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

Chapter 599 Guess
Fan Wencheng told Fan Yongdou about the matter and asked him to investigate it carefully after returning to Ming Dynasty. He must find out who is the real supporter behind the Tengger tribe and what the origin of the Zhejiang army is.

"Brother Fan, the Khan takes this matter very seriously. If you can find out the truth, the Khan will reward you handsomely. Haven't you always wanted to join the Eight Banners? The Manchu Eight Banners are impossible, but the Khan has now established the Han Eight Banners. If you have made great contributions, it will be no problem for you to join the Han Eight Banners."

"Are you serious?" Upon hearing that he could join the Eight Banners of Han, Fan Yongdou instantly became energized, his eyes shining with brilliance.

"Of course I take it seriously. You and I have known each other for many years, would I lie to you?" Fan Wencheng said with some displeasure.

"No, no, no, of course I believe what Lord Fan says. It's just that I heard the good news suddenly and said something without thinking. Please forgive me, Lord Fan." Fan Yongdou apologized quickly, rubbing his hands and explaining with a smile.

Nodding, Fan Wencheng continued, "You have to pay attention to this matter and investigate it carefully. You have to be quick! And I just heard you talk about Jiexiu, and suddenly I thought of something."

"What's the matter?"

"I'm thinking, your Fan family's Jiexiu incident was so secretive, it's definitely not something an ordinary person can do, and someone is secretly supporting the Tenger tribe, and the financial resources spent are not a small amount. Maybe the Jiexiu incident is related to the matter I asked you to investigate, maybe it was done by the same person."

“This…” Fan Yongdou was stunned at first, then he frowned.

Fan Wencheng's words made some sense, if you look at it from this angle, it is indeed possible. Before, Fan Yongdou didn't know the inside story of the war on the grassland. Although he heard that Dorgon and his brothers returned empty-handed, he didn't ask much about it because of the matter of the Jiexiu old house. Now what Fan Wencheng said made Fan Yongdou suddenly thoughtful, and he was silent for a while.

"What? Have you thought of something?" Who is Fan Wencheng? Fan Yongdou's expression changed, so he couldn't hide it from him, so he asked immediately.

Fan Yongdou frowned and said, "As for who the Tengger tribe is closely related to, I know a thing or two about that, but as for whether the other party has such capabilities and is related to the Zhejiang Army that Lord Fan just mentioned, I am not sure."

"Oh, there is such a thing?" Fan Wencheng immediately became alert and asked hurriedly: "Let's not talk about whether it is confirmed or not. First, tell me who is closely related to the Tengger tribe. Even if this person has no direct relationship with the matter I just mentioned, I am afraid there is some connection."

"Master Fan is right!" Fan Yongdou came back to his senses and nodded, "These days I have also been wondering who my Fan family offended to cause such a disaster, but I have been searching but still can't find any results. After all, over the years, my Fan family has offended many people in Ming Dynasty for the Khan, but I have no clues to confirm it."

"Brother Fan, you have suffered a lot for the sake of the overall situation."

"Haha, the world is in a great trend. Those who follow it will prosper while those who go against it will perish. Besides, a wise bird chooses the right tree to roost in. My Fan family has entrusted their lives to the Khan, so we should go through fire and water for him without hesitation."

"Well said!" Fan Wencheng applauded and continued to ask about the previous topic. At this time, Fan Yongdou said, "Master Fan, have you heard of Hengtong Commercial Bank?"

"Hengtong Trading Company?" Fan Wencheng repeated, pondering the name. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it from.

Fan Yongdou said: "Hengtong Trading Company was established around the first year of the Tianqi reign. It was originally just an ordinary trading company located in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi. At first, the business it did was nothing more than some private salt and ordinary goods. However, around the second year of the Tianqi reign, Hengtong Trading Company formed a caravan and headed north to the grassland. For some unknown reason, it opened up the trade route on the grassland, and thus developed rapidly..."

As Fan Yongdou told the story, the situation of Hengtong Commercial Bank gradually came to Fan Wencheng's attention. When he learned that the largest and most important partner of Hengtong Commercial Bank in the grassland was the Tengger tribe, Fan Wencheng was slightly surprised, but also a little excited.

Then, they heard that Hengtong Trading Company had an official background and even had colluded with Eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the Nine Thousand Years Old Emperor. Wei Zhongxian persuaded Emperor Tianqi to open border trade with the Mongols in Shanxi and sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be in charge of the border trade, but it was actually Hengtong Trading Company that was operating it.

Especially in actual operations, Hengtong Trading Company was the one that represented both the Ming Dynasty and the grassland. Especially on the grassland, Hengtong Trading Company also joined forces with the Tengger tribe to directly control the entire border trade between Tumed and the Ming Dynasty.

Although in the later operation, some Mongolian tribes intended to destroy the border trade by force in order to break the alliance between the Tengger tribe and Hengtong, they were discovered in advance. The Tengger tribe decisively sent troops to directly eliminate the hidden dangers, and it is said that Hengtong was also involved. Through border trade, Hengtong Commercial Bank and the Tengger tribe made huge profits, and both developed rapidly. Putting aside the Tengger tribe, Hengtong began to enter other industries after the strength of the Ming Dynasty increased greatly. Through a series of operations and mergers, it also established the so-called "money houses". Now these money houses have spread throughout Shanxi, and even surrounding provinces including the capital, Nanzhili and other places have set up branches. Hengtong's silver bills have a good reputation in commercial operations. Although it has not yet reached the level of being circulated throughout the world, in the eyes of many merchants, using Hengtong's silver bills as transactions has gradually become a trend.

