"Uncle Huang, why do you have time to see your nephew?" Not far from entering the city gate, a standard little and strong man with luxurious clothes and short stature came over and greeted Huang Chengen with a smile.

"I want to go to Nanning Prefecture. I'm passing by you. Why? I'm not welcome!" To be honest, there are not many people in Guangxi as bold as Huang Chengen, who are running to other chieftains' nests as casually as Huang Chengen is. Of course, Huang Chengen is confident in his courage to do this. One is that the Huang family has a huge influence in Guangxi, and the other is that it is the base camp of the Huang family. Except for the stationed half of Shixi Prefecture in Jishi, the nearby chieftains are all from the Huang family. He is not afraid that anyone dares to deal with him openly.

"Uncle Huang, it's wrong for you to say that. I'm not too late to welcome you. Please, please come inside." The two were greetings, and Zhou Shixiong led the elephant team into the city gate. The elephant weighed five tons and the weight of more than one ton, and each step was beating on the bluestone pavement like a drum.

"Uncle Huang, this," Chen Chengen inherited his father's character, and was humorous and strong on the surface, but five elephants walked by shakingly in front of him with one tail. This scene was the first time he saw this. For beast trainers, training elephants to queue up is the most basic. Not to mention that there are only five elephants, even adding zero is just a pediatric department for Zhou Shixiong.

"It's not easy to go to Nanning Mansion. It's normal to bring some goods. Didn't you do that?" Huang Chengen could not help but sarcasticize the young man when facing this resignation. It's really this kid's father is too good at tormenting people.

"But, how could these elephants?" Elephants have a gentle temperament among large wild beasts, but this gentleness is relatively to jackals, tigers and leopards. If someone wants to put a bridle on the elephant, it is asking for trouble and will definitely be attacked by herd elephants. Once this happens, not to mention bamboo and wood houses, even brick and stone houses may be destroyed by elephants, and the disaster caused is devastating.

Although these five elephants did not have bridles, they could guess how heavy the goods they carried were. Just listen to the sound. What surprised Guan Chengen the most was that there was only one person in the entire elephant team who drove the elephant. Not to mention seeing Gui Chengen, he had never even heard of it. Now the miracle is in front of him, so it would be strange if he was not surprised.

"This is the elephant team trained by my second brother. I will introduce it to you later." Huang Chengen pretended to be calm, but he almost laughed happily. You, the Guan family, had given their ancestors a gift from the Emperor of the Song Dynasty every day, and had also seen the emperor himself telling things, to show that their surname is nobler than our Huang family. Humph, if you don't know, you don't know!

Zhou Shixiong settled the elephant and took his three brothers out of the elephant railing. Huang Chengen and Guan Chengen were waiting for him at the door. Huang Chengen didn't want to wait, but Guan Chengen insisted on watching the elephant team rest before leaving, so Huang Chengen had to accompany him.

"Come on, second brother, this is the chieftain of Xizhou in Xiashi. I am the same generation as his father, just call him a nephew." Huang Chengen decided on the seniority of Chen Chengen. Chen Chengen was indeed a generation lower than Huang Chengen, but everyone is a chieftain. Chen Chengen called Huang Chengen to call him uncle, of course there is no problem, but now Huang Chengen forced him to whisper to an elephant tamer, and Chen Chengen's face was so ugly and ugly.

"Brother, I'm going to rush to go tomorrow. I'll rest first. Thank you for the reception of the chieftain." Zhou Shixiong didn't really call him a virtuous nephew, but his attitude didn't take Guan Chengen seriously at all. He didn't even mean socializing. He bowed to Guan Chengen and left with the three boys.

"Uncle Huang, why haven't you heard that you have a younger brother?" Guan Chengen asked with a dark face and gritted teeth.

"This is my adopted son recognized by my mother on behalf of her father. Of course, it is my second brother. Don't you know?" Huang Chengen was angry and held Chengen. The family hid in the ancestral hall to complete the ceremony. Afterwards, it was not widely publicized. Only when Chengen knew that there was a ghost.

"Ah!" This news is not a trivial matter for the reign of Chengen. After all, the two sides live next to each other, and any major moves in Xiangzhou will have an impact on Xiashi Xizhou. The change in the power structure of the Tusi family is of course a major matter. Zhou Shixiong, the second brother, comes from the senior, and is not sworn with Huang Chengen. It is no different for ordinary people. It is too big for the Tusi who has absolute local power.

Chen Chengen is not an ordinary person, he is a chieftain, or a very smart chieftain. After Huang Chengen talked about Zhou Shixiong's identity, he began to carefully observe Huang Chengen's expression. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not see a trace of unhappiness on Huang Chengen's face.

"My second brother is right. I have to hurry to go tomorrow, so I won't disturb my nephew." After that, Huang Chengen also left with ease by imitating Zhou Shixiong.

Chen Chengen attracted his confidant servants, "Go and see their goods." Although the cargo boxes were nailed with lids, they could not help but fail. Soon the servants returned that the ten boxes were all iron ore.

“All full?”

"About half a box, I guess one box is 1,000 kilograms." Huang Chengen's servant used a wooden forklift invented by Zhou Shixiong when unloading the goods. Although it was a bit rough, it was more useful. In order to estimate the weight, Guan Chengen's servant found eight people to barely lift the cargo box and came up with this number.

