Outside the Ming Hall of the Imperial City, in a prescription pavilion in the garden, Yang Lin and Cai Jing sat opposite each other and drank tea.

Looking around at the rockery pavilions and pavilions, strange flowers and trees, in early summer, it was already fresh and dazzling, and the group of flowers was blooming, Cai Jing smiled and said: "Wen Yuan, it is said that you are not very optimistic about the alliance between Song and Jin. ”

Yang Lin nodded and said, "Enxiang, what the Jurchens did in the Huanglong Mansion showed their ruthless and tyrannical nature, if they were allowed to destroy the Khitan easily." They have seen the magnificence of the Great Song Dynasty, how can they bear not to go south, and they will be a strong enemy at that time. ”

Cai Jing pondered for a moment and said slowly: "Between the Liao and Song dynasties, although there is an alliance, they also send envoys to each other every year, and there is no lack of courtesy in diplomatic relations.

However, as everyone knows, the Liao and Song dynasties are feuds, and the Khitan of the Song Dynasty does not know how many times the soldiers went south, and they also attacked Bianliang several times. In the Hebei area, the Khitan military disaster suffered, and the people all slept on their backs, ready to fight with the Liao people who fought in the grass valley.

At that time, the Khitan was to the Great Song Dynasty, and they came to provoke it if they had nothing to do, and it was not a problem to kill, burn, and plunder. In the Eight Divisions of the Heavenly Dragon, the descendants insisted on whitewashing the Liao people, saying that the Great Song army also went to the Khitan to fight the grass valley, and also tortured and killed the Khitan old people and children, which was simply out of nothing.

In fact, Hebei suffered from the Khitan all the way, no less than the Western Xia suffered from Qinlong.

At that time, the Song army, under the pressure of the civilian clique, was like the Northeast Army before the Japanese invaded China, and it was very restrained, for fear of giving the Khitan a reason to go south.

The land of Youyan is a scar that the Song people can't reveal, and if people know that you hinder the Song and Jin alliances to destroy Liao, I'm afraid it will damage your reputation. ”

I'm afraid of damaging my reputation? I have nearly 10,000 sailors, and besides, if I don't come forward myself, it's over.

Yang Lin was not worried about this in his heart, but was even more worried about Cai Jing's attitude, if this old thing insisted on an alliance between Song and Jin, it would be really difficult for him to deal with him.

However, he spoke ambiguously and never said what he thought.

Yang Lin asked tentatively, "What does Eun Xiang think of this?" ”

Cai Jing chuckled, and a pretty maid stepped forward and filled him with tea. This is the privilege of Cai Jing, and the official family said that he was old and could bring his maid to Mingtang to handle government affairs.

"It's your kid who asked me, how many years older is the old man, and I don't think this matter is in a hurry.

The situation of the Great Song Dynasty is now unprecedentedly good, and in the past, the alien races outside the Guanxi sat back and watched the civil strife in the Central Plains, and they sat on the ground to raise prices.

Now we can do the same, you are inclined to the Khitan, and Liang Shicheng is inclined to the Jurchen, I think this is very good.

Let them make a price, and only those with the highest price can form an alliance with the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Jiang is still old and spicy, Yang Lin was immediately relieved, as long as Cai Jing had this idea, he was willing to use it for him, even if it was to use it.

He, Cai Jing, didn't sit on the ground and raise prices, taking advantage of the irreconcilable contradictions between himself and Liang Shicheng, to sit firmly in his own phase.

Now Liang Shi's achievements are like Khitan, with a huge heritage but successive defeats; He is like a Jurchen, rising up, but his momentum is like a rainbow; Cai Jing, this old thing is still powerful.

Yang Lin is not Wang Huang, he is not in a hurry to get to the last step every day, what can he do if he sits in the chief zaifu?

Where is the difference in today's days, the heights are unbearable, and how glamorous the position of the chief prime minister is, how many cold arrows he has to endure.

As long as Cai Jing can keep his current appearance and do something for the Great Song Dynasty, even if he is corrupt like a tiger, he is willing to keep him.

Let him be greedy, how much can he be greedy, and I will send him millions myself... It's much better than a few incompetent people who came up, and that's the real disaster for the country and the people.

In later history, after Wang Hao ousted Cai Jing from the phase, he almost only did two things:

First, the embankment Cai Jing was reset; Second, obey Liang Shicheng's words. As for the major affairs of the military state, they are not at all within the scope of the prime minister's consideration.

The most ruthless collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty was precisely in those years, and later Zhao Ji had to put Cai Jing, who was seventy or eighty, into the phase again.

Knowing Cai Jing's thoughts today, Yang Lin was relaxed, and finalized a few officials to accompany him to the Khitan.

