Burihatu's worst plan was that he would not be able to defeat the Ming army and could only escape, so he prepared a backup plan in advance and left some goods for Cao Yun in Yehexi City.
This "good" didn't secretly plant gunpowder in the city. Bu Rihatu would not regard Cao Yun as a thorn in his side and must eradicate him at all costs - if it was Gao Pragmatic himself who came this time, Bu Rihatu would Rihatu may have this idea, but it's just Cao Yun who's here, so there's no need to be like this.
The Ming army entered the city very smoothly. The hundreds of defenders in the city walked quickly and hurriedly. As soon as they left the west gate, the people of Yehe tribe took the initiative to open the east gate to let the Ming army go. Coming in, someone even suggested to Cao Yun to pursue the Mongolian army.
Cao Yu obviously did not have this idea. When Ma Chengxun left, Bu Zhai and Nalin Bulu also followed. Now the Ming army has almost no cavalry and it is impossible to catch up with this Mongolian group.
Marshal Cao just randomly arranged for Pu Yuanyi and Cao Jian to guard the city gate separately, and then went to the "Baylor Mansion" in Bu Village. The Baylor Mansion in Xicheng was not damaged. According to the Yehe people in the city, Tumen Khan lived in it some time ago.
But something big happened when Cao Yun went there. When his soldiers were cleaning Baylor Mansion, they found several letters in Yubuzhai's bedroom. Two of them were signed by Tong Weixun, and the other one was signed by Nurhaci. .
Nurhaci's letter appeared in Bu Zhai Mansion, which is not very strange in theory, but after checking it, Cao Yan discovered that the matter was not as he imagined. It was a connection between the Jurchen leaders. This letter from Nurhaci was not at all. Written to Yehenalabu Village, the real recipient of this letter is "His Royal Highness Brihatu Huangtaiji, the ruler of the Great Mongolia, who is as noble as gold."
The letter was written in Mongolian. Cao Yu didn't understand Mongolian, so he hired his trusted aide to interpret it. As soon as Cao Yan raised his head after hearing this, he immediately knew that something was wrong. He immediately asked the interpreter to read it to him alone.
In the letter, Nurhaci first complimented Tumen and Burihatu, and then asked, "If Mongolia advances eastward and I move northward, we can certainly defeat Yehe, but the Ming court will inevitably intervene. At that time, Mongolia can hope to fight the Ming army in the north." close?"
He also said, "When my troops come here, I am afraid that I will be blocked by Meng Gebulu and others. Although I have no ability, Hada is a powerful country after all. It may take some time to win. I hope His Highness Huang Taiji will know this."
Hey guys, what's this letter? This is the evidence that Nurhachi colluded with the Mongols!
Cao Yu immediately wanted to capture Shuerhaqi who came with the army for questioning, but he remembered that he only had less than 600 people with him anyway, and it would be very easy to capture him, so he was not in a hurry, so he might as well take a look first Two other letters.
The other two letters were not written in Mongolian, but in Chinese characters. Cao Yu didn't need to translate them this time, he just took them and read them himself.
The headers of the two letters were still "Burihatu Huangtaiji", but there was no unnecessary compliment, but the content of the letters still surprised Cao Yan so much that his eyes almost popped out.
In the first letter, the guy signed "Tong Weixun" said that the three thousand kilograms of gunpowder sold to Burihatu last time had made it difficult for the "master" to handle it. This time Burihatu proposed to buy another five thousand catties. , The master is not easy to deal with at the moment, so this matter will be discussed later.
The second letter was more like a list, or price list. Among them, "Tong Weixun" listed a total of seventeen kinds of goods including pig iron, wrought iron, coarse cloth, fine cloth, tussah, cotton, salt, etc. and attached the prices. There were even categories. Wrought iron, farm tools and salt produced in Jinghua are listed separately, which are different from ordinary wrought iron, farm tools and salt, and the price is also 20% higher.
In addition to the supply list, Tong Weixun also submitted a receipt list, specifying that he required the purchase of "high-quality uncastrated horses, fifty males and three hundred females", "any number" of gelded war horses, and "subordinate horses". Six hundred, a thousand strong oxen, and any number of sheep.”
In addition to the list, Tong Weixun even threatened him, saying clearly: "Since he bartered with me, he should know that the court has strict orders and it is difficult for me to do so. The price cannot be changed."
Since you want to do business with me, you should know that the court has strictly prohibited it, and it is not very easy for me to do business, so the above prices cannot be changed.
What is trade power? This probably doesn't matter.
Of course, this is not what Cao Yu cares about. He has known that Ming Dynasty is a trading power since he was sensible. No matter Mongolians, Jurchens, or even Koreans, they don’t have much bargaining power when doing business with the Ming Dynasty. Basically, the price is whatever the Ming Dynasty says. You can buy it or not, and you have the ability to produce it yourself.
