Chapter 1045: Mutual Misunderstanding

Yangasha tugged on Changle's sleeve: "Changle, are you sure what you said will work? We brought various flowers and grasses from the Jiuli, and as long as they are special enough and pretty enough, we can trade them for enough food, right?"

Changle understood that Yangasha had already taken it seriously, but what Changle said was indeed not wrong, because the demand for so-called Bonsai, or landscape plants, in Huaxia was becoming greater and greater. Nobles were living in better and better houses, and naturally, they had to plant all kinds of special and good-looking plants in their courtyards to reflect their status.

Nobles naturally did not lack food. For them, using some long-hoarded old grain to trade for a sufficiently good-looking plant was also a cost-effective business. Of course, this was entirely due to the fact that the lives of Huaxia nobles were becoming increasingly affluent and their spiritual needs were growing, yet there was a severe lack of things they could consume.

The mountains and forests near Huaxia City had already been searched countless times. Most of the good-looking and special plants had already been dug up and planted in the courtyards of various nobles, yet they were still not satisfied.

If one wanted to find even better-looking and more special plants, one would need to go to places that were further away and more dangerous, but this kind of behavior was prohibited.

Huaxia did not lack food, so there was no need for ordinary people to risk danger by entering the mountains and forests; regardless of the purpose, it was not allowed. Only when Huaxia Soldiers were executing missions, or if ordinary people were following Soldiers out on missions and luckily discovered a plant that met the standards along the way, would it belong to whoever discovered it first. Once dug up and brought back alive, it could naturally be exchanged for extra income.

Currently, only this kind of excavation was legal and compliant. Even Soldiers could perform excavations as long as it did not affect the execution of their missions. At present, most of the good-looking plants in Huaxia were dug up this way.

There was also a more special situation, which was the ones Changle dug up. Only Changle could take Soldiers into the mountains at any time, into all kinds of undeveloped mountains. Every time he returned, besides various plant specimens, there were many good-looking plants.

Changle would keep a portion for himself and give a portion to his father; the remaining income would be sold to the public by the State-run Store, and the proceeds would naturally go into the National Treasury, or rather, Baifeng's pocket, because Baifeng had not yet completely separated the National Treasury from his Private Treasury. Everyone also thought this was reasonable; everything in Huaxia belonged to Baifeng, and whatever Baifeng wanted, he could take. The National Treasury was Baifeng's pocket.

Of course, this situation was still not ideal. Baifeng was preparing to completely separate them when the currency was issued. Although the National Treasury was also his property, its main purpose was to develop the country. Now that Baifeng's family was small and did not use much, there was naturally no great need to separate them.

And according to Changle's vision, as long as the Jiuli could bring back living plants, Huaxia would be able to offer a price to buy them. If Huaxia was unwilling to provide a guarantee, then he, Changle, could buy them first. He had plenty of ways to turn all kinds of Grass into something that could be sold at a high price.

The few types of potted plants and landscape plants that were currently popular in Huaxia were basically all chosen by Changle. Did those nobles really have aesthetic taste? Perhaps they did, but whatever Changle said was good-looking, and whatever Baifeng said was good-looking, they would definitely follow the trend and buy them, in order to show that their aesthetic taste was consistent with that of the supreme ruler of Huaxia.

Huaxia's history was currently too short to have produced any allusions, but as the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun. Isn't this kind of catering to the aesthetic of the supreme ruler another version of "King Chu loved slender waists, and many in the harem starved to death"? And it was also because of Baifeng that the aesthetic of Huaxia regarding women's figures had changed to being coordinated and plump, rather than obese and stout.

Moreover, there would always be a market for plants. The initial Peony could only be planted and admired by Baifeng. Later, when there were more seeds and more were dug up, plus the ability to propagate through Cuttings, every noble's home was soon planted with Peonies.

Now, Peonies had become a green belt. Nobles no longer blindly pursued the quantity of Peony flowers. They could have Peony flowers, but they had to be dug up from the mountains, tall, with a tree age that was old enough, and with flowers that bloomed large enough and in sufficient numbers. For those that were too ordinary, they would dig them up and reward them to tenant farmers or their own subordinates.

In the homes of ordinary people, it was just like this; Peonies also appeared. Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture also had people starting to try to cultivate larger and more vibrant Peonies. Therefore, no matter what kind of flowers or grasses, they were all just passersby in Huaxia's gardens; there would always be more beautiful and more valuable plants to replace them, and plants from the distant Jiuli were born with an aura of preciousness.

Changle spoke eloquently to Yangasha, making her very tempted. If they could add a new trade item for the Jiuli, it would be too important for the Jiuli.

However, the journey was long and the uncertainty was too high. Now they would also split into two paths to move forward. The Chieftain Qianxi decided to take the closer route, while Changle and Ayuduo needed to go and dig up the plants Changle had marked.

So before parting, Yangasha asked carefully: "Changle, after we bring a plant, are you sure we won't have made the trip in vain?"

Changle said very firmly: "I don't know how much time you need to spend coming to our Huaxia and how much food you will eat, but I can be sure that one sufficiently special plant in Huaxia is enough to trade for enough food for one person to eat for a Winter. If one person can bring two or three at the same time, then this trip will definitely be profitable."

Both sides currently did not know enough about each other. Before Yangasha saw Huaxia with her own eyes, it was hard for her to imagine how wealthy Huaxia was to be willing to trade food for a wild grass or tree, and she did not know the degree of obsession Huaxia nobles had for these things.

Changle, on the other hand, did not know how far the distance was from Huaxia City to the Jiuli, how much time it would take, how much manpower and material resources it would cost, and he did not know how long the Winter in the Jiuli actually was.

He forgot, or perhaps Baifeng simply never told him, that the further north one went, the longer the Winter was. It was not just in the far north; even north of Huaxia City, the Winter was already longer than in Huaxia.