The "Wang Pingfu" mentioned by Zhao Xu, the Son of Heaven, is Wang Anguo, the younger brother of Wang Anshi, and "Pingfu" is his word.

When Xining changed the law more than 20 years ago, Zeng Bu was counted as Wang Anshi's disciple, and the marriage relationship between the Zeng family and the Wang family was complicated. Before Zeng Bu's eldest son married the niece of Wang Anshi's clan, Zeng Bu's third sister was already married to Wang Anguo.

Zeng Bu heard the official family talking about praising Yao Huan, and somehow turned to his nephew who was on an errand for the imperial court.

He couldn't figure out the way for a while, so he agreed first, and reported truthfully: "What the official said is exactly what he said." Pingfu's second son, Wang Hao (pronounced you, second tone), that is, the nephew of the minister, is now promoted to the post of Jingshi Rong Cargo Department to Liao Barter. ”

Zhao Xu's mind calmed down a lot at the moment, and he glanced at the people in the room again, turned to Yao Huan and said: "Before, I and the queen went to sit in your shop, and you mentioned that the big food of Hu Dou can be made by Jingshi Rong's goods business, transported to Hebei Rongchang, and sold to the Liao people?" ”

Yao Huan hit a spirit.

This matter, the Son of Heaven really went to his heart!

She hurriedly bowed her head and said: "After the official family and the saint returned to the palace, the folk woman pondered for a while. Hu Dou, sold to the Liao people by the imperial court, can refer to two goods. One is the spices of Fanshang. The second is tea in the south. If we don't introduce beans, we can import them like spices, and after being delivered by the goods department and the city shipping department, they will be shipped to Hebei. If we were to introduce the cultivation of beans in the south, because they could only be planted in the south like tea, we could follow the example of the tea policy and be transported by merchants to Hebei and traded in the market. ”

Yao Huan paused and added a crucial point: "Hu Dou is different from tea. After the tea is roasted, if it is stored properly, it can be stored for many years. But these beans can only be transported by sea and land long distances when they are raw green dried beans. Once roasted, the aroma is easily lost. Therefore, no matter whether we are importing or introducing seeds, if we sell them to Hebei Farm, it is best to set up bakeries near several Farms. ”

Zhao Xu was quite satisfied when he heard that she had thought about it so carefully.

He remembered another section and asked: "Take tea as an example, not only roasting, but also grinding, as far as I know, Huainan, southeast, Sichuan and Shu and other places, there are hydraulic tea grinding machinery in tea fields. When I see you, don't you grind these beans and then boil them and drink them? ”

At this time, Yao Huan had completely jumped out of the panic of listening to the hadith, and his mind gradually cleared.

She was thinking about Su Song, so she decided to introduce the topic.

"What the officials are talking about is exactly where the trick lies. The small shop of the folk women, making fragrant drinks and selling, the cost of Hu beans is not much, and the iron barrel rolling furnace and Huiyi trough made by Su Gong help, the women can grind out the bean flour with a pair of hands. But if it is a large transaction, you have to consider doing it with half the effort, like grinding tea. The woman didn't know anything about water transportation equipment, so she was about to ask Su Gong ......"

The corners of Zhao Xu's mouth twitched.

This woman, with a quick brain, quietly said good things to Su Song.

Zhao Xu secretly thought, when she saw Yao Huan several times, she didn't have the intention of trying to be in the limelight, but if she stared at her and asked, she could talk eloquently and be generous, unlike those courtiers who looked ahead and backwards, and they had to settle their interests and retreats properly before they dared to speak.

In fact, she and Su Gong, as well as Lang Jun surnamed Shao, are quite similar, they are all quite upright, a little responsible in trouble, and willing to stand up for their friends.

Thinking of this, the thorn in Zhao Xu's heart, which had been pierced for most of the day, seemed to be slightly dulled. Between Su Song and the queen, to put it more seriously, it is the outer court that colludes with the inner court, but if you put it back to common sense, it is actually a benevolent old man entrusted by his old friend to take care of his granddaughter.

Zhao Xu then turned to Su Song and said in a soft tone: "Duke Su, after Shen Gong (referring to Shen Kuo) went west, the people who know the most about water transport organs are you." Although you are old, it seems that this time, where can you be idle, and you are bent on handling cases for my Imperial City Division. You can spend this time on roasting and grinding large quantities of beans, and get back some Liao people's silver for me. ”

He looked at Zeng Bu again: "Prime Minister, your nephew Wang is raised, I remember, is it Su Zizhan's subordinate?" ”

Zeng Bu didn't tremble about it.

