prosperous age

"Shandai, come in and sit down."

Another day, Wei Guangde entered the cabinet and was on duty. Before he even sat down, someone from Zhang Juzheng came to invite him.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng had something to discuss with him early this morning, so someone was guarding the cabinet door.

Although he was curious about what Zhang Juzheng wanted to see him about, Zhang Juzheng was currently focusing on two tasks. One was flood control and disaster relief in the south, which was the responsibility of the Prime Minister and he did not dare to delegate it to others.

The second is to further promote the performance evaluation system. You should know that the performance evaluation system is centered on the chief minister. The chief minister supervises the six departments, the six departments supervise the six ministries, and the six ministries then push down to the various provincial governments and prefectures and counties.

But in the end, power will be concentrated in the hands of the prime minister.

  What could be the reason why Zhang Juzheng was looking for him at this time?

As soon as he entered the Prime Minister's duty room, Zhang Juzheng enthusiastically pulled him into the room and asked him to sit down.

When the two of them were done, a clerk brought tea. Wei Guangde smiled and said, "Brother Shuda is in such a hurry to summon me. I think there must be something important. I wonder where the document has been received?"

At this time, Wei Guangde thought that it was because of the performance evaluation system. During this period, due to local resistance, Zhang Juzheng had discussed with him many times about transferring some disobedient officials through the Ministry of Personnel.

The underworld is not about fighting and killing, but about human relationships and worldly wisdom. Zhang Juzheng would not kill his subordinates just because they opposed the new laws he was promoting.

The officials of the Ming Dynasty had a complex network of relationships including classmates, fellow townsmen, and even classmates. It was actually difficult to deal with officials who had committed crimes sometimes.

If you move one person, you might offend a large group of people.

Zhang Juzheng was the prime minister, but that didn't mean he had no scruples.

After all, the job still has to be done by the people below, and it is impossible for the prime minister to do it himself.

"Haha, it's not that I received any important documents this time, I just want to ask, what was the final result of the Huo Yi incident you mentioned last time?"

Zhang Juzheng asked with a smile, stroking his beard.

"Huo Yi? Governor Huo's memorial?"

Wei Guangde was a little surprised why Zhang Juzheng was concerned about this matter.

About a month ago, Wei Guangde saw the memorial from Xuanda Governor Huo Yi, requesting to open a market in Datong.

His request was not the tribute trade that the Ming Dynasty was conducting at that time, but a real trade, an act of pure commercial transactions between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia.

When Wei Guangde saw this memorial, he thought that since there was already tribute trade, there was no need to hold regular markets every month.

Although Mongolian Khan Altan had nominally submitted to the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde would not let down his guard against Mongolia.

You know, every time the Qing Dynasty invaded the country to plunder, there were always Mongolians in the team.

Appropriate restrictions still need to be in place. It is conceivable that Wei Guangde's proposal will naturally not be supported.

After the memorial was submitted to the palace, Feng Bao also agreed with Wei Guangde that there was no need to open the market and that it was only necessary to maintain the tribute trade.

"Hasn't Governor Huo's memorial been rejected?"

Wei Guangde didn't know whether Zhang Juzheng really didn't know or was pretending not to know, so he said that on purpose to spark conversation.

Huo Yi was sent to Xuanda from the Ministry of War last year to replace the former Governor of Xuanda, Wang Chonggu, and was responsible for the defense of Xuanda and the liaison with Mongolian Khan Altan.

"Since Altan Khan began paying tribute, Mongolia has been quite respectful to the Ming Dynasty. The amount of tribute and trade each year cannot meet Mongolia's actual needs, so I think it is okay to relax some of the restrictions."

As expected, Zhang Juzheng came for the opening of Xuanda Market and started to act as a lobbyist directly.

"Brother Shu, I know what kind of person you are. Could you please tell me who persuaded you? And what reasons did you use to believe that the court should allow Xuanda to open?"

Wei Guangde put away his smile and asked seriously.

Zhang Juzheng intervened in the Xuan-Da Trade, which seemed to be the Prime Minister's concern for government affairs, but Wei Guangde did not think so. Because they were connected to future generations, Wei Guangde had a very bad feeling.

"Haha, I can't hide it from Shandai."

Zhang Juzheng smiled and continued, "It was Minister Wang of the Ministry of Revenue and Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Rites. Minister Wang thought that since Yuegang could open a market, Xuan could naturally follow suit and levy taxes on goods entering and leaving the port to increase the court's revenue.

However, Minister Zhang believed that the court suffered a loss because Mongolia sent a small number of weak war horses in exchange for a large amount of supplies every year.

It would be better to hold regular trade fairs in border towns, allowing merchants to choose to buy Mongolian horses, cattle and sheep and trade on their own, and the court would collect taxes from them to make up for the losses caused by the tribute."

The tribute trade, also known as tributary trade, has actually always been a disadvantage for the Ming court.

Foreign countries would bring so-called tribute to present to His Majesty the Emperor. Even if the quality was of poor quality, the imperial court would often give a very high price for the sake of face.

