In the eighth year of Tiance, Zhang Jinjun Luoyang. The offensive of the Tang Army, "its rise is also sudden, and its dispersion is also fast"!

In mid-February, the army was raised, on the third day of March, Zhang Mai's troops were in the Yellow River, the fifth advance soldiers arrived in Zhengzhou, and the ninth water pass changed hands, thirteen

The three major forwards arrived at the east gate of Luoyang, and then besieged the city for ten days, Shi Chonggui surrendered, and the Shi Jin Dynasty, which had ruled the world for less than ten years, perished.

On the first day of the fourth month, after Zhang Mai had rewarded all the troops in Luoyang, he ordered the disbandment of 300,000 militiamen, and most of them could rush back to participate in the summer harvest at home. After that, the return of Guanzhong, Jingbei, and Hedong prefectures and counties was only a matter of transmission.

The land of China, after nearly a hundred years of chaos and disorder after passing through the Middle and Tang Dynasty, has finally gradually recovered its tranquility recently. A vast empire stretched from the sea in the east, the river in the west, the Yangtze River in the south, and the desert to the south. Although Liu Zhiyuan has not yet surrendered, and An Chongrong of Taiyuan has not yet accepted the reorganization, one of the two of them has not been able to shrink, and the other is a minister, and Zhang Mai does not seem to have the intention of forcibly crusading for a while, so the Central Plains soon entered a state of complete peace.

There are a few generals in the army who hope that Zhang Tianzi can take advantage of the situation to attack, among them, Zhang Congbin is the most enthusiastic, thinking that Liu Zhiyuan needless to say, An Chongrong supports the army and respects himself, and obviously has the intention of not being subordinate, and should be removed as soon as possible.

But Zhang Mai responded: "Give them a little time, I hope they can make the right choice." ”

Then not only did hundreds of thousands of militia members disband, but even the main force withdrew from Luoyang to Kaifeng and Zhengzhou to eat, and only let Zhe De lead his troops to garrison here.

The old officials of the Shi Jin Dynasty were extremely disappointed by this, they hoped that Zhang Mai would ascend the throne in Luoyang, and even before Shi Chonggui surrendered, they had secretly prepared the dragon robe and various ritual weapons, if Zhang Mai ascended the throne in Luoyang, he would be the capital in Luoyang. Establish a new dynasty in Luoyang, so many ceremonies can be controlled in their hands, and they will also stand on top of the court in the future.

But regrettably, Zhang Mai not only did not ascend the throne, but did not even stay in Luoyang for a long time, and stopped for less than ten days before heading east to Zhengzhou. Follow south to Kaifeng. In this regard, the old officials of the Shijin Dynasty were extremely disappointed, and even panicked!

So far, Zhang Mai has not yet made a new minister!

In other words, after these old ministers of Shi Jin abandoned the old boss Shi Chonggui, the new boss has not officially hired them!

The officials of the eastern and western governments, the six ministries, and countless officials, large and small, were all panicked.

Does Zhang Longxiang still want us?

If not, what should we do?

What made them even more alarmed was that this time Wei Renpu came to the west, not alone!

Behind him. And with nearly 200 lifts!

At the end of last year, Wei Renpu held an examination in Yedu, the mode and scale of the examination were modeled on Qinzhou, this time the reference scholars were mainly from Hebei and Shandong, after screening, a total of two hundred and six people were admitted, but the cultural level of these two hundred people was significantly higher than that of Qinxi - this is natural. Since ancient times, Shandong has produced good appearances, and the cultural level of Kanto scholars. Far from being comparable to the Kansai people.

Seeing the two hundred people who were clustered around Zhang Mai, Shi Jin's old ministers were all disappointed in their hearts - these are the new ministers of the new dynasty, where can they compare with these "old ministers of the former dynasty" and "former ministers"?

