In the first year of Hongxing in the Ming Dynasty, in early autumn, Yulin City.
This famous city in northern Shaanxi is not only a military center overlooking the Hetao in the north and the Three Qin Dynasties in the south, it is also an important commercial town connecting the interior of Shaanxi and the Hetao grassland, and even Monan, Mobei and Moxi. After the king moved to Yulin and reached a five-year agreement with the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the city, which had fallen into death due to years of war and massacres by the Qing army, regained its vitality in a very short period of time. Furs and livestock from Mongolian tribes, tea, ironware, silk, and cotton from Huguang and the southeast, and salt from Ningxia Huamachi (just on the edge of Yulin Town, now owned by the Prince of Dai), all meet here - right here Within Yulin Acropolis!
Unlike the Ming Dynasty officials who guarded Yulin Town before, who carefully placed the mutual trade under the Zhenbeitai Fortress, 10 miles north of Yulin City, the Dai Wangfu who now rules Yulin is very courageous and has no worries about the Mongolian Ike Zhao League outside the Great Wall. The troops took advantage of the opportunity of mutual trade to plunder or capture Yulin City.
In fact, in the summer of the first year of Hongxing, the Dai Palace, which was facing food shortages due to drought, sent troops to Hetao to fight the six banners of the Yikezhao League (the banners of nomadic Mongolia). How can the Yizhao Ke Alliance, which has been at peace for many years, be the opponent of the Dai army who fought all the way from Datong Prefecture and Luliang Mountain? On the verge of collapse, all the six nomadic Mongolian flags were broken by the Dai army. The Mongolian princes of the Yikezhao League were forced to pay tribute to the Dai prince's palace, and they only managed to survive.
Therefore, the Mongolians who now trade in Yulin City are very honest. Although they have knives in their waists and quivers on their shoulders, no one dares to draw a knife in Yulin Acropolis.
The Datong Dead Soldiers patrolling Yulin City were all fierce gods who fought with the Manchus in Datong for three years and finally escaped death!
They may not be able to defeat the Mongols who believed in immortality during Genghis Khan's generation, but how can they be their opponents now who believe in Tibetan lamas?
Although there are ferocious Ming soldiers in Yulin City, the Mongolian old men of the Yikezhao League are still willing to send housekeepers to trade with horses, cattle, sheep, and leather goods. There is no other reason than that the "goods" in Yulin City are too complete.
Not only can you buy high-quality iron materials and even ready-made cold weapons that were strictly controlled in the past, you can even buy firearms, gunpowder, and armor, weapons and equipment that even the Qing Dynasty strictly controlled and was unwilling to export to the grasslands. ....
Of course, to get such good things from Yulin, the merchants of Yikezhao League must also bring out their good things - high-quality Hequ horses and Mongolian horses!
For a long period of time in the future, the merchants of the Yikezhao League will purchase good horses from other tribes on the grassland, even from the Oara Mongolia, and sell them to profiteers in Yulin City. Then they purchase advanced firearms from them and resell them to Khalkha Mongolia and Oara Mongolia - a considerable part of the firearms will also be resold to the Zhungeer tribe, which even Zhu Cixiang is very afraid of...
And this "horse trade" will also promote local military production in Yulin!
Many gunpowder and gun factories invested and established by Qin and Jin merchants will spring up like bamboo shoots after a rain in Yulin, Yan'an, Suide, Mizhi and other places.
However, in the autumn of the first year of Hongxing, the Qin and Jin merchants in Yulin City had not yet planned to invest heavily in "industry". Their interest was not even in the trade with the Mongols that could bring them huge profits.
There is only one business that really interests them now, and that is high-end finance.
Well, to put it simply, it’s loan sharking.
The Dai Wang Mansion has posted "debt repayment notices" in various prosperous areas in Yulin City, claiming that it has received the imperial edict and will lead all creditors to Wuhan Mansion to meet the saint and discuss debt repayment with the emperor...
Seeing the meaning, Emperor Hongxing is ready to pay off the debt for his brother, His Highness!
This is really great!
So starting from the beginning of July, Ming Dynasty's "good creditors" went to the Prince's Mansion to sign up one after another, preparing to go to Wuhan to collect debts...
Collect debts from the Ming Emperor!
Of course, even if you can't collect the debt, this trip won't be in vain.
