Chapter 181: Year after Year

"Back to Your Majesty, this fleet is different from the forbidden army, and it is mostly for other countries. There are so many ships coming and going at sea, how can you identify them as ships of your own country? So Wechen thought of this way. It's just that Weichen feels that he still has to design some patterns, that is, the national flag of the Great Song Kingdom. ”

"I know that you said it in the constitution you wrote a few years ago. When I turned around, I asked the Ministry of Rites to come up with a charter. Zhao Yu smiled: "This Yue Fei's words are too ugly." ”

"Back to Your Majesty, this Great Song was written by Weichen. At that time, there was a champion on the ship, and His Majesty smiled. However, the officials praised it, saying that Weichen's words are incomparably loud, and the words are meaningful, which is rare for eternity......"

Zhao Yule said: "I can't see it, you Ouyang are so shameless." Okay, I'll be back in Beijing tomorrow. After you return to Yangping, remember to send the itinerary of the Hangzhou fleet this time. ”

"Yes, Weichen retired."

The next day, Zhao Yu returned to Beijing. On the third day, the patrol team also left. Ouyang went to Shangshu to pay the holy decree, and then returned to Yangping to start writing the seal. And Ouyang didn't expect that a tricky business dispute was being adjudicated by Yangping himself.

The defendant is Ruyao of Ruzhou of the Southeast Chamber of Commerce. The plaintiff is Dingyao of Dingzhou of the Yangping Chamber of Commerce. Dingyao sued Ruyao for taking away his two masters by despicable means, resulting in the leakage of trade secrets. Dingyao is famous for white porcelain, and the products are generally medium and high-end goods, with unique ingenuity in white glaze printing, white glaze engraving and white glaze scratching. The pillow used by Ouyang is made from the kiln, and the pattern on it is really vivid.

The Ru kiln is the first of the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty and was designated as the imperial porcelain of the imperial court. It is characterized by a thin and lushy glaze layer, and a large and sparse glaze bubble. It is called "like jade, not jade, and better than jade". It is the first choice for high-end users.

In the face of Dingyao's accusations, Ruyao denied it completely, saying that it was only the shopkeeper who knew the two masters, knew that the two masters were retired, and they kept a glass of water and wine, and had no other interests. As for why the white glaze printing, white glaze engraving and white glaze scratching technology of Ru kiln have been upgraded to a level of fixed kiln, the shopkeeper explained that it was because he invested a lot of money and personnel in research, and it took two years to achieve such results.

Two masters also came to the scene, saying that they had absolutely no benefits from the Ru kiln, nor did they divulge and teach the printing and painting skills of the Ru kiln.

Originally, this matter was negotiated between the Southeast Chamber of Commerce Office in Yangping and the Yangping Chamber of Commerce, but the two sides jointly investigated for a long time, and it was not clear who was lying. It is not without reason to say that the kiln is not without reason, two months after the retirement of the two masters, the printing and painting methods of the Ru kiln suddenly increased to a height. The kiln relies on exquisite printing, and now the leakage of trade secrets has caused immeasurable losses, so it is natural not to do it.

The Ding kiln is a private kiln, and the Ru kiln is an official kiln, so they would not have conflicted with each other. However, the merchant said that the ministers of the imperial court were moved, and the official kiln was sold to the outside world. In the same way, the imperial court also set porcelain from the folk kiln. The reason why the kiln is famous is that it is one of the few private kilns in history that was designated to be allowed to supply porcelain from the imperial court.

Ouyang asked for a day and pulled the heads of the chambers of commerce on both sides to talk secretly. Zhou Ping first said: "The reputation of Ruyao is absolutely trustworthy. And it's true that I started working on printing techniques two years ago. ”

And the Yangping Chamber of Commerce on the side of Master Su said: "This seal is the accumulation of thousands of years of experience, and it is definitely not something that can be studied in a year or two." It is said that the two masters of Dingyao have also been apprentices for fifteen years and have practiced a hand of cocoons before they are qualified to print on porcelain. This Ru kiln can be painted, if it is not for the teaching and training of masters, it will not reach such a level. ”

Zhou Ping said: "Since Old Man Su said this, the younger generation can only ask the shopkeeper to invite all the painters of Ruyao to Yangping?" ”

"Miss Zhou, why bother with thorns in your words, we are people talking on both sides, so naturally we must be fair and fair." Master Su said: "According to the old man's opinion, no matter what the facts are, it is probably impossible for Ruyao to give up this technology. It must be clear on the side of the kiln. So I just want to negotiate a price on behalf of the kiln. ”

"Ruyao is right, why lose money?"

