Chapter 226 The King of Light in Yuanfan

Jekenskai Muhammad looked up at the magnificent city, and he almost felt the urge to kneel down in worship.

"Allah, there is such a prosperous city in this world, even Baghdad and Damascus combined, which are not half as prosperous as his!"

Jakensky's boasting is somewhat mixed with some of the common problems he likes to brag about as a businessman, although Lin'an is indeed one of the most prosperous cities in the world now, but Baghdad and Constantinople are also famous cities that can be compared with her. However, compared to these cities, the three- to four-story factory dormitories that are emerging on the outskirts of Lin'an are so beautiful that Jeckenssky exclaims.

In March of the second year of Yanhuang of the Great Song Dynasty, Jeken Skye Muhammad, a merchant from Da Shi, came to Lin'an, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, for the first time. It was a sunny spring day with a mild breeze, and countless people were hurrying through the streets, as if an invisible force was urging them. Jakensky waited on the docks for a long time, until the shock of the sprawling city had been digested, and then he turned back.

"Meng Xianyan, can you really let me meet the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, the legendary King of Light?"

Jekensky wasn't familiar with Meng Xisheng, otherwise he wouldn't have said such a thing.

Meng Xisheng was also surprised by the changes in Lin'an, after the change of the people of Huating Mansion, in order to let the landless and displaced people have a way to live, Zhao Heju used the money from the inner treasury - in fact, it was to advance the profits of his private property in the first year of Yanhuang to build these houses outside the Lin'an city wall, as for the Lin'an City, for the long-term consideration of the future, Zhao Youju has ordered a ban on the construction of new buildings to maintain cultural characteristics.

In just half a year, Lin'an City has houses to live in and work to do, attracting countless landless peasants from nearby prefectures, and the envoys sent by the Department of Persuasion under the Ministry of Industry have led the distant Jiangnan West Road and Jinghu Road displaced people to Lin'an, Xuzhou and other emerging industrial cities. The registered population of Lin'an City has exceeded 1.8 million, of which nearly 150,000 have poured in in the past six months. The development of river transport has made this large-scale migration possible, so the rate of migration is increasing. With the growth of population, Lin'an has become more developed in terms of commerce and trade, and the development of commerce and trade has promoted the progress of the transportation industry.

The pavement outside Lin'an has also been hardened, but it is no longer a pure concrete pavement. After the development of Xuzhou's coking coal industry, a large amount of coal asphalt was used to pave the road, although Zhao and Ju repeatedly warned that these coal asphalt is toxic and is not as good as natural asphalt in engineering construction, but it still cannot stop the people's enthusiasm for hardened pavement. The road extends all the way to Huating and Qingyuan, Zhenjiang, and will continue to be extended.

"Whew-"

The whistle sounded, and Jeckenskai turned around, where another large steamer was docking.

The "Ocean Voyage" they took was the first steamship to be put into operation, which was specially responsible for passenger transportation between Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Tamsui, Qingyuan and Lin'an, and it was also the first passenger ship of China Merchants to be put into sea. In addition to this ship, China Merchants also has another steam passenger and cargo dual-purpose ship "Donghae", which runs the triangular route of Lin'an, Waguo, and Goryeo. Now it is the Donghai that is calling at the port, Jekenskai looked at it for a while, and the dock was crowded with people in a blink of an eye, followed by two teams of honor guards coming down from the ship, Jakenskye was a little surprised, and asked Meng Xisheng: "Meng Xianyan, is that a big man?" ”

"What kind of big shots are they?" Meng Xisheng shook his head: "It's just an envoy of the Wa Kingdom and Goryeo." ”

Jekensky was not a merchant who knew nothing about the East, and knew that the Wa Kingdom and Goryeo were also two great powers, and they sent envoys to the Great Song Dynasty to pay tribute.

"Your country and all the nations have come to court, it is really extraordinary, extraordinary." Jakensky laughed.

Meng Xisheng shook his head, but he didn't make a sound, if today's son doesn't care whether all countries come to the court or not, it is almost impossible for this envoy of Goryeo and the Japanese kingdom to make a fortune in the name of tribute as before.

