Disembarking at Zhigu Village, Song Jie had a feeling of revisiting his hometown. That is, a few months ago, Song Jie conquered this town with other comrades. The venue of this negotiation is not located in Haizhou, but in Zhigu Village.

Revisiting the old place, Song Jie saw that the holes in the rammed earth city wall had been sealed, but the big pits on the wall could not be filled, and the convex and concave were as ugly as the big pits on people's faces. Seeing the traces at that time, Song Jie couldn't help but smile. It was not that Zhao Jiaren's troops deliberately left these demonstrations, some of these pits were made by artillery shells, some of the pits were because the shells smashed into the wall, and they were also a few pounds of iron balls, and everyone always had to dig out the valuable iron balls and recycle them. When the troops retreated, they naturally did not repair the city wall, and everyone did not loot in the Zhigu Village, which was already highly disciplined.

Looking at this town that had been conquered by himself, Song Jie felt very happy in his heart. The unease of negotiating with the Mongols subsided. The negotiation was held in the office courtyard of Zhizhai in Zhizhai, and Song Jie had been here many times and was very familiar with it.

The two sides negotiated in the pavilion of the courtyard. In the middle of summer, the southern gazebo blocks out the sun, but you can feel the hot moisture coming with the wind. Even if the sun is scorching in the north, the wind blowing under the gazebo feels very refreshing.

Since it was a monopoly trade, there was nothing to discuss what to buy and sell, and the two sides soon became entangled in the point of disagreement over artillery. The Mongolian representative is a Han Chinese, with a northern accent, and Song Jie can hear about it. The Mongolian representative asked the caravan to pay tribute artillery every year, and Song Jie didn't think about it, so he interrupted the nonsense, "One pound of cannons, eight hundred and eighty pounds of iron, and one hundred cow calves." We have reduced the price to the minimum, love to buy, do not buy down! ”

Song Jie was in his twenties, looking stunned, and his tone was so impulsive, the Hanchen's face sank, and he replied angrily: "If you don't pay tribute artillery, you can't do business with you." ”

"Okay, if you don't do it, you won't do it." Song Jie replied bluntly. Li Hongjun gave Song Jie a relatively large degree of negotiation authorization, including the breakdown of negotiations. Li Hongjun was conservative, and he was worried about what the Mongols would do with the sale. Selling large quantities of daily necessities to Mongolia is at best a smuggling tax evasion. A large number of artillery pieces were exported to Mongolia, and it was difficult to argue if they were caught. If the Mongols had a tough attitude, Li Hongjun felt that it would be good not to do these deals.

Han Chen's eyes widened and he stared at Song Jie, wanting to put pressure on him. However, Song Jie is in Zhigu Village, where will there be the slightest fear. He picked up the teacup and drank it slowly, ready to drink it before getting up and leaving. Perhaps seeing that the intimidation didn't work, Han Chen spoke, "We have already seized a lot of artillery that you sold to Li Pu, do you think that my Great Mongolia can't make it?" ”

"Haha!" Song Jie was amused, he was chosen to be the envoy because he learned the subject of logic well, and the speech of the Mongolian Hanchen made him feel very ridiculous. There is no logical relationship between the capture of artillery and the successful imitation of artillery. After laughing, Song Jie asked, "If the artillery you built can really be the same as the one you captured, then why buy our artillery?" ”

Hanchen froze. The reason why Mongolia needs to import artillery is because, as Song Jie said, they have problems copying artillery. The artillery offered by Liu Quan, who rebelled against the Southern Song Dynasty, was exactly the same as the artillery captured by the Mongol army from Li Pu, and had the same characteristics, whether it was the shell of the cannon or the inside of the muzzle, it was smooth and rounded. The Mongol-cast artillery could not do this, and the cast iron cannon was full of pits, and most of the blacksmiths were whipped for it.

Now Mongolia is preparing to go south to destroy the Song State, and at this time, the Song warships that come and go on the Han River are all installed with high-quality artillery produced by Zhao Jiaren, and the quality of Mongolia's own artillery is so bad that Mongolia has to consider importing artillery from the Southern Song Dynasty.

