Qin Official

The palm-sized nephrite is as white as suet, placed on the dark desk, reflecting a soft luster...

"Is this the jade of Kunshan?"

Even if Hei Fu and Chen Ping were unaware of the price of jade, they could still see that this piece of jade was worth a lot of money. Although it was not worth a city, it was at least worth several hundred gold!

Heifu's narrative begins with jade.

He said to Wu Shiluo: "Your Majesty likes to collect treasures. When Li Tingwei wrote the "Book of Remonstrance and Expulsion of Guests", he listed the jade from Kunshan with the treasure of Suihou, Heshi's Bi, Mingyue Pearl, Tai'a Sword, etc. As far as I know, this Kunshan jade was bought by Wujun from the Yueshi..."

The so-called Kunshan is Kunlun Mountain. However, Kunlun in this era is not a confirmed geographical term, and there is no stone tablet standing there to tell you that this is the main peak of Kunlun.

It is a mixture of reality and imagination, similar to an "overseas fairy island", illusory and illusory. Some people say that it is actually located in Jizhou, also known as Tianzhu Mountain, corresponding to the Big Dipper; some say that it is the Qilian Mountain in Hexi; others say that it is far away from the Quicksand Desert...

That's why Qu Yuan raised this question in his "Heavenly Questions": "Where is the kāo in the hanging garden of Kunlun?"

This can be said to be one of the biggest unsolved mysteries since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

That's why Heifu dared to encourage Chen Baowuya and Qin Shihuang to boast that "the Queen Mother of the West may be in the ruins of Kunlun" because he knew that it was impossible to find it and it would be difficult to falsify it.

So what if the emperor really sends an envoy to the main line of Kunlun Mountain? Five thousand miles from east to west and hundreds of miles from north to south, there are many places where even birds can't fly. From a distance, it looks like a fairyland. When you get closer, you find it is as difficult as climbing to the sky. Who knows if the "Western Queen Mother State" will be up there.

In any case, although Kunlun is elusive and hard to find, the people of the Central Plains love things from Kunlun very much.

Since the Yin Shang Dynasty thousands of years ago, "Kunshan jade" has been continuously transported from the west, becoming the favorite exotic treasure of the Central Plains people. Most of the jade in Fuhao Muli is Kunshan jade. The main trade between Wushiluo and Hexi Yuezhi was to transport silk in exchange for cattle, horses and jade. These jade stones were the main source of various jade ornaments for the Qin Dynasty court.

Therefore, this trade route can also be called the "Jade Road".

"But where does Kunshan jade come from? Is it mined by the Yuezhi people?" Heifu asked.

The Wushi brothers shook their heads: "When merchants from the Central Plains enter the Yuezhi, they are often rejected on the east bank of the Heli River and are not allowed to go any further west. The Kunshan jade is transported from Zhaowu City, the capital of the five tribes of the Yuezhi."

He Lishui, although Heifu didn't know where it was, was probably not too far from the Yellow River. In this case, Wushi's caravan only entered the edge of Hexi.

Ushi Yandao, who has been there personally:

"We also bribed the leaders of the Yuezhi tribe. They only said that this jade was not produced by the Yuezhi. It was transported by camel caravan from the Quicksand Desert to Zhaowu City. When we asked again, they refused to reveal anything more, saying that it was from the Yuezhi. The king of the clan has an order: Anyone who reveals things about the West to the people in the East will die!"

"I didn't give up. I once sent a group of people to sneak across Heli River and head west, but there was no news. Only when the trade came next year, the Yuezhi King sent me their heads..."

Speaking of this matter, Wu Shiyan was still a little angry.

Obviously, the Yuezhi did this to monopolize the trade routes. Because they controlled the Hexi Corridor, they could buy Western jade and Eastern silk, and then sell both to each other at high prices, making huge profits!

If this kind of business is to be maintained, contact between merchants from the east and west must be eliminated.

Even the Wushi Luo brothers knew very little about the Western Regions. In this case, they could only refer to the "Biography of Emperor Mu" which pretended to be King Mu of Zhou's journey to the west. It describes a lot of place names in the Western Regions, such as Chung Mountain, Chiwu Country, Qunyu Mountain, Cao Nu...

According to Heifu's guess, the book said that Chiwu Country is rich in beauties, maybe Loulan? Qunyu Mountain is probably Hotan, because the book says that King Mu of Zhou "took three jade vehicles, jade articles and clothing, and carried tens of thousands of jade" there, and he really gained a lot.

In short, the world west of Yuezhi is larger than the Central Plains people imagined.

Heifu began to instruct Wushi Luo with all his strength: "The Yuezhi occupied Hexi, blocked merchants from the east and west, and monopolized the profits of jade and silk. The profit they made was ten times that of the Wushi!"

