The first year of Chongzhen, the first day of November.

After just a few days, the Naturalization City became extremely prosperous.

Wang Zezhi ordered people to find the lamas of the Yellow Sect on the grassland and place them in the Silver Buddha Temple.

When the Mongolian right-wing tribesmen heard about it, they came to pay their respects one after another.

As soon as the merchants in the provinces of Shanxi received his news, they immediately organized people to come to the Naturalization City to trade.

Although the imperial court explicitly forbade the private opening of border trade.

However, Marx once said that as soon as there is a proper profit, capital will be very bold.

As long as there is a ten percent profit, it will be used everywhere; Twenty percent, it will be lively; Fifty percent of it will give rise to positive risk-taking; 100 percent, it will make people ignore all laws; Three hundred percent will make people not afraid of sin, and even the danger of hanging their heads.

In the customs, a pound of salt is forty yuan, and a pound of salt outside the customs can be exchanged for a sheep for herdsmen, and you must know that a sheep is at least thirty pounds.

They returned to the customs to sell mutton for as little as five catties, not one catty at a time.

As far as the current price of mutton in Datong Mansion is concerned, one tael of silver can buy five catties of high-quality mutton.

That is to say, a sheep sells for at least six taels of silver.

One tael is equal to ten coins, and one coin is equal to one hundred wen, although there are differences in the exchange of coins because of the different quality of silver, but it is not much different.

That is to say, they exchanged salt worth 40 wen for goods worth 6,000 wen.

Subtracting the costs of mules and horses, labor, and miscellaneous items, they still have a net profit of more than 3,800 yuan.

Merchants will not only bring a pound of salt out of the customs, but they will also bring tea and grain necessary for herdsmen.

A few merchants also brought iron tools needed by the herders, such as kitchen knives.

Because iron is a forbidden item, more sheep can be exchanged, for example, a kitchen knife can be exchanged for two sheep.

That is to say, even if the merchants only pull a cart of goods to trade, their profits are more than 100%.

For iron tools such as kitchen knives, Wang Zezhi is strictly controlled.

All iron objects sold must be registered and sold in designated premises.

In addition, herders who buy iron tools must register detailed household registration information, and the iron tools purchased by each herdsman household are also restricted.

In addition to iron tools, Wang Zezhi also made the same restrictions on food.

Because the right-wing tribes had a history of selling the grain rewarded to them by the Ming Dynasty to the Houjin, he had to guard against it.

Of course, the two sides have to be profitable for each other, and if only the merchants in Shanxi have profits, and the herdsmen outside the Saiwai have no profits, then this mutual market will not be open for long.

Therefore, Wang Zezhi specially stipulated the price of war horses.

The price of the inferior war horse is ten taels, the price of the medium war horse is fifteen taels, and the price of the upper war horse is twenty taels.

Since the price of war horses was relatively reasonable, the leaders of the right-wing departments were quite satisfied and said that they could accept it.

The originally sparsely populated city of Guihua has become prosperous again.

It has formed a grand border trade situation with a horse market in the north and a grain market in the south.

Of course, it's not free for both parties to trade.

Wang Zezhi did not collect money by collecting taxes, but by collecting protection fees to extract 7% of the value of the goods on both sides.

Wang Zezhi originally thought that these people would refuse, but he didn't expect that neither the merchants in Shanxi nor the tribal leaders in the grassland had any opinions.

Because he didn't know how difficult and dangerous it was to travel more than 200 miles from the mouth of the tiger to the Naturalization City.

He underestimated the thirst of the right-wing tribes of the steppe for grain, tea, salt, and iron tools.

The lack of resources has forced herders on the grasslands to boil water in pots made of cowhides.

Since the Tumubao Change, the Ming Dynasty has shifted to a strategic state of comprehensive defense. fervor

And under the pretext of war, the border trade has been repeatedly banned.

Grain problems can be replaced by cattle and sheep, and salt can be exchanged for some from Houjin, but tea cannot be replaced by anything, especially after winter.

