The palm-sized nephrite is as white as suet, placed on the dark table, reflecting a soft luster...
"Is this the jade of Kunshan?"
Even if Heifu Chen Ping doesn't know the price of jade, he can still see that this piece of jade is worth a lot of money. Although it is not "Liancheng", it is at least worth several hundred gold!
Heifu's narrative begins with jade.
He said to Wu Shiluo: "Your Majesty likes to collect treasures. When Li Tingwei wrote the "Book of Remonstrance and Expulsion of Guests", he listed the jade from Kunshan with the treasures of Suihou, Heshi's Bi, Mingyue's Pearl, Tai'a's Sword, etc.
As far as I know, this Kunshan jade was bought by Wu Jun from Yueshi..."
The so-called Kunshan is Kunlun Mountain. However, Kunlun in this era is not a confirmed geographical term, and there is no stone tablet standing there to tell you that this is the main peak of Kunlun.
It is a mixture of reality and imagination, similar to an "overseas fairy island", illusory. Some people say that it is actually located in Jizhou, also known as Tianzhu Mountain, corresponding to the Big Dipper; some say that it is the Qilian Mountains in Hexi; others say that it is far away in Liusha
Beyond the desert...
That's why Qu Yuan raised this question in his "Heavenly Questions": "Where is the kāo in the hanging garden of Kunlun?"
This can be said to be one of the biggest unsolved mysteries since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
That's why Heifu dared to encourage Chen Baowuya and Qin Shihuang to boast that "the Queen Mother of the West may be in the ruins of Kunlun" because he knew that it was impossible to find it and it would be difficult to prove it.
So what if the emperor really sent an envoy to the main line of the Kunlun Mountains? It's five thousand miles from east to west and hundreds of miles from north to south. In many places, even birds can't fly. From a distance, it looks like a fairyland. When you get closer, you find that it's as difficult as climbing to the sky. Ghosts
Do you know if "Western Queen Mother State" will be on it?
In any case, although Kunlun is a remote place and difficult to find, the people of the Central Plains love things from Kunlun very much.
Since the Yin Shang Dynasty thousands of years ago, "Kunshan jade" has been continuously transported from the west, becoming the favorite exotic treasure of the Central Plains people. Most of the jades in Fuhao Muli are Kunshan jade. Wushiluo and Hexiyue
The main trade of the Qin Dynasty was to transport silk in exchange for cattle, horses and jade. These jade stones were the main source of various jade ornaments for the Qin Dynasty palace.
Therefore, this trade route can also be called the "Jade Road".
"But where does Kunshan jade come from? Is it mined by the Yuezhi people?" Heifu asked.
The Wushi brothers shook their heads: "When merchants from the Central Plains enter the Yuezhi, they are often rejected on the east bank of the Heli River and are not allowed to go any further west. The Kunshan jade is transported from Zhaowu City, the capital of the five tribes of the Yuezhi."
He Lishui, although Heifu didn't know where it was, was probably not too far from the Yellow River. In this case, Wushi's caravan only entered the edge of Hexi.
I have personally been to Wushi Yandao there:
"We also bribed the leaders of the Yuezhi tribe, but they only said that this jade was not produced by the Yuezhi, but was transported by camel caravan from the Quicksand Desert to Zhaowu City. When we asked again, they refused to reveal anything more, saying that it was from the Yuezhi.
The king of the clan has an order: Anyone who reveals things about the West to the people in the East will die!"
"I didn't give up. I once sent a group of people to sneak across Heli River and head west, but there was no news. Only when the trade came next year, the Yuezhi King sent me their heads..."
Speaking of this matter, Wu Shiyan was still a little angry.
Obviously, the Yuezhi did this to monopolize the trade routes. Because they controlled the Hexi Corridor, they could buy Western jade and Eastern silk, and then sell both to the other party at a high price, making huge profits from it!
If this kind of business is to be maintained, contact between merchants from the east and west must be eliminated.
Even the Wushi Luo brothers know very little about the Western Regions. In this case, they can only refer to the "Biography of Emperor Mu" which pretended to be King Mu of Zhou's westward journey. It describes many place names in the Western Regions, such as Chongshan, Chiwu Country, Qun
Yushan, Cao Nu...
According to Heifu's guess, the book says that Chiwu Country is rich in beauties, maybe Loulan? And Qunyu Mountain is probably Hotan, because the book says that King Mu of Zhou "took three jade vehicles, jade articles and clothing, and carried ten thousand jade objects" there. Is that true?
A lot of harvest.
In short, the world west of Yuezhi is larger than the Central Plains people imagined.
Heifu began to instruct Wushi Luo with all his strength: "The Yuezhi occupied Hexi, blocked merchants from the east and west, and monopolized the profits of jade and silk. The profit they made was ten times that of the Wushi!"
