Chapter 23: Path to Wealth, Sustain War with War_1

Chapter 23

This was a white horse, fully equipped with a saddle, without a single rough hair on its body. It was sleek from head to tail. The bandits, having been mountain bandits for so many years, had never seen such a fine horse before.

Gao Feibao's jaw almost dropped to the ground. This white horse was the very one he had failed to steal previously. To his surprise, Frog Fort was putting the horse up for auction, and the asking price was only…a bushel of soybeans.

People should know that an ordinary mule could sell for five or six taels of silver, a regular horse for a dozen or more, and a warhorse for at least twenty or thirty. A fine white horse like this could fetch at least fifty or sixty taels.

Many people were envious, thinking that if the situation became unbearable, they would simply seize the horse!

"So, you want to rob the bandits, huh? Do you care if my knife agrees?" The Little White Wolf glanced coldly at everyone, and took out a piece of paper from her bosom: "It says here I can get an 80% discount, can I use it?"

"Well, we should honor our words. Naturally, it can be used," Huang Sanyuan laughed, "Qin Man, return twenty kilos of soybeans to Chief Bai."

In this world, a bushel is equivalent to around a hundred kilos. In less developed places like Mount Qingniu, people still traded goods for goods. Food was more valuable than currency.

With this, the value of the white horse far exceeded eighty kilos of soybeans. After getting such a good deal, Little White Wolf didn't linger. She climbed onto the horse and said, "Girls, let's go."

Before leaving, she threw a flirtatious look at Cheng Dalei from a distance: "Thanks."

Cheng Dalei's mind was swaying as he watched Little White Wolf's receding figure, he couldn't take his eyes off her, muttering under his breath: She's so white!

The sight of Little White Wolf sparked the purchasing desire of all the bandits.

"Hey, where's my discount flyer?"

"Uh… I think I used it to wipe my butt."

"Damn it! How could you be so wasteful!"

"Seems like you used it as well."

"Old Eight, give me back my discount flyer."

"What's yours? It's clearly mine, I'm the one who snatched it."

"We brothers should share it, if we get the horse, we take turns riding it..."

They were all poor, used to a hard life. To them, a twenty percent discount meant a considerable amount of food. Although many of them did not even know how to calculate the twenty percent discount.

In such a situation, the second horse was bid for a high price. Nevertheless, the second horse was still strong. Calculated carefully, it was still worth the money.

This was also Cheng Dalei's plan. In the beginning, he arranged to auction a few good horses to stir up everyone's enthusiasm. As for those injured and skinny horses, they were mixed in the middle.

Seeing everything developing according to his plan, Cheng Dalei turned his attention to Xu Shenji to inquire about Little White Wolf.

According to Xu Shenji, before Little White Wolf became a bandit, her family practiced martial arts. She had learned excellent martial arts skills from a young age, and was good with dual blades. At the foot of the mountain, she was already engaged, but her husband-to-be died before they were married. Later, she married his spirit tablet. As a result, Little White Wolf was regarded as a person of ill omen; everyone said that she had killed her husband. Therefore, she was greatly humiliated by her in-laws. One night, when her father-in-law attempted to climb onto her bed, she stabbed him with a knife and fled to Apricot Blossom Ridge.

"Are you saying that all the bandits on Apricot Blossom Ridge are women?" Cheng Dalei sharply caught on to something.

"The experiences of the bandits on Apricot Blossom Ridge are somewhat similar to that of Little White Wolf's. Some are widows whose husbands have died, some have been abandoned by their husbands' families."

"Hey, why didn't you tell me such important information before?" Cheng Dalei was angered. He hadn't expected such a good place to exist on Mount Qingniu, and he was determined to get closer to Apricot Blossom Ridge in the future, forming a brotherhood among the fortresses and helping each other.

"As for Apricot Blossom Ridge, all the bandits on Mount Qingniu know about it. Why didn't the Chief know..." Xu Shenji said, "There have been people on Mount Qingniu who wanted to deal with Apricot Blossom Ridge, but they all treat men like floods and beasts. I advise the Chief not to have such thoughts. It would be useless."

"I can't accept this, I can't accept this. You all did it on purpose."

Just then, Gao Feibao suddenly shouted out. Cheng Dalei turned his head and saw a blind horse standing next to Gao Feibao. He originally had a blind horse, and now he had another one; they were perfectly symmetrical, one on the left and one on the right.

"What happened?" Cheng Dalei walked over to ask. He didn't want to seriously offend Flying Tiger Village, so why hadn't Huang Sanyuan stopped Gao Feibao when he knew it was a blind horse?

"I tried my best to stop him, but he acted like he was possessed, constantly raising his bid." Huang Sanyuan was also at a loss for words.

"No, this doesn't count. You intentionally sold the blind horse to me," Gao Feibao protested.

Gao Feibao was also devastated. When he saw Huang Sanyuan trying to stop him, he thought for sure it was a good horse that Frog Fort didn't want to sell. He joyously increased the bid. But the result...

Cheng Dalei was also helpless, and spread his hands: "We have made the rules beforehand and everyone agreed. If the Sub-chief thinks it doesn't count, then everyone's purchase should be invalidated…"

"Of course, that's unacceptable!"

"A man's word is his bond. How can we go back on our word?"

"It's just bad luck."

The horses auctioned by Frog Fort this time were all robust and top-notch, with very few old or injured ones. Therefore, everyone was quite satisfied with the results of the auction. To hear Cheng Dalei talk about nullifying all auctions now, naturally no one was willing.

Everyone was disgruntled. Even though Flying Tiger Village was powerful, they couldn't oppose so many people.

"Give them the food, we're leaving!" Gao Feihu glared coldly at Cheng Dalei.

With Gao Feihu's statement, Gao Feibao naturally didn't dare to say anything more. He gloomily took out a flyer from his bosom: "Remember, give me an 80% discount."

Seeing off the people from Flying Tiger Village, Huang Sanyuan laughed: "Let's continue, continue."

In summary, the auction proceeded in a jovial atmosphere, with all the guests happy. Each bandit stronghold purchased one or two horses, not only with food but also with weapons, armor, gold, silver, and jewellery. Anyway, Huang Sanyuan was very knowledgeable. He could roughly evaluate the worth of all these items with just one look.

In the end, each horse was sold for about eight bushels, a price far below the market price. In other words, if a fortress really had the money to buy horses at market prices, they wouldn't need to buy from Frog Fort.

By evening, all the horses had been sold. When they counted up the day's earnings, a total of seventy-six horses had been exchanged for five hundred bushels of food, weapons, and other miscellaneous items.

A bushel of grain is equivalent to about a hundred kilos. Five hundred bushels is fifty thousand kilos. For the current Frog Fort, this was an astronomical number. One could say that Frog Fort had never seen so much food before. Now, not only was the granary full, but wheat, soybeans, black soybeans, millet, and sorghum littered the place...

Huang Sanyuan and Lin Shaoyu were well-traveled and knowledgeable, whereas Xu Shenji, Xu Ling'er, and Qin Man were completely stunned by this sight, feeling as though they had fallen into immense happiness.

Cheng Dalei also suddenly understood something: war is indeed the quickest way to accumulate wealth. As for these fifty thousand kilos of food, who knows how long it would take to grow that much if they were to farm it.

Cheng Dalei remembered he still had a chance to draw a prize, a reward from the system after repelling Han Xuanzhi. He just hadn't dared to draw because of his recent bad luck.

Today was a good day, the sky was full of stars. Cheng Dalei decided to draw the prize.