In late April, guests came to the base area on Daqian Kuaishang.
The Li family did use their military exploits to gain fame for their children, but it was a pity that the child was not Li Weida, but the eldest grandson of Dafang.
Li Weida, who had been mentally prepared, was not unhappy.
There are many officials in the Li family, and the most powerful one is my grandfather, who has been dead for many years. He has served as governor of water transportation, governor, and minister. He has a golden style.
Li Weida has always felt that doing business is more comfortable than studying and becoming an official, and he has no intention of becoming a parent official in the lower county.
In fact, he didn't suffer any loss. His status in the Li family has greatly improved and he has become one of the most valued disciples. Now he manages the entire northern business.
The children of the Li family who originally managed the business in the north were all stationed in Shanhaiguan.
The reason is that business is booming on the Liaodong side. There are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of border soldiers and officials earning millions of Liao pay, and the market is huge.
It stands to reason that Li Weida should also go to the Li family branch in Shanhaiguan to take charge.
But he didn't think so. He felt that he should be based in Zhangjiakou and make full use of the relationship with Governor Xuanda.
In the past two months, most of the shops in Zhangjiakou have been busy accumulating food.
That was when one of them received a grain order, the purchase volume was huge, and the price was at least 50% higher than the market price.
In ancient times, as compared to later generations, food was one of the biggest businesses.
Big merchants were all involved in the grain business.
Even for big salt merchants, their salt needs to be exchanged for grain.
The Li family has deep roots and luxuriant business houses all over border towns and along the canal. The grain business is also the main source of profit.
Li Weida, who has been operating in Zhangjiakou for many years, knows who is paying high prices to buy grain during this period.
Therefore, shopkeeper Li was specially sent to the base area to follow He Shouye who came to deliver the coal.
He wanted to inform Huang Yi of the information he had, but he was afraid that the matter would be revealed and harm him, so he did not write a letter.
Instead, he sent Shopkeeper Li to deliver the oral message and also get to know the place to facilitate future contact.
Manager Li's name is Li Laifu, who is steady and steady. He initially dealt with Huang Yi and introduced Huang Yi.
Li Weida is relatively relieved about him.
After Li Laifu came to the basin where the base area is located, he only felt refreshed.
The fields are lush and green as far as the eye can see. There is no food on the faces of the people, and most of the eyes are bright and radiant.
At this time, the base city only built a single wall on the north side, one foot two thick and one foot two high. The rest of the city was made of raw wood. However, efforts were concentrated to complete the north gate tower.
The logs replaced by stone repairs to the city walls will not be burned, and most of them can be used as wood for doors, windows, and furniture.
Huang Yi's mansion has not yet started construction, and he currently lives on the third floor of the Chengmen Building.
The gate tower is about twelve feet long, four feet wide, and six feet tall in total.
Except for the city gate opening, the rest of the area below two feet is solid. It is now the location of the headquarters of the base area.
The first floor is temporarily used as an office building, and the second floor is a reception room and headquarters restaurant.
The third floor is of course the bedrooms of Huang Yi, Zhang, Zuo Fanglian, Ye Huiling, Xiaojiu, and several guards on duty who serve Huang Yi's daily life.
Being a matchmaker and helping the men and women in the base area to start families has always been the responsibility of Zhang, Sun Suzhu, Du Cuilan and other more than a dozen women who first followed Huang Yi.
Over three hundred small families have been born during this time.
But Zuo Fanglian, Ye Huiling, and Xiaojiu had high eyesight. Even if Huang Yi stated more than once that they had the freedom to choose their husbands, it would not help.
They would rather stay by Huang Yi's side than become someone else's wife.
Huang Yi really needs people to serve him, and he also needs people to do secretarial and other tasks. These women understand etiquette and are beautiful, so he is happy to have them by his side.
The Chengmen Building is actually not very big. According to later calculations, the usable area of one floor is only about 400 square meters.
But because it was made of cement concrete, it didn't creak like wooden stairs or floor slabs when walking up. Li Laifu was amazed when he went up to the city gate building.
Huang Yi entertained Li Laifu at the headquarters restaurant on the second floor, oh! No, Huang Yi has always adhered to the consistent style of hard work and has never organized a banquet in the base area.
There are guests here today, just a few extra dishes and a few glasses of wine.
Li Laifu was just a businessman, but he was already shocked by the spirit of the base. He sat down in fear and said a lot of words of admiration and praise.
What he talked about most was his emotion after entering the mountain pass, because the scene in front of him gave him a feeling of sudden enlightenment.
The base area is a basin surrounded by mountains, and there are several large and small basins around it.
Huang Yi brought thousands of people to settle here, and of course he had to solve the big problem of travel difficulties while making it convenient for defense.
Therefore, as much as possible, the mountains were dug in the south to collect rocks. Nowadays, it is enough for horse-drawn carriages to go directly to the base city via Nanshan Pass.
It is only here that carriages can pass, and other mountain passes can only be crossed on foot with horses.
If a large number of enemies are found to be attacking, block this most important mountain pass and hold on, and send gunmen to monitor several mountain passes that can only be passed on foot. This will at least buy the base area seven or eight days to clear the country.
If it is winter when dripping water turns to ice, it will not be easy to defend the mountain pass, because the "Nameless River" will freeze into a wide road.
Of course, if the enemy really comes in winter, there is no need to buy time to clear the country, because Huang Yi's original plan was for everyone to live in the city for the winter.
Although Manager Li did not understand the art of war, he could see that the mountain pass was easy to defend but difficult to attack. He also saw that the reason why the mountain pass could pass carriages was because the road had just been dug.
Of course he was full of compliments, and after saying many compliments, he got to the point and talked about the purpose of his trip.
Huang Yi listened patiently with a calm expression on his face, because he already knew that Shanxi merchants were traitors to the country, and they had been selling grain, iron materials and other contraband to Liaodong.
What if you know and wait?
With Huang Yi's current influence and strength, it is impossible to control those traitorous Shanxi merchants.
Moreover, it is useless to control Zhangjiakou. There are many border crossings, and merchants can enter everywhere. They can also exit through Shahukou, Dushikou and Da'ankou.
The situation has also changed at this time. As long as there is a local guide to lead the way, the goods can be cleared without passing through the border gate where the army is stationed.
That's because in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was in a state of decay and affairs collapsed.
Historical records indicate that in Xuanfu Town alone, there were 1,274 side piers, 1,116 miles of side walls, and as many as 200 damaged places.
Less than half of it was destroyed in inaccessible mountainous areas, and there must be many places where the side walls have collapsed and are passable.
