North and South groceries

Right now it is 639 A.D., the 13th year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Empire is rising. In the whole world, there are also two empires that are also rising in this period. One is Dashi and the other is Tibet.

The rise of an empire often requires a wise monarch. Li Shimin in the Tang Dynasty, Muhammad in Dashi, Songtsen Gampo in Tubo, they all lived in the same period.

Right now Dashi is quite far away from Tang Dynasty, between Tang Dynasty and Tubo, there are Tuyuhun, Yangtong and other countries as a buffer.

After a few years, Dashi's sphere of influence continued to expand eastward, and Tubo also quelled civil strife and defeated Yangtong Tuyuhun. The relationship between Datang and Dashi Tubo would no longer be as peaceful as it is now. nothing.

It is heard that in the following decades, Dashi joined hands with Tubo to attack the four counties in Hexi. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty weakened its national strength and suffered losses in the war with them.

As a Tang native, Luo Yong naturally didn't want to watch his country suffer. This is not only a matter of the desire to win and defeat and national self-esteem, but also because the war itself is too cruel. Means countless death and suffering.

……

"Sanlang, look, our brothers only have such a little money on hand, and we all fought for it with our lives. If the price in their shop is used, I'm afraid we can't buy a few catties of tea. You and my brothers After getting to know each other for a while, can't you help me talk about it?"

Recently, these barbarians came to Luo Yong frequently for the matter of tea. The main reason is that Luo Yong got too close to them before, drinking and telling jokes, just like friends, so at this time many people wanted to borrow Luo used this relationship to get himself an internal price or something.

"Hey, you guys are embarrassing me too much. Those shops are opened by their own family, not government-run. The tea is also transported from the south by their own family. Although they are from the same town as me, how can I manage to open this Mouth." Luo Yong made a very embarrassed look.

"They can do tea business here, so there will be a lot of people relying on you, Saburo, if you are willing to say something for us..." These people can't be dismissed so easily.

"It's hard to say, it's hard to say." Luo Yong waved his hand.

"It's so hard to say, you just need to say something for us, and no matter whether they are willing to give you some advantages or not, our brothers will all recognize it."

"I really can't open my mouth."

"Just tell me if we are friends, are we all free for those previous drinks?"

"How did you say that?"

"Let's go, anyway, you are fine now, so go to that shop with us."

"Hey..."

In the end, Luo Yong couldn't push and push, so he had to be dragged by these Hu merchants to those tea shops.

After several years of operation, the Mawang companies have quite strong financial resources. Naturally, they are not eye-catching in a place like Chang'an City. When they come to Changle County, they really crush the local small and medium-sized local tyrants every minute. Except for a few big local tyrants.

They bought a house and land at the foot of the mountain near the rich people's residential area in Changle County. Now they are only temporarily opening shops in a few original adobe yards. After a while, they must It is to do a lot of construction work.

Ma Wang and other merchants opened several tea shops in this area. When they harvested tea, they also collected their own, and when they transported tea, they also shipped their own. Now they sell tea, naturally they also sell their own.

These tea shops have been open for the past few days, and those Hu merchants in Changle County have been running here all day long. If you want to shop around, you don’t know how many rounds of comparison have been done, but few people start to buy. , often several caravans gathered in one place, and negotiated prices with these tea merchants from Lishi County in the tea shop. Now the price has been negotiated for several rounds, but it still seems to have not reached their psychological price.

When Luo Yong was dragged to Wangji Tea Shop by those Hu merchants, there were quite a few people inside and outside the courtyard of Wang's house, and the streets outside were also bustling with people coming and going.

"Why is Sanlang here today?" Wang Jinhuai, an old acquaintance of Luo Yong, is the person in charge of Lishi from the Wang family.

The canned food business was very profitable. Wang Jinhuai had been operating in the south for several years, and now he earned as much as the rest of the Wang family combined. His status in the Wang family was naturally different from the past.

This time he wants to handle the tea business, and no one in the Wang family can compete with him. After all, he is also the main force in harvesting tea in the south this spring.

"It's nothing, it's just that some of my friends said they wanted to buy tea, so I'll come over with them to have a look." Luo Yong smiled a little embarrassedly.

"It turned out to be a friend of Saburo, disrespectful and disrespectful, I invite you from among the gentlemen." Wang Jinhuai was also very face-saving.

"The small shop has three kinds of tea, high-grade, medium-grade, and low-grade. I wonder which one do you guys want to buy?" After entering the main room full of goods, Wang Jinhuai did not call other shop assistants to come over to receive them, but I acted as a shopping guide myself.

"Medium-grade and low-grade are good." Those Hu merchants were happy, but also a little bit panic. Originally, they just wanted to take advantage of Luo Yong's relationship, but they never thought that the other party would be like this Seriously.

Their brothers have just started running business in the past few years. In the first two years, because of lack of experience, they didn't make much money. The situation is a little better now, but compared with the Wang family, which has accumulated and well-connected merchants, they It can almost only be regarded as a hawker, not even a merchant.

"I don't know how much you want to buy?" Wang Jinhuai asked.

"Twenty catties of middle-grade tea and fifty catties of low-grade tea." One of them replied.

"Good, I have someone pick up the goods here." Wang Jinhuai said.

