Great Tang Southern Emperor

"Sir Li, please stop barking. You won't be able to bark any faster. You'd better drink some water." The person who spoke was wearing armor. His name was Mu Guicheng, and he was a team leader who was responsible for the safety of the caravan.

"Captain Mu is really being polite. In front of you, a lowly position can't be called an adult." Li Daoan hurriedly said modestly when he heard Mu Guicheng call him an adult.In the Tang Dynasty, the team led 50 soldiers, and they were officials of the seventh rank, which was not comparable to Li Daoan, a small third-class official who was out of the country.

Mu Guicheng said: "My lord, what are you talking about? Your lord is a celebrity in front of His Royal Highness Yue Wang. As long as you give your lord time, it will be a matter of time before you become a star."

He is also a sensible person. Although he is indeed of a higher rank than Li Daoan at present, his official position is earned by killing the enemy on the battlefield. If there is no one behind him, it is estimated that this will be the case in this life.But Li Daoan is different. Although he is just a small foreign official, he has already caught Li Zhen's eyes. In the future, as long as his luck is not too bad, it will not be easy to get promoted?If I can make friends with him before he develops, won't I have a way to get promoted after he develops?

"Hey, don't talk nonsense, do you want to kill me?" Li Daoan said in a low voice, ignoring the guests, and looked around as he said, feeling that no one was looking at him, so he continued to whisper : "Brother Mu, you really almost killed me, you know, there are His Highness's people in the caravan, if this word falls into His Highness's ears, I'm afraid it will be the end of both of us."

Mu Guicheng suddenly realized, his whole body broke out in cold sweat, he slapped himself twice in apologetic way, and said apologetically: "Yes, yes, I'm sorry, Brother Li, I'm the one who speaks fast, I deserve death."

"Forget it, forget it, brother Mu, you have to remember that when doing things with His Highness, you should do more and talk less, and pay attention in the future."

"That's right, that makes sense. Thank you Brother Li for your advice. Brother Li is still on patrol, so I won't chat with Brother Li. Let me go." After Mu Guicheng thanked him, he didn't care about getting close to Li Dao'an, and quickly turned his horse's head to the front The patrol went.

Seeing Mu Guicheng's leaving back, Li Daoan snorted: "Phew, it's another guy who speaks without thinking. This kind of person will die the fastest."

"Hey, by the way, Hahu, how many people are there in your tribe?" Looking at the smoky team, Li Daoan suddenly remembered one thing, that is, can the entire Biande Department receive such a large caravan? ?

"This..." Ha Hu did some calculations, and said, "There are about 1000 people in our entire tribe. Grandpa Grandpa told me about it."

"Is there only so many? Are there any big tribes near your tribe?" Li Daoan asked with the last hope.

"No, this piece of pasture is not fertile, big tribes don't like it, and only small tribes like ours are willing to come here." Ha Hu's words directly extinguished Li Daoan's last hope.

"It's over, it's over, it's over, this time it's really over, our caravan has more than 5000 people, how can your tribe handle it?" Li Daoan suddenly smiled wryly, he didn't expect that he would be unlucky, so he just left After three days, I encountered such a big difficulty - just like the desert, the supply points of the grassland are also fixed, even if they live by water and grass, there are fixed rules, and the merchants walking on the grassland will be firm Keep these lines in mind.

And the reason why Li Daoan chose to walk in this direction is also because he knows that there will be a medium-sized tribe stationed and grazing near here at this time of year. As long as this tribe sells some goods and purchases enough water, they can move on. After seven days, you can reach another big tribe, and then repeat the cycle until your own goods are sold out.

But this time there was an oolong. After walking for seven days, when he came to this familiar place, he found that the tribe he was familiar with did not appear. Surrendered to Datang, he was wiped out by the Tang army as early as half a month ago

This is embarrassing, you can't just go back like this?It's not that Li Daozong never thought about going back. The problem is that this time he only took food supplies for seven days in order to carry more goods. He originally planned to supply them in this tribe, but they have been wiped out by the Tang army, that is to say They had run out of food and couldn't go back at all.

