"Hey, hey, Master Huo, what are you doing, you are..." Wang Er was anxious and said as he walked out: "Master Huo, if you have a way, please help my brother, and I will thank you very much." ".
"I'd like to trouble you two to find a way elsewhere. I'm a small temple and a small god, and I don't have such great magical powers to enter the General Military Mansion." Huo Sanshan stood up and pushed the two of them out.
"I don't want to enter the General Military Mansion. I just want to find a way to send a message in and ask for the money. If Mr. Huo can find a way or introduce someone who has a way, we will not treat him badly. "You?" Wang Er said, taking out a jade ring from his waist and shaking it. Huo Sanshan couldn't help but be startled when he saw it. He is a man who knows the goods. This jade ring is of top quality in terms of color and texture, and it is also an old product.
"Where did this come from?"
"We... picked it up in the mountains." Wang Er coughed lightly. Huo Sanshan knew it well. He took the jade ring finger and rubbed it in his hand. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. This thing is not worth that century-old ginseng. under.
"If I find a way for you two, why don't you give me this jade ring?" Huo Sanshan looked at the two guests with a playful smile on their faces: "You two, are you not telling the truth?"
"Everything is true," Wu Da said quickly, and Huo Sanshan laughed: "This jade ring is much more valuable than that five-hundred-year-old treasure. You two are trying to buy sesame seeds with watermelon money. Who would believe it!" "
"Ahem, I'll tell you the truth, it's a thousand-year-old treasure." Seeing that he couldn't pass it off, Wang Er finally admitted it. After hearing this, Huo Sanshan couldn't help but suck in the air-conditioning. It's a thousand-year-old thing, no wonder that The people in the General Military Mansion had evil thoughts.
Seeing this, some people may wonder, is it not as valuable as a jade ring?
Until now, not to mention 500-year-old wild ginseng, even 50-year-old wild ginseng can be sold for 300,000 to 500,000. The price of 500-year-old treasures is sky-high. It is definitely not comparable to a jade ring, unless it is Worn by Qin Shihuang.
But, let’s just say, the price of ginseng is actually not high at this time. In other words, the price was not high before the Qing Dynasty. In the Jiajing period, the average price of ginseng for several decades was one cent and five cents per catty. Yes, it was one catty!
At that time, to be exaggerated, it was commonplace for Northeastern people to eat ginseng mixed with rice.
The price of ginseng really increased in the Qing Dynasty. The Northeast was the Longxing land of the Manchus and their ancestral home. The Qing government did not allow people to move there casually, let alone dig ginseng casually.
But while mining is not prohibited, there is still a lot of demand. Not to mention the medicinal use of ordinary people, even the ministers who go to court have to hold a piece of it in their mouths every morning, because they can't eat, drink or excrete in the morning, so they can only rely on it. Ginseng hangs to replenish energy and energy.
However, the Qing government later formulated stricter regulations on mining. During the Shunzhi period, even ministers were not allowed to mine. Only princes of the clan, princes of counties, Beile, Beizi, etc. could send people to dig according to the number. By the 36th year of Kangxi, The amount of harvesting for the clan was clarified. The prince could harvest seventy kilograms, while the lowest general, Feng En, could only harvest seven and a half kilograms. In the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi's reign, Kangxi once again ordered that all nobles of the Eight Banners were prohibited from harvesting, and only the royal family could harvest it.
Then the price also kept rising. During the Kangxi period, ordinary ginseng cost 560 taels per catty, and the first-class ginseng cost 80 taels per catty. During the Qianlong period, it rose to about 1,000 taels, during the Jiaqing period, it cost 1,500 to 2,500 taels, and during the Daoguang period, it Three thousand or four thousand one pound.
Of course, these are ordinary and first-class prices, and those that are older, such as those that are over a hundred years old, are sky-high prices. However, in the Ming Dynasty, a three-hundred-year-old was sold for about fifty taels at most.
However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the price of ginseng was not as high as the price during the Kangxi period of Shunzhi, it had also increased a lot. The reason is very simple and the same as above. The ginseng-producing areas were all under the control of the Qing Dynasty. Although there were no strict regulations, it was not Just like in previous years, you can pick whatever you want, and whoever wants to pick can pick it. At least the Han people in the customs don't want to pick it openly. But the demand in the customs is huge, and the ginseng pickers from outside the customs will not travel long distances to risk entering the customs to sell, and they don't know who is handling it. Several times, so the price has also gone up.
