The weather was hot, and the soldiers of the Song army were all wearing shorts and vests, wearing huge straw fan yang hats, carrying a combat knife in their hands, two handcuffs pinned to their waists, and carrying a package in their hands. They stood at the foot of the mountain in awe, and even the most talkative soldiers remained silent, for fear that they had angered the Buddha by saying the wrong thing.

Hearing Zhao Xing's greeting, they stood on tiptoe, cautiously walked to the mouth of the lion's claw platform, and stroked the lion's claws one by one, and many of them also took out the amulets they were wearing and used it to rub the lion's claws......

Zhao Xing stood at the mouth of the stone steps, looking out at the vicinity of the lion's claw platform, and in his mind, this temple dedicated to the Buddha should have a constant flow of pilgrimages, but now only their team of soldiers existed.

Perhaps, it was a special arrangement made by the monks in order to welcome the Song army, but from this cold point of view, the lion claw platform may also be heading towards the sunset.

But now history has changed. Originally, the Arabs had a monopoly on the trade routes between the East and the West, and they pursued their own policies of colonial and religious invasion through the huge wealth they had accumulated through trade. Now the Song merchants are also involved, the Song merchants are no longer only a primary production as in the original history, only a wholesale business, they began to enter the secondary market, began to directly face consumption, so that the Arabs can still dominate the entire South Seas as usual?

Perhaps, the fate of the Lionclaw Platform has changed, and the guests it has welcomed have saved itself from destruction, but it does not know it.

The welcome bell at the top of the platform rang, and the huge bell sounded under the resonance effect deliberately created by the Lion's Claw Palace, as if the entire mountain peak had turned into a bronze bell, making people sound not the bell ringing, but the mountain ringing.

This is the "Buddhist Lion's Roar" that is widely circulated in the Buddhist world: as soon as the bell on the Lion Mountain rings, the whole mountain peak is like a lion roaring in modern times, and the "Buddhist Lion Roar" has become a very powerful Shaolin martial arts secret technique.

Zhao Xing watched the soldiers reverently stroke the lion's claws one by one, shook his head and smiled slightly, most of the soldiers under his command were Nestorian believers, and Nestorian Christianity required one god and one faith, but unfortunately. Chinese have always liked to "believe in what they have rather than believe in nothing". These soldiers believed in the One God. But they still reverently stroked the lion's paws, and prepared to go to the lion palace to worship in awe.

After a long time, the soldiers finished stroking. Zhao Xing stepped up the steps of the Lion Rock amid the loud sound of the bell. After passing through the Lion's Claw Gate, you climb up a narrow iron ladder clinging to the cliff, climbing almost at a right angle. The strong wind swept by, and the monks walked vigorously. The temperature was still so hot, but the soldiers no longer complained. They sweated as they climbed. But his eyes were full of fanaticism and piety.

After ascending the Lisaslatform, the Lion Palace arrived. The entrance is not a Buddha hall, but the famous "hanging garden". Stand on the platform. There is no shelter around, only feel that the mountain peaks are lined up, the surrounding birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, and the flowers are like brocade, and the strange flowers and plants are continuous.

A small bird with a fiery red tail chirped past the soldier's eyes, and one soldier exclaimed, "Phoenix?!" ”

Zhao Xing nodded lightly: "That's right, it's a phoenix!" ”

This is the Bird of Paradise, with its bright fiery red tail feathers and its size resembling the legendary Earth Phoenix. Modern people speculate that the ancestors of Tibet and Burma may have seen this bird of paradise during their migration from the African continent to Asia, leaving behind the legend of the phoenix. Later generations have not seen the specific image of this bird land, so they have added a lot of new content to this legend, so it has become the modern "Phoenix Nirvana".

Some soldiers put their hands together to pray to the phoenix, praying for blessings, the phoenixes in this garden are not afraid of people at all, they wear and go in the flower island, sometimes stop on the shoulders of the monks, jump a few times, sometimes even jump on the soldiers' heads, and use the soldiers' straw hats as a nest.

Scattered among the flowers were many monks, some meditating, some meditating, some muttering to themselves. On the avenue of the garden loyally, two rows of monks stood neatly, making a welcoming gesture, they lined up from the gate of the Lion Palace to the Buddha's tooth hall at the rear, and the figures who came out could be seen wearing white linen clothes, and in the distance, the monks under the cover of the forest fog only saw the yellow silk yarn of the Great Song Dynasty on their bodies.

