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At the gate of the Xuanfu Fortress, the soldiers leaned lazily on the city wall, occasionally getting up to check the pedestrians out of the fortress.

The civil war between the Mongols in the steppe did not spread to the Ming Dynasty, and no matter which tribe among the Mongols won, they did not dare to make a mistake against Zhangjiakou. The necessary tea, salt, sugar and even the iron pot for cooking rice in Mongolians need to be obtained from Daming, and Zhangjiakou is the most convenient channel, and there is no one.

After hurrying to finish the meal, Sun Zicai led the caravan towards the city gate.

The city wall of Xuanzhen is majestic and tall, as the northern barrier of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the defense is the most powerful enemy in a hundred years, its prototype is still built when Emperor Chengzu was the king of Yan in Beijing City, and then Emperor Chengzu's five expeditions to Mongolia are also from here out of the fortress.

Zhai Zhe stepped forward and handed over the road guide to the soldiers for inspection, according to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, there must be a road guide issued by the government to do business abroad, otherwise it will be difficult to move an inch. Of course, in fact, the government's inventory is not so strict, and ordinary small traders and vendors are not in charge.

A man wearing a general dress stretched out his hand to take the road guide, glanced at it, returned it to Zhai Zhe, and asked, "What is pulling?" ”

"It's all tea!" Zhai Zhe smiled, touched a small piece of broken silver from his sleeve and handed it over, saying, "We are from the Jiexiu Zhai family, and we have to enter and exit from here dozens of times every year." ”

The general squeezed the weight of the silver, waved his hand, and said, "Come on!" "Now that the Ming Dynasty is in arrears of military salaries, guarding the gate of Xuanzhen has always been a shortage of money, and he can directly extract some silver money from the hands of the merchants.

Zhai Zhe handed over a small piece of broken silver and asked, "What did the caravan that just passed transport?" ”

The general was stunned, put the silver in his pocket, and said with a sarcastic expression: "It's the same as you." ”

Zhai Zhe's face was slightly embarrassed.

There was little contact between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia before the Emperor Muzong of the Ming Dynasty, and the border passes in the north were almost all closed, and the Mongols were in order to obtain tea, iron and other things, and the border was constantly being fought for many years. During the Longqing period, when Fu Gaogong was in power, he took the opportunity to negotiate peace with Altan Khan of the Mongolian Tumut Department, and Altan Khan vowed never to break the law, so he opened the border and allowed the Mongols and Han people to trade with each other, creating a prosperity on the border.

However, the imperial court imposed strict restrictions on the goods of the mutual market, such as grain, iron and other goods, which were absolutely not allowed to enter the grassland. In recent years, with the shortage of military salaries, the border army has also participated in it for their livelihood, and the ban has become a means of profit. Just like Zhai Zhe's goods, it is impossible for them to be all tea, but as long as there is no special explanation above, it is the norm to turn a blind eye after receiving the benefits.

When the caravan left Xuanzhen, the line of sight suddenly opened up, and the mountains on both sides were still undulating, gradually transitioning to hills. Zhai Zhe arranged for a person to go to Zhangjiakou to report the news, and the escort cavalry immediately dispersed to form a radius of nearly two miles and spread forward, and from here on, it would be a place where they would be used.

The more than 30 miles between Xuanzhen and Zhangjiakou used to be safe, and since a few years ago, there had been two incidents of horse thieves robbing merchants, but the garrison completely ignored them, and the caravans did not dare to take it lightly in the past. But this is in the Ming Dynasty border army in the sandwich place, when Zhangjiakou was prosperous, there were many caravans guarding more than 1,000 people, and horse thieves did not dare to enter this place at will.

After walking for four or five miles, the ground under my feet gradually softened, and there was yellow and green turf on both sides of the road. Zhai Zhe saw a rut left in the middle of the road not far in front of him, walked over and dismounted to check it carefully, and when Sun Zicai came to his side, he asked, "Is it the freight team left by just now?" ”

"It should be, a dozen wagons, and seventy or eighty pack horses."

"With such heavy ruts, they are transporting grain

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98df！ Zhai Zhe stretched out his hand to press the soil under the ruts, and said to himself: "Is there really a caravan going out of the jam in winter?" ”

"When you get to the market, you know everything!" Sun Zicai reminded.

As the caravan was walking, the guards who were exploring the way in the distance whistled a few loudly and galloped back.

"Someone's coming!" The guards shrank in a hurry and pressed against the head of the caravan, and the pack horses stopped, and the faces of the men turned a little pale.

