The clattering horse hooves trampled through the earth-yellow river water. At that moment, a Spanish horse had already stepped onto the east bank of the slowly flowing river. Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen horses were driven off a ferry and ran onto the river beach through the yellow river water. On the other side of the river, hundreds of horses were crowded on the river beach at this time, waiting to board the boat to cross the river under the supervision of the horsemen.
The thousands of horses here are the Western horses that the ninth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Shang Jiabusi, obtained from Wu Sangui. After twenty or thirty days of wandering, we finally arrived at the bank of the Yellow River at the junction of Wubao County, Tianbao Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, and Qikou Town, Yongning Prefecture, Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi Province.
The west bank of the Yellow River is the territory of Wang Yongqiang, the Tianbao Jiedushi of the Dashun Dynasty, and the west bank of the Yellow River is the territory of Zhu Cijiong, the king of the Ming Dynasty - this is still a "national border"!
Although the Ming Dynasty and Dashun are still enemies at war with each other, there is no tense atmosphere at this "national border". On the contrary, "border trade" is flourishing, and it is still on the east bank of the Yellow River ferry. A market was opened in nearby Qikou Town.
The Qikou market was the destination of Jiabus Jiahuangshang's trip. Although Jiabus was not very good at business, he was not stupid enough to take horses from Qinghai to Beijing and sell them to whomever. go? How many years has it been since the Qing soldiers entered the customs? How could the Eight Banners soldiers be short of horses? Moreover, there was a steady stream of Mongolian horses being shipped over. How could Jabs's Spanish horses be sold for money? If it doesn't sell for a good price, his big secret agent will suffer a loss!
Jabs's "Imperial Merchant" was also a contractor and was responsible for his own profits and losses. He could keep 30% of the money he earned and split it with Fusi of Jinyiwei North Town.
Therefore, if you want to be a spy, you can’t completely ignore business!
In today's Northland (not counting Shandong), the place with the highest price of horses is definitely Xi'an. Zhang Xianzhong is also preparing for war and preparing for a big fight. Moreover, he also has money. After fighting in the world for so many years, he has accumulated a thousand pieces of silver. Wan Liang can't stop it.
But Jabs didn't dare to go to Xi'an. That place was too unscrupulous. He might make a lot of money, or he might be killed by Zhang Xianzhong's knife - this kind of thing has happened! The one who was killed was Zhang Xianzhong, a fellow from Shaanxi. Where could a fake Shanxi native like Jabs dare to go?
The high price of horses in Xi'an (in fact, everything is expensive there) is also related to Zhang Xianzhong's "uncertainty rampage".
The Qikou Town Stock Market is now the second most expensive place in Northland (excluding Shandong) for horse prices. Because His Highness the Acting King on Luliang Mountain has been expanding his army and preparing for war since last year. It seems that he is preparing for a big fight with the Donglu!
Although the Qikou Foraging Market at this time was extremely prosperous, even more prosperous than in the early years of Chongzhen when the world was relatively peaceful, the large-scale shipment of thousands of good horses at one time still alarmed the entire Qikou Commercial Town. Even the rich man Chen Wenhao and Chen, the general merchant of Qikou Market appointed by Zhu Cijiong, were alarmed!
Rich man Chen, who is obese and weighs a full 180 pounds, is not a local profiteer in Qikou Town, but a "loyal businessman" from Shanxi who moved from Pingyao.
Although the eight imperial merchants in the Qing Dynasty were in Shanxi's old pit, the rich man Chen was not a traitor to Shanxi merchants - there were many Shanxi merchants in the Ming Dynasty, and it might be reasonable to say that they were all profiteers, but To label them as traitors is nonsense.
And this rich man Chen is not even a profiteer. Although his family was a well-known private money merchant in Shanxi four or five years ago, the Xiaoping money released from his hands every year is more than that issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty. There are still more copper coins... But after Dorgon implemented the method of equalizing land by population in Shanxi, the wealthy Chen changed his ways and left his hometown in Pingyao for Luliang Mountain with his family property accumulated from years of privately minting copper coins. , and was commended by Zhu Cijiong for his meritorious service in money lending, and was named a "loyal businessman"!
So he is now a real "loyal businessman" with proof. Whoever dares to say that he is disloyal is against the Ming Dynasty Loan King on Luliang Mountain! Yes, it’s a loan! All the "loyal businessmen" in Luliang Mountain lent money to Zhu Cijiong, so they all called him "Loan King" behind his back.
