The officials of the Song Dynasty were all night owls, Qian Xian climbed to the top of the tower and shook around, and when he returned to the room, he woke up with all the wine, he called for people to serve the wine and food again, and urged the musicians to perform songs and dances. And the musicians were already sleepy at this time, and they rubbed their eyes and sang weakly.

Liao Xiaoxiao didn't go upstairs with Zhao Xing just now, she ran back to the house to sleep while everyone was gone. Qin Guan also left, and he took a few widows back to his house. So on Zhao Xing's side, the person accompanying the banquet was replaced by Kasli.

The training of the Arabs is very good, Liao Xiaoxiao herself is unwilling to accompany her, although Kasli who was woken up was sleepy-eyed, she still barely lifted her spirits and forced a smile to accompany the guests. However, she sat there, frequently wiping her eyes with the emerald ring in her hand.

Rubbing the eyes with an emerald ring is a common habit for actors. The ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Aztecs regarded emeralds as priceless treasures, and they believed that emeralds had the power to cure human diseases before 4,000 BC, especially to keep the eyes healthy and bright.

Since then, they have loved to rub their eyes with emeralds, believing that this will keep people awake. In modern times, Western actors and painters working in theaters and television stations still maintain the habit of using emeralds to relieve tired eyes after the bright light of the spotlights, and they also call the rest room "green room" or "green zone" - this has since become a common term around the world.

It is said that emeralds were officially introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty and became the favorite of dignitaries. Since then, the opera and singers of the Ming Dynasty also liked to wipe their eyes with emeralds...... But when the Manchus entered the Central Plains, this habit had disappeared.

Although there is a saying in China's gemstone industry that "every green must be expensive", in the Song Dynasty, emerald was not yet a mainstream product. Because the production of emeralds was really scarce at that time, and most of them were in Egypt, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The better quality emeralds were underwritten in Europe and Arabia, and not many of them entered China......

Speaking of which, China's fashion for emerald began with Qin Guan and Mao Peng, and the word emerald originated from the ancient Persian word "Zumuru." It originally meant "green stone". Before Qin Guan, this word was translated as "Zhumu Thorn", and when these two talents joined forces to revise "The Legend of the West Chamber", they took a more elegant translation, called "emerald". So with the help of the spread of the West Chamber, the word "emerald" spread throughout ancient China.

At present, Qin Guan Mao Peng has not yet rebuilt "The Legend of the West Chamber" - because Zhao Xing has not yet staged this play here, but Kasri is from the Arab world, and she brought her habit of loving emeralds to the territory of the Song Dynasty, and she is a Hu person. This hobby is in many markets among the Hu people, and countless people with a common language can be found. But Liao Xiaoxiao and the others don't care about it at the moment, so Kasli has a lot of emeralds as decorations.

Qian Xian was unaware of this Arab custom. Kasri was seen wiping her eyes with emeralds frequently. He was very curious, staring endlessly, and in the end, even Su Shi was a little reluctant, he quietly kicked Qian Xun with his toes, signaling the other party to pay attention to dignified.

Su Shi has been in contact with Zhao Xing for a long time, and he also knows that there is no ambiguous relationship between Kasli and Zhao Xing. But Zhao Xing dismissed the other Arab dancers. Leave this one alone, and allow Kasri to enjoy the treatment of a concubine. In fact, they have regarded each other as a forbidden body, and the only thing they lack is picking. He knew that although Zhao Xing was very gentle and tolerant to his friends, Zhao Xing was essentially a violent person, and once he violated his private domain, Zhao Xing's resistance would be fierce, so fierce that Qian Xian could not bear it, so he secretly reminded him.

Qian Xian came back to his senses, his expression was a little widowed, and he said consciously: "It's late at night, Brother Zizhan, I see that the night banquet is going on here, and it should be dispersed." ”

Su Shi immediately took over the other party's words and replied, "That's it, let's settle it." Brother Qian, I'll invite you again tomorrow at noon. ”

The servants all over the house had been waiting for this, and as soon as Qian Moufu spoke, the servants brought him a soft bed, put him on the soft bed, and carried him to the guest room at a trot. After Su Shi waited for him to leave, he rubbed his shoulders and said, "Leaving people, how is the charcoal salary?" ”

Zhao Xing watched Su Shi's movements and asked with concern: "Teacher, don't ask about the salary, I will do things, so you don't have to worry about it." There is still hot water in the kitchen, so the teacher can take a bath. ”

Su Shi nodded and replied, "You can just sleep in a wooden barrel, but it's going to be troublesome." ”

Zhao Xing beckoned, and a group of widows ran up with small steps, walking out with Su Shi with their hands and feet, kneading Su Shi's body as they walked, not so much massaging as rubbing oil.

