As soon as these words came out, Zhang Cheng's original contempt suddenly flew out of the sky, replaced by a feeling of irritation that he had been fooled.
Zhang Cheng suppressed his anger and said to Murong Fu as calmly as possible: "Is this young master just trying to tell me that he wants to buy these 100,000 dans of green salt for Dali?"
Murong Fu smiled slightly: "What? No?"
Zhang Cheng said with a slight anger on his face: "Not to mention whether the young master has the financial resources to take these 100,000 dans of green salt. Even if the young master has the financial resources, can the young master cross the prefectures and counties of the Song Dynasty to take these 100,000 dans of green salt?
Is the salt transported to Dali?"
The territory of Xixia is rich in green salt, which is known to the whole world. In the past, Li Yuanhao's father and grandfather were able to recruit troops and horses by relying on the barren products of the bitter and cold land in the northwest between the Song and Liao countries, and gradually became big, largely because of this
The benefits of green salt. Xixia is actually an armed merchant group with a set of court systems.
After Li Yuanhao became emperor in the past, after a confrontation between Song and Xia, they finally sat at the negotiating table. It was said that Xixia professed its vassalage to the Song Dynasty, but in fact, to put it bluntly, it was the Song Dynasty that spent money to buy peace. Among Li Yuanhao's demands
, one item is that the Song Dynasty purchased 100,000 azurite salt from Xixia every year.
Theoretically speaking, the green salt of Xixia is of high quality and low price. For the people of the Song Dynasty, it is definitely a good thing that is beneficial to people's livelihood. In the Song Dynasty, they can use the profits of green salt to collect salt taxes and increase their financial income.
, isn’t it a good thing that benefits the country and the people and makes everyone happy?
But the problem is that the cost of Xixia's green salt is too low. There are salt lakes and saline-alkali lands everywhere in the Gobi desert. You can get high-quality green salt without spending much time and energy on making it. In contrast, in the Song Dynasty,
Except for Sichuan and Sichuan, which are natural salt-producing areas, the cost of salt production in other places is extremely high. Salt tax was an important revenue for the Song Dynasty court, and the salt tax was extremely heavy.
As a result, the green salt sold in Xixia for twenty or thirty cents per catty was still very profitable, while the salt sold in the Song Dynasty for seventy or eighty cents per catty was not even enough to protect capital.
In this way, if the Song Dynasty court paid for the 100,000 dans of green salt from Xixia and then sold it to the people of Song, it would give Li Yuanhao another opportunity to make a big impact on himself. But if Xixia is allowed to do it on its own
The sale of these 100,000 dans of green salt in the Song Dynasty meant that the imperial salt and iron monopoly existed in name only.
This kind of thing exists in this era and will still exist in the next thousand years. Anyway, it is just a different name.
After weighing the pros and cons, the Song Dynasty chose to spend money to buy Ping An, and accepted the deal with a pinched nose. Every year, it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy green salt from Xixia, and then added a tax to sell the high-priced green salt.
The salt was sold to ordinary people in the Song Dynasty, and anyway, he was not at a loss.
However, as a result, the smuggling of green salt on the Song-Xia border, which has been banned since the Taizong era of the Song Dynasty, has become more and more intense. After all, the people of the two countries are not fools. Businessmen in Xixia saw the profits and took risks one after another. People in the border states of the Song Dynasty could buy
Low-priced salt, naturally enjoy its results.
Some people even discovered business opportunities in this and became second-rate dealers. They bought green salt from Xixia merchants at a low price and then sold it to the mainland at a higher price to earn the difference. Anyway, even after increasing the price, it was still better than that of the Song Dynasty.
The official salt is cheap and of good quality. As a result, the salt policy of the Song Dynasty is in jeopardy. Ordinary people no longer support the official salt of the Song Dynasty. What's the big deal? If things go on like this, the country will not be a country. Ordinary people don't care about you these days.
Song Yan, Xia Yan.
They only care about whether the few copper coins and kilograms of grain they have earned through hard work can be put to better use. Moreover, once the hole is opened, it is difficult to close it again. So the Song Dynasty naturally refused to do it and asked Xixia
Xixia promised quite well on the surface to restrain the private salt dealers in the territory, and even encouraged the situation behind the scenes. So the Song and Xia countries would fight each other every once in a while. Then the border settlements between the Song and Xia countries were closed for a period of time.
