In the autumn of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, Beihai.

Just experienced the middle of summer, the grass has not yet turned yellow, the weather has turned cool, all kinds of birds and beasts on the grassland, in order to store food for the winter, have come out to activities, it is the best season of the year.

However, Zhiwen is not interested in hunting, in the grassland for so many years, from the beginning of the bow and arrow, to the current arrows are not missing, during which he has hunted large and small, he can't remember.

Although this place is far away from Monan, the grassland style remains unchanged, and if it was just hunting, he would not have run all the way from Dalintai to here.

What attracted Zhiwen was Beihai's great fame in later generations.

Beihai is the name of the Han history books, in later generations, it has a very foreign Russian name - Lake Baikal, is the world's deepest lake, the largest freshwater lake in Eurasia, more than 600 kilometers long, nearly 50 kilometers wide, it is not an exaggeration to call it the sea.

A few years ago, Ye He, Heishui and other Tianzi mercenary groups worked together to bring the department under the rule of Zhuolu, and at that time Zhiwen wanted to come and see, but he was riddled with mundane things and the road was far away, so he had to put out his thoughts.

Now that he is free, he took his family to the north to see the magnificent scenery of the North Sea.

"Husband, how can you not say a word with such a beautiful view?" Wang Shuyun drove the horse lightly and came to Zhiwen's side, and after his eyes swept over the lake, he was also as frightened by the beautiful scenery as Zhiwen, and was motionless.

Three years ago, Zhiwen became a relative when he turned twenty, and one of the brides was Wang Shuyun, who had visited his childhood sweetheart.

Although in later generations, he was still a hairy boy at the age of twenty, but at this time, many people already had children, although Zhiwen wanted to get married when he was older, but who called him the pillar of Zhuolu, and he didn't have a family, whether it was an elder or a subordinate, he was not at ease.

In the end, Zhiwen was unable to completely withstand the pressure, and finally completed the major events in his life at the age of twenty.

"Brother Xiaozhi, it's so beautiful here." Xiaoying also rode to his other side, looking at the water with two eyes without blinking, reluctant to move away.

Brother Xiao Zhi is used to it, even if she married Zhiwen with Wang Shuyun, she still hasn't changed her words.

That's right, Xiaoying is also Zhiwen's wife, innocent and scheming, but there is no shortage of ghosts and elves, which is completely different from Wang Shuyun's knowledgeable and gifted, virtuous and generous, but they complement each other, which makes Zhiwen feel like enjoying the blessings of all people.

The Zheng family is not a wealthy family, and Zhiwen also intends to downplay the difference between wives and concubines, the two were married together at that time, and there is no difference in size until now.

The three of them have no heirs yet, and others such as Xiaoying Niang and Wang Xuexue are very anxious, but Zhiwen doesn't care too much, the two girls are not very old, especially Xiaoying, who is not yet twenty, and after a few years, it is not too late to get pregnant, and it is good for the body.

"Well, it's beautiful." Zhiwen is also immersed in the deep blue scenery of the sea and sky.

It took a long time for the three of them to come to their senses.

"Well, it would be nice if they were there." Xiaoying was the first to speak, sighing for such a beautiful scenery but the lack of friends to accompany her.

"Nan Mei is now the wife of a cabinet minister, how can she leave Jingshi and go to this northern underworld." Wang Shuyun answered.

The Nan sister she said in her mouth was Nannan, who was named Zheng Nan by Dr. Sun when she was sixteen years old, and then not long after, she married Song Xiance, and the couple went to Beijing together.

Song Xiance is now one of the ministers of the Ming Cabinet, and she is naturally the minister's wife.

Niuniu married Li Dingguo, Lin Qiao married Sun Kewang unexpectedly, and several girls have a home.

Niuniu's big name Zheng Liu is also the name taken by Dr. Sun, Dr. Sun took a homonym according to the nicknames of the two sisters, although it is a little lazy, but it is not unpleasant to hear one Nan and one willow.

Sun Kewang's record in the battle of Dalinghe was still good, but he felt that he was not as good as the three fires set by Li Dingguo, and after returning to Dalintai, he resigned from the post of sheriff.

With dozens of personal soldiers, he mixed with the mercenary group all day long, not seeking to command the battle, but to fight happily, and he also participated in the final battle of destroying Jiannu.

