Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

Chapter 76: Hu Merchants
Wang was stunned, with a moment of panic in her eyes.

She pulled her daughter into the house and slammed the front door shut.

Xue Yi got up, brushed off the dirt and dust on his body, and slowly walked into his own hut.

Sitting down beside the small table at the door, he picked up a scroll of bamboo slips and slowly unfolded it.

It was written on it: Anyone who steals another person's identity will be punished with thirty strokes of the cane and a tattoo on the face.
The weather has been good in recent days.

The sky is clear and blue.

The inn's wall was finally built. In addition to the large kitchen that was built at the beginning, the three thatched houses along the official road were also completed.

After all the doors and windows were installed, Shen Zhao transported the tables and chairs made by Uncle Qin in an ox cart and placed them in the hut.

As for the houses and stables in the yard, they can only be built slowly.

It's just that it's winter now and the weather is getting colder, so many materials for building houses cannot be gathered.

For example, water chestnuts, millet grass, reed mats, and wood have become scarce commodities.

On this day, Shen Zhao and his second brother hung the newly made sign of Dunhuang Department Store Inn on the door of the thatched cottage, and then they saw a group of Western Regions Hu merchants being checked for their pass certificates and identity cards at the post station.

The Hu merchant team has seventy or eighty people and more than thirty camels. They entered the country from Yangguan, then rested in Dunhuang. Now they are passing through here and preparing to go to the capital.

Shen Zhao quickly ran over and asked, "Do you guys want to take a break? I have sweet milk tea and snacks at home."

In her previous life, she had dealt with Hu merchants and learned some simple greetings from the Western Regions. It was obvious that these Hu merchants were dressed in the Wusun style, so she spoke the Wusun language.

Hu Shang was very surprised and looked him up and down: "Can you speak Wusun?"

"I know a little, but not much." Shen Zhao took the opportunity to chat with him: "Do you have any rare goods? I would like to exchange some fine cloth with you."

"Fine cloth?" The man with the mustache became interested. "Where is your home?"

Shen Zhao pointed to three new huts not far away and said, "It's over there. You can go take a look and rest your feet and have a cup of milk tea."

Hu Shang glanced at the three lonely thatched cottages and the high-walled courtyard behind them and did not dare to go over.

The guard who had checked the post said with a smile: "This girl is the daughter of our postmaster, and that house is his inn."

When Hu Shang heard the guard say this, his doubts were slightly dispelled and he took the two men towards the thatched cottage.

Shen Zhao led the way and took the three people to the thatched cottage: "Please sit down, I will go to the house to get the cloth for you to see."

Hu Shang looked around and saw two tables, several chairs and a stove in the corner. There was only a young man guarding the room. His doubts gradually dissipated.

Shen Zhaoze ran into the inner room and bought six kinds of defective cloth from the small bronze mirror, fifty meters each, spending only nine hundred coins.

Then I left a message to the merchant, asking them to roll it into a piece of cloth that was ten meters long, and to make sure not to be less than the specified size.

The merchant agreed, and thirty rolls of cloth were delivered a short while later.

Shen Zhao also bought a set of ceramic tea cups, some milk tea ingredients, and a metal kettle, and asked Shen Heng to move out: "Second brother, you go make tea, I'll move the cloth."

Shen Heng agreed, put the teacup on a table, and took the teapot to the kitchen in the yard to get water.

The three huts have a small door leading directly to the kitchen in the backyard, where there are two iron stoves and two large water vats.

I haven't had time to fetch water today, so there isn't much water in the tank, but it should be enough to boil some water and make some milk tea.

After fetching water and returning to the thatched hut, I saw three Hu merchants surrounding several pieces of flowered cloth and exclaiming: "What kind of cloth is this? Why is it so soft?" It was even softer than woolen cloth, and the pattern was so beautiful.

Shen Zhao smiled and said, "This is called cotton cloth. One piece costs one thousand coins." Hu Shang's eyes widened immediately. "What? One thousand coins? Are you serious?"

