"There is another convoy." A Barhuman shouted.

Everyone looked at attention, and indeed, not far from the southeast, a huge convoy was walking slowly forward.

The convoy was extremely large and the speed was not fast. There were a small number of commercial cavalry on both sides of the road, with a small number of people. Some people in various robes were on guard next to the formation with bows and arrows and muskets.

More people were walking, talking and laughing while walking, and they seemed to be able to hear their laughter several miles apart.

There were also the low roars of cattle and horses. These Han people not only drove a huge convoy of hundreds of vehicles, but also had a considerable number of herds, including pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens and other common herds, as well as following the convoy.

Chen Zhuang was stunned: This is not a caravan, this is a standard immigration convoy!

"Hey, that guy, come here!"

While Chen Zhuang was observing not far away, the people in the convoy were also observing these scattered Mongolians.

During the shock just now, a large number of Barhu people ran away and had no courage to get closer to the roadside.

Only a few people appeared on the edge of the road together with Chen Zhuang, and several knights rode their horses to greet them. When they were hundreds of steps apart, the rider opposite began to shout to this side.

Chen Zhuang was shocked and felt like he was calling himself.

"Can you hear it?" a rider shouted: "I heard it and came here, we have no hostility."

The Barhu people looked at each other, and no one dared to move. Chen Zhuang hesitated for a moment, made up his mind and rode his horse forward.

"Oh, is he a Han man?"

When he rode his horse within a hundred steps, Chen Zhuang's whole body collapsed and tense.

If the other party is hostile, it will probably be over when firing the musket himself. If several muskets are fired together, the hit rate within a hundred steps is still very high. If there are only one or two, Chen Zhuang would not be too nervous.

"I am a Han man!" Chen Zhuang was a little angry when he heard the other party's slightly frivolous tone and shouted: "But the bow I used in my hand is as good as the Mongolians. Do you want to try it?"

"Don't get me wrong!" The person on the opposite side suddenly became a little nervous and shouted: "We mean a little happy. If it's Mongolians, it's better for Han people."

“What exactly do you want to do?”

"We lack some people who do miscellaneous work. We work hard every day and do some miscellaneous things. We can still serve as guards when we encounter horse thieves and wolves." The other party shouted: "As long as we want, we will give food and drink every day and give us six cents of silver a day!"

After saying that, the people from several caravans all retreated, obviously because they were worried that Chen Zhuang would turn against him and pursue him.

These people used Mongolian language when they spoke, and later they used Chinese. A group of Barhu Mongolians did not understand it, so they gathered around to ask Chen Zhuang.

After Chen Zhuang said the meaning of the caravan, more than a hundred Mongolians looked at each other and became stunned.

"Six cents of silver, how much is it worth?"

After half a day, a nobleman from Barhu started asking carefully.

"Well..." Chen Zhuang thought for a while and said, "I came here in the forty years of Wanli, and I have never used any money since then. In the Han Dynasty, six cents of silver were enough to buy about ten kilograms of grain, two kilograms of pork, and three kilograms of mutton. If I have good luck, I can buy a whole chicken."

"What?" A Barhu man said in surprise: "Pork is more expensive than mutton? The pork is fishy and slutty. It tastes so delicious, but it is even more expensive than mutton!"

Chen Zhuang looked disdainful and said, "We Han people like to eat pork the most. Some people don't like mutton, so the price is not high."

In fact, this is not the case. Because during the Tang and Song dynasties, the main meat of the Han people was also mutton. At that time, people didn't know how to bleed, so pork was very fishy. Later, from the late Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, pork was cooked, and cooking methods such as stir-frying and roasting appeared. After the early Ming Dynasty, pork became the main source of meat.

The most important thing is that pigs are easy to raise. If you build a cape, you don’t need to put them in or eat any good things. Leftovers and leftovers can fatten a pig with pig grass. But sheep need to be freed. The mainland is not as good as grasslands, so where can sheep be shed? In addition to a small amount of breeding, most of the mutton comes from the source of each other and the quantity is limited.

Since it is inconvenient to eat, fewer people will eat, and the price is not expensive...

"Ah, so that's how it is."

"Some people don't like to eat mutton..."

A group of Barhu people exclaimed, but there was no strong dissatisfaction.

A few people gathered together and discussed for a while and their eyes were shining. Each person had six cents of silver a day, which was to earn more than ten kilograms of grain every day. A piece of tea brick was only three or four cents of silver. A jar of tea bricks could earn a piece of tea bricks in a few days. A jar of sauerkraut was the most expensive. In the past, the Mongolians had to exchange for a jar of sauerkraut for several sheep, but now they had to spend two taels of silver a jar of sauerkraut. A jar of sauerkraut basically saved a whole winter. If you could make more money, you might also buy more vegetables and tea bricks to survive the long winter.

"Tell them, we did it and asked them how many people they wanted." A leader rode his horse to Chen Zhuang and spoke to Chen Zhuang with an unprecedented attitude of respect.

"I'll talk now." Chen Zhuang felt an unprecedented opportunity before his eyes. He persuaded the Mongolians who were going with him and said, "I'll call you after the negotiation."

...

