"Your Highness, can you show me other styles?"
This quality of colored glass was the first time the boss had seen it. He was now full of curiosity about the other things in His Royal Highness King Xia's hand.
If he could treat such a precious pearl as an ordinary toy and give it to his servants at will, then what kind of top-notch stuff must the Prince Xia have in his hands?
Perhaps because he was becoming more and more skilled at deceiving people, Ethan Yun spoke without blinking, "I did not bring these treasures with me on this trip."
The boss was instantly disappointed.
If such natural and uniformly sized good things were shipped to the Arab world, the profit would be more than doubled.
The nobles there are very rich, and they have seen too many jade and jewelry of all kinds. Unless they are rare and top-grade, they will not arouse any interest in them.
The family's caravan would arrive in Liangzhou soon, and he was thinking that he could take this batch of goods back with him.
Ethan Yun could tell that his boss wanted it very much, so he said calmly, "In May next year, those treasures should be able to be shipped to Xizhou. When that time comes, you can come to Xizhou to see me and we can discuss it in detail."
The boss thought for a moment. This time, he could just transport these pearls to the west to see how the nobles there would react. If the response was good, he could buy more from His Royal Highness King Xia. If the response was not good, he could lower the price and buy less.
So he nodded and said, "Your Highness King Xia, we have agreed that you must keep these things for me and never sell them to others."
Although Ethan Yun nodded in agreement, the boss was still worried that the verbal promise might not be completely valid. After all, as businessmen, they had done many such things before.
The boss wanted to sign a contract with Yunshu immediately and pay a part of the deposit first.
Although Ethan Yun had no confidence that he could manufacture this thing by next May, he was shamelessly tempted when he saw his boss pay a deposit of 50,000 strings of cash.
Fifty thousand strings of cash, that would buy a lot of food!
What he lacks most now is money and food!
Never mind, let’s get the money first!
The contracts at that time were not very different from those in later generations, they were just simpler and did not have so many complicated conditions.
What made Yunshu most satisfied was that the contract only stipulated that if the two parties failed to reach a deal in the end, Yunshu would need to return all the deposits to the boss, and did not mention any penalty for breach of contract.
The boss did not mention the penalty for breach of contract because he thought that if he didn't want it anymore, he could get back the 50,000 guan deposit in full without Ethan Yun keeping any of it.
Both parties were satisfied with the result without penalty.
-
Lü Changshi had been busy all morning, and had just made arrangements with the major rice markets and the Liangzhou government office for the rice, flour, beef and mutton needed for this trip. It was already winter, and the dried meat was not as easy to spoil as before. Lü Changshi had ordered a lot, after all, to feed 30,000 people, the amount prepared was huge.
In addition to food, you also need to buy some housing.
During the long journey, they often slept outdoors. Ethan Yun's soldiers all had tents, but the refugees did not have such things. During the journey, every night, the refugees just used rags to cover themselves.
As the weather is getting colder, it is okay to travel during the day, but if there are no effective measures to keep warm at night, many of these refugees will probably freeze to death.
Just as Lu Changshi was about to set up some more tents, he saw Ethan Yun's personal soldiers running to him and asking him to go to Hu Shang Restaurant quickly.
Lu Changshi was full of doubts. His Highness was not a person who did not distinguish between the important and the unimportant. Why would he invite him to the Hu people's restaurant to drink and listen to music at this moment?
When Lu Changshi arrived at the private room of the restaurant, he found that there were no fine wine or beautiful women here, only a lot of boxes on the ground.
He looked at Ethan Yun in confusion, "Your Highness, this..."
Ethan Yun curled his lips and smiled, and waved his hand in a rather heroic manner, "Open it and show it to Lu Changshi."
The personal guards around him opened the boxes one by one, and they were all filled with silver ingots.
The restaurant owner bowed and said embarrassedly: "We usually trade with silk. We can only get together 20,000 taels of silver at this moment. We still have a lot of copper coins, but those are heavy and not convenient to transport. If His Royal Highness Prince Xia is willing, we can also trade with silk or jewelry."
Nowadays, when it comes to large transactions, silk is often used as the unit of measurement.
Lu Changshi was so shocked when he saw the white silver ingots in front of him that he was speechless.
All the money in Prince Xia's palace, whether it was from the public treasury or the private treasury, was with him, and he had just been out for a while. How could His Highness have produced so much silver and money?
Could it be possible that Your Highness could make money?
Ethan Yun waved at the boss and said, "No need for silk or jewelry. Lü Changshi, Boss Hu needs to pay us a total of 200,000 strings of cash. If you find anything else that we need on the way, discuss it with Boss Hu and have him exchange it for something corresponding to the market price."
Anyway, they need a lot of supplies and are too lazy to buy them one by one, so they just let Boss Hu prepare them, and they will just send people to inspect the goods when the time comes.
Hearing this, Lü Changshi went to another room to discuss with Boss Hu, while Ethan Yun continued to go out for a stroll with Xiao Li Fei and his guards. As for the silver, of course, they would wait until Lü Changshi and Boss Hu calculated the supplies and then see how much was left.
Liangzhou is the largest and most populous of the four cities in Hexi, and has a complete range of goods.
Of course, there is only one bad thing.
The food here is more than twice as expensive as that in the Central Plains.
But on the other hand, beef and mutton are much cheaper than in the Central Plains.
-
Three days later, the team, ready to go, set out again from Liangzhou.
