Reborn as Murong Fu: This time I am the protagonist

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Cheng's original contempt suddenly flew away, replaced by a feeling of irritation that he had been fooled.

Zhang Cheng suppressed his anger and said to Murong Fu as calmly as possible: "Is this young master just trying to tell me that he wants to buy these [-] dans of green salt for Dali?"

Murong Fu smiled slightly: "What? No?"

Zhang Cheng said with a slight anger on his face: "Not to mention whether the young master has the financial resources to take these [-] dans of green salt. Even if the young master has the financial resources, can the young master cross the prefectures and counties of the Song Dynasty to take these [-] dans of green salt? Is the salt transported to Dali?"

Xixia is rich in green salt, which is known all over the world.In the past, Li Yuanhao's father and grandfather were able to recruit soldiers and horses and gradually grow up in the cracks between the Song and Liao countries by relying on the barren products of the bitter cold land in the northwest. This was largely due to the benefit of green salt.In fact, Xixia was, to put it bluntly, an armed merchant group with a set of imperial systems.

After Li Yuanhao became emperor in the past, after a confrontation between Song and Xia, they finally sat at the negotiating table.It is said that Xixia professed its surrender to the Song Dynasty, but to put it bluntly, it was the Song Dynasty that spent money to buy peace.One of Li Yuanhao's requests was that the Song Dynasty should purchase [-] azurite salt from Xixia every year.

Theoretically speaking, the green salt of Xixia is of high quality and low price.For the people of the Song Dynasty, it was definitely a good thing that was beneficial to people's livelihood.And the Song Dynasty could use the profits from green salt to collect salt taxes and increase financial income. Wouldn't it be a good thing that would benefit the country and the people and make everyone happy?
But the problem is that the cost of Xixia's green salt is too low. There are salt lakes and saline-alkali lands everywhere in the Gobi Desert. You can get high-quality green salt without spending much time and energy on making it.On the other hand, in the Song Dynasty, except for Sichuan and Sichuan, which are natural salt-producing areas, the cost of producing salt in other places was extremely high.The salt tax was an important revenue source for the Song Dynasty, and the salt tax was extremely heavy.

In this way, the green salt sold in Xixia for twenty or thirty cents per catty was still very profitable, while the salt sold in the Song Dynasty for seventy or eighty cents per catty was not even enough to protect capital.

In this way, if the Song Dynasty court paid for these [-] dans of green salt from Xixia and then sold them to the people of Song Dynasty, it would be another opportunity for Li Yuanhao to give himself a big blow.However, if Xixia was allowed to sell these [-] dans of green salt on its own within the Song Dynasty, the court's salt and iron monopoly would exist in name only.

Such things exist in this era and will still exist in the next thousand years.Anyway, it's just a different name.

After weighing the pros and cons, Da Song chose to spend money to buy Ping An and accepted the deal with a pinched nose.Every year, he spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy green salt from Xixia, then adds a tax, and then sells the high-priced green salt to ordinary people in the Song Dynasty. Anyway, he does not lose money.

However, as a result, the smuggling of green salt on the Song-Xia border, which had been repeatedly banned since the Song Taizong era, became more and more intense.After all, the people of the two countries are not fools.Seeing the profits, businessmen in Xixia took desperate risks. People in the border states of Song Dynasty were able to buy salt at low prices and naturally enjoyed the profits.

Some people even discovered business opportunities in this and became second-rate dealers. They bought green salt from Xixia merchants at a low price and then sold it to the mainland at a higher price to earn the difference. Anyway, even after increasing the price, it was still better than that of the Song Dynasty. Official salt is cheap and of good quality.As a result, the salt policy of the Song Dynasty was in danger, and ordinary people no longer supported the official salt of the Song Dynasty. What's so big about this?If things continue like this, the country will no longer be a country.Ordinary people these days don't care what you say about Song Yan or Xia Yan.

They only care about whether the few copper coins and kilograms of grain they have earned through hard work can be put to better use.What's more, once the hole is opened, it is difficult to close it again.So the Song Dynasty naturally refused to do anything and asked Xixia to restrain the private salt dealers in the territory. On the surface, Xixia agreed very well, and even added fuel to the fire behind the scenes.So the two countries of Song and Xia would fight each other every once in a while.Then the forging field on the border between Song and Xia was closed for a period of time, until the Song Dynasty was unable to bear the beatings, sued for peace, and was forced to reopen the forging field. Then the Xixia side went downhill, and the two countries reconciled as before. , and so on.

