"Lady, come here."

Lai Fu beckoned at his wife, an eighteen-year-old white woman wearing a blue narrow-sleeved jacket and a red cardigan. This is his wife Isabella. Morality. Segur, whose father is the Count of Segur, is the kind of earl who owns castles and territories and can pull out a hundred or dozens of knights! He was also the number one person among the many vassals of the King of France.

If it weren't for the Mongol invasion and the destruction of France, this Isabella would definitely be an object that many rich and handsome Europa celebrities want to pursue! After all, she has only one brother, and her brother has been married for several years without impregnating his wife, and he is also keen to participate in various competitions and wars. With the slightest surprise, Isabella is the future Countess of Segur!

But the death of France made her lose everything overnight. From the second heir of the kingdom above the clouds, he has become an exile with nothing. If it weren't for the wealthy merchant Lai Daguan from Seris, she didn't know if she would one day sell her body in exchange for food.

Hearing her husband's call, Isabella smiled softly, obediently stepped forward, and curtsy. Although Lai Fu is just a pawn to explore the way in the eyes of a character like Chen Chongguan - if he is killed by the Mongols, he will not feel distressed! But in Isabella's eyes, she was nobler than any prince of Europa. Being his wife is enough to make any princess of Europa jealous.

"Xianggong." The beautiful Earl's family lady looked at Lai Fu with affection and a rude appearance, and said the Chinese she had just learned-Isabella. Morality. Segur had a great talent for languages. Before marrying Reif, he would speak French, Latin, Greek, three German dialects, three Italian dialects, and three Iberian dialects. Now he has quickly learned Taizhou Mandarin, and he is even learning complex Chinese characters with Chinese self-study books bought from Macau. The speed of progress made Lai Fu, a Chinese nobleman who could not read a basket of big characters, feel ashamed.

"Mr. Solomon has had dinner ready." Isabella smiled softly. Speaking Chinese with a Taizhou accent, Lai Fu felt like home.

"Let them wait a while." Lai Fu took his wife's tender hand, and the two of them went to the side of the boat together, leaning against the railing. "Is this close to your hometown?"

"Well, it's close." Isabella looked at the familiar and unfamiliar landscape, and her large, shining eyes were already covered with a thin layer of tears.

Her family had been loyal followers of the French royal family, and had fought in the Anglo-French war, earning her a castle that had previously belonged to the Duchy of Normandy (a domain of the English Plantagenet) and becoming counts.

Lai Fu didn't pay attention to his wife's expression. Instead, they were fascinated by the idyllic scenery along the Seine.

"It's rich here, and it's ...... There is no indication that it has ever been attacked by the Mongols. ”

Lai Fu was probably the first Ming official to enter the core of the Mongol-Europa Empire. And the scene he sees now is very different from what he imagined and what he heard in Hong Kong and Macau. The Mongols did not seem to be killing in the land of France, the villages and fields were no different from those before the war, the serfs were still farming, and life seemed to be no different from before the war.

"Yes, Xianggong," Isabella wiped from her tears. "The Duchy of Normandy was indeed very rich, agriculture was very developed on both sides of the Seine, and the capital of the Duchy, Rouen, was one of the richest cities in the whole of France. At...... Most of the year before the Mongols came. My family and I live in Rouen. ”

"We'll live in Rouen in the future," Lai Fu took a breath, "if we can negotiate with Liu Xiangye of Mongolia this time." ”

The establishment of the Commercial Supervision Department in Rouen was a mission from the Atlantic Governor's Office to the Reifers. If it can be successfully launched. Reifou was the first Superintendent of Commerce, and he would henceforth be permanently stationed in Rouen as the representative of the Governor of the Atlantic, if not negotiable. Naturally, his business supervision is gone! If he could go one step further and go to the city of Paris to meet Kublai Khan. Chen Chongguan will promote him to be a consul......

"So...... Can I go back to the Château de Ségur? Isabella asked hesitantly.

The territory of the House of Segur was near the city of Rouen, and Isabella was eager to visit there.

"Let's try it," Lai Fu said thoughtfully, "When I see Liu Xiaoyuan, I will find an opportunity to propose it to him for the husband's association." ”

……

Liu Xiaoyuan, the chief magistrate of the Great Mongol Dynasty who was about to meet with Lai Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and the commander of the Red Banner, sat in a sedan chair with eight lifts, and finally arrived at Luviet, which was less than thirty miles away from the city of Rouen.

