The nearest road from Beijing to the Northeast is to take Jizhou through Shanhaiguan and then enter the Northeast. However, after Zhu Hongsan left Beijing, he immediately called Han Sanqiang of the Praetorian Guard and asked him to turn around and go north to Yanqing.

Han Sanqiang was a soldier, and the emperor's order should be obeyed unconditionally, so he immediately ordered the vanguard to turn around and the whole army to go north to Yanqing.

Following Zhu Hongsan was Chen Mingxia, the foreman of the Military Aircraft Department, who was very surprised when he saw that the emperor had given such a strange order, and hurriedly asked: "Your Majesty, what are you doing in Yanqing when you go to Shanhaiguan in Liaodong?" ”

Zhu Hongsan smiled and said, "Haha, Mr. Chen will follow, I want to make a small fortune!" ”

Chen Mingxia was confused when he heard the emperor say this, the emperor is already rich in the world, what else does he need to make a fortune? In addition, what wealth can be made when you go to Yanqing, do you want to rob the Mongols? However, now the Ming Dynasty has a good relationship with the Mongols outside the Guan, not to mention that the Mongols are poorer than the Han Chinese, except for some horses, they have no other property. But Chen Mingxia didn't dare to ask more when he saw the mysterious appearance of Zhu Hong's three gods, so he had no choice but to follow the order.

Zhu Hongsan's team totaled 780,000 people, and after leaving Beijing, it took three days to come to Yanqing, and when he arrived here, Zhu Hongsan told Chen Mingxia that his destination was there, that is, Xuanfu Town, one of the nine sides.

In order to deal with the threat of the north, the Ming Dynasty set up a total of nine towns from Liaodong to Ningxia, called the Nine Border Towns, each town has a general army to guard, tens of thousands of soldiers, these people are the main combat force in the late Ming Dynasty, of course, most of these people surrendered to the Qing Dynasty after the death of the Ming Dynasty, and the soldiers of these border towns in the Jiangnan massacre have contributed a lot.

After Zhu Hongsan occupied Beijing, most of the general soldiers of the Nine Towns defected to the New Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Hongsan did not be ruthless to these two or five boys, but only cleaned up a few big grievances, and everyone else was retained.

Xuanfu Town is one of the important towns on the nine sides, the Great Wall under its jurisdiction starts from Yongguan Sihaiye in the east, and reaches the Xiyang River in Yanggao County, the northeast corner of Shanxi Province in the west, which is 1,000 and 23 miles long. The geographical location is very important, second only to the general army of Jizhen in front of Beijing, so Zhu Hongsan picked Zhao Liangdong when he selected the general army to be stationed.

This Zhao Liangdong is one of the four generals of Hexi, and later pacified the rebellion of the three feudatories, Wei Xiaobao's eldest brother Zhao Liangdong.

Zhao Liangdong was originally a military household in Shaanxi, followed Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi, and followed Hong Chengchou to join the Manchu Qing Dynasty in Liaodong, and was one of Hong Chengchou's irons. However, Zhao Liangdong was captured by Zhu Hongsan after Hong Chengchou's death, and naturally joined the new Ming Dynasty.

Zhao Liangdong was an old soldier of the Ming Dynasty, so he naturally knew the importance of Xuanfu Town, and after learning that the emperor trusted him so much, he immediately wept bitterly and swore allegiance to Zhu Hongsan. In fact, what Zhao Liangdong didn't know was that Zhu Hongsan didn't fancy Xuanfu Town at all, not to mention that there were only more than 20,000 guards in Xuanfu Town, and even more than 200,000 Eight Banner soldiers were not the opponents of his new army, so as long as Zhu Hongsan firmly held the command of the new army, it was better for other local troops to be led by capable people, and they could still gain Zhao Liangdong's loyalty, so why not?

After Zhao Liangdong learned that the emperor was coming to Xuanfu, he hurried out of the city fifty miles and knelt on the side of the road to greet the emperor.

Zhu Hongsan rode on a horse and looked at this famous traitor general, but Zhu Hongsan had no intention of killing Zhao Liangdong. Zhao Liangdong's kind of military manpower warfare was captured, they have done their best, what else can you ask of these illiterate soldiers? Therefore, Zhu Hongsan is very magnanimous to those traitor generals, such as Ma Degong, Tong Guonai, etc., all of which have been reused under Zhu Hongsan.

Zhu Hongsan looked at Zhao Liangdong and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhao, get up!" This is the first time I've met you, get up and talk! ”

Zhao Liangdong didn't dare to raise his head, stood up and bowed down and asked, "Your Majesty, the last general has not received an order from the Military Aircraft Department, so it is late to greet you, please forgive your Majesty!" ”

"It has nothing to do with you, I was originally scheduled to go to Liaodong this time, but I suddenly wanted to come to Xuanfu to do something, and it was also a temporary idea!"

Zhao Liangdong didn't know what the emperor was doing when he came to Xuanfu, but he didn't dare to ask, so he had to follow the emperor's horse closely.

Because Xuanfu is located at the border, the population is not large, and there are only more than 10,000 people in the entire Xuanfu, but because it is close to Mongolia, there are many merchants.

Zhu Hongsan came to the city gate, saw that the people kneeling all over the ground were businessmen coming and going to Mongolia, nodded and asked, "Zhao Liangdong, it seems that the business of Xuanfu Town is good!" ”

Zhao Liangdong didn't know what the emperor meant by asking, and looked at Chen Mingxia beside the emperor, after all, Chen Mingxia and him were both old Manchu Qing people, and they could be regarded as some friendships.

