Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Li Hong left a deep impression on Spirit Stone by pointing out the flaws in the purchasing disciples last time, so he was the first one they thought of, believing he could handle it well.
Receiving this hot potato, Li Hong couldn't help but smile wryly.
The Mortal Realm was engulfed in war, and the situation in Song-Jin had turned into a stalemate, with the front lines stretching thousands of miles from east to west. With corpses everywhere and desolation for miles, where could they find enough food?
As Li Hong walked out of the Li Fire Formation at the North Mountain Exit, his hair was already a mess.
Chuming was also part of this purchasing team, ready to assist. Although he was Li Hong's senior brother, Li Hong had now been promoted to elder, making him the one providing assistance.
He patted Li Hong on the shoulder and said, "Old Six, let's work hard and go a bit further; I don't believe we can't buy anything."
"There's no other choice."
Chuming lowered his voice again and reminded him, "Remember our Immortal Sect's rules: cultivators must not harm mortals. Otherwise..." He smiled bitterly, "I don't even know what would happen; everything is in chaos now! Just make sure not to kill any mortals and give those people in Immortal Sect a reason to complain."
Li Hong nodded, feeling somewhat uncomfortable. Could he really stand by while seeing those golden figures burn and pillage the Song people? Even if he could hold back, Lingyi and Five Elements Shuttle wouldn't be able to!
After frowning for a long time, he decided to first scout the situation in the Mortal Realm; perhaps he could find a relatively quiet and prosperous place.
The purchasing team of about ten people flew towards Jiangnan. That was the best place to gather information about the political situation and military movements.
They flew directly from high above towards Jiangnan. Li Hong did this intentionally, fearing that if he flew too low, he might see the Song Army and be unable to resist taking action.
Finally spotting the vast river that resembled a yellow ribbon, everyone felt a surge of excitement. This meant that the Song Dynasty's presence in Lin'an was just around the corner.
Soon they descended outside Lin'an City, surrounded by green mountains and clear waters. They pretended to be ordinary refugees entering the city to start gathering information about the political situation.
It was now the sixth year of the Song Shaoxing era. The Central Plains were still engulfed in war, but the situation had begun to improve. Under the leadership of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, the Song Army had started to gradually reclaim lost territories in the Central Plains.
Many Han people who had fled from the north and made their way to Jiangnan had settled down. Although life was tough, it was finally stable compared to the constant warfare and suffering in the north. Especially after Zhao Gou designated Lin'an as the temporary capital last year, even more people gathered here. Lin'an began to flourish.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, especially Li Hong. Before entering seclusion, he had heard from Chuxuan that the war situation was dire. After five years, it seemed that the Song Dynasty had finally stabilized its foothold south of the Huai River. Chuxuan would surely be very excited to hear this good news.
However, the Central Plains were where the Song Dynasty's roots lay; it was the hometown that all Han people longed for. One hoped that Yue Fei would soon recover the Central Plains.
The middle-aged man who spoke about the current situation lit up with excitement when he mentioned Yue Fei, speaking passionately but never directly calling him by name; instead, he referred to him as "Grandpa Yue."
The mention of "Grandpa Yue" had become familiar to everyone.
Li Hong was very curious about this Yue Fei, wondering what kind of passionate young man he must be. If given a chance in the future, he would definitely want to see him in person.
At that moment, a team of yellow horses galloped into the city from afar and entered the temporary capital without dismounting. They shouted loudly about urgent military news from the front lines regarding "Outang Victory," and all the citizens of Lin'an immediately erupted in cheers.
The shouts of "Great victory! Great victory!" echoed continuously, and the entire city was in an uproar.
The thunderous hooves pounded along Heavenly Street, which was reserved for official use, heading straight for the palace gates. The Crimson Gate opened, and soon that group of soldiers disappeared deep within the palace.
"Ha ha! Grandpa Yue has won another victory! Come here, take these ten coins and buy something to eat; we are all Han people after all. Don't be polite; just take it!" The middle-aged man insisted as he pulled out ten copper coins and stuffed them into Li Hong's hands.
This man was just a butcher with a small meat stall in Luocheng, so he probably didn’t earn much. The ten coins he handed over were greasy and still warm from his hand. Looking at his rosy, honest face, Li Hong felt deeply touched.
Feeling moved, Li Hong leaned closer and whispered, "Brother, I will buy all your pork. I will accept these ten coins, but you must take my money in return."
The man was taken aback: "Aren't you a refugee? How could you have any money?"
Li Hong smiled mysteriously and said, "We are indeed fleeing, but we were driven here by the fighting in the north, and we have quite a bit of silver with us. Look, I have money. Brother, give me a discount; there are over ten of us who need to eat." As he spoke, he dramatically revealed a shiny ingot of silver from his sleeve and then quickly put it away.
