After the rise of the Yong Kingdom, Jingzhao has become the largest city in the world, with a population of more than one million. It is not only the political and military center of the Yong Kingdom, but also the economic center. It has many of the largest markets in the world, such as the medicinal materials market and the cloth market.
, grain market, oil market, etc.
Among them, the fur market is also the best in the world. Furs and leathers from all over the world are traded in this market.
The leather goods market is located outside Nancheng, covering an area of several hundred acres. There are two to three hundred shops of various sizes, almost all of which wholesale all kinds of fur goods. All fur goods from all over the world are transported here, and then sold to all over the world.
Jin Binghui is a well-known fur trader who specializes in sheepskin business. Two generations have been in the business for decades and have rich connections in this industry. Jin Binghui is also one of the first big businessmen to enter the market. His shop is called Jin's Fur Goods.
It is located near the entrance, covering an area of about three acres, with the Cao River behind it. His store also has a private dock on the Cao River.
Jin Binghui was the target Zhong Huan was looking for. He was also one of the instigators of the price reduction of sheepskins in March, so he must be an insider.
Zhong Huan led several of his men to the leather goods market, and immediately saw Jin's leather goods shop. The signboard was shining golden in the sun, which was very eye-catching.
Several men were waiting at the door, and Zhong Huan walked into the store. The store was large and powerful, with leathers as tall as a person piled everywhere.
"What do you want to buy?" A waiter came up to greet him enthusiastically.
"Just take a look!"
Zhong Huan walked to a pile of thick sheepskins and gently twisted them. It turned out to be old sheepskins.
The clerk quickly introduced: "This is authentic five-year-old sheepskin. It is definitely a rare high-quality product on the market. It is a treasure for Laohan's legs. You will know it in winter. If there are elderly people at home, children must buy it!"
"How much does this leather cost?"
"It costs five guan per piece. If the quantity is large, it can be cheaper."
"Where did it come from?" Zhong Huan asked again.
"It must be the grassland! This leather is from Zhangye as soon as you look at it."
Zhong Huan said lightly: "I feel like a Taiyuan product!"
"The guest was joking, where is the sheepskin produced in Taiyuan?"
"Acheng!"
Suddenly a sharp voice came from the back room, "Don't talk nonsense!"
The clerk trembled in fright, "Shopkeeper, I know!"
He quickly retreated, Zhong Huan looked into the back room, and saw a middle-aged man walking out of the back room. He was short, extremely strong, with a square face, full of flesh, and a brow like a brush.
Very vicious.
"Are your friends here to cause trouble?" The middle-aged man stared at Zhong Huan fiercely.
How could Zhong Huan be intimidated by his gaze? He looked at this person calmly and asked lightly: "Are you Jin Binghui?"
"Who I am has nothing to do with you. If you don't buy something, get out!"
He strode forward, trying to push Zhong Huan out, but Zhong Huan dodged and pulled him, causing the man to fall to the ground.
"asshole!"
The middle-aged man was furious and drew out the short sword from his waist. Before he could stand up, several internal guards rushed forward and held him down.
"Let me go, you bastards, who are you?"
Zhong Huan knelt down and flashed the inner guard silver medal in front of his eyes. The middle-aged man was immediately frightened, lowered his head and stopped cursing.
"Take him to the back room!"
Two internal guards dragged the middle-aged man to the back room. At this time, seven or eight warriors came running and asked, "What happened?"
Seeing that the situation was not good, the clerk ran to notify the security of the leather goods market, a group of professional warriors.
The inner guard soldier at the door raised the bronze medal and said coldly: "The inner guard is handling the case!"
A group of warriors stopped and turned around without saying a word. The leader of the warriors who came to the end slapped the man hard, knocking him unconscious.
This bastard harms people and actually wants them to provoke the internal guards.
The Internal Guard is an organization that everyone in Jingzhao is afraid of, especially those groups such as businessmen and samurai who are open to the outside world, and they will never dare to provoke the Internal Guard.
Of course, if there is nothing wrong, the inner guards will not arrest people randomly. They are completely different from the Plum Blossom Guards in Lin'an, and ordinary people at the bottom basically cannot feel their existence.
Especially for big businessmen like Jin Binghui, their path to wealth will definitely not be law-abiding and they will have dishonorable things, so they are also very afraid of the appearance of internal guards.
