My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 387 Merchant
The endless grassland ushers in its most beautiful moment in the midsummer of May.

——The ice and snow that melted at the beginning of spring have continuously nourished this vast and beautiful land in the past two months.

Many animals that had disappeared in the harsh winter now reappear on the vast prairie as the weather gradually warms up.

Fish appeared in the streams;
A hare appeared among the grass;

The flowers that were scattered on the grassland finally welcomed the 'messengers from heaven' - various flying insects that originally came to collect nectar but also pollinated the flowers.

In this season, there is almost no barren grassland on the grassland.

Almost every patch of grass is so rich green, and the aquatic plants are so thick and lush.

The only thing left to be snatched is water.

If there was a drone flying over the entire Munan from the sky at this time, it would surely find that in this vibrant land, nomadic tribes gathered near almost every water source that could be used by living things.

They set up felt tents as temporary homes for each herder family;

The camp's perimeter was a circle of short wooden fences that could be disassembled and assembled at any time, but at the moment they were extremely solid - at least they could easily block wild beasts and even cavalry, or they could be described as a simple version of chevaux de frise.

In almost every camp, more than half of the space is reserved for the tribe’s wealth: cattle, sheep and livestock.

As for the livestock that should have been in the camp and in the cattle and sheep pens, they were walking leisurely around the camp under the blue sky and white clouds, grazing on the rare and lush grass.

The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless, the wind blows the grass low and cattle and sheep can be seen - at this moment, it is most concretely presented.

Not far from the camp is a stream that may be large or small, fast or gentle.

Women were washing clothes and utensils in the stream, or cleaning up the entrails and blood of various prey;

Children rode on ponies or lambs, chasing and playing around the stream;
There are even some brave ones who roll up their trouser legs, hold homemade wooden pitchforks, and fish in the shallow waters near the stream.

On the hill not far from the stream, the hunting dog lazily licked the corners of its mouth, but its attention was always on the herds of cattle and sheep, as well as the surrounding jungle where wild animals could hide.

Everything is so quiet and so beautiful.

Even just one glance at it can completely calm the mind.

Sudden;

The hounds lying on the top of the hill and standing guard seemed to have sensed something. They all raised their heads and looked in the same direction.

Gradually, the women and children stopped what they were doing, straightened their backs involuntarily, and looked towards the line where heaven and earth met in the distance.

Even the women and children had noticed it, and the men had already rode out on their horses, approaching with a little caution.

Not long after, with a burst of stiff Xiongnu language hawking sounds coming from afar, everything returned to its previous, quiet and beautiful state.

“Excellent tea~”

"Tea that can help with bowel movements, tea from the Han Chinese territory~"

"With just one lamb, you can get a whole bunch of good tea leaves~~~"

The merchant shouted out his wares with a smile on his face, and took out a handful of dark green broken tea from his cloth bag.

Behind the merchant, the servants, who were burly and full of flesh, were slowly coming towards the tribe's camp under the slightly vigilant 'escort' of the tribal knights.

When they walked outside the camp, they saw that the merchant was very polite and asked the caravan to stop. Then he walked forward with a smile and started chatting with a knight who was obviously dressed in extraordinary clothes.

"Please do me a favor and let your Highness know."

As he spoke, the merchant smiled and raised his hand, looking towards the caravan behind him, then he calmly stuffed an exquisitely crafted and extremely heavy gold lock into the warrior's hand.

After receiving the merchant's favor, the knight's face immediately showed a hint of greed, and he licked his lips instinctively;

He looked again at the dozen or so carts loaded with goods behind the merchant, and his remaining sanity cooled the knight's fiery gaze a little.

"Knife!"

"Merchants, no knives allowed!"

Perhaps he was worried that the merchant would not understand him, or perhaps he wanted to show some affection to the merchant for the sake of the gold.
The knight spoke in extremely stiff Chinese and pointed at the swords on the waists of the hundreds of servants, or guards, behind the merchant.

The merchant obviously understood the knight's intention.

However, he did not order the caravan to surrender as the knights expected.

He just laughed and lowered his head, then took out a wrapped treasure from his arms and stuffed it into the knight's arms again.

"We won't go in, we'll just wait here."

