The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Shan Loan, come in and sit down."

Another day, Wei Guangde entered the cabinet to check the room by himself. Before he could sit down, Zhang Juzheng sent someone to invite him.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng had something to discuss with him early this morning, so someone blocked the cabinet door.

Although I was curious about what Zhang Juzheng wanted to do with him, Zhang Juzheng was currently focusing on two tasks. One was flood fighting and disaster relief in the south. This was the responsibility of the chief assistant, and he did not dare to do anything to others.

The second is to further promote the examination method. You must know that the examination method is centered on the chief assistant, who supervises the six subjects, the six subjects supervise the six ministries, and the six ministries are pushed down to the chief secretaries and prefectures.

But eventually, the power will be concentrated in the hands of the chief assistant.

What would happen if Zhang Juzheng came to him at this time?

As soon as he entered the first assistant's duty room, Zhang Juzheng enthusiastically pulled him into the room and asked him to sit down.

When the two of them were done, a clerk brought tea. Wei Guangde smiled and said: "My uncle is so anxious to summon me. I guess there must be something important. I wonder where he received the documents?"

At this time, Wei Guangde thought it was because of the law test. During this period, due to local conflicts, Zhang Juzheng frequently discussed with him and transferred some disobedient officials through the Ministry of Personnel.

Jianghu is not about fighting and killing, but about human nature. Zhang Juzheng will not kill the people below just because they oppose the new law he promotes.

Officials in the Ming Dynasty had a complicated network of classmates, classmates, classmates, and classmates. In fact, sometimes it was difficult to deal with offending officials.

If you do something, you will offend a lot of people.

Zhang Juzheng is the first assistant, but that doesn't mean he has no scruples.

After all, errands still have to be done by people below, and it is impossible for him to do it himself.

"Haha, it's not that I received any important documents this time. I just wanted to ask, what was the final result when you mentioned Huo Yi last time?"

Zhang Juzheng asked with a smile while stroking his beard.

"Huo Yi? Governor Huo's memorial?"

Wei Guangde was a little surprised as to why Zhang Juzheng cared about this matter.

About a month ago, Wei Guangde saw the memorial from Huo Yi, the governor of Xuanda, requesting to open a market in Datong.

His request was not a tribute exchange conducted by the Ming Dynasty at this time, but a mutual market in the true sense, a pure commercial transaction between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia.

When Wei Guangde saw this memorial, he thought that there was already a tribute exchange market, and there was no need to hold a regular market every month.

Although the Mongol Ada Khan had nominally conquered the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde would not lose his wary of the Mongols.

You know, when the Manchus and Qing dynasties came to the pass for looting again and again in later generations, there was never a lack of Mongolians in the team.

Appropriate restrictions are still needed. It is conceivable that Wei Guangde's proposal will naturally not be supported.

After the memorial was delivered to the palace, Feng Bao agreed with Wei Guangde and believed that there was no need to open the market, but only to maintain the mutual trade of tribute.

"Hasn't Governor Huo's memorial been dismissed?"

Wei Guangde didn't know whether Zhang Juzheng really didn't know or pretended not to know, so he deliberately said this to make people talk.

Huo Yi was sent to Xuanda from the Ministry of War last year to replace Wang Chonggu, the former governor of Xuanda, and was responsible for Xuanda's defense and contact with the Mongolian Ada Khan.

"Since Anda Khan paid tribute, Mongolia has been quite respectful to the Ming Dynasty in these years. The amount of tribute and mutual trade every year cannot meet Mongolia's actual needs, so I think it is okay to relax a little."

As expected, Zhang Juzheng came here to announce the opening of the market and immediately started working as a lobbyist.

"Uncle, I know what kind of person you are. I wonder if I can tell you who lobbied you? And what reasons do you use to think that the imperial court should allow Xuanda to open the market?"

Wei Guangde put away his smile and asked seriously.

Zhang Juzheng intervened in the Xuanda Mutual Market. It seemed that the chief minister was concerned about government affairs, but Wei Guangde didn't think so. Because the contact was with later generations, Wei Guangde had a very bad feeling.

"Haha, I can't hide it from Shan Loi."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and continued: "It's Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs and Zhang Shilang of the Ministry of Rites. Wang Shangshu thought that since Yuegang can open the market, Xuan Tianzi can also follow suit and tax incoming and outgoing goods to increase the court's income.

But Zhang Shilang thought that every year Mongolia paid tribute and they sent a small number of weak war horses in exchange for a large amount of supplies, which was really a loss for the court.

It would be better to hold regular mutual markets in border towns, allowing merchants to choose to buy Mongolian horses, cattle and sheep, and conduct transactions independently, and the court would collect taxes from them to make up for the losses caused by tribute. "

Tribute exchange, or tribute trade, was actually the Ming court that always suffered.

Fanbang brought so-called tributes to His Majesty the Emperor. Even if the quality was inferior, the court would often give a very high price for the sake of face.

