People die for wealth and birds die for food. This sentence is most suitable for Cao Renzun.
Doesn't he know the prestige of Zhang Yan, the founding hero of the country?
Didn't he know that both Helong Jian'er and Guanzhong Yicong regarded the emperor as a god?
He knows, He knows very clearly!
That's why the story of Sun Ce of the Three Kingdoms and Zhuang Zong of the later dynasty was publicized and made known to the whole world. They wanted to use this method to offset part of the aura of the emperor.
When others call Pei Yuan a traitor, they may be jealous, or they may just follow suit, but when Cao Renzun calls Pei Yuan a traitor, he is really scolding him from the bottom of his heart.
As the elder of Shazhou Cao and the actual clan leader of Sogdian Xicao within Shazhou Cao, Cao Renzun had a relationship with Cao Wanjin of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce very early, or in other words, their relationship has never been broken.
Because Cao Wanjin's ancestor Cao Wantongxi was originally a branch of the Sogdian Xicao tribe in Dunhuang. They were originally a family.
At this time, the Sogdians could be said to be a more outstanding commercial nation than the Jews. After Zhang Yan opened up the trade route, the dying Hexi immediately ushered in great development.
In particular, Zhang Yan hoped to use Hexi white sugar and rock sugar to influence the Central Plains. After Hexi refined salt and tea bricks were used to influence the plateau, grassland and river, the Hexi Chamber of Commerce came into being and played a decisive role.
To be honest, the Hexi Chamber of Commerce put in a lot of effort in the process of Zhang Yan's unification of the world.
More than 30% of the military expenses were spent on the campaign, and more than 50% of the expenses were spent on placing pro-army and forbidden troops.
As well as the large and small rewards given to his ministers by Zhang Zhi, more than 60% of them came from the Hexi Chamber of Commerce.
At the same time, the Hexi Chamber of Commerce cooperated with the imperial policy and used weapons such as salt, sugar, tea, and a certain degree of monopoly on the Hexi trade routes to formulate precise attack strategies on various places, which objectively accelerated the unification process of Zhang and Zhou.
Even the development of Jinyi Guards' local network was initially developed by relying on the Hexi Chamber of Commerce.
But now, when only the Southern Han Dynasty is still resisting in the world, and when the Southern Tang Dynasty and Qian Yue are about to lose their ability to resist, the shortcomings of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce have begun to appear.
This large-scale semi-governmental commercial organization that has existed for thirteen years has now become a dominant player on the Hexi Commercial Road.
Forced buying and selling, buying low and selling high, hoarding, and armed attacks on other businesses that disobeyed their management, even to the point where they did not participate in the actual selling of goods at all, but just collected membership fees.
After leaving Guanzhong, the imperial household department had no help from the Hexi Chamber of Commerce.
Within the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, the Sogdians occupied an extremely important position.
Cao Wanjin, the leader of the Chamber of Commerce, was from Xicao, Sogdiana.
The person in charge of the production enterprise of key materials such as white sugar, rock sugar, and tea bricks in Hexi is Kang Jinshan, a Sogdian native of Kang State.
Mi Guozhong, who was stationed in the Hexi Chamber of Commerce in Beiting Province and specialized in reviewing the sale of sugar, tea, iron and other strategic materials to the nomadic peoples from Moxi to Yibohai, was also a Sogdian.
At the same time, Cao Wanjin's beautiful third daughter was one of the two concubines of Liaoyang County Prince Murong Nobunaga, and his fifth daughter was the concubine of Jiaocheng County Prince Zhang Liecheng, commander of the Jinyi Guards.
Kang Jinshan's eldest daughter simply married Zhang Lie and became his wife under Zhang Yan's help.
The legitimate daughter of Mi Guozhong was married to one of the most important generals around Zhang Yan, Gong Fanquan of Xinping County.
In the beginning, this relationship ensured the unity of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce and ensured that Zhang Gao was able to direct them, and it was indeed very useful for a period of time.
