The size of the caravan that arrived this time far exceeded the one brought by Uncle Jiu last time, and Uncle Zhang's restraint ability was far smaller than that of Uncle Jiu. The vendors were crowded together, arguing endlessly over the storage location and the quality of the felt bags.
Li Xu worked with the herdsmen of the Su Chuan tribe for half the night before they all settled down. While helping the traders pack their bags, he was surprised to find that except for a few guys from the Xu family, they were carrying paper.
, almost everyone’s goods are mainly Sichuan brocade. However, the suppliers of tea, linen, etc. that are indispensable in the lives of herdsmen are Chateau.
"Alas!" Li Xu sighed secretly in his heart. He knew that it was the precedent of himself and Xu Dayan who made a fortune selling Shu brocade last year that led to the unanimous action of the vendors this time. However, everyone will definitely return disappointed.
Based on his understanding of the tribe in the past six months, not every shepherd family can afford Sichuan brocade for women. Naturally, Aslan, Duer, Tao Kuotosi and others do not care about a few strings of silver bells, but they are all the younger generation.
Relatives of heroes or elders, and wealthy families in the tribe. For most ordinary herdsmen, the copper bells on men's leather armor and the silver chains on women's hands are almost passed down from generation to generation. They belong to their sons.
The betrothal gift or daughter's dowry is only a few pieces, and if it is not enough, few people are willing to sell their family's honor.
"Master Fu Li, are you worried about Ninth Brother? I know that you are a kind and righteous gentleman. If Lao Sun can make a friend like you, it means that he has not walked on this road for so many years in vain!" He has been following Li like a tail.
Wang Mazi, who was busy next to Xu, heard Li Xu's long breathing and asked with a grin.
"Yes, what happened to Uncle Jiu? Why can't he be separated from the merchants?" Li Xu nodded and asked worriedly. In the entire caravan, Sun Jiu was almost the only one who was friendly to him and Xu Dayan.
An elder. In Li Xu's heart, he had long regarded this forthright, generous and wise old man as his relative.
"Alas, Master Fuli, you are a far-sighted person who knows what will happen in the future, so you stayed in Su Chuanbu for the winter. The horses you bought for yourself are not worthy of the horse. We who are not discerning,
At that time, I was still laughing at you for being ignorant!" Wang Mazi let out a long sigh and said nonsensically.
"What's wrong? Did you lose money by selling the horses? Where's Uncle Jiu? He seems to have only bought two horses, and the price he offered was not high at that time?" Li Xu stopped and asked anxiously. Followed
Wang Mazi spoke too hard. He never seemed to know what the point was. He always talked about miscellaneous things. He either took the opportunity to flatter people or tried to flatter others. It seemed that if he didn't do this, it would not be enough to prove that he was the real Wang Mazi.
"If we lose, it's easy to say. It was robbed by others, let the government rob it! Mr. Fuli, you are still smart. The entire caravan and the government did not take a fancy to your two horses. The rest.
, the price was seven hundred, and the civil servant took it, but what we gave was not money, but millet, and we were asked to go back to our hometown to collect it. Mr. Fuli, tell me, isn’t this an obvious robbery?” Wang Mazi rubbed his eyes.
, the voice was already a little choked.
"Old Mazi, you're drunk again and you're talking nonsense!" A cold voice came from behind, interrupting Wang Mazi's cry. Li Xu frowned and turned around, seeing Uncle Zhang with two men.
A young man of fifteen or six years old walked towards him unsteadily.
When Wang Mazi heard Zhang San's scolding, he immediately stopped his screams, slapped himself twice in the mouth gently, and blamed himself: "Look at the little old man's bad mouth, look at the little old man's bad mouth, drink
There is no gatekeeper when it comes to wine, and once you drink wine, your mouth will be full and your tongue will run away!”
"Okay, okay, Uncle Mazi, you can say whatever you want. No one will remember what you said after leaving Su Chuo Department!" Li Xu grabbed Wang Mazi's wrist angrily and ordered loudly.
Uncle Zhang was so shrewd. Seeing Li Xu's displeasure, he hurriedly stepped forward, first sang a fat promise, and then whispered: "Your Majesty asked Xiao Ke to bring a letter from home to Mr. Fu Li, and Brother Sun Jiu also sent a message to Mr. Fu Li."
Sir, you have a prominent position in the Su Chuan tribe, but you are so busy working for us, you are really trying to kill us!"
The polite words made people's scalp numb, but his eyes were darting around like a weasel. Seeing Zhang San's behavior, Li Xu also understood that he stopped Wang Mazi from talking because he was afraid that people here would talk too much and cause trouble in the future. He shook his head helplessly
Shaking his head, he extended an invitation to Zhang and Wang: "Uncle San and Uncle Mazi, please don't be polite. I'm not an adult. My felt bag is not far from here. Can you please come and sit in it?"
"What an honor, what an honor!" Zhang San looked around triumphantly, and deliberately raised his voice: "It's my honor to be invited by Mr. Fu Li. The friendship between us when we traveled beyond the Great Wall, little old man
I will always keep it in my heart!"
When the traders had just been drinking with the herdsmen, they already knew that Li Xu was a distinguished guest in the tribe and the future son-in-law of the patriarch Xier. When they heard that Zhang San and Wang Mazi were invited to drink tea in Lord Fuli's felt tent, they immediately became envious.
His eyes were cast over. Li Xu was made uncomfortable by the envy in everyone's eyes. He bowed his hands in all directions, and then walked quickly to his mount. Zhang San, Wang Mazi and two strange teenagers hurriedly followed.
He walked toward the core of the tribe with his eyes.
