Chapter 119 The Eight Imperial Merchants
In addition, Huang Taiji had already sent troops to attack Dorote. Although he was rescued in time by the Ming court, the hatred between the two was deep and it was difficult to resolve it.

Therefore, Dorote and Jiannu had become mortal enemies. Even if the imperial court did not try to win them over, Dorote would absolutely and wholeheartedly defend the important road leading to Mongolia for the Ming court.

Compared with the Ming Dynasty, Dorote and Huang Taiji were mortal enemies.

However, what the imperial court needed was not for Dorote to die, but for him to be able to truly defend Mongolia for the imperial court. Therefore, improving the combat effectiveness of Dorote's tribe became an urgent measure.

It became imperative to open up trade and provide various resources such as salt and iron that Dorote urgently needed.

At this time, the official trade had been cut off. Once Blot obtained the right to trade, other Mongolian tribes would surely come to curry favor with him in order to purchase salt, iron and other resources from Dorote.

As long as Dorote is not stupid, he can use this power to form an alliance with other Mongolian tribes. Not only can he increase his influence on the grassland, but he can also attract reinforcements for himself when Huang Taiji attacks Chahar next time.

Moreover, before this, the main reason why the court decided to stop the city reward was that it could no longer afford the expenses of the "reward" in the city reward.

Secondly, Chongzhen discovered that the Jiannu often borrowed the names of the Mongolian tribes to openly purchase various types of salt, iron, tea, and even military supplies such as iron and gunpowder from the Ming Dynasty through trade.

In Chongzhen's view, this was simply aiding the enemy!
The Dorote tribe and Huang Taiji were now mortal enemies, so it was naturally impossible for them to sell the supplies to Huang Taiji.

Helping Huang Taiji would be equivalent to accelerating his own demise. Dorothea could not be so stupid.

Therefore, the imperial court could safely engage in trade with Dorote.

After receiving Wang An's analysis, Chongzhen was relieved and said with a smile: "It seems that I can send people to negotiate with Dulot and sell the medicinal materials."

Chongzhen's original intention was to go through with the show, pretending that he was asking the court about trade with Dorote for the sake of his own business.

However, Wang An sneered and said, "My dear brother, you should just do business with the Liao army honestly. Border trade is not something our family can afford. If you are not careful, you will lose your life."

Chongzhen frowned. Although he didn't really want to do business with Dorothea, from Wang An's tone it seemed that there was something fishy going on here.

As an emperor, Chongzhen immediately asked, "Brother, why do you say that? My family has many connections in Liaodong, which shows that it is not difficult to obtain official permission!"

Wang An laughed when he heard this, and couldn't help but said sarcastically: "It's not difficult to get official permission, but have you got the permission from the people?"

"Open face?" Chongzhen was confused. "Isn't open face the official face?"

When Wang An saw this, he immediately knew that Chongzhen had wrong ideas.

He shook his head and sneered: "The Ming I'm talking about here is not the Ming of the Great Ming, but the Min of the Diaomin people!"

"This... Brother, what you said makes me even more confused!" Chongzhen said puzzledly.

Wang An continued to sneer as he looked towards the north and said, "Any business with huge profits in this world has long been monopolized by interest groups."

"Just like the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, most of them are from Shanxi, Shaanxi and Anhui. They stick together because of the friendship between fellow villagers and clansmen. It is extremely difficult for outsiders to intervene!" Wei Zhongxian's mind was already a mess because he had been listening in, but he kept nodding his head in agreement when he heard this.

Wang An continued, “This is true for the salt industry and border trade.”

According to the "Records of Qing Dynasty", before Nurhaci established the Later Jin regime (1618, the th year of Wanli), there was already a group of merchants from Shandong, Shanxi and Liaodong in Fushun, Liaodong, who colluded with each other to sell all kinds of resources to the Later Jin, including military supplies such as ironware and armor.

However, the "Records of Qing Dynasty" records that Nurhaci "gave these merchants generous money, wrote down seven words of regret, and sent them back."

In other words, for those merchants who did business with Nurhaci, Nurhaci not only paid them prices far exceeding the normal market price, but also gave each of them a letter of rebellion with the seven major grievances written on it and asked them to take it back to the country.

Not only that, the Ming Dynasty also colluded with the Mongolian tribes, taking advantage of the convenience of trade with the Ming Dynasty, and directly sent people disguised as Mongolians to purchase supplies from Ming Dynasty merchants.

When it was at its most rampant, it could almost be said that the transactions were conducted in an open and aboveboard manner.

It was so open and aboveboard that not only the merchants who traded with them knew that the other party was the Jiannu and not the Mongols, but even the regulatory officials at the ports were well aware of it.

Even after Chongzhen came to power and announced the "abolition of all rewards", the Jiannu could no longer openly obtain supplies from the Ming Dynasty in the name of Mongolian cloth. However, these merchants could still sell the salt, iron and other goods that the Jiannu urgently needed to Liaodong through various smuggling channels.

Speaking of this, we have to mention that Mao Wenlong is also one of the channels.

By bribing border guards such as Mao Wenlong, merchants transported supplies that the imperial court had expressly prohibited from being sold to the Jiannu.

As time passed, some of the merchants who traded with the Jiannu became outstanding and monopolized the channels of trading with the Jiannu.

And these outstanding people are the eight famous imperial merchants in later generations, the Eight Great Merchants of Shanxi!
It can be said that without the support of these people, the Jiannu would never have risen so quickly.

Their contribution was so great that after the Later Jin Dynasty took control of the Central Plains, these people were even invited by the then Emperor Shunzhi to have meals in the side hall of the imperial palace!

Moreover, the titles of these eight imperial merchants were not "honorary titles" given to them by later generations or contemporaries, but were conferred by Shunzhi himself!
It can be seen that even the Jiannu recognized the contributions of these so-called eight imperial merchants.

If you want to ask why the eight imperial merchants rose so quickly and were able to monopolize border trade with the Jiannu and the Mongols, it is actually very simple, that is, the geographical advantage.

Among the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty, four were either located in Shanxi or very close to Shanxi, which provided a natural convenience for the trade between Shanxi merchants and the Mongols.

Among them, Zhangjiakoubao, a border trade city specially authorized by the imperial court in the late Ming Dynasty, is only a stone's throw away from Shanxi, with Tumed on the left and Kharchin on the right.

It was originally an important port for trade between the imperial court and the Mongolian tribes, but was transformed by the eight imperial merchants into an important foreign trade port for transactions with the Later Jin.

The eight imperial merchants have accumulated tens of millions of wealth by relying on border trade businesses. It is extremely difficult for outsiders to join such a lucrative industry.

After Wang An explained why it was wishful thinking for Chongzhen to engage in border trade, Chongzhen once again made the expression that Wang An was familiar with.

(End of this chapter)