Chapter 56: The merchants’ bonfires were lit at Dashengkui, and Yunqi returned...
The bonfires of the merchants over there were lit. Yunqi looked back and saw that Fan Yuqi was talking about something happy with them, and they were laughing.
Looking at the dark situation around him, Yunqi knew everything in his mind and said to the young man, "You came here to look for me, right? If you have anything to say, just tell me."
The young man nicknamed Wang Erbazi scratched his head and laughed: "Oh, I was discovered. You have a good eye. You are indeed extraordinary. I wanted to come over and get close to you just now."
Yunqi folded his arms and looked at him coldly. He knew that he was planning this.
But the way of raising sheep that this person just talked about sounded quite interesting. Yunqi asked: "Have you ever done such a business before?"
"It's not my business. When I first started to make a living, someone took care of the sheep." Wang Erbazi said, "The boss was in a hurry to sell the sheep in the spring, so I told him to feed them grass for two more months so that each sheep could grow fatter. I discovered this when I was a child observing the big farmers in the village raising sheep, but the man was in a hurry to sell the sheep, so he didn't listen."
"I think your business is big, so if you can use this method, it will definitely be beneficial. After raising the sheep for two or three months, the fat lost will be restored. When it is time to sell them, each sheep will have at least two or three pounds of meat, and the selling price will be very high. Isn't this a good thing?"
The scar on the young man's face relaxed as he smiled, making him look less vicious and more honest.
Since he was free anyway, Yunqi simply started chatting with him.
"You said my family is big? My business is big? How do you say that?"
The young man said with a joking face, "We are all small businessmen wandering around outside. We have heard that at the beginning of this year, His Majesty specially granted the twelve imperial merchants with the ticket office to go north for business. Everyone was very envious. Seeing such a respectable team and so many sheep here today, I can tell at a glance that you have an extraordinary temperament. In fact, even the young master of the Fan family, the strongest among the twelve families, is very respectful in front of you. If you are not a noble person, who else can be?"
Yunqi: "Go on."
Seeing that she was not impatient, the man continued to speak.
"I'm just making a bold guess. You said there are many nobles in Mobei, including princes, dukes, and magistrates. Many of them are capable of doing this. But it's rare to let a woman lead a caravan to do business. Apart from the golden branch and green leaf who just arrived in Mobei, there seems to be no one else who can be considered."
"You are quite clever." Yunqi saw that this person seemed quite capable, and then he remembered what the princess said before she left, that if there was a chance, she could recruit some small merchants to do business, so he said, "If there is a chance, you can raise ten sheep and see."
Wang Erbazi understood a little bit of what he meant, and was so surprised that he told him all his business details. It turned out that he had gathered some money with two friends at the end of last year and came to this place to do business. He had been to Uliastai several times. Like Guihuacheng, there were troops stationed there, so there was demand. Most of the merchants in this small stronghold did business there.
Yunqi listened and kept it in mind. This Uliasutai seems to be a good place for business. I can report it to the princess later. When my camel team is built, I can send someone to take a look. This scar may be useful.
In the night, Wang Erbazi returned to the campfire with an excited look on his face. At this time, many of the merchants had drunk wine and were tired of chatting, so they went back to their small tents to rest. His two assistants also lay on the ground, snoring loudly.
Wang Erbazi stepped forward and shook the man awake: "Hey, hey, wake up."
Not awake.
He slapped the man twice on the face, and the two companions finally woke up: "What's wrong?"
"There are gadflies. Let me fan them away for you." Wang Erbazi said seriously.
A taller friend looked at him suspiciously and said, "Second brother, why don't you come to the campfire to have a farewell drink? We were so sad that we drank up the last bit of wine." Another one also said, "Ah, thinking that this might be the last time on this grassland, I feel like crying."
The three of them had been doing business for a year, but not only did they not make any money, they even lost all the copper coins they brought with them. There was nothing they could do. As people from a poor village, they thought that Wang Er had an acquaintance who worked as a handyman in Uliastai, and that they could use this connection to resell some things. But who knew that the acquaintance was so ruthless that he asked for money as soon as he asked, and then he didn't do anything after he took it, saying that there were many connections between people in the army, so it was normal that some things could not be done.
Thinking of this, Wang Erbazi snorted: "Why are we going to break up? No! There is a road to heaven right before us!"
One of the guys came to his senses and said, "Why are you so hysterical again? Didn't we agree to sell all our goods to others at a low price?"
"That's right. I was thinking about going back to celebrate the New Year, then renting two acres of land and finding a wife." Another friend was obviously dissatisfied.
Seeing this, Wang Erbazi fell to his knees. He had always been like a big brother to these two people, but now he suddenly knelt down before them, and the two people's eyes widened.
"I beg you, this is the last time, just this once. If it doesn't work, I will completely give up and go back to work as your farmhand for a year to repay you for this favor!"
Wang Erbazi was a ruthless man. Although Yunqi didn't give him a word of assurance, he was willing to give it a try. At this point, the two men had no choice but to follow. Together, the three of them, "nameless and without any place" followed Yunqi's caravan, chasing lost sheep, pulling grass to feed livestock, and willing to do any dirty and tiring work.
