The Red Mansions Across the Four Seas

Chapter 458 Shrewd Tribute Business

One month and six days after setting off from Bukui, Jia Min and his party arrived at Tongyuan Fort.

This is a small town with a population of over 1000.However, Tongyuan Fort is the largest village and town in this area with a radius of thousands of miles.

After coming out of Bukui, I have never seen a city as big as Bukui along the way.

Tongyuan Fort is the northernmost border of the Dade Dynasty.Going forward for dozens of miles, there are some tribal areas.It no longer belongs to the territory of the Dade Dynasty.

Theoretically speaking, the vast area from the north of Bukui to Tongyuan Fort was under Bukui's jurisdiction.Including the entire Wendula grassland near Pukui, it is actually the territory of the Dade Dynasty.Residents of these lands also recognized themselves as subjects of the Dade Dynasty.

Although these places belong to the great virtues, the imperial court has not implemented effective governance, and they are basically in a state of disunity and self-destruction.

According to Jia Min's original plan, after he developed Bukui and pacified the entire Wendula grassland, he would develop his forces northward, attracting a large number of immigrants and enriching these areas.

Reluctantly, he was dismissed from office, so he had no choice but to find another way out and set his sights on Beihai.

There are a total of 120 carriages in his line.

These carriages and horses were all left after the disbandment of the Fubingtuan.Because he invested a large amount of funds at the beginning, these carriages and horses belonged to him, and no one raised any objections.

The accompanying personnel included more than 180 men including Wei Ruolan, Jiao Li, Dai Zhi, Liu Cheng, Sun Yuanfei, Wei Ruoshui, Qin Zhong, Jia Qin, Qing Gele, and Saivante.

The female relatives include Baochai, Miaoyu, Daiyu, Qingwen, Mrs. Servante and their maids, Yinger, Wisteria, Lvluo, Zijuan, Xueyan, Lao Mazi and Rose Xie Baoli, etc., a total of more than [-] people.

Rose Xie Baoli has now engaged to Jia Qin.

This is a huge caravan, and it is also an armed caravan.Except that there is no Frang machine, the equipment is almost the standard equipment of the Fubingtuan, including serial guns and spray guns.

Even Baochai, Miaoyu, Daiyu, Qingwen and the servant girls all carried short guns and crossbow arrows.

Outside Tongyuan Fort, the convoy led by Jia Min met with Wei Ruoshui's forward team.

Wei Ruoshui led 50 people, who were standing in the front.They have already surveyed the route and the place to camp.

A man with the appearance of a local squire stood with Wei Ruoshui.

"Officer Min, this is Liu Gengxin, a big family member of Tongyuan Fort, and a native of Zhili."

Liu Gengxin clasped his hands together as a salute.

"Hello Mr. Liu, Jia is here from afar, excuse me."

"Mr. Jia, you're welcome. This is a remote place. It's too late to be happy when you see someone from your hometown."

A stone tablet attracted Jia Min's attention.

This is a stone tablet with a width of two feet and a height of five feet, which records the process and purpose of establishing the outpost in Tongyuan Fort.

The reason why this place is named Tongyuan Fort means that starting from here, it leads to a place beyond Dade.

The date of erecting the monument has been more than 80 years ago.

At that time, the Daedeok Dynasty had just been established for more than 30 years, and its national power was in its heyday.An outpost was set up in Tongyuan Fort, and more than 200 people were stationed here.

Today's Tongyuan Fort not only has no outposts, but even a single official. The residents are completely self-governing, and Liu Gengxin is the head of Tongyuan Fort.

Although he is the leader, he still looks shabby in his attire.The clothes are white cloth, not dyed.

Jiao/Li gave Liu Gengxin a gift: a bolt of silk, a jar of wine, pepper, a catty of star anise, and a set of porcelain.Includes four plates, eight small dishes, and eight bowls.

This set of gifts is already very precious.

"Officer Min, the campsite has been selected. It's in the courtyard of the old outpost. There is also a caravan there, with 50 people. The leader is actually our acquaintance."

"Acquaintance? Such a coincidence, who is it?"

"She didn't let me tell, she said it was a surprise for you when we met."

"Oh, I want to see this."

Talking while walking, he entered the village and came to the center of the village, which was an open space.There are already a dozen yurts in the east, standing there.

When the convoy came in, Wei Ruoshui directed the people and began to unload the yurt from the car.

This road is sparsely populated and there are almost no inns.

A small number of pedestrians spend the night at the passing houses.The caravan had to bring their own yurts and cooking utensils, and arrange their own board and lodging.

Jia Min and his party consisted of more than 200 people. Naturally, there was no such a big inn along the way, and no family had the capacity to receive them, so they had to be self-sufficient in board and lodging.

After a while, the door of a yurt on the east side opened, and a woman came out.

It turned out to be a wintersweet flower that I hadn't seen for many days!
"Officer Min, I didn't expect that we would meet here."

"Heh, Wintersweet Blossom, this world is really small, I haven't seen you for so long, I never thought I'd meet you here, by fate."

"Of course it's fate."

"Why don't you say that you are destined to meet thousands of miles away? How did you come here?"

"It's a long story, and I'll talk about it in detail later. I came first as the host, and then you are the guest. I just bought a few sheep yesterday, and I will give you two of them."

