At this time, Rizhao in Shandong Province was under Mongol control, and Li Manlin, a landlord near the county seat of Rizhao, carefully supervised the farmers to sow soybeans. In the vast expanse of land, farmers are immersed in their work. This scene is also quite imposing.

Retracting his gaze from here, Li Manlin, who was dark and thin, said to the man next to him: "Go back and tell Brother Song that my land is planted with soybeans." ”

Next to him is Song Jie's subordinate, at this time Song Jie is in charge of Haizhou, and the work of running errands has been replaced by someone else. Listening to the worried words of Li Manlin, the former marquis of the Han army, the cadre in charge smiled and said: "Please rest assured that Master Li Zhuang, when I will speak will not count." If we really want to pit the owner of Li Zhuang, why should we give Li Zhuang a new seed. ”

As soon as he heard about the new seed, the smile on Li Manlin's face couldn't be hidden. The new seeds provided to him by Song Jie are really good, the beans are big and delicious, and they are dozens of catties more per acre. After mentioning this topic, Li Manlin once again felt from his heart that Song Jie did have a sincere desire to cooperate.

Seeing that Li Manlin, who was black and thin, smiled, and the cadre struck while the iron was hot: "Master Li, the tidal flats of Rizhao are so big, why don't you raise ducks." You can sell a duck egg for a few bucks. ”

Hearing this, Li Manlin sighed and said, "This brother, you don't know wow." We often have strong winds here. Although it's good to raise ducks, as long as a strong wind is not managed, how many ducks will die. Even if you don't die, you can't find it. It's not easy to do. ”

"I see." The cadre nodded yes. He originally thought that he could give Li Manlin a good idea, but he didn't expect that he would think about it.

After chatting for a while about agricultural business, Li Manlin asked the cadres to go back to the village to talk. When there was no one in the house, Li Manlin couldn't help but sigh: "Last time, Brother Song helped me solve the matter of Rizhao County, I am very grateful. After that time, I had a good life for a few days, and the new prefectural magistrate didn't trouble me. But last year, I sold soybeans to Brother Song, and I made some money a little late. Some of the dogs around me were red-eyed, as if they were picking up the dog county order and trying to beat me. ”

Some words can be said here, if it is Song Jie himself, Li Manlin will probably say directly: "Help me kill a few dog things!" However, for Song Jie's subordinates, Li Manlin could only say so implicitly.

The cadre lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then raised his head and said, "Since those people are hot and the owner of the Li Farm has made money, why not let them plant soybeans too." When they can make money, they probably have no reason to continue to be enemies of Master Li. ”

In the eyes of the cadres, this is a very reasonable idea. However, Li Manlin seemed to be burned, and the whole person was excited, and then said angrily: "What do you mean? ”

Seeing Li Manlin so angry, the cadre sighed in his heart. He remembered listening to a fable told by the teacher in a training class. There was a poor man who prayed to Heaven every day for riches. One day, a voice from heaven said, "I can grant you this request, but there is one condition." That is, your neighbors can all get the same wealth. ”

The poor man bowed his head and pondered for a long time, then said bitterly, "If so, then make me blind." ”

When you listen to this fable, everyone thinks it's ridiculous, but when you think about it, you can understand it. Just like Li Manlin, what he wants is to monopolize everything and look down on others from above. Rather than choosing to work in the best interest for you. In other words, the environment in which Li Manlin lives is an environment in which only one family can dominate.

However, after seeing the scale of Zhao Jiaren's livestock raising, the cadres could only sigh that Li Manlin's vision was too small, and he didn't know that his little beans were nothing compared to Zhao Jiaren's breeding scale.

When the cadres returned to Haizhou to report the situation, Song Jie didn't care about these problems. He asked him the question he was most concerned about, "Did Li Manlin say whether Mongolia could recruit them, the Han army princes?" ”

The cadre hurriedly replied: "Li Manlin had a very good relationship with Li Pu in the past, and Mongolia seems to be quite jealous of them. As far as Li Manlin knew, there was no large-scale conscription on the Mongolian side. ”

Knowing this, Song Jie's brows were still a little furrowed. Haizhou is the place of the four wars, and each village is built like a walled city in order to prevent others from coming to loot. Of course, it is impossible for such a village to have a vast amount of land, so after Zhao Jiaren encircled a million acres of land here, he planted beans in peace and died. However, the war has now begun, and if something happens, it will not be a trivial matter. That would mean a huge loss of personnel and financial resources. He was anxious to wait for the latest news to come.

