Chapter 204: What Does “the Trend Of The Times” Mean?
The world of Great Han has already begun to fall into chaos.
The decreasing number of caravans arriving at Jingkou Pass is a clear sign of this.
Yun Ce’s favorite baby beans, peanut-sized refined rice, glutinous millet, beast meat that naturally carries a floral fragrance, and honey that can form sugar frosting when left standing, are all gone.
Not only are they gone, even substitutes are unavailable, and the variety of goods is rapidly diminishing.
Business at Jingkou Pass is truly easy to conduct. As long as the caravan’s goods aren’t sold out, Jingkou Pass will buy up all the remaining goods at thirty percent of market price.
This is almost a guaranteed profit assurance. You see, the remaining goods have a name: tail goods. Selling them at thirty percent of market price is absolutely a measure favorable to the caravan.
More importantly, the goods acquired by Jingkou Pass are ultimately paid for with gold. They almost never use the green money that caravans dislike to pay for goods.
Moreover, there are no cases of scoundrel accounts or forced buying and selling.
To further accommodate caravans, Jingkou Pass even does not levy entrance tax on caravans.
Despite all these measures being implemented, after a caravan specializing in selling Yi Tree Cloth passed through, Jingkou Pass has had no caravans for twenty days already.
1 To be precise, Great Han is a purely commercial country.
1 Because there is no large-scale agriculture, the people rely on gathering and hunting to collect materials, which are then bought back from the people by a large number of traveling merchants, transported to small towns, resold to small caravans. Once small caravans have gathered enough materials, they transport them to big cities.
1 If big cities cannot consume so many materials, specialized merchant houses will stockpile the surplus materials and eventually hand them over to large caravans, who transport these goods to big cities that need them for secondary sales.
1 If they still cannot be sold, they are transported to local small caravans to continue selling in the next level of cities until everything is sold out.
1 It can be said this way: large caravans serve to balance supply and demand, like blood vessels delivering blood to every part of the body. If the blood vessels stop delivering blood, it’s a dead end.
1 Nowadays, with Jingkou Pass having no caravans for twenty days, this indicates a problem: the large caravans, acting as the aorta, have run into issues, with no excess materials sinking down to a fifth-level city like Jingkou Pass.
1 This problem is very serious, because places north of the Great Wall do not produce salt grass nor grow Yi Tree, this important textile resource. It’s one thing if other materials cannot come in, but without salt grass and Yi Tree Cloth, it’s a big problem for Yun Ce.
1 Yun Ce has not yet seen the sea here and does not know if the salt from this sea is edible, because he has not heard of sea salt as a type of good.
1 The same goes for Yi Tree. The territory north of the Great Wall is cold, and Yi Tree does grow there, but the tree bark fiber cannot be extracted here. Mainly, the bark is thick and hard, and even ground into powder, the Yi Tree starch cannot be used because it is bitter and somewhat toxic.
1 It is, however, a very good raw material for papermaking.
2 In the past, when Liu Che was the Jingkou Pass Commander, it was common for caravans to not come here for ten or twenty days, mainly because Liu Che’s military households at Jingkou Pass were all poor wretches who not only had no money to buy their goods but sometimes stole them.
2 Now, Jingkou Pass is famous far and wide as a good place to do business, yet caravans still haven’t come for twenty days. This is not a problem with Jingkou Pass, but with the caravans.
2 Despite many guesses, until Feng An, who was sent out to gather news, returns, everyone can only wait.
2 Fortunately, Yun Ce had already ordered the stockpiling of more materials even before being pursued and killed by Yu Sang. Up to today, the materials in Jingkou Pass are still fairly abundant. As for Yun Clan Villa, aside from green salt, grain, and clothes which cannot be short on consumption, the consumption of other materials is very low.
2 After Liang Kun tallied it up, he told Yun Ce a number: one hundred twenty days. That is, at the current rate of material consumption, in one hundred twenty days, whether Jingkou Pass or Yun Clan Villa, all materials will be exhausted.
2 One hundred twenty days is actually a relatively safe number. According to the common food security line on Earth, a twenty percent inventory consumption ratio can support about seventy-three days of consumption for the country’s residents. For Jingkou Pass and Yun Clan Villa, supporting one hundred twenty days without restricting consumption is already very good.
2 This is how Yun Ce prepared, mainly because stockpiling grain was a very important task on Earth. After coming here and becoming the leader of a collective, this task remains his top priority.
2 Feng An returned, bringing very bad news.
2 It turns out caravans not only haven’t come to Jingkou Pass, but nearby Yujin Pass, Tiger Head Pass, Da Liang Pass, and Dong Quan Pass also haven’t had caravans for a long time.
2 Yujin Pass and Tiger Head Pass belong to the territory of the Cao Clan. They can still dispatch their own caravans from the nearby Qiu He Prefecture. As for the other passes, aside from Jingkou Pass, there is no such wealthy and powerful backer behind them to summon their own caravans for emergency aid at any time.
3 Great Han people do not have the habit of long-term stockpiling, especially people in cities, who buy and eat on the spot. The too-long period of peace has made them mistakenly believe that grain and materials are everywhere in the mountains and plains—as long as they want them, they can get them anytime, anywhere.
3 After Liang Kun roughly assessed the grain storage situation in nearby city passes and cities, he decisively concluded that if caravans do not come in again, within one month, these city passes on the Great Wall Defense Line will successively face famine.
