Yunzhou loses its greenery as soon as autumn arrives, and all people eat are cabbage and potatoes.
The fresh vegetables from Baolinju were no longer supplied to the garrison, but were instead sold at high prices at Tianxianglou.
In Suijinwei, vegetables can only be bought from the town, and they are usually bean sprouts and seedlings grown by farmers in their own cellars.
After unloading, Song Liyun also mentioned that she was going to the herders' homes to collect furs.
Gao Xiaoqi, who brought them here, had already told them that the person who came was Manager Song, and with Luo Baihu's instructions, Shitanbao cooperated.
There are three or four herding families near Shitanbao. Each family drives their sheep out of the mountain pass to graze, and they usually live in dugouts outside.
They would wait until the heavy snow blocked the mountain pass before driving the sheep back.
There was no road leading out of the military fortress, so the carts were parked inside. The soldiers of Shitan Fortress were on patrol on horseback, and they took Song Liyun and the other person to find the herdsmen.
Outside Shitanbao lies the Gobi Desert, where withered grass of varying heights sways in the wind, and flocks of sheep graze among the grass roots that are still damp between the rocks.
The appearance of Song Liyun and her group immediately drew barking from the herders' dogs, who were busy working and rushed over.
The soldier leading the way shooed away the pack of dogs and shouted loudly to an old man with a hunched back wrapped in a sheepskin robe: "Old Jiang, this is Miss Song. She's here specifically to buy mutton and leather goods. Bring out all your stock to sell!"
When Old Jiang heard that it was about buying sheepskins, he shook his head repeatedly: "No, I need to prepare a dowry for my daughter this year, and the sheepskins at home are for her to take to her in-laws' house."
The sergeant suddenly realized, "Oh dear! I forgot, Jiang Xiaoni is already fifteen years old."
As they were talking, a girl with somewhat dirty clothes and a ruddy complexion came out shyly and saluted the soldier.
They clearly knew each other very well.
Old Jiang's family doesn't have any furs, but other families probably do, just not in this place.
The soldier handed Song Liyun and the other woman over to Old Jiang, instructing him not to neglect their duties, before going to patrol the front.
Old Jiang's family didn't have any furs, so he led Song Liyun and Song Dekui a few miles away and bought a few sheepskins from two other herders.
Song Liyun was naturally dissatisfied with these things.
That's not her goal either.
The sheepskins were bundled up, and it was getting dark!
Song Liyun did not return to Shitanbao, but instead stayed overnight at Old Jiang's house in Shidiwo.
Old Jiang's family consists of ten people: the elderly couple, two sons and two daughters-in-law, three grandsons, and fifteen-year-old Jiang Xiaoni, the youngest daughter who is about to become a bride.
The herders lived a very simple life, and Song Liyun didn't eat or drink for free. She took out a small bag of cornmeal and a small packet of salt as payment.
Grain and salt are good things.
Old Jiang was initially unhappy about having two more mouths to feed, but when she saw Song Liyun give her grain and salt, her expression immediately brightened.
Not only did he put some milk skin on the table, but he also immediately asked his two wives to bring out a lamb leg that had been stored for a long time to stew. He also put some dark, dried vegetable flatbread in the pot so they could soak in the lamb soup later.
When the Jiang family's son returned home from herding sheep in the evening, he was quite surprised to see two strangers in the house, especially when he saw a girl in the wilderness.
When Old Jiang said that Song Liyun was Manager Song from Tianxianglou in Qili County, they suddenly realized.
The herders needed to meet with the soldiers of Shitanbao frequently, so they naturally heard about how a garrison soldier had to travel dozens of miles to get a meal.
Hearing the soldiers mention the fragrant roasted meat and large plates of soft pancakes, the Jiang family couldn't help but drool; they rarely had the chance to eat such things.
Upon seeing Steward Song, one would naturally inquire about Qili County, Tianxiang Tower, and the matter of the grand feast.
Song Liyun was both amused and exasperated. It was just a few days of buffet meals, was it really worth talking about for so long?
The main problem is the lack of food on the grasslands.
She has no time to think about business now; she has to patiently explain Qili County and Tianxianglou to the Jiang family.
“Tianxianglou is selling five sheep every day now, and we’re running out of mutton. That’s why I came out to see if there’s any mutton we can send over.”
When the Jiang family heard that Tianxianglou was selling five sheep a day, they were stunned. They had a total of seventy or eighty sheep, which was not enough for Tianxianglou to sell in a month.
Song Liyun's statement was rather conservative.
Besides lamb, Tianxianglou also buys beef jerky, and dry goods shops in the prefecture have already come to discuss purchasing goods from Tianxianglou.
The Jiang family had no doubt about Song Liyun's statement.
The soldiers at the fort eat a whole cow in one meal.
After talking about Tianxiang Tower, Song Liyun began to inquire about things on the grasslands.
In the afternoon, she heard from Jiang Xiaoni that a small Di tribe consisting of five families had moved to the Gobi Desert outside Shitanbao.
Her future husband's family is the clan chief among them.
While Song Liyun was talking about Qili County, Song Dekui hadn't said a word. Now, he got excited and asked directly: How can the Wu people and the Di people intermarry?
Song Liyun was also curious. Although the border people of the Wu Dynasty did not hate the Di people to the bone, they were still irreconcilable enemies. How could they marry without any grudges? Even her own marriage had to be kept secret.
You wouldn't know unless you asked, and what you found out was shocking: Old Jiang's two wives were both from the Di ethnic group.
Song Liyun then realized that these herdsmen did not understand what consanguineous marriage was; they only knew that if their daughters married into close-kin families, they would anger the gods and give birth to monsters.
This is also common knowledge widely circulated on the grasslands.
The Di people also do not allow marriage within their tribe.
Therefore, in sparsely populated border areas, as long as there is no direct conflict between the herders on both sides, intermarriage is actually very frequent, which is also a way to maintain local peace.
Through Jiang's two sons, Song Liyun finally heard about what was happening on the grasslands.
The tribes that migrated to Hungry Wolf Beach came from the Mida River Valley.
I heard that it's already a battlefield.
The Mida River Valley, which was originally a place where various tribes spent the winter, is now in chaos.
The newly rising Uda tribe is consolidating its tribes, and the sense of crisis is driving the Donglun tribe to also rush to expand its population.
Several minor skirmishes have already taken place between the two sides. Although there has been no real battle, it is clear to everyone that they are sharpening their knives and testing their courage and strength.
This is a harbinger of an impending great war.
Some small tribes, unwilling to be drawn into the fighting, avoided the conflict and had to risk migrating from their wintering grounds.
Jiang Xiaoni's family's tribe consists of only five households, totaling more than thirty people, and they raise dozens of cattle and hundreds of sheep.
They were too weak, and neither side of the tribes looked down on them. They dared not stay near the Mida River Valley, so they moved closer to the Wu Dynasty.
This way, they can exchange for some necessities and find marriage partners for the children in the tribe.
These small tribes, which have little fighting power, are close to the Zhenbei Army's defense line. As long as they are notified in advance and stay put, and pay a few live sheep and felt blankets as taxes, they will generally not be driven away.
Song Dekui was very interested in the affairs of the grassland tribes and kept asking how much dowry it would take to marry a grassland girl and how to become a son-in-law.
Would any girl in the tribe marry a man as skinny as him?
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