In the first year of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty, the ninth year of Liao Tianqing, and the fifth year of Xia Yongning, on the fourth day of July, Sun Tu's Liao caravan finally arrived in Xixia after more than a month of long journey.
After going through several hardships, crossing the vast Gobi Desert, and crossing the Muna Mountains, which were still covered with snow in June and July, they were finally able to walk out of the desolate area. They gradually saw some figures and walked forward a little further. After a while, a city covering an extremely large area appeared in front of everyone, which suddenly lifted the spirits of the already exhausted people.
This is a city with a circumference of nearly twenty miles. The city walls are made of rammed loess and are seven to eight feet high. A glance at it from a distance is enough to make people feel the solemnity and majesty of this city. In fact, in the Song Dynasty, such cities were larger than ordinary county towns. Even Qingzhou City was much taller than it. However, because it was located in an environment surrounded by mountains and deserts, only one city was isolated among them. In the eyes of the businessmen, he looked particularly imposing, and it also gave people a sense of dependence and security. At least after entering this city, you no longer have to worry about being attacked by wild beasts or horse bandits while sleeping in the wild.
However, when they thought of the word horse bandit, the people who were approaching the tall city gate guarded by dozens of soldiers still felt a little nervous. If it were true as they suspected, the group of horse bandits with the alias Gray Wolf were disguised as the Xixia army. Once this was revealed, all of them would be dead.
But now that we are all here, there is no chance of turning back timidly. After a few glances at each other, the first few businessmen strode forward with apprehension.
The Xixia soldiers who were guarding the city were quite enthusiastic towards them. The leading officer only asked and checked the goods and horses that everyone carried with them, as well as the relevant procedures, and then let everyone enter the city after accepting a large fee for entering the city. . In fact, what border towns like this and the civilian garrison inside are most happy to see is the arrival of caravans, because their arrival means a large amount of goods and business opportunities, which can make the entire border town more lively and lively.
When he saw the leader of the businessmen paying the soldiers, Sun Tu was slightly stunned. The copper coins he paid were actually the treasures of the Song Dynasty, not gold and silver and other precious metals as he imagined, or the coins of the Liao Kingdom. Homemade coins.
In fact, although the three Central Plains countries, including Tubo, Nanzhao and other small countries, all cast their own coins, the quality of their copper coins is unstable due to deficiencies in craftsmanship and other aspects, and is far inferior to the treasure coins of the Song Dynasty. This is not a problem in their respective countries, but once cross-border trade occurs, other countries cannot be convinced. Therefore, over the past few decades, both Liao and Xia and other countries have formed a tacit understanding that only Song people's treasure money will be used for cross-border transactions!
It can be said that today’s Song Dynasty is the most advanced existence in the entire era in terms of economy, culture, technology, etc., and its influence is even greater than that of the Lighthouse Kingdom a thousand years later. However, today’s Song Dynasty prefers military It seems a bit weak, so even though it is far superior to other countries in other aspects, it can only protect itself and cannot really act as the so-called world police like the lighthouse country. In fact, it is the biggest troublemaker in the world.
At this time, Sun Tu didn't know about this general trend. Although he felt strange, he didn't take it too seriously. He quickly followed the team.
Then we entered the city called Wu Lahai.
Compared with those cities in the Song Dynasty and the two southwestern capitals of the Liao Kingdom, this city, which looks relatively large on the outside, looks very shabby on the inside. In addition to the continuous military camps, there are only a few hundred sparse residential buildings scattered around. Southwest of the city.
On the street leading directly from the city gate to the city, there were not many people seen at this time, and the few who were there were wearing old clothes. However, the figure of ordinary people here is stronger than that of Song soldiers. Their red and black faces, bronze skin, and exposed muscles give people a rough and heroic atmosphere.
While Sun Tu was still looking around to appreciate the folk customs and characteristics of Xixia Kingdom, other businessmen had already begun to prepare for the next move. They soon found the only inn in the city. Although this inn occupies a huge area, there are very few guests. When he saw that a caravan of more than a hundred people had arrived today, the owner of the inn was so happy that he almost lost sight of it. He hurriedly nodded and walked forward in person. Say hello, and the guys on the side helped the caravan guys take the horses and other livestock to the back to be corralled without being asked.
The merchants were exhausted from living in the open for more than a month. Now that they entered the city, they naturally relaxed and asked the innkeeper to bring them good wine and food. The other party was even more happy when he heard this, and hurriedly ran to the back and ordered the kitchen people to prepare the best food and wine as soon as possible.
