The ministers begged me to ascend the throne

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the trade conference did not start immediately. Zhao Yao specially stayed for two days to let foreigners and guests from other places feel the atmosphere after the festival.

The Marsh Mansion was very lively these two days because Zhao Yao allowed guests from out of town and foreign countries to set up stalls and do business in the Marsh Mansion. This is done to allow them to experience the trade conference in advance.

This is the first time in history that outsiders and foreigners are allowed to do business in Lingnan openly. No matter it was in the Great Zhou Dynasty, or in the previous dynasties, or even in the previous dynasties, such a situation had never happened.

Although Lingnan is next door to countries such as Annan and Johor, it has been a place of exile since ancient times. Because of the perennial miasma and the sea ban, the court did not allow Lingnan to do business with foreigners. Once the people of Lingnan are found to be doing business with Annan and other countries in private, it is smuggling and will be severely punished.

Even if the imperial court allows Lingnan to do business with foreign countries, Lingnan has nothing to sell to foreign countries. You can't say that. In fact, Lingnan is rich in products, and there are many things that are not available in inland and foreign countries. However, the Lingnan people themselves did not know these things before Zhao Yao came. For example, lychees are a very common thing for them. They don't think there is anything special about lychees because lychee trees are everywhere, even on the roadsides in the countryside.

To the people of Lingnan, lychees are just like stones on the road, nothing rare. They don't think lychees can be sold for money, because lychees have no value at all to them. However, they never expected that lychees were very rare in other places, and people in the interior had never eaten them.

They always thought that lychees were available all over the world, but they didn't expect that lychees were unique to them. What they didn't expect was that dried lychees were very popular among people from the mainland and the Western Regions, allowing them to make a lot of money.

Several years ago, Zhao Yao sent Liang Run to Lingnan. The first thing he asked him to do was to eat lychees, and then find a way to sell the lychees inland and in the Western Regions. Unfortunately, the distance from Lingnan to the inland and western regions is long, so there is no way to guarantee the freshness of lychees. Halfway through, the lychees will rot.

Of course, if we expedite 800 miles to send lychees to the capital, the lychees will never go bad, but it’s not necessary. He is not like a certain emperor in Zhao Yao's world in his dream. In order to please his concubine, he sent people to rush 800 miles to deliver lychees from Lingnan to the capital, which exhausted many horses and soldiers.

Although lychees were very valuable in the interior, they were not as important as horses and soldiers in his eyes. Since there is no guarantee that the lychees will rot on the way, they can only be made into dried fruits. Dried fruits can be stored for a long time and will not go bad in the process.

Since Liang Run came to Lingnan, he has made many unique fruits from Lingnan into dried fruits and sold them to the inland and western regions, which are very popular. In the past few years, not to mention anything else, Liang Run has made a lot of money just by selling dried fruits unique to Lingnan.

However, starting this year, Zhao Yao does not plan to only sell dried fruits from Lingnan to the inland and western regions. He plans to sell fresh and canned fruit directly inland.

Now that the sea ban has been opened, fresh fruits can be transported directly to various places inland by sea. It is a pity that the countries in the Western Regions are not close to the sea, otherwise they can also be transported to the Western Regions by sea.

Sea transportation is faster than land transportation, and the quantity transported is larger than that of land transportation. Another point is that it is safer than land transportation. The most important thing is that now there is ice, which can be used to keep the fruits fresh.

Before Zhao Yao came to Marsh Mansion, it was not that there was no ice. As early as many years ago, Zhao Yao used saltpeter to make ice. Since then, ice is no longer a luxury item, nor is it something that can be used by dignitaries. It has become something that ordinary people can afford, but not in Lingnan.

If you are traveling by land, it is not impossible to use ice cubes to keep the fruits fresh, but it would be too conspicuous. Furthermore, we don’t know how much ice will be used and how many times we will need to replace it along the way, which is too troublesome. It is easier to take the sea route and use ice.

As for the canned food, Zhao Yao makes it directly with sugar water. Then it is also kept fresh with ice cubes so that it will not spoil when sent to the mainland. In addition to canning with sugar water, he also planned to pickle the fruit with salt. In Zhao Yao's world in his dream, Lingnan people like to eat fruits pickled with salt, and also pickled fruits with chili peppers.

Zhao Yao used salt to pickle fruits and mix them with chili powder to eat, which scared He Lianfang and the others. At first, He Lianfang and the others felt that Zhao Yao was being ridiculous by eating fruit like this. Can this be eaten? However, after eating it, I found it had a different taste. Nowadays, they already like to eat fruits pickled in salt and fruits mixed with chili powder.

After that, Zhao Yao popularized the eating of fruits pickled with salt and mixed with chili powder. The people of Marsh Mansion refused it at first like He Lianfang and others, but after eating it, they found that it was quite delicious, and the more they ate, the more they became addicted. After that, ordinary people also invented various strange ways to eat it. Nowadays, such a messy way of eating has long become a "common food" for the people of Marsh Mansion.

