The palm-sized nephrite is as white as mutton fat, and it is placed on the pitch-black table, reflecting a soft luster......

"This is the jade of Kunshan?"

Even if Heifu and Chen Ping don't know the price of jade, they can see that this piece of jade is worth a lot of money, although it is not "Liancheng", at least it is worth hundreds of gold!

Heifu's narrative begins with jade.

He said to Wu Shilu: "Your Majesty likes to collect treasures, when Li Tingwei published the "Book of Exhortations to the Guest", he put the jade of Kunshan and the treasure of Suihou, the bi of the He, the pearl of the bright moon, and the sword of Tai'a side together. As far as I know, this Kunshan jade is the ...... that Wujun got from the Yue Clan."

The so-called Kunshan is Kunlun Mountain, however, Kunlun in this era is not a definite geographical term, and there is no stone tablet standing there to tell you that this is the main peak of Kunlun.

It is the product of a mixture of reality and imagination, similar to "overseas fairy islands", ethereal. Some people say that it is actually located in Jizhou, also known as Tianzhu Mountain, corresponding to the Big Dipper; Some people say that it is the Qilian Mountains in Hexi; Some people say that it is far beyond the desert of quicksand......

Therefore, Qu Yuan raised such a question in his "Heavenly Questions": "Kunlun Hanging Garden, where is its 尻 (kāo)?" ”

This can be described as one of the biggest unsolved mysteries since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

That's why Heifu dared to instigate Chen Baowuya and Qin Shi Huang to boast about "the Queen Mother of the West or in the ruins of Kunlun", because he knew that he couldn't find it at all, and it was difficult to falsify.

Even if the emperor really sent an envoy to the main vein of Kunlun Mountain? Five thousand miles from east to west, hundreds of miles from north to south, many places can not even fly birds, look like a fairyland from afar, only to find that it is difficult to climb to the sky, the ghost knows whether the "West Queen Mother State" will be on it.

In any case, although Kunlun is slim and hard to find, the people of the Central Plains love things from Kunlun very much.

Since the beginning of the Yin Shang thousands of years ago, there have been "Kunshan jade" transported from the west, becoming the favorite exotic treasure of the Central Plains people. The trade between the Wu clan and the Hexi Yue clan was mainly to transport silk in exchange for cattle, horses, and jade, which was the main source of various jade ornaments in the Qin court.

Therefore, this trade route can also be called the "Jade Road".

"But where did this Kunshan jade come from? Was it mined by the Yueshi people? Hefu questioned.

The Wushi brothers shook their heads: "When the merchants of the Central Plains enter the Yue Clan, they are often rejected on the east bank of the Heli River, and they are not allowed to go half a step further to the west. And Kunshan jade was transported from Zhaowu City, the capital of the five parts of the Yue Clan. ”

Helishui, although Heifu didn't know where it was, was probably not too far from the Yellow River, so in this way, Wu's caravan only entered the edge of Hexi.

Wu Shiyan, who has been there in person:

"We also bribed the Yue clan chief, they only said that this jade was not produced by the Yue clan, but was transported from the quicksand desert to Zhaowu City by camel caravan, and then asked, but refused to reveal half a sentence, saying that the king of the Yue clan had an order, and the person who leaked the matter of the west to the easterners died!"

"I didn't give up, and I sent a team of people to smuggle across Heli Water and march westward, but there was no news. It's just that when the next year's trade came, the king of the Yue clan sent me their heads......"

Speaking of this, Wu Shiyan was still a little angry.

Obviously, the Yueshi did this to monopolize the trade routes, because they controlled the Hexi Corridor, they could not only buy the jade of the West, but also obtain the silk of the East, and then sell the two to each other at a high price, making huge profits from it!

In order for this kind of business to be sustained, it is necessary to put an end to the contact between Eastern and Western businessmen.

Even the Wu brothers know very little about the Western Regions, so they can only refer to the "Biography of Mu Tianzi" under the pretense of King Mu of Zhou's westward journey. It describes a lot of place names in the Western Regions, such as Chung Mountain, Chiwu Country, Qunyu Mountain, and Cao Nu......

According to Heifu's guess, the book says that the Chiwu country is rich in beautiful women, maybe it's Loulan? And the jade mountain is probably Hetian, because the book says that King Zhou Mu "took the jade three times, jade clothes, and carried ten thousand jades" there, and he really gained a lot.

In short, the world west of the Yueshi is bigger than the people of the Central Plains imagined.

