After eating a large bowl of noodles and drinking the soup, he wiped his mouth with a fragrant cloth, put down the bowl and said, "I wanted to eat this big bowl, and then I should not be able to eat anything else." Now I have a big bowl of belly, but I feel that I can eat some more. ”

Feng Yuan smiled: "In this case, let's eat more." When you go back to the mountains, it's rare to eat white noodles once. You go out and take a look, here in Dongjiazhai, how many shops can make white noodles? There is only one Qingshan Building. ”

The fragrant cloth said yes again and again, and filled a large bowl with broth.

In this era, even in the north, wheat was not common, and flour was not a staple food for people. The place with high wheat yield is actually not the Central Plains, but the two Huaijiang and Zhejiang. Although the people there eat more white rice, the yield of wheat in two crops a year is also high, and most of them are transported to the Central Plains along the waterway. Only in big cities can you eat pasta more conveniently. Hedong Road has a long winter, the land is barren, and millet is the main crop. Being able to eat a meal of white noodles is a rare thing for Kabu. However, his soft and glutinous yellow rice is unpalatable, and he has no awareness of this.

Seeing that the incense cloth was eating well, Du Zhongxiao smiled, ignored him, and said to Feng Yuan: "There is a shortage of everything in the mountains, only livestock and fur. Why don't you find some people to trade in the mountains? It's hard work, but it's better than trading in the market. ”

Feng Yuan shook his head: "The officials don't know anything, and the people in the mountains are different from us. Their furs, cattle and sheep were sold to the chief, and the leader came to Dongjiazhai to exchange for other goods, and then sold them to the clansmen. These leaders are actually merchants, and outsiders can't do business. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded, and then he understood why there were so many small leaders gathered here in Dongjiazhai. There are many reasons why the Tibetan people live together, the most important of which is that the living conditions are poor, and it is impossible to survive without gathering together. Under these conditions, each small chief took on a variety of roles, not only as a chief, but also as a merchant and even a usury creditor. With so many characters added together, their control over the people was far stronger than the control of the landlords over the tenants in the plains.

At this moment, the attendant brought the fried carp in a large clay pot and put it on the table.

Du Zhongxiao said to Xiangpu: "Let's drink a glass of wine and taste this fish." There is not much rain in this area, and I can't imagine such a big fish. ”

Xiangpu said: "Official, although there is not much rain here, there is a lot of river water! Don't look at the dry rivers on the other side of the river, but there are many underground undercurrents, and there are springs all over the mountain. However, such big fish can only be found in the Yellow River. ”

As he spoke, the fragrant cloth took a large piece of fish meat and put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times and swallowed it vigorously, opened his mouth wide and said, "Ah, why is this fish so fragrant!" I've lived for decades and I've eaten a lot of fish, but I've never tasted like this! ”

Du Zhongxiao smiled: "That's the smell of oil." This fish has been fried in oil, and it has an oily aroma, so I think you used to eat less oil. ”

Xiangbu shook his head again and again: "Can there be oil for cooking?" In our mountain people, a little oil is used to light lamps, which is extremely precious, but I didn't expect that it can also be used for cooking. Today, I have seen many things in the officials. ”

What does scarcity look like? Du Zhongxiao didn't come here to take a look for himself, and he couldn't imagine it. The mountain people in this area, not to mention stir-frying vegetables in oil, have never even seen food fried in oil. Today, whether it is vegetarian meat or meat, it is mostly fried in oil, and for the fragrant cloth, it is a delicacy that has never been eaten. The food he has eaten for decades has hardly been without a single oil star.

In fact, the materials in the mountains are very abundant, but the traffic is closed and the commerce is not developed, which is useless to the mountain people. In this era, with agriculture, the road of development will be opened, relying on agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and so on can really develop. If there is a large city nearby, commercial transportation is developed, and the mountain people can make more money by picking mushrooms than they can by herding sheep.

While eating fragrant cloth non-stop, Du Zhongxiao and Feng Yuan chatted about the business in the area of the Volcano Army.

Feng Yuan said: "The mountainous terrain on the north bank of the Yellow River is high and open, and it produces good horses. Now the fur goods sold are all small fights, and if the business wants to be bigger, it is still necessary to market horses. And after Tanglong Town, out of the mountains, it is a land of abundant water and grass, during which there are millions of horses. These Tibetan people are attentive, and they can sell horses from the north, and that is the future. Horses and camels, sold for thousands a year, these people are not rich enough to flow oil! ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The north of the mountain is the Khitan boundary, and it has always been forbidden to sell horses to this dynasty, and this matter is not easy. ”

Feng Yuan shook his head: "The officials don't know, although it is in the territory of the Khitan, it is all party items and tribes. In previous years, every two or three years, the Khitan would send a large army to rob and kill, and everyone hated it. The Tibetan tribe did not belong to the Khitan, so they bought horses from there and resold them to us, giving the horse sellers an excuse. If this business is done, it is especially better than fur. ”

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while and asked, "Since there is such a good thing, why has no one done it before?" ”

Feng Yuan looked at the fragrant cloth that was concentrating on eating and drinking, and said, "The people in the mountains live in poverty, where do they have the capital?" In the past, when Tanglong Town was there, it was originally a camel and horse distribution center, and merchants from near and far went there to do business, and thousands of horses were sold to the capital a year. Since the Hao thief rebelled, the people in this area were robbed and killed by him repeatedly, and the business was cold. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded, this matter should be considered in the long run. The vast area west of Datong Province is not the territory of the Khitans, but mainly the Dangxiang and the Divination people. The Khitan had garrisons there, but they basically stocked all ethnic groups, and every once in a while, they sent a large army to suppress it, burn, kill and loot, and even the procedures for collecting taxes were saved. Because of the hard life under the Khitan rule, Yuan Hao used a little means, and a large number of tribes defected to the party. It was because of this that the war between the two countries started, and the Khitan was defeated, and the control of that area became stricter.

If you operate it reasonably, let the small tribes in this area be the middlemen, and you can do business with the tribes in the north, and many things will be promising.

In the final analysis, it is still necessary to let these small tribes make money, and only when they have capital can they do other things. The first step is to develop agriculture so that the people here can be fed. Thinking of this, Du Zhongxiao looked at the fragrant cloth that still kept eating.

It is not easy to say that the people under his rule are well fed and well-fed, and it is not difficult to say that it is not difficult. The biggest advantage is that the Volcano Army has a large amount of land to be cultivated, and the most lacking is the population. The way to attract the population is to eat.

Trafficking in furs is a good idea for merchants and fur processing sites, but not in Volcano. What the Volcano Army lacks now is not commerce, but production.