At this moment, the guy named Hahu and his friends discovered him (in fact, Lu Zhu discovered him earlier, but Lu Zhu thought they were the army and ran away early), and learned that they were businessmen, He happily brought them back to his tribe.

It is very happy to see living people on the grassland. Li Daoan's mind was also thinking about the future trade routes, and he didn't think about it at all. He didn't think about this problem until just now, but the result made him feel cold.

A small tribe of 1000 people can at most provide supplies for a caravan of several hundred people.Such a tribe doesn't have many resources, and there must be enough food. The most indispensable thing on the grassland is cattle and sheep. Even if an army of [-] comes, it will be enough to eat.

The problem is water. The water on the grassland is very precious, and its status in the eyes of grassland people is no less than that of oases in the eyes of desert people.And a large part of the wars on the grasslands are caused by aquatic plants. How much power occupies how much water source, this is the eternal truth on the grassland.

How much water can a small tribe of 1000 people have?It is simply impossible to provide enough drinking water for the caravan, which is the main reason why Li Daoan yelled.

"Consul General, I just saw you and Team Mu talking to each other, and now you are like this again, what's the matter?" The person who spoke was a man in his 30s, and the most eye-catching thing on his face was the stalk of sheep. The beard has been combed neatly by him, even on the windy and sandy prairie, there is still no trace of mess.

This man is called Ding Shan, and he is the accountant of the caravan of the Dadu Protectorate, controlling all the money and goods of the caravan.Li Daoan knew that Ding Shan was the person with the highest status in the caravan, and he was also Li Zhen's loyal loyalist. His role was to contain and supervise Li Daoan.He has no objection to this. After all, this is a large amount of wealth. It can be regarded as trusting you to let you manage the affairs of the caravan. As for the money, you don't even think about it, at least for a short time.

"Treasurer Ding, we are in trouble." Li Daoan said the problem again, and finally gritted his teeth: "This time it was my mistake. I chose a wrong route. I will apologize to His Highness when I go back, and I will take all the responsibility on me." , Shopkeeper Ding, you don't have to worry."

"No, no, how can you blame this? The two of us chose this route together, and no one expected such a thing to happen." Ding Shan said quickly: "Besides, I am in charge of the caravan's finances. Yes, it is my responsibility not to make any money, so don't take it on yourself."

"This is really not good. I am the consul of the caravan. I am responsible for everything in the caravan. This time I went the wrong way, and the responsibility is naturally mine."

"Hey, let me tell you the truth." Ding Shan was very moved, and revealed his identity: "My mother-in-law is His Highness's nanny, and with such a relationship, His Highness will not blame me even if I make a mistake. mine."

"Besides, we didn't go far, at most we turned back. As long as the Biande Department is willing to sell all their water to us, we can collect enough drinking water to go forward. Now the responsibility is still too early."

"I didn't expect Mr. Ding to have such an identity. No wonder His Highness trusts you so much." Li Daoan glanced at Ding Shan in surprise, but still frowned and said, "But Mr. Ding, your thinking is too simple. In this grassland water is Life, no tribe will sell all of its water to others. So I appreciate your kindness, but the responsibility is whoever is responsible. You can’t push the responsibility to you just because you have a higher status. I am Consul General of the caravan, the responsibility lies with me."

"I am the actual person in charge of the caravan, and I should take on more responsibilities."

"Brother Ding, I recognize your favor, but"

"No, brother Li, you are wrong"

""

Chapter 186

Chapter 1 Twelve Only Wool

The two started arguing just like that, but Ha Hu, who was standing next to him, had a dazed look on his face. He didn't raise his hand carefully until the two of them got dry from the quarrel, "Well, I probably understand what you mean a little bit. , you are worried about the lack of supplies to continue on the road, aren’t you?”

Li Daoan took a sip of water, and said angrily: "Huh, that's right, why are you asking this? Aren't you going to sell it?"

