North and South groceries

Ever since meeting Xu Erlang that day, Du Xi has been thinking about what kind of excuses he should find to leave Chang'an City, so as to be as unobtrusive as possible and avoid complications.

His friend bumped into each other at this juncture, so Du Xi took advantage of the opportunity to pinch him, and then left Chang'an City in a fit of anger.

The big families in Chang'an City didn't take Du Xi's matter very seriously, they just thought that he was used to flamboyant in the past, but now that times have changed, he still doesn't know how to restrain himself, he is really useless.

What these big families are most concerned about now is the matter of Goguryeo. Not only is the sage determined to conquest himself, but he also seems to have plans to bring the crown prince with him. When the emperor is gone and the crown prince is not around, then in Chang'an City...

Naturally, there were people in the court who tried to persuade them, but it was of no use, and no one could tell what some big families were planning behind their backs at this time.

In addition to this matter, there is another matter that the people inside and outside Chang'an are most concerned about recently, and that is that the sweet potatoes planted this spring are almost ready to be harvested at this time.

In the spring of this year, except for the homes of some high-ranking officials and dignitaries, sweet potatoes were planted in all the temples in Chang’an City. Later, when the sweet potato vines on the ground grew luxuriantly, some people went to ask for sweet potato vines. I took two back and planted them in my own yard.

There are also some families who have obtained one or two green vines from the big families who planted sweet potatoes through various relationships, and there are also sellers in the market.

In early spring, the price of sweet potato vines is very high. When summer comes, sweet potato vines have grown in many people's homes, and the price is much lower.

People in this era have never planted sweet potatoes, and they don't know if it is too late to plant them after summer. However, when the price is not very expensive, many people are still willing to spend a few cents to buy a few. A branch of sweet potato vines is planted in my yard.

After autumn, there were still poor families who managed to get a few sweet potato vines from others to plant.

I heard from the merchants from the Western Regions that Luo Yong, the magistrate of Changle County, saved last year's sweet potato vines until this spring, and distributed them to the villages and towns under his jurisdiction for planting. It is said that they are growing very well.

They planted these vines at this time. Even if the season is already late and the sweet potatoes cannot bear fruit, it would be good to grow a few more vines. If they are lucky enough to store these sweet potato vines for the next spring without rot or death, then Wouldn't they be able to plant a large yard full of sweet potatoes next year!

There are quite a few people who think this way. I heard that there are some large farms outside Chang'an City. This year, many sweet potato vines have been planted there. It is said that the fruit will be the best. If the fruit is not fruitful, the vines will be harvested. Not bad.

As for the method of hiding rattan, it is said to be similar to the method of Naiwu people hiding melons.

So those Yiwu merchants in Chang'an City have been frequently asked how they hid the melons in the past few months, and indeed some of them knew what was inside, and they told the method, and it spread among the people in a short time I just don't know how many people will be able to hide the sweet potato vines in the next spring.

According to Luo Yong's experience, the sweet potato vines that survived the winter must be older vines to survive, and the vines that are too tender are easy to rot.

In Changle County, people are also discussing the storage of the sweet potato vines recently. Many people are not confident that they can store the sweet potato vines from this autumn to the next spring.

So Luo Yong asked the officials to go to various villages and towns to buy sweet potato vines. Because of the high price, many people were willing to sell their own sweet potato vines to them.

On the other hand, Luo Yong asked people to let the wind out again, saying that there will be a lot of sweet potato vines on his side in the spring of the coming year. If anyone wants to buy it, he will send the food to him early in exchange, first come first served, late come If it is gone, it will be gone.

Every year when winter comes, the entire Changle County consumes a lot of food. The cashmere workshops and bacon workshops in the county only open in winter, and the cement workshop outside the county town will consume more food than usual after winter. Many people were recruited, mainly farmers who came out to find work in the nearby slack.

In addition, the canals will be repaired this year, and there will be hundreds of young and strong food problems to be solved. It will not work if we don't store more food.

As soon as the news of Luo Yong spread, a lot of food from nearby areas gathered like Changle County.

There are also ordinary farmers who have worked so hard to bring their loads of grain over, and there are those rich and powerful who transported their grain in carts and carts.

No matter how much or how little food there is, Luo Yong never refuses anyone who comes, and asks the officials to register their names, places of origin, and the number of sweet potato vines they want to exchange, and then cash them out one by one in the spring of the next year.

