Wang Jishan was sitting in his room writing an intelligence report. Three days ago, there was a small-scale contact battle between the Bohai Army and the Khitan Army in the north of Yingzhou. Wang Jishan concluded that Silla could not withstand the pressure of Zhu Tao's army and hoped that
The Bohai State was able to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, and attacked Yingzhou, forcing Zhu Tao to withdraw his troops.
However, the Khitan supported Zhu Tao from behind, so the Bohai Kingdom sent out a small-scale force to test, but was intercepted by the Khitan cavalry.
But these two days, Liucheng was not quiet either. Many rumors leaked out. Some rumors said that Zhu Tao's second son, Zhu Sui, had escaped from the Central Plains. There were also rumors that Zhu Tao decided to abolish his eldest son Zhu Ling and replace him with his second son.
Zhu Sui was the heir, but these were all rumors after all. However, so many rumors suddenly appeared in a short period of time, Wang Jishan suspected that the Silla people were spreading them, with the purpose of getting Zhu Ye, who was attacking Silla, to withdraw his troops.
Zhu Tao had three sons. The eldest son Zhu Ling was originally in charge of Youzhou. After Youzhou was captured, he followed his father and retreated to Yingzhou.
The second son Zhu Sui was adopted by his eldest brother Zhu Si, but was kidnapped by Chou Jingzhong and taken to Songzhou. Chou Jingzhong's army had been annihilated by the Jin army, but Zhu Sui's whereabouts were unknown.
The third son, Zhu Ye, was originally named Zhu Fan, but Zhu Ye felt that this name was not domineering enough, so he changed his name to Zhu Ye on his own initiative. Zhu Tao had no choice but to let him.
Zhu Ye had been stationed in Liaodong and had a close relationship with the Khitan people. He married the daughter of Yeluyun Deshi, the leader of the Khitan Diela tribe. The Khitan people strongly supported Zhu Ye.
Zhu Ye was highly skilled in martial arts and ruthless. He fought very hard and commanded an army of 100,000 to defeat the Silla army. Moreover, he was very cruel and never spared any soldiers. Every time he fought, all the captured Silla soldiers were executed.
He massacred and plundered the city as soon as possible to boost morale. The Silla people hated him to the core, but at the same time they also feared him like a tiger.
Wang Jishan was writing a letter when someone outside asked loudly: "Is there anyone in the store?"
All the store clerks were sent out by Wang Jishan to inquire about the news. Wang Jishan was the only one in the store, and there was a doctor sitting in the hospital next door who was also his employee.
"It's coming!"
Wang Jishan agreed, quickly put away the half-written letter from Eagle, and walked out quickly.
Standing outside was a Han medicine merchant, leading several healthy mules, carrying various medicinal materials and other fur goods on their backs.
Wang Jishan knew Wu Bo, a drug dealer. They were actually merchants who went to various tribes to purchase medicinal materials and leather goods, and also sold various daily necessities. The most popular among the tribes were salt, sugar, tea and cloth. Although they sold
They are all crude goods, but they are treasures for various tribes.
Wang Jishan was a merchant, responsible for purchasing goods from merchants, and then delivering them to Youzhou Commercial House, which then resold them to Chang'an, Luoyang, Taiyuan and other big cities.
"Old Wu came back so early, I thought you wouldn't come back until winter!"
"This year is a bit uneven. Come back quickly and help unload the goods first. Hey! Where is your man?"
"The guys are all out, I'm going to find two people."
Wang Jishan recruited two doctors from the medical clinic next door to help unload the goods. At this time, the two clerks came back from outside, and everyone worked together to unload the goods on more than a dozen mules.
"Old Wu, what is this?" Wang Jishan asked, pointing to a large package that was tied very firmly.
Wu Bo chuckled, "This is a good thing. I won't sell it for less than the price."
Wang Jishan reached into the gap in the package and twisted it, and immediately exclaimed: "Bearskin!"
Wu Bo said proudly: "It's an old bear skin. It was bought from a remote tribe in Shiwei with ten pounds of tea cakes. It was an old thing fifty years ago. This thing can be sold for a lot of money in Chang'an."
Wang Jishan remembered what the commander had told him, asking him to pay attention to purchasing a good bearskin. The princess had been looking for it. It was said that the princess's father was not in good health.
Wang Jishan felt hot in his heart, he must take this piece of bearskin.
Everyone moved the goods into the shop and stacked them against the wall. A waiter helped to feed the mules.
Wang Jishan poured Wu Bo a cup of hot tea and asked, "I heard that the Bohai Kingdom was at war with the Khitans. Have you encountered it?"
"Why didn't I encounter the defeated soldiers of the Bohai Kingdom? Fortunately, I reacted quickly and hid in the woods. Otherwise, my life and goods would have been lost."
"The Bohai Kingdom was defeated?" Wang Jishan asked.
"What do you think? The Mohe people are not good at fighting. They are not as fierce as the Khitans, and the troops sent by the Bohai State are not many. I think there are only a few hundred people. The Khitan pursuers have thousands of people. It cannot be said to be a large-scale war. It may be
It’s almost winter.”
Wang Jishan agreed with the last sentence. Winter begins earlier in Liaodong than in Chang'an. It usually starts snowing at the end of October or early November. It is already early October, and no large-scale war will break out at this time.
"Old Wu, how do you plan to sell that bearskin?" Wang Jishan asked, glancing at the big package.
"You really want it?"
Wang Jishan nodded, "I have a relative whose family is relatively wealthy. His father is in poor health and the winter is very difficult. He has always wanted to buy an old bear skin. Isn't this just the chance?"
