open sea

Chapter 1262 Smuggling
There is a road out of Datong, [-] miles north, there is a place called Jining outside the Great Wall, it is at the foot of Yinshan Mountain, and it has many names that make people linger in dreams.

The Ming people who went out of the fortress called it Xinghe Road, which was its name in the early Ming Dynasty.

The Mongolians who lived here called it Jining Road, which was its name in the Yuan Dynasty.

Earlier, this was the Dai County of Youzhou, and it was Yunzhong of Bingzhou. As Wang Changling said, the easternmost part of the Yinshan Mountain, where the Dragon City Flying Commander is here and does not teach Huma Du Yinshan, is the Daqing Mountain here.

From here, walk west along the valley, and walk another two hundred miles, and you will find Guihua City, the key place of the entire Mongolian grassland in the majestic mountains.

The land of the Jin Kingdom of the Ming Dynasty is extremely fertile. Surrounded by mountains, there are three hundred miles of land and endless grazing grasslands. Looking from the north to the south, Guihua City is not so much the city of Alda, but Rather, it is the northernmost pass of the Ming Dynasty, because Tumochuan is the ancient Chilechuan.

It is rare to have such a tall mountain range as the Yinshan Mountain on the flat plateau, and the Yellow River meanders in the south of the mountain, which makes the south of the mountain extremely superior in both grazing and farming.

The death of An Da brought this grassland into a new era.

The era of the Han Chinese's large-scale northward expansion.

In Jining, where there was the first post station last year, this year ushered in the first resident store, called the Export Firearms Shop.

The owner of the store is a young flag officer of the Beiyang Army, from Yuncheng, the son of a Shanxi salt merchant. His name is Wang Yue. His family is engaged in the salt, grain, coal, silk and iron smelting industries. Wu Yi, before he was an adult, followed his family to transport coal to the capital's coal trade road, only waiting to grow up to take over the management of this stall, but Wanli got stuck with the coal.

In a fit of anger, Wang Yue's anger is also very interesting. He actually followed the recruiter from Beiyang to recruit troops and left in a fit of anger.

This kind of soldier who comes from a good family and is well-educated is a good seed in the eyes of the officers. He can be a general in the future, so he also devoted himself to training him. He learned a lot of new things during the two years in Beiyang, such as drawing, Mongolian and other skills. He grasped it very well, catching up with the changes in the situation in the past two years, he was given the official position of a small banner officer as soon as he left the Beiyang training ground, and he was asked to lead people to export with the caravan.

The banner army he led was not the Beiyang army, but a military household drawn from Tianjin Wei with a small banner. Only one general banner allowed him to gather a small banner that could barely pass the eye. He drove ten carts to Jining There was a firearms shop in this place.

This export firearms store belonging to the Beiyang Military Mansion does not look lonely on the grassland. Next door is the new Jining Post in the Ming Dynasty. Not far from the door is the Songlin River, which flows continuously all year round. The firearms shop, barracks, grain store, and warehouse in the high base guard the post station.

There are more than a dozen large vehicles parked outside the high wall at this time, and there are no packages of Beiyang specialties for military supplies in the convoy, which shows that this is a caravan that has completed the task of transporting Guihua City. Wang Yue, with his hands behind his back, narrowed his eyes and squeezed Squeezing his nose, he smiled and said, "I knew you had to come back."

"You don't know. At that time, Baihu asked me to choose whether to open a shop in Jining or Guihua City. We fell in love with Jining at a glance. Why? Because the road to the north of Guihua City is not easy to walk. , You have to go over the mountains, it’s not the same when you turn back from Jining and then go north, it’s easy to go.”

"No, you're back now."

Wang Yue smiled, walked to the door with open arms, and asked: "How is it? Your caravan has five gun tickets. The grasslands in the north are not peaceful. If you want to do business, how can you not have a few firearms for self-defense? How many can you buy? "

In front of him was a caravan that also came from Shanxi. The leader of the caravan was bitter and bitter. He fumbled in his arms and took out five crumpled gunpowder tickets, ignoring Wang Yue's small flag. Officers, each discussing how many guns to buy.

