Strolling on the wall of the Tucheng in Gubei Village, Gao Jin and Fan Xiu'an walked around and stopped. The servants in black were standing not far away to guard. Looking at the convoy that had already been scattered at the city gate, Fan Xiu'an couldn't help but feel a little emotional, "That third lady is indeed a hero among women. She actually insisted on marrying Na Bu Situ. Now the belongings of Guihua City have been settled. This Gubei Village will be more prosperous in the future in the future by Brother Gao."

Fan Xiu'an lived in the Sihai Warehouse for three days. During these three days, he saw the mates and thugs in the Sihai Warehouse who were trained in the Sihai Warehouse, and also saw the orders and prohibitions of Gao Jin's servants. From his eyes, he naturally saw that it only took a few months to have more than 100 elite soldiers under Gao Jin's command.

Such force is enough to be used in places like Gubeizhai!

The Suide Merchant also has its own cavalry and private army. Fan Xiu'an has nearly 200 cavalry teams under his command, but it took him nearly ten years to get such a cavalry team. Although he is not familiar with military tactics, he has seen a lot. He also knows that although the cavalry teams under him are well-equipped and do not waste any effort to cut and kill those horse thieves, he may not be able to take advantage of them if he faces Gao Jin's servants.

Gao Jin must be able to control Gubei Village, and Fan Xiu'an naturally made such a judgment. Therefore, Gao Jin also became a companion worthy of winning from the beginning. So he only stayed for a few days, but he still waited for the last group of caravans who returned from Guihua City to bring back.

When the third lady, who had been in control of Guihua City for decades, finally agreed to marry Bu Shitu, the new Tumote Khan. Those returning merchants said that when the third lady was married, she was carried by her guards on the bed and completed the marriage with Bu Shitu, the nominal great-grandson. Everyone said that the third lady could not survive this winter.

"Brother Fan really thinks that Guihua City will be peaceful next?"

Hearing Fan Xiu'an's words, Gao Jin laughed unanimously. The third lady was a strong woman who had been lying on the grassland for decades. She could naturally suppress Su Nang's grandson when she lived. Now she married Bu Situ. From a legal perspective, Bu Situ completed the last procedures for his successor to the Great Khan of Tumote and King Guiyi, and was able to enter Guihua City.

But as long as the third lady dies, will Su Nang be convinced? Thinking that Geriletu has been buying iron and salt for a lot of money, Gao Jin doesn't think that Guihua City will be more peaceful in the future.

“Is it important to be peaceful or not?”

Fan Xiu'an asked back, then pointed to a small caravan leaving the city gate, full of confidence, "In the past four years, the Tumote tribe has been fighting for the Khan throne, and the business road here is depressed, but the Shanxi merchants in Datong have made no less money. Those nobles of the Tartars cannot do without the silk, wine and various items of the Ming Dynasty."

"If Guihua City continues to be uneasy next, it will naturally be a crisis for these small caravans, but for us, isn't it a business opportunity?"

Fan Xiu'an stared at Gao Jin with glittering eyes, "The location of Gubei Village is very good. Now that Brother Gao takes over the Sihai Goods Store, this reputation has also been made. The merchants come to Gubei Village to do business next year. If the Tumets in Tumot want to fight intra-fight again, wouldn't it be a good time for us to take the opportunity to lower the price and receive the goods?"

Listening to Fan Xiu'an talking, Gao Jin was stunned for a moment and then sighed in his heart that the shopkeeper of the Suide Merchant Gang was indeed a shrewd and ruthless person. Others were worried that civil strife in the Tartars would cause a depressed business road, but in his eyes it was a great time to monopolize trade.

"Brother Gao, you have a way to Su Nang's army. My Suide Merchants have financial resources, so why worry about not being able to do big things?"

There was a relationship between Gao Jin and Su Nan's unit, which Gao Jin took the initiative to reveal to Fan Xiu'an. He would raise troops and farm in Hekou Fort in the future and would spend money everywhere. This Su Nan's unit is naturally the biggest financial supporter.

