After Hou Xun left the official hall, he went directly out of the city, came to a construction site in the east of the city, and personally supervised the work.
According to the plan, in addition to a main city and four acropolis, the Duhufu will also build a side city to the east of the main city.
Hou Xun attached great importance to this remote city, so he started building the main city before it was fully repaired. As for the four acropolis, he had to wait until the end.
Because this remote city will be mainly used for commerce in the future and will be the main source of finance and taxation for the Protectorate. Not only will a horse and cattle market be built in the city, but many inns, restaurants and shops will also be built in the city.
According to the regulations of the Protectorate, these inns, restaurants and shops will only be rented to merchants from within the Great Wall and will not be sold, even to royal shops and banks.
In addition to paying rent, merchants only need to pay a business tax. There are no other miscellaneous taxes. Mongolians who come to trade only need to pay a temporary transaction tax when entering the cattle market and horse market.
, but not much.
As for the main city and the four acropolis, their main functions are to garrison troops and handle some military and political affairs. The reason why commerce and the main city are separated is mainly for safety and to prevent future Mongolian sneak attacks.
Although this commercial town has only built a foundation, most of the restaurants and shops in the city have been pre-leased by businessmen in advance.
Although the Tumote tribe lost more than 20,000 warriors last time, which can be said to be severely damaged, there are still more than 100,000 tribesmen, and they are still the largest tribe in Mongolia.
These more than 100,000 people are now divided into dozens or hundreds of small tribes, distributed around the capital of the Protectorate, and they come to trade every now and then.
At first, the royal family only set up a branch store and a bank, but later, with the encouragement of Zhu Cixiang, the gentry and landlords in Beijing who were resting on their laurels also organized caravans to come here to look for business opportunities. In addition, in the past year or so, Liaohe
The small tribes of the Tumut tribe in East Africa also surrendered to the Ming Dynasty one after another and accepted canonization and distribution. Therefore, outside the city of the Protectorate today, it is very lively.
Except for the most remote Horqin tribe, it can be said that almost all Monan Mongolia submitted to the Ming Dynasty.
Duo Ergun was also helpless and could only stare.
But now, even the Horqin tribe has frequently shown goodwill to the Ming Dynasty.
There was no other way. The small tribes east of the Liao River rushed to submit to the Ming Dynasty. Firstly, the Ming Dynasty was too powerful, with 50,000 troops stationed on the grasslands. Secondly, they could not bear the harassment of the Tumote tribe.
Because although the Tumut tribes dare not attack and annex each other, they can unite to rob tribes that have not been canonized by the Ming Dynasty.
In this matter, the two envoys, Hou Xun and Huang Degong, did not interfere, and Zhu Cihong also did not intend to interfere for the time being.
It is conceivable that if this continues, these tribes who are addicted to robbing will sooner or later robbing the Horqin tribe.
These Mongolians are naturally aggressive and plundering. Now that they have the support of the Ming Dynasty, they don’t have to worry about retaliation from others. How can they not let go and rob them?
It is impossible to say that the Northeastern Jurchens will all be taken over in the end.
At this moment, countless grass sheds have been built in the open space on the east side of the construction site. Looking around, there are Mongolians leading cattle, sheep and horses waiting to trade, and beside the carriages, there are Han merchants standing around and shouting.
.
It has to be said that as a former Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Hou Xun still has some business vision. Not long after arriving here, he temporarily built a trading market, collected transaction taxes and stall fees, and also stipulated that the market should be opened once every half month.
.
However, although the trading market was lively, most Han merchants just followed the royal family and drank soup.
Because horses can only be traded with the royal shop, other merchants can only trade cattle, sheep and leather. The merchants are very dissatisfied about this, but there is nothing they can do about it.
After all, horse trading is the most profitable.
As for the wool and dried excrement that the royal shop has purchased for a long time, they can also buy it, but if these things are taken to the customs and sold to the royal family, no one will want them.
Wool and excrement can also be sold for money. Almost all Mongolians are so happy that they can't close their mouths. As a result, few tribes now sell sheep directly. They all choose to shear the sheep and sell them. Similarly, all tribes are now selling sheep.
Burning coal and charcoal.
Although the money from selling animal dung can just buy the coal and charcoal needed by a tribe, each tribe still chooses to dry the dung and sell it, and then buy coal and charcoal from the royal store.
Similarly, although due to transportation and technical reasons, the royal shop has been operating at a loss for the time being, Zhu Cixiang has no intention of canceling it.
