MTL - Poor Family-v2 Chapter 943 Shopkeeper Xiao Wei
Chapter 943 Little Wei Shopkeeper
Xingqing Mansion, also known as Xingzhou, is the capital and largest city of Xixia. It is the economic, cultural, and political center of Xixia.
The prosperity of the Xixia economy, in turn, can support a strong military strength. When the Xixia army was at its peak, it had 500,000 armored soldiers. Of course, Xixia belonged to all the people. is its limit.
But Xixia has been going downhill for more than ten years, especially after the Song Dynasty gradually cut off trade links with Xixia, Xixia’s financial resources dropped sharply, and Liao, which had always supported it, was destroyed, and Jin replaced Liao as the suzerain of Xixia.
However, the Kingdom of Jin’s treatment of Xixia was the opposite of that of the Liao Dynasty. Instead of the material assistance from the Liao Dynasty, it asked Xixia for supplies of cattle and sheep twice in three days. .
Coupled with the cancellation of the annual tribute to Xixia by the Song Dynasty, and the major natural and man-made disasters suffered last winter, the natural disaster refers to the unprecedented snowstorm in a century, which caused nearly half of Xixia's livestock to freeze to death, and then Jin Guo forcibly extorted millions from Xixia sheep.
Although in the end Xixia handed over a million sheep, it caused a sharp deterioration in the internal relations of Xixia. The Uighurs and Tubo in Hexi took the lead in accusing the court of being biased towards the party and plundering other ethnic groups, including the Qiang and Han people. blame.
Soon, the relationship between the Dangxiang clan and the court also broke down, and there began to be extremely discordant voices.
Just in October, Li Chage led an army of 20,000 to suppress the rebellion of the Uighurs in Hexi, and then turned back to suppress the rebellion of two Qiang tribes in Xiliang Prefecture, killing thousands of people and plundering their cattle and sheep. This kind of cruel suppression not only failed to make the other ethnic groups in Xixia surrender, but even made them more dissident. Even the Tuoba tribe, the largest of the Dangxiang clan, called for Li Ganshun to step down and change the emperor.
Because of internal and external troubles in Xixia, the military strength gradually decreased, and the situation began to become very dangerous.
The Xingqingfu Street in winter is very deserted, there are few pedestrians, and most of the shops are closed. At this time, in the cold wind, a middle-aged man was hurrying north along the street near Nancheng, and walked through an alley. He turned and went in, but he stopped for a while to make sure that no one was following him, so he walked quickly to the depths of the alley.
Walking to the exit at the other end of the alley, the man stopped in front of a wooden door. This is the back door of Qiao's firm. Qiao's firm is the largest Song Dynasty firm in Xixia, specializing in all kinds of luxury goods from the Song Dynasty. But the business of Qiao's Firm is not bad. Its customers are all Xixia nobles, and the King of Liang also has 30% of the shop, so ordinary people dare not provoke them.
The man knocked rhythmically on the door three times. After a while, the door opened, revealing an old face inside, "Ah! Master Jiu came in person."
Master Jiu's full name is Zhang Jiu. He was a famous camel tooth transporter between Song, Xia, Liao and Jin Dynasties. He was responsible for transporting goods for people. A favorite concubine especially likes Baoyanzhai's top-notch West Lake Eight Scenery perfume. Zhang Jiu can also get this top-level perfume that is only provided to the rich and powerful. He also brought Lai Xixia, which made Li Qianshun really please his concubine.
It is also for these reasons that Zhang Jiu has a special pass issued by the Xixia Emperor, and can enter and leave Xixia at will.
"It was Shopkeeper Wei who asked me to come."
"Treasurer Wei is here, please come in!"
Zhang Jiu stepped into the courtyard and was taken to the shopkeeper's room by the old servant. A young man was sitting at the desk writing a letter in the room. The old servant coughed, "Treasurer Wei, Mr. Zhang Jiu is here."
When the shopkeeper raised his head, he had a baby face. He looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, but his eyes were deep. The shopkeeper's name was Wei Ying, who was a latent spy sent by Li Yanqing to Xixia many years ago, and lost contact with the Song army. After nearly ten years, Wei Ying has also gradually become the big shopkeeper of Qiao's Commercial Firm in Xingqing Prefecture from a small boy. He is actually thirty years old.
"It's such a cold day, Master Jiu is here in person!" Wei Ying stood up and saluted with a smile.
"Your master Wei called, do I dare not come?"
Zhang Jiu knew him very well, so he sat down directly on the small table, crossed his legs and asked, "Is there any goods you want me to transport to Song Dynasty?"
"What can I do if I find you old? As usual, send a batch of sheepskins to Qiao's Firm in Jingzhaofu."