Since it is a tribute, it cannot be judged in terms of money.

Afterwards, most of the foreign envoys would purchase Ming Dynasty goods as rewards from the imperial court and take them away.

As for the tribute trade in Xuanda, according to the agreement, Mongolian officials at all levels would present "BMW" to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and the court would reward them according to the market price.

And these rewards were the goods that the merchants brought to the Xuanda trade site.

"Minister Zhang also mentioned that the Ministry of War had reported last year that there was a shortage of war horses in the border towns. We can use the opening of the market to obtain good Mongolian horses to supplement the needs of the border towns."

Zhang Juzheng was still talking there, and it was obvious that he was convinced by Wang Guoguang and Zhang Siwei.

The Ministry of Revenue did not gain any advantage over Yuegang and Jiugang, so it turned its attention to Xuanda in the north and also wanted to build Yuegang on land.

As for why the market was not opened in Jizhen, the reason is actually very simple. It is too close to the capital and there is a fear of mistakes.

Xuan University’s location is neither too far nor too close to the capital, just right.

Fortunately, Zhang Juzheng was still sober and knew that the Ministry of War was actually responsible for this matter, not the Ministry of Revenue which was in charge of money and grain, so it was not easy for him to agree directly.

So, there was today's summons.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng had thought about it carefully last night and he thought it was feasible.

“What goods do they want to trade?”

Wei Guangde did not refuse outright, but asked about the doubts in his mind.

"Of course, tea and silk are the main ingredients, supplemented by other daily necessities."

Zhang Juzheng said.

"Where is the iron pot?" Wei Guangde asked.

"Ironware can be banned, and only provided in small quantities during tribute trade."

Zhang Juzheng naturally knew the importance of prohibiting the trade of ironware with the Mongols. Although there was no explicit stipulation in the agreement with Mongolia, the court had strict quantity requirements for the ironware shipped to Xuanda for tribute trade, and it was not an unlimited trade.

Wei Guangde was still thinking. He had no idea what the "Datong Horse Market" derived from the original "Datong Tribute Road" would become in the future.

The Tea Horse Road was another important international trade route that emerged between Europe and Asia after the Silk Road during the 17 years from the early 20th century to the mid-300th century. It runs from north to south across China, through Mongolia, and reaches Kyakhta, a trading port on the Sino-Russian border. It is 476 kilometers long.

Datong and Zhangjiakou are two important nodes of the "Tea Horse Road". Datong is not only a node of the "Tea Horse Road", but also an important hub of the "Tea Horse Road". It is a trading center for tea merchants in the south and merchants in the north.

The "Tea Horse Road" formed a complete commercial chain through the hub of Datong, and eventually became an international trade route with tea, silk, fur, etc. as the main trade content.

It was precisely because of the existence of Datong Tribute Road and Datong Horse Market that Datong's commerce flourished and attracted many merchants in the late Ming Dynasty. It also enabled Shanxi merchants to open up a northward channel to Mongolia and Russia through Datong in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty.

Of course, the price was that through here, Shanxi merchants were able to secretly transport various strategic materials to Mongolia and Liaodong, which eventually shook the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was forced to flee to the northern grasslands and established a regime on the grasslands, which is known in history as the "Northern Yuan Dynasty."

After the fall of the "Northern Yuan Dynasty", Zhu Yuanzhang, who started from the Central Plains, was not very interested in the "barren land" and did not go deep into the grassland to establish a regime. Instead, he set the border on the old boundaries of Qin, Han and even Tang.

They also deployed large numbers of troops in the north and established a large number of military settlements as a barrier to prevent the Mongol forces from invading the south.

The Mongolian forces, having lost their "orthodox" rule, split into three major tribes during the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty. They were the Tatar, Oirat and Uriankhai tribes, which were distributed in the north, northwest and northeast of the Ming Dynasty.

Among the three tribes, the Uriankhai tribe was the first to establish tributary relations with the Ming Dynasty. The other two tribes were rebellious and undecided. Ming Chengzu Zhu Di pacified the two tribes when they were compliant and suppressed them when they were rebellious.

Under Zhu Di's strategy of combining suppression and appeasement, in the seventh and eleventh years of Yongle, the Oirat and Tatar tribes established tributary relations with the Ming court respectively.

Envoys paying tribute had to go through a checkpoint and a route, the so-called tribute road. They would start from Gansu and then go to Nanjing or Beijing via the Gansu and Ningxia tribute roads.

Since the northern part of Datong was occupied by the Tatars, the Oirat still entered from Gansu. In the early years of the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, the Oirat achieved the annexation of the Tatars and unified the two tribes.

Thus, starting from the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, Datong became the exclusive tribute route for Mongolian envoys to pay tribute.

From this time on, the Mongols were no longer satisfied with the little supplies they received from tribute. They were expanding westwards and were in urgent need of Ming Dynasty goods.

