Chapter 676: The Jin Merchants of Jinzhou, and the Jinzhou of the Jin Merchants

The Jinyang Xie Clan.

To call them the oldest family in the Longyan Dynasty is not an exaggeration at all.

Because the entire Longyan Dynasty began its rise from Jinyang.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the Jinyang Xie Clan overthrew the Cao Wei regime and then began to unify the country. Jinyang became the birthplace of the Xie Clan's imperial power.

In the thousands of years that followed, regardless of how imperial power shifted, regardless of which prince was wiped out, or which branch was torn apart.

The Jinyang Xie Clan always firmly held the reins of the prevailing trend, continuously extending their family's glory.

The land of Jinzhou has been a birthplace of humanity since ancient times. Several large-scale population migrations all began from Jinzhou.

The Great Locust Tree of Jinzhou determined this place's status in the history of Longyan human development.

Therefore, upon entering Jinzhou, the rich atmosphere of traditional culture here is self-evident. The inheritance of both the Rites of Zhou and the Rites of Han is quite complete here. The Xihoudu culture and Dingcun culture indicate that humans were already living and multiplying here as early as the Paleolithic Age.

During the Zhou Dynasty, Jinzhou was the territory of the Tang State. Later, because the Tang State was adjacent to the Jin River, Xie Fu, the son of Tang Shu Yu, changed the name of the state to Jin.

During the Spring and Autumn period, Jinzhou was the Jin State, one of the Five Hegemons. During the Warring States period, the Han, Zhao, and Wei states that partitioned the Jin State were known alongside the Qin, Chu, Qi, and Yan states as the Seven Heroes of the Warring States. After Qinshihuang unified China, he established five commanderies in Jinzhou: Jinyang, Shangdang, He Dong, Yanmen, and Dai. By the Sui Dynasty, Jinyang was the third-largest city in the Yellow River basin, second only to Chang'an and Luoyang. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan and his sons raised an army in Jinyang, and after establishing the capital in Chang'an, they honored Jinyang as the "Northern Capital," meaning "Alternative Capital."

During the Five Dynasties period, the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, and Northern Han all started their rise with Jinyang as their base. During the feudal society of Huaxia, the status of Jinzhou was pivotal, and due to its special Geography, it appeared even more important the more chaotic the times were; whoever possessed Jinzhou could dominate the world. Therefore, the Qing scholar Gu Zuyu pointed out in *Essentials of Historical Geography*: The situation of the world must be taken from Jinzhou.

In this lifetime, it is the same.

The founding emperor of Longyan raised his army from Jinyang, subsequently seized Chang'an, and established the Longyan Dynasty.

In history, Jinzhou has migrated its population outward more than a dozen times.

"Ask me where my ancestors are, Jinzhou Hongdong Great Locust Tree!"

Here, it has always been called the "Land of the Dragon's Rise"!

In Liu Zheng's previous life, there was a saying: look at Shenzhen for ten years of history, Shanghai for a hundred years of history, Beijing for a thousand years of history, Shaanxi for three thousand years of history, and Jinzhou for five thousand years of history!

Even.

For a period of the fourteenth century and even longer, the wealthiest region in Huaxia was not any area or province one might imagine, but the obscure Jinzhou! Until the end of the eighteenth century, Jinzhou remained the financial and trade center of Huaxia. Large cities like North, Shanghai, and Guangzhou were merely docks where the financiers of Jinzhou tested their skills.

The reason lies in the famous Jin merchants!

Therefore.

Upon entering Jinzhou, Liu Zheng felt how absurd his idea of "crushing them with money" at the time had been.

The people here are not short of money at all!

Walking along the way, every city had very distinct characteristics; the buildings were tall and spacious, and even if not luxurious, they were ancient and grand.

One who didn't know better would think they had arrived at the Capital.

Yes.

The entire Jinzhou is like this.

Let alone Jinyang?

Liu Zheng had a bit of a headache.

With a Jinzhou like this, could he take it?

But even if he couldn't take it, he had to find a Method!

