Zhang Han and they set off on the nineteenth day of the lunar month, an average of fifty miles a day, encountered a snowy day on the way, that day only traveled less than ten miles to rest, after walking on the road for seven days, finally arrived at Datong Town.

There were four group fights along the way, but fortunately, the number of people was equal on these occasions, and the Lama Tiger was invincible, and they beat those mule and horse shops and foot shops very badly.

Datong town is also the largest Daming city that Zhang Han has seen so far, in the early Ming Dynasty by the general Xu Da to build, later after supplementation and repair, finally become a large city with a circumference of more than 13 miles, the city opens four gates, the northeast and south three sides set up three passes, the city wall is 14 meters high, in the border cities at that time is the highest, each gate is built outside the urn city and the corner tower, there is a moat outside the city, the horse wall, the arrow tower, a large number of antlers and other defensive facilities are placed, when Zhang Han and others enter the city from the west gate Qingyuan Gate, he saw that there are many traces of arrow holes on the masonry on the city wall, At the beginning of the establishment of Datong Town, it faced the serious threat of the northern captives, and it was also the most important military town before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the distance of defense was as long as thousands of miles, from the northwest pass to the Juyong Pass, the military town with the most armored soldiers on the nine sides, and the horses were also the most, and its importance was far above the Jizhen and Liaodong.

The times have migrated, and now the importance of Datong is not as important as Xuanfu and Jizhen, and it is far less than Liaodong, but this town is still towering, and Datong Town still has 85,000 soldiers and 35,000 war horses, and the strength is still the best in the nine sides.

"Mr. Li, you're back."

There was an officer standing at the gate of the city waiting at the west gate, and there were several soldiers around him who were leading the war horse on one side, and when they saw Du Shenming from afar, they came up, and Du Shenming also dismounted, and there was already a smile on his face.

Du Shenming first exchanged a few words with the officer, and then introduced to Zhang Han: "This is President Ma Qian, the younger brother of the chief military officer. ”

Ma Qian was in his forties, wearing an official robe, and a bear pamper embroidered on his chest, and when he saw Zhang Han young, he couldn't help but feel a little contemptuous in his expression.

Du Shenming was very thoughtful, and said solemnly at the moment: "Mr. Ma Qian, this trip is smooth, and it really depends on Zhang Shao's owner, and many things in the future will also need the helper of the young owner's and Yusheng firm." ”

"Since Mr. Li said it, I naturally believed it."

Ma Qian always saluted Zhang Han again, and then his face really received a look of contempt, everyone rode into the west gate, the convoy and the guards brought by Ma Qian always followed, there was a thousand general military attaché escort team, the soldiers guarding the door and the tax customs sent in the city did not dare to be embarrassed, they were all directly released.

Du Shenming and Zhang Han rode side by side, Ma Qian always paid more attention to the goods, and after talking to the two for a while, he consciously rode his horse to watch the front and back of the convoy, and did not come to rap and hate.

"I am serving in the Yamen of the General Army, and I am really ashamed that I did not explain it before."

Zhang Han has always felt that this Xiucai is not sour, and he is well-informed, and he is also very decisive and generous, sure enough, this Du Shenming is not an ordinary person.

Generally speaking, officials in various places will have their own curtain guests, from the prefect of the county and the prefecture to the governor of the governor, and each official will hire the master of the curtain to help them do things.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was very stingy, in the past Qin and Han dynasties, officials could recruit their own subordinates, give official positions and lulu, the center will also recognize, the Tang and Song Dynasty local officials are sufficient, and the funds are also sufficient, to the Ming Dynasty, the local funds are almost swept away, and the local finances are poor, and the officials can only use abnormal means to make money to work, if they want to retain the reputation of honesty, then they can't enrich the finances, of course, water conservancy, bridge repair, road repair, these public welfare undertakings have no way to do, for a long time, The local simply does not do things and does not make trouble, so it has a good reputation, so the control of the center of the Ming Dynasty over the locality, the construction of local facilities is a mess, frankly speaking, the level of the Ming Dynasty is the foundation laid at the beginning of the country, and the next two hundred years are tinkering.

The local finances are insufficient, the officials are low, the number of officials is very small, and the officials have to use gray income to hire masters, which is the origin of the popularity of masters in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

However, Zhang Han is a little unclear, this Du Shenming does not seem to be a serious curtain guest, the general curtain guests are divided into money and food, criminal names, books and other categories, each has its own usefulness, the literati are willing to give the military generals as a curtain guest, only to the level of the general deputy general has this capital, and there will be no people-level curtain guests, mostly show talent students, Du Shenming is shrewd and exposed, bold and careful, not like an ordinary master.

"I also have some small businesses in my family, and when I go to the Shogunate, I help the Shogunate to take care of some business matters."

Sure enough, Zhang Han nodded slightly.

Du Shenming made an ear gesture again, and whispered to Zhang Han: "The young proprietor has set up a store in Datong, and if there is a strong military mansion, I am afraid it will be much easier." ”

Zhang Han looked at him and said with a smile: "Little brother has this intention." ”

"I'm just afraid that I want to impress the president in the dividend share capital."

