But he did not sleep for long as he was woken up by the cold again because the sun was setting and the temperature difference between day and night was very large in spring.
However, this time when he got up again, Zhao Jiu finally had a different mentality. He turned to the stern of the boat, looking at the Xishi Mountain in the east with lush flowers and trees, as if thinking about something... It was nothing else, this Emperor Zhao had just dreamed of Zhang Yongzhen again, and then naturally thought of the thousands of corpses left in Bagua Mountain.
Moreover, Zhao Guanjia, who came from an engineering background, had a bit of rational thinking of a straight man. He knew that the dead could not be resurrected, that war would inevitably involve sacrifices, and that in the future there would be more people like Zhang Yongzhen and the thousands of soldiers who died in battle who would never be able to return home in this lifetime.
And now that things have come to this, this is the only optimal solution that will result in the least number of deaths.
However, having said that, the logic is clear, and Emperor Zhao himself acts decisively without any sentimental feelings. But today he is about to travel far away, and when he thinks of this, he still feels a little sad.
As the sun set, the sky grew darker. There were already sparks of fire in the distant market town. The accompanying boats were also well-lit because they had previously supplied the Baguashan camp with supplies from the southeast. Even some of the soldiers who had set up camp on the shore to guard the river began to light bonfires outside to cook food.
The bright moon rose, and the river was dotted with stars.
Dinner was ready, but Emperor Zhao still had no appetite and just kept looking at the mountains. The people around him probably guessed what he was thinking and didn't dare to disturb him... until there was a sudden commotion in the river. No one knew what had happened, which caused the people on the large ship with the sails lowered to rush to one side. Then countless soldiers holding torches came quickly in small boats and surrounded the starboard side of the ship.
After all, Emperor Zhao had been to the battlefield. After being awakened, he looked at it calmly, and then he couldn't help but smile.
It turned out that just now, two medium-sized cargo ships were sailing downstream from upstream. Perhaps because of the gloomy sky, they actually came to the bottom of the large ship carrying Emperor Zhao and the three prime ministers. After they took the initiative to talk to them, they aroused the vigilance of Ban Zhi on the boat, which then caused such a commotion.
The two poor ship owners and several boatmen were swarmed by countless soldiers, tied up alive and thrown onto the ship. They heard words like "official", "prime minister", and "protecting the emperor", and saw countless armored soldiers surrounding them. They were scared half to death and could not even speak clearly for a while.
After a while, the three gentlemen came out, and one of the two boat owners, a young and smart man, figured out what was going on, and then quickly kowtowed and begged for mercy. According to him, the two were his uncles, and they were both merchants who came here to travel. They heard that Bagong Mountain had a great victory, the north and the south were open, and this place was bustling, so they loaded goods to sell.
However, they did not come here by accident because it was dark, but because they saw a large ship parked here from afar and thought it must be a noble person, so they came to the ship to see if they could sell the goods here.
"I see, let him go!"
In fact, Emperor Zhao had already roughly guessed what was going on, and was just waiting for everyone to calm down. When he saw that the ship owner had regained consciousness, he simply gave the order.
The people around, from the three husbands down, all agreed, as if they didn't care about this episode.
However, just as this more meticulous boat owner kowtowed repeatedly to express his gratitude and was about to take his frightened companions and boatmen to leave this place and go ashore for shelter, the Zhao official was slightly moved and asked casually: "Boatman, what cargo is on your boat?"
"Let Emperor Zhao know that these are just two ships of oranges and should be presented to him as tribute!" The meticulous captain in the lead was startled and suddenly came to his senses, then bowed down on the deck again.
"How can I ask you to contribute?" Zhao Jiu couldn't help but laugh, but asked again. "How can there still be oranges at this time? I ate a lot of oranges in Bagong Mountain, but they only lasted until the end of the first month of the lunar year."
"Good instructor, the family knows," another slightly older but slightly timid boat owner gradually came to his senses, but he trembled and boldly peeked at the appearance of the Zhao official under the torch, and then spoke out directly like a bamboo tube pouring beans. "The secret recipe of my family and my brother-in-law's family is to take the best large oranges from the south that ripen in early winter, transport them back home, put them on wooden racks, cover them with pine branches, arrange them loosely, and put them in a ventilated cellar. Replace fresh pine branches every day, and the oranges can be kept fresh for a month longer than other families."
Zhao Jiu nodded repeatedly: "This way, I can earn a lot more than other vendors."
"It should be just as the emperor said!" The older merchant who had been a little timid before didn't see the look in his brother-in-law's eyes. He slapped his thigh in public and complained in front of the emperor and the three gentlemen in a Huaixi accent. "Isn't there a turmoil in Jingkang? I heard that the two emperors went to the north to hunt. And the official Ding who was in charge of us before was still the same after the peace, so we dare not ship the goods at will, so the oranges that should have been cleared out in previous years have not been sold out this year. It is precisely because of this that we took advantage of the withdrawal of official Ding a few days ago and quickly prepared two large ships to sell the inventory and prepare to go to Shouchun to sell, but we didn't expect to meet the emperor!"
Zhao Jiu seemed to be thinking about something, but then smiled again: "In that case, it is I who delayed your family from selling oranges..."
"Don't dare say that!" The young and meticulous merchant could no longer bear it, so he grabbed his brother-in-law and kowtowed again. "My brother-in-law is ignorant and speaks nonsense, so please don't mind it, sir."
"No problem," Zhao Jiu laughed even harder, but he spoke slowly to the older merchant. "Your two boatloads of oranges must have several thousand, right? How much per pound? Maybe it would be a little cheaper if I bought the whole boatload?"
At this time, the older vendor also came to his senses and looked at his brother-in-law in a panic.
Emperor Zhao did not care at all. He sent people to the shore to find unrelated vendors in the market to inquire about the market price of oranges in previous springs, and also to find out the number of oranges... There were about six or seven thousand oranges, which far exceeded the number of soldiers... Then he asked Lan Gui to take the money to give to the two men, and asked the two vendors to help, and asked the soldiers to row the boats in teams to get the oranges, which were to be distributed to Banzhi and Huyan Tong's troops on the shore and on the boat, and the rest would be delivered to him.
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