Chapter 454: The Battle of the Neighbors

Iron is a material for weapons and various utensils. People's daily life is inseparable from salt. However, the grasslands lack salt and iron. All Mongolian tribes supplemented it through trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Because the establishment of the Ming Dynasty started with the expulsion of the Mongol Yuan, Zhu Di, the Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, launched northern expeditions many times, and later the Tumu Fort Incident and other things, there was a situation of inconsistent with each other, so naturally, there were some restrictions on the Mongols on the grassland at this source.

The trade of salt and iron was strictly controlled. Most of the horses in the Ming Dynasty were also in the form of border trade, and the materials for cattle, horses and livestock were exchanged for cattle, horses and livestock.

However, this ban became loose in the late Jiajing era. A large number of Shanxi merchants got rich because of this, and Mongolia no longer worried about the intimate materials such as salt and iron. The Mongolian tribes, who suddenly received such abundant supplies, became stronger as well, which put a lot of pressure on the border at that time.

Perhaps it was because of the peace and happiness that the ample Mongolian tribe declined much faster than the Ming Dynasty. After the end of the three major expeditions in the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty was already extremely weak, but the border barbarians like Mongolia did not take advantage of the weak invasion of the Central Plains Han countries as they had been in the practice of thousands of years.

The only one that flourished was the Manzhou Jurchens who were also settled people engaged in fishing, hunting and commerce...

Since the end of Wanli, salt and iron have become the same ordinary materials as forage for various Mongolian tribes on the grasslands, and the prices are not high.

But at the end of the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Mongolian tribes who came to trade as usual suddenly discovered that no one of the Ming merchants who had traded with them at the Datong border were seen.

It is precisely because of the simplicity of salt goods and iron tools that the nobles of each tribe spent money on buying expensive jewelry and treasures, and they did not store salt and iron tools as they had the opportunity as a hundred years ago, and there were not many storages in each tribe.

The salt is also turned upside down by private salt from Shandong in the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention on such a shortage of grasslands, especially Tumot Mongolia, which is opposite the north of the Datong border.

The Tumote tribe is a large tribe with nearly 100,000 people, known as the "string control man" for 50,000. Of course, if it is really fought, more than 20,000 cavalry and about 4,000 elite troops can still be pulled out. The Tumote tribe is a tribe that does not have much storage because it is too convenient to get salt and iron.

There is also a pool of salt in Shaanxi. But it is controlled by the Yilibali tribe of West Mongolia. Most of these Western Mongolian tribes are Mongolian-made Western tribes. Both sides are called Mongolia by the Ming Dynasty, but they are really incompatible with each other. But these Western Mongolian tribes are quite powerful in combat.

The wastes in Eastern Mongolia could not defeat the West Mongolian side, so they naturally could not obtain salt from there. The most unlucky part was the Tumote tribe. The Tumote tribe was far less close to Chahar and Korqin, and they naturally could not obtain supplements there. But he was at the forefront of Western Mongolia, and it was almost a situation where both sides did not rely on them.

In the past, because it was quite close to Datong, Shanxi. There was sufficient supply of salt and iron, and the Tumote tribe could even sell it to other small tribes to make some money.

Now that the trade is cut off, let alone the money you make can’t make. Even the cost of your own land has become a problem, and the border guards have become stricter. If you want to go to Datong Prefecture to inquire about something, people are often caught halfway and thrown into a hard labor camp to work as a cattle and horse.

By the fifth day of the first lunar month of the 17th year of Chongzhen, Mongolian merchants and various noble buyers who were still preparing to take chances in the trade area were all met with the arrogant Ming caravan.

This caravan didn't look like the Shanxi merchants in the past. They had a very naughty face and did not have the kind of politeness and humility of a businessman at all. They just raised their heads and offered a price, which was nearly dozens of times more expensive than usual. After all, they could be exchanged for a horse with just one pot or ten kilograms of salt.

Although Mongolian tribes make a living by livestock, they can buy so many horses and livestock there, and the money has been accumulated in the hands of nobles. The salt and iron are transported back. The herdsmen from each household must be shared equally, and thousands of households of the tribe must also make a fortune in this. It is so expensive that no one is willing to buy it. Of course, the leaders and nobles of these tribes are not willing to advance the money that must be lost.

After much persuasion, he begged all kinds of people and secretly stuffed some silver into the ground. The representative of the merchant who came to sell salt on the grassland was relieved. He said that there were not many goods this time, but they were distributed to everyone at a lower price, and they would never give up next time.

All Mongolian merchants and buyers who met the opportunity divided the goods. These arrogant salt merchants of Daming made an appointment with everyone to make time, saying that they would come again next time and that they would bring a little more goods.

