The snow hadn't melted yet, but Shuofang was already bustling with activity, especially with the increase in passing caravans, making the area lively and vibrant.
This was the first time the Tang Dynasty had opened a border market to the Wolf Tribe. Although regulations were in place restricting the sale of grain and weapons, it still attracted the interest of many merchants. Even before the appointed time, large numbers of merchants, carrying their goods, were already heading towards Shengzhou.
Qin Mu adopted a zero-tariff policy for Shuofang, and at the same time, designated a certain area in Shuofang as a market, where trade was only permitted. Of course, taxes were payable for trade in Shuofang.
He believed that once the news spread, even more merchants would come and go from Shuofang. He learned from passersby that they were very pleased with the security of Shuofang County and were even curious about why the people of Shuofang had become so prosperous so soon after recovering from the war, since the settlements were full of new houses.
Being able to trade openly with the wolf clan is quite interesting. The caravans that come and go carry a lot of goods. Although their goods are not sold to Shuofang, they still need to replenish their supplies, so they have to consume some of it. This still stimulates market consumption.
This situation continued until mid-April, when Qin Mu personally led a group of men to escort 50,000 jin of refined salt to Shengzhou. Many people were seeing the triangular ox for the first time and inquired about what it was.
The top experts have been transferred away. The current two hundred Triangular Oxen Heavy Cavalry are newly selected personnel. Triangular Oxen are Qin Mu's treasures. Apart from Cheng Huaimo and the others who each took one, the rest were left in Shuofang. After replenishing a few dozen from Tianshui, we still managed to raise two hundred.
Fifty li outside Shengzhou City, at Changsheng Pass by the Great Wall, a huge market has been built, now filled with goods. Many wolf tribes have also arrived, carrying goods on horses, some even herding large numbers of cattle and sheep.
Zhang Gongjin personally oversaw the Changsheng Pass, with 30,000 elite troops lying in ambush behind it, all to ensure the smooth convening of this border market. Qin Mu was unaware that Zhang Gongjin had arrived in person; he entered the pass with only a triangular ox.
"Why is this kid here?" Zhang Gongjin, dressed in plain clothes, said with surprise at Changsheng Pass. He had obviously seen Qin Mu.
"Oh, who is Governor Zhang referring to? These mounts are quite special. Could it be that some secret of a powerful family in the Northwest has been revealed?" A dignified-looking man stroked his long beard and said.
"Hehe! Your Highness, please wait a moment." Zhang Gongjin chuckled, then said to his guards, "Go and bring that boy up here."
"Speaking of which, this person and the Prince are not outsiders, but I didn't expect him to join in the fun. And he's carrying goods, what kind of stuff is he selling?" Zhang Gongjin said, craning his neck to look around.
"Aren't we outsiders?"
“That’s right, that’s the Prince’s nephew-in-law. The Prince has been away for the past two years, so it’s normal that he hasn’t seen him,” Zhang Gongjin introduced.
"Oh, it's that Qin family brat." As soon as Zhang Gongjin said that, he realized that this person was Li Shentong's younger brother, Li Shenfu. He had returned to Chang'an before the New Year and naturally knew some things about his family. He just hadn't remembered him at the moment.
"Exactly."
As the two were talking, they saw the triangular bull stop. Qin Mu looked up, jumped off the one-horned rhinoceros, and went up the gate tower alone.
"Greetings, Commander-in-Chief." Upon seeing Zhang Gongjin, Qin Mu smiled and greeted him with clasped hands.
"What brings you here, kid? Aren't you afraid the wolves will recognize you and fight you to the death?" Zhang Gongjin said with a smile.
Qin Mu thought about it and realized it was quite possible; after all, he had destroyed their holy land. He couldn't show weakness verbally, so he smiled and flattered them, saying, "With the Governor here, what am I afraid of?"
"Hehe, you little rascal, you're incredibly bold, aren't you afraid at all? Let me introduce you, this is the Prince of Xiangyi, who has come to inspect the border market on the Emperor's orders." Zhang Gongjin said with a smile, pointing at Qin Mu.
