After Tang Shang left Fuyu, he and his entourage did not return to Chang'an. Instead, they headed towards the original location of the Khitan, which is now the Songmo Governor's Mansion of the Tang Dynasty.
One thing that must be known is that there was only one type of people in the Tang Dynasty who could do business in the grasslands and foreign countries, that is, businessmen with people behind them.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to get expensive and monopolized commodities such as sugar, woolen clothes, and rice paper. If there is no one behind it and you get the commodities, either others will get a share of you, or you will smuggle them yourself.
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As for smuggling, once discovered, it will lead to the annihilation of the clan.
Tang Shanglu Sanjin is obviously the former, and there is someone behind him. This person is none other than Zhang Jinshu, the deputy general manager of the march of the Songmo Dudu Mansion.
In the past, Zhang Jinshu killed Gao Kaidao and returned to the Tang Dynasty. He then followed the Tang army to the north to destroy the Khitan. For his merits, he was named the deputy general manager of the march of the Songmo Governor's Mansion. He was somewhat of a figure in the Khitan area.
The emperor cared more about the soldiers. Zhang Jinshu shaved wool in the grassland enclosure in exchange for woolen clothes to sell. In fact, many senior generals in the governor's office did this. The emperor turned a blind eye and as long as he didn't make too much trouble,
Basically I won't care about it.
And Li Junxian, the governor of the Songmo Governor's Mansion, was a close confidant of the emperor, and he had a sugar brand in his hand. He had really made a lot of money from Goguryeo over the years.
How to make money?
It’s simple to say, it’s nothing more than ‘eating from both ends’.
Goguryeo's wild ginseng has always been a big moneymaker. Li Junxian got the goods from Chang'an, turned around and sold them to Goguryeo at a sky-high price, and then bought the Goguryeo wild ginseng to Chang'an, again at a sky-high price. He reaped profits from both ends, and his pockets were full.
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And because Songmo Governor's Mansion is close to Goguryeo, nearly 70% of the wild ginseng market is monopolized by Li Junxian.
He ate it himself, so naturally he would not forget the emperor, and would send tribute silver and a large number of slaves to the emperor every year.
In order to expand the market, the subordinates naturally have to take them to drink soup.
Zhang Jinshu is also a soup drinker.
Naturally, he does not earn as much as Li Junxian, but it is still much higher than his own salary.
Songmo Dudu Mansion, Daying.
Nowadays, the grassland is quite peaceful. Every time Li Junxian goes hunting, he hunts not wild beasts, but grassland people.
This time he took his old brothers out and captured a lot of slaves, preparing to send them to the Central Plains to build roads. Now he was drinking with his brothers and bragging, so happy.
After three rounds of drinking, a general said: "Captain, the people from Chang'an said that the Governor of Hanhai sold more than twenty Jinshan horses."
"What!" Everyone's breathing suddenly became heavy, "Is it really the Jinshan Horse?"
The Jinshan Horse is a Turkic war horse, which is extremely expensive in the eyes of generals. Yue Gong Qin Qiong's Jinshan Horse really attracted everyone's covetous attention.
"Really!" The general from before nodded and said, "My people saw with their own eyes that the horses were set at this price as soon as they entered Chang'an."
He held out five fingers.
"Five hundred hangings?" someone guessed.
"Shit, fifty silver pancakes!"
Wow!
Everyone was so shocked that they even forgot to drink the wine.
Li Junxian was also extremely envious and sighed: "This has nothing to do with us. I have a close relationship with that King Xu. Let's forget about this Jinshan horse."
A general rolled his eyes and whispered: "Grand Governor, we can just send someone to buy it."
"You mean, contact the Governor of Hanhai privately?" Li Junxian asked.
"right."
"Shut up." Li Junxian said angrily: "You are not allowed to say such things in the future. If I do this, next year I will have to go back to Chang'an to retire like Wu Guogong and others."