Since ancient times, Beijing officials have always been more valuable than local officials, but now it seems that these former Beijing officials of Shi Jin are not as good as the former Shi Jin magistrates - Zhang Mai in order to maintain local stability, in the newly annexed area. As long as the state and county officials who are willing to obey the order, there is basically no immediate plan to remove, but the Beijing officials do not have this treatment. West of Tongguan. The government is returned to the west hub of Liangzhou. As for the old team in Luoyang, what else is there to do with them?

After nearly a month or two of panic, a news came from Kaifeng, Zhang Mai announced that there would be two "big exams" held in Kaifeng.

The first big exam is for scholars, Tiance will hold another imperial examination, this time the style of the examination is modeled after the two examinations in Qinzhou and Yedu, as for the recruitment object, it is mainly for students from Hedong, Henan, Jingbei and Guanzhong and Western Guanzhong, but scholars from other regions who have time to participate in the last two rounds of examinations in the future can also come to participate, as for the chief examiner, it will be led by Feng Dao, and Wei Renpu is the deputy. Hearing that Feng Dao was still being reused, everyone was relieved.

The second big test is aimed at Shi Jinjingguan, Zhang Mai announced that he will conduct an election of officials in Kaifeng, and a group of officials will be selected from them, or enter the east and west hubs to participate in government affairs, or be issued to the local government, as for those who are not selected, then go home.

Although the new lord did not immediately give them official positions, which disappointed the old ministers of Luoyang, they were able to participate in the election of officials, and they finally did not despair, so the princes of Luoyang left Luoyang in a hurry and rushed to Kaifeng. Luoyang, which was originally crowded, had a momentum of being empty for a while.

In a few days, Kaifeng became full of people reading books.

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The changes in the Central Plains quickly spread through various channels.

After Luoyang was captured, the biggest benefit for the merchants of the world was that from Liangzhou to the East China Sea, there was no hindrance to the trade route, and the merchants of western Qin wanted to come to Shandong, and there was no need to detour, directly go to Weibei, cross Tongguan, and follow the official road to Dengzhou, of course, if you want to go to Yanjing, it is still a good choice to take the northern route.

A small caravan from the northeast stranded in Luoyang, after the "liberation" of Luoyang, first sold the only remaining Korean ginseng to the northwest merchants who poured into Luoyang City, and then bought a batch of cotton clothes woven in Liangzhou, a batch of Buddhist products from India, and a batch of strange goods from the Western Regions, packed and transported to Zhengzhou by water, and deposited these large quantities of goods in Zhengzhou, but he went south to Kaifeng, and bought a batch of Jiangnan embroidery in Kaifeng - after the opening of Xuzhou's Yuchang, the effect of the operation was far beyond everyone's expectations. Business is extremely hot, in just a few months there are a large number of Jiangnan goods through the transit station of Guò into the Central Plains, and Kaifeng is one of the largest distribution centers of southern goods in the Central Plains.

This small caravan in the northeast stayed in Kaifeng for seven or eight days, in addition to purchasing goods, it also heard a lot of recent news about the Tang Kingdom, and saw with his own eyes that the young and beautiful people in Luoyang Jingguan walked out proudly after being elected officials, and also saw many old officials leave with shameful faces.

The market is commenting. Zhang Longxiang is really ruthless this time, many people who held high positions in the Shijin Dynasty have been defeated, and many people who were "famous in the world" in the past are also "not good officials", and the "seven criteria and 24 items" for selecting officials are also spreading among the people.

Fame? Useless! Now Zhang Longxiang doesn't need to enlist celebrities to prove the legitimacy of Tiance Datang.

Poetry? Useless! Now the court is desperate for people with practical talents, and does not need a group of ministers who can whitewash the peace.

Qualifications? Useless! What does your decades of experience as an official in the previous dynasty have to do with the new dynasty?

Network? Useless! Once a son of heaven and a courtier. Now the people in power of Tiance are all upstarts.

