Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 22 Caravan Fun
As the scholars left, Dalu Mountain gradually became deserted.

Zhang Yu and Li Song took advantage of the quiet time and borrowed seven or eight books from Wang's library, preparing to go home to study and kill time.

Before returning home, Zhang Yu secretly met with Wang Ji with the help of Hongniang. Wang Ji was worried that Zhang Yu would catch a cold during the long journey, so she gave Zhang Yu the gloves worn by her brother Wang Chen.

Considering the beauty's kindness, Zhang Yu naturally accepted the gift.

Hand clothes are the gloves of later generations.

When the cold wind blows from the north, your fingers may easily freeze and crack when you ride a horse and pull the reins, so people who travel far in winter will bring gloves.

The day after parting with Wang Ji, Zhang Yu waited for his uncle Zhang Yang to come and pick him up with a team.

"uncle!"

Zhang Yang rode up on his horse and whipped his whip. Looking at the cart full of bamboo slips and clothes, he smiled and said, "I haven't seen you for half a year. Ji'an has made great progress in learning. If you continue to study for a few more years, you can be called a learned man!"

As he spoke, Zhang Yang pointed at the cart with his whip and ordered, "Come here, pull this cart for the future great scholar."

Zhang Yu adjusted his saddle and said with a smile, "I have only read a few scriptures, how dare I be called a great scholar? Uncle, I am ashamed of me!"

"almost!"

Zhang Yang continued to joke, "From now on, my Zhang family will be considered a family that has been carrying on the study of Confucian classics. In the future, all the children in the village will follow Ji'an to study."

Seeing that his uncle's joke was getting bigger and bigger, Zhang Yu jumped on the horse and changed the subject, asking, "I wonder if the sale of horses went smoothly this time?"

"It went very well!"

Zhang Yang called on the caravan to set off and said, "Earlier, my brother and I discussed selling horses in Yuzhou, Henan. Unexpectedly, on the way through Weijun, we ran into a Taoist priest named Taiping, who bought all the horses in the caravan. There were 36 horses, each costing 6,500 coins, so the total profit was over 200,000 coins..."

Holding the reins, Zhang Yang was describing the business situation over the past six months. The Zhang family alone could not support a caravan, so in the early stages Zhang Ji reached a cooperative relationship with four powerful families in the border counties, namely Lu Bu, Wei Xu and Geng Kuan.

Zhang was responsible for forming the caravan. They provided horses, cattle, sheep, furs and other goods. After deducting the purchase price, Zhang's profit from business was divided 3/7 with the powerful people who provided the goods.

With sufficient supply of goods, the experience of the first long-distance business trip was what Zhang Yang said. He originally wanted to sell horses to Yingchuan County in Yuzhou, but when he passed through Wei County in Hebei, he met the Taiping Dao in the suburbs.

Guo Xuan, the leading Taoist of Taiping, bought the horse carried by Zhang Yang after applying to his superiors, and booked all subsequent horses with Zhang Yang, and agreed to exchange horses at Kunyu Mountain in the future.

Zhang Yang knew that the buyer was a big customer, so he didn't care who the seller was, so he agreed with him. However, Zhang Yang was not stupid, and while agreeing to the agreement, he took the opportunity to raise the price to 7 coins per horse, and promised to provide it for a long time.

Because the uprising was approaching next year, Guo Xuan agreed to Zhang Yang's request without much consideration.

After Zhang Yang made money, he went through Hanoi to buy the scarce materials in Shuofang, such as grain, cloth, salt and other materials. He then took them back to the various counties in Shuofang and used these daily necessities to buy cattle, sheep and horses from the Hu tribes.

After such a trade trip, after deducting the costs and the dividends given to the powerful people in Shuofang, the Zhang family made a fortune. According to Zhang Yang's incomplete statistics, the profit was conservatively estimated to be 200,000 coins.

Including this return trip, the caravan has made about four trips this year and earned about one million yuan.

Is it a lot to earn a million? It may seem like a lot, but for the real rich and powerful, it is just a piece of cake and the profit is not worth mentioning.

For example, Zhe Guo, the prefect of Yulin in Jiaozhou, had accumulated assets of 200 million and 800 servants during his ten years in office. After retirement, he moved his family to Guanghan. Wang Fu, the eunuch of the imperial palace, had his guests extort money from merchants traveling to and from the county, and obtained a total of more than 70 million in property.

If they were engaged in business all year round, taking the Mi family in Donghai as an example, they had 10,000 servants and huge assets, and were a business tycoon among the states and counties.

But if we compare the Mi family with the aristocratic families, the Mi family is inferior. Cao Song invested 100 million to buy himself a gilded title of Taiwei. It is easy to see how terrifying the Cao family's strength is!

Of course, making a million dollars in profit in just half a year of business is already a huge profit for the Zhang family in Yunzhong. People should always be content!

After understanding the whole situation, Zhang Yu laughed and said, "The Taiping Dao disciples paid so much money to buy horses from my uncle. Didn't my uncle realize that it was wrong?"

"inappropriate?"

Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment and said truthfully: "The Taiping Daoists do not teach scriptures or preach the Dao, but instead buy horses. They must have a long-term plan."

"Hmm~"

Li Song interrupted and said, "According to what Ji An said about the arrangements of the Taiping Dao, and now listening to what your uncle said about buying horses, the Taiping Daoists may really have the idea of rebellion!"

"Rebellious?"

Zhang Yang's face changed slightly, and he asked, "Why did Ji An say that?"

