It is true that Hedong Cheng is a prosperous businessman, but its military strategic significance is the most important.

Therefore, although Xingtai was happy to see the prosperity of Hedong's business on the surface, everyone from top to bottom kept in mind where the most fundamental value of Hedong was, especially General Shen had been warning the town and pastoral officials in Hedong not to be obsessed with short-term profits and give way to businessmen, so that they would take the lead and suffer the consequences.

Therefore, the commerce in Hedong also has an obvious military color, which can be shown from the overall layout. The camp in Kasaka is the absolute center of the Hedong region, and other civil and commercial affairs are all laid around it.

Basically, the financial resources of the merchants of each party can be estimated from the distance between their respective warehouses and the camp in Kasaka. If it is closer to Kasaka Daying, even if there is no direct connection to the waterway, the land price is several times higher than that of the next place.

And it's not just a matter of financial resources that can get a place near the camp in Kabasaka. Because the garrisons of Pusaka and Tongguan sometimes need to purchase supplies directly from the merchants, so as to reduce the unnecessary consumption caused by raising turnover from the side. And the merchants who can accept these purchases are naturally not ordinary and general.

Among the many merchants around the camp of Kasaka, one of them occupies a fairly high proportion is the horse merchants.

Horses are a very important strategic resource in any period, especially with the rapid expansion of the scale of the Xingtai royal division, and the demand for the war in Hebei after the war, Xingtai also has a strong attitude towards the trade of horses.

Many controlled commodities with strict quotas can only be exchanged through horses, and this is also to encourage merchants from all over the world to actively join in and purchase enough good horses for Wang Shi.

Located after Puban, Xie County went all the way to Fenyin, and as a large number of people moved to the riverside area, Xingtai was able to control a large area of rural land, in addition to some of which was used for reclamation, and many large-scale horse farms were built in the circle.

As long as the horse traders can reach a certain amount of trading volume each year, they can rent these horse farms directly and for free to house their livestock, and even the feed they need can be purchased at a very low price.

The trade of horses is different from ordinary dead goods, the risks and restrictions are much higher, and they often need to travel extremely long distances, regardless of the wear and tear on the way, even if they are trafficked to the destination, the horses are often in very poor condition, and need to be intensively bred for a period of time to regain fat and hair, which is considerable.

Therefore, in addition to having sufficient financial resources to take risks, most merchants engaged in the horse trade also have very high requirements for experience. The source of the horses, the delivery routes, the solutions to the difficulties along the way, and the timing of the sale all need to be very precise.

After all, although Xingtai is bold in procurement, it is impossible to raise these merchants at any cost, not to mention that the horses purchased are mainly for military purposes, once a large number of inferior products are flooded with them, affecting the victory or defeat of the war, then whoever has it will die and will not atone for their sins. And the horse merchants are well aware of the stakes and dare not fool around in this regard.

The beginning of July is a peak season for horse trading, when the weather is pleasant and the roads are smooth, and horse dealers will prepare a batch of good horses to be raised in advance in order to sell them for a good price.

Whenever this time, in addition to the various pastoral associations of the royal division to send people to purchase here, there are also some people who have obtained the purchase quota will come here to buy horses.

Nowadays, all parties are still martial, especially in the land east of the river, the people are solid, even ordinary people hope to have young and strong children, practice bow and horse skills, and follow the king to be awarded the title.

Although there is a certain degree of control in this regard, it is not too strict, and it is not allowed to buy and sell horses and raise horses, and as long as it does not exceed a certain scale, it will not interfere arbitrarily.

For horse traders, this is naturally good news. After all, although the purchase of Taiwan is large, but the standard of requirements is also very high, especially for elite combat units such as the Fenwu Army, once there is a demand for external procurement, the standard is strictly outrageous, from the age of the horse, the breed, the body type, whether there is a disease in the past, and even the coat color, hoof shape are stipulated.

The horse merchants did not dare to fool the platform, but it was impossible for them to stock up exactly according to the standards provided by the platform, and in that case, the cost and risk would be too high, and once a batch of goods was completely folded on the way, no one could stand it. So they also have to be paired with a fair number of horses to reduce the risk.

Ordinary horses, although there are also purchases, but the number is not much, after all, Xingtai itself also has a horse administration, in Hanoi, Huainan and other places have a large horse farm, plus the counties will also be in the private free-range part, enough for all kinds of transportation needs. Therefore, the greatest external demand is still the excellent horse breeds produced from all sides.

Horses are different from dead goods, if the sales are not good for a while, they can be directly hoarded and waiting for a good market, even if it is an ordinary horse, once it is raised for too long, not only the horse's teeth are growing, more and more cheap, and the daily breeding is also a large expense.

Therefore, purchases from the private sector are the main way to digest these inferior horses. In particular, these private buyers do not know much about horses, and they are more likely to be fooled, and their rhetorical skills are more ingenious, coaxing people to be happy, and it is possible to make profits dozens or even hundreds of times.

Some of the smaller horse dealers, who could not afford to take advantage of the purchase of the platform, simply specialized in this kind of demand, although they would not enjoy the various government decrees and preferences of the platform, but they could also make a lot of money.