Suddenly, a young southern barbarian told him about the current situation in Mongolia, Han Chen was flustered at first, he calmed down, and pretended to be calm and said: "Since you want to come to me to do business, how can you do it without paying tribute." ”

"Then we don't have to." Song Jie said with a smile.

"If you don't do it, you won't do it!" Hanchen said angrily.

Song Jie stopped talking nonsense, he got up and said "farewell", and left with his entourage. Han Chen was dumbfounded, the Great Khan Kublai Khan's request was to buy artillery for gunner training, and the talk collapsed when he saw it, and there was no way to explain it to the Great Khan when he went back.

Unable to care about face any longer, Hanchen got up and shouted, "Please stay!" ”

Song Jie stopped, a hearty smile on his face. At this time, he felt that it was really good to learn logic, and this course spent a lot of time telling everyone to determine 'cause and effect' and not be blinded by those complicated content. Now as long as the eagerness of Mongolia to import artillery is grasped, the other side is completely powerless to resist.

It took only one day for the fast horses from Zhigu Village to Dadu to bring the latest negotiation results to Kublai Khan's court. The Mongolian nobles were keen to enjoy the spices and spices, and they were delighted to see their Great Khan Kublai Khan when they learned that the once-out-of-stock glass mirrors would be available again.

Hanchen is different, most of these people learn Cheng Zhu Lixue, Zhu Xi talks about 'preserving heavenly principles, destroying people's desires', and has made a lot of explanations. For example, ask, 'Between eating and drinking, which is the principle of heaven and which is the desire of man?' He said, "Those who eat and drink, the heavens are also; Ask for deliciousness, people want to also. Therefore, even if these people themselves think that spices can be very effective in dissolving the smell of meat, so that everyone can enjoy the great deliciousness, but they despise those who pursue appetite outside of themselves.

However, Mongolia does not use the imperial examination to obtain scholars, and these Confucian scholars must be recommended by these Mongolian nobles if they want to get official positions. Hanchen had thoughts in their hearts, but they couldn't show them on their faces. After being a courtier under the Mongol Khan Kublai Khan for so long, the Hanchen knew that the of heaven and man could not fool the Mongol Khan, Kublai Khan valued the Hanchen, but thought that the Hanchen could come up with a ruling system suitable for the Han land, and the Hanchen wanted to get Kublai Khan's weight, and the only way was to do their best to serve the Great Khan and solve those complex and difficult problems.

"Your Majesty, this year has ordered that horses and cattle are not to be sold to the Song Kingdom, this time Zhao Jiaren wants to buy cow calves, obviously he wants to raise cattle." Shi Tianze, the right prime minister, bluntly pointed out the key points in this transaction, "The minister learned that Zhao Jiaren sold the artillery to Li Pu in exchange for iron and calves. ”

Kublai Khan looked at Shi Tianze, the right prime minister who had pushed for a policy of weakening the Han army after Li Pu's rebellion, and he himself had taken the lead in handing over a large number of private troops, which Kublai Khan had incorporated into the Mongol army. With Shi Tianze taking the lead, the other Han army princes who were at a loss also followed suit and handed over their private army.

For such loyal ministers, Kublai Khan was very satisfied. However, at this time, he did not answer immediately, but looked at Dong Wenbing on the other side. Dong Wenbing sent someone to negotiate, and when the Great Khan saw it, he immediately stepped forward to play, "Your Majesty, Zhao Jiaren said that if you don't give the cow calf, you have to pay copper or silver, and if you have copper, you have to give 100 catties and 60 catties of silver." The negotiators were very firm. ”

Kublai Khan's eyes fell on Zhang Wenqian, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Mongolia has many craftsmen that they are very proud of, but the craftsmen are completely confused in the face of the Southern Song artillery. Those one-pound cannons were extremely exquisitely cast, not only smooth on the outside, but straight on the inside. Mongolian craftsmen have spent almost two years and spent a lot of money, and they still can't make such a delicate artillery. At this time, the Mongolian craftsmen had determined that the reason why the Great Song artillery was so sharp was because the breath-holding was very good, and the gas generated after the gunpowder burned in the barrel was used to propel the shells to fire, not the Mongolian artillery, and a considerable part of the gunpowder gas escaped along various gaps.

