Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 314, valuable prisoners

The prairie people outside Datong City are frowning, like a defeated rooster, dejected, but on the walls of Datong City, inside the city gates, there are cheers. Victory always makes people happy, and the wine and food are even more fascinating.

In today's battle, they achieved an unprecedented victory. Not only did they successfully repel the attack of the prairie army, but they also left densely packed, hard-to-count corpses at the foot of the city wall.

Because it was too late, they didn't even clean up the battlefield, so they don't know the exact number yet, but there are people who are drinking and eating meat and bragging everywhere in the city gate.

It's as easy as killing three prairie wolves on the city wall today, just like killing a chicken. You only need to stab the spear hard, and you can easily kill the prairie wolves who are about to go to the top of the city. .

What else is it like? Today, my master shot at least ten prairie people to death with arrows. One arrow was so magical that it hit the little prince directly. Yunyun, this is obviously a bit exaggerated. His arrow probably doesn't even know what the little prince is looking for. , but today's archers are indeed very brave, and also the ones who sacrificed the most. They shot against the prairie archers from morning to evening, and thousands of archers died. It seems that it is not an exaggeration to brag.

It was a noisy night, even Liu Yu, the commander-in-chief, was drowsy with his generals, and he was not in a hurry to write the battle report today. He was going to write about today's tragic fight after cleaning the battlefield tomorrow. .

Early the next morning, when the north wind was still whistling, the sky was just getting bright, and the heavy city gates were slowly opened, and groups of Ming troops rushed out excitedly. It was time to enjoy the fruits of victory. The battlefield has always been everyone's favorite thing to do.

In addition to the Ming army who cleaned the battlefield, there were also a large number of businessmen who came here after hearing the news. They also took the opportunity to come here to make a fortune. Qiao Yong was one of the many businessmen.

The merchants who can come to Chengguan to do business, and dare to come to Chengguan to do business, are all very powerful businessmen, and they are also businessmen with profound backgrounds.

Qiao Yong is from the Qiao family in Shanxi, which is considered a famous family here in Shanxi. Although the Shanxi merchants at this time are far from being comparable to the Shanxi merchants in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, they are also not comparable to the Anhui merchants who started their business by relying on salt, grain, and tea.

But because it is close to the border area, Shanxi merchants also have their own ways to make a fortune, such as smuggling ironware, salt, and tea to the grassland, and selling horses from the grassland. The profits from this entry and exit are extremely amazing.

Of course, this business is not something ordinary people can do. This is a brain-killing business. Not only do you need to be brave enough, but you also need to have a strong relationship, and you must know how to share profits to be able to do this business.

At this time, Qiao Yong looked at the corpses all over the ground in front of him, and he was slightly dumbfounded. He was very familiar with the frontier army and grassland people. From ordinary generals, etc., they are all greedy guys.

The army on the prairie was like a pack of wolves, advancing and retreating in an orderly manner and extremely fierce. The little prince was even known as the hero of the medium-sized Mongolia. He went south repeatedly and returned with a full load.

But everything I saw in front of me was filled with terribly dead prairie soldiers. Under the city wall, the corpses were piled up several feet high, and the blood was flowing, which changed the color of the land. The smell of blood was accompanied by gusts of cold wind.

Qiao Yong couldn't believe it. The Ming army had won the battle inconceivably, and it was a big victory. There may be tens of thousands of corpses under the city gate. When will the Ming army be able to wipe out tens of thousands of grassland troops at once?

It is estimated that it can be traced back to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di who founded the country. At that time, the Ming army swept the world, expelled the Beiyuan, swept across the grasslands, and many tribes killed surrendered one after another.

Qiao Yong shook his head slightly, thinking about what to do with these things. He is a businessman, and he came here to make money. As for other things, he, a businessman, should not care about them.

Many people will ask, what kind of money can he make as a businessman with corpses all over the floor?
Qiao Yong will definitely say that there are many places to make money. He can take the sheep jackets worn by grassland people, and the profit will be several times when he turns around. Although the sheep jackets are ugly and smell like sheep, they keep warm , Now that the weather is cold, a lot of people are willing to buy.

There are also weapons in the hands of the prairie people, the scimitar in the grassland is extremely sharp, and the quality of the weapons in the hands of the Ming army is much better. Here, they are bought at the price of broken copper and iron, and when they are resold, they will immediately earn several times the profit.

There are also wounded war horses, which can be bought for a few taels of silver at will, and when they are healed, they will be sold for at least a hundred taels of silver. After all, they are all high-quality war horses.

It can be said that there are many places to make a fortune, and the profits are astonishing. This is why businessmen like them rushed over early in the morning. Because they came late, they might not get anything.

