Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 757 Farewell to Song Dynasty
A month later, Fan Ning arrived in Quanzhou by boat. Quanzhou is currently the base of Beidao in the Song Dynasty. The assets in Quanzhou amounted to one million Guan.

When Fan Ning arrived in Quanzhou, he happened to meet [-] households who migrated overseas, of which [-] households migrated to the North Island and [-] households migrated to the South Island. In the face of the Empress Dowager, Emperor Zhao Xu specially approved the relocation of [-] households to the South Island.

At this time, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty had reached 2000 million, and the number of landless households in the Jiangnan area alone reached 300 million. Although the large population brought commercial prosperity, it also brought great social and economic pressure. Therefore, Proper migration of people overseas has become the consensus of the imperial court.

However, the population migrating overseas should not be too large, which would cause the imperial court to lose control.

Therefore, the upper limit of the population of the kingdom is controlled at one million, and the upper limit of the population of the principality is 50. However, if the upper limit is exceeded through natural reproduction, it is not included.

At present, the population of Beidao is 20, plus the 70 households approved by the emperor to relocate, the population will be at least [-] households in ten years. possible.

There are 8 thousand-stone ships moored in Quanzhou harbor, and all the large-scale ships in Beidao come to welcome [-] households with a population of nearly [-].

Although this is not the largest immigration, it is also a large scale.

The officials who came to meet the people were led by Zhu Qi and Lu Min. One was the magistrate of Wucheng County and the other was the magistrate of Yuecheng County. At the same time, they brought hundreds of students as volunteers.

In addition, the imperial court will send a military fleet of 5000 people to escort these people to the North Island.

Including food, drink, lodging, clothing, food, housing and transportation of the immigrants, all aspects are well arranged.

They were waiting for Fanning to arrive, and then set off for the North Island together.

It was already evening when Fan Ning's fleet arrived in Quanzhou. Without alarming the local officials, he directly brought his entourage to his old residence 'Zichuan Mansion'.

Fan Ning wanted to have a good night's rest, but Ming Ren came to visit.

"Why are you here?" Fan Ning hastily let him into the study.

Mingren smiled wryly and said, "Something happened in Xingang, I rushed to deal with it."

"What happened to Newport?"

"A new deacon is inexperienced. It is the first time to operate cupronickel. As a result, he was cheated by a western businessman to steal 10 ingots of cupronickel. One ingot is ten taels, almost [-] taels!"

Fan Ning asked him to sit down, served tea to his attendants, and asked, "What's going on, let's talk about it."

"Speaking of which, it's lack of knowledge. This western businessman wanted to buy cupronickel, but he didn't have enough gold, so he bought ten boxes of Ceylon multicolored pearls to make up for it. The deacon had never seen this kind of multicolored pearls, and thought they were very rare, so he agreed.

Later, when the news spread to Bei Dao, I felt a little strange. If it was really colorful pearls, how much would ten boxes of colorful pearls be worth, far more than [-] ingots of white copper? Are Westerners so stupid?
I headed off to Nieuport, and sure enough, the whole goddamn glass beads were just prismatic glass beads. "

Fanning took a sip of his tea, amused in his heart, this is a trick used by Westerners to deceive Africans into gold, and he actually deceived himself.

However, rare things are more expensive, and it is still in the Northern Song Dynasty, even glass beads are more valuable, so it cannot be said to be a lie.

The reason Mingren felt cheated was because he had told him how glass was made, and he was also trying it out, so he knew it was worthless, but others might not know it!
"Did you bring it?"

Ming Ren took one out of his bosom and handed it to Fan Ning. Fan Ning took a closer look at it under the light. It was colorful and dazzling. It was really fascinating. No wonder the deacon would be fooled.

Fan Ning smiled and said, "Did you punish him?"

"Not yet, just reprimand him severely."

"How about it! Let him go to Heian-kyo, Japan, and sell these glass beads to the Fujiwara family for 200 million taels of silver. They will definitely buy them."

"200 million!" Mingren's eyes widened.

"The Fujiwara family has a lot of silver. From the silver mountain in Akita, they take away 300 million taels a year. I can make a little money from him. Why not? But this kind of pearl is called an Italian pearl, which is produced in Italy, a western country. As for How it was mined, we don't know."

"I know. I'll go to Nieuport when I get back."

Fan Ning suddenly remembered something and asked, "Do we have rubber wheels in Xingang, or here in Quanzhou?"

"Quanzhou has it!"

"how many?"

"About two hundred pairs, including axles."

"You keep fifty pairs and give them to the deacon. After he goes to Ping'an, he will turn to Kunzhou and hand over fifty pairs of wheels to the prefect of Zhao in Kunzhou. This is what I promised him, and it can be regarded as a gift to them."

Mingren smiled and said, "It's a trivial matter, I will arrange it."

Fanning took a sip of tea and asked again: "Speaking of glass, I remember that you want to set up a glass factory. Has it succeeded?"

"Success is success, but your father-in-law Cao Yi saw it, and he insisted that we give the technology to Nandao, and Nandao also wants to build a glass factory. I really hate this kind of technology, but it's too bad not to agree."

