Chapter 627: The Holy Edict 3
As soon as Lin Lingsu left, Zhou Nan immediately asked Li Feixing to tell the people in the post house to prepare a hot bath. Although I "took a bath" in the special bathroom of the emperor, my body was really awkward. It would be a shame to let others know that they had gotten into the bath water used by Zhao Fujin in the future. Fortunately, he didn't say this kind of thing himself, and Zhao Fujin wouldn't say it.
After taking a hot bath comfortably and changing into clean clothes, Zhou Nan felt that he was back to himself. While wiping his hair with a dry towel, he asked Li Feixing, "When did Xiao Jiu go out with the back box?" ”
Li Feixing thought for a while and replied, "I'm afraid it's around the hour." Didn't he go looking for you with a suitcase? Why haven't you seen him? ”
"It's hard to put into words!" Zhou Nan pulled up his hair, and was about to tell Li Feixing about his one-night fate, when suddenly a post man came in from outside and said, "Your envoy, there are nobles from the inner court and the middle of the court outside, and they want to see your envoy, saying that they want to announce your majesty's message to your envoy, and invite your envoy to the front hall of the post house to greet you." ”
Zhou Nan looked at Li Feixing, Li Feixing didn't understand these things, just shook his head, Zhou Nan had to follow this post guard to the front hall, and saw that there was a person who looked like a eunuch sitting in the hall, and when he saw Zhou Nan come out, he stood up and said, "At the behest of Your Majesty, I have come to announce to the Liao people and horses that the Liao people and horses will immediately enter the palace and face the saints." After finishing speaking, he changed his tone and said to Zhou Nan, "Let's enter the palace with the little one." ”
Zhou Nan smiled and said, "Isn't there a holy decree, an edict?" ”
The eunuch who delivered the message replied strangely, "This is the oracle of the Holy Lord, where did the holy decree and edict come from?" At this time, the official family is in the vertical arch hall, and there must be no delay. ”
Zhou Nancai escaped from the palace, after all, he was a little weak-hearted, and said, "Wait for me to bring the guards, and then enter the palace with the internal officials." ”
"Without being called, those who entered the palace gate without permission were hanged, and those who entered the imperial city without permission flowed for three thousand miles. Don't make such a joke. The eunuch hurriedly stopped.
Zhou Nan couldn't, so he had to let someone lead the horse and follow the eunuch into the palace.
Outside the east gate of Dutingyi, in a house not far away, Zhao Kai, the king of Yun, and his subordinates looked at the gate of Dutingyi. I saw that Zhou Nan himself left Dutingyi with the eunuch who passed the message, and he was a little disappointed.
Zhao Kai said to the people around him, "Go to someone and find the spies in the post house, I have something to ask." A soldier hurried away. When these soldiers came out of the palace, they were all dressed as ordinary people, no different from the people who came and went on the street.
After a while, a post man walked in from the back door of this house, and saw Zhao Kai first, and Zhao Kai asked, "In the past two days, what has happened to the Liao people's horses?" ”
The postman replied, "Since the return of the palace feast, the Liao horse and his entourage went out at night, and then they have not been seen until the end of the day, the Liao horse returned to the post house, and when he came back, he asked for a hot bath." His little guy was even stranger, he came back in the middle, carried a wooden box and left again, and has not returned. ”
"Wooden crate?" Zhao Kai hurriedly asked, "But the vermilion lacquer back box?" ”
"Exactly."
"Sure enough!" Zhao Kai clapped his hands excitedly and said loudly, "You wait for the five people to stay here, if that little guy comes back, you must take a closer look, there are flaws in the clothes on your body!" ”
"Yes!" The five people who stayed behind hurriedly agreed.
Zhao Kai took his entourage and went to the palace without the route taken by Zhou Nan and others.
Li Bangyan was at home and was talking to Cai Yu and the two who were visiting.
