Inside the broken temple, the ragged goatee man turned over the roasted fish in his hand, frowning and complaining in a low voice: "Why are these savages so smart like monkeys? According to their price, we'll get half less hides and silver taels for this batch of goods than we did in previous years."
The man in the navy blue linen riding suit said: "Why don't we hang them out to dry, I don't believe these barbarians don't want the goods we have, the border trade which goods are not several times more expensive than us? We'll just let them be! They will buy whatever they want!"
The other three men nodded approvingly, then simultaneously turned their heads toward the gray-haired leader.
Someone said to the leader, "Brother Zhao, make up your mind."
At this moment, outside the broken temple window, silently revealing half of the little fat face of the seventh prince's eyes like a torch, staring straight at the goatee hand of the roasted fish.
"These people are not playing tricks with us." The man with white hair didn't notice the movement outside the window, and spoke calmly: "Now that Daqi is at war with the Khitan, the skins in the hands of the various tribes on the border were raided by the Khitan a few months ago, and all of them were taken to make armor, and there aren't enough of them, so of course, we won't be able to exchange them for the same amount as we did in the past years."
The goatee was anxious: "Then what can we do! Are we going to exchange our goods with them at such a low price? Not to mention the fact that we won't be able to recoup our money, all the suffering we've gone through in carrying the goods all the way here will all be for nothing!"
The white-haired man took a deep breath, "Don't worry, we don't necessarily have to do business with the Jurchen, why don't we just take the goods and continue west, and go to the Doke tribe to talk about the price, they are farther away from the war-torn area, and are less raided by the Khitan."
Outside the window, the Seventh Prince, who was watching the grilled fish, gulped.
Appetite kept his ears and eyes open, and he quickly guessed that the group were probably all merchants.
I don't know how this grilled fish is going to be traded.
The seventh prince usually does not carry silver on his body, even if he goes out of the palace is also a small inner eunuch followed by the checkout.
Good thing this time is to go out to fight, Shi Fei is not assured, put a few silver tickets in his sleeve pocket, so as not to eat something the army does not have, you can buy and eat along the way.
Princess Shio didn't think much of it, she was just afraid that her son would starve, and she never dreamed that such a big thing would happen on this expedition.
Those silver checks came in handy now.
Although the Seventh Prince had never made a direct transaction with anyone, as a child, he had heard Xue Yao crumble some words, such as how much a certain kind of expensive fish on his table had to cost, and how it couldn't be wasted or something.
With the seventh prince's memory, it would be easy to recall the prices of several types of fish.
The most expensive varieties, only two taels of silver a catty, no one in the ordinary people's homes will eat, ordinary fish only a dozen Wen a piece.
The Seventh Prince could see that the roasted fish in the goatee's hand belonged to the variety of a dozen or so cents a piece.
But the timing of this fish's appearance made it simply magnificent in the eyes of the Seventh Prince, worthy of the heavenly price of two taels of silver a catty.
The Seventh Prince lowered his head and fished out a stack of silver bills from his sleeve pocket, pulling out the one with the smallest denomination, fifty taels.
Consort Shio was afraid that the broken silver would be too heavy and tire her son, so she gave silver tickets like this, with no smaller denominations.
By this time, the five men in the broken temple still hadn't noticed the child outside the window who kept gagging, and were discussing the next stage of the shipment route.
A short time later, one of the men finally heard footsteps moving outside the door, and he turned his head to see--
The Seventh Prince, with his head held high and poised, walked through the door of the broken temple.
Several men gripped the hilts of their knives in fear.
Extraterritorial business is quite profitable, do not want to kill the robbers are also more, do this business most of their own is the origin of the robbers, robbed enough money on their own to do this line of business.
These merchants used to follow the caravan so noiselessly to scout for news when they were robbers.
But strangely enough, a few of the men looked back and realized that the figure that had just walked through the door seemed to be very ...... laid back?
That's not like the demeanor of a robber scout.
Could it be that the outside has been surrounded by robbers, and that's why this scout is so relaxed?
Just as the five people were apprehensive, the Seventh Prince once again turned back with a leisurely gait and walked through the door again.
Five men: "???"
Even if they had surrounded them, there was no need to be so arrogant!
The Seventh Prince's brow had furrowed after he passed by the temple gate once more-
Why don't these merchants greet His Highness? His Highness has already appeared twice.
