Chapter 256 More Than Four Roads
Zhao Yulin didn't want to argue about trivial matters.
He took a sip of tea and said: There are still many important matters to be discussed right now. I will first raise two issues for your comments: One is that we use the Sichuan-Shaanxi Administration Office to command all the routes, but now it is no longer the four Sichuan-Shaanxi routes of the past. We now have Lanzhou, Xining, Fengxiang, Jingzhao, and a large area under Xinshi. The seal in Lord Ding's hand must be changed. He suggested making a larger seal, at least one inch larger than the original one.
Everyone immediately burst into laughter and said, "Of course, of course."
Then he talked about the second thing. Now that so many prefectures and counties have come in, we must make a seal for them. For example, Changdu Prefecture and Kangning Prefecture have nothing yet.
Everyone responded with "yes, yes".
Zhao Yulin said that now that the imperial court is gone, the Office of Administration must take on the responsibilities of the imperial court and make everyone feel the warmth of home.
He asked for leave from everyone so that he could go to Renhuai, where they were sending troops to the south. After entering Guangdong and Guangxi, we could do business directly at sea, and we wouldn't be afraid of the blockade from Jiangdong.
Lao Cao was stunned. It turns out that the trick was here.
No wonder Zhao Yulin planned to advance southward and abolish the control system as soon as he returned to Cuiping Mountain.
Lao Cao said he wanted to go and take a look too.
Zhao Yulin smiled and asked him: "The general is also the transport commissioner, and he has a lot of things to do. How about he go back first and wait at Cuiping Mountain, and then go to Renhuai together in half a month?"
The two of them agreed on the spot, which was considered as asking for leave for everyone .
At this time, Hua Yue, the transport envoy, stood up again, and then called in a eunuch dressed as a palace servant. The eunuch stood next to Hua Yue and screamed, "Zhao Yulin, the commander of the Shenwei Army, accepts the order."
This was too sudden. Zhao Yulin was stunned and alert. The scene of the Lin'an court killing people by reading the imperial edict flashed through his mind. He saw Hua Yue standing in the middle solemnly, so he had to step back three steps to pay respect to his elders, and stood there with his head down and alert.
The eunuch opened the imperial edict and read out the emperor's edict conferring the title of King of Han on him, and then read out the edict conferring the title of King of Han on him in marriage to the emperor's daughter.
Only then did Zhao Yulin relax, raised his head, took it, handed it to Xiao Yan, and told her to keep it.
Hua Yue said in public that he had witnessed the commander's actions recently, all of which were for the people and put the people first. He was ordered to go to Shu to do his job, so he should fulfill his duties conscientiously.
Everyone was nodding and whispering to each other.
Zhao Yulin said loudly that he had accepted the imperial edict. He thanked the emperor for conferring the title of King of Han, but he would never accept it. He thought it would be a good idea to discuss Sichuan affairs with all the gentlemen so that they could pool their wisdom and benefit the people.
As for the Emperor's gift of Princess Zhao Feiyan as his wife, Zhao Yulin looked at Xiao Yan and smiled and said that he thanked the Emperor for the gift. Princess Zhao Feiyan had been found, but the person who could prove her identity was still on the way. When everyone was present, he would invite everyone to their wedding banquet.
Everyone was stunned, but three seconds later they immediately burst into cheering, some shouting "Great," some shouting "Congratulations" non-stop.
Zhao Yulin called the eunuch and asked him to follow him. Why were you still standing there?
Then he took Xiao Yan's hand and went out of the hall.
Later, Mr. Ding asked in surprise if the princess had been found?
How come he doesn't know?
Which one is it?
The criminal prosecutor asked in confusion, "Could it be Xiao Yan?" Just now, I noticed that the commander said he wanted to have a wedding banquet, and the young lady's face was flushed with joy.
Lao Cao was a little depressed. They saw each other every day, but he knew nothing about anything.
Zhao Yulin came out and asked Feihu to arrange for his brothers to pick up the eunuch's luggage and wait directly at the dock. They went to the post station to pack up and return to Yibin.
He looked at Xiao Yan, who was shy, and said: There are all kinds of forces in Chengdu, it's complicated, don't reveal your identity yet. Wait until our mother and Eunuch Luo arrive.
The little girl felt even happier when she heard Zhao Yulin call her mother "our mother."
The group arrived at the dock and boarded the official ship. Zhao Yulin looked at the young eunuch with a smile and asked, "Are you the eunuch serving the emperor?"
What's your name?
The girl immediately bent down 90 degrees, buried her head deeply in greeting Zhao Yulin, and reported back that it was Li Changzai, the eunuch close to the emperor, who said that the edict was hastily prepared by the emperor in a critical moment, thinking of the Prince of Han and the little princess, and had not yet been announced to the whole country.
Zhao Yulin helped him up, smiled and nodded, saying that it didn't matter, the Shenwei Army didn't practice such grand gifts, and that he should just stay with Inspector Xiao from now on.
Xiao Yan's face had already become as ripe as an apple. She said with a smile, "Eunuch Li, don't be restrained. Shu is different from Lin'an. Everyone lives a very easy life there."
Eunuch Li responded with "Yes, yes" one after another.
Zhao Yulin told everyone to take a rest and went into the cabin to take a nap.
At this time, the small court in Lin'an was bustling with activity.
Shi's son spent the night with his concubine and woke up at dawn. The Imperial City Office had sent an urgent message that Xiangyang had obtained a large amount of salt and was selling it at half the price. The people were smiling and shouting that they didn't want sea salt anymore.
