In a situation where the world is in chaos, countries are competing for balance, and thousands of armies are coming and going, time seems to pass very quickly. Often the king, ministers, and generals of a certain place would die at the slightest thought, and their families would be destroyed, all in the blink of an eye. However, when the situation in the world is still stable, and all the forces have their own needs and use messengers to communicate and discuss repeatedly, time seems to pass very slowly.
Especially when certain matters require decision-making by the highest-ranking leaders on both sides, there are thousands of mountains and rivers between Lin'an in the south and Tianjin in the north. Even if the messengers fly with wings, they will always make mistakes. Moreover, care must be taken to prevent information from being easily leaked to the outside world, which makes the delay in the process even more worrying.
Fortunately, the powerful officials of the Jin Dynasty and the powerful officials of the Song Dynasty finally reached an agreement. At the turn of spring and summer in the second year of Xingding, which was the ninth year of Jiading in the Song Dynasty, the political and military affairs of the two sides inevitably bumped into each other, but the powerful officials of the two families secretly What you want to do will actually happen.
When he got up early in the morning, Shi Miyuan had just finished washing and before he could change his clothes, Jia She came to meet him outside the hospital.
It is usually not that easy for officials to meet the prime minister, not to mention that Shi Miyuan's prime minister's power is extremely powerful, far exceeding that of ordinary prime ministers. Normally, even if Li Zhixiao, Liang Chengda and other cronies asked for an audience, they would have to sit on the bench for a while.
However, close servants of the Shifu knew that the Jia family and his son were very popular in front of the Prime Minister these days, and that they were handling a big event for the Prime Minister, so they not only did not stop Jia She, but also directly led him in, just outside the residence courtyard. Sign up.
Shi Miyuan quickly let him in.
As soon as they met, Jia She threw himself on the ground, saluted, and said happily: "Prime Minister, everything is settled! The monogram is also signed!"
He raised his head as he spoke. Shi Miyuan was shocked when he saw his appearance. It turned out that Jia She's eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets were black, and his cheekbones were sticking out on both sides. It was obvious that he had been working too hard recently, and he must have stayed up all night again last night!
This matter was originally complicated for his eldest son Shi Kuan. However, Shi Kuanzhi was in poor health and could not pay close attention to trivial matters, nor could he bear the all-night negotiations. As a result, all these things fell on the shoulders of the two father and son.
Jia Sidao is more relaxed. He often has to go out to make contacts and assist Yang You in managing the new army that is being trained in Huaidong. Perhaps it was easier to work locally than to deal with all aspects in Lin'an. Shi Miyuan felt good every time he saw the young man come back after two or three months.
Jia She cannot compare with young people. He kept going back and forth between Lin'an and Lianghuai, and from time to time he had to keep an eye on the money supervisors in Lianghuai. As a result, he looked tired every time he came back. In the past few days, he was exhausted from pushing forward the negotiations with all his strength.
Shi Miyuan's temperament was not harsh, and he was even more generous to the people he valued. He looked apologetic and called Jia She to sit down, scolding him repeatedly: "Jichuan, you have to take on a big responsibility, how can you not take care of your body?" !”
While he was talking, he called the servants and removed all the soup and tea from the courtyard, replacing them with the nourishing meat porridge that had been simmering in the back kitchen.
"This is deer tail porridge cooked by He Zhi Qian Shi. It is very good for replenishing vitality. I am reading Buddhist scriptures right now, so I can't use it too much. Don't be restrained and drink a bowl first. If you feel good about it, take some back with you."
"Thank you, Prime Minister!" Jia She thanked him repeatedly, took the porridge from the servant, put it on the table, and then presented a book full of handwriting: "Master, please look, this is what I did last night After finalizing the terms of the business with each company, Zhou Keshan said that the Tianjin government would not have any objections and would just do what we want."
Shi Miyuan took it and looked through it. He always thought quickly and read very quickly. After flipping through dozens of pieces of paper, he already understood it well. These regulations were originally proposed by Guo Ning, the Duke of Zhou in the north. They were quite innovative. However, due to the ignorance of the northerners, there were many mistakes and omissions. Many clauses conflicted with the business practices of the Song Dynasty and had to be revised one by one.
The two sides went back and forth several times, and Shi Miyuan also secretly informed his cronies and made some concessions before finally finalizing the entire cooperation.
The reason why the two powerful officials of the Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty cooperated together is that the whole thing is a bit complicated.