"Therefore, if your majesty sends General Li Xin to conquer the Yuezhi in the west, it will be beneficial to the Wushi but not harmful. If the Yuezhi is destroyed, the Wuzhi caravan will be able to travel westward along Hexi without any hindrance, while looking for the Queen Mother of the West for your majesty.
At the same time, it will trade with Western countries. At that time, silk, brown sugar, can be directly sold thousands of miles away, and jade and other exotic items will also be continuously transported into the Central Plains. This time, the profits gained will be
, or selling silk to the Yuezhi at a low price, which one is bigger? This is what I call a big deal!"
Wu Shiluo was moved, but he was a rational businessman and would not risk everything for illusory things. After thinking about it, he said:
"The strategy of expanding to the west has just been implemented, and it is too early to talk about destroying the Yuezhi. But after the county captain said this, I really want to know how many countries there are to the west of the Yuezhi, their population, and what special products they have.
, waiting for us to trade.”
If Wu Shiluo had this idea, Heifu's goal would have been half achieved.
A great man once said: Once there is an appropriate profit, the capitalist will become bold. If there is 50% profit, it will take risks; for 100% profit, it will dare to trample all human laws; there are hundreds of
For three hundred percent of the profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risking being hanged!
In addition to ambitious conquerors, merchants, and pioneers who are always exploring and discovering.
Just like Europeans after the Renaissance have been eager to bypass the Ottoman Empire and trade directly with India and China, so they continue to rush to the sea. In this era, the Central Plains people, not only the emperor longed for the mysterious Kunlun and the Queen Mother of the West, Wushi Luo and other merchants
, and also hope to directly find the origin of jade.
"This desire is the driving force for the great geographical discovery..."
Of course, Heifu himself cannot explore. The risk is too great. If he is not careful, he will be like Zhang Qian, unable to come back for more than ten years. This important task must still be left to the caravan of the Wushi Luo family.
At this time, the Wushi brothers had already begun to study how to bypass the Yuezhi in Hexi and send a caravan to the west.
Wu Shiyan suggested: "You can go to Huangzhong, where there are many Qiang groups. As long as the Qiang chiefs are properly managed, we can let you go."
The route he mentioned was to go directly from the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai to the Western Regions. This was also a secondary line of the Silk Road in history. Zhang Qian came back through this road when he first visited the Western Regions.
However, there are always strange places in history. In history, Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions in order to find the Yueshi. Now, the Wushi brothers travel to the Western Regions to avoid the Yueshi...
Wu Shiluo Ze said: "You can also go westward via the grasslands via the Xiongnu! The Xiongnu are not involved in trade and will not deliberately obstruct it. It's just that the Huns like to rob merchants, so the risk is not small."
What he is talking about should be the "Grassland Silk Road", which starts from the northern grasslands and goes westward. As long as there are water and grass, there is a road.
While saying this, Wu Shiluo also glanced at Hei Fu and said with a smile: "By taking this route, we can also find out the reality of the Xiongnu for your majesty and the commander-in-chief!"
“What a businessman!”
Heifu secretly thought, yes, this is one of the reasons why he urged Wu Shiluo!
The best spies are nothing more than two types of people. One is an envoy to a foreign country, and the other is a businessman engaged in border trade. Heifu not only needs Wu Shiluo to assist him with funds and livestock;
The caravans under his command went deep into the Xiongnu to help him find out the reality of the enemy and achieve "knowing the enemy".
The effect of forcing Wushi to cooperate is very different from that of Wushi taking the initiative to help.
Seeing that the deal was about to be concluded, Chen Ping on the side took the opportunity and said:
"In the past three hundred years, there have been many wealthy businessmen in the Central Plains, but none other than Tao Zhu have been able to get richer than two generations! Those who are close will suffer harm to themselves, but what will happen to those who are far away and their descendants? Are all the children of wealthy businessmen stupid?
Not good? In my opinion, this is because they have a lot of gold but have done nothing for the country, so they are regarded as a pest by the monarch and ministers. Under the suppression, the son of a rich man will become a poor man in Luzuo overnight."
"And now, Wu Jun is spying on the Xiongnu and the Yuezhi's military situation for the country, which is one merit. He is opening up new trade routes for the Qin Dynasty, which is two merits; and he is looking for the kingdom of the Queen Mother of the West for Your Majesty, which is three merits!"
Not only can you make tens of thousands of dollars, but it is also a good way to preserve your family's wealth.
"I think in a few years, Wu Jun will really be crowned king!"
Everyone likes to hear good things. Wu Shiluo laughed when he heard the words: "Jun Wei, you have such a long history, you really know how to talk. It's a pity not to be a merchant."
He said it casually, but unexpectedly, Chen Ping climbed up the slope and directly asked Hei Fu:
"The county lieutenant is willing to disguise himself as a merchant and go north with the Wushi caravan to the Huns to spy on the truth for the county lieutenant!"