Economic and Trade Song Dynasty

Chapter 128

After crossing the desert several times, walking through the grassland several times, crossing the snow mountain once, and arriving at a place called Tieling, it is the winter month of this year.

They could not go further northeast because the road was blocked by heavy snow for several days.

Is it going to stay here for the winter, if so, they have to stay here for a long time.

They will not be the only people trapped in Tieling, there will be more one after another.

Qin Juan thought, if Huhu took this road more than half a month ahead of him,

There are very few herdsmen or farmers in Tieling who are willing to take in outsiders, but the cost of living in the inn has also increased because there are too many people trapped here from outsiders.

They found several herdsmen, but they didn't agree, so they stopped looking for herdsmen.

And the inn was already full, so they drove them away.

On a snowy day, Xiao Qu'er's face was frozen, his nose and cheeks were red, and Qin Juan used the ointment he had treasured to smear his face several times.

"Why don't you ask Mashi." In the snowstorm, Gu Yue suddenly suggested.

"We have a lot of horses, and the herdsmen don't want us to live there, and the houses of ordinary people in this city can't fit our horses. It's better to go to the horse market and the horse dealer to find a place to live."

The horse market in Tieling is in the north of the city, and there are two big markets here.

When I went to the horse market, I understood that what they could think of, those business travelers could also think of.

Business travelers here gather together to live in horse houses.

"I counted, and there are seven or eight caravans in this caravan." Gu Yue said, "The horse market is only this big..."

"It's not worth fighting with the merchants. Let's go outside the city to see if the conditions are worse." Qin Juan said.

When they were about to turn their horses around, they were suddenly stopped.

"Don't leave these brothers, are you looking for a place to stay?"

A voice interrupted them, and when they looked back, it was a burly middle-aged man.

Taohua Weiwu could only understand a few sporadic words, so he looked at Qin Juan and Gu Yue.

Gu Yue is an aristocrat of Yinshan, because Yinshan and the Mongolian army have always fought against each other, and they have also learned Uighur since childhood. Gu Yue is not good at speaking, but she can also speak some simple Uighur words when she knows the Uighur characters

"Yes, we are looking for a place to live." Gu Yue replied.

The middle-aged man said with a smile: "There is just one room left in my horse house. You... it's a bit cramped for the four of you, but it's enough."

Gu Yue's eyes lit up when he heard this: "We will live until the heavy snow stops melting, maybe for a while."

The middle-aged man smiled again: "I know, you can stay as long as you want."

Taohua asked, "What's the price of your house?"

The middle-aged man replied: "It's not as good as the conditions of the inn, but there are hot water and a hot stove for you to use, so let's count it as a tael of silver a day."

It's not much cheaper than an inn. People here are just sitting on the ground and raising prices. How can anyone live here when the spring begins? No one will come to live as long as there is a silver bean.

Gu Yue and Tao Hua agreed, Qin Juan didn't say anything, just looked at the middle-aged man with his lips pursed, always a little puzzled.

The middle-aged man seemed to have seen his doubts, and hurriedly said: "Our Ma Xing has lived in three recently, and it happens that there is only one vacant room. It is difficult for those caravans to attract people to live in it. Although the four of you are crowded It's a little too much, but it's okay, I think so."

Qin Juan's doubts disappeared, but he said sharply: "You have only one room left and can't rent it out, so it's better to make it cheaper."

"Huh?" The middle-aged man froze for a moment.

Qin Juan narrowed his eyes and thought for a while: "20 taels a month, I will pay you now, if you agree, we will live in, if you don't agree, I can go outside the city and buy a one-room farmhouse for 20 taels."

The middle-aged man did not expect this person to say: "This..."

He thought for a while and gritted his teeth: "That's it, you can live in."

Manager Ma Xing was right, the place for them to live was really not big, Qin Juan and Xiao Qu'er squeezed into the small bed, and the big bed had to be reserved for Gu Yue and Taohua.

Gu Yue disagreed.

Tao Hua smiled: "Then Xiao Qu'er and I, you and Qin Juan."

As soon as Taohua finished speaking, Qin Juan looked at Gu Yue: "Is it okay for me to beat you up every night before going to bed?" Qin Juan's anger soared when he said this, Gu Yue was about to fight Qin Juan with his fists raised.

Qin Juan gave him a blank look, and avoided him, "The place is so small, the house will be smashed up, you sit back for me." After some discussion, Gu Yue still had to squeeze with Taohua.

Because Gu Yue and Qin Juan are too tall, they can't fit in the big bed... It's just right for the peach blossoms to go.

To be honest, when Qin Juan was resting that night, he realized that when he was sleeping on this small bed, his feet were all outside the bed.

He got up, put on the cloud socks, and lay down again.

Xiao Qu'er felt cold and shrank into his arms.

