Song Renzong sat high on the throne, and he watched every move of the officials in the main hall, and the king was no longer the naughty child who teased the ministers at the chrysanthemum banquet back then, and his sonorous and powerful answer was not full of calmness, but there was no lack of newborn calves who were not afraid of tigers.

Zhao Shu looked at Wang Bian's confident appearance, and thought about Sima Guang's intentions, thinking that it would be better to be a favor, if Wang Bian's affairs were unfavorable, he could also take the opportunity to impeach Wang Bian, he made up his mind, looked up and saw Renzong looking at himself: "Father, since Wang Shilang is so sure, then listen to what he has to say." This is what Renzong was waiting for, and he sent a decree to summon the king to bring a picture to his entourage into the temple.

The ministers, who were still guessing the mood of the emperor and the prince just now, heard that the prince's tone changed a little, and it seemed that the atmosphere in the court had eased a little, and they all looked at the king and waited for his answer.

Wang Bi didn't want to sell Guanzi, he said to Renzong: "Qi Yu Sheng, since the alliance of Tanyuan, the Song-Liao border has been peaceful all the year round, not only the trade is prosperous, the people's livelihood is also stable, and my country can basically fill the deficit of silver and silver given to the Liao country by relying on taxes; The same was true for Western Xia. ”

"What I said about increasing income is to open a tea field outside of this, according to what I saw on this trip to Xixia, Xixia people due to their eating habits, perennial wine and meat meat, must drink strong tea after each meal, so the consumption of tea in Xixia is very large, which is also the reason why our country has 20,000 catties of tea more than Liao, but 20,000 catties is basically just the consumption of the palace and the reward minister, and the daily tea drinking of the people is not included in it, so if a tea farm is opened at the border, the profit of this court is very considerable."

After the king finished speaking, he stood there calmly, waiting for everyone to ask questions.

Immediately above the court, there was a whispered discussion from the ministers, and Renzong asked Zhao Shu: "Emperor, according to you, how much profit can be made here." He deliberately left Zhao Shu a chance to speak,

Just last year, when Wang Pan took over the tea field, Zhao Shu was not present at the time, and he also had an agreement with Wang Bei, now that he thinks about it, of course he knows how much this tea profit is, and he doesn't dare to hide it and says: "Before Wang Shilang took office, the tea profit of doing Bianjing Tea Farm for a year was also 200,000 taels. ”

"Wow." The discussion in the court was louder, and the seed man pulled Master Bao Zheng, gave him a thumbs up, and whispered: "Lord Bao, this righteous son is very powerful. Bao Zheng smirked,

Prime Minister Zeng Gongliang was a little confused, in the past ten years to ban private tea, the official sale of tea profits all over the country, sometimes only a hundred thousand taels, he stood up and said: "The old minister has something unclear, how this tea is so profitable, it is not the profiteering of Wang Shilang's monopoly on selling tea." ”

Wang Pan saw Zeng Gongliang asking, presumably if he didn't make it clear, he would definitely fall into the hands of others, Wang Bian arched his hand to Zeng Gongliang and said: "Don't misunderstand, Lord Zeng, tea is not a high profit from tea, this is thanks to the emperor's sage, who ordered the cancellation of monopoly and the implementation of trade." ”

Renzong was also relieved to hear the king say this, which emperor didn't want to hear people say that he was sage, he smiled slightly, pointed to the king and said, "You will tell these old ministers about the benefits of trade." ”

Wang next to the natural will not be frightened, when it is time to show himself, he must not let people look down, he put his hand behind his back and raised his chest and raised his head and said loudly: "I think that since the implementation of the 'money law' in the Song Kingdom, pay money in Tokyo and pick up goods in the south, the government monopolizes the high price of tea, and the purchasing department depresses the grade and price, and the tea farmers are not willing to sell good tea to the government, and there are naturally more people who take risks to smuggle tea, and the result is a sharp decline in tea production and a continuous decrease in government revenue.

Since the emperor ordered the abolition of monopoly and the implementation of trade, tea is taxed like ordinary goods, and for the common people, the sales of cheap and high-quality tea have naturally increased greatly, and the government revenue is higher than in the past, which is where the tea profits have skyrocketed."

After the king finished speaking, the court praised "Okay." "That's right." "Your Majesty." The sound of admiration filled the court,

Sima Guang saw that Wang was talking for a long time, and this would talk about tea profits, and thought that this kid wanted to make a lot of money again, so he stood up and said: "That is the case, is the tea farm set up by Wang Shilang at the border an official or private. "Didn't you say that the housekeeper monopoly is not good, I see how you answer,

The king did not return directly, he looked at the prince and said: "I only said that there is this profit, as for how the emperor and the prince arrange, I can only obey orders." Sima Guang choked back with a word, Renzong smiled, this kid is a ghost elf, and it seems that he will also fulfill his promise to open the tea field next to the king last year.

Wang saw Ouyang Xiu looking at himself with a straight face, and he continued: "I went to Yanzhou to govern the salt affairs this time, and I also applied price countermeasures, and there must be brave men under the heavy profits, balancing the price of green salt and salt in my Song Kingdom, no one will take risks, this is not a temporary strategy, if it is to trade with Xia State, my country can store green salt as much as possible to deal with price fluctuations." ”

Ouyang Xiu knew that Wang Bei was talking to himself, so he turned his face and asked, "Then how does Wang Shilang know about the fluctuation of green salt." ”

Wang Bei couldn't tell Ouyang Xiu that he had an internal response in Western Xia, but even if he didn't say anything about internal response, he could deal with it, and at this moment, the attendant with a picture next to the king had come to the outside of the palace.

