He would sound the man out first. Hu Xiaotian deliberately lowered his voice. "Grain!"
Zan Buliu said, "At present, I fear none of the kingdoms surrounding Great Kang would dare trade grain and provisions with it."
Hu Xiaotian said, "Didn't you say the greater the risk, the greater the profit? Merchants put profit first. Surely you wouldn't willingly let such a golden opportunity slip away?"
Zan Buliu smiled. "Dietary habits vary greatly from region to region. South of the Yong River, rice is the staple; north of it, people mainly eat flour-based foods and grains. Farther north, beyond the Great Wall, in the lands of the Hu People and the Tula people, their staples are beef and mutton. Still farther north, the Moli people commonly eat a kind of tuber shaped like a horse bell."
By this point, Hu Xiaotian understood that Zan Buliu must be talking about potatoes. Had Zan Buliu not brought it up, he would almost have overlooked them entirely. Since arriving in this era, he truly had not seen things like potatoes or tomatoes. In an age when maritime transport remained underdeveloped, information between countries was relatively scarce, and trade was constrained by geography. Zan Buliu's words had truly awakened a dreamer. In the eyes of the Various Kingdoms of the Central Plains, wheat and rice were the staples on which ordinary people depended, but there were actually many ways to feed them. Although Great Yong secretly restricted the kingdoms surrounding Great Kang from trading grain with it, it had not forbidden all commerce with Great Kang. This could surely be considered an ancient form of economic sanctions.
Hu Xiaotian said, "Are you confident you can obtain food, Mr. Zan?"
Zan Buliu said, "I dare not claim complete confidence, nor can I promise to fill the