Because wool and dried excrement are related to whether the Ming Dynasty can control the grassland tribes in terms of interests, the political significance is far greater than the economic value, and its role cannot be measured in terms of money.
The dried excrement is transported to the pass, and after a little processing and adding plant ash, it can be made into fertilizer and sold to the people. A sack only costs 50 cents.
Two sacks per acre of land is enough, which is only one hundred cash, but the output can be increased by 50%. If you do the math, you will definitely make a lot of money.
At first, it cost 100 cents to buy two sacks of manure, but no one was willing to spend that money. Later, Zhu Cixi ordered two or three experimental households to be selected in each village, and the yields were compared during harvesting, and this was how the fertilizer was successfully promoted.
Nowadays, almost every household in Huxian County near Beijing buys fertilizer every year.
Compared with manure fertilizer, which does not make money or lose money, the recycled wool does indeed lose money.
First of all, after the wool is recovered, it needs to be woven into blankets or wool. It has to go through countless tedious processes, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but in the end, whether it is spun wool or knitted blankets, the odor cannot be completely removed.
This means that these blankets and wool can only be sold to ordinary people, and the price cannot be set too high.
There is no way, no rich family would buy a smelly blanket. If it were before the Tang Dynasty, there would probably be some wealthy people who would buy it, but this was the Ming Dynasty when the cotton spinning industry was very developed.
In this regard, Zhu Cixi could only let the workshop responsible for weaving wool continue to improve the process, and strive to one day completely remove the smell of sheep, weave exquisite blankets, and sell them as luxury goods.
When Huang Degong sent someone to invite Hou Xun, Hou Xun didn't put on any airs. Apparently he didn't really want to fall out with Huang Degong, but he just felt aggrieved.
He didn't really want to get involved in military affairs, but as a feudal official and the nominal envoy of the Anton Protectorate, he should have the right to know what exactly happened. What were Huang Degong and the others going to do, right?
But now, in addition to knowing that the Red Lady had sent a military order, Huang Degong not only wanted to lead troops to Hetao, but also summoned five thousand Mongolians to follow him.
As for whether this was the intention of the Imperial Concubine or His Majesty, and how many soldiers and horses of the Fourth Army Huang Degong planned to bring there, he had no idea. This was simply the biggest fallacy in the world.
This kind of thing probably only happened in the Shenwu Dynasty.
"General Huang, I also know that you are just following orders. Why are you going to Hetao? I have no right to ask, and I don't want to ask, but at least you have to show me the general order and let me know what happened.
What's the matter?"
Although Hou Xun felt aggrieved, he could only speak in a slower tone.
Huang Degong only hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and refused: "Please forgive me, Mr. Hou, I'm afraid this won't work. The military order was issued by the Governor's Office. According to military regulations, the content above cannot be leaked to personnel other than the Fourth Army.
, and this military order is quite special, even our Fourth Army requires an officer above the rank of colonel to have the right to know it!"
"Okay, then you must tell me, why are you going to the Hetao? How many troops and horses will you bring, and when will you come back? Is it your Majesty's wish, or is it the imperial concubine who asked you to go?"
Hou Xun took a deep breath and almost gritted his teeth.
Although he asked this question, he estimated that this was probably not His Majesty's intention. If it were His Majesty's intention, he would never disrespect him and directly issue military orders. Only a red lady can do this kind of thing, and she would not treat him as a frontier official at all.
He put it in his eyes and didn't care about his feelings at all.
"This... Mr. Hou, I can only tell you how many troops and horses we will bring this time. As for what we are going to do, whether it is His Majesty's wish or the Empress' wish, these are all military secrets and there is no comment!"
Huang Degong thought for a while and decided to reveal something to him, but he would never tell him what he was going to do. As for whether it was His Majesty's intention or the Empress's intention, he himself didn't know, let alone tell him.
"If that's the case, then General Huang should go and ask for the order himself!"
Hou Xun actually didn't care what Huang Degong was going to do. He just wanted to make sure whether it was the Red Lady's intention or the emperor's intention. Now seeing that Huang Degong didn't even say this, he didn't want to talk nonsense anymore.
He planned to report it himself to confirm. If it was the Red Lady’s wish, he would report the hidden dangers to His Majesty. As for whether His Majesty would listen or not, he would not care. If it was His Majesty’s wish, then the Anton Protectorate’s
Even if he doesn't do it, he doesn't care about being an official of the Shenwu Dynasty.