It is impossible to give birth by yourself. If you can give birth by yourself, do you still need to ask grandpa to tell grandma to buy things from Daming?
What Cao Yan really cares about is who is this "Tong Weixun" who dares to supply such a large amount of supplies to the Mongols despite the strict orders of the imperial court. His "master" even sold a full three thousand kilograms of gunpowder to the cloth before. Rihatu!
Three thousand kilograms of gunpowder may not be too much for the Ming Dynasty. Probably hundreds of No. 3 cannons would be consumed in a few salvos, but selling this amount to the Mongols is an exaggeration. It is completely a fool's errand. .
Moreover, how many people can be found in Liaodong who can sell three thousand kilograms of gunpowder at once?
From the perspective of sufficient supply, Jinghua is definitely the number one gunpowder manufacturer in the world, and Gao Pragmatic is the number one controller of gunpowder supplies. But Cao Yan naturally would not suspect Gao Jingshi of selling gunpowder to the Chahar tribe. It was too late for Gao Jingshi to control it, so how could he possibly sell gunpowder.
Next, there are only the top military and political leaders in Liaodong. First of all, we can exclude Zitai. Although Zhou Zitai worked in Liaodong for a lot of time, he rarely came to Liaodong since he was promoted to governor of Jiliao, and he did not often take care of Liaodong's affairs.
Futai? possible. Cao Yan still knew Li Song, not because Cao Yan got to know him after Li Song was promoted to Liao Governor, but because Li Song had worked in Ningqian Bingbei Road for nearly ten years before. During such a long time, News will naturally spread about his way of dealing with people. Cao Yu was already the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong at that time, how could he not hear about it?
Li Song is seen as mature and prudent in the outside world, which is the main reason why he has been appointed to Ningqian Bingbei for a long time. However, as far as Cao Yun knows, the biggest characteristic of this person is that he is tied to Li Chengliang. He was responsible for helping Li Chengliang expand his industry in the area under the jurisdiction of Ningqian Military Preparation Road in Liaoxi. Li Chengliang ensured that every time Ningqian or even Liaoxi had military exploits, a portion of the profits would be given to him.
Since the interests of the two people are consistent, the relationship is naturally close. It is probably not wrong to say that he is Li Chengliang's ally. Since Shen Shixing took over as the first assistant, the two of them have accepted the invitation of the Xin School out of various considerations and joined it, which makes them even more comrades and brothers.
What's more, the governor of the Ming Dynasty was not only in charge of government affairs, but also in charge of military affairs. If Li Song wanted to sell gunpowder, it would only be three thousand kilograms, so it would not be difficult.
However, Cao Yan felt that compared to Li Song, Li Chengliang was more likely to be the "master" mentioned in Tong Weixun's letter.
Li Chengliang wanted to sell gunpowder, and his motivation was even greater than that of Li Song, because he was much short of money than Li Song.
There are so many servants and elite cavalry to support, and they cannot rely solely on the military pay from the court. Even though the military pay provided by the imperial court to servants is much higher than that of ordinary guardsmen, the root cause is that the pay for guardsmen is too low. The amount paid by servants can only feed a family of four to five people. No need to think about it.
If you want to live a better life, for example, you can buy some clothes for your family during the holidays, pay some respect to your parents, get some jewelry for your wife, etc., then you have to have additional income. This income basically can only rely on the reward from the family head, which is the money Li Chengliang gave them.
This money is a stable income that is not considered “stable income”. The reason why I say it doesn’t count is because there is no hard and fast rule. Li Chengliang will only pay if he is willing to do so. The reason why it can be counted is that Li Chengliang basically pays out the money on time. It is like having a "rule" in it. He will not miss it unless it is absolutely necessary, and he will rarely delay it.
With so many people counting on Li Chengliang to make money, Li Chengliang was certainly under pressure, so he kept making money over the years and tried every means. For example, Cao Yan also knew about secretly manipulating private markets.
Not only did Cao Yan know that, in fact, before Gao Jingshi came to Liaodong and became the governor of Liaodong, especially before he placed Ma Jiajiang in Kaiyuan, the private trade in Liaodong had always been "developed", and many generals were involved in it—— Including Cao Yu himself also participated.
As for why the situation changed after Gao Jingshi came, Cao Yan didn't know the underlying reasons, but he knew that Gao Jingshi had always had his own principles in this regard, and he didn't simply force things to happen.
A highly pragmatic approach is to crack down on the private market but expand transactions in the formal horse market, not only removing many of the previously restricted categories, but also not limiting them very much.
On the other hand, Gao Pragmatic directly allowed generals to participate in the regular horse market trade. Generals could also participate in any goods that other merchants allowed to buy and sell. As long as you don't sell restricted goods in violation of regulations, such as guns and artillery, you can sell cloth, rice, etc., and the high pragmatism will not matter.
