"The trade contract negotiated with Guiyingcha was to purchase 75,000 horses, 43,500 cattle, and 350,000 sheep. A good horse is 7 sheep, a middle horse is 5 sheep, a dismount is 3 sheep, a calf is a sheep, a 1-2 year old cow is 5 sheep, and 3 years old is 10 sheep.

In the past, the price of silver per sheep was about 15-16 taels in the border trade, but according to His Majesty's orders, the unified price this time was 2 taels per sheep. Although the grade of livestock has not yet been decided, the minister and Guiyingcha have agreed to tentatively set the amount of this transaction at 1.9 million taels of silver.

According to the agreement, 35 per cent of the amount is paid when the contract is signed, another 35 per cent is paid when the livestock is handed over for inspection, and the remaining 30 per cent is paid after the livestock is transported back to the customs. And Gui Yingcha also recognized that the contract payment will be settled in paper money. And he also promised that after he returned, he would try his best to persuade Lin Dan Khan to accept paper money settlement in his trade with Daming in the future.

According to His Majesty's instructions, after the contract was negotiated, the minister gave Gui Yingcha 5,000 yuan. After that, the minister handed over the contract to the leaders of the right-wing Mongolian tribes, and as His Majesty expected, the king of Shunyi and other leaders were very angry, thinking that the Chahar tribe was completely taking advantage of the fire to rob.

Or after robbing their cattle and sheep, and then selling them at a high price, this is robbing the same person twice, it is really immoral.

According to His Majesty's instructions, the minister has declared to the heads of the ministries that, in view of the difficulties faced by the ministry, the imperial court is willing to bear the price of the purchased cattle for the ministries first, and the price of the sheep sold to the ministries is calculated at the rate of 1 tael each, and the annual interest is calculated at 12%.

The king of Shunyi and the leaders of the various tribes were very grateful to His Majesty for his favor, and a dozen or so minor leaders specially approached the ministers afterwards and asked them to convey their allegiance to His Majesty, and declared that as long as they were still there, their tribes would never turn their backs on the Ming Dynasty. ”

Listening to Liu Jingting's report, Zhu Youzhen was not complacent because of this. Maybe what these clan leaders are saying now is indeed a little sincere, but when it really comes to the time when Houjin is in a big position, they have to change someone to lead the clan to swear allegiance to Houjin.

However, if you can reconcile the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the right-wing Mongolian tribes, and let the Ming Dynasty's forces officially penetrate into the grassland, then it will be worth the money.

Zhu Youzhen made a gesture and motioned for Liu Jingting to continue. Liu Jingting then continued: "The minister signed contracts with the right-wing Mongolian ministries to purchase livestock on credit, and resold a total of 37,000 horses, 19,000 cattle, and 250,000 sheep, with a total price of 530,000 taels, or 7.42 million yuan in the Ming Dynasty.

After one year, the chiefs of each department can repay the arrears in the form of livestock, silver taels, or the Ming Yuan. However, there was one more thing, the ministers wanted to report to His Majesty, and the heads of the various tribes offered that since His Majesty was willing to lend to them, they would simply borrow more, and they were also willing to pay interest to His Majesty. ”

Zhu Youzhen was a little stunned, and he couldn't help but say: "Didn't you already give almost 800,000 yuan to the leaders of various departments a year ago?" Why do they still want to borrow? Where did all their money go? What to borrow money again? ”

Liu Jingting hesitated and said: "A few years ago, the leaders of the various departments were relatively restrained and did not spend all the money in their hands, but since the news came out that the head of the Gelug sect Tashilhunpo Monastery, Luosang Qujie, sent disciples to Beijing,

The leaders of the Mongolian tribes went to give alms one after another, and bought a large number of gifts for the Tibetan envoys to bring to the fourth lama Yunden Gyatso when they returned to Tibet, as an offering. As a result, the money in their hands was quickly spent.

They wanted to continue to borrow money from His Majesty, mainly to buy cloth, silk, tea, and various household items. The minister estimated that they wanted to borrow about 400,000 yuan. ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and finally spoke: "Lend them money, but don't give them the money, let them write down the goods, and then go back to the customs to collect them." My money doesn't come from the wind. Didn't Gui Ying also take more than 1.2 million yuan in his hands, what did he do with this money? ”

Liu Jingting thought carefully before replying: "Gui Yingcha also gave nearly 25,000 yuan in alms, but the rest of the money was still used to buy various daily necessities.

The dyed blue standard cloth produced in the capital is 3 yuan per horse, and he * 50,000 horses; dyed black standard cloth, 25 yuan per horse, * 100,000 horses; Undyed white-labeled cloth is 15 yuan per horse, * 100,000 horses.

Guangzhou satin is 6 yuan per horse, * 3000 horses; 5 yuan per brocade, * 2,000 horses; velvet 6 yuan a horse, 2200 horses; Silk is 2 yuan per horse, * 5,000 horses.

In addition, he bought 1.8 million hats and boxes of tea at a price of 072 yuan, each of which should not be less than 3 catties and 3 taels. In addition, there are 800 pounds of tobacco, iron pots and other daily necessities.

