"This old man, do you think this is good. On behalf of Kaifeng Prefecture, I exempt you from taxes for 30 days, and you, brother, lead your 20 brothers to give me 30 days of lime powder on credit for free. After 30 days, I will pay 5,000 yuan for a cart of lime and go to the street division in Tokyo to collect the money, right? Wang Hao used a tentative tone to lure the middle-aged man standing in front of him.

In the face of Wang Hao's temptation, including this middle-aged man, the owners of these twenty or so lime kilns felt that being able to obtain Kaifeng Mansion from being exempted from the 30-day tax was simply a great joy for pie in the sky.

For them, they live almost always self-sufficient as villagers, and when they earn money, they go to the nearby township market to buy some necessities on weekdays, and they go to Tokyo to buy things only a handful of times throughout the year, so it is not only difficult for them to survive 30 days without income.

After a while, the middle-aged man still asked with doubts: "This official, if what you just said is true, we will promise you." However, the official must give us a written certificate, otherwise, the official will be empty and white-toothed, just one sentence, how can the villains believe it? ”

After listening to the conditions proposed by the middle-aged man, Wang Hao immediately smiled slightly, took out a folded piece of rice paper from his sleeve, handed it to the middle-aged man, and said: "This is the notice presented by the Kaifeng Mansion, and after you take it to the street department to receive the money after thirty days." ”

After the middle-aged man took it with both hands, he opened the rice paper and looked at it, and after a few glances, he was already overjoyed at this time, and immediately took this notice from Kaifeng Mansion and called the more than 20 people standing on his left and right sides to him, and looked at the content written on the notice a few times, and almost every one of them was happy.

Because on this notice stamped with the seal of Kaifeng Prefecture, the text content written is concise and to the point, that is, all those who are under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture who have been recruited by the sub-district division to do all kinds of business shall be exempted from taxation, and shall be exempted from taxation for at least thirty days, and those who receive this notice shall take effect immediately.

After reading the notice of Kaifeng Mansion, the middle-aged man finally relented and promised: "In this case, when I get this notice of Kaifeng Mansion, my heart will be much more steady." This official, what you just said about the 30-day credit will not only include all of us at the scene, but also a few other people who are not at home today, and they will all agree to the official's request for credit. ”

At this time, Wang Hao saw that he had spent a lot of time, and the users asked these hard-hearted kiln owners to promise to provide 30 days of lime powder for free in the form of credit, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then please everyone!" Wang Hao, who was in a relaxed mood, immediately faced the two dozen people standing in front of him, arched his hand and asked for help.

In order to allow these 20 kiln owners to deliver lime powder smoothly, Wang Hao deliberately left his good brother Zhang Sanmu in the Street Division, as well as two other soldiers in the Street Division.

After leaving here, Wang Hao took several other street division guards and drove the slightly dilapidated carriage to another village about ten miles away.

In the previous village, there were twenty or thirty stone powder kilns that fired ten lime powder, and in this village, almost every household was mainly mining iron ore from the mountains, and selling it to large and small blacksmiths in Tokyo.

In view of the fact that in the ancient society, in any dynasty, iron and salt, almost without exception, were controlled by the imperial court, during the reign of Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the people could do some small amount of iron ore trading, but they had to be registered with the local government and pay a lot of taxes.

Similar to dealing with the dozen or so kiln owners, Wang Hao and Ri'an did the same, and took out a notice from Kaifeng Mansion, asking the villagers of this village, who make a living from mining iron ore, to provide iron ore to the street division for 30 days in the form of credit.

However, Wang Hao also made a small request to these villagers, that is, the iron ore they mined was processed and ground into iron ore powder, and then transported to the kiln of the previous village for calcination.

Although the villagers felt a little embarrassed by Wang Hao's request, they finally agreed after taking a long time, because they felt that they could be exempted from forty percent of the tax, which was naturally a good thing, and they could save a lot of money in the past 30 days.

After Wang Hao left two soldiers of the Street Division to supervise the work here, he quickly stepped up and married a village that made gypsum raw materials more than ten miles away, and naturally did the same.

It took two days of hard work, Wang Hao opened up all aspects of the production of cement raw materials, and before the time of the day, he went to the Kaifeng Mansion not far from the Yamen of the Street Division to report the matter to Kaifeng Mansion Yin, which happened to be the day Fan Zhongyan was released from prison.

In Bao Zheng's office, Wang Hao entered it under the guidance of a servant, but found that Fan Zhongyan had taken off his prison uniform and was wearing an official uniform to talk to Bao Zheng about official affairs, so he hurriedly stepped forward and asked: "Xiaguan Street Si Sicheng, here to meet the two big officials." ”

Bao Zheng, who was originally discussing official business with Fan Zhongyan in the office room, saw Wang Hao, who had just walked in, greeted the two of them, took the lead in waving his hand, and said: "Wang Sicheng, there is no need to be formalized in such private occasions, Fan Gong and I are inseparable friends, everyone is our own people, you should relax." ”

Subsequently, Fan Zhongyan also smiled and echoed: "What Bao Gong said is very true, Fan and Bao Gong have been old friends for many years, and they have nothing to talk about on weekdays. Your Wang Sicheng is respected by the official family, and is appreciated by Bao Gong. I saw it a few days ago, and Fan also thought that you, Wang Sicheng, were a rare future pillar of my Great Song Dynasty.

Although Wang Sicheng is twenty or thirty years old apart from Fan and Bao Gong, he is already a like-minded friend in the hearts of Fan and Bao Gong. Wang Sicheng came just in time, and I have something to ask you. ”

What Wang Hao never expected was that Fan Zhongyan, who he had met in history textbooks in high school, this famous minister and writer of the Northern Song Dynasty, actually regarded him as a like-minded "little friend" after only having a two-sided relationship with him before.

didn't have time to think about it, Wang Hao once again agreed: "It is a great honor for Wang to be regarded as a 'little friend' by Fan Gong and Bao Gong." Fan Gong, if you have anything to say, just ask, Wang must know everything, and there is no end to what he says. ”

Fan Zhongyan was very satisfied with Wang Hao's answer, and immediately went straight to the point and asked: "Wang Sicheng, you have banned the deacon from the official family and Bao Gong in about a month, and I have just listened to Bao Gong's brief explanation. Next, what Fan wants to ask you is, is Wang Sicheng willing to join and support Fan's new policy in the Great Song Dynasty a few days later? ”