Chapter 315 Restraining Foreigners
Shunzhidi said that of course she knew and there was no need for her brother to worry.
On the evening of the second day, the envoy from Yue State, Li Shu, arrived. He came running breathlessly and said as soon as he met them that he had finally caught up with them and that the commander was still here.
Liu San told him: It was not that Lord Zhao stayed behind to wait on purpose, everyone has returned to Jiading.
Li Shu smiled naively and said: He knew that Lord Zhao was kindhearted and understood the hardship of a long journey as an envoy. He would definitely not leave after hearing the news. They were just afraid that the envoys from other countries would find out and rush to complain to Lord Zhao.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that Guiyang was newly built and there were not many taverns. The general manager treated him to Miao bamboo shoot chicken, which was very nutritious.
He didn't like to waste time, so after three drinks he asked Li Shu what the urgent matter was.
Li Shu said shyly that the gunpowder he brought back last time was very good, and the king was very happy, so he asked him to come and thank him in person. After that, he asked his followers to bring up an exquisite wooden box. Zhao Yulin saw that the wooden box was wrapped in red silk, so he handed it to Shunzhidi and asked her to open it.
Li Shu said very humbly that it was a gift for his wife. Their army recaptured the jade mine, and they found a piece of jade the first time they mined. The king personally arranged for a jade bracelet to be made and asked him to send it to his wife.
Haha, they really have a lot of intentions. What do you mean by taking back the jade mines? Actually, they just robbed the jade mines of the Dali Kingdom.
Then, he asked his followers to bring in two large boxes filled with deep-sea treasures such as corals, conches, shells, and pearls. These things are everywhere on the seashore, but they have become rare items when transported to the inland areas.
Zhao Yulin waved his hands again and again and said that he didn't want it. Even if everything was given to him, he would still do business with the New Song Kingdom in a fair and just manner. He would not harm the public interest for personal gain or bend the law for personal gain.
Li Shu smiled awkwardly and said that he dared not bribe Lord Zhao, it was just a token of appreciation from a vassal state. Please don't despise me, Lord.
Damn, this guy is not embarrassed at all when he bribes, and he is so confident. However, if these things were taken to Chengdu, they would be sold for at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. Officials without a little self-control would have fallen into it long ago, right?
Zhao Yulin picked out a coral that looked like a peacock, and Shunzhidi liked it at first sight. Seeing her envious eyes, he told Li Shu that he just needed to accept a gift on behalf of Guizhou Road, and handed the coral to Shunzhidi to play with.
Zhidi was extremely happy holding it in her hand, turning it over and over to admire it.
He asked Li Shu, now we can get down to business.
Li Shu then explained hesitantly that he was cautious when purchasing weapons last time and only bought three of each. He thought that since he had gunpowder, he could just take it back and disassemble it to imitate and make the weapons. But in fact, it was not the case.
No matter how hard their craftsmen tried, they couldn't make it right. Even if they made it exactly the same, it still didn't work when used. Some delicate parts broke after one use, making the imitation weapons unusable.
They tried to enlarge the size and specifications of these weapons, but the weapons became too heavy and bulky. Soldiers could not carry them for long before they became exhausted and could not be operated by a single soldier.
So, this guy came to ask for help again, wanting to buy the standard weapons of the Shenwei Army. He asked for equipment for 10,000 people, and even wanted to buy clothing.
Zhao Yulin said that this matter was simple, as long as there was silver, they could sell it, the New Song Kingdom would treat everyone the same. However, he still gave Li Shu a piece of advice, asking him to go back and advise their Chen Kingdom Lord not to attack Dali Kingdom as soon as he got the weapons, because if Dali asked him for the weapons, he would have to sell them.
Their two countries are fighting each other. It is good for him to sell weapons here, but after all, they are all vassal states of the New Song Dynasty. They are one family after all . There is no need to fight like this.
Li Shu agreed immediately, saying that they would only purchase weapons for border defense and would never take the initiative to attack the Dali Kingdom.
Zhao Yulin nodded, knowing that what he said was all unreliable lies and not exposing them. If the weapons really came into their hands, they would definitely use them to attack the New Song Kingdom if they turned against each other one day.
Zhao Yulin then said, "But."
He said: But forget about the clothes. Your country cannot make military uniforms based on the uniforms of the Shenwei Army. If they wear them, people who don't know will think that the Yue army has surrendered to the New Song Dynasty and joined the Shenwei Army.
Li Shu immediately laughed awkwardly and said, "That's right, it was his fault for not thinking it through."
Zhao Yulin wrote a warrant and asked him to go to Master Lu of Cuiping Mountain to handle it. He gave it to Master Lu together with the gifts he had sent.
This guy is so happy that he is leaving for Yibin overnight.
Zhao Yulin looked at the receding convoy and shook his head in confusion.
Zhidi told him that there were no bandits or robbers in Guizhou at the moment, and walking on the road at night was the same as walking during the day. All merchants and travelers who had the energy to travel were on their way.
Liu San believed that the State of Yue was in urgent need of weapons.
Because they had heard from the wind that this person entered the country from Fangcheng on Guangnan West Road, and it took him seven days to get here, so the daily journey was about 200 miles. Even riding a horse, the buttocks were bumpy and uncomfortable, not to mention that their horses were all short-legged horses, and their four hooves were enough to make them fall over.