"Xiangye, the Louvière Post House has arrived. Xiang Ye's pro-military battalion has been guarding Xiang Ye's tiger frame around the post house. The local magistrate of Louvier sent several tables to the prime minister, and the photographer ordered him to block the car when he asked to see him...... In addition, I wonder if Xiangye is going to send someone to find some girls in a nearby village? Please show me. ”

The one who spoke was a member of Liu Xiaoyuan's clan, named Liu Zitai, who was now the head of his personal barracks. Not long after taking office, Liu Xiaoyuan's experience as an errand boy was not very sufficient, so he actually asked Liu Xiaoyuan if he wanted to send troops to a nearby village to find a French girl to sleep with.

Hearing the words of his own clan, Liu Xiaoyuan smiled in the big sedan chair: "No need, if you want a girl to warm the bed, go find it, but you can't hurt people's lives, you know?" ”

This is France, and it's still the Middle Ages. The aristocracy originally had the right to **, and the daughter of the serf family who slept was righteous. Now it's okay to change to the flag man to sleep...... Moreover, for the current serfs in France, the banner man seems to be better than the original noble lord.

Because the banner people don't live in the countryside, they don't have many requirements for serfs, just ask for food at harvest time. Moreover, there was a certain amount of grain handed in, which was collected according to the amount of land cultivated by each serf, which was about 20% of the harvest, and the rest was the serfs themselves - in fact, the old man did not treat these French countrymen as serfs, but as ordinary peasants.

And in Paris and Rouen, two places where the Mongol government has been established. They even began to issue title deeds to French peasants, making them land-owning yeoman farmers!

got off the sedan chair. Liu Xiaoyuan looked around and found himself outside the gate of a castle on the banks of the Seine. The castle is surrounded by farmland. The wheat is planted, and it is almost time for the harvest, and the ears of wheat look heavy, which is obviously a good year.

Many Frenchmen dressed as peasants seemed to be attracted by the great movement of Liu Xiaoyuan and his party, and they were willing to stand beside the fields, stretching their necks to look curiously at their new masters—the new era did not seem to be bad, at least these masters from the East demanded less from the serfs than the original knights.

The gates of the castle were open, and a Semu official led several guards who were also Semu people, and was bending down at the gate to greet them. It should be the post man and the post pawn of the post station. At the same time, of course, it is also the so-called flag slave. Most of the people who were in the house were servants of the Shang Ting family in Zhirouen Mansion - it was already customary for the banner man who served as an official to use his own servants as small officials, and Liu Xiaoyuan himself did the same, and there were many officials in his yamen of the Ministry of Rites who were his color flag slaves.

"Xiangye, do you want to rest earlier?" Liu Zitai came up and said to Liu Xiaoyuan with a smile, "Tomorrow morning, I will take a boat to Rouen Mansion City." ”

"Oh? That Ming commercial overseer has already arrived in Rouen? Liu Xiaoyuan asked.

"It should be there this afternoon."

"This afternoon?" Liu Xiaoyuan looked up at the sky and said to himself, "It's already here?" I don't know where this business supervisor came from or what he wants to do......"

……

"Lai Daguan. You can only move around on this island......"

"What? Only on this island? Why? ”

Reifer had already arrived in Rouen, but instead of entering the city, he went to an island in the Seine on the edge of the city. It is a small and narrow island, and the Mongols named it "Shangguan Island". The island is across the water from the thriving downtown area of Rouen. Originally, there was a villa that belonged to the French magnate who did not know it, but now the whole island has been converted into a commercial market, and along the west bank of the island is a wharf and a merchant house. Most of the commercial buildings are still under construction. Only a few merchant houses seem to have been converted from old buildings, and they are now in use.

Lai Fu counted. The wharf has eighteen berths, each corresponding to a cargo warehouse and a trading house. Merchant ships are moored everywhere on the river. The main ones are Kirk galleons and longboats that sail on inland rivers. The former mostly fly the flags of Norway and Sweden. These two Viking nations were not at war with the Mongols, so their merchant ships could enter and leave the Seine, but only as far as the Merchant Island in Rouen.

