Chapter 11 - Chapter 11

Hao Sanqian shouted, "Be careful not to squeeze the young master! Come slowly! Come one by one!" 

Many people in Yanbian could not speak the same language, so they could only make gestures, each speaking the Hu language, pointing at their own goods, and then pointing at the goods of the Central Plains merchants. Some people were about to fight over the goods. Li Zhifeng protected You Miao. The Hu people squeezed in front of You Miao. Seeing that Li Zhifeng looked like a foreigner, they did not dare to touch You Miao. 

"Take her goods." You Miao collected a small box and said to Hao Sanqian. 

"Okay." Hao Sanqian replied with a smile. Although these traveling merchants were hired by merchants from the capital, they had to listen to You Deyou's words - who could enter the caravan and who was not allowed to enter was all decided by You Deyou, so no one dared to offend You Miao. 

You Miao looked over and over at a pile of leather. A merchant joked, "Young Master's family is the big business. How can you be interested in these?" 

You Miao smiled as he picked up the leather. He chose two fox furs and said, "Take them back to give to friends." 

"Young Master's family is really a big business." 

"Yes, yes, Bi Yu Tian Qing Mao Jian..." 

A group of merchants happily sold goods and kept flattering You Miao. 

"One tael of tea is worth one tael of gold." 

You Miao smiled modestly, "No, it's all my friends who flatter me." 

You Miao's family is really doing a big business - his father You Dechuan is a tea merchant, with thousands of hectares of tea fields. Half of the tea mountains and tea fields in the southeast of Liuzhou belong to the You family, and they are also doing business for the government. This tea has a lot of background. It is called "Bi Yu Tian Qing Mao Jian". It is sent to the capital, Sichuan and other places in spring. Merchants say that the You family's tea is "one tael of tea is worth one tael of gold". Every spring tea is on the market, 3,000 kilograms are supplied to the royal family, and the rest are almost snapped up as soon as it is on the market. The price of tea is constantly driven up, and the supply cannot meet the demand. Even the rich and powerful had to go through connections to buy it. 

Hao Sanqian was too busy, so You Miao came to help. He took out a big wooden box. He couldn't help laughing when he opened it. It was filled with inferior fried tea - the tea leaves that the people in the capital drank and brewed were ground into powder and fried again, mixed together and sold as fried tea. This was eaten by the porters, carters, and the poor. These rotten teas were often dried on the tile houses in Gouwei Lane. 

You Miao handed over the wooden box, and two merchants were weighing the pounds and taels. A group of Hu people gathered around, came to the front of the crosshairs to look, and argued endlessly about a few coins and taels. A thick load of leather could be exchanged for five pounds of tea, ten pairs of crude embroidered shoes, and a foot of blue cloth with auspicious cloud patterns embroidered with gold thread. You Miao roughly calculated that this amount of goods was less than a string of money, and the things he exchanged for were as much as forty or fifty taels of silver. 

At last, the merchant put the box away. The group of Hu people came to him for the box again. Although You Miao knew that there was no business without profit, he couldn't bear it and said, "Forget it, give them the box. What are you going to do with it?" 

The wooden lacquer box was red and black, with a picture of a lady painted on it. The Hu people regarded it as a treasure, but You Miao knew that it was crudely made and not an antique, so it was not used by ordinary officials. Seeing that the merchants were all laughing, he realized that several people had kept it back. The wooden lacquer box was originally for sale, but no one said anything, waiting for the Hu people to bring out something to exchange. 

"Okay - I'll do whatever you want, young master." Hao Sanqian said with a smile, and after another round of bargaining, he exchanged the lacquer wooden box for three pounds of tiger bones. You Miao 

couldn't help but sigh. When the market was closed that day, everyone took big and small bags back. The next day, they got up early and went to the market to set up stalls again. In just one day, all the things were exchanged. At dusk, people were still in the market, lighting fires and spending the night around the stove. Such a market would continue until the Han people celebrated the New Year, the Five Barbarians celebrated the Winter Festival, and the Jiemo, the Western Region Selang and others celebrated the Food Festival. 

Hao Sanqian came to discuss with You Miao and said, "Master, several barbarians who went south said that another snowstorm is coming." 

You Miao didn't understand yet, and said foolishly, "Then let's stay for a few more days? Can this place withstand the snowstorm?" 

Hao Sanqian looked embarrassed and said, "I'm just afraid that it can't be stopped..." 

You Miao came to his senses and said, "Then let's get on the road quickly, I understand, everyone should go south earlier, and the earlier you go back, the earlier you can go home." 

Hao Sanqian smiled and ordered the loading of the car. They only stayed in Yanbian for one day and prepared to go south. This time they did not return along the same route, but turned east along the Huang River and entered the territory of Cangzhou and Liuzhou. 

At dusk, the setting sun was like blood, hanging far away at the end of the sky. Crows stood outside the city wall, and the porters shouted and went to load the goods. You Miao sat outside the inn, drank a sip of hot perilla oil milk tea, and counted the goods he had exchanged. 

Traveling between the Central Plains and the frontier, doing business is really profitable. Seeing that everyone was itching to barter, You Miao couldn't help but take out the things he brought with him to exchange, and exchanged for a piece of top-quality snow tiger skin, a bag of tiger gall and heart, two bear paws, and four bear skins, ready to take them home to honor his father, and ask for more silver by the way. 

You Miao made up his mind that when the silver money was not enough next year, he would go out with the caravan twice a year, and he would definitely be able to earn back the money - after all, setting up a stall in the market to do business requires documents, and it is not easy to find someone to approve the documents, and not everyone can go out with the caravan to the frontier.

Li Zhifeng took the things and took the carriage. His shadow was long outside the Great Wall. The sky was full of red fire clouds. In the north, there was a faint, black haze, which foreshadowed the coming of a violent snowstorm.