Zhao Xing pinched Kasli's nose, this nose was very upright, and it felt good to pinch, he replied with a smile: "Your four sisters went to the south because the south allocated a few Yizhile people, and I have already rewarded them to the four Yishile owners, do you also want to marry?" ”

"No, I don't want to marry those subordinates, I'd rather stay with my master...... But when they're gone, what about the music? When I dance, who will accompany me? Kasli twisted her body, just wrapped around Zhao Xing, and asked.

Zhao Xing replied: "There will be ten new Arabs coming over in the near future, and besides, those Japanese girls are already familiar with your music, and there will be a few girls who will learn from the new Arabic musicians, and you will have new accompanists." ”

Kasri's eyes rolled charmingly, she writhed like a snake, and said in Zhao Xing's ear: "Master, many people look at us and want to eat us, why don't you cherish those sisters and give them to others?" ”

Zhao Xing replied meaningfully: "I didn't come to Da Song for beautiful women - I only collect the best women." ”

This answer made Kasli smile, and she jumped up and danced a snake dance around Zhao Xing.

In fact, there is a gentleman who is not chaotic at the scene, although Zhang Yong is a martial artist, but he does not have Qin Guan's problem, since Kasli came up, he has sat upright, lowered his eyes and only looked at the wine in the cup, Zhao Xing and the other party chirped in Hu for a long time, he was deaf like an old monk entering Zen, he was really a modern excellent otaku, an ordinary person in the Song Dynasty.

Downstairs, Xu's voice was not loud. Waited a while. Liao Xiaoxiao was dressed in a silk suit and hurriedly ran up barefoot. Her position is the least secure, so she is most worried about Kasri's goblin being weird. Others were still enjoying the hot soup bath, she couldn't live in the pool, hurriedly rubbed her body and ran up, when she saw Kasli tired of Zhao Xing's arms, her face changed, and she stepped forward through Kasli's dance steps to separate the two.

After taking a bath, Liao Xiaoxiao carried a fragrance. Zhao Xing took a deep breath. sniffed for a moment, and then patted Liao Xiaoxiao generously. Someone came, Kasli had no intention of dancing again, she quickly squatted down and poured a glass of wine for Liao Xiaoxiao.

The pickling work, which was originally carried out in light snow, was delayed until the winter solstice. It was because this work was originally intended to show the men in the family that they were hardworking, so when the men in the family were not there, the women had no stage to perform. They would decide on a random date. On a day when the men of the family are present, this almost ritual pickle is performed. Zhao Xing learned about this "Korean custom" from a TV show, so it is not surprising that he changed Cheng Azhu to pickle vegetables on the winter solstice.

And Zhang Yong is in the same situation as him, and Xiaoxue is also going to sea during the festival, so his wife simply partnered with Cheng Azhu. After the women bathed in hot water to drive away the cold in their bodies, they went up to the top of the building in twos and threes. Then. The legendary winter solstice wontons and dumplings have also moved into this steaming room.

Liao Xiaoxiao is a performative woman. In other words, people go crazy. The more people there are, the more they like to perform. I like to overwhelm the crowd. Coupled with Xu's presence there, her expressiveness is even stronger, singing in a low voice, and playing the piano and dancing to set off the atmosphere. With her coming out, coupled with Kasli not to be outdone, it makes the upstairs seem lively.

Originally, today's women are performing for the men in the family, and on this day, their desire to perform is also extremely strong, and those who can write poems will write a poem on the spot, and those who can't write poems will write couplets, which makes Zhao Xing, a fake poet, and Zhang a little embarrassed by this real martial artist.

Of course, gambling is also indispensable in the end. The winter solstice is also the four major public gambling days in the Song Dynasty, and the women are drunk, so they throw up the copper plate and gamble.

The Song people are quite heavy in gambling, and the women in Zhao Xing's family are influenced by him, and their gambling is a little shallow, but the Xu family is different, today she can open her mind and show her envy for Cheng Azhu and others.