"You misunderstood, but what I want to say is that you don't have to worry about it at all." Ha Hu said with a smile: "It is true that our tribe cannot receive such a large caravan like yours, but there is not only one Biande department in this area."

"Ahem, what do you mean?" Ding Shan, who was drinking water, heard that he was almost choked to death by the water, coughed a few times, and asked quickly.

Hahu laughed stupidly and explained: "In fact, this pasture originally belonged to a large tribe of more than 3 people, called the Yundero tribe, and this area is all the territory of the Yundero tribe. But a few days ago After a great war, the Yundeluo Department disappeared after the war, so our Biande Department can occupy this place.

However, the Biande tribe is just a small tribe and doesn't occupy much pasture at all, so there are no less than ten tribes gathered here during this period of time, and the furthest distance is less than fifty miles away from us. You can rest in peace in our tribe, we Naturally, the surrounding tribes will be notified to do business with you.

As for the water, there is no need to worry. There is a river nearby. This is the main reason why the Yundero tribe is willing to occupy this place. The surrounding tribes all draw water here. Let alone 5000 people, even 5 people are enough for you drank. "

"Is that so? That's great. I misunderstood you just now, and I'm really sorry." Only then did Li Daoan realize that he was a villain, and quickly apologized.

"It's no big deal, you're being too kind."

"By the way, Brother Hu, please tell them when you notify them that our caravan will give priority to purchasing wool." Now that the problem of supply has been solved, Ding Shan naturally put his mind back on business.

"Wool? What do you want this for?" Hahu asked strangely.

"What do you want wool for?" the elder of the Biande Department asked the same question as Ha Hu.

"Actually, I don't know about this. Our master asked us to buy it." Li Daoan drank a glass of kumiss and yawned loudly. He played too crazy yesterday and didn't wake up at all.

It was already the next morning when I said this. After the caravan arrived yesterday afternoon, they were greeted with a grand welcome banquet. The caravan and the tribal people sang and danced for a whole night, until the end of the ugly hour.Before dawn today, they were pulled up again by the impatient Biande ministers. They couldn't wait any longer. If it wasn't for welcoming the guests, the transaction would have started yesterday.

So with dark circles under his eyes, Li Daoan opened a part of the goods

He still underestimated the needs of grassland people for commodities. He opened a total of six carts of goods, including ironware, salt, tea, silk and porcelain.He originally thought that these six carts of goods would be enough to support the Biande Department, but what he didn't expect was that such a small amount of goods could not satisfy the appetite of the Biande Department at all.Not to mention the ethnic groups who gradually gathered, even Wu Zheren and several elders are not enough. You must know that their cars are large trucks that can hold eight boxes of goods, and six cars are 48 boxes of goods. The elder's appetite was not satisfied, and Li Daoan felt that his previous business experience was fake.

"So many goods, can you eat it?" In the end, Li Dao'an couldn't help the curiosity in his heart and asked the elder.

"Of course I can't eat it." The Great Elder cheerfully hugged a piece of silk without raising his head, "But we can't eat it. Some people can eat it."

It's all said here, if Li Daoan still doesn't understand, then he has been a businessman for so many years in vain.The reason is very simple, the grassland is too big, after all, only a few tribes can meet the caravan, and some tribes will buy goods in large quantities after meeting the merchants, and when they meet the tribes that did not meet the caravan, just mention it If the price changes hands again, the profit is not a small amount.

The reason why Li Daoan didn't think of this is mainly because his previous business scale was too small, and it basically belonged to the kind that can be sold out at once as long as he meets a tribe. I have heard other caravans talk about this kind of business before. Things, but really experienced is not experienced.

"By the way, do you want sheep or horses for this transaction?"

"No, we only want wool."

"" So there was the above conversation.

"Why, you have already burned it?" Li Daoan thought they had already disposed of the wool, and suddenly said sadly: "This is going to be bad, the master only wants wool by name, and doesn't want anything else. It seems that I can only go to other tribes to see."