It has been almost a month since Lu Huiqing returned to Biandu. He was in Jinjiang for three years. At first, he was just a Jinzhou prosecutor who was not well-known. He was a Jinshi in the second year of Jiayou of Renzong. After serving as a prosecutor in Zhenzhou, he entered Beijing. Because of his outstanding talent and knowledge, he was appreciated by Ouyang Xiu, Zeng Gongliang, Chen Di and others. After gaining Wang Anshi, he discussed the meaning of the scriptures and had a similar understanding. So he decided to make friends. Originally, Wang Anshi launched a reform and would be a very powerful helper, but he caught up with his father's death and returned to his hometown, and missed the changes in Biandu in the past three years.

Wang Anshi highly recognized Lu Huiqing's talent. Wang Anshi recommended it to Emperor Shenzong and said, "Huiqing's wiseness is not unique to the present. Even the Confucians in the past are not easy to compare. Those who can learn from the ways of the previous kings are only Huiqing." Lu Huiqing's return made Wang Anshi feel very happy. He used his prestige to highly recommend it to Emperor Zhao Xu, summoned him to be a fellow practitioner to read in Tianzhang Pavilion, and promoted the verbs to be sentenced to the Imperial College.

Not everyone hopes that Lu Huiqing will return to Biandu. In addition to Zeng Gongliang, who had appreciated Lu Huiqing in the past and others, even people in the new party, not everyone hopes that Lu Huiqing will return. Wang Anshi's son Wang Rong is the one who least wants to see Lu Huiqing. Lu Huiqing can easily obtain such a high-ranking official, but how difficult it is for him to become an official. In order to avoid suspicion, his father Wang Anshi has always refused to let him become an official, and he himself is arrogant and unwilling to enter. In the end, Wang Jinghui recommended him to enter the Guankou and become a storyteller in Chongzheng Hall.

Strictly speaking, in Wang Jinghui's eyes, Wang Rong and Lu Huiqing are not people of the same level at all. Wang Rong's shortcomings are too obvious - they are too good at jealousy, not open-minded, good at calculating, and good at conspiracy. Even if such people cause some trouble for a while, they will not become a man of any kind. But Lu Huiqing is completely different. He was a Jinshi who passed the high school entrance examination by the scholars of the Song Dynasty and was able to debate with Wang Anshi. Yi, how many of the great Song Shilins can have such a level?! The worst thing is that through strict surveillance of Lu Huiqing, Wang Jinghui found that this famous historical figure was definitely not a good person to mess with. He had just returned for a month and began to secretly send people to investigate the evidence of conservative officials' violations. Faced with such a ruthless person, Wang Jinghui really couldn't think of any way to clear Lu Huiqing out of the political arena of the Song Dynasty.

Of course, Lu Huiqing also has weaknesses - he loves money. But this guy is very skillful. If Wang Jinghui had not been strong, it would have been difficult to seize the other party's handle. Maybe Lu Huiqing didn't know that Wang Jinghui had listed him as the most dangerous person and closely monitored his every move. Now he, Lu Huiqing, accepted every penny of copper coins. Wang Jinghui remembered him for him. He just waited for one day to see Lu Huiqing neglect, and took it out and overturned him. Wang Jinghui was the prosecutor of the Statistics Bureau and the Intelligence Bureau of the Song Dynasty. He wanted to collect evidence and impeach officials, not to mention Lu Huiqing, who was not yet full of wings. Even Zeng Gongliang, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, would retreat and be sick at home to be impeached.

"More than a month after the student returned, he had heard about the deeds of the prince-consort. To be fair, the planner was still the same as the one who advocated by the teacher. It was just a bit pedantic, but it was much stronger than Sima Jun. The prince-consort's letter suggested that all the salt farms in Xixia were contracted to merchants for five or even ten years. The court only controlled the output of the salt farm, and the others were decided by the merchants themselves. This was really beneficial to the Song Dynasty. The battle of Xixia was consumed a lot, but with the heavy profit of the salt farm, the merchants of the Song Dynasty would flock to the Song Dynasty. The funds gathered were definitely not a small number of funds. Students could even predict that the court would sell the five-year operation and buyout rights of the salt farm to sell the land. After paying for the consumption of the war to destroy the Xia Dynasty, there would definitely be a large surplus!" Lu Huiqing said lightly.

"The finances of the Song Dynasty have improved in recent years and have a surplus every year. If the influence of the war land is excluded this year, it is not surprising that the court's fiscal revenue has reached tens of millions of yuan. Now the court is not short of money, but the prince-consort has a deep connection with the old party. If his strategy is used, there will be trouble in the future!" Wang Xun said sternly.

After hearing this, Lu Huiqing's lips raised slightly, and there was no angry look on his face. However, in his heart, he set a "villain" and "narrow-minded" tone for Wang Yanei - Wang Yanei had only been eating a few years of food, but how could he know that the development of the war was controlled by people. Even if everything went well, the money and food consumed was a unimaginable number for ordinary people. Money is easy to say, and the improvement of the finances in the Song Dynasty would not be too burdened, but what about food? The grain output in the northwest region was originally very small. How much food would it take to eat in a day when the 550,000 Song troops entered the summer battle?!

When Lu Huiqing thought of the food rations for the 550,000 Song army in Xia, he already understood Wang Anshi's concerns - Wang Jinghui's plan might have hidden traps from the new party, which made Wang Anshi worry, but he could not refuse the temptation of money.