Wu Bo lowered his head and pondered for a moment and said: "You also know that bear skins are generally easy to find, but old bears skins are very rare, especially after they have been tanned for decades, and they are hard to find. Considering our long-term cooperation, I can sell them.
I’ll give it to you, but the price cannot be less, the flat price is five hundred taels of silver.”
Is the price expensive? It's not expensive at all. If you take it to Chang'an to sell it, you may not be able to buy it even for 5,000 taels of silver.
But in Liaodong, the price is already sky-high, so the real money-makers are always second-rate dealers who use information asymmetry to make huge profits.
Wang Jishan sighed and said: "Although the price is a bit expensive, it is a rare treasure after all. I won this bear skin."
"Why don't you take a look at the goods first?"
"No need to look, I know it well."
Wang Jishan asked his assistant to move a heavy bag of bearskins into the back room, took out fifty taels of gold and handed it to him, "This is fifty taels of gold. You can keep it yourself."
Wu Bo weighed the heavy fifty taels of gold and carefully put them into a leather bag. He took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Hurry up and calculate the prices of other medicinal materials. I can't wait to go to the brothel."
."
Woyaozi is their local dialect, which means staying in a brothel for a winter. Basically, every drug dealer has his own Xianghao in the brothel. They collect goods from various places in spring, summer and autumn, and stay at Xianghao's place in winter for several years.
Go back home and take back a large amount of money to give to your wife, children, and parents.
But in the end, only a few of them were able to go home and take care of themselves, and most of them died in Liaodong. Therefore, they took life and death very lightly, and they spent whatever money they had, and they were very generous and never treated themselves badly.
Wu Bo settled the account and left. Wang Jishan called for two men and said: "You will take the bear skins and set off to Youzhou today. Ask them to transfer the bear skins to Chang'an immediately. They must be delivered to the commander in winter. Tell them
They are what the princess needs."
"The villain understands!"
Two guys drove a cart, loaded the medicinal materials and bear skins they had purchased recently into the cart, and left Liucheng County overnight for Youzhou.
Wang Jishan immediately finished the eagle letter, tied it to the eagle's leg and sent it to Youzhou, reporting on recent events...
Anyone who has seen Zhu Si and his brother Zhu Tao will believe that obesity is related to genetics. The brothers look exactly the same, but they are both extremely obese. Zhu Tao was a little better in the past and could still ride a horse to fight, but now he can't either.
, cannot ride a horse, can only ride a carriage at most.
But for obese people like them, it would be considered a long life to live to be sixty years old. Zhu Si died of illness at sixty, and Zhu Tao is fifty-seven this year, which is about the same.
In the lobby, military advisor Li Bochang and his eldest son Zhu Ling were reporting to Zhu Tao the recent rumors in the city.
"My lord, these rumors come out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. It is obvious that someone is deliberately spreading them. Both the humble minister and the eldest son have always believed that this is a plan by the Silla people to drive a wedge between the two young masters.
"
Zhu Tao's face was as round as a pumpkin, and he squinted his slender eyes with twinkling eyes. He asked his eldest son Zhu Ling for a while: "These rumors mentioned your second brother, have you found him?"
Zhu Ling bowed and said: "Reporting to my father, the child is still looking for him. Although he has not been found, the child can be sure that he is still alive!"
"why would you say so?"
"The people sent by Ha'er to Luoyang found the second brother's house. There was only a housekeeper inside. According to the housekeeper, my sister-in-law and several nieces and nephews had fled Luoyang City with the refugees. Ha'er thought that they would not act recklessly.
If they escaped, the second brother must have secretly come back and picked them up."
"Will Zhu Si let them go?" Zhu Tao asked doubtfully.
"The steward of the second brother said that they bribed Wang Xianzhong with a lot of money, and Wang Xianzhong withdrew the surveillance troops."
Zhu Tao called Zhu Si by his first name. He really hated his elder brother. He felt sorry for his childlessness and adopted his son as his heir. Everyone agreed that Zhu Sui would inherit Luoyang's business. Unexpectedly, Zhu Si fell out after he had his own son.
, but also wanted to kill Zhu Sui completely, and finally forced Zhu Sui to rebel, so that he now does not know whether he is alive or dead.
Zhu Tao felt unhappy and said to his eldest son Zhu Ling: "Since you have trained Yuan Wei, you must make full use of him. He is very powerful now. Let him go find your brother. You must find him."
Zhu Ling felt bitter in his heart. He did not dare to tell his father that Yuan Wei was dead and that the power he had spent many years cultivating with a lot of money had also been uprooted. If his father knew these things, he would look down upon himself.
Zhu Ling and his third brother Zhu Ye have been secretly fighting for the throne. They both felt that their father's life was not long. The struggle in the past two years has become more intense. Zhu Ye had a heavy army and defeated the Silla army, opening up a large territory.
In addition, his wife is the daughter of the Khitan chief, and with the support of the Khitan, Zhu Ye is now very strong. The only advantage of Zhu Ling is that his eldest son was established as the crown prince very early. He received a group of people headed by Li Bochang
Civilian support.
The Wei Tanghui founded by Yuan Wei was Zhu Ling's proud work, which allowed his father Zhu Tao to see his ability and that he was not a mediocre heir. At this critical moment, of course he would not pull out the Wei Tanghui.
Tell your father the news.
At this time, Zhu Tao was a little tired. He waved his hand and said, "You go ahead! Ignore those rumors for the time being. Winter is coming soon. We must seize the time to prepare things for the winter. Do you understand?"