Under the questioning of these Mongolian merchants and buyers, the salt merchants of Daming also revealed some whims, saying that the news in the pass has been tight recently, and the new Datong general Chen Yongfu has not yet managed it. Shanxi has already dumped several businesses because of his severity, and everyone is careful.

The Chinese New Year is also celebrated on the grassland. Due to the shortage of salt and iron, the Tumote tribe lived a very bleak year. From Tumote Khan to the hundreds of households below, they gathered together to discuss it many times.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month of the 17th year of Chongzhen, another trading was held at the market where the last transaction was traded. Perhaps the news had spread on the grassland. In addition to the Tumote tribe, there were also tribes that received the news. They also bought more while the price was still cheap.

The salt goods and ironware brought by the salt merchants who claim to be the Taiyuan Mansion were quickly sold out. The prices were much higher than usual, but they were much cheaper than the previous price dozens of times higher. Now that so many people are buying it, it is a seller's market. If you don't buy it, you will do it.

Such a good business made the shopkeepers and shopkeepers of a business in Taiyuan Mansion smiled and said they would bring more goods to come next time.

The Taiyuan Prefecture business is proud to show off with the Mongolians who came to buy goods, saying that their shopkeeper had already taken up the line of Datong General Chen Yongfu, and the transactions on the grassland were almost monopolized by their family. Even though they came to buy salt and Tiedi, they were very polite.

But I was complaining secretly in my heart. Even the price that has increased nearly ten times is a high price that cannot be afforded for tribes with hundreds of thousands of people.

Because of this price, no one dares to spend money to buy too much, but with fewer of these essential items, the tribe will gradually cause chaos.

After the end of this business, Tumot Khan sent people to send a letter to all tribes with more than a thousand people near Datong, inviting nobles from various tribes to come to the golden tent of Tumot tribe to discuss matters.

Although the salt price is high, people still have to eat salt and business still have to do it. The border residents in Xi Mongolia and Shaanxi are still fighting for the ownership of this pool of salt. The occasionally exposed salt products are useless at all. They are about to be exploited by these so-called Taiyuan businesses.

Perhaps because they knew that the amount sold was going to be sold out soon, the caravans from Taiyuan Prefecture brought goods to the grassland again on the 25th day of the first lunar month.

Originally, such salt and ironware only took once a month, but it was so frequent here. It was obvious that I wanted to make money from the Mongolians.

There is no waterway on the grassland. The goods coming from Taiyuan Prefecture all go to Datong, and then to the grassland. The means of transportation are land-based cattle, horses and carts. According to the judgment of the Tumote tribe, these merchants cannot mobilize this batch of goods to the north within twenty days.

There should be a warehouse in Datong Prefecture. It seems that the reason for the high salt price is that the Datong General Chen Yongfu, these Ming local officials were greedy for money to the point where they were outrageous.

February 15th. This time there were more goods, but there were more buyers from Mongolian tribes. It was obvious that there were too many monks and less porridge. There were thousands of households in the Tumote tribe who set up a separate tent to host the leader of the caravan, lambs, wine, and beautiful maids, and some shameful benefits.

This caravan leader has made many things confusing. For example, this business is called Lingshan Business Company, which was jointly opened by Shandong businessman and Datong General Chen Yongfu.

When General Chen Yongfu led his army from Henan to Shanxi, Shandong merchants assisted in food and paid halfway and gave a lot of money. As a result, General Chen Yongfu was quite appreciated. Chen Yongfu also accounted for 50% of the business that was jointly opened this time.

Shandong merchants are all salt traders, and when they come to Shanxi, they have many conflicts with local merchants. Chen Yongfu, the general of Datong, also had the means. He directly banned Shanxi merchants' wealth and gave these huge profits. They were all handed over to Shandong merchants.

And there are other things, such as the shopkeeper said that there is a salt warehouse converted from a military warehouse in Datong City. The salt goods stored in it are enough to eat and use on the grassland for a year. Every time the goods sold are allocated from the salt warehouse and transported here.

After hearing the news about the salt warehouse, Wanhu from Tumot's tribe immediately lit up his eyes and kept urging him to drink. When he was in a refreshing place, the Wanhu said again:

"The Tumote tribe is quite expensive. If the price of the expensive business can be reduced, we Khan decided to buy the portion for the next year..."

After saying this deal, the shopkeeper was immediately awakened by the wine. The portion of the year, even if it was reduced, it would have a profit of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Tsk, hundreds of thousands of taels of taels, and the amount of taxes in the Ming Dynasty in the year was said to have accumulated a lot of money over the years. It seems that it is true.