The seventh prince's mode of communication was very passive, he needed others to greet him first and then take the initiative to ask him if he was hungry.
This group of people who didn't look like eunuchs or chaperones or soldiers was too elusive.
His stomach couldn't hold out and began to grumble again, the Seventh Prince lost his just now airy and dashing demeanor, and wilted to the temple door, looking blearily at the five people in the room, and pathetically informing everyone, "Master is coming in."
The five men who were ready to draw their knives had been confused-
Standing at the entrance of the temple was a dirty boy, wearing a dark vermilion-colored long shirt with wide sleeves and wide belts, and judging from the style, it was definitely the kind of clothes that only the young masters of the families of the powerful merchants and high officials could afford to wear, but they were worn out and tattered.
There was also a torn gash at the arm, as if there was still dark blood, hidden by the vermillion colored fabric.
"Who are you? What do you want?" The gray-haired man eyed the boy warily.
The Seventh Prince opened his mouth, failed to make a sound, and immediately cleared his throat with force, saying in a low, hoarse voice, "Buy fish."
"What?" The man didn't understand.
The Seventh Prince struggled to pull his gaze from the grilled fish back to the man's face and spoke seriously, "You are merchants, and Master is a guest."
A man in navy blue clothes couldn't figure out what to do and impatiently arrowed forward, pointing at the Seventh Prince's nose and chiding, ''Where did that stupid kid come from! Is this a place for you to make trouble? Get the hell out of here!"
The Seventh Prince's serious expression instantly became shocked and angry, his eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at the extremely rude man in front of him.
"What? Itching for a beating?" The man took another step closer, staring wide-eyed at the little beggar-like boy.
However, his intimidation did not deter the boy, who looked up to meet him without moving, the anger in his eyes fading into confusion.
Leaning closer, the man realized that this dirty gray-faced boy, his features were surprisingly delicate, with deep contours and translucent pupils, not like a pure Han Chinese.
He guessed that the boy was a child of a nomadic tribal family outside the Seychelles, but a closer look revealed that the boy's neck was clean and his skin was as white as congealed grease, and was by no means the complexion of a long-time nomad who had been exposed to the winds of the grasslands and the sun.
All sorts of weird irregularities made him unable to figure out the other party's identity, and subconsciously lowered his voice to ask, "You couldn't be the prince of any tribe, could you?"
The boy didn't answer and remained motionless as he looked at him.
"Offended." The man thought he had acquiesced and smiled, "Which tribe are you from? What kind of business do you want to talk to us about?"
"Buy fish." The Seventh Prince forgave the man's earlier rudeness because he was too hungry, turned his head and pointed to the roasted fish in the goatee's hand, and ordered, "Quickly flip it over, it's getting burnt."
The man turned his head to follow his finger and frowned back, "You want to buy that grilled fish?"
The Seventh Prince nodded.
"You fucking tricked me?" The man grabbed the front of the boy's shirt and was just about to strike when the touch of his fingertips made his heart stutter.
It's the touch of a fine fabric!
They are merchants in the end, and some of the goods have not been taken, but they have been seen in the clothing store.
The man was surprised and looked down to touch the material of the boy's clothes, came closer to take a closer look, and immediately turned back to greet his brothers in shock: "Come look! He's here! What he is wearing is Yunjin! The Yunjin brocade that is exclusively supplied by the Jinling Weaving Bureau!"
A group of people immediately gathered at the word, expert treasure hunters as they were, burying their heads in studying the boy's dirty tunic.
Cloud brocade is an inch of brocade gold heavenly jacquard silk fabrics, they take goods in the store, but also only seen a such material, the treasure of the town store, no one can afford to buy.
I didn't expect to see someone wearing this heavenly fabric in this shithole.
I can't believe it's a waste to wear out and get dirty!
The white-haired leader confirmed that the fabric was indeed cloud brocade, and immediately raised his hand for his brothers to back off, politely speaking to the boy, "Little brother, who exactly are you? Our brothers are all travelers who live and sleep in the wind, and have suffered a lot along the way, so we don't have the patience to joke with you, little brother."
"Just buy this fish." The Seventh Prince pointed to his goatee: "Master offers two taels of silver."
The five men don't get it again, two taels of silver for a fish?
"This isn't supposed to be a fool, is it?" A man asked the leader in a whisper.
The Seventh Prince raised his hand and spread out the silver tickets for them to see.
