Chapter 293 Interest Groups (2) Please subscribe!

And at this moment, Ye Mingsheng received a secret report from Yuan Song!
In a secret report, Yuan Song informed Ye Mingsheng that Dong Jianchuan's caravan transported tens of thousands of kilograms of iron to the Khitans at one time. In addition, daily necessities such as ceramics, tea, cloth, salt, and herbs were transported using more than fifty horse-drawn carriages each time.

Such large-scale caravans would deliver goods to the Khitans almost every three to five days, but given the Khitans' population size, they simply could not digest so many things.

Therefore, Yuan Song suspected that the trading partners of the Longchang caravan were other people besides the Khitans...

Yuan Song's report was highly valued by Ye Mingsheng. He immediately asked Huo San to conduct a secret investigation, and soon Ye Mingsheng received Huo San's report with conclusive evidence.

An Zhirong's caravan did transport the goods to the Khitan, but 70% of these goods were taken by the Khitan to the Zhou court's biggest enemy in the northeastern border - the Luobi people!

An Zhirong sold the goods to the Khitans, and the Khitans sold the goods to the Robe people. On the surface, this was a business transaction between the Khitans and the Robe people and had nothing to do with An Zhirong.

But if you say that An Zhirong doesn't know the secret behind this, Ye Mingsheng will be the first one to not believe it!

In Ye Mingsheng's opinion, An Zhirong was using the Khitans as a cover to break through the Zhou Dynasty's strict trade blockade on the Luobi people.

If the Luobi people are a ferocious tiger, then the Khitan people are at most a hunting dog. The two are simply not on the same level. The degree of vigilance of the Great Zhou court towards the two is vastly different!

In the eyes of most officials, the Khitans were just a minor nuisance and would not amount to much. At most, they would cause trouble to Liaoyang. Therefore, the blockade of the flow of strategic materials such as iron and salt into the Khitan was not particularly strict.

The Robe people were the second largest external threat to the security of the imperial court after the Golden Horde. They could threaten the existence of large northern regions such as Liaoyang, Youyan, and Dongdu. Therefore, the imperial court would never allow large amounts of iron, salt and other materials to fall into the hands of the Robe people!

It is precisely because of such a strict trade blockade that the price of salt and iron sold to Luobi is several times more than the price sold to Khitan!

And obviously this is where An Zhirong Caravan makes huge profits...

From a business perspective, the Khitans are the intermediaries between An Zhirong and the Luobi people!

Ye Mingsheng's speculation is not without evidence.

Under the instruction of Ye Mingsheng, Huo San secretly arrested Niu Dawei, one of Dong Jianchuan's trusted subordinates. However, Niu Dawei turned against Ye Mingsheng and became a hidden man planted by Ye Mingsheng in the Dalongchang Company.

According to Niu Dawei's account, among the good horses Dong Jianchuan exchanged for, only a small number were from the Khitans, and most of them were from the Luobei people!

This undoubtedly confirmed Ye Mingsheng's guess! An Zhirong's real trading partner was not the Khitans, but the Luobei people!
When he first realized this, Ye Mingsheng was really shocked. He never expected that An Zhirong would be so bold as to sell so much salt and iron to Luobi...

If this were to happen, even if An Zhirong had connections, was wealthy, and had extensive networks, he would definitely be finished!
Not only will An Zhirong himself die, but his entire family of Kunshan Hou An will also be executed, and even three generations of his clan will be implicated!

After the shock, Ye Mingsheng regained his composure and found that something was wrong. He had come into contact with An Zhirong many times. In his eyes, An Zhirong was a shrewd and calculating person, not a greedy person who would do anything for money!

Why would such a person do such a risky thing?

Is he really doing this just for the money?

To whom did he sell the good horses he had exchanged from the Robe people?

Thinking about these three questions, Ye Mingsheng gradually had a clear idea in his mind...
First of all, Ye Mingsheng can be sure of one thing, that this matter cannot be done by An Zhirong and Shen Jianzhong alone!

Although Ye Mingsheng didn't know when this trade started, he knew that before he was stationed in Fengzhou, the Dalongchang caravan had already started trading with the Robe people and the Khitans, which meant that it had been quite a while!

Ye Mingsheng estimated that the trade between them had lasted for at least a year!

In a year's time, with the scale and frequency of the caravans, it is definitely not an easy task to block the news, bribe all the links and prevent any news from leaking out!
At least An Zhirong and Shen Jianzhong would definitely not be able to do such a thing!

Ye Mingsheng felt that An Zhirong and Shen Jianzhong must have accomplices, and there was even a high possibility that there was a profit group behind them!
This interest group is definitely very powerful. They were able to cover up such a large-scale trade with Romania without any news. Just thinking about it makes people shudder and turn pale...

Although he still didn't know the exact truth, Ye Mingsheng was very clear about one thing: cutting off someone's financial resources was like killing their parents!
If Ye Mingsheng closed this highly profitable trade route, he would inevitably suffer the most insane revenge from this interest group!
At the same time, the Khitans would also do their best to send troops to eliminate the Luobi people, whose financial resources had also been cut off, to reopen the trade route to Fengzhou and resume trade with this interest group.

After half a year of development, Ye Mingsheng's strength has grown rapidly. Not only has he firmly controlled Fengzhou, but his total military strength has also exceeded 10,000. However, if he faces a double blow from a potential interest group within the Zhou Dynasty and the Khitans, Ye Mingsheng is a little nervous...
Because of this, Ye Mingsheng decisively gave up the plan to close the trade route. It would not be too late to consider this issue when he, Ye, takes control of Liaoyang!
Although he could not close the trade route, Ye Mingsheng was somewhat unwilling to allow the Dalongchang caravan to aid the enemy and let the Khitans threaten Fengzhou and his own safety.

Therefore, after Ye Mingsheng thought about it carefully, he had the answer in his mind. Since he, An Zhirong, could trade salt and iron with the Luobei and Khitan people for good horses, then he, Ye Mingsheng, could also garrison in Fengzhou!
Since it is impossible to weaken the enemy, for the sake of safety Ye Mingsheng can only work hard to strengthen himself and get rid of the threat from the Khitans!

Although Fengzhou has no advantages in salt, cloth, tea, ceramics and other things, the refined steel must be provided first to the development of Fengzhou!

But Ye Mingsheng has something that An Zhirong doesn’t have, and that is military weapons!
The Khitans' poor refining technology also made them have a great demand for the weapons of the Great Zhou...

(End of this chapter)