Since a large amount of food and fodder had been purchased and the personal soldiers were mainly responsible for safety along the way, there were not enough people for transportation.
So Yunshu asked Cao Cheng to reorganize the refugees according to military rules.
Every ten people form a squad, with a squad leader, and every ten squads form a team, with a team leader. Although they are called teams, they are actually more like integrated villages, with people around them who are familiar to each other, and the team leader is equivalent to the village chief of each village.
When the integration was completed, Ethan Yun looked again and saw these people, with joy on their faces and reluctance as they touched the warm winter clothes they had just put on.
The ranks are neat and the spirit is high, no longer the scattered group as before.
Everyone's sense of belonging to Xizhou is growing stronger.
Ethan Yun sighed, "What the people want is just to have enough food and clothes to live comfortably."
Lü Changshi stood aside, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and sighed, "Since ancient times, there have been very few kings who can feed and clothe their people. If one can really do that, he deserves the title of a wise king and will be remembered in history."
This was actually a somewhat inappropriate statement. If it is really to be investigated, the person will be punished for the crime of disrespecting His Majesty.
If it was in Kyoto, Lu Changshi would never say this. But following His Royal Highness King Xia, he has changed a lot and is no longer as cautious as before.
Ethan Yun looked at the slowly moving team and said nothing more.
He was once one of the common people, and he was just born into a good family in this life. Although his life was threatened in Kyoto, after leaving that quagmire, he could be considered a superior person.
These are the true faces of the people of this era.
With troops stationed at the main traffic routes of the four cities in Hexi, Ethan Yun and his companions had a very smooth journey and did not even encounter small groups of bandits.
Liangzhou and Ganzhou both have large oases. Although the grass has withered in the dead of winter, you can still see that there is abundant water and grass in spring and summer. But after leaving Hexi, all you can see is yellow sand and desert.
It was not until this moment that the people from Yuanzhou realized what a real desert is. Here, the sky is full of yellow sand, the only plants you can see are bushes, and you have to carry your own water.
After five days of walking in the desert, some people began to waver.
"Is Xizhou really that good? When will this desert end?"
"I heard from the gentleman that this journey will take a month."
"It's been so long..."
But some people were optimistic. Lu Dali's wife and children were all fine now, which made him extremely grateful to His Royal Highness King Xia for his kindness. Seeing that some people wanted to back off, he couldn't help but say:
"We have been walking for more than a month. It is too late to regret now. Besides, those Hu people came to Dayong from this road. If they can do this, are we worse than them?"
The people in his group were silent and didn't say anything.
In the center of the convoy, Ethan Yun was riding on the camel he bought from Boss Hu, with a veil on his head that covered his head and face.
As his body Rose Cui and fell with the camel's movement, he asked the guide beside him, "Is there a shortcut?"
This guide was also Boss Hu's man. Because Xizhou had been in Tule's hands for decades, the people of the Central Plains had not been to Xizhou for a long time, so they could only rely on maps from a long time ago.
But it is different for the Hu merchants. They take the same trip every year and are more familiar with the route.
Boss Hu sent this guide to lead the way, both to curry favor with Ethan Yun and to send someone to Xizhou to investigate the situation.
The guide took the map handed over by Lu Changshi, looked at it, and said: "Your map is too old and takes a lot of detours. We often take another route, which will get us to Xizhou five or six days earlier than yours."
Because a lot of time had been wasted on the road waiting for the refugees, Lu Changshi was anxious and wanted to reach Xizhou before New Year's Eve. However, the people's walking speed was not as fast as he wanted.
At this moment, Lu Changshi heard that there was another way, so he quickly asked: "Which way?"
The guide pointed on the map.
In this desert, if there were no experienced people who had paved a path, it would be difficult for others to find the way. After all, water sources and shrubs in the desert are very important. Once you deviate from the route, you will die of thirst in the yellow sand.
Ethan Yun naturally had no objection to this proposal.
-
Half a month later, a team of more than 2,000 heavy cavalry stopped at a water source.
Their cracked lips showed that their bodies were severely dehydrated, and the horses beneath them were panting heavily.
People and horses rushed to the water source together, not caring about whether people or animals drink together, and all rushed to the water's edge to drink.
Only one person was still sitting on his horse and did not go over to drink water. He pulled the reins and turned the horse's head, observing the surrounding situation calmly with his sharp eyes.
"A large number of people passed through here. Judging from the traces, they have been away for two days."
The bearded lieutenant who had just finished drinking asked in surprise, "What large group of people?"
Adrian Xiao said in a low voice, "It looks like there are more than 20,000 or 30,000 people."
The captain was shocked when he heard this, "It's almost the New Year, could it be that the Tule or Beiyan are coming to plunder again?"
Two days is enough for them to attack Xizhou!
The lieutenant climbed onto his horse and cursed, "These B@st@ard
s, are you going to let me have a good New Year in peace?"
After he finished cursing, he shouted to the soldiers who were still drinking water:
"Hurry up, you little B@st@ard
s! There are 20,000 to 30,000 people heading towards our Xizhou City. Don't let them raid our nest!"
As he spoke, he bared his teeth and smiled at Adrian Xiao:
"General, we will go back now and cooperate with the soldiers inside the city to catch them off guard and defeat them. Let them know how powerful our Xizhou Army is!"
Adrian Xiao nodded, "Yeah."
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