"Brother Ju'an, it's very strange these days, all the shops in Bianjing City that sell Liao leather goods are out of stock. Even if there is some inventory, they will not sell it anymore, but just hold it. Li Bangyan said as he admired the foam floating on the green tea soup in the teacup.
"Presumably, Brother Shimei's family will not be worried about this matter, right? Shimei doesn't make a living, so I don't know. Liaoren Han Ji leather goods have released their mouths, and the supply of leather goods has been suspended. Cai You sighed, as an important minister of the imperial court, he is naturally generous, like Cai You's level of ministers, in addition to 200 yuan per month, but also make spring and winter clothes of silk, silk, cotton, Lu Su, tea and wine kitchen materials, charcoal, salt, and even the entourage's clothing and food, horses and corn, additional expenses (increases), job money, minister's money and rewards, etc., a total of 400 yuan, which sounds like a lot, but now he and his father Cai Jing have set up a separate door, and they have separated from each other, and there are many servants and servants in the family, and these people are all dependent on his money to support. That's not enough.
It's just that the Great Song Dynasty treats Shichen preferentially, and it doesn't prohibit Shichen from doing business, making some money, and subsidizing his family. Of course, as a minister of the court, he naturally can't sell wine in person, and he always has to rely on the people he trusts to sell and operate, or the people in the clan rely on their own power in the court.
Cai You's wife and brother are engaged in leather trading, and relying on Cai You's relationship, this leather trading has accounted for more than half of the market, which is not a secret among the ministers.
Cai You's wife and brother's leather goods trade has gone far beyond making some exquisite furs and boots for wealthy people in the north and south to wear. The imperial court also needs a large number of leather clothes to distribute to the soldiers along the five roads along the border every year, and there are hundreds of thousands of troops stationed on Hedong Road and Shaanxi Road alone, and a leather coat needs the sheepskin of five sheep to make it, hundreds of thousands of leather clothes, but million, or even two million sheep! And the one who supplied the sheepskin to the ordnance supervisor was Cai You's wife and brother!
The demand is high, and the merchant is naturally happy, but there must also be goods available! Sheep this beast, the most favorite is the warm and arid place to grow, the Great Song Dynasty, suitable for raising sheep is only Hengshan, Longshan, Yanmen area, and these areas are already border passes, a little outside, easy to the Xixia, Liao people robbed, a little bit inside is arable land, simply can not supply such a huge amount of leather sources. Therefore, we can only rely on selling leather goods from the border markets and selling them. The supply of sheepskin and leather clothes to the ordnance supervisor alone brought Cai You a huge amount of wealth every year, not to mention the exquisite furs bought from the Liao people at low prices, which were resold to all parts of the country, thus making huge profits. A beautifully made and well-made leather fur can easily cost hundreds or thousands.
Cai Yu deliberately approached and wooed Zhou Nan in order to be able to stably get the leather goods he needed from the Liao people.
While the two were talking, a servant came in from outside and said to Li Bangyan, "Lord, the little one just heard that the official ordered the inner servants to go to the Duting Station to announce the summons, and let the Liao people and horses enter the palace immediately to face the saint." The Liao people had already followed the chamberlain into the palace alone. ”
Li Bangyan reprimanded, "The official family values it, so they will naturally summon it, what's all the fuss?!" ”
The servant hurriedly said, "If this is the case, the little one will not dare to disturb the lord, but I have heard that the king of Yun and the guards of the imperial city division are guarding outside, and they have also entered the palace." ”
Li Bangyan naturally knew that if there was an Imperial City Division, he was afraid that it would not be a good thing. He first waved his hand and motioned for the servant to go down, and then said to Cai You, "This is strange, don't do it if the deal is not done, but cause trouble for yourself." Let's go to the palace to inquire first, and then deal with it. ”
Cai You has long been worried, it doesn't matter if something happens to Zhou Nan, how can he do this business? hurriedly resigned Li Bangyan and went back to send someone to inquire.
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