Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 165 Tea Horse Trading
The waiter looked at the shabby leather jackets on these Mongolians and said, "Our wine is not cheap, ten catties. Do you have that much money?"

Dosang said in a low voice, "We don't have much money, but there are a few horses at the door. They are all very good war horses. You can take one to pay for the wine!"

The waiter called out: "Are you trying to play tricks on us? Why do we need war horses? If we need a mule, it can pull a cart, but if we need a war horse, it's useless, and we have to feed it with fine grains. Isn't this against us? !"

Duosang took out his pockets, probably counting the copper coins in his pockets, his face turned bitter... It seemed that he really couldn't afford to buy ten catties of spirits.There is no way, such a place with frequent wars is short of supplies, and everything is expensive, such as wine, which everyone likes and consumes a lot of food, is naturally ridiculously expensive.Originally, it was no problem to exchange a war horse for a few hundred catties of wine, but the problem was that war horses were of no use to the common people, they were not as good as mules, so the waiter in the shop naturally refused to do it.

Several Mongolian men looked at each other, feeling extremely depressed.It is said that drinking wine can relieve sorrow and make it worse. They all looked sad even before they drank.

Yang Menglong called: "Guys, give them ten catties of good wine without water, and cut up ten catties of good meat. The money is mine."

When the shop waiter heard this, he was overjoyed, and responded: "Okay, okay, wait!" He happily ran down to drink.Those Mongolian men were also overjoyed. Dosang left the table and bowed and said, "This man, thank you for your generosity. We will definitely repay your friendship!"

Yang Menglong said: "Don't be so polite, I can see that you are all famous men, good men should not be able to drink alcohol... By the way, which tribe do you belong to, how did you get reduced to the point where you want to sell horses?"

As soon as this was mentioned, Duo Sang felt so depressed that he wanted to kill someone. He sat down opposite Yang Menglong, sighed a long time, and said, "To tell you the truth, we are Wacha people, a small tribe... the name of our tribe... Translated into your Chinese, it means 'camel'. This year our tribe responded to the call of the Great Khan of Jianzhou and dispatched [-] young and strong men to participate in the war against the Ming Dynasty. After several battles, the three hundred young and strong men fought More than half of them died! The Jurchens bullied us and refused to give us compensation. The life of our tribe was already difficult, and it was even more difficult after so many people died. Herding is okay, and children as old as they are can herd sheep , but heavy work such as mowing grass and drying dung cakes is not enough. Women and old people can’t do these jobs. It’s going to snow, and there’s not much fodder in storage. It’s definitely not enough for so many animals to eat, Er Jichou My hair turned gray, so I had to reluctantly sell some war horses."

Xu Meng said angrily: "You deserve it! Who told you to help the tyrants and build slaves to attack us?"

Yang Menglong said: "If you don't speak, no one will think you are dumb!" He smiled at Duosang and said, "This guy is not very smart, don't blame him, don't blame him."

Dosang smiled wryly and didn't speak.

In the eyes of ordinary people, the life of grazing beyond the Great Wall looks like this: clear rivers, verdant pastures, pearly sea foam, blue sky, passionate young men, girls who can sing and dance...how? So, not bad, right?However, the reality is quite cruel. The survival of nomadic people is far more difficult than that of farming people.First of all, they are located in the wrong place. They are all in the high cold latitude. In winter, minus [-] to [-] degrees is commonplace, and they will be frozen to death as soon as they leave the tent; Considering taxes, a farmer can eat eight acres of land, but what about the herdsmen?Eight acres of pasture is not enough to fit between teeth.Again, resources are scarce.Seemingly ordinary things such as cloth, salt, iron, tea, etc. are rare resources for them, which can be encountered but not sought after.The Mongolian Plateau is not short of iron ore, but due to backward technology and sparse population, the Mongols have no ability to exploit these resources, so that in the Ming Dynasty, some tribes still used bone or stone arrowheads.As for the lack of salt, I don't need to say, right?If you are interested, you can try not to eat salt for half a month, and you will know how painful it is to have no salt.Of course, the most frightening thing is internal friction. Those big tribes with absolute advantages will not sit back and watch the small tribes develop. When a small tribe has a population of more than [-], the big tribe will send people to give them two choices: yes Join our tribe, or war?No matter which one you choose, it's not a good thing. The thriving tribes just disappeared like this, disappearing without a trace, as if they had never appeared before!It can be seen that grazing outside the Great Wall is not romantic at all, and it is okay to have fun while traveling by car. If you really regard this as a lifelong career, you will be miserable.This small tribe named "Buerqin" was quite unlucky. They followed Houjin to invade the Ming Dynasty, and suffered heavy casualties, not to mention malicious wage arrears. The whole tribe was suddenly forced to life and death. Come out to sell... Yang Menglong scorned Huang Taiji in his heart, you are in arrears of wages for migrant workers, it's really worthless.