The original reason came from Shi Miyuan's desire to set up a new army in Huaishang to replace the situation created by Li Jue and Ying Chunzhi. At the same time, this was Shi Miyuan's back-up plan as the leader of the Principle Faction, used to show his side's foresight when the trend of the Song Dynasty changed to the main battle.
Since a new army was established, the court had to provide food and pay. However, since the Song Dynasty's southern migration, the imperial court's financial resources were in straits, and military generals had always been accustomed to making money by themselves. Cutting down mountains for fuel, gathering wood for rafts, conducting businessmen, opening wineries, and unloading warehouses were all common methods to support the army's return to trade. . If Shi Miyuan wanted to support Yang You in building a new army, he would of course have to open up a financial hole.
That's why Shi Kuanzhi took Yang You to Wazili, where the powerful people in Lin'an were having fun privately, to kill people and show their strength and show their bravery. Naturally, their successors would sit on the land and share profits, and collect money to support the new army.
But at this time, Shi Kuanzhi recruited a new subordinate, Jia She's son Jia Sidao.
Jia Sidao is quite clever, and his father Jia She is an expert in financial management. He followed Shi Kuanzhi to Yangzhou for a second time and came back. Together with his father, he worked out a plan that could not only make money but also raise troops. At the same time, he looked good to the powerful neighbors in the north and circumvented the Song Dynasty's alignment between the East and the West. Good plan.
This plan has been gradually implemented, and the final links have now been agreed upon:
First of all, the Song Dynasty reopened money prisons in Zhenzhou and Anqing Prefecture, and Jia She personally took charge of them to ensure output.
From the Qian Prison, 300,000 guan are provided every year to supplement the use of the imperial court.
This point is particularly valued by Shi Miyuan.
Shi Miyuan had been in charge of the government for several years, but the biggest headache was the nearly 100 million yuan left by Han Kuanwei in Huizi. These huizi continued to depreciate in value, causing complaints from the people, and all their grievances were directed at Shi Miyuan. Shi Miyuan used many methods to calm down, but the amount of money was too large, and it was impossible for the court to come up with enough copper coins to continue to weigh and recycle.
With these 300,000 yuan, Shi Miyuan has the confidence to respond, and the response itself is enough to boost the market's confidence in Huizi. Once the value of Huizi appreciates, the pressure on Shi Miyuan from the government and the opposition will immediately be relieved.
From the Qian Prison, another 300,000 coins were handed over to Shi Kuanzhi, who led Yang You and Jia Sidao to build a new army in Huaidong.
Once the new army was trained, Shi Miyuan gained the confidence of the Beijin people. When talking about it in the court, it also showed that he was not limited to the stance of war and peace, but had the foresight to pursue dual uses.
More importantly, Shi Miyuan has recently come to feel that after a powerful official has achieved his level, the real enemy is neither the Jurchens in the north nor the opponents in the court who can only bark and bark. Those who can make him fearful are already There is only imperial power itself.
Although the current Emperor of the Song Dynasty is gentle and dull, and does not seem to have that kind of scheming, how can this kind of thing be certain? How could you not be on guard?
In the long run, Shi Miyuan hopes that his family will directly control the Privy Council and local military power, so that they can have some sense of security. Among them, the Privy Council can slowly figure it out, and the local military power... If Shi Kuanzhi uses these 300,000 yuan properly, Shi Miyuan will be like Xie An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the Beifu Army under his own control!
The two money prisons in Huaibei have brought such benefits to Shi Miyuan, so of course there cannot be any turmoil. But it is close to the border between the Song and Jin countries. Zhenzhou and Anqing Prefecture are both in the north and the only way for the Jin army to go south. This is also the reason why the two prisons were abandoned.
Nowadays, Dajin is divided into two parts. Guo Ning, who is in power in the east, is known as the evil tiger and is extremely ferocious, while in the west, the surrounding areas of Kaifeng Prefecture are mobilizing their troops every day. God knows what they are going to do. Therefore, in order to get these two benefits, we have to make some extra concessions to satisfy our powerful neighbor to the north.
Jia She put a lot of effort into this and made great achievements. He came forward several times and finally reached an agreement on behalf of Shi Miyuan and Guo Ning.
All that is needed is to hand over the remaining output of Huaibei Qianjian, about 600,000 yuan, to Ding Haijun privately. Ding Haijun promised that not only would he never go south to invade and plunder, but if necessary, he would also take action against Kaifeng Mansion to maintain the safety of Huaibei Qianjian.
And after getting the 600,000 yuan, the matter of setting the navy's annual coins was never mentioned again!