The last border battle between Song and Xia was another copy of this model.But the problem is that after decades of development, Xixia is no longer the powerful northwest country that was brave and good at fighting in Li Yuanhao's era and relied on a mere million people to defeat the Song Dynasty.After the first battle, the troops were lost and the generals were lost, and no benefits were obtained at all. Stealing chickens but losing rice.

The direct consequence is that since Li Yuanhao's death, Li Qiushui, who is responsible for maintaining this model, has become the scapegoat and shouldered the blame.The Xixia royal family, which had been reduced to puppets, with the tacit approval of all the vested interests in Xixia, took advantage of the fact that Li Qiu Shui was being hunted by Tong Lao and overthrew Li Qiu Shui.
Therefore, Li Qiu Shui was kicked out of the Xixia Palace and traced back to the source, and he actually landed on these inconspicuous green salts.

In this case, no wonder Zhang Cheng thought Murong Fu was talking nonsense.After all, to win the business of [-] dans of green salt, the payment alone would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.Besides, to transport this [-] stones of green salt from the Song Dynasty to Dali, unless the Emperor of the Song Dynasty personally issued an edict, it was obviously impossible.Murong Fu sneered and said: "Master Zhang is also a man who has experienced the world for a long time and holds a high position. How can he be so ignorant? He behaves like a disciple of the Beggar Clan!"

Zhang Cheng's expression suddenly changed, but he saw the young man in Jinyi tapping the table with his fingers, and saw the two girls who had left earlier come in one after another, each holding a tray.There is nothing else on the tray, only a palm-sized brocade bag, which is very exquisitely made.

The two girls placed the tray in front of Zhang Cheng, saluted Mr. Jin Yi, then closed the door and left.

Murong Fu raised his hand and made a "please" gesture to Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng was confused, but he still opened one of the brocade bags. After just one glance, he was shocked. He hurriedly opened another bag and poured the contents onto the table with a crash.

What you can see is that all kinds of gems are crystal clear, and they are of high quality at first glance. Zhang Cheng is a salt and iron envoy, and he has seen many serious fat men and rare treasures.However, if you take out any one of the various gems in front of you, its appearance and value are the only ones that Zhang Cheng has seen in his life. It can be said that if you take out any one, its value will be no less than ten thousand yuan.

And there are dozens of such gems in front of you.

Zhang Cheng felt that his eyes were hot and his throat was a little dry.

Zhang Cheng's actions naturally fell into Murong Fu's eyes. Seeing Zhang Cheng fixedly looking at the pile of priceless treasures in front of him, Murong Fu deliberately coughed to remind him: "Master Zhang?"

Murong Fu shouted a few words in succession, and Zhang Chengcai looked away from his fantasy and realized his gaffe, so he had to cough several times to cover up his embarrassment.

"The young master's extraordinary skills and wealth are truly unprecedented in Zhang's life. Although this batch of gems is not cash, it was sold to the Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty, and its value was worth hundreds of thousands. It was enough to pay for [-] dans of green salt. The payment for the goods. I am the Salt and Iron Envoy of Daxia and I will work for the benefit of the country. Since the young master is sincere, I can just sell the green salt to the young master."

Zhang Cheng was excited: Put aside the pursuit of national benefit first.If this business is completed, he can earn a profit of at least [-] yuan.Money attracts people's hearts, who would be dissatisfied with the lack of money?And the Zhang family's position in Xixia will definitely become more stable.

However, Murong Fu's next words made Zhang Cheng's heart sink again: "I never said that I would use these things to buy your country's green salt!"

Zhang Cheng's face suddenly darkened. If it weren't for the other party's wealth and extraordinary skills, he would have suspected that the other party was here to amuse him.However, Murong Fu's next words made Zhang Cheng's terrible mood suddenly rise to the sky again: "A few worthless things are given to Mr. Zhang as a meeting gift. I hope you don't think this gift is too small."

(End of this chapter)