The Twelfth Section: The Way of Making Money

  Yun Zheng discovered a new source of wealth, which was the reason for his excitement. This source of wealth was related to the mountain people. He keenly observed that although the mountain people were not poor, they lacked daily necessities. Their clothes were extremely tattered, and their food and salt were in extreme short supply. Yun Zheng had heard the mountain people say that when they hunted a wild boar, they couldn't finish eating it before it spoiled, so they could only smoke it to preserve it as bacon. Some of this smoked meat had been hanging from the rafters for three to five years already.

  What a great opportunity to get rich, the mountains are full of treasures everywhere. If I can use the goods from Dou Sha Guan to exchange with them, I can definitely make Yun Er and Yun San eat their fill in a short time, and there's no need to fight with the laborers for that little bit of food that's not even worth mentioning.

  Before doing this, you need to get along well with Liu Doutou. The main purpose of boasting is to make Liu Doutou unclear about his own depth, and thus open the door for his own wealth plan.

  Yun Zheng took out all the money at home and prepared to start trading from tomorrow. The mountain people, Lai Ba, said that as long as it was salt, they would need it, no matter how much.

  The adults didn't dare to approach, because if they caught a mountain dweller, the imperial court would reward them. There were always some ill-intentioned people who thought of trading them for the imperial court's copper coins. Yun Zhen was still a child, and only when he appeared alone on the mountain path driving an ox cart did they dare to approach; otherwise, they would rather not eat salt than hide in secret.

  The next day, Yun Zheng drove the ox cart into Dou Sha Guan again. He exchanged all his money for salt and loaded coarse rice from the granary for the laborers. He kept a record of the accounts himself and drew a picture on different documents. The storekeeper, Ku Ding, smiled as he watched Yun Zheng write and draw, before putting away the account book. They had begun to trust Yun Zheng a bit. This kid never cheated, but also never suffered losses. What was most difficult was that this kid could even help with inventory, so the skill of cheating was never used on Yun Zheng. This was also why Yun Zheng always managed to get one more percentage point of grain than others.

  Yun Zheng had seen the kick-off, the big dou in the official warehouse was full of a dan of grain, according to the law, after the peak was kicked off, one foot would shake off the excess grain before it could be counted. These black-hearted storekeepers, with one kick, the grain in the big dou would fall down by 10%, and some old storekeepers, with one kick, the full big dou of grain would spill out three-tenths. This was a secret way for others to make extra money.

  "Hey, Cloud! There's a basket of rough rice mixed with sand on the west wall. Do you want it? If you do, take it away and I'll count it as three points of grain. I don't have time to sift through the sand." A crooked-hatted Kuding yelled out from the inner hall at Yun Zheng.

  Yun Zheng immediately laughed, what is called the grain mixed with sand, it was their kicking and fighting that came out, fell to the ground and got sandy, wanted to enter the warehouse but was discovered by the master bookkeeper, had to pile up outside, filling in the gap didn't work, so Yun Zheng benefited.

  Without thinking, they unloaded three dou of grain from the cow cart, and then, with Kuding's help, they moved that one dou of grain onto the cow cart. Kuding patted Yun Zheng's back of the head lightly and said: "Little Wang Ba is indeed clever, go back and sift out the sand, this bag of grain is absolutely more than one stone, never mind, who made our family look at you with favor?"

  "The young master knows you're kind, the laborers on the construction site are almost starving to death, this is a reward for them to have a meal, it's a good deed." Yun Zheng smiled and joked with Kuding.

  Pitiful are not only the laborers, but also the soldiers guarding the city gate. They wear thin uniforms with a golden seal on their faces, holding a long spear and shivering in the gatehouse. Every time Yun Xiang buys some hot chestnuts for one copper coin per package, he gives them to these soldiers. With this, they won't trouble you or take your grain. They don't lack food; if they took away grain, they couldn't sell it, and would be beaten to death by their officers. They simply harm people out of simplicity.

  The ox cart creaked and groaned as it moved along the small road, Yun Cong shrinking into his rain cape, occasionally popping a chestnut into his mouth, his eyes fixed on the front, but his ears alert like radar to any movement on either side.

  As expected, the withered grass in front was divided into two parts, and two hunters carrying prey appeared in front of Yun Zheng. They were all dressed in animal hides, and the stronger hunter even wore a leopard skin hat, looking very handsome.

  "Little one, do you have any salted vegetables today? We'll exchange them for our prey. Today's luck is good, we killed a wild boar." The hunter was worried about scaring Yun Zhen, so he intentionally lowered his voice when speaking.

  "It's not worth exchanging, I only have a small bag of salt and a jar of salted vegetables, nothing else can be moved, they are all for the laborers to eat." Yun Zheng saw the disappointment in the hunter's eyes, this little thing was far less valuable than a wild boar.

  The tall hunter was Lai Ba, he had dealt with Yun Zheng a few times and knew that this young man didn't cheat people. He sighed and said: "Alright, it's better than nothing, at least there's some salt." After finishing speaking, he dragged out a fat wild boar from the grass and threw it onto Yun Zheng's ox cart.

  "It can't be exchanged, you're being taken advantage of. I know how much a wild boar costs. Last time, the hunter from the village also caught one that was smaller than this, and he sold it at Dou Sha Guan for 1 guan and 300 wen. My salted vegetables with salt aren't even worth 300 wen."

  Lai Ba smiled wryly and said, "I know, who made us mountain people?" As he spoke, he moved the salted vegetables from Yun Zheng's ox cart. Yun Zheng also handed Lai Ba a bag of salt and smiled at him, saying: "I'll go to the town soon to sell the wild boar. Today is market day, it should still be going on, I don't know how much money I can get for it, but anyway, it's worth more than this salt. Tell me, what do you all want? I'll bring it back when I return with the ox cart."

  Lai Ba suddenly turned around and stared at Yun Zheng, saying: "If you can bring me some antipyretic patent medicine, that would be best. I only need one dose." Seeing Lai Ba's anxious expression, it was clear that someone in his family was ill and he needed salt to heat up for the patient's hot compress, which was their method of treating illnesses, regardless of what the illness was. Another method they used was bloodletting.

  Not only did they use this method, but also many people in Yun Zheng's village got sick and were treated with this method.

  "Whether it's an adult or a child, if it's a child, bring him over, don't dress him in animal hide, I'll take him to see a doctor. For adults, tell me the symptoms, treating illness requires targeting the symptoms." Yun Zheng said this very calmly, at this time he had already forgotten about making money.

  "My daughter, six years old, if you can save her life, I'll give you my own." Lai Ba was so excited that his whole body trembled, and he rushed into the bushes. Before long, he came back panting, holding a little girl wrapped in a quilt. Yun Zhen had no idea how this guy managed to run over two hills in such a short time.