The Butcher Man beamed with joy: "Great!" He swiftly tied the pork with straw and handed it to Li Hong, laughing, "I can tell from your accent that you're from near Taiyuan Prefecture; we're practically fellow townsmen! There’s a total of fifty pounds of meat here, priced at ninety wen per pound. I'll give you a deal at eighty-five, which comes to four strings and two hundred fifty wen. Calculating in silver, that’s just two taels. I'm still giving you a bargain."
Li Hong was taken aback. Having been in the Nine Li Sect for eleven years, he remembered that before this, pork was at most fifty wen per pound. How had it risen to ninety wen now? Moreover, the conversion rate between silver and copper coins was also off; it used to be one string of coins for one tael of silver, but now it took two strings for one tael. This indicated that prices had risen and the value of silver had increased.
Such inflation would surely make life harder for common folks. The wealthy could benefit from this situation and likely live more comfortably—provided they had brought enough gold and silver to escape to Jiangnan.
He knew that the Butcher Man would not deceive him. He discreetly pinched the twenty-tael ingot in half with his fingers hidden in his sleeve and slipped one half into the Butcher's hand.
The Butcher immediately felt something was off when he received the silver; it was too heavy! He hurried around the meat counter, his face flushed with anxiety: "I can't accept this much! We're all fellow townsmen fleeing here..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Hong turned and walked away. His tall figure swayed through the crowd and quickly vanished from sight.
A few onlookers nearby only saw the half ingot of shiny silver and their eyes turned red with greed. Someone shamelessly said, "Hmph, that silver must be fake! Butcher, why aren't you chasing after him?"
"Bah! You're the fake! That’s our Hedong Road fellow townsman! Get lost!" The Butcher waved his pig slaughtering knife threateningly. The onlooker left in disgrace.
The Butcher began cleaning up the meat counter, muttering to himself, "What a good person; I hope this young brother can live peacefully again in Lin'an."
Li Hong clearly heard the man's words and felt a warmth in his heart; indeed, good deeds often go unnoticed by those who lack integrity.
Upon reaching the market, he bought a large stack of bamboo baskets. Each person carried a stack, and once they reached a secluded spot, Li Hong stored all the baskets into his Cosmic Bag. He then tossed the fresh meat into one of the baskets and clapped his hands with a laugh: "I've never spent this much money before. Today I feel like a wealthy man!"
Chuming chuckled: "Master gave you ten thousand taels in cash to buy grain, and you haven't even spent a fraction of it yet; you'll really need to spend money soon!"
Li Hong laughed as well; indeed, ten thousand taels had shocked him at the time. He waved his hand grandly: "Let's go buy grain! It looks like we can complete our mission today!"
They inquired about the Rice Market, the largest one around, and slowly walked in together with Chuming. The others stayed outside.
The sun was already setting, but there weren't many people in the rice shop, just a few scattered customers. The clerk was attending to them, and upon seeing the newcomers, he immediately frowned after a quick glance.
One of the clerks approached the two and said in a low voice, "This is not a place for you! Get out!" With a whistle, the back door curtain lifted, and several burly men with fierce faces stepped out, glaring at them with their arms crossed. It was clear they were the muscle keeping watch.
Li Hong scratched his head and looked himself over, realizing that the clerk was judging them by their appearance. He and Chuming were dressed like refugees, in coarse clothes and short shirts, wearing grass shoes beneath their large trousers, their faces covered in dirt and stubble. No wonder the clerk looked down on them.
He didn't say much and flicked his fingers to pull out a silver ingot worth fifty taels from his Cosmic Bag, tossing it up and down in his hand while glancing sideways at the clerk. "Can’t money buy rice?"
The clerk squinted carefully at the silver for a moment, determining it was genuine silver, and immediately smiled broadly as he extended his hand. "Let’s talk inside. I assume you want to buy quite a bit?"
"Of course," Chuming said coldly from the side.
Once inside what was called a private room, which was actually just an ordinary compartment, the clerk brought tea and asked, "What kind of rice do you gentlemen want to buy? How much? Our Fortune Store is one of the top rice shops in Lin'an—fair and square; we’ll make sure you’re satisfied!"
Li Hong started scratching his head. Would telling him the actual amount scare this clerk? He could only respond with a question: "How much stock do you have? Any kind of rice will do, even brown rice."
The clerk pondered for a moment. Japonica rice is harvested once a year, and it wasn't harvest season yet. However, southern brown rice is harvested twice a year; they had just finished gathering early rice this year, which was relatively abundant. The problem was that due to the ongoing war, selling large quantities of rice would attract government scrutiny.
He cautiously held up one finger. "This amount?"
Li Hong was confused; how much did one finger represent? He simply said, "Be clear about it. Whatever you have, I want it all, and I’ll pay in cash."
The clerk's eyes nearly popped out. "Cash?"