One hundred and eight bells, one hundred and eight monks who greeted guests, the Lion Palace discharged the highest standard to welcome Zhao Xing, but Zhao Xing still had leisure, he pointed to one of the trees, and introduced to the soldiers: "That is the Bodhi tree, the Buddha had an epiphany under the Bodhi tree in the past, it is said that this Bodhi tree is planted with the branches of the Bodhi tree back then, you can turn around and break a branch and treasure it home." ”

The acquaintance who greeted him coughed violently a few times and reminded Zhao Xing, Zhao Xing waved his hand and ordered: "Present the gift!" ”

The soldiers opened the packages in their hands, some of them carried a few pieces of silk, some of them carried silk yarn, some of them carried tin cans, and they contained the best Da Song Pan tea. The monks' eyes lit up, and they all bowed to Zhao Xing, who coughed, took a few pairs of silk yarn from a soldier, and walked towards the Buddha's Tooth Hall first.

At this moment, the banquet to welcome the Song army has not yet been officially held, the host of the banquet is Chen Buqun, Zhao Xing's banner is to present sesame oil and gifts to the Buddha's tooth for the Song army in advance, so he came to the Buddha's tooth temple in advance to lead the soldiers to watch the miracle of the world.

In the autumn of the first year of the Yasukuni Dynasty, Zhao Xing returned to Hangzhou with the fleet, this time the caravan he brought back can be regarded as the first big order after the opening of the port of Hangzhou City, with his fleet to the south of the sea ship thousands, under the protection of the warship, there is almost no loss, and the number of the fleet has expanded more than three times, each ship is loaded with spices, precious wood, pearls and gems, so that when the cargo ship arrives in Hong Kong, the price of gems and spices in the entire Great Song Dynasty fell by sixty percent, for the jewelers, this is a disaster.

As soon as the accompanying soldiers came ashore, they began to proclaim their experiences in the South Seas, countless gems, countless beautiful scenery, and the wonders of the Buddha's tooth. Suddenly, the entire Great Song Dynasty once again set off a wave of going to the South Seas.

The goods brought back by the cunning Zhao Xing this time were not spices and other things that were not easy to preserve, all his goods were replaced with gems and gold, and he did not rush to make a move, he directly moved these goods into the castle, waiting for the price of gems to slowly rise.

When he returned to the castle, the soldiers who accompanied him were on vacation, and they sold the treasures they had bought on their way south in the Hangzhou market, and now the price of those things had fallen miserably, but for the soldiers, they were originally spoils of war. Even if the price falls even worse, it is a huge windfall.

Later. Wan Qiyong and Shuai Fan came together, they dragged the family with them, and the children went into the castle to find something to play with. The two adults led some of the officials of the city port department to the roof platform of the Blue House, and while enjoying the scenery in the garden, they introduced the scene of the other places.

"Cai Yuanchang has returned to the imperial court. As a courtier of the Hanlin Academy", Wan Qiyong drank fragrant tea. Leisurely introduced the dynamics of the imperial court: "It is said that his first proposition was to imitate the Chengdu Mansion and print flying money. It is called Jiaozi, and it is also called Jiaojiao. It is said that the people of Tobe are designing a ticket sample. ”

The world's first banknote is about to be born.

Before that. There are also flying tickets in various parts of the Great Song Dynasty, but they are all bills used for settlement between merchants. Even the "bank" where Zhao Xing was set up could only be used as a settlement voucher between acquaintances. It's more like a bank note than a banknote. However, it was the world's first currency to be traded by the government, so it was called "the world's first banknote".

To tell the truth, the introduction of paper money in this era is a very immature thing, because the Song Dynasty currently has no budget system, no concept of balance of payments, hasty introduction of paper money, will only make paper money a means of plundering the wealth of the people, as long as the printing press is started, regardless of the state of income and expenditure, just print, and then in the name of the government with paper money to buy the people's labor income, along with this kind of reckless behavior without credit, the government's credit is also bankrupt.