Since he was a prince, he was probably a member of the Li family. After glancing at him, Qin Mu cupped his hands in greeting and said, "Qin Mu, the Prefect of Shuofang, greets the Prince of Xiangyi."
Although Qin Mu knew about the Li family because of Princess Changning, the Li family had too many relatives, so he didn't ask about others and didn't know that they were actually very close relatives.
Li Shenfu didn't expose him, but asked curiously, "You're the governor of Shuofang County, so what brings you here?"
"I want to trade some goods with the wolf clan, but I don't have anyone under my command, so I had to come in person," Qin Mu replied simply.
"What are you planning to sell? You're not going to sell back something you stole from the wolf clan, are you? Wouldn't that cause trouble?" Zhang Gongjin asked curiously.
“No. No, it’s salt produced in Shuofang,” Qin Mu said, shaking his head.
"Are there still salt wells in Shuofang?" Zhang Gongjin asked, taken aback.
"No," Qin Mu shook his head.
"Then where did you get the salt?" Zhang Gongjin asked, puzzled.
"Wait a moment," Qin Mu said, then, holding onto the railing, he called down, "Bring a bag up."
Bu Mang looked up, reached out and untied the rope on the back of the triangular ox, picked up a bag with one hand, and walked up.
Qin Mu and Bu Mang untied their bags and gestured to Zhang Gongjin.
"What is this?" Zhang Gongjin looked down at it, then looked up at Qin Mu and asked.
"Salt."
"Salt?" Zhang Gongjin was somewhat skeptical. He reached out, dipped his hand in a little salt, and carefully licked it with his tongue.
"It really is salt, so white!" Zhang Gongjin swallowed hard, his throat bobbing, and asked in surprise.
"This is the latest product from Shuofang. As for how it was made, we'll keep that a secret for now," Qin Mu said with a smile.
"Hmm, you rascal, why would you sell such a good thing to someone else?" Zhang Gongjin nodded. He didn't press Qin Mu about his secret, but he did pull Qin Mu aside and said.
"Of course we should sell good stuff, the bad stuff isn't worth much," Qin Mu said, staring innocently.
“You have good stuff to sell to your own people? Take the border region for example, the demand for salt is huge.” Zhang Gongjin asked somewhat eagerly.
"Do you have that much money to buy it?" Qin Mu asked. The imperial court's allocation of funds was limited, and Qin Mu did not believe that he would spend so much money to buy refined salt.
Hearing Qin Mu's words, Zhang Gongjin was also somewhat discouraged. He quickly thought of something and looked at Qin Mu, asking, "How much salt do you have? You don't have all of it down there, do you? Is there still some in Shuofang? I know you, you wouldn't eat bad food yourself and sell the good stuff."
"Hehe, there's still a little bit left at home," Qin Mu chuckled dryly.
"I can ignore it, but send over a thousand shi (a unit of dry measure) every month."
"Impossible! Why don't you just rob it? This is Shuofang's stock of goods for more than half a year!" Qin Mu shouted. A thousand shi is more than ten thousand jin. Even if he could take it out, he wouldn't agree so readily.
How much did you say?
"five hundred."
"Hey kid, you can't negotiate like this! Eight thousand! Isn't that fair?"
"One thousand, that's all."
"Five thousand, that's the most we can give. You can't bear to see our brothers suffer so much while guarding the border, can you?"
"One thousand, we can increase that later."
"Deal!" After a few words of argument, Zhang Gongjin slapped Qin Mu on the shoulder and agreed with a smile.
Qin Mu didn't mind. It was part of his plan to send some to Zhang Gongjin anyway, not only because the two had a good relationship, but also because the transaction was being conducted on Zhang's turf.
“Young man, you have something good, why didn’t you think of offering it to the Emperor?” Li Shenfu asked.
"Of course, we will send some to His Majesty. Before coming here, we had already sent a thousand shi of grain to Chang'an." Qin Mu was somewhat displeased, but he still spoke respectfully.
The gifts were actually sent to Li Shimin incidentally; the main recipients were restaurants in Chang'an, his family, Princess Changning's family, and a few other close relatives.
