After some deliberation, the brothers finally decided that regardless of whether the official appointment documents of the imperial court to the people could be issued before the Spring Festival, the "delegation" would wait until after the Spring Festival before leaving Kaifeng City. Everyone preliminarily decided that if there is no emergency in the middle, the departure time of the "delegation" will be set for the eighth day of the first lunar month, so that the brothers can spend the New Year in Kaifeng City.

After the day of departure back to Youzhou was set, Wang Kunjun asked Lu Yue to set up a radio station and prepare to talk to the "Liangyuan" base. There was not much time, and the radio station was connected normally. Wang Kunjun first briefed Li Junwu on the radio station of the "delegation's" meeting with Chai Rong today, and explained to the other party the scheduled return date of the "delegation."

Hearing that the process of the "delegation" meeting Chai Rong was basically smooth, that he had obtained Chai Rong's approval, and that all members of the team had been dismissed, Li Junwu was also very happy. He hurriedly congratulated Wang Kunjun and others, and thanked them for their hard work this time to lay a good foundation for the team's development to the south. Wang Kunjun and others were naturally humble, saying that the reason why they were able to succeed this time was the result of the joint efforts of all team members, and they just did some things.

After everyone came and went, Li Junwu changed his words and said: "It seems that the last two days have been the lucky days of our team, you have achieved complete success in Kaifeng, and we have also achieved unexpected gains in Youzhou." ”

"What do you say about it, is it because the Ministry of Science and Technology has made some new breakthroughs?" Wang Kunjun asked curiously.

"Isn't that," Li Junwu replied, "Although all the brothers in the Ministry of Science and Technology are stepping up their efforts to tackle key problems, the problems before you leave cannot be solved overnight. When I say windfall, I don't mean technological, but political. ”

"Political?" Wang Kunjun was puzzled and asked, "What can we gain in politics, could it be that our brothers have made friends with some high-ranking officials?" ”

"Even if we don't win, it's not far away," Li Junwu said in a rare sentence, "Our harvest is far more useful than making friends with new officials." If nothing else, it won't take too long after the Spring Festival for us to receive a letter of appointment from the Liao Imperial Court. Hmm......, let me think about what kind of official is coming to ......, oh, by the way, it seems that I want to make you the one called the court, yes, it's called this name, and it is said that he is a loose official of the sixth grade. Hey? How does this seem to be the same as the official you just said Chai Rong gave you. ”

"Zheng Liupin Chao Lang?" Hearing this news, Wang Kunjun was a little confused and asked, "Big brother, you're not joking, are you?" Good and dignified, the emperor of Liao, Weishenme, wants to seal me as an official? You're not confusing the information on both sides, are you? ”

"No, no, absolutely not mixed" Li Junwu said with great certainty, "I remember clearly, it is the name of this official position." ”

Hearing Li Junwu's affirmation, Wang Kunjun finally made sure that the eldest brother was not joking with him, and hurriedly asked, "Big brother, what the hell is going on, can you tell me a good story?" ”

"Here's the thing," Li Junwu explained, "Do you remember the one I told you a few days ago, Xiao Siwen sent Feng Cheng to find Lao Shi, hoping that we would offer another large glass palace lamp to the Emperor of Liao?" ”

"Of course I remember," replied Wang Kunjun, "but what does this have to do with the matter of sealing officials?" ”

"The relationship is too big, this official came from this lamp." Li Junwu continued to explain, "Although our original decision was to give another lamp to the left-behind mansion for free, Lao Shi felt that it was too cheap for the other party to give it away for nothing, and the other party was eager to flatter the master, so when we talked about this matter, we revealed that we could give us more benefits in other aspects." So Lao Shi seized the opportunity and used his 'three-inch tongue' to bargain with Feng Cheng, and finally made the other party agree to our three conditions. ”

"What are the three conditions?" Wang Kunjun hurriedly asked.

"First, it is the original agreement that all the finished products of our salt and iron yards should be sold to the Nanjing Salt and Iron Division, and eighty percent of them will be sold to the Salt and Iron Division, and the remaining two percent can be retailed in our own stores within the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Left-behind Government and approved by the Salt and Iron Division.

Second, there is the matter of sealing officials that I just mentioned. According to what Feng Cheng said, when Xiao Siwen presented the palace lamp this time, he would explain to the Emperor of Liao the contribution of our brothers in it, and ask the Emperor of Liao to confer a number of official positions on our brothers. According to the list given by Feng Cheng, in addition to asking for a court councillor for you, I also asked for corresponding official positions for me, Lao Qi, Lao 8, Lao Jiu, Lao 10, Lao 11 and others. I don't remember exactly what kind of officials they are, but they are probably all seventh- or eighth-grade famous and unemployed loose officials, which should be a little smaller than the officials you invited. ”,

Third, it is to allow us to recruit displaced people from all over the world at will within the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Left-behind Prefecture to farm, work, and be slaves for us. In this way, it will be much easier for us to recruit people in the future. ”

Li Junwu said the benefits that Zhao Dawei won from Feng Cheng, or Xiao Siwen, and then added: "Of course, we can't get so many benefits in vain. In addition to that lamp, Lao Shi also promised Feng Cheng to send him and the left-behind mansion a pair of small glass palace lamps each. Moreover, that Feng Cheng didn't know where to get the news, saying that we people are good at building weapons. Therefore, he also proposed that we use half of the 20% of the finished iron for our own use to make knives and guns, and the United Military Division will purchase them at the price. ”

"It seems that Xiao Siwen is really good enough to curry favor with the Emperor of Liao this time. Not to mention anything else, just the 20% of the salt we sell ourselves, after a year, the profit earned is almost worth the lamp money, can't he himself pay this account? Xie Tian interjected.