It's the end of autumn, and the autumn in Hangzhou is still a bit muggy, this season is what people usually call the "autumn tiger", Zhao Xing shook the light Luo small fan, and asked lightly: "Is it possible that the area under our jurisdiction boycotts the payment of money?" Or restricting the circulation of banknotes? ”

Wan Qianyong shook his head: "If we restrict the payment of banknotes, and do not say that it does not conform to the laws of the imperial court, if other places use the payment of banknotes to pay for all kinds of labor in Hangzhou, wouldn't this be a piece of light paper in other places in exchange for the wealth of my Hangzhou." ”

Zhao Xing asked again: "Can you ask the court not to pay money?" ”

Wan Qiyong chuckled: "What are you worried about, aren't we also promoting paper money?" Recently, the trade in the South Seas has become bigger and bigger, and the movement of each shipload is calculated as 100,000 yuan, and the copper coins have always weighed several catties, and if they all use copper coins to pay taxes, those copper coins alone can sink them. Paper money is easy to settle, and with the government as a guarantee, wouldn't it be more trustworthy than our banknote, and I am afraid that I will not be able to prevent merchants from paying taxes with banknotes. ”

Zhao Xing tilted his mouth and replied: "Now is the era of commerce, the paper money we launched is paid by the ticket bank, and the ticket bank will naturally guarantee the credit if it makes a profit, and the ticket bank joint guarantee and the deposit system made by us can also ensure that the ticket bank has the ability to pay, but what about the court, if the court does not pay the banknote, who do you cry to?" ”

Wan Qiyong pondered for a moment and replied: "If this is the case, my Nanyang Affairs Bureau is now taking advantage of the fact that the payment of the banknote has not yet been made, so I will preemptively set up a rule, stipulating that the city can only pay taxes with copper coins, or the flying tickets of the three major ticket houses. ”

Zhao Xingshunzui added: "The practice of the imperial court, the city tax is one out of ten, with goods to offset the tax, and then sold by the government, there are drawbacks during this period, such as this time, the return of the ship is too much, so that the price of goods plummeted, the government takes one-tenth of the goods, if you meet a corrupt official, it is more disadvantageous, buy cheaply and sell cheaply, will not move the country's tax money to their own pockets."

We have implemented a unified settlement system in Guangdong, requiring overseas merchants to settle trade only through the three major ticket banks, and then tax according to the trade volume, this time we simply made it clear that in the future, all maritime trade matters must be transferred through the three major bill banks, and the tax payment will be settled by the three major bill banks, otherwise, it will be calculated as tax evasion and tax evasion, and the goods will be confiscated. ”

Wan Qianyong clapped his hands: "This method is good, we use strict prevention of tax evasion as a reason, and the sea trade tax is all settled through the bill bank, which can just prevent the payment of banknotes."

At this time, a team of Kabuki came up, this team of Kabuki is Zhao Xing's harvest in the South Seas, they are wearing gorgeous Indian saris, wearing gold and silver ornaments are extremely gorgeous, in the soft Indian music, one by one dancers twisted their waists, and danced the Tianzhu dance. In addition, several Sriwijaya performers stepped forward to perform the famous Indonesian art of Vayang Piwei.

After being introduced to China, it was initially called "Piwei", and later commonly known as "shadow puppetry", or "Javanese shadow play". In the 11th century. This art flourished in Thailand, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and other places, and followed in the footsteps of the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty. It was gradually introduced to China.

The officials stopped the conversation and watched the shadow puppet show and dance, which Shuai Fan had no intention of watching. Licking his face, he asked, "My lord, once you went to Nanyang for a few months, what was the situation in Nanyang?" ”

Zhao Xing smiled. Pointing at the kabukis, he replied, "We occupied Sri Lanka." Access to Africa is barrier-free, but I think. It's not a good time to enter the Red Sea. So, show off your might in Nanyang. And he returned. ”

Shuai Fan was leisurely fascinated: "Sri Lanka, the land of gems. The gems there are famous, no wonder you have caused the price of gemstones in the Great Song Dynasty to drop by sixty percent. ”

Wan Qiyong interjected in the noise of music: "My lord, the court is waiting for a reply." ”

Zhao Xing immediately asked: "How much tax can we raise this time?" ”

Wan Qian replied without blinking: "Although the price of goods has fallen sharply, in total, there are 800,000 yuan in taxes, and this year's start-up fee is enough." ”

