Smuggling Daming

"Interesting! Really interesting! I didn't expect that such a rich and invincible figure could be hidden in this small Xuanfu. In addition, I was a little surprised when I fought the Mongols before. Why are the bows and arrows and armor of those Mongols so good?" , no worse than my Ming soldiers, and it turns out that these people are doing the tricks!" In the private room on the top floor of a tall restaurant in Wucheng North City, Zhengde was drinking while looking at the mansions below the tall building, that is, Fan Yongdou and others house.

"Your Majesty, Jin Yiwei has already found out the details of these Shanxi merchants. These Shanxi merchants headed by Fan Yongdou often trade with the Tatar royal court, and a large number of goods traded are weapons and armor. There is urgently needed food on the grassland, in exchange for Tatar’s tacit consent to their business in the grassland!" Standing behind Zhengde, Qian Ning was reporting what he had found to Zhengde excitedly.

Speaking of which, since coming to the Xuan Mansion, Qian Ning has rarely seen Zhengde. After all, he is just a Jinyiwei, not a soldier in battle. On the contrary, Jiang Bin can hang out with Zhengde every day. This time he finally seized the opportunity Naturally, he had to perform well in front of Zhengde, so he almost checked the details of the Shanxi merchants in Wucheng.

"Very good! Last time I almost died on the weapons made by these Shanxi merchants, but compared to my luck, those soldiers who died in the battle were really wronged. Has Shanxi made a move?" Zhengde heard Qian Ning If Zhou Zhong hadn't discovered this matter, he would still be kept in the dark until now.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, Wang Xun personally led troops to exterminate the families of the eight Shanxi merchants in Shanxi. It is said that these Shanxi merchants not only have weapons workshops at home, but also have a large number of guards. The officials of Shanxi merchants have already become the local bully kings, but as soon as Wang Xun's army arrives, it's okay if these Jin merchant families don't resist. If they dare to resist. Hehe, the Datong soldiers under Wang Xun's men are probably about to get rich !" Qian Ning reported with a smirk on his face that this time, it was his plan to deal with these Shanxi merchant families, and he also got the approval of Zhengde, so he didn't have the slightest scruples about using the army this time.

"It's done well, but you ask Wang Xun to restrain the soldiers of the frontier army. I don't ask them not to take any money, but the eight major Shanxi merchants are all rich in the enemy's country, and their wealth is still of great use to Daming, so most of them are If he has to hand over to the national treasury, if there is too much less, he, the commander-in-chief of Datong, will not even think about doing it!" Zhengde also knew how to use the army to raid the Shanxi merchant family.In the end, some of the benefits will definitely fall into the hands of the army. This is also a common problem of the army. At least there is no way to change it now. It's just that Zhengde wants the ill-gotten gains of these Shanxi merchants to be of great use, so he ordered Wang Xun to restrain himself.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I have already asked some Jinyiwei and Dongchang people to go to Wang Xun's place to supervise. No matter how attractive the wealth of Shanxi merchants is, Wang Xun dare not take it!" Qian Ning really tried his best this time After all, it is rare to seize an opportunity to perform. If Zhengde is not allowed to pay attention to himself again, then sooner or later he will lose his position as the commander of Jinyiwei.

"Haha~, okay, Qian Ning, you have done a good job in this matter. Right now, only Wucheng, the brains of Shanxi merchants, have not been arrested. You must be careful, and don't let one go!" Zhengde couldn't help being relieved to be able to eradicate this malignant tumor of Daming. After he received the information sent by Zhou Zhong a month ago, he immediately asked Qian Ning to prepare to deal with these Shanxi merchants, and all actions were kept top secret. It seems to be working fine now.At least for now, none of the Shanxi merchants have noticed anything unusual, which shows that Qian Ning has made great efforts.

"Thank you Your Majesty for your compliment. I have already mobilized a large number of Jinyiwei from the capital, and now they have surrounded the entire Beicheng District. And we have received the exact news that today Fan Yongdou summoned the other seven Shanxi merchants to discuss matters in the Fan Mansion. It happened to be It’s a great opportunity to catch them all!” Qian Ning reported again energetically after hearing Zhengde’s praise.

"Very well, I'm just sitting here and watching you arrest the eight major Shanxi merchants. I want to see for myself whether these people are all black-hearted, and dare to do such a thing as an enemy?" Zhengde When it came to the end, there was a trace of anger on his face again. If these Shanxi merchants had not secretly provided weapons and food to the Mongols, Daming would not have to face the suffering of the Mongols going south every year.

"Hold on, Your Majesty, I'm going to arrest people!" Qian Ning turned around and was about to leave, but before he could walk out of the private room of the restaurant, he didn't expect a Jinyiwei leader to rush in from outside. Then he reported a few words to Qian Ning in a low voice, and as a result, Qian Ning's eyes became brighter the more he listened.