Wang Kunjun shook his head and said, "How could such a shrewd person as him not be able to calculate this account, he himself must know how profitable salt is." But the problem is that he let the benefits of the Liao Imperial Court, and it is not him Xiao Siwen who pays out of his own pocket, so it doesn't matter if there is more or less. Let the court benefit and get benefits from it, why wouldn't he do it. Second, he definitely didn't expect that the production capacity of our salt farms was much higher than that of conventional salt farms in this era, and the production cost was much lower than that of other salt farms. Therefore, when he calculates our possible profits based on conventional salt farms, there will naturally be a relatively large deviation from our actual profits. This can only be regarded as a bargain we have chosen, not that he has made too much concessions. ”

"Fifth brother is right," Xu Shaoan interjected, "This can only be said that he, Xiao Siwen, underestimated our ability, but not how much benefit he gave us." However, big brother, I don't understand a little bit, how did he Xiao Siwen know that we would make weapons? ”

"I can't say this well, Lao Shi once probed Feng Cheng's tone in this matter, but he didn't get a clear answer," Li Junwu said, "I guess our people inadvertently leaked it, and most likely it is the person in charge of the escort team that transported the goods to Youzhou." After all, these people are equipped with cold weapons, and they are generally very sophisticated cold weapons. Feng Chengnai is the 'head snake' of Youzhou City, and it is normal for him to find clues.

It's not a big deal, though. Since they are willing to spend money to buy them, and the production cost of our cold weapons is relatively low, why not sell them to make more money? Moreover, the iron output we reported to the Salt and Iron Division is much smaller than the actual output, and making some cold weapons will not affect the production of other products. ”

"It's just that if we provide weapons to the Liao army, will it cause the Zhou State to be dissatisfied with us?" Zeng Zhilin was a little worried.

Zhang Weixin shook his head and said, "I don't think so." One is that the Later Zhou court may not know this news, and the other is that compared to the hot weapons we provided to the Later Zhou court, some cold weapons such as knives and guns will not have any impact on the comparison of the military liliang between the two sides. ”

"Even if Chai Rong knows, what can we do, as long as we return to Youzhou, I'm afraid that he will come to us and make trouble," Xu Shaoan said disdainfully.

"Although that is the case, if we really have a stiff relationship with the Later Zhou court because of this matter, then we will come in vain this time" Zeng Zhilin continued, "Brother Ten is really right, why don't you communicate with us in such an important negotiation and make your own decisions." ”

"Old Twenty-six, you misunderstood, it's all because I was happy for a while and didn't explain it," Li Junwu said after hearing Zeng Zhilin's complaints, "Old Ten, he didn't make his own decisions, he reported the relevant content to me before negotiating with Feng Cheng, and it was discussed and approved by the temporary committee." ”

After listening to Li Junwu's explanation, Zeng Zhilin remembered the stubble of the Provisional Committee and knew that he had thought of it. And now that the two sides have reached an agreement, it is impossible to go back. Therefore, he did not continue to dwell on this issue.

Although Zeng Zhilin no longer dwelled on the sale of weapons to the Liao army, Wang Kunjun still comforted him and said: "Lao Twenty-six's worries are still justified, so I think we must be careful when fulfilling this agreement." For example, instead of coming forward in person, we can ask the locals to take care of matters related to the arms trade with the Liao government. Or use other methods such as this to minimize risk. ”

Everyone agreed to Wang Kunjun's suggestion, and as for how to operate it, it will be decided after the "delegation" returns to Youzhou. After talking about business, the brothers chatted some more and ended the call.

Early the next morning, the brothers went to greet Master Tai and had breakfast with the old fairy, and then returned to their residence to chat. After chatting for a long time, the post keeper of the pavilion came to them, saying that he had been ordered by the imperial court to ask them to write a list of those brothers who had not yet arrived in Beijing, so as to draw up relevant official documents.

In this regard, the brothers of the "delegation" naturally cooperated, and Zhang Weixin, who was the most proficient handwriter, wrote down the names of more than 30 people who had not yet arrived in Kaifeng, including the wives of all the brothers, and handed them over to Yicheng. After winning the list and congratulating everyone, Yicheng left the small courtyard where the "delegation" lived.

After sending the Yicheng away, the brothers turned back to the house, and heard the voice of the Yicheng who had only been away for less than a minute from the gate of the courtyard. The crowd didn't know why he had gone and returned, so they had to open the courtyard door again. At this time, everyone realized that unlike when they came alone just now, this time there was a burly man with big ears by Yicheng's side, who was Zhao Kuangyin, who had a relationship with the "delegation" in the palace yesterday.

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