I believe many people have heard of the saying "middlemen earn the price difference". Relying on information asymmetry and product asymmetry, they earn high price differences by doing business in two places through transportation. Historically, only businessmen or business groups have done this. , but in the Song Dynasty there was such a country. The whole country was trying to make money from the price difference, and it was quite wealthy. This was Ziqi State, a strange small country in the Song Dynasty.
The State of Ziqi in the Southern Song Dynasty
The Origin of the State of Ziqi
Many people have never heard of this country. During the Song Dynasty, most people had only heard of Song, Liao, Jin, Xixia, Dali, Tubo and other countries. Ziqi State has no idea that Ziqi State actually belongs to a vassal state of the Song Dynasty and nominally belongs to the Song Dynasty. Therefore, many people will treat it as Jisizhou and directly include it in the territory of the Song Dynasty.
Now the ruins of the Ziqi Kingdom are in Chengzi Village
In fact, the Ziqi Kingdom is a small country established by the Wuman people, the ancestors of the Yi people. They had previously established the Nanzhao Kingdom during the Tang Dynasty, and later passed through the vassal towns at the end of the Tang Dynasty. , and eventually evolved into Ziqi State in the Northern Song Dynasty, and returned to Song Taizu in the early years of the Song Dynasty. In the end, Song Taizu named it Guizhou, which is also the origin of Guizhou Province.
The Nanzhao Kingdom that once dominated the southwest in the late Tang Dynasty
Although it was very weak when it was first founded, it surrendered to the Song Dynasty and became a vassal state of the Song Dynasty. Under the cover of the Northern Song Dynasty, it gradually developed and expanded, and its territory became larger and larger. The Song Dynasty was in the southwest The region had not paid much attention to it, but it eventually grew and became a country between , Dali Kingdom, and the Song Dynasty. This also laid the foundation for later selling horses to make money.
Selling horses to earn the price difference
After the Jingkang Incident, the Jin Dynasty occupied the Yellow River basin. Originally, there were not many horse-producing lands in the Song Dynasty, but now all the horse-producing lands in the north are occupied by the Jin people , plus the gold The North Korea continued to invade the south, and if they wanted to fight the Jin people, they needed a large number of war horses. Therefore, the Song Dynasty turned its attention to Dali. At that time, Dali's horse breeds were better than the Jin's Mongolian horses , so the Song Dynasty decided to purchase excellent horses from Dali. war horse.
Cavalry was the most important force in ancient times
However, the Yunnan-Guizhou region was still an undeveloped place at that time. All kinds of snakes and insects were infested, and there was smoke and miasma everywhere. Therefore, the Yongzhou officials responsible for purchasing Dali horses were miserable and had to go there only once. A layer of skin fell off. After doing this several times, snakes and insects appeared. took the initiative to find them from Qi State and said that there were horses from Qi State, which were as good as the horses from Dali State. Just buy the ones from Qi State. Yongzhou officials took a look , As expected, I happily bought horses from Ziqi Country. After all, they were all the same, and they took a lot less walking.
Today's Dali horses
In fact, there are horses from Qi State. They are also horses from Dali State. However, I saw that the Song Dynasty went to Dali State to buy a large number of war horses every time, so I saw the business opportunity and bought horses from Dali State. , and then sold it to the Song Dynasty at a higher price, making a profit in the middle. Although the price was a bit high, Yongzhou officials really didn't want to go to Dali State, so they naturally bought horses from Qi State.
Because of the frequent wars between the Song Dynasty and the Jin , a large number of war horses were needed. The consumption of war horses was extremely high. Therefore, they began to be sold in almost the whole country from the Qi State. They became horse traders between the Song Dynasty and the Dali State, and they quickly became wealthy.
The jealousy of other countries
By selling horses, Ziqi Country became extremely wealthy, which aroused the jealousy of several other small countries around Ziqi Country. These small countries include Abo Country, Luodian Country, Luoshi Ghost Country , etc. These countries They were all called Southwest Yi by the Song Dynasty. Anyway, it was not difficult to buy horses from the Dali Kingdom and sell them to the Song Dynasty at a high price. Therefore, the situation of selling exclusively from the Qi Kingdom was broken.
Zi Qi State and other small countries
Zi Qi State was naturally unwilling to accept that someone was robbing business, so he sent troops to beat Luo Dianguo, who was robbing the most business. Later, the two countries fought with each other for a long time just to sell horses to the Song Dynasty, and even went directly to the Song Dynasty. To sell, drive the horse to Yongzhou to sell it, which directly saves Yongzhou officials from traveling long distances.
Because many countries were vying to sell horses to the Song Dynasty, the people of the Song Dynasty were happy with their competition, and used Luo Dianguo, the biggest disruptor, as a bargaining chip to lower prices with Ziqi Kingdom. For the sake of business, Ziqi Kingdom naturally agreed, and both parties were happy.
The national power was strong
The Song Dynasty bought a lot of horses, which caused a large amount of money to flow into the Ziqi Kingdom. With the money in the Ziqi Kingdom, the national power also increased significantly, surpassing the gradually weakening Dali Kingdom and the Vietnamese Li Dynasty, which was experiencing endless civil strife. In its heyday, Ziqi State occupied today's eastern Yunnan, Guangxi and western Guizhou areas, becoming the most powerful country in the southwest during the Song Dynasty.
Since the territory of the Qi Kingdom
had money and territory, the king of the Qi Kingdom naturally began to have other ideas, so he established the reign name Ganzhen. He wanted to be on an equal footing with the Southern Song Dynasty. If a vassal state dared to do this, it would have been sent to the army. But Ziqi Country is too remote, maybe because I am too busy to take care of myself, I don't care about him at all, just think that he is just amusing himself.
Willing to be a shield for the Southern Song Dynasty
Although the people of Ziqi State have a bad temper, they once had conflicts with businessmen of the Song Dynasty, and even killed people. This made the Southern Song Dynasty very unhappy, and directly sent envoys to rebuke them face to face. Ziqi State also knew that he had money to build the country. The source was the Southern Song Dynasty, so he settled down and continued to engage in the horse selling business with the Southern Song Dynasty honestly.
Later the Mongols rose up. After destroying the Jin Dynasty, they began to move south. They first destroyed the Dali Kingdom and attacked from the southwest. Unexpectedly, the Mongols first faced the Ziqi Kingdom. For Mongolia, the Ziqi Kingdom was just a side dish. In one dish, the army was weak and the country was small. Unexpectedly, Ziqi State blocked Yunnan for six years. Even before the country was destroyed, the last monarch of Ziqi State reported military information to the Southern Song Dynasty. Facing the powerful Mongolian army, Ziqi State did everything it could. They resisted with all their strength, even longer than Xiliao and Khwarezmo. This may be because Qi State thanked the Song Dynasty for the favor they had given them before.
The Mongolian army went south
In fact, if they surrendered directly from the Qi Kingdom, they could continue to be a chieftain in the southwest. After all, the Duan family of Dali was very happy to be a chieftain in the Yuan Dynasty. Unfortunately, from the Qi Kingdom to the Southern Song Dynasty, even in the subjugation of the country, He never forgot to report the news. Unfortunately, his virtue in the late Southern Song Dynasty completely failed him after six years of resistance from the Qi Kingdom.