Tea has become extremely important to herders.

Beef and mutton are greasy, hot, and indigestible.

Long-term use of beef and mutton as the staple food will cause various discomforts, which in turn will cause various diseases.

Tea has the effect of dissolving fat and lowering cholesterol.

Although the herders of the grassland do not know how this works, they know that drinking tea can help relieve their symptoms of abdominal discomfort, heat and constipation.

Abdominal discomfort, heat and constipation, although these are minor problems, can be very uncomfortable.

Therefore, after suffering for many years, the people on the grassland suddenly discovered that the drink of "tea" can improve the stubborn diseases for many years and make their lives more comfortable, so they naturally can't put it down.

Especially for herders who have been drinking tea for many years, cutting off the supply of tea is simply torture for them.

In addition, tea can certainly supplement vitamins, but before tea was introduced to the grassland, nomads were still living well.

Before tea spread to the grasslands, most nomads relied on wild plants for vitamin supplementation.

The grasslands are lush with pastures and wild vegetables, but this method of obtaining vitamins is very unstable.

Of course, they can also rely on the offal of edible animals to supplement vitamins, after all, cattle and sheep are the main food source, and vitamin supplements can also rely on them.

Even some powerful nomadic tribes grow their own crops, such as Lindan Khan.

However, in recent years, there has been early frost on the grasslands, and there are fewer and fewer wild vegetables, and even in November, there are no wild vegetables to eat.

Tea has become one of the important ways for nomads to supplement vitamins, because tea is easy to preserve, easy to carry, and easy to eat, so it replaces other methods of vitamin supplementation.

Herders often come into contact with livestock, which can lead to a variety of diseases.

Tea has the effect of sterilization and disinfection, although the herdsmen do not understand this principle, but it does not affect their discovery of this effect of tea.

In addition, nomads have to migrate frequently, and the water quality varies greatly from place to place, making it difficult for the ancients to distinguish whether the water source is of high quality.

And for people, water is extremely important.

If you go to a place with poor water quality, it is likely that a large number of herders will become ill.

The tea polyphenols in the tea can solidify the suspended solids in the water, improve the quality of drinking water, and at the same time, in order to drink tea, the nomads have changed the habit of drinking raw water, and the combination of heated water and sterilizing tea can effectively prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases.

Although the ancients did not know the principle of tea polyphenols, this did not prevent them from taking advantage of this property of tea.

If the earliest herdsmen drank tea to meet their physiological needs, after drinking tea for a long time, tea was also integrated into the culture of the nomads, and gradually formed a unique custom and became a spiritual demand.

After the introduction of tea culture to the prairie, the processing methods and drinking habits of tea have undergone fundamental changes.

The foreign tea culture has gradually integrated into the unique natural environment and human environment on the prairie, forming a "tea ceremony" with unique local and national characteristics.

Milk tea, a beverage with a unique flavor, is the carrier of nomadic tea culture, which is the product of herdsmen integrating tea into their lives in their long-term tea drinking.

The custom of making tea and drinking tea has been continuously developed and extended among the nomadic people, forming a unique tea culture, which has greatly enriched the material and spiritual culture of the grassland people.

When tea is integrated into the culture, when tea drinking becomes a custom, how can nomads not have a soft spot for tea.

There are only two ways for herders to obtain tea, one is to trade tea and horses, and the other is to loot.

Although the Ming court repeatedly banned border trade and mutual markets, it still could not stop merchants from taking risks to sell tea privately.

In addition, the imperial court often owed the soldiers at the border gates the salaries, and the generals guarding the customs turned a blind eye in order to raise food and salaries, allowing these merchants to spend money to go out of the customs to do business.

However, these merchants were only a small number after all, and they were far from being able to meet the needs of the Outer Mongolian tribes.

This is another reason why Lin Dan Khan waved his troops south, he wanted to win the power of the mutual market with war.

However, today, Wang Zezhi risked killing his head and reopened the mutual market.