"Sister Azhu, your hairpin is very beautiful, blue, ah, there is a six-sided star in it, it's so beautiful, just bet on it", Mrs. Xu said in her mouth, but she couldn't take out something of corresponding value to make a bet.

Cheng Azhu casually pulled out the hairpin and handed it to Xu: "What else are you betting, Sister Xu looks good, just take it, it's not worth a few dollars." ”

Zhao Xing rolled his eyes. My family woman really doesn't treat babies as treasures.

This hairpin is inlaid with a star sapphire the size of a broad bean. Although this thing is exchanged for tea in kilograms, it is also a treasure, and in modern times, this thing has to be sold for millions of dollars. Cheng Azhu actually handed it to Xu casually.

Liao Xiaoxiao leaned into Zhao Xing's ear and whispered: "Xianggong, what a beautiful hairpin, I have wanted it for a long time, you promise me a gem, and I will also ask the craftsman to set a thing." ”

Zhao Xing nodded slightly, Xu was in front of him, and there were some things that he couldn't say.

Zhang Yong spoke: "Leaving people, the Mizhou Navy and the Jinzhou Navy trade, we only take 1% of the commission, how much do you say?" ”

Zhao Xing touched his chin and replied: "A lot, Mizhou City Bosi will take 10% of the tax this year, which is 860,000 yuan, and if it is 1%, it should be 86,000 yuan." We couldn't be bigger than Michigan. It should be more than that. ”

Zhang Yong's eyes lit up: "Eighty thousand, ninety thousand, you and I are one and a half, this year is forty-five thousand, you say that we are so fanfare, will it affect the tax collection of Mizhou City?" ”

Zhao Xing replied: "No! Because the economy has a scale effect, the larger the scale, the more goods are exchanged...... I was just about to tell you that since my Mizhou Navy has this kind of property, I must provide thoughtful service to the ships entering and leaving the Mizhou City. In addition, it is extremely inconvenient for our navy to come forward to buy goods, so it is better to come forward and eat the goods of the merchants of the city.

The Liao people didn't have much knowledge, and they also liked the strange things brought by the feudal merchants, and they were transported there in exchange for their gold, furs, and war horses. I estimate that I can get at least tens of thousands of batches every year, and even if 10,000 batches are 3 million, it will be more profitable to ship them inland, and they can be sold for 10 million. That's a lot of money. ”

Zhang Yong was overjoyed and drank several glasses of wine in a row. laughed and said: "Haha, I will also be rich next year, 45,000 yuan a year, and I will be able to wrap 100,000 yuan in two years." ”

What Zhao Xing hasn't said yet: the strong economy has a predatory absorption effect on the backward economy, and the strong economy of the Great Song Dynasty will absorb the wealth of the Liao State into Mizhou like the long dragon sucking water, which will make the Liao State more turbulent.

After Zhang Yong finished laughing, he thought of the Liao officials who were abducted by Zhao Xing and said with emotion: "I don't expect the Liao officials to be so corrupt." He actually abandoned his official position and left......"

Zhao Xing was also wondering. He didn't know. In fact, there was already a Liao official who secretly absconded to the Song realm, but he was hidden by the staff department. And the collapse of the Liao State began in this year, and from this year, there were continuous defections of Liao officials, and at the beginning they were still in twos and threes. After that, there will be a big avalanche. So much so that it was not until later that Song Huizong came up with the idea of cutting Liao. He thought that the officials of the Liao State were so eager to take refuge, and the people of the Liao State must be looking forward to the scenery.

"Yes, I didn't expect the Emperor of Liao to concentrate on hunting. It turned out to be ridiculous. So much so that ......"

"So much so that the Liao Guolin Navy is in a hurry to sell military horses!" Zhang Yong added that the men smiled happily, and the women were also very pleased, especially when Xu heard that Zhao Xingdi was settling accounts, she was even more excited and forgetful, she resigned slightly, and then accepted Cheng Azhu's gift: "Sister, you said that I don't have anything at home that you like." I don't even know what to do in return. It's not as good as ......."

