Ten loyal businessmen who work for the imperial court have been selected and are now standing in front of Zhao Kai... They all look like good profiteers based on integrity!
Counting from left to right, the first one standing is the contractor Wu Haogu. He is actually the one with the weakest financial resources and the weakest means among the ten selected businessmen. He is supported by his good friend Zhang Zeduan and Zhao Kai. He looked familiar, and the result of a casual pointing...wealth is coming, and there is really no way to stop it!
Standing next to Wu Haogu was Huang Yue, a gangshang originally from Chuzhou. He was in his thirties and looked shrewd and capable. He was recommended to Zhao Kai by several emperor concubines who came to Luoyang. His family belongs to Gan Gangshou (water transport merchant). Before Kaifeng Prefecture was besieged in the eighth year of Xuanhe's reign, he happened to be in Kaifeng Prefecture with a group of gang boats. He planned to traffic a group of porcelain and mules and horses after the canal thawed. Jiangnan sales. Unexpectedly, he encountered difficulties in announcing peace and was trapped in Kaifeng Mansion.
Later, his ship was "hijacked" by five girls aged fourteen or fifteen and a chambermaid!
The five little girls were all named Zhao, and they were sisters. They were named Zhao Xianlang, Zhao Xiangyun, Zhao Zhuzhu, Zhao Fobao, and Zhao Jin'er. They were all Zhao Ji's daughters. Before Zhao Ji Yujia personally fled, he arranged for the five of them to escape together. Somehow, Xu Junkai, the chamberlain of the Imperial City Department who was specifically responsible for the matter, couldn't tell the direction (he was blind) and took the five of them to Kaifeng Mansion. Jinming Pond in the west of the city. At that time, the city of Kaifeng was extremely chaotic, and the Jinshui River and Bianhe River were full of boats like headless flies. So in panic, Xu Junkai simply asked Huang Yue to sail the boat to Biankou... So now he has a home and it is difficult to return!
Chuzhou is Zhao Huan’s territory! How should he explain to Zhao Huan? If he wasn't from Zhao Kai, why would he have packed up Zhao Kai's five girls and sent them to Biankou? So he could only sit there and live in Luoyang, but fortunately those five girls didn't forget him, and now they recommended him to Zhao Kai as the imperial profiteer, which was a blessing in disguise.
Standing next to Huang Yue is Ye Zhang Guanghui who came from Hebei, a profiteer who looks like a white-faced scholar! The so-called smelter master is someone who mines iron ores and smelts iron.
During the Song Dynasty, Xinde Prefecture, Cizhou, and Xiangzhou in Hebei Province were all important iron smelting centers, and their output once reached 70% of the national iron output. Later, due to the rise of the iron industry in Xuzhou, Chengdu, and Jiangnan West Road, its status declined, but it is still a very important pig iron producing area.
But because Hebei is currently in chaos, many smelter owners have fled to Luoyang, and Zhang Guanghui is the largest smelter owner... Of course, he is also a big profiteer! Their Xinde Zhangjia Iron Company has been using inferior coal to make iron since the reign of Zhenzong to deceive people. The "iron rent" paid to the court (at that time, the taxes paid by Tieshan and the smelter owners were all pig iron) were made from coal with water, and the sulfur content was high. It is extremely high, and the weapons and armor made with it are of extremely poor quality!
In other words, to fool a group of amateur civil servants and even more amateur officials, if it were to be left in the Tang, Ji and Five Dynasties, this profiteer would have to be beheaded!
However, Zhao Kai could not kill Zhang Guanghui, because the Zhang family has been mining and smelting iron for generations, and they are all experts after all!
If Zhao Kai wants to develop military industry in Luoyang, such experts are naturally indispensable...
Zhao Kai looked at Zhang Guanghui's head for a while...keep it for now to see the effects!
