In April 1656, the situation in the west of the Kingdom of Jin deteriorated further.

Russia, which was supposed to go to war with Poland in the Ukrainian region historically, turned its attention from the west to the east because of the Golden Horde of the Mongols, who, having defeated the Golden Horde, crossed the Volga and chased the Mongols into the steppes of Central Asia.

Originally, the trade area of the Jin State on the northern route of the Silk Road had covered Central Asia and the Volga River Valley, and the Mongols there traded with the Jin State.

The Jin Kingdom exchanged ironware, tea, porcelain, and cloth for a large number of cattle, sheep, wool, and leather from the Mongols, which brought a lot of wealth to the Jin Kingdom, but with the westward expansion of Russia, the Mongols retreated to Central Asia, and the trade on the northern route of the Jin Kingdom was also seriously affected.

This time Russia is clearly preparing to conquer the Mongols first, and then turn back to fight Poland for Ukraine.

After a large number of Russians and Cossack cavalry crossed the Volga, they drove the Mongols from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea in a matter of months, and it didn't take long to control the road to Samarkand and cut off the trade routes to the south of the Jin Kingdom.

In this way, it makes no sense for Jin Guo to operate the Western Regions.

Sun Kewang had the intention to help the Sangha and the Yuz Khanate, drive the Russians back to the west bank of the Volga River, and ensure the security of the west of the country and the smooth flow of trade, but the main force of the Jin State was not in the Western Regions, but in the Eastern Front against the Ming Dynasty.

The army under Sun Kewang's control was only 20,000 people, and although hundreds of thousands of tunhu households had also received a certain amount of training, Sun Kewang knew that these peasant soldiers could only help transport grain and grass, repair fortifications, and assist in defending the city, and could not be used in field battles.

In view of this, Sun Kewang decided to go to Chang'an and personally persuade the Jin court, hoping to send some troops and horses to support the Mongols, fight with Russia, and stop the momentum of Russia's eastward advance.

In April, Sun Kewang set out from Qiuci and rode through the Hexi Corridor to Chang'an.

Within a few days, he arrived in Guazhou, which was the first place to operate after he invested gold, and now he revisited the old place, so he stayed for a short time, ready to rest for a day, and then went to Chang'an.

Guazhou is the place where Sun Kewang runs with his heart, and it is also the place where he came out of the shadow of the failure of the destruction of the Great Western Kingdom, so he is very emotional.

When he arrived in Guazhou, the officials of Guazhou vacated a large mansion for him to live in, but he did not stay in the house, but prepared to go around the city.

The city was very lively, and it was more prosperous than when he was in business, mainly due to the opening of the Silk Road.

The Ming Dynasty also built a city in the south of Qinghai, but because the cost of going out of Sichuan was relatively large, and it had to cross the mountains, the goods transported to Qinghai were limited, and the influence only expanded to the south of Qinghai Lake, and there was no expansion to the north.

Guazhou was originally run by Sun Kewang as the commercial center of the Hexi Corridor, but now with the blessing of the Silk Road, business travelers come and go, more prosperous than before, and the area of the market has also doubled.

The Silk Road is very long, it takes a year or two to finish, only a very small number of merchants will go through the whole journey, most of the cases are, the merchants in the silk trade nodes, set up warehouses, the caravan in Guanzhong will transport the goods to Guazhou, most of them will return to Guanzhong, and then by the merchants of Guazhou, after purchasing goods in the market, and then transport them to the Western Regions, and then bring the goods from the Western Regions back to Guazhou.

It is this point-to-point relay that has made the land Silk Road and the cities along the Silk Road prosperous.

Sun Kewang changed into a plain clothes, under the escort of several guards, entered the market, he just entered the West Market, he saw a few places full of people, Sun Kewang was curious to come over, it was a few cloth villages, many people were arguing outside the cloth village.

"Last year, a horse was only one tael of silver, but now how can it rise to three taels and five dollars? Your cloth is not Su Song's goods, it's not even medium, it's just inferior, why is it so expensive? ”

"That's right! Your business has tripled, so what do we make as a businessman? ”

According to the price, the inferior cotton cloth in Guanzhong, that is, four to five dollars of silver, was transported to Guazhou, and the price was only one or two, and the cheaper one in Jiangnan was only about three yuan, and now it is sold for three or five yuan, which is already the price of medium and good goods.

Seeing this, Sun Kewang couldn't help frowning, and asked a businessman next to him, "What's going on at this time?" ”

That person is obviously not a cloth merchant, it is estimated that it is the mentality of looking at hot labor, he glanced at Sun Kewang, and saw that he had an extraordinary temperament, so he explained: "The cloth in Guanzhong was collected by the Ming Kingdom at a high price, and the supply of Guazhou naturally decreased. This time, they got rich. ”

Sun Kewang was a little puzzled, "Why did Ming Guo come to Dajin at a high price to collect cloth, Su Song's cloth is much better than Dajin!" ”

"I heard that some trade routes were opened up from the Mughals." The man glanced at Sun Kewang and said, "You don't know this Mughal, it's Tianzhu." The Ming Kingdom received an order of one million horses from there, Su Song's side couldn't catch up, and the deadline for delivery was approaching, and the cloth of each firm was transferred to the Weaving Bureau, ready to be transported to the Mughal by sea ship, and the cloth on the Ming side was tight, so he bought the cloth from our Jin Kingdom. ”

Sun Kewang was a contemplative, but the man said, but he continued, "According to the merchants over there in the Ming Dynasty, this million horses is only the first batch of orders, and there will be a second batch and a third batch later. ”

"A million horses, there will be more orders, can the Mughals eat so many goods?" Sun Ke saw the envy on the businessman's face, and felt that something was not right.

