"Childe, are you joking with the national fortunes of the country?"

Contrary to what Cao Pi, the prince of the State of Yi, imagined, the gift of a hundred prisons proposed by himself not only did not make Zhao Wuxian happy, but aroused his anger.

You think I'm a stupid hat like Fucha? What he didn't know was that Zhao Wuxian's heart was screaming so wildly at the moment.

Nanzi also turned his face sideways and couldn't help laughing, the matter of offering a hundred prisons to his heart was the rest of Zhao Wuxian's foolish husband half a year ago, and this prince of the country actually wanted to treat his body in the way of others? Does he think that Zhao Wuxian played this play because he also liked it?

She can see that although she is extremely close to and protective of her own people, in the relationship between countries and families, General Zhao is completely unprofitable and cannot afford to be early, and a hundred pigs, cattle and sheep want him to give up the interests that will be in hand? It's a big fallacy.

Gongzi Cao Pi finally had to leave in disgrace, returned to the country of Yi, and reported the failure of the mission to the son with a sad face.

It is said that Cao Yi was so angry that he beat the self-proclaimed clever brother with Yugui, and then reluctantly sent Zigong back to Langdi. At the same time, 250,000 stone of grain and 1,500 horses of linen cloth were delivered, and these grain and cloth were lent to the Song State by Zhao Wuxian, as long as Le Wei saved a little, it was enough to meet the food and clothing of 20,000 people for a year, enough to appease the restless emotions and cold and hungry bodies after the chaos of the Song Dynasty.

Naturally, all this was not free, and the Song Kingdom took this opportunity to be included in the circulation scope of "Zhao coins".

The currency of the Song Dynasty imitated the Jin system, and the monarchs of the past dynasties minted a small amount of "square foot cloth", and its characters, outlines, casters, and copper-tin ratios were no different from those of Jin coins. In Shangqiu City, it circulates with Qi Dao coins, Chu ant nose coins and gold coins.

But nowadays. The emerging Zhao coin, however, had a tendency to occupy the dove's nest, after the mass production of iron farming tools and coarser iron weapons began. A large amount of bronze was saved and minted, and the issuance of Zhao's Kong Fang coins increased day by day. It has been able to meet the limited circulation within the country.

The "half tael" and "five baht" two kinds of hole square money are exquisitely made and have a large purchasing power, far exceeding the value of bronze obtained after casting, and the casting right is now firmly in the hands of Zhao Wuxian. With this money, Zhao Wuxian has earned a lot of scissors from Lu Guo City in the past year.

After making a profit at home, Zhao Wuxian's greedy eyes began to turn abroad, and Zhao Ying, who was in the Jin Kingdom, was as good as a stream, and had already switched to Kong Fang Qian in his territory, and now he has added the princes of Sishang. And so. The Zhao clan of the Jin Kingdom, including the princes of Lu, Song, Cao, Di, Teng, and Xue, formed a new economic region: the Zhao coin area, which became one of the main currencies of the Central Plains.

But the problem that followed was that the copper and tin stocks in the Qufu Mansion treasury began to run out, so Zhao Wuxian urgently needed the thousand catties of gold and tin in the State of Yi, and in order to make up this annual tribute, the people of the State of Yi had to melt some bronze Yi vessels. Wu Xi planned to take those copper tin and smelt them into hole square money, and then put them into the country of Lu, which was exempt from the Lu tariff, in exchange for physical goods. Let the son bleed again.

Only by causing damage to the neighbors can the Eastern Zhao become steadily strong, and the lives of the Lu people and the Song people can continue in the era of reckless warfare. This is a simple equation, and Zhao Wuxian can't make productivity running across the era in the blink of an eye. This can only be the case in the short term. If the people of the Sishang princes can't stand the harsh government, the gate of the border of the Lu State and the law that the young and strong can rent 100 acres of land for their cultivation will be open to them at any time!

Zhao Wuxian hoped that Ludi would become a beacon of prosperity in Sishang, and at the same time a beacon of oriental civilization in this era......