Shi's son was panicked when he heard this, and jumped out of bed to go out. The maid saw that he was empty down there, and she was so scared that she ran away. After waking up, she kept asking for a bath and change of clothes, and she dressed hastily and went to the court.
The young Emperor Zhao Du was also anxious while sitting on the dragon throne. When he saw Shi's son, he asked: "What should we do, my dear? Sichuan and Shu don't need salt anymore, and all the major warehouses in the city are full. Changping Warehouse has sold all the grain and is left with salt."
Shi's son rolled his eyes at the little emperor, ignored him, and turned to talk to a few close ministers.
According to reliable sources, after the Shenwei Army discovered a huge salt lake in the newly built Xining Prefecture, the civilian workers who accompanied the army in their expedition to Kangyanchuan transported military supplies and brought back salt on the return trip. The salt was directly shoveled into sacks, loaded onto carts and transported away, so the price was of course cheap.
Zhao Yulin had these things published in the newspaper on purpose, so anyone can see them. The news is absolutely reliable .
Several salt merchants who had paid for official positions asked tearfully, "What should we do?"
The Imperial City Department angrily said that even the prefect of Jingzhou had issued an official document, saying that in the future, when buying our sea salt, the price would be 50% off, and the quality must be excellent. Even so, Jingzhou still thought they could not make any money, because the price would definitely be more than that after adding transportation, distribution and taxes.
Moreover, there is half-price lake salt in Xining, but it is still unclear whether ordinary people will buy it.
When Shi's son heard this, he was stunned, as if the salt stored in the warehouse was a huge tomb built for him. He felt that the air he breathed was salty.
He said dully that there are so many roads, states and counties in the west. If Jingzhou doesn't want it, can't we sell it to Kuizhou?
The salt officials said no, Sichuan and Shu had established a supply and marketing cooperative to issue unified commands, and the price was the same everywhere.
Damn, what should I do?
Although Shi's son was well-read, he couldn't help but curse inwardly. He sat down on the chair, feeling dizzy and weak from eating too much salt.
At this time, the imperial edict from the Great Mongol Empire arrived again, ordering the small court to transfer an annual tribute of one million taels of silver and 100,000 pieces of high-quality silk as tribute.
Shi's son was resting on the armchair with his eyes closed, and when he heard the fire asking for silver and silk, he angrily said, "Fuck, I've used all the silver to buy salt, there's none left."
The grassland envoy was furious and scolded him harshly: "How dare you be so disrespectful to our great Mongolian nation. Do you still want to sit on the position of prime minister?"
Shi's son was awakened, opened his eyes and saw the envoy of the upper country in front of him, and immediately became weak. He went up to apologize humbly, explained the situation of the defeat in the salt war with Sichuan and Shu, and told the envoy that the warehouse was full of salt, but the treasury was clean, and all the silver was exchanged for salt.
After checking the official treasury in Lin'an, the grassland envoys were also helpless and cursed the damn people for being so stupid. Can salt be eaten as food?
In line with the imperial edict that every bit of salt squeezed out is a bit of salt, the envoys from the grassland still transported 300,000 kilograms of salt from Lin'an.
The small imperial court is in a tough situation. It was originally built by robbing Peter to pay Paul, and now it has lost miserably in the salt war with the west, and all its money has been used up.
The salt merchant took the contract to Shi's son to ask for money, but Shi's son rolled his eyes and pretended to be dead. After a long while, he said that although there was no silver, we still had salt. If you could take the salt away at the original price, wouldn't it be money if you sold it yourself?
Shi's son was smart. He fought a battle with Zhao Yulin without spending a penny. Although he lost, he did not lose money.
The salt merchants started crying and cursed inwardly: Damn it, what kind of court is this?
They delivered the salt to the government treasury and received half of the silver. Now they have to transport it back themselves and return all the silver without losing a penny.
Doesn’t it cost money to transport it back and forth?
This is such bad luck.
What's even more serious is that Sichuan and Shu under the rule of the Shenwei Army want salt, but they only offer half the price, and it must be top-quality goods.
Damn, what is this? It’s such a huge loss.
Salt merchants along the coast were not convinced and bet that Sichuan and Shu did not have much salt, so they would openly purchase sea salt. But half a month later, they still did not give in. Not only that, Sichuan and Shu also exported the best artesian tribute salt and ordinary salt lake salt to Jiangdong.
The high-quality salt from Ziliujing is the favorite of upper-class families in Liangzhe, and wealthy families generously pay money to buy it.
Ordinary salt lake salt is also very popular among low-income people and soon enters thousands of households.
The salt merchants were stunned by this situation. What was this little imperial court doing? Not only was the most profitable business not profitable, but it was also losing money. What was going on?
Zhao Yulin stayed in Jiading with the two children and accompanied Chen Chen for three days before returning to Cuiping Mountain. In order to let him have a good rest, his mother sent all the adults and children to Jiangbei.
He had only stayed there for two days when Xiao Yan's mother Kuang Sisi arrived under the escort of Luo Mingqiu.
Zhao Yulin accompanied Xiao Yan to the dock to greet them, and the mother and daughter burst into tears as soon as they met.
Luo Mingqiu recognized the eunuch Li Gonggong at a glance, and the two had endless things to say. Luo Mingqiu reported to Zhao Yulin that fortunately there were people from a favorable place to escort him, because Liangzhe and Jinghu were too chaotic, and the officials were cruelly exploiting the people, so they were displaced and gathered in the mountains, and there were bandits everywhere.
Zhao Yulin said with a smile that it was good that they came back safely, and that they didn’t need to hide their identities anymore, and they should be assigned to the Shunfeng Department.
The two agreed immediately, both with grateful looks on their faces.
