On the official road leading to Jiangzhou, there is a long caravan.

Winter is coming to an end, Cui Ying has to arrange the store before the beginning of spring, and she will start commercial trade with Chen Guo as soon as spring begins next year.

In the past, there were commercial contacts with the Chen Kingdom, but due to the high tariffs, the trade between the two countries was limited to itinerant merchants and hawkers, and large merchant groups like them were not involved.

This time the city was opened, and Cui Ying brought the brocade from Beijing. She has great ambitions and wants to take over the entire border cloth market.

First, she was confident in her own products, and secondly, the information she received from Han Ming was very accurate, and the importance of information to business was self-evident.

There are two border cities that have been opened this time, one is Jiangzhou, where Cui Ying personally came to transport goods, located in Qianwei County.

There is another one, which is located in the eastern part of Central Chu, Yu County, which is located in the subject country of Eastern Chu.

Although the subject state of Eastern Chu is not called a county, the appointment and dismissal of officials are decided by Shangjing. Because of the large number of local Tu people, when they were naturalized, they set up a Tusi to govern together with the county guard appointed by the imperial court.

Although Jiangzhou is a little far away from Shangjing, there are waterways running through it, extending in all directions, and it is an ideal place for business travelers from all over the world to gather. Presumably, after the opening of the mutual market, Jiangzhou will surely become the economic center of the entire southern part of Central Chu.

Yu County is located in the southeast of Zhongchu, during which the mountains and rivers are far away, the poor mountains and bad waters, far away from Shangjing, the big businessmen in Beijing will naturally not spend great efforts to go to Yu County to grab the market, and this place is not far from the national capital of Chen Fancheng, think about it, it will become the market that Chen merchants focus on.

The choice of Jiangzhou and Yuxian as the mutual city city, in the eyes of discerning people, knows that the two sides are dividing the scope of interests.

Merchants do business, must choose the most cost-effective plan, there is no doubt that Jiangzhou will become the main battlefield for Cui Ying and even the big businessmen of Zhongchu in the future.

"Cui Er, how much do you think we can earn this time?" asked one of the team's grooms to the leader next to him.

This groom is called Diaozi, who has been wandering outside since he was a child and has learned some skills. This time, he heard that the Cui family was going to recruit a groom to Jiangzhou, and the remuneration was very rich, so he signed up.

Cui Er stretched out a hand, "At least this number." ”

Diao Zi's eyes widened, a little incredulous, and he looked around like a thief, and wrapped Cui Er's hand in one hand.

"You're not kidding, are you? That's a year's worth of earnings. ”

Cui Er looked disdainful, "Believe it or not." Let me tell you, this time our owner has inside information, not to mention the fact that most of the land in Jiangzhou has been acquired, let's just say how many businessmen are in Jiangzhou today? We came early, ate the meat first, and when they came again, we would only drink soup. ”

When Diao Zi heard Cui Er say this, he couldn't help but drool. After taking a sip and wiping his mouth, Diao Zi said to Cui Er: "Brother Cui, don't forget my little brother when the time comes." ”

Cui Er smiled and patted Diaozi on the shoulder. "Tell you, I have spent money to buy a piece of land in Jiangzhou, and when the time comes, I will sell it, make a lot of money from him, and then come back to buy a piece of land, and I will also be addicted to the landlord. ”

When Diao Zi heard this, he couldn't help but give Cui Er a thumbs up and kept complimenting him. But his eyes rolled, and his attention was obviously not on Cui Er.

Snowflakes began to fall on the road again, and sparse snowflakes fell down, gradually covering the distant convoy.

Shangjing, the Auxiliary General's Mansion.

Liu Han hurriedly ran in and placed a letter in front of Han Ming.

"My lord, this is what my subordinates discovered from their correspondence when they were investigating the spies of the northern kingdom. ”

Han Ming looked at Liu Han's expression and sensed that something was wrong with the situation, so he hurriedly opened the letter and carefully browsed it.

"There's a problem. After reading it, Han Ming said this.

The letter does not contain much useful information, but at the end of the letter, it says 35 groups, and 35 should be the number of this team.

Seeing this, Han Ming knew that something was wrong.

"Thirty-five groups, tsk, I can't imagine that Liguo has sent so many people into us, are they going to do it, to destroy the country? Han Ming said with some teasing.

"My lord, there are so many spies in the Liguo faction, this matter should not be underestimated. Liu Han reminded.

"Well, yes, it should be taken seriously. In this way, you and Han Yu will work together to find out all the spies buried in the country, and if you don't have enough manpower, tell me, no matter what method you use, be sure to find out their intentions. ”

"Yes, sir. After speaking, Liu Han retreated.

Han Ming couldn't figure out what the other party was doing, but there were Dragon City and Dragon Pass in the north, and it was expected that they wouldn't be able to turn over the storm.

But now there is a trickier thing to deal with.

As soon as the winter is over, Zhongchu and Chen Guo will open a mutual market, and the transactions of merchants must be stepped up, and the safety of the mutual market should be regarded as the top priority. Kuang Yue asked Han Ming a while ago who would be the city guards of the two places.

This problem can make Han Ming difficult, Jiangzhou is okay to say, it is not a big problem for the county guard to take over the role.

But Yu County is in trouble, it is located in a remote area and is located in the territory of the subject country of Central Chu. Because of the Tusi system, the imperial court did not have a permanent army there, but only appointed officials to administer it.

To the north of the subject state of Eastern Chu are the transverse kingdoms across the great rivers. Although it is adjacent to the Chen State in the south, it is full of lofty mountains and mountains, and it is difficult to march, so naturally there is no need to take too many precautions.

Because of the unique geographical location, sparse population, and barren land, the defense of the subject state of Eastern Chu was undertaken by the local Tusi, and the autonomy was very strong.

Dispatching military generals to guard Yu County is nominally a promotion, but everyone knows that in the bitter cold land, promotion is equivalent to suffering, and the military generals of the Manchu Dynasty are almost unwilling.

Moreover, we must be careful whether sending troops to garrison will cause a reaction from the local Tusi, and if it is not handled properly, I am afraid that it will also cause civil strife.

In the past few days, Han Ming has been thinking about this problem, and a perfect solution really can't be thought of in a moment or a half.

But fortunately, this winter is not over yet, and he has plenty of time to think.

Kuang Yue also knew that this problem was not easy to solve, and the defense problem in Yu County was not a big problem according to the past. But now that the mutual market has opened, it is necessary to send people to station, and the environment there has always been unstable, and I don't know why Chen Guo chose that area as the opening point of the mutual market, which made everyone anxious.

It just so happened that he had done everything he needed to do recently, and there weren't many things, so Kuang Yue gave Han Ming a vacation and let him rest more, as for the affairs of Yuxian County, he would keep it for now, maybe it would be better for the ministers to discuss the council together.