To Four Thousand Years Later

Norm was in his house, humming and marinating salted fish.

More than three months had passed since he placed Abigail with King Solomon.

Now it will be June soon, and the heat wave is like fire. The ripe fruit in May has been harvested, but it will soon be the time to harvest olives.

"I can buy more clear oil this year, and I can buy two lambs next week..."

Noam was thinking in his mind, but his hands kept moving.

No way, he now has a lot more work than before. In the past, he only had to work for half a day and rest for half a day, and he had to go back and forth for a week to go to Jerusalem... Now he works from morning to night almost every week.

But he also enjoyed it.

After all, summer is here, and the biggest problem with fish in this season is that it is easy to spoil. Basically, it can be said that if it cannot be sold on the same day, it will stink the next day.

For such a product, even the caravan sent by Wang to receive the goods every week is not necessary.

That's right, the caravan

Norm really didn't expect that King Solomon really made that thing... and it was so fast and effective.

Since three months ago, priests have led teams every week, leading 20 soldiers and more than a dozen chariots to attack around.

At first, they scared the people in the village. I thought it was a new tax official who came to collect taxes... but I didn't expect them to return the money.

—Although only half of the market price is given.

After realizing that they were not trying to rob by force, the mentality of these people in the village gradually calmed down.

Why should I sell you ten shekels of goods that can be sold for twenty shekels? So half of the villagers sold a little something to the caravan in a symbolic way, as a way to save face for the priest.

Noam, on the other hand, sold all the salted fish he made.

The old man in their village also secretly dissuaded him from being so honest—he said something like "If you sell these things to them, it means you lost half of the price", no matter how Noam told him He couldn't even understand the explanation, and insisted that Norm lost half of the money.

Norm didn't bother to explain to him, but just made more salted fish and sold them the next week.

In the first month, no one sold a lot of goods to the caravan except Noam. They still insist on walking or driving to Jerusalem, and then rush back after selling their goods.

Also because he sells a lot of salted fish that sell well, the priest in charge of their village is also familiar with Noam. They also agreed that the next time they came to buy salted fish, the priest would bring him a few bottles of wine produced in Jerusalem—for a fee, of course, and the price was the same as what he bought in Jerusalem.

From the second month onwards, some young people finally realized that Noam earned not only the same amount of money, but more—and not just a little bit more, but several times more.

Therefore, despite the dissuasion of the elders in the village, they also sold what they sold to merchants.

But there are also differences in the priority of merchants to collect things. For example, fragile pottery, perishable and damaged soft fruits, merchants generally want them last, or even resolutely don't want them.

Those who sold goods to merchants at half price felt like they were losing money at first... but gradually they changed that view.

In the past, I worked one or two days a week and spent six days commuting back and forth; now I work three or four days a week, and the rest of the time is completely free leisure time. Teenagers are happy to enjoy this kind of leisurely life, and adults are willing to work more hours for double the money.

And even the old people who are unwilling to sell goods at half price also start to buy some things that are only found in distant places from the merchants. Pay special attention on our way here. When the goods are delivered, they will erase these things again.

It is said that each province has a city designated by King Solomon as "the place where merchants gather". Merchants would stop there and exchange goods with each other before selling their wares to the wealthier and denser cities. Thus the merchant has almost everything in him.

Children also adore these people who seem to be able to get anything.

It should be said that thanks to these businessmen are priests.

Therefore, they are literate and numerative, and they have great affinity among the people. Because of this, they can travel around without any mistakes.

At the beginning, these selected young priests were bored and negative about their work, and only relied on their loyalty to King Solomon to do these "sacred works". But after the first month's salary was paid, their attitude changed.

Because they do realize that as long as they spend some time and turn their brains, life will be better than before.

And they would have wasted the same time and energy in the temple in Jerusalem, and received less stipends.

More importantly, they can easily buy things that were difficult to buy in Jerusalem. Their parents and siblings also rejoiced at the rarity during the Sunday break.

By the beginning of the third month, selling goods to merchants became a trend in the small village where Noam lived.

People began to thank King Solomon for his wisdom, and the villagers also began to warmly welcome these merchants, and even gave them some small gifts—such as fruits and cakes, and occasionally pigeons, in the hope that they would give them what they wanted. things to bring back.

People who have some spare money on hand have also begun to improve their quality of life. As a result, they have to buy more things, and the number of cars used by merchants has gradually increased from twelve to fourteen. There are also accompanying cattle and sheep - this is what they want to buy. Whether it is offering sacrifices to Solomon every year or eating at home, they are all more generous than before.

But recently there have been some new problems.

As Noam said before - the weather is hot, fish, shrimp and fruits can't be sold, and they will go bad soon. Not to mention selling it to the caravan, even if they kept it until every Wednesday—that is, the day when the caravan came to this village after two villages from Jerusalem, it would have been broken long ago.

Therefore, these fishers can only sell the fish to Noam at a low price-Noam buys these fresh fish in large quantities at a price that is 10% higher than the merchant's price, which is 60% of the usual price, and salts them Fish is stored in large quantities. Noam's income immediately increased significantly, and his status in the village also improved a lot.

And this Wednesday, when Noam entertained the businessman for dinner at his home, a word said by the learned priest woke him up.

"King Solomon said that if the work is hard and tiring, they can recruit apprentices who are dexterous and have nothing to do, help them work, and give them money."

The priest who served as a merchant said casually: "The king also said... If the people have crafts, they need to pass them on to their descendants so that they will not be lost; but if they have no descendants, or their descendants die, they must pass them on to others so that It will not be lost. Because this wisdom comes from God to the crowd, if an individual swallows it privately, he will separate himself from the crowd.”

"I said, Brother Noam. Why don't you find a few people and teach them how to make salted fish? It just so happens that the most popular thing sold in your village is your salted fish, even if it sells four or five times more, it won't be a problem... It won’t delay your earning money. Or should all your village sell salted fish?”

At that time, the businessman persuaded Noam like this.

Norm stopped rubbing the fish with salt. He looked thoughtfully at his hands, wrinkled and hardened by the salt.

Maybe, it's really doable...