The court was in a quarrel because they had no money to spend, but Xiang'an Village was in trouble because they had money and no place to spend it.

"... I originally got the Taihu Stone, and I made an agreement with young Eunuch Liu, thinking that I would add a scene to Xiyuan to make the emperor happy. But now, if this situation comes up, I'm afraid it will be a reason for impeachment.

Yes. A while ago, the Emperor was out and about more often, and there were reports about some natural phenomena, and even those of us around the Emperor became sycophants."

Zhang Hui complained, "There are only a few days left, where can we find something that will make both the old gentlemen happy and the emperor happy!"

"Now I have money and nowhere to spend it." Zhang Hui glanced at Shen Rui, who was still there, and rolled his eyes, "You have an idea! You know how to take advantage of it. You send Songjiang cotton cloth again and again.

If not, your birthday gift belongs to both of us!"

Shen Rui was amused by his expression: "There is also a Qiao Zong, do you want to do it? Since you have money and nowhere to spend it, the treasury is short of silver, and the emperor's internal treasury is afraid that there will be no money, so you can directly invest 10,000 yuan

Just two taels of silver and it saves you a lot of trouble."

Zhang Hui snorted, clapped his hands, and said proudly: "If it weren't for the jealousy of the little screwdriver, let alone ten thousand taels, it would be good to go in with one hundred thousand taels to make the emperor happy."

Shen Rui pretended to have a serious face and said: "Don't you know that wealth is not revealed?"

Zhang Hui said with a smile: "I can't compare to you. I am a poor man who suddenly becomes rich, and I can't help showing off."

Shen Rui couldn't help but shook his head and laughed.

You know, at this time last year, Zhang Hui could only spend 1,800 taels of his private house, and wanted to go to Xiyuan to buy a shop in partnership with Shen Rui. The cloth shop that was later formed a partnership was more of the capital of the Zhao family.

.Now his net worth has doubled, and he has become a rich man worth one hundred thousand dollars.

This is not because Zhao Tong brought a generous dowry, nor is it entirely because Songjiang cotton is now very popular in Beijing, making money every day, but it comes from Liaodong.

Since the guarding eunuch Zhu Xiu was removed, and his own people were installed everywhere, the situation in Liaodong was completely different. Deng Zhang and Cen Zhang did not care about it, but the western part of Liaoning was in the hands of Yizhou Ma's family, which was Jinshan.

The silver sea is endless.

At that time, the eleven trade routes west of the Liaohe River were mainly land transport, and the trade routes east of the Liaohe River were mainly sea transport. However, since Chenghua, sea transport has declined, and land transport is still the main way to connect the pass.

The fur and mountain products from outside the pass must go to the inside of the pass, and the salt wire tea from within the pass must go through the Liaoxi Corridor.

Since the Hongzhi period, taxes have been collected inside and outside Shanhaiguan. Defending the Liaoxi Pass means guarding the channel for collecting wealth, and money will come from all over the place.

The Ma family owes its current power to the Zhao family's operation in Beijing, and the Zhao family will still need to maintain relations in the capital in the future. Naturally, they want to sell the Zhao family to the throne. Zhang Hui, the "collaborating" uncle, will naturally have a lot of conveniences, and let Zhao Tong go.

Not to mention investing in the business, filial piety and money will be taken lightly.

And the first batch of trade sent here also made Zhang Hui and Shen Rui make a lot of money.

Lu Erqilang said that he was sent by the emperor to run errands for Deng Zhang, but he didn't just go there empty-handed. What's more, Shen Chun, who was sent by the Shen family, was also a person who often did business. The two of them were in Beijing.

Zhongji discussed purchasing a batch of popular southern goods, and quickly sold them when they arrived in Liaodong, making a lot of money.

When they came back from escorting the silver cargo, they actually brought a batch of special Liaodong specialties, nearly a hundred high-quality horses.

"How about horses? Those five top-notch horses were originally reserved for the emperor. Why don't we go in as birthday gifts this time." Zhang Hui knocked on the table and said to Shen Rui, "Recently, the palace is also talking about frugality.

, it’s not nice to give it to those who pile up gold and silver.”

When the horses were mentioned, Shen Rui fell silent and said, "That's fine." But he sighed secretly in his heart.

Before Lu Erqilang went to Liaodong, Shen Rui had talked with him and hoped that he would investigate the horse market in Liaodong.

Because of Ming Dynasty's Ma Zheng, it caused great harm to the people.

Starting from the time of Taizu, the imperial court began to force farmers in Hebei and other places to act as horse households to raise horses. Not only would it delay their own farming, they would also have to pay compensation if the horses they raised died or the stallions did not reproduce enough, and they had to be inspected by Taipu Temple officials.

They tried to create difficulties in many ways, and it was said at that time that "the people in the south of the Yangtze River were most in trouble with food, and the people in Hebei were most in trouble with horses."

It was this Ma Zheng that would soon become the trigger for the Liu Liu Liu Qi Uprising, the largest civil uprising in the Zhengde Dynasty.

