Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen

  In Tang Yin's opinion, Ying Bu had been stationed in Ba Guan for a long time and was naturally very familiar with the situation in Mo Guo. With him as a merchant, perhaps he could be of some help.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, upon hearing Tang Yin's words, Zhao Wan rubbed his hands together, with a forced smile on his face, slightly revealing his anxious state. Whether or not Tang Yin and Ying Bu were good friends for many years he didn't know, but Ying Bu opening the door to let him pass was indeed true, it seemed that their relationship was not shallow.

  He fell silent for a moment, then smiled apologetically and said: "One hundred taels per horse, this is the lowest price I can offer. Sir, from Mo country to here, it's a long way, the cost is high too, if the price is lower, I won't have any profit either, please understand."

  Tang Yin smiled, and in his heart he secretly thought that there was still room to lower the price. He glanced at Official Yuan Ji with a hint of a nod, indicating that this was not the lowest line. He took a deep breath and said slowly: "When buying war horses, what I want is not just a few hundred, but several thousand or even tens of thousands. If Brother Zhao really wants to cooperate with me, then he should show his sincerity."

  Zhao Wan said quietly that Tang Yan was difficult to deal with, and he bitterly smiled: "Sir, I transported horses from Mo Guo to Feng Guo, what a great risk this is. If there's no sincerity, why would I do it like this?"

  Tang Yin nodded slightly and paused for a moment before speaking seriously: "Eighty taels per warhorse, excluding the hundred horses that have already been sent out, I want another thousand."

  His words were without a hint of hesitation, spoken with a sharp tone, indicating no room for negotiation.

  "This..." Zhao frowned, lowering his head in silence. Each one was eighty taels, and of course there were still profits to be made, but these profits had already decreased by a lot. He was considering whether it was worth taking such a great risk for these profits.

  Seeing him deep in thought, Tang Yin said slowly: "Actually, these one thousand war horses are just the beginning. Later on, I will buy more. Of course, if Brother Zhao feels that my price is too low, he can also give up cooperating with me and I will find someone else."

  "No, no, no!" As soon as Tang Yin wanted to find another horse merchant, Zhao Fen's head shook like a rattle drum. This business opportunity was too rare, and if he missed it, he didn't know how much money he would lose. He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and said: "Alright! I accept the price you offered, let's settle on 80 taels per horse!"

  "Good!" Tang Yin stole a glance at Shangguan Yuange, who was smiling slightly and nodded slightly to indicate that the price was acceptable. Seeing this, Tang Yin stood up straight and said to Zhao Yun with a smile: "I hope we can have a pleasant exchange in the future."

  "Of course, of course, and please take care of yourself too."

  "Brother Zhao is being too polite!"

  Tang Yin immediately ordered Tang Zhong to take out 8,000 taels of silver from the treasury and hand it over to Zhao Xian to buy the hundred war horses he had brought.

  While Zhao Yun was busy counting the silver, he walked out of the hall, casually picked one from the hundreds of horses brought by Zhao Yun, mounted it and galloped around the courtyard.

  These Mo country horses, although not as good as the one sent by Wu Mei, are also untraceable. Their speed is much faster than the Feng country warhorses and even more so than the Pa Bu horses of the Man state. If I could really own several thousand Mo country warhorses, I would be able to lead the demonic cavalry, killing my way into the Man state as I please, and it's not impossible that I could even directly attack the city of Beisa in the Man state.

  After circling the courtyard a few more times, Tang Yin jumped off his warhorse and patted its back with satisfaction. Just then, Zhao Yun walked out of the hall and asked in a small voice, "Is milord satisfied?"

  "Hmm!" Tang Yin nodded calmly and said: "Although it can't be considered top-notch, it's not bad either."

  Zhao Wen was taken aback and hastily said: "The horses I brought for Your Excellency were carefully selected..."

  Tang Yin waved his hand, interrupting him, and then ordered the servant to lead over that Shadow-like horse of his. He smiled and asked, "Brother Zhao, what do you think of this Mo Guo horse?"

  Zhao Wen was a horse merchant and naturally also knew horses. He didn't need to ride them to experience their quality, just by looking at their appearance he could tell that this was a rare and exceptional horse.

  He changed color, and Tang Yin said: "This is what I bought from another Mo Guo horse merchant. I hope Brother Zhao can often send a few such good horses!" He said this, hinting to Zhao that he was not the only source of horses in his hands, and also letting Zhao not try to dominate the price again.

  "Yes, yes, yes, certainly, certainly!" Zhao Mou nodded repeatedly and his originally confident demeanor also decreased. Tang Yin smiled and turned to Shangguan Yuanyi saying: "Find the best inn in the city and arrange for Mr. Zhao to stay there, we can't neglect our guest."

  "Yes, sir!" replied Shangguan Yuanji, a faint smile appearing on his face.

  Tang Yin's performance was better than he had expected, and the price was pressed so low that it saved him the trouble of further haggling with Zhao Meng.

  With Zhao Wei's confirmation of the war horse, Tang Yin secretly let out a sigh of relief, and also took a big step forward in his heart. Next, it was just waiting for Le Tian Ai Jia to send back the intelligence from Beast King Town and the arrival of Mo Guo's large batch of war horses.

  Tang Yin has been in Pingyuan County since he took office, and the troops have been fighting continuously. First, they eliminated the bandits, and then they fought against the barbarian army. Pingyuan County was not devastated by the continuous wars, but instead showed signs of prosperity, which is inseparable from the original intention of Sang Guan Yuansheng's domestic policy.

