Wucheng is the Zhangjiakou of the later generations, here is a very special place, it is one of the passes of the Ming Dynasty to the Mongolian steppe, most of them belong to the jurisdiction of the Beijing Division, but the westernmost is the jurisdiction of Shanxi Datongfu, and this is only an administrative division, if it is divided from the military, Zhangjiakou belongs to the Wanquan Division, that is, the jurisdiction of the Xuanfu.

Originally, border passes like Wucheng were generally relatively desolate, especially the blockade of the steppe by the Ming Dynasty, and according to the law, merchants were not allowed to approach here, let alone trade with the Mongol court through here.

However, although the laws of the Ming Dynasty are strict, as long as there are enough benefits, there will always be no shortage of those bold people in this world. Like the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy, the blockade of the border pass was also extremely strict at the beginning, but after so many years, the sea ban of the Ming Dynasty has long existed in name only, and the blockade of the border pass is naturally the same, especially in the Wucheng area, which is the only way for the Ming Dynasty to trade with Mongolia, so it has led to Wucheng from a military fortress to a prosperous commercial town.

The current Wucheng garrison is named Zhang Zhen, although this person does not have much ability, and even the war is not very good, but he is like Jiang Bin and these people, left his name in history, which is mainly beneficial in a few years later, Zhang Zhen opened a small city gate on the north city wall of Wucheng, which was used to facilitate the smuggling caravan at the border gate, because this small city gate is as small as a mouth, and was built by Zhang Zhen, so it was called Zhangjiakou, and later this name became the name of Wucheng, In later generations, it completely replaced the original name of Wucheng.

Wucheng was held on the main communication route between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia. Every day, you can see a large number of caravans passing through here to shuttle between a large number of people and Mongolia, among which the Ming tea, salt, cloth and other commodities need to pass through here, in addition to the cattle and sheep skins and horses on the Mongolian grassland will also be transported to the Ming Dynasty from here, especially the alkaline noodles produced in the northwest, most of them need to be transferred from Wucheng to the Ming Dynasty, and later after the name Zhangjiakou, the alkaline noodles of the Central Plains are also called mouth alkali.

With the leakage of wool textile technology and canning technology some time ago, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty saw the business opportunities and rushed to the border of the Ming Dynasty to invest in the workshop. Wucheng was originally one of the most prosperous border cities in the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, there are also a lot of businessmen here who invest in setting up workshops, and all of them have deep backgrounds, otherwise they would not have obtained two new technologies so quickly, and these people have arrived. It also gives Wucheng more popularity. Especially after those workshops started to recruit workers everywhere. Some of the poor people around flocked to Wucheng City to find work.

However, most of the wool weaving and canning workshops in Wucheng are concentrated in the south of the city, and very few people will build their workshops in the north of the city, because the north of the city is entrenched in the local snake of Wucheng. That is, the local businessmen who originally relied on smuggling to make a fortune, although there are people behind those workshops, but the so-called strong dragon does not suppress the head snake, so the people behind those workshops do not want to provoke those original smugglers too much.

Although most of the smuggling merchants here in Wucheng are under the jurisdiction of the Jingshi, most of the smuggling merchants entrenched here are Shanxi Jin merchants, these Jin merchants have accumulated a large amount of wealth by relying on the smuggling business for many years, and most of these wealth are used by them to buy land or cellar up, such as Wucheng here, the entire northern city is almost bought by these Jin merchants to build a house, so it can be described as a mansion like a cloud, each occupies a considerable area, and it is considered a rich area in Wucheng.

In addition, it is said that the mansions built by these Jin merchants in their hometown are more luxurious than here, although they live here most of the time, but their hometown is their face, so naturally they can't be sloppy. It is also because the Jin merchants all live in the north of the city, so the land price in the north of the city is extremely high, which is also one of the reasons why those newly opened workshops are reluctant to go to the north of the city.

The most central area of Beicheng District, where there is a largest and most exquisite mansion in the city, the area is almost comparable with the Zhao Wangfu of Zhou Zhong in Beijing, and even the degree of luxury, it is also above the Zhao Wangfu, you must know that the Zhao Wangfu of Zhou Chong used to be Liu Jin's private residence, known as the Nine Thousand Years Old Mansion, and the luxury of the construction is not much more than the Forbidden City, but here in Wucheng, there is a more luxurious mansion than the Zhao Wangfu, which shows the strength of the owner of this mansion.

There is a plaque hanging high on the main door of this huge and luxurious mansion, with two huge words written on it - Fan Mansion, but anyone who knows a little about Wucheng knows that the owner of this Fan Mansion is named Fan Yongdou, whose ancestral home is Jiexiu, Shanxi, Jiexiu Fan After several generations of efforts, the Fan family of Jiexiu and other seven Jin merchant families control the trade of salt and tea on the grassland, which can be said to be rich and rival the country, and they are not only rich, but also have people, the eight Jin merchants originally had a huge ethnic group, plus the recruited Han and Mongolian warriors as courtyard thugs, It can be said that he is the emperor of the soil in the northwest.

