On November 23, in the Fan family compound in Zhangjiakou, eight Jin merchants from the Manchu dynasty gathered to discuss the major events of the month. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhangjiakou is an important customs clearance town at the foot of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. In the fifth year of Longqing, Ming Muzong reached an agreement with Altan Khan to reopen the mutual market. "Mutual market" does not mean that trade can be carried out everywhere, there is a special place, which is managed by the government, that is, the "horse market". Zhangjiakou Fort is the horse market of Xuanfu Town, which has become a place for large-scale trade between Xuanfu Town and Mongolia.

In the Wanli period, with the development of trade, Zhangjiakou "department stores, cars, horses, camels, sheep, cloth, and tiles, and the skills of stepping on the pills and money Pu are complete", a prosperous scene.

In this era, Jin merchants were pervasive in doing business, and there was no concept of national interests at all. After the founding of the Later Jin Dynasty, the Jin merchants also traded with the Later Jin through Zhangjiakou, and Zhangjiakou became a distribution center for the smuggling trade of the Tartars and the Ming Dynasty. Later Jin's specialties were transported to Zhangjiakou and exchanged for grain, gunpowder and ironware from the Ming Dynasty.

The economy of the Later Jin and Manchu Qing was predatory, but this predatory economy was not enough to be self-sufficient. It can be said that without the support of the smuggling trade in Zhangjiakou, the Manchus would not have been able to wage war at all.

In the original history, after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, they were very grateful to the Jin merchants, and named the eight Jin merchants as the eight imperial merchants and gave them various privileges. Shanxi merchants were rich in the Manchu dynasty.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Jin merchants had been trading with the Manchus for decades. The eight Great Jin merchants who communicated with the Manchu Qing Dynasty all had business names and personnel stationed in Zhangjiakou.

But history has taken a big turn because of the emergence of Li Zhi. In November, Li Zhi received a decree from the Son of Heaven and was ordered to inspect the trade of Shanxi merchants and to see if the Jin merchants had collaborated with the enemy.

In the second hall of the Fan family's compound, the representatives of the eight merchants looked solemn one by one, and the atmosphere in the hall seemed to be frozen.

This month, Li Zhi's younger brother Li Xing was stationed in Shanxi by holy order, and sent people to inquire about intelligence and check the accounts of Jin merchants. Even Han Jinxin, the ambassador of the secret guard, who was regarded by Li Zhi as his right-hand man, arrived at the Xuanfu to assist Li Xing in censoring the Jin merchants.

Jin Liangyu, the head of the Jin family, knocked on the table and said distressedly: "Because of the censorship of this yellow-mouthed child Li Xing, my Jin family has interrupted trade with the Qing State for ten years. A large amount of grain and gunpowder was accumulated in the warehouse, and the losses were heavy. ”

Hearing Jin Liangyu's words, Fan Yongdou glanced at him in surprise. Fan Yongdou was surprised that this Jin Liangyu was in great trouble, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

Fan Yongdou is the head of the Fan family of Shanxi's big businessmen, and he made his own fortune. As early as the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Fan family did business in Zhangjiakou and Mongolia, and after seven generations, the business became bigger and bigger. In the hands of Fan Yongdou, the Fan family was already the largest trade partner of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

and the eight major merchants smuggled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, also headed by the Fan family.

Fan Yongdou saw that Jin Liangyu didn't know the severity, and also knocked on the table.

Wang Dayu, the head of the Wang family, shouted: "Master Jin, you really don't know about things. Now Li Zhi is coming violently, he wants all the family resources of you and me, and even you and my lives! Are you still distressed about this decade and a half of trading? ”

Jin Liangyu rolled his eyes and said, "The Qing Kingdom was originally going to conquer Korea in the spring, and now is a critical moment when there is a shortage of materials. If you can't get supplies because the trade in Zhangjiakou is interrupted, and you can't get anything from now on, what will you and I do? To whom are the goods sold? ”

"When the Qing Kingdom was at its peak a few years ago, how big was the volume of trade? In the past few years, the Qing Kingdom has declined, and my Jin family's business has deteriorated a lot! ”

Wang Dayu said: "You are still worried about the southern expedition of the Qing Kingdom, I think it is better to worry about the safety of our eight businesses first." This Li Zhi is a character who kills people without blinking, and he kills more than 100 gentlemen in Shandong, and his hands are soft when he copies his house. Now that he has been ordered to investigate us, it will be a felony to lose our heads if we are found by him! ”

Jin Liangyu rolled his eyes and said: "Our eight families have been operating in Shanxi for decades, and if the strength of the eight families gathers together, the three towns of Xuan, Da, and Shanxi will all be at our disposal, and the city guards of the three towns will all be under our command." He Li Zhiyuan is in Tianjin, what will he use to fight us? ”

"Even if we find out our details, I don't think I'm afraid of him!"

Hearing Jin Liangyu's words, the heads of the other seven businesses seemed to have been given a shot in the arm, and they were all a little encouraged-no matter how powerful Li Zhi was, it was only in Shandong and Tianjin. In Shanxi, the situation was firmly in the hands of the intertwined Jin merchants. Shanxi is thin and has many people, which of the local civil officials and military generals is not supported by the silver of the merchants?

The eight Jin merchants united, and more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the three towns of Xuanda Shanxi could be mobilized. That's hundreds of thousands of soldiers...

Jin Liangyu stood up and said, "And our merchants in Shanxi are all family businesses, which of those guys is not very loyal?" Most of the guys who know the way are the backbone of the various merchant gangs, and they won't betray us! ”

"As far as I know, everyone has been careful over the years, and the business with the Qing State has never gone through the main account, and it is all bartering in private. As long as we burn that private account, where will Li Zhi go to us to communicate the evidence of the Qing Kingdom? Now that we have stopped trading with the Qing Kingdom, Li Zhi will not be able to catch our evidence! ”

"Then Li Xing Huangkou child, you can't say that you will raid our house when you see ginseng and mink in our warehouse, right?"

"Our ginseng is bought from North Korea, and our mink is sold by Mongolians! Li Xing: What can he say? ”

When everyone heard Jin Liangyu's fearless words, their minds became active. Several people gathered together and whispered, as if they were pondering how to do it without leakage, so that Li Xing could not catch a little evidence.

In the end, everyone finally came up with a countermeasure, and a businessman in the prime of life stood up and said, "Master Jin is right! We sent all the guys who knew the details to Saiwai and sent them to Naturalization City to hide for a few years. The rest of the guys don't know anything, and as soon as the bill is burned again, what can Li Xing find out? ”

Guihua City is Hohhot in later generations, and it was the trade center of Mongolia in this era. The eight Jin merchants traded in Manchuria and Mongolia at the same time, and they also had connections in Guihua City. If you let the Mongols in Naturalized City hide some people, it will not be a problem.

Jin Liangyu knocked on the table, nodded and said, "Okay!" What we want is this kind of courage, we have been doing business with the Qing State and Mongolia at the same time in recent years, and there is no specific record of the entry and exit of goods. Although the people of Zhangjiakou knew that we were trading with the Qing Kingdom, that was just a legend. Li Zhi can't rely on this legend to raid our home! ”

"I don't believe that Li Zhi can kill all the guys we are hiding there in Naturalization City."