His family has always had friendships with Su Shi and Su Zhe, and Zeng Youbu has never concealed Zhao Xu, and even pleaded for Su Yu to stay in Beijing.

Besides, the official family placed him in the Privy Council, and checked and balanced with Prime Minister Zhang Dian and Vice Minister Cai Bian, to a certain extent, they also liked that he had a very good personal relationship with many Yuan You's courtiers.

The theory of "different theories stirring up" of the emperors of the Great Song Dynasty, the young son of heaven in front of him, also from the orthodox education of the Zhao family, how could he give up such a subtle imperial technique?

Zeng Bu then bowed his head and said: "When the little nephew Wang Hao was a teenager, he longed for Shu learning, so the minister recommended him to ask for advice from Master Su. ”

Zhao Xu pondered for a moment and looked at the last person in the room who he hadn't asked yet—Shao Qing.

"I thought that I might be able to see you in the palace test this year, but I didn't expect you to fall into the country to study medicine. Shao Jingbo, I heard Yao's say, you got Hu Dou for her? In the future, if the imperial court officially enters the Hudou, you are not allowed to do this again. ”

Shao Qing lived in Kaifeng for seven or eight years, was familiar with the rules of the Great Song Dynasty, and understood the meaning of the Son of Heaven as soon as he heard it.

In the Great Song Dynasty, for example, for spices, after the spices transported by sea ships to Dashi and other places docked, the city's shipping divisions under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty such as Guangzhou and Dengzhou were responsible for extracting, selling them, and then sending them to the inner incense medicine warehouse and the goods service respectively.

The inner incense depot served the royal family and took away the best spices. The surplus spices are all put into the retail service, which then prices them, collects taxes and sells them to private merchants.

Therefore, if Zhao Xu decided that Song Ting would come forward and sell green coffee beans like spices, Shao Qing would naturally not be able to get coffee beans for Yao Huan under the banner of Hu people and friends sharing their belongings.

Otherwise, it's smuggling.

But Shao Qing was neither humble nor arrogant, and said with a straight face: "Official, because the bean drink cooked by Yao Niangzi is really delicious, the grass people are also curious to ask Fanke friends. This bean tree can grow into a bearing fruit in three years. It would be best if it could be imported from overseas and widely planted in the Great Song Dynasty. In the wilderness of Lingnan, there is no grain and rice, and it is a good policy to grow tea in Huainan and the southeast. Now that the tea policy has been changed, Hu Dou can also be changed from the Goods Law to the Trade Law. ”

Yao Huan doesn't understand the specific method of picking and roasting tea, nor does she understand the tasting of tea, but as a lover of Tang and Song Dynasty history and the tea politics of the Northern Song Dynasty, she has a basic concept.

Shao Qing refers to the imperial court's control policy on the tea trade, which is different from before and after. Before the Renzong Dynasty, the tea produced in the south could not be sold privately, and the tea farmers had to sell it to the six goods and thirteen mountain farms set up by the imperial court in the south, and the imperial court then sold them to the tea merchants. At that time, only Shu was free to trade and sell tea privately, but the scope could not exceed Shu.

This policy was changed after Renzong. Huainan, Jiangnan, Fujian and other tea-rich areas can also freely trade and sell tea, and the imperial court can collect taxes.

Therefore, Shao Qing's meaning is very simple, it is to suggest to Zhao Xu that when the beans can be planted and produced in a large area in the south, the management of the beans should also adopt the free trade law like the tea administration, rather than the official law like the salt administration.

Zhao Xu listened to the words of several people, and his chest opened up a lot.

He preached to Zeng: "Prime Minister of the Cardinal, in the past few days, you have led Su Gong, Shao Langjun and Yao Shi to go to Jingshi to discuss with your nephew Wang Hao about roasting and selling beans in Hebei Rongchang, and let Wang Hao write a sword for me after he understands it." The border gates are all the forbidden military supervisors in Luzhou, and they can be regarded as having a little bit to do with your Privy Council. If you can get some more silver back from the pockets of the Liao people for me, and make it a military salary to fight the Xia people, you, the prime minister, can be regarded as sharing my worries. By the way, let Wang Hao write to ask Mr. Su in Huizhou what the climate and soil quality are there. ”

Zeng Bu bowed his head and said yes.

His nephew, as well as the Yao family, are valued by the official family, which is of course a happy event, and the words "doing military pay to fight the Xia people" that are contrary to his position on side affairs are not so important.

But Shao Qing, who was standing aside, heard that Zhao Xu's sentence "Get some more silver back from the Liao people's pockets" was like a stone thrown into the lake, which suddenly woke him up a little, and then he was stunned.

He realized that today, he seemed to have forgotten that his surname was actually Xiao.