But. Even in Sishang, there is still a dark corner. Waiting for Zhao Wuxian to "illuminate" and not relieve the worries of the East. He couldn't make it west after the autumn harvest.

……

Zigong's first foreign mission was a success, and after his return, he was praised by Zhao Wuxian, calling him a "peerless debater" and a "model of a pedestrian in the Lu country".

But Zigong didn't think that this was his own ability, because he was like the fox in Zhao Wuxian's fable, relying on the deterrence of the Zhao family's milk tiger behind him to make Di Guofu obedient. In the situation where Lu and Song are integrated, there are not many options left for the State of Yi, and with their courage and size, they must choose to give in.

Therefore, Zigong was not satisfied, and as soon as he returned to Lu State, before he had a good rest, he immediately drafted a recital and asked Zhao Wuxian to let him go again.

"Where does Zigong want to go this time?"

Zigong sold it first, and asked: "Dare to ask the lord, for the Lu State, what is the most lacking resource in the treasury?" ”

Zhao Wuxian said: "Lu has nothing but foreign imports, which are nothing more than gold tin (copper tin) and sea salt. ”

"However, as my master said, if you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools. Jin Xi is important because if every woman wants to engage in mulberry hemp, she must have a needle and a pair of scissors before she can succeed; Every cultivator must have a plough, a ploughshare, and a hoe before he can succeed; Every craftsman who taps wood must have an axe, a cone, and a chisel, and then he can do it. There is no one in the world who does not possess the above tools and can do the above things, and in the past these things could only be made by gold and tin. Now there are three iron mountains in the Lu country, and iron tools can be cast and forged into tools that everyone needs, alleviating the scarcity of gold and tin, but the lack of salt has not changed a little. ”

Zigong crossed his fingers and counted the accounts for Zhao Wuxian: "Lu has a population of nearly one million, and it needs 40,000 bells of salt every year, which was mainly purchased from Qi in the past, but now the relationship between Lu and Qi has broken down again, and the border is even in a state of sporadic fighting, and Qi has stopped selling sea salt to Lu again, so Lu people can only find salt from the following places." ”

"First, the local soil salt is not only small in quantity, but also inferior in quality, difficult to swallow, and even cause diarrhea, with an annual output of no more than 10,000 bells, which is not enough to eat; The second is to use official or private merchant channels to transport salt from Wei's Anyi and Wu Guohuainan, but the cost is too high, plus the freight, to buy at the price of 50 and 60 yuan per kettle, more than twice as expensive as Qi salt, and each is only about 10,000 bells, there is still a huge gap in salt in Lu. It can be said that most of the profits earned by casting hole money in the past year have been invested in the purchase of salt! ”

Zhao Wuxian's face became serious, this was not the defender's alarmism, but it was true. Salt is indeed the weakness of the Lu country.

The last salt crisis gave Zhao Wuxian many lessons, the official camp of salt and iron. The allocation of rare resources should be done well from the very beginning, and he had asked Ji Qiao to draw up a budget for a strategic resource reserve. Not only that. The salt producing area that belongs to its own forces must also be controlled as soon as possible.

He nodded and said: "I understand what Zigong means, borrowing salt from other countries can at most solve the urgent need, and it cannot be ruled for a hundred years, and the country of Lu urgently needs an inexhaustible place to produce salt!" ”

Zigong said happily: "Of course, the subordinate is talking about that place!" ”

The two coincided. Their eyes looked east from the open door of the tent, beyond the eastern land of the Lu country, and over the tall Yimeng Mountains......

On the other side of the mountain, there is a rough blue sea!

……

The morning tide hit the shore, and it continued for thousands of years, which made Zilu even hear the sound of the waves in his sleep.

He had an empty stomach, and he only drank some fish soup with a slight fishy smell yesterday, and he couldn't sleep once he was pleasantly surprised. I could only get up from the humble stable, tiptoe past the brothers who were hungry in my dreams, and walked out of the hall with a long sword.

As soon as he went out, Zilu could hear the screams of seabirds overhead. In the distance, a faint light pierced through the fog at sea and shone near the horizon. He saw hills like ancient beasts. The steep slopes are covered with pine and black cedars. This row of rocky ridges blocks the land from the sea and makes for an excellent bay port.