“A thousand shi? That little bit?” Li Shenfu asked in astonishment.
"A thousand shi (a unit of dry measure) isn't enough for the palace's expenses?" Qin Mu asked, his eyes wide.
"Ahem! Why not offer such a beneficial thing to the court? With the court's power, it will surely benefit even more people," Li Shenfu said after a couple of coughs.
"I'm sorry, this property is a dowry for marrying a wife," Qin Mu said calmly, his expression turning slightly cold. If Li Shimin had said this, he might have believed it, but this prince was more likely to be lining his own pockets. As for the common people, he'd deal with them after he'd eaten his fill.
Qin Mu was prepared to turn hostile, but to his surprise, the prince was slightly taken aback. Instead, he smiled kindly, stroked his beard, and nodded, seemingly very pleased.
Whether someone is truly happy or not can be seen from their eyes, and Qin Mu was confident he couldn't be wrong about that. He was somewhat puzzled.
Zhang Gongjin asked with a smile, "You really don't know who he is?"
"I have only recently returned to Chang'an and do not yet fully understand the officials in the court, let alone the princes and dukes of the royal family. I apologize." Seeing Zhang Gongjin's somewhat strange smile, Qin Mu still did not understand and frowned slightly.
"Ahem! Didn't that girl Changning mention me?" Li Shenfu thought Qin Mu had forgotten. He coughed twice to remind him.
"Perhaps I mentioned it, but I may have forgotten! May I ask who you are, Your Highness?" Qin Mu's heart skipped a beat, and he respectfully cupped his hands and asked.
Although Qin Mu lowered his attitude and was very respectful, Li Shenfu still saw through his lie and said angrily, "That brat wasted her time. She completely forgot about me and didn't even introduce me as an elder."
"Haha! This is Princess Changning's uncle, and also your future father-in-law's younger brother! Prince Xiangyi, Li Shenfu!" Zhang Gongjin laughed loudly at the joke, then suppressed his laughter as he introduced him.
"I was unaware that my uncle was in person; I have been rude." Qin Mu hurriedly bowed respectfully again.
"Hehe, ignorance is no excuse. We're all family here, so give us a heads-up: how much of this salt does Shuofang have?" Li Shenfu asked.
"There is no stock left in Shuofang. Some were sent to Chang'an, some were sold to Tianshui, and the rest were transported here."
"As for production, it's about three thousand shi per month! We should be able to reach five thousand shi in the second half of the year," Qin Mu explained. His confidence stemmed from an agreement reached with the Baili family, who would help purchase ordinary salt and transport it to Shuofang for processing.
The Baili family was in charge of the refined salt trade in the Northwest, so they were happy to contribute because Qin Mu had promised them that the more ordinary salt they produced, the more they would sell to them. Shuofang, on the other hand, only needed to refine the salt to profit from it, so they readily accepted any offer.
As for the issue of secrecy, given the potential for huge profits, the Baili family would naturally prioritize it without Qin Mu's prompting. They could easily guess that ordinary salt could be transformed into refined salt, so Qin Mu wasn't concerned. If they were smart, they would only experiment privately and wouldn't try to uncover the secret formula.
"What a pity, such good stuff, sold to the wolf clan!" Li Shenfu said regretfully.
"If it's not a good product, how can it fetch a high price?" Qin Mu smiled dismissively.
There will certainly be many salt vendors at this border market, but they will be far inferior to refined salt. Knowing that Qin Mu is here to trade, Zhang Gongjin and the others have no reason to stop him, especially since the secret recipe belongs to him and they have no reason to ask for it. They simply reminded him to be careful.
The border town was bustling with activity. Humans and wolves were conversing, and it was hard to imagine that a short, stout human merchant could shout so loudly at a wolf. Perhaps this was the power of money.
Many soldiers were maintaining order in the border town, forbidding anyone from using force. Qin Mu's appearance immediately silenced the entire border town. This was mainly due to the immense size of the Triangular Bull, which created a powerful impact.