Coal.

Will be the most important resource for the next few hundred years!

"Prince Yong, are you sure Jinzhou is poor?"

Outside the magnificent city walls of Jinyang, several people looked at Prince Yong simultaneously.

Prince Yong was so embarrassed, he gave a hollow laugh: "This damn Prince of Jin, he cries poverty to me every day, cries poverty to me every day, who knew he..."

The few people smiled bitterly at the same time.

It seemed that either this Prince of Jin was "humble-bragging," or this person was truly a miser by nature.

The documents had already been submitted.

They were just waiting for the Prince of Jin to come out to welcome them.

"Who are these people?"

"Don't know, they look unfamiliar..."

"I heard they are from Liangzhou!"

"Huh? People from Liangzhou? Could it be Vice Minister Liu?"

People along the road cast sidelong glances, discussing and guessing.

What was surprising was that the title of "Vice Minister Liu," famous throughout Longyan, was actually not very effective in Jinzhou. Those who guessed correctly only took a few more looks at this side before hurrying on their way.

"Hahahaha, this is the first time I've seen Vice Minister Liu get snubbed like this!"

Prince Yong found it very amusing.

Liu Zheng smiled bitterly and shook his head.

This was better; he really wasn't used to the scene of being shouted at wherever he went.

Viewed in this light.

These Jin merchants were still very pragmatic.

Suddenly, Liu Zheng understood a little why this Jinyang Xie Clan could maintain its position for so many years. It was very simple: this branch of the Xie Clan had turned Jinzhou, this "Land of the Dragon's Rise" and political fortress, into a commercialized society. This was a very clever approach. On one hand, it gave the imperial court in the Capital peace of mind: look, we don't want to develop military affairs here, we don't station troops, we don't fight wars, we only develop commerce, how about that?

The imperial court would naturally be very reassured.

On the other hand, the extremely developed Jin merchants also became a source of fiscal revenue for the imperial court.

Furthermore.

There was an even deeper consideration. The main direction and scope of the Jin merchants' business was Mobei.

The Jin merchants who traveled through the West Pass easily spread Longyan Culture to other countries, which naturally was of great help in satisfying the vanity of the Longyan imperial court.

Over time, a Jinzhou with a social system completely different from other provinces emerged just like that.

The Jin merchants hold a very high status in Jinzhou.

Most of the financiers hold official posts at the Jin Prince's Mansion.

This is one of the Jin Prince's methods.

It can be said that in Jinzhou, the sprouts of capitalism have already begun to appear at this time.

Just how impressive are the Jin merchants?

The Qiao Family Compound in Jinzhou hardly needs any elaboration.

The Chang Family Compound and the Old City of Yuci have a developed and utilized area reaching 120,000 square meters, with an incalculable area awaiting further development and utilization; the entire compound is, first, regulated, and second, spacious.

The scale of the Wang Family Compound in Lingshi is 1.5 hectares larger than the Forbidden City in Beijing!

These compounds prove the brilliance of the Jin merchant culture.

The superiority of the Jin merchants lies in their extremely profound cultural foundation.

Historically, just how wealthy were the Jin merchants? Baotou was originally a military outpost during the Kangxi Emperor's pacification of Galdan; because Jin merchants handled provisions and supplies for the Qing army in Baotou, a market gradually formed there. Chaoyang City in Liaoning was where a Jin merchant surnamed Cao made tofu, which also slowly formed a market; in the modern Beijing of his past life, many descendants of Jin merchants still live and develop in Dashilan and Zhushikou.

To develop a small military outpost into a moderately sized city (Baotou) through trade, to develop a rural town into a medium-sized city (Chaoyang) through expansion, and to continuously accumulate wealth through honest business to occupy a place in the Capital—one can imagine how considerable the "accumulation" of the Jin merchants was at that time.

Liu Zheng.

Put away his sense of contempt.

He suddenly felt that, for this trip, wanting to persuade a Jinzhou like this to mine coal for him...

Is almost an impossible task.