Xi'an, known as Chang'an and Jingzhao in ancient times, is the world-famous first of the world's four ancient civilizations, and is the capital city with the most dynasties and the greatest influence in Chinese history. In the Ming Dynasty, it was no longer possible to be the capital, but it was also the largest political and economic center in the northwest region, and the commerce was extremely developed.

Since the beginning of the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to the great chaos in Shaanxi, and many uprisings occurred near Xi'an, for example, the Baishui Zhuba Uprising occurred two hundred miles northeast of Xi'an, and the rebel troops of the Hannan King Daliang also crossed the southwest of Xi'an several times, and Yijun County in the north of Xi'an was attacked by the Monkey not long ago.

In this turbulent situation, the business of Xi'an Province has been greatly impacted, and even reached a stalemate for a time, and only a very small number of bold businessmen dare to run business in such a situation. But these audacities alone were not enough to sustain a giant city like Xi'an, so after years of rebellion, Xi'an's business was on the verge of collapse.

Fortunately, at the end of the fifth year of Chongzhen, under the efforts of the trilateral governor Hong Chengchou, the peasant rebels in Shaanxi were almost suppressed, and even the extremely difficult Baishui Zhuba was frightened to flee into the western part of the mountain, and the haze on the heads of the merchants was swept away.

Those merchants who were hiding in the middle of nowhere, as if they came out of the ground, suddenly came out from all directions, gathered to Xi'an again, and all kinds of special products from Sichuan, Gansu, Henan, Shanxi and other places were also transported to Xi'an.

When the fake caravan of Zhu Yuanzhang and others came to Xi'an, they were startled by a large number of caravans, only to see the front of the car biting the tail of the car on the official road, and the long convoy could not see the end, these convoys were very similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's convoy, guarded by a large number of swordsmen, it seems that everyone is not confident in the peace of the road.

Xue Hongqi was stunned by this spectacular scene, she leaned on the window and looked out, sighing as she looked: "It's too ...... Awesome...... It's all caravans...... How many caravans are there? If my caravan is here, wow, why don't you grab enough? ”

"Don't be stupid, maybe who'll rob whom?" Xu Renjie said with a smile: "There are so many caravans, each caravan only needs to send ten swordsmen, and you can surround the three layers of your hundreds of horse thieves, and one person can drown all your people with a mouthful of saliva." ”

Xue Hongqi was speechless, she deliberately didn't take Xu Renjie's words, and turned her head to look at Xi'an City in the distance, and when she saw it, she immediately exclaimed: "Wow, it turns out that this is Fucheng...... It's amazing...... It's much more powerful than Puzhou City. ”

The city wall of Xi'an City, four zhang (12 meters) high, six zhang (18 meters) thick at the bottom, five zhang (15 meters) thick at the top, the thickness of this city wall is actually greater than the height, it can be called terrifying, it is not an exaggeration to describe such a city wall with "stable as a mountain". At the top of the five-zhang thick city wall, not to mention the sports cars and horses, even if the soldiers are lined up on it to practice the formation, there is no problem!

Not only is the city wall high and thick, but every forty zhang, there is an enemy platform built on the wall, the top of this thing is level with the city wall, protruding beyond the city wall, and it is specially set up to shoot and kill the enemy who climbs the city. And why build one every forty feet? The reason for this is to facilitate the isolation between the two enemy platforms, all within the range of the archers of the enemy platforms.

Xu Renjie has been to Xi'an, so he is naturally not surprised. And Zhu Yuanzhang is the person who spent money to build this city wall, naturally it is not surprising, this city wall was built in Zhu Yuanzhang after the pacification of the world after Hongwu seven years, when he issued a decree "the mountains and rivers of the world, only Qin Zhong is dangerous", appointed the governor Pu Ying to preside over the construction of the Xi'an city wall, it took more than four years, spent Zhu Yuanzhang a lot of silver, until the eleventh year of Hongwu was completed, he remembered very clearly.

Only Xue Hongqi, a local girl, really opened her eyes this time, she looked at the towering city wall, and couldn't help but caress her heart: "This ...... How can such a city be attacked? ”

"Attack with strength, no!" Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "Such a strong city can be broken without external forces, and if you want to attack such a city, you need to use this ......."

His hand turned back a little and pointed to his heart: "Attack the heart first, and then attack the city, which is the right way to break the city." ”

With the huge caravan, Zhu Yuanzhang and his entourage came to the east city gate, this city gate is called "Changle Gate", there is a huge plaque hanging on the door, and a beautiful city tower is built on the plaque. If Zhu Yuanzhang had left history alone, many years later, Li Zicheng would have entered Xi'an through this gate. And Li Zicheng would point to the huge plaque of "Changle Gate" and said: "If the emperor is allowed to be happy, the people will suffer for a long time", this sentence caused the thief soldiers to be indignant and set fire to the plaque and the city tower on the Changle Gate.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the word "Changle" seriously, and muttered in a low voice: "There will be a way to make the emperor and the people happy...... And I'll find it......"

