My years in the Northern Song Dynasty Guozijian

Although the treasury has more and more money due to the loose tea business, but at the same time new troubles have arisen for the court.

The Northern Song Dynasty has always implemented a monopoly system for tea. The folks can grow tea freely, but the state must purchase it uniformly and then wholesale it to merchants.Reputable and capable ones are then selected, and business licenses are issued, and finally the merchants resell them to the people.

This set of procedures sounds beautiful, but there are problems such as insufficient market vitality and fraud by tea farmers.In addition, the most important thing is that the sudden rise of loose tea, the government is not prepared, and it is too late to purchase tea in large quantities. In other words, it cannot meet the growing consumption needs of the people.

No way, the imperial court had no choice but to open up trade, allowing merchants to purchase tea directly, and finally collecting taxes from tea farmers and merchants.As the promoter of all this, Ye An naturally reaped a lot of benefits.The first is tea. With a wave of his hand, Renzong gave him a large area of ​​Biluochun and some teas that were not very well-known before. Secondly, he also gave him the right to manage tea and exempted one-third of the tax for a period of 20 years.

This means that Ye An can take advantage of the price advantage to seize the market first, and even establish a brand.Faced with such a good thing that fell from the sky, he naturally wanted to seize the opportunity, so he bought a piece of land in Beijing and established a tea house, named Fuyun Pavilion.It is said to be a tea house, but it is actually just a small shop with only two tables inside. It does not entertain guests for tea, but only sells loose tea.Most of the people who come and go are teahouse owners, or the managers of wealthy families.

Because of the complete variety, high quality and exquisite packaging, many people buy it.Afterwards, Ye An absorbed modern experience, found several famous painters at this time, designed many gift boxes, and launched expensive small pots of tea.Facts have proved that the IQ tax can be collected anywhere. Not long after the release of the small pot tea, it set off a frenzy of popularity among the middle and upper classes in Beijing.The nobles were surprised to find that loose tea leaves can also be high-end and elegant, and they are used to drinking it, and the taste is not bad.

Ye An is very busy now, and he has been to Dali Prison a few times during the period, wanting to see the teacher.Reluctantly, it seemed that the higher-ups had issued an order that idlers were not allowed to approach, and he was embarrassed to go to Renzong again because of such a trivial matter, so he could only go back depressed.Fortunately, this official, although his personal morality is slightly lacking, and he is lustful and gentle, but his character is still ranked among the top among the emperors of all dynasties.If you say forgive Pan Yuanqing, you will definitely do it, so Ye An is not very worried.

On this day, the Imperial College was on holiday, and Ye An was ordering goods in Fuyun Pavilion.He casually asked the people around him: "So, black tea and green tea are the most popular, and the other sales are pretty average, right?" Sure enough, top is always top in any era, and these two have the most sales in modern times It's the same when you get it a thousand years ago.

"That's not to say, black tea and green tea sell well, which means that the whole Bianliang sells well. When others come to us, they basically decide to be cheaper. Others, such as yellow tea and green tea, are the diehards of Fuyun Pavilion." The person in charge of the store returned respectfully.This person's name is Liu Yan, who was bought by Ye An half a year ago. He signed a death contract at that time, so he is generally trustworthy.Because of his clever mind and the ability to speak, he even learned a few words by himself, so he boldly came to Ye An to recommend himself.

Ye An naturally welcomes such people, but industries that need to be kept secret, such as the opening of white sugar cosmetics, cannot let them pass.It just happened that Fuyun Pavilion was opened, and the store only needed two or three assistants, so he was transferred to manage it.Sure enough, Liu Yan is like a fish in water here, and the development of Fuyun Pavilion today is inseparable from his dedication.

Just when Ye An was about to open his mouth to praise him, a man suddenly entered the shop.

Knowing that it was a guest, Liu Yan hurriedly stepped forward to entertain him, but when he saw the visitor, he was stunned.The man was tall, fair-skinned, with a protruding forehead, light-colored eyes, and obvious contours on his face. He turned out to be a foreigner.

Of course, foreigners are no big deal. There are at least tens of thousands of foreigners in Bianliang City. Liu Yan continued to greet them with a smile: "I invite you, but I want tea."

