Crossing the Unknown Country

The Ye family worked hard to take root in the border town. They knew that they could not ask for pardon from the emperor. Because the emperor usually had no shortage of ministers, they had been exiled here, and the descendants could only work hard to turn things around.

The Su family started to make money again. This time, Su He discussed with his father that he should take the lead in running the business. Who knows when the next war will break out? Dongjie Kingdom will not give up. Since the war has started, they have been prepared. Who knows who will lead the army to attack next time. Unless Ansheng Kingdom takes the initiative to attack and hurt them, it will be possible to maintain stability for a period of time. Their family must work hard to make money and save enough money to escape before the war starts. As a family of ordinary people, when there is a war, they can only choose to avoid the war.

After Su He returned to normal in the town, he went there and visited Dr. Jin and his three families. All three of them have returned. This is home! They are reluctant to abandon it. They have lived here for so many years. It is still their hometown. Su He asked Aunt Zhou, the owner of the cloth shop, about cotton. Winter is coming soon, and their family needs to buy winter clothes urgently. Aunt Zhou said that cotton needs to be purchased from the county. Their family has not had time to purchase it yet. The original things in their home have been turned into a mess, and some goods cannot be sold.

When Su He was leaving, she gave her some damaged cloth and asked her to take it home to make some shoes and other small items. Su He accepted it without hesitation. She did not come empty-handed, and left her homemade tofu and wild vegetables picked from the mountains for each family.

Su He discussed it with his parents, and the three of them rushed to Fengyu County the next morning. He didn't let his brothers come over, because he heard that it cost money to enter the city, and also to stay, so his brothers stayed at home to look after the house. They would go to the city to look after the house when they had the chance next time, and they couldn't leave no one to look after the house. They bought another ox cart and drove for more than three hours, and finally saw a city with high walls.

Under the khaki-colored city wall, the big black city gates were wide open on both sides, like a big lion with its mouth open to swallow the passers-by. There were several soldiers guarding the city gate. They took out their pass, which they had to get at the town government office. Without it, they could not leave the city. The guarding soldiers looked at their pass, asked them to pay fifty coins each, and then let them enter the city.

I drove the ox cart and found a cheap inn to stay in. One room was big enough for three people. I put my baggage in the room. I parked the ox cart directly in the stable of the inn. I just paid the waiter and they would feed the ox.

The three of them didn't stay here for long, and went to the street directly. They followed the waiter's instructions and walked here. The street here is similar to all the county towns. Su He has seen the Qingming Shanghe Tu on TV, and the scene there should be like this. There are so many people, all kinds of people, and their clothes are obviously much better than those in the town, with much better styles and fabrics. A long main street, with people coming and going, there are many mobile vendors, most of them pushing wheelbarrows, selling their own food. This is the most prosperous commercial street in the county. But it is much longer than the street in the town, with shops next to each other, and some small alleys on both sides also have businesses.

The people here were not affected by the war at all, and the place was prosperous. Everyone had a peaceful and happy look on their faces, and it was obvious that they lived a stable and steady life. This was the common people, who could live happily as long as there was no disaster.

They were not in a hurry to buy things, but looked at each one. There were many cloth shops here, some specialized in selling ready-made clothes, some specialized in selling cloth, and some selling both. They were all selling cotton. Some of the cotton was white, some was a little yellow, and some was obviously old and re-spun.

They wanted to buy some good cotton, 50 wen a jin, to make winter clothes. They also wanted to buy some yellowed cotton, 40 wen a jin, to make mattresses and quilts. They probably needed to buy quite a lot, and they bought both their family and their uncle's family this time. A winter coat required about a jin of cotton, so they needed about 50 jin of good cotton and 80 jin of bad cotton.

They went to some larger shops, but the shop owners knew they had no money just by looking at their clothes. They ignored them. When they asked about the price, they found it was slightly more expensive, but of course the quality was definitely the best. But they didn't need the best, as long as it was warm. Finally, they decided to buy at a ready-made clothing store in a small alley nearby. Su He's mother had been doing business for half a year and was very smart and capable. She negotiated the price directly with the merchants, and finally bought the good cotton for 45 wen and the inferior cotton for 35 wen. Because they bought a lot, the merchants lowered the price. There were not many big buyers here, most of them went to the big cloth shops, and Su He's family bought a lot for their store. Before the Su He family came, they had already planned to buy more, and if it was cheaper, they would buy more.