Qi Jiguang soon saw the owner of this caravan, named Shen Sankui.

is not considered the master, to be precise, Shen Sankui is the manager of this caravan.

"Yes, the grass people are from Puzhou, Pingyang Prefecture, Shanyou, and they have been doing business in the border market since the imperial court opened the border market, and the guards accompanying them are the orders of the imperial court, and the caravan is large and there are many guards accompanying them; As for the Mongolian armor cavalry, it was because the elders of the family had a relationship with the three ladies, and they were afraid that we would be in danger when we went away, so they sent cavalry to send them off. ”

Qi Jiguang didn't ask Shen Sankui's family who the elders who had always intersected with Sanniangzi were, he had already guessed it.

The Jin merchants of this era were different from the eight imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty, those merchants were still just small people now, and the salt merchants of Puzhou were the first class merchants in the world at this time.

They got rich on monopoly and politics.

There is a businessman named Zhang Yunling in Puzhou, Pingyang Prefecture, the ancestor was moved from the salt pond of Jiezhou in the Yuan Dynasty, and he has the reputation of serving Jia Yuanyu and covering half the world, Zhang Yunling has a son named Zhang Sijiao, the father and son run the salt industry, and the other son is called Zhang Siwei, who was admitted to the Jinshi, and has just entered the cabinet counselor under the recommendation of Zhang Juzheng this year.

There is also a businessman named Wang Yao in Puzhou, who is a big salt merchant who runs Lianghuai, and gave birth to three boys and five girls, and the second daughter is married to Zhang Yunling, who is Zhang Siwei's mother; Wang Yao's eldest son, Wang Chongyi, inherited his father's business and ran salt affairs, and his second son, Wang Chonggu, was an official who visited the military affairs of Xuan, Da and Shanxi, the governors of the three sides of China.

Zhang and Wang's families controlled Hedong Salt, Changlu Salt, and Lianghuai Salt, and made great profits.

Zhang Siwei's daughter married Ma Ziqiang's son Ma Ziqiang, Ma Ziqiang's younger brother Ma Zixiu was a wealthy businessman in Shaanxi; Wang Chonggu's eldest sister married the Shen family living in Puzhou, and was also a big businessman in Puzhou, dealing in coal, which had a precedent set by Chen Mu, and now sends offerings to the emperor every year...... Shen Sankui, this is Shen.

"The grass people for the imperial court to naturalize the grain and pay 180 cars of military funds, so the business introduction and survey, the quasi-sale goods are Huguang tea bricks, Fujian rock sugar, Hexingsheng Luzon tobacco, Shanyou Wutai Mountain wooden bowl, Shaanxi cotton cloth and Xuanfu cowhide boots, the handsome man can be checked?"

Qi Jiguang shook his head with a smile and waved his hand, and said: "Shopkeeper Shen still tells me more about the orders in the customs recently, this handsome has been out of the fortress for more than a year, and I don't know too many things, I see that many people in the caravan are holding all kinds of firearms, what's going on?" ”

Things like inspecting goods are not what the Zhejiang army should do, but they often do it in Fujian, and at that time, the inventory was all overseas official ships, and merchant ships could not go out. The official ship is not easy to check, so Qi Jiguang and his subordinates summed up a set of effective methods, that is, he came to drag the captain or officials, and his subordinates put the general manager on the ship to find an excuse to check the goods.

If the cargo on the ship is fine, even if it is discovered, Qi Jiguang only needs to scold his subordinates in front of others, and he will be whipped a few times; If there is a problem with the goods, you can change your face and arrest people on the spot - this kind of ghost trick can't deceive people, everyone knows what's going on, but Qi Jiguang doesn't say it, others don't say it, everyone knows it.

Sometimes you can't help it if you need someone to be angry, and it's the most important thing to get things done.

It's the same now, Chen Dacheng's two hundred households are already inspecting the goods, but as long as Qi Jiguang doesn't say it, everyone will treat it as if it didn't happen.

As long as they just want to see if there are any iron weapons that are carried out, they still have to fight outside the fortress, and it is not a good thing for the enemy to get more iron weapons.

The only thing that made Qi Jiguang a little uncertain was the force of the caravan guards, which was a bit too strong.

