In the first year of Xuanhe in the Song Dynasty, the ninth year of Tianqing in Liao, the fifth year of Yongning in Xia, and the fourth day of July, the Liao caravan where Sun Tu was located finally arrived in the Western Xia after more than a month of long journey.

After several hardships, passing through the vast Gobi desert, and crossing the Muna Mountains, which were covered with snow in June and July, they were finally able to walk out of the deserted land, gradually seeing some figures. After moving forward a long journey, a vast city had appeared in front of everyone, which suddenly cheered up the spirit of the already exhausted people.

This is a city with a circumference of nearly twenty miles. The walls are all made of loess, as high as seven or eight feet tall. One glance from a distance makes people feel the solemnity and majesty of this city. In fact, this city is larger than an ordinary county town in the Song Dynasty, and even Qingzhou City is much taller than it. However, because of the environment it is in - except for mountains and deserts around it, only one city is isolated - it is particularly imposing in the eyes of many merchants, and it also makes people feel a sense of dependence and safety. At least after entering this city, you no longer have to worry about being attacked by wild animals or horse bandits in the wild.

However, when they thought of the term "Ma bandit", the people who were already close to the tall city gate guarded by dozens of soldiers were still feeling a little nervous. As they had guessed, the group of "Mark Wolf" was pretended to be the Western Xia army. Once this matter was leaked, all of them would have no way to die.

But since they have all arrived here, there is no possibility of turning back timidly. After the merchants who were in the forefront looked at each other for a few times, they all walked forward with a nervous mood.

The Xixia army guarding the city was quite enthusiastic about them. The officer in charge only asked and checked the cargo and horses that everyone was carrying, and after receiving a considerable amount of money into the city, they let everyone enter the city. In fact, what the defenders like in the border town and the people inside were most happy to see was the arrival of the caravan, because their arrival meant a large amount of goods and business opportunities, which could make the entire border town more lively and lively.

When Sun Tu saw the merchant in charge paying the military soldiers, he was stunned for a moment. The copper coins he paid were actually the precious coins of the Song Dynasty, not the precious metals such as gold and silver that he imagined, or coins made by the Liao Kingdom.

In fact, although the three Central Plains, including Tubo and Nanzhao, all of them all cast their own coins, due to the lack of technology and other aspects, the quality of their copper coins is very unstable and far from comparable to the treasure money of the Song Dynasty. This is not a problem in their respective homes, but once cross-border trade is carried out, other countries cannot convince them. Therefore, over the past few decades, both Liao and Xia and other countries have formed a tacit understanding, and cross-border transactions only use the treasure money of the Song people!

It can be said that the Song Dynasty today is the most advanced existence in the entire era in terms of economy, culture, technology, etc., and even in terms of influence, it is even greater than that of the Lighthouse Kingdom a thousand years later. However, today's Song Dynasty seems a bit weak in military terms. Therefore, even though it is far superior to other countries in other aspects, it can only protect itself and cannot really become the so-called world police like the Lighthouse Kingdom. It is actually the biggest messing stick in the world.

At this time, Sun Tu didn't know the general trend. Although he was surprised, he didn't take it too seriously. He soon entered the city called Wulahai with the team.

Compared with the cities of the Song Dynasty and the two southwestern capitals of the Liao Kingdom, the interior of this city that looks somewhat large outside seems very desolate. Apart from the continuous military camps, there are only a few hundred sparse residential areas scattered in the southwest direction of the city.

From the city gate, we went straight to the streets inside the city. At this time, there were not many people. The few people were wearing old clothes. However, the figures of ordinary people here were stronger than those of the Song soldiers. Their red and black faces, bronze skin, and exposed muscles gave people a rough and heroic atmosphere.

When Sun Tu was still experiencing the folk customs of Xixia, other merchants had already begun to prepare for the next step of action. They soon found the only inn in the city. Although the inn occupied a huge area, there were very few customers. When they saw a caravan with more than 100 people coming today, the shop owner was so happy that he almost disappeared. He nodded and bowed and went forward to greet him in person. The staff beside him did not need anyone to give instructions. They helped the caravans to bring horses and other animals to the back and raise them.

The merchants have been exhausted after sleeping in the open for more than a month. Now that they have entered the city, they have naturally relaxed and asked the inn owner to bring the good wine and food. The other party was even more happy when they heard this, and hurriedly ran to the back and told the people in the kitchen to make the best wine and food as soon as possible.