After he had arranged all these things, several businessmen chatted with him about the specific situation and business opportunities of Wu Lahai City. This is also one of the reasons why they spend a lot of money as soon as they arrive at the inn. Only such innkeepers are the best informants in the city.
Holding a bag of copper coins handed over by the merchants, the man burst into laughter and introduced the city to them in somewhat blunt Chinese (just as Song Bao coins are commonly used in trade between several countries, several countries Human beings are also accustomed to using the official dialect of the Song Dynasty, which is also a sign that the cultural and economic soft power of the Song Dynasty is much stronger than other countries): "Our Wulahai City is just a border military city. Except for the garrison, the other population is only three Five thousand. Originally, because of its proximity to Daliao, caravans could still come from time to time, which attracted some foreign businessmen to try their luck here. However, since horse bandits appeared in the Gobi ahead five years ago, the caravans were They are coming less and less, so gradually, businessmen are coming less and less, and even the sales market in the southwest that has been open for decades is about to be completely closed." As he said that, he sighed with some dejection: " Think about it, my store could receive hundreds of people every month, but now, it is difficult to receive hundreds of people a year."
When everyone heard this, they all felt a little uneasy. Fortunately, the other party didn't bother too much about the horse bandits, and then laughed again: "But it's good luck for everyone to come these days, because in five or six days, it will be the semi-annual big market day in our country. At that time, many people nearby will come to the city to buy and exchange for some things. If you don't leave in a hurry, you might be able to exchange for some good things."
Although currency has become popular thousands of years ago, it is still impossible for some remote people in Xixia to take out coins casually, so the tradition of bartering is still retained in such markets. But in getting
After learning about this, several businessmen showed a hint of joy. This was a good opportunity to make a fortune.
In terms of knowledge, scheming, eloquence, etc., these businessmen are far superior to ordinary people. This refers to those who are in the city and have seen and eaten. And those remote herdsmen from Xia Kingdom who will come to Wu Lahai City for trading are a group of simple-minded guys. In the eyes of merchants, they are clearly a group of fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. If they seize the opportunity, they can exchange a lot of good things from those people at a very low price. It is very possible to exchange a piece of fur for a large piece of gemstone, let alone other things.
Sun Tu was listening and saw the greed flashing in the eyes of the businessmen, which made him feel a little funny. From the looks of it, they seemed to be planning to leave Wu Lahai as soon as possible and rush to the larger city behind to do business. But now it seems that these people have to stay here for a while.
In addition, he also saw that the innkeeper also said this with his own purpose. After all, the caravan of more than a hundred people stayed in the inn, and the daily consumption of food and horse feeding was a large amount. Naturally, he will be able to earn considerable profits from it. It can be said that he is the one who has made huge profits without losing money. At least others have not yet exchanged for good things. He has already pocketed a large amount of money.
However, Sun Tu was not very interested in this. He came to Xixia not to make money, but to disrupt the Xia Kingdom so that it would be unable to make trouble for at least a few years. To do this, small border towns like Wu Lahai have no value at all. You must go to the important places of Xia Kingdom, such as Yinzhou and Lingzhou.
Just as I was thinking about how to say goodbye to them and borrow some money from Huangfu Duan, the innkeeper over there had already brought jars of local wine and dishes of authentic local delicacies.
The people who were already hungry didn't say anything anymore and sat around drinking and eating meat. The wine here certainly doesn't taste good, not only is it sour, but it even has a bit of a bitter taste, but fortunately it is strong and strong enough, and once you get used to it, it has a different flavor. As for the dishes, they are actually just meat, and most of them are grilled, so you can hardly see the cooked food.
In fact, this is easy to understand, because the altitude here is much higher than that of places such as the Liao and Song Dynasties, and it takes much longer to thoroughly cook meat than to grill it directly. Of course, this is not the most critical point. The more important thing is that there are only two pots in the only inn in Wu Lahai, and there is no time to prepare a large amount of food for them. The Song Dynasty has always regarded ironware as an absolute prohibited item. Fortunately, in the Liao Kingdom, in Xixia, especially in remote cities such as these, iron pots and the like are completely luxuries.
But even though the dishes were simple, everyone still ate with gusto. In the blink of an eye, they ate all the three sheep they had just killed before going back to their guest rooms to rest.
Even Sun Tu didn't rush to leave at this time, but had a good sleep first. After all, they have never had a solid night's sleep during this journey...
&&&&&
Second update