What's even worse is that the people who carried out the election of officials this time were not "highly respected" people, or even the people in power in the center of the New Tang Dynasty, but a group of young people - that is, the batch of people who graduated from the Qinzhou imperial examination, after the past year's experience, some of them have entered the official career, this time it is by 21 such "little young people", divided into three rounds, seven people in each round, holding the "seven big and twenty-four small" formulated by Zhang Mai himself, a total of "31" criteria, one by one comparison, assessment, and scoring. Then, according to the score line delineated by Zhang Mai, those who pass will stay for observation, those who are good will be retained, and those who are excellent will be selected to Zhang Mai's side for another key arrangement.

Hundreds of Luoyang officials poured into Kaifeng, but eighty percent were swept away, and in the end, only two percent remained, and most of them struggled near the passing line and were rated as excellent. Just three people.

The caravan from the northeast listened to the comments of various characters in the tavern, and there were some who sighed. There are those who feel emotional, but not many people accuse Zhang Mai of being harsh.

The "31 Articles" rules were announced in the newly opened public booth in Kaifeng before the election of officials, and the results of all those who participated in the election of officials, down to whether or not a certain item passed or how many scores were also announced, and all this qiē was not a behind-the-scenes operation.

The merchant owners of the Northeast caravan of the "Thirty-one Articles" rules have read it themselves, and many of them are really very common sense and pragmatic things, but even so, there are some old guys who don't understand, don't know, and can't. Let the people of the country see it and can't help but sigh that the Shi Jin Dynasty used some garbage officials, no wonder this dynasty will perish!

After listening to all kinds of opinions in the market, this Northeast caravan received some secret letters through various channels, and then returned to Zhengzhou.

For example, today, the policy regime has set up cargo storage areas in several transit station cities and opened up small warehouses one after another. As long as you pay a fee, you can seal the goods in zài, lock them and take the keys to other places, and you can pick them up when you come back, which is not only very convenient for the people and business, but also creates a lot of new employment paths - the managers of those goods storage areas are mostly disabled veterans.

After the caravan collected the goods, it took a boat into the canal and went all the way to Yedu, where it coincided with a grand event - the release of Datang's new money.

At the beginning of the year, Tiance Datang announced that it would mint new money, and was ready to revise the currency system, which was divided into three levels: gold, silver, and copper, and still used copper coins as the basic value, while gold and silver were needed for the exchange of bulk goods. Last year, the camp found a large copper mine in Monan, and Zhang Maifa sent 20,000 prisoners of war to mine it, refining a large amount of copper, which became the source of copper for coinage this year.

The copper coins of the Central Plains can pass half the world's hard currency in this era! The caravan in the northeast immediately sold a batch of goods in Yedu, all of which were exchanged for copper coins, and the new money was still in the shape of Brother Kong Fang, with "Tang Tongbao" printed on one side and "Eight Years of Tiance" on the other.

I heard that Zhang Longxiang is lamenting that the copper mines in the territory are limited, and the gold and silver are even more scarce, so they are ready to go overseas to search for the source of copper mines. According to sources that don't know where they came from, Japan in the East China Sea and Mayi (the Philippines) in the South China Sea are rich in copper, silver, and gold mines, and there are already a few big businessmen who are eager to recruit people to explore the sea.

"This ......," the merchant owner of the caravan in the northeast thought to himself, "Could it be that Zhang Longxiang still wants to fight to the Wa Kingdom?" ”

With the issuance of new money, Tang Guo opened government-run money banks in 12 cities, including Yanjing, Yunzhou, Dingliao, Tianjin, Dengzhou, Yedu, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Qinzhou, Liangzhou, Lanzhou, and Xuzhou.

The merchant owner of this caravan in the northeast was curious to hear the details of the operation of the money village, and he was curious, his business was really not small, and it was indeed inconvenient to carry this large number of copper coins, but this kind of business had just been contacted and was not confident. But out of the mentality of trying, he deposited 20,000 yuan in Yedu, in exchange for twenty receipts known as silver tickets.

"Just these twenty fluttering pieces of paper, you took away 20,000 yuan from me?"

