Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 550 unanimously approved
After Han Jiang left, Fan Ning simply changed seats and sat by the window on the second floor, drinking while watching the light rain outside the window.

The birth of Xingang in the Boni Kingdom has brought extremely heavy losses to the merchants in the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom in the past two years. Now the cargo ships from the west basically go to Xingang, and the silverware, carpets, Cotton cloth, saffron, pearls, gemstones and other goods were sold to Song merchants, and they directly purchased porcelain, silk, tea, ironware, daily necessities, and spices from the Boni Kingdom. Exploitation in the middle is very profitable.

Only by purchasing some special spices to go abroad to Srivijaya, the fleet has basically stopped trading in Marayu City.

There is no intermediate profit, only relying on the export of some local spices, the merchants of the Srivijaya Kingdom have suffered huge losses, but the Srivijaya needs a lot of cloth, copper coins, ironware, pottery, and daily necessities in Song City, resulting in a serious loss of gold in the past two years. Finances are tight, and the government, dignitaries, military and monks are all seriously dissatisfied with the emergence of Xingang.

Just in February of this year, many bands of pirates suddenly appeared in the Nanyang waters, appearing like ghosts and ghosts, and specially attacked Western cargo ships and Song Dynasty cargo ships going to Xingang. Dozens of ships have suffered accidents, including a cargo ship of Fan's Trading Company.

The cargo was looted, dozens of sailors and a steward on board were killed, and the cargo ship was burned to ruins. Only one sailor jumped into the sea holding a log, drifted for three days, and was finally discovered by natives fishing in Boni Kingdom. He was lucky enough to escape with his life.

It was this pirate incident that completely angered Fan Ning. Not only did he want to eliminate the pirates, but he also launched a war against the Three Buddhas if necessary. Everyone knew that the so-called pirates were the sailors of the Three Buddhas in disguise.

For this reason, Fan Ning rushed to the capital in order to win the right to use troops against the Three Buddhas.

At this time, Fan Ning had gradually recovered from his previous depression. He also realized that to attack the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom, he must have the support of the court, especially the Zhizhengtang. There is nothing to lose by saying that, what he needs is a challenge, especially the control of the Southeast Asian countries, which is the most important thing in this term.

As for Japan, which has entered a mature harvest period, he can completely ignore it. If Ryukyu Prefecture is not too close to Quanzhou, he would also like to return Ryukyu Prefecture to Zhizhengtang.

"Dude, checkout!"

Fan Ning got up and put on his outer robe, and a clerk ran up to him and said, "Officer, it's a total of twenty-seven cents, including the expenses in the private room just now."

Fan Ning despised Han Jiang's stinginess in his heart, and actually wanted to pay the bill by himself, but he was stunned for a while. He hadn't paid for consumption in the capital for a long time, how could it be settled in silver?
"Is it two consecutive seven hundred words?"

The clerk laughed and said, "Money and silver are fine, but the officials don't seem to bring copper coins weighing more than ten catties."

Fan Ning did not bring so many copper coins. He took out five taels of silver and put it on the table, and suddenly thought of something, and took out seven silver dimes, which seemed to have been used many years ago. "

The clerk quickly fetched three well-made small silver ingots and gave them to Fanning.

Fan Ning looked at this small silver ingot curiously. The standard is one or two weights. It looks very much like a mahjong tile of later generations, with the words "one or two" engraved on it.

This is a standardized silver ingot, and ordinary people don't need to carry a consistent coin weighing six catties, as long as they have such a small silver ingot in their arms, it is very convenient.

"Have such small silver ingots appeared in large numbers?"

"I don't know about other places, but there are already many in the capital. It appeared last fall. It is very convenient to cooperate with silver coins."

"Is the copper coin no longer used?"

"Copper coins are of course useful. Generally speaking, if you spend more than a dozen Wen on things, you still need to use copper coins."

Seeing that Fan Ning didn't understand much, the clerk smiled and explained to him: "Nowadays, people in the capital usually wear a purse in their arms when they go out. Inside is a small silver ingot, ten silver dimes, and a hundred copper coins. , very light in the arms."

"Are there any silver ingots larger than one tael?"

The man shook his head, "There are only Wuguan and Shiguan Jiaozi, because the imperial court uses gold to guarantee the exchange, and now it can be used in many places, unlike before."

Fan Ning secretly admired the shrewdness of the imperial court. The gold shipped from overseas was not issued to the outside world, but used as collateral to issue paper transfers.

He put away the three taels of silver ingots, got up and left the restaurant quickly,

Early the next morning, in the side hall of Ziwei Hall, Empress Dowager Gao Taotao, Emperor Zhao Xu, Overseas Strategic Envoy Fan Ning, and seven ministers held the fifth joint meeting between Zhizheng Hall and Overseas Economic Envoys.