Zhao Xing nodded: "This time I went to Nanyang, obtained a few pieces of land, and presented the map where these lands were located to the imperial court, so that the imperial court could sell them, which could be regarded as increasing the income of the imperial court. ”

Although the officials here were enjoying the exotic style of singing and dancing, their ears were always pricked up to listen to Zhao Xing speak, Zhao Xing said this, and an official in the color of a seven-grade petty official interjected: "Tai Lieutenant, this year's Nanyang Affairs Bureau has all the things to create, it is the time to use money and land to hand over 100,000 yuan to the imperial court, I am afraid that the construction in the yamen will not be complete." ”

Zhao Xing swept away in a blink of an eye, and Wan Qianyong hurriedly introduced: "This is the superintendent sent by the Ministry of Industry, Li Jie, the word Mingzhong." ”

Zhao Xing immediately straightened up and solemnly arched his hand: "It turned out to be Li Mingzhong, it's polite." ”

Li Jiecheng stood up in fear, and said politely: "Don't dare, don't dare!" ”

Zhao Xing immediately asked again: "How is Li Mingzhongdi?" ”

Li Jie bowed his hand and said respectfully: "Originally, the draft had been completed, but Xia Guan read the Maritime News not long ago, and asked a question about it, asking how the reasonable height and width of the statue of Rhode Island were calculated. Xia Guan thought for a long time, but he didn't understand what he meant, and this time he specially asked for a ministry in Hangzhou, and he wanted to ask Lord Zhao in person. ”

Zhao Xing and Li Jie talked about building the French style, which was originally compiled by the Yuan French style. The French style of construction, which was recognized by later generations, was the first architecture in China, which systematically described the techniques and architectural techniques of building large-scale buildings. This is summarized on the basis of the Yuan French style, and the Yuan French style because there is a word "Yuan" in the name, which violated the taboo of Song Zhezong, he ordered the general as a prison official Li Jie and others to re-compile, and then burned the Yuan French style, so the honor of China's first building fell on the head of the construction of the French style.

Originally, this was supposed to be closed this year, but it was printed by Song Huizong three years later and implemented in the world, but I didn't expect Li Jie to postpone the deadline.

Zhao Xing wondered: "To build the Hangzhou City Bosi and the Hangzhou Water Barracks, the Ministry of Industry can just send an official over, and Lord Li will ask for Rhode Island, and Tete will come to Hangzhou?" ”

The imperial court sent officials from the Ministry of Industry to build the Yamen of the Nanyang Affairs Bureau and the Yamen of the Governor of the Nanyang Fleet, which was actually a kind of officialdom system in the Song Dynasty. Whether Zhao Xing expanded his private army or used the money of maritime merchants to move the Nanyang War, the officials of the Ministry of Industry came to Hangzhou to build military camps and yamen, reflecting the authority of the imperial court, so as to show the army under Zhao Xing that they were still the army of the Great Song Dynasty after all, so their yamen and military camps were built by the imperial court. It's just that they were deliberately omitted by their soldiers all the construction costs, and they were all managed by the Nanyang Affairs Bureau.

Li Jie replied very simply: "Xiaguan has long heard that Lord Zhao's ability to build a house is first-class, Wang Shu once said this in the past, and I have also heard about the new Chunjiang Flower Moon Night in Guangzhou, and I also heard that Dali died because of a Jinzhong Building. The lower officials came here to ask the adults for advice on construction skills, and they also asked the adults to give advice. ”

What Li Jie's words meant was that he had specially asked for this errand. And Li Jie kept muttering in his heart: "Do you think this errand is easy, everyone knows that this Lord Zhao is generous to his subordinates, and the subsidies of officials in Guangnan and Guangnan are continuous, and even Li Gefei, a poor ghost, has become a rich man after being an official in Guangnan for a few days." I heard that when I came to Guangzhou to build a yamen, the officials of the Ministry of Industry broke their heads, but I spent all my family wealth to get this job, is it easy for me? ”

Zhao Xing, who was on the other side, bowed slightly and replied, "As far as I know." If you are engaged in architecture, you can't understand calculus. That statue in Rhode Island, why is it uneven, why is it collapsing. The group of people in the West was calculated through calculus, and this time I went to the South Seas and got a lot of them back. All are Western works translated by Arabs.

