A镖局, or security escort agency, would naturally consist of men when traveling.
Although Ding Yun was young, she was already of marriageable age in this era, so it was naturally inappropriate for her to live together with them without any reservation.
Therefore, in the end, she stayed with the cargo.
That is, sitting on the carriage where the goods were stored.
In those days, the items transported by a 镖局 were certainly not trash. Coupled with the need to guard against dampness and water, the overall living environment, though not as good as a particularly fine carriage, was indeed impervious to wind and rain.
Thus, her journey was relatively comfortable.
When someone deliberately teased her, or played malicious pranks, the chief escort, Zhao Dawei, who had been introduced by the Yunqi female Daoist, would promptly protect her.
And reprimand those individuals.
After a few such incidents, everyone behaved themselves.
Of course, Ding Yun was not idle during the journey.
She would often go out in the dead of night to find secluded spots in temporary resting places to store grain. She had nothing much to do during the day and an extra hour or two of sleep wouldn't be noticed, so she had ample time to find places.
If there were caves, she would try to place the grain inside.
If there were no caves, she would try to place them in areas with dense vegetation.
If it was completely exposed, there was nothing she could do but give up. In this manner, stopping and starting, by the time Ding Yun officially reached her destination, she had successfully dispensed over thirty million catties of grain.
As for whether those grains were found.
That was difficult to say.
It depended on whether anyone happened to wander into those areas.
Upon reaching the first destination, Ding Yun handed Zhao Dawei a letter of safe arrival and officially parted ways with the escort team to head for the Jinsan Dong'an Monastery.
This was a Daoist monastery recommended by the Yunqi female Daoist.
It was not large in scale, but it was said that the monastery's abbot had obtained his ordination certificate through his own efforts. He had experience in Daoist scriptures and even in the specific process of obtaining ordination certificates. Therefore, the Yunqi female Daoist had specifically recommended Ding Yun to study there.
Although Ding Yun's primary purpose for leaving home was not to study Daoist scriptures, she still had to go through the motions. Thus, she naturally reported to Dong'an Monastery as soon as possible and then temporarily resided there to study diligently.
Of course, studying diligently did not mean Ding Yun stopped doing anything. While studying, she also secretly disguised herself, first selling the donkeys in her space, then selling some rare fruits of the time. With the money earned, she bought some servants and built a flour mill near a water source.
Next, naturally, was to rent a storefront.
And begin selling rice and flour.
This allowed her to earn money and also consume her inventory.
Originally, it would not have been easy for an outsider to suddenly appear and engage in the grain business locally. However, Ding Yun had specifically displayed the "Family of Good Deeds" plaque, which the Yunqi female Daoist had obtained for her after her previous donation of grain, in her shop.
Therefore, official obstacles were eliminated.
Moreover, although the price of rice and flour she sold was the same as that of local grain merchants, she never mixed in old grain or sand. Consequently, her grain store quickly established a foothold.
Other grain merchants found it difficult to fault her for stealing business.
Because she wasn't undercutting prices.
She simply didn't adulterate her products, and who could fault her for that?
Thus, Ding Yun finally settled down at Dong'an Monastery to study, and stayed there for nearly half a year.
In this half-year, she not only thoroughly understood all the Daoist scriptures and their annotations known to the abbot of Dong'an Monastery, but also developed new plans for her future.
That is, to become a grain merchant.
A grain merchant who sold grain across the entire country, and even the entire world. Making money was a minor matter; the most crucial aspect was to be able to consume her grain inventory and, to a certain extent, control grain prices, preventing them from skyrocketing during times of famine, making it impossible for everyone to afford food.
Ultimately leading to displacement and unrest.
If a certain area experienced a famine, but the grain prices did not surge, most ordinary people would have enough savings to last for one or two years.
The main reason they ultimately ran out of resources and were forced to flee was the drastic increase in grain prices, by seven or eight times.
This was unbearable not only for the farmers who toiled the land, but also for the small townspeople.
It could be said that every famine was a disaster for the common people, a carnival for large landowners and grain merchants, and a period of rampant large-scale land annexation.
Under normal circumstances, for landlords to annex people's land, they either had to frame them, wait for misfortune to befall them, or resort to blatant robbery. But during a major famine, they could not only make huge profits from rising grain prices,
But also annex land on a large scale at a much lower cost than before, and without violating the law. Those who were forced to sell their land would even be grateful to them for buying it.
If they didn't buy it, they would starve to death.
Ding Yun estimated that if a feudal dynasty could consistently ensure that grain prices never rose easily anywhere within its borders, even during famines, remaining stable, then land annexation would be greatly improved, and the dynasty might even break free from the constraint of lasting less than three hundred years, lasting at least four to five hundred years.
With such a plan in mind, Ding Yun quickly began to implement it, which was to expand her grain stores.
Specifically expanding into areas experiencing disasters.
Other grain merchants might go to disaster-stricken areas to sell grain at high prices for profit, but Ding Yun did not.
She specifically sent people to sell grain at fair prices.
She even deliberately broke good grains and sold them as broken rice at low prices, and provided porridge and the like.
Her actions were, of course, very risky, and they would severely offend the grain merchants in those areas. However, Ding Yun did not need to worry about trouble, because no matter how much the local grain merchants hated her for selling grain at low prices, they would not dare to openly attack her. At most, they would resort to underhanded tactics.
Because local officials would absolutely take steps to protect her.
And even warn other grain merchants.
Even the most greedy local magistrates understood that during a local disaster, if relief efforts were not successful, a large number of people would flee the area.
Local officials' performance was directly related to the population, educational level, and tax revenue. If the population decreased, these three data points would inevitably plummet!
At that point, the local official would not only be unable to get promoted,
But would be fortunate to not be dismissed.
However, if they managed to stabilize the situation in their area despite a disaster, without even the higher authorities needing to worry, it would undoubtedly be a great achievement.
Their year-end evaluation would surely be rated as excellent.
In this way...
How could local officials not fiercely protect grain merchants who sold grain at low prices and provided large-scale relief through porridge?
Even those who were not considered good officials would have to protect them.
Let alone those officials who genuinely cared about the people.
The people would naturally be extremely grateful to Ding Yun's grain stores for selling grain at low prices. During the famine, they would instinctively fiercely protect her, and even after the famine ended, they would certainly patronize her grain stores more.
Thus, the grain stores naturally became stable.
And the expansion naturally proceeded smoothly.
As for the transportation costs incurred by Ding Yun, as she couldn't travel everywhere and grain could only be shipped from her location, it was a loss.
Anyway, her grain was almost a cost-free business.
After deducting employee salaries and other costs, the rest was profit. Therefore, it was naturally inconsequential.
Moreover, these were only temporary. She was close to accumulating a hundred thousand taels of silver, and she had made many acquaintances among both officials and Daoist masters. She believed that by making some arrangements during the next distribution of ordination certificates, she should be able to smoothly acquire one.
Then, wouldn't she be able to travel throughout the land without being registered as a merchant?