In Changle County and the surrounding areas, the grain production has not been very large in the past two years, but basically every household has planted white folded flowers, and the autumn tax can be paid for by white folded flowers, which saves a lot of grain, and that Baijihua doesn't compete with food very much, and every household has some surplus food after coming and going.

Coupled with the convenience of transportation, there are often merchants from Yiwu who come to Changle to sell grain. In the past two years, the herdsmen outside the customs have also driven large numbers of sheep into the customs. The food in their place is relatively sufficient, and now there are sweet potatoes, even if there are some natural and man-made disasters in the future, it should not be easy to starve to death.

Changle County is already very cool in the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and this year's white stacked flowers are about to enter the harvest season again.

This year, there are still many merchants who come to them to buy white fold flowers, but the competition is not as fierce as last year, and the price has dropped by several percent.

The local growers were not in a hurry to sell. Before a large number of white jasmine flowers matured, some people picked some piecemeal, but first made mattresses and jackets for their families.

There were also some people from the city who went to the countryside to buy them. At this time, it was not yet winter, and some children in the city were running around in the streets and alleys wearing newly made jackets, which was a bit funny.

At this time of autumn, it is also the season when Hu merchants set off from Dunhuang to the Western Regions.

Recently, the section of wooden track from Jiuquan to Jinchang has also been opened. After arriving in Jiuquan, many caravans sold their camels and horses, and hired a few dozen wooden track carriages to transport goods and personnel along this road. A wooden track can take you all the way to Gaochang City, and it doesn't cost a lot of money. Sitting in the wooden track carriage, not to mention smooth and comfortable, the speed is also fast, and it is relatively safe.

In the past two days, several caravans that Luo Yong was familiar with passed through Changle County, and they also traveled together.

After staying in Gaochang, these caravans will get off the wooden rail carriage and drive the animals to walk slowly.There are many small countries in the Western Regions, and there are many friendly people among them, but there are also those who slaughter the caravans as fat sheep. In addition, we must beware of robbers and thieves. It is always safer to travel with more people.

Qiao Junlin and the others also prepared early in the morning, waiting for a suitable caravan to pass by so that they could go with them.

This time these people passed through Changle County. After discussing with Tang Jian and the young people who were going to travel, Luo Yong decided to go with them.

On the day of departure, the crowd pulled out the wooden-tracked carriages loaded with luggage in advance from the warehouse, and several young people each carried a simple burden, boarded the carriages, and followed the team of Hu merchants. go.

On the wooden track, the wooden-tracked carriages followed one another, with a relatively safe distance between each other. With the sound of the horseshoes, they ran away without a trace after a while.

On this side, without waiting for Luo Yong to be sentimental, the imperial court sent a document.

On the document, Luo was praised for his contribution in developing the economy and helping the people in Changle County in the past few years, and said that the western border of the river is often invaded by enemy troops, so they should pay attention to it. During this period of time, let them not make mistakes in Changle County.

Documents like this must not have been received by Luo Yong alone. For this matter, Luo Yong went to Tang Jian again and asked him if there was really no room for change in the Eastern Expedition.

Tang Jian just shook his head at this time, expressing that he was powerless to change this matter.

Earlier, Tang Jian had also written a letter of remonstrance to go back, but the result was like nothing, and Chang'an did not reply to him with a single word.

The two sat and talked, and Tang Jian reminded Luo Yong that when the sage marched eastward, a large number of soldiers would go to Jiaodong. At that time, the troops in the Central Plains would be weak.

So at this time, the imperial court sent them such an official document, which meant to let them tighten the border. There should be more detailed terms from the governors and Guo Duhu.

The tightening of the border will definitely have an adverse impact on the local business development in Longxi, so Luo Yong must be mentally prepared.

Luo Yong is also aware of this problem. At present, their immediate boss is Guo Xiaoke. I don't know what he thinks about this matter and how far he intends to tighten the border policy.

In the end, before Luo Yong could figure out Guo Xiaoke's attitude, the caravan from the east of Longyou Road brought news that Guo Duhu was going to be between Jiuquan and Zhangye, and between Zhangye and Liangzhou. Road repairs.

Guo Xiaoke wanted to lay wooden tracks between Jiuquan and Liangzhou this time, and the reason he gave was to strengthen the ability to transport troops, grain and grass between Longyou Road and Anxi Protectorate.

However, both Luo Yong and Tang Jian guessed that this summer Guo Xiaoke's eldest son was looking for iron ore in the area south of Jiuquan, and he must have found something. That's why the old man was so anxious to build the road at this time. Only the iron dug out from the side can be sold.