Mongolian trade is the most profitable trade after maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty. Countless Shanxi merchants have made a fortune from it. The Senate has long been coveted. However, in the Ming Dynasty, because Mongolia was a border threat, trade control was extremely strict, and they could really get their hands on it.
There are not many merchants in this trade, and for the Senate far away overseas, it is only a matter of interest.
If you want to do business with Mongolia, you either have to set up a workstation to carry out this business as a Ming merchant, or you can only conduct second-hand trade with the Manchus through the Ming army's generals. The latter is obviously easier in operation - of course the profit will be
There has been a slight decrease, but it is a great advantage in terms of ensuring personnel safety and timely payment collection.
The transaction with Houjin is naturally related to the Mongolian trade - Houjin's demand for tea is not large, but Mongolia's demand for tea is very large. The Senate's control area is close to several of China's largest
The major tea provinces, whether Fujian, Guangdong or Jiangxi, produce a large amount of tea. If sales channels can be opened, it will be of great benefit to expand trade share.
The talks came to an end and after all the general details were finalized, Huang Hua made three more demands:
Allocate land for them to open commercial offices in Shengjing; ensure the personal and property safety of Tai'ao merchants and their attendants; and ensure the freedom of navigation of Tai'ao ships in the Yalu River.
These three requests were all approved by Huang Taiji after being announced by the Ministry of Household Affairs. However, there were preconditions for the approval: all three conditions could be met only after the first mutual market ended.
Opening a business office in Shengjing is equivalent to setting up eyes and ears in Shenyang. Although the business office itself must be closely monitored by Houjin, radio and secret writing potions are enough to transmit information.
After the agreement between the two parties was signed, Hou Jin placed them in a temple in the city and placed them individually in a house with two courtyards. He also gave him four maids, ten male servants, two grooms, and four
Zhang Jing, the crudely made maid who was responsible for delivering people, said that the Great Khan had heard that the people of Da'ao liked "having babies" the most, so he specially selected them from the Shangsanqi Imperial Mansion.
Huang Hua couldn't laugh or cry. With so many people at once, where can I let them sleep? There is also the cost of eating: Now the Ministry of Rites allocates salt, rice, meat, wine, etc. on a daily basis for their delegation. Now there are too many.
With a family of more than a dozen people, you can't say that the master doesn't care about the food.
"Please don't worry, sir. The adults have said it. These students will be given to me immediately. All expenses in Shengjing will be paid by the Ministry of Rites, so I don't need to worry about you." Zhang Jing hit a thousand with a smile on his face.
After saying hello, he brought a bunch of "gifts" over and kowtowed. Huang Hua saw that all these men and women were well-dressed. Except for the four young maids and the leading male servant, who looked slightly better, they all had yellow faces and thin muscles. They were cowered and men's.
The scalps were all blue, and they seemed to have been freshly shaved. It looked like they had been packed away before they were delivered.
"Everyone, please get up. No need to kowtow." Huang Hua saw a large group of people kowtowing to him. He was not used to it. He waved his hands and asked, "Well, well, where are they sleeping..."
Although the houses allocated to them had two entrances, the entire mission was full. A few guards had to take turns sleeping on the porch - acting as guards.
"Just let them live in the corridors on both sides. Being an errand under your old hands is not a great thing."
Huang Hua was very speechless. These days, slaves have no human rights, and he has seen a lot along the way. The country of the Later Jin Dynasty was impoverished and the people were poor. Ordinary officials and soldiers of the Eight Banners had a hard time, let alone being given a life like a slave.
The second gift was a Mongolian horse that he had once ridden. In addition to this Mongolian horse, he also gave ten fine horses as gifts - this was also considered a gift in return for their gifts. According to the traditional Chinese custom of the imperial court to "welcome gentle people far away"
Thinking of this idea, the rewards received by envoys from foreign vassals always exceeded, or even greatly exceeded the value of the gifts. However, Hou Jin was too poor at this time, and his spending was far less generous than when he later "measured China's material resources." He had to use raw materials and horses.
That's okay.
Huang Hua immediately asked someone to seal four taels of silver to Zhang Jing and sent him out. He looked at the dozens of dumb and helpless slaves in the yard.
Although these people were all wearing new clothes, except for a few who had small clothing bags with them, the others did not have a piece of luggage. It was unclear what kind of life they lived in the past.
Seeing that the master was sizing him up, everyone cheered and knelt down again. Huang Hua had been in shopping malls for a long time, and his ability to observe people's emotions was first-rate. A quick glance could tell that there was a deep sense of fear in these people's eyes, a feeling of being oppressed and abused for a long time.
People show fear when facing superiors.
One of the older male servants saw the new master looking at them, quickly stood up, trotted over and called again:
"Slave Lan Bian, please say hello to your master! Your master will live forever!"
Huang Hua nodded: "Get up." Then he raised his hand and said, "Everyone, please get up."
"Thank you, Master!" Lan Bian immediately stood up with clean and neat movements. His behavior reminded Huang Hua of a soldier involuntarily.