Today is a snowy day, since Su Shi degraded Huangzhou, because he strained his muscles while plowing the fields, he couldn't lift his arms every time he encountered a snowy day, and it was for this reason that he asked the court to release him from his foreign office. On this snowy day, he also couldn't lift his arm in pain, and when he insisted on sending Qian Mufu away, he already felt that the arm did not belong to him.

The widow was diligent, and frequently changed the water in the wooden bucket to Su Shi, and an acupuncturist was called over, giving Su Shi acupuncture, Zhao Xing saw that Su Shi had settled down, and he was ready to go back to the room, at this time, Kasli approached Zhao Xing's side, and asked softly: "Master, it's almost dawn, you go back to the room at this time, for fear of waking them up, why don't you go to me." ”

Zhao Xing was stunned for a moment, and replied indifferently: "Okay!" ”

This night, in fact, Zhao Xing and Kasli were very innocent, he ran all day on a snowy night, and when he came back, he had to accompany someone to drink, and when he saw the bed, he immediately collapsed, innocent like a newborn baby...... However, no one in the entire castle believed it, not even Qin Guan.

Su Shi and Qian Xian slept late yesterday, neither of them got up at noon, Qin Guan got up, he walked around the castle in a sable fur in high spirits, slipped in front of Zhao Xing's house, and saw Zhao Xing coming out of Kasli's room in dishevelled clothes, yawning all the way, and Kasli was wearing a small coat, regardless of the cold, followed him barefoot, and buttoned Zhao Xing while walking, Qin Guan showed a look of pity and chagrin, clapped his hands and said: "What a delicate orchid, leave people." You've finally done it. ”

When Kasli saw Qin Guan, she turned around, left Zhao Xing and ran back to her house, while Zhao Xing was still lazily buttoning the button, as if she hadn't heard Qin Guan's sigh, and said to herself: "Has the snow stopped?" When the snow stops, I'm going to go around, you accompany the teacher, remember, the teacher's arm is hard to change, just take care of that arm. You don't care about the rest. ”

In the Great Song Dynasty, when it snowed, the charcoal salary was only for the urban people, and the farmers in the four townships were not so lucky, so. Traditionally, on the first day of snowfall, officials were busy with money, and on the second day they had to visit the township to check for any farmers who had been affected by the snow. Hangzhou has several counties under its jurisdiction, and when Zhao Xing finishes turning around, it will be on the fifteenth. Holidays.

Officials of the Song Dynasty had a holiday every tenth day. That is, the first and fifteenth days of the new year.

Qian Mufu was still a guest in the castle, but at this time, there was no need for Zhao Xing to come forward to entertain him. Su Shi's whole family moved into Zhao Xing's castle - because the heating equipment of the Song Dynasty houses was not very advanced. And only Zhao Xing is a bit cross-era here, so his close personnel, such as Su Shi and Qin Guan, all moved into the castle to "spend the winter".

Winter leisure and holidays, Zhao Xing boarded a sea ship from the dock under the pretext of inspecting the four townships, and when the ship left the port. Su Shi looked at the ship sailing from the window. I was still wondering how to go to the townships to inspect. It is also necessary to do sea vessels......

He followed the Qiantang River to the mouth of the sea, then bypassed the sand dunes at the mouth of the river, took advantage of the winter monsoon to fly and arrived in Mizhou in a short day.

In Linhai Village, Mizhou, Zhang Yong and Deng Yufu have been waiting in the village for a few days, and when they saw Zhao Xing, Zhang Yong reproached him: "You originally said that you came over the Tianning Festival, why is it October 15 now, and we have been waiting for three days." We also do activities during the Tianning Festival, why can we come over, but you can't come? ”

Zhao Xing jumped open and asked directly: "How is the situation?" ”

Deng Yufu replied: "It's good, it's not ordinary. This year, we exchanged tens of thousands of horses from Jinzhou, as well as all kinds of animal skins and wool. Speaking of wool, I still want to praise you, this wool is spun out of the ground is thick, and the head of the household in Mizhou Tuanlian relies on this craft to earn enough money this year. When the forbidden troops who moved to Rong came to us, they didn't want to leave, and they would rather abandon their identity as forbidden military places and come to Mizhou for training.

Our leather workshop is also doing well, and has made 200,000 skins this year...... By the way, this is the potato yarn you want, and the craftsmen don't know how much it took to prepare this potato yarn.

