On the New Year's Day of the second year of Kangxi, Chongqing.

The waterway outside Chongqing city is now likely to be the busiest waterway in East Asia. There are endless ships traveling between Xuezhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Chongqing, and a large number of passing boats are sailing by. Even if the New Year is approaching, the hardworking people in western Sichuan have not stopped working and returned home for the New Year. Many people choose to go back a few days later and reunite with their families. As long as these hard work can be exchanged for enough rewards, they are willing to do so.

Of course, the Ganzhou Green Camp in Chongqing will not allow Western Sichuan people to be beautiful. In the past, soldiers could rest before the Spring Festival, but this year it was not possible. Yesterday, most soldiers worked until the sun set before being released from the jade processing camp. Today, the generals in Chongqing reluctantly gave the soldiers a day off, but they would have to resume work from tomorrow.

Since October, Chongqing generals are becoming more and more interested in jade processing, mainly because of the positive feedback from the rear market. More than ten years of war have caused the jewelry processing industry to stop, and many jewelry stores have gone bankrupt, and the rest are struggling to support. If the war does not stop for a day, transportation in various places will be conscripted for military use, and no one will actively engage in jade mining, so it is impossible for a large number of jewelry to enter the luxury market. At the same time, the war has also made the people poorer, and the price of jewelry remains high, but the average social wealth is declining. This contradiction is doomed to the recession of the luxury market.

Deng Ming did not work hard to produce grain but sold jewelry for money when the world was uncertain. This is of course a unique and unique piece in history. The Qing army in Chongqing could not defeat the Sichuan army, nor was it immediately eliminated by the other party. It was forced by life and had to unite with the enemy to produce jewelry. This is also unprecedented. In this way, Deng Ming and Gao Mingzhan Group created an unprecedented situation. Jewelry shops behind the Qing court enthusiastically welcomed the new type of jewelry, jade, to enter the market, which was relatively cheap and acceptable to consumers, and in other cases.

When the supply of goods is exhausted, it is a good alternative to the industry, and many jewelry merchants regard it as a life-saving straw; it doesn’t matter if the product processing in Chongqing is rough, jewelry merchants can further process it themselves - in the past they were unwilling to spend their time on such cheap stones. But now the entire industry has experienced more than ten years of recession, and the rewards of craftsmen have become very low. Even those senior masters, in order to have a bite of food, would not feel that processing such stones is an insult to their craftsmanship.

In addition to the private market, jadeite is also very popular in Beijing. It has been less than twenty years since Manchu entered the pass. During the Chongzhen Dynasty, Manchus who entered the pass and plundered did not know how to appreciate jade at all. They only need gold and silver to not stones during robbery. As Manchus began to enjoy their blessings in Beijing and became increasingly far away from the life of war, the newly grown generation began to be arty and began to learn to appreciate jade. However, Manchus obviously has not learned yet, and many people still can't learn how to identify the quality of stones. Gold and silver are very simple, just look at the purity, but the standards are much more complicated based on the quality of the stone.

Therefore, when jade flowed into Beijing, many mankind immediately accepted it. It was obvious that this stone was harder and brighter, and could shine brightly in the sun. It was more beautiful than traditional jade. In fact, Wang Mingde and his group also felt that it was the same. Compared with warm jade, jade was undoubtedly more in line with the eyes of their nouveau riche. However, Li Guoying's evaluation of "fake jade" made Chongqing generals pretend to understand and brag about each other seriously, saying that they had always thought that the stones of turtle are better-"Wu Tutu" is the view of these local buns on the restrained and magnificent view of jade.

The most decisive blow came from the hands of Sony, the Minister of Respondent. After Deng Ming and Gao Mingzhan talked in early August, a "Western Sichuan local product" including ivory, gems and jade was delivered to the desk of the Chief Minister of Respondent. Sony thought it was good, so he asked someone to use gems and jade to create several jewelry, two pairs of ivory chopsticks, and a set of jade chopsticks to the Da Nei, and filial piety was given to the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager, who was working hard to learn the Han royal taste, felt that these gems and jade were more pleasing than all the jades she had ever seen. She fiddled with them for many days and gave them a little more favored by the princesses.

Suddenly, this kind of "western Sichuan native products" became popular among the Eight Banners nobles. Almost after Li Guoying left Chongqing, Beijing suddenly became unusually concerned about the situation in Sichuan. In October, Chongqing received three 800-li urgent letters, asking in detail about the current situation in Chongqing and the movements of the Ming army in western Sichuan. Since Li Guoying was not there, these memorials were of course responded by Gao Mingzhan. After carefully reporting the determination of Chongqing soldiers to survive and die with Greater Chongqing, Gao Mingzhan also prepared a "western Sichuan native products" for several auxiliary ministers. Of course, these local products were also sent back to Beijing with the 800-li urgent memorial.

Soon, Beijing sent another wish full of praise and further asked about Chongqing's needs - by November, Beijing's concern for Chongqing was far more than before. When Li Guoying was full of passion for the Manchu Taijun, Beijing's concern for Chongqing was not even one-tenth of Gao Mingzhan's current current.