"Ten boxes are 10,000 kilograms, and the price is not low when transported to Nanning Mansion." Xiashi Xizhou has no iron ore. If you want to build iron tools, you can only buy iron materials from outside. Xiangzhou is one of his main customers. It is not that the iron ore in Xiangzhou is not enough, but that Xiangzhou cannot only sell it to him. Shangshi Xizhou opposite also has no iron ore, and also needs the iron ore in Xiangzhou. Moreover, Shangshi Xizhou is based on the Xiangzhou family, and it is not easy to talk about even if the price is low.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a salt and iron monopoly system. In theory, all salt and iron ore belonged to the court, but in the barbarian areas of Guangdong and Guangxi did not dare to forcibly confiscate the salt and iron ore of the chieftains, and at most restrict their production and flow out of Guangdong and Guangxi. Therefore, it would be illegal to transport iron ore and salt to the Northern Vietnamese dynasty. Thousand households in Zhennan Pass would confiscate these goods and transport them to Nanning Prefecture. It would be fine even if they were not sold to the court's salt and iron supervisor yamen.

Under normal circumstances, the purchase price of the Salt and Iron Supervision Office should be slightly higher than the market price, but in fact, whether it is salt or iron, the market price will always be higher than the price of the Salt and Iron Supervision Office. Zhou Shixiong came to Pingxiangzhou for more than two months and saw that although the quality of life of the natives in Pingxiangzhou was not good, they had no problem with food and clothing. In fact, this was just because Qianhuo of Zhennanguan in Pingxiangzhou was intimidated by the Qianhumen of Zhennanguan in Pingxiangzhou, and the nearby chieftains who had ideas about Pingxiangzhou dared to act rashly. This made Pingxiangzhou in a delicate balance and not fall into war.

Since the Song Dynasty, the barbarians in Guangdong and Guangxi have never stopped internal annexation. Regardless of whether they are family or not, as long as the strength of a nearby prefecture is weakened, someone will embezzle them. Because of this reason, although iron materials do not need to be forcibly controlled by the court in Guangxi, the price remains high. To describe it in modern terms, domestic demand caused by arms races leads to high prices of some materials or even priceless.

Recently, I heard that the Cen family in Xunzhou Prefecture sharpened their knives and wanted to attack the Lei family in Hengzhou in Nanning Prefecture. In order to defend against the enemy, the Lei family in Hengzhou purchased iron materials in large quantities. It was very rare to transport these 10,000 kilograms of iron ore to Nanning Prefecture, and it was not uncommon to sell them at a sky-high price. Guan Chengen was planning Huang Chengen's business and was very jealous, but if anyone encouraged him to attack this batch of goods, he would hang the man as soon as possible.

Xiashi Xizhou is also a hilly area, but the flat area is larger than that of the entire Pingxiangzhou. The main products are star anise, rosin, tung cotton pine, banana, pineapple, goat, etc. The rice produced can only be self-sufficient, and you have to buy food from outside when encountering natural disasters in famine. Xiangzhou has iron ore and well salt, these two things are not as good as Xiangzhou, but since Xiangzhou has such a good thing, it means that Xiangzhou has relatively stronger military power, but the population is limited, Xiangzhou has vigorously developed its military. These thousands of people who use iron raids may not be able to beat the two thousand wolf soldiers with excellent weapons in Xiangzhou.

Once the Huang family troops in Shangshixizhou and Longzhou attacked Xiashixizhou, the family will become fat that the family will be divided into in a blink of an eye. Now it can be kept from being annexed by the Huang family, and it is entirely up to the support of the court. I don’t want the entire southwest of Guangxi to be unified by the Huang family. Although Guan Chengen is not as smart as his father, he has understood the basic principles since he was a child. You must be cautious when dealing with the Huang family, don’t think about taking advantage of it. It’s better not to suffer losses.

However, this time Huang Chengen's elephant team really made Chen Chengen's jealous. From transporting 10,000 kilograms of iron and steel to Nanning Mansion, and then transporting a batch of goods from Nanning Mansion to Zhennan Pass, how much copper money can you earn in one trip! Elephant cargo is different from ox carts. As long as the road is not too steep, it is really impossible to walk. Elephants can still swim, and swimming directly across the river is not a big problem. How can the Huang family get such a person? If I can get this elephant tamer, wouldn't the family grow stronger immediately!

Guan Chengen lay on the bed and tossed for a night, but he didn't fall asleep until dawn. The servant who was in charge of guarding the elephant railing came to report, and the Huang family got up. Guan Chengen immediately got up and rushed to the elephant railing.

Zhou Shixiong, in accordance with the convention, checked the status of each elephant and confirmed that everything was normal, so that the servant would put the elephant on the shelf. After it was done, he directed the elephant to lie down next to the cargo box. The servant used a wooden forklift to transport the cargo box to the shelf, and then tied it firmly with a leather rope. Complete this procedure and the elephant team was ready to set off.

Guan Chengen watched the whole process with his own eyes. It was indeed only Zhou Shixiong who was busy with work. Everyone else was just helping to help. Even if no one cared about the elephants, they would not run around. They stood there obediently waiting for Zhou Shixiong's orders. It was so amazing.

"Nephew, we don't have to be so polite, why should we come and deliver it?" Huang Chengen came to the elephant bar after breakfast. Seeing Guan Chengen watching Zhou Shixiong load the goods, he deliberately joked.
Chapter completed!