He knew very well that His Majesty the Emperor would not allow the Governor to stay in the Governor's Mansion for too long, especially when they were allowed to do business privately to make money. If he dared to contact the Governor's Mansion of Hanhai, His Majesty would definitely contact him within a short time.
Know.
When the time comes, if His Majesty does not allow him to come back, the imperial censor will inevitably accuse him of having ulterior motives. He also wants to make more money so that he can return to Chang'an to enjoy happiness in the future.
He wouldn't dare to do such a stupid thing.
At this moment, Zhang Jinshu suddenly walked into the camp.
"Great Governor, the Pure Land of Goguryeo went too far and took away my goods. Please make the decision for me, Great Governor!"
"General Zhang, please be patient for now. Tell me in detail what happened, and I will make the decision for you." Li Junxian said.
Immediately, Zhang Jinshu told the story about his subordinates having their goods taken away by Yuan Pure Land. Before Li Junxian could express his position, the other generals could not sit still.
How could Goguryeo take it by force?
Today they operated on Zhang Jinshu, will it be their turn tomorrow?
"Grand Governor, you are a humble servant of Goguryeo. You must give them a warning this time and give an explanation to General Zhang!"
"That's right, Grand Governor, we must not tolerate this matter!"
"Grand Governor, give the order!"
These generals drank a few glasses of wine, got drunk, and started to beat them whenever they opened their mouths.
Of course Li Junxian knew not to fight, but he was also extremely angry with Yuan Jingtu, the bastard, for causing trouble for him.
"Come here, order the troops!"
"yes!"
The generals smashed their wine cups and responded one after another.
Buyeo Castle.
Yuan Jingtu was drinking with Yuan Gaesumun. The two brothers were several years apart, but they were still able to help each other.
"Those small groups in the east have been secretly causing mischief, preventing me from unifying the army and wasting time. If I build more troops in the future, these short-sighted people will definitely die." Yeon Gaesumun complained.
He is the same age as Li Zhiyun, but his hair turned gray early and his face looked haggard.
For him, with the mighty Tang Dynasty before him and Gao Jianwu behind him, he was in a very dangerous and difficult situation. In order to keep the legacy left by his old father, he was really worried.
Yuan Jingtu comforted him: "Brother, take your time and don't rush this moment. Gao Jianwu himself is not in a good situation. Baekje and Silla are ready to make a move. He doesn't dare to provoke us."
"This is not a reason for us to stop moving forward." Yuan Gaesuwen said in a solemn tone: "I sent someone to inquire about the grassland. Now the entire grassland has surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. Once the Tang Dynasty frees up its hands to deal with us, we will face
It was a life-and-death crisis. That idiot Gao Jianwu didn't know his own situation and still wanted to make amends with the Tang Dynasty. He was really stupid.
In the future, when the Tang Dynasty raises troops, there will be changes in Silla and Baekje. When the time comes, they will be attacked from both sides and Goguryeo will be in danger!"
Yuan Jingtu was silent for a moment, and then said: "But Gao Jianwu has always been unwilling to admit the position of Molizhi, eldest brother, and his original intention was to deal with us. Brother, why do you have to think about this for him. In fact, I think it is better to unite with Silla and Baekje.
First destroy Gao Jianwu, brother, you will become the King of Goguryeo!"
Yeon Gaesumun had thought about this matter, but only because he had no idea that the people of Silla and Baekje would be so easy to get rid of. If the time came to join forces to destroy Gao Jianwu, the two countries would be greedy.
If you still think about your own territory, what should you do?
The reason why he is not moving at the moment is that he is using Gao Jianwu to involve Silla Baekje in preparation for accumulating strength for himself. Secondly, it is to steadily eat the complete Goguryeo instead of a fragmented Goguryeo.
Once Goguryeo's power was severely damaged, the Tang Dynasty would definitely take action.
Their real enemy should be the terrible Tang Dynasty. Yeon Gaesumun saw countless times in his dreams that the Tang army crushed the Goguryeo army and took the Goguryeo people into slavery.
He couldn't accept that kind of thing just thinking about it.