The man looked haughty, and said slowly in broken Chinese: "It is said that the loose tea here is the most complete in Song Dynasty. I came all the way from Lite, and I want to do a big business with you."

"That's good, sir, tell me, what kind of tea do you want." Liu Yan became more eager.

"Give me five hundred catties of each green tea and black tea in your store."

Liu Yan raised his eyebrows, he was indeed a big customer, so he respectfully ushered him into his seat, picked up his abacus and said, "If so many officials really come, the small shop can give you some discounts, and give you another one catty for every hundred catties .”

"That's it?" The man was a little dissatisfied: "You Song people are really petty, and you are only so cheap."

Liu Yan handed over: "The small shop itself is not profitable, I hope the officials will understand."

The man cursed and cursed, his expression extremely disrespectful.

At this time, Ye An said: "Since that's the case, then this small business will not be done. Guest officer, you should find another place."

Liu Yan looked at Ye An in shock, knowing that his master has always adhered to the principle of "employing people without suspicion", whether it is the Rougepu sugar factory or the tea house, since it is handed over to others, he rarely intervenes.When I first became the shopkeeper, I often went to ask him, and was reprimanded in the end, what happened today?But since his boss had already spoken, it was inconvenient for him to speak, and he stood aside obediently.

It was the foreigner man, whose face was flushed with anger, but maybe because Fuyun Pavilion was indeed the cheapest in Bianliang, he should buy it anyway, so he suppressed his anger and said: "If that's the case, then follow the price you said."

"I'm sorry," Ye An said with a half-smile, "The store doesn't have enough stock, so it won't be sold anymore."

"How unreasonable!" The man was furious, and he was about to teach Ye An a lesson, but Liuyan quickly stopped him.

"Go away, I'm going to beat you bastard Song people to death!"

"You'd better calm down." Ye An didn't rush, and even took a sip from the cup of tea.

"Fart your mother!" The man broke free from Liu Yan, and ran over with bared teeth and claws.

However, at this moment, a cold light flashed, and everyone's eyes blurred.Then the man felt a slight cold in his left ear, and then he saw something fall on the ground, he fixed his eyes and saw that it was his ear!He didn't realize it until he felt a sharp pain just now, and cried out while covering the place where the blood was spurting.

After a while, the curtain at the back of the tea house was lifted, and a young handsome man walked out, with a jade face and a golden crown, and he was suave, not Bai Yutang.He glanced at Lite businessman disdainfully, and said with Bai's sarcasm in his tone: "Shouting, it's so noisy, who do you think is a bastard from Song Dynasty?"

...I told you to calm down, why don't you listen to the persuasion, Ye An was speechless, and signaled Liu Yan to put away the tea leaves outside, so as not to get bloody.

The man was probably a practitioner, and he was also wearing golden sore medicine, after applying it, the blood gradually stopped.He looked at Bai Yutang with some fear, "I'm a Lite businessman, don't you even give our country face?"

Bai Yutang plucked his ears, and said foolishly: "Be my son first, and then I will give you face."

"You!" The man was furious, but he didn't dare to make a move, so he could only run away with his ears in embarrassment after saying a harsh word.

Seeing the mess, Ye An helplessly asked the people around to clean up quickly, then turned to Bai Yutang and said, "I've picked everything? Do you know what kind of tea Second Brother Han likes?" Yes, the other party came this time just to wake up Han Zhang chooses some tea.Although Han Zhang was fine on the surface, he was still quite weak. The doctor said that drinking some tea would be good for his health, so Bai Yutang came to Ye An.

Chinchilla rolled his eyes: "Of course, is there anything in the world that my fifth master doesn't know?"

Liu Yan hesitated to speak on the sidelines, as if he wanted to say something.Ye An noticed and asked him to speak boldly.

"Boss, why didn't you do the business just now?" Although the man's attitude was not very good, whoever does business doesn't always make money with a smile and kindness. Since Liu Yan started his career, he has seen some worse than him. The truth is that you don't make a lot of money.

Ye An shook his head: "I didn't really pay attention to what that man said. I drove him away because of doubts about his identity."