When Fan Yuqi came to check on the princess' sheep, he also noticed the "three people". He asked about the situation with caution, but found that they were just a few mud legs without any trace. Yunqi didn't seem to think much of them, so he let them go. He thought it was just three more farmhands.
Wang Erba Zi followed the team like this, happily accompanying the sheep. When they arrived at the foot of Guihua City, the soldiers actually counted him and the others as part of the caravan led by Yunqi when they were testing their documents. He was so happy that he picked ten sheep and washed them to get rid of the dust on the road. The white fur looked very good to sell.
Guihua City was still the same. After Fei Gong retired and returned home, he sent another general. However, this general had a lukewarm attitude towards the merchants and hardly ever intervened in their affairs. Many rules remained the same as before.
What surprised Wang Erbazi was that a man in official robes came to visit Yunqi. In the past, he couldn't even reach the man by nodding, bowing, and bowing, but now he suddenly seemed to be very polite. It was really strange.
After observing for a few days, Yunqi called Wang Erbazi over and gave him twenty taels of silver: "This is the capital. I plan to open a small business and you will be the manager."
Wang Erbazi thanked him profusely and was about to kowtow.
"Okay, stop being so pretentious. It's only right to work hard." Yunqi said, "Do you have any idea for a store name that's catchy?"
"How about calling it Dashengkui? Sheng means prosperous, and Kui means leader." Wang Erbazi said with a smile, "I've always dreamed of being a shopkeeper. I've even asked someone to calculate this name, and it's very auspicious."
"Da Shengkui, right? I understand."
Yunqi went back to the house and wrote down the name of this business in the register. There were also two other business names on the paper, which were also auspicious and prosperous. For small vendors like Wang Erbazi, she invested in two other businesses after entering the city. As the princess said, eggs should not be put in the same basket.
Although the Fan family is still very diligent in their work, they still need to plan ahead and reserve more talents in the business for the princess.
Yunqi recorded the names of these shops and the names of the shopkeepers and put them in a wooden box, ready to compile them into a book after finding out the situation in Yangma Market, and let the merchants who took the goods to Mobei to sell them bring them back to the princess. There is no post station on this road now, so she has to rely on these mobile merchants to pass messages. This is also one of the reasons why she is eager to take over a few small businesses.
With the princess as my relationship, the paperwork for the store was processed very quickly. It was completed within two days.
After receiving the merchant document with the words "Da Sheng Kui" written on it, Wang Erbazi kissed the paper again and again excitedly. Together with his two assistants, they were ecstatic and vowed to work hard to earn a good future and live up to this opportunity of hope.
Suddenly he became the shopkeeper, and Aunt Yunqi even gave him an advance of salary so that he could choose two decent clothes to wear, so as not to lose face. Wang Erbazi changed into a brand new blue cloth gown, which was starched and crisp, and had a quilted lining to keep warm in the coming winter.
He took some time to meet up with some old acquaintances, and everyone who saw him said, "Oh, you've made a fortune."
"No, no, let's get rich together." Everyone was chatting over brick tea. Since they were talking about getting rich, one of them lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the court is planning a sheep road, which is said to be convenient for us to drive sheep from Guihua City to Beijing City."
"Nonsense, the government is in charge of this?" Another waved his hand and said, "I also tried to drive sheep to Beijing once before, but I had no support and I had to bleed every time I passed a city. Those who asked for money ate more grass than the sheep."
"That's right. Anyway, the masters of the Eight Banners have enough sheep to eat, so why bother with this?"
…
Wang Erbazi listened to the idle chatter and was moved. If it was his current master, he might really have this ability.
Most of the merchants who came back from Mobei sold the sheep they brought back at the newly built official sheep and horse market, exchanging them for silver or new goods such as tea, preparing to sell them again. Only Aunt Yunqi's caravan still kept a large number of sheep, and there was also the Fan family who didn't sell any, they must have known the news early and were waiting for the east wind to come.
Wang Erbazi therefore went to ask Aunt Yunqi to take him to Beijing to broaden his horizons.
"Don't you want to fatten the sheep?"
"I have told my two brothers, they will definitely take good care of the sheep. I can also look after them on the way."
Yunqi didn't care and agreed.
It was a clear and cool autumn day, so Wang Erbazi picked an auspicious day and set out with a group of sheep.
As expected, a Beijing Sheep Road was set up! A special road was planned, and some locals came out to help maintain it along the way to prevent the sheep from running into the fields beside the road. It’s okay if there are no crops in the fields now, but if there are green crops in spring and summer, and the sheep eat the crops, there will definitely be disputes.
How could such a difficult clerk be willing to obey? Wang Erbazi was very curious. Even if there were official documents, there were so many official documents every year. If the subordinates did not do things perfunctorily, it would be difficult to get things done.
He was really curious, so he went to ask Aunt Yunqi.
"It's definitely not possible to convince them to do things just by relying on documents." Yunqi said, "They are willing to do things because the princess said in her memorial that one point of the three-point sheep tax collected would be specifically allocated to the maintenance officials along the route."
Wang Erbazi suddenly understood.
The princess is truly a deity! This time, he is following the God of Wealth, no, the Goddess of Wealth.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