The shopkeeper would definitely not be able to make a decision for such a big deal, so he could only go back and report to the top to make a decision. According to the Mongolians who had been dealing with the Ming Dynasty for many years, with such a large sum of silver, Chen Yongfu, the general of Datong who had combined shares, would definitely let it go, and maybe he would send military troops to transport it together.

After the discussion in the tent ended, there was another carnival. It was really fun for the host and guests. Under the escort of the Tumot Cavalry, the shopkeeper of the Lingshan Trading Company took his friend and hurried back to Datong.

Sure enough, everyone was moved by such a big business, not to mention that the Tumote tribe generously paid 300 taels of gold as a deposit. Five days later, the Mongolian leader who was waiting for news on the grassland received news from this business, saying that it was the fifth day of the March, and the first batch of salt goods would be transported to the grassland.

The first batch of salt goods was 120,000 kilograms, nearly 250 large trucks. When Tumot Khan heard this news, he couldn't help but curse in his gold tent. These Han people were too shameless. It seemed that they were planning to make the big money for us Mongolians. Fortunately, we were prepared.

On the first day of March, in addition to Tumot's own herdsmen, cavalrymen from various nearby small and medium-sized tribes also began to gather towards the Kaorhai. The so-called sea on the grassland is a large lake.

The place where both parties decided to trade salt goods was Maoerzhuang, 120 miles south of Wanhai...

He used a big deal to release a large number of goods from the unscrupulous merchants of the Ming Dynasty and snatched all the salt goods, leaving the unscrupulous merchants to lose all their money.

Calculate the gold and silver spent on these business times. If you grab the first batch of goods, it will last for almost half a year and spread it out. It happens to be the cost of buying salt in the past, and it will be just to make up for it. With the weight of this six-year to support it, you won’t be afraid that these Ming merchants in the pass will not lower the price.

Tumot Khan had already made plans to use these salt goods to gather scattered tribes everywhere. It made Tumot's power stronger. Tumot Khan was quite proud this time, saying that the Han people in the Ming Dynasty were cunning, but this time they were deceived by my plan.

The cavalry of various units of the Iron Sea Conference, and the Tumote unit was the main force, and used a total of 18,000 cavalry. The remaining units combined in a mixed bag, and there were almost 22,000 cavalry.

For this operation, Tumote's troops moved all the gold tents near Guanshan to the side of the Wanerhai. It was to command and dispatch nearby.

According to the discussion between Tumot Khan and the nobles of various departments, after the 22,000 cavalry robbed the tens of thousands of kilograms of salt, they immediately sent people to pretend to be a clerk and a shopkeeper, cheated the switch and entered the pass and robbed him once.

Now the Mongolian troops are weak and cannot enter the pass. Last time I entered the pass, I followed the Qing Dynasty troops. This is why I went to Datong Prefecture to make some profit. This time I should be mobilizing. If I could break the pass and loot once, then I would make a lot of money by gathering various cavalry this time.

The so-called Mongolian cavalry does not really need to be grazed, and very few are fighting for full-time operations. A large tribe like Tumot, which has nearly 100,000 people, has only more than 4,000 elite troops. Most of the other cavalry are herders holding weapons to make up for the numbers, with decent weapons. Those who have seen several battles are naturally the so-called strong army. If they have no land, they are servants who follow the fun.

Some Mongolian herdsmen came to follow with their waist knives and sharpened wooden sticks as wooden spears. They were thinking about dividing two kilograms of salt or robbing them to make some cheaper things.

This kind of cavalry gathering is noisy and completely out of order. The soldiers and horses of the Tumote and the tribe are fine, some are scattered herders and even horse bandits. They follow the large group of people in a mess. Whoever goes there can't manage it at all.

On the fifth day of March, the envoy of the Wanhudi tribe of Tumote and the shopkeeper of the Taiyuan business company took over and said that the salt goods had been shipped to Maoerzhuang and were waiting to go over and pay the money and receive the goods.

When the news came to the news, all the nobles of Tumote tribe laughed loudly. These greedy men finally took the bait. The cart moved slowly. As long as it left the border and went to a place like Maoerzhuang, it was impossible for them to run beyond the speed of the cavalry. It was already the prey they had.

The order was immediately issued, with the sound of horns, and more than 20,000 cavalry headed towards Maoerzhuang in a huge momentum, which they had considered as the thing in their pocket.

The momentum of more than 20,000 cavalry is not ordinary. It is winter again, and there is no vegetation on the grassland. The dust covers half of the sky and can be seen from a distance. But these Mongolian cavalry are not afraid. Now the large convoy cannot escape even if they want to run.