"Thank you then."

While talking, Wintersweet met her sister Rose and others one by one.Everyone is acquaintances, and it is quite cordial to meet each other in a foreign land.

There are board and lodging here, and many local villagers come to watch the excitement.Liu Gengxin also greeted some young adults to come over to help.

There are also many women who come to watch the fun, but they are not as shy as the mainland women, and they don't seem to mind showing their faces.Some children even came closer to watch the fun.

When two carriages came over, someone unloaded some vegetables from the carts, and another two brought two sheep.

These were bought by Wei Ruoshui here before.

Although there are caravans passing by here from time to time, the commodity economy is almost out of the question.Therefore, the silver here is actually of little use.

The locals are more willing to exchange in kind for some things they need.It was only under Liu Gengxin's persuasion that these consignors accepted the money.

This is still the territory of the great virtue, although it is inconvenient, the money can be spent sooner or later.Going forward, beyond the boundaries of Dade, money may not be useful.

In addition to the real thing, there actually prefers gold there.Therefore, on this trip, Jia Min did not bring much silver, but more goods and gold.

First, the yurt was built, and two hours later, the meals were ready.

Because cooking on the road is too troublesome, when I usually eat, I have one meal and one dish.

Men are easy to talk about, mainly Baochai, Miaoyu, Daiyu, and Qingwen, and they are not used to it at first.

Even the maids and old ladies are like this.

Don't talk about it when I was in the mansion, even in Bukui, I never tire of food and fine food, and I am used to enjoying it.

So in the first ten days or so, these people complained quite a bit, and sometimes they even stopped eating.

Jia Min ignored them, and always liked to eat or not. When the time came, he was too hungry, so he ate naturally.

It's not that he is stingy, nor is he cruel.Walking on the road, if you still follow the family's set of rules, then don't hurry along the way, because cooking is enough for a day.

Seeing that passive resistance was useless, and their stomachs were unbearably hungry, the few people gradually corrected their problems, and now they have followed the trend.

Today is a big place, and it is the last stop in Dade, so the food is much richer, and there are four dishes.

Although it is not finely made, fortunately, the portion is sufficient and the taste is fresh, which can be regarded as an improvement.

Jia Min's room is richer.In addition to his own four dishes, Lameihua brought two. Liu Gengxin asked the family to make a pot of stewed chicken and a pot of fish.

Adding it all up, it looks very rich, and it is the most sumptuous meal along the way.

"Lameihua, what kind of business do you do?"

Jia Min was really curious about the wintersweet business.

"I'm not doing business, I'm going as a tribute."

"Pay tribute? Where to pay tribute?"

"Where else can I go, to the imperial capital."

"When is it your turn to pay tribute?"

"Didn't your emperor say every day that the whole world is the king's land, and the shore of the land is the king's subjects. So, I found a few tribes and went to the imperial capital to pay tribute."

"Where's the tribe?"

"Officer Min, you are not an outsider, and you are not an imperial official now. Let me tell you the truth, in fact, it is not a tribe, but some of my tribe and a few friends from North Wendura. Make up any name, It is said that a certain grassland tribe has tens of thousands of people. A certain mountain forest tribe has tens of thousands of people. They brought some native products and went to pay tribute."

"Is that all right?"

It was so simple that even Jia Min was surprised.

Before that, he also knew that some small countries and vassal states around Dade often used the method of paying tribute to the court to coax rewards.

Messengers or princes or something, or a letter of praise, or a letter of praise, strongly praised the emperor's court, such a wise and powerful, heavenly kingdom, surrender from all over the world, coming to court from all directions, etc., the flattery was so overwhelming that the emperor was dizzy dizzy.

When the emperor was happy, he opened his golden mouth and rewarded him.A large number of precious things became other people's.

Some cheap touting, in exchange for a lot of benefits.Making tribute a very profitable business.

Countries have benefited, so they come here one after another, and some even come several times a year.

"It's okay, how difficult do you think it is?"

"They don't check it? Find out the authenticity?"

"Who has the time to check these things? If they check everything carefully and send everyone back, then the emperor will be happy when there will be fewer tributes?"

"There are not many people who come to pay tribute. Is there still a prosperous scene where people are subdued by virtue and the world is soft? No one comes to pay tribute, and there are surrenders from all over the world. Is the heavenly kingdom that comes from all directions respectable?"

"Did you think that if you defeated me back then, I would have no source of income? To tell you the truth, if I brought a few people to pay tribute, I would earn tens of thousands of taels, which is much easier than making money for you."

"Officer Min, I admit that you are a good man, a loyal minister, a man of love and righteousness, a poetic genius, a business genius, a military genius, a good man, a good officer, and a good friend."

"But, so what? Didn't you lose your fame, lose your job to become a citizen, and finally even the military regiment with great military exploits was abolished by you, and you ran to this wild place to do business?"

"Which of the princes and nobles of the Manchu dynasty, civil and military officials, are not thinking of themselves. How many people like you are working hard and working hard for the sake of the country, the country, and the people?"

"Even the emperor himself, the royal people themselves, don't take their own country seriously. They only like to sing praises, flatter horses, intrigue, reject dissidents, and play tricks. You are still worrying about others. Tell yourself, you What is a person?"

"Who am I?"

"You are a fool!"

(End of this chapter)