In the afternoon, the wind was light and the clouds were quiet. Pedestrians came and went on the official road. A group of escorts were escorts escorts and drove forward. Although not far ahead was Kunming, Kunming, the escorts were still vigilantly observing the surroundings.

The rice marching is not delicious. Not to mention the tiring, it is easy to die if you are not careful. Therefore, from the time the marching team left the marching business until they arrived at the destination, the marching goods were safely put into the warehouse, and the marching masters could not slacken off.

Several cavalry galloped from behind, looking at their dress, they were the postman of the government.

The postman quickly passed by the escort team and rushed towards Kunming City ahead.

Several escorts took their hands away from their waists and continued to walk forward with the escort car.

Under the big tree by the roadside, more than a dozen men sitting cross-legged resting watched the escort team pass by in front of them, silent.

They were surrounded by several wheelbarrows with cloth bags, including bows, sticks, swords, and even double-barrel hunting guns, which attracted the attention of the stadiumers. However, these men did not have any "strange" actions, so the stadiumers did not act out loud.

After the escort team passed, the older ones under the tree whispered: "You should note that when a few riders passed by, what did the escort escort touch the waist in the escort team?"

A young man replied: "Shopkeeper, is it a crossbow, a dart or something?"

"It's six sounds." The elderly man replied, and then added: "Six sounds in a row, six leads, each hitting a person, and they will be disabled even if they are not dead."

Everyone was amazed: "Oh, it turns out that the escort team has six signs... If possible, I really want to buy it for self-defense."

Many people have heard of Liu Xiangzi's name. This thing is a kind of firearm, also known as the "revolver gun". It has a hand in its hand and shoots at the gangsters who are surrounding them. It can instantly knock down several people. It is a self-defense weapon when traveling.

Businesses who often have to travel long distances and sleep in the open-air restaurants all want to have such a self-defense weapon, so no matter how expensive this weapon is, everyone wants to buy it.

After hearing the guy's feelings, the elderly smiled and shook their heads:

"It's not easy to buy it. Only registered escort businesses can buy in limited quantities. We are not qualified and can only use hunting guns at most."

After he finished speaking, he told the guys: "Any decent escort escort business in Nanzhong, the escort team will be equipped with a few six-stars. If you encounter escort teams on the road in the future, don't be too troublesome, otherwise you will be unlucky."

The young man asked, "Shopkeeper, is that...will those escort teams shoot passers-by if they have any disagreement?"

"That's not to say, a bullet costs about two cents, so the escort team uses six stars to save their lives. Do you think they are so busy that they can't shoot at will?"

"When you encounter an escort team on the road, don't stare at each other, don't go up to chat with each other, don't avoid it specifically to avoid being guilty, just pretend that you didn't see it," he said.

"You don't worry too much. Now, along the official roads in the southern central area, the mountains and barbarians are much more peaceful than they were back then. The mountain barbarians have been almost completely cleaned up by the government. There are many stations and villages along the way, which are much more peaceful."

As the elderly spoke, they took out their pocket watch to check the time, and then greeted: "It's not too early, everyone has enough rest. Hurry up and go to the city and find an inn to rest."

"Okay!"

Everyone replied, stood up one after another, sorted out the package on Li's back, took the self-defense weapon, pushed the wheelbarrow and walked towards Kunming City ahead.

On both sides of the road, there is a lush and green inside the fence wall, dotted with many fiery reds, which are ripe capsicum fruits.

Chili peppers are not grown for a long time in the South Central, but this imported American product is very popular among the people of all over the country. Their planting area has expanded rapidly, and the same is true in Kunming.

A large number of peppers are planted in the fields outside the city. It is autumn. The mature peppers seem to ignite the fields as if there are flames. The burning fields surround Kunming, making this increasingly popular city more and more scorching.

This small caravan with more than a dozen people seemed to be walking in the fiery red ocean, feeling the "heat wave" and looking forward to a more fiery tomorrow.

They were merchants from Shu and went to Nanzhong to do business. When they came, they brought goods such as Shu brocade, and when they returned, they brought jade products such as Ye Yu "produced" by Nanzhong. They went back and forth, and after more than two months, the cost was deducted and the profit was doubled.

I have traveled three or four times a year and my income is quite considerable, but I can't afford to hire an escort team, so I can only bring my weapons to defend myself along the way.

