That night, Li Xu had a dream. In the dream, he saw himself riding a horse and holding a spear, charging on the battlefield. Around the battlefield, countless unfamiliar or familiar faces were cheering loudly.
Human beings are not animals and do not need name, breed, or blood. When he woke up, he firmly remembered the words of General Huben Luo Yi.
The farthest foreign town he has ever been to is the county town, and the highest ridge he has ever seen is the Daqingshan Mountain in front of the village. Although he had already imagined the journey out of the fortress a hundred times, after leaving home, Li Xu finally understood that the mountains and rivers outside were as different as
Very different from my own imagination.
Compared with the majestic Taihang, Daqingshan, which stretches for nearly a hundred miles, is just a mountain grandson. Compared with the surging Luanshui River, the Yishui in my hometown is simply a small ditch. Go north, east, then north, and then east, and the mountains around you
The mountains are getting higher and higher, and the sky outside the mountains is becoming more and more pure. Along the official road and the rickety pontoon bridge across Laishui, Juma River, and Sanggan River, merchants coming out of the fortress are constantly coming and gathering along the way.
The caravan snowballed bigger and bigger.
Shanggu is known as a border county, but in fact it is still very far away from the border. After walking for five or six days in a row, the caravan stopped at Ji County, the seat of Zhuo County, and began the last major supply trip before leaving the fortress.
"Hurry and check your luggage and make up for whatever is missing. We will stay in Liulaozhuang all afternoon today. Tomorrow morning, it will be 3:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., and we will not wait after 00:00 a.m.!" Sun Jiu took the caravan to a familiar farm and left.
His voice roared.
With a buzzing sound, the stinking traders immediately dispersed like frightened flies. Those who unloaded their luggage and those who settled their animals settled their animals. In a blink of an eye, Li Xuhe was the only one left in the huge courtyard.
The two people with big eyes, Xu, were at a loss as they rode on the horse, not knowing what to do next.
"Can I please help these two brothers to unload their luggage and take the animals to feed them some fine food? They are all my juniors and it is their first time to go away!" A crowd of people shouted and neighed.
, Sun Jiu's voice sounded particularly friendly. Several people dressed as bankers came over immediately and helped Li Xu and Xu Dayan unload their luggage.
Li Xu jumped off his mount and wanted to step forward to help, but he didn't know how. He wanted to hide outside the crowd to get some air as leisurely as Sun Jiu, but he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to take care of him for a while and someone would drop his luggage. There is something there
The brocade that my father bought at a high price, as well as my favorite dried fruits, and a few silver beans hidden in the lower corners of a cotton coat...
"Xuguan, come to the pavilion to drink tea. The master has already prepared it!" Sun Jiu's words rang in his ears again. Li Xu shook his head repeatedly, wanting to tell Sun Jiu that he was worried about his luggage and was afraid of offending the banker.
Neither standing nor walking, I squeaked a few times, and sweat suddenly broke out on my forehead.
The midday sun shines down from the blue sky, and the young man with a face as red as boiled and the glistening beads of sweat on his forehead become a unique sight in the chaotic crowd. Several old merchants have already placed their luggage and livestock.
He came over, patted him on the shoulder, smiled kindly, and walked away. A few narrow-minded ghosts deliberately whispered in Li Xu's ears, "Watch carefully, dealers are never honest!"
Hearing this, Li Xu felt even more anxious. This luggage contained his family's hope for life. Just as he was about to muster the courage to step forward and grab the luggage, Xu Dayan gently grabbed his wrist.
"Don't listen to those guys' nonsense. If you don't worry, will Uncle Jiu lead us here?" Xu stood beside Li Xu from the corner of his eyes and warned in a very low voice.
"Young man, this is your first time to go out. The reputation of our village, Liu Laozhuang, can be found within a hundred miles. In the past ten years, no customer has lost a thread here!" An old man who was responsible for directing the work of the dealers came up.
Before, I introduced him to Li Xu. His words were not only proud, but also a bit dissatisfied.
"Liu Laogao, don't brag. Last time, half of my clothes got hung up by your jujube tree. In terms of threads, there were hundreds of them!" Sun Jiu quickly came over to help Li Xu, telling a joke while asking
Li Xu scolded: "Why don't you go fill a bowl of water under the shade of a tree? I'm afraid the sun will make you two stupid!"
Li Xu's flushed face suddenly became even redder, as if there was a fire burning out from under his face. In the past few days, he had made similar jokes on the road. He stayed in hotels, ate and drank, and even
Even if you poop wildly, you have to be warned by someone. Fortunately, everyone ate at his house's banquet and was a bit of a favor, so no look of boredom appeared on their faces.
"I, I..." Li Xu muttered awkwardly, but some wisdom emerged from his panic. He pointed at the blue and white mule and said, "It's not that I'm worried, it's that I'm afraid that beast will scare them!"
"A mule!" Old Man Liu laughed loudly. Before he finished speaking, a banker next to the mule shouted and jumped towards him. The little wolf Ganluo poked half of his head out of the cloth bag and howled continuously in his throat.
This time, not only people, but also animals were frightened. Several animals that were close to the blue and white mules were trembling and retreating desperately. No matter how hard the dealer tried to pull them, they couldn't hold them back.
"It's a little wolf cub, less than a month old. Look how brave you are!" Sun Jiu was afraid that Gan Luo would cause more trouble, so he quickly explained to everyone. "This child is a kind person and is afraid of wolves.