Upon seeing this, the knight immediately understood: the merchant, or rather the caravan, before him was probably not a newcomer coming to the grassland for the first time.

——Over the past hundred years, a very mature trading model has been formed between Han merchants and the various tribes on the grasslands.

Normally, the caravans coming from the Han territory are usually about a hundred people in size, and all the people in the caravan are experts in fighting bandits or killing people and robbing.

Even at this moment, the merchant who was handing over money with a naive smile on his face could not be as simple as he appeared.

When the Han caravans arrived on the grassland, they would try their luck at meeting a random tribe, just like they were doing now.

After arriving near the tribal settlement, the caravan will not lay down their weapons, but will temporarily settle down not far from the camp and wait to be received by the tribal chief.

——The goods that Han merchants brought to the grassland at the risk of their lives were often worth thousands of gold!
Even the most humble tea is not something that the herdsmen in the tribe can afford to trade privately.

Only a chieftain could rely on the huge wealth of the nobles to exchange one or two carts of goods that he needed from the caravan's dozen or so.

While the caravan was waiting to be received by the tribal chief, the tribe would usually send out warriors to block the caravan between its temporary residence and the tribal camp to prevent the caravan consisting of a hundred or so desperate criminals from posing any threat to the tribe.

Both parties try to ensure their own safety to the greatest extent possible, while at the same time revealing the hypocrisy of "I have no intention of killing you" to the greatest extent possible.

As for business, it is still up to the leader of the caravan and the head of the tribe to discuss.

After seeing the merchant's behavior, the warrior realized that the merchant was an old hand who 'knew the rules'.

He no longer insisted, and immediately howled to the people behind him, then rode his horse slowly towards the camp.

At the same time, the warriors of the headquarters, who had surrounded the caravan and "escorted" it all the way here, also rode their horses and gathered between the camp and the caravan.

As for the merchant, at the same time as the warrior turned away, he turned aside with a nonchalant smile.

He only said calmly, "Everyone, pay attention to your work, don't slack off."

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After half an hour, the temporary camp of the caravan had turned into an open-air banquet hall with nomadic characteristics. The tense atmosphere dissipated with a burning bonfire, a roasted lamb, and bursts of laughter.

The main seat in the middle was occupied by a short and stocky Hun nobleman who looked like he was over fifty years old, but was actually most likely less than thirty years old.

The nobles’ hair was braided into braids and hung down naturally;

The nobles' lips, nose wings, ears, and even cheeks had many metal rings embedded in their flesh and blood, which even made crisp tinkling sounds when they walked.

He was wearing a fur coat, a felt-brimmed hat on his head, and at his waist was a bronze sword that was clearly not from the grassland.

The merchants sat next to the nobles, chatting and laughing with them, and saying some irrelevant and formal words.

At the same time, the merchants' eyes intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the bronze sword at the noble's waist, which was obviously made by a Chinese craftsman.

It’s not that the merchants have evil intentions and want to harm the tribal leaders.

But at such a distance, the merchant could even see the two lines of small seal characters still faintly visible on the hilt of the sword.

——Left Secretary of the Ministry of Weapons and Arms, Nine-Sword and Armor Forging Workshop, Top Craftsman - Xianglizhuang;
— On the 16th day of the sixth month in the third year of the First Emperor’s reign, the 164th sword…

"This sword of yours is very good."

After looking at the bronze sword for a long time, the merchant noticed that the noble's eyes looking at him gradually became somewhat unfriendly, and he said so immediately.

Hearing this, the noble, who originally thought that the merchant was going to do something, immediately lowered his head. When he saw the Chinese characters on the sword, he took off the long sword from his waist with a little doubt and weighed it lightly.
A moment later, he handed the sword forward without any warning.

The nobles reacted in this way, and the faces of the surrounding Huns froze immediately. Their hands involuntarily touched the handles of the knives and swords at their waists, obviously ready to rush up to protect their master at any time.

But the merchant turned a deaf ear to all this. He naturally reached out to take the bronze sword, but did not play with it. Instead, he carefully observed the two lines of small words on the end of the hilt.

After a while, he smiled and nodded, handed the sword back to the noble while explaining.

"The swordsmith of this sword was a famous craftsman of the Qin Shaofu, and a great figure of the Mohist school at that time: Xiangli Zhuang."