But now, Zhang Zhou's court has begun to operate normally, and it no longer needs to rely on donations from the Hexi Chamber of Commerce as before.
At the same time, since Meng Shu, Ma Chu, and Nan Ping belong to the country equally, there is no need for the Hexi Chamber of Commerce to assist the court in curbing them.
Under this circumstance, the role of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce began to slide rapidly from positive to negative.
In the chamber of commerce, corruption, embezzlement and even deception began to appear frequently.
Even within the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, a situation was formed in which 30% of the profits were given to the emperor, 20% were used as funding, and the remaining 50% were shared by each company.
Among them, the one who played the biggest role in the rapid degeneration and corruption of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce was not Cao Wanjin and Kang Jinshan, let alone Mi Guozhong who was far away, but Cao Renzun.
After Cao Wanjin became the head of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, he immediately entered the Hexi Chamber of Commerce through the nod of Queen Cao Yanxi.
Later, taking advantage of the geographical advantages of Dunhuang, Shazhou and the territorial advantage of the Laogui Rebels headed by Cao, they quickly expanded their influence in the Hexi Chamber of Commerce.
Now the Hexi Chamber of Commerce is in Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture and Dunhuang Prefecture. The two Hexi Corridor's east and west pass collection models, as well as the current distribution model, were established by Cao Renzun.
It is true that the reason why Cao Yanxi agreed to Cao Renzun's entry into the Hexi Chamber of Commerce was actually Zhang Gao's consent.
Zhang Yan's original arrangement was to let senior Guiyi army veterans like Cao Renzun enter the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, so that they could enjoy the benefits brought by Zhang Zhou's unification of the world without getting too involved in the political and military circles.
After all, although the older generation of Guiyi Army is a burden to Zhang Yan, the younger generation and the next generation of Guiyi Army are still useful to Zhang Yan, and they must even be taken as confidants.
Let these old guys enjoy the dividends and take advantage of the semi-official advantage of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce to do some resale trade or just run some inns, mule and horse shops, and banknotes in Dunhuang. They can earn tens of thousands of yuan every year and don't live too much. comfortable.
But I, Zhang Shengren, still far underestimated the greed of human nature. The old guys headed by Cao Renzun don't even want to do this kind of business that is sure to make money without losing money.
What they want to do is sit back and do business that is more trouble-free and better able to seize power.
In fact, Zhang Huaiqing mentioned Cao Renzun and the others to Zhang Yan. Although this old guy who is the grandfather of the Zhang family is not very capable, he has one advantage. As Zhang Yichao's only living nephew, he really regards Zhang Zhou as a Zhang family business.
Therefore, he would rather give his daughter and granddaughter to Zhang Yan for marriage and receive a gift of more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, rather than make money with Cao Renzun and others.
When Zhang Huaiqing stayed in Xijing and took office, he secretly wrote several complaints to Zhang Yan.
It's just that Zhang Yan was in a critical period at that time. He didn't have the energy and couldn't solve the problem immediately, so he could only pretend to be deaf and dumb.
This frightened Zhang Huaiqing, and then he deliberately messed up and finally succeeded in throwing the time bomb into Pei Yuan's hands.
As soon as Pei Yuan took over, he immediately began to attack Cao Renzun from all aspects. The relationship between the two can be said to be very bad.
If someone could analyze Cao Renzun at this time, he would find that what he was facing was not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The so-called emperor may not come back, or he may not come back in time. It is simply impossible to happen.
The seemingly bright future in front of him was actually a huge trap, a trap that Emperor Zhang had planned before he even set off from Tokyo.
Because whether it is the Lao Guiyi Army or the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, no matter how messed up they are, they are the emperor's trusted members.
Even if Zhang Zhi wants to target them, he can give small punishments and big warnings, but killing them all without mercy is impossible. The relationship involved is too deep.