As the saying goes, you can't afford to start early without profit. Huo Sanshan originally heard that the other party was tricked by the people from the General Military Palace, so he didn't want to get involved in this matter, because he really couldn't get involved. No one dared to mess with the people from the General Military Palace, but But I really can't put it down for that jade ring.
"This ghost market is a mixed bag of dragons and snakes. People from all walks of life are begging for food here. Cheating and kidnapping are the most common thing. But if you are an ordinary traveler, I can help you ask a question, but the other party is from the General Military Mansion. We are in this business But you can't afford to offend the officials, I'm afraid your baby will be ruined." Huo Sanshan rubbed the jade ring in his hand, not wanting to give it back at all.
"Master Huo, we just want to buy a way. Do you know that treasure, we... sacrificed a few lives to get it!" Wang Er begged, Huo Sanshan sighed: "You want to buy the general soldier?" The government’s way, or the way to get the money back?”
"Hey, I don't dare, I don't dare. We don't dare to enter the palace. If we do, we will lose our lives. We don't expect Mr. Huo to help us get our money back. We just want to find that person. Of course, If Mr. Huo can help us get back the treasure or silver, we can share it equally with Mr. Huo!" Wang Er said quickly.
Huo Sanshan was moved, his brows knitted into knots, and he sighed after a while: "To be honest, we don't have this way, but we can help you find someone who does. But" as he said that, the two of them He swept it all over his body and said, "You have to prepare other benefits."
"Here, how much benefit does this cost?" Wang Er frowned, and Huo Sanshan chuckled. He stared at the jade wrench in his hand and kept rubbing it with his fingers. He calculated that there was definitely something in these two people.
"How can we give you any benefit? We only had a treasure that was deceived by that person, and now even this family heirloom has been taken out." Wu Da yelled, and Huo Sanshan chuckled: "Isn't this picked up? Why? It became a family heirloom.”
Cough, cough, cough, Wang Er pulled Wu Da and coughed a few times: "If Mr. Huo really helps find a way, we will inevitably give him some benefits."
"Oh, can you show us the benefits first and see if we can find a way to do it?" Huo Sanshan squinted and chuckled. Wang Er sighed and looked at Wu Da: "Brother, that thing on your body..."
"That's all, I've lost all my belongings now." Wu Da said and took out a jade pendant from his waist. Huo Sanshan's eyes lit up and he reached out to take it. He looked at it for a while and looked a little disappointed. Although this jade pendant is also a good one. It's a toy, but it's not as good as the jade ring in his hand.
"This benefit is not enough!"
As soon as Huo Sanshan said these words, Wu Da was angered: "If it's worth a thousand gold, why should we use watermelon money to buy that sesame road?" Wang Er also echoed: "We are just buying a road to explore." Second, it’s not like Mr. Huo is going to get the treasure back for us. If Mr. Huo dislikes it, we will find another way." He said and snatched the finger ring and jade pendant from Huo Sanshan's hand. come over.
Huo Sanshan was startled, and then he laughed: "You two are right, but we are too greedy." He quickly appeased the two of them, don't be angry, let's discuss it again.
"What else is there to discuss? If you can find that person for us, these two items will be yours. If you can get the treasure back, we will sell it to you at a discount. If you can get the treasure back, we will sell it to you at a discount." The money will be shared equally with you!" Wu Da said angrily.
"That's it, you two will wait a moment." Huo Sanshan knew it was good and gave it up. He walked outside the door and called a boy to whisper for a while. Then he returned to the house and made tea for the two guests. They started chatting. He observed the words and expressions of the two guests. He found that the two guests, Wu Da, were reckless. Looking straight ahead, I could see that the man named Wang Er seemed to be very scheming.
"Master Huo, you are also a boss, why do you go to the street to solicit customers in person?" After chatting for a while, Wang Er asked casually, and Huo Sanshan chuckled: "Do you two know what catching the tide is? The waves were so big last night Big, when the tide recedes today, there are big fish everywhere. If you don’t pick them up, let others pick them up. Just like you two, if you don’t meet us, then they will fall into the hands of others.”
"Listen, we are not fish, but sheep waiting to be slaughtered have fallen into your tiger's mouth." Wu Da hummed: "We who collect ginseng are also half Jianghu people, Mr. Huo can't think of talking about us." .
"Hey, it's just an analogy." Huo Sanshan said seriously: "There are rules in the world, and this ghost market also has the rules of a ghost market. You rely on your skills to deceive and kidnap, but you will never rob openly." But he was cursing in his heart, these two idiots You can be defrauded of your treasure so easily, and you still call yourself a charlatan. You are a charlatan.