After thinking about it, Qin Juan still got up and lit the stove. No matter how expensive the carbon fire is, money can be earned, but the important thing is that the body suffers from frostbite and the loss outweighs the gain.

When the room gradually warmed up, there was the sound of shallow breathing from several people, and they all fell asleep.

The next day, Taohua took out the winter coats and cloaks that she had prepared earlier.

Xiao Qu'er's body is getting bigger, Taohua tied the belt to Xiao Qu'er so that there is no air leakage.

Gu Yue brought a bucket of hot water, and Qin Juan brought in food as well.

The wind and snow were too heavy, Qin Juan closed the door after entering.

Seeing them coming back, Taohua suddenly asked: "When I just woke up, I seemed to hear someone talking in the yard, did you notice?"

Both of them froze for a moment, then nodded.

Taohua thought that she had misheard while she was in a coma, but she didn't expect someone to actually talk in the yard

Qin Juan heard it too, but because he slept so comfortably, he really didn't want to get up and take a look. By the time he became suspicious, the voices outside had disappeared.

"Let's eat first." Qin Juan distributed the hot pancakes to them.

During the meal, Qin Juan explained to them that he was going to the market tomorrow to sell some things.

As for how much silver they still have, Qin Juan has almost used it, what is valuable on Gu Yue is Gu Yue's jewelry, and what is peach blossom is a mystery, but among the three of them, only Tao Hua came out after being prepared. With all his wealth.

Qin Juan came out of the room and saw other people living in the same courtyard. There should be more than a dozen people living here. He has only seen three since this morning. It was cold, and those people did not come out of the house. .

Those two were talking about something, but when they saw Qin Juan came out of the room, they stopped talking.

Qin Juan was puzzled for a moment, and greeted him out of politeness. The two people didn't know whether they were slow or something, and they greeted him after a while.

But after saying hello, they left the yard, one went into the house and the other went out.

Qin Juan didn't care, and went to the stable.

Went to the stables to feed their six horses one by one, and carried the broken quilt to the bed to cover Seventh Brother

Seventh brother shook off the torn quilt, as if to say, I'm not cold, I want you to worry about it and give it to other brothers.

Qin Juan gave the broken quilt to the other horses, and those horses were more honest than Seventh Brother, so they covered them, and they covered them honestly.

Qin Juan stood for a while, and was about to leave, when the Seventh Brother started howling again.

Qin Juan looked back at it, as if he knew what Brother Qi was talking about.

It is saying: you really go, don't ride me if you don't have a conscience.

The road is blocked by snow, ride a ghost!Think beautiful! "

Seventh brother howled for a while but didn't howl, and obediently squatted back in the corner.

Qin Juan looked at it and said with a smile: "It's good to sharpen your temper."

He said and walked away quickly.

For some reason, at noon, I heard that officers and soldiers were coming to check, and the manager Anui told them not to go out if they didn't want to be checked.

They didn't want to offend the officers and soldiers, and they didn't dare to go out. Naturally, they didn't know what happened outside.

It was around evening when the voices outside became quieter, probably because the officers and soldiers had left.

After the officers and soldiers left, there was silence in the horse stables, especially in the courtyard. No one went out, and there was no sound at all.

After sleeping indiscriminately, Qin Juan got up early the next day and sorted out his goods in the house, because there were more than half of them in the warehouse of the stables, and he had to go to the stables to lead the horses.

Seeing him walking towards the stable, Anui, the steward, naturally asked.

"I'm going to the market." Qin Juan replied.

Anui: "You are not allowed to go out for three days."

"who said it."

"Yesterday's officers and soldiers."

Qin Juan was even more puzzled, and couldn't help asking: "What did the officers and soldiers come for yesterday?"

"I don't know, I don't care, and neither do you." Anui said.

Qin Juan looked at the middle-aged man, he knew that the middle-aged man must know, but he didn't want to tell him

This will only make Qin Juan want to know what happened. After all, he doesn't live here alone. If the environment is unfavorable, he has to make plans early.

But he vaguely felt that it might not be possible for him to leave now if he wanted to.

After going back, he talked about it with Taohua Guyue and the others. He thought it was strange that the government came yesterday, so he wanted to investigate.

"Aren't you the best at climbing over walls and walking tiles? Go at night."

Taohua frowned: "...how do I feel that it's a big deal when someone dies?"

As he said this, Gu Yue who was lying down also sat up.

"I remembered that in my sleep that day, it wasn't someone talking outside, but arguing."

Before Gu Yue worked in the palace, she worked in the palace office for more than half a year.

That is to say, he started to do things to decide cases, and he has an intuition in this regard.

"Interested to investigate together?" Qin Juan said.

Gu Yue lay down, not interested.

Qin Juan was speechless and got up to prepare food.

"It's that leg of lamb. I'm going to stew it tonight. Now I have to wash it out and soak it." Qin Juan found out that leg of lamb.