Chapter 102

102. Chapter 102: Buying a Horse Carriage

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the grain transport boats docked at the wharf, which were nearly ten zhang long. Each grain transport boat had a capacity of nearly two thousand shi of rice, and two masts were erected on the boats, looking very imposing.

To fill these ships, a large number of people were needed to move the goods. However, the Sun family was stingy and reluctant to spend money to hire workers, so they used the means of forcibly hiring migrant workers, forcing and threatening them to sign contracts, and making these migrant workers work for their lives at the lowest wages, from morning to night, without rest.

The ancient legal system was not perfect, and the government couldn't manage such things as wantonly exploiting manpower. After all, the other party held the contracts and had the full right to send these migrant workers to work.

Jiang Xiaoxiao took two looks and then withdrew her gaze, sighing in her heart. The few aunts who came to work at her house often said that her family gave too much money for the work, and they couldn't find such easy and well-paying work anywhere else.

Now it seemed that she had a deep understanding. Compared to the workers at the wharf who worked themselves to death moving goods and couldn't earn a few coins, her family's work was indeed much easier.

However, the Sun family's unkind actions would eventually lead to backlash and cause trouble.

Otherwise, why would a wealthy merchant family be in such a hurry to build a relationship with students who were about to enter officialdom?

Although there was no excessive emphasis on agriculture over commerce in this ancient world, and the current emperor even encouraged the development of commerce, a merchant family making unrighteous wealth must find a backer to protect their own safety. Otherwise, this huge family business and immense wealth would sooner or later be swallowed up by others.

Jiang Xiaoxiao recalled the content of the original novel. The book also mentioned some of Merchant Sun's family affairs. He had many wives and concubines, but very few offspring.

The women in the deep mansion fought against each other, and very few children could grow up healthily; most died at the hands of others while still in the womb.

Zheng Yaocai's sister was well-versed in this. She knew that the path of children wouldn't work, so she spent money and pulled strings to send her brother into the famous Suiyang Shuyuan, letting him connect with one or two official students who were very likely to pass the Imperial Examination in the future.

By then, even if she couldn't rely on her son to gain status, she would be highly regarded by Merchant Sun because she had helped the Sun family win over an official backer.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but pull the corners of her lips. It was just that she didn't know if Zheng Yaocai and the few official students like Duan Yu had broken off their relationship, and if he could still build a relationship at Suiyang Shuyuan in the future...

"... Next time you meet Young Master Jiang, you must thank him properly." Jiang Wei looked at Suiyang Shuyuan not far away and suddenly said this.

"... Mm, okay." Jiang Xiaoxiao responded silently.

Qingping County was quite far from Yuhe Village. Now that there was no ox cart to sit on, just when Jiang Xiaoxiao thought she would have to walk home on two legs, Jiang Wei took her to the horse market on East Street.

The horse market on East Street was a place for horse trading. This street not only sold all kinds of horses but also mules and donkeys.

The horse market wasn't as lively as she had imagined. In this era, disasters occurred frequently, and many families couldn't even afford to eat, so where would they have spare money to buy horses?

Jiang Xiaoxiao observed that most of the people who came to the horse market to buy horses were wealthy merchants passing through from other places. Most likely, their own horses had died from exhaustion after a long journey, or they couldn't run anymore, and there were no replacement horses at the post station, so they had to come to the horse market in the nearby county town to buy horses.

And these people didn't pay with silver when buying horses, but traded with gold, silk, tea, and salt.

The price of a horse was probably between twenty and forty taels. These wealthy merchants usually bartered to buy horses instead of taking out silver directly. This also showed that they didn't dare to carry too much silver when they went out, fearing that they would attract bandits to rob them, and the weight of dozens of taels of silver wasn't small, so it wasn't convenient to carry on their bodies.

Jiang Xiaoxiao followed her mother for a stroll and finally chose one shop.

The horse trader had five or six horses behind him, all of which were good horses with strong postures. Seeing them come over, he said with a full face of smiles: "Little lady, are you here to buy a horse?"

Horse traders were the intermediary merchants who conducted horse trading in this era. They specialized in selling horses and earned rich profits.

"These horses of mine were all transported from the northwest. They ate the lush water and grass of the great grasslands. Look at the muscles on these horse legs, how strong they are, and look at this brown mane, how smooth and sleek it is..." Before Jiang Wei could speak, the horse trader introduced them impatiently.

Business in the horse market had been hard to do recently. It was not easy to have a customer who wanted to buy a horse, so he had to firmly grasp this business.

However, what he said was also the truth. The northern region of Dayin had always been dominated by animal husbandry, and the grasslands were lush, producing good horses.

Jiang Wei scanned the horses introduced by the horse trader, then pointed to one of the horses with strong limbs and particularly developed tendons, and asked: "How much for this horse?"

Seeing that Jiang Wei asked for the price in silver, the horse trader knew that she wasn't bartering like others, and his heart was happy. He became even more enthusiastic on the surface: "Little lady, the one you picked is a rare top-quality horse, it costs thirty-five taels of silver!"

Hearing this price, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but frown.

Along the way, they had seen many horse traders selling horses. Business in the horse market was not good recently, and the price of horses mostly started at twenty taels, with the highest being thirty taels.

A high price like thirty-five taels was almost non-existent.

Could it be that this horse trader saw that they were women and children and was easy to fool, so he deliberately shouted a high price to swindle their money?

Seeing Jiang Wei hesitate, the horse trader hurriedly said: "Little lady, don't dislike my price for being high. I'll tell you the truth, this horse is a warhorse specially used in the northwest border. I spent a lot of effort to transport it here, it's not something ordinary horses can compare to..."

By the end of his words, the horse trader's voice gradually weakened.

After all, in this line of work, although selling warhorses could earn rich profits, going to such a dangerous place as the border was almost like tying one's head to one's belt.

"... But this price is still too expensive." Jiang Wei said slowly.

She looked at the warhorse and suppressed the excitement in her heart, saying expressionlessly: "Unless you throw in a horse carriage for me."

"This..." The horse trader hesitated. If he threw in a carriage, this price would be very hard to offer...

"If you don't want to, then forget it." Jiang Wei took Jiang Xiaoxiao and left.

Seeing that the business was about to be lost, the horse trader was suddenly anxious and hurriedly said: "Wait, I, I..."

He couldn't watch the business that was about to be in his hands disappear. He seemed to have made up his mind and gritted his teeth: "... I'll throw in a horse carriage for you!"

Jiang Wei then stopped satisfactorily. She turned back and decisively reached into the back basket behind her and took out thirty-five taels of silver.

The horse trader seemed to have never seen anyone put such a large sum of silver in a back basket so casually, and couldn't help but be stunned.