Looking at Liu Yan's confused eyes, he explained: "He said he is from Lite, but if you look closely, you can tell that he looks completely different from Lite." The Persians are somewhat similar.Because it has always been a small country, it has to depend on various strong people.This has also created the gentle and cheerful personality of the Lite people. Now many people in Bianliang love to do business with the Lite people.

But that man has a tyrannical temper, and although his appearance is high-nosed and deep-eyed, he has some Han looks, and even his accent is from the northwest side, so a fool believes that he is from Lite.

"Not only that," Bai Yutang added: "When he covered his ears just now, he lifted his hat a little, and he could see that there seemed to be braids in his hair, and he was bald!"

"Ah?" Ye An fell into deep thought: "This hairstyle, bald, braided, big forehead... Xixia people?!" No mistake, after the Xixia monarch Li Yuanhao ascended the throne a few years ago, in order to shape the national characteristics.A "hair-shaving order" was issued, stipulating that all men with party items should shave the top of their heads, leaving only a short braid around the edges, otherwise they will be shot.

As soon as this remark came out, Liu Yan and the other staff panicked. You must know that Song Xiake is still fighting, and he loses more than he wins against others. If the deal is completed, the crime of collaborating with the enemy may not escape.

"It doesn't matter. Even if there is a war, the trade between the two countries has not stopped. It's just that the people are banned." Ye An comforted them, and secretly heaved a sigh of relief, but in order to prevent retaliation, he still hired bodyguards. Patrol outside Floating Cloud Pavilion.

I thought the matter was over, but a few days later, Zhang Mao came to look for him, saying that the officials announced him into the palace.With question marks all over his face, Ye An saw Renzong again.

The two chatted briefly at first, and the other party finally explained the purpose of coming: "Did a Xixia person come to your store before..."

Ye An thumped in his heart, and explained: "I didn't sell to him, and kicked him out early."

"I know, don't panic." Renzong looked at him amusedly, "Actually, our people have been monitoring that man since he entered the Song Dynasty."

Knowing that he still had something to say, Ye An waited quietly without opening his mouth.Sure enough, Renzong sighed, as if he was extremely tired, and said: "You know that the Liao Kingdom sent [-] troops to attack Xixia a while ago."

Ye An nodded, he knew that there was a lot of rumors among the people at that time, and the people were very happy to see their dogs bite dogs.

"A while ago there was news that the Liao army was defeated and more than half of them were damaged."

"Ah??" Ye An was shocked. One must know that the Liao Kingdom is a first-class power in the world. Even if it has not been able to do well in recent years, a camel is still bigger than a horse. How could it lose to his younger brother.

Renzong was also quite depressed. He thought that the Song Dynasty would be in charge of logistics and supplies, and he could follow behind to pick up the bargain. He didn't expect the Liao Dynasty to be so disappointing, but there was good news.That is, at least there is no need to worry too much about the border between Song and Liao in the short term.

"After this battle, the morale of Xixia has greatly increased, and all ethnic groups in the northwest have also surrendered. At the same time, there are internal and external troubles in Liao. It is estimated that there will be no more troops."

Ye An didn't really understand, but he also knew that the situation was not good.Since Li Yuanhao proclaimed himself emperor, Song and Liao have fought a total of three battles, and the result can be said that one battle is not as good as one. Now even the Liao Kingdom can't stop it. Isn't the Great Song Dynasty like fat in the eyes of others?

"There is no need to be too afraid," Renzong comforted, "We have just finished the war in Xixia, and we have subdued many tribes, so we should not send troops easily, not to mention that we have hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Song Dynasty."

... No, you don't know anything about Da Song's army.Ye An crazily complained in his heart, when you Song Huizong they also comforted themselves in the same way, but Jin Bing hit Bianliang in a daze.Who knows if the change of Jingkang will be brought forward because of the wings of this butterfly! !So he asked solemnly: "Official, what do you need me to do, please feel free to ask, the students will definitely do their best!"

Renzong probably didn't expect him to be so enlightened, and he was flattered and said: "In a few days, I will send Han Qi as an envoy to Xixia to discuss the peace talks between Song and Xia..."

"But you want me to go with you?" Ye An asked curiously.

