Winter City, the capital of the northwest province of the Ming Dynasty, is a city built on the basis of the original capital of the Siberian Khanate. Because of its high dimensions, it is very cold in winter. The cold weather and freezing ground are no longer enough to describe it.

Temperatures of tens of degrees below zero and heavy snow are enough to freeze everything.

Even though it's midsummer now, I can't feel the slightest bit of heat here in Winter City, but it's actually very cool.

Summer is the best time of the year in Winter City.

People can wear cool clothes and don't have to wrap themselves up in a big ball like in winter. The scenery of Winter City is also very beautiful and full of vitality everywhere.

On the vast black land outside Winter City, the prisoners who were exiled from the Ming Dynasty were busy constantly, cultivating food, growing vegetables, and then collecting food before winter, storing all the vegetables, and preparing a large amount of firewood.

, so that you can spend the winter with peace of mind.

This place is different from other places in Daming.

Once winter comes, almost all outsiders lose their ability to practice, and even the most desperate businessmen will not visit Winter City in winter.

You must know that in winter here, when heavy snow starts to fall, it can be as high as a person, everything will be blocked by ice, and all roads will be blocked.

In Winter City, a large number of merchants are busy doing business.

Even though it is the northwest corner of the Ming Empire, you can still buy various commodities from all over the world. Grain, flour and rice from the Hezhong area are undoubtedly the most popular here.

Winter City is too cold to grow rice, and even wheat can only be grown in spring wheat, and the yield is relatively low and the quality is far inferior to that in the Hezhong area.

The best yield here is potatoes. This crop from the Southern Golden Continent can adapt to the climate here very well, and it is considered the main crop here in Winter City.

However, people in the Ming Dynasty like to eat rice and white flour, so they need to buy a large amount of grain from the Hezhong area in the south every year to survive the winter.

In addition to food, bacon from the Hezhong area, cotton-padded clothes produced in the Beijing-Tianjin area, various dry goods from the Western Regions, and salted fish from Tianjin are all the most popular items in Winter City.

They are also important supplies that people in Winter City stock up for during the winter. Without these things, it would be uncomfortable to spend the winter.

The main output here in Winter City is all kinds of furs, deer skins, mink skins, bear skins, tiger skins, fox skins, etc. The output of various furs is very large, and the key is that the quality is good enough

.

The vast Siberian plain is sparsely populated and has extremely rich animal resources. Because of its high dimension, the furs of these animals are the best furs.

Here, almost everyone is engaged in the fur business, or they go hunting together to obtain furs in the summer, or they bring various commodities to exchange furs with the tribes in the Siberian plains, and then return to the fur trade.

Sold to merchants who come to Winter City to do fur business.

At this time, fur merchants everywhere in Winter City are buying furs on a large scale. A piece of high-quality and intact fur can be sold for a high price of dozens of taels of silver in Winter City.

If you go to the Beijing-Tianjin area, after processing, the price of a fur coat can be as high as hundreds of taels, or even thousands of taels of silver.

The profits are very large, so it attracts a large number of businessmen to come here to buy furs.

"Fur is collected, fur is collected, fur is collected in large quantities, fur is collected at high prices!"

The merchants brought their own guards, and the clerks were holding tin trumpets in various open spaces and kept shouting.

The shouts and shouts echoed throughout every corner of Winter City, making the place extremely lively and noisy.

"This fur of yours is not good. The color is not pure, and there are mottled colors."

"You are blind. This white fox fur has no trace of hair at all. It is bright in color and in perfect condition. You are still talking about that. I won't sell it to you anymore."

"Don't, don't, brother, it's like this in business, it's just like if you pawn something, no matter how good it is, it will be reduced to worthless if it comes into their mouth."

"Brother, make a price~"

"This kind of white fox fur is the finest fur. I won't sell it for 300 silver dollars or less."

"300 yuan, this is too expensive, too expensive, your product is good, but the price is too expensive, too expensive, 100 yuan, I want it."

"100 yuan?"

"Why don't you go and grab it? Don't think I don't know. When this fur arrives in the capital, it will cost thousands of taels of silver. I'm from the capital."

"It turns out that brother is from the capital. Sorry, sorry. Look at it like this. 200 yuan will give me some money. It's not easy to transport this fur to the capital. The money is not that easy to earn."

"280 yuan, if it's less, I'll show it to others."

"Let's make a concession to each other. Let's give it 250 yuan. You are also an expert, so I won't bother to talk more."

"Okay, okay~"

"..."

"Brother, these deer skins of yours are not good. Many of them are damaged and the quality is too bad. Also, the processing of this deer skin is not good. If we put them all together, it will cost 500 pieces of silver."

"Hey, you think I'm a fool. I have dozens of deer skins, which cost thousands of taels of silver. You actually want to take away five hundred silver dollars?"

"Brother, your quantity is quite large, but the condition is too bad. If it were in good condition, it would indeed be the price you said."