"Of course it's true. Do you have goods of equal value to exchange?" In fact, Shen Zhao wanted money more, but the Hu merchants did not have many Han copper coins, so all their goods had to be bartered.

Hu Shang blinked and said, "To be honest, our caravan went to the capital to exchange for more silk and porcelain. Your cloth is beautiful, but it is not silk."

Shen Zhao: "I have some silk too, but it's very expensive, more than 10,000 yuan per piece."

Hu Shang smiled and said nothing.

It wasn't that he thought it was too expensive, but he just didn't believe that this small inn in the middle of nowhere would sell silk.

Even if there is, it will not be the amount you need.

"How much cotton cloth do you have here, girl? I can exchange it for spices or gems." Hu Shang still wanted to go to the Central Plains to take a look. After all, he had already come here, and it would take another forty days to reach the most prosperous capital.

"Then let me take a look at the quality of the gem first." Shen Zhao asked bluntly.

Hu Shang nodded and ordered his followers to fetch the gems.

Then, a box of turquoise and a box of rubies and sapphires were placed in front of Shen Zhao: "This is the most beautiful jewelry on the snowy mountain. I can exchange one box for fifty rolls of cotton cloth."

"Fifty pieces?" Shen Zhao grabbed a handful of gems, and some of them fell out of his palm. "No, these little things of yours are not valuable, not as useful as gold. I can only exchange them for twenty pieces. I won't exchange for more than that."

Hu Shang frowned, took another look at the brightly colored cotton cloth, and finally nodded: "Okay, I'll trade two boxes of gems for fifty rolls of cotton cloth. Is that okay?"

"Forty horses." Shen Zhao refused to give in.

Hu Shang frowned and said, "Forty-five pieces, no less. If you take the jewels to the capital, you can exchange them for more items."

Shen Zhao smiled and said, "Here, my forty rolls of colored cotton cloth can be sold for forty thousand coins. Can your two boxes of small stones be sold for the same?"

Hu Shang:.
"Okay, forty pieces is forty pieces. Bring the cloth here and we'll exchange it now." He was still waiting to get on with his journey and didn't want to stay here too long.

Shen Zhao did not hesitate and ran into the inner room and spent another 900 coins to buy 30 pieces of cloth. He kept 20 pieces and moved the 40 pieces in front of the Hu merchant.

So the Hu merchant began to inspect the cloth, and became dissatisfied when he saw some flaws.

Shen Zhao quickly explained: "This is printed cloth. It's good to have such a color and pattern. After all, it's only one thousand coins per piece, and the price is not much different from ordinary coarse cloth."

The Hu merchant was speechless. Seeing that the size was not small, he ordered his companions to wrap the forty pieces of cotton cloth in oilcloth, tie them up and put them on the camel's back.

Shen Zhao took the two boxes of gems back to the inner room and immediately stored them in his own shop. Referring to similar products in the mall, he priced each gem at 580 yuan.

This price was recommended by Xiaoqing. He said that current human technology can synthesize many kinds of minerals, so this kind of turquoise and red turquoise are not rare, and this price is considered to be reasonable.

For this purpose, Xiaoqing also asked her to mark it with a few promotional words such as natural mineral and unique.

After putting the two boxes of ore on the shelves, Shen Zhao no longer cared about them. He immediately bought several large bags of old cotton clothes, and also bought a lot of cotton trousers, cotton shoes, and cotton quilts. Then he borrowed an ox cart from Tingyi and transported them back to Yanze with his second brother.

She owed her helpers a lot of cotton clothes and quilts, and this time she could pay them off all at once.

"Ah Zhao, this time we can finally deliver the goods to Ah Zhu and Ah Gua." Shen Heng sat on the ox cart and waved a small branch, smiling and said, "You don't know, those guys kept pestering me and asking when the goods would arrive, and I didn't know what to say."

Shen Zhao: "In the future, if they are short of goods, you can take them directly to the inn, and I will put the goods in the inner room."

"Okay! Let's do this from now on!" Shen Heng suddenly remembered something and whispered, "A Zhao, I heard that the Feng family from Yulixiang came to discuss marriage with the Xue family."

(End of this chapter)