Zhangjiakou was the earliest horse market of the Ming Dynasty in the north, the so-called horse market is not only used to trade livestock, but a large market that is regularly opened, merchants from Shanxi use the tea, salt, cloth and other things needed on the northern grassland to exchange cattle, sheep, horses, fur and other grassland specialties, in order to make profits, because of the lack of materials on the grassland, so they obtained high profits, and accumulated a large amount of wealth by monopolizing this trade route. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Speaking of Jin merchants, their fortune originated in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the focus of national defense was in the north, mainly to prevent the Mongols from making a comeback, and the Zhu dynasty deployed a million troops on the northern border, which required a large amount of military supplies. The imperial court rewarded the merchants with salt and encouraged merchants to transport grain and forage to Biansai, which was the "open middle system" of the Ming Dynasty. The so-called "salt introduction" is to obtain the quota voucher for the purchase and sale of salt under the condition that the government exclusively controls the salt industry. Shanxi merchants keenly seized this business opportunity, they from Henan, Shandong and Jiangnan region to the northern border towns, in exchange for "salt introduction", and then turned around to Lianghuai, Hedong, Sichuan and other places to produce salt to buy salt with "salt introduction", and finally to the rest of the country to sell salt for profit, it can be said that they can have today's wealth is precisely because of the need of the Ming to guard against the northern barbarians, but in order to seek more profits, they began to act as the lackeys of the barbarians to attack the Ming Dynasty.

If this policy can be unswervingly implemented, then whether the Jiannu who lack food and iron tools can survive is two different things, not to mention that they will be able to dominate the world in the future; It is now the Xiaoice River period, although the land of Liaodong is vast, but the production is not much, the grain produced cannot even meet the needs of the slaves, and their smelting technology is even more unbearable, so Nurhachi can take out thirteen pairs of armor has already hollowed out the family's foundation, and this situation has not improved until he has plundered a large number of craftsmen from Daming.

But the merchants were in pursuit of profits, as long as there were excess profits, they were willing to risk cutting off their heads, so after the imperial court ordered to cut off trade with Liaodong, there were always Jin merchants who were not afraid of hardship and death regardless of the ban of the Ming Dynasty government, and traveled through mountains and rivers to trade with the Manchus, providing various living and military materials for Jiannu.

Up to now, a chain of interests has been formed, Jiannu entered the customs and plundered, looted property from the people of the Ming Dynasty, and then sold these property stained with the blood of the Ming people to the Jin merchants cheaply, and these Jin merchants provided the Jiannu with the grain and grass they urgently needed, and the iron tools were weapons and intelligence, and they made a fortune lying on the corpses of the Ming people.

In the imperial court, these Jin merchants were also fully prepared, they sponsored those poor but talented students everywhere, and at the same time married with the court bosses to strengthen their own power, such as Zhang Siwei, the first assistant in the Wanli period, and Wang Chonggu, the secretary of the military department, can be said to be the power of the Jin merchants in the court.

Use a large amount of money to settle the local officials, form a party with the court bosses, and use this means to protect their own safety, and then after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, he became a Manchu imperial businessman, which can be said to have earned a hundred years of wealth for his family with the blood of the Ming people.

If you want to solve the problem of Jiannu, the Jin merchants have become a force that Li You must deal with, if you stay in the capital and issue a holy decree to deal with these people, I am afraid that they will be rejected by those court officials who wear the same pants as the Jin merchants; Even if they barely passed, the Qin messenger sent would be stunned by the Jin merchants' silver, and at most they would catch one or two small shrimps to deal with the errands, which would have no effect on those Jin merchants who controlled the commerce and trade of Liaodong.

Therefore, after Li You drove Huang Taiji out of the customs, he immediately went straight to Zhangjiakou with his soldiers and horses, and he wanted to personally solve this tumor that was lying on Daming's body and kept sucking blood.

These Jin merchants were still dreaming of buying the wealth looted by Huang Taiji after entering the customs a few days ago, and then making a lot of money, how could they have thought that Huang Taiji would be defeated so quickly, so it was not until Li You's army surrounded Zhangjiakou that they woke up and hurriedly closed the gate of the city.

"Who are you? What is the matter with coming to Zhangjiakou? The defenders on the city wall asked tremblingly, they knew exactly what these Jin merchants were doing, a few days ago they were still transporting grain and grass to Huang Taiji, it stands to reason that Jiannu could not come to attack them, and the local soldiers and horses had already been fed by them, so whose men and horses was this army?

"I am the secretary of the military department, Wang Qia, who was ordered by the emperor to thoroughly investigate the violation of the ban of the imperial court by the Jin merchants in Zhangjiakou and the collusion with the construction of slaves, so don't you open the door quickly!" Wang Qia had also heard of the prestige of the Jin merchants before, and had also received their gifts in Beijing, but now he didn't dare to say a word to these people.

These words were like a thunderbolt from the sky, and the soldiers at the head of the city and the Jin merchants in the city were shocked to the point that their eyes turned black, and the imperial court actually sent so many soldiers and horses to clean them up? What is the best of now?

The Jin merchants who colluded with Jiannu were headed by Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Binbin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yunfa, and these eight were also named the eight imperial merchants by the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the future, and Fan Yongdou was the most powerful among them.

"Doesn't that make sense? His Majesty led the Beijing camp to drive the expedition in person, Wang Qia was with him, and when the 100,000 Beijing camp arrived in Zunhua, there were less than 30,000 people left, but the Great Khan had 100,000 elites in his hands, and the outcome of this battle did not want to know, how could this Wang Qia run to Zhangjiakou? Still have so many soldiers and horses on hand? Fan Yongdou looked frightened.

"Isn't it that the Great Khan has already defeated the Ming army and captured His Majesty, so he thinks we are useless? Then let Wang Qia, who surrendered, lead the Houjin army to clean us up?" Wang Dengku guessed, if this is not the case, there is still that force around that can make up so many soldiers and horses?

"Even if His Majesty is caught, is the Great Khan still too early to rule the world? What are the benefits of unloading the mill and killing the donkey now? What's more, I've just taken a closer look, those soldiers outside the city didn't shave their hair and braids, and they were definitely not the army of the Han Dynasty. Tian Shenglan vetoed.

"It's all at this point, what's the use of talking about it? Let's find a way to break the siege quickly! Another businessman said anxiously.

"Tell them that if we don't open the city, we're going to open fire." A sneer appeared at the corner of Li You's mouth, and he was about to kill next.