Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 39 Warhorse (Please continue reading)

"No one else can learn my uncle's skills."

"In such a short time, my uncle has accumulated land that others could not accumulate in several generations."

Guo Tang helped Zhang Xian lay all the contracts flat, gather them up, and carefully put them into a small box.

This box is now incredibly valuable; if we calculate based on the average price of 2,000 coins for wasteland, it's worth over two million coins.

In response to Guo Tang's teasing, Zhang Xian glanced at her sideways and said, "Can it have as much land as your family's?"

Even if we don't count the hidden households, the Guo family of Zhending must own tens of thousands of acres of land. Thinking of this, Zhang Xian was indeed curious. He moved closer to Guo Tang and asked in a low voice.

"Tang'er, tell your uncle, how much land does your family actually own?"

After helping Zhang Xian fasten the box, Guo Tang's eyes sparkled with a smile: "Why does Uncle ask this?"

"Just curious."

"My mother manages the number of acres, so I'm not too sure," Guo Tang waved his hand. "But I heard her mention it last year; it should be around 60,000 or 70,000 acres."

"Sixty or seventy thousand!" Upon hearing the result, Zhang Xian felt utterly disheartened.

He covered his face with a bamboo scroll he had borrowed from the Guo family and uttered a muffled complaint: "My family's land is not even a fraction of what my brother's family owns."

Guo Tang almost laughed at the sight of his carefree demeanor, but then shook his head, remembering how reserved he had been when he first arrived.

She had initially thought that her uncle Zixu was a rigid elder who would always talk about dogma, but after spending a few days with him, she found that her uncle had many quirks and eccentricities that were hard for ordinary people to understand. This made her, who had grown up in seclusion, feel more novel about her life in this paradise.

"Sister, sister! Look what I caught! Here you go."

Outside the pharmacy, the joyful shouts of children grew louder as they approached. Guo Tang ran straight over, giving Guo Tang no time to react. When Guo Tang came to his senses, he found himself holding a hard, eight-legged monster.

"Oh dear!!"

A gasp escaped Guo Tang's lips, and she instinctively threw away the strange-looking object in her hand.

"My stone crab!!" Guo Tang didn't have time to say anything more, his eyes following the crab that had already turned into an arc as he ran off again.

Zhang Xian took the bamboo slips and blinked a few times.

What?
Hey?

What happened?
Did something dark just run in and then run out?
"Did you come here just now?"

He subconsciously turned his head to look at Guo Tang, only to see the girl looking like a fawn still shaken.

"Zi! Xu! Uncle! Look at the state of Tang'er now! Aren't you going to do anything about it!"

The girl was startled, and a hint of anger flashed across her face.

"what"

"What's wrong?"

Zhang Xian looked completely innocent. He genuinely didn't know what was wrong. Just now, when he covered his face with the bamboo slips, he was wondering whether he should attract more refugees or something.

The girl was a little agitated. She pointed outside the pharmacy and said, "He... he dares to bring home anything he catches now. A few days ago he caught a singing frog, yesterday he touched a few baby birds, and just now, he even dared to touch a stone crab. What if he gets pinched by the claws?"

It's clear that Guo Tang is more worried about her younger brother.

Zhang Xian was also having a headache. He was only 23 years old. In modern times, some people would even treat him like a child. Asking him to discipline another child was something he really had no experience in.

"How about we send you back tomorrow?"

Now that I've been vaccinated against smallpox and have almost fully recovered, staying here is not as comfortable as returning to the Guo residence.

After all, it had only been seven or eight days, and the craftsmen from the Guo family couldn't build a house. The siblings lived in the same thatched house as Zhang Xian, which was worlds apart from the Guo family's bedroom.

Upon hearing this, there was no further movement from the other side. Zhang Xian looked up and saw Guo Tang snort and walk out.

"Sigh." Zhang Xian shook his head slightly and continued reading the book in his hand.

A single volume of history is worth more than a thousand beauties. He knew Guo Tang's little schemes all too well, but he had his own considerations. The path he was going to take was not one that a rich young lady could participate in.

Besides, he was her uncle; how could he possibly disrupt the established order?

Guo Tang left to teach her younger brother a lesson.

Xiahou Lan then hurriedly went inside.

"I've made sure you've got it right, Brother Xian."