This thing is good, it is black, the surface is bright, although the sand is very transparent, but because the paint is bright, when worn on the body, you can't see the body at all, it is elegant and cool, it is really good.

And you said that you used potatoes to make patent leather and prepare raincoats, we also tried it, dyed it with dense brocade, and the raincoat made was really impermeable, this thing is good. ”

Zhao Xingquan knew what Deng Yufu said, because Deng Yufu and Zhang Yong had no sales channels, and all sales were controlled by Zhao Xing, so the purpose of his questioning was not here, he asked: "How is the musket team?" Proofreading? ”

Zhang Yong replied: "Since you left, the Privy Council came, and they took all the musket teams away, I heard that this year's Tianning Festival was intended to let the musket team practice, but it didn't work, it is said that the muskets frequently exploded, and a few people were injured." In order to prevent accidents, the musket team moved to the ...... of Ronghe."

Setting a fire gun is a technical job, because after the gunpowder in the musket is burned, it is sulfuric acid or nitric acid, these strong acids will corrode the barrel, so every shot needs to be cleared, Zhao Xing has developed a strict operation process, but still can not guard against human inertia, lost his supervision, some people may cut corners to play sloppy, the musket is not cleared in time, which will inevitably lead to frequent explosions.

It's no wonder that the original assault gun used a bamboo tube, this thing really had to be chosen. Zhao Xing tried, but history still stubbornly returned to its original track, and this assault rifle team finally returned to the era of bamboo pipes.

Other industries in Michigan are also doing very well, and the team drills planted apple trees and sweet potatoes this year. Most of the sweet potatoes are sold as seeds at a high price to surrounding farmers, and a small number of sweet potatoes are used as a demonstration to be processed into various foods, such as fried potato chips, sweet potato vermicelli, and so on.

Sweet potato vermicelli appeared here as a kind of fast food noodles, and due to the small quantity, it became a rarity, which also led to the price of sweet potatoes to remain profitable. Where there is profit, there is motivation, and the cultivation of sweet potatoes in Michigan is not as difficult as Zhao Xing imagined, and it is almost instantaneously exploding outward.

Zhao Xing understood the situation and sighed. I secretly comforted myself in my heart: Actually, why be harsh, history has greatly accelerated the progress, the assault gun should have appeared forty years later, it has now advanced, what else does Zhao Xing regret?

The promotion of sweet potatoes originally took two or three hundred years, and its appearance should be more than two hundred years later, and now it has appeared, and there is no obstacle to its promotion. So, what's the regret?

The inertia of history is sometimes frustrating, but it is moving forward after all.

After asking about the situation in Michigan. Zhao Xing suddenly laughed, and he asked with a smile: "How is Jinzhou?" Have the heroes of Bohai Bay been happy lately? ”

As soon as the word "master" was mentioned, Zhang Yong and Deng Yufu both showed a knowing ** smile, they nodded like chickens and replied: "They are happy, and now we want to rub them round, they will be round." If you want them to do it, they will be very well-behaved. It is said that we bought wool on a large scale, and they made a small fortune. There was famine everywhere in Liao. Only the oily noodles they eat. They're all happy. ”

Several Israelis began to hold the account books, and then officials at all levels in the Mizhou regimental training area rushed to Linhai Village to report in twos and threes, some of them were wearing hunting clothes, some were wearing the clothes of relatives, and some were shaking folding fans, as if they were wandering through the mountains and rivers. These people are pretending one by one. Pry about. The probe probed into the brain, as if the existence of Linhai Village was inadvertently revealed. planned to have a meal nearby, and then rushed into the house and greeted Zhao Xing, the old chief, warmly......

Of course, their main intention was not to get close to Zhao Xingtao, and when the Israelis had finished their accounts and the year-end distribution plan came out, those impatient officers took the flying money tickets issued by the Israelis and quietly slipped out of the village.

When the account was over, it was already late at night, and Zhang Yong wanted to set up a banquet to entertain Zhao Xing, but Zhao Xing was not interested: "Did Jinzhou talk about the situation in Liao?" ”

Zhang Didi replied not to the side: "The official family wants to transfer me away in August this year, and they want me to return to Beijing with the musket team in September, but I refuse, it is better to live in Mizhou, I plan to live in Mizhou." ”

Deng Yufu was literate and knew what Zhao Xing asked, so he replied: "I heard that there was a famine in Liao, and Hebei said that this year, the Khitan people came to the grass valley in a particularly large number, and the people of Zhending, Baode, Ninghua, and Yingzhou were killed and injured, and their property and livestock were almost robbed. When the Liao people retreated, they burned, killed, looted, and plundered cities and ruins along the way.

