"We've heard about it too. www.biquge.info A group of Chinese businessmen laughed, and Wang Datong said boldly: "My lord doesn't know, we encountered many wolves on the way, which scared us enough, and later hired some Balhu and Oroqen people as guards, so we came here safely." Unexpectedly, when I arrived in the trading city, I met a group of humanoid wolves again! ”

Zhang Han laughed and said: "It's good for you to hire people yourself, although the military department has sent troops to protect your safety, but soldiers are not personal guards after all, and there is no way to achieve personal protection at any time." The proprietors are of a special status, and they are not short of money, and it is a good thing to hire these northern captives as escorts to help them integrate into us. ”

All the businessmen fell to the ground with one heart, and they all smiled.

Zhang Han smiled again: "The Russians like and want the most, there is no doubt that the first thing is silk, they like all kinds of silk, silk, cloth, silk, this is the first important goods." ”

The Russians knew about the Chinese merchants and decided to send a mission to see if they could open up trade routes to China, mainly because of the introduction of a Buryat Mongol. At that time, there should have been Han merchants from Tumochuan who came to trade in Mobei, and in the lower reaches of the Halartai River, there were Selenge Fort and Kyakhtu Fort, which were small brick castles built by Khalkha people, and on the other side of the river were all kinds of Han goods sent by the "barbarians", including silk, taffeta, silk, and goods that Russians and Mongols liked such as Heijin Dengbu.

At that time, the Mongols because of the vast territory that reached the Western Regions and reached the east of Liaodong, if there was no war between the various tribes, they would communicate with each other, in Petrin's records, the Mongols were already rich in goods, including a variety of staple foods, rye coarse bread, white bread was quite rich, and apples, strawberries, pears and other fruits could also trade, but the Russians were not interested in these goods, they wanted more Ming goods.

Silk products, porcelain, tea, these three items are undoubtedly the most popular.

Then there are all kinds of cloth products, cloth of varying thickness, including woolen wool.

Russians have no problem keeping out the cold, but their settlements certainly don't produce cloth, and who likes to wear fur close to their bodies if they can wear warm and comfortable cotton cloth underneath?

Moreover, cloth can also be partially traded to Europe, the key is the price, in fact, in the Qing Dynasty's Sino-Russian trade, cotton cloth and tea were the largest heads.

During the Qianlong period, because of the conflict with Russia, China's restriction was that fur was not allowed to enter, cotton cloth and tea were not allowed to be exported, and this trade restriction method caused Russian merchants heavy losses.

It can be said that the expansion of the Russians in the Far East, the successful large-scale trade with the Qing Dynasty, the sale of millions of furs a year and the import of large quantities of cotton cloth and tea were the most important factors in the prosperity of the Far East.

Tea became a necessity of their lives and an important symbol of the wealth of Russian merchants in Kyakhta. The Soviet scholar Silin said: "Every merchant showed off only tea leaves, and they took out to him one after another all kinds of tea that the visitor had not seen. ”

In addition to these main products, a variety of miscellaneous goods are popular, including vegetables and fruits, and of course sauerkraut and other items are more popular. Like the Mongols, the Russians do not have the skills and talent to light up the land and grow vegetables, they are also short of vegetables, let alone sauerkraut that can be eaten for a long time, and the Russians themselves can concoct pickles, but in the settlements on the Siberian side, there are few people who can do it, and the conditions are poor, of course, it is very scarce.

"Below is the cloth merchant," Ma Chaowen rushed to say: "I brought more than 20 carts of cotton cloth and some silk, less than five carts, and no other goods." ”

Wang Dadao: "Most of the goods brought down are all kinds of groceries, and the tea knows that they like it, so they brought five or six thousand boxes. ”

Other businessmen also reported the number one after another, and these big businessmen brought thousands of catties of tea and tea bricks on average, in addition to the porcelain and cloth, and the silk and satin were more.

These goods are sure to be able to sell out of the hard currency, there are some merchants are bringing a variety of fruits and vegetables, this point in time is a good time for a large number of vegetables to go to the market, Mobei here in addition to a very small number of people will farm the land, most of the Beiyu supplement vegetables are relying on a few wild vegetables such as wild leeks, so vegetables and fruits are very welcome, of course, the most popular is a variety of sour vegetables, which is the most precious thing.