After that, he couldn't be idle, so he simply set up a mercenary group by himself, and it was secondary to take on tasks to make money, in order to be able to walk around and gain a long insight.

Wu Sizang he has been, Tianshan Mountain, Altai Mountains have also left his footprints, Lin Qiao is not a delicate girl, marrying a chicken with a chicken, and the couple rarely stay in Dalintai obediently.

Before Zhiwen and the others went north to Beihai, the two took another task and went out.

Li Dingguo has a lot of responsibilities, and can stay quietly in Dalintai or Zhuoer Lake to train troops, but he has a good relationship with Ye He and Heishui, and Hai Dongqing, Amin and others will ask him to run from time to time to help train and train, and at this time, the couple should enjoy the beautiful scenery in the area of Waixinganling in the future.

"It's still fun when I'm a child, but when I grow up, I have a lot of rules, this doesn't work, I don't let that, I can't see anyone I want." Xiaoying pouted and said, "I think Mr. Song, the cabinet minister of Raushzi, don't do it." ”

"It's a child's talk." Wang Shuyun smiled, "Mr. Song, the cabinet minister, is not just for himself, but also for our Zhuolu Trading Company, how can you say that if you don't do it, you won't do it, right, husband?" ”

Zhiwen smiled and nodded, Wang Shuyun has read a lot of books, and in these respects he is much stronger than Xiaoying, who is confused, Song Xiance, the position of cabinet minister, but Zhuolu Trading Company fully supports it.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the seventh year after the fall of Jiannu, although the northern part of the Ming Dynasty was still suffering from drought, because of the drought-resistant and high-yield grain provided by the Zhuolu Trade Union, the displaced people completely disappeared, and most of the people had food and clothing, and some people even made a fortune just by relying on high-yield grain.

After the Ming Empire completely got rid of internal and external troubles, Chongzhen, who had been on the throne for a long time, was finally no longer so anxious, and he began to pay more attention to things.

Jin Yiwei commanded Luo Yangxing to set his eyes on the Zhuolu Trading Company at some point, secretly investigated for a long time, learned a lot of information, and timely reported the details of the Zhuolu Trading Company, which had become a behemoth at this time, to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen looked at it, such as a mang, a trading company, not only monopolized the woolen industry, but also colluded with the governor's border army, if they were given time, would it infiltrate the court and court, and their lives would be worried.

Then he ordered the Zhuolu Trading Company to seal the shops in Beijing and Yingtianfu, exempted Geng Ruqi, Zhang Honggong and He Wenrui and others from sending envoys, and let the three of them go to Beijing to report on their work, and at the same time secretly ordered the Beijing camp to send troops to surround Zhuolu Mountain, intending to force the big proprietor behind the trading company to show up, and then slowly concoct it.

Unexpectedly, before Zhuolu Trading Company could fight back, several major incidents occurred one after another, leaving Chongzhen helpless.

The shops of the Zhuolu Trading Company are actually neither conspicuous nor luxurious in these two places, and are only responsible for wholesale goods to retail merchants.

Around the Mid-Autumn Festival, it was the time when the people were preparing winter clothes, and they couldn't buy sweaters and wool cloth, which had a great impact, and the dissatisfaction with the court was pervasive.

At first, Luo Yangxing wanted to arrest a few people to deter him, but unexpectedly, the more trouble it became, and the involvement was widespread, so he was so scared that he had no idea, so he had to release the people he had arrested before, and ran to Chongzhen to get an idea.

Then the border troops of Xuanfu, Datong, and Jinxi were in an uproar, and they directly launched a mutiny, and they even stopped Geng Ruqi, who was about to return to Beijing, and prepared to support the three of them to directly send troops to Beijing.

Geng Ruqi and the others resolutely refused, and the border soldiers did not embarrass them, so they found a courtyard and put them under house arrest.

Then nearly 10,000 horses were dispatched to protect Zhuolu Mountain, and the Jingying had not yet left the boundary of Shuntianfu, and when they heard the news, they were so frightened that they retracted back to the Jingshi.

Chongzhen was anxious, it was difficult to ride a tiger, he wanted to be tough, and he was afraid of making a bigger mess, he also saw the cowardice of Jingying, it was impossible to expect them to be able to deal with the border army of Xuanda, if they wanted to do it, I am afraid that they had to move Jiliao's army, but in this way, the matter could not be reversed.