Before the slave girl A Yun dared to rest, she saw a guest coming in the felt bag and hurried forward to pour tea. Zhang San and Wang Mazi were even more envious when they saw that Li Xu could handle the slaves. One of them praised Master Fu Li for his knowledge and luck.
The other boasted that he had a good relationship with Li Xu's father. After half a stick of incense, he finally took out a carefully collected thick paper envelope from his arms.
"This is what your father entrusted me to deliver to Master Fu Li. Sir, please check the paint on it!" Uncle Zhang picked up the envelope with both hands and raised it respectfully to Li Xu.
"Third uncle, there are no outsiders here, it would be better for you to call me Xu Zi!" Li Xu felt really awkward hearing the words "Master Fu Li", so he made his request while accepting the envelope.
"How can it be done? How can it be done? It was a young man who dared to claim to be an elder because he was short-sighted. Now you are a high-ranking official of the Suchu tribe. We can enter your felt bag to drink tea. This is already a high level for us, so how dare we
Call yourself an elder again!" Zhang Laosan waved his hands repeatedly and said politely.
Wang Mazi and the two teenagers also echoed, and Li Xu had no choice but to let them shout randomly. Anyway, Fuli was just his Turkic name, and it was not an official position. As for the word "sir", he pretended not to hear it.
Everyone was here, and it was not convenient for him to read the letter. He pushed Ayun aside to fetch water, and then asked in a low voice: "Uncle Third, Uncle Mazi, there are no outsiders here anymore. What kind of trouble did Uncle Ninth encounter?
Can I help him with something?"
"Master Fu Li, you are a thoughtful person. If Ninth Brother saw this, he would also feel grateful. I am afraid no one can help me with this favor!" Zhang San sighed and said. "Last time, everyone made a profit thanks to you. I spent some money. I don’t know whether it was fate or got carried away, but everyone bought a big deal. They thought they would go back to their hometowns to be impressive, but, who knows, there will be nothing in life...!"
"Yes, we have low lives and we shouldn't imitate other people's ostentation!" Wang Mazi interrupted, shaking his head.
The two old traders exchanged words with each other, and finally gave an overview of what happened to Uncle Jiu. It turned out that everyone had a good horse to help them, and the road back to the Central Plains was very smooth. In less than twenty days, they had arrived at Yuyang County. While everyone was riding When the horse was riding in the wind, the official suddenly stopped the entire caravan.
Sun Jiu and others thought that they had not taken care of everything and hurried forward to present filial piety. Unexpectedly, the officials did not accept bribes. Instead, they took the county governor's warrant and told all the vendors that according to the latest imperial edict, all frontier fortress horses were purchased by officials. . A note of 700 yuan was given to each horse, ordering the traders to return to their hometowns to find the local officials to collect the money, and then the horses would be forcibly taken away. The traders begged and begged, and finally moved out of the foot school of the Tiger Riding Cavalry. The captain came forward to talk to Xiang, and the officials raised the price of the horses to a penny and promised to give the traders three days to buy new horses. After three days, all the horses that the government liked must be taken to the Yamen by their owners for delivery.
Since ancient times, the people could not compete with the officials, so everyone had to accept their fate. While trying to buy donkeys, mules and other livestock to carry the goods for the horses, they sold most of the fur goods on the spot. As a result, the income was reduced by half of the expected amount. Fortunately, everyone was here The bank's dividends were enough to barely keep its capital.
After that, everyone went back to their hometowns. Sun Jiu went to Yi County to pick up goods for Li Xu, which delayed his return home for three or five days. After arriving at his hometown, the county magistrate refused to pay the price on the official note for his horse. The money was only paid for a hundred dou of Chen millet. Sun Jiu was angry at the government's breach of trust and refused to accept the millet. He took the note to the county to ask for an explanation. As a result, before he could leave the county boundary, he was charged with stealing sheep by the guards. Locked it back.
"Isn't this a frame-up?" Li Xu said angrily, having never heard of such a bizarre story.
"It's not just a frame-up. Sun Jiu has been on the road for so many years. Who has ever seen him take a penny from others? They clearly want Brother Jiu's life! Brother Jiu's family also has a few sheep money, and his two sons-in-law chipped in Qian went to the county government office to redeem the person, but the county magistrate said that it was against the moral standards of the people to sue the officials. Not only did he refuse to release the person, he also wanted to punish Sun Jiuyi for being sent to the army!" Zhang Laosan shook his head and sighed.
"You damn dog officer!" Li Xu was so angry that he sat up and reached out to touch the knife. When his palm touched the leather belt around his waist, he suddenly remembered that he was outside the Great Wall. If he returned to the Central Plains, he might not even be able to return to the Central Plains. He has no qualifications to get close to the yamen gate. The dog magistrate is obviously planning to kill Sun Jiu, and the method of paying for redemption is no longer feasible. And in the officialdom of the Central Plains, I don’t seem to know anyone well? Xu Dayan’s family does have some connections , but Xu Dayan went to negotiate with the Khitan people, who were thousands of miles away. By the time he came back to find a solution, I'm afraid Uncle Jiu had already encountered something unexpected.
'It turns out that I still have no strength at all!' Sun Jiu only accidentally offended the government and ended up like this. His father asked him to go out of town to avoid trouble in the name of doing business. Once he was held accountable by the government... Li Xu's hands trembled. His face slowly turned pale.
"Come on, Mr. Fuli, you have some friendship with Bu Xiaowei. So when we go out to the fortress this time, I just want to ask you to write a letter to Bu Xiaowei and ask him to find a way to save Ninth Brother. Official.
Official matters are, after all, easier to fool than the people against the officials!" Wang Mazi, who had been unable to express himself the whole night, finally spoke eloquently and stammered to persuade. (To be continued)