, until the Song Dynasty was beaten unbearably, sued for peace, and was forced to reopen the market. Then the Xixia side retreated, and the two countries reconciled as before, and so on.
The last border battle between Song and Xia was another copy of this model. But the problem is that after decades of development, Xixia is no longer the brave and skilled warrior in Li Yuanhao's era, relying on a mere million people to conquer the northwest of the Song Dynasty.
The country became strong. After one battle, the army was lost and generals were lost, and no benefits were gained at all. The chicken was stolen but the rice was lost.
The direct consequence is that since the death of Li Yuanhao, Li Qiushui, who is responsible for maintaining this model, has become the scapegoat and shouldered the blame. The Xixia royal family, which had been reduced to a puppet, has become a puppet of all parties with vested interests in Xixia.
With tacit consent, they took advantage of the moment when Li Qiu Shui was being chased by Tong Lao to blow up Li Qiu Shui's stall...
Therefore, Li Qiushui was kicked out of the Xixia Palace, and when he traced the source, he actually landed on these inconspicuous green salts.
...
In this case, it is no wonder that Zhang Cheng thought Murong Fu was dreaming. After all, if he wanted to win the business of one hundred thousand dans of green salt, the payment alone would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Besides, he would have to bring this one hundred thousand dan of salt from the Song Dynasty.
To transport green salt to Dali, unless the Emperor of Song Dynasty personally issued an edict, it was obviously impossible.
Murong Fu sneered and said: "Master Zhang is also a man who has experienced the world for a long time and holds a high position. How can he be so ignorant? He behaves like a disciple of the Beggar Clan!"
Zhang Cheng's color suddenly changed, but he saw the young man in Jinyi tapping the table with his fingers, and saw the two girls who had left before coming in one after another, each carrying a tray. There was nothing else on the tray, only
A brocade bag as big as a palm, the workmanship is very exquisite.
The two girls placed the tray in front of Zhang Cheng, saluted Mr. Jinyi, then closed the door and left.
Murong Fu raised his hand and made a "please" gesture to Zhang Cheng.
Zhang Cheng was confused, but he still opened one of the brocade bags. After just one glance, he was shocked. He hurriedly opened another bag and poured the contents onto the table with a crash.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! What you see is that all kinds of gems are crystal clear. They are top-grade at first glance. Zhang Cheng is a salt and iron envoy, and he has seen serious fat and rare treasures.
Quite a few. But if you take out any one of the various gems in front of you, its appearance and value are the only ones Zhang Cheng has seen in his life. It can be said that if you take out one at will, its value will be no less than ten thousand yuan.
And there are dozens of such gems in front of you.
Zhang Cheng felt that his eyes were hot and his throat was a little dry.
Zhang Cheng's actions naturally fell into Murong Fu's eyes. Seeing Zhang Cheng fixedly looking at the pile of priceless treasures in front of him, Murong Fu deliberately coughed to remind him: "Master Zhang?"
Murong Fu shouted a few words in succession, and Zhang Chengcai looked away from his fantasy and realized his gaffe, so he had to cough several times to cover up his embarrassment.
"The young master's extraordinary skill and wealth are unprecedented in Zhang's life. Although this batch of gems is not cash, it was sold to the Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty and was worth hundreds of thousands of gold. It was enough to pay for one hundred thousand dans of green salt.
The payment for the goods. I am the Daxia Salt and Iron Envoy and will work for the benefit of the country. Since the young master is sincere, I will sell this green salt to the young master."
Zhang Cheng was excited: Put aside seeking profits for the country first. If he completes this business, he can earn a profit of at least one hundred thousand yuan. Money is attractive to people, who would be dissatisfied with the lack of money? And the Zhang family is in
Xixia's status will definitely become more stable.
However, Murong Fu's next words made Zhang Cheng's heart sink again: "I never said that I would use these things to buy your country's green salt!"
Zhang Cheng's face suddenly darkened. If the other party hadn't been rich and powerful, he would have suspected that the other party was here to amuse him. However, Murong Fu's next words made Zhang Cheng's terrible mood suddenly rise to the sky again: "
A few worthless things are given to Mr. Zhang as a meeting gift. I hope you don’t think this gift is too small.”