However, Huang Taiji, who was in arrears with the wages of migrant workers, still did a good deed, giving him a chance to buy better war horses with less money...

"It's like this," his eyes began to spin around disobediently, and the speed almost reached eight revolutions per second, "My name is Yang Menglong, a businessman from Zhongyuan, and I have brought a large amount of ironware, tea, and cloth And salt..."

Duo Sang's eyes lit up when he heard it, and those Mongolian men also huffed and surrounded him, roaring anxiously, almost spraying saliva on Yang Menglong's face: "What? You are a merchant from Zhongyuan?"

Yang Menglong said: "Yes. This is my first time outside the Great Wall. I want to exchange the goods I brought for some cattle, sheep and horses back..."

Duosang interrupted rudely: "That's great! Our tribe will exchange a large number of livestock for supplies needed for the winter, especially cloth, salt and tea! Master, just trade with us, and we will give you the best Good horses, the strongest cows and the fattest goats are for you! If you think it’s too hard to drive these animals, we can also exchange them with you for things like furs!”

Yang Menglong hesitated: "But I have already made an agreement with other tribes..."

Xu Meng moved his mouth to speak, and immediately kicked Yang Menglong.Just kidding, once this big mouth opens his mouth, he can't let go, absolutely don't let him open his mouth!
When the Mongolian men heard this, they became anxious. One of them shouted: "Which tribe dares to rob our goods? We must destroy them!" The other two shouted: "Yes, it is so unkind. They actually want to monopolize and destroy them." They!" Another shouted: "Go and reason with them!" It seems that big merchants rarely come to Yulin, so there are not many opportunities for such transactions. When one finally came, it was snatched away by other tribes. They were all anxious.

Or Duosang was more shrewd, instead of yelling and killing, he grasped the essence of the matter: "Which tribe is so fast? It doesn't matter, whoever the tribe is, anyway, the horses they can produce are definitely not as good as ours. Our horses can be traced back to the generation of Genghis Khan. Our ancestors followed Genghis Khan on an expedition to Hualazimo and made many military exploits. Genghis Khan praised them and rewarded several bloody horses. These BMWs have been bred from generation to generation and have a history of nearly 400 years! Our horses are tall, strong, several inches taller than ordinary horses, run fast, have good stamina, and are obedient, not picky eaters. Where can I find better horses than them?" He lowered his voice and asked, "That tribe can only give you some skinny horses that are not much bigger than donkeys, but we can sell you at least sixty hard-earned horses, each of which only costs forty catties tea!"

Yang Menglong curled his lips, still sweating blood, who was fooling him?But those horses are really good. They are much taller than Mongolian horses and Hequ horses. Their muscles are even and strong, with very few stray hairs. They are rare horses. Forty kilograms of tea leaves a piece, which is really a good price.He said: "The price is quite reasonable, but I don't have so much tea..."

Duo Sang said: "It doesn't matter! There is not enough tea, we need cloth, salt, iron, etc., especially cloth and salt, as much as there is!" I was a little nervous, and I didn't know how much goods Yang Menglong could allocate for them. , for their small tribe, cloth and salt are a matter of life and death!
Yang Menglong pondered for a moment, and said: "Let me take a look at your horses first. If your horses are really as good as you said, I will spare some more goods to exchange horses with you."

Duo Sang agreed, "No problem! Let's take the horse out of the city and let the young master try to ride it!"

Qitai whispered: "But our horses don't have saddles and stirrups..."

Duo Sang's smile froze on his face immediately.Without saddles and stirrups, what's the point of riding?Those Mongolian men who grew up on horseback are fine, but the Han people can’t. They don’t have saddles and stirrups, and those fierce horses teach them how to behave in minutes!

Yang Menglong glared at Xu Meng and shouted: "Are you full? If you are full, go back and call those sleepy cats over. They have work to do! Let them bring two sets of saddles, mother. Yes, what time is it? If they don’t get up yet, if they were in Wuyang, I would have to punish them for rushing into the circle!"

Xu Meng shouted: "I'm full, I'll go now!" He grabbed the last steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth, then took the last piece of beef on the plate and rushed out like a gust of wind, almost holding the wine jar. The shop waiter who came over was knocked into the air.Yang Menglong was speechless to him. When will this weak kid learn to be more clever?

(End of this chapter)