"Shhh ~ ~ come down." A horse-drawn sleigh from Xianyang County to Chang 'an stopped.
The coachman jumped down first and urged the four passengers to get off so that he could unload the sleigh and relax the horse.
The horse was rented from Li Family Zhuangzi. The renter cherished it very much and let the horse run at a constant speed during the journey. He never urged it.
It turned out that the place where free soup was provided by the river was separated by five sheds.
There was still free soup for the people and the horse to rest.
Xianyang County was 50 miles away from Chang 'an. The horse carried the five people for more than two hours and rested for 15 minutes in a shed.
The four people got off the sleigh and each of them took out a 4 yuan coupon and gave it to the coachman.
This was the money for their carriage. In summer, it was cheap to rent a boat. From Xianyang to Chang 'an, six to eight people could sit on it. The cost was 4 to 5 yuan.
In winter, a sleigh ride cost 4 yuan per person.
If they didn't want to spend the money, they would walk 50 miles on the snow.
"If you like something, hurry up and buy it. We have to go back before dark." The older of the four said to the others.
"I know, Uncle Eleven. The things in Chang 'an are cheap. After the travel expenses, we can buy less than in Xianyang."
Someone said the purpose of this trip, shopping.
Today was the New Year's Eve. They would go shopping and not come out after returning home.
The things in Chang 'an were cheaper than in Xianyang.
There were also things in Chang 'an that Xianyang didn't have. The prices were sky high.
The vegetables in Chang 'an were more expensive than 20 counties in the capital. The people in the county didn't buy them.
The coachman watched the four people leave. He took off the dung bag from the horse's butt, unloaded the sleigh and led the horse to eat.
There was a place for horses to park nearby. The horses were provided with food and fodder. The coachman bought fodder according to the packaging, a small bundle.
The fine fodder was bought according to the weight and added to the horse.
There was a guillotine nearby. If someone wanted to cut fodder for his horse, he could do it himself.
The water was free. The water was provided by the imperial court. It was the same as the supply point on the road.
"Eat, eat. When you finish, go back. They brought goods, so they charged more. Today, we will go back one and a half more trips. Rest. I will give you more fodder in the evening."
The coachman said to his horse, his slightly wrinkled face full of smiles.
Since they came from Xianyang, the four of them paid sixteen coins. When they returned, they would discuss the price based on the quantity of the goods.
If there were too many people, they would have to go down and not tire the horses out.
The rent was now 10 coins a day, and the food depended on what the tenant gave.
Feeding them concentrated materials would cost more, and it would cost more than ten yuan a day. Feeding them ordinary dry grass would be cheaper.
There was a problem. If they didn't feed the horses, they would lose their strength and die of malnutrition. In the future, they wouldn't be able to rent anything from Zhuangzi.
The neighbors around him would point fingers at him, saying that he had harmed the livestock of the Li Family Zhuangzi.
The coachman planned to go back and earn back the rent and fodder money. Then, he would make another round trip and earn his own income.
He earned nearly 40 yuan in a day, which was not a small amount after a whole winter.
Next to them came a snow plow pulled by oxen, carrying nine people.
The oxen stopped, and everyone got down one after another. They carried the goods on their backs and were going to the West Market to sell them.
The coachman took out a broom to clean the snow for the oxen's hooves and legs. The oxen could pull the cart, but their speed was slow.
The oxen obviously came out earlier, and then they would rest for a while and go back in the afternoon. They made about the same amount of money by making one trip a day.
… …
"Dongzhu, we bought three more oxen and two horses today. They are old, and the owners can't use them to do much work. They can't afford to feed them. Ask Zhuangzi, and if Zhuangzi doesn't buy, they will report and kill them."
Song De found Li Yi, who was looking after the big red-breasted parrot, and reported the situation.
"You bought them according to the price of the meat?" Li Yi picked up a pine nut with long tweezers and sent it to the cage.
"Hello, my Dongzhu." The parrot said the two words it had learned.
Sometimes it said, 'Hello, welcome. It's too cold. My Dongzhu.'
"Yes, according to the price of the meat." Song De answered.
"Raise them for a few days, and then set up the cart." Li Yi didn't want to kill them for meat.
He knew that Song De didn't buy the kind of livestock that couldn't do any work. It was a family raising one ox. When it was old, it couldn't be expected to work like before.
There was a way to put two oxen together to pull the cart, or even three or four oxen.
They could work together. In theory, such an ox and a horse could do more work than a normal ox or horse.
If they worked in their current state, they could earn some money. Besides their own food, there was still some left.
Then they would keep raising them until one day, when four oxen couldn't do the work of a normal ox, they would use the extra money they earned to feed them.
At that time, they wouldn't be far from dying of old age. They wouldn't live for more than a few years. Otherwise, they would be able to work all the time, and efficiency would be a problem.
When they died of old age, they would be checked, and then eaten and skinned.
In other words, they would use their own labor to exchange for a chance to die naturally in their old age.
After they died, they still needed to be eaten. As long as there was no disease, no matter how important the oxen and horses were, they were not as important as people.
"Dongzhu is benevolent and righteous." Song De had always thought that Li Yi was benevolent, righteous, and kind.
Li Yi didn't explain anymore. Others wouldn't believe him.
He wanted to make use of labor as much as possible. He wanted more livestock to work together, just like repairing a bad engine.
If they could do it, they would do it. The value of the work couldn't be directly calculated by the monetary value of the time.
If the oxen could live for another five years, they would work for four years. In the last year, they would wait to die slowly.
Considering the depreciation of the currency, the first year of the oxen's four years of work would have more purchasing power than the last year. Zhuangzi would make a profit.
There was also the problem of jobs. If he used old oxen and horses to plow a thousand mu of land, the feed they fed was basically the same as the work they did, but it didn't mean that there was no profit.
If he didn't use oxen and horses to plow, the consumption would be even greater. If he couldn't even recruit people, the thousand mu of land would be wasted.
The value was reflected in the maximal use of resources. The old livestock would make up for the position.
"Dongzhu is benevolent and righteous." The big scarlet parrot, which was being slowly fed by Li Yi, suddenly imitated Song De's words.
"Okay, you're smart. I'll give you two more." Li Yi was stunned for a moment, then continued to pick up pine nuts and put them in.
"Dongzhu is benevolent and righteous!" the parrot shouted again.
"This is the power of capital. Even if it's a waste collector, when the scale reaches a certain level, he can also make a fortune.
When the oxen and horses die, the processing of meat, leather, and tendons can make money with Zhuangzi's scale.
Yes, the bones can be used to make free soup, giving the livestock a chance to die naturally. People can get a lot of benefits. "
Li Yi explained to the parrot. It smacked its lips. "I want to eat spiced beef. Why haven't there been any dead oxen in the last two days?"
…
At noon, in Heavenly Earth.
Song Jing invited a group of people to lunch. He had something important to discuss with them.
Even the first inspection group of the Tang dynasty had come. He probably felt that the current power of the imperial court was not enough, so he needed to find more people.
"You've seen the carrying capacity of the sleigh in winter. Compared with last year, it's simply unimaginable. This year, the water network is working. Because of the heavy snow, it's easy to drive on land."
Song Jing pointed to the crowd outside. There were no sleighs in the city, but there were many people on the streets.
Everyone looked at him and waited.
"The imperial court has made a lot of tax money this year. The Li Family Zhuangzi has raised too many livestock. Can the imperial court collect them?" Song Jing got to the point.
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