Chapter 174 The shocking truth, everything is for profit
Dingbian City, the former Wang Family Courtyard, has now been occupied by the big Shanxi merchant family Fan and renamed Fan Family Courtyard.

In the meeting hall of the main house, a dozen or so big Shanxi merchant shopkeepers with gloomy faces were arguing fiercely about something.

But no matter how they argued, they could not avoid one core issue: one of their sources of wealth, the golden trade route of Jialu River, had run into trouble.

In the past three months, all merchant ships sent out of the Jialu River to trade with the Tartars have never returned.

These included the big Jin merchant family Fan and the Kang family’s several medium-quality treasure ships loaded with various commodities.

When the agreed time for return passed, their fleet did not return. As long as these big Shanxi merchants were not stupid, they would know that something had happened.

“Cough cough…”

Fan Yongdou, who had just taken over as the head of the Fan family because the old head Fan Ming abdicated, sat in the main seat, looked at the representatives of the other nine major Shanxi merchants who were invited by him, and cleared his throat a few times.

Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang and Huang Yunfa, the seven big Jin merchant owners were invited, and the second master of the Kang family and the third master of the Qu family also came to Dingbian City.

It’s not for any other reason, it’s just because the content to be discussed at this conference is too important and must not be leaked.

For the sake of confidentiality, after discussion among everyone, it was finally decided to hold the Shanxi Merchants’ Conference in the small border town of Dingbian.

In the eyes of the world, although the Fan family, the Jin family, the two Wang families, the Liang family, the Tian family, the Zhai family, and the Huang family, these “Eight Major Shanxi Merchants” are the most popular today.

However, the Kang family, which monopolized more than half of the grain and salt trade in several northern provinces, and the Qu family, which monopolized more than half of the banknote business in several northern provinces, are the two most powerful merchants in the northern provinces.

Today, the Baichuantong Piaohao and Changshengchuan Piaohao, which are commonly used throughout the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, are dedicated to providing long-distance large-scale financial and commodity settlement transactions for merchants from all over the country. It was started by the Qu family. The nine major Shanxi merchants here jointly invested in and established a chain of large money houses.

Among the heads of the ten major Shanxi merchants sitting here, the Kang and Qu families rank first and second in terms of wealth, followed by the eight most famous Shanxi merchants today: the Fan family, the Jin family, the two Wang families, the Liang family, the Tian family, the Zhai family, and the Huang family.

“Everyone, I invited everyone to come to Dingbian City today because of the strange situation that the fleets of various companies have disappeared in the section of Jialu River outside the pass.”

Fan Yongdou said calmly, “On the other hand, for the sake of our ten big Shanxi merchants, facing the aggressive posture of Yangzhou salt merchants, Linqing grain merchants and other big southern merchants, should we launch a counterattack?”

“The northern provinces have always been our territory. Now, the Yangzhou salt merchants, Linqing grain merchants and other southern merchants are relying on the support of a large number of court officials and gentry to enter our northern market and devour most of our family’s trade routes. They are simply insatiable!”

The real purpose of the conference held by the leaders of the major Shanxi merchants was to discuss the second topic mentioned by Fan Yongdou.

As for the first issue, in the eyes of these wealthy merchants, it was just a group of petty thieves who were making trouble without knowing their own limitations, and it was not worth making a fuss about it.

With the enormous power of these wealthy merchants, as well as their ubiquitous network of relationships and informants, they easily found out the general situation of the small group of thieves who were now entrenched in the section of Jialu River outside the Great Wall.

Although these big Shanxi merchants were somewhat shocked that a group of petty thieves led by a few beggars could actually make such a big splash on the prairie outside the Great Wall, they only sneered after being surprised for a while.

Considering the size of these big merchants, the goods looted by those petty thieves were not even a drop in the bucket.

The only thing that made them feel sad was the treasure ships that were hijacked. Those were valuable things that could hardly be bought even with money.

The reason why everyone gathered in Dingbian City this time was mainly because they all saw the huge business opportunities and the devastating crisis that these big Shanxi merchants were about to face.

Any time of chaos is a good opportunity for these well-established big businessmen to make a fortune. It is no exaggeration to say that they can make a huge profit.

With the invasion of the Tartars last spring, they directly reached the capital of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty was unable to organize an effective counterattack.

Instead, the Tartars wreaked havoc everywhere, plundered a large number of young and middle-aged people and a huge amount of property, and then leisurely retreated outside the Great Wall.

This time, the invasion of the Later Jin Tartars led by Huang Taiji personally tore off the last fig leaf of the Ming Dynasty’s exterior strength but interior weakness, and dealt a fatal blow to the prestige of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty is now facing serious internal and external troubles. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that this is probably the end of the dynasty. In the past history, such times are often the best opportunities to eliminate opponents, allow the family to rise rapidly, and replace the old aristocratic families and gentry.

