At the beginning of the establishment of the Srivijaya Kingdom, the status of merchants was quite high, and they were the third largest force after the magnates and monks, and the magnates and monks also relied on the support of merchants to obtain a superior life, because of this, the participation of merchants in politics was very common in the Sriwijaya Kingdom.

After Fanning made a request to buy the land, the kingdom of Zhanbei immediately summoned ten prominent Sriwijaya merchants to discuss the matter.

After the news came out that the Song Dynasty wanted to buy land in the Sriwijaya Kingdom, the entire hall was like a fried pot, and ten big merchants opposed it one after another.

"Your Majesty, if the Song Dynasty controls a port, then the merchants of the Song Dynasty will inevitably establish a trading house in the port, bypassing us and trading with the West, our interests will be greatly damaged, and the king, you can't sell land to the other party, or even lease it."

The head of the merchant is the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Pu Fei, his family runs the largest trading house in the Sriwijaya Kingdom, monopolizing forty percent of the western trade, and his brother and son are also high-ranking military officials, and have a huge influence in the Sriwijaya Kingdom.

Pu's opinion was unanimously agreed by the merchants present, and it was the consensus between them and the government that the Song merchants were not allowed to trade directly with the Western merchants, and once the Song Dynasty established a port in the Sriwijaya Kingdom, the Song merchants would have a foothold, and this kind of thing must not be allowed to happen.

The king was a little embarrassed, and he could understand the concerns of the merchants, but he also did not want to offend the Song Dynasty.

Dihua Garo got up and said, "Your Majesty, think again! How to reject the officials of the Song Dynasty is better. ”

When the merchants took their leave, King Zhanbei asked Dihuagara, "What good advice do you have?" ”

Dihua Jialuo said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the Song army has already forcibly occupied Luzon, and there is also a base to fight against the pirates of the South Seas, in my opinion, they are still looking for excuses to infiltrate their forces into the South Seas. ”

"I understand, but how can I refuse the Song Dynasty?"

"Your Majesty, we can give them a piece of land in the east of Java Island, far away from the trade points, and the merchants have no opinion, and the Song army is also far away from our core area, and then we can also block the mouth of the Song Dynasty, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone."

This method is good, far away from the important commercial and trade areas, and there is a large area of primeval forest, and the indigenous people are fierce, so letting them go there can be regarded as an explanation.

Zhanbei nodded, "Then it's decided!" ”

Early the next morning, King Zhanbei received the visiting Fanning and talked about the accession of the new Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty and the need for the Srivijaya Kingdom to send an envoy to the Hajj.

Finally, on the matter of land lease, Zhanbei said that he agreed in principle to sell the land to the Song Dynasty, but the specific plan is still to be discussed.

In the next specific negotiation with Dihua Jialuo, Dihua Jialuo took out the map and said to Fan Ning: "After repeated internal consultations, everyone welcomes the Great Song army to suppress bandits in Nanyang, but the land that Fan Envoy Jun said before has other uses and is ready to build a city, so it cannot be provided to your country, we consider drawing a piece of land in the central and eastern part of Java Island to build a port for your country, hoping that you can understand our difficulties." ”

This result was expected by Fanning, when he heard that the king had summoned the merchants to negotiate the matter, he knew that his idea was about to fail, he wanted the land of Singapore in the future, but the other party was also very shrewd, and did not give him a chance, but gave himself the easternmost piece of land in the Srivijaya Kingdom, which is thousands of miles away from the Strait of Malacca, would he want that piece of land?

In that case, he might as well go to Ceylon and buy a piece of land.

Fanning smiled faintly: "It's not a secret, we have already obtained a piece of land in Luzon, and we only hope to build another port in the west to echo the port of Luzon, so I fancy the land on the other side of the strait, but since your country is inconvenient, it doesn't matter, we can go to Zhenla to buy another piece of land, I understand the kindness of your country." ”

Since the other party didn't want to give himself a chance, he didn't want to waste time on the Srivijaya Kingdom, and the same was true for the Ponya Kingdom, Fanning also rejected the idea of the Sriwijaya Kingdom selling Eastern Java to him, and then took his leave and left.

