Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 49 A Gentleman Loves Money and Betrays His Own (Part 2)

Huang Taiji had indeed been waiting in the Khan's tent for a long time, because he urgently needed strategic supplies.

After conquering this vast grassland, he needed to quickly recruit troops to garrison it, and recruiting troops required weapons and equipment.

At this point, he didn't even have any pig iron or wrought iron to forge weapons, let alone cloth to make military uniforms.

There's also the issue of grain. Liaodong doesn't have much grain to begin with, and it's nearly 2,000 li away from here, so transporting grain over is unlikely. He still needs to purchase a large amount of grain from Fan Yongdou, otherwise there won't be enough grain for the army's return journey.

As soon as he saw Fan Wencheng leading Fan Yongdou in, he immediately stood up and greeted him, "Yongdou, you've finally arrived! Come, sit down and let's talk. Don't be shy. Wencheng, you sit down too."

Why was this Khan so polite to a mere merchant?

If this were the Ming Dynasty, let alone the emperor, even a lowly seventh-rank county magistrate wouldn't bother to give a second glance to the biggest merchants.

This may be one of the reasons why Huang Taiji was able to achieve great things. Even merchants, as long as they were useful to him, he was willing to condescend to befriend them.

He truly valued Fan Yongdou. Perhaps it was because of this meeting that he later changed Changbao to Taipusi Banner and appointed Fan Yongdou as the second-rank Taipusi Minister!
Fan Yongdou did not take advantage of the favor. He still bowed and saluted before sitting down cross-legged behind the small table on the right. Fan Wencheng also performed the salute meticulously before sitting down cross-legged behind the small table on the left.

Huang Taiji then ordered fragrant tea to be served before sitting down and asking eagerly, "Yongdou, has the goods we requested arrived?"

You've ordered far too much; where am I supposed to find so many horse-drawn carriages all at once?

Fan Yongdou quickly explained in detail: "Your Majesty, I have sent you silk, cloth, porcelain, salt, tea and other items that don't require much transport."

However, grain and pig iron are too heavy; one cart can't carry much. This time, I can only send you tens of thousands of kilograms. The rest will require several more trips to get to you.”

How many more trips will it take to deliver the grain and pig iron?

Upon hearing this, Huang Taiji nodded slightly and said, "Yes, it's alright. Now that the Chahar tribe has been connected, it will be much easier for us to travel back and forth."

Yes, it will be much more convenient to deliver goods in the future. In the past, we had to go around the capital region and the Guan-Ning-Jin-Fang line, or the Chahar Grassland and the Horqin Grassland. We had to go through so many obstacles, and the journey was very long. The transportation costs were also frighteningly high.

That's great, the goods were delivered from Zhangjiakou and arrived in two or three days.

By the way, there's a business that's very profitable.

Fan Yongdou thought for a moment, then asked, "Great Khan, how is the wild ginseng harvest in Liaodong these days?"

Wild ginseng?
That stuff seems to cost only a few taels of silver per pound.

If we were still struggling to make a living, a few taels of silver would indeed have been a lot of money. But nowadays, a few taels of silver are nothing, and even a few thousand taels are nothing.

Huang Taiji asked with some confusion, "Wild ginseng only costs a few taels of silver per catty, and it's very troublesome to dig it up. It would take a lot of people to go into the mountains to find a thousand catties a year. Why are you asking this? Is wild ginseng selling very well now?"

You're referring to prices during the Wanli era.

Fan Yongdou nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Great Khan, nowadays those princes are into eating wild ginseng, which is said to prolong life."

"Your Majesty, you should remember that ginseng king that weighed over a pound a few years ago, right? We bought it for 1,600 taels, and someone else immediately bought it for 5,000 taels. That guy went to Henan and made a big fuss about it, and several princes were vying for it. In the end, the Zheng Prince's Mansion bought that ginseng king for the astronomical price of 50,000 taels."

Fifty thousand taels?
One!
Huang Taiji couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Are those vassal kings really that rich?"

Fan Yongdou nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, those princes have at least several million acres of land. With grain prices so high these days, they have more money than they can spend. They want anything, like wild ginseng, sable fur, and other delicacies, as long as it's sent over."

Wild ginseng, in particular, is no longer just a few taels of silver per catty, but several taels of silver per tael. A single ginseng weighing over one tael can easily sell for over a thousand taels of silver. Now there's even a saying about "seven taels of ginseng and eight taels of treasure," meaning that wild ginseng weighing over eight taels can easily sell for tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Is it really that profitable?

Huang Taiji pondered, "Then I should send more people to dig in the mountains. Digging two or three thousand catties a year shouldn't be a problem."

Alright, let's put other business aside for now; I have important matters to attend to.

Fan Yongdou nodded, then solemnly said, "Great Khan, our master has sent word that the newly enthroned emperor seems to want to use Wei Zhongxian to suppress us, making it difficult for us to maintain power. When will you be able to lead a large army into the capital region? Then we can take the opportunity to eliminate Wei Zhongxian."