This is Langya. It's the country of Ju, it's the sea on the other side of the mountain.

Ju is located to the east of Lu. In later generations, near Qingdao, it is still independent, and it is a small state with its own surname.

Historically, Ju was also rich, once had more than 30 large and small cities, and was second only to Qi and Lu in Shandong. ”

However, in the context of the Emperor Huan of Qi, Ju was conquered more and more times, five times by Qi, four times by Lu Da, and four cities were cut. And because of the tyrannical and impermanence of his own monarch and the chaotic political situation, the secretary often took the city to the Lu State, and now the expansion of the eastern part of the Lu State came from this. Nowadays, the number of Ju countries is only more than 200,000, which is equivalent to the land of three counties in Lu country.

The capital of this country is called Ju, which is at the eastern foot of the Yimeng Mountains, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the most prosperous city is Langya on the coast, because there are benefits of fish and salt.

Confucius and his disciples happened to be in the Ju Kingdom, where they first went to the city of Jijiao, but to Confucius's disappointment, there were no ancient rituals lost in China, and the people were still shrouded in the rule of ignorant ghosts and gods, unable to communicate.

So with the idea of visiting the famous mountain, they went to Langya again, but there is not much difference between this place and that place.

Along the harbor and lagoon of Langya stand crudely carved stone statues with solemn expressions stained with speckled seabird droppings, which are the stone figures of Zhenhai. Every year this season is the flood season, the sea will blow a strong wind, sweeping away the fishing boats and even the people and animals on the shore, so there will be a grand ceremony to worship the sea in June and July, Ju Zi will even come from the national capital in person, he is now living in the Langya Palace.

For the people of Ju, the mountains and the sea symbolize everything. Zilu didn't feel much about this, he had been in the harbor, the crunch of wood and ropes, the shouting of the crew, the salt and fish with the smell of the sea, were all so unfamiliar. He was not used to eating seafood, and he once vomited and diarrhea, and afterwards secretly congratulated himself that his master had the intention of returning to the Central Plains, instead of "floating on the sea by the pole" as he said, and took the sub-road to the Sanxian Mountain and Jiuyi Land where the smoke and waves were hard to find.

It's a pity that they can't make the trip for the time being, because the silk coins they brought are all over, and in the case of Juzi and the nobles' cold attitude towards Confucius, they can't even get together the entanglement of the study tour, so they can only stay here temporarily, and the disciples rack their brains to find a way.

In order to allow the master to live in a clean house, the disciples moved to the dirty stable, and in order to allow the master to eat fish at every meal, the disciples began to eat unchewable sea vegetables and brown rice, and their lives became more and more difficult day by day.

So Zigong came out early in the morning to see if he could find something to do.

He first went to the harbor, where the boats of Ju could sail along the coast to fish, and Zilu saw that under the cliffs overgrown with pine trees, more than a dozen fishing boats were busy collecting their nets.

Among the countless masts of fishing boats, he also caught a glimpse of a large boat unloading goods from the Qi country, which was separated by the Yimeng Mountains and was not convenient by land. There is a route along the coastline, but it needs to avoid countless reefs and islands. The danger is enormous. To the south of the harbor are the salt-boiling tidal flats. The trees on Langya Mountain were cut down and added to the business of boiling salt, which was the main income of the Ju State, but because of the Qi State, Juzi was forbidden to sell to Lu and sold to the princes of Sishang instead.

Zigong walked around the port but found nothing, he didn't know how to fish, and he couldn't speak. Therefore no one wants him.

He could only reluctantly return to the dense place in the west of the city, full of ambition.

Zilu used to be a patriotic light man, what hard work has he never done? Even robbing houses is no exception, if you are in a hurry, it is a big deal to put on a veil and "borrow" some money from foreign businessmen or envoys.

