Chapter 124: Shanxi Merchants’ Tricks

Fan Yongdou was beaming with joy, as if he was extremely happy that Chongzhen and the court had lost face.

Everyone echoed the sentiment, mocking the Ming court for being weak and incompetent, and Emperor Chongzhen for overestimating his own capabilities and bringing humiliation upon himself.

Only Wang Dengku looked worried. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "But I heard that the 36 Kharachin tribes and Ligdan Khan were fighting fiercely in Guihua City. The Duolot tribe is one of the eight Okto tribes of Ligdan Khan. We are leaving Zhangjiakou Fort to go to Duolot, and we must pass through Kharachin. I am afraid that the Kharachin tribes will not let us pass so easily."

These words were like a bucket of cold water poured on everyone's head, making them all frown.

Fan Yongdou said unconcernedly, "Who said we have to go through Kalaqin? I have found out that the imperial court is going to set up a trade port next to Duolo outside Jinzhou City. We can open a shop directly in Jinzhou City!"

"Those bastards from Liaodong and Northern Zhili have been eyeing the meat in our bowls. If we let them get there first, our business will be in trouble in the future."

As he spoke, Fan Yongdou looked at Liang Jiabin and said, "Jinzhou City is only a stone's throw away from Liaoxi. Then Shopkeeper Liang can directly sell it to Huang Taiji through Jinzhou Yunmu before going to Liaoxi. Then others will even save Mao Wenlong's share. Don't you think this is good news?"

Liang Jiabin's face suddenly showed joy, but after a moment he hesitated again, "But we have been doing business in Zhangjiakou Fort for these years. Even if we go out privately, we go to Xuanfu and Datong, and even Jizhen is rarely visited!"

"Although we have some connections in Liaodong, it is not our base. I heard that the court sent Yuan Chonghuan to supervise Ji and Liao again this year. I am afraid that the goods can be transported to Jinzhou but cannot leave Jinzhou City..."

Wang Dengku also echoed what he said, "We have come into contact with Yuan Chonghuan before. He is a man who is both good and evil."

"If you say he is an honest official, he still accepts money; if you say he is a corrupt official, there are many obstacles for us to leave the country."

The rest of the people also echoed this view, and most of them shared the same opinion as Wang Dengku and Liang Jiabin, and were unsure whether Yuan Chonghuan could be bribed.

Unexpectedly, Fan Yongdou smiled mysteriously and said, "Do you know Zu Dashou?"

Huang Yunfa said: "I remember him. He is the son of Deputy General Zu Chengxun. I heard that he was promoted to General of Ningyuan in the seventh year of Tianqi. He is much more promising than his father."

Fan Yongdou nodded and said with a smile: "Manager Huang, what year are you talking about? He is now stationed in Jinzhou and has become the vanguard commander!"

"Oh, it turns out that he is the one stationed in Jinzhou?" Wang Dengku exclaimed in surprise, stroking his beard with a flash of eyes.

Fan Yongdou continued with a smile, "This time when I went to Liaodong, I also visited him to get the upper hand!"

When everyone heard this, their eyes became fiery.

Wang Dengku asked directly: "How is this person? Is he sensible?"

Fan Yongdou laughed when he heard this and said, "Who is Zu Dashou? He is a hereditary military officer! The Zu family has inherited the military post of Ningyuan since the Xuande period. From a low-ranking military officer to the current three generations of generals, even if he has military merits, is it possible that he didn't use money to bribe him?"

"And the master's family is a prominent military family, and the children in the family are well fed and clothed. How can he not be greedy?"

"As long as he is greedy, he will have bad intentions! If we give him money, he may not dare to accept it at first, but he will definitely not be unwilling to accept it!"

Wang Dengku nodded and said, "So we should cater to his needs and find a suitable opportunity to give him money?" Fan Yongdou smiled and said, "It seems that God is helping us. Zu Dashou has a nephew named Wu Sangui. His father is Wu Xiang, the general of Liaodong. He passed the military examination last year and is planning to get a job."

"As you all know, it is impossible for a man like him to inherit the throne if his father is still alive. He doesn't want to be a low-ranking military officer, so he is planning to get the position of a commander-in-chief. To get this position, he has to go through the Ministry of War, and he can't do it without spending a lot of money..."

Wang Dengku said, "I understand, but Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang are both generals after all, are they still short of this little money?"

Fan Yongdou said meaningfully: "Of course they can come up with these tens of millions of taels of silver, but these officials are willing to spend other people's money and naturally won't be willing to pay from their own pockets, right?"

"Now that the imperial court has opened the Jinzhou Trade Fair, it happens to be his grandfather's territory. How can he not take advantage of this opportunity to make some money?"

"Although Zu Dashou didn't say it explicitly, nor did he say that he would guarantee us such and such in Jinzhou in exchange for the silver we gave him, our business philosophy is to listen to what he says. How could we not understand what he meant?"

"We are not afraid of him taking the money. As long as he takes it, we will have a good relationship. It will take a few more days at most. Once he takes enough money, he will have another chance. When that happens, it will not be his business to control what we do!"

Everyone felt relieved after hearing this and burst into laughter.

What Fan Yongdou said is exactly the tactic commonly used by these Shanxi merchants.

Over the years, there have been personnel changes from time to time along his route to Shangshan, with officials who had been won over being replaced by new ones.

Among them, there are bound to be some naive people or those who pretend to be rude and refuse to accept money. Fan Yongdou and others will then ask their relatives for favors, or use other tricks to make people gain their benefits and favors.

As long as they did it the first time, it would be much easier to give benefits the second time. Gradually, these officials unknowingly gained huge benefits from Fan Yongdou and others.

At this point, even though they knew that what Fan Yongdou and others were doing was illegal, they had no choice but to try their best to cover up for them.

After all, if they don't comply, Fan Yongdou and others will have evidence of them accepting bribes.

Moreover, most officials have gained benefits from Fan Yongdou and others, and most of them have become addicted to the benefits. They will take the initiative to provide help even without Fan Yongdou and others saying much.

Now, they are going to use this old trick on Zu Dashou.

Soon, the eight major Shanxi merchants discussed all the measures, including how to celebrate the birthday of the Dragon Ancestor, how to prepare shops in Jinzhou, when to start transporting supplies to Liaodong, how much supplies each individual needed to prepare, etc.

However, everyone had stockpiled a lot of supplies in Zhangjiakou Fort, and seeing that the court would not reopen Zhangjiakou Fort for a while, instead of keeping these supplies here and consuming funds, everyone discussed sending the supplies from Zhangjiakou to Liaodong first.

Everyone had a fully staffed caravan, but there were a lot of supplies stockpiled in Zhangjiakou Fort, and this time more manpower would be needed to transport all of them to Jinzhou City in Liaodong.

As a result, notices recruiting clerks were posted in front of the shops of the eight major Shanxi merchants.

Among them, the timber company belonging to Liang Jiabin recruited a particularly large number of people.

(End of this chapter)