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He took the silver ticket, got on the boat with some trepidation, and went all the way north. The canal forked in the town of Hejin - northwest to Yanjing, east to Tianjin, to Tianjin, to Tianjin, to Tianjin!

In the past year, Tianjin's opening up has really been a big deal, almost to Goryeo, Japan, the southeast coast, the ocean-going countries and even the Khitan have opened their ports, this merchant is taking advantage of this east wind, taking a boat across the Bohai Sea, when he came, Tianjin was only a small town not much bigger than a fishing village, but now look at it. In just one year, the territory has doubled!

Last year, Zhang Mai appointed Zhao Zan to manage maritime affairs and turned Tianjin into four major blocks—the first was the garrison military region, which became the Tianjin military town; The second is the commercial area, which is all tents for the time being because there are no houses; The third is the living area, which is the original small fishing village; The fourth is the borough, where the first new mud houses were built last year.

The commercial area and the living area are together, which belongs to the old area in the urban planning; The garrison military district and the administrative district are in one piece. It belongs to the new city. Among them, the administrative district has formed a one-mile-long street, and there is a gravel road between the old and new districts.

With the administrative district as the core. Four new streets are already being built, one funded by the Zheng and Nai families, one by the Zhao and Fu families, one funded by the surplus funds of the generals raised by the military, and the last one is collectively funded by the Yan and Ji gentry under their loud appeals. The streets must be built according to the plan, and the four streets, two vertical and two horizontal, will form four commercial streets in the future, which will be the core area of Tianjin New Town.

A vacant lot has been set aside to the west of the administrative district as a future residential area, and the land is currently sold out. The construction of the house must also be carried out according to certain specifications. Like the new business district, construction is also underway.

The merchant owner of this caravan in the Northeast couldn't help but sigh when he saw the hot atmosphere in Tianjin - is this really the troubled times that have just ended?

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He didn't stay long, made a deal in the business district, and then rode to the administrative district with some trepidation, where he found the bank.

Compared with when Yedu just opened, there were still more people talking about the money village and fewer people buying and selling, and it was only less than half a month's work, and this money village in Tianjin had to queue up. The merchant waited in line for half an hour before it was his turn, and after paying a batch of handling fees, he got 20,000 new money.

After getting the money, the talent was completely relieved, but he was a little emotional, he knew that he would simply save the money in Yedu, so why worry about this way? For deposits and withdrawals of more than 10,000 dollars, the difference in handling fees is not much.

At this time, he suddenly thought: "If there is such a money village in Daliao, it would be great." ”

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Today's Tianjin is a big construction site, there are many business trips, the cost of travel is high, but the living conditions are still very bad - the place where the merchant lives is a circle of tents enclosed by a fence, and the livestock are almost the same! That's it, it's still in short supply!

After his business was done and the news was inquired, he had no intention of staying any longer and was ready to go to sea to go back.

This caravan came from Liao, and it had two sea ships by itself. At present, Datang only has two official sea entrances to Tianjin and Dengzhou, and all overseas visitors who take the sea route must enter through these two customs and obtain a business license certificate in Datang, otherwise it is smuggling. It will be a hassle after entering the country. Everyone who enters the country must also apply for a temporary residence permit.

In the same way, when leaving, the merchant's permit and the temporary residence permit must be returned, and the tax must be paid according to the quantity of the goods - the commercial tax is paid at the market, the tax is paid at the canal checkpoint, and the customs duty is paid here. Under the New Tang Dynasty, commercial taxes were numerous and formal, and at present, various commercial taxes are becoming a huge source of revenue for the new government.

This is the last hurdle to go to sea, and when he comes here, the merchant can't help but feel a little apprehensive. After completing all the formalities, the clerk who applied for the certificate glanced at him, and suddenly smiled: "This boss came to our Datang this time and made a lot of money." ”

The name of the boss. I don't know when it started, according to rumors, Zhang Mai jokingly called Zhao Zan "Boss Zhao" that day, so it spread and formed a fashion.