The Mughal grandson Kewang knew that the merchants of the Jin Kingdom had reached the northern mountains of the Mughals and indeed brought a lot of wealth to the Jin Kingdom, but he still had some doubts.

When the man heard this, he said even more: "I knew that you would have such doubts, and when I heard it, I also adjusted my mouth in shock, but do you know how big this Mughal is, it is about to catch up with the Ming Kingdom, and the population is eighty or ninety million, which is more than the Dajin and the Ming Dynasty combined, and the Ming Dynasty not only traded with the Mughals, but also the Sassanid next to him, and it is said that the population is also more than 10 million." So many people, how much can be eaten, in short, this time the cloth merchant is rich, unlike our tea merchants..."

The merchants of the Sassanid and Mughal kingdoms have been in contact, but because the competitiveness of the goods is not good, there are no cheap and exquisite goods transported by sea, so the merchants of the kingdom of Jin are just blind people touching elephants, just touching a leg, and do not go deep into the Mughals, even if someone occasionally describes the huge Mughals, Sun Kewang did not attract attention.

However, Sun Kewang did not fully believe the words of the merchants, and he was going to send someone to investigate and verify the authenticity of his words after returning to the Western Regions.

Saying that, the man sighed, but at this time, he heard the shopkeeper of the cloth village come out and arch his hand: "Everyone, everyone is an old friend, my grandson will not harm everyone, it is really the price of cloth in Guanzhong has risen, and I have no choice." Now there are only 1,000 inferior cotton cloths, 100 medium cotton cloths, inferior 3 taels and 6 yuan, and medium 10 taels. ”

As he spoke, he rose another penny of silver, and although the group of merchants scolded fiercely, they still paid for the cloth and snapped it up.

Although the price of cloth has risen, Sun Kewang knows that this price is still profitable when it is shipped to Yuzi.

Soon, the guys of the cloth village hung up a "sold out" wooden sign, then put the wooden board up and closed the business. The people around him immediately dispersed, and after the merchant said goodbye to Sun Kewang, he also turned to leave.

Sun Kewang took a turn in the market again, several cloth houses in the West Market also hung up signs for selling out, and many merchants from Guazhou and the Western Regions were in a hurry, circling around each other with their own gossip, asking where to buy cloth.

The cloth merchants in the Western Regions surrounded a merchant in Guanzhong to inquire about the news, only saying that the workshop in Guanzhong had received many orders and was producing medium-colored cotton cloth for the merchants of the Ming Kingdom, and there was no one to produce inferior cloth at present, but each workshop was recruiting people to expand the workshop, and it was estimated that it would take a while for a large number of cloths to be transported over.

Although Sun Kewang always felt that something was wrong, he couldn't say what was going on, and after returning to the post house to rest for the night, he still left Guazhou and headed for Guanzhong.

After he passed Qinzhou, he began to find that there were wheat fields planted with cotton on the Weihe Plain, and he got off the horse and asked, saying that the cotton had risen from five taels of silver to eight or two hundred catties, and the head of the family asked the wheat field to be planted with cotton.

Most of the gentry in the Jin Kingdom owned large tracts of land, and the price of cotton rose and was profitable, so some gentry naturally wanted to grow cotton.

Jin Guo is not a big grain producing country, grain can only be self-sufficient, although Sun Kewang has been promoting business these years, but his background is a poor Shaanxi peasant, he immediately realized that this matter may bring harm to Jin Guo.

He walked along the Wei River from Qinzhou to Chang'an, and found that this phenomenon of changing cotton cultivation was not only a family or some large clans, but also many yeoman farmers.

On the sixth day of the fifth month, Sun Kewang entered Chang'an City, and without resting, he went to find his old partner Yu Yin non-stop.

Yu Yin was transferred to Chang'an to be the head of the household because of his political achievements in Hexi, and Sun Kewang had guarded Guazhou with him and had a good relationship, so he couldn't wait to find him to reflect the situation.

Yu Yin was a little surprised when he heard that Sun Kewang was coming, complaining that he didn't come to see him first, but Sun Kewang didn't care so much, and after entering Yu Yin's study, he picked up the teacup and drank the tea, and hurriedly said: "Yu Butang, do you know that on both sides of the Wei River, many wheat fields are planted with cotton?" ”

Yu Yin calmly motioned for him to sit down, sighed and said, "I know what the prince is worried about, but the court knows about this matter······

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(End of chapter)