"Miss Zhou, this style of printing cannot be changed overnight. Without a dedicated person to train and selfless coaches, I'm afraid Ruyao won't be able to reach this level. There must be a cat greasy. ”

"Old man Su......"

"Stop, since it's sent to me, of course I'm in charge." Ouyang shook his head: "White Lotus, send off." ”

"Yes!"

Ou Ping said beside Ouyang: "Young master? ”

"Zhou Ping is not a very capable person this week." Ouyang smiled bitterly: "None of them thought that no matter what happened to Ru Yao, this Ru Yao must carry the black cauldron." ”

Opinch said: "Why? ”

"This is rumored to be Ruyao's fault, even if I sentence Ruyao to victory. This is the traditional understanding of the people. If Ruyao is not punished, merchants rely on each other for money and power to poach and destroy, and I am afraid that sooner or later it will be a step towards vicious competition. Therefore, it does not matter who is right and who is wrong in this case, the important thing is that if there is no obvious evidence, Ruyao will carry the black pot. ”

"Evidence? What evidence does the young master want? Opin asked.

"There is no evidence for this. Even if the two masters said that they were bought, they would not accept it. The most important thing is that if you dig up the evidence again, it will take time not to say, Ru kiln will definitely not be able to produce normally, and Ru kiln is an official kiln, the order is continuous, and the time of stopping for a long time will inevitably miss the construction period. ”

Ou Ping heard something meaning: "The young master means that the main reason why the two families have disputes is because they are both merchants who supply the court. ”

"It may be that Dingyao wants to swallow all the orders and frame, or it may be that Ruyao wants to dominate the Dingyao market. If it is the former, if we look for evidence, I am afraid that the construction period of the Ru kiln will be delayed, and it will be very time-consuming. Ouyang said: "If the kiln is framed, this trick is killing two birds with one stone." ”

Ou Ping asked: "Young master, is Ru Yao really stealing a teacher?" He didn't think of the consequences? ”

"He also has benefits, if he really steals. It is equivalent to stealing a technology, and the business is not good for the past two years at most, but after this limelight, he can say that the sanctions have been exhausted and he can produce in a bright future. They understand very well that no matter how big the chamber of commerce is, it cannot control the circulation of their existing products and technologies. Ouyang turned his head to look at Ou Ping and asked with a smile: "Do you know why I told you so much?" ”

Ou Ping's face flushed, and he said for a long time: "How did the young master know that Zhou Ping asked me to inquire about the adult's thoughts?" I promise I won't tell her, though. Opin swore busily.

"No, you still can't believe it, who do I believe? But I want you to tell her what you said. In this way, she will come up with a plan that benefits both sides. ”

"What's the plan?"

"For example...... The kiln can take over some of the construction periods that the kiln cannot be completed. Another example is that Ru kiln can give a given kiln some shares in some fields, so that the kiln can bring orthodox technology, which is better than the current image of God. Or the two can open a joint game in one place and use the strengths of the two to make the best porcelain. I happened to think that the Silk Road is the most important thing to the outside world. The first caravan escorted by the army will set off in August of this year......"

Beijunlu decided to use a caravan to test the attitude of *** and Islamic countries towards the Great Song Dynasty. If the Silk Road only goes to the Arab countries, it has no future, and if you want to go, you have to go to Europe, India, and Greece. Afghanistan was fascinated by 10,000 horses of silk and had already allowed the Song Dynasty troops to enter and exit the set area. The caravan was escorted by 3,000 elite soldiers, and then 40,000 elite cavalry responded more than 100 kilometers later. Now the Northwest Military Route is recruiting the first batch of merchants who want money and don't want their lives, and they are ready to leave Afghanistan and enter Persia when the time is right. There are three land Silk Roads, but all of them must start with Black Khan or Afghanistan.

After Ouyang's mediation, as well as the communication between Zhou Ping and Master Su, Ruyao and Dingyao finally reached an agreement. The two sides are not allowed to make breakthroughs in each other's fields, that is, Ru kilns are no longer allowed to use the drawing technology of the fixed kiln. At the same time, the two kilns established Ruding kiln field, and Ru kiln occupied sixty percent of the shares. Ruding kiln is the most high-end luxury porcelain produced by the two masters.

Ouyang has dealt with many commercial disputes, but there are very few that are so tricky. And the tricky reason is not because of the small action of the competition between the two kilns, but because of Zhou Ping's protection. Ouyang was very dissatisfied with this, although he didn't say anything on his face, but he wrote a letter to Zhou An, with a few sentences in it, the content of which was that Ouyang thought that if Zhou Ping took over as the chief treasurer of the Southeast Chamber of Commerce in the future, the merchants in the north and south would inevitably do the same. Zhou An replied, saying that he understood, and wrote to Zhou Ping, concentrating on the development of the North-South Post Road.

