The caravan traveled north for seven days until it finally arrived at Hara Manglai, the town of Guangwu once set up by the Ming Dynasty in the grasslands.

As early as the beginning of Huang Taiji's accession to the throne, a business travel officer was set up here, specializing in collecting business taxes, and at the same time trading large quantities of strategic materials with Jin merchants and purchasing various intelligence information about the Ming Dynasty.

After Fan Yongdou's huge caravan entered Haramang, it was warmly welcomed by the Mongols and Manchu merchants here.

"Hehe, Fan Laodong, what kind of wind blew Fan Laodong's family, such a long distance, he actually came with a caravan in person?"

In the crowd, a heroic man dressed in a Manchu official mansion strode up, and the surrounding Manchus and Mongols flashed aside to make way, and then beat a thousand to kneel on the ground.

Fan Yongdou's eyes widened suddenly, and the person who came was the Manchu Minister Ying Erdai, who hurriedly bowed and said, "Fan Yongdou, grass people, meet your lord!" ”

"Hehe, Fan Laodong is my friend of the Qing Dynasty, so I don't have to be so polite, get up."

Fan Yongdou stood up with great difficulty and said respectfully, "How did you get here?" ”

Fan Yongdou had only seen the Ying Erdai from a distance here before, but now he was able to be greeted by the Ying Erdai, and the feeling in his heart was naturally different.

"Let's go, let's talk inside."

Hara Manglai is a small city in the four directions, on the basis of the original Ming Guangwu town city, gradually developed, but the scale is smaller than the Ming Dynasty control the era here, the original Guangwu town wall has been abandoned, the Manchu Qing Dynasty built in the city again

A ring of low walls.

In a slightly dilapidated mansion in the city, this is the temporary residence of the Ying Erdai, Fan Yongdou stood respectfully in the hall, and the Ying Erdai gave up three times in a row, and Fan Yongdou sat down carefully.

"I came this time for this batch of goods from Fan Laodong's family."

Fan Yongdou changed color slightly, and his heart was suddenly ecstatic.

"The manifest of goods, Fan's old boss knows it, right?"

Fan Yongdou said: "I know, the amount of iron, charcoal and sulfur is sufficient, and the grass people have also prepared an extra 10% of these materials, and they will also be delivered with the adults at the same price." ”

Ying Erdai showed a surprised expression when he heard this, and then said with a smile: "Fan Laodong's work is really outstanding, I like it!" ”

"In addition, starting from this batch of materials, in the future, iron, charcoal, and sulfur will be the mainstay, and there will be more cloth, medicines and other materials."

Fan Yongdou said: "Don't worry, the grass people will do their best!" ”

"I admire Mrs. Fan's strength very much. It's just that the amount of materials I need in the Qing Dynasty is very huge, and I'm afraid the Fan family alone can't supply them. ”

Ying Erdai immediately took out a few letters, handed them to Fan Yongdou, and said, "I also ask Mrs. Fan to bring these letters back and help hand them over." From today on, the materials and intelligence needed by our Qing Dynasty will be jointly operated by the Fan family and these families. As for the price, it's all easy to say! ”

Fan Yongdou stayed in the house for more than an hour, and when he came out, his face was full of red light, as if he was drunk, and he had a thick bill of goods in his hand, and then he carefully carried it in his arms, for fear of losing it.

"Sir, there is a good thing

？ ”

Fan Yongdou said with a smile: "Hehe, of course there are good things, the good days of our Shanxi family are coming!" ”

The servants of the Fan family said words of compliment and celebration, and Fan Yongdou said: "Hurry up and bulk the goods, lower the price by one percent, and bulk the goods, let's rush back to Zhangjiakou immediately, there is a big business to do!" ”

It took less than three days for all the goods of the Fan family's large fleet to be sold, and then Fan Yongdou returned to Zhangjiakou directly with the convoy.

In the fourth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Wanquan commanded Zhang Wen to preside over the construction of Zhangjiakou Fort, which was the predecessor of Zhangjiakou City.

According to the record of "Wanquan County Chronicle", Zhangjiakou Fort has a strange radius of four miles, the city is three feet high and two feet, there are city gates on the southeast two sides, the east gate is Yongzhen Gate, and the south gate is Cheng'en Gate. Because there is a confrontation between the east and west Taiping Mountains in the north of the city, such as a giant mouth, it is called Zhangjiakou.

Later, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court began to exchange markets with the Mongols in Jiubian, and Zhangjiakou began to transform from a border fortress to a trading base for tea and horse markets.

At this time, in Zhangjiakou City, on the main street, the gate of a spacious and magnificent mansion opened, the Fan family's motorvoy stopped on the street, Fan Yongdou proudly stepped off the carriage, and then entered the mansion under the embrace of the Fan family.

"Immediately send someone to invite the rest of the family heads, saying that there is a big business coming to the door!"

"Yes."

It didn't take long for the main hall of the house to gather together in the eight heads of the later Jin and Shang families, in addition to Fan Yongdou, the head of the Fan family whose ancestral home was Jiexiu, Shanxi, there were seven other people.

These seven people are Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang and Huang Yun, seven

The family is also a businessman in the Jiexiu area of Shanxi, and like Fan Yongdou, all of them are Jin merchants, and everyone is sitting together talking and laughing at this time.

