Chapter 123 Ship Model Dashun's maritime trade was very developed. So much so that the Dashun Emperor was very fond of using spices to reduce his salary. In the past, Liang Qu didn’t feel anything about not being an official and not eating the emperor’s food, but now he feels that this is really fucking immoral. It's like you are at work and suddenly your boss tells you that starting today there will be no salary and everyone needs to take some stock from the warehouse home. The person who did this is the emperor, so you have to agree even if you don't want to. This is a typical case of forced buying and selling. For example, if one hundred catties of pepper weighs twenty taels, and your monthly salary is twenty taels, I will give you ten taels of silver plus fifty catties of pepper. If that's the case, it's fine. At most it'll just be a little more work and I can turn it into money. But the worst thing is that when it was distributed, it was indeed converted according to the market price. But when you go out to sell the pepper that was given as salary reduction, you will find that the spice is no longer priced at this price! The spices were purchased at one hundred jin per liang, and then sold to officials to make a profit of twenty times the difference. The existence of maritime trade has led to a sudden increase in the supply of spices on the market, causing the market price to plummet.
Maritime trade should be a good thing that benefits the country and the people and promotes development. But the cost of maritime trade was borne by everyone, and the money all went into the pockets of the royal family. Although I heard that this emperor was quite good and the money was spent on important matters, it was really difficult. It is said that there is a lot of protest against maritime trade both within and outside the government. Liang Qu just hoped that when he received his salary, he would not receive a large bag of worthless spices. A ten-year-old girl who knows nothing costs four or five taels. Those who have skills and are fair-skinned can be worth as little as 10 to 20 taels, or as much as over 100 taels. They are not something he can consider at all at the moment. You still have to hire a maid. It only costs a few copper coins a day if she provides meals, but ten copper coins can be earned without meals. Cheap and easy to use. Liang Qu drew on the paper, calculated the expenditure and income, folded it and put it away, took the dragon tendons and sturgeon king meat, and went to the Jianghuai marshes to look for the three beasts. The weather was not too hot, only about ten degrees Celsius, and the monster meat would spoil much more slowly, so after one night, it was still very fresh. When they reached the lotus roots, Liang Qu knocked on the oars, unable to move his fist and floated to the surface. The Tianshui centipede Awei climbed down from his wrist and floated freely on the water. I don't know if it's because of puberty, but his fists have now grown to a height of about meters, and are very powerful. Plus, his shell is harder than steel, so he can definitely join in the battle between monsters. The disadvantage is that you can't get on the boat with your fists. If you stand on the bow, it is too wide and heavy, and it is easy to crush the bow. Liang Qu divided the sturgeon meat into four portions, one small, one medium and two large, and gave them to Awei, Fist and Untouchable according to their size. When he took out the last portion of fish, he looked around and did not see the fat catfish. "Strange, why don't I see Ah Fei?" Liang Qu scratched his head and actively sensed the location of the fat catfish in his mind. Then he was stunned to find that the fat catfish was extremely far away from him. Is this location the center of the deep water area? How did Ah Fei get there? Crossing the territories of many goblins, big goblins, and monsters, all the way to the deep-water core area? The most important thing is that the vital signs are very good!
Liang Qu really couldn't figure it out and was about to contact the fat catfish. Then he found that the fat catfish was rapidly leaving the deep water area and quickly approaching the shallow water area. The speed of its movement was terrifying! Liang Qu: “???” Flying? More than a quarter of an hour later, the fat catfish, who had received the call from Liangqu and said goodbye to big brother Toad, crossed the undercurrent channel again and fell into the mud in a daze. After pulling its head out of the water, the fat catfish staggered around for a while. After it came to its senses and identified the direction, it quickly approached the Liangqu location. By the time the fat catfish approached the boat, nearly half an hour had passed. The water surface was arcing, and a huge amount of water flowed down the black back of the fat catfish, turning into white water foam. As soon as it emerged, without waiting for Liang Qu to ask, it leaned over to the boat, dropped a fiery red feather, and then swung its catfish whiskers wildly, mumbling a lot of words in the mental connection. "undercurrent." "Brother Toad." "trade." The name "Big Brother Toad" was too abstract, and Liang Qu was unable to react for a moment, especially when he looked at the familiar fire feather. Isn’t this Chihuo Daoyu? Why another one? Liang Qu's brows were furrowed, his brain working frantically, trying his best to deduce the whole incident through Fat Catfish's limited vocabulary. "You found an undercurrent, a passage, and after entering it you will be transported to a giant toad?" The fat catfish nodded. "If you acknowledge the Toad as your big brother and promise to bring it a complete ship, it will give you something in exchange?" The fat catfish nodded vigorously. Liang Qu stood alone at the bow and circled around, then picked up the red fire mourning feather to examine it. The heat was not as hot as the one I saw last time, and the smell was not strong either, very weak. It can be seen that this is not a red fire mourning feather infused with the essence of the red fire bird, but a very ordinary red fire bird hair. The material is good and can be used to weave clothes and sold to wealthy ladies, but it cannot be used to forge spiritual weapons. Unbelievable, really unbelievable. Liang Qu had a clear vision of the spherical black shadow that attacked the red firebird. He was nearly knocked over by the aftermath. It was truly astonishing. At that time he guessed it was a toad, but he didn't expect it to be true. Having seen the strength of the Sturgeon King, he can be sure that the strength of that toad is definitely not that of an ordinary monster, but a big monster, and even a stronger one among the big monsters! From Ah Fei's few words, we can see that Toad is extremely intelligent and even has his own interests and aesthetics. He likes to collect beautiful ships. How did a big demon and a small goblin become brothers in just one night? Even giving a red firebird feather as a gift? It seemed that he could see Liang Qu's doubts. The fat catfish patted its belly, indicating that its new big brother’s status in its heart was far less noble than that of the gods. Liang Qu: “.” He took out the sturgeon meat and let the fat catfish eat it first, and sat by the boat to think. In his view, the so-called exchange is to give the toad a ship model in exchange for something it doesn't want.
That's the real big monster! Things that the big monster doesn’t want are also treasures! This time, the fat catfish couldn't tell the difference between an ordinary feather and a red fire mourning feather, so it took the wrong feather. If it had recognized them, wouldn't it have brought back a feather worth hundreds of gold? A ship in exchange for a few feathers would mean thousands of gold or tens of thousands of taels of silver! But where can we find a good ship? Liang Qu roughly guessed where Toad's current ship came from, and it was most likely from the ancient battlefield. This shows that the ancient battlefield is actually in deep water, and digging up shipwrecks is not feasible. Building a large ship is not cheap. If you build a two-masted ship, it will cost several thousand taels, which is a break-even business. Can you make it smaller and build a model ship? A two-masted ship is several dozen meters long. It shouldn't be a problem for him to make a replica of it in proportion to one that is six or seven meters long and spend a hundred taels of silver, right? Anyway, the toad is not for riding, but for looking at. If it is smaller, it can be made more exquisite and a flower can be carved on the mast. And besides ships, is Toad interested in other things? For example, Luban lock or something (End of this chapter)
