"I am your general, and I am the deputy chief soldier of Yansui Town, I said that if you have merit, you are meritorious, and I will say that the governor has it." Liu Cheng smiled and patted Du Gu's shoulder: "You should be careful next time, who will be born to fight?" Don't pay attention to those gossip, just do things with sincerity, I know it in my heart! “

Hearing such a heart-warming comfort from his boss, Du Gu had already burst into tears, and he knelt on the ground and wept silently: "Lord General, you love me like this, and the end will be like a liver and brain, and it will be difficult to repay it!" ”

"Get up, get up!" Liu Cheng pulled it up and said with a smile: "I'm going to build a city next, you can prepare for it, understand?" ”

"Yes, sir!" Du Gu wiped the tears on his face, suddenly remembered what happened just now, hurriedly took out a letter from his arms, presented it with both hands, and said in a low voice: "General, this is a letter sent by Lord Zhao Wende Zhao." ”

"Brother Jiansheng's letter?" Liu Cheng took the letter and asked, "He's back?" Why not come in person? ”

"My lord, Lord Zhao said that there are many people in the city, and the people he brought this time are a bit of an eyesore, so he found a place to live outside the city, sent someone to send a letter, and asked the lord to go in person."

Liu Cheng read the letter and asked, "Well, where is the person?" ”

"The last general will place it in a secluded courtyard, and let people serve wine and food!" Du Gu replied cautiously.

"Well done, Agu, you've grown!"

"It's all about adults on weekdays!" Du Gu hurriedly thanked him.

Liu Cheng read the letter twice, and finally sent it to the oil lamp to light it, and brought it to the burned edge of only a corner of paper before throwing it on the ground and trampling it out, he thought for a moment, and ordered Du Gu: "You immediately pick twenty subordinates with tight mouths, and change them into civilian clothes." Come out of town with me! “

"Yes, sir!"

When Liu Cheng saw Zhao Wende, he immediately understood why he said in the letter that it was "an eyesore", and there were five or six blonde and blue-eyed men standing beside him, which gave him the illusion of traveling back in time after he had long been accustomed to black hair and yellow skin.

"Your Excellency, this is Lobanov. Stroganov! Zhao Wende stretched out his right hand. Pointing to the white blonde man in his early forties, he said, "Mr. Lobanov is a special envoy of the Tomsk Merchants' Association. Stroganov is the president of the Tomsk Merchants' Association and the largest fur and salt trader in the region! “

"It's an honor to meet you, Your Excellency! I heard that you just won a great victory, congratulations! As soon as Zhao Wende finished his introduction, Lobanov greeted him in Chinese with a strong accent and bowed deeply to Liu Cheng, and the other attachés behind him also saluted Liu Cheng.

"Welcome!" Liu Cheng smiled reservedly: "It's nothing, it's just a group of Tatar bandits!" An interpreter translated Liu Cheng's words into Russian. The Russians exchanged a few words, and Lobanov smiled and said: "You are too modest, the Tatars are a brave people, and we Russians have experienced it ourselves." ”

"Yes, the Tatars are brave, but bravery does not equal victory, and the organized minority can easily overwhelm the unorganized majority! You Russians should be the victors in the war against the Tatars, otherwise you would not have been able to come to me. Isn't it? “

Hearing the translation, the Russians had a look of surprise and admiration on their faces. Lobanov cautiously bowed to Liu Cheng again: "What you said is very reasonable, the Russians did defeat many Tatars, but we are here for peace, trade, and friendship, not for war!" ”