If Zhang Gao dares to be cruel to them, the entire Laogui Rebel Faction, and even most of the Donggui Faction and Yuancong Faction will be implicated. This is destroying his own foundation.
Unless...unless someone jumps out on his own and does something treacherous.
So Zhang Yan took the risk and made such a move. The emperor directly took away the core military force of the empire. Once Biao left, there was no news for seven or eight months.
Pei Yuan was crazy. On the surface, he seemed to be rectifying the nobles of Buddhism and Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo, but in fact he was holding a big stick and kept hitting the heads of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce and the Laogui Rebel Army.
Originally, the relationship between Cao Renzun and Pei Yuan was very bad. After being forced like this, and the emperor seemed to have disappeared, his inner ambition could no longer be restrained, and this huge chaos occurred.
This is because Cao Renzun has little knowledge! Although this man is good at doing business and seizing power, he is just a little clever.
He also didn't look at how silent people like Ma Xiguang, Gao Baorong, Fu Yanqing, An Shenqi, Zhe Congyuan and Guo Wei had been since the emperor left the country.
What does Pei Yuan do? From helping the emperor enter Liangzhou, to going to the Central Plains to deceive Shi Jingtang for the emperor, and then to Shuofang to help the emperor rebel against Zhang Xichong, he has always been by the emperor's side, helping the emperor do the dirty work with black gloves. 'ah!
When other people saw that Pei Yuanquan was in charge of the government and the opposition, they immediately knew how to behave with their tail between their legs.
Even a fool like Shi Chonggui, after being tricked by Pei Yuan once, was so frightened when he saw Pei Yuan's claws and teeth that he opened the door to his house every day, moved a bed and laid it at the door every day, so that everyone could see him. Shi Chonggui's daily life.
Cao Renzun, on the other hand, swallowed the bait without hesitation and even led the old guys from the Hexi Chamber of Commerce to gamble all their wealth.
. . . .
In Daxingshan Temple, Cao Renzun was running around anxiously because he had been imprisoning Cao Yuanzhong for three full days.
Cao Yuanzhong is not an ordinary person. Not to mention his status as the father-in-law of the country, but his status as Pingzhang and Defense Envoy of Guanzhong Province. If he does not show his face for more than three days, it is very noticeable.
During the past three days, although he had sent junior members of the Cao family and his associates who were officials in the Guanzhong provincial government to cover it up, it would not be possible to cover it up for a long time.
He felt that he could hold on for two days at most. If Cao Yancun and Luo Yu'er of Tongguan did not send troops to control the Chang'an city defense, he would not be able to hold on.
However, Cao Renzun was not without anyone available. He opened the door of the Zen room, and there were five or six strong men with big shoulders and round waists and scars on their faces standing outside.
Although these people were dressed in armor, they all exuded a ruthless temperament. The leader even wore a small inner armor. This kind of inner armor was modified from cloth-covered iron armor and was enough to protect the upper body. Not hurt by swords and arrows.
Seeing Cao Renzun coming out, the scarred-faced man who was wearing armor on the outside deliberately smiled and lowered his posture a little.
"Ren Weng, a certain leader and Master Shanfa would like to ask you to come over. Waiting like this is not an option. Why don't you try to get people to let go of Baqiao and let our people come into the city."
Cao Renzun's face turned cold. He knew that these people had brought many desperadoes into Guanzhong.
However, the many patrols in Guanzhong, especially near Chang'an, as well as the soldiers and catchers inspecting the yamen are not vegetarians. Without the cover of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce, they would not be able to enter Chang'an.
Cao Renzun was about to answer when he heard footsteps outside, and then the door was suddenly knocked open!
A strong man with a head as black as coal but a body as majestic as a tiger, carrying two wrought copper maces, looked at the scarred monk wearing inner armor and said lazily.
"Tian Shenu, are you the only one who still wants to enter Chang'an? Kneel down and kowtow now, maybe I can spare your life!"
(End of chapter)