As for whether it will break the law, then there is no need to worry about it. The frontier army can benefit from it. Now that they have won a big battle, they just deal with some spoils on the battlefield. The court will not pursue it at all. , for the imperial court, it is already a great joy to win the battle, and there is no time to care about such trivial matters.

"The sheep jacket is accepted, the sheep jacket is accepted~ the price is fair, and the old and the old are not deceived!"

"Take dead horses, take dead horses, only dead ones, not alive ones~"

"Collected rotten copper and rotten iron ~ collected rotten copper and rotten iron~"

Teams of merchants set up stalls right here at the gate of the city, and the guys under their respective hands also opened their voices and kept yelling, whenever a military master came over with a lot of sheep jackets and weapons, Immediately, they will go forward to have a chat, negotiate the price, settle the quantity, and give cash on the spot.

Qiao Yong carefully observed the entire battlefield. In yesterday's battle, the prairie army left too many, too many things. The Ming army all collected them carefully as if they had entered a treasure mountain.

"Haha~ Brothers, there is still one alive~"

Suddenly, among a pile of dead bodies, a prairie man looked at the surrounding Ming army in horror with a weapon in his hand, like a trapped animal.

When the surrounding Ming army saw it, they immediately surrounded them. They were very good at dealing with the single and injured prairie soldiers. They used their spears to deal with one of them. Strong.

There are quite a lot of prairie soldiers who were injured and survived. From time to time, you can meet some prairie soldiers who are not dead. If the injuries are too serious, they will be stabbed directly. He ordered that these captives were all to be brought to the capital to be dedicated to Emperor Hongzhi.

"Damn, these Tartars are really tough. They don't die, but it's easy to die. We can even take off their clothes and sell them for a few cents in exchange for wine. They're not dead, and they're not worth a penny. What can we do when we send it to the capital, it’s not to make those birdmen above cheaper.”

At the gate of the city, a group of Ming soldiers pushed these captives into the city gate, cursing and swearing.

"Worthless?"

Qiao Yong looked at the strong grassland captives in front of him, and suddenly a flash of inspiration came to his mind. If these captives were sold as slaves to the workshops and factories in the capital, they would be very popular, right?

As a businessman, Qiao Yong traveled all over the world and has seen a lot. He has been to the capital, and he has seen the prosperity of the capital. There are many large and small coal factories and cement factories in the capital, and they employ a lot of people.

Because Liu Jin was the leader of the Xishan Coal Industry Coal Industry Co., Ltd., the salary was basically good. He had three meals a day, and he was paid at least a few tens of pennies a day.

But even so, because there are too many workshops and factories in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and people in this era are still based on agriculture, they can't do without the one-acre three-point land, so there are often labor shortages. Especially in the busy farming season, many workers will choose to go back to farm.

It suddenly occurred to Qiao Yong's mind that if these captives were sold to these factories and workshops, there would definitely be many, many people wanting them.

These are captives, they can be used as slaves, they only need to be fed, and they don’t need to be paid at all, and these are grassland people, without the favor of the fields, they can work for factories and workshops throughout the year .

Thinking of this, Qiao Yong's eyes lit up, and then he looked carefully at the battlefield. There were a lot of wounded and captured prairie soldiers, even thousands of them. The serious injuries were all dealt with quickly, and the rest were lightly wounded. Hurt.

This prairie man grew up eating meat, he was very strong, and he was definitely a good slave.

Thinking of this, Qiao Yong hurriedly found Liu Yu, the chief commander, and expressed his intention to buy prisoners.

"You want to buy these captives?"

Liu Yu looked at Qiao Yong, and asked suspiciously, "What's the use of these captives? What did you buy them for?"

"Master Liu, we are also old friends. Ming people don't say dark words. I plan to buy these captives and transport them to the capital. I will sell them as slaves to the factories and workshops in the capital."

Qiao Yong and Liu Yu did not cooperate once or twice. Of course, Liu Yu's private horse market is indispensable for businessmen like Qiao Yong.

"Sold as a slave~ How much silver can you give?"

When Liu Yu heard this, he nodded slightly. He also knew about the factories and workshops in the capital. Now the most profitable ones are all kinds of cement factories and coal factories.

Originally, he planned to dedicate these captives to Emperor Hongzhi, but it would be good if the captives could be sold for money. After all, he still needs silver very much. If he wants to go up, it will not work without money.

"I can give you twenty taels of silver for one~"

Qiao Yong silently thought about it and quoted a price.

"Twenty taels of silver each?"

Hearing this, Liu Yu's eyes widened slightly. This deal is OK, and a captive can be sold for twenty taels of silver. His eyes immediately turned slightly red.

　In the future, the frontier army will have more income-generating projects~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)