Xu was thinking about the wording. Seeing a man's head peeking out at the top of the stairs, she gestured at Zhao Xing. Zhao Xing's face changed, he slapped his face, and said, "Okay, girls, please avoid it, there is something serious." ”

Zhang Yong was already smoked, he shook his wine glass and said: "On the winter solstice, hundreds of officials are on holiday, what's the matter?" ”

Zhao Xing whispered: "My local student just gave me sign language, saying that Wang Zishao accompanied a forbidden army official to visit, and in addition, Master Liu, the defense envoy of Jingdong Road in Mizhou, was also accompanied by an entourage - guess who the person is?" ”

Zhang asked drunkenly: "Do you know?" This snowy world! ”

After Zhang Yong finished speaking, he saw Zhao Xing's cold gaze, slowly, cold sweat came out, and the hangover gradually woke up, he said tentatively: "Could it be ......?"

After a while, Prince Shao of Zhizhou, who was dressed in civilian clothes, led two strangers up, he first pointed to a thin and slender middle-aged man among the two, and introduced: "Leave people, this is Yuhou Shi Yan, the defense envoy of Jingdong Road, Liu Yi, I knew before, and I have already checked the people he brought, and now he has something to tell you." ”

The man bowed, his eyes were full of smiles, and with the peculiar philistine voice of a merchant, he said respectfully: "I am here to deliver the mansion to the land." ”

Hearing this, Zhang Yong quickly stood up and said in a cold sweat: "Please go to the toilet!" ”

Zhao Xing was still wondering, Wang Zishao and Shi Yan said in unison: "Go together!" ”

The "postman" who came to deliver the newspaper waved his hand and replied, "Yes! ”

Zhao Xing already felt that something was wrong, the man turned his face to Zhao Xing, and whispered: "Di report and hear!" ”

Zhao Xing's sweat also came down, and he understood that the person in front of him was a secret agent of the Ministry Division. It turned out that the signal of the Song Dynasty staff department to find someone to talk secretly was "Di Bao and Wen", the focus of this sentence was on the last two words, with Wen, with whom? The omitted part is the key.

The person who came unhurriedly took out a copy of the newspaper from his bosom - Zhao Xing has no shortage of this thing, and every newspaper in the official office has not been left behind. But Zhao Xing has a bit of a headache for this kind of text with no punctuation marks and no paragraphs, usually these Di newspapers are read to him by Liao Xiaoxiao, and listening to Liao Xiaoxiao chant the Di Bao with a singing voice like poetry, which is a kind of enjoyment. But lately she's been too busy and left this work behind.

The other party was doing it slowly, and Zhao Xing's mind kept spinning, thinking about the current situation.

Wang Zishao and the Jingdong Road Defense Envoy Yamen sent someone to prove the identity of this person, Zhao Xing's status in the army is equivalent to the later prison army, so although Zhang Yong is a five-rank official, he is not qualified to listen to questions, so he resigned under the pretense of going to the toilet. And the question asked by this person seems to be very secretive, so that even Wang Zishao has to avoid it.

"There is a secret report, Liu Zhizuo said: I heard that there is a commander recently, and Lu Huiqing, the deputy envoy of the Mizhou regiment and a resident of Jianzhou, lives in Mizhou. Eavesdropping on the court's arguments made people's hearts turbulent and uneasy. Hui Qing is worried about greed and danger, and she is vicious. Treacherous words are enough to fan the group, and dangerous enough to coerce the upper and lower. When Fang Qi was in power, he introduced the murderers, laid out Chinese and foreign, and the remnants of the party had not yet declined.

Jian Huiqing is cruel and cruel, insatiable, and has to be close to the ground. The party must be called day and night. Wantonly demanding, fabricating falsehoods, and plotting to harm the government. The murderer grows up, and his momentum is worrying. Looking at the imperial court and making Jianzhou live", the people who came learned from Zhao Xing knelt on the floor in a kneeling posture. Arrange the newspapers one by one in front of your lap, and pick up one of them to read first.

After reading it, he asked, "Is this true?" ”

A surge of anger swelled in Zhao Xing's heart. This Lu Huiqing is not at ease anywhere. It must have been him who coaxed Liao Xiaoxiao and asked Liao Xiaoxiao to help him communicate with his fellow party members, regardless of the risks that Liao Xiaoxiao had.

