Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 320 Strange
"Come on if you want. Let's follow the previous rules. You can arrange it yourselves." Zhu Shenzhui didn't care. As time went by, the trade between the tribe and the Ming Dynasty had been going on for more than two months, and everything was in order.

"Yes! Master..." Wang Hai responded quickly, but after that Wang Hai did not stand up to say goodbye. Instead, he still knelt there as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.

"What's wrong? Is there anything else?" Zhu Shenzhui asked curiously when he saw his look.

Wang Hai hesitated for a moment and said, "Master, there are many people from the Elbegji Taiji tribe this time. I feel that it seems a little different from the last two times."

"Hmm?" Zhu Shenzhui frowned and immediately asked about the details.

Wang Hai replied, "The last two times, the number of people from Elbegji Taiji's tribe was only a few dozen, but this time, more than a hundred people came from Elbegji Taiji's tribe, and most of them are young and strong. I feel that this is not appropriate."

"So many people have come? Where are the goods? How much goods did they bring?" Zhu Shenzhui asked back.

Wang Hai answered this question immediately. After hearing Wang Hai's answer, Zhu Shenzui frowned even more. He thought about it and continued to ask Wang Hai the number of goods brought by the Elbegji Taiji tribe twice. Wang Hai also made a report. After hearing these numbers, Zhu Shenzui calculated it in his mind and found something wrong.

The trade of the Elbegji Taiji tribe was approved by himself, and the previous two trades also went very smoothly. But now, when he added together the goods brought by the two previous trades and this time, Zhu Shenzhui immediately noticed a big problem.

The Elbegji Taiji tribe is one of the twelve Tumed tribes, and its tribal size is almost the same as that of the Tengger tribe, which means that the two tribes are similar in terms of population and military strength.

By this calculation, the tribe's assets, including cattle, sheep, and horses, should not be too different. Moreover, although the Tengger tribe has experienced civil strife, its life in recent years has been better than that of other tribes. Because of Zhu Shenzui, the Tengger tribe can obtain a large amount of supplies from the Ming Dynasty, so the tribe's foundation is stronger.

Whether a Mongolian tribe lives well or not is generally reflected in the population, cattle, sheep, and horses of the tribe. Gold, silver, and jewelry are just external objects. Apart from being useful in trade with Ming merchants, ordinary Mongolian herdsmen only use them as ornaments at best.

In the previous two trades, Zhu Shenzhu only paid attention to whether the trade went smoothly or not, and did not pay attention to other things. But now Wang Hai's reminder made him aware of a problem, that is, the cattle, sheep, horses, furs, etc. that the Elbegji Taiji tribe took out for trading seemed to be a bit too much, even more than the normal range.

Taking the Tengger tribe as an example, it was not a problem for them to trade hundreds of horses and thousands of cattle and sheep with the Ming Dynasty in one year, and these amounts could be easily taken out.

But it won't work if there are more of them. After all, cattle, sheep and horses don't just fall from the sky. They need to be bred. Whether it's cattle, sheep or horses, it takes time for them to grow from calves, lambs or horses. Sheep are better, but cattle and horses need at least one or two years to grow up.

In addition, the output of goods such as furs is also limited. Except for the part kept by the tribe for its own use, the remaining part can be traded. These things are not the cloth of the Ming Dynasty, which can be woven as long as there is cotton.

According to the amount of goods sent by Elbegji Taiji's tribe before, the amount of the two shipments was almost close to the annual output of the Tenger tribe. Now the other party sent another batch, and the amount this time was almost the sum of the previous two shipments. If the figures reported by Wang Hai were correct, then the sum of these quantities far exceeded the normal output of Elbegji Taiji's tribe.

This kind of trade is totally irrational. What did the tribe rely on for survival? Wasn't it cattle, sheep and horses? If the Mongols lost these, how could they survive on the grassland?

It was strange that the Elbegji tribe offered so many cattle, sheep and horses for trade, including furs and other goods that far exceeded their affordability. Did the Elbegji tribe not intend to make a living? Would they sell all the tribe's belongings? Any Taiji with a little bit of brains would not do this. Isn't this killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?

"Have you asked about it?" Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzhui's expression became a little serious.

"My lord, I made some inquiries and the people on the other side told me that the goods were traded from other tribes and not all from their own tribe. They also secretly gave me some benefits and asked me to keep it a secret from you, my lord." Wang Hai replied, and as he said this, he took out a cloth bag from his arms and handed it to Zhu Shenzhui. After Zhu Shenzhui took it, his hand suddenly felt heavy. When he opened it, he saw a golden light shining inside.