Zhao Jiaren did not disappoint Song Jie, and the latest news came a few days later. After reading it, Song Jie nodded again and again, he hurriedly held a meeting, first read Zhao Jiaren's order, Song Jie continued: "In the past two years, Zhao Zhizhou asked us to cut down trees, and now I finally understand what the purpose of cutting trees is." ”

A few days later, in the area of Zaozhuang in the north of Haizhou, the Mongolian region found that the Song people in the south had actually begun to sow seeds, which made it clear that they wanted to start farming here. They had already received an order to report to Dadu, so the news was quickly sent to Dadu.

After a few more days, Lian Xixian of Dadu received the news. After reading it, he couldn't help but sneer, his voice full of malicious satisfaction. The spices, spices and other things in the South China Sea are all monopolized by the Mongolian imperial court, and Zhao Jiaren made the Mongolian finances miserable when he was doing business. Now that Zhao Jiaren actually had the courage to farm at the border when the war broke out, Lian Xixian felt that if he didn't go to the grass valley during the autumn harvest, he would be completely sorry for the Great Mongolia.

solemnly recorded this matter, and Lian Xixian felt that this matter must not be forgotten. Half a month later, Zhao Jiaren's envoy also arrived in Dadu to discuss this year's business as agreed. The messenger opened his mouth and said: "Since our two countries have gone to war, there is no need to think about artillery. ”

When Lian Xixian heard this, he said angrily: "If it weren't for the fact that you have artillery to sell, do you think my court will do business with you?" ”

The meeting between the two sides broke up unhappily. Lian Xixian originally thought that the talks would simply break down, but he didn't expect the Great Khan to send someone to inform, "This business still needs to be done." ”

This order made Lian Xixian very unhappy, and he simply went directly to the palace to see the Great Khan Kublai Khan. The more he thought about it along the way, the more angry he became, except for artillery, the goods sold by Zhao Jiaren all belonged to the category of 'eating, drinking, and having fun', these things did not help the war, but had to pay a lot of money. He did not understand at all why the wise Great Khan Kublai Khan would ask to continue doing business with Zhao Jiaren.

When Lian Xixian saw the wise Great Khan Kublai Khan sitting next to Ahmat, he suddenly realized why the Great Khan had made such a decision. At this time, there were two factions in the Mongolian court, one was of course the Sinicization faction dominated by Confucianism. The other faction is the financial management faction.

The struggle between the financial management faction and the Sinicization faction belongs to the 'battle of lines'. Now Mongolia's financial situation is very tight, and in the ideas of those who are sinicized, the way to encounter this kind of thing is naturally to save money. Although Hao Jing's pacifist stance was not well received by many people, Hao Jing always insisted that Mongolia needed to recuperate now, which established his position among Confucian ministers.

As for the financial management school, it is the same as many of the ideas in Mongolia. If there is no money, then go and plunder. The Song Kingdom in the south was undoubtedly the best target for plunder, and Ahmat was one of the financial factions.

In the face of political enemies, Lian Xixian expressed his attitude without hesitation, "Your Majesty, I don't know why Your Majesty wants to continue to do business with Zhao Jiaren. ”

Kublai Khan smiled heartily, "There are still some things that have to be bought." ”

Wang Donglu is responsible for passing the decree to Lian Xixian, as a disciple of Hao Jing, Wang Donglu certainly doesn't want Lian Xixian to make any mistakes. Seeing Kublai Khan's answer, Wang Donglu hoped that Lian Xixian could stop in moderation. Kublai Khan was not a particularly keen person to enjoy and did not really like many things, and the rum brought by Zhao Jiaren's fleet was Kublai Khan's favorite. In addition to this, Kublai Khan has been fighting everywhere all these years, and he has many small injuries on his body, and he will feel very uncomfortable when the sky changes. The essential oil sold by Zhao Jiaren was used for massage, which could greatly reduce Kublai Khan's pain.

These are only for the Great Khan Kublai Khan, those Mongolian nobles like to have fun, and a considerable part of Zhao Jiaren's goods are what Mongolian nobles are keen on. Kublai Khan wanted to win the hearts of those Mongolian nobles, and he couldn't do without these things.

However, Lian Xixian did not talk about these specific contents, but blindly responded with the Confucian concept of "preserving heavenly principles and destroying people's desires", which made Wang Donglu feel very uneasy.