You want me to lead my army into the capital region?
I also want to lead my army into the capital region! Huang Taiji thought for a moment, then said calmly, "Has there been any change in the Jiliao defense line?"

I received the news about this a long time ago.

Fan Yongdou explained in detail: "The current governor of Jiliao is still Wang Zhichen, that good-for-nothing who still stays at Shanhaiguan and refuses to come out."

However, our young emperor replaced both the governors of Liaodong and Shuntian with Lu Xiang-sheng and Sun Chuanting, two relatively unknown figures.

Lu Xiang-sheng was the prefect of Daming Prefecture just last month. I don't know what went wrong with our young emperor, but he actually promoted him to governor of Shuntian Prefecture and also put him in charge of the Beijing Garrison, Jizhou, and Zhenbao.

Sun Chuanting was a soldier by birth; he came from a family that held the hereditary title of centurion in the Zhenwu Guard of Daizhou, and he had even passed the imperial examination, so he was quite capable. It was just unknown how he compared to Yuan Chonghuan.

The biggest problem now is that our young emperor has ordered the suspension of stipends for the imperial princes, and that scoundrel Wei Zhongxian has come up with a way to curry favor by accepting bribes. Liaodong is no longer short of food and pay, and the capital garrison has even conscripted 10,000 cavalry.

Wei Zhongxian even gave the original 10,000 sets of iron armor used by the Imperial Guards to the Beijing cavalry. Those 10,000 Beijing cavalrymen are still training every day at the outer city's drill ground. Our young emperor seems to want to expand the Beijing cavalry. He has already issued an edict ordering the border towns of Shanxi and Shaanxi to each send 5,000 warhorses to the capital.

We can delay things a bit longer with Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, and Pianguan Town, but we can't delay any longer if the warhorses from the three borders of Shaanxi have all arrived.

Furthermore, our young emperor has ordered Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou to lead 10,000 elite Guan Ning cavalry to accompany Yang He to the northwest to suppress the rebellious refugees. Currently, Liaodong's defensive capabilities have been somewhat weakened.

What's the point of such a slight reduction in Liaodong's defensive capabilities?

This might be a trap set by your young emperor to lure the enemy. It would only take the cavalry about ten days to get back from the northwest. In that short time, I wouldn't even be able to take Jinzhou!

Your young emperor probably wants us to waste time in Liaodong, while he trains his cavalry in the capital region, preparing to deal with us.

Hehe, little emperor, are you trying to pull this trick on me?
Huang Taiji said in a sinister tone, "Zhang Douyao is one of your men, isn't he? You'd better step up your efforts in the Northwest."

Zhang Douyao is a distant relative of our boss.

Upon hearing this, Fan Yongdou thought for a moment, then cautiously said, "Great Khan, do you mean that if we put in more effort in the Northwest and draw all the Liaodong cavalry away, you can then attack the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line?"

Huang Taiji slowly shook his head and said, "The Guan-Ning-Jin defense line is not so easy to break through. Even if we take Jinzhou and Ningyuan, it will be difficult to take Shanhaiguan."

We need to find a way from Jizhou Town. Didn't Lu Xiang-sheng recruit 10,000 cavalry? If things get out of hand in the Northwest, it's unlikely that your little emperor will be able to transfer cavalry from Liaodong again.

Besides conscripting 10,000 cavalry, what else did Lu Xiang-sheng do? Did he repair the border wall north of Jizhou Town?

No, not that.

Fan Yongdou thought about it carefully again, and then solemnly said: "Lu Xiang Sheng seems to have been in the capital all along and has not gone to Jizhou Town. He also did not go to repair the border wall of Jizhou Town."

However, the border wall from Juyongguan to Gubeikou had already been repaired during the Wanli era, so it would be difficult to break through from there. If they wanted to break through the Jizhou Town defense line, the only option would be to attack from the Zunhua direction.

The border wall over there is dilapidated and full of gaps, and we've also stationed some men there who can help the Khan.

Very good. The reason I took the Chahar Grassland was to break into the area from the north of Jizhou Town!

Upon hearing this, Huang Taiji slowly nodded and said, "Go tell your master not to rush. I have only just defeated the main force of the Chahar tribe and have not yet dealt with the scattered tribes. Once I have taken over the entire Chahar territory, I can lead my army south to the capital region."

At this moment, the construction of the city wall on the west bank of the Chaobai River has only just begun, and the news has not yet reached Shanxi. If he knew that the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty was building a city wall on the east side of the capital, I wonder what he would think.

Fan Yongdou has thus conveyed his master's message: Huang Taiji cannot send troops to the capital region at this time, and there is nothing he can do about it.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to start discussing business with Huang Taiji again.

Now that the trade route from Liaodong to Xuanfu Town has been opened, it is indeed much more convenient for them to do business with Huang Taiji.

From then on, the eight imperial merchants gathered in Zhangjiakou, transferring large quantities of strategic materials to Huang Taiji and selling all the internal intelligence of the Ming Dynasty in exchange for wild ginseng, sable fur, wild game, and even cattle, sheep and horses, which they then resold and made huge profits.

These traitors are utterly shameless in their pursuit of profit!
(End of this chapter)