It was during this period that, based on the tribute market, Toghan, the Mongol King of Shunning of the Oirat Mongols, sent his envoy Aduchi to the Ming Dynasty to request a trade in private horses, which was agreed by Emperor Yingzong.

Therefore, in addition to the tribute market, the horse market in Datong also came into being. Although it was initially just a private market targeting Toghan, that is, the only Mongolian trading partner was Shunning King Toghan, other Mongolian tribes soon requested to join in, and eventually a horse market was formed.

Among the trading commodities that the Mongols could offer, war horses were actually the only ones that Ming Dynasty urgently needed.

In fact, because the imperial court opened the door to mutual trade, the biggest management trouble was that when the official market was not open, the Mongols would privately contact the Ming merchants they had met and conduct transactions behind the scenes.

Among them, many contraband items were secretly transported into the prairie, and the imperial court was unable to effectively supervise them.

However, the bilateral relations are sometimes tight and sometimes loose, which naturally affects the operation of the horse market in the border town.

From the Zhengtong Dynasty, to the Hongzhi Dynasty, and then to the Jiajing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty opened horse markets in border towns three times.

The most recent one was in the fifth year of Longqing's reign. Due to the Longqing Peace Talks, Datong briefly opened a horse market. After that, the trade between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia was incorporated into the tribute trade, and the horse market was banned.

Obviously, the tribute trade could no longer meet the needs of Mongolian and Ming merchants, especially Shanxi merchants. They were eager to re-establish the horse market and conduct free trade.

Wei Guangde didn't know that the Shanxi merchants who facilitated the Datong Horse Market were actually considered to belong to the Pingyang Merchants Gang among the Shanxi merchants after being subdivided in later generations, while the red-topped Shanxi merchants who sold out their country in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were the Jinzhong Merchants Gang that rose later.

Wei Guangde had little historical knowledge and was not familiar with the horse market in the north. Later generations called these two merchant groups "Shanxi merchants". Naturally, Wei Guangde had always been unfriendly to Zhang Siwei, Wang Chonggu and others.

Of course, he didn't show his contempt for them on his face, and Wei Guangde was still very enthusiastic when facing them.

The Zhang Siwei family's business sends generous gifts of ice and charcoal to the Wei Mansion every year. Wei Guangde is well aware that one should not offend someone who smiles at him.

"The tribute trade is managed by officials sent by the imperial court, and the goods traded can be controlled to some extent. I heard that the imperial court has a harder time managing the goods traded at the horse market."

Wei Guangde thought for a long time and finally refused.

Yes, although there is nothing wrong with trade and it can benefit both the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia, Wei Guangde instinctively feels that free trade with the Mongols should not be allowed.

In the horse market during the Zhengtong period, the Mongolian side mainly sold horses, precious furs, jade, etc., while the Ming Dynasty side mainly sold silk, cloth, and daily necessities, but "copper and iron weapons were banned."

Even so, driven by profit, most of the powerful officials in Datong participated in the trade, and some even smuggled weapons, "putting ironware in jars and giving them to Wala envoys."

Moreover, when merchants on both sides conduct transactions, disputes often arise behind the scenes, causing disputes and even conflicts.

“We can ask Datong to make a set of rules. Although it is a private market, it will still be managed as an official market.

In my opinion, this matter can be handed over to Ziwei to contact Yaofeng for discussion, and once the charter is out, the cabinet can discuss it again."

Zhang Juzheng said.

He planned to hand the matter over to Zhang Siwei and Huo Yi for negotiation, and then discuss it in the cabinet after a solution was determined.

Of course, this must first be approved by Wei Guangde, otherwise, the memorial would be directly rejected by the Ministry of War and would not even reach the cabinet.

In fact, for Zhang Siwei and others, all they wanted was a breakthrough. As long as the court opened this gap, they would have the final say in the future.

To this end, they were even willing to hand over part of their profits to the Ministry of Revenue as commercial taxes.

In fact, Zhang Siwei has been very active recently, contacting officials from the six ministries through various means, because Zhang Juzheng has begun to pave the way for Zhang Siwei and is preparing to bring him into the cabinet.

The reasons were, firstly, that Zhang Siwei was experienced in handling affairs and was very much liked by Zhang Juzheng; secondly, it was because of his relationship with Yang Bo. Although Yang Bo was no longer with us, he was entrusted to take care of his nephew.

Of course, another reason is that Lu Diaoyang intends to retire and return home in the next one or two years.

Officials of the Ming Dynasty, unless they committed serious crimes and were forced to leave, would generally make arrangements in advance and arrange some relationships, just like the officialdom of later generations.

When making arrangements for Lu Diaoyang's fellow townsmen and disciples, the first thing he would do was to communicate with Zhang Juzheng.

It was not surprising that he knew Lu Diaoyang's plan in advance.

Wei Guangde had some vague guesses, but he didn't think it through for the time being. Seeing Zhang Juzheng's attitude, he had no choice but to say, "I'll think about this matter again."

"Okay, I'll let Ziwei and the others think about it to avoid any mistakes."

Zhang Juzheng said with a smile. (End of this chapter)