When Chen Mingxia heard the emperor say this, he hurriedly stood up and explained for the emperor: "General Zhao, don't worry, Your Majesty just saw the prosperity of the Xuanfu trade route, and it didn't mean anything!" ”

Zhao Liangdong listened to Chen Mingxia's explanation before he put his mind at ease, you must know that although the imperial court has no war with Mongolia now, it is still an enemy country with Mongolia in name, and now the emperor sees that Xuanfu is doing business with Mongolia with great fanfare, Zhao Liangdong naturally does not dare to answer casually.

But now that there is Chen Mingxia's explanation, it is easy to do, Zhao Liangdong bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, although the war in the former Ming Dynasty and the Xuanfu were greatly impacted, but the merchants are all profit-seeking, and the main war has stopped, and they will soon come back from the Xuanfu to the Mongolian side to do business!" ”

Zhu Hongsan knew that the Ming Dynasty was a confused account of this kind of border trade, and the imperial court could not collect much tax from the border trade, so this time he came to Xuanfu to turn this kind of private smuggling into a state act.

"Okay, it seems that business here in Xuanfu is booming, and I am ready to reopen the mutual market in Xuanfu, Zhao Liangdong, your work will be heavier in the future!"

Zhao Liangdong was overjoyed to hear the emperor say this, he has been here in Xuanfu for three years, and this kind of smuggling in the past was sneaky, of course, Zhao Liangdong, as the chief soldier, naturally has benefits, but the benefits of collecting black money are more than Zhengda Guangming collecting taxes.

"Your Majesty, the last general guarantees that as long as the border gates are opened to the mutual market, the scale of the merchant gang can be tripled!" Zhao Liangdong hurriedly expressed his loyalty in front of the emperor.

Zhu Hongsan stepped forward and patted Zhao Liangdong on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Okay, I am going to open three mutual markets in Jiubian, and this Xuanfu Town will be handed over to you!" ”

Zhao Liangdong was born in Qiuba, and he didn't dare to imagine that he could be patted on the shoulder by the emperor before, but now he felt a few pounds lighter all over his body, so he quickly knelt down to ensure that he would do a good job in the mutual market.

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said, "Okay, get up!" I heard that there are eight major merchant gangs in your Xuanfu, Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku and others, they are all experienced people, you have to learn from them! ”

Zhao Liangdong hurriedly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, there are eight big merchant gangs, they are Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa, they are all living in Xuanfu now, and the last general will call them to kneel and worship Your Majesty!" ”

Chinese businessmen have always had no status, Zhao Liangdong asked them to come to meet the emperor for their sake, with the emperor's talisman, these eight families can be swaying on the ground of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Hongsan shook his hand and said: "Don't worry, I'm tired today, I want to rest in Xuanfu at night, tomorrow, I invite them to dinner at noon tomorrow, and ask them how they do business!" ”

Zhao Liangdong usually does not collect less money from these eight families, and now he is naturally very happy to be able to fight for the opportunity to eat with the emperor for the eight families, and after asking the emperor Zhao Liangdong went to the city to arrange a residence for the emperor, and at the same time went to send a letter to the eight families, striving to receive a red envelope.

Seeing Zhao Liangdong enter the city, Chen Mingxia was very puzzled why the emperor was so noble, why he invited a group of low-status businessmen to dinner.

"Your Majesty, these merchants are of low status, why should Your Majesty deign to eat with them? Wouldn't it be over for Zhao Liangdong to order them? ”

Zhu Hong twisted his beard with three hands and said with a smile: "Hehe, Mr. Chen, you don't know, the small fortune I told you about is on them!" ”

Chen Mingxia understood as soon as he heard that the emperor was coming to extort bamboo. But also, Chen Mingxia is in charge of the Military Aircraft Department and knows that this emperor's northern tour is completely his own money, and if he doesn't make some means to collect some costs back, then don't lose to death!

After Zhu Hongsan finished speaking, he took 10,000 Jinyi guards into the city, and the rest of the personnel stayed outside the city, after all, Xuanfu was only a prefecture-level city, and it really couldn't accommodate 70,000 or 80,000 people entering the city.

After Zhu Hongsan entered the city, of course, he stayed in the Xuanfu General Military Mansion, in fact, there was originally a governor in Xuanfu, but Zhu Hongsan made the governor practical, and he was not an official with the nature of Qincha in the former Ming Dynasty, so now the biggest official in Xuanfu is Zhao Liangdong, the chief soldier, and his chief is the governor of Tianjin.

The arrival of the emperor made the entire Xuanfu area boil, especially after hearing that the emperor was going to open up the mutual market, all the big merchants around Xuanfu gathered in Xuanfu, ready to take a share of this feast. As the head of the Xuanfu merchants, the eight families naturally want to have an important stake in this mutual market, but they are not worried, because Zhao Zongbing has just come to inform them that tomorrow the emperor will invite them to dinner and want to ask about the mutual market.

The heads of these eight families came to the gate of the General Soldier's Mansion early the next day to wait, not because they were afraid that they would not be able to eat if they were late, but because the palace supervisor notified them last night, let them come early today to learn the etiquette of the palace.

Eating with the emperor is not for nothing, that set of etiquette is enough for you, what to eat that dish first, see what the emperor says, what the emperor should say to toast you, how to kowtow, etc., this morning's study made the eight family heads dizzy, but the thought of seeing the emperor immediately, my heart is still very excited.

The imperial banquet was set up in the lobby of the General Soldier's Mansion, and when the auspicious time arrived, these eight people dressed in costumes, under the leadership of the little eunuch, bowed their heads, walked briskly into the hall, and then knelt on the ground and waited for the emperor to arrive.

After a while, the kung fu drum music sounded, and first a group of brocade guards entered the hall, stood around the hall, and then listened to the footsteps, it seemed that the emperor had arrived.