Chapter 114 Win-win Cooperation
The news that a large group of soldiers from the garrison had gone to work for the Song family again soon spread to the town, and Xue Zhuang knew it clearly.
Song Liyun was very good at cooking stinky intestines, so the people from the garrison brought the ingredients to the Song family and asked her to help cook.
He couldn't envy such a thing.
Xue Zhuang had mixed feelings during this period.
After sending his mother-in-law away, the house became quieter. Xu Yan'er became well-behaved and obedient, and even the postures on the kang could be adjusted to suit his wishes.
But the restaurant had to close.
Xu Yan'er and Cui Pozi have been running the business for two months. They are good at making porridge and steaming buns, but it is obviously not enough to cook a few dishes.
When it comes to cooking, let alone comparing with Song Liyun, she can't even cook some novel dishes. Even the braised acorn tofu is not evenly salted or oiled, or it's burnt, which makes people stop coming after a few times.
Without a major source of income, Xue Zhuang became short of money.
Although he had established connections with the garrison and got a small job, and received a monthly subsidy of fifty cents, the same as the monthly salary of those big-headed soldiers, it was obviously not enough for him to support his wife.
When Mrs. Cui was alive, her family ran a restaurant and could earn about ten or twenty coins a day from selling acorn tofu, which meant they could earn about five or six hundred coins a month.
Now that my mother-in-law is gone, not only has my income been cut off, but I'm also in debt to my brothers in the garrison. I have to find a way to pay them back.
To be honest, ever since Xue Zhuang knew that the Song family had fresh vegetables, he had an idea. He wanted to sell vegetables in his own restaurant.
But the price was too high, and the two families were not on good terms, so he didn't mention it, and it would be even more difficult to compete with the garrison.
Now that Mrs. Cui has left and Xu Yan'er has stopped making trouble, he wants to get some fresh vegetables and send them to Qili County to sell. Paying a higher price won't be considered poaching from the garrison.
He had already inquired about it. Tianxianglou in Qili County was a high-end restaurant. Each dish there cost one or two taels of silver, which was unaffordable for ordinary people.
The New Year is coming soon. If I can get some rare fresh vegetables to sell, I can at least have a good year and buy my wife a new set of clothes that she has been longing for for a long time.
But how to tell the Song family is embarrassing.
Just when he was racking his brains for a solution, he heard Wang Qi and others cooking at the Song family, which attracted cheers from the garrison.
This time, he could no longer sit still.
The next day, he went to the garrison to find an acquaintance to inquire about the situation and learned that the Song family was now sending a delivery every two days.
He wondered if he could talk to the garrison and have them sell some of the vegetables.
In fact, he was not the only one who had the same idea. The reason why there had been no movement in Suijin Town was because Song Liyun had previously given the acorn tofu only to Boss Mu for sale.
Moreover, Song Liyun also said that each of her products is sold exclusively, and others can only give some away for free.
Now the food is in the garrison, and no one dares to take the initiative to share a piece of the pie with the garrison.
Seeing that he had no money to celebrate the New Year, Xue Zhuang gritted his teeth and went to the garrison.
Not long after, a messenger came to call Song Liyun and Song Zhenping to the garrison, saying that Wang Junxu had something to discuss with them.
Song Liyun didn't know what was going on, so she hurried there with Song Zhenping.
Only when I entered the camp did I know that Captain Luo had returned.
Sitting in Captain Luo's office were the quartermaster Wang Zhong and two generals whom Song Liyun had met. However, another unexpected person was Xue Zhuang, who was also there.
Seeing Song Liyun and Song Zhenping, Captain Luo patted Song Zhenping on the shoulder and laughed: "Song Zhenping, I didn't expect that you can grow so many vegetables at such a young age. It can satisfy the appetites of us rough guys in the middle of winter. Not bad, not bad!"
Song Zhenping blushed under his praise and could only rub his hands and chuckle: "I don't have any other skills, I can only farm!"
Everyone else in the room followed suit, saying, "Being able to farm is a skill. Soldiers can fight, and farmers can farm. This is called doing one's job."
