I

  Chapter 479 476【Garbage spy】

   Waiting until the wheat was harvested everywhere, Cao Fengji didn't make any big moves, and he didn't even contact Concubine Tian, ​​the prince and daughter directly.

   Moreover, they really started doing business, selling wool textiles shipped from the north.

  Authentic Northwest products are quite popular in Jiangnan.

  Shaanxi and Gansu are the centers of the woolen textile industry, and now they belong to Li Zicheng's territory. It seems that Li Zicheng is also encouraging commercial development, otherwise the goods from Shaanxi and Gansu could not be easily transported to Nanjing.

  Shaanxi-Gansu wool textiles mainly fall into four categories: seal, brown, felt, and cloth.

  A silent seal, a wool seal is a woolen rope.

  As for Mao Brown and Mao Xi, both belong to sweaters. The former is rough in workmanship and only worn by the lower class; the latter can be understood as a wool coat, which is slightly more upscale.

  In addition, Shanxi belongs to the northern silk weaving center: South Songjiang, North Lu'an, Yitianxia.

  The "Lu'an" in this sentence specifically refers to the area around Changzhi, Shanxi, where the raw material for textile silk comes from Langzhong, Sichuan.

  Li Zicheng has had a hard time this year. If he wants to rule normally, he can no longer grab it. The refugees in some prefectures and counties were resettled and reclaimed last winter. It is good to have enough food. If they want to pay officials, they have to rely on commercial taxes.

   Wool textiles from Shaanxi and Gansu, silk cloth from Lu'an, and salt tax from the salt ponds in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Li Zicheng relied on these to maintain his rule.

  Zhao Han had a bit of a bad taste, so he brought Cao Fengji in for questioning.

   Cao Fengji was terrified when he saw the official, and felt that he had nothing to expose, so he bit the bullet and was taken away. Unexpectedly, he was taken to see the emperor, and he immediately became excited. It was not only convenient for espionage activities, but also convenient for doing business in Nanjing in the future.

  In Cao Fengji's vision, it is best to wipe out the Manchus within three to five years, and the safety of his family is naturally the best. It is helpless to die in the chaos.

  However, he can no longer be controlled from now on, marry a wife and have children to start a business in Nanjing, and live a peaceful and prosperous life.

   "The grassroots kowtow to His Majesty!"

  Cao Fengji peeked at the emperor, then knelt down and kowtow respectfully.

  Zhao Han smiled and said, "Get up, give me your seat."

   "Thank you, Your Majesty." Cao Fengji kowtowed again to thank you.

  Zhao Han asked the female officer to bring wool textiles: "Are these your goods?"

  Cao Fengji was nervous again, and answered cautiously: "Exactly. There is more wool cloth in the northwest, and more cotton cloth in the south of the Yangtze River. The peasants sell the wool cloth to the south, and sell the cotton cloth to the northwest, and make some small profits from it."

  Zhao Han pointed to Mao Brown and said: "This kind of sweater is too rough to touch the neck, and it will be rubbed with red marks in a quarter of an hour."

   Cao Fengji said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, although the clothes worn by the poor brown hair are rough and heavy, they are very warm in winter."

  Zhao Han pointed to Mao Xi again and said, "This kind of sweater is okay."

  Cao Fengji took the opportunity to say: "If Your Majesty likes it, the grass people will let people choose wool materials and make a gorgeous and warm wool cloak for His Majesty."

   "I don't take advantage of merchants," Zhao Han said, "You sell more of this kind of woolen cloth. I plan to design a windbreaker myself, and give it to civil servants and generals as a protection against the cold."

  What is a windbreaker?

  Although Cao Fengji couldn't understand, he still said excitedly: "Caomin must live up to his trust!"

  Zhao Han played with a wool rope again, and said, "Can the wool rope be spun thinner? Use selected wool and weave it into yarn. The thinner the better."

  Cao Fengji still didn't understand, so he nodded and replied: "If it can be detailed, it must be."