Since it is a tribute, it cannot be judged in terms of money.

After that, most of the envoys from the foreign countries would take away the rewards from the imperial court and purchase Ming products.

In Xuanda's mutual tribute market, according to the agreement, Mongolian officials at all levels presented "BMWs" to the Ming emperor during the tribute period, and the court rewarded them according to the market price.

And these rewards are the goods that merchants brought to Xuanda Mutual Market.

"Shilang Zhang also mentioned that last year, the Ministry of War reported that the border towns were short of war horses, so we should take advantage of the opening of the market to obtain good Mongolian horses to supplement the needs of the border towns."

Zhang Juzheng was still talking there. It was obvious that he was convinced by Wang Guoguang and Zhang Siwei.

Neither Yuegang nor Jiugang, Hubu took advantage, so Hubu turned its attention to Xuanda in the north, and also wanted to build Yuegang on land.

As for why the market is not opened in Ji Town, the reason is actually very simple. It is too close to the capital and is afraid of mistakes.

Xuan Da is located not too far from the capital, just right.

Fortunately, Zhang Juzheng was still sober and knew that the Ministry of War was responsible for this matter, not the Ministry of Revenue, which was in charge of money and grain. He could not agree directly.

So, there was this summons today.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng had thought about it carefully last night and thought it was feasible.

"What commodities do they want to trade with?"

Wei Guangde did not refuse outright, but asked about the doubts in his heart.

"Naturally, tea and silk are the main ones, supplemented by other daily necessities."

Zhang Juzheng said.

"What about the iron pot?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"Ironware can be banned, and only a small amount is provided during the tribute trade."

Zhang Juzheng naturally knew the importance of prohibiting the trade of ironware with the Mongols. Although there was no explicit stipulation in the agreement with Mongolia, the court had strict quantity requirements for the ironware shipped to Xuan Da for the tribute trade, and it was not an unlimited trade.

Wei Guangde was still thinking. He had no idea what the "Datong Horse Market" derived from the original "Datong Tribute Road" would look like in the future.

The Tea Horse Road was another important international trade route that emerged between the Eurasian continent after the Silk Road during the 300 years from the early 17th century to the mid-20th century. It runs through China from north to south, through Mongolia, and reaches Kyakhta, a trading port on the Sino-Russian border, with a total length of 476 kilometers.

Datong and Zhangjiakou are two important nodes of the "Tea Horse Road", and Datong is not only a node of the "Tea Horse Road", but also an important hub in the "Tea Horse Road", a trade distribution center for southern tea merchants and northern merchants.

The "Tea Horse Road" formed a complete commercial chain through the hub of Datong, and eventually formed an international trade route with tea, silk, fur, etc. as the main trade content.

It was precisely because of the existence of Datong Gongdao and Datong Horse Market that Datong's trade flourished in the late Ming Dynasty and attracted many merchants. It also enabled Shanxi merchants to open a northward passage to Mongolia and Russia through Datong in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty.

Of course, the price was that through here, Shanxi merchants were able to secretly transport various strategic materials to Mongolia and Liaodong, which eventually shook the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was forced to flee to the northern grasslands and established a regime in the grasslands, known as the "Northern Yuan Dynasty".

After the fall of the "Northern Yuan Dynasty", Zhu Yuanzhang, who started from the Central Plains, was not very interested in the "wild land" and did not go deep into the grasslands to establish a regime. Instead, he defined the border on the old boundaries of Qin, Han and even Tang.

And he deployed troops on a large scale in the north and set up a large number of military settlements as a barrier to prevent the Mongolian forces from invading the south.

The Mongolian forces, which had lost their "orthodox" rule, split into three major parts during the Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, namely the Tatar, Wala and Wuliangha tribes distributed in the north, northwest and northeast of the Ming Dynasty.

Among the three tribes, the Wuliangha tribe was the first to establish tributary relations with the Ming Dynasty, while the other two tribes were in a state of uncertainty. Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty pacified the two tribes when they were obedient and suppressed them when they were rebellious.

Under Zhu Di's strategy of both suppression and appeasement, in the seventh and eleventh years of Yongle, the Wala tribe and the Tatar tribe established tribute relations with the Ming court respectively.

Envoys had to enter the customs through a pass and a route, namely the so-called tribute road. They first entered the customs through Gansu and entered Nanjing or Beijing through the Gansu and Ningxia tribute roads.

Since the northern part of Datong was occupied by the Tatar tribe, the Wala tribe still entered the country through Gansu. In the early years of the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, the Wala tribe achieved the annexation of the Tatar tribe and unified the Wala and Tatar tribes.

In this way, from the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, Datong became a special tribute road for Mongolian envoys to pay tribute.

At this time, the Mongols were no longer satisfied with the little supplies obtained from the simple tribute. They were expanding to the west and urgently needed the supply of Ming Dynasty goods.