Upon seeing the Triangular Bull, some of the wolves' expressions changed drastically, and they instinctively reached for the weapons at their waists. These wolves had witnessed the Triangular Bull's power before; although it wasn't wearing heavy armor this time, its long horns were still terrifying.
Many wolves harbored fear, and even Qin Mu himself was unaware of the profound psychological impact he had inflicted upon them. In three months of campaigning across the grasslands, over 30,000 wolf riders had perished at their hands. These wolf riders were the elite of the wolf pack, the aspirations and goals of ordinary wolves. The battle at Golden Wolf Mountain had resulted in the fall of their sacred land; it was said even the sacred elephant had been destroyed. The wolves deeply resented this! But even more so, they felt fear. Their guardian tribe had been burned to the ground; a large tribe of 100,000 had lost more than half its inhabitants and was no longer capable of serving as their guardian.
In a single day, they broke through the defenses of three tribes, each with 20,000 men. In the battle to defend the pass, 100,000 wolf riders suffered heavy losses, yet the wolf riders were able to leave unscathed. The key factor was that the Golden Wolf Clan had three Golden Wolf Generals, ten Silver Wolf Generals, and ten Gray Wolf Generals who had died in battle. More than twenty wolf clan leaders, who were one rank below the wolf generals, had also died, along with more than three hundred wolf warriors.
Such heavy losses were no less than those on the main battlefield. On one side was a massive battlefield with over a million soldiers, while on the other side were only a few thousand cavalrymen suffering such devastating losses. How could the wolf clan not be terrified?
He annihilated more than thirty tribes, large and small, and slaughtered tens of thousands of wolf clan members, including the elderly, women, and children. Now, the name of the Bull Demon King is widely known on the grasslands, and it is said that he can stop children from crying at night.
"Bull Demon King!" a wolf exclaimed, retreating in surprise.
The human merchant looked at the wolf clan members, who had just been so assertive, with bewilderment and then panic.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, a bag of snow-white refined salt was poured onto a large wooden board. Bu Mang jumped onto the back of an ox and shouted in a deep voice, "Top-grade refined salt, in exchange for herbs, oxen, and horses!"
After waiting for a while, not a single wolf came to inquire. Instead, a human merchant stepped forward, cupped his hands, and asked, "General, is this salt?"
“This is refined salt, better than coarse salt! Those who don’t know can try it,” Pei Xingjian said as he stepped forward.
The short, stout merchant strained his squinting eyes to look at the snow-white refined salt, stretched out two fingers, picked up a little bit, tilted his head slightly, and carefully put it into his mouth.
Qin Mu hadn't expected this guy to throw so much salt into his mouth, like it was sugar. Sure enough, he immediately witnessed the scene he'd been waiting for. The merchant's face contorted from the saltiness, and he kept swallowing. However, he didn't spit it out, which was somewhat surprising.
The merchant took a water bag from the waist of a man beside him, gulped down several mouthfuls, and exclaimed in one breath, "So salty! It's really good salt, not bitter at all, much better than coarse salt! I wonder if the general could sell some of this salt to this humble person?"
"This batch of refined salt is for exchange only, not for sale! First come, first served. If you want it in the future, you'll have to come to Shuofang to buy it. However, the production is limited. As for the specific price, if you are interested, you can go and inquire for yourself." Pei Xingjian said after a moment's thought.
Pei Xingjian's decision was his own; he hadn't originally intended to sell to domestic merchants. However, the wolf clan showed no interest in trading, so his decision was quite good and demonstrated his intelligence.
It might be better to let these merchants handle the transactions, since they are ruthless and unscrupulous. Entrusting the business to them would be easy and hassle-free.
"General! General! This humble subject is willing to exchange! This humble subject is willing to exchange!" someone nearby immediately shouted.
"Even ordinary people have it! Even ordinary people have it!"
"Quiet! Quiet! Line up one by one!" Pei Xingjian shouted angrily.
The scene fell silent instantly, then a hurried line formed in front of Pei Xingjian. Seeing that Pei Xingjian had taken control of the situation, Qin Mu simply left them there and turned back to the pass.
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