Zhai Zhe touched his waist knife and was on guard, and soon he heard the sound of iron hooves, and there were nearly 100 cavalry in the formation. A moment later, the guards who were in front of him whistled a few more times, and Zhai Zhe breathed a sigh of relief.

"My own people, the brothers in the bazaar have come to pick up."

Zhai Zhe urged the horse forward, turned around the foot of the mountain and faced a column of cavalry** ten people, for a person with a loose head draped behind his head, dressed in Mongolian dress, with a birch short-term worker hanging on his waist, and a gold-painted longbow hanging on the saddle.

"Brother Xiao!" Zhai Zhe looked happy and stepped forward to say hello. The person who came was Xiao Zhiyan, the head of the Zhai family's guards stationed in Zhangjiakou, and he was also a good hand that Zhai Zhe personally pulled into the Zhai family.

"Coming back? Hao Tou asked me to answer you. Xiao Zhiyan clapped his hands on the horse's back, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, and the smile on his face made people feel like a spring breeze.

The Hao Tou he said was Hao Yangyou, the head of the Zhai family's caravan guard, and he was also the confidant of Zhai Zhe's eldest brother, a famous Xingyi boxing master in Shanxi. It is very important to know the roots, for fear that the business guards will collude with the bandits, so they are mostly selected locally, which has also created the gradual rise of the practice of martial arts in Jindi.

The two walked side by side, and Zhai Zhe asked, "Has anything changed in the market recently?" Which firm did you just pass? ”

"It's the Fan family's caravan that just passed." Xiao Zhiyan raised his eyebrows, and then said: "The grassland Mongols are in turmoil, the Eastern Tumut people outside Zhangjiakou have been defeated, and Lin Dan Khan has led the Chahar Department to occupy the grassland on the dam, and it is said that they are ready to march to Guihua City next year. ”

"Then the Fan family still dares to buy goods?" The Fan family is not a top business name in Zhangjiakou, and Zhai Zhe is curious how they can have it

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So bold.

Xiao Zhiyan shook his head and said, "There are three caravans out of Zhangjiakou this year, but only the Fan family came back a month ago. ”

Zhai Zhe asked, "How many horses did you bring back?" "The Mongols and the Han Chinese always traded with barter, and they had no gold or silver in their hands, only the skins and skins of livestock, and for this reason, the business with the Mongols could only be run by powerful merchants.

"No horses!"

Zhai Zhe exclaimed: "Impossible! ”

"There is not a single horse! Guess what the Fan family cargo team brought back? ”

"What?"

"Fur and ginseng!"

"They went to Liaodong!" Zhai Zhe gritted his teeth. Sure enough, it is rich and dangerous, from Zhangjiakou to Liaodong to pass through the Duoyan grassland, where is the nomadic land of the Mongol Khan Lin Dan Khan Chahar Department, although the main force of Chahar is gradually migrating westward, fighting with the Tumut Department on the dam, but a small caravan wants to cross there The risk is self-evident.

The caravan that was received was not in a hurry, Zhai Zhe changed his taciturn on the road, talked with Xiao Zhiyan very happily, and asked him carefully about the changes in the past few months since he left Zhangjiakou.

Xiao Zhiyan has been dressed as a Mongolian since the day he entered Zhangjiakou, but he is Han. His accent sounded a bit Shaanxi, but Zhai Zhe was not sure of his origin and did not pursue it. The Han people who lived on this grassland not only had caravans, but also the Han people who fled into the grassland cultivated tens of thousands of acres of fertile land near Fengzhou Beach and Guihua City for the Mongolian Tumut tribe.

When he first entered Zhangjiakou in the third year, Xiao Zhiyan was destitute, with only one horse and two bows, and wanted to find a job as a caretaker. But most businesses like him of unknown origin would not be willing to accept it, but after Zhai Zhe saw his archery skills and dated him for a while, he forcibly recruited him into the Zhai family, which was the first time he intervened in the affairs of the firm. Later, he learned that he was not the only one who had vision, and several businesses were actually eyeing Xiao Zhiyan, but they were a little slower.

People who have the ability will not be worried about not being able to find a way out, soft-hearted people are not able to do the work of doing business, the owners in Zhangjiakou are not much more merciful than those horse thieves, if every step is followed by the rules how to get ahead that day.

There is Zhangjiakou in the east and Guihua City in the west, and these two places gather the most adventurous and energetic people in Daming Mountain and Shaanxi.