Every few days, Xiahou Lan would visit Taoyuan, and she found herself increasingly unable to understand this estate, which she had clearly been involved in building all along.

The last few times I came here, the farm was still operating under quarantine as instructed by Brother Xian, but this time, supplies are piled up like mountains.

"How many?" Zhang Xian asked.

These past few days, the wealthy families who came to get vaccinated against smallpox didn't all give land as payment; most of them paid money and grain.

He never explicitly stated how much he would charge, so each household prepared their own. Of course, Guo Huai must have helped them, otherwise the powerful families wouldn't have given them land adjacent to Taoyuan.

"We have more than 300,000 coins and over 10,000 bushels of grain," Xiahou Lan said truthfully. To store this money and grain, the craftsmen from the Guo family worked almost overnight with some able-bodied laborers from Taoyuan to build several granaries.

"so much!"

Zhang Xian was also stunned. These days he had been busy inoculating people with smallpox and had no time to check the results. Only when Xiahou Lan came did he have someone he could command.

Zhao Yun could also do it, but since they wanted to train Zhuang Hu and act as his bodyguard, he really couldn't bear to continue taking on such responsibilities.

"Yes," Xiahou Lan exclaimed, "There are quite a few wealthy people in our Zhen Ding County."

Ten thousand shi of grain, at the current grain price, is almost worth more than six million coins. In other words, Zhang Xian has created nearly ten million coins in wealth in less than ten days.

This is truly terrifying.

But thinking about it carefully, it seems to make sense. Rich people don't worry about anything else but birth, aging, illness and death. Since they can't control birth and aging, the only thing they can control is illness.

Everyone knows how terrible smallpox is. Now that a method to eradicate smallpox has emerged, wealthy families naturally rushed to come, especially since the Guo family had endorsed it.

They've even sent their children; what more can be said?

Zhang Xian brought a stool for Xiahou Lan and poured him a glass of cold water.

"Did you ask Master Tong about the channels for purchasing warhorses when I asked him last time?"

Xiahou Lan gulped down a mouthful of water and nodded, saying, "I asked. Master asked how many warhorses you wanted?"

"30 horses?" Zhang Xian asked tentatively.

Xiahou Lan frowned: "It might be too little; they won't send it."

"Thirty horses are not enough?" Zhang Xian was astonished. No, just how wide-ranging are Tong Shi's connections?

"How many horses are required for the minimum shipment?" he asked again.

"The teacher said that at least seventy horses are needed for a family to be willing to make a trip for you."

"Warhorses?"

"Warhorse!"

How much is one horse?

"Twenty thousand coins for a horse from Liangzhou, fifteen thousand coins for a horse from Bingzhou, and ten thousand coins for a horse from Youzhou."

"What's the difference?"

"Liangzhou warhorses have large frames and are good at charging into battle, Bingzhou warhorses are strong and powerful, and Youzhou horses are relatively short but have good endurance."

"Which one do you think I should buy?" Zhang Xian asked.

"What is Brother Xian mainly going to do with it?" Xiahou Lan asked in return.

"Of course, it's for the guards."

"Oh," Xiahou Lan looked at Zhang Xian with a strange expression, mixed with a thoughtful look.

"Then Brother Xian should buy all three types of horses."

"Why?"

"This way, the farmhands can adapt to the differences between various types of horses."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xian raised an eyebrow and gave Xiahou Lan a serious look.

The latter also stared directly at Zhang Xian, and after a while, the two of them smiled.

Zhang Xian said, "Then it's as you say, but seventy horses. The estate doesn't have enough money."

"Can't it be less?"

"Then we'll have to rely on personal connections."

“Master has some connections with Chief Clerk Gongsun of Youzhou. If Master is willing to write a letter, he might be able to bring some over for you.”

"Never mind then, the hardest debt to repay in this world is a debt of gratitude."

"Let me think of another way. By the way, the horse merchant that Teacher Tong mentioned should be from the border region, right?"

Xiahou Lan nodded: "From Bingzhou."

"How much does liquor cost in Bingzhou?"

"I don't know about this brother, but he's definitely more expensive than those in the Central Plains."

"Then I have a solution. Does the merchant want to settle the bill for the drinks?"

"Should I ask again, brother?"

"Please, Lan-di!"

(End of this chapter)