In addition to finding ways to eat pickled fruits and mixing them with chili powder, Zhao Yao also came up with various ways to eat fruits with sugar water. Zhao Yao called it sugar water according to the name of Lingnan in Zhao Yao's world in his dream.

The sugar water he made was very popular among the people of Marsh Mansion. The common people also made various sugar drinks themselves.

Nowadays, in many places in Marsh Mansion, you can see people setting up stalls selling sugar water.

Guests from other places and foreign countries like to eat sugar water very much. During these days, no matter which sweet water stall it is, it will be crowded with people from out of town and foreigners.

In fact, the main reason why foreigners and foreigners like to eat sugar water is because they like to eat "sugar". For inland people, white sugar is not a strange thing. After all, white sugar has been sold in many places in Dazhou since last year. However, to foreigners, sugar is a rare thing and they have never eaten it. This is the first time they have eaten white sugar, and the first time they have heard of the existence of white sugar. They think white sugar is more delicious and sweeter than honey. When foreigners learned that sugar, which was sweeter than honey, could be eaten in Marsh Mansion and even other places in the interior, they were shocked and at the same time very envious.

In addition to sugar, there was also salt, which also surprised the Gentiles. The foreigners who came to participate in the Marsh Mansion Trade Conference were all well-known local businessmen. There was no shortage of money in the local area, but they had never seen salt and sugar as white as snow.

The foreigners learned that the salt and sugar they saw as white as snow were made by His Highness the King of Han, and they were filled with admiration for His Highness the King of Han.

After arriving at Marsh Mansion, the things that foreign merchants wanted to buy most were salt and sugar. However, salt and sugar can only be purchased from the government, and cannot be purchased privately from the people of Marsh Mansion. Once the people of Marsh Mansion are found to be selling salt or sugar to foreigners without permission, they will be severely punished. The fine ranges from a huge fine to a severe penalty of beheading and death.

Since Zhao Yao made new salt and fine salt, the sale of salt has been completely controlled by the government. Of course, there are salt sellers who still sell salt, but the quality of the salt they sell is not as good as the official one. They can only sell it at a lower price than the official salt, but after the people have eaten the official new salt, they can still appreciate the old salt sold by the salt sellers.

Since last year, many salt dealers have been forced into bankruptcy by the court. The surviving salt dealers are all big salt dealers. They have been selling private salt for generations. It is impossible for them to close down for a while.

The salt traders have always wanted to get the methods for making new salt and fine salt, but no matter how they coerced, lured, or probed, they just couldn't get it. The imperial court strictly controlled the method of making new salt and fine salt, and the emperor decreed that if any official leaked the method of making new salt, he would be guilty of rebellion and the nine tribes would be directly killed.

It was difficult for the officials to withstand the huge bribes from the salt dealers, but when they thought that the nine tribes would be exterminated if they were discovered, they did not have the courage to leak it, and they did not dare to take any chances, because they did not dare to risk the annihilation of the tribe.

Because of this, the salt dealers hated Zhao Yao, the culprit who made new salt. Since last year, the salt dealers have sent countless assassins to kill Zhao Yao, but they were all solved by the secret guards around Zhao Yao.

At this trade conference, the salt dealers naturally sent assassins, but unfortunately they were discovered as soon as they arrived at Marsh Mansion.

Having said that, foreign merchants all want to buy new salt and sugar from Marsh Mansion and then transport them back to the country for sale. During this period, they tried every means to please His Highness the King of Han, just hoping that His Highness the King of Han would agree.

Of course, Zhao Yao would not miss this business and sold it to foreign merchants at more than twice the price.

Foreign businessmen did not dare to find it too expensive and signed contracts with Zhao Yao one after another.

Merchants in the interior did not need to buy new salt and sugar because they could always buy them locally. When they came to Marsh Mansion, the business they most wanted to do with His Highness the King of Han was glass, soap, dried fruits, medicinal materials, etc.

Glass is still controlled by the imperial court, and no one among the people can make glass. If you want to do glass business, in addition to cooperating with the imperial court, you can only cooperate with His Highness the King of Han.

The imperial court did not allow the king of Han to sell glass. The imperial court was not qualified to prohibit the King of Han from selling glass privately. After all, the glass was made by the King of Han. The method for making glass for the imperial court was also provided by His Highness the King of Han.

The most important thing is that the glass made by the Marsh Mansion is more exquisite than the glass made by the imperial court. Not only that, there are many categories produced by Marsh Mansion.

The glass made by the Marsh Mansion was more popular than the glass made by the imperial court. As soon as the dignitaries in the interior heard that the glass was made by Marsh Mansion, they would go crazy and buy it.

During this period, only four inland merchants signed glass business contracts with His Highness the King of Han. After inspection, these four companies met Zhao Yao's standards and were authorized to sell glass.

Zhao Yao's standards are not strict. The businessman must have a clean background, be honest in doing business, and not abuse or exploit the people.

The glass business is very profitable. It stands to reason that Zhao Yao should manufacture it in large quantities, but he did not do it. He strictly controlled the production of glass and made glass in short supply. Because of this, the dignitaries in the interior will want glass even more.

I heard that glass has now become a tool for wealthy people to show off. (End of chapter)