In the room, Jin Binghui squatted in a corner, completely without the initial arrogance, and he honestly admitted that he was Jin Binghui.
Zhong Huan was sitting on a large chair, playing with a porcelain tea cup on the table. It was not an official kiln, but a fine product from a folk kiln.
"I don't have much patience to accompany you in your battle of wits and courage. If you don't want to go to the Imperial Guard's office and cause trouble for yourself, then just tell me whatever I ask and don't hide anything. If I find out afterwards that you have something to hide, I will definitely
To convict you as an accomplice is to lose your head, do you understand?"
"The villain understands!"
Jin Binghui lowered his head and couldn't help but tremble all over. He just looked ferocious on the outside, but in fact he was very timid, especially afraid of death.
"Tell me first, where did the old sheepskin on your outside come from?"
"That was just imported from Zhangye more than a month ago. It's not five years old, only three years old."
Zhong Huan is not interested in his kind of profiteer behavior of shoddy goods. He only cares about the source of goods.
"How long does it take for you to sell a batch of goods here?"
"Three months at most!"
Zhong Huan was right when he thought about it. For such a famous big leather merchant, he had no worries about the sales of his goods. It was impossible that the goods from the beginning of the year could still be stocked up to now.
"Let me ask you, the price of sheepskin suddenly dropped sharply in March this year, by more than 40%. What was the reason?"
Jin Binghui's face changed drastically, and a trace of fear flashed in his eyes. What he feared most finally came to pass.
"This March, let me think"
Zhong Huan snorted heavily, "Why don't you go to the Neiwei Yamen and think about it slowly!"
Two internal guards picked him up, and he was so frightened that he shouted: "I remember, I remember!"
Zhong Huan winked, and two internal guards put him down. Zhong Huan looked at him coldly, "Let me remind you one last time, my patience is running out."
"I said! It's because a large number of sheepskins arrived. There were too many. The other party asked us to sell them as soon as possible, so we had to lower the price. But we did not sell this batch of sheepskins. What we sold at a reduced price were ordinary sheepskins."
"Why?"
"Because these sheepskins are all high-quality old sheepskins, it would be a pity to sell them at a reduced price. The other party is eager for money, so we will sell ordinary sheepskins at a low price and give him the money."
"Who is the other party?" Zhong Huan asked, staring at him.
"We don't know the real owner of the goods. The person we are dealing with is a toothsmith named Huang Zhan. We all call him Huangyaren. He is the owner of Huang's Dental Shop in Taiyuan and is very famous in Taiyuan."
Already very close, Zhong Huan asked again: "How many old sheepskins are there?"
"About 100,000 or so!"
The quantity didn't quite match up, so Zhong Huan continued to ask: "Isn't this the first time I've sold old sheepskins to you?"
"No! We sold three batches in total, and this year is the third batch. Each time, there are 100,000 copies, a total of 300,000 copies."
“When was it first sold?”
"three years ago!"
Zhong Huan gritted his teeth and said, "Don't you feel anything unusual about this batch of goods? How can Taiyuan produce sheepskins?"
Jin Binghui lowered his head, extremely frightened, and whispered: "We suspect it is the sheepskin from the military, otherwise it would be impossible for so many high-quality old sheepskins to appear all at once."
"Who else bought these sheepskins besides you?"
"And Dongzhu Yang and Dongzhu Shi!"
"Are they Yang Shaoan and Shi Wensheng?"
These two people, together with Jin Binghui, are the three largest fur goods merchants in Jingzhao.
Jin Binghui nodded, "That's them!"
After Wang Hao received the report, he immediately sent people to arrest two big businessmen, Yang Shaoan and Shi Wensheng, for interrogation by the inner guards. At the same time, he found one hundred thousand old sheepskins purchased at the beginning of the year from their warehouse.
They received it at the price of two guan each, which was worth 200,000 guan. In addition, they had already sold the first and second batches of 200,000 old sheepskins.
After receiving the report, Chen Qing ordered their property to be seized, and ordered Zhong Huan to lead 300 elite internal guards to rush to Taiyuan to arrest the broker Huang Yaren.
Although Chen Qing generally did not seize the property of merchants, the behavior of the three fur traders was so bad that each bundle of sheepskins had a military seal number on it, which they washed off with vinegar.
Knowing that it is military supplies but still selling them to make huge profits is a serious crime.
