The relationship between Huang Sheng and Li Xin, the marquis of Zhenju, was extraordinary, and his sister Huang Yu once had an indissoluble bond with Li Xin, which was not a secret within the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce or even in the old camp of the Three Guards.

And now there is a widely circulated saying, it is said that Huang Yu had given birth to a son for the marquis of Zhenyu as early as two years ago, and now the mother and son are living in seclusion on the shore of West Lake in Hangzhou. In recent years, Huang Sheng left Shanxi, and with a group of henchmen, he went to Yingtianfu with the strength of his clan to open up a trade route that he was never familiar with.

Many of the elders of the clan objected to this, and in their opinion, the foundation of the land could never be abandoned, and it was really unwise for the Huang family to make a fortune in the Mengbian tea and horse trade.

In recent years, Huang Sheng has single-handedly controlled the Jin Merchants Federation, and has long become the head of the Jin Merchants, and the resources he has at his disposal are unprecedented, and his status in the Huang family is even more impressive.

A year ago, when he summoned the elders of the clan to decide on this matter, he only said one thing, and then the resistance was gone.

"Mengbian tea horses, the one who depends on it is nothing more than the government. And now Tian Butang's attitude is ambiguous, and the tax card that was canceled by the Zhenhou at the beginning has gradually been restored in various parts of Shanxi, and my Huang family and even the entire Jin Merchants Federation are like sailing against the current, and if they don't advance, they will retreat. On the surface, the Huang family has a strong foundation in Shanxi, but have you ever thought that once Tian Butang turns his face, how many nails can we roll into when we are tied together? ”

Some elders of the clan asked in surprise: "Could it be that Tian Butang intends to betray the Marquis of Zhenyu?" ”

Huang Sheng sneered a few times and responded: "Tian Fuzhen is a Ming courtier, isn't it ridiculous to say that he is betrayed?" ”

One sentence made everyone speechless, Tian Fuzhen's actions since he was promoted to the governor of Shanxi are indeed very suspicious, first ordered that the materials of the iron factory required by the Three Guards must be settled in cash, otherwise they will not be delivered. At that time, Li Xin had just gone south to Yingtianfu, and after Huang Sheng returned to Taiyuan, he was responsible for the supply of weapons to the Three Guards, and in order not to delay the war, he could only be paid by the United Trading Company.

It was not until the Grand Canal was cut off by the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution that Tian Fuzhen changed the supervision of the iron factories that were originally subordinate to the government, and the muskets produced were also given priority to the Shanxi New Army.

The Shanxi New Army is an army of the same specifications as the Three Guards Army, with the same training methods and combat methods as the Three Guards Army, which was set up by Tian Fuzhen on the holy order, with a scale of about 30,000 people. Under the intentional or unintentional restrictions of the governor's yamen, the situation of the Huang family and the Jin Merchants Federation is becoming increasingly difficult, and Huang Sheng has been left and right only to encourage and maintain, seeing that the Huang family's prosperous foundation for several years is about to be short-lived, how can he not be in a hurry?

Later, the actions of the Marquis of Zhenyu in Jiangnan were like a bamboo, and after the general trend was settled, he summoned Huang Sheng to the south. As a result, Huang Sheng was like seeing the sun through the clouds, even if the resistance was great, he had to go to Nanjing.

It took half a year for Huang Sheng's clan to move south, in his consciousness, the Huang family has been branded with the mark of the marquis of Zhenyu, and he has been cleaned up in the south for the rest of his life.

When he went south, Huang Sheng did have the intention of making a big gamble, but it was not until Nanjing that he realized that he was in charge of a new trade route, and almost every month several large ships carried countless gold from the east of the ocean.

The first line of business of the newly established Gangnam Trading Company was responsible for the transportation and procurement of the gold. Gold is no better than salt and iron, and it is necessary to find a buyer, as long as this thing is used, it can be used as a coin, and in a year, the wealth accumulated by the Jiangnan Trading Company has reached the point of being rich and rivaling the country.

In order to grasp the gold mining areas of the New World as soon as possible, Huang Sheng sent his cousin Huang Jing to the Americas in person, and Huang Jing went with Huang Jing on the same ship, as well as the elite foot soldiers transferred by a thousand auxiliary battalions. It is said that less than a month after Huang Jing arrived in the Americas, he filed a claim for compensation with the local Francois on the grounds that the Chinese miner had been killed, and after being refused, another skirmish was fought, which ended with the concessions of the Franco.

For this reason, Huang Sheng also sent a special letter to blame Huang Jing for being reckless and not to spoil the big thing of the Zhenhou Hou.

How do you know that when the Marquis of Zhenyu learned of this, he actually laughed, saying that Huang Jing was aggressive, and he was a suitable person responsible for opening up the colony.

During this period, the Marquis of Zhenyu vigorously promoted that the Americas were a place full of gold, which could be compared to a paradise on earth, and encouraged people to venture into the Americas, no matter who found gold and silver, it would be completely owned by him, and the Three Guards would provide all-round protection against the covetousness of exotic ghosts.