The people of the Ming Dynasty have their own names for the general military governor, the governor is called the town master, the general soldier is called the chief soldier, the patrol is called the chief, each is different, the current Datong chief military officer is Ma Chengen, is the nephew of the famous East Li Xi Ma Zhong Ma Gui general military officer, his father Ma Jin official to the general, his grandfather Ma Lu is also a general, Ma Jin's eldest son Ma Chengzhi is the deputy general of Liaodong, Ma Gui's sons are either deputy general soldiers, or generals, more than ten people in the Ma family are heavy generals with real power, speaking of which, since the death of Li Chengliang and Li Rusong father and son, The Li family of Dongli is no longer as powerful as the Ma family.

"If Brother Du can introduce it on his behalf, there will be dividends on the share capital."

Zhang Han knew what he did, and Du Shenming was also extremely satisfied. Although the Ma family is a general, it is not the largest in this Datong city, the largest is the Dai Wang family, the most fertile land and the most profitable business in Datong are owned by the Dai Wang family, not only that, the Dai Wang also has business in Beijing and Nanjing, and even has a private tax card on the canal, and the relatives almost do this, no one dares to care. In addition, there are Xuanda governors and governors, as well as various soldiers, the old squires from all over the country, these wolves are ruthless characters who eat meat and do not spit out bones, the Ma family is the gate, and the money they make is not like these people can all fall into the bag, and they have to take out a lot of money to raise the family Ding Ministry, the generals everywhere are like this, the family is the foundation of these families, the reason why Dong Li is now down, is because the family of the Li Mansion in the battle of the Biho Pavilion was too seriously injured, and now 20 years have passed, Li Chengliang raised the proud soldiers and fierce generals of the Jia Ding Department Xingxing, The strength of the Ma family has gradually weakened, Ma Chengen has a lot of things on his mind recently, it is because of the lack of money, the family is getting fewer and fewer, and the strength continues to decline, so if it continues, the famous Ma family will fall into an unsustainable state, Du Shenming is good at dancing with long sleeves, and is the curtain guest that Ma Chengen relies on, the task is to open up financial resources for the Ma family, and also have the important task of managing the connections of all parties, frankly speaking, the strength of Zhang Han and He Yusheng is not enough for Du Shenming to introduce, but Zhang Han's insight and bearing along the way, plus the skill of doing things, make Du Shenming appreciate it very much, He is very optimistic about his business, and he has the attitude he has now.

"Zhang Shaodong, please see, these money houses are all opened by the acting king and the rest of the relatives, this place is the governor of the relatives of the treasurer, this place is the business of several big businessmen, and then there is the support of the nobles of Beijing......"

Datong is not a developed commercial city, there are four streets and eight auxiliary streets in the city, and there are still many alleys, as the saying goes: four streets, eight alleys, seventy-two alleys.

The center of each main street has the bell tower, the drum tower, the Taiping building, the Kuixing building, commonly known as the four arches, the palace of the king is in the eastern corner of the city, the place is vast, covers an area of a lot, there is the imperial city, there is also the Donghua Gate and the Xihua Gate, the main gate is the end of the door, the rest of the county king's mansion is also mostly in the east of the city, the west of the city is centered on the general military mansion, the city population has not had an exact number for many years, in terms of the density of people and the scale of the city, when it is about 200,000, it is a big city in the northwest, in the area south of the Yangtze River, it is just an ordinary scale of the city.

The city gate is densely packed with restaurants and businesses, Du Shenming pointed to those are very large money villages, the money village in this year is not the ordinary people can open up, the capital money village is still many, especially outside the Chongwen Gate and Tianjin, most of them are opened by the noble and pro-clan, the Ming money system is chaotic, the money village can buy its own copper cast private money, there is no certain standard, the private money is more and more light, the lead content is high and the copper content is less, it is a good business with a million profits, and some money also put the money in print, that is, usury, and the profit is more abundant.

This is a big piece of fat, Du Shenming implied a reminder when he pointed out, Zhang Han had better not think about this business.

"Several of them are pawnshops, and most of them are opened by the Wang family, and that one is the business of the chief master, and I usually come to take care of it."

Money and pawnshops are put money, in addition to the big business of making money there are grain stores and salt shops, grain, salt, cloth, pawnshops, money villages, are closely related to the people of the big business, Datong here almost more than ninety percent of these shops are pro-feudal plus, Jiangmen and official gentry opened, ordinary people do not do this kind of business at all, it is easy to be gnawed scum is not left.

"Okay, this is the General Soldier's Mansion." In front of a large mansion, Du Shenming stopped the horse, after dismounting, someone tied the reins of the horse to the horse tether stone, there were several sedan chairs and dozens of horses parked in the room, many long with the sedan chair driver and the appearance of the soldiers gathered together to chat and talk, the whole convoy came over, many people looked at it with curious eyes.

Because of Du Shenming's relationship, Ma Chengen met Zhang Han in a small living room, at the end of the year, there was no official business, Datong has been peaceful here in recent years, there is no police at the border, Ma Chengen, the general soldier, is also idle, he is wearing homely clothes, and he is not wearing official clothes, and his face is also very kind.

After entering the house, Zhang Han knelt down and saluted, but Du Shenming did not kneel and bow, only smiled and bowed.

After the ceremony, Du Shenming said to Ma Chengen: "Master, this is Zhang Shaodong. This time the goods are very valuable, the transport of goods is troublesome, fortunately Zhang Shao's mule and horse shop has both car owners, but also with people to escort, in the next this safe return, the capital and goods are intact, live up to the trust of the master. ”――

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