It was during this period that, based on the tribute market, the Mongolian Oirat Shunning King Tuohuan sent his envoy Adu Chi to the Ming Dynasty to ask for a private horse market, which was approved by Emperor Yingzong.

So, in addition to the tribute market, the horse market in Datong also came into being. Although it was initially a private market for Tuohuan, that is, the only trading partner of Mongolia was Shunning King Tuohuan, other Mongolian tribes soon requested to join in, and finally a horse market was formed.

For the trading commodities that the Mongols could bring out, in fact, only war horses were urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, because the court opened the door to the mutual market, the biggest management trouble was that when the official market was not open, the Mongols would contact the Ming merchants they met privately and conduct transactions behind the scenes.

Among them, many contraband items were quietly transported to the prairie, and the court was unable to effectively supervise them.

However, the bilateral relations were sometimes tight and sometimes loose, which naturally affected the operation of the border town horse market.

From the Zhengtong Dynasty to the Hongzhi Dynasty, and then to the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had opened the border town horse market three times.

The most recent one was in the fifth year of Longqing, when Datong briefly opened a horse market because of the Longqing Peace Talks. After that, the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia was incorporated into the tribute trade, and the horse market was banned.

Obviously, the tribute trade could no longer meet the needs of Mongolian and Ming merchants, especially Shanxi merchants, who were eager to re-establish the horse market and conduct free trade.

Wei Guangde didn't know that the Shanxi merchants who facilitated the Datong horse market were actually considered to belong to the Pingyang Merchants in the Shanxi merchants after being subdivided in later generations, and the red-topped Shanxi merchants who sold out the country in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were the Jinzhong Merchants who rose later.

With his little historical knowledge, Wei Guangde didn't know much about the horse market in the north. Later generations also called these two business gangs Shanxi merchants. Naturally, Wei Guangde always had a bad look on Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu.

Of course, he doesn't show his contempt for them on his face. Wei Guangde is still very enthusiastic when facing them.

Zhang Siwei's family's trading company sends very generous amounts of ice and charcoal to the Wei Mansion every year. Wei Guangde knows this very well.

"The tribute trade market is presided over by officials sent by the imperial court, and they can still have some control over the commodities traded. I heard that in the horse market, the imperial court is not so easy to manage the commodities traded."

Wei Guangde thought for a long time and had no choice but to evade.

Yes, although there is nothing wrong with trade, which can benefit both the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, Wei Guangde still instinctively felt that free trade with the Mongols should not be opened.

In the horse market during the Zhengtong period, the Mongolian side mainly sold horses, precious furs, jade, etc., while the Ming Dynasty mainly sold silks, satins, cloths, and daily necessities, but "copper and iron weapons were prohibited."

Even so, traders were driven by interests, and most powerful officials in Datong participated in it. Some even engaged in weapons smuggling, "containing iron tools in urns and using them to assassinate envoys."

Moreover, when merchants from both sides conduct transactions, disputes often arise behind the scenes, causing some disputes and even conflicts.

“We can ask Datong to prepare its charter. Although it is a private market, it will still be managed according to the official market.

In my opinion, this matter can be left to Ziwei to contact Yao and Feng for joint discussion. Once the charter is produced, the cabinet will discuss it again. "

Zhang Juzheng said.

He planned to leave the matter to Zhang Siwei and Huo Yi for negotiation, and then discuss it in the cabinet after determining the solution.

Of course, the first thing to do was to obtain Wei Guangde's permission. Otherwise, the memorial would be directly rejected by the Ministry of War and would not reach the cabinet.

In fact, for Zhang Siwei and others, what they want is just a breakthrough. As long as the court opens this hole, they will have the final say in the future.

For this reason, they are even willing to hand over part of their profits to the Ministry of Household Affairs to be counted as business taxes.

In fact, Zhang Siwei has been making a lot of moves recently, using various means to contact officials from the six ministries, because Zhang Juzheng has already begun to pave the way for Zhang Siwei and prepares to bring him into the cabinet.

The reasons are, firstly, Zhang Juzheng likes Zhang Siwei for his sophisticated ways of doing things, and secondly, his relationship with Yang Bo. Although Yang Bo is gone, he was originally entrusted with taking care of his nephew.

Of course, it is also a reason why Lu Tiaoyang intends to return to his hometown after becoming an official in the next year or two.

The only thing for officials of the Ming Dynasty was that unless they were forced to leave due to something major, they would usually make arrangements in advance, just like the officialdom of later generations, and arrange some relationships.

Lu Tiaoyang's fellow villagers and disciples made arrangements, and naturally the first choice was to communicate with Zhang Juzheng.

It was not enough for him to know Lu Tiaoyang's plan in advance.

Wei Guangde had some vague guesses, but he didn't think it through for the moment. Seeing Zhang Juzheng's attitude, he could only say, "I'll think about it again."

"Okay, I'll let Ziwei and the others think about it to avoid going wrong."

Zhang Juzheng smiled. (End of chapter)