"A soldier who goes into battle is a hero, and one who can do farm work with skill is also a capable person."
Song Zhenping was almost overwhelmed by these people's praise. He could only laugh and say nothing.
After everyone had praised him for a while, Captain Luo spoke again, "Zhen Ping! The reason why I asked you brothers and sisters to come here today is like this.
The brothers in the garrison have worked hard as soldiers, and they should be rewarded with some good food, but... Alas! They can't just take care of themselves, they have wives and children at home who are waiting for their military pay."
After listening to Captain Luo talk about how hard the soldiers worked, Song Zhenping agreed deeply. No one works hard just for themselves, but more importantly for their families.
Song Liyun understood something, was he trying to exchange the vegetables for money?
Sure enough, after seeing Song Zhenping express sympathy, Captain Luo changed the subject and said, "So, I want to sell your vegetables for silver. Your price will remain the same from now on. I'll take as many as you want."
Song Zhenping was already stunned by what he said, and nodded naively: "We should really sell some money to buy winter clothes for the soldiers."
Song Liyun was very anxious. Why didn't they mention anything about their own dishes and just set the price?
She just opened her mouth: "Master Baihu..."
Captain Luo had already turned around, a triumphant smile on his simple face, hidden by his thick beard. "Miss Song, your brother has already agreed. Oh! You asked Wang about the military supplies earlier. I can give you the goods, but it can only be mortgaged."
Song Liyun froze for a moment, her mind racing, and she suddenly remembered what she had asked quartermaster Wang Zhong for.
Yesterday, I asked Wang Zhong about the products produced by the Di tribe. Wang Zhong said at that time that it was a serious crime for the Wu Dynasty army to communicate with the Di tribe.
It seems that items cannot be bought and sold publicly, but can be mortgaged privately.
It turns out that this is possible!
Song Liyun’s goal is not how much the vegetables can sell for, and she herself does not focus on the vegetables. There are many ways to make money.
For example, the goods of the Di tribe only need to be resold for three hundred taels of silver.
How many vegetables do you need to sell for three hundred taels of silver?
Based on the current high price of seven taels of silver per month, that's only eighty-four taels a year, and vegetables will be worthless by spring.
It would probably take at least five years to earn enough, but it would be easy to earn it by reselling a carpet.
Seeing that Song Liyun accepted to sell vegetables, Captain Luo immediately told her his plan: because it was not convenient for the garrison to directly participate in local business transactions, the only people who could sell the vegetables outside were the public.
Of course, the army prefers military households.
There are only two families in Suijin Town. Now the Song family is responsible for growing vegetables, and Xue Zhuang is responsible for selling them. The money is divided between the two families by the garrison for settlement.
In this way, with the guard post acting as an intermediary guarantor and providing security services, the two families no longer have to worry about trouble when doing business in Suijin Town.
The garrisons naturally profited the most from this, and they made money out of nothing without spending any money.
Several people in the room obviously knew about the wool carpet, and when they heard Captain Luo mention the mortgage, they all smiled knowingly.
There are plenty of those things in other brother guards.
The imperial court has always said that the Zhenbei Army is colluding with foreign races, and that the Di tribe's furs are monopolized by imperial merchants.
In order to avoid suspicion, the army has had to try its best to distance itself from the Di tribe in recent years.
Fur products are not easy to sell because they are shiny. They are occasionally used for mortgage loans or rewards, and the excess are piled up in the warehouse.
Only Xue Zhuang didn't understand what Captain Luo was talking about. He only knew that the Song family had agreed to let him sell vegetables, so he said happily, "Don't worry, Captain. I promise to supervise Brother Song's vegetable planting. He won't be able to slack off even if he wants to."
Now everyone was happy, and Xue Zhuang also started to joke with Song Zhenping.
But no one appreciated his joke.
The two generals had a half-smile on their faces, Song Liyun frowned, and Quartermaster Wang raised the corner of his mouth and sneered lightly.
(End of this chapter)
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