Liu Cheng nodded noncommittally, he naturally wouldn't believe the words of these Russian businessmen, so to speak. The history of the Russian nation as a whole is the history of foreign expansion, and in the Russian colonial conquest of Siberia and Central Asia, its big merchants played a very special role, not only buying products, building cities, but also forming armies and surpassing the army. In place of the Tsar, he personally sent troops on an expedition. A case in point is the Stroganov family, which, at the end of the 16th century, recruited a Cossack mercenary army of up to 840 men to attack the Siberian Khanate, even the capital of the Khanate, Iskel. The Stroganov family also benefited greatly from this, Russia in the sixteenth century was an extremely backward and barbaric feudal country, the only competitive commodity in the European market was fur, and the vast Siberian forests were filled with countless otters, martens, foxes, and the cold climate made the fur of these animals much thicker and fatter than their European counterparts, and the Stroganov family occupied a considerable share of the fur trade, and the family's wealth was so much that And even at the All-Russian Congress of the Gentry in 1613, was it possible to fund and help Mikhail? Fedorovich? The Romanov became the founding monarch of the Russian Romanov dynasty, Mikhail I. The Stroganov family's political investments paid off handsomely, they owned numerous estates in Siberia, and members of the family entered the upper echelons of the Russian Empire, gradually transforming from merchants to nobility.

Seeing that Liu Cheng's attitude was not too enthusiastic, Lobanov made a gesture to the attaché, and the attaché gave him wooden boxes, which he opened one by one in front of Liu Cheng, revealing golden sand, large pieces of gems, amber, and finally two thick sable fur coats. Liu Cheng noticed that one of the attachés was limping when he walked, and after a closer look, he found that one of the other party's legs was missing half of it, and there was a wooden leg under his pants, and his scarred face showed a fortitude unique to a veteran who had experienced a hundred battles, so he paid attention.

"Your Excellency, these are gifts from the Stroganov family, I hope you like it!" Lobanov confidently pointed to the boxes in front of Liu Cheng, but what disappointed him was that Liu Cheng was not captured by these valuable gifts like the chiefs and Great Khans who had dealt with him before, and he didn't even bother to look at the contents of the wooden boxes, but just nodded and motioned to the subordinates behind him to put them away: "It's not easy for you to bring things from such a distance, I accepted this intention, so what is the purpose of you coming so far!" “

Seeing Liu Cheng's attitude so cold, Lobanov's initial self-confidence was lost a lot, and he forced a breath and said loudly: "By God's grace, our Stroganov family has been authorized by His Excellency the Tsar. I want to be able to trade with your country; In addition, I hope that the commander-in-chief will stop selling firearms to the Mongols and other Tatars, which will cause great harm to God's people! ”

After listening to the translation, Liu Cheng nodded: "In this way, you have two purposes for this trip: the first is to hope to trade with our country; The second is the hope that we will no longer sell firearms to the Mongols. Is it? ”

"Yes, Lord Commander-in-Chief, I hope you can agree to these two requests!"

"Well, I'll answer your first request first, and the answer is no!" Liu Cheng's voice was not loud, but word by word, his voice was sonorous and powerful, like the voice of Jin Shi: "The Jungger people who got the firearms are my Ming vassals, and they are my Ming border guards." They were given firearms to defend against foreign robbers, and you say that these firearms killed your people, but were they killed by the invading Mongols in their own land, or were they killed in the invasion of other people's land? If it's the former, you can ask for it, but if it's the latter, isn't it the Mongols' birthright to defend their borders? ”

Lobanov didn't expect Liu Cheng to say such a thing, calling the Mongols the vassals of the Ming Dynasty, knowing that it was pointless to argue with Liu Cheng about whether those Mongols were vassals of the Ming Kingdom. After all, he was in business, not a diplomatic negotiation to demarcate the borders. He had an idea, and hurriedly replied, "Naturally, it is the former, and our people have all been killed in the fortress and the merchant station. “

"That doesn't mean anything!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "I'm talking about land, not fortresses and trading stations, who knows if you built fortresses and trading stations on other people's land?" “

"In that case, let's put this day aside for the time being, and can we trade?" Lobanov heard this. It was already known that it was impossible for Liu Cheng to agree to the ban on firearms against the Mongolian ministries, but this was not the main purpose of his trip, after all, there were still more than a dozen nomadic tribal alliances of different sizes between the Ming Dynasty and the current actual control areas of the two countries, and no one would consider such a distant issue of mutual threats except Liu Cheng, a traveler from hundreds of years later. The main purpose of his trip was to open up a trade route. As a member of a famous Russian merchant family, Lobanov naturally knew that tea, silk, porcelain and spices were extremely lucrative commodities, but Russia was a closed landlocked country (at that time Russia had not won the war against the Crimean Khan and Sweden supported by Ottoman Turkey, and did not open the passage to the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea), so he could only covet this lucrative trade, if he could open up an overland trade route to the mythical land of silk, porcelain and tea, On this basis alone, Lobanov. Stroganov could then be made a nobleman by His Majesty the Tsar.