Li Hong had to explain further: "Of course I don’t have it on me right now; we’ll settle everything once we agree on the deal."
"Alright, I'll sell you a hundred stones."
A hundred stones is equivalent to one thousand two hundred pounds, which is indeed quite a lot, but my goal is far beyond that.
Li Hong shook his head, "Too little."
"Two hundred stones?"
"Still too little."
The shop assistant's expression changed immediately as he exclaimed, "Are you joking with me, sir?" He grabbed an abacus and began calculating rapidly: "Brown Rice is four hundred wen per dou, ten dou per stone, each stone costs four thousand coins. Two hundred stones of rice would be eight hundred guan, equivalent to four hundred taels of silver. Are you still not satisfied?"
Li Hong simply extended one finger, "I want this amount of Brown Rice."
"How much?"
Li Hong wanted to say ten thousand taels, but he feared that even clearing out all the rice shops in Lin'an wouldn't yield that much stock. Moreover, this would cause rice prices to soar, and the common people would suffer. So he changed his mind and said, "Based on your price, I want rice worth one thousand taels of silver."
The shop assistant didn't expect such a large transaction. He frowned and said, "I can't make that decision; I need to ask the Shopkeeper." With that, he went out.
Li Hong's Divine Consciousness had already followed him closely. Hearing him enter a room inside and tell the Shopkeeper that a customer wanted to buy rice worth one thousand taels of silver, the Shopkeeper was shocked: "These two men must be Golden Dog spies!"
Li Hong spat out the tea in his mouth.
"Looking so shabby yet willing to spend so extravagantly, and their companions outside are all formidable men—if they aren't Golden Dog spies, then who are they?"
Needless to say, the Shopkeeper ordered the assistant to keep the two men steady while he rushed off to report to the authorities.
When he lured the constables over, the two scruffy men in the side room had already vanished without a trace. The guards outside all swore in unison that they had not come out. Yet, the two had mysteriously disappeared just like that.
The shopkeeper reluctantly paid a few taels of silver to send the constables away, feeling both heartbroken and astonished. He reached out to touch the teacup, which was still warm, but the tea inside had nearly been consumed.
********
Having learned his lesson, Li Hong knew he could not expect to buy all ten thousand taels of rice at once.
After changing clothes, they split up and visited rice shops one by one, purchasing dozens of stones here and there. In total, they managed to procure three hundred stones of rice in Lin'an. However, this still caused a slight increase in rice prices.
Now, the price of rice in Lin'an was already more than five times that of the pre-war prices in Central Plains. Li Hong dared not buy more for fear of causing trouble for the common people. So he traveled southward, stopping to buy rice whenever he encountered a larger town, eventually gathering enough for a thousand stones.
Li Hong calculated that it would be sufficient for the lower-ranking disciples of Nine Li Sect for three to five months before he decided to stop and return.
On the way back, Chuming suddenly said, "The rice we bought before was all Japonica rice; this time you’ve bought only brown rice. Some disciples might not be used to it."
Li Hong sneered, "The common people are struggling just to fill their stomachs with chaff and vegetables. If anyone dares to complain about brown rice, I will definitely report them to the sect leader and punish them with only one meal of thin porridge and clear water for a day!"
Though he said this, he couldn't help but feel a pang of nostalgia. He remembered when he first entered Azure Oil Temple; the fragrant and glistening Jiangnan Japonica rice had made him reluctant to put down his chopsticks.
War had even forced immortals into hard times. Li Hong smiled bitterly.
But one thing left a deep impression: Outang Victory. The entire Lin'an City echoed with cheers at that moment; it was a sound that shook the heavens and stirred even his own blood. It seemed that the common people felt the same way—united against a common enemy, hoping for an early resolution in Central Plains.
********
********
Note 1: The Southern Song did not recognize Lin'an as the capital, referring to it as "Xingzai," which was the actual capital of the Southern Song. Lin'an refers to present-day Hangzhou.
Note 2: Southeast of present-day Dingyuan in Anhui.
Note 3: The famous Heavenly Street in Southern Song Lin'an stretches from Slant Bridge in the north to Zhengyang Gate in the south. It is very wide, with the Emperor's Imperial Road in the center and corridors for pedestrians on both sides. This area is the most prosperous part of Southern Song Lin'an.
Note 4: The outer city beyond the palace city, located within the walls of Lin'an City.
Note 5: This reference does indeed consider the prices during the Southern Song, with slight discrepancies.
Note 6: Hedong Road during the Northern Song corresponds geographically to present-day Shanxi Province.
Note 7: This is true; in the early years of the Southern Song, due to war and other reasons, rice prices soared. Even during the bountiful harvest year of Shaoxing Year Eight, each dou still cost three hundred wen. See "Song Hui Yao Ji Gao," Food and Goods Section.
Comment 0 Comment Count