Read Novel Full Chapter 977 - 75: The Envy, Jealousy, and Hatred of Foreigners
Chapter 977: Chapter 75: The Envy, Jealousy, and Hatred of Foreigners
After the Dragon Boat Festival, the trade fair did not start immediately. Zhao Yao deliberately left two days for the foreign and out-of-town guests to fully experience the post-festival atmosphere.
During these two days, the Swamp Prefecture was bustling with activity because Zhao Yao allowed guests from outside and abroad to set up stalls and do business. This was done to let them experience the trade fair in advance.
It’s the first time ever that foreigners and outsiders are officially allowed to do business in Lingnan. Whether it was in the Great Zhou, the previous dynasty, or even earlier, such a situation never occurred.
Although Lingnan neighbors countries like Annan and Johor, it has historically been a place of exile, compounded by the constant miasma and the sea embargo, the court did not allow Lingnan to do business with foreigners. If locals were found doing business privately with countries like Annan, it was considered smuggling and met with severe punishment.
Even if the court allowed Lingnan to do business with foreigners, Lingnan had nothing to sell to them. But that’s not entirely true; Lingnan is rich in resources with many things not found in the inland and foreign countries. Yet, before Zhao Yao arrived, locals were unaware of this. Take lychees for instance, they are so common to them that they didn’t consider lychees anything special, as lychee trees are everywhere, even on village roadsides.
To Lingnan’s locals, lychees are like stones on the road, nothing to take notice of. They didn’t think lychees could fetch money because, to them, lychees had no value at all. Yet, they never imagined that lychees were rare outside, and people inland had never tasted them.
They always assumed lychees were everywhere in the world, but little did they know that lychees were unique to them. Unexpectedly, dried lychees were popular with people from inland and Western Regions, earning them quite a fortune.
Several years ago, Zhao Yao sent Liang Run to Lingnan. The first task he gave was to eat lychees and find a way to sell them inland and in the Western Regions. Unfortunately, the distance from Lingnan to the inland or Western Regions was too far to keep lychees fresh. They would rot halfway through.
Of course, if one rushed lychees to the capital using express couriers within eight hundred miles, they wouldn’t spoil. But there was no need for that. He was unlike a certain emperor in Zhao Yao’s dream world, who demanded express delivery of lychees to the capital to please a concubine, exhausting many horses and soldiers.
Although lychees are highly valued inland, in his view, horses and soldiers are more important. Since freshness couldn’t be guaranteed, they could only be made into dried fruit. Dried fruit can be stored for a long time and wouldn’t spoil halfway.
Since Liang Run arrived in Lingnan, he turned many unique Lingnan fruits into dried fruits, which became very popular sold inland and in Western Regions. In recent years, just by selling Lingnan’s unique dried fruits, Liang Run made quite a bit of money.
However, starting this year, Zhao Yao plans not to limit himself to selling dried fruits to inland and the Western Regions. He intends to directly sell fresh fruits and canned fruits inland.
Now that the sea embargo has lifted, fresh fruits can be transported directly by sea to various inland areas. Unfortunately, Western Regions countries are landlocked, otherwise, sea transport could reach them as well.
Sea transport is faster than land transportation, the quantity shipped is larger, and it’s safer than land routes. Most importantly, now that ice is available, it can be used to keep fruits fresh.
Before Zhao Yao came to Swamp Prefecture, ice wasn’t unavailable. Many years ago, Zhao Yao made ice using nitrates. Since then, ice is no longer a luxury, nor something only officials could afford, but accessible to ordinary people, except Lingnan.
Though using ice to keep fruits fresh on a land route isn’t impossible, it would be too conspicuous. Moreover, one wouldn’t know how much ice to use along the way, or how many times to change it—it’s too troublesome. It’s easier to use ice on sea routes.
As for canned fruits, Zhao Yao would use syrup, and then preserve them with ice, so they wouldn’t spoil when transported inland. Besides syrup preservation, he plans to salt fruits. In Zhao Yao’s dream world, Lingnan people loved eating salted fruits, even using chili in fruit preservation.
When Zhao Yao initially salted fruits and mixed them with chili powder, it startled He Lianfang and others. At first, they thought Zhao Yao’s fruit eating was absurd—could this be edible? But after tasting, they found it offered a unique flavor. Nowadays, they’ve come to enjoy salted fruits and fruits mixed with chili powder.