. Chai Tiannuo nodded with satisfaction. He liked to listen to advice the most.
"I don't think you look like that arrogant person, why are you making such a fuss?"
Chai Tiannuo asked doubtfully, not to mention the caravan flying the Dahua flag, those Tatars could control not to cut off the scimitars, which shows that they also have some rules in their hearts.
"Sir, we are really unjust when we talk about this!"
The middle-aged man who should be the shopkeeper handed over to Chai Tiannuo and said with a wry smile:
"We finished unloading the goods at the exchange market, and not long after we left, these Tatars from the grasslands outside the customs chased us and insisted on letting us accompany them with their iron pots. However, we are not the ones selling the iron pots, so why are they looking for us!"
Tatars on the grasslands outside the customs?
Chai Tiannuo took a closer look and saw that indeed, the leather jackets on the left and right were both from the left.
"Tell me your reasons. Dahua is not a royal court on the grassland. Laws and regulations are greater than heaven. How can you be allowed to do whatever you want!"
Chaitino's tone became colder and colder as he spoke, and the expressions of the grassland Tatars changed again and again. The murderous aura made their hearts tremble.
"Sir, look."
A Tatar who was about fifty years old, definitely considered an elder among the prairie people, dismounted, took out the iron pot from the wooden box behind the saddle and handed it over.
Chaitino felt light and airy in my hand, and the condition looked quite new.
“Isn’t this pot a bit heavy?”
"It's stuck~"
Just by tapping twice with my fingers casually, a hole was poked in the bottom of the pot!
"...I really didn't put in much effort!"
Chaitino said awkwardly, is this a pot? It’s almost like paper!
"I know, I can't blame you, sir."
The old Tatar smiled bitterly and shook his head:
"We drove a group of sheep all the way here, fifty in total, and replaced them with ten iron pots, six of which looked like this!"
"By the time we found out the problem and went back to the market, the merchant would have disappeared."
"I heard they said that the pot seller had just left not long ago, so we chased after him."
"As for whether they are a group, how can we tell?"
At this point, the old Tatar's eyes turned red:
"Years ago, there was a white disaster on the grassland. There were not many sheep that survived. Nearly half of them were lost along the way, but in the end we got this kind of stuff!"
"Sir, those of us at the bottom are not as good as the adults in Wang Ting, but we are still human beings, and life is not easy!"
The words were so sincere that several grassland Tatars' eyes turned red at the same time. Chai Tiannuo couldn't help scratching his head. He had heard of this even in the capital.
Many merchants were trying to pass off inferior products and make a lot of money from the steppe Tatars by taking advantage of the mutual trade. The imperial court also knew about this, but unless the matter got serious, it would never take care of it.
After all, the mutual market is sought by the grassland. If you don’t make money, who will make it?
If you are not satisfied, you don’t have to come!
When he first heard about this, Chaitino was also happy for a long time, but when he really encountered this, he found that he really couldn't be happy.
Putting aside the fact that we should be upright and honest by nature, we should not be so deceitful just because we are human beings.
Those who can trade with each other are tribes that have good relations with Dahua, which is quite different from the grassland royal court who have a hostile relationship.
Relying on trust and substituting good products, what you get by cheating is money, but what you lose is your own conscience and humanity!
It's hard to have both ways. The only solution for now is to ruin your own fortune.
Chaitino shook his head and said to the caravan manager:
"Shopkeeper, does your caravan have its own iron pot?"
Caravans are usually equipped with iron pots, and the cost of staying in inns is high. Unless they have no choice, they camp out and start their own camps.
"Well, sir, I won't lie to you. The convoy actually brought ten fine forged iron pots, but they were sent to the county town."
"The wealthy businessmen in the county paid a high price, four taels of silver a mouthful."
"As for our two iron pots, they are really too worn out and we can't get rid of them."
The shopkeeper smiled bitterly and said that Chai Tiannuo also understood that he did not want to bleed. He would not want the goods he had brought so hard along the way to be taken away in vain.
"For five taels of silver apiece, come and bring me six forged iron pots. Don't make any more excuses. I don't have time to argue with you!"