Wang Datong, Ma Chaowen and others were sitting on the spacious four-wheeled cart. There were two rows of comfortable seats sitting opposite each other. They walked quite smoothly on this newly built official road and could not feel any bumps at all.

The car was equipped with some snacks and snacks, as well as books for leisure and boredom. In fact, each owner has his own carriage, and Hutchison still takes good care of the purchasing needs of these owners. These owners with a net worth of more than 100,000 taels are not worth the money.

This era was the most glorious era of the Ming Dynasty's business, which is the so-called era of the budding capitalism. In the Jiajing period decades ago, even if it is a wealthy man with a net worth of over tens of thousands, it would be impossible for a wealthy businessman with a net worth of over tens of thousands, or more than 200,000 yuan. The rich people in that era were officials and gentry. Like Xu Jie, Xu Ge Lao, who owned 200,000 acres of land in Songjiang Prefecture, that was the rich man. The bureaucrats turned power into land and silver, and turned into gold and antiques and jewelry. No businessman could have such great wealth, because even the masters might not be able to defend it. Just like the Xu family in Songjiang, Xu Jie was in a very embarrassing situation when he was still alive, because the wealth that the Xu family had was too amazing, and it exceeded the limit that ordinary bureaucrats could tolerate.

Like Wang Datong, he had a net worth of 300,000 to 400,000 taels of silver. During the Jiajing period, Songjiang was enough to buy tens of thousands of acres of land. He was not fame and not a family of officials and gentry. This was the rhythm of being ruined every minute, not to mention that he was thinking of greater business development and accumulating more wealth.

Even the Shanxi imperial merchants in the Qing Dynasty made a lot of wealth by monopoly under the cruel and repressive political environment. However, these Shanxi imperial merchants did not dare to use wealth to expand in the early Qing Dynasty. They used silver to buy land, dig cellars to turn silver into silver and hide it in the cellar. After the middle period, the country's doors opened and foreigners came in to establish a new business order. The political high pressure gradually lifted, and Shanxi Piaohao began to appear and began to develop across the country. Before that, even the royal merchants of Shanxi had to be cautious and careful. Money was not made as much as they wanted.

Only after the opening of the sea in Longwan, the Ming Dynasty was extremely relaxed in politics and the prevalence of foreign trade in Shanghai, and more than one-third of the world's silver influx, the wealth of the private, especially the merchant class, grew explosively. Under this growth rate, buying land alone could no longer satisfy these huge merchants. In Jiangnan, workshops with hundreds or thousands of workers began to appear, and a large number of officials and gentry and merchants invested in overseas trade and built ships to sea. The local area was quite rich and accumulated a large amount of wealth. Because the increase in wealth led to relative unity in the local area, the mines and tax prisons sent by Emperor Wanli several times were driven away by similar riots or even beaten to death. It was a problem that the wealth of the people was not used by the dynasty, but it also showed that under the relaxed conditions, business was indeed booming.

The situation in the north was that the people were even more embarrassed by natural disasters. From the late Wanli period to the Tianqi, and then to Chongzhen, they were at a level that could not reach the food and clothing line. In terms of business, due to the prosperity of the capital and the Ma City, the commercial trade in the north was centered on the capital and Zhangjiakou. Compared with agricultural disasters, the trading cities of the north along the capital to Datong line did not have much impact on the Beilu. The strategy of closing the Ma City was completely offset by the feat of Hutchison's northward grassland. After a period of confusion, all the big merchants from Zhangjiakou to the capital keenly felt the business opportunities. Before going north this time, there was already a

The tentative teams sent by some big merchants arrived at the trading city. Due to the large number of Russian merchants and the high trade enthusiasm of Mongolian troops along the way, Wang Datong and others were also confident. After the New Year, they began to prepare for northbound, goods, personnel, vehicles, and communication with Hutchison, including security and supplies along the way, etc. In late March, they began to set off from the Zhangjiakou area. Soon after entering the grassland area, there was a very good official road. The convoy went north along the official road. Because there were supply points and repair stations along the way, the convoy was moving quite fast, and it was not until they entered the northern desert area.

At this time, the climate on the grassland was so good, and it also opened the horizons for those who came from Han land. Especially after entering the northern part of the desert, there were endless green grasslands on one side, and the scenery was beautiful and intoxicating. There were also mountainous and hilly areas and dense forests. The trees were all tall and dense. When the breeze blew over, the whole forest was swaying gently, and the scenery was quite beautiful.

The endless hills and mountains are heading east, while the Gobi and deserts are beginning to be mixed in the west.

For merchants from Datong and the capital, they may have seen the grassland for a long time, but many people have seen this desert and Gobi area for the first time.

Lonely, spectacular and shocking, these are the scenery in the north of the desert to give these merchants a feeling.

This route is actually a self-driving tour route in later generations. From China, you can reach Sainshanda, which is the area where the grassland and the Gobi crossborder are mixed. However, there is still five or six hundred miles to Ulaanbaatar, which is not an open area. Self-driving tour can only be reached halfway and it will be stopped.

Even so, there are many people participating in this kind of self-driving tour. After all, this pure and pollution-free scenery is a variety of terrain and landforms, and it cannot be seen anywhere.

Wang Datong, Ma Chaowen and others were also slowly approaching their destination while enjoying the wonders and expectations for northbound trade.
Chapter completed!