Today's agenda has four contents. The first is to listen to Fan Ning's report on overseas development in the past six months. The second is to discuss the transfer of [-] new immigrants and the dispatch of [-] reserve officials proposed by the Overseas Economic and Strategy Office. The third is Discussing the issue of reducing the burden on the overseas economic and strategic government, the fourth is to authorize the overseas economic and strategic government to fight against Nanyang pirates and hostile countries.

Since overseas economic envoys report directly to the Queen Mother and the emperor, Fan Ning's report here is just a formality. In fact, his report has already been read by the Prime Ministers of the Zhizheng Hall.

As for the addition of [-] households of immigrants and the dispatch of [-] reserve officials, the Empress Dowager Gao has also approved it, and the Zhizheng Hall has also approved it. Here I just emphasize it again and urge the Zhizheng Hall to implement it as soon as possible.

The [-] immigrants were mainly sent to Ryukyu and Luzon, two counties in the south of Ryukyu and seven counties in Luzon.

The above two issues are just a formality, the key is the third and fourth, and the order can not be wrong, to confirm the transfer of the interests of Japan by the overseas economic and strategic government, the Zhizheng Hall may approve Fan Ning to expand the use of military power .

In the past, the Lu Song Kingdom was used as an example, and the Sanfo Qi Kingdom and the Great Song Dynasty were friendly.

Gao Taotao watched the negotiation between the two parties expressionlessly. Seeing that Fan Ning finally agreed to hand over Kunzhou and the official trade with Japan, Gao Taotao showed a smile on his face. She helped Fan Ning expand his military power three times, but was rejected all three times. Zhizhengtang came back, and now Fan Ning accepted the compromise and reached a power exchange with Zhizhengtang, which suddenly reduced her pressure.

Seeing that her son Zhao Xu next to her was still a little dazed, she smiled and whispered to him: "Fan Jinglue is good at compromise, and will be of great use."

Only then did Zhao Xu realize that in order to achieve the fourth article, Fan Ning took the initiative to abdicate power, which must be the result of his private negotiations with Zhizhengtang.

Fan Ning got up immediately and said: "Regarding the rampant pirates in Nanyang, which have seriously affected Nanyang trade, according to the intelligence of the Xingang military, the base of these pirates is in the small coastal islands of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom. Every time our military ships chase them to their lair Nearby, the navy of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom will come out to intercept us, and we will not be allowed to move forward. The protection of the pirates has been made public. From this, we can know that these pirates are either in collusion with the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom, or they are the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom faction People pretend to be for the purpose of attacking the Xingang trade, we cannot just watch the Nanyang trade be destroyed, we must take tough measures to fight against pirates, even at the expense of conflict with the Three Buddhas."

Han Qi asked: "How strong is the army of the Three Buddhas?"

Fan Ning said calmly: "The Three Buddhas Qi Kingdom claims to have 20 soldiers. According to the information we collected from the merchants, their actual strength is around 3, and there is another [-] reserve army with poor equipment. Leather armor is mainly purchased in the West. The weapons are spears. There are no cavalry. The soldiers are generally short and thin, and their combat effectiveness is much lower than that of the Song army. People are very powerful in the Nanyang region, but compared with the Song army, they are too weak."

"How many troops do you plan to use?" Fu Bi asked again.

Fan Ning bowed slightly and said, "Currently, the total strength of the Overseas Economic and Strategy Office is 3, and the 5000 in Kunzhou remain unchanged. Then there are 120 troops in each of Danzhou, Liuli Island, Liuqiu Mansion, Luzon Island, and Xingang. Wan Jingrui will be the entire force I will use this time, with 5000 warships and [-] crew members."

"Then what is the ultimate goal?" Wen Yanbo asked.

Fan Ning continued: "We must achieve four goals. First, wipe out the navy of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom and ensure that only our navy exists in the Nanyang region; second, the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom must apologize to the Song Dynasty. The king And proton in the capital; third, wipe out all the pirates; fourth, the Srivijaya Kingdom must cede land and pay money, the loss is mainly due to the losses they caused, I advocate a million taels of gold, and then everywhere, I want them to cede the opposite side of the strait Two hundred miles of land, where we will build a second trading port and station a naval force."

.........

In the ensuing Zhizhengtang vote, Fan Ning's plan was passed unanimously, and Zhizhengtang formally agreed to Empress Dowager Gao's proposal to expand the military power of the overseas economic and strategic government.

Fan Ning secretly sighed, whoever dares to say that this group of literati don't value profits, he must be killed, and yesterday morning he kept saying that the state of etiquette does not humiliate weak neighbors, and unanimously boycotted his expansion of power.

But after a transaction in the afternoon, today the unanimous vote will be passed, and there is no need to mention "polite state does not humiliate weak neighbors", these guys!As realistic as a businessman.

Of course, Fan Ning is not completely right to think this way. It is up to the people in Zhizhengtang to become so mercenary. In front of him, it would be meaningless to say these glamorous words.

In front of Fan Ning, a boy who digs money, fighting for profit is the most realistic.

After getting the right to fight, Fan Ning left the capital that night and returned to Quanzhou.

(End of this chapter)