There were a lot of iron tools that Gao Jin brought to Geriletu last time, but it was far from enough for the Suan Division, which coveted the position of Tumot Khan and was dedicated to preparing for the war.

"Brother Fan said it well. You and I will work together, so we will naturally do a big thing."

Gao Jin responded, he was not afraid that Fan Xiu'an had no ambition, but was afraid that Fan Xiu'an had too little appetite. Only the greater the ambition of this big shopkeeper of the Suide Merchant Gang, the more benefits he could get when the two sides cooperated.

"Brother Gao, I was just now Meng Lang."

The expression on Fan Xiu'an's face returned to calm. His words just now were both the voice of his heart and the test of Gao Jin.

The Suide merchant gang is concentrated in Shenmu East Road and Yulin Road. There are many big merchant gangs in Yulin Town, but they are much worse than the Shanxi merchants in Datong Prefecture.

Fan Xiu'an is the youngest among the seven major shopkeepers of Suide Merchant Gang. He can't stand the dull and dull atmosphere in the merchant gang now. In his opinion, if Suide Merchant Gang continues to operate in the same way and is not enterprising, he will sooner or later be annexed by Shanxi merchants in Datong.

This trip to Gubei Village was a surprise for Fan Xiu'an. He could see the same ambition as himself in this young man, and there was no news that he could only be willing to spend money on some things.

For example, Zhang Gui, a hundred households in Hekou Fort, died in the border patrol, but Gao Jin made considerable military achievements. Thinking of the strange military mobilization and the great victory of the General's Office, Fan Xiu'an believed that Gao Jin's future prospects will be great.

This Gubei Village may be just a test for Gao Jin by the General Office, so whether it is public or private, Gao Jin has become the best partner.

Gao Jin and Fan Xiu'an did not talk anymore, but instead talked about something else. Looking around the wilderness outside the earthen wall, Fan Xiu'an said to Gao Jin, "I heard from my elders that this ancient Beizhai was originally built by Altan Khan. At that time, the Tumote tribe recruited surrender and rebel. The White Lotus Sect's thief heads took the people to join us, cultivated fertile fields in these places, and even once claimed to be on the south of the Yangtze River."

"I didn't expect that this place would be so desolate for only a few decades. It's really impermanent!"

Hearing Fan Xiu'an's sigh, Gao Jin thought of Hou San's previous report that there were refugees near Gubei Village. Although there were no major wars in Hetao Mongolia in recent years, it also had to fight several battles every now and then. The closer the place to the wall, the heavier the military service tax. In addition, the plunder of military generals, there were many people in the border areas who fled outside the pass.

Most of the fugitives or those with some abilities have been robbed of horse thieves. They have no ability and are lazy to eat and come to places like Gubeizhai to hang out. The other fugitives are farming near places like Gubeizhai that are still prescriptions. Although it is dangerous, they don’t have to worry about being banned from autumn at any time, nor do they have to worry about the government urging taxes to force them.

Many of the food in Gubei Village was paid by the fugitives from these settlements. Guan Ye established rules that the horse team of the Sihai Cargo Store would also patrol the surrounding Gubei Village in the past, which was equivalent to protecting the safety of these settlements and villages.

When the caravans gather in Gubei Village, these males from the fleeing houses would come to Gubei Village to do some hard work and earn some family income. As for the local prostitutes in the brothels in Gubei Village, many times they often come from the wives and wives of the fleeing houses. Although they would be exploited by rogues like Yang Er, it would be better than starving at home.

Although Gao Jin was interested in the "Baring Jiangnan" mentioned by Fan Xiu'an, he did not ask carefully. After all, for the court, it was a matter of losing face to the White Lotus Sect that bullied tens of thousands of people to the Tartars, but who could tell the truth clearly? Who knew whether those people were bewitched or were forced to win over the Tartars because they couldn't survive.

"Brother Fan, why bother to sigh? If it were still here to Jiangnan, how could we make money?"