It is understandable for the third lady to send three hundred cavalry guards to the Shen caravan, the Jin country does not have a sound legal and bureaucratic system, even if the three ladies send three thousand horsemen and thirty thousand horsemen to accompany them, it is only a matter of the three ladies and the third lady's words, which is only related to the preferences of the three ladies and does not need to be reasonable.

However, in addition to the Mongolian armored cavalry caravan, there are dozens of Beiyang armies and hundreds of border armies, and under the premise of such strong force, more than 300 caravan members are equipped with their own weapons, especially hundreds of firearms of all kinds...... With such force, it is still necessary to do business?

If it is a business, a caravan of this size only needs one or two hundred people to drive the chariot and drive the camel, and the others are not necessary at all, anyway, there are already Mongolian armored cavalry escorts.

"What firearms are you talking about?"

Shen Sankui smiled flatteringly: "It was all bought in Jining, the imperial court has a system, and the caravan gives the tickets according to the scale, and the caravan of the grass people has thirty-six tickets in Beiyang, because the imperial court temporarily asked me to go out to explore the mine, so I opened seventy more." ”

"Prospecting?"

Qi Jiguang came to his senses, he didn't expect that his letter sent back to the imperial court in the north would be implemented by the emperor so quickly, and he hurriedly asked, "Is there a mine outside the Saiwai?" ”

"Qi Dashuai is asking the right person, our Shen family used to do coal mine trading, and now the domestic coal has been acquired by His Majesty to monopolize it, and the cost of selling coal is also high, but the first to explore and build mines can be mined for ten years, and I don't know what will happen in the future, but let's take it first."

Shen Sankui said very easily, and said: "Yes, other grass people don't know, but there are many coal mines, and the best ones are Guihua City, as well as those coal mines in the west that used to win Dongsheng and now Ordos, which are easy to mine...... However, it has been sent to Datong by the three ladies for registration. ”

"The conditions given by the imperial court to the Jin country are much better than those of us merchants, people are not mining for ten years, but eternal profits, two percent of the profits go to the miner Jia, three percent go to the king of Shunyi, and five percent go to the imperial court."

No need to ask Qi Jiguang to think of it, this plan must have been thought of by the ministers, if it is true that there are many mines in the Jin Kingdom and they will not be mined, then the imperial court can use this method to further control the Jin Kingdom after recruiting merchants to mine.

To be precise, it's not that they don't know how to mine, but they don't mine, although they lack iron and craftsmen, but this is not like other Mongolian tribes at all, it's just a lack of it, it's not a decisive factor, the main thing is not to think or don't want to.

In the past, the border was not opened, and there were no objective conditions for mining, but now a large number of Ming merchants have poured into the Jin Kingdom, and all the conditions are there, but the imperial court plans to do this and let the king of Shunyi sit on the ground and share the money, is there anything unhappy about this?

Qi Jiguang asked, "Do you think this can be done?" ”

Originally, he wrote the report with the mentality of completing the political task, but now seeing that the matter is really being implemented step by step by the emperor, a little worry has emerged in his heart, worried about what to do if this thing really can't be done.

Shen Sankui's answer was not optimistic, he said: "The handsome asked, and the grass people told the truth, I don't know what will happen in the future, but the current situation, I think it's enough." ”

"Jinguo's mining interest can make some money, but there are few outsiders, and the locals may not be able to recruit enough miners, and the wages are high if they move from the mainland, and there are no more places in the country that need coal but a large amount of coal is transported in, which may make it more difficult for domestic coal prices to fall."

"It's even more difficult to say farther away than the Jin Kingdom, to be honest, the grass people are going out this time to explore a few mines for the imperial court, and when they come back, they will sell them to others to mine, whether they make money or lose has nothing to do with the grass people."

"It's colder in the north, there are fewer people and it's harder to recruit workers, and it's freezing for four or five months a year, and you can only work for seven months. It's not easy to do. ”

Qi Jiguang slowly bowed his head, there is no demand, it is difficult to recruit workers, the cost is high, and it is difficult to transport, which is actually a problem in his opinion.

Repair the railway, build the railway, all can be solved.