Shu He and his father stood at the top of a hill that was overlooking the outskirts of Green-Gate village, his eyes were sparkling with joy as he stared at the sight a short distance away from them.
Set up in the outskirts was a massive line of tents, carriages and people lining the road leading to their village, it went on for nearly half a mile and was half that distance wide, Shu He was impressed that they had managed to set up such a massive impromptu market already, they only arrived here yesterday afternoon.
On the way here his Father explained a bit about the Travelling Market's history, mainly why it was originally formed.
The biggest reason was simple, safety; Travelling as a lone merchant can be dangerous and risky, not only can various beasts appear that can threaten a small group with ease, bandits like to camp out on lesser known trade routes or main routes with little security to rob people, the worst part is as long as the only thing that is lost are good and not lives it's rare for the authorities to act on them, so you would have to hire guards, but that can be expensive, so the answer was simple, they would become a large caravan and hire guards collectively, everyone in the caravan paid towards security and maintenance as a member so they could hire top quality guardsmen.
That's not the only benefit of course, travelling together with other merchants lets you exchange information, tactics and goods that you wouldn't usually come across, the majority of the caravan members had been together for a long time so there is a large degree of trust between each other, something important for business.
Along with that, the sheer size and variety of goods within the caravan attracts people wherever they go, just being a trader in the caravan can at least guarantee people will look at your goods while they come far and wide for its popular items.
Essentially it's a massively beneficial organisation that has been in operation for decades now!
"It's quite big right? It grows every year as well with new people joining up" Shu Li said.
"It's amazing, I didn't expect this many people!" Shu He exclaimed; he had seen markets before but nothing quite this size that moves around as one regularly.
They made their way towards one of the market's entrances, as they walked up there was a line of people waiting at the entrance way.
"Why's there a line?" Shu He asked.
"You're not allowed to take any weapons or anything they consider dangerous inside, the only exceptions are goods but you need to apply for a permit to sell those here" Shu Li pointed to the front where the two guardsmen were checking the arriving customers over, after one was confirmed safe to enter they were handed a small wooden token as they went on their way.
'Makes sense, they probably have had to deal with physical threats many times before' Shu He thought as they stood in line to wait, there was about 10 people ahead of them so it was only a few minutes before they reached the head of the line.
"Sir my apologies but children are not allowed inside the market" The guardsman kindly mentioned as he spoke to Shu Li, eyeing Shu He off to the side.
Shu Li only smiled slightly and brought out another type of wooden token, holding it out towards the guard member who looked confused for a second before he took it to take a closer look, after a second his expression changed as he looked it over thrice.
"Good sir, so you're a friend of Great Merchant Yun? Is this boy your son? I see, I see it should be fine then, let me give you both a token!" His tone changed immediately as he smiled, reaching into the box behind him for the tokens, he then stamped the two tokens with a small metal device, before using the token Shu Li had handed him to stamp it a second time, he handed the three wooden tokens back afterwards.
"Here, please enjoy your time at the market!" He said joyfully as he shuffled them along.
'Efficient' Shu He thought, he was expecting entering to be a pain but it seems the guards know exactly what they are doing.
"But… they didn't check us?" She He asked his father, confused.
His father held up the token he showed earlier to show it to him, it had a name written on it, clearly hand written and not stamped along with a special pattern at the bottom.
"This means I'm trusted by one of the more influential merchants here, out of respect I'm exempt from those sort of checks" He explained.
"I see, amazing!" Shu He's eyes were filled with respect, as they made their way around the market Shu He examined the token he was given.
It was quite simple, there was a line that read the current date along with 'Entry', a large amount of clear space and at the bottom was the pattern from his father's special token, he didn't know if it would be useful inside but it probably wasn't useless.
Inside they weaved their way around the market, there were many people walking backwards and forwards quite orderly while leaving space for others to insect and buy stuff at stalls, Shu He kept peeking at every stall they passed to look what they had for sale, there was a large variety of items, raw materials like rock, cloth, pelts, plants and even more, not only that of course they had foodstuffs ranging from fruits to dried meat, housing ornaments, clothes, tools, weapons and even small toys, and this was just the small portion that Shu He had managed to sight in the tiny amount of time he had been walking!
He saw many people bringing out items and trying to sell them to the stall owners, or trying to exchange them, bartering was possible here but context for the trade mattered, not everyone would want to barter for their items, and of course the only other way to buy the items was money!
Shu He reached in to the pocket of the pants he was wearing, there was a tiny pouch and inside jingled a small handful of coins that he had collected selling medicine from last year and the few people he could sell it to in the village.
He wasn't quite sure if he was going to have enough to buy anything significant but he brought everything he had nonetheless!
The money used in this world was quite simple, it was split up in to three types that were usually used, bronze, silver and gold coins that are split up in to normal and large variations, 10 bronze coins were worth 1 large bronze coin, 10 large bronze coins were worth 1 silver coin and so on, there were also platinum coins that were above gold however it was incredibly uncommon for those to be used by a singular person, usually only exchanged through traders or businesses for large transactions.
It was a few minutes of walking before Shu Li who Shu He was following stopped in front of a specific stall, it was rather large and was made from a wagon that had folded out from the side covered by a large white tent, the sign standing outside simply read "Yun's outfitting"
"Yun? Is that the same person that gave you the token?" Shu He realised quite quickly who they were going to see.
Before Shu Li could respond a hearty voice boomed out from inside.
"Ah! I've been waiting for you Shu Li! It's good to see you again after all this time!"
A large man walked out from the back of the stall, his hair white and balding in the middle, yet his beard was full and fluffy like a cloud reaching past his neck, he wore fairly luxurious clothes that were a mix of green and blue with gold with many layers, his pupils barely peeking through his eyelids that were almost shut closed from the built up fat and wrinkles.
"It's indeed good to see you again Yun Fu! You weren't here last year what happened?" Shu Li asked as he walked up to the old merchant and shook his hand while smiling.
"Ah nothing bad of course, on the contrary I found a massive business opportunity over in the capital, but I had to supervise it for a while so I had to temporarily leave the caravan; It was a pity but I feel it was worth it in the end" He explained with his eyes almost flashing with the colour of gold.
"So, who's this little one?" He stroked his cloud like beard seemingly appraising Shu He.
"My son, Shu He; I've brought him because he wants to see if I can sell some of the medicine he has made" Shu Li explained.
"Medicine?" Yun Fu said with slight surprise "He's awfully young isn't he?" He spoke with some doubt.
"Haha, you could say that but this child of mine is full of surprises, I wouldn't have brought him here if it wasn't anything worth selling" Laughing, his father spoke proudly.
"Hmmm is that so, well if you say that then it must be true…" The old man twirled the hair of his beard before clapping.
"Well, unfortunately I do not deal with medicine so you'll have to go to another stall, I would suggest Bo Lin's stall it's in the north-east section, you'll find it easily if you look for the large green tent" Yun Fu spoke to Shu Li for the first time, giving him the information he needed.
Shu He looked at his father, as if asking what he should do.
"You should go take a look, I have some things to discuss here so I will be busy" He said, giving Shu He free reign.
"Okay!" Shu He said before turning to Yun Fu and speaking "Thank you very much for the information!" And shooting off outside the tent.
"Ah, how I envy the young, so bright eyed and full of energy" Yun Fu said as he sighed before turning back to Shu Li "Well then, what have you got for me this year then?"