But his own woman has to be protected no matter what, Zhao Xing shook his head: "The officials don't know about this matter." But I don't know who told me that there was so nothing to do. ”

Zhao Xing said this and made nothing wrong, he actually asked the other party who was the secret complainant, just to muddy the water. However. He never expected that the other party would actually answer his question: "The speaker is Hu Zongyu in the imperial history, Kong Wenzhong, the doctor of the left advice, Wang Mao of the imperial history, and Han Chuanye of the left secretary." ”

"Ahh Zhao Xing glanced at the other party in shock. He had already vaguely guessed something. And the latter met Zhao Xing's questioning gaze, smiled lightly, and did not answer.

"There is a secret notice: Dengzhou has recently come to a lot of Yingzhou wranglers, rumors that not long ago there was a group of pirates who broke the city of Yingzhou, Liao claimed to be the leader of the bandits is tall, white-faced and beardless, and has the courage to break", the man said, while taking out a list from his arms, handed it to Zhao Xing: "This is a sea fishing document issued by Liao, there is a picture of the thief Zhao drawn according to the description of the people of Yingzhou, does the judge know about this?" ”

Zhao Xing didn't even look at the sea fishing text, on the one hand, he had a firm confidence in the level of ancient painting, and believed that the other party could not draw a very similar head; On the other hand, the people always like to exaggerate, according to the mouth of the people to describe the image of the bandits, there is not much difference with the devil, and the people's favorite words are: eight feet tall, eyes like copper bells, nose like gall, mouth like a basin of blood...... The above description is not so much about people as it is about humanoid naval landing ships.

The most important thing is that he clearly knows that the Liao State has been closed by heavy snow, and it is impossible for the people in Yingzhou who have not fled to find the Liao State Government and inform Zhao Xingdi's image, so this list is most likely drawn by the staff of the Ministry of Finance according to the description of the people in Yingzhou who fled the country, and then pretended to trust the Liao State.

Zhao Xing showed an honest and very honest smile, and nodded lightly: "I have also heard of this matter, it is not easy for the thieves to be so fierce, it seems that it is very necessary to strengthen the Mizhou naval army." ”

The person who came looked at Zhao Xing for a long time with a smile, and he couldn't see the abnormality on Zhao Xingdi's face, he kept that honest smile for a long time, until the other party lost his temper, so he had to continue to say the next question: "Jinzhou Navy Patrol Xuanqi secretly ran to Dengzhou to take refuge, he said, when fighting with the pirates, the pirates used a new weapon, the sound was like a thunderbolt, and the iron pieces were exploded in all directions, similar to the firecrackers that I used to descale the New Year. ”

Xuanqi ran away? This is a new situation, this guy ,...... This guy is too bad. He went so far as to learn from some leaders in Zhuhai who fled with money.

Understood, Xuanqi was the middleman in both transactions, this guy must have lost the money, Zhao Xing finished the transaction, walked on the front foot, and he took a smuggling boat from Dengzhou on the back foot and ran away.

Zhao Xing hated it so much that his plans were all disrupted.

Fortunately, Xuan Qi did not know much about the details, and in his guess, Zhao Xing was at most a maritime merchant with close ties to the Mizhou military, because the ship Zhao Xing was piloting was a soft sailing ship, and this kind of ship entered the Bohai Bay for the first time......

But the existence of this man is a big problem.

Zhao Xing asked tentatively: "Where is the prayer?" ”

The person who came smiled: "After Xuanqi threw himself to the defense envoy Yamen, he stayed in the Qinglou at night, but he didn't expect to encounter thieves and die in the fight!" ”

Zhao Xing was grateful to the Dengzhou Navy from the bottom of his heart. Xuan prayed that this guy was only known to the Dengzhou Navy who was involved in smuggling activities. Once this guy falls into the hands of the staff, many secrets can't be kept, so it must be the Dengzhou Navy that killed him.

