Red Mansion Soldiers

Chapter 198 Pasha and Qi merchants

The problem of the Shanxi merchants was discovered by a group of Xiuyi who came back from the grassland to pass the decree and entered the customs from Datong.

This team of embroidered clothes, accompanied by an official from the Ministry of Rites, went to a tribe in Mobei to confer the new Taiji, but on their way back to the pass, they encountered a huge caravan.

At first, I didn’t think much about it. Although Daqi had taken over the imperial seal of the Mongolian Khan and became the new co-owner of the grassland, and actually controlled the grassland, there were still some horse bandits who burned, killed and looted on the grassland, especially those who liked to rob. Plunder the Qi people's caravan.

And it has always been like this. Fortunately, those big merchants have enough ability to form large caravans and large escorts, and they can also get along with these horse bandits without disturbing each other.

But merchants who are not strong enough are in trouble. In order to deal with these horse bandits, merchants naturally have a set of coping strategies.

Hold together.

Several small and medium-sized caravans gathered together to form one large caravan and left the customs together. Over time, there were small caravans that were just starting out on the grassland and caravans that only went to trade with small tribes not far outside the Great Wall. It's a big caravan.

After contacting the large caravan, they learned that this large caravan was a joint caravan between the Cao family and the Wang family of Shanxi merchants. The purpose was to take the young master of the Wang family to run a long distance for the first time.

As for why it is a joint caravan, it is still dominated by the Wang family.
According to the steward of the Wang family, their two families happened to meet on the grassland, and the Wang and Cao families were married. The young head of the Wang family was the grandson of the current head of the Cao family, and was the cousin of the Cao family. The caravan with the highest status was dominated by the Wang family.

Since the group delivering the order were imperial envoys, the well-rounded steward of the Wang family would naturally not neglect them, and served them delicious food and drinks all the way back to Datong.
Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but when a few Xiu Yi were wandering around, they discovered that whenever they went to certain places, people would always come out and take them for a drink with enthusiastic faces.
This is very unusual!
Some of the smuggling behavior of these caravans is actually tacitly tolerated, and even salt and iron are smuggled to a certain extent.

However, the quantity is not large at all. It is basically the high-end knives, guns, snowflake salt and other things that the Taiji Hutaiji of various tribes order from Guannai for their own use. The quantity is not large, but it is very profitable.

For this reason, merchants often gave filial piety money to local officials. Even the Datong Qianhu Office that embroidered clothes would receive a sum of filial piety money every year, and [-]% of this money would go into the public treasury of the embroiderers. Basically, They were used as military pay or rewards.

In other words, a large part of their income comes from sitting idly by and ignoring merchant smuggling.
Being stopped once or twice can be said to be the result of the newcomer being ignorant and overreacting, but even after seven or eight times, no one came to explain to him.
Several embroidered clothes are sure that there must be something wrong with this caravan!
These Xiuyi also began to do everything possible to find out what they were smuggling. After many attempts, they also found the imprint of the Jingshui family in Northeast Liaoning on the boxes.
But many times of testing finally aroused the suspicion of the caravan, but after all, they were embroidering clothes, and in a few words they were able to explain clearly and thoroughly what they had done, and they were fooled.

But the seeds of doubt have been planted in both sides.

In order to prevent these people from getting mad and killing them, the few Xiuyi had no choice but to settle down and take turns keeping vigil. Fortunately, Datong was not far away, and these people still had some concerns, so both sides just settled down. In this way, everyone returned to Datong with their own thoughts.

After carefully escorting the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette back to Luoyang, several Xiuyi hurriedly informed the Xiuyi Yamen
After receiving several notifications about embroidery, Tan Ji naturally did not dare to neglect and quickly sent a six hundred-mile express to Chang'an.
Finally arrived at Jia Hui’s table.

In this regard, Jia Hui had no good solution. Since the detective behavior of several embroidered clothes was discovered, those Shanxi merchants would start to clean up the head and tail and lay dormant for a while.After all, this is Da Qi, not the Ming Dynasty, and those Shanxi merchants have not yet evolved to the point where they can influence the court!
These are not troubled times. We need to kill Shanxi merchants to sacrifice to the God of Wealth. We also need someone who is upright when dealing with them in court. We cannot punish you just because I want to. I must provide solid evidence.
This is why Jia Hui sent Cui He and his wife to monitor them. This matter requires long-term monitoring. Shanxi merchants can smell the smell of embroidered clothes after being exposed to them for a long time. But Cui He is different. Although Cui He has been a rebel in recent years, he has received serious military-style training. Unlike Xiu Yi, who has a somewhat creepy temperament, Cui He has the smell of a soldier!

A native of Datong, after serving as a soldier for many years, he made enough money and no longer had any ambition to climb up the ladder. His honors were enough, so he resigned and returned home with his wife. However, he had no talent and could only rely on the honors given by the court. Salary and rent collection
This is the identity that Xiu Yi made up for Cui He.