Wang Yue interrupted again, and said: "I would like to remind everyone that the ticket can only be used once. No matter whether you buy five guns or one gun, in order to prevent the smuggling of firearms outside the Great Wall, you must give me five tickets."

"It's still smuggled out of the Great Wall!"

It's good that Wang Yue didn't speak, but when he said this, the merchant's eyes widened and he said angrily, "Go and smuggle, a broken firecracker sells for five taels of silver, and you smuggle one for me, how do you smuggle it!"

This firearms export shop is owned by the government, subject to the unified pricing of the imperial court, and civilians are not allowed to own firearms, so this arms shop is the only one in the core country that sells firearms to the common people.

The conditions for selling are not strict, but very complicated. First of all, merchants must hold a certificate issued by the magistrate of the place of household registration, proving that they have a fixed property in their hometown, a fixed clan, and that their wives and children are all in their hometown, including information such as the industry they are engaged in, and the employment of long-term workers in the caravan. .

Only with this certificate can they get the luggage escorted to Guihua City in Beiyang according to the size of the caravan. At the same time, they need to prepare a certain number of weapons such as knives, spears, bows, etc. according to the scale, and bring the guns issued by the Beiyang Army. If the ticket goes to Datong, the Datong government will stamp the gun ticket. At this time, the holder of this gun ticket can legally buy firearms.

Regardless of where the merchants would sell their goods, the imperial court divided several regions outside the Great Wall. The first was the Ming and Jin Kingdoms. All the garrisoned tribes had local governors of the Ming army stationed there. There were post stations along the main roads. Garrison fixed patrol.

It is relatively safe, and the price of the corresponding goods cannot be sold too high, because there are too many caravans coming over.

If you want to make money, you have to go to the Ming Dynasty and sell it to the north. Most of the tribes grazing in those places have only a little contact with the Ming army. The merchants rarely go there, and the price of the goods sold is high, and there is a certain degree of danger.

If there is danger, good weapons are needed for self-defense, so the imperial court issued gun tickets.

But there is no place within the Great Wall to accept gun tickets, and they are not allowed to carry any firearms when leaving the customs. There is only one firearms shop in Jining, and this is Wang Yue's shop.

The gun ticket only means that the bearer has the right to buy firearms, and he still needs to use silver to buy them. Beiyang Ye Mengxiong's method of preventing merchants from smuggling firearms out of the mouth is simple and rude-no prevention.

He knew that he couldn't defend against it. Once he got to those places, the most valuable goods on the merchants' hands were the firearms they bought with gun tickets.

Therefore, Ye Mengxiong chose to let the court get a share of the smuggling.

Regardless of whether you are smuggled or robbed, it is enough for the court to earn more silver than the lost firearms.

Snapped!
Seeing that the merchants planned to take a look at the goods after discussion, Wang Yue clapped his hands happily and said, "Please come with me, come into our shop and have a good look."

"The last time you saw the Yongle firecrackers, you were not satisfied. It doesn't matter. The store has brought in better goods recently."

What was put on the table was an enlarged old-fashioned firecracker: "The Beiyang Military Bureau Wanli ten years ago made the special Wanli divine blunderbuss for Jia. , with more charge and more ammunition, I prefer to call it Lieutenant Zhenshuo, because it is a small general Zhenshuo held in one hand.”

"Are you afraid to see shirtless horse bandits running towards you with their horses and swords outside the Great Wall? It's right to be afraid, but if you have it, you don't have to be afraid! With our special small shotgun, within [-] steps Guaranteed that thirty small iron pills will smear his face with blood."

"Excellent Lieutenant Zhenshuo, I will give you ten custom-packed gunpowder powder tubes. It's a good product!"

Wang Yue raised his eyebrows and looked at the merchant: "As long as the silver is 11 taels, it's yours."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)