  Zhao Han ordered: "It is so thin that it is only two or three cents of this wool rope. If you can spin such thin wool, I will let the government buy as much as you can bring."

   "Caomin immediately send his men back to the north!" Cao Fengji was overjoyed, he felt that he was about to get rich.

  Zhao Han doesn't care about this. A spy, in addition to engaging in countermeasures and arresting other secret operators, he can also use this person to develop the wool textile industry in the north. Let him send someone to deliver the news to stimulate the development of wool textiles in advance. In the future, the unification of the north will be able to pick the fruits, and it can also win over Mongolian herdsmen through wool textiles.

  Northwest wool textile industry in the Ming Dynasty developed greatly, but due to the quality of wool, it was basically difficult to be elegant, and cashmere was still accepted by the rich.

   But cashmere production is too low, and goats are rarely raised in the northwest and grasslands!

  Zhao Han decided to vigorously guide and promote it. The worst ones are made into felt, the better ones are made into carpets, the better ones are made into brown cloth, and the better ones are made into windbreakers and woolen yarn.

  Although Zhao Han does not know how to knit sweaters, he has already made wool. What is the difficulty in knitting sweaters?

   This is not a trivial matter, and it has a lot to do with politics.

  As long as the wool textile industry can flourish, the economy of the Northwest can be developed, the Northwest can be more stable, and many grassland herdsmen can be bound.

   Zhao Han must do it himself, otherwise the windbreaker will be difficult to promote.

  And if the emperor wears a windbreaker and appears several times in public, it is guaranteed that dignitaries will follow suit! The queen wore a knitted sweater, met with the wives of officials several times, and personally taught those officials and wives to knit sweaters, and it would be popular in Nanjing within a year or two at most.

   Then, gradually spread across the country.

  Zhu Yuanzhang has done many such things. He set an example and changed the tea-tasting habit in China for hundreds of years by himself. Stop the establishment of royal tea gardens, prohibit group tea from paying tribute, change tribute to cheap loose tea, and change brewed tea to brewed tea. As a result, China's tea industry flourished, and tea went from the rich to the common people.

   Cao Fengji bid farewell to the emperor and came back to the street, feeling like a dream.

  His meticulous work in the Qing Dynasty was appreciated by the emperor, and he personally placed an order for him, saying that he could eat as many goods as he brought.

  Huang Shang!

  Cao Fengji suddenly had the urge to go back and surrender, and become a real imperial merchant ever since. But he was afraid that the emperor would be furious and snap his head off, and he was also afraid that Man Qing's ghost would linger and kill him quietly in the middle of the night.

  Damn those Tartars, they have delayed their own future!

   Seeing a great opportunity but not being able to seize it, Cao Fengji hated the Man Qing deeply. As for the family members who stayed in Liaodong, he deliberately ignored them. Anyway, he was still very young, and he would definitely have another son and a half daughter.

  Cao Fengji went home in a sedan chair, thinking of ways all the way.

  He wants to find out all the secret works hidden in Nanjing, and then turn himself in and ask the emperor to arrest people. In this way, he can not only make himself safer, but also make great contributions to the Nanjing court.

   It is not easy to operate. Although he is an expert, he only knows two other agents. One is his clerk, and the other is a Shanxi merchant in Yangzhou, who usually sends the clerk to Yangzhou to spread the news.

  Hey, take your time, don’t be in a hurry.

   This is not a spy during World War II. It is so far away from Liaodong, and even important news is delivered on a monthly basis, let alone more complicated operations.

  Back to the residence, Cao Fengji recorded the content, which was nothing more than the materials that the Emperor of Datong wanted to buy.

   This information will definitely be sent out, including the price of food in Nanjing, as well as various large-scale material transfers. In addition, knowledge and public opinion must also be passed on, ranging from academic trends in Nanjing to trivial family affairs of important ministers in Nanjing—you can learn about it from scholars through the Wenhui.

  Very rough espionage technology, only know how to keep a running account, not know how to summarize and refine, and the intelligence system is also extremely simple.