After the first expedited document in November, the third-ranked regent Suksaha also sent a handwritten letter to Gao Mingzhan. In the letter, Lord Suksaha first said that he had heard that Gao Mingzhan was a first-class capable minister in western Sichuan and had long been interested in cultivating him. However, in the past, there were many affairs at hand and the pressure of regents was high, so he only took the time to write this private message to Governor Gao. At the end of this handwritten letter that made Gao Mingzhan grateful, Suksaha mentioned two sentences lightly, saying that several princes' princes had discussed the local products in western Sichuan...

After reading this sentence, Gao Mingzhan shouted and rushed into the jade processing camp without saying a word. Other Manchu and Han generals from Chongqing also arrived one after another and gathered together to study one production problem after another. Two days and two nights later, when Gao Mingzhan came out of the camp with a box of "Western Sichuan Local Products", his hair and beard were covered with mineral powder and gravel, and behind him was a group of Eight Banners whose eyes were red and had not closed their eyes well for more than twenty hours. In his reply to Lord Suksaha, the list of producers of the "Western Sichuan Local Products" was lined up with a whole page. Gao Mingzhan was of course the first, followed by the commander of the Eight Banners garrison, followed by Sun Sike, Yuan Jiawenbi, and Wang Mingde...

From then on, not only did the regent ministers say more and more praises to Gao Mingzhan, but even the princes who used to be sarcastic about Chongqing sent Baoyi to Chongqing, and told Gao Mingzhan and others that the New Year was approaching, and the princes planned to add some local products in western Sichuan this time to the Queen Mother's congratulations to the Queen Mother this time.

This incident even alarmed Deng Ming. At the end of November, Deng Ming sent a brand new jadeite rough stone. The stone was crystal clear and divided into four sections from beginning to end, from red to green, then turned pure white, and finally dyed with golden color. Although Deng Ming demanded a lot of money, this stone made Gao Mingzhan and others sigh: Deng Ming really has good things in his hands.

The design drawing was given by Deng Ming for free, and Deng Ming also wrote a line of congratulations: "I wish Lafayette a long life."

When I saw this congratulations, Gao Mingzhan and others couldn't help but curse. Deng Ming, as a royal family member of the Ming Dynasty, you are a nobleman of the Ming Dynasty, just to sell the stones you snatched from Myanmar. Even the "Lao Buddha" and "Long Lives Away" have come out. Can you still have some shame and some bottom line?

While shouting that Deng Ming was shameless, Gao Mingzhan, Sun Sike and others took turns to work, quickly completing Deng Ming's design in early December. All the Eight Banners of Manchuria treasured them, and they had not been sold to waste-collecting mounts. Yuan Jiawenbi and Hu Wenke rode them to send the local products in western Sichuan back to Beijing in time.

After the two boarded the last communications express ship on the Jialing River that had not yet been "mold", they swear together that if they could not return to Beijing in time and let down the expectations of all colleagues in Chongqing, they would use swords to wipe their necks together in front of the Beijing gate, and would never be afraid of death or live a life of silence.

...

Today, Deng Ming sent an envoy to congratulate Gao Mingzhan on the arrival of the dan. He first congratulated Governor Gao for his prosperous business, saying that the price of jadeite in western Sichuan increased three times in just half a year after entering the jewelry market. After the supply was in short supply, he also admired Gao Mingzhan and was full of energy. The envoy made Governor Gao feel at ease that there was a stable channel for goods in western Sichuan and would be able to continuously ensure the raw materials needed by the Chongqing jewelry processing army.

The gift Deng Ming gave to the Sichuan Governor was very special. It was eleven carefully carved ivory balls, and a large rectangular table with six holes.

"Duke Baoguo is so polite." Gao Mingzhan looked at the table for a long time, but he didn't know what the meaning of Deng Ming giving him this super dining table. Touching the four corners of the table and the two holes in the middle of the long side, Gao Mingzhan felt that the dining table was designed for six people: "Duke Baoguo even opened the hole for the wine hukou, and he was really careful."

The table was delivered with the hole-opening dining table, and a few short oak spears and a mahogany gun stand for the placement of these short spears.

Of course, the most expensive one is the eleven ivory balls. Ivory is a raw material that Deng Ming will never sell to Chongqing. Although it is the "local product in western Sichuan" as jade, the ones Deng Ming sent to Chongqing are all made ivory products, the largest of which is slightly thicker than the thumb - these ivory carvings in Chongqing can only earn a little intermediate price, and Deng Ming's original price is very high.

But this time the ivory ball that Deng Mingming gave to Gao Mingzhan was quite considerable and polished very exquisitely.

"Ivory can be exchanged for a piece of gold in Beijing, right?" Deng Ming's envoy smiled and said to Gao Mingzhan: "But Duke Bao felt that in the hands of Governor Gao, this ivory was worthy of being a thing."

...

On the afternoon of the first afternoon of the first lunar month, many Qing generals from Chongqing went to Gao Mingzhan to make friends with martial arts, and rushed to demonstrate their family-born marksmanship with short oak spears on a square table called "billiard table". The number of shots that stabbed ivory balls into the hole should be based on the smaller the number. The more exquisite the marksmanship is.

"Oh, I have today too." After playing for two rounds, Wang Mingde sat on the side and laughed, saying to himself: "A thing as precious as ivory is just a child's plaything in my hands... Well, I am still a governor now, but if the jade business continues, sooner or later I can ask Admiral Deng for a set."
Chapter completed!