The merchant didn't know how to answer, but just smiled, wondering if he needed a bribe. The little official said, "Will you come next time?" He didn't know how to answer.

"If you still plan to come, I'll give you a receipt, and remember to bring it with you next time. Under the conditions of a businessman, if he has accumulated three times and has not committed adultery or tax evasion, he can apply for a business license valid for up to ten years. You can even apply for naturalization and live in Datang for a long time. ”

When this businessman heard this, his heart was moved, although he came with a special mission, but this trip to Datang really opened his eyes. I have gained a lot, and if I can communicate for a long time, it will be a great good thing, and I immediately begged the little official to help me handle it.

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He cherished the receipt in his bosom, and then all the duty-paid goods were escorted into the port, and two days earlier his men had gone to the port to collect the boats, and the water officers in the port had inspected the ships for them—all for a fee, of course.

Just as he was about to get on the boat, a clever young man approached. He asked, "This boss, are these two of your sea vessels?" ”

With a kind of psychology peculiar to spies. The merchant looked at the young man warily and asked, "So what?" ”

The young man laughed, pointed to the two sea boats and said: "With these two broken boats that can only guarantee that they will not leak, boss, you dare to go to sea, admire, admire!" As he spoke, he pointed to the two Khitan ships and counted them, focusing on the shortcomings of the Khitan ships. He seems to be very proficient in the construction of ships

The shipbuilding of China entered a peak in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the five dynasties inherited its craftsmanship, but the level of large ship manufacturing fell sharply - after all, the whole country was on the verge of decline, and naturally it was impossible to manufacture giant dragon boats of the same specifications during the Sui Yang Emperor period. But due to the confusion of the times. There were so many pirates that the manufacture of small seagoing ships was refined in some of the crafts.

In general, the shipbuilding technology of northern China is not as good as that of the southeast, and the longitudinal comparison is regressive compared with that of the Sui and Tang dynasties, but in any case, it is still much higher than that of the Khitan. The two sea ships from the Liao Kingdom were actually re-exported from Goryeo, and the merchant was still a little complacent when he first went to sea, but now he has become useless when he falls into the mouth of this young man.

When the merchant of Liao was about to be annoyed and angry by what he said, the young man suddenly changed his tone and said: "Boss, look at the goods you pile up here, you know how big your business is!" The son of a daughter can't sit down, how can such a big net worth sit on such a dilapidated sea boat, let's hurry up and change it! ”

After a long fuss, the merchant realized that this young man had come to sell the ship!

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When Zhao Zan conquered the coastal area of Shandong, unified the sea ship manufacturing group in North China, and introduced a lot of skilled craftsmen from the southeast, after he attached himself to Zhang Mai, Zhang Mai attached great importance to this, not only in the political resources have been tilted, for it to provide some Tiance in the past ten years of new development of related technology, and recruited a large number of craftsmen, and even directly arranged thousands of people into the shipbuilding team, in Tianjin and Dengzhou set up two shipyards.

The shipyards in Tianjin were jointly operated by Fu, Li, and Gao, and the shipyards in Shandong were handed over to the Zhao family.

Nowadays, maritime trade is in the ascendant, whether Tianjin or Dengzhou is more people and fewer ships, the ships to be built are not worried about selling, and all the profits are distributed to the craftsmen according to a certain proportion, so the craftsmen of the two shipyards are enthusiastic, and a large number of new ships have been built in just half a year, and the shipbuilding beams accumulated in the entire North China region for many years are almost empty. (Note: Good shipbuilding wood for seagoing ships can not be cut down and planed, but usually needs to go through soaking and drying processes, which is very long.) And not only were all the ships driven away as soon as they got out of the water, but even those that were still being built were ordered by the high gold.

