I support the army through farming and business.

Chapter 138 Bartering
"You didn't follow, did you?" Tang Zhao asked, his breathing slightly rapid as he slipped into the alley.

"No," Gu Ci shook his head, "your escape speed is such that even specially trained soldiers couldn't catch up with you in a short time."

Of course! Tang Zhao was extremely proud. Ever since Wu Jiayi and the others arrived, Tang Zhao had to spend two hours every day training with them. Not only had his archery and horseback riding skills improved significantly, but his swordsmanship and combat skills had also greatly improved.

Wu Jiayi's most frequent saying was, "It's a pity the old general died so young, otherwise he would have definitely trained her to become the second female general of Dayu."

Gu Ci looked thoughtfully at Wu Shiyi and the others who had caught up.

"What's that smell?" Tang Zhao sniffed around like a puppy.

"It's spices."

"Spice? What spice is so pungent?"

“Qingshui, Xunlu, Suhe, Lingling,” Gu Ci discerned the various mixed fragrances in the air, “These are some of the most commonly used spices by the Turks.”

"Oh," Tang Zhao said uninterestedly, "Where are the jewels and horses?"

"Horses are in the East Ward, and jewels are in the West Ward," Gu Ci said, pointing to the end of the alley. "Go out from here, turn a few more streets, and you'll reach the West Ward."

"Let's go!" Tang Zhao decisively chose the West Ward. The further they walked, the more pungent the smell became. Eventually, Tang Zhao no longer needed Gu Ci to lead the way; he found the West Ward by following the smell himself.

Both sides of the entire road in Xifang are filled with various kinds of jewelry such as turquoise, agate, lapis lazuli, bone beads, and coral. Some are unpolished and carved, while others are set into ornaments.

Tang Zhao held his breath and asked, "Aren't they afraid of being robbed?"

"The Tea Horse Road was a place of trade and mutual exchange agreed upon by the three kingdoms of Dayu, Turkic, and Tubo. Even when the three kingdoms were fighting fiercely, the market was only temporarily closed. During wartime, they would deliberately avoid this place unless necessary."

Tang Zhao blinked. "Are you even this humane when it comes to fighting?"

Why is it that when she was studying history, everyone was portrayed as treacherous and cunning, with the Thirty-Six Stratagems always proving effective?
“The Turks and Tibetans produced very little tea, but consumed a huge amount every day. The tea merchants of Dayu were afraid of the Turks and Tibetans’ barbarity and rudeness, so they only traded on the tea-horse trade market. Once the tea-horse trade market was closed, the Turks and Tibetans would have no tea to eat.”

"The number of horses raised at the Dayu Horse Farm is far from sufficient for the army's needs, so horses must be purchased from the Turkic and Tibetan areas."

Tang Zhao suddenly realized that this kind of relationship, where each party has something on the other, is indeed the most reliable. "Then why not raise horses yourself?"

Stallions and mares are paired up and bought; the foals that are born are then paired up again, and so on, generation after generation, endlessly.

"The horses that the Turks and Tibetans sold to Dayu were all castrated," Gu Ci said with a hint of dissatisfaction.

Tang Zhao patted his shoulder, unable to help, since even modern medicine couldn't make a castrated horse breed.

Tang Zhao took the veil from Dongmei and put it on his head. He led his people to look at each stall along the way, and stopped at one stall with the most variety of jewelry, the best quality, and the strongest smell from the stall owner. He pretended to be a customer and picked out goods.

"How much is this?" Tang Zhao picked up a piece of red coral.

The stall owner looked Tang Zhao and Gu Ci up and down. Seeing that the two were dressed in ordinary cloth clothes with no accessories, and that there were few servants behind them who did not seem very smart, the stall owner was very casual and said in Tibetan, "Fifty taels per piece."

Gu Ci served as the translator.

"Too expensive," Tang Zhao bargained, "Would you sell it for twenty taels?"

"Twenty taels?" The stall owner, sitting on a wide chair covered with a mink coat, impatiently waved him away. "Get out if you're not buying."

