The magistrate of Yongshan County came to the prefectural city on business these past few days. He was pestered by One-Eyed King to avenge the people of Qinggang Mountain. Unexpectedly, during the struggle between the two, they saw Meng Tianze driving his carriage to the back gate of the cloth shop.
The horse that Meng Tianze was riding was the one-eyed king's former mount, and he recognized it at a glance.
"You wouldn't mistake the horse, but where are the people? Do you remember that man and woman from just now?" The magistrate of Yongshan County squinted at the direction where the carriage had disappeared.
One-Eyed King shook his head. "It was too dark at night, the torches didn't illuminate the area well, and there were too many people that night, men, women, and children, so I really couldn't recognize them."
Although he had met Jiang Qinyu before, she was dressed in men's clothing at the time, and it was indeed difficult to see clearly at night.
As for Meng Tianze, although he had been hunting for many years and his skills and reflexes were better than ordinary people, his height and build were too common in the crowd, and One-Eyed King could not be sure at all.
“It’s also possible that those people stole your horses and sold them,” the magistrate of Yongshan County pondered. “However, the missing items must not be known to anyone. Since there is a clue, you should quickly find someone to follow them. Regardless of whether it is them or not, do not act rashly.”
This one-eyed king has already ruined one big thing, so he doesn't expect to do anything good now.
Although One-Eyed King was unwilling, he dared not go against the magistrate of Yongshan County, so he could only clasp his hands in agreement and go find someone to make arrangements.
Seeing the one-eyed king leave, the magistrate of Yongshan County stood there for a moment before finally leaving.
The magistrate of Yongshan County is surnamed Zhu and named Youcai. He was transferred to Yongshan County three years ago.
After he took office, the people of Yongshan County had an even harder time, simply because after Zhu Youcai was transferred, taxes from entering the city to other exorbitant levies were increasing year by year.
Previously, Yongshan County did not have a tax on people entering the city, but now anyone entering the city, including infants, is subject to a tax of two copper coins per person.
The people were suffering terribly, but there was nothing they could do.
However, what the common people didn't know was that this was just one of Zhu Youcai's methods of accumulating wealth.
...
When Jiang Qinyu and Meng Tianze returned to Kangyue Inn, Liu Erleng and the others also came back.
This time, instead of going to Jiang Qinyu's room, the group sat in a corner of the inn's lobby and talked about their respective responsibilities in purchasing items.
"Erleng and I went to check on the grain. The price of grain in the prefectural city is higher than in Yongshan County, but there isn't much grain left in Yongshan County. So we still ordered 5,000 catties of coarse grain and 2,000 catties of fine grain. The shopkeeper said we'd go pick it up tomorrow morning."
“We went to see the cotton that Sister-in-law Lu mentioned. We searched many places before we finally found it. That stuff is definitely warm, but it’s ridiculously expensive. Liu Yazi and I only ordered two hundred catties.”
"Dacheng and I went to see it..."
After everyone else had finished speaking, attention turned to Jiang Qinyu.
"Brother Meng and I went to buy some cloth this afternoon. We spent the whole afternoon negotiating with the shopkeeper, and she gave us a much cheaper price, lower than the price in Yongshan County." Jiang Qinyu only gave the basic information and did not specify how much she bought.
Meng Tianze got excited and added with a wide grin, "Guess how much fabric we bought?"
Everyone shook their heads, and Liu Yazi asked, "How much?"
“Hehe,” Meng Tianze gestured, “this number.”
"Eighty horses?" Chen Shao asked hesitantly.
Meng Tianze continued to chuckle, "Guess boldly."
"It can't be eight hundred horses, can it?" Liu Yazi blurted out, not quite believing it.
"Haha...you guessed right this time! My sister-in-law only spent less than two hundred taels of silver to get us eight hundred bolts of all kinds of cloth!" Meng Tianze was still very excited when he thought about it.
The others gasped in astonishment. Eight hundred horses—what did that even mean?
A bolt of cloth from the Daiyue region was four zhang long, which is more than thirteen meters. Based on the average height of people in that era, it could make at least five or six sets of clothing.
Moreover, cloth, like gold and silver, is a form of hard currency, used for almost anything, and is an indispensable item in people's homes.
However, Yongshan County was too remote and transportation was difficult, so the price of cloth was even more expensive than in the prefectural city. People in Dingshui Village might not be able to buy a single bolt of cloth all year round.
"With this cloth, will we all have new clothes to wear?" Liu Yazi asked with bright eyes.
Chen Shao rolled his eyes at him, "That depends on how hard you work. In our village, we all earn points through work."
"I have to work myself to the bone for these new clothes!" Liu Yazi grinned foolishly.
Chen Shao was speechless. What kind of man likes to wear new clothes like that? So what if there are patches on the clothes? He would even admit his mistake if there were no patches!
Everyone was excited, after all, most of their families hadn't bought new fabric for several years, and the children were wearing clothes patched upon patched, which had to be passed down from older to younger children, which was heartbreaking to think about.
Seeing them like this, Jiang Qinyu felt quite sad.
She thought of the two elders of the Lu family and their two children.
The original owner only had one set of clothes without patches. That was prepared for her by her eldest brother in the Jiang family when she got married six years ago. Because she couldn't bear to wear it, she was able to avoid the fate of having to wear patches.
However, although the Lu family's clothes also had patches, Chen and the original owner of the body were both good at needlework, so the patches were not very noticeable.
"Alright, alright, now that we've finished, we can head back tomorrow with our stuff. But we have a lot of stuff, so everyone will have to walk the rest of the way back," Meng Tianze said with a smile.
"What's there to be afraid of when walking? Just thinking about how we won't go hungry this winter gives me so much energy!"
"And we shouldn't get cold this winter either. Just thinking about it makes me happy..."
Jiang Qinyu remembered her new task and carefully said, "I'll go check on the seeds again tomorrow. Even if they're not needed for the autumn planting, they can be used for the spring planting next year."
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