He thought to himself: "No matter what, we can't let the master suffer, we must make up the travel expenses as soon as possible and leave the country of Ju." ”

Zilu's unkind eyes began to look at the cars and horses on the road. Look for a target. But when a total of 100 people, driving light cars and fat horses, and passing by an envoy group under the banner of Lu Guo, Zilu was weak for a while. Hurriedly turned around.

But it was too late, and someone saw at a glance squatting in the city gate hole, like a sub-road of unemployed vagrants. Hurriedly shouted happily: "Zilu! ”

It was Zigong.

……

"Zigong, what do you want to do when you come to Juguo?"

Sitting in a market that sells dog meat. Zigong paid for it, and Zilu gobbled it up rarely. He drank in a big bowl. Eat meat in a large bowl, wait until you are full of wine and food, then burp, wipe off the wine juice on your thick beard, and look up and ask.

Zigong had already asked about the master before, and knew that the disciples of Confucius were in a difficult situation, and one of the purposes of his visit this time was to send some money and silk to the master to support. He also had a lot of savings when he was in Taoqiu, and it was certainly within his power to fund Confucius's travel. It doesn't matter if the disciple can't serve by the teacher's side, if he is still allowed to suffer outside, Zigong is ashamed to call himself a scholar!

As for official business, he did not shy away from it.

"The general's majesty is on the side, you should know about Zilu, right?"

"How great, since the bird, the country of Lu has never been so prosperous......" Although there are many misunderstandings and many disapprovals, Zilu is also impressed that Zhao Wuxian can achieve such an achievement in just three years, and even regrets that he can't witness it in person.

He said with a smile: "Now in the pavilion where the princes of Sishang gather, there are even foreign pedestrians who sigh and say, 'The Zhao family is a little uncle'!" ”

This is used to praise the Duke of Qi Zhuang, the public cause of Qi, the political situation was relatively stable during the reign of the two monarchs, the vitality of the Qi State gradually recovered, the national strength increased, the conquest of foreign countries, the main alliance of princes, known as Zhuang Xiaobo in history, both regional small tyrants, laid the foundation for the hegemony of the Duke of Qi Huan.

But the Duke of Qi Zhuang, the Duke of Qi, and even the Xiaoba of later generations are at least at the level of princes. Zhao Wuxian, as the secretary of the state of Lu, was secretly praised so much, but it was the first time in thousands of years that this domineering and domineering could be compared to his ancestor Zhao Xuanzi.

Zigong was also quite proud of helping Zhao Wuxian achieve such an achievement, and he smiled and said: "That's right, all the princes of Sishang are obedient, but on the coast of the East China Sea, Ju is still the enemy of Lu State, so I have come to persuade Ju Zi." ”

"It can't be." Zilu boasted that he knew more about the situation of Ju State, shook his head and said: "Ju and Lu, feud, and although Ju is declining, there are also 15,000 soldiers, Yimeng and Langya are all dangerous, and the mountains and rivers are better than the Yi country." And Ju Zi has a resolute attitude, and if he wants Ju Guo to serve Lu, this is absolutely impossible! ”

Zilu has a basis for saying this, and the Lu State has always adopted a contemptuous attitude towards the Ju State, which is the ruler and the people, and thus has become the biggest enemy of the Ju State. Therefore, in order to survive for himself, Ju often relied on the great powers of Jin and Chu to fight against Lu, such as Yu Zhi would turn to Chu and Pingqiu would turn to Jin.

In recent decades, the State of Qi took advantage of the opportunity of the six secretaries of the Jin State to act separately, and gradually turned the State of Ju into its own country. The Marquis of Qi cut down Ju twice, convened the Pu Tunnel Alliance, forced the Duke of Ju to flee, and supported the pro-Qi Ju Zixi, who was the little brother who hugged the thigh of Qi State.

How could such a Ju state surrender to the Lu state, grovel like the princes of Sishang, and pay tribute?

Zigong just smiled: "Public first, then private, Zilu, you will send these money to the master first, and I will go to Langya Palace." ”

He got up and looked at the sun that was about to rise three poles, and said confidently: "Before the sun sets, I will definitely let Juzi recognize the situation!" ”

PS: Big chapter one top two, that's it for today (to be continued.) )