The towering east entrance of Zhangjiakou Great Wall Pass, the city gate is open, and the Ming soldiers wearing shabby mandarin duck battle jackets lean lazily in the city gate hole. There has been no caravan passing through here for several days. The little filial piety that these soldiers can get on weekdays has disappeared in the past few days, so everyone is very lazy and looks listless.

The walls of Zhangjiakou are majestic and tall. As the northern barrier of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, they defend against the once arrogant Mongolia. Now Mongolia has weakened, and this place has become an entrance and exit for merchants and foreign trades in the pass, so it is called the East Entrance.

Just as the soldiers guarding the city gate were bored, a small caravan walked through the stone road of the town towards the city gate. The caravan was extremely small, with only twelve pack horses and bags of goods on the back of the horse. The young man, who was headed, wore a felt hat on his head, a used cotton jacket on his body, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a slightly black face, and a strong figure, but his bright eyes looked very delicate at the same time.

The soldiers guarding the gate recognized that this person was Wang Quan, the shopkeeper of the Dadewang Tea House in Zhangjiakou. This Dadewang Tea House is the smallest among the merchants in Zhangjiakou. Every time he goes out of the frontier, he always keeps some tea, and never brings banned items that the court strictly prohibits trafficking out of customs.

Seeing the caravan coming, the eyes of the gatekeepers flashed.

However, there was no caravan passing by for several consecutive days. Dadewang Tea House was going to go out to block, even if it was enough to collect some copper plates, it was much better than not making a single copper plate in the past few days.

Wang Quan had already walked to the city gate. He turned over and dismounted, took out a road guide from his arms, and handed it respectfully: "Please take a look at me, all the soldiers."

A soldier with a small flag looked over the road, and pointed at the bags of goods on the horse's back: "What kind of goods are they pulling?"

"It's all tea." Wang Quan smiled and took out a piece of broken silver from his sleeve and handed it to Xiaoqi. Although he did not pull out the prohibited items, if he was unfilial to the soldiers guarding the gate, once these soldiers were to check, they would wield their knives to cut the bags open. At that time, not only would they waste time, but they would also lose a lot of goods. It's better to have less trouble than more things these days. If you can spend some money to solve the problem, there is no need to cause trouble.

Xiaoqi took the silver and squeezed it in his hand: "The caravan has not passed for a long time. My wife and children at home are almost starving to death. I'm afraid that this shopkeeper's gift is not enough, right?"

Wang Quan took out a piece of silver from his sleeve and handed it on it: "June, why hasn't the caravan come out for several days? Don't those big merchants in Shanxi come out often? They have to go out from the East Exit dozens of times a year? Where have they been during this period?"

The little flag took the silver and pinched it in his hand. He found that it was two taels of silver. So he replied: "This shopkeeper, you are not a member of them, so naturally I don't know their movements. Those Shanxi merchants have not gone to the east entrance for a while, but they have changed to the west entrance for a while."

"Where is the profit to go to the west entrance higher than the profit to go to the east entrance? Is it really strange?" Wang Quan said to himself.

The little flag snorted coldly: "How can I know this? If this shopkeeper wants to know, why don't he understand it by going to the west entrance?"

The caravan left Zhangjiakou, and his vision suddenly became clear. The undulating mountains on both sides gradually transitioned to the hills. After walking more than ten miles, the endless Zhangbei grassland was seen.

To the east is the Chahar grassland, and to the west, you can directly reach the naturalized area where the Tumots live.

"You send the tea to the Chahar tribe, and I'll go kill Hukou and take a look." Wang Quan told the caravan's guys.

The caravans that went to the east were either traded with the Chahars or traded with the Korqin people, and it was very likely traded with the Jurchens of the Later Jin Dynasty. It was precisely because the trade with the Jurchens of the Later Jin Dynasty made the highest profit that the eight great masters of the Shanxi merchants took risks and sold their interests to trade with the East Jin Dynasty. However, in the past few days, the Shanxi merchants became honest and did not go to the East Jin Dynasty, but went to the West Jin Dynasty, which made Wang Quan very confused.

Wang Quan was a secret stake that Li Laoer had planted in Zhangjiakou. He opened a tea shop in Dadewang in Zhangjiakou, specializing in tea business. He only sold tea to the Mongolians and then exchanged horses from the Mongolians. As for selling grain and iron tools, he would not do anything that was harmful to the law.

Some time ago, Li Lao Er took the horse thief to intercept Fan Yongdou. This information was provided by Wang Quan. On weekdays, when the Eight Great Masters of Shanxi Merchants went to the East Entrance, they were thousands of pack horses, and the number of caravan guards was as high as thousands. The Jurchens could even send hundreds of Jurchen soldiers to assist the Shanxi Merchants caravan. But that time, only Fan Yongdou's business was out of the East Entrance, and Li Lao Er naturally would not give up this good opportunity. Who knew that when Yue Tuo met on the way, he missed a great opportunity to kill Fan Yongdou.

When you go to the west, you can only trade with the Tumotes. The profit from going to the west is definitely far inferior to the profit from going to the east and Liaodong to the Later Jin Juzhen. The Shanxi merchants did not go to the east and instead switched to the west. This is a bit strange.

Wang Quan would not think that the court had investigated strictly, so the Shanxi merchants changed to the west entrance and honestly did business with the Tumote people, because first of all, he did not believe that the court controlled by the Donglin Party would suddenly investigate merchants, which was impossible; secondly, Li Laoer often said to Wang Quan: Once there is a proper profit, the merchants will become bolder. If there is a 10% profit, it will ensure that they will move everywhere; if there is a 20% profit, it will become more active; if there is a half profit, the merchants will take risks; if there is a double profit, it will dare to trample on all human laws; if there is a three or four times profit, it will dare to commit any crime, and even risk implicating the nine tribes!

Shanxi merchants traveled to the east entrance and could transport goods to Liaodong, which would be more than three or four times the profit! They exchanged important materials such as grain, iron, salt and other important materials for Liaodong for the undried silver. They even sold all the information about the Ming Dynasty's garrison to Jiannu.

With such high profits, even if the nine tribes are implicated, Shanxi merchants can do these things.

If they change to the west entrance, I am afraid that the little profit will not even be enough for the filial piety expenses provided by the Shanxi merchants? The power of the Shanxi merchants is so powerful that they can trade with the Jurchens of the Later Jin Dynasty but are not discovered by the court, which shows how much energy they are behind them! With such a large amount of energy, the expenses will definitely not be small. The court does not know how many officials secretly charged their benefits. The west entrance is an honest businessman, and that little profit can not satisfy the appetite of the officials of the Donglin Party.
Chapter completed!