"Whew..., it's finally here." Si Cha sighed, a white vapor erupted from his mouth, and then it was blown away by the wind, and they finally arrived in Zhangjiakou two days before Chinese New Year's Eve.

Several horses snorted incessantly, apparently tired.

Nan Nan stuck her head out of the carriage and looked curiously at the city not far away, "This is Zhangjiakou!" Why is it different from the county, state, and city? ”

Zhiwen, Liu Cai and Si Cha and the guards rode horses, Liu Cai was in a bad mood, and he couldn't help much if he stayed in the mountains, so Zhiwen simply took him with him, and it was good for multiple adults to go anywhere, and Si Cha couldn't win to accompany them.

As for getting married, Xiao Yingniang hasn't done it yet.

The girls sat in a carriage, and the carriage that was put away before entering Taihang Mountain came in handy again.

"That's it." Xiao Ying, who was driving the carriage, chirped, "Why are there so many houses outside the city?" ”

This girl, who didn't know how to convince Xiao Yingniang, finally followed.

Niuniu didn't speak, her eyes blinked, and she looked at the scenery outside the carriage.

Zhiwen frowned slightly, as a side fortress, the city wall is only a little higher than Yanjia Village, and the city seems to be not much bigger, and it is a little unqualified.

"This is the lower fort, Zhangjiakou Fort refers to here, commonly known as 'fort', there are five miles away from the Great Wall." Sicha introduced it to everyone with a smile.

The upper fort is also known as Laiyuan Fort, commonly known as the "city circle", located next to the side wall of the Great Wall, and it is here that the real external defense function is here.

The Lower Fort is located within the Great Wall, so naturally there is no need to build too high walls.

Zhangjiakou, also known as "Zhang Yuan" and "Wucheng", Jiajing garrison Zhang Zhen opened a small gate in the north city wall for eight years, called "small north gate", because the door is small as a mouth, and was built by Zhang Zhen again, so it is called "Zhangjiakou".

Zhangjiakou belongs to Xuanfu, and Xuanfu is one of the nine important towns of the Ming Dynasty, which is an important direction for the Mongolian war, and at the same time covers the flank of the Beijing Division, and the town on the other side is called Xuanda.

At that time, people called Xuanda the back of the Beijing teacher, which shows its importance.

Militarily speaking, Zhangjiakou is just an ordinary Great Wall border fort in Xuanfu Town, and at the beginning of the fort, there were only official offices, official residences, military camps and other buildings in the fort.

But from an economic point of view, it's a real powerhouse.

With the continuous development of trade, in the Wanli period, Zhangjiakou has been "department stores, cars, horses, camels, sheep, cloth and tiles, stepping pills and money and pu's skills", a prosperous scene.

Commercial houses, temples, and private residences of wealthy merchants began to appear outside the city walls, creating a unique scene of a city outside the city.

With the rise of Liaodong Jiannu, the Ming Dynasty imposed an economic blockade on it, Zhangjiakou became more prosperous, and became an important economic town in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

Such a piece of super fat meat is naturally coveted by many people, so Zhangjiakou has both super big merchants like the Fan family who are rooted here, and many small businessmen who come here to look for opportunities.

There are even more big businessmen like Zhou Chengyun, although their strength is strong, but because of the gap with the Fan family, it is difficult to get in, and they can only arrange a small number of large foreign businessmen to keep an eye on them, and they will bite off a piece of meat from the Fan family as soon as they have the opportunity.

There are officials, merchants, and bandits here, Han Chinese, Mongolians, and Jurchens are mixed together, and the spies of the Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin, and the Mongolian departments, plus the secret agents of various merchants, have intricate forces, quite like the old Shanghai in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

"Zheng Gongzi, please, let's go to the Pujie Hall to settle down." Si Cha said hello, and together with the guards, led the way.

......

According to Si Cha, the conditions of the Pujie Hall in Zhangjiakou are not good, but it still opened the eyes of Zhiwen and their soil buns from the ravine.

In addition to the main room that enters the door is used for meeting guests, there are several courtyards in the back, there are guests who entertain VIPs and banquets, as well as guests and fellow villagers, and Zhiwen They are arranged separately in one of the courtyards.

After hurriedly grooming and changing his clothes under the service of the maid, Zhiwen left as if he were fleeing.

It's so corrupt that from the moment you undress, someone will be on your side, and if you don't want to move, someone will wash you clean and send you out dressed neatly.

Zhiwen has never had this kind of treatment in his two lives combined, and he is really not used to this kind of senior member service, so after stopping the maid's service, he did it himself, divided by two by three, and ran to the front yard after washing quickly.

Liu Cai arrived early, sat at the table and drank tea in a regular manner, waiting for the meal to start, but his anxious expression betrayed him, and it was unfortunate to think about it.

Zhiwen had no intention of making fun of him, said hello, and sat down at the table.

After a while, Sicha came in with a red face, and it seemed that he enjoyed this kind of treatment.

Then there are the girls, who are served by the maids, and the three girls are not shy, but looking at their excited appearance, they should play in the water.

Seeing that everyone was together, Si Cha waved outside the door, and the dishes came in like water.

"Where's Brother Yin?" Along the way, everyone is also familiar with each other, Yin Huwei has followed Zhou Chengyun for more than three years, and he can be regarded as loyal.

"Leave him alone," Sicha said in a low voice with a lewd smile on his face, "I'm going to find him a good match, you know." ”

"Come on, Zheng Gongzi, please." Si Cha stretched out his hand and began to introduce the dishes to everyone.

"Zhangjiakou is located on the side, there is really nothing to do, and this 'burning north and south' can barely get into the eyes."

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, and the dish that "barely reached the eyes" in his mouth was yellow and white, and it was fragrant.

"Let's try it, the yellow one is the mushroom, and the white one is the Jiangnan bamboo shoots, which is considered to have put in some effort." Si Cha said.

Everyone was speechless, it was just a mushroom to stuff outside, and it took a lot of effort for Jiangnan bamboo shoots to get here.

This can only be regarded as barely visible, and Zhiwen can be regarded as seeing the luxury of these big businessmen.

"Brother Sicha, which are the eight major grain merchants in Zhangjiakou?" While eating, Zhiwen began to ask for advice.

These eight families were later known as the Eight Great Emperors of the Manchu Dynasty, but Zhiwen really didn't know anything except the surname of the leader, Fan.

"You're asking the right question." Si Cha swallowed a piece of mushroom, "Over the years, we have fought with them in the south and in the north, and we don't know how many times we have fought openly and secretly, our son is the one who knows them best, although he is not talented, he can still talk to everyone." ”

"These eight families are headed by the surname Fan, and you should all know that the remaining seven families are the Jin family, the Liang family, the Tian family, the Zhai family, the Huang family and the two Wang families."

"Fan Yongdou, the most outstanding figure in the Fan family, although he is the eldest son, has skills, determination, and is the most promising to take over as the head of the family, and the other seven families also have their own outstanding figures, namely Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa.

However, just now the guild hall reported that Fan Yongdou has not appeared for a long time since he went to Jinnan. ”

Zhiwen smiled secretly, Fan Yongdou will never appear.

In this matter, Zhiwen and everyone who knew the inside story were very tight-lipped, but externally, they only told Zhou Chengyun, and it seemed that his mouth was also very strict.