After five days of trekking in wind and snow, this huge camel team finally arrived in Duolun City.
An Sanxi also breathed a long sigh of relief. These Han people worked hard, and when they got here, they were completely safe.
As the new general manager of Duolun, Zhao Shuigan immediately mobilized Duolun's civil and military officials to begin resettling these 100,000 people. A separate camp was set up for them in the city, and they settled down with cotton tents and stoves. Then they distributed food and organized doctors to check their health.
Before An Sanxi could take a breath, he received Yang Fanxin's order.
The order was simple, give him two days to rest. Then, he led five regiments and 70,000 camels to raid Zhangjiakou Fort City. Arrest all eight giant smuggling merchants. Sweep away their goods and gold and silver. All shipped to Toronto.
For this reason, Yang Fan has sent Zhu Zhu with 300 people disguised as a caravan, and has secretly stationed in Zhangjiakou City as internal agents.
After Yang Fan's army left Tumubao, they resumed their march to Zhangjiakou.
Zhangjiakou was under the jurisdiction of Xuanfu Town in the Ming Dynasty. Xuanfu Town is one of the four earliest border towns established in the Ming Dynasty.
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records that "the four towns of Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, and Yansui were initially established, and then the three towns of Ningxia, Gansu, and Jizhou were established. The general army of Taiyuan was in charge of Piantou Pass (note - Piantou Pass), and the three-sided government was established. Zhu Guyuan, also known as Erzhen, is Jiubian."
This shows the importance of Xuanfu Town.
Xuanfu has jurisdiction over seven road cities and one post city. The seven road cities also have jurisdiction over sixty guard cities. Zhangjiakou, the official name is Zhangjiakou Fort. It is one of the sixty guard castles.
The only post city is the well-known Jiming Post.
The ancient city of Jiming still exists today, contrasting with the Jiming Mountain beside the city. It is a classic tourist attraction and the most complete integrated castle of Ming Dynasty military fortress and post station.
There are many road cities and health posts under the jurisdiction of Xuanfu, which developed in the later historical development and are well known to us. One of the cities under its jurisdiction is called "Longqingzhou City". During the Longqing period, in order to avoid tabooing the emperor's reign name, it was renamed Yanqing Zhoucheng. It is now Yanqing County, the imperial capital.
The origin of Zhangjiakou is also interesting. At the earliest, there were some people with the surname Zhang living at the foot of the Great Wall at Wanquanyouwei on the northwest side of Xuanfu.
Because this is the place that guards the throat of North China and beyond the Great Wall. It is the only way to trade with Mongolia. Later, more and more people moved here. A small town gradually formed, and the town was named "Zhangjiazhuang" after the main surnames of the residents.
Therefore, in the fourth year of Xuande (1429), Wanquan Youwei commanded Zhang Wen to build a fortress here. And named it "Zhangjiakou Fort".
With the development of trade between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, this fortress gradually prospered, and it became the later Zhangjiakou City.
By the time of the Republic of China, after six hundred years of development, Zhangjiakou's prosperity reached its peak.
The annual transaction volume reaches 150 million taels of silver. There are more than 7,000 business names and more than 30 banks.
After several days of trekking, Yang Fan's army arrived at Jimingyi Castle, the second of the three major castles in northern Beijing.
Yang Fan directly ordered the army to enter the city to rest. For a time, the officers and soldiers of the three armies and hundreds of thousands of civilians were delighted to come down from the sky, with thunderous cheers.
After all, the Beijing camp has been in peace for a long time, and marching in the snowstorm this time is really hard.
And it’s extremely cold this year. Fortunately, we had a briquette stove and a cotton tent when we camped at night, so we didn’t suffer a lot of frostbite. Not to mention civilian husbands, their treatment is not as good as that of soldiers.
The army entered Jiming Fort and everyone settled down. A chief of the Ministry of War and a supervisory censor came over to ask how long the army would stay here.
"There is a blizzard blowing outside the country now. We must wait for the blizzard to stop before we can continue to move forward. Otherwise, if we enter the grassland rashly, not only will the soldiers be prone to frostbite, but it will also be very difficult to transport food and grass."
They couldn't refute Yang Fan's words. Along the way, although we did not leave the Great Wall, there was heavy wind and snow. The road is difficult, and the road outside can only be bigger. If you rush out of customs and run out of food due to bad weather, you will be in trouble.
They also cannot take responsibility. So, I had to give up and retreat.
Zhang Shize pouted on the side, these civil servants are all idle and have no skills to make their voices heard. They don't know anything about military affairs. What are you urging? As long as we arrive in Guihua City next spring, there's no need to rush. There is plenty of time.
Jimingyi is very prosperous. There are shops all over the place, and you can buy everything. This is a key transportation node for getting out of the congestion. Both the army and merchants have to rest here before going to the capital.
There are many shops in the city, restaurants, inns, fireworks alleys, gambling houses, theaters and bathhouses everywhere. After Yang Fan announced a five-day holiday, the officers and soldiers happily left the camp to have fun.
After the reform of Chongzhen, the benefits of the Beijing camp were greatly improved. More importantly, military pay was changed to be paid by Xinghe Bank. Directly into the personal accounts of officers and soldiers, or directly issue banknotes. In fact, the military pay in the Ming Dynasty was not low, and it was enough to support a family and live a warm and comfortable life.
The reason why officers and soldiers are so poor and unable to survive is entirely caused by official corruption.
Yang Fan's banknote is the soft sister coin contact coupon sent from later generations. It absolutely cannot be copied in this era. Whether it's overprinting, special cotton paper, color-changing ink, or watermarking. It can drive the gangs who forge treasure banknotes crazy. After all, the technical gap is too far.
Nowadays, these practice coupons can be purchased at will. Because there are special coupons for counting money and practice printed on it. It saves Yang Fan trouble. Practice tickets will be issued directly. Then he went to various places to redeem silver coins.
There is already an outlet of Xinghe Bank in Jimingyi. After all, like Datong and Xuanfu, it is a stationing node for caravans. The Xinghe Bank in Jimingyi was crowded with officers and soldiers holding bankbooks or banknotes to exchange silver coins.
Yang Fan's waiting for the snowstorm to stop was just an excuse. His real purpose was to wait for An Sanxi to escort 100,000 Han slaves to Duolun City. Let these five cavalry regiments composed of a large number of Mongolians raid Zhangjiakou. Copy the lairs of the so-called eight imperial merchants of the later Qing Dynasty.
I haven't moved, Mao Wenlong, so I can't move you. Yang Fan had long disliked them. Now that the grassland has fallen into Yang Fan's hands, these profiteers, who are cheating and colluding with the Jiannu, have become very annoying.
Zhangjiakou's great development occurred during the Jiajing period.
Ida Khan wrote to the Ming court many times, asking both sides to communicate with each other. During the Longqing period, the "mutual market" was finally approved, and transactions began in some border areas.
"Mutual market" is divided into "official market" and "private market".
The former mainly involved the rulers of the Mongolian tribes donating horses to the Ming court in exchange for cloth, silk and other materials rewarded by the Ming court. The latter is mainly a transaction between the people of the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian herdsmen.
It was precisely because of the opening of the mutual market that it became possible for Zhangjiakou to transform from a military town into a commercial town. By the Wanli period, Zhangjiakou was already highly prosperous.