"No," Renzong shook his head: "There are enough people on the surface. When you set up a sugar factory, you have been in secret contact with Xixia people. Now that loose tea appears, they are even more eager to be with you. When doing business, you must know that these things are not for sale in the market."

In Song Xia's market, only some items on the list can be traded.In the Song Dynasty, silk was generally used to buy Xixia's camels, horses, cattle, sheep and other livestock.Then use the porcelain lacquerware to come to Yi Xixia's beeswax and safflower.There is also salt. The green salt produced in Xixia is cheap and large in quantity. The income from green salt alone can be used for the financial expenditure of several states in Xixia.

The Song Dynasty also thought about using the method of closing the market to force Xixia to submit, and fought an economic war with them, so as to achieve the goal of surrendering without fighting.But there was a shortage of horses in the Song Dynasty, and there was no place to buy horses after the market was closed.Second, in addition to the Xixia Dangxiang people and Song people in the northwest, there are many ethnic groups.Because of the ban on salt, the tribes that originally relied on selling salt to make a living and remained neutral had no way of making a living and could only rely on Xixia.In the Song Dynasty, stealing chickens was not enough to lose money, and they never dared to use this trick again.

"I hope you can contact Li Yuanhao's son."

"What the hell?" Ye An was stunned, why did he suddenly jump on Li Yuanhao's son again.

Renzong explained to him patiently: "Li Yuanhao has four sons in total, the first two were killed by him and his mother together." Speaking of this, Renzong's face was a little distorted, the drought died and the flood died, and his own son None, and the other party's son didn't feel bad at all for killing him at will.

After calming down, Renzong continued: "He was wild and promiscuous. He not only killed his mother and cousin, but even the elder brother of the current queen Ye Li, the head of the Ye Li family, had his whole family slaughtered because of his suspicion some time ago. The wife of the head of the Yeli family, the Wuzang family, was left behind, and she was brought into the harem, and she was very doted on, and even the brothers of the Wuzang family became high officials in the Xixia court."

Ye An's eyes were full of mosquito-repellent incense, and he took a closer look. In fact, Li Yuanhao took the wife of his brother-in-law, and now the status of the queen and the prince is in jeopardy.

"So... you want me to secretly contact Prince Xixia and do business with him so that he can compete with the Wuzang clan?"

"That's right," Renzong hesitated, "but if you don't want to, I won't make things difficult for you, so let's leave it at that."

"No, no, no," Ye An shook his head: "It's okay to go, but I'm thinking about how to get in touch with him. Since it's secret, it's definitely not possible with too many people, but if I go there with my bare hands, will there be any danger?"

Renzong hesitated for a moment, and said hesitantly: "I can provide you with some self-defense."

Under Ye An's expectant eyes, he led him to a small warehouse, and then ordered people to move out two large boxes, explaining: "These are all poisons, uh, developed by Emperor Taizong, there are all kinds of poisons."

Ye An: "..." He had heard before that Song Taizong was a master poisoner. Before he became emperor, he devoted himself to research and collected thousands of medical prescriptions.

One of the more famous ones is the medicine used to poison Li Yu, the empress of the Southern Tang Dynasty, called "the medicine for pulling the machine". After being poisoned, the whole body convulsed and died curled up like a prawn.

He wanted to speak, but he opened his mouth and still remained silent. Ye An waved his hand with black lines all over his face, and put away the poison, which is probably better than nothing.

Renzong also knew that he was unreliable, so he said a little embarrassedly: "Of course I won't let you go alone. I found a master and I'm waiting outside the palace. With him around, you will be fine. If the conversation goes well Just do it, if it doesn’t go well, just treat it as going to play, if you have any requirements, just ask.”

"...Okay." Ye An also knew that the time was tight and the task was heavy, so he proposed to go home without any nonsense.

Renzong nodded and asked Zhang Mao to take him out of the palace. On the way, Ye An curiously asked who was the person who cooperated with him.Zhang Mao just laughed and said nothing, he only knew when he reached the gate of the palace.

"Mystery," Ye An muttered, but when he really saw the other party, he couldn't help being dumbfounded.

"Old, teacher??!"

I saw Pan Yuanqing standing there with a long sword in his hand, as cold as frost and snow.