The total price is 25.67 million yuan, Gui Yingcha paid 1.1 million yuan, and still owes 14.67 million yuan in debt, if it is offset with the final payment of 17.29 million yuan in the contract, we will pay another 2.62 million yuan to the Chahar Department.

However, Gui Yingcha said that it is best to pay the remaining balance with tea bricks at a discount. ”

For the ability of these Mongolian leaders to spend money, Zhu Youzhen also had to admire. It seems that they don't have the concept of money in their hearts, and they want to spend as much as they get.

However, he was still a little curious and asked, "What does the Chahar Ministry want so many tea bricks for?" Their own tribes and vassal tribes have a population of only 3 or 400,000, right? Do they still want to be middlemen and sell tea bricks to Outer Mongolia? ”

Liu Jingting immediately shook his head and said: "That's not the case, the minister has been outside the customs for a few months, but he knows some things. The daily diet of these Mongolians is mainly based on beef and mutton and dairy products, and they eat almost no vegetables on weekdays, and occasionally some mushrooms and wild vegetables are eaten as vegetables.

Therefore, the Mongolians regard tea as a greasy thing, they eat tea and the people of the Central Plains eat tea differently, like a strong taste, so a piece of tea bricks weighing more than 3 catties is enough for a tent of people to enjoy for 3 days at most. A slightly wealthy family costs almost 120 tea bricks a year for their own consumption, and it is even more difficult to entertain guests.

These 1.8 million tea bricks are about enough for the consumption of the Chahar Ministry this year. If he wants to resell it to the ministries of Outer Mongolia, I'm afraid they haven't thought about it. Besides, there is nothing more valuable than tea bricks on the grassland, as long as the Chahar department has tea bricks in their hands, they can exchange everything on the grassland, so there is no need for him to exchange valuable tea bricks for worthless furs and livestock. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it and said, "Then let's follow the agreement." All exported tea bricks have to be sampled, and I don't want to spend so much effort and destroy a few unqualified tea bricks when the time comes. ”

Liu Jingting hurriedly agreed, and then continued to say to Chongzhen: "In addition, Gui Yingcha also made a personal request with his minister. He hoped to exchange 1,000 horses for a batch of weapons. ”

Zhu Youzhen's eyes widened suddenly, and he replied: "War horse? Weapons? What weapon does he want to change?"

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be concerned, although the Mongolian tribes often sold horses to the Ming Dynasty, they never sold real war horses, just like the Ming never sold armor and cannons.

Although there was a small amount of smuggling on the border, the actions of such private traders could not be traced by the imperial court. Naturally, the real good horses will not fall into the hands of the imperial court.

However, this time, Lin Dan Khan led his troops to move west, and in the continuous campaign, he obviously lost a lot of property, especially the loss of weapons, which was not something that the Chahar Department could replenish by itself.

Although there are some Han craftsmen in Guihua City who can make armor weapons, the number of people is too small, and second, there is no large iron-smelting factory in Guihua City, so the Chahar Department is in a dilemma, and it is difficult to completely replace the damaged weapons of each department.

Guiying just relied on his status as an envoy to the Ming Kingdom, and his personal relationship with Liu Jingting was good, so he had the courage to make a request to him. I want to take this opportunity to complete the weapons of the soldiers under my command.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "Give him a batch of weapons, but the number must not exceed 3,000, and the armor must not exceed 40 pairs." However, the tiger squat cannon can give him a few, and sell him a batch for export*, with a limit of 1,000 catties. In addition, after the war horses arrived, they were all pulled back to the capital. ”

Hearing that the emperor was going to send out the tiger squat cannon, Liu Jingting was suddenly a little frightened, and he hurriedly persuaded the emperor and said: "Your Majesty, forget about the tiger squat cannon, if they let them have the artillery, I'm afraid it will be unfavorable to my Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "It's not so exaggerated, the tiger squat cannon under 300 catties will soon be eliminated, instead of throwing it back to the blast furnace for recasting, it is better to give full play to the residual heat and come back with a few war horses."

Artillery is a systematic science, and a few cannons cannot change the strategically unfavorable situation. If Lin Dan Khan can use a few tiger squat cannons to knock down the side wall of Daming, then it can only show that Daming's side wall is paper-paste, and it does not show how powerful the tiger squat cannon is.

Besides, I also want to know how loyal Gui Yingcha is to Lin Dan Khan. Do you think he will hand over this batch of weapons to Lin Dan Khan after he gets them? Or do you leave it to your own subordinates? ”

Liu Jingting was there for a moment, and he thought for a long time before he said: "The minister can't figure it out, but the minister dares to be sure that if there are tiger squat cannons and * in this batch of weapons, then Guiying will definitely not hand it over." ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head with a smile, and then continued: "Then let's continue to talk about the affairs of going out of the customs wall and carrying out reclamation outside the Great Wall." What did Guiying say? Have you discussed this reclamation plan? ”

Liu Jingting lowered his head and silently sorted out his thoughts before he spoke: "Gui Yingcha said that no matter whether the arms deal is successful or not, he will promise to protect the Han people who have gone to naturalize and reclaim.

As for the reclamation plan, I had many exchanges of views with Gui Yingcha and the right-wing Mongolian ministries, and now they have finally agreed to our main demands. ”