The first year of the Great Song Dynasty was a turbulent year, in which the Son of Heaven eliminated the troubles, not only went out to the strong enemy, but also the internal changes were surprisingly smooth, not only exiled the rebellious exiles to Nanyang - although Zhao and Ju said that they would be exiled to Xinzhou, but considering that Xinzhou was too large to manage, they were actually banished to Sulu, where large rubber forests were in need of diligent labor, not lazy natives, and for the first time introduced exiled officials into the cabinet, Because Xiao Bolang has the identity of the Great Song Xiucai, he was appointed as the waiter of the Ministry of Industry to help Qiao Xingjian, the new secretary of the Ministry of Industry. But in fact, Xiao Bolang was still studying steam locomotives, and did not take up his post, but only asked several bachelors in Boya Building related to engineering and manufacturing to take turns to act on his behalf. As the chief official of the Ministry of Works, Qiao Xingjian supported this measure, and Cui reached a compromise with the Son of Heaven on this issue, while Xue Ji was only the first to look forward to the Son of Heaven, and only one Ge Hong still had reservations, but Qiao Xingjian's existence made him unable to express his opposition.

On the occasion of the New Year of the second year of Yan and Huang, Ma Yi and Sulu donated land, Zhao and Ju officially issued an edict to change the two subject countries of Ma Yi and Sulu to Ma Yi Province and Sulu Province. But for the people of the Great Song Dynasty, this is another exciting news, although the vast majority of people don't know where Ma Yi Sulu is, but the Wanbang court clothes, it can also be seen that the Great Song Dynasty is thriving.

It was under these circumstances that Jeken Skye, a merchant from the Great Food, set foot on the land of the Great Song Dynasty.

Passing through the factory outside the city, Jeken Skye came to the Lin'an City Gate, he had been to the Great Song Dynasty once, but at that time he was in Quanzhou, he still remembered the soldiers who collected taxes in front of the Quanzhou City Gate, but this time he was surprised that although there were still soldiers stationed in front of the Lin'an City Gate, these soldiers turned a blind eye to pedestrians.

In front of the city gate, a small square was paved with concrete, and on the small square was a row of wooden planks, on which notices were posted, and many people stopped to watch.

"Those people can read and write?" Jaken Skye asked Meng Xisheng in surprise.

"My Great Song Dynasty is different from Great Food, and the people are also easy to learn and write." Meng Xisheng replied proudly.

"The Son of Heaven is heroic, the article teaches Ercao, everything is inferior, only reading is high." The Great Song Dynasty originally encouraged Fameng to study, but after Zhao Heju ascended the throne, he took this as a top priority, bypassing the education system controlled by bureaucrats and doctors, and eradicating illiteracy, especially the poor, through measures such as Yixue, medicine, and factory learning. Although it is a short fashion, the folk style of learning is flourishing, especially for the "new learning" with strong practicality, and even some traditional readers have begun to pay attention to it.

Jeckenskai squeezed to the notice board, which was pasted with a large official seal, and Jeckenskai could speak Chinese, but could not read Chinese characters, so he pulled a young man who read it with relish, and he read the notice to himself.

"The Great Song Dynasty Patent Law ......" The young man saw that he had a high nose and white skin, and that he was a sea fang, so he really thought about it and listened to him. The Patent Act is more of an incomplete commercial law than a patent bill. The core is two, first, all businesses must pay commercial taxes truthfully, and those who steal and conceal taxes must be sanctioned, and their exclusive interests; Second, all inventions and processes have patents for their originators, and if the tax records are good, the patents are protected by law for up to 15 years, and if there is tax evasion, the patents are automatically transferred to the first person to report the tax evasion.

The cornerstone of the implementation of this law is not only the imperial power, but more importantly, the overwhelming leadership of Liuqiu in technology. Nowadays, the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty are more and more aware that the products they use the old technology and machinery to manufacture cannot compete with their peers who use the flow process and machinery, and to buy the flow of the process and machinery, they must show a good tax record to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, which is always responsible for this matter, and because they need the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to give support in terms of technology, maintenance and upgrading, they must continue to provide tax records to the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

The introduction of this bill, but also Zhao and Ju and the result of the bureaucratic compromise, those big businessmen behind often mean bureaucrats, they rely on privileges, evasion of commercial taxes is almost common, Zhao and Ju several times want to change this situation, they are audited, were refuted by the courtiers on the grounds that "the Son of Heaven does not compete with the people", "it is better to hide the wealth in the country than to hide the wealth in the people", Zhao and Ju after discussing with Yelu Chucai and Chen Zicheng, they took advantage of the privilege of Liuqiu to be almost monopolized in technology, and introduced this patent law.

This turned the collection of commercial taxes, which was originally an act of the government, into a trade behavior between merchants, and some courtiers thought that this was still "competing for profits with the people", but Zhao and Ju refused to interfere in this matter on the grounds that "the first credit between merchants, tax evasion, not only bending the law, but also disloyalty to the country and distrustworthiness of the king, disloyal and untrustworthy people, merchants do not trade with it, it is normal, and the government should not interfere", and even directly introduced the "patent law" to protect this trade order.

