Late Tang

In Songzhou City, Li Jing and Li Rang brought a large number of gifts to Zhang's residence.

Although this is taking a concubine and not marrying a wife, and it is the sixth concubine, many etiquette standards are modeled on the standards that are only a little lower than those of the regular wife.Everything is carried out in strict accordance with the six ceremonies, accepting Cai, asking names, Najib, accepting levy, asking for a date, and welcoming in person.

Li Jing invited the most famous matchmaker in Songzhou to propose marriage to Zhang Rui, and Zhang Rui didn't mean to be embarrassed, and after seeing the proposal, he answered happily.After the Zhang family agreed to propose marriage, Li Rang sent someone to present Na Caili, which was a pair of wild geese, plus some other gifts.In this regard, Li Jing is all handed over to Li Rang. Li Rang is worthy of being the richest man in Bian Song Dynasty, and he handles things very well.

After Na Cai, there was a name question, which was about the woman's boudoir name and birth date, which was also a gift from a pair of wild geese.Li Rang invited a well-known celebrity from Songzhou to come to Zhang Rui's mansion with a wild goose. The purpose of asking about the name was twofold. Whether the marriage is suitable.

After asking the name, Najib will send the horoscope and the man's horoscope to the ancestral temple for divination. If he gets a good omen, he will prepare a gift to reply to the woman to signify the conclusion of marriage.At this point, basically there will be no one who says they are not worthy.

After some process, we arrived at Nazhengli.This is Xia Ping Li, a dowry gift.To hold a wedding for Master, Li Rang naturally had to show his strength.He directly took out 100 million yuan to buy an extremely generous gift. On the day of accepting the levy, the gift-giving motorcade was as long as ten miles, circled the entire Song City, and finally delivered it to Zhang Rui's mansion.Zhang Rui was also very happy when he saw the thick gift list full of books.He was not short of money, but Li Jing's ability to make such a big bet made him feel that Li Jing was very sincere.After giving the gift, the next day Li Jing asked someone to come to discuss with Zhang Rui, and finally decided on a date for the personal welcome, which is the invitation ceremony.

Finally, it was agreed, and the date of the wedding was set on May [-]th.When that day comes, when Li Jing welcomes her in person and pays homage to her, it will be regarded as a ceremony.

After fleeing Zhang's mansion that day, Li Jing returned to Zhang's mansion for the first time.These days, I haven't seen Zhang Hui again. According to the rules, Li Jing has no chance to see Zhang Hui again until the bridal chamber.Now Zhang Rui's defense against Li Jing is the same as that of thieves. There are several layers of guards in the outer courtyard of the Zhang family, and several teams of servants are hired in the backyard, and Zhang Hui is always surrounded by servants.

Li Jing was sitting in the flower hall of Zhang Mansion, talking with Zhang Rui, both of them were a little embarrassed.

What he talked to Zhang Rui today was not about the marriage, but about the cooperation between Zhen [***] and Songzhou.Songzhou and Bianzhou are cities in the Central Plains, and it is very important to get water transportation between the southeast and Luoyang Chang'an.The thing Li Jing wants to cooperate with Zhang Rui is very simple, that is, he hopes to get the support of Zhang Rui, let the merchants in Dengzhou build a commodity transfer station here under the protection of Songzhou, and transport the goods from Dengzhou to Songzhou Come.

Bianzhou already has Li Rang's relationship, and Songzhou still needs Zhang Rui's help.

The territory of the town [***] is very small, and the food produced can barely maintain food and clothing, which forced Li Jing to strengthen business.The current situation in the Tang Dynasty is not bad, and it has not yet reached the state of attacking each other and the people are in dire straits.It's a good time to do business.Previously, the navy was sent south to get through the sea transportation to Yangzhou, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou, and even relied on the merchants in Guangzhou to sell their goods to Arabia and the Eastern Roman Empire.

In addition to this southward commercial route, there is another maritime commercial route to Liaodong, Bohai Sea, Silla, and Japan.

These two sea routes are both traditional routes, and what Li Jing wants to strengthen now is the commercial route to the Central Plains.The two waterways of the Yellow River and the Jihe River are basically paralyzed now, and along these two waterways, they are basically eroded by grass thieves.

Another way is to take Youzhou, cross Jingxing along the Zhangshui River, enter Taiyuan, then go to Pugu, enter Guanzhong to Chang'an.Or go to Youzhou on the sea, enter Datong Weizhou from Feigu along the Sanggan River, then enter Zhenwu, enter Hequ to the north of the Yellow River, and then cross the Yellow River from Fengzhou to enter Guanzhong, or enter Zhenwu and directly take the Yellow River waterway to Lingwu Entering customs.

However, Li Jing has always felt that the two roads in Hebei are too far and too difficult. These two roads are mainly land routes.

The two waterways of the Yellow River and Jishui were temporarily blocked, so Li Jing planned to take the two waterways of the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River.

Detour from the Dengzhou sea to the mouth of the Huaihe River, enter the Huaihe River from Sizhou, and go up the river.Sell ​​the commodities along the Huaihe River to Huaibei and Huainan. Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Sizhou, Ying, and Haozhou are all rich and grain-producing places. It is just a matter of exchanging Dengzhou commodities for grain.Moreover, from the Bianqu on the Huaihe River to the north, Si, Xu, Hao, Song, Bian, Luoyang, Heyang, Taiyuan, and Chang'an formed a smooth commercial road.On the Huaihe River, Yingshui flows into Caishui, and Ying, Chen, Xu, Ru, and Luoyang can also be connected together.

The commercial road along the Yangtze River is more convenient. Along the Yangtze River, you can enter Jianghan, and finally go straight to Sanba, Hanzhong and Shuzhong.