"What a horse, what a horse... Shopkeeper Jia, we all want your horse! Make a price!"
In Qikou Town, which is built on the mountain, in a house located halfway up the mountain, Mr. Chen Wenhao and Mr. Chen were discussing business with Jabs with a smile - this was not the first time that Jabs came to Luliang. It wasn't the first time he had passed through Qikou Town, so he and Fatty Chen had met each other a few times.
However, Fatty Chen didn't know his true identity and only thought that he was a wealthy businessman in troubled times.
Jabs smiled and held out four fingers, "How about forty thousand taels of silver? Erlao Jia went to Qinghai with his head in his belt for these Xifan horses, and almost had them chopped up by the Oara cavalry. How about making some money?" Hard-earned money... Of course, it is also extremely hard for your Royal Highness, Prince Tidai, to manage the business in Qikou Town. Look, you have lost a lot of weight!"
"Isn't that right!" Fatty Chen nodded in agreement, with his face wrinkled up, "These days are busy. Your Highness, the King of Dai, is busy expanding the army and preparing for war. Loyal merchants like you can't just sit back and watch. Everyone is... Contribute money and effort..."
When it comes to "contributing money and effort", the fat man's eyes sparkled with tears... Last month he lent another usurious loan to "Loan King" Zhu Cijiong. The profit was only three points, which was converted into an annual interest rate. That’s 36%, which is definitely a loan shark!
"Oh." Jabus looked at the fat man with a strange expression and thought to himself: What's going on with this profiteer? What sad thing comes to mind?
"The horse we brought..." Jabs asked in a low voice.
"Oh," Fatty finally realized, "Forty thousand taels is just forty thousand taels, but..."
"But what?" Jabs knew that money was not that easy to earn...if he didn't pay back the price, there must be something wrong!
The fat man frowned and said, "But King Dai doesn't have that much cash. He can only give you four thousand taels of cash at most."
"Four thousand taels?" Jabs was stunned, "What about the rest?"
Fatty Chen said: "Give me a ticket!"
"Borrow a ticket?"
The fat man nodded, "The profit will be three cents per month, no rolling over, one payment at maturity."
"When is... due?"
"When Shanxi is recovered, it will be due!" Fatty Chen said this, tears almost fell down.
He has lent more than 100,000 taels of silver to His Highness the King of Loans, plus several thousand kilograms of copper... I don’t know if he will be able to wait until the King of Loans pays back the money in this life!
"This..." Jabs didn't know what to say.
Of course he had heard about the "Loan King" looking for people to borrow money from everywhere, but he never expected that he would be borrowed from him.
"Uh, uh, it's hard to have money!" Jabs immediately started crying, "I only gave 4,000 taels for 1,000 horses. It's not even enough for travel expenses..."
Fatty Chen noticed the look of Jiabus crying about poverty and chuckled: "Who doesn't know that your boss Jia has money? Besides, the monthly profit is three cents... which is pretty good! The loan note is signed by King Dao of Loan himself. , and the prince’s seal, are you afraid that you won’t be able to collect the money?”
How could you not be afraid? Jabs just shook his head. On behalf of the king, he only had a Datong mansion, but it was turned into a wasteland by the Tatars. Even if it can be restored in the future, it will not have much profit and water. How can we repay the debt?
But Fatty Chen said: "What are you afraid of? The King of Loans is not as good as the Emperor... Now that the Emperor is rich, I have made a fortune scraping land in Jiangnan, and I am still short of you for this little money?"
Do you think Emperor Hongxing will support Dai Wang? How smart is Emperor Hongxing to be responsible for taking out loan sharks on behalf of his younger brother? Besides, if the king wants to default on his debt, what can you Shanxi old guys do? Jabs thought to himself: You are done for being a profiteer. You defrauded the king of all his money!
When Jabs was worried about Fatty Chen, Fatty Chen had already lowered his voice and said, "Shopkeeper Jia, let me tell you clearly... 10% silver and 90% invoices are the rule nowadays for loaning money to the prince's palace for purchasing! You If you don't accept it, then this transaction cannot be done. I can guarantee that there will be no other house in Luliang Mountain that will buy your horse. Your Highness, the Loan King, is reasonable and will not buy or sell by force, let alone rob. , but it can be guaranteed that no one will dare to ask for your horses. Your horses will be worthless after leaving Luliang Mountain, unless they are transported to Xi'an. Haha, Zhang Xianzhong is not allowed to kill people, if you are brave, go ahead!"
