Chapter 23: Cunning? Spendthrift?

  It didn't take long for Tie Dan's loud voice to echo throughout the village, and since there weren't many households in the village to begin with, people initially thought it was just some outsider speaking nonsense about buying a catty of dried fish gut for two cents. That is until they saw the copper coins in his hand.

  They all came here with a mindset of watching the excitement.

  Today, there is a faint mist on the sea. The fishermen who understand the weather conditions in the sea know that it will be sunny for the next month, so they are all at home sorting out their nets and preparing to go fishing. Therefore, many people have come out this time, mostly fishermen from the village, but they are all quite cold and distant. Looking at these few people's eyes is also full of suspicion. Jiang Feng saw that several people were holding fish spears in their hands.

  Jiang Feng and his group didn't notice the fishermen's vigilance at all. When they saw that almost everyone had gathered, Zhao Xiūcái signaled to Jiang Feng to let him speak first. Jiang Feng nodded, and Zhao Xiūcái cleared his throat and began:

  "Fellow villagers, we are from the capital and have come to your esteemed place to purchase medicinal herbs. We will pay two cents per catty for Hai Luan Cai. Whatever amount you have, we will buy it all. If you don't believe us, first come to our house to collect a deposit of one cent, and when we bring back the Hai Luan Cai, we will give you the remaining payment in full."

  The official seal on Jiang Feng's body and the copper coins in Tie Dan's hands were proof of the authenticity of this matter. The eyes of the surrounding villagers, who had been watching with suspicion, began to change from doubt to curiosity, and when Tie Dan handed them the copper coins, their curiosity turned into a fervent desire for money, or more accurately, greed.

  Everyone dispersed in a hurry, and at that time, some women brought over the dried fish intestines used to feed pigs or fertilize fields from their homes. Jiang Feng paid for them as counted, which made the fishermen feel more at ease.

  By evening, he found the boy inside to borrow money and paid two hundred coins to make the whole family extremely happy. The soldiers of the Wei army who were following behind them naturally inquired about Jiang Feng's purpose for this trip. At that time, they laughed so hard that they almost fell to the ground. Sea cucumbers are not rare things.

  This rotten stuff that can only be fed to pigs actually costs two cents a catty, isn't it ridiculous? I'd rather go find a wealthy family I know by the sea and make some extra money on the side.

  Several officers who were anxiously waiting in the hearts of thousands of households heard this news and all put down their worries. Since this brocade guard was not looking for himself, he was willing to do whatever he wanted.

  This news spread extremely quickly and widely, and for a time, more than a dozen fishing villages around Yantai Mountain were all stirred up. Jiang Feng couldn't understand why so many people were going crazy over two cents, he was still stuck in the price concept of modern times.

  Moreover, mistakenly taking a piece of money as a dime to use, in fact, a piece of money can be used as one yuan or ten yuan in some cases. The reason why the fishermen were enthusiastic was only known by Jiang Feng several years later, that at this time, even the big names and big restaurants ordered fresh live fish, which cost only a dozen or so pieces of money per tail.

  Such good fish still need to go out to sea for a long time to catch, and the sea intestines are originally soft-bodied creatures in the near sea, which is also convenient to catch. In recent years, pirates from distant seas have started to appear more frequently, and naturally they want to make this risk-free easy money in the near sea.

  Zhao Xiūcái and Tiědàn started bustling around the next day, finding a vacant lot slightly far from the fishing village. They hired several kids to clean it up, sent someone to buy grass mats from the nearby market, and neatly laid them out on the empty land. Zhao Xiūcái felt that he had no idea what Jiāngyé was doing here.

  Later on, I figured it out and just followed along, didn't think too much about it.

  In the evening, the fishing boat returned with a full load of sea intestines. The entire fishing village was filled with a strange and nauseating smell of fish guts. After unloading, they were quickly transported to an empty space that had been prepared in advance, where the village women spread them out on mats.

  Every catty, no matter how much seawater is on top, is a solid two cents per catty. This immediately dispelled the last bit of doubt among the villagers, and they all went to the sea to search for this thing.

  Jiang Feng was walking in the village at night when he found that although the villagers greeted him respectfully, as soon as they turned around, they were laughing and discussing among themselves. Jiang Feng's hearing played a role at this time, and the people in the village said that he was nothing but a "fool" and a "madman".

  He didn't even bother to respond, and some of the bolder kids in the village would occasionally shout from a distance:

  "Fool! Fool!"

  The village aunties immediately came over to scold those kids, but the way they were scolding made Jiang Feng want to cry and laugh at the same time.

  "You shout and scare away that fool, no one will think of having meat for New Year's anymore..."

  This season's sea breeze is strong and dry, combined with the scorching sun on sunny days, drying out those seaweed quickly into dried goods. However, the fishing villages nearby also came, and even a fight broke out between several villages, until Zhao Xiuzai intervened.

  The villagers added a penny to the price of the local village, which finally settled the dispute. However, someone came up with another idea, selling their own dried fish to the villagers and then splitting the penny between them, making it a thriving business. This continued for nearly ten days.

  Nearly 15,000 catties of dried gut were collected, and the empty land was no longer enough. Zhao Xiucan hired people to clean up the wasteland next door and spent money buying mats. Every day, they were busy with their feet not touching the ground. Tie Dan was even trained to lose several circles, one person was willing to be busy, and the other was afraid of not being busy.

  On the fifteenth day, all the fishermen around discovered that this sea intestine, which even pigs wouldn't eat, couldn't be caught. These things were originally just hanging on the nets when fishing in shallow waters, and if one really tried to find them, they wouldn't be able to withstand such torture.

  The sea cucumber is gone, and after searching many places, the fishermen finally came to this disheartening conclusion.

  Jiang Feng has received nearly 20,000 catties of dried squid, and the 10,000 catties he received in the previous few days have been dried to produce about 4,000 catties of dry goods. The villagers were organized to pack them into bags, and Jiang Feng waited for another ten days, producing a total of around 7,000 catties of dry goods, with nearly 6,000 catties remaining undried.

  At this time, another astonishing decision was made. These un-dried salted fish were directly buried in the ground. Although they cost only two or three cents per catty, Jiang Feng had spent nearly 300 taels of silver on them. The men from the surrounding villages cursed him as a prodigal son while burying the fish, for this was a waste of 100 taels of silver.

  ^_^, everyone come recommend, collect ah, will certainly be more and more wonderful, I will work hard