Qing County is under the jurisdiction of Bianzhou Prefecture, only a tad more than a hundred miles away. The Tianlun Mountain, stretching for tens of miles, separates Qing County from Liaodan and Lingbei.
Two hundred miles to the west, crossing the Tianlun Mountain, you reach the border of Liaodan; more than a hundred miles to the east, crossing the mountain, you arrive at Lingbei.
Originally, Lingbei was part of the Great Jin Nation, but a century ago, it was occupied by a nomadic ethnic group known as the Meng Slaves. At the time, the Great Jin Nation was newly formed, suffering from external threats and internal conflicts, with everything yet to be rectified. The emperor of the time could not care less about the invasion of a small prefecture by the Meng slaves. Years later, when stability was finally established, the Great Jin emperor attempted to reclaim Lingbei, but the Meng Slaves had by then grown tremendously powerful. Despite having invested countless soldiers and spent vast resources to wage many battles, the Great Jin Nation was met with repeated failures. Moreover, the towering Tianlun Mountain formed a formidable barrier between the Great Jin and Lingbei, making the campaign to recuperate Lingbei even more challenging.
In the end, the Great Jin emperor reluctantly dropped the idea of reclaiming Lingbei, and for more than a hundred years, Lingbei remained a realm under the rule of the Meng Slaves.
Being a nomadic ethnic group, the Meng Slaves were straightforward and uncomplicated, even barbaric at times. Since they were a small nation living on the land seized from the Great Jin, they dared not commit any overt acts of aggression. For the past hundred years, they had coexisted peacefully with the Great Jin Nation, causing no turmoil.
Occasionally, like the Liaodan People, they would cross the vast Tianlun Mountain to trade in Qing County, offering their livestock products such as meat, hides, and dairy or purchasing cotton, silk fabric, cloth, tea, ceramics, and medicines from the Great Jin Nation. Therefore, in Qing County, not only could one spot the Liaodan People but also the Meng Slaves, albeit in smaller numbers, carrying hides and meat or tote containers of dairy products.
At the moment, Cai Wei was idly queuing for buns when she noticed two men in Meng Slave robes, each carrying a large basket of beef, walking from the end of the line and attempting to hawk their beef in their stiff Jin language.
In the Great Jin Nation, cows were not slaughtered casually. Anyone who slaughtered a draft cow privately would be sentenced to severe punishment by the government office. Hence, for the denizens of the Great Jin Nation, beef was definitely considered a rarity that couldn’t be bought no matter how much money one had.
Upon seeing beef for sale, those queuing for buns immediately abandoned the line to swarm towards the sellers, scrambling to make a purchase. After all, one could buy buns every day, but the opportunity to buy beef didn’t come every day.
"Don’t rush, one by one. Two hundred wen per catty, no haggling..."
A big-bearded Meng Slave man roared somewhat brusquely.
"What? Two hundred wen per catty?"
"Why is it so expensive? It’s nearly as costly as swan meat!"
Once they heard the price, the enthusiasm of most folks died down. Two hundred wen was no small sum for a commoner in the Great Jin Nation. Fatty pork with its thin skin and thick fat sold for merely twenty wen per catty. But this beef was priced at a whopping ten times that of pork. It was indeed jaw-dropping!
People began to express their dissatisfaction with the price animatedly.
The big-bearded Meng Slave man boorishly yelled again, "Buy if you want, forget it if you don’t! We carried this beef on our backs, climbing the mountain for a night to bring them here. Why doesn’t it deserve this price?"
Following his roaring, the citizens circling them started to wrestle with their decisions while gazing at the fresh, red beef.
Finally, someone broke the silence, "Fine, I’m not short of money. Give me a catty."
"Yeah, give me a catty too."