Cao Yan himself was very satisfied with this. As the saying goes, if the water is clear, there will be no fish. Originally, the imperial court did not allow Liaodong officials and generals to participate in the horse market trade privately. The result was that these officials and generals tacitly concealed the existence of the private market.
Why do you do this? To make money in the private market, of course. After all, Liaodong is a magical place that has been under military control for more than two hundred years. No matter where you are in the private sector, don't expect that the military and political circles in Liaodong really don't know your existence. Since they knew it but did not eliminate it, of course it was because they had interests in it.
In this case, as a private market, how dare you not take care of these people? Such things as protective umbrellas have always been around, and they are nothing new.
Some of them took the initiative to manage, and some lower-status generals even took the initiative to ask for bribes, or forced the private market to share the profits with them. That was another matter. Of course, the nature was not much different.
Gao's pragmatic approach is actually to beat him up with a stick and give him a sweet date, which not only gives people a way to continue to make profits, but also cuts off the previous illegal income.
However, it should be noted here that not all private markets are illegal. In fact, the vast majority of private markets themselves are legal, because the so-called private markets are private markets, that is, private markets other than the official horse market. Only things like the arms trade are illegal.
Jinghua has many private markets in northern Xinjiang and even Yunnan, Guangxi and other places, varying in size. As long as they have been reported to the government and clearly approved, they are all legal private markets.
The difference is that Jinghua's private market is relatively clean. It does not do or need to do illegal business, while some private markets are not. For example, many private markets controlled by Li Chengliang relied on the fact that no one would dare to investigate anyway. They dared to do many transactions that violated the imperial ban, but Li Chengliang ignored them.
Because of this, many imperial bans in Liaodong were actually superficial, and some even acquiesced.
For example, although the government horse market was still strictly managed by the court, every time the market opened, the local government would send officials to the market to supervise the market, and send officers and soldiers to strengthen protection. It is strictly prohibited to bring weapons into the market, and those without goods are strictly prohibited from entering the market. They will be asked to leave the country immediately after the market is over.
However, there are many types of goods traded in the horse market, including goods that were banned from trading in the early years. According to records in the "Quan Liao Chronicle", the goods entered into the market by the Mongolian and Jurchen tribes include various livestock horses, mules, donkeys, cattle, and sheep. In terms of skins, there are mink skins, tiger skins, leopard skins, bears skins, deer skins, sheep skins, fox skins, otter skins, etc. In terms of mountain products, there are ginseng, fungus, pine nuts, honey, etc.
The goods entering the market in Liaodong are mainly textiles such as satin, silk, and cloth, ironware such as pots, shareware, etc., and grain. According to a "Horse Market Drawing Booklet" from July to March of the 12th year of Wanli, during these eight months, Haixi Jurchens were traded a total of 26 times at the Kaiyuan Horse Market, and were sold. Five hundred and eighty-one pounds of ginseng, three hundred and thirty-seven and five pounds of mushrooms, one thousand four hundred and sixty pounds of honey, eighty-eight bushels of pine sticks, one hundred and seventy-nine horses, twenty-three beads, and wooden shovels Seven hundred and eighty-three.
And they bought 87 pieces of silk and satin, 656 coats, 215 pairs of water boots, 252 iron pots, 546 cattle, and 4,000 iron shares. Eight hundred and forty-eight items.
It is not difficult to see from this the large scale of horse market trading and the relaxation of certain restrictions: iron farm tools are obviously allowed to be traded, and cattle are also allowed to be traded.
Since iron farm tools are allowed, the equivalent of steel exports has been opened. Although farm tools have their added value, especially the farm tools produced by Jinghua, which have always been "on the expensive side", if we look at it from another perspective: no matter how expensive farm tools are, they cannot be more expensive than weapons, and re-melting farm tools can also be made into weapons. Weapons?
But Tong Weixun's list is even more powerful. He or his master not only sells farm tools, but also directly sells wrought iron and even gunpowder.
If Li Song had to find a way to make false accounts if he sold gunpowder, and after being pragmatic in his early years and sending people from the Ministry of Accounts to help patrol the censors to check the accounts, it has become more and more difficult to make false accounts, then? In comparison, it was much easier for Li Chengliang to sell gunpowder.
He said something about battlefield consumption. Can you check it clearly?
Even if you haven't fought for a while, if he says "training consumption", can you find out clearly?
Don't forget, his subordinates are all his "own people".
Cao Yan's hand holding the letter tightened unconsciously, and his palms began to sweat.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to the book friend "Old West of Altay" for your monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: My dear, in order to elicit these three letters, I wrote a whole battle... If I had a bad memory, I would have to forget them all.