As for the source of horses in the Ming Dynasty, except for the occasional trade of 1,800 horses from the Tea Horse Company on the Shanshan-Shaanxi border, they mostly came from Liaodong.

In addition to tribute from the Nüzhen and North Korea, the horses in Liaodong were mainly obtained from trade with the Mongolian Uliangha Tribe and the Jurchen Tribe. This is why the horse market was established.

The horse markets in Liaodong were first established in the third year of Yongle. There were only three horse markets at the beginning. Later, they were added in the 14th year of Chenghua. Now there are seven horse markets.

Shen Rui had checked some miscellaneous books and learned that during the Yongle period, the Ming Dynasty had an abundance of horses due to the horse market. It is said that there were more than 300 horses in the early years of Yongle. By the 22nd year of Yongle, there were more than 1.7 million horses in the country. In Liaodong alone

, after the official horses were handed over to the court, there were still 400,000 horses left, which shows the huge trading volume in the horse market.

The horse market in Yongle was established for horse trading. Six years after Xuande, the horse market was gradually converted into a border trading place similar to a trading market, allowing private material transactions. In Mongolia, the female straight tribes exchanged cattle, sheep, livestock, various leather goods, and various mountain goods.

Han Chinese cloth, ironware, pots and pans, kitchen utensils, salt tea, etc.

It can be said that the horse market was not only the main channel for the imperial court to obtain horses, but also a means to use economic channels to restrain the various tribes in Liaodong.

Since the Zhengtong Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's policies towards various female straight ministries have been constantly changing, and the princes in the court have used the horse market as an excuse to criticize each other from time to time, causing the horse market trade to wax and wane.

Especially starting from the 14th year of Zhengtong (Tumubao Incident), the imperial court closed the two horse markets in Ulliangha for 30 years, and they were not reopened until the end of Chenghua.

During the Chenghua and Hongzhi dynasties, iron bans were imposed to varying degrees, and horse trade was also greatly affected.

Shen Rui couldn't help but place his hopes on the horse market in Liaodong, thinking that now Liaodong also has "one of its own". If it can be promoted to make the horse trade prosperous, it will be easy for the court to obtain horses, and there will be no need to tighten the necks of horse owners.

Let him work hard to raise horses, right?

Although it cannot eliminate the "ancestral rules" of Ma Zheng, it can greatly ease the burden on the people of Hebei, or it may be able to eliminate civil unrest, who knows!

It is not that he has not considered issues such as the rise of the Jurchens in Liaodong, but that will be a hundred years later, and the civil uprising is right in front of him, in the fifth year of Zhengde!

Moreover, if the Ming Dynasty can get rid of its bad government and gradually become stronger and stronger, the Liaodong Jurchens will not be afraid at all.

Although Shen Rui had a good idea, he did not expect that the Liaodong horse market was full of disadvantages. Lu Erqilang wrote a long letter and described it in detail, which gave Shen Rui a headache.

As long as there are interests, there will be no need for any kind of robbery.

Local officials and health officials in Liaodong regarded the horse market as a way to make money, and tried every possible means to exploit Mongolian and straight women.

Soldiers wandered around the horse market speculating and fooling around, buying and selling by force; officials even directly asked for Dongzhu and mink skins from the Mongolian and female straight men who came to trade, and aggressively lowered the price to 30% to 40%.

What's more, the guards used the horse market to trap and kill a large number of people who came to the market to claim credit for invading the Tartars!

As for Mongolia, straight women are not good-tempered and allow themselves to be bullied. Not only do they not bring good horses and good goods to sell in the horse market, but more often they simply support the crowd and join the invaders, leading to armed conflicts at the horse market, and even a Without stopping, he stormed into the inner city and plundered it.

This is the reason why it is often seen in court reports that straight women were among the bandits.

This group of frontier troops at the guard station caused more trouble than anyone else. They were afraid to use their swords to kill the enemy. At the same time, there were many factions among the border generals and they did not respond to each other. For example, Han Fu had no troops and just sat back and watched Ma Shen. Li Xiong's defeat did not happen. Not uncommon.

The officials of Ma City are extremely wealthy, but the people in the villages and towns near Ma City are suffering from wars.

When normal market trade is disrupted, but market demand is still there, the smuggling trade flourishes exceptionally.

Lu Erqilang's horses can be regarded as smuggled.

He was quite courageous, and after discussing with Shen Chun, they used the new Liaodong garrison eunuch Cen Zhang to raid the predecessor Zhu Xiuyu's party, causing people to panic. The banner was made of tiger skin, and through the Ma family and other local wealthy families and the Guangning Right Guards, they directly established a line with several small Mongolian tribes in Tainingwei outside the border wall.

The right guard of Guangning was the guard station where Zhu Xiu had taken over the most farmland. He had been replaced by new people from top to bottom, so he showed great respect to Lu Erqilang, "a man of Cen Zhang".