The men looked down and were instantly shocked by the amount of fifty taels.
The broken temple was dead silent, with only the fire still crackling and exploding.
The goatee was the first to come back to his senses, rushing to the front: "This fish, you pay two taels of silver?"
The Seventh Prince nodded once.
The goatee was overjoyed and was just about to close the deal when the leader on the side immediately raised his hand to stop him.
"Little brother." The leader spoke with a calm demeanor, "This is the border, who knows if this silver ticket of yours is real or fake? We can't find a ticket company in a hundred miles around, so we don't dare to accept it."
Goatee beard immediately anxious, went forward to plead: "Big brother ...... this little gentleman wearing but the cloud brocade, how can the silver ticket fake? Even if it is fake, it is only two taels of silver, a fish to sell him to sell him, we might as well ......"
The florid white hair shut him up with a glare of an eye-knife.
"He said he wanted two taels of silver to buy our fish, and we still have to find him forty-eight taels of silver, and if the banknote is fake, will we still lose more than two taels of silver?"
The goatee slapped his head before reacting, and hastily gave a thumbs up, praising his big brother's resourcefulness.
This kid could be playing dumb in this outfit and going around empty-handed?
After so many years of traveling in the jianghu, I actually almost got fooled by a hairy kid, the goatee squinted his eyes to measure the boy, vaguely discovering the problem-
There was a unique aura about the boy, and when he locked eyes with the boy, it was as if there was an instinct in his own heart that wanted to obey the boy's wishes, it was almost voodoo like, and he was almost told to fall for it.
The Seventh Prince was already on the verge of starving to death, "This silver ticket is real."
The man with the white beard nodded his head and smiled, "Whether it is true or not, real gold and silver transactions are the rules of our border merchants, we can't accept the silver tickets, I'm offended, little brother, please go back."
"No need to look for it." The seventh prince refused to take back the silver ticket, he was almost driven crazy by the aroma of the roasted fish, but the teaching master said that the soldiers, peasants, farmers and businessmen are all the common people of Daqi, and that the prince has to love the common people and can't forcefully rob the food, so the seventh prince could only show the royal generosity: "Master paid fifty taels for this fish."
"Deal!" This time the goatee no longer gave the chief a chance to obstruct, and reached out to exchange the grilled fish for the silver ticket in the boy's hand.
The seventh prince excitedly received the grilled fish, opened his mouth and bit down, the grilled crispy fish spines were all chewed up by him and swallowed down, but because his throat was too dry, he couldn't swallow.
Seeing that the boy had failed to swallow several times, the alpha stepped forward and reached out to pat his back, not realizing that the boy immediately hid the grilled fish behind his back, squinting warily at him like a little wolf cub, and actually letting out a warning little snort through his nose.
The chief smiled, "Don't be afraid little brother, I'm not trying to rob you of your fish, I just see that you can't swallow and want to help, do you want a drink of water?"
The Seventh Prince immediately looked at him with a skittish look as if he had seen a relative.
The chief immediately had his men bring a canteen of water and hand it to the boy.
The seventh prince picked up the kettle, tilted his head back and "gulp gulp gulp" gulp gulp.
The leader tried to get close, "Young gentleman, are you separated from your family? Listening to your accent you sound like a Beijinger."
The Seventh Prince who got the food took a sip of water and a bite of fish, already immersed in happiness and unable to communicate.
The leader waited for him to finish eating the fish patiently before he said to him, "If the young gentleman trusts us, then go with us, we are responsible for escorting you back to the capital safely, as long as the gentleman makes a note and pays us 500 taels of hard-earned money for each one of us when we arrive home."
The Seventh Prince raised his sleeve and jerked his mouth, narrowing his eyes as he told the chieftain, "Master is so powerful that he doesn't need to be escorted."
The chief thought that this is an uninitiated rich young master, so he smiled gently, and did not hit him, only said, "But you did not bring dry food, this salted fish, meat, wine and water are all we brought on the road to eat from a long way away, out of this desert will have to be a hundred miles before we see the grassland, the prey is not good to fight, and if you want to buy dry food you have to walk for dozens of miles before you can find the family, the little brother is even more powerful, but also thirsty and starved to death Here."
The author has something to say:
According to Dazhi price conversion, this grass carp cost seven cubs more than 30,000 yuan, counting the most generous Erha attack in history.
You've got to go through a little bit to understand the viciousness of people's hearts.