The annual 1000 taels of funding was also counted as a salary for honors and was given to them, and they performed a full set of dramas. In addition, Jia Hui also gave him a title with a salary of exactly 1000 taels - awarded to General of Military Strategy from the fifth rank. .

If these Shanxi merchants who smuggle contraband are successfully eliminated this time, then this honorary title will be officially awarded to Cui He, but if it fails,
When the person is gone, the honorary position becomes vacant.
. . . . . .

Jia Taiwei's Tanabata Night Qu Jiangchi Banquet took the first place with three beautiful poems, lyrics and music. It spread throughout the entire Chang'an city almost instantly during the day of the next day. It spread in the streets and alleys, and people kept bringing Qu Jiang Chi Yeyan's collection of poems is spreading in all directions. I believe that it won't be long before Jia Taiwei's name will be spread throughout the country.

Although the previous song "Sheep on the Hillside" was very shocking, everyone felt that it might have come from the Taiwei's feelings, rather than the Taiwei's normal level.After all, this kind of thing happens all the time. You may write an article that will be popular for a long time because of your feelings, but then when you start to work on the basics and skills, there are too many examples where the level of the article is unintentionally unsatisfactory.

But after the publication of Taiwei's Three Chinese Valentine's Day chapters, this theory quickly disappeared, and no one questioned Taiwei's level anymore.
If you write one song, you are inspired. If you write two, you are lucky. But what about three or four?

Especially one poem, one lyric, and one piece of music. If you were to attribute this to good luck, you would be blind!

Working in the Taiwei Mansion, Jia Hui couldn't help but blush as he listened to the clerk's comments about him.

He has no ability to write poems, lyrics and music, but his grandfather in his previous life loved poetry, lyrics and music, so he had memorized many poems by heart without knowing it.
He can recite it again and again, and let him write it by himself.
Of course, I can write limericks, but I can't write lyrics and music. Tang Xian's words before also confirmed this.
However, the benefits brought by these three Chinese Valentine's Day articles go beyond fame.

For example, when Hu Jiu went to Chang'an Imperial College today to inquire about the elementary school class, it went surprisingly smoothly.

In front of this group of old scholars, Taiwei's identity was not as attractive as that of a great songwriter and songwriter. After Hu Jiu showed his identity to the people in the Imperial College, the old scholars received him very warmly, and then called him Mr. Jia one by one. He stood there and never said a word about Captain during the whole process.
After Hu Jiu, who was blinded by the enthusiasm of the old scholars, walked out of the Imperial College gate in a daze, he discovered that he had three more documents in his hand admitting admission.
"Hey, I finally found something to do for these three bastards."

Leaning on the chair, Jia Hui was laughing while flipping through the three admission documents, like a villain who had succeeded in his conspiracy.

Little cubs, feel the pain of going to school!
"Grand Governor, Grand Governor?" The junior official looked at the Grand Governor who was enjoying himself with worry.

"Ah? Oh, bring it here." Jia Hui, who had come back to his senses, also saw the pile of new documents held by the clerk, and asked him to put the documents on the table for him.

When the clerk saw that the governor was just having fun, he felt relieved. He quickly placed the document in front of Jia Hui, and then turned to the other side of the table to polish the ink for the governor.

This Grand Governor is so nice. He never deducts his salary or anything else. From time to time, he will give rewards when he is happy. He also often uses his own money to buy some sour plum soup, mung bean soup and some fruits, saying that this is a welfare for everyone. eat
No wonder the Ministry of Revenue enshrines the Governor as a god of wealth!

Jia Hui didn't know what the clerk was thinking, nor did he care. At this time, something he had forgotten for a long time reappeared on his desk.

The group of Rakshasa people previously discovered in the dense forests of Xianbelia had already passed Tongguan and were approaching Chang'an.
Maybe it was because they were frightened by the Liaodong Army's firecrackers that killed several people in a row, or maybe they were acclimatized. The group of Rakshasa people fell ill when they entered the customs and arrived in Peiping. It was not until half a month ago that they recovered.

The soil and water in Daqi nourish people.
After several months of recuperation, the faces of the young Rakshasa girls finally became fleshy and no longer looked frightened and skinny. They were also forced to clean by the remaining maids of the Peking Palace who took care of them. After bathing three times a day, I can finally see that she is a beauty.
Tsk, if nothing else, Slavic women’s looks really impress Jia Hui’s aesthetics.

I really look forward to it.
Go back to the emperor and ask for one to take home.

After writing the word "read" in blue ink on the document, Jia Hui started to read the next document.

It's Anxi's document again.

Yang Wenjin, the Protector-General, has already figured out the purpose of the Seljuk bastards who call themselves Turks.