Holding the picture in his hand, Zhang Ping stood beside Zhi Kejun and muttered in a low voice: "Brother Zhe, have you seen this picture of Childe, can he do it?" ”

The minister who led the way glared at Zhang Ping fiercely: "Quiet" and then walked into the hall to reply, Zhang Ping quickly closed his mouth, and soon the minister came out to let him go to the palace and told them the rules, such as not to look around, not to talk nonsense, Zhang Ping nodded vigorously,

When the king saw that they had arrived at just the right time, he ordered them to open the picture in their hands, and the two of them unfolded the picture at both ends of the drawing, and when they were almost at the end, there was still a part of the scroll left on the scroll in the hand of Zhe Kejun.

Wang pointed to the picture and said to Renzong and the ministers, this is the "business war Xixia map" I painted, after he finished speaking, Renzong and the ministers all looked at the picture, and the court laughed loudly, Lord Bao, Wang Anshi's expression was crying and laughing, Zhang Ping's palms were sweating, and his heart said What kind of famous hall is this Gongzi,

Renzong's left side tilted his head, the right side tilted his head, he was far away from the picture, from a distance this painting seems to be painted by a five or six-year-old child, this picture looks like a landscape from a distance: the upper half of the picture is a zigzag peak, in the middle seems to be a small piece and a horse, the horse is disproportionately large, the westernmost part of the picture seems to have a row of words, he really can't see clearly pointing to the picture and asking the king: "Wang, what is the bottom line of your painting." ”

The king tilted his head and said, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, **ten"

At this time, the ministers couldn't stop laughing, and some simply pointed to the king while laughing and said: "Wang Shilang, if you don't know how to paint, don't paint, if this flower is hung in Yunxuan, your Yunxuan's signboard will be smashed." ”

Renzong made Wang Bian cry and laugh, and he also laughed a few times: "Wang, you have to tell it well, otherwise I will punish you for disturbing the court." ”

Wang Pan saw that the effect was achieved, so he asked Zhe Kejun to open the unopened part, and the far left of the main and secondary pictures, like a ruler, was also marked with numbers, Wang Pan pointed to the picture and said to Renzong,

"Emperor Qiqi, this is the price trend chart of salt and horses in the Western Xia that the minister has been talking about in Yanzhou for several months, please look at the different peaks of different heights, that is, the price on the relatively left, and the fluctuations of the following months, it can be seen from this chart that the price changes of the two largest materials of salt and horses in the four seasons of the year in the Western Xia mainly for China's trade."

As soon as the king said this, everyone looked at it fixedly, and saw that the peaks on the map were either high or ground, that is, because of this high and low, Renzong looked like he was looking at the mountains from a distance, and the ridicule gradually subsided, and most of the officials also looked at the map carefully, and it seemed that they had discovered some mystery.

Renzong understood the meaning of the words at the bottom, and he pointed to the center of the picture and asked, "What is the middle part of this picture?" ”

Wang next to look around at the crowd, at this time all the officials put away their contemptuous looks, waiting for Wang next to answer Renzong's question, Wang next to this said: "This water is Qinghai Lake, the green salt of Xixia is produced here, affected by the season, every year from June to August is the salt production period, as can be seen from the map, the salt production period and the next month or two, is the lowest price of green salt, so, until now the green salt of Xixia is still consumed, the later period of time will affect the sale of salt, this is the Xixia people nervous. ”

Renzong patted the armrest of the throne: "The analysis is good, but why is the horse so big." ”

At this time, Lord Bao, Wang Anshi, and the officials who supported Wang were no longer nervous, and they looked at Wang next to him with a nod.

Wang Pan had the bottom in his heart at this time, and he said even more confidently: "The party horses of Western Xia are also important things that Western Xia sells to our country, but the horse farm of Western Xia is so big, if it can't be sold, there will be more horses to trample on the fertile land, and this cycle will lead to a decrease in grain production and unstable people's hearts, so I am sure that Xixia will send horses to reduce the burden on the horse farm." ”

There was a sudden admiration in the court, and even Zeng Gongliang was happy because of his proposal for trade, there were originally three propositions, but now Wang Fang has put two into one category,

Prime Minister Han Qi thought for a long time, wanting to find some loopholes next to the king, otherwise he would lose face, he asked: "According to what Wang Shilang said, if the people of Western Xia don't raise horses, there will be no horses for Western Xia to send to our country." ”

Wang said with a smile: The herdsmen who raise horses would rather buy horses at a low price, and most of them will not kill horses, not to mention that the herdsmen do not raise horses and change to farmland, but he still has to give Han Qi a step: "Lord Han has been a privy envoy for a long time, and he knows the importance of horses on the battlefield. ”

Zhao Shu saw that the overall situation was in control of the king, so he simply put him in the army: "The king, do you dare to make a military order and send the Western Xia to trade and get horses." ”

The king laughed, and in his dictionary, there was no word "dare".