"Nowadays, any sword forged by this man, as long as it has such a name engraved on it, is worth a hundred gold in the Han area."

"--Last year, I was in the Qiequ tribe in Hexi, and I exchanged fifty catties of salt for a sword made by another craftsman in the Qin Shaofu."

"After bringing it back to Han, the sword was sold for a whopping 150 gold coins."

...

"Uh, one hundred and fifty gold..."

"In the Han area, I can probably buy a thousand kilograms of salt;"

"If it's a bit cruder, it's possible to have two or three thousand kilograms..."

After the merchant finished speaking, the wariness on the noble leader's face gradually disappeared.

At the same time, the nobles' gazes towards the merchants also became inexplicably hot.

——Salt, no matter where it is, is a hard currency harder than gold!

Especially on the grassland, people eat and horses chew - especially horses must consume enough salt to replenish their physical strength, the value of salt in the grassland is self-evident.

However, the grasslands need salt more than the Central Plains, but compared with the vast and rich Central Plains, the salt resources on the grasslands are shockingly scarce.

Take Munan for example. The only salt pond that can produce salt stably is controlled by the supreme ruler of Munan: the Right Wise King. Even the headquarters of the Right Wise King’s troops is located directly next to the salt pond.

That salt pond was even arroganceily named "Nanchi" by the previous generation's Right Wise King.

The salt ponds of Munan;
The salt pond exclusively for the Right Wise King.

Except for the Nanchi, the other smaller salt ponds were also divided up by the major tribes of Munan.

The one closest to the Han area is shared by the Loufan tribe, one of the three major tribes, and the Huyan clan, one of the four major clans.

Even the largest tribes could only share a small salt pond, let alone this ordinary small tribe on the grassland.

Normally, if a small tribe like this wanted to obtain salt, they could only exchange lambs and calves with large tribes or Han caravans, except for being lucky enough to come across a salt dune and smash the salt-containing stones from the salt dune for cattle, sheep, and horses to lick.

When exchanging with a large tribe, of course they have to be as ruthless as possible - even if it's thieves robbing each other, it's not uncommon.

As for trading with Han caravans, it is not common to have lambs and calves stolen, but the price is really too unfair.

Didn’t you hear what this Han businessman just said?
A sword made by the famous craftsman of Qin Shaofu was exchanged for only 50 kilograms of salt from this Han merchant!

You should know that there is only one such sword in this tribe!
Nowadays, it has become the symbol of power of this tribe, alongside the scepter and crown!

Especially when he heard that the sword was exchanged by the Han merchant in front of him for fifty kilograms of salt, and then sold for several thousand kilograms of salt, the noble leader became even more greedy.

With a red face and heavy breathing, he looked at the merchant in front of him;
He lowered his head again and looked at the sword in his hand, which was weathered but still extremely sharp.

After an unknown amount of time, the nobleman finally let out a long breath and handed over the sword in his hand again.

"Salt, two hundred kilograms!"

"Give me the salt, and give you the sword!"

The chief also said this in stiff Chinese.

Naturally, the merchant immediately understood the noble's intention.

The merchant immediately showed an awkward look, and tried to raise the price of salt from 100 catties to 140 catties.

But the nobleman was extremely stubborn and insisted on the price of 200 kilograms.

In the end, the merchant gritted his teeth, pretended to be in great pain, and reluctantly used 200 kilograms of salt to buy this bronze sword made by the famous craftsman of Qin Shaofu and the late Mohist master.

But secretly, the merchants felt very proud.

——One hundred and fifty gold, that’s one million and five hundred thousand coins!
As for salt - even in Chang'an where prices were skyrocketing, the coarse salt circulating on the market was only two hundred coins per pound!
With just two hundred kilograms of low-quality salt - less than 20,000 coins, you can buy a sword made entirely of bronze and of great historical value, which can be sold for millions of coins!
The most important thing is that this sword was just an unexpected gain for the merchant during his trip out of the country.

The real meat of the show - the dozen or so carts of goods brought by the caravan, are the most important thing that can really bring huge wealth to the merchants...

"It's still easier to make money from the Hu people~"

"This sword alone has already paid back the money I put into this retreat?"

(End of this chapter)