Could Xiao Rui be acting like this: "Lao He, it's not that I'm stingy. It's okay if you want to make some money from it, but the problem is that for such a large quantity, I have to lower the price with them. If you are a middleman, how can I have the nerve to lower the price? Your price? If you are asked to lower other people’s prices, but it offends others, it will cause trouble for you, so you can’t do it.”
Da Hemo would be so moved that he almost knelt down and kowtowed to Xiao Rui, "Brother Xiao, don't say anything. I won't make any profit from the price difference, so I'll leave it to you to run errands, otherwise you have to Sending people from family to family to contact the Khitan tribes is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It will be more convenient if I go there. You don't have to worry about the price, how to calculate it? Isn't there a saying in the Central Plains, what is it called..."
"Brothers will settle the score."
"Yes, yes, brothers will settle the accounts! Whatever the market price is..."
When Xiao Rui heard this, he thought to himself: Could this guy be pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger? My order of 1,000 heads is not the market retail price.
"Lao He, when purchasing in large quantities, you don't buy in small quantities. The price must be lower than the market price. We are brothers and you are the supplier. Please set a price. If it is suitable, we will set it today. Then the Turks interfere If they don’t let you sell me horses, they won’t care if I buy cattle, right?”
Da Hemo rubbed his hands in embarrassment, hesitated for a long time, and then whispered, "How about three hundred coins?"
"How much?" Xiao Rui raised his eyebrows. I said in my heart that I originally planned to pay five taels of silver per head, but the cattle of the Tang Dynasty cost more than three taels. The bison here in Anle cost seven cents a piece, so it was not easy to sell, and everyone thought the bison meat was not delicious. Is this guy right? Three hundred Wen is three coins, not three taels?
"Two hundred? It really can't go any lower. If it goes any lower, it will soon catch up with the price of cowhide. It won't be easy to explain when I go back."
Xiao Rui almost knocked over the cup in front of him. Two dollars? Do you know what you are talking about? A cow in my beef restaurant sells for 20 taels, not including the cow's water. If the cost is two cents a head, tsk tsk, how many times has it doubled? A hundred times?
Thinking of this, Xiao Rui directly picked up two wine glasses and said boldly: "Come on, let's become sworn brothers today! I, Xiao Rui, recognize you as my brother."
Xiao Rui, who did not drink, made an exception for the first time and returned to the county governor's house drunk. The two ladies were busy waiting on him, wondering what happened after we left? How come you drink like this?
Xiao Rui got up when the sun was high the next day. Thinking of the deal finalized yesterday, Xiao Rui couldn't help but introduce it to his wife with excitement.
"What are you talking about? Buying a thousand cows from Khitan in one day? Are you crazy? We are here to buy war horses, why are you buying cows?" Li Shengnan was puzzled.
"Don't be excited. It's so cheap. A cow costs two cents, two cents! A thousand cows are only two hundred taels."
Li Shengnan was so angry that he could hardly speak, "Is two hundred taels too little? That's two hundred taels a day. How much does our Zuixian Tower earn in a day? We don't even have enough money to buy war horses, so you use it all to buy cattle? Isn't that right? That Khitan man made you drunk and signed the contract in a daze? I'll go find him!"
After saying that, he picked up the sword and headed out.
Xiao Rui hurriedly stopped him, "Sheng Nan, listen to me. We got a big advantage with 200 taels of silver. Do you know the price of a cow in Chang'an? You start with 3 taels of silver, and good cattle can even be sold for 5 taels of silver." .”
(The official price of the Tang Dynasty is one tael of silver exchanged for one dagger, which is one thousand Wen. Converted to the purchasing power of later generations, it is about one penny equal to four soft sister coins. After the Song Dynasty, it was about three yuan, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was probably two yuan or even lower.)
(The author is not an academic, but just to choose a close unit of measurement, I set it as one penny worth four soft sister coins. In other words, the Khitan bison costs 200 pence per head, 800 yuan? It is simply a cabbage price. In 2023 What’s the retail price of beef? It’s 43 yuan here. A cow starts at 8,000 yuan.)