Xu Renjie easily dealt with the guards at the city gate, paid the road guide and the entry tax, and the caravan entered the city of Xi'an. I saw that the city was full of traffic, so lively, the streets were full of bustling people, and there were many shops on the roadside, a prosperous scene.

This is a grand scene that can never be seen in a small county and a small town, and Xue Hongqi, Ma Xiaotian, and the guards are all dazzled.

"Look, there are still a lot of readers on the road...... Xue Hongqi exclaimed, "I have never seen so many readers...... Xi'an is really a great place. ”

That's right, the illiteracy rate in ordinary small counties is extremely high, but in a big city like Xi'an, the illiteracy rate is relatively low, and any ordinary people on the street can also know a few words.

Xu Renjie glanced at Xue Hongqi, who was flustered, and smiled, but didn't tease her anymore, but turned his head to Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "Brother Zhu, let's come in now, what should we do next?" ”

"Well, I haven't really thought about what to do, so let's go to the market first!" Zhu Yuanzhang knew that a place with many businessmen might bring him some opportunities, but he was not an immortal, and he didn't know what opportunities Xi'an would have, but he was faintly looking forward to a few things in his heart, hoping to find them here.

Everyone arrived at the market, parked the convoy outside the market, then got out of the carriage and walked inside.

The bazaar was bustling with people, and of course, most of the merchants were exchanging goods here, and after the peasant revolt began, commercial action almost ceased, and now it is the outbreak after a long silence, and the enthusiasm of every merchant is very high.

Xu Renjie is most concerned about food, he is a rice merchant, of course he is most interested in this aspect, while walking, his eyes wander around the rice merchants on the side of the road, from time to time he will go over and insert a sentence, and occasionally run back to Zhu Yuanzhang's side, and said in a low voice: "Brother Zhu, that millet is very cheap, let's order tens of thousands of stones from him, it can be used as military food, and it can also be sold at a good price......

"Brother Zhu, the brown rice in that house is also good...... We can also order tens of thousands of stone ......."

"Zhu Bugs...... That ......"

"Hey, monkey, are you just keeping your eyes on rice? Is it good to be a little promising? Xue Hongqi snorted coldly: "I guess Bugling Zhu is mainly here to buy iron and salt, especially iron, we are in a panic ...... shortage."

This is the truth, since Zhu Yuanzhang's army came out of the Huanglong cottage, occupied the county seat, and expanded the army, the iron smuggled by smuggling iron dealers has been completely insufficient, and it is not enough to even give the soldiers a Pu knife, and more advanced weapons are not even considered. Zhu Yuanzhang has in his stomach the production concept of rifled guns, rifled guns, grenades and other things from the perspective of later generations, but he can't play it without materials, so he can only pretend to be used, and it has never been useful. This visit to the big market in Xi'an is also an opportunity to get iron and salt.

Hearing her words, Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head with a smile and said, "It's unrealistic for Yantie to want to buy it in this way...... These are all prohibited by the government, how can we buy them in the market? And...... Now is a year of great drought, and the first thing I want to solve is not weapons and equipment, but the problem of 'food'. ”

"Isn't the great drought over? Although the past two years have been quite bad, they have been quite smooth. Xue Hongqi said.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head, not explaining, only he knew that the drought had not passed, and the terrible drought was about to start again, and it would last for more than ten years, if the food problem was not solved, his two base areas of Baishui and Chengcheng would definitely collapse, and he had to find something to fight the drought and fill the stomachs of the people.

"Ah, then the grain merchants I just mentioned, will Zhu Bugling go to meet them?" Xu Renjie said with a smile.

"No need, you can't buy much from them, and it's not a long-term solution...... Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "What I want to find is something that can make us self-reliant." ”

"What are you looking for?"

Zhu Yuanzhang took them to search carefully in the bazaar, and did not let go of every businessman, so he searched for seven or eight days, and he looked at every stall in the bazaar, but he still didn't find what he thought of. He had no choice but to turn his attention to the new merchants who had entered the city, paying attention to what goods each new merchant had brought with him.

On the tenth day, his eyes finally lit up, and he stared at a small stall that no one cared about.

This small stall was set up by a small businessman from the south, he just arrived in Xi'an today, he quickly set up a stall, spread out the goods, he was dressed very tattered, it seems that he is not a powerful businessman, the goods in the stall are also very strange, all covered with yellow mud lumps. Sweating profusely, the small merchant introduced his stuff to the other merchants passing by: "This thing is called a taro, it is very delicious, do you want to buy something?" Make sure you think it's ......."

"What? Soil taro? Haven't heard of it...... Not interested! The other merchants didn't bother to pay attention to him.

"Oops...... Come and see, this stuff is really good...... Delicious and ......"

No one pays attention to him, because no one thinks that those lumps of dirt are something worth tossing, and the people of the Celestial Empire in this era only believe in rice!

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up: "Finally found it, drought-resistant crops!" Potato! ”

(To be continued)