It can be said that in the plan of Li Jing and his staff, there is no stability without agriculture, no wealth without work, and no life without business.The idea put forward by the new treasurer Li Rang after he took office is to insist on continuing to stockpile and self-produce food in the town [***], while strengthening the various workshops and mining industries in the town [***] mining.After continuously producing all kinds of commodities, while carrying out long-distance sea trade by sea, we must also use the convenience of Jianghe to develop a huge network in various parts of the Central Plains, promote and sell Dengzhou's commodities, and exchange them back to the town [** *] Needed food and other materials.

There are two commercial routes on the sea, two commercial routes in Youzhou, three commercial routes on the Yellow River, Jishui River, and Huaihe River, and one commercial route on the Yangtze River. There are ten commercial routes in total.Right now, the only commercial route to Bohai Silla in the town of [***] is the most complete, and the commercial route to the south for advertising is still being opened up.

The two roads passing through Youzhou are only being opened up on a small scale, and other commercial routes cannot be opened for a while.What Li Jing is focusing on now is the canal from the Huaihe River to the Bianqu Canal.Xuyi of Sizhou, Fuli of Xuzhou, Yongcheng of Haozhou, Songcheng of Songzhou, Biancheng of Bianzhou, Xingyang of Zhengzhou, Luoyang of the Eastern Capital, and Heyang of Mengzhou on this commercial road are all the most important cities.Among them, the location of Bian Song Dynasty is the most important part of this trade route.If this business route is to succeed, Guan Jian still has official support.

"Yue Zhang, if this commercial route is opened up, a large number of popular commodities in Dengzhou will be transported to the Central Plains. At that time, under this drive, it will also drive the flow of commodities in Henan, Guanzhong, Hedong and Shannan. Songzhou This is a major metropolis on the canal, when the goods gather, this place will be even more prosperous, and the tax on the exchange of goods alone will make my father-in-law soft." Li Jing said with a smile.

Zhang Rui was the governor of Songzhou, so he was very clear about this.However, the competition in the shopping malls is just as fierce, especially the larger caravan firms nowadays, which are basically controlled by various big families behind the scenes.If you want to step in, the forces will cause many original interests to fight back.Qianglong does not overwhelm the ground, if Li Jing is to gain a firm foothold, it is not enough to have best-selling products.

Holding the tea, Zhang Rui glanced at Li Jing, "This is no problem. Since you and I are a family, I will naturally help with this."

Li Jing smiled slightly, with this good beginning, the rest of the matter will be easy to talk about.

"Yue Zhang, I still have a big business that I want to cooperate with Yue Zhang."

"What business?" Zhang Rui took a sip of tea, savoring it slowly.

"Salt!" Li Jing said very directly, the profit of salt is a huge profit, even if the court imposes heavy taxes, it is still a huge profit.There are big salt pond, female salt pond and six small salt ponds under the jurisdiction of Hezhong Jiedushi, and the annual salt tax paid to the court is as high as nearly 200 million guan.Although such a heavy salt tax was paid, the Jiedushi in Hezhong still made huge profits.Even in history, Tian Lingzi once wanted to take the two salts back to the imperial court, which made Wang Chongrong, the Jiedu envoy of Hezhong, directly rebel and fight hard.

Li Jing now holds the official position of salt and iron transfer envoy, and both Ziqing and Liaodong are under the jurisdiction of Li Jing's salt and iron transfer.Regardless of how much salt Li Jing could sell, the imperial court directly set the tax on salt, mines, and tea at 200 million guan a year.This is a huge sum of money, but Li Jing's sun-dried salt method has a huge output, especially now that there are a large number of refugees working as salt workers, the output can still increase.However, the sales in Ziqing and Liaodong counties in the territory are already full, and now Li Jing's idea is to sell salt to Henan and Shannan.The Huaihe River area has a huge output of Huaiyan, and the profit margin is not big.

"Now grass thieves are rioting, corrupting the land of Kyushu, and even the price of salt in the Central Plains has begun to rise sharply. Now the price of salt has risen to 36 Wen a bucket, or a small bucket, and a stone of salt exceeds [-] yuan. A catty of salt [-] There is more money, the same price as rice. And because of the corruption in Tianping, Yicheng, and Taining, the east and west of Zhejiang are also in chaos. Now there is no market for the price, and you can’t buy salt at a high price.” Li Jing said that today’s Henan Yanshi said, "Nowadays in the south of Henan Province, most of the salt in the two ponds in the river depends on the salt in the two ponds in the river, and the salt in the deadly pond remains high. The people complained a lot. My son-in-law intends to benefit the people and is willing to transport salt from Dengzhou to Henan. The top-quality Dengzhou salt is big and snow-white and dry. It is better than pond salt and comparable to the green salt produced in the Northwest Salt Lake. Moreover, I only sell it to the Songzhou government for [-] yuan per bucket. The government can increase the price. Then sell it to the common people, isn’t this a good thing for you, me, and everyone?”

After hearing this, Zhang Rui was a little moved.This time the grass bandits attacked and broke through four of the eight counties in Songzhou, causing great losses.Although the people of Songzhou were not taken away in the end, the city was dilapidated, the village was burned, and the people lost all their property, which also dealt a heavy blow to Songzhou.Not only will the tax revenue be greatly reduced in the next few years, but money will also be used to rebuild the four counties, restore the production of the people, and resettle the refugees.Even during this period of time, it has cost a lot of money and food to supply the town [***].

The official salt is two hundred Wen a bucket, and Li Jing is willing to give him a hundred Wen a bucket. If Songzhou buys Li Jing's salt, and the price is increased by twenty or thirty Wen per bucket, the profit will be huge. (To be continued.)