Speaking of Arabs, it reminds me of their rise. I heard that when the country was still very weak, it summoned 100,000 students. He specialized in translating Western cadastrals and set up one of the world's largest galleries. Then, they rose. To become the most powerful country in the world, the whole of Europe needs to gather the strength of all countries. In order to deal with them, this is the crusade published in the Maritime News, and all the famous soldiers of the entire Western Ocean participated in this crusade, and only barely reached a draw with the Arabs. At present, it has only a slight advantage. ”

Shuai Fan finally found a chance to interject again, and he asked tightly: "My lord, how is the war in Nanyang?" ”

Zhao Xing nodded, and said lightly: "We occupy Jaffna, if we go to Colombo from the northern sea, we will cut off the back route of the Zhuyuan country, and in order to avoid the fate of the isolated island, the soldiers of the Zhuyuan country retreated from the Lanka area a few days after I arrived in Colombo. The King of Sri Lanka reunited the island, and for that he thanked us and requested that it be attached.

For the king of Sri Lanka, to be a vassal of the Three Buddhas is to do, to be a vassal of the Great Song Dynasty is also to do, and the Great Song Dynasty is known as the title of the gentleman's country in Nanyang, before the Great Song Dynasty stepped out of the Three Buddhas, this time the powerful navy of the Great Song Dynasty pressed the Three Buddhas people did not dare to move, and came to Nanyang with great might, which has changed the political pattern of Nanyang in an instant, therefore, Sri Lanka felt that it had taken refuge in the Great Song Dynasty. ”

"The king of their land intends to wait for the stability of the country and personally come to pay tribute, this time I only brought their envoys, and when he has finished handling the goods with the ship, I will let him get up and go to Beijing."

This time, Zhao Xingjuan returned to more than one million tons of land, and he had sold the Jaffna Peninsula to the merchants who financed the Great Song Navy, and the several small islands on the periphery of the Jaffna Peninsula added up to more than the Jaffna Peninsula, and Zhao Xingquan left it to the imperial court.

In addition, there is a land of more than 200,000 acres outside Palembang in Sriwijaya, plus a port in Chenla, a small island outside the Gorkha Sea.

The Great Song Dynasty had no experience of selling overseas territories before, and for a while, it was a bit helpless to receive such a huge amount of land, and in the first few days of listing for sale, Bianliang City was almost unattended, but after the latest issue of the Maritime News published a map of Nanyang, the businessmen with a keen sense of smell in Bianliang woke up and began to flock to the Hubu, and those overseas islands were snatched up, and the wealthy merchants in the capital immediately organized their families to rush to Hangzhou with the title deeds of the Hubu periodical, and asked the Nanyang Navy to escort them south to check the land they bought.

Around this year, the Great Zimbabwe Empire began to rise, taking 500 years to become the most powerful country in southern Africa, and another 490 years to decline, and after 1890, it became a British colony. In the same year, Sweden began to form a unified state. After the annexation of Finland in 1157, it became the most powerful country in Europe. It was also in this year that a Polynian voyage named Coupe arrived in New Zealand. Upon his return to Polynia, he described the beautiful land to the people and described the local kiwi fruit.

In this year, the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty went south in a big way and began to enclose land in the South Seas, and many merchants spent a lot of money to buy the entire island, proclaimed themselves the owners of the island, and began to cultivate the wasteland......

In the beginning, the price of a mu of small islands in the South Seas was only sold for a few copper plates, but the number of small islands was limited, and the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty were unlimited.

In the winter of that year, the first batch of landlords who went to the South Seas came back with the results of their opening in the South Seas, and a huge amount of grain, a huge amount of overseas treasures, and a huge amount of spices, all of a sudden, made the original expensive spices become the daily necessities of the people. Even the poorest homeless people in the Great Song Dynasty can enjoy a food made of rich spices, which makes the food industry of the Great Song Dynasty more colorful.

Of course, the people of the Great Song Dynasty were more interested in the experience of these people getting rich. It turned out that sponsoring the war could also be lucrative, and it turned out that the official fields handed over to the imperial court by the Nanyang Affairs Bureau were only selected by war funders, and for a while, the profession of "warmongers" also became popular.