That is, a big trade between the Ming Dynasty and the grassland: the tea and horse market.

Since ancient times, the most important strategic need of the Central Plains has been to obtain a sufficient supply of horses for a large standing army. And China itself produces very few horses, and the breed of horses is not good. After the Yuan and Mongol armies were driven out of China in the late sixties of the fourteenth century, the Ming army's urgent and frequent need for horses was initially met in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou in southwestern China by exchanging various monopoly commodities such as tea, salt, and textiles for horses.

For example, the tea and horse market with Tibet is a long-term surname trade method that began in the Tang Dynasty. But the treacherous roads in the southwest also pose serious constraints to the massive growth of this trade. After all, the area where horses are used is not concentrated is in the southwest, but in the Central Plains, there is further north.

Horses were also obtained through barter trade with other countries such as Korea, the Wakoku and even the Ryukyu Islands. Smaller, official horse deals with Korea were already taking place at the beginning of the century, and in the twenty years between 1407 and 1427, Korea supplied more than 18,000 horses to the Ming Dynasty.

The tribute missions of the Joseon and Wa kingdoms received five pieces of silk per horse, plus an indefinite amount of silver and tulle. Occasionally, the Ryukyu political axe traded horses for silk, porcelain, and iron.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, large-scale trade in the southwest was only maintained until 1387, when the northern provinces, especially Shanxi Province, became a more important source of horses. The change in policy was partly a result of the resumption of trade between China and the steppe peoples, but was accelerated by the relocation of the imperial capital from the south to Yanjing in the twenties of the fifteenth century.

In addition, during several conquests against the Mongols during the Yongle period, the Chinese army, after several victorious battles, was able to increase the number of its war horses due to the seizure of horse grazing grounds on the border.

However, these are non-fixed harvests. The purchase of fixed and formal horses on the northern frontier was carried out mainly through the monopoly of tea and the barter of horses, and it was the clear policy of the political axe to keep this tea and horse trade under its strict control. Barter trade took place not on the Mongol border but in Xining, Hezhou, and Taozhou in northwestern Shaanxi (present-day Gansu), where there was a special tea and horse trade division.

Barter trade takes place every three years and is on a large scale. The official trade quota stipulates that in each tea and horse market, 1 million catties of tea will be exchanged for 14,000 horses. Most of the horses were bred by the nomadic tribes of the Qinghai region, and their chiefs were awarded a coat of arms in the form of gold medals. Half of the coat of arms was kept by the imperial court, and the matching half was held by the respective tribal chiefs to signify their qualifications for the trade.

-------------------- last year was supposed to be the year for trade, but before the trade market could even start, the Battle of Tumubao took place, which naturally completely interrupted this official border trade.

The accumulated tea can only be stored in the warehouse now, and it has stayed until now. You know, the reason why trade is done every three years is because you need to store a part of the tea every year, and you need to accumulate enough to start trading.

In addition, more than 99% of the tea traded with the grassland is border tea, which is also called border tea, which is named because it is used to supply the drinking of ethnic minorities in the border areas.

There are many varieties of border tea, the main varieties are Hunan bricks, black bricks, and flower bricks; Hubei's green bricks and rice bricks; Sichuan's Kang bricks and golden tips; Yunnan's tight tea, etc. Due to historical reasons, the varieties of marginal tea drunk by various ethnic groups are also different. Fu bricks, black bricks, flower bricks, and rice bricks are mainly supplied to Xinjiang Province, Qinghai, Gansu, and Ningxia; Kang bricks and Jinjian are mainly supplied to Tibetan provinces and Qinghai; Green brick tea is mainly supplied to Inner Mongolia; Yunnan's tight tea is mainly supplied to Yunnan Province, and some are supplied to Tibet Province and Sichuan.

Tea bricks have an advantage, that is, they are not afraid of being placed for a long time, but they have accumulated a lot of funds, and the three tea and horse markets have accumulated a total of three million catties of tea, which is not a small amount. For the nomads on the grassland, these tea leaves are the foundation of their survival and the essential materials for their life.

Brick tea contains a variety of essential vitamins and rare elements for human beings, especially the content of theophylline is higher, long-term living in pastoral areas, plateaus, lack of water, no vegetables of ethnic minorities to pound brick tea with milk to make milk tea drinking, for the meat-based masses, can go to the food, replenish water and vitamins, etc., milk tea residue is used to feed large livestock, to avoid due to lack of water, disease and dietary habits, human and animal stomach swelling and death. Therefore, in the pastoral area, there is a saying that "it is better to have no food than no tea".

And in addition, Zhu Qizhen relied on his three-inch incorruptible tongue to fool that Boyan Timur into a daze, which made Boyan Timur believe that he really had the ability to start the tea border trade that should have been carried out last year, so this is the main reason why Boyan Timur agreed to Zhu Qizhen to trade.