Kang Sui was in his forties, he was a Hu person in the Western Regions, the ancestors of the Later Han Dynasty moved to Guanzhong, and his family was in Lantian, and it has been several generations since then.

Probably because he still has the blood of the Hu people in the Western Regions who are keen on business, although Kang Sui's home is in Guanzhong, his contact with Xingtai is very early. As early as the period of the Huainan Governor's Mansion before Xingtai was established, Kang Sui bypassed Wuguan, avoided the Taobao tribe of the Qiang State that was still entrenched in Heluo at that time, and went to Huainan to trade.

In previous years, although the risk of dealing with trade was huge, the profits were also very high. After Wang Shi recovered Heluo and established Xingtai, the trade route was unblocked, and there were more competitors. Kang Sui was not happy with this kind of frequent courtesy, so he simply dealt with the industry and became the first batch of horse dealers who mainly engaged in horses.

Because of the convenience of Hu blood, and the ancestors passed down many stories of the Western Regions, his vision and cognition are broader than others, and after a few years of operation, he has built a direct trade route to Hexi. Looking at the many horse merchants in Hedong at present, he is also the top class among them, and by providing the convenience of war horses to the king's division, he has established a good personal friendship with many town generals.

When the horse farm opened this year, nearly 2,000 horses entered the market, and even if the price estimate of tens of thousands of ordinary horses was estimated, it was a huge fortune worth hundreds of millions. Not to mention that there are real Hexi good horses for the four armies of Taiwan, and the price of each horse is going up by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The fact that a mere businessman has the ability to raise thousands of horses shows the amazing means and strength of Kang Sui. Although there are more than 2,000 war horses, nearly one-third of which are in stock in previous years, and more than half are horses that are not enough for military use, but such an astonishing amount of goods is not available to everyone in Hedong Horse Market.

In fact, Kang Sui did have his means, as early as before Wang Shi went to Long, he led a group of family tribes to recover several Qianghu tribes in the remote mountains and forests of Nan'an, Longxi, so that these tribes specially hunted and tamed horses for him, and had a very stable supply of goods.

But Kang Sui's mood was not good, as the Longdao became more and more smooth, especially the Longyou Governor Yu Manzhi increased the cleaning of the Qiang tribe in the wilderness and mountains, it was only a matter of time before his horse breeding base in Longshang was exposed. Without such a stable source of goods, his greatest advantage would no longer exist.

Although he was a little depressed, Kang Sui didn't have the idea of doing things in Longshang, not to mention that he had been in contact with Xingtai for a long time and had a deep understanding of Xingtai's strength, and the number of good horses sent into the various departments of Wang Shi through his hands over the years alone was enough to make him feel the majesty of Wang Shi's army.

The gradual return of Longshang is the trend of the times, and a businessman in Kang Sui District does not dare to block the general trend because of his own selfish interests. Moreover, he has a lot of connections in Wang Shi, and he also knows some inside information about Wang Shi's strategy that others do not know, and according to his adventurous personality, the horse market trading that has gradually stabilized is gradually no longer enthusiastic.

Therefore, during this time, Kang Sui has been hesitant whether to end the current horse market trade, and even dedicate the channels he has mastered directly to Xingtai, so as to make a little contribution. After that, what he saw was the emerging tea business, such as Hanchu and even Jiangdong, which were too remote, and Kang Sui planned to borrow a little from Wang Shijun's military authority to cross the Qinling Mountains to Hanzhong to operate.

However, he hesitated, mainly because he was no longer young, although his mind was still hot, but his energy was not as good as before, and his two sons could keep their jobs and not develop enough. The most important thing is that he is not sure whether he can get the stable support of Wang Shi, and if he can get support, he also dares to go to lay the foundation, even if it is difficult for him to operate for a long time, he can leave it to his children and grandchildren.

"Lao Kang, what good horses are there this year?"

Kang Sui was meditating on the railing in the racecourse when a rough voice sounded behind him, and when he turned his head, he saw a short, fifty-year-old Xianbei Hu man wearing a high-ranking official robe of the Xingtai who was walking towards him, waving his hand at him as he walked, and several huge gemstone rings were tightly wrapped around his fat fingers, shining in the sun.

Seeing this person coming, Kang Sui's face suddenly filled with a smile, and he took three steps and two steps to greet him: "He Weng actually came here in person, why don't you spread it early, I can welcome it in person!" ”

"If I tell you in advance, you must hide the good horse first."

The Hu people who are called He Weng are even more Hu than Kang Sui, and it always feels strange to laugh at him as a Hu slave at this moment.

But Kang Sui didn't dare to be angry, but instead stepped forward with a smile on his face to give a deep salute, just because this person's identity was unusual, his name was He Miao, and he was the captain of the horse supervisor who was specially set up in Hedong, and there was Jue Lu in charge, who was in charge of the horse administration in Hedong, and Kang Sui naturally did not dare to be rude to him.

He personally stepped forward to support He Miao, and He Miao took the opportunity to grab his elbow and gesture back slightly. Kang Sui immediately looked behind He Miao, and saw four or five sturdy young men in luxurious clothes following behind He Miao to this trip, and immediately comprehended that He Miao had brought him a few fat sheep that could be slaughtered, and immediately comprehended, and a more courteous smile appeared on his face: "I don't know how to call a few Lang Jun?" ”