Chapter 191 Departure
Wang An tried several times and saw that Sun Zushou really didn't want it, and it wasn't just a hypocritical courtesy or he thought it was too little, so he began to respect Sun Zushou more and more.

Since the manpower and vehicles were ready, Wang An did not delay any longer in Datong Prefecture and immediately loaded the goods onto the vehicle and prepared to set off.

But on the day of departure, something happened that surprised Wang An and made him feel sad.

When he arrived at the cargo yard yawning, more than a hundred specially selected veterans had already prepared everything and were waiting for Wang An's order to set off.

The reason these disabled veterans are so efficient must be that they started working early.

But this was not the most surprising thing for Wang An. The most surprising thing was that all these veterans were wearing bright red mandarin duck battle jackets, with swords and guns on their waists or bows and arrows on their backs, looking fully armed.

It didn't look like a caravan transporting goods, but rather like an army transporting baggage.

Tian Erlangzi, who was chosen as the captain of the guard because he knew Mongolian and was a member of the general flag, came to Wang An with his empty sleeves swung and said, "My lord, all the brothers are in place, please give the order!"

Wang An, who had never had any military experience in his two lives, was somewhat embarrassed by the military temperament when he heard this. He said "ah ah" twice, and then said uncomfortably: "Then let's go!"

Tian Erlengzi didn't say anything and turned around to convey the order to set off to the veterans.

Immediately, this strange caravan, composed entirely of disabled people and everyone wearing military uniforms, started moving. Under the complicated and confusing gazes of the Datong military and civilians, they slowly walked out of the city gate and headed north.

…………

They had been traveling on the grassland for three or four days without realizing it. According to a report from a scout in the team who never traveled at night, Guihua City was twenty miles ahead. The scout had also informed the Chahar tribe of Wang An's imminent arrival.

Wang An breathed a sigh of relief. Although the journey was very hard, it was safe and sound, and it also gave Wang An a lot of knowledge.

At the same time, we also understand why the eight major Shanxi merchants were able to become imperial merchants by relying on border trade.

There is no other reason. The products from the Ming Dynasty are so popular on this vast but barren grassland.

Whether it is salt, iron, tea, rice, or beans, they are all necessities that the tribes on the grassland urgently need.

Tea and salt, in particular, can almost determine the life and death of a tribe.

Along the way, they passed many tribes and met many Mongolian families who were nomadic alone. At first, these Mongolians did not dare to approach because of the Ming military uniforms worn by the old soldiers in the team, but when they found that these old soldiers were all disabled, they became bolder.

After they figured out that this was just a Ming Dynasty caravan, someone immediately proposed a trade!
Yes, it is a request, not a robbery.

Thanks to Chongzhen's policy of "abolishing all rewards", border trade had been suspended for some time.

The tribes that were defeated had some stocks, so their lives were still okay. However, the small tribes had a small share of the trade, so once the trade was suspended, their stored salt and tea would immediately become a necessity.

If the Eight Imperial Merchants were still around, these grassland tribes could still buy salt and tea from smugglers at high prices. However, since the Eight Imperial Merchants were wiped out by Chongzhen, all the smaller smugglers were scared out of their wits and dared not smuggle on the grassland anymore.

This resulted in the Mongols completely losing their channels to buy salt and tea, both officially and privately. Therefore, suddenly seeing Wang An's caravan on the grassland was like a person dying of thirst suddenly seeing a bottle of mineral water.

The herdsmen took the best leather, strong cattle and sheep, and even the best war horses, and wanted to exchange them for supplies from Wang An's caravan, such as salt, iron, and tea. They wanted whatever they could get, and the price was set by Wang An.

Although those high-quality leathers, war horses, cattle and sheep had limited value on the grassland, as long as Wang Anyun transported them back to the mainland and resold them, he could immediately make more than two or three times the profit.

Apart from anything else, Wang An only needed to pay about seven or eight taels of silver in supplies to exchange for a high-quality Mongolian horse.

This is the "divine beast" that every cavalryman dreams of. If it can be transported to the Jiangnan area, it can be sold for at least twenty taels of silver.

However, all the supplies in Wang An's caravan needed to be delivered to Ligdan Khan according to the order, but there were no extra supplies that could be used for exchange.

Besides, Wang An has not figured out the route yet. Even if he exchanges war horses and leathers, he doesn't know whether these smuggled materials can pass through checkpoints on the return journey.

So Wang An had to reluctantly reject them one by one.

However, there were still many tribes that were almost forced into a desperate situation. Seeing that they could not obtain supplies peacefully, they came up with evil ideas. They gathered their tribesmen and followed Wang An's caravan with bad intentions, waiting for the opportunity to rob them.

Fortunately, although every member of Wang An's caravan was disabled, they were all wearing Ming military uniforms and were veterans of many battles. Their momentum was not inferior to anyone else, so these small tribes did not dare to act rashly.

In addition, after Tian Erlangzi took the initiative to negotiate and said that these supplies were to be delivered to Ligdan Khan, these small tribes immediately dispersed.

After all, the name of the mad dog of the grassland is well-known, and there are few people in the entire Mongolian desert who dare to provoke it, let alone these small tribes that are struggling to survive.

So they traveled day and night, and finally arrived at Guihua City after three days.

The only difference from the last time Man Gui came was that Wang An’s status was clearly not enough to warrant a grand reception, and there weren’t even a few tribal leaders who were a bit well-known.

The only people who contacted Wang An were some small leaders in the tribe.

However, Wang An came here to do business, and he didn't have the temper of Man Gui to just quit and leave.

After they counted the quantity and quality of the goods, they contacted Wang An and said to the tribal leader named Dalu, "Thank you for your hard work, Shopkeeper Wang. The quality of the goods you sent is very good, even better than what we bought from Shanxi people before!"

Wang An said arrogantly, "Brother Dalu, you don't know this. How can those profiteers from Shanxi compare with me?"

"We are the only official partner designated by the Ming Dynasty court, that is, the imperial merchant, do you understand?" Wang An took out the "mission certificate" issued to him by the Honglu Temple and the Ministry of Revenue and said, "Even the food used by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is supplied by us!"

"Just think about it, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is very particular about food and drink, and we can satisfy all of them."

(End of this chapter)