In this case, the Song Dynasty could confidently send the coins to Kaifeng!
Dajin's force is so tyrannical. Even if the country is now divided into two parts, the Dinghai navy in the east has already subdued the northern grasslands, and its military is majestic. Shi Miyuan didn't think at all that he could defeat them. Fortunately, Guo Ning came from a humble background and had low vision, so he was satisfied with 600,000 yuan!
What is more important than peace in this world? Being able to exchange a little money for peace was a huge profit for the Song Dynasty, wasn't it?
When Shi Miyuan first received the news, he was overjoyed and felt that he was dreaming.
Then he suspected that Jia She and Jia Sidao, father and son, were sent by a hidden political enemy of his family with the intention of digging a hole to frame him. The results confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the Jia family and his son. The Duke of Zhou in the north really took a fancy to the 600,000 copper coins a year. There really is such a beautiful thing in the world.
What's interesting is that Guo Ning made a request at the end, saying that he wanted to invite Shi Miyuan to take a share in the business firm he established with wealthy businessmen from all sides in Zhongdu. The share capital would be calculated based on the 600,000 yuan invested that year. The income and expenditure are measured every year and dividends are paid to Shi Miyuan.
Shi Miyuan really didn't think that a powerful official with a rough background could make money with the barbarians in the north who only knew how to plunder. At most, they contacted a few maritime merchants to buy some grain and sell some horses, which was just a drop in the bucket compared to the prosperous commerce of the Song Dynasty.
He was also unwilling to get too close to the Northerners as the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty, so he directly gave this opportunity to several of his close subordinates, such as Xuan Zhen, Xue Ji, Hu Ju and others, and asked them to send their subordinates If a dose of reliable ginseng does have some benefits, it will more or less be considered the Prime Minister's care.
Since there are more people involved, twists and turns are inevitable, so it is not finalized until now.
Shi Miyuan was too lazy to pay attention to this kind of business, and handed the book back to Jia She: "Well, good, let's do it. Jichuan, do you want porridge?"
Jia She quickly bowed his head, holding the porridge bowl in both hands and taking a swig.
He is naturally a thoughtful person, otherwise he would not have had a heated relationship with officials and businessmen in various places, and he would have been obedient in every aspect, and it would not have been possible for him to have established two enemy countries in just a few months. complex cooperation.
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But the way this matter has developed to the present level, there are too many things that Jia She did not expect, and it is absurd from beginning to end.
Jia She originally thought that in exchange for Guo Ning's restraint in military operations in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars, he would have to invest a lot of energy and require repeated persuasion and even inducement. As a result, Guo Ning agreed that night. He really only looked at the actual benefits and had no political baggage. He didn't even bother to convene important ministers to discuss it.
Jia She originally thought that in order to get the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty to agree to give generous money in exchange for peace, he would have to invest more energy, and he would need to use various means, including using money to clear the way, and gradually persuading him starting from the close associates of the Prime Minister. As a result, when Shi Miyuan heard the Northerner's noble gesture, he immediately nodded without any hesitation. Later, I felt that the conditions were too good to be true, so I suspected that Jia She's identity was hidden.
Affected by Jia She, Guo Ning also believed that this agreement might be difficult for Shi Miyuan. In order to ensure the realization of the agreement, he promised to pay for the shares of Ding Haijun New Commercial Bank to show his goodwill to Shi Miyuan. As a result, Shi Miyuan did not take the interests of the commercial bank seriously and casually threw away all cooperation opportunities to his cronies.
Less than half a year later, this matter was finally completed. The first tranche of copper coins will be secretly shipped soon, and the person responsible for the pick-up and delivery is the trading company jointly established by the two parties.
Everything went smoothly, but Jia She felt that his family was getting more and more confused.
Did Shi Xiang bribe Guo Ning, or did Guo Ning subdue Shi Xiang? Or maybe Shi Xiang has already been convinced and does not need to be more convinced, and then Guo Ning wants to bribe Shi Xiang's subordinates?
What have I done in the past six months? What is the relationship between Da Song and Da Jin now? Da Jin is no longer the original Da Jin, and Da Song... seems to be worse than I imagined?
In this matter, it seems that everyone has misunderstandings and everyone is not accurate... But the peace between Song and Jin will really continue according to these terms?
The more Jia She thought about it, the more he felt lost. There was no joy in his heart, but more anxiety.
He was holding the bowl of porridge with both hands when he suddenly felt a violent surge of hot air gushing out from inside. Then blood spurted out from both nostrils, turning the entire bowl of deer tail porridge red.