I shocked you, so I kept watching from the side. You guys took my kindness for granted!"
Li Xu took a breath, and his speech and mind immediately became clearer. He ran over with a smile, hugged Gan Luo in his arms, bowed and apologized to everyone: "Young man was reckless and disturbed all of you. I should have been earlier."
Just a reminder, I’m afraid you guys will say I’m too careless!” After saying that, he picked up Little Wolf’s front grip and made a bowing gesture.
"The birth of this wolf cub is quite interesting!" Liu Laozhuang's banker was well-informed, and naturally he would not be serious with his child who didn't even have a hair. After recovering from the shock, he laughed and continued his business.
Sun Jiu caught up, took Li Xu's hand, pulled him to the shade of the trees in the village, stuffed him with a big bowl of herbal tea, smiled and cursed: "I don't see how smart you are.
, Don’t worry, the owner of this old village, Liu, is a land dealer. Only by having merchants pass by his house can he ensure a continuous supply of goods. If everyone is always short of what is good and what is short, his sign will have been smashed. If the sign is smashed, all business will follow.
!”
"Thank you, Uncle Jiu!" Li Xu put down the tea bowl and thanked him in a low voice.
"Thank you. Your father entrusted you to me. I can't let him down. Let me tell you, when I was your age, I was more reckless than this. A man carrying a package and crossing the Great Wall, what's the rule?
I don’t even understand. No caravan is willing to let me join, and once I was almost beaten to death by someone as an undercover horse thief!" Sun Jiu shook his head, and his eyes suddenly became particularly dark.
That must be a very sad memory, Li Xu thought silently in his heart, as if he saw a young man who was as lonely as himself struggling to survive in the mountains, with no companions and no end of the road in sight. In an instant, he felt that Sun Jiu
The tattered clothes and the smell of sweat on my body are much nicer.
"You should learn more from Big Eye. That guy is smart and has a good heart. I've traveled all over the country for so many years and I've never seen such a smart person!" After a while, Sun Jiu patted the dirt on his butt and stood up.
, shouted to the crowd who were grabbing tea, "Big Eyes, Big Eyes Brother!"
"Hey, Uncle Jiu, I'm here!" Xu Dayan poked half of his head out of a row of windows. In just a moment, he had already cleaned up his face and changed his short t-shirt into a light blue gown.
, coupled with that slightly bookish face, he has the appearance of a young man from a wealthy family.
"Haha, you can't tell that a phoenix flew out of my grass nest!" Sun Jiu joked with a smile.
"Aren't we going to the city later? We should dress neatly so that we can visit some big shops!" Xu Dayan smiled back and pointed at several other windows, "Uncle Zhang, Uncle Du and the others are also here.
After changing clothes, will Uncle Jiu just wear shorts and go to the city to deliver goods?"
"Little bastard, you are the only one who can talk!" Sun Jiu cursed with a smile. He pushed Li Xu in front of him and said, "Brother Xu Guan, he is two years younger than you!"
"That's natural. I wanted to make an appointment with him just now. Seeing Uncle Jiu discussing the matter in person, I didn't dare to eavesdrop!" Xu Dayan agreed loudly and called Li Xu into the room to change clothes.
There was chaos for a while, and everyone was settled in place. Sun Jiu came forward and led a few older and clear-minded merchants to begin delivering the southern goods that the master had entrusted them to bring from the Central Plains. The other merchants arrived on their own.
I had a meal at a chicken-feather shop outside the door, took the goodies I planned to leave in Jixian, and went into the city with my companions. (Note 1)
Li Xu and Xu Dayan had no goods to sell, so they each rode a horse and wandered aimlessly in the city. This was the largest city Li Xu had ever seen in his life. The southern corner of the city alone was twice as big as the Yixian County he was familiar with.
The blue-gray cloud tiles, colorful cornices, and snow-white walls are all dazzling. What’s even more rare is the bluestone-paved streets in the city, which are as smooth as mirrors, making people reluctant to ride on them.
The hoof falls on it.
And the things in the shop are even more glamorous. Silks from the south, felts from the north, gems from the western regions, and pearls from the east China sea. Li Xu is horrified to see everything. The prices of those goods are also the same as their textures.
, so high that people dared not reach out to touch it. Every time he got on the horse, Li Xu, who was following Xu Dayan, would carry it with extreme caution. He was afraid that if the horse was startled, he would break into someone's shop and damage one or two items of goods, causing
The Li family was ruined from then on.
"If I could open a shop in Ji County and take over my parents for retirement, that would be a magical life!" After wandering for a while, Li Xu began to daydream again. "If the price of rawhide remains at the current state, it will be a long time ago."
You can earn more than a thousand cash by traveling outside the Great Wall, and then sell some horses, cattle, sheep, and medicinal materials along the way. You can make three trips a year. After deducting the tribute to the government and the clan, you can accumulate 7,000 cash in three years. There are 7,000 cash.
, I wonder if I can rent a shop on the main street of Jixian County..."
"This is an important town in the northernmost part of the Sui Dynasty. Yuyang, Anle, Shanggu, and Hejian are all under its overlook. If you take this place, you will have the entire Youyan under your control!" Xu Dayan didn't know what was happening around him.
With such mediocre and short-sighted ideas, Li Xu pointed at the green hills behind Zhonglou with his riding crop and said boldly. (To be continued)