After he arranged all these things, several businessmen talked to him about the specific situation and business opportunities in Wulahai City. This is also one of the purposes of spending a lot of money as soon as they arrived at the store. Only such an inn owner is the best eyeliner in the city.

This man, holding a bag of copper coins handed over by the merchants, laughed and introduced the city to them in a bit stiff Chinese (just like the trade between several countries that use Song Bao coins, the dialogue between several countries is accustomed to using Song Dynasty Mandarin, which is also a manifestation that the cultural and economic soft power of Song Dynasty is too strong than other countries): "Our Wulahai City is just a border military city. In addition to the garrison, the other population is only three to five thousand. Originally, because of its closeness to the Great Liao Dynasty, it could still be

Caravans often come, which attracts some of the merchants from their own country to come here to try their luck. However, since five years ago, after the bandits appeared in the Gobi Desert in front, fewer caravans have come, so gradually, fewer merchants have come, and even the venue that has been opened in the southwest for decades has been completely closed." As he said, he sighed with a depressed sigh: "Thinking about the past, my store could receive hundreds of people every month, but now it is difficult to receive hundreds of people a year."

When everyone heard this, they felt a little uneasy. Fortunately, the other party did not bother with the horse bandits, and then laughed: "But you are lucky to have arrived these few days, because in another five or six days, it will be the six-year market day in our country. At that time, many people nearby will come to the city to buy some things. If you don't rush to leave, you might be able to exchange for some good things."

Although currency was popular thousands of years ago, some remote people in Xixia still could not take out coins casually, so the tradition of bartering was retained in this market. After learning about this, several merchants showed a hint of joy, which was a good opportunity to get rich and get a bargain.

In terms of insight, scheming, eloquence, etc., these merchants are far more than ordinary people. This refers to those who have seen and eaten in the city. The remote herders in Xia Kingdom who will come to Wulahai City for trading next are completely a group of simple-minded guys. In the eyes of merchants, they are clearly a group of fat sheep to be slaughtered. If they seize the opportunity, they can all exchange a large amount of good things from the people at an extremely low price, and it is very likely that a fur will be exchanged for a large piece of gem, let alone other things.

Sun Tu listened, and saw the greed flashing in the eyes of the merchants, and he didn't feel a little funny. Originally, they seemed to be planning to leave Wulahai as soon as possible, and to rush to the larger city behind to do business as soon as possible. But now it seems that these people have to stay here for a while.

In addition, he also saw that the inn owner said this with his own purpose. After all, the daily consumption of people eating horse feeding is a considerable amount, so he can naturally make quite a lot of profits from it. It can be said that he is the one who makes a big profit, at least he has not yet exchanged something good, and he has already made a lot of money into his pocket.

However, Sun Tu was not very interested in this. He did not come to Xixia to make money, but to disrupt Xia Kingdom and make him unable to make trouble for at least a few years. To achieve this, small border towns such as Wulahai have no value at all. He had to go to important places in Xia Kingdom, such as Yinzhou and Lingzhou.

While thinking about how to say goodbye to them, and at the same time, borrowing some money from Huangfu Duan, the inn staff there had already brought jars of local wine and authentic local delicacies.

The hungry people didn't say much at the moment, so they sat around and drank and ate meat. Of course, the wine here was not good. It was not only sour but also had a bitter taste. Fortunately, it was strong enough and strong enough. As long as it got used to its taste, it would have a different flavor. As for the dishes, it was actually meat, and it was almost all made of roasted and roasted, and there was almost no cooking food.

In fact, this is easy to understand, because the altitude here is much higher than that in the Liao and Song dynasties, and the time it takes to cook the meat thoroughly is much longer than directly roasting. Of course, this is not the most critical point. What's more important is that there are only two pots in the only inn in Wulahai, and there is no time to prepare a lot of food for them. The Song Dynasty has always regarded ironware as an absolute ban on sale. Fortunately, the Liao Kingdom is in Xixia, especially in remote cities, iron pots are completely luxurious.

But even though the dishes were simple, everyone still ate with relish. The wind blew the remaining clouds and ate all the three sheep that had just been killed, and then they went back to their rooms to rest.

Even Sun Tu did not rush to leave at this time, but instead took a good night's sleep before talking about it. After all, they had never really slept steadily along the way...

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Second update
Chapter completed!