My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 51 Return with a Full Load (Part )
In the second year of Guanghe, which was still long before the official start of the Three Kingdoms era, Lu Yi began to accumulate a considerable capital 41 years in advance.

Such strength was a force that could not be ignored even in the Three Kingdoms era which officially began 41 years later when Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty. It was enough to influence the course and outcome of a local battle.

Haven’t you seen that the young Zhang Liao today, in history, relied on 800 cavalry to defeat Sun Wu in Hefei, and made Sun Quan happy to be nicknamed Sun Shiwan, and suppressed a generation of people in Jiangdong, making them dare not even think of advancing northward for decades.

What is even more commendable is that Lu Yi, who had nothing except an invincible second brother since he traveled through time, now not only has three allies with a certain degree of reliability, but also has obtained a stable business route that can provide him with cash flow in the long term.

A good cook cannot cook without rice. Now that he is rich and powerful, some actions that he had planned during the three-year mourning period can finally be launched.

With gold, silver, and the Han copper coins, an international hard currency that is more stable than large amounts of gold and silver, Lu Yi immediately purchased all the horses that could be sold from the Hunye tribe.

However, even the Zade tribe, the previous overlord of the Mayi grassland, had less than two thousand horses in total.

Although the Hunye tribe is a new overlord, it has not yet grown up. Its current foundation is no different from before, and the entire tribe has less than 800 horses.

Moreover, they also had to keep some horses for battle, so they could only give half of them to Lu Yi.

After negotiation between the two parties, the price of the war horses was finally unified at 1 coins per horse, with % of each being the mares and % being the castrated stallions.

So Lu Yi still has 1400 million yuan left out of the 1000 million yuan he has.

"There isn't much else on the grassland, but there are a lot of wild horses. As long as we spend some effort, we can always catch a lot of them. Can you wait for the Hunye tribe for three months?"

"Two months to capture horses, one month to tame and castrate stallions, we will definitely be able to gather the remaining one thousand horses!"

Seeing this, Hexutuo made a suggestion to Lu Yi.

At this time, the double-sided stirrups and horseshoes, the cavalry's most powerful weapons, had not yet been invented.

The steppe horses have a violent temper. Not only can they withstand Siberian blizzards, but they can also kick the heads of foxes and wolves with their hooves. If they are not tamed for at least a month and the male horses are castrated, they will be impossible to control without proper riding skills.

But now what Lu Yi is most anxious about is time. How can he be willing to waste the precious three months in the early stage, so he politely rejected the suggestion of his cheap father-in-law.

"Since you are unwilling to wait, I can send Hater to bring the envoys of the Hunye tribe to lead you to trade with each tribe. In this way, it will take ten days or half a month to visit all the surrounding tribes."

Seeing this, Kasuto changed his suggestion.

"Father-in-law, this is a great idea, but I am worried that other tribes may not be willing to sell my horses at the price of the Hunye tribe."

Lu Yi nodded, but at the same time, a doubt arose in his heart. Now that the Hunye tribe had just become the overlord and had not yet established a firm foothold, he was worried that Hexutuo's words might not be as effective as he said.

"Don't worry, my dear son-in-law. The grasslands have always respected the strong. Now that the Zhade tribe has been destroyed, the dominant position of the Mayi grassland will naturally go to the strongest Hunye tribe. With my orders and Hatler's company, these tribes will certainly give me this face."

Hexuto patted his chest and guaranteed it.

"In that case, I would be disrespectful to refuse!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yi readily agreed.

Therefore, accompanied by Hatter and two hundred warriors of the Hunye tribe, the caravan spent another half a month and successfully purchased the remaining one thousand horses from the surrounding tribes.

However, Lu Yi had an idea.

Except for the more than 800 horses he prepared to form his own cavalry, all of them were mares.

He replaced all the other horses that he was going to take back to Bingzhou for sale with castrated stallions.

A castrated stallion cannot reproduce, and is effectively a disposable consumable.

In this way, they could strengthen their monopoly on horse smuggling. However, the Han people were far more short of horses than the Hu people, and even castrated male horses could be sold for a good price, at least double the price.

Before parting, Lu Yi and He Xutuo agreed that the latter would collect a large number of horses for the caravan over a long period of time.

Finally, after setting out from Zhang's family in Mayi more than a month ago, the caravan finally set out to return to the interior of the country.

However, compared with the caravan more than a month ago, which was only small in scale, the current caravan not only has a full 2200 baggage carts, but also has more than strong horses following the caravan, which is much larger than before.

Moreover, both the baggage carts and the backs of the empty horses were filled with furs.

Unlike the Han caravans, which carried goods such as salt, wine, silk, iron, etc., which were all needed by the Hu people but could not be produced.

Horses and cattle and sheep skins were the only goods that the Hu people could trade with the Han people.

But the Hu people have furs, and the Han people are never short of these things.

A cowhide can be sold for 400-800 coins inside the country, while a sheepskin can be sold for 30-50 coins.

Therefore, Lu Yi lowered the purchase price to half of the price inside the Great Wall.

But even so, these full bags of furs could not make much money, and the profits were far less than those from trading horses.

However, both the Xiongnu royal court and the Xianbei leaders were worried that selling too many horses to the Han people would pose a huge threat to their own safety.

After all, ever since Emperor Wu of Han, the Hu people have often lost more than they have won against the Han people. Now they have been beaten so hard by the Han people that they have lost all their temper and are asking for surrender.

The imperial court was also worried that purchasing too many horses from the grassland would aid the Hu people, and it also coveted the high profits from the horse trade.

Therefore, orders were repeatedly issued to ban private horse trading, and those caught would either have their property confiscated or beheaded.

If one wanted to trade horses, he had to first apply for a horse trading license from the imperial court, and could only sell them at prices set by the imperial court. Moreover, most of the horses could only be sold to the imperial court.

Just think about it, how honest can a court be if even the emperor openly sells official positions?

If you really follow the court's orders, not only will you not make any money, but you will also have to pay a large sum of money out of your own pocket.

As a result, horse smuggling was rampant and difficult to stop, and even local officials disobeyed the court's orders and secretly participated in it.

This is also the real reason why the value of both Han people's goods and Hu people's horses would at least double as long as they crossed the Great Wall.

Among Lu Yi's returning caravan, except for 10 carts loaded with food for the caravan's entourage, the other 90 carts, including those on empty horses, were loaded with furs.

These nearly 200 furs may seem like a large number, but they can only be sold for a little over million yuan, which is only equivalent to the value of more than healthy horses and is less than a fraction of Lu Yi's cavalry.

This amount of money was a huge sum for Lu Yi a month and a half ago, but now it is just a bonus.

Fortunately, only a very small number of these furs were purchased by Lu Yi, and most of them were given to Lu Yi by He Xutuo as gifts from Qiqige.

The Hunye tribe itself is a relatively powerful tribe. Now that it has become the overlord, other tribes have to pay tribute with furs, so there are quite a lot of these things.

That’s right, the Hu people not only don’t ask for a dowry when marrying off their daughters, but they also pay money out of fear that their daughters will be bullied after marriage. They are so barbaric, so barbaric that Lu Yi even finds it a little cute.

Just as Lü Yi, Lü Bu, Zhang Jia, Gao Shun and others were leading the caravan towards the Mayi Great Wall with high spirits, Zhang, who had been waiting for the caravan in Mayi for more than half a month, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, and could no longer wait.

……

(End of this chapter)