Gao Jin interrupted Fan Xiu'an's sigh with a vulgarity. Speaking of which, Altan Khan was indeed the last foresighted master among the Mongols. At that time, it was said that there were no less than 100,000 Han people in Monan and other places to farm and pay grain, and Tumote's troops were well-mannered. However, at that time, they met Mr. Zhang who was responsible for the country's affairs, and Grandpa Qi was guarding Ji Liao in the north. The court also had sufficient troops in the nine border areas, which made Altan Khan useless. After his death, the cities that were originally built, such as Gubeizhai, gradually abandoned.

"Brother Gao said yes, but I was speechless."

Fan Xiu'an laughed. When Tumote was in full swing, the people enlisted by the White Lotus Sect not only helped the Tartars to farm, but also many craftsmen to build weapons for the Tartars.

After Altan Khan's death, these Han people and Tartars lived and intermarried, and their descendants became Mongolian. Many craftsmen broke their ancestral craftsmanship, and the Hetao Mongolia became weak again, and there was a huge demand for iron tools and various handicraft products.

Gao Jin and Fan Xiu'an got off the city wall together. The two of them were very satisfied with the chat or temptation today.

Gao Jin needs a partner like Fan Xiu'an who has ideas and ambitions, and Fan Xiu'an also needs a partner like Gao Jin who has enough strength to support him. Although the two have not reached any specific agreement, they know in their hearts that as long as the time is right, the cooperation between the two will come naturally.

At the gate of the city, several of Fan Xiu'an's subordinates were waiting for him. According to reason, Fan Xiu'an should have left three days ago, but he stayed for three days. He was not only observing Gao Jin's strength, but also testing Gao Jin's person. Now he already knows the answer he wants, so he will naturally not stay again.

If the two sides want to truly cooperate, they have to wait for this winter. When the spring comes to the coming year, if Gao Jin's strength can satisfy Fan Xiu'an, Fan Xiu'an will be willing to invest. Of course, before this, Fan Xiu'an, who would rush to Shenmu Castle, would not mind selling Gao Jin's favor depending on the situation.

"Brother Fan is going here, and the journey is smooth."

Although he had a great time talking with Fan Xiu'an, Gao Jin was always on guard against this big shopkeeper of the Suide Merchant. In the eyes of people like Fan Xiu'an, there is only interests. If the interests of both sides conflict one day, I am afraid that Fan Xiu'an will be the first to stab him in the back.

"Then let me follow Brother Gao's Jiyan."

Fan Xiu'an turned over the horse, and smiled. After he immediately bowed his hand to return the gift to Gao Jin, he turned around with his subordinates.

When Fan Xiu'an and his group left, Gao Jin's smiling face slowly became cold. On the top of the city, the temptation in Fan Xiu'an's previous words were somewhat vaguely turned against the customer. What was the opportunity to receive the goods at a low price? This was clearly intended to monopolize the trade of Gubeizhai.

"Grandmaster?"

Hou San behind Gao Jin called out softly. He remembered that this Gao Master and the shopkeeper Fan had a great chat over the past three days, and he felt that he wanted to meet too late.

"Mr. Hou, how much do you know about this Suide Merchant?"

Gao Jin looked at Hou San beside him. Since his father died, he would no longer trust anyone easily. Fan Xiu'an's temptation made him feel a little crisis. As long as Gubei Village is well managed, the future benefits may be enough to make the Suide Merchants Cove covet the plot.

"I know a little bit about it. Master Gao should know that Suide is located in a key junction, which is a key road connecting the north and south, and is known as a dry wharf."

Hou San has been in Gubeizhai for many years and naturally has an understanding of the merchants in northern Shaanxi. Compared with the Shanxi merchants in Datong, although the Suide merchants are a little less financially, they are still the leading merchants in Yulin Town. After all, Suide is an important town in northern Shaanxi. Goods from south to north will gather here, and they have always been rich in merchants.

"This business group is composed of several businesses. The Suide business group originally had only two businesses, but now there are only seven businesses..."