Persian.

The Safavids to be precise.

One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers. Similarly, the two feudal military empires in West Asia cannot tolerate each other. They will have fierce struggles over territorial ownership and religious rule. Over time, the contradictions between the two military empires will become more and more serious. It's becoming more and more obvious.

As we all know, Islam is roughly divided into two factions, Shia and Sunni.

Safavid Persia regarded Shia as its state religion, while the Ottomans believed in Sunni.

But the two factions do not divide their territory based on country. There are Sunni believers in Safavid Persia, and similarly, there are Shia believers in the Ottoman territory.There are even quite a few. There are many Shia believers in the Ottoman Empire, which are always threatening the security and stability of the Ottoman Empire.

A few months ago, Safavids gave orders to his spy chiefs in the Ottoman territory to move around Anatolia, that is, in the Ottoman territory, and let his spy chiefs shake down some of the rebels at the time. , let them oppose the rule of Seljuk Zahu.

Although the Ottomans were originally wary of Safavid Persia, they did not expect that this day would come so soon. The rebellion of the rebels greatly destroyed the stability of the Ottoman territory. It took a lot of effort to bring this situation to an end. The rebellion was suppressed.

And another thing we all know is that heretics are more abominable than pagans.

The same is true for the two factions who converted to Islam. Since it was the Shia who initiated the matter first, the Ottomans let go of the shackles in their hearts and used very cruel and cruel methods until the rebellion ended. During this period, nearly [-] people Ascending within.

After putting down the rebellion, Osman decided to settle old and new grudges together, so he launched a holy war against Safavid Persia.

When Saphi Persia saw it, hey, you heretics are still going strong. I'm afraid you won't succeed, so come and fight!
Then they were defeated by the Ottomans and lost a lot of territory. Unlike the previous Iraq-Turkish war, this time there was no European force to contain the Ottomans.

This group of people pushed the front directly to Isfahan.
It is better to leave the remaining brave men to chase the poor bandits, and the Ottomans are not stupid. Although they may not say this, they certainly understand this truth, so they plan to take the opportunity to destroy the Safavids in one go. Even if they cannot eat them all, they still have to eat them. Safavid Persia smashed them into pieces so that they could no longer pose a threat
Then they met a group of Daqi merchants.
To be precise, they were captured, but it doesn't matter. They are all trying to kill people and get goods. Just when the great Lord of Babylon, Mustafa Pasha, who was besieging this caravan, was about to give the order to kill them all, that The arrogant attitude of the caravan leader caught the pasha's attention.
This merchant is not afraid of himself!
Surrounded by thousands of cavalry armed with scimitars, he did not want to kowtow and beg for mercy like all the merchants he had seen. Instead, he kept shouting in Persian, "I am from Qi!" and "The army of my country is in Persia." Stay in the east!", "If you dare to kill me, you will die!" and other words, the pasha became more interested in him.
The generous pasha decided to forgive the arrogant Qi caravan and brought the Qi merchants back to the camp.

After some conversation in Persian, Pasha finally learned what had happened in recent years in the land where his ancestors once lived.
The Mongols were beaten to death by the Qi people!
The Mongol people who wrapped the last caliph of the Abbasid Empire in a carpet and trampled it to death were wiped out by the Qi people in three countries. Now, the vast and lush grasslands of East Asia and Central Asia belong to Everyone is here!
Realizing that if he continued to fight, Mustafa Pasha was likely to provoke an extremely powerful opponent. He was shocked and led the Qi people businessman towards the caliphate stationed in Baghdad overnight.

After hearing what Mustafa Pasha and the Qi people said, the Caliph obviously didn't believe it, but he still agreed to the Pasha and sent people to find people who had come into contact with the Qi people, whether they were Persians, Turks or even the Qi people themselves.
The resulting news was almost the same as what the Qi merchants said, and the Caliph was also shocked. Regardless of whether others recognized it or not, I shamelessly claimed to be the Caliph, just in case those Persians united with the Qi people.

Then, what if the Qi people are like the Mongols and go on a western expedition?
What if this caliph is wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by a horse?
I haven’t had enough fermented grape juice in this life!

The Caliph immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, so he decided to send a delegation to visit Daqi, with the primary task of disrupting any actions between Persia and Daqi, and by the way, to find out the true and false status of the Qi people.
After drinking a glass of fermented grape juice, the Caliph decided to appoint Mustafa Pasha as his envoy. The Qi merchant also conferred a title similar to that of a baron, allowing him to serve as a translator and guide for the great Ottoman, assisting the Mughals. Staffa Pasha was sent as envoy to Daqi.

As for the rest of the mission, let the Pasha decide for himself.

Thus, the Babylonian Pasha Mustafa and the Qiren merchants embarked on a journey with an uncertain future.

(End of this chapter)