"Haha, what a great deal." Zhu Shenzhui sneered. This person was really generous. This gold was worth a lot of money, but he actually gave it directly to Wang Hai?
For a moment, Zhu Shenzhui faintly smelled something unusual. He asked Wang Hai with a serious face about the specific situation of the people and goods delivered by the other tribe this time, and asked some other questions. Wang Hai naturally answered all of Zhu Shenzhui's questions. After listening to Wang Hai's answer, Zhu Shenzhui sat there silently for a long time without saying anything. Judging from Wang Hai's answer, although the number of goods brought by the other party was a little beyond the ordinary, and there were a little more people, the other party's explanation made sense. If it was really the materials collected by the Elbegji Taiji tribe from other tribes and then traded through the Tenger tribe, this situation was possible.

But Zhu Shenzhui didn't believe it, because it was just a lie, and he had no way to verify whether it was true or not. However, the number of goods and personnel on the other side was real, which exceeded the usual quota. In addition, three batches of people delivered goods in just two months, which was too frequent.

"Have the people who delivered the goods left now?"

"My Lord, the first group has already gone back, the second group is still in Zhenlu Fort, and the third group has just arrived at the tribe. If we calculate based on the distance from the tribe to Zhenlu Fort, the second group should have left after they arrived there."

After calculating in his mind, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but laugh: "So when they get to Zhenlu Fort, there will be two groups of people there?"

"My lord, yes." Wang Hai nodded.

The first time, the number of people and goods from the Elbegji tribe was not large, but the second time, the number of people escorting the goods increased slightly, and the number of people escorting the goods reached about 50. This time, they came with nearly 100 people, and most of them were young and strong. By this calculation, once this group of people and goods arrived at Zhenlubao, the number of people from the Elbegji tribe in Zhenlubao would be about 150.

One hundred and fifty people, not too many, not too few either. If it was in the Tenger tribe, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the population of the Tenger tribe. But it was different in Zhenlubao. The person in charge of Zhenlubao was Burigude. There were less than three hundred people in Zhenlubao. It was not because they did not want to put more people there, but because of the conditions.

Zhenlubao was originally one of the five outer forts of the Ming Dynasty and was used as a military fortress. Although Zhenlubao had long been abandoned by the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty's defense line had withdrawn to the south of the Great Wall, Zhenlubao gradually became a gathering place for Mongols and Ming people who fled north, and became an area similar to a village.

Because of border trade with the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shenzui took a fancy to the geographical location of Zhenlu Fort and sent people to take over this place.

After taking Zhenlu Fort, Zhu Shenzui did not expel the Mongolian herdsmen and Ming people who farmed in the area, but instead took them under his wing. At the same time, he spent some effort to repair the dilapidated Zhenlu Fort, making it a major transit base for trade.

To put it bluntly, the current Zhenlubao is not only a village and gathering place, but also a warehouse for border trade. Burigude was responsible for guarding the warehouse, transferring materials and assisting in transporting materials to the south to carry out border trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Because the place is not big, and there is no need to send more people, 300 people are enough. In addition to the local herdsmen and Ming people, the total population there is no more than 600 people. In addition, there are tribes that cooperate with Tengger. They are responsible for transporting their tribe's goods from the grassland to register in Zhenlubao, and then the Tengger tribe will trade on their behalf. Therefore, these tribes have more or less people in Zhenlubao, some tribes have more people, some have less, usually around 10 to 20 people, if they catch up with the transportation of goods, there will be more people. These people add up, plus the people of the Tengger tribe, the overall number is about 1,000.

In this way, after the people and goods of Elbegji Taiji's tribe went there this time, plus the people who had not left last time, the number of people in Zhenlubao was not small. These 15 people were almost % of the total scale of people. Compared with the people under Burigude, it was nearly half.

This situation could not but make Zhu Shenzhui alert, and he immediately felt the problem. He had originally discovered that the amount of the other party's trade was a bit outrageous, and now they had directly recruited more than 150 people in Zhenlu Fort under the pretext of trade cooperation. What on earth did they want to do?
Harmfulness is not allowed, and defensiveness is indispensable.

Zhu Shencui has always been cautious, otherwise he would not have achieved his current success and status. If the other party traded honestly, Zhu Shencui would naturally not refuse. Through trade with the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Shencui could not only obtain a large amount of wealth and materials, but also win over the various tribes on the grassland, making the position of the Tenger tribe more stable. But if someone wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to cause trouble and do something secretly, Zhu Shencui would not be a pushover.

"Master, how about I ask someone to stop them? Or let them trade directly in the tribe, and then have our people send them to Zhenlu Fort? This way it will be safer." Wang Hai made a suggestion.

"No need to be so troublesome." Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand: "Since we are already here, it would be bad to do so, and they gave us such a generous gift."

Zhu Shenzhui threw the bag of gold directly to Wang Hai and said, "Just pretend you don't know about this and let them go directly to Zhenlu Fort."

(End of this chapter)