Zhang Han muttered: "Silk, porcelain and cloth are very easy to sell, and some of the groceries brought by the proprietor include paper and pen and ink, this is a joke, not to mention that few people in the north can use these, Russians also have their own writing habits and special utensils, and they will not use these things of ours." Folding fans and shoes, don't bring them next time, it's hard to get out...... There are some that can't be sold at all, like pewterware, jade goods, turbans, paper ties, colors, tooth combs, and the Russians don't use these, bring them over, sell them to ghosts? Even if someone wants to be fresh, like us Chinese people, buy some Goryeo folding fans and Japanese Japanese swords, but it is just a rich man's desire to have fun and daily livelihood, who will use these things. We are all doing business, in business, the profit and good sales are the first, the profit is thin but the amount is the second, the profit is less and the amount is less, the profit is thin and the amount is small, that is done in vain, run thousands of miles to come, can not make profits, is not wronged! ”

If the awe of these businessmen for Zhang Han was mainly because of his success and power, as well as the famous army of the Earthquake Grassland, at this moment, their awe of Zhang Han is the appreciation and recognition of pure businessmen.

A few of the big businessmen were blushing and lowered their heads.

They are shrewd is definitely shrewd, but the shrewdness between businessmen is also divided into three, six, nine and so on, their biggest deficiency is still a little shallow vision, and the memory of the horse market trade in Zhangjiakou is too deep, after all, in Zhangjiakou is to open a store waiting for business to come to the door, there are some unpopular goods can be sold, but also sold at a high price.

This time it was thousands of miles north, and no matter when the goods were released, they would not stay here for long, after all, if it was not the first time to trade this time, it would be impossible for these great proprietors to come in person, and it would be enough to send a trusted shopkeeper or someone from the clan to take charge of everything.

Some unpopular goods are estimated to take a long time to get out, and of course the profits are thinned, and the cost of going north for thousands of miles has to be calculated.

After a few words of flattery from the heart, Ma Chaowen said: "This time I didn't bring tea in the next place, Wang Dongzhu and other proprietors have brought a lot, adding up to more than 100,000 catties, all of which are mainly tea bricks, and there are also a small amount of loose tea tea. ”

"Don't worry." Zhang Han said with a smile: "When I see the Russians talking tomorrow, they will definitely ask for more tea." As soon as this thing is introduced to them, Russia will be very popular, and no one can refuse. I estimate that within three years, our tea trade will exceed 500,000 catties, and in ten years it should be more than 1 million catties. ”

Zhang Han got up after saying that, and all the businessmen hurriedly stood up to see him off, and everyone had a surprise in their eyes that could not be concealed, if it was really as the adult in front of him said, tea alone could reach a scale of more than one million catties every year, plus the trade share of Beiyu, tea alone would be sold for two million catties a year, which was far more than all the trade volume from Zhangjiakou to Xinpingbao and Biguan at the peak of the horse market.

These merchants, of course, were unaware of the extent of the great popularity of tea in the Western world...... Not only Russians, almost every European likes tea, the British also specially appeared afternoon tea culture, of course, these Europeans drink tea in different ways, few like the Chinese pure tea existence, in short, the whole of Europe began large-scale imports after the introduction of Chinese tea, until the middle and late Qing Dynasty, because of tea and porcelain and silk these three things, even the incompetent and extremely conservative and stupid Qing government, It is still possible to maintain a trade surplus for a long time with the sharp weapon of China's development over thousands of years, until the entry of the market.

The Russians and the Qing government in Kyakhta's trade port, the minimum annual tea trade volume is about one million catties, and the higher years are nearly three million catties, which is just a port, and for the trade of Britain and other overseas countries, the annual export share of tea can be imagined.

Taiwan is not only trading tea, but also began to plant tea on a large scale, and experts from the Department of Agriculture such as Huang Yu'an have sent many to Taiwan, mainly to grow tea and another crop.

Porcelain, silk, tea, these are really the three major weapons of China's foreign trade.

……

After dark in the evening, Zhang Han took a piece of incense in his mouth to remove the smell of wine in his mouth, and then walked to the side of Kulun City, from the messy unfinished buildings to a brilliant place of lights, which is the largest Buddhist temple in Kulun, where the living Buddhas such as Jebtsundamba Hutuketu, Zhangjiahu Tuketu, and Tenzin Lama are waiting in the Buddhist temple.

Along the way, many guards stood solemnly with torches, and many Mongols bowed down to greet them in the shadows.

Everyone didn't speak, Zhang Han didn't ask the attaché to follow, Sun Jingting and the professionals were already patrolling the situation in various parts of the trading city, preparing for the official opening of the market in the next two days, and everywhere had entered a tense preparation link, many commercial houses, shops, were already cleaning and preparing for the goods, and when the market opened, some ceremonies had to be prepared, and they were also in the midst of intense preparations, these things were specifically handled by Sun Jingting and Mo Zongtong and others, so Zhang Han didn't have to ask more.