Chapter 79: The Ten Thousand Horse Gang
The so-called horse market refers to a fixed place where the Central Plains dynasty and ethnic minorities in the border areas traded with each other. It was named horse market because it was mainly for exchanging or buying horses.
The horse market has a long history.
Nomadic peoples live by following water and grass and need food, tea and cloth from the Central Plains. This has been the case with the Xiongnu and Turks since the Han and Tang dynasties.
During the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was more powerful.
——You can't lack tea, but I can lack horses. When you eat only meat until you are half dead, all the horses will be mine!
Of course, it is impossible to give nothing at all, otherwise it would make Mongolia and Jurchens angry and the gain would be counterproductive.
In the early Ming Dynasty, under the high-pressure supervision of Zhu Yuanzhang, there was only an official market and all transactions had to be conducted under the nose of the government.
This created a situation where "tea was expensive and horses were cheap".
But once the good system is relaxed, monetary interests will lead to corruption, destroying the entire market monopoly, and the situation will be reversed.
Lao Zhu is tough, but unfortunately not everyone is as tough as Lao Zhu.
Over time, for greater profits, smuggling emerged and the government was unable to ban it, so it could only acquiesce in the transformation of the official market into a private market.
The reason why Altan Khan in the north repeatedly attacked the Ming Dynasty was not only to burn, kill and loot, but also to force the Ming court to completely open the horse market.
For the Ming Dynasty, opening the market did more harm than good.
The Tatars are now at their peak, and it is obvious that once the market opens, the Mongols will enter and leave the border town at will and will definitely not behave themselves. It is obvious that they will push their greedy desires.
But for various reasons, General Qiu felt that as long as the market was opened, the Mongols would behave themselves. Therefore, taking advantage of the fact that he had saved the emperor and had won the trust of Jiajing, he made many suggestions to him, requesting that a horse market be opened in the border towns.
Jiajing was finally persuaded and agreed to give it a try.
Last year, the proposal for a horse market was passed to open horse markets in Datong and Xuanfu, namely the Xuanda Horse Market, which was dedicated to trade with the Tatars.
However, no matter what the authorities do, it has little impact on the private market, especially the Liaodong horse market.
As the largest horse market, it has its own set of rules and is not subject to external constraints.
In order to facilitate the transportation and trading of horses, the horse dealers active there joined forces with tea and salt dealers to form the once-famous "Ten Thousand Horse Gang"!
War horse resources are scarce, and the government and the Wanma Gang have always been cooperating, and the Wanma Gang has also been very cooperative.
After all, they just want to do business and make money, not sell out their country.
Especially the leader of this generation, Wang Zhengkai, a descendant of a loyal and honest man, is even willing to accept the open supervision of the Jinyiwei to prove that he has no intention of colluding with the Tatars or connecting with foreign races!
This righteous act made the Wanma Gang increasingly famous in Liaodong and its power grew rapidly. In recent years, it even expanded to Jizhou, Xuanfu and other places.
Half a month ago.
An unexpected incident occurred in the Liaodong horse market, and many merchant caravans were brutally killed, with no one found alive or dead, including some masters at the peak of the innate realm!
The Wanma Gang conducted extensive investigations but were still unable to come to a conclusion, so they had to report to the Jinyiwei.
To show his seriousness, Liu Zhenyuan specially dispatched Shen Xiang to assist. Unexpectedly, the case of the robbery and murder of the caravan was not solved. Instead, from clues, he discovered that the Wanma Gang was actually related to the robbery in the ghost market more than a month ago!
Wanma Gang, Huang Family of Ghost Market.
One is in Liaodong, one is in the capital, one sells horses, one is a doctor...
The relationship is totally unrelated.
Even if they needed Huang Fangling to treat their illness, couldn't they just come directly? With the wealth of the Wanma Gang, couldn't they afford the consultation fee? Was there any need to kidnap him?