"Who are you……"
"Slave Lan Bian was originally an errand at the Zhenghuang Banner Palace. This time, Baylor specially asked the slaves to take them to serve under the master."
Huang Hua saw that he was of medium height, well built, and powerful in all his movements. He was completely different from the thin and timid appearance of the other male servants. He knew that he was probably a small leader among the slaves, maybe a bastard, and followed his master to fight.
Fight.
This person came to serve him, and he was probably An De's spy from the Eight Banners. Huang Hua already had a vigilance in his heart. He was usually wary of others, but on the contrary, he was particularly affectionate:
"Since you've followed me, as long as you act with integrity, I won't have to praise you."
"Thank you for your kindness, Master!" Lan Bian quickly called me again, "If you have any orders, please ask for your instructions!"
"Let's solve your food and accommodation problem first..."
Although Huang Hua didn't trust Lan Bian very much, he was obviously a small leader among the slaves. He should be familiar with the local situation and could be used as a source of basic information. Therefore, he had to win over him. At present, the person in charge would first take care of these slaves.
Arrange accommodation separately.
"There are no more empty rooms." The sergeant leading the team frowned, "How about I ask the brothers to squeeze in and free up a few more rooms?"
"You already have three people in a room, how can you squeeze in?"
Liaodong is a place of bitter cold. To keep out the cold, you have to rely on the fire pit or brazier in the room, so the room area is not large. The main room is slightly better, but the wing room is quite cramped. It is not comfortable to live in two soldiers, and now three people live there.
. If I squeeze people into the kang, I won’t be able to sleep anymore.
"If that doesn't work, just sleep on the ground - there is a fire in the house, so you won't freeze."
"The charcoal gas on the ground is heavy, and the air is even worse when there are more people." Huang Hua shook his head, "You move a few people to the main room to sleep."
There are three main rooms, and the middle one has no heated bed, so no one can live in it at all. They can only live in the warm pavilions on both sides. Now Huang Hua lives on one side, and his two orderlies live on the other side.
"I'll sleep in the same room as the orderly, and you can move two more people in. We'll also build a few bunks in the main room and light a few more braziers - it'll always be warmer than outside."
However, there were as many as twenty newly arrived slaves, and men and women were different and could not be mixed together. No matter how Huang Hua and the sergeant arranged them, they still could not arrange them all.
Lan Bian saw that "Master Huang" had no "instructions" and was instead arranging accommodation for his group. He quickly stepped forward and said: "Master, don't bother, except for the fact that a few girls are fragile, please ask the housekeeper to arrange for them to go out."
"As long as we have a brazier, we can live on the porch without any problem..."
Huang Hua shook his head: "Liaodong is a bitterly cold place. You won't freeze to death if you live in a corridor."
"The weather has warmed up now, just have a brazier..."
"How is this possible? None of you are very strong. What if you get sick?" Huang Hua said naturally, "Let me think of another way."
Lan Bian wanted to say something more, but when he saw that Huang Hua's words were sincere and not casual, he stepped aside and said nothing.
Huang Hua took care of the people and went to talk to the Houjin officials who were receiving them, and finally got another abandoned palace filled with debris, and managed to arrange everyone there. Huang Hua asked the soldiers to free up two rooms with hot pots for the maids to live in.
, others helped to clean the house, clear away debris, and paper the broken windows one by one. They also got a few braziers from the temple and bought some charcoal to light a fire. The house was cold and empty, and the brazier had poor heating effect. Huang Hua
Standing in this empty and tall palace for a long time, I didn't feel any warmth on my body. Then I looked at the slaves, all of them hunched their necks and stamped their feet in greeting.
Huang Hua found it strange. It looked like they were all wearing new cotton-padded clothes - they were quite thick and shouldn't be so cold. He walked into a slave and grabbed his collar.
The man was shocked and didn't know what the new head of the family meant. He knelt down in panic.
"Don't kneel down. Let me see what you are wearing." Huang Hua said.
After taking a closer look, I realized that these people were all wearing new clothes, but they were actually patchwork pieces of rags and then dyed again. At first glance, they looked neat and bright, but in fact they were made of rough and crude stitching. The stuffing inside was just reed catkins and elephants.
Only a small boss like Lan Bian had a torn sheepskin coat. It was fine when he was working just now, but when he stopped, everyone was shivering from the cold. Huang Hua looked carefully and saw that the frostbite on everyone's hands was swollen.
Some have festered.
"The Qing Dynasty is really extremely poor." Huang Hua said and ordered the sergeant, "Tell everyone to take out the spare training uniforms and cotton vests for these new brothers to wear!"
"yes!"
In addition to their uniforms and coats, the guards also had a spare thin cotton-padded jacket uniform and cotton vest. Not long after the sergeant came over, he led someone to fetch the clothes and distributed them to the new slaves one by one. (To be continued, please search Gone with the Wind. Astronomy and novels are better and updated faster!