At first, people were suspicious, but in the end, there was a broken man who embarked on a sailing ship because he owed a lot of gambling debts, and he didn't want to come back half a year later and make a fortune. According to him, he found a gold mine of his own in the Americas, and now he has an untold amount of gold at the touch of a pickaxe and shovel.

With this living example, Ying Tianfu spread the word ten, ten to hundred, and thousands of speculators found the Jiangnan Trading Company, which was in charge of this matter, and planned to sign up to go on an expedition to the Americas.

In order to encourage the people to go to the Americas, the trading company even promised that each person would be rewarded with ten acres of land in the Americas, regardless of whether gold was found or not. For a time, the gold rush craze became prevalent in the south of the Yangtze River, and most people went to the Americas, not hoping to settle in a foreign country in the future, but to return to China to enjoy the rest of their lives after making a fortune.

Huang Sheng saw through the whole thing, although these people all had a wonderful dream, but I am afraid that most of them would break their heads in the exotic expedition. Of course, these are all afterwords, once a trend is driven, it will sweep the north and south of the country at an astonishing speed.

Now almost the entire Jiangnan people know that there is a place called America in the east of the sea, and you can dig gold ore by digging the ground with a pickaxe. Fortune must be made sooner rather than later, and those who are bankrupt, gamblers, and even death row prisoners awaiting execution, and prisoners who are far from being released from prison, have been sent to the American continent in exchange for the wealth and freedom they have dreamed of.

Just when everything was about to get on the right track, the war in Korea suddenly took a major turn, the "Korea-Qing Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendship" was signed, and the Jiangnan Trading Company was ordered to be stationed in Liaodong.

However, it is said that this good-neighborly and friendly treaty was made by Cheng Mingjiu in Seoul in private, and the Marquis of Zhenyu did not know the details of this before, so the Marquis of Zhenyu also had a temper, thinking that since he had the advantage, he should pull out his teeth and take Liaodong over, and even overthrow Dolgon's rule in the Qing State is also an excellent choice.

Like this kind of warm swallowing of water, is it possible to slowly raise the Manchu Qing outside the customs as a big fish? In the end, a group of henchmen thought that Cheng Mingjiu's approach was really a move by the old man to seek the country, and expressed their support for him.

However, the wood has already been completed, and the Marquis of Zhenyu can only acquiesce in this good-neighborly and friendly treaty, but he has already made plans to transfer Cheng Mingjiu back to Nanjing.

Huang Sheng went north to Liaodong this time, one is to survey the terrain and prepare for the establishment of a leased land in the spring of the next year, and the other is to investigate Cheng Mingjiu and his real intentions.

After all, the general who commands the army outside is in charge of the local military and political affairs, and it is easy to have a sense of pride and arrogance, even if the Marquis of Zhenlu still trusts him, Huang Sheng, who is tied to the same boat as the Marquis of Zhenju, has to personally check it.

Not long after landing in Liaodong, the sea was completely frozen and sea ships could not pass. Huang Sheng had no choice but to abandon the boat and instead march overland to Seoul in Korea. On the way, Huang Sheng made a special trip to Shengjing.

At this time, when I re-entered Shengjing, the world has changed over time, and my status and treatment are not what I used to be.

The regent of the imperial father, Dorgon, personally received Huang Sheng and held his hand for a long time. But these were vague pleasantries, and Dolgon's real intention was to borrow money.

It turned out that this winter's snowstorm broke out, a large number of livestock were frozen to death, and Datong Xuanfu and other places blocked the border wall and forbade merchants from moving inside and outside, and the materials that could be obtained outside the customs were suddenly halved.

According to the custom of previous years, this situation can be solved by plundering the interior of the border wall of the Ming Dynasty. But this time is different from the past, and the knock that was planned to be carried out in the autumn was disrupted by the usurpation of the Min clan of Korea. Later, the Qing army suffered a series of crushing defeats in Korea, and the matter of Faming should not be mentioned again.

With the signing of the good-neighborly treaty, a sum of nearly one million taels of silver was paid as the interest on the indemnity settled in advance, and the current Shengjing Mansion treasury is really empty.

Seeing that there was no rice in the pot, it happened that the God of Wealth came to Shengjing. Although Dolgon was in a corner of Liaodong, he had also heard the news of the discovery of gold by the Jiangnan Trading Company, which was said to be as wealthy as the household department in Beijing. Even, it is possible that even the silver treasury of the Beijing household department cannot compare to the Jiangnan Trading Company.

In fact, the silver inventory of the Beijing household department is only one million taels, how can it be compared with the Jiangnan Trading Company that earns ten thousand taels of gold every day!

Huang Sheng smiled and said, "The regent has an invitation, does Huang Sheng dare to agree?" However, the regent also asks for forbearance, in business, now there is a shortage of materials outside the border, but Jiangnan is the opposite, but the silver is in short supply, if the loan money, the interest is not low. ”

"Of course the interest must be paid!" As long as there is money for emergencies and a little interest, Dolgon will naturally agree.

But Huang Sheng's next words made him scratch his head.

"However, the credit of your government in the trading company is not high, and if you want to borrow, I am afraid that some people will question your government's ability to repay, and in the end eighty percent will be vetoed.