Zhang Yu held the reins and drove the horse slowly, saying, "Since the Han Dynasty, the emperor's orders have been difficult to reach the villages and counties; the officials in the prefectures and counties have thunderous voices. The rich families have huge assets and hundreds or thousands of servants; but the poor families have nowhere to go and have no place to stand."

"The Taiping Dao is in the name of helping the poor, and its followers are spread all over the eight provinces of the Central Plains. If the leader Zhang Jiao has rebellious intentions, all the Taoists will follow him and rise up. Their momentum will be like a prairie fire, and it will be unstoppable!" "However, the above words were originally my speculation. But now I heard from my uncle that the Taiping Dao purchased a large number of horses. I dare to say with certainty that Zhang Jiao will rebel next year."

Because of his memories from his past life, Zhang Yu knew that the Yellow Turban Rebellion was bound to happen at the end of the Han Dynasty, but it was really difficult for him to remember when Zhang Jiao would launch the rebellion. After all, his memory of the year and month of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was really vague.

Today, through Zhang Yang's oral narration, Zhang Yu judged that the Taiping Sect's large-scale purchase of strategic materials had led him to conclude that the Yellow Turbans would probably launch a rebellion next year.

Zhang Yang frowned slightly and said, "If Ji An said so, then we won't be able to sell horses next year, right?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yu almost cried. His second uncle was so adorable that he was still thinking about selling horses to make money even in such troubled times.

Zhang Yu smiled helplessly and said, "We can't sell horses next year, so we might as well store more food for emergencies."

"That makes sense!"

Zhang Yang nodded slightly and said, "I will go back and discuss with my brother to see if we should take advantage of this opportunity to make one more trip, in case a rebellion breaks out next year as Ji An said, and it becomes difficult to sell the horses."

Li Song thought for a moment and asked, "If the Taiping Sect really rebels next year, the Han army will go to suppress it. By then, both sides will be in urgent need of war horses. Why can't we take the opportunity to sell them?"

"You do not understand!"

Zhang Yang shook his head and sneered, "When a war breaks out, the army will seize both you and your horse when they see you selling horses. The horses will be used as military horses, and you will be punished with either military service or being sent to carry grain and soil. In serious cases, you will be beheaded and labeled a bandit."

Zhang Yang had been a soldier and had experienced the most intense period of the conflict between the Han and the Hu peoples. He was well aware of the terrifying appearance of the mob soldiers.

Zhang Maoshan, who had been silent the whole time, asked weakly, "Since you can guess that the Taiping Dao might have turmoil next year, why don't you report it to the government now?"

"Government?"

Zhang Yang sneered and said, "Tell the government who you will sell the horse to next time?"

Li Song shook his head and said, "The Taiping Dao followers are spread across the eight states. If they really intended to rebel, an official would have reported it to the court long ago. The court has not taken any action so far. I'm afraid someone in the court is covering up for them. Reporting it to the officials now will be a thankless task!"

Zhang Yu praised Li Song's speculation. According to history, the Taiping Dao had extended its tentacles to the Ten Eunuchs. If he reported the Taiping Dao now, he would probably be asking for trouble.

They chatted for a while about the Taiping Dao, and then separated because Zhang Yang had to lead the team.

At this time, Hao Zhao, who was in the team, saw that Zhang Yu had finished talking, so he came over to greet him.

"Brother!"

Zhang Yu looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Hao Zhao, whose physique had become increasingly muscular. He smiled and said, "I haven't seen Bo Dao for a few months. You have changed a lot today!"

Hao Zhao smiled and said, "Thank you very much, brother. Without your care, I would have nowhere to go!"

Zhang Yu held the whip and sighed, "I was worried that the caravan would be tired and that Bodao would have trouble adapting. Now that I see Bodao's good mood, I feel relieved."

Hao Zhao said: "Although it is tiring to travel with the merchants, I have saved some money thanks to my brother's kindness. It is much better than when I joined the army!"

Hao Zhao was in a very good mood after seeing Zhang Yu, and along the way he told Zhang Yu what happened in the caravan.

After parting with Zhang Yu, Hao Zhao went to Chanhewu to visit Zhang Ji. Zhang Ji saw that Hao Zhao was introduced by his own son, so he took good care of him and let Hao Zhao follow Zhang Yang to do business.

After several business trips, Hao Zhao's bold and careful character was fully revealed, and Zhang Yang gradually relied on him. However, he was young and lacked experience, and sometimes he would fall into traps. But as his experience grew, Hao Zhao would be able to lead the team himself sooner or later.

"it is good!"

Zhang Yu reined in his horse and came to Hao Zhao's side, patted his shoulder, and said: "When Bodao grows up, I will marry him a beautiful wife, and then open up another trade route, which will be led by Bodao!"

"hey-hey!"

Hao Zhao smiled innocently, his eyes and brows revealing his vision for the future.

Starting from Dalushan, the team of nearly thirty people did not move very fast because they were pulling seven large carts of supplies. It took them seven or eight days to cross Jingxing.

When he arrived in Yanmen County, Zhang Yu stayed in Mayi for a day to visit Zhang Liao.

At the same time, Zhang Yu had already passed Jingxing and was sent to Yu Chi from Yinguan.

"Book of Tang, Biography 7": "When Zhao first followed Taizu, he traded horses and made his way around. At that time, the Hu bandits rose up and plundered the merchants' property. Zhao always took the lead with the sword, and the bandits were afraid and dared not attack."

(End of this chapter)