In June, the edict ordered Mi out of the plug not to pass three buckets, Xiongzhou Governor Zhao Zi said: He is also my people. It is said that the border people are very virtuous......"

"Zhao Zi, a disciple of the clan, this guy is too bold", Zhao Xing said with a sneer.

Zhang Yong saw that Zhao Xing's attitude was wrong, and asked curiously: "It is said that the imperial court knew about it, and did not blame Zhao Zi for acting arbitrarily, but praised Zhao Zi for his benevolence and righteousness." ”

Zhao Xing smiled and asked: "Zhao Zi sells grain to the enemy, and it is said that the border people are very virtuous - then, after the border people are grateful to him, they are full and have the strength on their bodies, did they not participate in the grass valley?" ”

Zhang Yong was choked, and Deng Yufu said thoughtfully: "The Khitan people have the same appearance for a long time, and since the Song Dynasty, they have never stopped beating the grass valley...... Moham! ”

Zhao Xing sneered and said: "I only ask one thing, after Zhao Zi sold grain privately to the enemy, is the grain ban of the imperial court in name only?" ”

Deng Yufu replied: "Of course, if you sell grain to the Khitans, you can also get a name of benevolence and righteousness, who doesn't want to do it, everyone rushes to sell grain to the Khitans?" ”

"That's right. The real situation must be: Zhao Zi is a big dealer who resells grain, and under the ban of the imperial court, it is inconvenient for him to blatantly resell grain. That's why he came up with this excuse, and the people who praised him must have participated in the smuggling of grain - there has never been love in the world for no reason, how could Zhao Zi care about the suffering of the Khitan people for no reason? Or seek fame, or seek profit! Seeking fame alone is risky, and profitable fame seeking will have a group of interests to get help! ”

Deng Yufu wondered: "If you say so, it is possible, but Huairou Yide, isn't it the teaching of the sage book?" ”

"Therefore we fed the enemy with bread – according to the teachings of the sages; When the enemy has the strength to take up the knife and rob us, this is their national unity against us, and in order not to affect the ethnic relations, we must sing the praises of their behavior of dancing the knife against us; Originally, the group of people was too hungry to climb the horse. But now they have the strength to cut people...... Didn't you say that this year the people of the Grass Valley are extraordinarily bad? Thanks to the teachings of the sages, they have the strength to slaughter us because of our righteousness. ”

Zhang Yong and Deng Yufu opened their mouths for a long time, and stammered: "The piece of grain in Hebei is very vigorous, stealing a lot of our business, I wanted to tell you, Jinzhou complained that we only sold them porcelain and silk, and did not give a grain of grain." Since Hebei can sell grain, why don't we sell it? And so on. They are going to trade with Hebei instead. ”

Zhao Xing shook his head, looked at the north, and said, "We are not born cheap!" We still have a long way to go. It's been two years in a row that the climate has been abnormal, and who knows if it will be a famine next year. Jinzhou wants to trade with Hebei. Let them go, but as long as they leave us alone, and they can't go to sea, I don't believe they can take all the deals from the sixth. ”

Zhang Yong was still stunned with his mouth open, and Deng Yufu had already figured it out: "Not bad." There are a lot of 6-way levels. From the 6 road to sell goods, Jinzhou can not take advantage, they can only go to the sea 6...... Let them complain and go. Be the owner. I don't have the consciousness of being ravaged at all, I think Jinzhou is looking for death. Ignore them. ”

Looking at the direction of Jinzhou in the distance, Zhao Xing suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.

Originally, he planned a currency war, using luxury goods and privately minted coins to gradually hollow out the Liao economy, but now, there are flaws in the plan.

Speaking of which, Zhao Xing did not sell grain to Liao. But the quota for his grain sales was precisely calculated. It is just enough to keep the Liao people from starving to death, but they can't store a large amount of materials for war. But now, under the banner of "benevolence and righteousness", Hebei is selling unlimited grain to the Liao, disrupting his plan.

In fact, the greed of the officials cannot be blamed, because the capital thing itself is bloody, and there is dirty blood dripping from every pore. There, Zhao Xing slowly tightened the noose around the necks of the Liao people, and he exchanged a large amount of luxury goods for the production materials of the Liao people. In this way, the resale of grain to the Liao State became very profitable. In the end, if Zhao Zi didn't jump out, then Wang Zi and Liu Zi would also jump out.