"Therefore, if Your Majesty sends General Li Xin to conquer the Yuezhi in the west, it will be beneficial to the Wushi but not harmful. If the Yuezhi is destroyed, the Wuzhi caravan will be able to travel westward along Hexi without any hindrance, while looking for the Queen Mother of the West for Your Majesty. At the same time, it will trade with Western countries. At that time, silk, brown sugar, can be sold thousands of miles away, and jade and other exotic items will also be continuously transported into the Central Plains. The profits gained from this return will be , or selling silk to the Yuezhi at a low price, which one is bigger? This is what I call a big deal!"

Wu Shiluo was moved, but he was a rational businessman and would not risk everything for illusory things. After thinking about it, he said:

"The strategy of expanding to the west has just been implemented. It is too early to talk about annihilating the Yuezhi. But after the county captain said this, I really want to know how many countries there are to the west of the Yuezhi, how big their population is, and what special products they have. , waiting for us to trade.”

When Wu Shiluo had this idea, Heifu's goal was half achieved.

A great man once said: Once there is appropriate profit, capitalists will be bold. With a profit of 50%, it will take desperate risks; for a profit of 100%, it will dare to trample all human laws; with a profit of 300%, it will dare to commit any crime and even risk hanging. danger!

In addition to ambitious conquerors, merchants, and pioneers who are always exploring and discovering.

Just like Europeans after the Renaissance have been eager to bypass the Ottoman Empire and trade directly with India and China, so they continue to rush to the sea. In this era of Central Plains people, not only did the emperor yearn for the mysterious Kunlun and the Queen Mother of the West, Wushi Luo and other merchants, but they also hoped to directly find the origin of jade.

"This desire is the driving force for the great geographical discovery..."

Of course, Heifu couldn't go exploring on his own. The risk was too great. If he wasn't careful, he would be like Zhang Qian, unable to come back for more than ten years. This important task still had to be left to the Wushi Luo family's caravan.

At this time, the Wushi brothers had already begun to study how to bypass the Yuezhi in Hexi and send a caravan to the west.

Wu Shiyan suggested: "You can go to Huangzhong, where there are many Qiang groups. As long as the Qiang chiefs are properly managed, we can let them go."

The route he mentioned was to go directly from the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai to the Western Regions. This was also a sub-line of the historical Silk Road. Zhang Qian came back through this road when he first visited the Western Regions.

However, there are always strange places in history. In history, Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions in order to find the Yuezhi. Now, the Wushi brothers traveled to the Western Regions to avoid the Yuezhi...

Wu Shiluo Ze said: "You can also go westward via the grassland via the Xiongnu! The Xiongnu are not involved in trade and will not deliberately obstruct it. It's just that the Huns like to rob merchants, so the risk is not small."

What he is talking about should be the "Grassland Silk Road", which runs from the northern grasslands to the west. As long as there are water and grass, there is a road.

While saying this, Wu Shiluo also glanced at Hei Fu and said with a smile: "By taking this route, we can also find out the reality of the Xiongnu for your majesty and the county lieutenant!"

"What a businessman!"

Heifu secretly thought, yes, this is one of the reasons why he urged Wu Shiluo!

The best spies are nothing more than two types of people. One is an envoy to a foreign country, and the other is a businessman doing frontier trade. Heifu not only needed Wushiluo's assistance with funds and livestock, but also needed his caravan to go deep into the Xiongnu to help him find out the enemy's reality and achieve "knowledge of the enemy."

The effect of forcing Wushi to cooperate is very different from that of Wushi taking the initiative to help.

Seeing that the deal was about to be concluded, Chen Ping took the opportunity and said:

"In the past three hundred years, there have been many wealthy businessmen in the Central Plains, but none other than Tao Zhu have been able to get richer than two generations! Those who are close will suffer harm to themselves, but what will happen to those who are far away and their descendants? Are all the children of wealthy businessmen stupid? Not good? In my opinion, this is because they have a lot of money but have done nothing for the country, so they are regarded as a pest by the monarch and ministers. Under the suppression, the son of a rich person will become a poor man in Luzuo overnight."

"And now, Wu Jun is spying on the military situation of the Xiongnu and Yuezhi for the country, which is one merit. He is opening up new trade routes for the Qin Dynasty, which is two merits; and he is looking for the kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West for Your Majesty, which is three merits!"

Not only can it bring you tens of thousands of dollars, but it is also a good way to preserve your family's wealth.

"I think in a few years, Wu Jun will really be crowned king!"

Everyone likes to hear good things. Wu Shiluo laughed when he heard this: "Jun Wei, you have such a long history, you really know how to talk. It's a pity not to be a merchant."

He said it casually, but unexpectedly, Chen Ping climbed up the slope and directly asked Hei Fu:

"The county lieutenant is willing to disguise himself as a merchant and go north with the Wushi caravan to the Huns to spy on the truth for the county lieutenant!"