From Hou San's mouth, Gao Jin found out that the Suide merchants were actually composed of seven businesses in Suidezhou, and the main industry they joined forces was actually the salt industry.

When the Ming Dynasty was founded, Emperor Taizu built important towns on the nine borders in order to defend against the northern empires. Among them, Guyuan, Ningxia, Yansui and Gansu were located in Shaanxi. This line of defense started from the east to Huangfuchuan in Yansui (north of Yulin in Shaanxi) to Jiayuguan in the west, and to Taomin in the southwest (now southern Gansu) for thousands of miles.

However, the border areas are bitter and cold, with sparse populations. The large number of border troops consumed tens of thousands of stones of grain every year, and needed to lay hundreds of thousands of horses. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive to transfer transportation from the mainland. The people complained, and the court was overwhelmed. Therefore, during the Hongwu period, the court implemented a new policy of "salt development" and allowed private merchants to transport grain to the border for salt distribution licenses "salt ingots". About 30 kilograms of grain can be exchanged for a "salt ingot", and it is the Huai Salt ingot with the best salt quality and the most profitable Huai Salt ingot.

After the opening of China and France, it occupied 800 miles of Qinchuan and a fertile land area. Local merchants in Shaanxi hired farmers to reclaim fields on the barriers and directly exchanged grain and government for salt to make profits. In contrast, Shanxi has always been short of grain, and Shanxi merchants wanted to enjoy the benefits of "salt-driving", so they could only push wheelbarrows to Shandong to buy grain and then traffic in border areas, which was a very troublesome "buying grain for induction". Compared with Shaanxi merchants who "transport grain for induction", they were naturally far inferior to Shaanxi.

Therefore, as a salt merchant, Shaanxi merchants had always surpassed Shanxi merchants in both financial resources and power, especially Qin merchants in Sanyuan County, Jingyang County, Suidezhou and other places.

However, later the imperial court changed the "Kaizhong Law" of exchanging grain for induction to the "color-shaving method" of exchanging grain for induction. In other words, merchants no longer had to travel thousands of miles to send grain to the border, but directly took out silver to buy salt, so that they could obtain permission to sell salt.

After the "Kaizhongfa" and "color-shaving method", they stayed in the northwest border to continue growing grain and lost their original huge profits. The Shaanxi merchants who had already made enough money went to Yangzhou, the salt transfer hub of Lianghuai along the canal, along the canal, and became professional salt merchants.

These Shaanxi merchants who lived in Yangzhou not only operated Huai salt, but also expanded their business to pawns, cloth, fur, tobacco and alcohol industries. They were just a waste of their hometowns. In order to protect their common interests, these Shaanxi salt merchants invested in the construction of Shaanxi Guild Hall in Yangzhou, and worked together to do business. Later, in order to deal with the competition between Hui merchants, they jointly built the Shanxi Guild Hall with Shanxi salt merchants.

"Grandpa, more than ten years ago, our border merchants (Shanxi merchants) were very wealthy in Yangzhou. Even those domestic merchants (mainly Hui merchants) had to buy salt from them."

Seeing Gao Jin listening seriously, Hou San also explained what he knew clearly, "It's just that those domestic businessmen finally took advantage of the local people. In recent years, there have been many lawsuits on both sides for the sake of salt."

After the color-breaking method, Hui merchants, which were closer to the Huai River, often liked to initiate lawsuits because of the tradition of "left Confucianism and right merchants", so Shanxi and Shaanxi border merchants like the Suide Merchants Gang naturally suffered a great loss.

"Mr. Hou meant that the Suide merchants were going to compete with Hui merchants for salt in Yangzhou, and their profits were much worse than before, so they fell in love with the trade benefits outside the Great Wall..."

Gao Jin talked to himself. He did not expect that the interest disputes involved in the Suide Merchant Gang were so complicated. Fan Xiu'an was the seven shopkeepers of the Suide Merchant Gang. He sounded like a famous person, but in fact, the real big figure in the Suide Merchant Gang was actually in Yangzhou.
Chapter completed!