"No, no, no, I'll sell it to someone else."

"Brother, don't go, don't go, we can still discuss the price."

"If you say I won't sell it, I won't sell it. You black-hearted businessmen, you are so cruel to pay 500 pieces of silver for these dozens of deer skins."

"..."

In Winter City, there are sounds of bargaining everywhere, and merchants are desperately buying furs, rushing to make a big fortune before winter.

As popular as the fur market was the slave market.

Here in the slave market, many slave merchants are also constantly shouting. As long as someone comes in, especially those with tattoos or tattoos on their bodies, they will know at a glance that they are prisoners exiled here.

These slave traders will immediately swarm over and continue to sell the slaves in their hands.

"Brother, brother, come and take a look at my goods. They are all high-quality goods from the Kazan Khanate. You can choose whatever you want. It will be winter soon. Buy some female slaves and go back.

Then it won’t be cold in winter, nor will it be lonely.”

"Brother, brother, the goods I sell are truly good. The products produced by Black Sea Trading Company must be high-quality, and the storage is perfect. Moreover, it has been trained. Storage is your best companion in bed. There is nothing to do in this winter.

You can have enough fun at home every day, and I will give you a big fat baby next year."

Slave traders worked hard to sell the slaves in their hands.

The exiles here in Winter City are all prisoners, basically all men, all of them are young, strong, and energetic. When you get to Winter City, there is definitely no hope of getting a wife, so the business of female slaves has always been

They are all very popular and are the pillar industry here in Winter City.

In addition to the slave business for many exiled criminals in Winter City.

Because Winter City is very close to the Kazan Khanate, a large number of slaves came to Winter City from the Kazan Khanate and were then sold to various parts of the Ming Dynasty. This also attracted a large number of slave merchants to come here to purchase slaves in large quantities.

However, such large-scale transactions are usually done by major trading houses. Ordinary slave merchants usually do small businesses, selling dozens of female slaves here, and then selling these slaves and changing hands easily.

If you earn a few hundred or a thousand taels of silver, this year is enough.

Zhang Cai was walking on the streets of Winter City. He was already used to the lively scene in Winter City and was no longer surprised.

Ever since he was promoted to be the prefect of Beibing Prefecture in the Northwest Province, Zhang Cai would find a way to come to Winter City as long as he had time and an opportunity, and then he would try every means to stay in Winter City as much as possible.

As for the Beibing Mansion under his jurisdiction, as long as he can avoid it, he will never go back.

If Winter City is already very far north, then Beibing Mansion is the far north, the far north of Northwest Province, within the Arctic Circle.

Winter City can still feel some summer atmosphere in midsummer. There is no so-called summer in Beibing Mansion. It is all winter. Even now, Beibing Mansion is still very cold.

So Zhang Cai really doesn't like going to Beibing Mansion, and he will definitely not go if he can.

What's more, the state capital where Beibing Prefecture is located doesn't even have a decent city. There are only a few small towns with an extremely sparse population.

If he had become a prefect in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, he would definitely be very happy and would like to take up the post without stopping.

But he stayed here in Winter City, bought a property in Winter City, and simply settled here.

Winter City is still a city after all, with a large population. As long as you have money, you can still live a good life here. As for other places in the Northwest Province, they are all desolate and a place where birds do not shit.

"Liu Jin's son has now become the cabinet minister and controls the staff. I'm afraid he will never be able to return to the pass in his lifetime. He will have to grow old here in the frozen wasteland."

Zhang Caixin couldn't help but sigh.

On the surface, he has been promoted to prefect, a fourth-grade official, but who wants to be the prefect of Beibing Prefecture?

The entire area under the jurisdiction of Beibing Mansion is very wide. The entire northern part of the Northwest Province is under the jurisdiction of Beibing Mansion, but the population may not even be 3,000 people. This also includes the primitive tribes in the wilderness of Beibing Mansion.

As for the Han people, there are only a few hundred Han people in those small towns, and they are still criminals exiled here.

There is no oil and water, and it is a problem to get a piece of fur. If it weren't for the fact that the salaries of Ming officials have been rising again and again, and they can live a good life with their salaries, he would have doubted whether he would starve to death.

Here in Winterfell.

In order to be able to be transferred back to other places in the Ming Dynasty.

Here in Winter City, he wrote a lot of letters to his classmates and friends, so that the constant movement at home could clear up the joints.

However, it was all in vain.

Everyone knows about Zhang Cai and Liu Jin. Now Liu Jin is the cabinet elder. Who would offend the current cabinet elder Liu Jin for Zhang Cai? He is a popular person around Emperor Hongzhi and is very likely to be the cabinet minister in the future.

First assistant.

The key is that Liu Jin still has a good relationship with the prince. This position is extremely solid and cannot be shaken at all.

Zhang Cai also knew this, so he always sighed and felt depressed.

He really wanted to resign and return to his hometown to take care of himself, but he was reluctant to do so.
To be continued...