Zhao Yulin couldn't help laughing out loud with Shunzhidi after hearing what Liu San said was so funny.
He guessed so. Although these small countries fought desperately to compete in terms of manpower, the advancement of their weapons was still crucial to the development of the war.
Zhao Yulin, an envoy from the State of Yue, came to Guiyang to find him, and also saw another force behind Shunzhidi's city building.
He asked Liu San to inform the guests from Yue State and ask them to come to Guiyang to build a villa. From now on, Shunzhidi, the chief steward, will be working in Guiyang, so why should their villa still be in Renhuai?
Liu San understood immediately. Shunzhidi was already happy. This was his brother helping her to raise sponsors for building the city.
Zhao Yulin said, "Let's wait and see. In the future there will definitely be other countries that want to be friendly with us. They knew that the Yue State had built a annex in Guiyang, so they came back here to build one too."
He asked Zhidi to set aside an area for the construction of the annex, and to strictly manage Liu San's Shunfeng place to prevent rebels from escaping to the annex and selling state secrets; and to stop these foreign guests from wandering around and collecting our intelligence.
This is Shunzhidi planning the embassy district in Guiyang. The construction of a national-level courtyard will definitely not be bad. The little woman immediately became happy.
Liu San was alert, Zhao Yulin's words gave him a warning. Usually he was very casual when dealing with these foreigners, and would not restrain or stop them as long as there was no solid evidence that they were doing something wrong.
But when he heard that Zhao Yulin wanted to regulate and restrain the words and deeds of foreigners, he immediately understood the seriousness of it.
The next day, Zhao Yulin was heading back to Renhuai. As soon as he crossed the river, he was stopped by Luzhou prefect Shi Ruyu, who insisted on asking him to rest in the government office.
After Renhuai was upgraded to Guizhou Road, it was no longer under the jurisdiction of Luzhou , and Luzhou's tax revenue dropped compared to before. Shi Dazongguan, who had been promoted to prefect, was entangled in Luzhou's finances and wanted to ask the third young master for help and advice.
Zhao Yulin believes that more efforts should be made in water and land transportation. At present, due to limited construction capabilities in various places, water transportation is the main method and land transportation is supplementary, because water transportation is cheaper.
He said that China is such a vast country that it is not enough to just develop the port economy.
Take Yibin as an example. Yibin opened up land transportation to Rongde County and Jianwei County one after another. New trucks became popular and many villages and towns quickly emerged along the way, which drove rapid growth of wealth.
Zhao Yulin suggested to him that he should first repair the waterway, rationally expand the dock, select a route that is easy to build, and concentrate manpower, material and financial resources to build a land route connecting the prefecture and counties, which would definitely be of great help to Luzhou's economy.
Magistrate Shi seemed to be listening with great interest at the beginning, but he became listless as time went on.
He said that what the Third Young Master said made sense, but where was the money?
He only has a small amount of corvée labor here, and at most he can learn from Yibin and send prisoners to work. The problem is that these expenses are insanely high, where does he get so much money?
Zhao Yulin felt that the new Song Dynasty should have a Ministry of Industry to coordinate road traffic matters.
He asked the prefect to prepare a plan and send a letter to the Central Council to request that he come to help Luzhou speak for it. Zhao Yulin told him that the ideas of building roads and bridges in various places were all his own, and he could also mobilize the enlightened gentry in the local area to donate money and materials to invest.
Prefect Shi nodded and said that the third young master was the most enlightened gentleman. He heard that the third young master's family had donated a lot of money to Yibin County. How about he also support Luzhou?
Zhao Yulin almost spit out a mouthful of tea.
Fairy Banban, if he was asked to donate money every time he went to a place, he would not be able to resist paying.
Zhao Yulin said that Guizhou is currently trying to open up a land route to the west of Guangnan, which will cost a lot. All his money has been spent in Guiyang, so Luzhou has to find a way on its own.
Prefect Shi burst out laughing and said a little depressedly that if he had known that the commander-in-chief attached so much importance to Renhuai and Guizhou, he would not have come back. Then he invited everyone to eat and drink.
Zhao Yulin said that there is still potential for local financial management, and we should not just focus on the small amount of taxes. After returning, he also planned to propose to Ding Gong that the tax-sharing system be adopted to collect taxes, leaving a certain amount of taxes for local governments to arrange their own affairs and promote local economic development.
Magistrate Shi's eyes immediately lit up, and he asked him in surprise, "Is it true?"
If that were the case, local governments would be even more motivated to collect taxes and would certainly find ways to collect as much as possible. The more they collect, the more they will get.
Zhao Yulin nodded affirmatively. It was because of this that he came up with this bold idea.
If the taxes are not divided, the imperial court will take all of them, and the local governments will lack initiative and enthusiasm. If an appropriate amount of tax is allocated to the local governments, and they are given the right to be flexible, their enthusiasm will be mobilized.
Then they collect taxes according to the law, and they will definitely not leave out a single cent of what they should collect.
The prefect was in high spirits and asked several deputies to persuade him to drink. Soon Zhao Yulin felt dizzy.
The next day, Zhao Yulin returned to Cuiping Mountain. Chen Zhongshun took him to Jiangbei Jiaohua Chicken for a drink and told him that he had transferred all the assets here to Yibin County at the original investment price. The county government had no cash, so it had to write an IOU.