  Shangguan Yuanyi's policies, with the support of Tang Yin, were thoroughly implemented. Rewards for farming and titles for commoners not only attracted back the people who had fled to the deep mountains but also drew in people from other counties and towns to settle in Pingyuan County. The drastic reduction in taxes on commerce attracted a large number of merchants to come to Pingyuan County to do business. The abolition of official title restrictions allowed many talented commoners to develop and advance, and the implementation of these policies made Pingyuan County shine with new splendor.

  When Tang Yin first arrived in Heng City, there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets, and the shops on both sides were all in a state of semi-closure. Now, people are coming and going on the streets, and the shops inside the city are all open for business, with customers entering and exiting, and the business is booming. Heng City has become a completely different city from when Tang Yin first arrived.

  In just a few months, such achievements were naturally beyond Tang Yin's expectations.

  The development of a city cannot be separated from the hearts of its people, and to win their hearts, one must first know what they want. To find out what they want, asking subordinate officials may not yield accurate answers; the best approach is to personally go out and visit them.

  That evening, after dinner, Tang Yin found Qiu Zhen and the two of them changed into coarse hemp clothes and casual attire, left the county government office, and headed to the most bustling night market in Heng City.

  In the past, the night market in Heng City would only appear once every ten days or half a month. There were also very few vendors in the night market. Now, it's almost every day that I have it. The lanterns are colorful and the string of lanterns makes the night market shine brightly like daylight. The crowd strolling through the night market is also large, bustling with people and noisy.

  Walking here gives Tang Yin a sense of being in Yancheng.

  Tang Yin was busy with his affairs and rarely had time to spare, so everything seemed fresh to him. Qiu Zhen, on the other hand, saw Tang Yin looking around and smiled, saying: "Brother Tang, what do you think of the night market in Heng City?" In private, Qiu Zhen's way of addressing Tang Yin changed again to the more intimate "Tang Big Brother", and it was also inappropriate for him to call him "Sir".

  "It's so lively, it feels like I'm back in Yangzhou!" Tang Yin said with a smile.

  "Hehe!" Qiu Zhen said with a half-joking tone, "If things continue to develop like this, maybe one day the prosperity of Heng City will be comparable to that of Yancheng!"

  Tang Yin heard this and laughed with his face upturned

  As he walked to a candy stall, Tang Yin stopped and asked the owner, "How's business lately?" while selecting some candies.

  Tang Yin was handsome in appearance and had a natural smile, which made him very likable. Of course, those who knew him well wouldn't think so. The owner of the candy stall seemed to have a good impression of him and smiled: "Recently, there are more people in the city, and business is especially good! Brother Xiao, judging from your accent, you're not from around here, right? Don't stay at home, come to Heng City to do some small business, and in a few years, you can buy a house and land!"

  Hearing his boss say that, Tang Yin's mood was exceptionally pleasant. He had originally planned to buy one pack of crispy sugar, but then picked up two more packs and asked: "How much for three packs?"

  "Thirty coppers."

  Tang Yin didn't have any loose copper coins, so he fished out half a tael of silver scraps from his pocket and handed them to the boss, smiling: "No need for change."

  In Feng Guo, one or two silver coins were equivalent to one thousand copper coins, and half a silver coin was exactly five hundred. The boss was first startled, took the silver coin, confirmed it was real, beamed with joy, and thanked him repeatedly.

  Tang Yin handed over the candies in his hand to Qiu Zhen and continued strolling forward while eating.

  The two of them had just left the candy stall and taken no more than two steps when they suddenly heard a cry of surprise from behind.

  Tang Yin turned around to take a look, and saw three burly men standing in front of the candy stall. One of them grabbed the boss's wrist, which was holding a handful of silver coins, and sneered: "Boss, your business is doing well! I'll help you collect this silver coin as tonight's stall fee!"

  The candy stall owner's face looked ugly, with a look of daring to be angry but not daring to speak, his face flushed red, stuttering: "Isn't it one hundred copper coins every night? This silver is worth five hundred copper coins..."

  "Shut up!" The strong man didn't wait for the boss to finish speaking, and snatched the loose silver from his hand. He then pushed the boss away with force, and before leaving, he and his companion each grabbed two bags of sweets.

  Watching the three people swaggering away, the boss of Sugar Talk was so angry that his whole body was trembling, his fists were clenched tightly, but he didn't dare to go forward and reason with them.

  The three big men walked to the next stall, just like before, asking for money and taking things, with a rude attitude, bullying the vendors' bosses, who didn't dare to provoke them, letting themselves be bullied.

  Seeing this, Tang Yin furrowed his brow and looked at Qiu Zhen beside him with suspicion.

  He, as the county governor of Pingyuan County, did not dare to treat the local people in this way. These three big men were even more ruthless than him, lawless to the extreme, and what's more hateful is that they also dared to collect taxes privately.

  Qiu Zhen didn't know these three people either, he said in a low voice: "These should be local bullies." After a pause, he said again: "I'll go inform Gu Yue and have him send someone to capture these few people."

  Tang Yin said, "Just arresting them for a few days is not enough to solve the problem. If no one supports them from behind, how could these three people be so arrogant? If you want to arrest someone, you should arrest the main culprit."

  "He said in a low voice: 'When you go back, remind me to let Cheng Xian come and see me immediately!'"

  "Yes!" Qiu Zhen responded, but in his heart he was perplexed and didn't understand why this matter wasn't brought to the attention of Shang Guan Yuanji or Bai Yong, Gu Yue and other battalion commanders, but instead came to find Cheng Xiang.