3 Feng An’s face looked very grim.
3 “Not only do the city passes on the Great Wall defense have no caravans coming, but the six cities right next to our side of the Great Wall also basically have no caravans coming.
3 When I was in Pingcheng, I heard a caravan shopkeeper say that the big cities inland are now hoarding grain and materials. Previously, materials transported from Fengdi basically cannot reach our Northern Territory city passes anymore.
3 Even if any arrive, it’s a drop in the bucket—they are snapped up empty as soon as they enter big cities.
3 This time I ordered sixty thousand jin of grain for fodder, but actually received and transported back less than twenty thousand jin. Even so, many people who couldn’t buy grain for fodder said I got it purely because the shopkeeper wanted to maintain relations with Jingkou Pass.
3 I originally wanted to continue deeper into Pingzhou, but when I reached Pingcheng, I couldn’t proceed further. Pingcheng has sealed off information very tightly—no one knows what happened south of Pingcheng.
3 I squatted at Pingcheng’s south gate for three days, counting the horse carriages transporting provisions south. Based on the daily amount of provisions transported, I roughly calculated that Pingzhou is supplying military rations for sixty thousand people in the south every day.
3 In other words, a large-scale battle is breaking out south of Pingcheng, but I don’t know who the opposing side is.”
4 “It’s He Tian of Lingzhou and Tan Shou of Pingzhou contending for the estuary where Yongshou River flows into Qingshui River. So far, Pingzhou temporarily holds the upper hand.”
4 Yun Ce saw Cao Kun and did not stop him from walking straight into the council hall. He stood up, smiling and cupping his hands: “It’s not strange that I have no grain here. Brother Cao, with your great family and vast enterprise, why do you also look hurried in your steps?”
4 Holding a sword, Cao Kun unceremoniously sat on the cushion next to Yun Ce and said directly: “Tan Shou of Pingzhou intends to starve us to death this time. So, I discussed with everyone and plan to take advantage of Tan Shou’s main force being tied down at Yongshou River Estuary to rise together and attack Pingzhou. What do you think?”
4 Yun Ce glanced at the group of people Cao Kun brought—some familiar, some strangers.
4 Cao Kun smiled: “They are envoys dispatched by the commanders from various places to join in this grand undertaking. As long as Brother Yun agrees, our manpower will be complete.”
4 Yun Ce smiled: “Since it’s everyone’s affair, how could Yun refuse.”
4 Cao Kun stood up, raised the sword in his hand, and said: “I will be the commander-in-chief. What does Brother Yun think?”
4 Yun Ce stood and cupped his hands: “Since it is the will of the multitude, as a member of the border city on the Great Wall, Yun naturally complies. It’s just that Jingkou Pass has few soldiers and weak generals—I’m afraid Brother Cao will look down on us.”
4 Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce: “Precisely where I need your assistance.”
4 With that, he had someone fetch a map and nail it to a wooden board. Pointing at Xiangcheng, the closest to Jingkou Pass, he said to Yun Ce: “In three days, can you take this city?”
5 Yun Ce looked at the place Cao Kun indicated and sighed: “Robbing Xiangcheng, which has six thousand garrisoned troops and high walls and deep moats, with five hundred soldiers—Cao Brother really thinks highly of me.”
5 With a cold face, Cao Kun said: “Xiangcheng City Lord Yan Fei has always thought highly of himself, claiming to be the number one fierce general of the Northern Territory. Although Xiangcheng is a sturdy city, if Brother Yun leads troops there, he will definitely come out to meet the battle.
5 Field battle is precisely the strength of Brother Yun’s forces. If Brother Yun can behead Yan Fei on the battlefield, Xiangcheng will surely fall into chaos, allowing Brother Yun to take it in one go.”
5 Yun Ce said in surprise: “What if he doesn’t come out?”
5 Cao Kun laughed heartily: “If he doesn’t come out, Brother Yun just guard Xiangcheng and prevent him from leaving. Once we take the nearby five city passes, we will combine forces and take Xiangcheng.”
5 Seeing Yun Ce silent, Cao Kun added: “Unless we eliminate Tan Shou of Pingzhou, trade route materials won’t reach the Great Wall line—we will all have only a dead end.
5 Why is Brother Yun still hesitating?”
5 “Five hundred cavalrymen are also needed to guard Jingkou Pass, and the remaining people of Yun Clan are all the old, weak, women, and children. Once these five hundred cavalry leave, Jingkou Pass will have no city defense left.
5 If enemies invade, the forty thousand women and children will only have their necks offered for slaughter. Yun dares not gamble.”
5 Cao Kun said: “This commander can lend five hundred soldiers to guard Jingkou Pass.”
6 Yun Ce shook his head: “Better for the commander to lend five hundred soldiers to join my forces in attacking Xiangcheng. Though unworthy, Yun is willing to be the vanguard for the commander.”
6 Cao Kun looked at Yun Ce: “Very well! By noon tomorrow, the five hundred men you want will arrive. At that time, please, Brother Yun, do not raise other entanglements that delay military affairs.”
6 Yun Ce cupped his hands: “This general will certainly await the arrival of the five hundred cavalry and will definitely march to Xiangcheng at once.”
6 When Yun Ce saw Cao Kun off from Yun Clan Villa, Cao Kun looked at the people busy in the wilderness and said lowly to Yun Ce: “This place is flat and suitable for farming, yet has no city defense—be careful.”