This not only puzzled Shen Xiang, but also concerned Liu Zhenyuan, so he asked Cao Jinxing to help keep an eye on it.
Cao Jinxing took the document and glanced at it.
According to the information provided by Shen Xiang: Hua Liu, the seventh of the "Eight Horses" masters of the Guangning headquarters of the Wanma Gang, once wrote a secret letter to Wu Yunfeng, the head of the Wu family in Guishi - the two were both true disciples of the Liaodong Wushuang Sect and had a master-student relationship - asking him to bring Huang Fangling to Guangning as soon as possible, and also made a special note that he must bring her there as soon as possible even if he had to use any means necessary!
what is interesting is……
This letter was never sent!
Hua Liu was in charge of the Wanma Gang's accounts. After writing the letter, he put it in the account book and somehow forgot about it. It was only discovered when Shen Xiang sneaked into the accounting office to check.
Even more interesting is...
Shen Xiang asked Hua Liu many times in a roundabout way, but Hua Liu had no memory of it at all. His expression was natural and honest, without any disguise.
Everything is normal at the Guangning headquarters.
——Except for this strange letter.
“…”
Cao Jinxing was a little confused after reading the document: "Did he lose his memory due to drinking? And it was quite complete?"
"Haha, maybe."
Liu Zhenyuan smiled and said, "That's why we didn't alert the enemy... He has no connection with Huang Fangling. The only way he could be so eager to catch someone is that he is seriously ill, or some kind of serious illness that cannot be told to others. That's why he chose a controllable doctor. But according to Shen Xiang's investigation, he is unharmed and his skills have improved. The same is true for Wang Zhengkai and other masters of the Wanma Gang. He wrote a letter and found someone, but he seems to be unaware of it. This is strange."
"It's a bit strange..."
Cao Jinxing held the document and frowned in thought: "The letter was not sent, but Wu Yunfeng still did it... Did he send more than one letter, or did he contact Wu Yunfeng more than once? Or, both..."
“That doesn’t count as following orders.”
Liu Zhenyuan put his hands behind his back and said, "The Wu family didn't want the Huang family to dominate, so they had a motive. Maybe it was just a coincidence, so they took action even without receiving the letter."
"No."
Cao Jinxing shook his head: "The root of the Huang family's rise is only Huang Fangling. As long as she is killed, everything will return to the starting point. The problem is... I remember very clearly that the four people wanted to take her out, and they let her fall off the cliff because they had no other choice... If Wu Yunfeng just didn't want the Huang family to dominate, he could have just killed her directly and nothing would have happened."
Liu Zhenyuan then said: "Pharmacists are precious, maybe they want to capture them for their own use?"
“That’s impossible.”
Cao Jinxing still shook his head: "Although I have only met her twice, Huang Fangling gives me the impression that she is gentle on the outside but strong on the inside. Her guards respect her very much, and are even afraid of her, which shows that she has great prestige! This is not something a weak lady can do. For such a person, forcing her is useless. Even I can see this. People from the Wu family often come and go, so there is no reason for me not to know."
"Um……"
Liu Zhenyuan raised his eyebrows, smiled at him, and nodded: "... Not bad, you didn't let fame and fortune go to your head. I was really worried that you would be immersed in that bullshit Tianjiao List."
“…”
Cao Jinxing was speechless: "Can you be serious and talk about business?"
"Hahaha."
Liu Zhenyuan smiled with relief and patted his shoulder: "I'll leave this matter to you. Don't worry, take your time."
"All right."
Cao Jinxing put down the document and said, "Then wait until Lu Jiaming and the others finish reading the secret book, and I'll go to the ghost market with him to ask about the situation... Speaking of which, after reading the document, why do I feel that it is different from what you said? Is this a trivial matter?"
This document alone reveals so many anomalies!
“They’re all the same size.”
Liu Zhenyuan said nonchalantly: "Do a good job!"
Cao Jinxing: “…”
Damn it, you really tricked me!