Although he applauded in his heart, the expression on Zhao Xing's face was full of regret, and he asked idly: "What about the items that Xuanqi carried?" Are there any confidential documents in there? ”

The person who came smiled meaningfully: "Didn't you say that Xuanqi was stolen, under the local patrol inspection, Xuanqi was naked." Only a pair of calf-nose pants remained, and other items were missing

Zhao Xing nodded lightly and did not comment on this matter.

The man on the other side continued: "In August, Prime Minister Zhang secretly played a secret message to the imperial court, saying that during the Yongle War, it was discovered that the Western Xia officers were using a fire-breathing weapon, which is quite similar to the medicine puppet we used. This prayer also mentioned the medicine puppet, I heard that many of the people who fled from Yingzhou were hired by Lord Zhao, has Lord Zhao heard of this? ”

Zhao Xing smiled, this time he showed a kind smile to the other party from the bottom of his heart - this is his own person.

The ancients were very particular about the names of others. For example, Zhao Xing's three wives and concubines. Their names for Zhao Xing have changed back and forth, but each title represents their mood and context at the time. This person does not call Zhang's current official position "Lifting the Palace", but "Zhang Shuxiang", and this person also truthfully reported the name of the informant just now...... There is no more obvious hint than this.

Zhao Xing clapped his hands, and Cheng Shuang ran up at a trot. He whispered a few times in his ear. After a while, Cheng Shuang came up with a box, and there was a handcuff in the box. A couple of grenades.

Zhao Xingxian showed the other party the handcuffs: "This is the tubular fire-breathing weapon that Zhang Shuxiang said. It is also the Buddha seal of the monk monk of Huangzhou Doufang Temple, which has been mentioned and painted on the murals of Dunhuang. This thing was born in the fifth generation, I don't know who invented it, and it has continued to this day, and it has been possible to push the iron fence with gunpowder, and hurt people within twenty steps.

This is the place where the prayer is talking, and this thing can't go far. But loaded with small steel balls. Using the scorching heat of gunpowder, the steel balls will be burned red. Sprayed on people's bodies, it looks like a rainstorm to block pear blossoms. Plus, this thing can be reloaded over and over again......"

Zhao Xing paused, took a white cotton paper wrapped gunpowder bag from the side of the box, stuffed it into the chamber of the gun, and took another yellow paper wrapped powder packet and continued to stuff it into the chamber...... After demonstrating the reloading in the same way, Zhao Xing handed the handcuff to the other party.

"That's it?" The visitor was surprised and fiddled with the gunpowder handcuff.

"It's not over, light a fire rope, sprinkle a little ignition powder outside the medicine pool, and then use the fire rope to light the gunpowder......"

After Zhao Xing finished explaining, he took a white cotton paper bag and a yellow paper bag from the wooden box, and continued: "The important thing is this gunpowder. With that, he gently tore open the cotton paper packet, and the granular black powder inside spilled a plate.

Picking up a few gunpowder granules, Zhao Xing showed the visitor: "The most important mystery is this gunpowder, I tried it with the formula of "Wujing General Essentials", but I couldn't achieve such an effect. Also, look at this gunpowder......"

The person who came carefully looked at the three gunpowder in Zhao Xing's hand, and at first he couldn't see what Zhao Xing wanted him to pay attention to, but after a while, the man understood, and immediately pulled the gunpowder particles on the plate, piled them together and looked at them one by one, and after looking at them for a long time, he raised his eyes and stared at Zhao Xing, and asked in surprise: "Each one is about the same size?" ”

Zhao Xing nodded: "I checked, each gunpowder bag contains fifteen such gunpowders, one is not much, and one is not much." Then I tried to reduce the gunpowder particles by one, or increase them by one, and the effect was very different, the distance and penetration of the steel projectile were completely different. Moreover, if the gunpowder is filled too much, it is easy to explode. Look at this again......"

Zhao Xing then opened the ammunition bag, several lead shots rolled out, each lead shot was about the same size, Zhao Xing pointed to the lead shot and gunpowder with little difference in volume, and said with a wry smile: "I use the current general scale, I can't weigh these weight differences at all, this is what I am distressed about - I found eight silver yards, these eight silver yards are not two of the same weight, what's going on?" ”

A "silver yard" is a standard measuring weight cast in the shape of a silver ingot.