The person in charge of receiving Lai Fu is also a Han man, in his sixties, always with a simple smile, looking at the old servant of whose family, just a pair of triangular old eyes flickering from time to time, releasing a few rays of fine light.

This person's surname is Liu, his name is Liu An, and he was Liu Xiaoyuan's housekeeper. Now he is also a member of the Europa Banner, and there is also an official of the deputy superintendent of the customs of Rouen, who is stationed on the island of Merchant and mingles with merchants from various countries who come and go to trade. At the same time, he was also responsible for secret contact with the Atlantic Governor's Palace and the Kingdom of England.

"Lai Daguan, there is no reason, that's what the above said, the little old man just does things according to the rules."

Liu An touched his gray beard and replied lightly: "Now the Great Khan is implementing a closed and closed country in Europa, and the whole country is open to trade, except for the Rouen Merchanthouse Island here, which is the golden horn of Constantinople. In addition to these two places, foreign merchants are not allowed to set foot elsewhere, and those who violate the order can be put to death. Our businessmen are not allowed to enter Shangguan Island and the Golden Corner, otherwise it is also a capital offense! ”

Of course, this "closed country" is just a preliminary design. It is said that there is a trade between the two mouths, but in fact there is leakage everywhere and smuggling is rampant. However, as the Mongol rule in Europa stabilizes, the policy of "closing the country to the outside world" will definitely become more and more severe!

He made a gesture of surprise and pointed to a rather ornate looking merchant house on the edge of the dock.

"Lai Daguan, Mrs. Lai, Mr. Solomon, please come with the little old man, the banquet has been prepared."

Rifford and Selassie. Solomon glanced at each other, and Solomon asked, "Mr. Liu, even the entry and exit are so restricted, how should the business be done?" ”

"Business can naturally be done," Old Man Liu led the way while smiling and pointing to the surrounding merchants, "See it?" There are 18 merchant houses here, which are places for foreign merchants to trade. If you want to buy or sell, just look for these eighteen trading houses. What can be bought and sold and what cannot be bought and sold is up to these eighteen firms, and the taxes and fees that need to be paid are also represented by these eighteen firms. Moreover, these eighteen rows also have their own guest rooms, and foreign merchants can live here. As soon as you eat and drink, the business bank will provide it, and you just have to give the money. ”

He stopped suddenly, turned his head, and said to Lai Fu quite seriously: "Lai Daguan, little old man has to remind you, we are not a Ming Dynasty here, and a businessman can't buy a gentry card and disrespect the government...... Here, businessmen have to be loyal to the government, the court, and the Great Khan! Eighteen merchants, especially that! ”

The eighteen elements system was naturally also pondered by the Han Eight Banner advisors around Kublai Khan. The foreign trade of the Mongol Empire was monopolized, and only by becoming a merchant and settling in a merchant house could he engage in lucrative foreign trade.

In order to become a merchant, one had to serve the imperial court, to serve the Mongols, and to hold an official position, but not by bannermen and banner slaves, who were not allowed to engage in business openly according to Kublai Khan's decree, and there were many restrictions on the possession of banner land. The main responsibility of the banner man is to serve as a soldier for Kublai Khan's empire, but he can't all become rich businessmen. There will be no combat effectiveness in this way!

In addition to merchants, the Mongol-Europa Empire had two types of privileged merchants, the imperial merchant and the official merchant.

The imperial merchants are the big merchants who have business dealings with the Xue Mansion, and the largest of them are nine imperial merchants, commonly known as the nine imperial merchants. Mainly from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Rus' states and Lithuania. It was the first Europa merchants to take refuge in Greater Mongolia, and the trade routes from Constantinople and the trade with the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, and the Timur Khanate of the Two Rivers were all in charge of these imperial merchants.

Officials and merchants are the big merchants who serve the various banners, with about 100 of them, scattered throughout the country, mainly engaged in monopoly industries such as selling salt, making wine and selling wine, developing mines, and buying and selling slaves.

Like the merchants, the heads of the imperial merchants and the official merchants also had official positions granted by the Mongols, and at the same time they were not banner men or banner slaves. Of course, all three types of privileged merchants undoubtedly had some special friendships with the big names of the Mongol-Europa Empire.

Through the three types of privileged merchants, namely merchants, imperial merchants, and official merchants, Kublai Khan's court basically controlled the commerce of the entire country. (To be continued.) )