At noon, nine military ships with 900 soldiers left the city of Mora Yu and set sail north, while Akihito was to stay in Srivijaya to purchase spices and a batch of training elephants, and Dihua Gara stood on the pier to see off Fanning, he looked at the Song ships and went away, his heart was heavy, and he did not know whether Srivijaya was a blessing or a curse for rejecting the Song Dynasty.

...........

The country of Boni was also an ancient kingdom that occupied most of the island of present-day Kalimantan, but it was never destroyed, but its territory became smaller and smaller, and eventually evolved into today's Brunei.

The country of Boni has also been sending envoys to the Tang and Song dynasties, but no matter in terms of population or national strength, the country of Boni is inferior to the country of Srivijaya and has been peeped at by the kingdom of Srivijaya The country of Srivijaya has invaded the country of Boni many times, and the two sides have formed a deep hatred, and even the country of Srivijaya supports the state of Luzon, and there is also the idea of attacking the country of Boni from the east and west.

It is for this reason that when Fanning asked to buy land in the Boni Kingdom, the king of the Boni Kingdom, Lati, agreed that in addition to the capital, the Great Song Dynasty could buy land and build a port anywhere in the Boni Kingdom.

The fleet sailed on the western coast of the Boni Kingdom, which is the west coast of Kalimantan Island, although it does not have the superiority of the mouth of the Straits of Malacca, but for the Western fleet, it is not too far away, and it is only a day's voyage from the city of Mora Yu.

Another important reason is that Boni is also rich in all kinds of spices, the price is low, and the quality is not worse than that of Sriwijaya.

As a result, the re-export trade of Sriwijaya will suffer a devastating blow.

This is called toasting and not eating and punishing wine, the Three Buddhas have long discriminated against the Song merchants and monopolized huge profits, could it be that the Song Dynasty couldn't clean it up?

The production capacity within the Song Dynasty will increase rapidly, and Fanning must find a way out for their products, rather than pinning their hopes on the Three Buddhas, it is better to rely on themselves to build several Nanyang ports of the Song Dynasty.

Fanning led the way by the former commander of the capital, who searched carefully on the west coast and found several natural harbors.

Dutou reported to Fanning on a simple map: "Envoy Qi, I have found a total of three natural harbors, one in the north, one in the middle and one in the south, but the humble position recommends the central harbor, which happens to be the mouth of a large river, the land is fertile, there are large plains, and the port is also very wide, and the ship can be directly berthed. ”

Fanning looked up and asked, "Are we the right place to go to the central part of the country now?" ”

"Exactly! It will be there in about half a day. ”

The natural port found by the Song army was later known as Pontianak, which happened to be the confluence of the Kapuas and Lanta rivers, and was a large swamp in depth, but the coastal area of thousands of square kilometers was flat and not covered by many trees, and a small number of Boni lived here, living by fishing and hunting.

This location is good, Fan Ning took a fancy to this place at a glance, turned around and said to the officials of the Boni Kingdom who accompanied him: "Within a hundred miles around here, the Song Dynasty wants to buy it, you can open a price." ”

The official of Boni Country smiled slightly: "Our king has made it clear that if the Song Dynasty wants to buy it, as long as it is within a hundred miles, we will only charge a penny." ”

Fanning shook his head, "I understand your king's kindness, that is, to give the land to the Great Song Dynasty, there is no problem now, I am worried that there will be troubles in the future, or clearly mark the price, and the Great Song will buy it at the normal price." ”

The official was embarrassed, "I can't be the master of this matter!" ”

"Then tell me, how much is this land worth normally?"

"The land here is not valuable, and your country must buy and sell fairly, and a thousand horses of silk can be bought at most."

"Then a thousand pieces of silk, the Great Song Dynasty will buy the land within a hundred miles of the estuary."

..........