Li Shengnan rolled his eyes at Xiao Rui: "You also know that they are farm cattle, and farm cattle are only worth three taels of silver. What are Khitan's? Bison, they can't pull carts, they can't plow, they can only eat meat and skin them. Even if you use them for cooking , it won’t take more than a thousand days. If you can’t drink in the future, just don’t drink. If you want to talk about business again, I’ll go talk to them.”
ah? ? ? Xiao Rui really didn't expect that this daughter-in-law was really a heroine. She ignored the red tape and wanted to compete with the Khitan to discuss business?
At this time, Wei Yanran, who had been silent and frowning in thought, spoke up, "Could it be that, Brother Rui, you have a way to tame the bison?"
Um? ? ? Li Shengnan and Xiao Rui turned around in surprise at the same time.
Xiao Rui pulled Wei Yanran in surprise, "Awesome, you guessed it."
"Really? Brother Rui, do you know that the bison is extremely difficult to tame. The Khitan clan used many methods. The seniors from the Central Plains didn't use their brains..." Wei Yanran couldn't believe it.
"Don't worry, as long as the method is right, lions and tigers can be tamed. But in order to keep it secret, I lied to the Khitan people and said that I bought cattle for meat. I wanted to open a special beef restaurant in every city in the Tang Dynasty. The restaurant has one cow a day, tsk tsk, why not a thousand cows a day?”
"Ah? Can he believe it?" Wei Yanran covered her mouth and said in surprise.
Xiao Rui said slyly: "That's why I got him drunk and signed the contract. If the Turks knew that we had a way to tame bison into farm cattle, they would definitely force the Khitans not to cooperate with us like last time." Therefore, there must be no fire beef in Anle City, and I want everyone to know that the beef here is unparalleled in the world!"
"If you can successfully tame the bison and transport them back to the Tang Dynasty, then you can buy a large number of cattle for a very low price of two hundred yuan... Brother Rui, you, you are really a profiteer!"
"I'm not a profiteer. This price was set by the Khitan Great Hemo Society on its own initiative. I didn't force it."
The two of them were talking passionately, but Li Shengnan next to him looked very ugly. You are all smart people. You are bullying me for being stupid. I still want to help you get back your position. It turned out to be your design. Why didn't you tell me earlier?
"Hey, hey, hey, it hurts, it hurts, stop pulling me, Shengnan, what are you doing?" Xiao Rui's ears were pulled, and he begged for mercy.
"Huh, what are you doing? You planned to trick that Khitan man into not telling me earlier and making me look embarrassed..." Li Shengnan has self-respect and originally wanted to follow him as a guard, but he saw that Wei Yanran was proficient in arithmetic and could do business well. Help Xiao Rui. So Li Shengnan also wanted to help out, but unfortunately he was not good at it, so he could only follow him as a guard.
"Where did you make a fool of yourself? Let go, let go. Yan'er is responsible for counting the money and accounts. When the time comes, you will have to do the delivery, horse and oxen, etc. If it were someone else, I'd be afraid that the Khitan people would cause trouble for me. You They don't dare to go with the sword. We all know that you are my inner boss, and I have to listen to you."
"Hmph, that's more or less the same. If I hadn't carefully looked at the batch of horses, do you think the Khitan people would come to apologize to you?" Li Shengnan then let go.
Wei Yanran also helped Xiao Rui out of the siege, stepped forward and took Li Shengnan's arm and said, "Shengnan, don't get angry with him. Let's go to Zuixian Tower together. Yesterday's beef was delicious. We must try it again today." .”
"Hey, do you have any humanity? Make me some hangover soup. My head still hurts."
"Let your wife have to deal with it. We are just maids in charge of the business. By the way, you'd better go to the study and have a look. There is a letter from the princess." The two women's laughter became farther and farther away.
Xiao Rui was shocked, no way, a letter from Xiangcheng? Have the two of them seen it first?