Heifu began to desperately instill in Wu's family: "The Yue's clan occupies Hexi, blocks the merchants from the east and west, monopolizes the benefits of jade and silk, and the profits obtained are ten times that of the Wu clan!" ”

"Therefore, if Your Majesty sends General Li Xin to the west to destroy the Yue Clan, it will be beneficial and harmless to the Wu Clan. If the Yue clan is destroyed, the Wu clan caravan will be able to go west along the west side of the river, while searching for the state of the Western Queen Mother for His Majesty, and at the same time trading with the western states. At that time, silk brown sugar can be directly sold thousands of miles away, jade and other exotic things, will also be continuously transported into the Central Plains. That's what I call the big deal! ”

Wu Shi was moved, but he was a sane businessman, and he would not gamble everything for the sake of illusory things, he thought about it and said:

"The policy of westward expansion has just been implemented, and it is too early to talk about destroying the Yue Clan. But as soon as the county lieutenant said this, the old man also wanted to know how many states there were to the west of the Yueshi, how many of them had populations, and what special products they had, waiting for us to trade. ”

Wu Shilu had this idea, and Heifu's goal was half achieved.

A great man once said: as soon as there is a proper profit, the capitalist will be bold. With a 50 percent profit, it takes a risk; For the sake of 100 percent profit, it dares to trample on all human laws; With a profit of three hundred percent, it dares to commit any crime, even to the risk of being hanged!

In addition to the ambitious conquerors, the merchants, the pioneers of eternal discovery.

Just as the Europeans after the Renaissance have been desperate to bypass the Ottoman Empire and trade directly with India and China, so they continue to rush to the sea. In this era, the Central Plains people, not only the emperor longed for the mysterious Kunlun and the Queen Mother of the West, Wushi Lu and other merchants, but also hoped to directly find the origin of jade.

"This desire is the driving force of the great geographical discovery......

Of course, it is impossible for Heifu to explore by himself, the risk is too great, and if he is not careful, he will be like Zhang Qian, and he will not be able to return for more than ten years, and this important task will still have to be handed over to the caravan of the Wu family.

At this time, the Wu brothers had already begun to study how to bypass the Hexi Yue clan and send a caravan to the west to have a look.

Wu Shiyan proposed: "You can go to Huangzhong, there are many Qiang there, as long as you give the Qiang Hao Chieftain a proper order, you can let it go." ”

The route he said was to take the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai directly to the Western Regions, which was also the secondary route of the Silk Road in history.

However, there are always strange places in history, in history, Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions in order to find the Da Yue Clan, and now, the Wu brothers went to the Western Regions, but they wanted to avoid the Yue Clan......

Wu Shi said: "You can also pass through the Xiongnu and go west on the grassland!" The Xiongnu did not trade and would not deliberately obstruct it, but the Xiongnu liked to rob merchants, and the risk was not small. ”

What he is talking about should be the "Grassland Silk Road", from the northern grasslands to the west, as long as there are water and grass, there is a way to go.

While speaking, Wu Shilu also glanced at Heifu and said with a smile: "Taking this route, you can also find out the truth of the Huns for Your Majesty and the county lieutenant!" ”

"What a businessman!"

Heifu secretly said in his heart, that's right, this is one of the purposes of his persuasion of Wu Shilu!

The best spies are nothing more than two kinds of people, one is an envoy to a foreign country, and the other is a merchant who trades on the frontier. Heifu not only needed the assistance of Wu Shi Lu in terms of funds and livestock, but also needed his caravan to go deep into the Xiongnu to help him find out the enemy's reality and achieve "knowing the enemy".

The effect of forcing Wushi to cooperate and Wushi taking the initiative to help is very different.

Seeing that the deal was about to be negotiated, Chen Ping on the side took the opportunity to say:

"In the past three hundred years, there have been many wealthy businessmen in the Central Plains, but there is nothing else that can be rich for more than two generations except Tao Zhu! Those who are near will bring disaster to their bodies, and those who are far away and their descendants, what is it? Could it be that the children of the giants are all stupid and not good? In my opinion, this is because they have a thousand gold, but they have no merit in the country, so they are regarded as lice by the monarch and ministers, and under the suppression, the son of the daughter will become a poor man overnight. ”

"And now, Wujun spies on the military situation of the Xiongnu and Yueshi for the state, which is a merit. To open a new business road for Daqin, this is the second achievement; and for Your Majesty to find the state of the Queen Mother of the West, this is the three merits! ”

Not only can it be worth thousands of dollars, but it is also a good way to protect the wealth of the family.

"I think that in a few years, Wujun is afraid that he will really be crowned the king!"

Everyone loves to listen to good words, Wu Shilu laughed when he heard this: "County Lieutenant, you have a long history, you can really speak, and it's a pity not to be a businessman." ”

He said it casually, but unexpectedly, Chen Ping got on the donkey along the slope and asked Heifu directly:

"The county lieutenant, I am willing to disguise myself as a merchant and go north to the Xiongnu with the Wushi caravan to spy on the reality of the county lieutenant!"