The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 268 Development on the Prairie
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 construction.

According to the plan, in addition to a main city and four acropolises, 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 to build 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 it will be the main source of revenue for the Duhufu. Not only will a horse market and a bull market be built in the city, but many inns, restaurants and shops will also be built.

These inns, restaurants and shops, according to the regulations of the Protectorate, will only be leased to merchants from the Great Wall, and will not be sold, even the royal shops and banks are no exception.

In addition to paying rent, businessmen only need to pay a business tax, and there are no other miscellaneous taxes. Mongolians who come to trade only need to pay a temporary transaction tax when they enter the bull market and horse market. , but not much.

As for the main city and the four acropolises, the main function is to garrison troops and handle some military and political affairs. The reason why the business and the main city are separated is mainly for safety and to prevent future Mongol raids.

Although this commercial town only built a foundation, the restaurants and shops in the city were basically pre-leased by merchants in advance.

Although the Tumed tribe lost more than 2 warriors last time, it can be said that they were injured, but there are still more than [-] tribesmen, and they are still the largest tribe in Mongolia.

These more than [-] people are now divided into dozens or hundreds of small tribes, distributed around the capital of the Duhufu, and they come to trade every now and then.

At the beginning, the royal family only set up a branch store and a bank, but later, with the encouragement of Zhu Cihong, the gentry and landowners in the city of Beijing also organized caravans to look for business opportunities. The small tribes of the Tumed Tribe in East Africa have also surrendered to Ming Dynasty one after another, and accepted the canonization and distribution, so the outside of the current Duhufu City is very lively.

Except for the most remote Horqin tribe, it can be said that almost the entire Monan Mongolia has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty.

Dor Gun was also powerless about this and could only stare blankly.

But now, even the Horqin tribe frequently shows favor to the Ming Dynasty.

No way, the reason why the small tribes east of the Liaohe scrambled to submit to Daming was because Daming was too powerful, with [-] troops stationed on the grassland, and because they couldn't bear the harassment of Tumote.

Because although the various tribes of the Tumed tribe dare not attack and annex them, they can unite to snatch tribes that have not been canonized by Ming Dynasty.

Regarding this matter, Hou Xun and Huang Degong, both principal and deputy envoys, did not interfere, and Zhu Cihong also did not intend to intervene for the time being.

It is conceivable that if this continues, these robbing-addicted tribes will sooner or later rob the Horqin tribe.

These Mongols are naturally brave and plundering, and now relying on Daming, there is no need to worry about others retaliation to rob them. How can they not let go of their hands and feet and rob them?

It may not be said that they will all grab the head of the Northeast Jurchen in the end.

At this moment, on the open space on the east side of the construction site, countless grass sheds have been built. As far as the eye can see, there are all Mongolians who are leading cattle, sheep and horses waiting to trade, and beside the carriages are full of Han merchants and shouting. .

It has to be said that as the former Minister of the Ministry of Households, Hou Xun still has some business vision. Not long after he came here, he temporarily built a trading market, charged transaction tax and booth fees, and stipulated that the market would be opened once every half a month. .

However, although the trading market is lively, most Han merchants just follow the royal family to drink soup.

Because horses can only be traded with royal shops, other merchants can only trade cattle, sheep and leather. The merchants are very dissatisfied with this, but there is nothing they can do.

After all, horse trading is the most profitable.

As for the wool and dried excrement that the royal store has purchased for a long time, they can also buy them, but these things are taken to the customs and sold to the royal family, and no one will want them at all.

Wool and dung can also be used to sell money. Almost all Mongolians are so happy that they can’t close their mouths. As a result, few tribes now sell sheep directly, and they choose to shear sheep for sale. Similarly, all tribes are now Burning briquettes and charcoal.

Although the money from selling animal dung is just enough to buy the coal and charcoal needed by a tribe, the tribes still choose to dry the dung and sell it, and then buy coal and charcoal from the royal shop.

Similarly, although due to transportation and technical reasons, for the time being, this royal store has been operating at a loss, but Zhu Cihong has no intention of canceling it.