The agent smiled wryly, but he couldn't answer.

In fact, not only did not two of the eight silver yards found by Zhao Xing have the same weight, but also the more than 300 silver yards of the Song Dynasty found by modern people did not have two identical ones. The same phenomenon is true for the length measurement unit, and no two rulers are exactly the same.

In fact, this is a traditional Chinese custom, also known as the "unspoken rule of officialdom". Officials have worked hard to become officials, and when they go to the localities, they will do things in weights and measures, just a little bit of tricks, and the taxes collected every year are a big income. This has been the case in China for thousands of years, which is why China's weights and measures have become bigger and bigger in history. For example, Han ruler, Han Sheng, and Han Jin are smaller than Song ruler, Song Sheng, and Song Jin, and the Ming and Qing dynasties are even more exaggerated.

Traditionally, with each change of dynasty, the scale has increased considerably. The new dynasty always said that it continued the tax rate of the previous dynasty, but secretly always liked to increase the weights and measures, which is tradition.

In other words, in China, Zhang Fei's ruler is not the same as Guan Yu's, which is not legal, but it is in line with the unspoken rules of Chinese officialdom. And this kind of unspoken rule inevitably leads to the fact that the laws of physics summarized under Wang Anshi were wrong everywhere when Sima Guang was in power......

This phenomenon can't be solved by the secret agent, he can only smile bitterly. And Zhao Xing didn't know anything, he just stubbornly said: "I checked this thing repeatedly, yes, this thing is very powerful, but if you want to play this thing well, you must set it in quantity." Gunpowder projectiles need to be accurate. To do this, we had to create a micrometer that could weigh gunpowder and projectiles. ”

Zhao Xing pinched up a grain of gunpowder and said: "If you want to know whether this gunpowder is made of standard, there must be a weighing device that can weigh one-tenth of its weight - a rod scale is not good, and the smallest unit of measurement of that kind of small rod scale is money." I have calculated that the uniformity of the scale rod can affect its weighing, basically a penny weighs something, due to the difference in the scale rod will lead to an error of about a penny - this is not good.

I heard that Tianzhu and black-clothed food have a scale called Tianfang, which is a thousand-year-old antique, and the technology is not complicated, so I suggest introducing this kind of scale, but first of all, we need to unify the silver yards, and I don't have a standard for the eight silver yards, which is not good. ”

It is an impossible task to unify the silver yards. Because it needs to go against the entire officialdom and the unspoken rules of the thousand-year-old officialdom, this amount of work is too large. Even under the emperor's nose, it is difficult to do this.

For example, if the standard silver yard is sent to the ordnance superintendent, the ordnance superintendent only needs to file a knife on the silver yard and file a little silver scrap to accumulate a large amount of money in the purchase of merchants' goods. In any case, the supervision of the imperial court cannot do this.

After stopping for a long time, the person who came seemed to understand what Zhao Xing meant, he pointed to the gunpowder particles and projectiles and said: "You just said that this is a new gunpowder formula, this gunpowder is too powerful, and the slightest mistake will hurt our own people, so why don't we reduce its power, so that even errors will not hurt our own people." ”

If Zhao Xing could say anything, he pushed the tray in front of him with his hand and stopped chattering.

The person who came picked up the large firecracker again and said, "This is a bit like a thunderbolt fireball, how the shell is made of pig iron, and the few petals cast on it are like small watermelons that have not grown ripe, which is interesting." Can this shell be replaced with porcelain and pottery? ”

Zhao Xingyi was excited: "Whatever, that's all I can get, you can toss it yourself." ”

The visitor noticed the change in Zhao Xing's attitude, he immediately smiled and replied: "There are so many war horses suddenly coming to Mizhou, in fact, the imperial court has vaguely guessed it, but the imperial court is not willing to ask, but some people think: three thousand war horses a year, this number is very appropriate." ”