Three days later, Zhao Yuan had arrived in Jiepai County.
Zhao Yuan once stayed in Wanjiadongyuan and was very familiar with the lives of people at the bottom of society. When he arrived in Jiepai County, he followed a group of businessmen along Jiepai Xiongguan, crossed the Tianzun Grand Canyon, and arrived at the desert area along the coast.
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As soon as you leave the Tianzun Grand Canyon, you enter the vast desert and Gobi, which can be regarded as the territory of the nomadic Or Empire.
Unlike the multi-ethnic Great Qin Empire, the race in the Or Empire is extremely homogenous, with only one ethnic group, called the Or ethnic group.
The territory of the Or tribe is not inferior to that of the Great Qin Empire. However, compared with the wealth of the Great Qin Empire, the vast land of the Or Empire is extremely desolate.
Then there are some steep and barren mountains, where the temperature difference between day and night is huge, making life very difficult.
However, the Russian Empire also had a unique natural condition.
The Er Empire has a long coastline and extremely rich fishery resources. Sixty percent of the Qin Empire’s dried fish products come from the Er Empire.
The commercial exchanges between the Qin Empire and the Er Empire were extremely prosperous.
Because the Er Empire basically has no industrial foundation, some products from the Great Qin Empire are very popular in the Er Empire. In addition to some ordinary daily necessities, Da Qin's metal armor, grains and fabrics are also in high demand in the Er Empire.
The business model of the Great Qin Empire is very simple. Most of them bring some high value-added cloth, handicrafts and some daily necessities to the Er Empire. When they come back, they will bring seafood, salt, or other products from the Er Empire.
horses.
It is worth mentioning that unlike Cinu, although the Er Empire produced good horses, because the Er Empire did not have as vast grasslands as Cinu, the number of horses was not large. Therefore, the Er Empire was
It is strictly forbidden to buy and sell horses. Of course, this will not trouble the merchants of the Qin Empire. They will always find various ways to bring the horses back.
In fact, in order to weaken the combat effectiveness of the Er Empire, the Qin Empire encouraged merchants to smuggle horses. Among the various taxes, horses were the only commodity that was released tax-free.
Zhao Yuan's current identity is that of a temporary porter.
The so-called temporary porters are called to work at short notice. After a business trip is over, a group of porters get their salary and then disperse.
When I was in Wanjia East Hospital, because Wanjia's business was very stable, Wanjia's porters were all long-term, and they were paid even when they were idle.
Zhao Yuan's boss is a small business owner with a small capital. He mainly deals in low-value-added products, including some iron farm tools and rough-crafted porcelain. These are bulky products that require a lot of labor.
After Zhao Yuan's horse team crossed the Tianzun Grand Canyon, they stayed at the mouth of the canyon for a day and gathered more than a dozen horse teams to form a huge caravan, with a total number of more than 200 people and over a thousand horses.
The caravan is not a gang organization, but a small temporary group formed spontaneously by some businessmen to help and support each other for their own safety.
The journey from Tianzun Grand Canyon to the nearest market in the Er Empire is more than two thousand miles. Along this long route, horse and bandit activities are extremely frequent, and there are many murders and swindling.
Of course, it is not easy for Yi Jian to rob a caravan. Those horse thieves usually only rob lone businessmen. At most, they can only look at such a caravan with a number of 200 from afar.
The geographical environment of the Er Empire is harsh, and the people have developed a tough and cruel custom. They will draw swords on trivial matters. Some bandits and horse thieves are also extremely vicious. They not only rob goods, but also kill people and silence them.
Because of this, merchants from the Great Qin Empire who suffered losses would usually fight to the death and never give in.
Generally, merchants from the Great Qin Empire would carry some sophisticated weapons, such as sharp scimitars, small shields, and surprisingly powerful crossbows.
The productivity of the Er Empire is extremely backward, and the weapons and equipment of the horse thieves are also very poor. Although they are not afraid of death, they are often at a disadvantage when facing the merchants of the Qin Dynasty who are fighting against the odds. Under this general situation, the horse thieves are gradually withering away.
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There were more than 200 people and more than a thousand ponies, meandering for miles in the desert, which looked extremely spectacular.
What Zhao Yuan does every day is to take care of the pony, feed it, unload the cargo to let the horse rest when resting at night, and load the cargo onto the horse's back in the morning.
Because of their short bodies, pony horses are not suitable for long-distance treks in the desert. Usually, after leaving the Tianzun Grand Canyon, they go west for more than a hundred miles and then go to a small town in the desert to change into the desert boat camels.
In fact, there was no small town there originally. Later, as this trade route became more and more prosperous, some people from the Er ethnic group built a post station near a small sand lake, mainly to help people from the Qin Empire.
Providing camels, the place gradually became prosperous and developed into a town with thousands of people.
The name of the town is Sunset Town. This name has an allusion. It is said that a literary man who traveled with a businessman returned to the Qin Empire in the evening. When he looked back at the town, he found that the town happened to be where the sun sets.
The town is bathed in the sunset, picturesque and extremely beautiful. I casually said "Sunset Town", and then the name was passed down.
Many literati would also come here to watch the majestic sunset in Sunset Town. In the Qin Empire, many poems about Sunset Town were circulated.
After driving non-stop for a day and a night, we finally arrived at the small town at sunset.
There is a tacit understanding among the merchants of the Great Qin Empire that they rush to Sunset Town at sunset, rest for the night, and put on their camels before setting off again the next day.
Sunset Town looks a bit messy. There are stone houses, wooden houses, and more tents, dotted here and there, covering an extremely large area. The air is filled with the smell of horse manure.
However, this kind of messiness is also a kind of beauty, especially under the sunset, the jagged buildings have a simple and primitive charm.
Looking at the large red clouds covering Sunset Town, following the light, suddenly appeared in the sky not far in front of the sight! Another large piece of crimson died, dazzling, like a big red curtain hanging on the sky on a stage, as if there was something
A mysterious force controls this splendor and beauty.
For a moment, Zhao Yuan mistakenly thought it was sunrise, but it was clearly dusk. Obviously, the sunset in the desert was covered by a large block of fiery red. In the clean, open and unobstructed desert sky,
The red light of the setting sun envelopes the quaint and primitive Sunset Town, like a perfect picture.
No wonder, this little-known town has produced countless popular poems. Such a magnificent desert sunset is indeed not easy to see in the Qin Empire.
"Xiao Zhao, thank you for your hard work." A chubby man with a heavy workload motioned to Zhao Yuan to move the goods down.
"It's okay, it should be okay." Zhao Yuan nodded quickly and bowed.
During this period, Zhao Yuan was deeply loved by the caravans because he was taciturn, honest, willing to help, and willing to put in effort. Everyone spoke highly of him. Several big bosses privately mentioned this business to Zhao Yuan several times.
Let him join their horse team.
The residents of this small town basically work for the cavalry.
Taverns, inns, brothels, horse racing galleries...
Here, the caravan disbands on its own, because every caravan boss will have a familiar inn here.