Mingren was a little distressed, and took out a rosewood pipe with a silver edge from his arms, rolled a pot of shredded tobacco, lit it under the lamp, and Meimei started to smoke.

Fan Ning was a little stunned. He pointed to the pipe and asked, "When did you learn it?"

"Just this year! It's very popular in Beidao. Every man has a pipe. It's very relaxing to smoke a pot after work. By the way, I prepared one for you too."

Ming Ren found a beautiful red sandalwood box inlaid with rubies from his leather bag, handed it to Fan Ning, and said with a smile: "Congratulations to my brother becoming king, I prepared a meeting gift."

Fan Ning just woke up from the shock caused by Ming Ren's smoking. He suddenly remembered that he also had a small bundle of tobacco leaves in his box, which he wanted to give to the emperor Zhao Xu, but he forgot.

He put the red sandalwood box aside, waved his hands and said, "Let's talk about one thing first, don't mess it up, you just said that Nandao also wants to make glass?"

"Yes! And I agreed, of course I was forced, it's your father-in-law!"

"It's no problem for everyone to do it together. The market in the Song Dynasty is huge, and we can make a fortune together, but does my father-in-law know the function of glass?"

"He knows that there is a glass building in the dormitory of Empress Dowager Cao, which is the batch of glass you bought from Westerners and donated to the palace. As a result, every window in the dormitory of Empress Dowager Cao is filled with glass. It became the famous glass building in the imperial palace, which is what Cao Yi told me, and the glasses of your other father-in-law Ouyang Xiu are also made of glass, and all the civil and military officials in the court know that Cao Yi wants to do window glass and glasses business."

It turned out that his father-in-law knew it, and Fan Ning asked with a wry smile, "Then does he know how to divide the glass?"

"I told him to use diamond knives, but you must wear protective gloves, otherwise it will easily hurt your hands."

"Okay! You can teach the South Island the technology of making glass, and then I will talk about the second thing, which is about multicolored glass beads."

Fan Ning sneered and said, "Based on what I know about Westerners, they will definitely come again, full of glass beads, to cheat cupronickel."

Mingren gritted his teeth and said, "If they dare to come again, I will make them lose everything."

Fan Ning nodded, "I believe you will do well, but these glass beads can be hoarded and exchanged for gold and silver elsewhere in the future."

"I understand, like Japan."

Fan Ning secretly praised Ming Ren for his quick thinking, he smiled and said: "Now let's talk about the shredded tobacco, show me your shredded tobacco!"

Mingren took out the shredded tobacco box and handed it to Fan Ning. Fanning opened the box, and a strange fragrance hit his face. The shredded tobacco was golden yellow, perfectly roasted, cut very thin, one inch long, soft and neat.

Fanning lowered his head and smelled it again, and said with a smile, "It's ambergris!"

"There are more than a dozen kinds of spices that go with shredded tobacco. It depends on your preference! Now there are tobacco shops in every county, not only us, but the South Island has also become popular."

"Does the woman and the child smoke?"

Mingren shook his head, "Women and children are not allowed to smoke. Women like it, but children are prohibited. Didn't you say that smoking too much is harmful to the body, and children are strictly prohibited from smoking? That's why both the North Island and the South Island prohibit smoking." The child smokes."

Fanning took the pipe that Akihito gave him, which was also sandalwood inlaid with gold. Quickly took out an exquisite lighter.

The shape of the lighter is a bit like the metal lighters of later generations. It is made of gold. The door knocking uses the elastic force of the spring. The top is a sickle made of fine steel, and the bottom is a piece of flint. Use your thumb to move the back, and the top sickle After being pulled up to the extreme, as soon as the hand is released, the sickle will slam into the flint.

'Snapped!Snapped! 'The stainless steel sickle tapped the flint twice, and sparks shot out immediately. There was a small pot of tinder at the front of the flint, and the tinder was immediately ignited by the sparks.

This is not an invention, but a high-end art made of the fire sickle used by ordinary people, which looks very high-end. The only technological content is to use a spring to combine the originally separate sickle and flint into one.

"The fire sickle is good!"

Fan Ning leaned forward and lit the tobacco, and Meimei took a puff, which instantly made him feel relaxed.

"This is specially made, and it's made for fifty pennies. Ordinary people don't have the spare money to use this. Let's use the old-fashioned scythe!"

"That's not necessarily true. After the popularity of tobacco, every man has to carry a scythe. Rich people always want to use yours to show their status. The same goes for pipes. Go back and set up a workshop specializing in the production of high-end tobacco pipes and scythes. It is also a first-class brand in the capital, you will not let go of this opportunity to make money!"

"There are so many ways to make money, I'm really too busy."

After finishing speaking, Ming Ren was about to smoke again, but was stopped by Fan Ning.

"It's enough to smoke once or twice a day. You can't smoke too much, or your lungs will be damaged. Everything must be done in moderation."

"I understand."

"It's good to understand, go back and rest early, we will set off early tomorrow morning."

(End of this chapter)