  To tell the truth, as long as Cao Fengji's upline is caught, torture can find a lot of them.

  Xu Ying is also investigating Cao Fengji's online presence, and already has a clue, just keep an eye on the guy who delivered the news.

   There is no exciting spy plot, because ancient spies have not yet developed to that level. It's nothing more than making friends with key people through various means, or buying them, or instigating rebellion, or simply asking for information if it doesn't work.

  The ancient officials had a very poor sense of secrecy. They often drank and chatted, and they could get out information while chatting.

   Of course, there is still ciphertext technology, otherwise it is easy to expose the identity.

  Cao Fengji wrote all the information into encrypted letters, and handed over the information of the first half month to the buddy: "Take it to Yangzhou, and go on the road with other buddies."

   It was normal to send a man north this time. The emperor placed an order, and Cao Fengji wanted someone to prepare woolen textiles.

  Yang Yiqin was that secretive guy. He set off with other normal guys, and was followed by people before he left Nanjing.

   This guy disembarked in Yangzhou, brought the information to a mansion, handed Cao Fengji a greeting card, and was put in very smoothly.

  A middle-aged man followed here, watched Yang Yiqin enter the house, and stayed nearby to wait. In the evening, before Yang Yiqin came out, the middle-aged man left silently.

  The middle-aged man came to the inn, called the third shopkeeper into the room, and told the specific location of the house: "Focus on this house, and see who they are in contact with. It is best to send someone to sneak into their business."

  The third treasurer was surprised: "The superiors sent people to strictly investigate the merchants, but I didn't expect it to be a salt merchant."

  The middle-aged man said: "The merchants must continue to investigate."

  The three major merchant gangs in Yangzhou are: the Shanshan Gang, the Jiangxi Gang and the Huizhou Gang.

  Because of Zhao Han's successful rebellion, both the Jiangxi and Huizhou gangs benefited from it, and the merchants from Shanshan and Shaanxi were crowded out. In particular, Shanxi salt merchants have very little franchise share. Whether it is out of profit or hatred for Zhao Han, it is normal for Shanshan salt merchants to act as spies for the Tartars.

  The Shanxi salt merchant who was being targeted at this time was also somewhat related to famous ministers Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei, so he could be regarded as a collateral descendant of Wang and Zhang.

  After Zhang Juzheng passed away, Zhang Siwei succeeded as the chief assistant, and he didn't ask himself what he was doing.

   Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu are nephews, one is the chief assistant of the cabinet, and the other is a feudal official, and they all come from salt merchant families. Gao Yongchun, the censor at the time, said after inspecting the salt affairs: "The salt law is bad, and the power is rampant, and the big business patents." The ID numbers of Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu were almost missed.

   Even so, Gao Yongchun was forced to resign by Zhang Siwei.

  After the reform of Emperor Hongzhi's salt law, the Shanxi salt merchants have begun to decline. It was Zhang Siwei and other Shanxi ministers who, under the banner of reforming the salt law, reshuffled the cards during the Wanli period, making Shanxi salt merchants arrogant again.

  For the Shanxi salt merchants who have settled in Yangzhou for a long time, Zhao Han cut off their source of income, which is a sworn enemy!

A month later, Xu Ying came to investigate the progress: "The Shanxi merchants Wang, Zhang, and Fan in Yangzhou, as well as the Shanxi merchant Li, all these salt merchants have problems. Either pass the news to the Tartars, or pass the news to Li Zicheng .Here in Nanjing, there is a businessman surnamed Ai who is very suspicious, but nothing has been caught yet. Your Majesty, do you want to arrest him for interrogation?"

  Zhao Han also wanted to watch a thrilling spy movie, but the investigation went so smoothly that it was unexpected.

   Ancient spies, their professional skills are too rough!

  Lying snakes out of their holes doesn’t yield much, it’s nothing more than a bunch of literati drinking and complaining. If they really let them seek refuge with the Tartars, they might be scared to death.

   Really boring.

  (end of this chapter)