"No wonder I felt that Hengtong sounded familiar." Fan Wencheng slapped his thigh and suddenly realized something. He stretched out his hand and took out a silver note from his arms. This silver note with a face value of fifty taels of silver was the silver note issued by Hengtong Money House. Nowadays, this kind of silver note is not only used in Ming Dynasty, but also in Liaodong. As an adviser to Huang Taiji, Fan Wencheng naturally received the tributes from his subordinates.

"Yes! This is Hengtong's silver note. The paper used for the silver note is different from ordinary paper. And here... and here, there are Hengtong's seals. These seals and the dark patterns are extremely delicate and no one can imitate them." After taking the silver note, Fan Yongdou took a look at it, then touched the paper of the silver note and said firmly.

"So, the scale of Hengtong Commercial Bank is now very large? In terms of financial resources, how does it compare with your Fan family?"

After taking the banknote handed back by Fan Yongdou, Fan Wencheng put it back into his arms and asked curiously.

Fan Yongdou was a little embarrassed. He said, "If it weren't for the Jiexiu incident, my Fan family would naturally be the most respected. But the Jiexiu incident caused my Fan family to suffer heavy losses. I'm afraid that I'm not as good as Hengtong now..."

"Haha, things change over time. What does a temporary loss matter? The Fan family is deeply rooted, and Brother Fan is good at business. In addition, the Fan family has the Khan to rely on. I think it won't be difficult to surpass Hengtong again. Brother Fan, don't worry about it."

"Thank you, Lord Fan, for speaking up for the Fan family." Fan Yongdou bowed.

Although Fan Wencheng said so, it can be seen that Fan Douyong's answer made Fan Wencheng understand a little bit. He was afraid that Hengtong was much stronger than he thought, especially Hengtong's money houses and silver bills. What did this mean? If it were someone else, he might not understand, but Fan Wencheng was not an outsider. He was Huang Taiji's counselor and was proficient in economics. He understood the meaning of it after careful consideration.

Fan Yongdou said that the Fan family suffered heavy losses after the Jiexiu incident and was not as good as Hengtong. This might be true, but Fan Wencheng thought that the Fan family was not as good as Hengtong before the Jiexiu incident. However, compared with the accumulation of several generations of the Fan family, the time from the establishment of Hengtong Commercial Bank to its current scale was too short, which was really unimaginable.

Fan Yongdou told Fan Wencheng that the reason Hengtong became rich so quickly was mainly because of its strong background, especially its official background. Hengtong's chief manager was called Kang Youfu, whom Fan Yongdou had investigated. Although the Kang family had been engaged in business for generations, they could not be compared with the Fan family, not to mention other Shanxi merchants.

The Kang family was just a small merchant who owned a tofu workshop, and Kang Youfu was just a shop assistant. Initially, the richest merchant in Pingyang Prefecture was the Liu family, but later something happened to the Liu family, and the family business fell into ruin overnight, and the huge Liu family disappeared.

After the Liu family disappeared, Kang Youfu suddenly emerged and became the shopkeeper of a store, which was the earliest Hengtong. Although Kang Youfu was born in a humble family, he was a good businessman. In just a few years, he made Hengtong prosperous. After Hengtong gained a firm foothold in Pingyang and organized caravans to go north to the grassland, Hengtong became stronger and stronger every year and expanded rapidly.

"Is Kang Youfu just the chief manager?" Fan Wencheng asked.

"Master Fan is really attentive." Fan Yongdou gave a thumbs up and praised: "Master Fan's guess is correct. Although Kang Youfu is talented, he is not the owner of Hengtong. There is someone else who is the owner of Hengtong. As for who is behind it, I am really ashamed that I have never been able to find out. I only found some information, and it seems that he has some connection with the Ming royal family or the Jinyiwei."

"Royal family? Embroidered Uniform Guard? Could it be that behind Hengtong is the Prince of Jin's Mansion in Taiyuan?" This news shocked Fan Wencheng, and he asked hurriedly.

Fan Yongdou shook his head and said, "It's definitely not the Jin Palace. To be honest, sir, since I'm a Jin merchant, I naturally have some contact with the Jin Palace. But I've already made detailed inquiries, and everyone in the Jin Palace knows nothing about Hengtong. But the problem is that there is indeed a shadow of the royal family behind Hengtong, and this is definitely not wrong. Because it also involves the Jinyiwei, I really can't investigate it in detail, so I can only give up..."

Hearing this, Fan Wencheng frowned deeply, but after thinking for a moment, he suddenly came to his senses. No! Fan Yongdou was hiding something, the situation was definitely not like this. His words sounded fine, but the key was not told. With his understanding of Fan Yongdou, he would definitely not stop at a superficial level. Hengtong's sudden rise was no small matter. As a leader among Shanxi merchants, how could Fan Yongdou miss the opportunity to find out the situation of Hengtong?
Under further questioning, Fan Yongdou finally told the truth hesitantly. When Fan Yongdou told Fan Wencheng, he did do some things, and even felt threatened by the rise of Hengtong, and was jealous of the trade between Hengtong and Tumed, he took an opportunity to join forces with the Mongols to secretly attack Hengtong, intending to eliminate Hengtong's caravan and inflict a serious blow to the other party, and then find a way to directly annex Hengtong in the Ming Dynasty by means of plunder.

Unfortunately, although the plan was well-planned and the progress was expected, it failed in the end. Not only did it fail, but it almost backfired, especially later when the Jinyiwei and the guards of Shanxi and even the border troops were investigating the matter, and they almost found out that Fan Yongdou was the mastermind behind the incident. If Fan Yongdou had not always acted cautiously and immediately took decisive action to cut off the clues after the incident was exposed, he would not have been able to get away at all.

(End of this chapter)