Yang Lin specially named: Qin Hui, Gao Shan, and Bai Shizhong are all famous flattering ministers, and they don't know anything else, but they are especially good at doing things. Eating, drinking, and having fun in Bianliang is also first-class, not to mention going to Shangjing, and ruining the Khitan atmosphere depends on these few goods.

Out of the Ming Hall, Yang Lin asked Yang San to drive to the Sleeve Building, and several wealthy businessmen in charge of the Sleeve Building had been waiting for a long time.

Yang Lin's carriage drove directly into the inner courtyard and stopped under a plum tree.

Wang Yun, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, has been downstairs for a while with such a group of powerful businessmen with heads and faces.

Seeing the carriage coming in, they stepped forward one after another, Yang Lin got out of the car with a smile, and said, "Being kept by Cai Xiang to drink tea has delayed for some time, but it has made you wait for a long time." ”

Wang Yun hurriedly smiled and said: "Shaozai is the most important thing in state affairs, and we should wait for a year." ”

Entering a fragrant pavilion, Yang Lin relaxed a lot, and there were already three maids from Zhaodefang, who laid out the seat cushion for him, stood aside, and pinched his shoulders with his hands.

Yang Lin took a sip of tea, motioned for everyone to sit down, and said with a smile: "I called you here today, there are two main things to discuss, one is that I am going to set up an award, which is specifically for rewarding people who invent tools and create machines. ”

"Shaozai... Please forgive the ignorance of grass people and others, what is a machine? ”

"Spinning wheels, water wheels, stone mills... Anything that can replace manpower can be called a machine. ”

Everyone suddenly realized, and it made sense from the literal meaning, Yang Lin said: "In business, the sleeve building is the chamber of commerce, and you also know how much profit a water-powered spinning wheel can bring to the businessman's workshop."

It's a pity that few people are willing to devote themselves to research, and I think it's nothing more than no profit.

I am going to take out 200,000 yuan from my own share of the dividends in the sleeve building, and I will be selected once a year, and I can win the award if a good machine is born.

You find some people of high moral integrity, not limited to sleeve buildings or businessmen, they will be selected in a unified manner. Then report all the useful ones to me, and after I take someone to inspect the site, I will personally evaluate the ranking. ”

Shaozai is so arrogant, everyone is busy praising each other, Yang Lin's move will vigorously promote the invention and creation of skilled craftsmen in the people.

200,000 yuan is undoubtedly a huge amount of money, and it is a wealth that many families cannot earn in dozens of lifetimes.

After all, there are only a few people who can read, and Yang Lin is equivalent to finding a way out for miscellaneous scholars, after all, there are 200,000 yuan every year.

Wang Yun came to his senses from the shock and asked, "Shaozai, what is the second thing?" ”

Yang Lin hesitated for a moment, sighed, and said, "This official is ready to ask Your Majesty to use silver as a circulating currency." ”

As soon as these words came out, there was an exclamation below, which is the real generosity.

Silver has always had an awkward place in history. There is the suppression of the same precious metal gold, and the control of copper coins minted in the past dynasties, and the domestic silver mine production is small, and for a long time, silver was not used as official currency. Taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, although silver began to emerge in large quantities at the end of the Tang Dynasty, there is no doubt that gold is still the main storage currency, and the circulation in the market is mainly copper coins.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, after a long period of evolution, silver began to have a monetary character. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there was a shortage of copper coins, and private currency was in short supply, and some areas gradually allowed the people to use silver instead of copper coins to pay taxes, and silver achieved a little legal status.

So now, a lot of times silver can be used as a currency, but it's not popular. Silver was not yet a full currency in the Song Dynasty, because it was neither a measure of value nor the main means of circulation, sometimes used as a payment, nor was it the only payment, and the use of silver in daily transactions of the people was extremely limited.

Now that the maritime trade is developed, the trade routes in the Western Regions have been reopened, and the former glory will be completely restored when the Qarakhanid Dynasty is opened.

The Western Regions have always used silver as currency, and the Great Song Dynasty has begun to be affected by this, and silver as currency in the northwest region has become more and more common.

Yang Lin has already prepared, invited Zhao Ji, and began to cast the first batch of silver ingots and gold ingots.

Otherwise, copper coins are too difficult to carry, and they are easy to imitate.

The maritime trade of the Great Song Dynasty was so developed, who would have thought that the best thing to sell would be the copper coins of the Song Dynasty.

In particular, there was a lot of gold and silver there, but they did not mint copper coins, and often shipped gold and silver in exchange for copper coins, the currency of the Great Song Dynasty.

Once the domestic currency was switched to gold and silver, it was a major change for the merchants of the Western Regions and the coastal ports, which helped the silver to pour into the Central Plains, increased the purchasing power of the Great Song Dynasty, and appreciated the value of the imperial court's treasury.

With the increasing number of foreign trade and the wider conquest of territory, this move can be said to be imminent.