Then Zhao Kai turned his attention to another profiteer who was as treacherous as Zhang Guanghui! Chen Qian, who was born in Xuzhou on Jingdong Road, his family is also a smelter, and he is the leader of the 36 smelters of the Liguojian family in Xuzhou. Taking advantage of the convenience of the Grand Canal, Xuzhou Liguojian's coal and iron smelting was sold to the Central Plains at low prices! A considerable part of the low-quality iron materials used in the Song Dynasty's military weapons prisons came from Li Guojian.
And this Chen Qian, in the name of a Tai student, was in Kaifeng Prefecture to build relationships with the iron industry of the State Supervisor, and was a liaison... so that they could use inferior iron materials to harm the Imperial Army of the Song Dynasty. The crime was worthy of beheading!
However, Zhao Kaizhai was kind-hearted and let him go - even the mines in Liguojian in Xuzhou were flooded by Wanyan Zonghan's flood! Therefore, many smelter owners and craftsmen were unemployed, so we just hooked them up to "develop the central part" and help Zhao Kai run the iron factory and iron mines!
Chen Xisheng, a businessman from Guangzhou in Huaixi Province, stood next to Chen Qian. This businessman was a Confucian businessman and came from the Chen family of Yimen. He was the Chen family of Yimen in Jiangzhou who was said to be "the first in the world to live in a population of 3,000 people and unparalleled in the world for living together for 500 years." a member of.
Jiangzhou Yimen Chen was split into 291 families by the imperial court during Renzong's reign, and Chen Qian belonged to Guangzhou Hall. When he was young, he also studied Confucianism and made progress, but failed in the examination, so he was assigned to manage the family industry. The most profitable industry of Guangzhou Hall is not in Guangzhou, but in the bustling Kaifeng Prefecture. So Chen Qian has been operating in Kaifeng Mansion for a long time...and now he finally has the shame to go home!
The young owner of Kaifeng's famous brothel, Xiefang Tower, Pan Sheng'an, who looks like a tree, is standing next to Chen Qian. He is almost bankrupt... The former No. 1 brothel in Kaifeng, Xiefang Tower, has been banned and demolished by Zong Ze , the ladies inside are also missing. Fortunately, the Pan family still has a branch in Luoyang.
Moreover, the Pan family has not forgotten their ancestral motto of "keep your roots firmly in mind", so they purchased a large amount of land on Jingxi Road. In addition, their family also engages in loan sharking - how can they defraud the tenants if they don't purchase a large amount of land? If we don't lend money to tenants at high interest rates, how can we force good people into prostitution?
This business experience is so good that no one else can!
But it's all gone now... His family's land will soon be "harmoniously purchased" by the Yingtian Envoy on Jingxi Road, and the Luoyang branch of Xuefang Building will soon be unable to open.
Fortunately, when his family was still wealthy, he worked hard to ingratiate himself with King Yun Zhao Kai...so Zhao Kai also gave him a chance to transform.
Standing next to Pan Sheng'an was the kiln owner Ximen Zhu who came from Zhongshan Prefecture. This "kiln owner" was not the owner of a kiln, but a porcelain kiln. Zhongshan Prefecture is Dingzhou, where Ding porcelain was produced, so there are many businessmen who made money by firing ceramics. The Ximen family is one of them!
After the fall of Zhongshan Prefecture, the Ximen family moved to Luoyang and were living in poverty... In order to prevent these Dingzhou kiln owners from going to Jingdezhen to start their own businesses, Zhao Kai called Ximen Zhu.
Jin Rutu, nicknamed "Jin Duoduo", the young owner of a certain exchange shop in Kaifeng, is now standing in the Zhenguan Hall and has become one of the top ten loyal merchants.
The so-called Jiaoyinpu is actually an exchange that undertakes the business of exchanging gold, silver, silk and silk. The financial industry in the Song Dynasty was very developed, including the government-run Jiaoyinku, Qianqianwu, Jiaoziwu, Debian Office, and Inspection Bank, the private Jiaoyinpu, Duibianpu, and Xieku, and the longevity treasury run by temples and temples, etc. wait.
