Chapter 170: Planning To Buy And Sell
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Su Ying was puzzled. “Why arc the spies from the Nan State looking for you?”
Xiao Jin shook his head. Now that there was friction between the Nan State and the Chu State, the Nan State might have sent people over at this point to take his life to prevent future trouble, or they might have wanted to recruit him. However, no matter what their intentions were, he would not have a good ending.
“It won’t be for anything good.”
“When I went after them, there were only these two people. If they don’t send any news back after a long time, the Nan State will definitely not let matters rest.” At that juncture, the other party might send more people to look for Xiao Jin.
“I’ll deal with these two people. We can only strengthen our defenses first. They won’t be able to find us during this short period. Select a few people from Number One’s group to guard our gate in turn, just in case.” Number One and the others were more familiar with him. If there was anything strange, they would be able to detect it faster.
Su Ying nodded. The only thing they could do now was to buy time to strengthen themselves. That way, even if the enemy came looking for them in the future, they would have the strength to resist.
That night, Jiang Yang and a few other men dealt with the two people.
However, this matter also reminded Su Ying and Xiao Jin that there were still many loopholes in the Tiger Base’s defenses that needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
Therefore, the next morning, Xiao Jin continued to bring people up the mountain to cut wood. He planned to use wood as the main material, and rocks and mud as supplementary materials to form a boundary wall. He wanted to surround the entire Tiger Base and ensure the safety of the Tiger Base to the greatest extent.
Just as Su Ying was about to go out and dig out the charcoal that she had left to burn a few days ago, she saw Qiao Yang running over.
“Madam Su, where are you going?” Qiao Yang ran all the way to Su Ying, barely able to catch his breath.
“Going to the back of the mountain to dig out the charcoal.” Under the guidance of that young man, the charcoal they made was getting better and better.
Today, they had already made three batches of charcoal. At this rate, the people in the Tiger Base would definitely not lack charcoal for this winter.
“The Chu State has opened its borders again. Big Brother said that he wanted to take this opportunity to rush there to buy things, so he asked me to come over and ask if you guys still want the things on the list you wrote down last time, Madam Su. If you do, we’ll bring them back together.”
“The Chu State has opened its borders again?”
“That’s right. I don’t know why, but the people who have been keeping watch over there have sent back news that we can buy and sell again.”
“Is there anyone taking in charcoal over there?”
Qiao Yang scratched his head. “It’s hard to say. But it’s almost winter, so it should be necessary. Do you want to sell charcoal, Madam Su?”
“We’ve made a lot of charcoal during this period of time. It would be best if we could exchange it for food or other necessities.”
“Then I’ll go back and ask Big Brother to see if he has any channel in this area.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Qiao Yang didn’t let Su Ying wait for too long. After inquiring back home, he immediately returned to explain the details to her.
Tiger Might knew some merchants previously, but he wasn’t sure if they took in charcoal. If Su Ying wanted to sell charcoal, he could bring it along to try.
Although Tiger Might did not give a clear answer, Su Ying felt that there was still hope for this matter.
“You guys go to the forest and pick some large leaves. The more, the better. Then go and get some vines. There are a lot of them in the forest in front. We can use them to tie up the charcoal later,” Su Ying said to the workers.
After speaking, she then looked at Qiao Yang. “Go get a few more carts and load them with charcoal. Take all these and sell them off.”
“Alright. I’ll go get the carts.”
After the men had plucked the leaves, Su Ying got them to stack the large pieces of leaves together. They then carefully load the batch of charcoal that was made earlier on the leaves to prevent the charcoal from scattering. After stacking the charcoal logs into a cylinder, they used thin vines to carefully tie up the charcoal logs and secure them. By the time Qiao Yang brought the carts over, Su Ying and the others had already tied up the charcoal logs that they had made a few days ago.
Number One instructed everyone to carefully carry the charcoal bundles to the carts and stack them up.
When the five carts that Qiao Yang brought here were all full, there were still many bundles that had not been loaded. However, there were limited carts in the East District, so he could only borrow them from the South District and the North District.
Before it got dark, he brought five more carts back and loaded all the charcoal bundles onto them.
“With so much charcoal, it would be great if we could sell them all.”
Everyone looked at the carts of charcoal and their eyes gradually lit up. If these charcoal bundles could be exchanged for food, they would not starve to death this winter.
“It’s getting late. Let’s go back.” Su Ying told everyone to go home. “Qiao Yang, go back and tell your big brother that I’ll go with him tomorrow.”
“Madam Su, you want to go with us?”
“Mm-hmm. There is so much charcoal. I will be worried if I don’t tag along personally.”
“Then I’ll bring the charcoal back first and inform Big Brother. Madam Su, you can just come to the Tiger Base tomorrow morning.”
Su Ying nodded. “Alright.”
During dinner, Su Ying explained to everyone that she would be following Tiger Might to the border of the Chu State the next day.
“I’ll go. You stay in the Tiger Base,” Xiao Jin said with a frown.
However, Su Ying shook her head. “The people from the Nan State are looking for you right now. If you go out, you’ll be at risk of being discovered by them, so you can’t go out. I’m also worried about leaving so much charcoal in the hands of other people, so I’ll tag along personally.”
“But Mistress, we have already been exiled by the Chu State. We have no way to enter the pass.”
“There’s no need to enter the pass. Tiger Might said that someone will come out from the border pass at that juncture.”
Everyone was still a little worried, but they also knew Su Ying’s personality well. They knew that she would not change her mind easily, so they could only tell her to be more careful.
Of course, Su Ying would never tell them that she would find a way to go through the border pass no matter what. She still had quite a bit of gold in her interspatial store, and it seemed that this stuff was useless in the Tiger Base at this stage. She planned to exchange the gold for resources depending on the situation.
“Mother, where are you going tomorrow?”
When they slept at night, the two little ones squeezed into Su Ying’s arms, unwilling to let go of her.
“Mother is going to buy you delicious food.”
The younger toddler Ling’s eyes lit up when she heard that there would be delicious food. “Mother, I want to eat date-paste cake. It is sweet and it’s the best.”
“Alright. Mother will see if there are any tomorrow and buy them for you.”
The older toddler Ji hugged Su Ying’s neck and didn’t say a word.
Su Ying sensed that something was wrong with the little fellow’s mood, so she asked softly, “What happened, Ji?”
The older toddler Ji lifted his head from her arms and looked at her with his slender almond-shaped eyes. “Will you come back, Mother?”
Su Ying looked at his worried expression and knew that he was still traumatized by her previous words about leaving, so she said solemnly, “Mother will definitely come back. I promise you.”
Xiao Jin looked at Su Ying, who was confidently making promises to the two little fellows. He took off his shoes and lay down on the small bed at the side before slowly closing his eyes.
She had always kept her word to the children. If she said she would come back, she would definitely come back.
When Su Ying opened her eyes, it was already almost daybreak outside.
She carefully moved the younger toddler Ling’s little head away from her stomach and got up carefully. Last night, she had already asked Uncle Hea and the others to prepare some dry food for her and leave it in the hall. After washing up, she went to the hall to get the dry food and rode off on her horse..