In addition, Lu Twenty-seventh Lang was a good man, and the money he gave was enough, and all the generals and generals were left behind. The Guangning right guard not only helped to contact the Mongolian tribes with relatively good relations, but also sent a team of hundreds of households to escort Lu Twenty-seven Lang, Shen Chun's caravan, there is no smuggling team with such magnificence.

The Mongolian tribe is not as good as the Nvzhi tribe, and the Nvzhi tribes have many backers. Not to mention mink fur and ginseng, if not good enough, there are mushrooms, fungus, pine nuts, honey, etc. which are easy to exchange.

Small tribes like Mongolia only have livestock, so they suffer the most from normal horse market transactions and rarely get much good stuff in exchange.

Lu Erqilang came to visit with a merchant, and the transactions were quite fair, which was really a surprise to them.

Although Lu Erqilang didn't have the guts to agree to important materials such as salt and iron, for the Shen family and the Lu family in Jiangnan, tea and silk were nothing but trivial matters, and it didn't matter if they promised them casually.

Lu Erqilang did his homework and bought a large number of clothes, coats, boots and shoes in Yizhou, which were exactly what the tribe needed for the winter. He first presented the colorful brocade to the tribal leader to attract his attention, so The transaction went very smoothly.

The hundred households were honest. They received Lu Erqilang's big red seal and actually helped bargain with the price in the transaction and choose the animals. These hundred households were locals and grew up on horses. This pick I am very good with livestock, so I really helped get a batch of top-quality cattle and horses.

Lu Ershiqilang had done this kind of smuggling business when he followed Lu Shiliulang to Shandong and Liaodong Shipping. This time, he did it in the same way. He paid part of the tax as a token to make up for it, and the goods became private goods. With official goods and connections with the Ma family, the cattle bought this time were left on the farm built in Liaodong for spring plowing, while the horses were transported through Shanhaiguan in an open and honest manner.

When Shen Rui learned what happened, he couldn't help but sigh, thinking that after all Lu Erqilang was a person who often did business. He usually only thought of him as a weak-looking person, not a courageous and scheming one. But after all, Shen Chun had little experience and was inferior to him. A lot. I hope Shen Chun can learn more from Lu Erqilang and it will be of great use in the future.

Thinking about the horse market in Liaodong, he couldn't help but feel a headache. Horses that could easily be exchanged for cloth and tea in the market could now only be obtained with a lot of effort and effort.

From this point of view, if we want to promote the prosperity of the horse market and then solve the shortcomings of horse administration, it will not be a day or two effort.

He thought about it for a long time, discussed it with Shen Li, and visited his uncle Yang Zhen. He just started writing some opinions about the horse market, and asked Yang Zhen to send it to Liaodong to Deng Zhang, hoping that it would be of some use.

These more than 100 fine horses would be eye-catching if placed in the Shen family. Therefore, except for Shen Rui leaving half of them scattered in various farms for his own use and as gifts to relatives and friends, all the rest will be handled in the name of the British government.

Therefore, he also told Zhang Hui about various things about the horse market in Liaodong. Zhang Hui was also angry and sad. The two discussed it and briefly wrote down some of Shen Rui's ideas about horse trading and sent them to Brother Shou.

Of course, the note to Brother Shou would not mention the chaos in the horse market in Liaodong. Considering the current situation in Liaodong, rashly lifting the lid might cause greater turmoil. It would be better to wait for Deng Zhang to deal with it slowly.

Although they are just some simple horse trading ideas, they are still praised by Brother Shou.

Seeing Shen Rui's sad expression, Zhang Hui knew that he was worried about the horse market in Liaodong again, so he hurriedly said: "Didn't the emperor already say that there is a feasible way? He will definitely sort out Liaodong in the future! Maybe in a few years, the birthday gift we offer will be It’s a Liaodong cavalry!”

After hearing this, Shen Rui couldn't worry anymore and couldn't help laughing: "I have to wait until you go to Liaodong to seize this advantage!"

After a pause, he sighed again: "It's a pity that it's too late to buy a farm this year. Otherwise, we can grow crab rice for the Longevity Festival. This will not only invite the nobles to taste it, but also show that the imperial court attaches great importance to agriculture. The old gentlemen will only be happy." Son, isn’t it the best of both worlds?”

Zhang Hui clapped his hands and said with a smile: "This is a good idea. At least I won't have to worry about next year's birthday gift!"

After that, he added: "It's okay to raise crabs and rice in an open area, but why did you choose that bitter cold place in Liaodong? It's not like you don't know that Liaodong only has one crop a year, so why don't you go to your hometown Songjiang to get it?" .Where else can you make more money in the horse business!”

Although at this time, martial arts was not as popular as Taizu's and Emperor Chengzu's, the sons and sons of noble families in the capital were all proud of riding and shooting, and were proud of having good horses in their families.

It’s just that good horses are hard to come by.

But the more rare it is, the more valuable it is.

Zhang Hui also kept some of the horses for his own use, and then secretly spread the news. Soon, people who were familiar with the matter but not familiar with it were all coming to buy horses in a roundabout way.
To be continued...