Now the alliance of big salt merchants, big grain merchants and other wealthy southern merchants in Yangzhou and Linqing actually wanted to extend their tentacles to the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty and seize the trade share and trade routes of the top ten Shanxi merchants. This has completely violated the bottom scale of the top ten Shanxi merchants.

This time, the heads of their various families gathered in this inconspicuous Dingbian City for a unknown conference. Their main purpose was to discuss how to counterattack the big salt and grain merchants in Linqing and Yangzhou.

As for the group of petty thieves outside the Great Wall, they were just casually picking grass and hunting rabbits. It was just a trivial matter.

Even the actions of the many rebel armies inside the Great Wall are under the control of these wealthy merchants. I don’t think that the group of petty thieves who now occupy the Jialu River section outside the Great Wall can cause any trouble.

But this group of petty thieves were so bold that they even dared to touch the top ten Shanxi merchants. They could not be allowed to continue to run rampant.

Whether we ask the Mongolian Tartars or the Later Jin Tartars to take action, we should be able to easily wipe out these petty thieves.

What they paid were just some rice, grain, salt, iron and other supplies, which were just a drizzle for these wealthy merchants and not worth mentioning.

“Everyone, most of the Donglin Party members headed by Donglin Party leader Ye Xianggao do not follow the rules.”

Fan Yongdou’s tone became heavier, and he looked around indignantly at the heads of these wealthy merchant families who were as rich as a country, and said gloomily, “They have accepted so many benefits from us Shanxi merchants over the years, but they are still extremely biased towards the big salt merchants, big grain merchants and other wealthy merchants in the south. This is really too much!”

“I even suspect that the alliance of big salt merchants and grain merchants in the south is now heading north to compete with us for the northern market. It is these Donglin Party members who are behind this!”

“How can this be! This is simply too much!”

“These greedy guys are all ungrateful wolves that can never be tamed!”

“They are jealous of the huge profits we have made from foreign trade, and are planning to personally support some puppets to completely replace us Shanxi merchants and completely dominate all markets for domestic and foreign trade in the entire Ming Dynasty. They are biting us so hard that oil comes out of our mouths! They don’t even want to give us a sip of soup!”

Fan Yongdou became angrier and angrier as he spoke, and he even slammed the table and started cursing!
“Yes! These ruthless and greedy Donglin Party members are really too greedy. How can they do things so unscrupulously?”

“Master Fan, you are right! Since these extravagant guys don’t want us Shanxi merchants to survive, why should we let them do whatever they want? We are not pigs and sheep to be slaughtered, we will not wait to die obediently!”

“I want to see how long these Donglin Party and the alliance with the big merchants such as salt merchants and grain merchants in the south can continue to be arrogant and domineering! Just wait! Don’t forget that this is the real end of the dynasty. Once the dynasty is successfully changed, they will be in trouble!”

“That’s right! Since they want to wipe out all of us Shanxi merchants, don’t blame us for launching a desperate counterattack!”

“Hehe! One day, I will make them pay the price of death and extermination of their clan!”…

As soon as Fan Yongdou finished speaking, the nine Shanxi merchants present were filled with indignation. They could no longer suppress the grievance and anger in their hearts and started cursing one after another!
If Li Dingguo was present at the scene and heard what they said, he would immediately understand some of the great secrets of past history without any doubts.

Why, in established history, after the Qing army officially entered the Central Plains and marched southward into the pass, not only did they advance with unstoppable force, but they also launched a series of massacres that were extremely detrimental to their rule?

Linqing was massacred twice in a row, and Yangzhou was massacred three times in a row! Even the surrounding Jiading, Guangzhou City in the south, etc., were massacred by the Qing army!
The truth behind this is, in all likelihood, that these ten major Shanxi merchants spent a huge sum of money to ask the Qing army’s general to take action!
Because these big cities that were completely massacred were all the bases of big salt merchants, grain merchants and other large businesses in the south.

These big merchants in the south are now greedy. Seeing that these Shanxi merchants have become rich through large-scale foreign trade with the Tartars outside the Great Wall, they want to intervene in order to monopolize all markets within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The top ten Shanxi merchants here have now completely leaned towards the Later Jin Tartars. After they gain power in the future, would they not want to dominate all markets within the territory of the Qing Dynasty?
This is not just about revenge, but more about interests.

How can you achieve your goal as quickly as possible?

There is no doubt that spending a huge amount of money and asking the generals of the Qing army to take action to massacre the nine clans of the salt merchants, grain merchants and other wealthy merchant alliances that are deeply rooted in the south is undoubtedly the most convenient, quick and effective method, and it will not leave any trouble behind!

Any historical truth, once the surface layer is lifted, is all about two words: interests.

(End of this chapter)