On this main hall, all kinds of antique porcelain, gold and silver utensils, jade coral, can be described as dazzling, the house is full of decoration, there are several beautiful, young maids serving tea and pouring water next to them, even these maids are wearing satin clothes, and they also wear a lot of gold hairpins and pearl hairpins on their heads, and the degree of luxury can be seen.

Everyone sat down and greeted for a while, and Wang Dengku said with a smile: "We all heard that Old Lady Fan personally led the team to the grassland, why did she come back so quickly, and said that there is a big business, I don't know what kind of opportunity to make a fortune?" ”

Fan Yongdou said with a smile: "Everyone, this time the old man went to Hara Mang, who do you guess the old man met?" ”

Wang Dengku said: "The emperors of the Qing Dynasty have all died, what kind of big man can they be, could it be that they are the princes of the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Fan Yongdou said: "It's really a big man, but it's not a prince, it's the Minister of Parliament of the Qing Dynasty, Ying Erdai." ”

"Is that him?"

After all, everyone present was engaged in trade with foreign countries and sent various strategic materials to the Manchu Qing all year round, otherwise with the Manchu statecraft, it was destined to be unable to support the material consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops on a large scale.

"That's right, this time Ying Erdai placed a huge order to the old man, covering iron, copper, saltpeter, sulfur, cloth, salt, iron, medicine, grain, etc., the amount of each kind of goods is very huge, with the strength of my Fan family, I can't eat it at all, so

I would like to invite you to gather the financial resources of our eight companies and jointly prepare this batch of goods. ”

As soon as the words fell, Wang Dayu said excitedly: "What about the price?" ”

Fan Yongdou said: "You are all experts in the east exit, and you all know the price of these goods traded with the Mongols and the Qing Dynasty every year, so the old man will not say much." ”

"The price given by the British Erdai this time is very generous, two percent higher than the usual price, everyone, this is a great opportunity to make a fortune, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

When everyone heard the news, they were all excited and began to talk about it.

However, after everyone talked about it for a while, they also began to worry.

Huang Yunfa was the youngest, and he had experienced a lot less things than the others, so he seemed a little unable to hold things, so he said: "Now that the Qing Dynasty is no longer what it used to be, even Huang Taiji was killed by the army led by Liu Yan, the current pavilion elder. I see that Ying Erdai personally came out to place a big order for us, just to revive the strength of the Qing army. But if such a big thing is known by the imperial court, our eight families will suffer! ”

Fan Yongdou suddenly laughed and said, "The imperial court? Whose court? You are from home, or my Fan's family! Go to the damn court, as long as each of us earns silver, it is the royal road, and I don't care if the court is dead or alive! ”

Wang Dengku also said: "That's the truth, we are all businessmen, and it is a matter of course for businessmen to pursue profits, as for whether the Qing Dynasty can ease its breath, and whether the imperial court will still be attacked by the Qing Dynasty, it is not something for us to consider, and others have to worry about it." ”

Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Guest, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang

He and Huang Yunfa laughed out loud, but after Fan Yongdou laughed, he said: "It's just that we should be cautious and try not to go out of our way as much as possible." The old man heard that Liu Yan is also a character who does not recognize his six relatives, in case he is ruthless, our family will inevitably be calamitized. ”

Everyone nodded.

Immediately, Fan Yongdou began to assign tasks to each family: Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu were in charge of iron, Wang Dayu was in charge of grain, Liang Xianbin and Tian Shenglan were in charge of saltpeter, and Zhai Tang and Huang Yunfa were in charge of cloth.

The rest of the medicines, copper, salt, iron, and sulfur were all in charge of Fan Yongdou.

After everyone distributed the big order, Fan Yongdou said: "The guards and civil officials everywhere in Zhangjiakou are already our people, and you have to dedicate another filial piety before this shipment, don't delay the big thing because of some small money." ”

"Yes, Mrs. Fan is right."

"Spending a little money to do big things, this is the means of our Shanxi businessmen."

"It's natural, Mrs. Fan reminded."

Then Fan Yongdou said: "One month, Naying Erdai only gave us one month, including all the time to raise goods and transport them north, you have to hurry up." This order must be done well, our Jinshang is based on integrity, reputation is the most important, and we must not do things that ruin reputation. As long as this order is done, in the future, our bulk transactions with Daqing will be endless and natural. ”

Everyone agreed, and after talking for a while, they took their leave, and hurried to prepare the goods.

A moment later, Fan Yongdou's son, Fan Sanba, pulled out from the screen

He turned around and said worriedly, "Father, is this too risky?" ”

"Are you worried about the new cabinet chief assistant Liu Yan?"

"Exactly."

Fan Yongdou said disapprerovitically: "Hmph, it's just a martial artist, since ancient times, how many martial artists have a good end?" Don't worry, the old man estimates that it won't be long before the adults in the court will join forces to drive Liu Yan out of the court. ”

Fan Sanba still said worriedly: "But I heard that Liu Yan is not an ordinary person, what new policies are being implemented now, Xuanfu Town has begun to implement it, and all places are tracking down the farmland of the occupied military households, and the generals of the guard posts and the generals who are close to us are also dismissing their respective families and paying the arrears of taxes." ”

"I heard that the Huai'an guard refused to dismiss the family and did not pay the outstanding taxes, and then he was arrested and returned to Beijing by the newly built military intelligence department of the imperial court, and I heard that he was beheaded by the family!"

Fan Yongdou still sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and said, "So what? This can only show one point: the happier Liu Yan is, the sooner the day of defeat will come! ”

Fan Sanba nodded and said, "I hope so." ”