Kaifeng Mansion gathered the most wealth in the world, so it became the financial center of the Song Dynasty, with a large number of financial institutions.
When the disaster struck, all government-run financial institutions went to Songzhou, while most private and monk-run financial institutions "ran east and west", with some going east and some going west. Jin Rutu, as well as Master Huiming, the "roasted pig monk" from Daxiangguo Temple in Tokyo, and Xuanwu Taoist, a Taoist priest of Shenxiao sect, are the leaders of the financial financiers who came to Luoyang from the west. So we all came to Zhenguan Hall together!
"Zhang Zeduan, give them the franchise card!"
Zhao Kai withdrew his gaze from the ten loyal merchants, and then ordered Zhang Zeduan to issue them a license plate. The license plate was a scroll. After unfolding it, you could see Zhao Kai's handwriting and seal "Reopening the Great Song Dynasty".
The ten loyal merchants all took the scroll with fear. Zhao Kai then said to all the businessmen present: "These top ten imperial merchants are appointed by a term of three years...After the expiration of the term, they will be assessed and the five at the bottom will be selected and expelled. At that time, the Imperial Merchant will be selected again, but I will not hand-pick it again, but will auction the Imperial Merchant quota. Please work hard and strive to become the Imperial Merchant in three years!"
According to Zhao Kai's plan, the gunpowder workshop, iron workshop, armor workshop, bronze workshop, and crossbow workshop are all duplicates. After three years, one will be "selected" from the two. Those who are not selected will lose their status as imperial merchants!
Zhao Kai paused and then said: "However, not being selected as an imperial merchant does not mean that you cannot make money. It is just that you are not allowed to sell military horses to Ezhou, and you are not allowed to open a gunpowder workshop. However, you can still apply to open an arms workshop and armor workshop in Luoyang. Yes, you can also sell horses within Yingtian 4th Road... I have 400,000 soldiers, who will take turns to serve in Luoyang in the future. I will give them some silk and let them buy their own armor and corresponding supplies during their service in Shangluo. weapons. By then Luoyang will definitely become a place where thousands of workers gather, so you must seize the opportunity!"
Zhao Kai's practice of letting the soldiers prepare their own weapons, armor, and horses was actually related to the military service system he implemented... He had already allocated so much land to the soldiers, so of course Zhao Kai had to let them bear more. Some burden. So much land cannot be given away for free! And letting them buy it themselves makes it easy to control the quality.
Therefore, after the land distribution is completed, the soldiers of the government must serve for four months free of charge every year. It is best to prepare their own weapons, armor, and horses... If the soldiers of the government are unwilling to prepare their own weapons, Zhao Kai's court will only It can provide the most basic equipment and relatively poor horses, and the ownership of these equipment and horses still belongs to the court, and any damage or loss must be compensated!
If the soldiers are willing to prepare their own supplies, Zhao Kai's court will provide some subsidies, and the good equipment and horses they buy will belong to themselves.
The merchants didn't know what they planned, but they all coped well in front of Zhao Kai, and they all expressed their intention to open armor workshops and equipment workshops in Luoyang to manufacture good soldiers and armor for the Song Dynasty's soldiers.
Zhao Kai paused and then said to the businessmen present: "In addition, I also asked Zhao Kai, the Minister of Household Affairs, to be in charge of the Jiaoyin Treasury, the money affairs, the Jiaozi Affairs, the cash office, the inspection warehouse, the Jiaoyin Shop, and the cash exchange department. It is responsible for the affairs such as convenience store, Jieku, Changshengtreasure, etc., and is responsible for issuing cloth tickets. I also hope that you can combine all kinds of money, silk and silk transactions and open a ticket bank... because the imperial court will no longer do so in the future. When issuing Jiaozi and Qianyin, only cloth tickets anchored by silk cloth will be issued. This is also your opportunity! Take advantage of it!"
