"You really asked the right person. Most people in the Fifth Army Commander's Office don't know the inside story of this matter, because it has nothing to do with the general."
"A few days ago, an envoy from the Shanhou Kingdom came from Ryukyu to pay tribute. Officials from the Ministry of Rites looked through the files and found that this country had paid tribute in the fifteenth year of Hongwu, so they accepted the tribute from this country."
"And this tribute envoy was very respectful when meeting His Majesty, which made Your Majesty very happy. It happened that His Majesty brought back some horses from the Chuzhou Racecourse, and he wanted to reward them to the Shanhou Kingdom."
"The tribute envoy from the country behind the Clinker Mountain said that their country is full of mountains and horses are of little use; and the country is very poor. I beg your majesty to reward you with some gold and silver to replace the horses."
"His Majesty didn't know what he was thinking. He ordered these horses to be auctioned, and the money from the sales was rewarded to the Shanhou Kingdom. That's why there was this auction."
"I heard that there are a total of five horses being auctioned this time, some of which are of the bloodline of the Khan-blooded horse. The rest are also of the Tuyuhun horse bloodline from Qinghai. They are all very precious horses." Chang Sheng said.
"That's it." Lan Zhen said: "It just so happens that my horse is already over ten years old, and it's time to get a new one."
"It's not just your horse that needs to be replaced. My horse is also over ten years old. It's okay to keep it at home and breed it, but it won't work if we go to war." Chang Sheng said.
"Brother, you are not being honest." Lan Zhen said.
"Why am I being unreasonable?" Chang Sheng said.
As soon as he finished speaking, he added: "Besides, even if I don't fight with you, do you think there will be no one to fight with you? There are so many nobles in the capital, but they are all thinking about these five horses." Chang Sheng said.
Lan Zhen was right when she thought about it. There are all generals who don't like horses. Even if ordinary generals don't dare to compete with him, there are many nobles in the capital and they are not afraid of him. It would be of little use for him to persuade Chang Sheng to retreat.
'After a while, I will go to the horse-selling yamen to see if I can buy the horse in advance.' Lan Zhen thought to herself.
…
…
"Has it been publicized that five good horses will be auctioned on May 25th?" Yunxi and Qin Song said.
"Yes, Your Majesty, all the nobles in Beijing already know." Qin Song said.
"That's good." Yunxi said again: "I think there must be a lot of people going to your place to intercede and want to get a few horses in advance."
"A few people did come up with this matter, but they were all rejected by me," Qin Song said.
"Just refuse. Don't agree to anyone." Yun He said.
He said a few more words to Qin Song and asked him to retreat.
This time, the Yamago Kingdom, the so-called Ryukyu Kingdom, sent people to pay tribute, and the final horse auction was entirely directed and performed by Yunxi in order to make the horse auction go smoothly.
Horses are now very valuable in the Ming Dynasty. Even an average adult Mongolian horse can be sold for hundreds of dollars, and a slightly better horse is worth hundreds of dollars. Good horses like the one that will be auctioned soon are still worth hundreds of dollars in the Ming Dynasty.
There is no precedent for selling it, but horses like this were sold for thousands of dollars during the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties.
Yunxi was very dissatisfied with the past method of rewarding nobles without using horses. The Ming Dynasty gave these nobles salary of titles, official salaries, and large areas of farmland. Even the horses were taken from the government for free. He felt that
Too generous.
So he decided to change the way he provided good horses and let them bid. Based on the calculation of three thousand guan for one horse, five horses are worth 15,000 guan. There are more than a dozen horse farms across the country, and there are always two good horses for sale every year.
Thirty horses, even 60,000 to 90,000 guan, are quite a lot. Yunxi cannot spend so much money in a year.
But because of Chinese tradition, he couldn't just say that he won't reward you with horses in the future. If you want good horses, you can bid for them yourself. Yunxi thought about it and came up with a way to auction the horses in the name of Fan Guo.
The Shanhou Kingdom that Yunxi borrowed did indeed send envoys to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty in the 15th year of Hongwu. However, within a few years, this country was destroyed by the Ryukyu Zhongshan Kingdom. Now Ryukyu only has three Shanbei, Zhongshan, and Shannan kingdoms.
The kings of this country all have the surname Shang, and I don’t know if they are from the same clan.
But he was a little afraid that some powerful people would buy the horse before the auction. So Yunxi handed over this task to Qin Song's Jin Yiwei. Although Qin Song's Jin Yiwei commander was only a third-rank officer, no one in Jin Yiwei dared to
offend.
According to Yunxi's estimation, because the last time horses were rewarded to ministers was in the 31st year of Hongwu, many nobles' horses are almost ten years old, so this time there will be many nobles wanting to bid for these five horses.
, the price is likely to exceed the average price of Mongolian yuan of 3,000 yuan.
‘I hope you can all bid with all your strength.’ Yunxi thought.
…
…
The time soon came to May 25th. On this day, in a courtyard near Fusi, Jinyiwei Town, there was still a quarter of an hour before the horse auction started, but the place was already bustling with people. Today is a day off, and everyone is
You don't have to go to work, so you can come and bid for horses.
From time to time, acquaintances greet each other: "Lao Lu, are you here to buy a horse too?"
"No! My horse is already ten years old and needs a new one. Let me tell you, Old Tang, your horse was a reward from the late Emperor in the 31st year of Hongwu. It is definitely no more than seven years old this year. Come and buy a horse too.
?”
"It's not like my son, who is seventeen this year, said he wanted a good horse, so I came over to see if I could buy one."
"Then why did you come in person? Just let Xiao Tang come."
"I came here with a glimmer of hope of buying a horse, but when he came here, I lost even a glimmer of hope. My son is tender-faced, and if you elders squeeze him, he might give up the horse."
"How is this possible! How could we crowd out the juniors?"
"Hehehe."
A quarter of an hour passed quickly. Qin Song appeared, exchanged a few words with the people present, and then sat aside.
Jinyiwei Qianhu, who was in charge of the horse sale, nervously talked about the rules of the auction of good horses. He trembled for a long time before finishing, and announced the start of the bidding amidst the impatient voices of the nobles.
This time Yunxi set a base price of 500 guan, and each increase would be at least 10 guan. Although his estimated price was 3,000 guan, he could accept it as long as it exceeded 1,000 guan.
One thousand guan was soon exceeded. Guo Zhen was determined to win, so he raised the price to 800 guan. But he was not the only one who was determined to win, so Chang Sen immediately increased the price from 100 guan to 900 guan.
Not to be outdone, Guo Zhen raised the price to 1,000 guan. Before Chang Sen could raise the price, Lan Zhen increased the price to 1,200 guan.
Xu Qin had been looking forward to a good horse for a long time and immediately bid 1,500 guan.
There were other bids, and the price exceeded 3,000 yuan at a slow but steady pace.
After that, the rate of increase slowed down a lot. Finally, the first horse was bought by Lan Zhen for 4,200 pounds.