Chapter Twenty-Nine: How can the people of Qihuai County be both simple and cunning!
Wu Lanxi stood there stunned for a moment.
Moving the stones was already difficult enough, but getting a whole bag of potatoes out of the cellar was even harder.
However, according to the woman, she was not the most powerful person in Qihuai County.
"The people of Qihuai County have all come from humble beginnings, enduring hardship step by step. To survive, they had to cultivate wasteland and build their own houses. Even the women were not pampered like those in the capital..."
Xie Wu whispered in Wu Lanxi's ear.
The woman smiled and said, "Lord Tang once said that women can hold up half the sky. As women of Qihuai County, we cannot bring shame to Qihuai County."
She opened the sack with a smile, revealing potatoes inside that were larger than an adult man's fist.
"Since you're here to do business with Lord Tang, then this bag of potatoes is for you to eat. Take it with you when you leave."
They just sent it to me?
You just gave away this bag of food without any hesitation?
At this moment, Wu Lanxi could no longer doubt what Xie Wu had said; perhaps these potatoes really were cheap.
But at the same time, she also sensed the woman's simplicity and kindness.
Touched, Wu Lanxi said, "If I want to buy more potatoes, can you sell them to me?"
The woman smiled and waved her hand, "No problem, no problem. How many do you want? Three bags? Five bags? I'll give them all to you. I'm just leaving them here anyway."
Lin Wan'er was struck dumb, stunned and frozen in place.
Wu Lanxi shook her head vigorously, "Not enough, we need a lot more."
"You want more? It's not a big deal, but if you want more, I can't just give them away for free."
"Okay, I'll take all the potatoes you have in your cellar."
The woman pondered for a moment, "I have about fifty bags of potatoes in my cellar, if you want them all..."
She hesitated halfway through her sentence.
I'm a little unsure.
A moment later, she held up five fingers and gently bit her lip, seemingly worried that Wu Lanxi would refuse.
Fifty taels of silver for fifty bags of potatoes—that seems a bit too expensive…
As far as Wu Lanxi knew, even in the capital, one tael of silver was enough to buy a bag of rice, weighing more than 300 jin.
"Isn't it a bit expensive?"
Wu Lanxi was puzzled.
If potatoes are priced like this, they probably won't be enough to cover disaster relief costs.
Upon hearing this, the woman raised her eyebrows and said, "You think five taels is too expensive? Then how about this, three taels, three taels of silver and you can have all these potatoes."
"What?"
Wu Lanxi and Lin Wan'er shouted out those two words almost in unison.
So it wasn't fifty taels, but five taels of silver?
By this calculation, the price of potatoes is only one-tenth that of rice.
Xie Wu, feigning a laugh, said, "I told you long ago that potatoes are cheap food in Qihuai County. Now you believe me, right?"
Wu Lanxi nodded vigorously and hurriedly urged, "I want all the potatoes. Get ready."
As she spoke, she took out three taels of silver from her purse and handed it over.
But the woman did not accept it.
The woman realized from the appearance of the two people opposite her that she had offered too little.
"Is there anything else?"
Wu Lanxi also realized something.
The woman suddenly grinned and said, "I can sell you the potatoes for this price, but as you can see, they are very heavy. It will be tiring for me to carry them all out, so you will have to give me a few more taels of silver."
Wu Lanxi was speechless for a moment.
It turns out they wanted more money.
He seemed so innocent and kind before, how did he suddenly become so cunning like Tang Huan?
Are all the people of Qihuai County like that magistrate, with the upper beam crooked and the lower beam crooked as well?
In the end, Wu Lanxi and the woman agreed on a price of three taels of silver for potatoes and two taels for labor.
At the same time, she also told the woman that she needed a large quantity of potatoes and asked her to spread the word to other families in the county so that she could send people to transport the potatoes to Kuizhou after she returned home.
Upon hearing this, the woman was overjoyed and quickly ran out of the house, leaving the group of people behind.
"There really is food this cheap! Kuizhou is saved..."
During her conversation with the woman, Wu Lanxi learned that Qihuai County now has a population of 30,000 to 40,000, with some households having as many as five or six people, while others are completely alone.
Every household has potatoes stored in their cellars, which is quite a staggering number.
More importantly, this thing is very cheap.
It's so cheap it's unbelievable.
"Your Majesty, it's unbelievable that dozens of bags of potatoes only cost five taels of silver. I doubt anyone in the capital would believe that."
Lin Wan'er sighed deeply.
"yes……"
Wu Lanxi's brows suddenly furrowed deeply.
She recalled her previous experience selling white sugar in the capital. A box of white sugar cost one hundred taels and sold out in just a few days, almost to the point of being snapped up.
The powerful and influential figures in the court were all vying to be first, fearing that they would fall behind others.
If they had used the money they spent on sugar to buy potatoes, the disaster in Kuizhou would have been resolved much earlier.
They all complain endlessly in the imperial court, but when it comes to actually spending money, they run far away.
Thinking of this, Wu Lanxi wished she could drag all these officials out and execute them.
Xie Wu walked to Wu Lanxi's side, and she snapped out of her thoughts.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid we should inform Tang Huan about this matter."
"That's how it should be."
After all, he was going to buy up all the potatoes in the entire stock of Qihuai County, which was a big deal, so he had to inform Tang Huan first, otherwise it wouldn't be right.
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