I had the intention to back down but felt that I had lost face, and under the dilemma, the situation was temporarily deadlocked.

When the news reached Dalintai, the people of Zhuolu Trading Company, and various mercenary groups, all scolded bitterly, saying that the imperial court was ungrateful, crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, and without the hard work of everyone outside the fortress, where did the Jiannu fall and the border provocation that could not be seen for seven years.

Impulsive, such as Sun Kewang, Hai Dongqing and others, simply proposed Zhiwen to use troops against the Ming Dynasty.

Zhiwen did not take this radical suggestion, together with the sword soldiers, I don't know how many lives will be ruined, they are all Han Chinese, there is no need to kill each other.

Solving the problem does not depend on fighting and killing, sometimes other means are more effective, and if you don't see a strike and mutiny, Chongzhen will be helpless?

Soon, Ma Er's people in Beijing found Luo Yangxing and told him that Zhuolushan had the sincerity to negotiate with the imperial court, but the premise was to let Zhuolu Trading Company's shops in the north and south of Beijing reopen, and at the same time let Geng Ruqi reinstate the three officials, Zhuolushan was willing to appease the striking merchants and the mutinous border army.

Otherwise, these troubles will give the imperial court a headache for themselves, and in addition, Ma Er's people also told Luo Yangxing that if the imperial court continues to be unrelenting, the Zhuolu Trading Company will stop providing drought-resistant and high-yield grain to Guannai.

Luo Yangxing didn't dare to hide these words, and relayed them to Chongzhen word for word, and after Chongzhen heard it, he thought about it for several days, and finally lowered his head.

Chongzhen laughed at himself, and actually forgot the biggest reliance of Zhuolu Trading Company before he started.

After years of continuous propaganda, as well as word of mouth among the people, the grain of Zhuolu Trading Company has spread all over the north and south of the empire, and it is precisely because of the high yield of these grains that the Ming Dynasty, especially the north, has got rid of the crisis of serious food shortage, and the south is richer.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to sweet potatoes, Zhiwen also provided special rice varieties for the south, with the same advantages and disadvantages as sweet potatoes and potatoes.

If you don't buy grain seeds, you won't be able to harvest them, and some people have tried to challenge them over the years, but they all ended in failure, so I had to reluctantly accept this reality and obediently buy grain seeds from Zhuolu Trading Company.

Chongzhen is also very clear about this, at first he didn't think this was a big deal, if he could ensure a high yield and a bumper harvest, he could solve the problem of Daming, so it was natural for the merchants to make some money and grain.

This time, I knew that I was stuck in the neck, and if I didn't have these magical seeds, the entire empire would be in danger of being cut off in the coming year, even if there was still some grain in stock, but it wouldn't last long.

Even if the original old-fashioned grain can be found and planted, but who can swallow the rice bran if they are used to eating bird's nest, besides, the drastic reduction in grain production will make the empire face the dilemma of starving people everywhere and homeless people making trouble again.

In the end, the Zhuolu Trading Company and the Ming Imperial Court chose a place in the border area and sat down to negotiate.

At this time, the Zhuolu trading company was no longer the Zhuolu trading company of Chongzhen's four years, after the destruction of Jiannu, in order to further expand the business of grain seeds, especially for the rice seeds in the south, Zhou Chengyun's connections were needed to help, Zhiwen took the initiative to merge all the affairs of the Zhuolu trade union into the trading company.

Since then, the Zhuolu Trading Company has become a behemoth integrating monopoly businesses such as wool spinning, green salt, veterinary medicine, and grain seeds, and there are various Mongolian tribes and many mercenary groups as thugs, which is a monster that can not only do business, but also use force.

Of course, Zhou Chengyun's share ratio has decreased accordingly and has been diluted a lot, but even so, he feels that he has taken a big advantage.

The two sides went back and forth on the border to do tai chi, and it took a whole month of work to finally reach the following agreement.

The household department of the Ming Dynasty and the inner treasury of Chongzhen each contributed one million taels of silver, accounting for thirty percent of the shares of Zhuolu Trading Company, and the remaining seventy percent, Zhou Chengyun monopolized two percent, and the remaining fifty percent of the shares were managed by Zhiwen for the brothers.