This is inevitable, and it cannot be stopped by man.

Zhang Yong and Deng Yufu saw that Zhao Xing was silent, but their eyes kept rolling, knowing that he was thinking about how to deal with the group of officials in Hebei, they were quietly waiting for Zhao Xingdi to decide, and Zhao Xing thought for a while and smiled dumbly.

In fact, why should Zhao Xing worry about this, the city of Rome was not built in a day. If you want the people of the Great Song Dynasty to have the spirit of contract and know how to respect the rules, it will take at least hundreds of years of hard work, and as long as the Great Song Dynasty has time, all this will come naturally.

A business society will surely create a fair society that respects contracts and upholds the rules of the game. Because only in this case can business activities be carried out normally.

The Great Song Dynasty has only been in operation for less than two hundred years, and the spirit of its land contract is far from penetrating into the marrow of the people, but it has done a good job, and the nomadic society and the patriarchal society have created a lot of rules, so why should Zhao Xing be too harsh on this era?

Time, what he needs now is time.

When natural disasters are frequent, the reaction of the Liao State and the Song State is completely different, the Song Dynasty has a primitive social security mechanism, and the government is willing to come forward to protect its own people, the Liao State is different, in the case of reduced property, they will increase the intensity of domestic exploitation, and this is the real history, Zhao Xing only needs to put a little force on it, just like pushing down the rolling stones along the hillside, the rolling rocks will bring avalanche-like destructive power.

He has done a good job now, the import of a large number of luxury goods has made the Liao nobles have to desperately defraud the people of every cent of their blood and sweat in order to get more luxuries, and as the signs of the collapse of the Liao State become more and more obvious, there will be countless vultures rushing to this corpse to peck a piece of meat, so Zhao Zi's behavior, from another aspect, is a kind of help Liao Some people are fed to death, and some people are starved to death, and in the long run, it is good for the Great Song Dynasty.

"I heard that weapons have been selling well in Michigan lately?" Zhao Xing asked thoughtfully.

Deng Yufu replied: "Yes, the merchant weapons of the Changmen in the Goryeo Pavilion are very popular, and there are many utilities to buy weapons, drive a boat to the Liao State, and meet our Song Dynasty officials and soldiers, they are serious merchants, as soon as the officers and soldiers leave, they will rush into the territory of the Liao State to rob everywhere.

I have heard that there are many horse thieves in Liao, and many people sell their weapons to horse thieves and return empty-handed—of course, the ships are full of goods. According to the explanation of the departed people, we have adopted a blind and blind attitude to these effective behaviors, and now almost every household in Mizhou is equipped with knives and guns, and these people go out to sea in boats, saying that they are fishing, and in a blink of an eye, the weapons are gone, and there are many more goods from the Liao State on board.

The Liao side also negotiated with the Dengzhou side, but the Dengzhou side ignored it, or someone replied: Why can the Liao people come to us to fight grass valleys, but we can't go to them? So such a trivial matter, the local officials of Dengzhou did not bother to report it - however, Dengzhou Mizhou collected a lot of taxes because of this, and they usually saw one out of ten. Now, Michigan has secretly become a profession, and a lot of utility is done in the off-season, hehe, let you come and go on the border, it's very lively.

I heard that not long ago, the envoy of the Liao State made a fuss about this matter to the court, and the court also replied like this: You can't control the people who fight the grass valley, why can we control those little thieves? ”

"Wonderful!" Zhao Xing clapped his hands, and after waiting for a while, he asked curiously: "Who gave this answer?" I heard that there are all gentlemen in the court now, would a gentleman be so unkind to the enemy? ”

Deng Yufu smiled: "Hangzhou is not a defensive state, so you can't see the military report." There is some military intelligence here in Mizhou, this matter, it is said that Liu Anshi said that he is fighting with Jia Yi fiercely, how can he care about whether the Liao State is robbed.

It is said that when Xiao Su was an envoy to Liao, someone also questioned him like this, and Xiao Su's answer was the same, he asked Liao to first control his personnel who fought grass valley, and wait for the Great Song Dynasty to free up troops from the border before he could search for pirates. ”

Zhao Xing has completely let go of his mind. He doesn't have to worry about the affairs of the Liao Kingdom anymore, the stones have been pushed down the hillside, and it will naturally roll down with a huge inertia, and there will be more stones along the way...... The rest should be in the direction of the Jin Kingdom.

"What is going on there among the Jurchens, are they ready to build a state?" Zhao Xing asked.