Because wool and dried dung are related to whether Daming can control the grassland tribes in terms of interests, so the political significance is far greater than the economic value, and its role cannot be measured by money.

The dried excrement is transported to the customs, and after a little treatment and plant ash, it can be used as fertilizer and sold to the common people. A sack is only sold for [-] Wen.

Two sacks per acre of land are enough, which is only one hundred yuan, but the yield can be increased by [-]%. After calculation, it is definitely profitable.

In the beginning, it cost [-] yuan to buy two sacks of excrement, and no common people were willing to spend that kind of money. Later, Zhu Cihong ordered to select two or three experimental households in each village, and compare the output when they were harvested. Only then did they successfully promote the use of fertilizers After going out, almost every household in the counties and prefectures near Beijing now buys fertilizer every year.

Compared with manure fertilizer, it does not make money or lose money, but the recovered wool really loses money.

First of all, after the wool is recovered, it needs to be woven into blankets or wool, which requires countless tedious processes.

As a result, these blankets and wool can only be sold to ordinary people, and the price cannot be set too high.

There is no way, even rich households would not buy blankets with a smell of mutton. If it was before the Tang Dynasty, it is estimated that some wealthy households would buy them, but this is the Ming Dynasty when the cotton spinning industry was very developed.

In this regard, Zhu Cihong can only let the workshop in charge of spinning wool continue to improve the technology, and strive to one day completely remove the smell of sheep and weave exquisite blankets and sell them as luxury goods.

When Huang Degong sent someone to invite Hou Xun, Hou Xun didn't put on airs anymore, obviously he didn't want to really fall out with Huang Degong, but he felt aggrieved.

He didn't really want to intervene in military affairs, but as a frontier official and the nominal envoy of Anton's Protectorate, he should have the right to know exactly what happened. What are Huang Degong and the others going to do?

But now, apart from knowing that Hong Niangzi sent a military order, Huang Degong not only wanted to lead troops to Hetao, but also summoned five thousand Mongols to follow him.

As for whether this was the intention of the imperial concubine or His Majesty, he had no idea how many soldiers and horses of the Fourth Army Huang Degong planned to bring there.

This kind of thing is estimated to happen in the Shenwu Dynasty.

"General Huang, I also know that you are only following orders. What are you going to Hetao for? I have no right to ask, and I don't want to, but at least you have to show me the general's order so that I can know what happened. What's the matter?"

Although Hou Xun felt aggrieved, he had no choice but to slow down his tone.

Huang Degong just hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and refused: "Please forgive me, Lord Hou, I'm afraid it won't work, the military order was issued by the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and according to the military regulations, the above content cannot be disclosed to personnel other than the Fourth Army Corps , and this military order is quite special, even my Fourth Army needs an officer above the colonel to have the right to know!"

"Okay, then you have to tell this officer, what are you going to Hetao for? How many soldiers and horses will you bring, and when will you come back? Is it His Majesty's intention, or did the imperial concubine let you go?"

Hou Xun took a deep breath and almost gritted his teeth.

Even though he asked this question, he guessed that this was probably not His Majesty's intention. If it was His Majesty's intention, he would never disrespect him and issue military orders directly. Put it in your eyes, and don't care about his feelings at all.

"This...Master Hou, I can only tell you how many soldiers and horses we will bring with us this time. As for what we are going to do, whether it is His Majesty's intention or His Majesty's intention, these are all military secrets, no comment!"

Huang Degong thought about it, and decided to reveal something to him, but he would never say what he was going to do specifically. As for whether it was His Majesty's intention or His Majesty's intention, he himself did not know, let alone tell.

"That's the case, then General Huang should go ask for the order by 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 that Huang Degong didn't even say this, and he didn't want to talk nonsense.

He intends to play to confirm it by himself. If it is the meaning of the red lady, he will write to His Majesty about the hidden dangers. It doesn't matter if he doesn't do it, he doesn't care much about the official of the Shenwu Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)