This cheap Ming Court is big, you know, Zhuolu Trading Company is not short of money at all now, just two million cash not to mention three percent of the shares, even one percent of the shares are impossible to buy, this is completely for the sake of the face of the Ming Dynasty, in order to let Zhuolu Trading Company go to the Ming place in a dignified manner, without being suppressed and make concessions.

Song Xiance became the youngest cabinet minister as a representative of the Zhuolu Trading Company, in order to protect the interests of the Zhuolu Trading Company, and in the future, successive cabinets must ensure that there is a representative designated by the Zhuolu Trading Company.

This was the greatest political achievement of the Zhuolu Trading Company, and in addition, the appointment of the governor of Xuanda and the commanders of the three subordinate towns required the approval of the Zhuolu Trading Company.

In fact, at the beginning of the negotiations, Zhuolu put forward the condition that he wanted to intervene in the general army of the nine towns, but the Ming court refused to agree no matter what, and finally gave in to each step, and the Zhuolu trading company obtained the right to appoint and dismiss the governor of Xuanda and his subordinate three towns.

These are the interests of the Guan, outside the Guan, except for the Nuergandu Division that has been built in Liaodong, the Zhuolu Trading Company is the existence of the Emperor of the Earth.

Whether it is Taiji or Khan, all the ministries need to obtain the approval of the Zhuolu Trading Company, and the imperial court will canonize them, and the heirs of Lin Dan Khan's lineage, as well as the three prime ministers under him, will also be selected by Zhuolu and reported to the Ming court for approval.

As for the mercenary group or anything, neither side mentioned it, and tacitly agreed that this was an armed force under the command of a trading company.

Since then, the Zhuolu Trading Company has become the existence of the East India Company that once appeared in the British, Dutch and other countries in later generations, and in a large area outside the Saiwai, it exercised administrative, judicial and other powers on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, based on commerce and trade, and used mercenaries and various tribes as the armed forces, deterring and dissatisfied.

In fact, looking at it this way, Zhiwen and they took advantage of the Ming Court very much, they were independent kingdoms outside the Saiwai, and they also had their own spokespeople in the Guannai, he thought that it would not be easy for Chongzhen to agree, after all, the power of the Zhuolu Trading Company outside the Sai was too strong, and it had the ability to threaten the Ming Dynasty, but he didn't expect it to be very smooth.

It seems that the supply of grain is the ultimate killer, forcing Chongzhen to bow his head.

However, Zhiwen is not blindly strong, he followed the example of later generations of companies to set up a board of directors, according to the number of shares to determine the directors of each party, in addition to dividends, the imperial court can also participate in the decision-making of Zhuolu Trading Company, which is probably one of the reasons why Chongzhen is willing to agree.

In addition, Zhiwen's power claim in the customs seems to be not small, but it also shows that Zhuolu Trading Company has no further plans, but Chongzhen is relieved.

Although the Zhuolu line was too powerful outside the Saiwai, it was not without benefits to the Ming court, and since then, the border provocations in the north can be said to have disappeared completely, and the financial and material resources of the Ming Dynasty can be used in other places, such as the southeast coast.

But said that Xiaoying listened to Wang Shuyun's words and pursed her mouth, "I know, our Zhuolu trading company is now a big business, and we need to take our own responsibilities and fulfill our duties in order to make the trading company prosperous..."

I want to continue to memorize, Zhiwen interrupted with a wry smile, "Okay, okay, Xiaoying, this is what I said in the trading company before we went north, what are you doing by memorizing it?" ”

Xiaoying stuck out her tongue, "It's nothing, I just think these words are very good, and when I talk to people in the future, wouldn't it be good to be able to speak like this." ”

"If you want to speak eloquently, you better read a few more books, Xiaoying." Wang Shuyun said with a smile.

"Alas, I get a headache when I read the book, so don't mention it, okay?" Xiaoying said with a sad face.

Zhiwen and Wang Shuyun laughed together.

In the midst of laughter, the sound of horses' hooves sounded in the distance, and several of the guards behind them drove their horses vigilantly to meet them.

Not long after the two met each other, two horsemen from the opposing team came out of the crowd, and a whirlwind galloped towards Zhiwen and them.

"Brother Xiaozhi, Xiaoying, Sister Shuyun." Before the person arrived, Niuniu's clear voice came.

"Niu Niu!" Xiaoying's eyes lit up, and she rode up to meet her, and the two girls made a fuss on the horse, and then they came to Zhiwen together.