Zhang Wenqian knew that the Great Khan was unhappy, but the craftsmen under his command had to be whipped according to Mongolian rules every time they came to the audit, and Zhang Wenqian really couldn't find any other way to kill these craftsmen. However, as a Hanchen under Kublai Khan, Zhang Wenqian knew that he had to be brave enough to take responsibility, so Zhang Wenqian straightened his waist and said without hesitation: "Great Khan, the craftsmen have tried to make cannons by grinding, but this method is too slow. It takes more than a month to polish a cannon. ”

Hearing this time drain, Kublai Khan sighed. According to Liu Quansuo, the commander of the naval division who had rebelled from the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Jiaren produced hundreds of ships in one year, equipped with two or three hundred artillery pieces. The reason why there is such a speed is because the Great Song Dynasty court is ridiculous and does not want to give Zhao Jiaren enough property. After Liu Cheng defected to Mongolia, he became a naval army on the Mongolian side, so Liu Cheng said bluntly, "If our army goes to war with the Song army, the Song army will no longer dare to default, and it will inevitably produce a steady stream of military ships and artillery." The Song people were good at water warfare, and if our army wanted to win in one go, the ships and artillery needed to surpass the Song army when the war began. ”

Taking all of this into consideration, Kublai Khan had already made a decision. According to Zhang Wenqian, the number of craftsmen who know how to cast or polish artillery on the Mongolian side is only a few dozen, and there is no way to produce an overwhelming number of artillery. There is no better way to speed up the number of artillery pieces than to import them.

"We don't have many copper and silver mines, but we need as many cattle and sheep as we want. and gave them the calves. "Kublai Khan made a decision.

Dong Wenbing also thought that it was better to give calves, but the court had already ordered a ban on the sale of horses, and he could only do it through the court's consultation. Now that the Great Khan had already made a decision, Dong Wenbing immediately ordered the negotiations to be completed quickly.

After the negotiation was completed, Dong Wenbing felt that he had made great contributions. He didn't expect Zhao Jiaren to supply very quickly, but in just one month, a large number of goods were delivered to Zhigu Village. On August 15, the net profit of 1,000 catties of silver and 3,000 catties of copper was sent to Fuzhou.

Zhao Jiaren was quite surprised by Mongolia's consumption power and investigation level, and this time Mongolia provided a list of goods, there are 100,000 catties of alkali blocks. It can be seen that they are not ignorant of the business of Zhao Jiaren and Li Pu. But even if Zhao Jiaren bought all these alkali blocks in one go, he still earned 1,000 catties of silver and 3,000 catties of copper. Will the Mongols be able to sustain this spending power? Zhao Jiaren felt completely bottomless in his heart. In his senses, Mongolia is synonymous with barbarism and poverty.

However, at this time, Zhao Jiaren did not have time to mock Mongolia, and Jia Yidao finally began to implement the reform of public land. The first to be hit were the big landlords of the four roads of Liangzhejiang and Liangjiang, and Zhao Jiaren had always asked his eldest brother to try his best to rent land to grow cash crops. Now Zhao Jiaren's eldest brother Zhao Jiaxin has written a letter to him, and Zhao Jiaxin's father-in-law, the Zhang family in Huating County, has been dealt a tragic blow, and the land has been 'bought' by local officials at a very low price.

Zhao Jiaxin wrote in the letter that because of the dots, this year's cotton purchase can be determined, and the supply of soybeans can also be ensured, but next year's cotton and soybean supply cannot be determined, and Zhao Jiaren must hurry up and find a way.

After reading the eldest brother's letter, Zhao Jiaren sighed. The public land reform finally began, although he thought that the public land reform would have an impact on Zhao Jiaren, but he couldn't help it at the moment. Whoever stands in the way of Jia Xianggong now is probably the only way to the end.