"If the Russians are willing to abide by the laws of the Ming Dynasty and come to the Ming Dynasty as merchants and not robbers, the official will naturally agree." Speaking of this, Liu Cheng's face turned cold: "But before that, I have a few questions that I want to ask Mr. Lobanov to answer me!" “

Lobanov listened to the other party's refusal, his heart was relieved, and he smiled: "Lord General Soldier, may you ask!" “

"First, what do you want to buy? And what goods can be sold? “

"We want to buy tea, silk, porcelain, spices, especially tea, and we want as much as we want. The main items we sell are furs, amber, medicinal herbs, golden sand, precious stones, honey, and if you need it, we can also sell slaves! ”

"That's good, but with all due respect, if I'm not mistaken, if the trade route opens, the value of the goods you sell to Daming will be much less than the value of what Daming sells to you, how do you plan to pay for the difference?"

Lobanov was immediately stopped by Liu Cheng, and as a seasoned businessman, he immediately heard the meaning of Liu Cheng's words. Liu Cheng sharply pointed out a hidden danger hidden in the trade between the two sides: due to the poor land transportation conditions in ancient times, most of the goods in the ancient land long-distance trade must be small in volume and weight, high in value and profit, otherwise they cannot be drawn, and such goods are usually luxury goods for the use of the powerful. But this brings a new problem, that is, the market capacity of such goods is usually small, but ancient China is a special case, tea, silk, porcelain although expensive, but in fact daily necessities; The vast majority of the goods that the Russians can get their hands on are luxury goods, which are consumed only by a few wealthy people, no matter how high the unit price is, but the total amount is far less than the goods they need, not to mention that there are furs, precious stones, golden sands and amber for sale, and there is not only one Russian company, but there is only one Ming commodity. No matter how shrewd and capable Russian businessmen may be, the result of such trade conditions is that imports far exceed exports, which in modern international trade terminology is "overtaking". If in the modern world, a country is constantly surpassing other countries, then that country can improve the competitiveness of its own goods by depreciating the exchange rate, that is, reducing the ratio of its own currency to the currency of other countries, so that the trade between the two countries can be restored to a state of equilibrium. But in the seventeenth century, the only currency accepted in China was precious metals, and the Russians had to pay for the difference in gold and silver, and such a business could only be done for a year or two, and if it continued for a long time, sooner or later they would die of blood loss due to the loss of precious metals. It is precisely for this reason that at that time, there was a school of economics called "mercantilism" that prevailed in the West at that time, that is, the more gold and silver a country accumulates, the stronger the country becomes, so the country should find ways to export more and import less, so that gold and silver can remain in the country to improve national strength. Clearly, mercantilism is a doctrine of self-interest at the expense of others, and the inevitable result of its application is the constant outbreak of wars between nations for colonial and trade rights.

"Your Majesty, I admire you for your wisdom and foresight. Indeed, as you said, if this continues, our country will be in a very difficult situation, and this trade will not be able to continue for a long time. So what do you think? ”

"I have an idea, I don't know if it's feasible!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "There are two ways to solve this trouble, first: find a few commodities that Daming needs, increase exports to Daming, and restore the balance of the goods purchased by both sides." Liu Cheng said this, paused slightly, and Lobanov's face became gloomy when he heard Liu Cheng's answer from the translator's mouth, as a Russian, he knew very well the level of his country's handicrafts, and after he entered the territory of the Ming Dynasty, he secretly compared it with the food and clothing of the Ming people, and knew that it was difficult to find out a few commodities that the Ming people were willing to pay for silver. In fact, not to mention Russia in the 17th century, even the British Empire on the eve of the Industrial Revolution 200 years later was in a lot of trade with China, and finally had to find opium as a cheap trick to get it. (To be continued.) )