At the gate of Lan City, a group of six horsemen was stopped when they arrived at the gate.
The two leaders of the horsemen were tall aborigines who looked to be in their 40s or 50s. Behind them were two young men in their twenties and two children in their teens. All of them were dressed in animal skins.
As for their mounts, there were two mountain-gazing birds, three jumping goats, and a strange beast covered in black scales.
"Take these. Remember, if your mount poops on the ground, you have to clean it up. Otherwise, you will receive 10 lashes from the Public Order Bureau," a guard said as he threw six straw bags over.
"Since when was there such a rule?" a tall middle-aged man at the front asked doubtfully.
"Her Majesty gave the order, and it will be like this in the future." The guard had been answering these questions every day for the past few days and was a little impatient.
However, he was still kind-hearted and pointed to a few horsemen not far away. "You can learn from them and save yourself some trouble."
The few of them looked in the direction pointed out and saw a few people trying to hang the straw bags on the buttocks of their mounts … This way, they wouldn't be like the fork-horned cow that would pull along the way. Secondly, they wouldn't notice it.
After all, no one could keep an eye on the buttocks of their mounts all the way!
"Thank you for the reminder!" the middle-aged man cupped his fists and smiled.
"Also …" The guard carefully sized up the strange beast and warned, "You are not allowed to dig holes in the city!"
After a while, they set off again. The strange beast looked aggrieved. After running around naked for its entire life, it suddenly felt uncomfortable with a cloth bag hanging on its buttocks.
"Third Uncle, this is Lan City. There are so many people!" The young man and woman at the back of the group looked at the pedestrians on the streets and said excitedly.
"This is Lan City after all! Under the feet of Her Majesty! "The middle-aged leader, who was addressed as Third Uncle, laughed.
"The clothes they are wearing are so beautiful!" The young lady's gaze quickly fell on the clothes that the pedestrians were wearing. Although they were ordinary in the eyes of many, they were extremely tempting to a young lady who had just come out of the mountains.
The middle-aged leader calculated in his mind and said dotingly, "After we sell the things, we can buy half a roll of cloth!"
The young man and girl behind him were the most talented youngsters in the village. They had attained the Earth Wheel level before the age of 16 and were much more promising than their parents' generation. This time, he brought this group of young men and women not only to buy New Year's goods, but also to find two old friends and see if they could participate in this year's lantern-grabbing contest.
After walking forward for a while, the middle-aged leader revealed a puzzled expression. Why were all the cloth stores closed now?
He got off his horse and asked around. Only then did he find out that due to the war this year, the caravans were all gone, so naturally the cloth shops were closed.
This made the girl feel slightly regretful.
However, the children in the mountains were not so spoiled. They quickly focused their attention elsewhere.
"What a fragrant smell!" The young girl said in surprise. "It smells even better than roasted rock worms!"
Not only did she smell it, but the others also smelled it. Just the smell alone was enough to whet their appetites.
"The smell is coming from the front."
Very quickly, they found a shop that was tightly surrounded by people. Standing on their horses, they could see a rack in front of the shop. A jumping lamb leg was being roasted on it. Two skinny men, who didn't look like aboriginals, sprinkled some powder on the lamb leg every once in a while to make the aroma even more enticing.
"What's this for? Didn't you say that there are no more caravans? "the middle-aged leader asked as he pulled one of the men.
"It's not a caravan!" The man who was being pulled by the leader looked back at him, pointed to the signboard above the shop, and asked, "Do you see the words on it?"
"What's written on it?" The middle-aged leader asked with a hint of respect. Although Dayao respected martial arts, literate people were also looked up to.
"What's written on it?" the man beside him asked softly.
"I heard from them yesterday that it seems to be the imperial family's spice shop?" the other man asked uncertainly.
"The imperial family's spice shop. Her Majesty's spice shop! "the man in front turned around and repeated.
"What's a spice?" the middle-aged leader asked again.
At the mention of this topic, the man immediately perked up and said, "Do you see the meat being roasted inside? Does the meat you roast smell so good?"
"No!" the middle-aged leader answered truthfully.
"That's it then. That's what spices do. When roasting meat, sprinkle some on it, and the aroma will immediately assail your nostrils! The taste will also make you want to swallow your tongue. "The man seemed to be intoxicated as he spoke, as if he was reminiscing about the taste.
"How much is this spice?" The middle-aged leader was a little tempted.
"I'm not sure, but it won't be cheap." The passerby looked at him and said, "If you want to use it in the village, you might as well buy some salt."
"Then why are there so many people?" The middle-aged leader felt strange. With so many people around, could it be that they were here to smell the aroma?
"After the lamb leg is roasted, it will be cut into thin slices and distributed to everyone. This is called … tasting. Yes, tasting. So many people are waiting to taste a little, "the passerby said after thinking for a while. That term wasn't easy to remember.
This spice shop was naturally set up by Ren Baqian.
Of the spices that were originally planted, two batches of sesame and one batch of cumin had already been produced. Only the pepper had just matured recently.
As for the pepper and Chinese anise, it would take another two years to harvest them.
However, when the sesame and pepper ripened naturally, Ren Baqian and the empress were in Tianjing Basin. At this time, after the pepper ripened, they were taken out to be sold together. Besides the initial agreement with Tong Zhenye to sell a portion to him, the rest of the spices were used for the palace, and the first spice shop was opened.
Pepper and cumin weighed the same as silver. In other words, one tael of silver could only buy one tael of cumin or pepper, which was only slightly more expensive than salt. Back on Earth, spices were worth the same weight as gold, but the difference was too big.
After all, they couldn't be sold abroad now. In Dayao, even the officials didn't make much money.
If they were calculated according to the weight of gold like in ancient times on Earth, a large portion of these spices would have rotted in the warehouse.
Initially, Ren Baqian gathered about 1,000 mu of farmland. Among them, 200 mu of sesame, 200 mu of pepper, and 200 mu of cumin. The rest was planted with Chinese anise and Chinese pepper. This year, they produced about 50,000 catties of sesame, 100,000 catties of pepper, and 40,000 catties of cumin. This was a total of more than 100,000 taels of silver.
600 mu of farmland could produce such an amount of output, which could be said to be a windfall.
It had to be said that this world was indeed a fertile land. Even without fertilizer or meticulous farming, they could still produce such an output. This was almost impossible on Earth.
Half a day later, a few aborigines tasted the roasted mutton and almost swallowed their tongues. They braced themselves to ask about the price of the cumin and Chinese pepper before leaving while drooling.
The leader had a rough idea. Although the price wasn't low, it wasn't impossible to buy one tael of each for the people in the village to try.
"I'm even hungrier!" A young girl said with an aggrieved look. After eating such a piece of roasted mutton, her stomach was about to revolt.
"Bear with it. Let's go see an old friend and ask about your situation," the middle-aged man said. The middle-aged man said as he led them through Jingyang Avenue. After asking around, they arrived in front of a mansion and knocked on the door.
A moment later, they were welcomed in.
"You want to participate in the lantern-grabbing contest? This isn't impossible. You are indeed talented, but there are many talented youths in Lan City. I'm afraid you won't be able to stand out among them. Especially in terms of martial arts, the disciples of those big families are much stronger than what you have learned. If you want to find a way out, I have a chance! "
A middle-aged man in the hall chatted enthusiastically with the leader for a while. After hearing the purpose of their visit, he pondered for a while and said.
"What do you mean?" The leader's eyes lit up. He didn't want this pair of youths to be buried in the village.
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