Li Dingguo followed behind them unhurriedly, saw Zhiwen, and simply called Brother Zhi, but he could see that he was also very excited, and Zhiwen nodded in response.

"Haha, I didn't expect to meet Zheng Gongzi here." Immediately afterwards, a rough voice followed, and Hai Dongqing also arrived.

"Brother Haidongqing." Zhiwen smiled, it was obviously a joy to meet them in such a place.

"Didn't you say that you invited Dingguo to go to Shixing Mountain (now Waixing'an Mountains) to hunt and enjoy the scenery, why did you come to Beihai?" Zhiwen asked.

Li Dingguo and his wife have been to Beihai, and they heard that they went to Shixing Mountain at the invitation of Hai Dongqing and them, and the two places are far apart, so how could they come here again.

"Hey, Zheng Gongzi, you don't know," Hai Dongqing smiled, as if he had found a treasure, "Originally, I did invite Captain Li to go to Shixing Mountain to relax for a few days, but I didn't expect someone to accidentally break in and disturb our Yaxing, I and Amin combined, and simply arrested them all, thinking about sending them to Zhuoer Lake to see if the trading company could accept it, so Captain Li came with him and took a look at Beihai by the way." ”

"Arrest?" Zhiwen frowned, "Brother Haidongqing, didn't I tell you that the tribes of Dongjin Mountain and Shixing Mountain need to focus on Huairou means, so as not to start a war lightly. ”

"Don't worry, Zheng Gongzi." Hai Dongqing grinned and didn't care, "These people, tsk... It's white and tender, and no one understands what he says, forget it, Captain Li, it's still you. ”

White and tender, are they all women? Zhiwen was confused.

"That's right, Brother Zhi." Li Dingguo opened his mouth to explain, "These people are not the natives of Shixingshan, they have never seen them before, they have fair complexion, golden hair, and they are weirdly tight, and they forcibly buy furs, ginseng, and Dongzhu in Shixingshan, and the price is very low, and after causing public outrage, they also plundered a small tribe, and we can't stand it, so we take all of them." ”

As soon as he heard Li Dingguo's description, Zhiwen knew that he was white, and when he counted the time, could it be that the Russians came?

"Few of these people can understand the words, but it is easy that one of them has an interpreter, who is said to have come from some Eros, and by the way, they have muskets." Li Dingguo continued, "It's just that their muskets really can't be held on the table, and they have to use the fire rope to ignite the fire." ”

Due to the existence of the Zhuolu Trading Company, the treatment of the Ming border army gradually increased, and the craftsmen with the lowest status in the army also enjoyed the benefits, and some top craftsmen were hired by the Zhuolu Trading Company to Dalintai to continuously improve their firearms.

Most of the conflicts outside Cyprus in recent years were small-scale, and artillery did not make great progress because of its heavy and inconvenient artillery, and it was the portable muskets that made amazing progress.

The kind of musket that needs to be ignited with an arquebus, which is still used by the Ming army at the moment, and the mercenaries with deep pockets have basically changed to front-loading smoothbore flintlock pistols, so they don't have to worry about the fire at night and the smell of burning arquebuses exposing the target, and they don't have to worry about being wet by the rain, and they can fight around the clock.

Moreover, the rate of fire, weight, and range have been qualitatively improved, and bows and arrows have been eliminated, and muskets have become another new source of revenue for Zhuolu Trading Company.

It was Li Dingguo who looked down on these intruders who were still using arquebuses.

"Yes, yes, Captain Li is right, these people are born white, and their faces look like ghosts, we all call them white-skinned ghosts, but they are tall and big, and it should be good to work as coolies, Zheng Gongzi, do you want to go and see?"

Hai Dongqing raised his hand and pointed to the camp they had set up in the distance and asked.

Hey, it's really Russian, Zhiwen is interested.

In recent years, because there were very few prisoners of war who were captured to do hard labor, the demand for wool spinning continued to increase, and the manpower for washing wool began to be short, so they had to find people with a lot of money, and the cost of wool and woolen cloth began to rise.

"Let's go, let's see." Zhiwen gently pinched the horse's belly, Da Bai deftly turned around, neighed, and raised his hooves towards the camp.

The rest of the men followed, and the horses' hooves broke through the turf, raising wisps of grass clippings, which swayed in the air, and finally fell to the ground again.

(End of book) the latest chapters in the future, please pay attention