The weather was pretty good. When they arrived at Maoer Village, a market where only small merchants and vendors in Han and Mongolia were always empty. However, they saw the smoke and dust covering the sky and knew that a large number of soldiers were coming, and no one was willing to wait here to die. But those hundreds of big cars could not escape even if they wanted to run away.

Heavy salt goods, not very flexible wooden wheels, and bad horses that pull carts cannot run out of speed.

When a large number of people arrived here, it was indeed unexpected that the more than 200 large trucks were parked in the open space outside Maoerzhuang.

Seeing this scene, every Mongolian cavalry showed a look of joy. He had never lived on the grassland. He didn't know how important salt is to them and what it means.

These big trucks were filled with tarpaulins and parked there in a mess. But looking at the animals pulling the trucks, they had already been unloaded, probably to let the animals rest when they walked back. Some Tumot cavalry were joking loudly, saying that these Han people were still trying to save their livestock and pulling back gold, silver and fur.

The agreement agreed on that day that the payment for this batch of salt goods could be paid in addition to gold and silver. It can also be mortgaged with livestock and fur. During the negotiations that day, the ten thousand households in Tumot almost broke out on the spot because the livestock and fur were suppressed by the other party to an unacceptable low price.

Everyone is ruthless. So what if you know how to do business? We Genghis Khan’s descendants snatched them all for you at once, and then sold them as slaves. You can’t even cry.

When the big trucks carrying salt goods were visited here, they gathered in a circle, but they could not see the drivers and shopkeepers and shopkeepers.

The cavalry slowed down, and the elite troops of the Tumot and the personal guards under the Jin Tent all ran to the front, and everyone was carefully searching for the locations of the shopkeepers.

This didn't work for too long.                                                           

When they saw this, the Mongolian cavalry laughed. These Ming Dynasty profiteers were indeed hiding behind the car, with thousands of households and hundreds of households shouting continuously. These Mongolian cavalry brigades suddenly spread out. If they looked down in the air, they could see that the originally triangular cavalry formation suddenly opened. They swallowed the large convoy of salt cart land.

The split and combined formations of these cavalry are all ordinary Mongolian cavalry, and there is nothing rare about them. However, when the cavalry rushed to the front, they did not find any gaps into the cart. It looked messy, but these carts still circled.

After surrounding the team of this big cart, the cavalry looked at the people running quickly inside. They turned their horses from all directions and leaned over to beat the horses.

Since there is no room for entry, it is the same for dismounting and climbing in. The cavalry in the front row have already hung their cavalry spears on the horse, biting their sabers, and preparing to dismount and climb the car.

Slowly, the cavalry on the periphery almost stopped the horses, as if they were centered on this large chariot team. The cavalry's men and horses were all facing the large chariot team, and gradually stopped the horses from the inside out.

The ten rows of the inner circle were almost quiet, and the first and second rows were already rolling over and dismounting and running forward.

At this moment, the inner ring of the cart suddenly started to beat the gong. It was not the same place, but the ringing was ringing at the same time in almost several directions, as if it was a heavy rain, which was extremely rapid.

The sudden sound of the gong was shocked by the Mongolian cavalry outside, who was feeling relaxed, but the cavalry in the back row were still dismounting and preparing to enter.

Just as the sound of the gong sounded, the tarpaulin covered by the cart was pulled down at the same time. The Mongolian cavalry suddenly discovered that the salt claddings covered by the tarpaulin were placed layer by layer, that is, they were chest-high. It seemed that the chariot was placed not only salt claddings, but also Ming officers and soldiers standing behind the salt claddings holding muskets.

The rapid and dense sound of gongs had already suppressed everything. The Mongolian cavalry were also panicked by the gongs like rain. They bit the scimitar in their mouths, and the Mongolian cavalry running forward were stunned and didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, the sound of the gong stopped, and the musket on the salt bag immediately opened fire. The cart that had just calmed down was immediately covered by a louder sound - the screams of the Mongolian cavalry.

This is the so-called center blossom. Around the cart are densely packed with Mongolian cavalry. The fire of the muskets is only thirty steps away from the target in front of them, and they are still condescending. Every time they shoot, they will hit the enemy and shoot with no bullets, which means that it is now.

There was no rotational shooting this time. The musket soldiers who fired behind the salt bag finished shooting one, and the people behind immediately handed over a new musket loaded with ammunition, and the shooting was almost connected.

What's even more unlucky is that the Mongolian cavalry who happened to face artillery. Every few large chariots, there was a car with a cannon on it. The cannon could be placed on a large chariot made of wooden boards. It would definitely not be a large caliber artillery, but at such a close range, the power cannot be said to be small.

And because they were ready for battle, these cannons were all equipped with shotguns. With such a dense crowd, the power of shotguns was maximized.
To be continued...