Please ask me to be the emperor

The root cause of any political problem is an economic problem, and the same unsolvable economic problems are in all likelihood also political problems.

Coincidentally, the problems in Ganzhen in the west and Hancheng in the east are surprisingly the same, both because of economic problems.

In fact, after the normal official report, Gansu Governor Zhang Yingchen attached a private letter to Zhang Shun.

The content of the private message was just as Zhang Shun, Hong Chengchou, Lu Weiqi, and Qian Shoulian had guessed. These chieftain rebellions were really related to the tea-horse trade.

It turns out that at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the north was in ruins and all industries were in ruins. Therefore, tea was expensive and horses were cheap.

"Every horse is given forty pounds of tea when it is mounted, thirty pounds for the middle horse, and twenty pounds for the dismounted horse."

In the 22nd year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had always been stingy, had no choice but to issue an order: "The tea and horse racing department has been ordered to set the price."

"A mounted horse and tea weigh one hundred and twenty pounds, a middle horse weighs seventy pounds, and a colt weighs fifty pounds."

Subsequently, as time went by, the higher the price of horses, the lower the price of tea.

The fundamental reason is that the living environment of herdsmen is poor, and both the population and livestock are growing slowly, which cannot match the development speed of the mainland.

As Sichuan, Huguang and other places stabilized, a large amount of tea was produced. However, the consumption market of herdsmen in other areas did not expand significantly, and the number of horses was not increased significantly. As a result, tea was cheap and horses were expensive, and the court's "official laws" outweighed the gains.

After the "official law" of official closing and official selling was corrupted, the famous official Yang Yiqing happened to be appointed as the governor of the three sides, and he tried to adopt the "investment of Chinese tea" method.

The method is to attract business and transport tea. For every thousand kilograms of tea shipped to the Tea Horse Company, fifty taels of silver will be given.

Among them, there are 25 taels of tea money and 25 taels of processing and freight. The merchants are profitable, and the court is also profitable.

To a layman, this would sound strange.

Merchants can still say that the court's pricing is reasonable if they are profitable, so how can the court be profitable as the party that provides the money?

It turns out that the price of a horse at this time was about ten taels of silver. If the horse was exchanged for tea, it would be about sixty-seven pounds.

If the price is calculated in silver, sixty-seven kilograms of tea is actually worth three taels and three cents, which is only about one-third of the purchase price in silver.

The fundamental reason is that the Ming Dynasty's monopoly on tea caused the price of tea to be artificially high. This was also one of the fundamental reasons for the rampant tea smuggling trade in the later period.

And this kind of smuggling trade is mainly based on barter of bulk commodities. It will definitely not work if there is no collusion between people inside and outside.

These people who colluded with both internal and external parties were the chieftains of the Dongqi and Dongli families in Xining, and the chieftains of the Lu family in Zhuanglang.

While relying on the Ming Dynasty, they dug into the foundation of the Ming Dynasty and gained a lot of benefits from it. At the same time, they also overestimate their abilities.

After the three towns and four towns in Shaanxi were bombed by the rebels, they suddenly discovered that they were nothing without the Ming Dynasty.

The tea and horse trade has stopped, no one is investigating illegal tea, and the better-than-nothing tea and horse trade has disappeared. Everything looks very good.

However, the transactions between tea merchants and Fan people naturally did not require brokers to take over the whole process. As a result, all the "prominent families" such as Dongqi, Dongli and Lu were "unemployed".

Despite the fact that they had thousands of families of native and foreign people under their command, the rebel army did not attack them.

If things go on like this for a long time, without the protection of the court politically and without "extra money" economically, these chieftains will soon decline, so this is why they try to fight while they still have the strength.

"It seems that the right way to manage Qinggan is to combine civil and military forces!" Zhang Shun couldn't help but sigh after reading the letter.

"Who do you think can take charge of this matter in my place?"

When everyone heard that Zhang Shun no longer insisted on the Western Expedition, they couldn't help but feel happy, and they quickly recommended: "Apart from King Shun, who is the General of Shezhenxi?"

Zhang Shun couldn't help but smile when he heard this. General Zhenxi was his sworn brother Chen Changzhen.

Chen Changzhen is a martial arts figure who was born as a bodyguard. In addition to fighting and killing, the most important thing is social skills.

Gansu Town happens to be located in the northwest corner of Shaanxi, bordering Hetao and Songshan to the north, the Western Regions to the west, and Uzang to the south. There are many Fan people.

A combination of grace and power is needed to stabilize the situation and free up the rebels to fight eastward for supremacy.

And these just require a person with prestige, status, and means to go there.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shun nodded and said: "Gansu Town only has one battalion of Ge Lin and He Jin's two thousand cavalry. There is indeed a risk of shortage of manpower."

"Now that Yulin and Ningxia are safe, the pressure of Guyuan's suppression has been much reduced!"

"Let's take Chen Jindou to Guyuan as a military advisor and take charge of Guyuan's daily affairs for the time being."

"Let Chen Changzhen set off first, and after Wei Congyi's fire gun cavalry is completed, he will also be transferred to support."

"Try to use two to three years to stabilize Gansu Town!"

It turned out that when Li Jiyu led Wang Sheng, Zhang Ding and Shen Jingbang to Xi'an this time, Chen Jindou, who was sent by Zhang Shun to monitor Li Jiyu, also returned to Xi'an.

Although there are many talents under Zhang Shun's command now, only a few of them are actually deeply trusted by him.

Among these people must be Chen Jindou and others who took the initiative to seek refuge with Zhang Shun before he became successful.

Therefore, when Chen Jindou "completed his mission" came over, Zhang Shun not only gave him a farm and a house, but also hosted many banquets in private to show that he was different from others.

Now Guyuan Town has mobilized troops to fight with the rebels several times, resulting in serious losses and a serious shortage of troops.

However, its unique geographical location still has a great influence on the other three towns, so Zhang Shun still feels at ease when he puts him in the hands of the most trustworthy person.

Hong Chengchou, the chief of staff, and Lu Weiqi, the chief official of the Prince of Qin's palace, were so shrewd. They knew that Zhang Shun had been planning this matter for a long time, so how could they have any opinions?

After everyone had agreed on the charter, Zhang Shun smiled and said to Qian Shoulian: "Mr. Qian, the rebel army is now a primitive army. There are many shortcomings, but they cannot be solved in a short time."

"As a result, you know that you can't speak, and you can't do what you say. In this case, why don't you preside over the tea ceremony for me, which can be regarded as making the best use of things and making full use of people's talents!"

"This..." The censor Qian Shoulian often traveled north and south in order to supervise officials everywhere, and he was considered a well-informed person.

Hearing this, he hesitated and said, "In that case, it would be better for me to be respectful than to obey my orders!"

"It's just a matter of the source of tea. I am not allowed to go to Hanzhong and Sichuan to think of it as the beginning of the tea method."

Tea method, tea method, how can there be tea method without tea?

"Haha, Mr. Qian, don't worry too much!" Zhang Shun laughed when he heard this, "There is a person under my command, let me call him Li Jingu, because he has held the position of Baihu before, so you can call him Li Baihu."

"Whether it's the Hanzhong Tea Source or the Jingyang Workshop, we can help you connect them one by one. You just have to do your best."

Because on the eve of the Spring Festival, I was too busy with work, which affected the update. Please forgive me. The author will wait for a few more days, and when he is done with this period of busy work, he will be able to relax and write more