The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

The impact of the large-scale purchases over the past three days has been evident, but the flow of people in the two border trade cities has not decreased.

It was from this point onwards that shopping festivals truly became a staple for ordinary people.

There were long queues in front of the shops.

At the intersection of the two main streets of Weilu Mutianzi City, there is also a central square, just like in Bagua City.

All the street vendors and hawkers gather here.

There is food for sale.

There are places selling handicrafts.

There are also shops selling all sorts of strange and unusual trinkets.

General Gan doesn't like buying luxury goods, but he's most interested in these down-to-earth street vendor items.

General Gu and the others could only follow her around.

Compared to the Bagua City, where merchants from Hu and other foreign countries gathered, the Tianzi City mainly traded with nomadic peoples.

Sure enough, the herders from afar sold their livestock and are now planning to buy winter supplies.

I finally managed to catch a acquaintance and asked:
"Barang! I heard that your Erute tribe and these Guan soldiers have a long-standing relationship. This is our first time coming to buy winter supplies. We'd like to ask you which shop offers the best deal?"

The Oirat man named Balang pointed in the direction of the main street:

"Of course it's the Kansai Trading Company! They sell a type of firewood called honeycomb briquettes, which burn very slowly. Two briquettes in a small stove can last all night."

Every night before bed, my mother would put a big pot of beef and mutton on the honeycomb briquette stove. In the morning, the meat would be cooked until very tender. This stove is so convenient.

The Kansai Trading Company also sells rice/noodles, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar at reasonable prices, and they don't adulterate them with anything else.

If you need winter supplies, I suggest you buy more cotton-padded clothes, trousers, and shoes at the merchant's shop! If you get cold at night, you can buy a thick cotton quilt weighing ten pounds for only 500 coins! Anyway, every household in our tribe has bought them, and they are very useful!
If you have plenty of money, buy a few more jars of Yili and Wuliangye! This liquor is more mellow and refreshing than mare's milk wine; a few sips will warm you up from head to toe. If you're lucky, you might even snag a big iron pot!

The northern herders who were introduced to the Guanxi Trading Company by this Oirat man only realized what was going on after they went inside.

This merchant guild has so many rare and exotic items!
The toilet paper is great!
I want lanolin soap even more!
Everyone makes milk powder, so why can this shop make so many sweets using milk powder?
Milk candy? Milk biscuits? Milk cake?

Everyone who tried it bought it!
If they hadn't remembered that tea, Chinese medicine, and other bottles and jars were on their must-buy list, they could have gone bankrupt from buying so much.

The shops run by Han Chinese are so great to browse!

Many herders have never been to the city in their entire lives!

I don't want this trip to end so soon.

Some of the more resourceful ones followed the example of the families who set up stalls in the new immigrant village, bringing out some handicrafts made by the women of the tribe to sell.

Setting up a stall is quite a novel experience.

This is not.

I had only been setting up my stall for a short time when a group of big buyers came.

The one in the lead was an extremely beautiful woman!

She was surrounded by dozens of male slaves, and it was clear at a glance that she was the mistress of a Han Chinese noble family.

This kind of person is definitely a huge fat sheep!

Those who were bold enough immediately squeezed in front of Gan Minglan and enthusiastically promoted their products.

"My esteemed guest, please take a look at my wool blankets. They are warm and soft, and only cost two taels of silver each!"

"My lord, my family's milk tofu is the best!"

"My esteemed guest, please buy a few pieces of jade! I have red, yellow, green, black, and white jade here, all sorts of colors."

"My lord, don't look down on those useless broken stones! Jade? You can pick up a whole bagful in half an hour at the Gobi Desert! My lord, look at these black stones of mine. Don't be fooled by their dark and unattractive appearance. They can be used as firewood."

Even though she couldn't understand the language spoken by these nomadic people, Gan Minglan could tell that they were trying their best to promote their respective street vendor goods.

She was surrounded and couldn't get out.

They had no choice but to stop.

She glanced past the wool blankets and dairy products, and her gaze fell on the hands of a herdsman.

In the man's rough hands lay several jade stones, each the size of a pigeon's egg. A knowledgeable general explained them to her:

"This should be Golden Silk Jade, named for the radish-like veins inside the stone. The highest quality, most translucent Golden Silk Jade can be worth some silver. A few taels of silver can buy a whole basket of ordinary Golden Silk Jade."

Gan Minglan: "."

What's the point of buying it?

This size isn't even light enough for her daughter to play with by throwing pebbles.

Seeing that she had no interest in this kind of golden silk jade, another herdsman simply handed two dark, lumpy stones right in front of her.

None of the generals traveling with him could discern the true nature of the stone.

I found a translator and asked them.

Cai said, “General, this herdsman said that these black stones can be used as fuel, but they don’t smell very good when burned.”

fuel?

It smells bad!
Gan Minglan quickly took it and brought it to her nose to smell it.

It felt vaguely familiar.

It took me a long time to recall.

Isn't this just asphalt?

I just browsed a street stall and I found such a great thing!
She really is Goddess Tian's own granddaughter!

"Quickly ask where these black stones came from? Are there many of them?"

The herders, who wanted to sell asphalt, blushed deeply when they saw that the important person was interested in the black stones.

He stammered for a long time, but couldn't get a coherent sentence out.

After General Gu handed him a hundred-tael silver note, the burly man no longer hesitated and spoke at length.

The translator said:
"This was picked up from Black Oil Mountain, about 600 miles to the northwest of here. Black Oil Mountain is full of black stones like this, and black oil is oozing from the mountain."

Because of this black oil, that mountain area, for dozens of miles around, is barren.

Black Oil Mountain got its name from the black oil it produces.

Black oil?

Oil leaking in the mountains?

Gan Minglan's mind was buzzing.

She knew that Xinjiang Province in later generations had abundant oil resources, but she always thought that the oil was buried thousands of meters underground.

It's beyond the current level of mining; we can't even dream of it.

Open-pit oil is much rarer than open-pit coal!

Next, she plans to have the more than 200,000 new immigrants who built the city pave roads between the ten guards of Kansai!

Unfortunately, she wasn't a science student and couldn't make cement.

But asphalt!
Asphalt is a simple thing!

The asphalt stone is heated in water to melt into a binder, and then crushed stones are added to it.

The final step is to lay it on the road and press it down; it will take two or three hours to take shape!
Isn't this much better than that damn cement road?
Think of this.

The little devil in Gan Minglan's mind stood with his hands on his hips and laughed wildly.

A slight smile appeared on his face.

General Gu, familiar with her expression, immediately realized that this unpleasant-smelling black stone must be something extraordinary.

He slipped another hundred taels of silver to the herdsman, saying, "Lead the way, take us to Black Oil Mountain!"

Herdsman: Thank goodness, I only picked up a few stinky stones and got two hundred taels of silver! The Han people are truly kind-hearted! (End of Chapter)