After the introduction of this policy, the most happy is Wei Liaoweng, because of the geographical distance, he currently has only Lin'an and Qingyuan, Huating in the surrounding areas of Yanhuang in January and February industrial and commercial tax income statement, Lin'an City industry and commerce is the most developed, the growth is also the most, compared with last year to more than forty percent, Qingyuan to three percent more, and Huating is two percent more.

If the country's industrial and commercial taxes were to increase like this, Wei Liaoweng could almost imagine that his household would be filled with gold yuan coupons.

After last year's turmoil, both coins and coinage have gradually withdrawn from the market, and have been replaced by auxiliary coins issued by banks. This kind of auxiliary coins with iron mainly mixed with a small amount of lead and copper have a very low face value, and there are six kinds of semi-wen, one wen, two wen, five wen, twenty wen, and fifty wen, all of which have corresponding gold dollar coupons, plus copper dollars, silver dollars and gold coins issued before, constituting a complete metal currency system. However, silver dollars and gold coins are rarely used in the market, and copper dollars are not used much, and iron coins are only used in small transactions, and in most cases, people use paper money.

Jeken Skye always felt that it was incredible, that a small piece of paper could be used for money.

"Jeken Skye, hurry up and get into town." Meng Xisheng urged: "If you don't enter the city again, it will be time to get off work in a while, and it will inevitably be blocked here." ”

Following Meng Xisheng, Jaken Sky finally stepped into Lin'an City.

Unlike the noisy, prosperous and fast-paced outside, Lin'an within the city wall is an elegant, beautiful, dignified and unhurried boudoir. The streets are equally clean and tidy, and there are shops on both sides of the road, but the people who walk here have a leisurely look, and they don't seem to be busy making a living, but going out for a walk. Inside and outside the city walls, there were almost two different cities, which surprised Jekensky again.

Meng Xisheng placed him in the inn, and he went to the forbidden palace, Long Twelve, Xing Zhiyuan, and Li Yunrui took turns to be in charge of the guards in front of the forbidden palace, which was also a rule set to facilitate the righteous young man to ask for a meeting, today is Xing Zhiyuan on duty, and when he saw Meng Xisheng, he said with joy: "Meng Xianyan, what can you bring for the little princess this time?" ”

Han Yu gave birth to a daughter, which made the ministers a little regretful, and they couldn't wait to see the birth of the dragon son. But as a father, Zhao and Ju are very happy, after the full moon of their daughter, they often walk around the garden with their arms, this little princess who is loved by thousands of people, but regardless of her father is the strongest British lord in the history of the Great Song Dynasty, she still urinates him, but Zhao and Ju are still happy to do it.

Another hobby of the little princess is to pull Cui He's beard, although it is only more than two months and she has a lot of time to sleep, but when Cui He and Zhao and Ju are discussing, she often stares at Cui He and keeps staring at Cui He, which may be because the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace have no beards, and Yelu Chucai is not a kind old man like Cui He. Cui He is also very fond of the little princess, and occasionally begs Zhao Heju to give him a hug, and every time he is torn off a beard or two by the little princess.

"Naturally, if you forget about this matter, I, Meng Xisheng, still have the face to see Your Majesty?" Meng Xisheng handed the burden in his hand to Xing Zhiyuan, Xing Zhiyuan opened it and looked at it, inside was a small splashing drum embedded with gems, a long-haired big plush dog, and an unusually beautiful small mirror. Xing Zhiyuan rewrapped the burden and handed it back, and said with a smile: "Now send a mirror to our little princess, you are not afraid of Concubine De talking about you." ”

After Han Yu gave birth to a daughter, she was immediately promoted to Concubine De, so Xing Zhiyuan called her so. Meng Xi smiled and handed over another baggage, which was full of the same set as the previous one, as well as a crystal clear jade sword.

"It's ......"

"I estimate that the concubine is about to give birth, so I prepared two sets, if it is a prince, I will take out the mirror and exchange it for a jade sword, if it is a princess, I will send it over as such." Meng Xisheng grimaced: "This deal is still done, right?" ”

"If it weren't for the latter sentence, I would have doubted whether you were Li Hanfan or Meng Xianyan." Xing Zhiyuan put away his things again and motioned for him to go in.

In terms of the scale of the palace, the forbidden palace is relatively deserted now, and Zhao and Ju released the older palace maids for two consecutive years, and did not include new eunuchs and palace maids. Meng Xisheng waited in front of the harem gate for a while, and saw a palace maid come over to deliver the news that the Son of Heaven had seen him.