"You're lucky. The Xixia court is considering including sheepskin as a prohibited item. I'm afraid it won't be able to be transported in a while."
"Even sheepskin is banned, so what else can Xixia sell?"
"Medicine and precious stones! There is also the tallow that Baoyanzhai wants, and Xixia can't help it. This time, I will transport a batch of tallow to Bashu for delivery."
Wei Ying took out a sealed paper tube from the cabinet and handed it to Zhang Jiu. Zhang Jiu took it without asking any further questions.
This is a tacit understanding between the two. From the beginning, Zhang Jiu knew that Xiao Wei was Li Yanqing's scout in Xixia, and because of Bao Yanzhai, Zhang Jiu and Li Yanqing had a little personal relationship, and had a conversation with Li Yanqing. After that, he accepted the important task of delivering letters for Wei Ying.
So when the two said 'come in person' before, it was actually just a joke. Wei Ying asked him, so he had to come in person.
"Is there any important news recently?" Wei Ying asked again with a smile.
He knew that since Zhang Jiu was sending beef tallow to the Song Dynasty, he must have dealt with Liang Anren, the king of Liang in Xixia. Liang Anren was in charge of the logistics supplies of the Xixia army. For Bao Yanzhai, you can earn thousands of taels of silver at a time.
Running several times a year, the income of 20,000 taels of silver is very safe. In these years, he has earned at least 100,000 taels of silver just by selling beef tallow and suet.
Although Liang Anren also owns 30% of Qiao's shares, he almost never comes here, and Wei Ying can't get in touch with him.
Zhang Jiu nodded and said: "There is indeed some news. The Yelibu and Miqibu have not paid the autumn tax so far. It seems that they asked to reduce the tax by half, and the court refused to agree to it. The result was a stalemate."
Dangxiang is a branch of the Qiang people, called Dangxiang Qiang. Later, it broke away from the Qiang nationality and called itself the Dangxiang tribe. It consists of eight tribes, the Xifeng tribe, the Feiting tribe, the Quli tribe, the Pochao tribe, the Yeli tribe, and the Miqi tribe. , Tuoba tribe, etc. In addition, there are small tribes such as Heidangxiang and Xueshan Dangxiang. Among them, the Tuoba tribe is the most powerful. Tuoba Han's pseudonym is Yuan, and Yuan Hao is the chief of the Tuoba tribe. They also inherited the Li surname granted to them by the Tang Dynasty, called Li Yuanhao, and the Xixia royal family is all nobles of the Tuoba tribe.
The other tribes are also in a semi-independent state. The military is at the disposal of the imperial court, and the economic tax is paid once every autumn.
However, due to the successive military defeats of Xixia in these years, the losses were very heavy. These losses were actually the losses of the eight tribes. The population loss was too large, but the benefits were not. There are also internal contradictions.
Just this summer, the seven tribes unanimously demanded the implementation of the recruitment system, that is, the imperial court had to give benefits to the tribes and herdsmen before sending troops. In the past, troops were sent for free, and even weapons, horses, and camels had to be prepared by themselves, because there were benefits in the past, and everyone It's acceptable, but now there are only losses and no gains, and no one will do it. The Uighurs and Tubo are still rebelling and self-reliant.
So far, the imperial court still pretended to be deaf to the tribes' request for a military recruitment system, which caused widespread dissatisfaction among the tribes, and everyone took the opportunity of paying taxes to make trouble.
Wei Ying said with a smile: "Of course the imperial court can't agree to it. After agreeing to the Yeli and Miqi tribes, other tribes must follow suit. The imperial court has no income, and there is still a lot of salary to be paid. In the end, even the current army may be afraid. I can't survive anymore."
"Just kidding, I think it's the best time for the Song army to attack Xixia at this time."
"The Song army is too busy to take care of itself. It is already exhausted to deal with the Jin soldiers. How can you have the energy to attack Xixia? You think too much."
"Hehe! I was just making a joke, no one will take it seriously, well, I'm leaving, shopkeeper Wei take care!"
"Bon voyage Jiuye."
Zhang Jiu left the back door of Qiao's Firm and hurried to the other side of the alley. The paper tube was in the bag on his back, but he carried Xixia Zi's special gold medal with him, and no one dared to search him.
In Xingqing Mansion and even Xixia, Zhang Jiu could almost walk sideways.
Just as Zhang Jiu left, Wei Ying began to deploy his subordinates again. He had to confirm the information Zhang Jiu said before sending it to Chang'an City with Eagle Letter.
As for the important information that Zhang Jiu took away, it was an extremely important map of the deployment of troops in various places in Xixia. This information was bought by Wei Ying from the doctor of the Xixia Military Department for a thousand taels of gold.
(end of this chapter)