Kublai Khan spoke, and Ahmat also spoke, "Pingzhang, now the country is short of money. Zhao Jiaren made some money, but after we franchised, we also made more money by selling it everywhere. This is the only way to finance the military. If Pingzhang feels that it costs a lot, then hurry south to destroy the Song Dynasty. As long as the Song Kingdom is destroyed, their routes will be owned by us. You can have as much money as you want. ”

Listening to this financial platitude, Lian Xixian lowered his head angrily. This is not an indication of submission, but preparation for an outburst. After thinking for a moment, Lian Xixian raised his head and said to Kublai Khan: "Great Khan, there are many benefits to seeing the Song Dynasty now, but what about after the Song Dynasty? ”

"After that?" Kublai Khan was a little surprised, the destruction of the Song Dynasty was already a matter that required great energy, and the things after the destruction of the Song Dynasty were not considered by Kublai Khan at all.

Staring at Kublai Khan, Lian Xixian said loudly: "Today, seeing that the Song State has Zhao Jiaren's fleet, we will go to destroy the Song State." Tomorrow, when I see other countries in my country, there is nothing in my Great Mongolia, do you want to continue to fight? If you feel that you are missing something, you will go to war, and when will it be the end. Though the kingdom is great, the belligerent will perish. In fact, the Song State has today, isn't it also because the Song State is reckless. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song State and the Liao, Western Xia, Nanban, and Jin States have continued to fight, which has caused the national strength to wither. Of course, Liao, Western Xia and other countries also fought endlessly, but they died before the Song Dynasty. Of course, Mongolia can defeat the Song Dynasty, but we can't use all kinds of force. ”

Kublai Khan's face was originally a little relaxed, but in the face of such fierce opposition from Lian Xixian, his face sank and he said angrily: "Enough! Hao Jing has been speaking in front of me every day, now you don't want to worry me anymore. Go down! ”

Lian Xixian didn't expect Kublai Khan to drive people out now, and he wanted to argue a few more words, but Kublai Khan shouted again: "Go down!" ”

Wang Donglu didn't want Lian Xixian to suffer, he waved slightly, brought two guards up and set up Lian Xixian and left. Seeing that it was Wang Donglu who did it, Lian Xixian also regained some calm. Waiting outside the door, Wang Donglu asked the guards to let go of Lian Xixian, and then sighed: "National affairs are so complicated, don't make the Great Khan angry." ”

The words could only be said here, Wang Donglu sighed, and returned to the palace with the guards. Looking at Wang Donglu's back, Lian Xixian regretted very much in his heart, if Kublai Khan's actions were according to the view of science, they would already be the behavior of a tyrant. And such behavior greatly conflicts with Kublai Khan's image in Lian Xixian's heart.

Feeling unhappy, Lian Xixian simply went to find Hao Jing, a representative of Confucianism. After listening to Lian Xixian's complaints, Hao Jing smiled bitterly: "There were originally two factions of people in the Song Dynasty this time. ”

Lian Xixian knew that there were two main groups of people who promoted the war this time. The financial management faction and the Han army marquis. The purpose of the financial faction was, of course, to plunder the Song state in order to solve the economic pressure of Mongolia. After Li Pu's rebellion, the traditional Han military system of sequential princes died out with the weakening of Kublai Khan. Those old Han military princes were unwilling to give up their positions over the years, and if they could make a contribution to the war, they could continue to return to the center of power.

"Mr. Hao, when will the battle end?" Lian Xixian's voice was quite lost.

Hao Jing sighed: "The reason why the Great Khan attacked the Song Dynasty this time also has other plans, and the Mongol kings are not stable. Haidu has always been eyeing the enemy, and the Song State does not stop, and they often create incidents. Now that both the north and the south are under heavy pressure, the Great Khan naturally wants to settle a piece first. ”

Since Hao Jing said it so thoroughly, Lian Xixian didn't want to talk nonsense anymore. The trade-off between ideals and reality is not easy, and at least for the time being, an era of rest with the people seems to be far away.

If Zhao Jiaren had heard the conversation of the Mongol Confucian ministers, he would probably have sarcastically told the two that what is in Mongolian culture is probably just conquest or submission. Peace is something that is only talked about in Han culture.

At this time, Zhao Jiaren was also talking about war. In the face of the cadres, Zhao Jiaren's voice was firm and forceful, "We must decide the victory or defeat between China and Mongolia, this is a war between two civilizations, and we, as the inheritors of China, must not make the slightest concession on this major issue of right and wrong." I don't want to kill all the Mongols, and if they do, I'd welcome them. The territory of China that I am pursuing, the west is bordered by this! ”

As he spoke, Zhao Jiaren's whip swept across an incomplete world map. That border is not the Ural Mountains and the Urals, but the Volga. To the west of the Volga was the territory of the Golden Horde, and if Kublai Khan refused to go there in the future, Zhao Jiaren would drive them there by force.

Before going to war, it is important to set a goal for where to go. Actions without an enforceable goal will end in failure. No matter how ambitious or outrageous the goal may seem, there must be a goal in the first place.