Fortunately, after seventeen years of operation, the official road from Chengdu to Kunming became more and more popular, with post stations and villages everywhere, and there were occasional inspections. In addition, the government allowed everyone to buy muskets, so more and more small vendors from Shu were going to Nanzhong to do business.

Not long ago, the telegram lines between Chengdu and Chang'an were connected, and now the telegram lines between Chengdu and Nanzhongweicheng have begun to be planned. All of this shows the court's determination to operate Nanzhong.

For many small vendors in Shu, the risks are getting smaller and smaller when going to Nanzhong to do business.

In the future, the telegram line from Chengdu to Longbian in Yizhou will be connected. Kunming, as an important transit station, will really become the second hometown of merchants.

......

In the afternoon, the sun was shining brightly. In the Chang'an Palace, in the study, Yuwen Wen took advantage of the sun and carefully looked at a jade mask in his hand. The jade mask was made of white jade, with excellent workmanship and hollowed-out eyes. It was produced by the time-honored brand of Yeyu City, the city of Nanzhong jade artifacts.

As he looked, he had a strong impulse to put the mask on his face.

But this is too unlucky, so I can only watch it.

Jade culture is an indispensable part of Central Plains culture. Various jade artifacts are very common in people's lives, but the use of jade masks is somewhat special: either sacrificial utensils or burial objects.

According to the popular burial method in the Han Dynasty, the deceased wore a jade mask and then wore a gold-width jade garment (imperial level), a silver-width jade garment, and a bronze-width jade garment. It is said that the body can be kept from rotting for thousands of years.

Yuwen Wen didn't want to be so unlucky, so he didn't want to wear the mask. The reason he held it in his hand was because it was a mask worn by the Beiyang Trading Company that was about to be sold to the Americas by local chiefs and wizards during various festivals and rituals.

The chiefs spent a lot of money to customize the jade mask from the Central Plains. A white jade mask can be exchanged for about 100 taels of gold according to the evaluation of Beiyang Trading Company.

If one or two gold is equal to ten coins of copper coins, the price of this mask may be 1,000 coins. However, the cost of making such a jade mask is not very high, about a few coins.

This is because jade shops in Yeyucheng have started to use jade lathes to process and polish jade, so the processing cost and time have dropped significantly.

In contrast, the jade processing technology of Native Americans is handmade. Although the finished product is good, it takes quite a long time. Not only that, the jade material used is very poor, mostly dark colors, and the material is "turbid", which is completely inferior to the high-end jade material of the Central Plains.

The fleet returned from America and brought back the local tribes and jade masks used by the city-states. These jade masks were actually "samples" for "customized jade artifacts", allowing Central Plains craftsmen to "replicate" according to their copy.

Yuwen Wen has seen these American jade masks. Now, compared with the "customized jade mask", the "original version" is obviously worse.

Because of the great rise in border trade, Yeyucheng, beside Yeyu Pool in the middle of the south can obtain sufficient jade raw materials, so the jade processing industry is very developed. Once this "customized jade" can be traded for a long time, the economic benefits generated will be very considerable.

Yuwen gently placed the jade mask into the box with silk inside, and took out some fist-sized jade figures from other boxes and looked at them carefully.

These are also "customized jade artifacts", so the style of jade portraits is different from that of the Central Plains, and are completely "replicated" according to the jade portraits made in the United States, but the exquisiteness of the materials and jade portraits is far better than the former.

It is late autumn now, Yuwen Wen returns to Chang'an from Yecheng. When next spring, the fleets heading to America will carry various cargoes along the Black Tide to America, using these customized jade wares to exchange gold and silver from the rich American chiefs.

Yuwen Wen had never thought of trading with the American chiefs through the "customized processing" trade method, because just trading iron for gold and silver can guarantee sufficient profits.

However, no one thinks that the money is too much. The Beiyang trading company, which is born for profit, has produced many talents and will not miss the opportunity to make money from the Americas.

As soon as this opportunity arises, it is good news for the development of Nanzhong. Because Nanzhong has a low level of development and there are no particularly popular hot-selling specialties, it is indeed not easy to develop resources such as jade and jade, and use this as the "economic growth point".

Yuwen Wen asked someone to put away all kinds of jade artifacts, take them away, and walked back and forth in the study, looking at the Nanzhong area on the map, and after a long time, he let out a long sigh.

Eighteen years have passed in a blink of an eye, and Nanzhong has finally formed a mature business system.
Chapter completed!