Time flies quickly, and Ouyang is already twenty-three years old. In Yangping, he has been the magistrate for six and a half years. Over the past year, Ouyang has been very low-key, and Zhao Yu seems to have forgotten about this person and no longer announces his entry into Beijing. However, for example, the rewards of the previous year have never fallen.

The Song's foreign strategy also achieved initial results. Due to the contradictions caused by poverty in the country and the rapid development of the Northwest Province, the Western Xia tribes began to contact the Song officials about the relocation. The two countries have been peaceful for a year, and although there were occasional confrontations and clashes between small groups in the Hexi steppes, there were no consequences for the war.

The Liao State had ceded five of the sixteen states of Yanyun in exchange for Song's supply of weapons and food to the Liao. In the past year, rebellions broke out again in the country, and finally Emperor Tianzuo killed his second son to pacify him, but the civil war led to refugees everywhere and the development of the country was tense.

The Liao country is not happy, and the Jin people are not happy. It sold a large amount of labor to the Great Song Dynasty in exchange for supplies, which led to a sharp decline in the country's young and strong population.

It was Song's fleet that made Jin Liao angry, and all fishing boats that went to sea to fish had to be registered in Song and pay taxes. Otherwise, once discovered, the Hangzhou fleet would inevitably scuttle its ship and fine the shipwright with more than three years of hard labor.

This policy is not only right for Liaojin, but also for *** and ***. Of course, the imperial court does not look down on these taxes, and they will cause disputes among neighboring countries. But Ouyang persuaded Zhao Yu on the table, and the reason for the above table was very simple, to train the fleet. Just as in the past on the Song-Liao border, the Song people were often plundered, and Jin Liao really didn't care much about the survival of fishermen.

The Song fleet has landed on the island of Kyushu, and the soldiers are the first to salute, and a piece of Song soil has been drawn out in Kyushu to provide supplies for the patrol fleet. And the merchants began to contact the big names and began to mine the silver. Nearly 100 big and small daimyo fought civil wars one after another, so the big and small names who were connected happily agreed to Song's request. And also prescribe the conditions to give Song Tu to carry out sea strikes against the hostile daimyo. In the same year, the Song began to station forbidden troops in the Song Dynasty to protect merchants from bandits. And bloody silver also began to be transported in a steady stream towards the Song Dynasty. Song's shipping industry grew by leaps and bounds during the year.

And Constantinople on the western route of the Silk Road did not go so well......

The 3,000 Song army was fighting against the nearly 100,000 crusaders.

The western section of the key route of the Silk Road, the key route of the western section is Constantinople. In the western section, whether it is the northern, western, or southern roads, all of them pass through Constantinople, so it can be said that this road is smooth, and the Silk Road is even open, because there are three directions for business. In addition to fighting Islam, the annexation of the Orthodox Church by the Crusaders was also one of the goals. The most important city of the Orthodox Church, Great Qin (Byzantium), the main city of Constantinople.

The participation in the crusade had its own purpose, and many landless feudal lords and knights wanted to use the rich East as the object of plundering land and wealth; Merchants in Venice, Genoa, Pisa and other places in Italy wanted to control commerce in the eastern Mediterranean and gain great profits; And the Pope wanted to merge the Orthodox Church and expand the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church; Many serfs and outcasts who were oppressed by natural disasters and taxes were called by the church and the feudal lords to look for a way out and a paradise in the East. As The Birth of Europe points out, the Crusaders offered an irresistible opportunity to gain fame, collect loot, acquire new industries, or rule entire nations—or simply escape the mundane with glorious adventures.

The First Crusade, the knightly crusaders divided into 4 routes, met in Asia in 1097, immediately crossed the sea into Asia Minor, attacked the city and seized the land, occupied the capital of the Seljuk Turks such as Nikaia, plundered, occupied Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, killed 7,000 people after entering the city, and then established a number of feudal states in the occupied areas along the Mediterranean coast according to the model of European countries. The crusaders were exorbitant and revolted, and the regime was in turmoil.

The Song army guarded the merchant general, and the crusaders were the French de Flroy. It established a kingdom in occupied Jerusalem. Known as the protector of the Holy Sepulchre. The Merchant of Venice made a deal with him, and his magic hand reached Constantinople.

Things didn't start out so badly, and every time they came across a city, they would send someone in to explain it, and even the crusaders who could not speak the language would let them go after collecting taxes on the cyriths (silk) who were traders, and they would also provide some trading places to carry out in the city.