In addition to these two large government-run shipyards, Zhang Mai also allowed the people to build their own ships, and seeing that the business was booming, some talented craftsmen with some assets came out to work alone with the support of some large businessmen, and also built a number of ships. But firstly, the craftsmen gathered by the people for a while are not as good as the official ones after all, and secondly, the credibility of the small shipyard is not good, the shrewd businessmen refuse to trust it for a while, and the turmoil on the sea is treacherous, who is willing to risk their own lives? Therefore, the big guys would rather wait than buy ships indiscriminately, and the business of a few private shipyards is inevitably bleak, so there is such a thing as this initiative to come to the port to peddle today.

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The mind of the merchant of Liao State was half on business, and half on politics, and he did not know so much about the market of sea ships, so he followed the young man to see the two sea ships he peddled, which were also sturdy and considerable, and after the accompanying boatman confirmed that the ships were good, he paid for them - there are not many ships in Liao, and sea ships are especially lacking, and these two ships can not only be used as capacity, but the price of a change of hands to Liao is at least doubled.

When he wanted to pay the money, the merchant of Liao State kept another eye on it and said, "Does the government of this ship allow you to sell it?" ”

The young man hurriedly said, "Of course, of course." The government has regulations on what kind of ships can only be sold to foreign countries and what kind of ships cannot be sold. These two sea vessels are just at the upper limit of the regulation, and it is guaranteed that they will not exceed the regulations, and if they are exceeded, our Liujia Shipyard is willing to recover the original price. ”

The Liao businessman was relieved, paid the money, and after getting the money, looking at the young man's excited look, the Liao businessman couldn't help but be a little strange, he didn't suffer a loss in this transaction.

He didn't know that this was the first batch of goods sold by their Liu family shipyard, so the young man suppressed his ecstasy, and asked the Liao businessman if he wanted to order a few, and their family had a stock of wood, promising that it would be delivered before March next year.

The merchant owner of the Liao State thought to himself that this ship had sailed to the mouth of the Liao River, so why was he afraid that no one would take over? Then he came down and paid the deposit.

After the young man got the deposit, he was even happier in his heart, knowing that the biggest difficulty of the Liu family shipyard had passed, and a broad road had been opened since then! After running forward, he helped the Liao businessman handle various procedures.

This was delayed for another four or five days, and on a good day with little wind and waves, this northeastern caravan finally set sail for the sea.

When he was about to leave the sea, another soldier went on the ship to check to see if there were any prohibited things, and only after passing guò were allowed to leave the port, when he was about to leave, the merchant lord of the Liao State suddenly heard a team behind him saying: "This shipowner is most likely a fine work of the Liao State." ”

One sentence frightened the merchant of Liao to the point of dissipation, his legs were weak, and he felt that he was finished this time.

Then I heard the deputy team say, "Whatever, as I said above, now act leniently." He didn't bring contraband, he didn't break the law, and we don't have any evidence, so let's let him go. ”

The merchant lord of Liao didn't know what he had left, so he wiped a cold sweat and returned to the ship, ordering him to go to sea quickly.

The ships departed from Tianjin and then headed straight east, and the seafaring of this era, especially in the north, did not dare to go too far offshore. The fleet composed of four sea ships has been to the east, through the mouth of the Luanhe River and then turned to the northeast, fortunately a qiē safe, finally arrived at the mouth of the Liaohe River, there is a new coastal town, called Liaojin, the scale is far worse than Tianjin, but a qiē regulations are modeled after Tianjin's regulations, not only the name is like, but also there are commercial districts, administrative districts, military and civilian districts and garrison areas, just like a copy of Tianjin, at the end of last year, Han Xiaoshi was ordered to build here.

On the open harbor sea, there were also more than 20 sea ships, three or five Goryeo, one or two Japanese, seven or eight Tang Guo, four or five Wu Yue, one or two Southern Qi ships, and a few Liao Guo.

Therefore, as soon as this caravan entered the port, the scale of the four sea ships was very conspicuous, and the goods over there were naturally imprisoned. After seeing him, the first words of the merchant lord of Liao State were: "The privy is on top, and the small one does not disgrace his mission!" (To be continued......)