The creditors have prepared enough furs and horses bought from the Mongols, and are ready to take advantage of the opportunity of going south to collect debts and make a lot of money!
...
"Shopkeeper Jia, are you also going to Wuhan Mansion to collect debts?"
In the Duke of Jin's Mansion in Xi'an, Wu Sangui, who was preparing to enter the court, also met a big creditor, the shopkeeper Jiabusjia, one of the nine imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty.
"How can you not ask for it?" Jabs has now changed into Han Chinese clothing, a kerchief and Taoist robe. Even his forehead is still bald, and a small braid on the back of his head is hidden in the kerchief.
If you look like this and want to go to Wuhan... of course it doesn't mean you can't go.
Now that the Ming and Qing Dynasties have reached five years of peace, of course Qing merchants are allowed to engage in Ming Dynasty land trade.
In Yulin City in northern Shaanxi, you can see Shanxi merchants who were affiliated with the green flag. As soon as Dorgon's method of entering the flag with the green flag came out, the situation in Shanxi immediately stabilized a lot. Many Shanxi merchants who did not follow them to Yulin spent 500 shi to join the flag and become a flag bearer. It was easy to become an official and convenient to do business. They killed two birds with one stone!
Of course, the 500 shi of flour was just a "banner entrance fee", and later you had to pay a fee for exemption from military service - the bannermen did not pay for food, were not considered poor, and were not transferred to households, but they had to perform military service. The new gang of Shanxi old pits doing business with a green flag, let them go to the battlefield and they will die. So Dorgon simply asked them to pay money to be exempted from military service. A bannerman with a green flag could be exempted from military service by paying 12 stones of flour a year (300 acres of land in Datong Prefecture when joining the banner).
The Green Flag recruited about 13,000 bannermen (that is, 13,000 households), and the exemption money of 156,000 stones of flour a year fell into Dorgon's pocket.
In addition, the Qing court also allowed people with green flags to donate money to serve as officials... This was another income!
So this group of "shaved merchants" (the nickname given to them by the Qin and Jin merchants in Yulin) are doing well in the Qing Dynasty.
But no matter how good they are, they are still in the Qing Dynasty. When they come to the Ming Dynasty, they are still second-class and third-class businessmen with "low business and first class". How dare they follow Wu Sangui to ask the Ming Emperor for payment?
"It's hundreds of thousands!" Jabs gasped and lowered his voice, "There are also Prince Yu's hidden secrets in it... When Prince Yu comes back after defeating the Mongols, if I can't fill this hole , Jiale City (Jabs’s trading company) will be gone, and maybe even the head will have to be moved!”
"What? King Yu... Duduo?" Wu Sangui was stunned again and again - Duduo lent him money to fight against the Qing Dynasty, and now he has to ask the Ming Emperor for debt...
"By the way, you said Duduo went to fight the Mongols?" Wu Sangui suddenly turned his attention to military affairs.
"Yes!" Jabs nodded, "Having brought 30,000 people to deal with the Tengjisi and Tengjit of the Sunit tribe, most of the Khalkha Mongolian tribes will also side with the Sunit tribe... ....”
While Dorgon was negotiating peace with the Ming Dynasty, he began to deploy a crusade against the Khalkha Mongols, and the leader of the Mongolian troops was his most capable brother Duduo.
"Can we win?" Wu Sangui asked.
"King Yu is very confident and says he will win!" said Jabs, "otherwise I wouldn't be in a hurry to claim the debt! My lord, you have to admit the account! If you don't accept the account, I will be dead. !”
Wu Sangui waved his hand: "Old Jia, you are telling me this, which one of us is following the other! Don't worry, as long as we can get money from the emperor, we will clear your account first!"
Wu Sangui is quite trustworthy, and Jabs is a profiteer who has helped him a lot! He can't be ungrateful and watch others be hacked to death by Duduo, right?
But he wasn't sure whether he could get money from Zhu Cixiang?
Emperor Zhu Da wouldn't be so easy to talk to, would he?
Thinking of this, he sighed again: "Old Jia, you must also be prepared... What will you do if you don't have to pay the debt?"
Jabs sighed: "If that's the case, Jiale City won't want it anymore... I'll vote for you, Lord Duke!"
"Okay! It's a deal!" Wu Sangui patted his chest boldly, "If I don't have money, I won't be the king of the northwest. I will go to Nanjing to be a wealthy and powerful prince. Then we will do business together!"