When the boss finished his report and retreated, Qian Ning turned around and reported to Zhengde again: "My Majesty, Jin Yiwei just got the news that the eight Shanxi merchants were discussing how to deal with the imperial court's lifting of the ban on grassland transactions. In the end, these people reached an agreement that they wanted to support the horse thieves on the grassland, and let these horse thieves rob the caravans passing by, so as to scare off those new caravans entering the grassland and keep their monopoly on the grassland business!"

"Shameless!" Zheng De angrily slapped the table again. It was the first time he had seen such a shameless and disregarding of human life. "Hurry up and arrest these people, and put them to death!"

Zhengde was also really angry, and he even felt that these Shanxi merchants were more hateful than those Mongols on the battlefield.But after Zhengde lost his temper, he was surprised to find that Qian Ning was still standing there, as if he had something to say, and Zhengde asked angrily, "Why, what's wrong with you, Qian Ning?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the reason why Jin Yiwei can control the whereabouts of the eight Jin merchants so clearly is that some of the eight Jin merchants secretly surrendered to the imperial court, and it is he who keeps passing on the movements of the eight Jin merchants to us, so The minister will know what they just discussed, although this person has also sold weapons to Mongolia and should be executed according to the law, but this time he also made meritorious service, so I don't know how to deal with this person?" Qian Ning bowed to report.

Originally, Qian Ning wanted to report this matter to Zhengde after arresting all the people. The reason was that he took money from that person. After all the people were caught, Qian Ning would give some credit to that person. , and then use these credits to save the life of that person, but now the righteousness wants to execute everyone Ling Chi, if Qian Ning doesn't intercede again, I'm afraid that person can only be executed. After all, you are not joking, wait until the imperial decree , it is impossible to change.

Hearing Qian Ning's words, Zhengde was also taken aback, but he quickly said with a straight face: "Being able to surrender to the court at this time shows that this person is still aware of current affairs. How about this person and his family? You can let it go, but all the property will be confiscated!"

"Your Majesty is wise, I'll do it now!" Qian Ning immediately retreated with a happy face when he heard that Zhengde finally agreed to save the man's life. Speaking of which, although Qian Ning is a poor character, he has One advantage is that after receiving money from others, he will work hard to help others, which also makes his reputation in the officialdom much stronger than that of Liu Jin before.

Just when Qian Ning mobilized his men to wipe out Fan Yongdou and others, everything in Fan's mansion was peaceful. After the eight Shanxi merchants agreed to support the horse thieves in attacking other caravans, Fan Yongdou immediately ordered people to prepare a banquet. After all, they rarely get together Come together, take advantage of solving a big trouble for everyone today, so naturally we have to have a good time.

The status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty was low. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, merchants were not even allowed to wear silk clothes. However, during the Zhengde period, most of the bans in the early Ming Dynasty were relaxed. Merchants, especially some wealthy merchants, they The luxury of life is simply beyond the imagination of later generations, and the cost of a banquet is often as high as tens of thousands of taels, which can support a small-scale war.

The eight Shanxi merchants gathered together, and the Fan Mansion naturally presented the highest standard banquet to entertain them. In a huge pavilion in the back garden of the Fan Mansion, the eight Shanxi merchants sat facing each other, surrounded by maikos and singing girls from the Fan Mansion. In addition, there are beautiful domestic prostitutes to accompany, and the dishes on the wine table are also extremely luxurious. Seafood from all over the world gathers here, and even fresh seafood, which is very rare in the inland, is also made into delicacies by Fan Mansion. .

With singing and dancing entertaining people, accompanied by beauties, coupled with the delicious food and wine in front of them, the eight Shanxi merchants headed by Fan Yongdou were very happy to drink, and even young people like Wang Dayu were even more unrestrained, doing things to the house prostitutes around them Move your feet, these house prostitutes were originally used to serve people, so Fan Yongdou didn't care at all.

But as the saying goes, extreme joy begets sorrow, when the eight Shanxi merchants were drinking and having fun, they suddenly heard a commotion in the front yard of Fan Mansion, followed by people shouting and neighing in the whole Fan Mansion, as if it suddenly turned into a battlefield.

"What's going on?" Although Fan Yongdou drank a lot of wine, he was very angry when he heard the strange noise at home.He didn't even think that anyone in his family would dare to break in, he just thought that there might be a problem with the horses raised in the mansion, which caused the noise in front, and he was having a banquet here, if he was disturbed by such a trivial matter Everyone's interest, his face will not look good.

However, as soon as Fan Yongdou's words fell, the noise in the front yard had already spread to the inner house of Fan's mansion, and there were even screams from many female family members. Then they heard a rush of footsteps from outside the garden, and then a team Jin Yiwei, who was wearing a flying fish suit and held an embroidered spring knife, rushed into the garden.