"This price..." these barbarians hesitated.

"Since we are friends of Saburo, why do you gentlemen need to worry about the price." Wang Jinhuai looked very straightforward.

When the clerk brought over the tea leaves they wanted to buy, and under Wang Jinhuai's gesture, helped them calculate the price. When the Hu merchants heard that they didn't even want [-]% of the original price, they were pleasantly surprised for a while, secretly thinking that Luo Sanlang's prestige among these Lishi merchants is probably higher than they imagined.

"Can I buy some more?" The price is cheaper, and they have more money in their hands.

"Naturally." Wang Jinhuai laughed.

"Then make another one like this." Those Hu merchants were even more happy.

So Wang Jinhuai recruited his staff again and asked them to fetch another [-] catties of medium-grade tea and [-] catties of low-grade tea.

Those Hu merchants bought so much tea at such a low price, they were very happy in their hearts, and thanked them again and again, saying that they wanted to treat Luo Yong to a drink. Luo Yong said that he was too busy these days, so they are welcome They will eat it when they come to Changle County next year, and they will go into the desert again in a few days, so let them make more preparations by themselves.

These Hu merchants were both happy and moved. They felt that this Lishi Luo Sanlang was a little different from other officials who studied, and they would not despise them, small merchants and peddlers. Tell him something He also listened with gusto to what he had seen and heard in the Western Regions, and he didn't dislike coarse food and dirty wine. He could understand the difficulties of these small traders.

These Hu merchants happily left the yard with the tea leaves in their arms. Since Luo Yong entered the yard just now, many people have been paying attention to the movements on their side. Those Hu merchants went out How much money and how many tea leaves they bought, they all watched helplessly, so how could they agree at this time.

"Could it be that Saburo forgot that he had a drink with us and made jokes with us a while ago, why are we not friends of Saburo?" Then someone began to forcibly recognize friends.

"Well, it's not that they came to me just now..." Speaking of which, Luo Yong really had drinks with them a few times for the caravan in front of him. client.

"You don't have to be angry with this gentleman. Since you are a friend of Saburo, you are also a friend of my Wang." Wang Jinhuai hurriedly stood up to rescue Luo Yong at this time.

"You see, brother Wang said that." Luo Yong said with a smile.

"Then you're welcome." The Hu businessman bowed his hands to Luo Yong and Wang Jinhuai, and he was also very happy. Just now, he didn't know how much money he could save and how much more tea he could buy.

"You're welcome, you're welcome." Wang Jinhuai smiled and invited people into the main room.

The others saw that this was a good opportunity, so they all shouted, saying that they had had a drink with Luo Yong, and there was a lot of noise in the yard for a while, but fortunately, Wang Jinhuai was also very talkative. , One by one, they were invited to the main room, and the buddies were brought over to enrich them and settle with these people according to the price just now.

Luo Yong saw that all the people in the yard rushed into the main room to buy tea, and hurriedly saw a gap to slip away, but before he reached the gate of the yard, he was caught.

"Sanlang, come here, you and I will go to the Mashi Tea for a walk." A tall and thick man took Luo Yong's arm and walked to the tea shop next to him.

Luo Yong: Who are you?I clearly don't know you!

"We had a drink together last time, didn't you forget?"

"...Of course I haven't forgotten."

"Then help me talk to Ma Silang..."

"to make."

Then soon there was a wave of sales promotion and panic buying at the Ma's Tea Shop.

Soon, Luo Yong was led through all the tea shops. The shops in these shops really gave Luo Yong a lot of face, and all of them were relieved, and they said yes. The previous price over there is settled with them.

By the time Luo Yong came out of the last shop, someone on the street outside had brought camels to load the goods.

These Hu merchants lived in this era, and it was probably the first time in their life that they saw such a large-scale and large-scale discount promotion, and all of them laughed as if they had picked up money.

Today's events are naturally within the plan of Luo Yong and others. Although tea has been widely recognized in Guazhou and Shazhou, the market in the Western Regions has not yet been developed. .

If you want these Hu merchants to rack their brains and muster their strength to open up new markets, it will definitely not work if you don’t leave them enough profit margins. The greater the profit, the harder these Hu merchants will sell. People in the Western Regions are used to drinking tea and know the benefits of tea, and the time for these tea shops to really make money will come.

This big tea promotion event caused a lot of commotion in Changle County. Some people even rushed to Jinchang Dunhuang and other places to inform their relatives and friends or wealthy merchants with business contacts.

Until night fell, people continued to come to Changle County. Fortunately, they brought in enough tea from the south this time. This is how they sell it, and they are not afraid of being sold out for a while.

Some people moved slower and missed that day. Early the next morning, another group of people went to the county government to look for their friend Luo Sanlang.

But the guard at the gate said: "The county magistrate is busy with his duties, so he has no time to see guests today."

Then he took out a few palm-sized notes from his sleeve: "Bringing these notes to the tea store is no different from going to the county magistrate Luo."

Everyone took a look at the note, and the first thing they saw were three large characters: "[-]% off."

There are three slightly smaller fonts at the back: "Friendship price."

On the top is a line of small characters: "This person is a friend of Luo, please give me:"

There is also a line of small words below: "Please use this coupon before August 13, [-], and it will be invalid after the expiration date."