For next year's spring plowing, Li Jie needs to make preparations in advance.
Food, farm tools, large livestock, and slaves are all necessary. In order to open up fields and build water conservancy tools, we also need to design or purchase them, which costs a lot of money.
Therefore, Li Jie must do some small business this winter.
The market in Gusu is huge, but it is difficult to get a bite. After all, he is a newly emerged savage leader. The contempt of city people for country people has been in Gusu since ancient times.
And it will be from ancient times...
Thinking that it would be difficult to make money locally this winter, Mayor Li decided to apply for a passport and start doing cross-border trade.
Yinxiang has accumulated a lot of exclusive products over the year, such as bamboo products, new furniture, honey, and dried salted fish. These can all be sold, and the prices are not low.
In addition, traditional silk has always been a top product.
The State of Wu had control over silk and implemented a "quota system" for various countries.
For example, if the State of Qi pretends to be cowardly with the State of Wu, saying that when I dominate, you are still a fucking tadpole. Even if the State of Qi can produce silk, once the State of Wu cuts off the supply, the price of Qi State's silk will skyrocket.
It's not because of the high silk stock of Wu State, but because of Wu State's status in a high-producing silk production area.
All silk exported to the north, whether from the Yue Kingdom, the Yangyue tribes, the Six Kingdoms, the Chao Kingdom, the Shu Kingdom, etc., were all under the unified management of the Wu Kingdom.
Wu Guo said he was not allowed to sell it to anyone, which means he was really not allowed to buy it.
As long as King Gouchen shouts the slogan "Wu comes first", no matter how aggrieved his allies are, they can only become "cute friends", especially the cute kind.
What is an overlord?
Do whatever you want and you are the overlord!
Except for the silk that Township Chief Li wants to export this time, except for the official export channels of Yanling, the rest are all smuggled.
How to smuggle it?
Flying the banner of Dazaifu Residence.
Who the hell dares to stop?
King Wu didn't even stop him, let alone others.
Doesn't King Wu know that Dazaizi makes bad money? Yes. But this is the benefit King Wu gives to his old friend, so everyone knows the "hidden rules".
"Shou Li, at this time the Jianghuai River is in turmoil, why do you need to go abroad?"
When he heard that his boss was going to travel abroad, Shang Wuji felt a little jealous, but he couldn't go with him. Like Gongzi Ba, he regarded himself as the boss's right-hand man.
Besides, Shang Wuji sold his own sisters, so he should have a higher status no matter what.
"How can you make money without going abroad? There must be something wrong with you. It has been so long, but the revenue in the Gusu market is only so small. I feel sorry for Wuji's reputation in the past. Did you use the name of your hometown in Yanling to swindle?
"
"..."
Holding back a mouthful of old blood, Shang Wuji had nothing to say. He didn't want to explain Xue Ge's operation. All that was left was to get there, all the way!
He doesn't want to explain!
Therefore, my uncle had no choice but to say: "If Shou Li wants to go abroad, he can take his younger sister with him. She has also gone to Qilu and passed between Chen and Cai."
"I know that Shang Ji is knowledgeable. You don't need to tell me. Just follow Xia Liu and get things done at home. Dredging and clearing ponds cannot be stopped. This is what we do in winter. I have arranged everything. You just need to follow the instructions.
Draw a scoop."
"What is a gourd?"
"That's why I want to go abroad. I'm going to Jin State. There are gourds there. I'm going to import some gourd seeds. After they are planted, I can draw gourds for you."
"..."
Knowing that the boss had decided to leave, Shang Wuji thought that with his boss's skills, he had just risen out of nowhere, so there shouldn't be much of a problem.
However, Shang Wuji still advised him: "If Mr. Li goes abroad, it would be best to bring more people with him."
"Just bring fifty Crocodile Men. Having more people doesn't necessarily mean safety."
"Can."
Shang Wuji nodded slightly, having no objection to Li Jie's decision.
When countries are in dispute, it seems that only countries fight each other. In fact, countries all have internal problems, and rebellions occur from time to time.
For example, how could the Huai County magistrate come to the east to become an official if there hadn't been an extremely fierce power struggle within the Qin State?
Of course, there is no problem that the surname Ying has its roots in the East. To put it nicely, it is also called falling leaves returning to their roots, or recognizing their ancestors and returning to their ancestors.
"How can we traffic goods if there are only fifty people?"
"This time we mainly sell honey, salted fish, and dried vegetables."
There is a good place in Wu State. There are very abundant aquatic wild vegetables. After being steamed and dried in the sun, they can be stored for a long time. A moso bamboo tube is filled with dried vegetables, which is about three or four kilograms.
If a small boat is fully loaded, it is no problem to carry several hundred kilograms.
A team of fifty people can directly connect the boats together and drive a small train all the way.
At this time, the King of Gusu had already crossed the river, and Township Chief Li planned to go directly to Hangou. He would not be afraid of the hundreds of Huaiyi who came and would kill as many as they came.
It takes two days to cross the Huaihe River, and if there is no ice in the north, we can directly reach Xu State.
Of course, Li Jie had no intention of leaving Xu State.
Because Xu State was too poor.
The Xu State, which was once very wealthy, was impoverished by a certain emperor and became extremely poor.
When the previous king of Wu was still on the throne, a certain Xu Jun even asked his soldiers to steal cattle from the state of Lu in order to make up the number of "sacrifice".
Otherwise, when offering sacrifices to ancestors, the "sacrifice" will not be enough and people will lose their lives.
Of course, stealing cattle is also a shameful operation.
However, if you neglect or insult your ancestors, stealing can be forgiven. Lu can definitely steal it back.
Any poor country is not Li Jie's goal. What Li Jie wants to go to is Chen State, Cai State, and Luoyi, the base camp of Emperor Zhou.
However, Luoyi was renamed now. After King Zhou Dao came to power, he took "Tianzhi" as his reign name and changed Luoyi to Luojing. It was very lively for a while.
After King Zhou Dao was killed by his ancestors' ministers, the new emperor changed the reign title to "Dai Shou" and at the same time changed Luo Jing to Luoyi.
In short, give in.
Township leader Li was thinking, if the current Emperor of Zhou dies, he might be the King of Zhou.
Hangou is no bigger than the Huaihe River. Go to the northwest fork, and there are big cities along the way. It would be even more fun to go to Zheng State. Zheng State is an absolutely rich country, and it is also one of the great powers. It has many conflicts with the Jin State, the strongest country in the north.
In 2016, he actually managed to keep up, which is quite remarkable.
But Zheng is not a big country. He can fight with Jin mainly because he has money.
Mayor Li heard from Master Ba that Zheng had the largest number of "guest soldiers" among other countries.
What does it mean?
Mercenaries are paid to fight.
When the Jin Kingdom goes to war, those who die are its own people.
When Zheng Guo goes to war, those who die are others, so don’t feel bad.
Of course, it still hurts to pay for it.
When he thought that there were such weird things in the world, Mayor Li thought that he could bring some local specialties and sell them for money, and he could also do some side business to earn some extra money.