But...... A Venetian merchant was struck when he discovered that the caravan was carrying absolutely expensive goods. However, De Frooy did not agree to attack the Song caravanserais, which were temporarily stationed in the eastern city of Constantinople, believing that this would allow for long-term commerce between the East and the West. But before the caravan left, something went wrong.

Two soldiers of the Song army rescued two female slaves who escaped with their faces covered, which led to some local clashes. The Song army had strict orders, and only cold weapons were used, and there were no casualties on both sides. When Zhang Lan knew about this, the army in the city had already dispatched to surround all the Song caravans. The chapter bar immediately ordered to defend in place.

Originally, the two slaves were nothing, but one of the slaves was the daughter of an Orthodox bishop, and she had a high reputation among the people of Daqin. In 1054, Orthodox and Catholic churches broke up. The Catholic Church sees Orthodoxy as a more dangerous sect than Islam. And after this woman was captured, legend has it that she had a mysterious mission. For several years, the crusaders had not revealed their secrets, but they did not think that something had happened to them for a while, but the slave was rescued by the faithful believers, and when they were discovered, the believers were killed, and the slaves fled to the Song Shang land with a handmaiden, kneeling down and begging for protection.

The deputy general of the Song Army was in charge of patrolling, and when he saw this, although he didn't know what the reason was, he saw two weak women asking for help from him, so he took them in. As a result, after the pursuers arrived, due to the language barrier between the two sides, a fight broke out. These 3,000 forbidden troops were the elite of the Great Song Dynasty, and one did not suffer any loss to the two, and quickly drove dozens of people away. Originally, this matter could be negotiated and resolved with each other, and the chapter column knew the general situation, and would not offend the head snake for the sake of two women. However, the Venetian merchants took advantage of the fact that the Seris were allies of the Orthodox Church, and that the caravan had come for that secret, and the whole city army surrounded the Song army.

De Frooy originally wanted to negotiate, after all, he knew about the Silk Road. But I didn't expect anyone to make a noise, and there was a local conflict, more than a dozen Song soldiers were killed, and the forbidden army immediately used hand throwing cannons, killing dozens of people. The troops on both sides had drunk blood and immediately entered the battle, and then the Song firearms were so sharp that the Crusaders did not dare to approach. So it was decided to trap the Song army with a bow and crossbow. The two sides of the language are not comprehensible, and it has to be understood through double translation, but now when there is a firefight, we all know that it is a never-ending situation. Zhang Liang had Han Shizhong explain in advance, and immediately sent more than a dozen warriors to break through and ask for help.

It is the New Year's Festival again, and the arrival of the New Year's Festival shows that a person is slowly maturing, and it also means that a person is slowly dying. Ouyang's New Year's Festival is lively, not only the New Year's Festival, but all festivals, everyone accompanies Ouyang to spend together. Although he had a good reputation, Ouyang knew that these people were here to accompany him.

"Do you think my brother is fat?" Wang Baofu asked.

One cadre and one *** head, including Zong Ze, a kind person. Gan Xin said with a smile: "Since I came back from the Hangzhou fleet, for a year and a half, my lord has been playing every day. It's strange if you don't get fat. ”

"Nonsense." Ouyang pinched his face and said, "I don't feel it." ”

Whelan asked, "My lord, haven't you been bored for the past year?" Or the royal newspaper will help after the year. "Ouyang wandered around, played in Yangping for a few days, went to Hangzhou for a few days, and took a boat with Song Huizong to drink and visit brothels on the Huai River.

"Not really." Ouyang smiled and asked, "You are still going to have two more." See...... Zhan Ming's face was frightened. ”

Zhan Ming touched his green face and said, "The greens are green." ”

Gan Xin nodded: "Good poem, Lao Zhan, you can go to the imperial examination, and the level of this poem is guaranteed to be three yuan." ”

"The Divine Decree has arrived!" An internal guard followed the official in, and shouted directly without waiting for the official to report.

"Huh?" Everyone was stunned, this reward has been given. Besides, the holy decree is generally passed down by the public, so why did the internal guard come directly. And today is the New Year's Festival, now is the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, no matter how big the matter, can't you wait for tomorrow to talk about it?

"Let Ouyang be the minister of the Northwest Military Road, and enter Beijing immediately." The inner guard received the holy decree and said, "Lord Ou, everyone is waiting outside. ”

Ouyang exclaimed, "You won't leave right away, will you?" ”

"The emperor said that there should be no delay for a moment, and 100,000 are urgent."

Zhan Ming said: "It's okay left and right, Bai Lian, go and call Zhang San and Li Si, and we will accompany the adults to Beijing." "The program is too weird to be guarded against.

The internal guard didn't care, just urged: "Hurry up!" ”