And the reason why Zhu Qizhen left the eunuch in Datong Town and did not kill him is that although this guy is a eunuch in Datong Town, he has a large amount of tea supply resources in his hands.

This news, or the Xuanfu Town's Jinyi Wei Qianhu Yin Zuochu quietly reported to Zhu Qi Town, this Datong town guard eunuch is greedy, but he also has a good way to collect money, he stayed in Datong Town for nearly ten years is not in vain, in his hands to fight openly and secretly, skillfully robbed, and mastered a large number of tea supply resources.

It is precisely because of this reason that his financial resources can be regarded as one of the best among the eunuchs in other towns in the world, and it is precisely for this reason that he can take out more than 200,000 taels of silver for his stepson to go to Xuanfu to engage in trade, and then raise his ass and take out 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver to give to Zhu Qizhen to express his sincere and fearful confession.

And Zhu Qizhen, who grasped the situation, was furious at first, and his eyes were about to turn into pink eye, eager to get everything in Guo Shun's hands. But fortunately, Yuan Bin reminded Zhu Qizhen from the side that now is not a good time to kill chickens and take eggs.

After all, Zhu Qizhen is not the Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty, His Majesty the Emperor who is in charge of the society of a country, but just a Taishang Emperor, and now, he is just the civil and military affairs of the border town of the Governor's Mansion. If the hand is stretched out outside the Xuanfu, it will be too eye-catching.

The important thing is that I am afraid that those civil and military ministers who were originally on Zhu Qizhen's side will also be vigilant, and it is even very likely that in order to prevent the expansion and expansion of Zhu Qizhen's power, they will unite with Zhu Qiyu, who is eager to put Zhu Qizhen to death.

Because, everyone is afraid of another incident like the Battle of Jingjing, it is not only a struggle for imperial power, it is a struggle between two political groups, so the ministers will definitely not stand on Zhu Qizhen's side at that time.

Even strangling this possible surname in advance, like that, is definitely bad news for Zhu Qizhen.

And keeping that Guo Shun's life, let this eunuch who is powerful in Datong border town, has strong resources and strength, but has a handle for Zhu Qizhen to firmly pinch, in that case, it is equivalent to Zhu Qizhen being able to secretly reach out to the Datong border town.

-------------------- in this way, Zhu Qizhen's power can expand outward without revealing the mountains, and after Yan Shun, obtaining resources can also allow Zhu Qizhen to gain greater advantages and more voice when dealing with the grassland.

Because, as a person from the future, with the memory of future generations, and always paying attention to international current affairs, military world and other things, Zhu Qizhen considered the grassland strategy, not only military, but also economic.

The terrible surname of economic strategy is no less than the trauma of war, but it is long and slow. But the damage it does can outweigh the impact of war.

However, the economic strategy can only be a supplementary strategy for the poor and white nomads. However, the use of economic means can not only play a destructive role, but also obtain extremely rich benefits, so why not do such a good thing.

Zhu Qizhen, who figured it out, quickly came to a conclusion, so he secretly sent out his henchman, and Qian Zhong, who was also the uncle of the country, quietly went to Datong to meet Guo Shun secretly and told him the will of Zhu Qizhen, the emperor.

And Guo Shun is not a stupid person, otherwise it would not have been possible to scavenge such a huge profit in ten years, not only covering the sky with one hand in Datong, but also expanding his business to Gansu Town, wearing the skin of the public, doing private business. From a businessman's point of view, Guo Shun is fully qualified to become the CEO of a multinational group.

Hearing the meaning of the Emperor Taishang and the information transmitted by Qian Zhong, Guo Shun also secretly thought about it, and finally Guo Shun found that even if he didn't stand on Zhu Qizhen's side, his fate would be not much better than Yan Shun.

After all, the stepson Guo Rui is in the hands of the Emperor Taishang, casually, if he wants to take control of himself, he can completely fix it, and it is even possible to wipe out his family and destroy the family, after all, Guo Shun knows Zhu Qizhen very well in the past, and the current Zhu Qizhen has made him feel that he can no longer treat himself according to the past mode of thinking.

And if he is willing to stand on Zhu Qizhen's side and serve him, as long as Zhu Qizhen does not lose his words, his position in Datong will still be very stable, and although he may make less money in the future, but with Zhu Qizhen, the emperor, as his umbrella, there is no need to worry too much about many things that he has feared to do, so that he can live a more nourishing life.

Therefore, after only thinking about it all night, Guo Shun made the best choice and decided to serve Zhu Qizhen and drive him. And the first thing that Zhu Qizhen gave him to do was extremely beneficial to him, and even to the border towns of Gansu......

(To be continued)