To be blunt - except for Huo Shu and Ge Liang, the rest only had farming tools like sickles and pitchforks.
Basically, anything that didn’t use much iron.
Even if they’d had more money, getting decent weapons wouldn’t have been easy.
To prevent private stockpiling of weapons that could threaten the court and common folk, the imperial court strictly regulated ironware.
Ordinary iron shops only sold farming tools. To get proper weapons, they needed connections or exorbitant prices on the black market.
But Wayang Village had given them more than a dozen heavy cleavers - each one razor-sharp and of exceptional quality. Now every man was properly armed.
Later, they could even have a blacksmith reforge a couple into lighter spears.
He didn’t even dare calculate how much these weapons would cost on the black market!
"What kind of business are they in to make this much money?"
Ge Liang couldn’t put his new weapon down.
Huo Shu replied calmly, "Not sure exactly, but they likely have ties to ore merchants."
"The cargo they were escorting was iron ore."
Ge Liang immediately stopped swinging his sword, his expression grim. "Iron ore?!"
He lowered his voice. "That’s an industry tightly controlled by the court! These people have guts!"
No wonder they were so generous, handing out such fine weapons without a second thought.
But then again, it wasn’t entirely without reason—Ji Taoyu had saved their men. Had it not been for that, they never would’ve given away such valuable arms.
The more Ge Liang thought about it, the more uneasy he grew.
"Bandits having weapons isn’t surprising—they rise by force. But Wayang Village’s influence seems substantial. If they can obtain iron ore and forge their own weapons, then..."
Huo Shu shot him a look, and Ge Liang swallowed the rest of his words.
"These years in the military, we all knew the state of rations—the treasury's been empty for years. The North’s defeat was humiliating, losing land and paying reparations, only making things worse. Where does the court’s money come from? The people’s taxes, which’ll only grow heavier each year."
"The old emperor still hasn’t named a crown prince, and the princes are ambitious, circling like tigers. External threats, internal strife—this empire will collapse sooner or later."
Ge Liang frowned deeply. Tongzhou was prosperous, people lived comfortably enough to make anyone complacent.
Had they not made this trip, he'd never have known how desperate things had become beyond their borders.
Rebel groups were sprouting everywhere, the future was clear.
"If that’s the case, what do we do?"
Huo Shu said, "No funds, no troops—what can we do? Swear allegiance to a faction, become their claws, and and die fighting their battles?"
Though spoken to Ge Liang, the words cut deeper into Huo Shu's own conscience.
He had long grown weary of living a life where he merely risked his life for others.
For this reason, he flatly refused Duan Chi's offer.
In truth, Huo Shu had long sensed the instability of the times. Venturing into trade despite the risks was his way of securing a fallback plan.
He was not someone who pursued great wealth and status to begin with. Originally, he could have settled for a small business in Tongzhou—even just tending to the Ji family’s farmland would have provided enough to keep his family comfortably clothed and fed.
As Ge Liang had said, Tongzhou was prosperous. Precisely because of this, the overt and covert forces there were not to be underestimated.
Once chaos swept the land, establishing a self-preserving force in Tongzhou without a foundation would be impossible. The only option would be to pledge allegiance to a reliable faction.
But the price of submission was inevitably becoming another’s lackey, with too many moments where one’s fate was no longer in their own hands.
That was why he had decided to travel far north for trade. On one hand, it allowed him to openly gather manpower; on the other, he could keep an ear to the ground for any shifts in the outside world.
He just hadn’t expected the situation beyond Tongzhou to already be so dire.
Huo Shu let out a heavy breath: "To protect my family, I’ll have to prepare a fallback plan in advance."
After passing through Yuchang Prefecture, the northern route grew increasingly desolate. Signs of human habitation became scarce, and the roads grew rougher.
The caravan’s pace slowed even further compared to the roads before the prefecture.
Inside the carriage, Ji Taoyu felt every jolt and bump beneath him.
Peering out the window, he saw Yuchang Prefecture encircled by towering mountains—nothing like Tongzhou’s wide-open plains.
But now, nearing the fourth month, the weather had warmed, and the lush greenery made for a pleasant view.
Yet this place was so sparsely populated that the insects were large and vicious. During their overnight stops—when they camped at night, Ji Taoyu was bitten twice on the arm, the swelling as thick as a steamed bun.
Despite the picturesque scenery, snakes and pests thrived here—no wonder people in Tongzhou called Yuchang Prefecture a land of barbarians.
He didn’t dare expose even a sliver of skin outside, and he no longer wanted to ride on horseback with Huo Shu.
He wondered if he could gather some mugwort or mint when they camped at night, to make his own ointment.
When they’d set out, the weather had still been cold, so he hadn’t even considered mosquitoes and hadn’t brought any repellent.
Sullen, Ji Taoyu stayed in the carriage, counting on his fingers—they had been on the road for a full month now.
He had already read through the medical books he brought twice. He had meant to buy more books in the prefecture to pass the time, but in the rush to stock up on provisions, he had forgotten. Now, he was truly bored out of his mind.
Lying on the bedding that was starting to feel too warm, he finally understood why Duan Chi kept someone as noisy as Tianyin by his side.
If he had been traveling with them, that incessantly chattering mouth of his would have at least helped pass the time.
Just as he was drifting off in the warm spring sunlight, he heard voices speaking in an unfamiliar dialect, distinct from the standard tongue.
Sticking his head out, he spotted another caravan up ahead.
After three days of travel, they had barely encountered any travelers—running into another merchant group now was truly unexpected.
About a dozen men, roughly the same size as their own group, but their gear suggested they were seasoned traders.
Their chatter was unintelligible, likely some local dialect.
In Tongzhou, where imperial examinations were highly valued, even commoners spoke the official language. Ji Taoyu had rarely encountered people who spoke dialects, so this felt oddly novel.
At first, both groups remained wary, keeping to themselves without interaction. After traveling alongside each other for a day, seeing that neither side seemed aggressive, the merchants finally approached to greet them.
A middle-aged man in his thirties bowed to Huo Shu and politely asked in the official language: "Might you be heading to Baiyunjian for trade?"
"The Northern Frontier."
The merchant nodded.
"I’m Zhang Rong, head of the Hubiao (tiger and leopard) caravan. We’re bound for Baiyunjian—seems we’re heading the same way. If you’ve no objections, we could travel together."
Huo Shu agreed and gave his name.
Thank you for the update!!!
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