Tang Zhao left, saying, "This place has a bad attitude, let's go to another one." As he spoke, his gaze lingered on the drowsy stall owner in the corner.

Tang Zhao walked over and saw that the small stall only had a few pieces of jewelry of poor quality scattered around. After browsing for a while, Tang Zhao picked up an agate and asked, "Would you sell this for ten taels?"

Hearing the voice, the stall owner opened his right eye and glanced at the vendor. "Sell!"

"Can we barter?"

“Sure,” the stall owner said with a yawn, “Tea, silk, and grain are all fine. I can give you a discount.”

Do you accept the "Huguang Mirror"?

A mirror reflecting light from a teapot? The stall owner's small eyes were filled with great doubt.

Tang Zhao took out a miniature version of the Huguang Mirror from his pouch at his waist. "This is the Huguang Mirror that has recently become popular among the nobles of Dayu. It is made of the finest glass." Tang Zhao opened the lid. "The mirror surface is smooth, and it reflects light more clearly than a bronze mirror and is more stable than the surface of water."

The stall owner's beady eyes widened instantly, and he held up the mirror with both hands to look at his own small, black beady eyes reflected in it.

He could even see his own reflection in the mirror.

Tang Zhao raised an eyebrow. "Can we exchange it?"

"Sure! Of course! A priceless treasure is hard currency at the Tea Horse Road!" the stall owner exclaimed excitedly. "How would you like to exchange it?"

Tang Zhao enjoyed dealing with straightforward people like this: "A pot of mirror in exchange for goods worth a thousand taels!"

Gu Ci calmly translated.

The stall owner was startled. Although the mirror was a treasure, it couldn't really be worth a fortune! Besides, it was only this big.

Tang Zhao recommended, "Although this mirror is small, it can be carried by noblewomen and can be used to tidy their appearance anytime and anywhere. It is much more convenient than those large mirrors."

The stall owner imagined his wife taking out this mirror to fix her appearance in front of a group of ladies at a noble banquet, being admired and flattered by them. Given his wife's show-off nature, she would definitely give him a hard time for a few days.

Seeing the stall owner's increasingly lewd and perverted expression, Gu Ci raised his eyelids and glanced at him indifferently.

The stall owner was brought back to his senses by the coolness on his neck. He glanced disdainfully at the scraps on his stall and said, "Fine! I'll go back and get some fine jewelry."

Tang Zhao stopped them, "Wait! Besides the jewels, I also need horses."

Horses? The stall owner pointed the way, "The horse market is in Dongfang."

"I don't want a castrated horse."

The vendor took a few steps back. "You..."

Tang Zhao, with his hands behind his back, smiled and said, "Shall we exchange?"

Should he trade? Of course he wants to! Jewelry is fine, horses are fine too, but they can't be uncastrated!

Even if he was ignorant, he knew that the Turkic Khan had personally ordered that no uncastrated stallion be sold to Dayu, for fear that a war between the two countries would be detrimental to the Turks!

But to ask him to give up this gleaming mirror...

The vendor tried to negotiate, saying, "I can give you a 10% discount on castrated horses."

Tang Zhao shook his head.

"Twenty percent, thirty percent, that's the lowest I can go!"

Gu Ci's heart skipped a beat.

Tang Zhao shook his head, put down the agate mixed with impurities, and reached out to take back the Pot-Shaped Mirror. "Since we can't reach an agreement, then forget it. I'll find someone else."

The stall owner, clutching the mirror, retreated repeatedly, yelling and shouting incoherently.

Tang Zhao picked at his ear. "What did he say?"

"They're calling for help."

As soon as Gu Ci finished speaking, dozens of Turkic guards emerged from all directions, protecting the stall owner in the middle.

Tang Zhao sneered, "So, when the deal fell through, they resorted to robbery?"

The stall owner kept babbling to the guard leader, who then stepped forward and said in broken Da Yu dialect, "Please forgive me, esteemed guest, but my master invites you to come and have a chat."

Stall owner: I love it so much, oh my god!

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