However, compared with the previous scenery, now Fan and the other seven Jin merchants are facing a huge dilemma, the reason why they were able to control the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia in the past, the main thing is because of the Ming Dynasty's trade blockade of the grassland, but Fan and others used money to buy off the generals of the border pass, so that their caravans can smoothly enter and exit the grassland, and other caravans were blocked by the imperial court's blockade order, so under this kind of monopoly, Fan and others naturally earned a huge amount of wealth, and it is indeed not wrong to call it a rich and rival country.

It was only with the spread of wool weaving and canning technology that Zhou Zhong persuaded the cabinet to abolish the ban on trade with Mongolia, and as a result, all caravans could freely enter the grassland, although most of these caravans were for wool and meat, but the things they used to trade were the salt and tea that were urgently needed on the grassland, and as a result, the salt and tea in the hands of the Jin merchants could not be sold, after all, the digestion capacity of the goods on the grassland was limited, and others sold an extra pound of salt. That would be equivalent to an extra pound of salt in the hands of Jin merchants.

In the hall of the Fan family's mansion, eight people sat opposite each other around a table, among which Fan Yongdou, a member of the Fan family, sat on the main seat, and on either side were the other seven merchants who were listed as the eight major Jin merchants alongside him.

"Everyone, the imperial court has lifted the ban on trade, now anyone can bring goods in and out of the grassland, the salt and tea in our hands are no longer a unique business on the grassland, and those herdsmen are also more willing to exchange worthless wool and mutton for salt and tea, this month our Fan family's trading volume has dropped by half, it is estimated that it will drop even more next month, if you don't want to find a way, I'm afraid that in a few months, our eight major Jin merchants can only go back to their hometown to farm!" Fan Yongdou glanced at the seven people in front of him and said with a deep face.

Fan Yongdou is just forty years old this year, with big ears and eyebrows, and a pair of small eyes, which looks like he is laughing at any time, but when he is angry, this natural smiling face will turn into a kind of sinister smile, which makes people feel chills at the sight.

"Master Fan, your family's business has only shrunk by half, which is not bad, like Wang's business is trading with those tribes that are relatively close to Daming, but now those new swarms of bees are pouring into the grassland, and the first to attack are those tribes that trade with me, as a result, our Wang family's business has plummeted this month, all the salt and tea are backlogged in the warehouse, and if you can't sell it, I'm afraid you can only lose money!" At this time, the middle-aged fat man sitting on Fan Yongdou's right hand also opened his mouth to complain, this fat man's surname is Wang, his name is Wang Dengku, and he is the second person among the eight Jin merchants, but because his family's caravan did not go very far, he was also hit the most this time.

"Wang Er, don't complain, our family has lost a lot this time, today Fan Ye called everyone here just to discuss a countermeasure, just crying poor is a fart?" At this time, a young man with oily hair and a powdery face sitting opposite Wang Dengku suddenly spoke with disdain, and his eyes were full of disdain when he looked at Wang Dengku.

Wang Dengku is the second in the family, his nickname is Wang Er, and there is a big brother on it, but it is said that he killed his eldest brother by not very bright means, so he can sit in the position of the head of the Wang family, and Wang Dengku himself is very taboo about this dishonorable history, and even deceived others to tell others that he has no big brother, he has always been the boss of the family, and it is precisely because of this that he hates others to call him Wang Er.

"Phew! Wang Xiaoniang, Lao Tzu is crying about poverty, don't think that if you marry the daughter of the Liang family, you can not take Lao Tzu in your eyes, and tell you that even if you are tied up with the Liang family, Lao Tzu will still overturn you! Wang Dengku was poked in the sore spot by this young man, and immediately slapped the table and pointed at the other party and scolded, looking like he wanted to fight hard with red eyes.

The young man on the opposite side is also surnamed Wang, named Wang Dayu, who is also one of the eight Jin merchants, because he is so greased and powdered like a woman, so he is called Wang Xiaoniang, and the two often fight in business, so as long as the two usually see each other, they will inevitably quarrel a few words.

"Oops! Brother Wang is so angry, the son-in-law just told a few words of truth, why did you scold our Liang family? As soon as Wang Dengku's words fell, a middle-aged man sitting next to Wang Dayu immediately opened his mouth to help, this name is Liang Jiabin, Wang Dayu's father-in-law, their Liang family and Wang Dengku also have business struggles, and the grudge between the two families is also very deep, so after their Liang family and Wang Dayu's family married, their strength is already slightly stronger than Wang Dengku, so they are not afraid of each other. (To be continued......)

PS: The Eight Great Jin Merchants are real people in history, and the names are also real, but they are just characters decades later, and they are also the big traitors who led the Qing army into the customs, it can be said that the demise of the Ming Dynasty has an inseparable relationship with them, especially Fan Yongdou, who provided a lot of food and weapons and armor for the Manchu Dynasty, and later the Manchu Qing Dynasty was established, and the eight of them were named imperial merchants, and the national fortunes of the Manchu Dynasty shared weal and woe, until the fall of the Manchu Dynasty, the power of these eight families slowly declined, in order to let everyone remember these eight traitors, The old fish advanced them to the Zhengde period, which is hereby explained.