"The students thought they could modify the advice of the prince-in-law - the salt farm management rights can be bought out, but they need to buy them with grain, so that the merchants of the Song Dynasty transported grain to Xixia thousands of miles. This would easily solve the problem of the Song army's food that was fighting in the Xia Dynasty. At that time, depending on the situation, we will decide whether the subsequent salt farm betrayal will be changed to silver and money settlement!" In the eyes of everyone, Lu Huiqing's words not only showed his talent, but also showed his demeanor, which made Wang Yun so angry that his heart was filled with blood, and he kept scolding "Fujianzi!"

Wang Anshi's eyes lit up after hearing this. Lu Huiqing's method was indeed a very good method, although some people had used this method to resolve border military conflicts before, so that merchants could transport grain to the war zone in exchange for salt induced tracts. After returning to the Song Dynasty, they used salt to exchange for different amounts of salt to the court for sale.

Wang Jinghui's method is good, but in comparison, Lu Huiqing's method is better. However, neither Wang Anshi nor Lu Huiqing knew this idea. Wang Jinghui had long thought of this - how many families the Song Dynasty could have in the northwest. He knew better than anyone else that transporting grain to exchange for salt, but it allowed the merchants to compare. If the war zone is far away, transporting grain to exchange for salt will lose money, then the merchants of the Song Dynasty would never do it. Wang Jinghui deliberately left this flaw. In order to let the New Party members replay this method again, which would increase his confidence in success.

Wang Jinghui, Sima Guang, Wang Anshi, and even Lu Huiqing all realized that the Song Dynasty had a large population. From ancient times to the present, salt means an unimaginable wealth. No matter how much salt is produced in the Song Dynasty, the population of many places in China can be digested within it. Even the Liao Kingdom even smuggled salt on the Song Dynasty, and achieved extremely fruitful results in this area. Of course, the Privy Council has intercepted the Liao Kingdom's ships smuggled salt from the sea in a planned manner, and did not block this road. They set a long line to catch big fish, and slowly enriched the internal treasury money used by Emperor Zhao Xu to fight.

Wang Jinghui did set up a small trap on the issue of salt - he wanted to break through the barriers of the imperial court's monopoly on salt in the northwest, the land that the Song Dynasty had just recovered. Sima Guang only stared at the treasury income, and Wang Anshi was even more famous for "loving money". As long as the court did not change much in salt income, they were absolutely happy to see the promotion of this matter. The Song Dynasty's ability to rule the northwest would not be within a few years or even more than ten years.

It is too stable, and this also includes commercial restrictions. It is easy to organize and utilize the pilot reform of Northwest salt, and will be promoted throughout the Song Dynasty in the future. The court's salt monopoly system will be in name only - cheap salt in the northwest will gradually penetrate into the inland of the Song Dynasty through smuggling. As people smuggled, the monopoly rights will be shattered. The court's finances will not cause too much fluctuation, and the ruling top leaders will have to acquiesce.

Although the discussion at Wang Anshi's house this evening was very lively and even a little smell of gunpowder, a consensus was finally reached - accepting Wang Jinghui's suggestion, and then Lu Huiqing was responsible for further revisions and improvements. Of course, only one person was unhappy - Wang Rong.

However, whether Wang Rong's mood was good or bad was ignored by the new party at this time, as Lu Huiqing said at the end: "The son-in-law was swaying between us and the old party. Whether we were not important to him. He could also ask Sima Junshi for help, and even wrote a letter to Fu Bi who was in charge of the northwest. Fu Bi prefaced the court, which could also achieve his goal. You should know that there are far more students of the son-in-law who served in Fu Bi's tent than Han Qi. The reason why the son-in-law wrote to his husband was mainly because the old party had made too much contribution in this war to the Xia Dynasty. Judging from the actions of the son-in-law in the past, this meant some balance. Instead of forcing the son-in-law to the old party, it would be better for us to make this contribution!"

The reformists led by Wang Anshi chose to adopt Wang Jinghui's method in the face of interests and reality. This memorial was also presented to Emperor Zhao Xu by Wang Anshi. After discussion, the Zhongshu Zhengshi Hall was approved without much resistance and was not blocked. Anyone with a little brain can calculate a very quickly - relying on the merchants' buyout rights of the salt farm alone is enough to cover the salt tax that the Shangguan family has operated for five years. What is even more commendable is that the court will save a large amount of grain transfer costs for this. There will be no problem with the Northwest grain in a short period of time, which also solves a major problem for the ministers of the "Military Affairs Office" responsible for preparing military supplies.

Sure enough, the decision of the imperial court caused a sensation across the country as soon as it was published in the three major newspapers, especially the "Da Song Business Daily" made a more detailed and in-depth analysis. Moreover, due to the readers of the "Da Song Business Daily", the merchants of the Song Dynasty collectively took all their efforts to rush to Kaifeng, Biandu. Of course, at this time, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of the Song Dynasty and Xingguo Bank showed unparalleled power in working capital. As long as the merchants save a sum of money in their hometown, they can obtain credit guarantees from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Xingguo Bank in Kaifeng, Biandu with special certificates. If the amount does not exceed 100,000 yuan, they can be cashed out immediately.

This method is much more convenient than the payment of money issued by the court. Although this type of voucher is not transferable and has very limited functions, it is enough to deal with the current situation - as long as the two major banks are willing to provide credit guarantees, the court recognizes this kind of credit voucher after auctioning the salt farm operating rights, which also saves merchants a large amount of money to transport money and the risk of being robbed for it. Although this method of transfer is much more expensive, as long as merchants are slightly far away from Biandu, they have chosen this method without exception.

Neither the court nor the merchants, they would question whether the two major banks had the ability to fulfill their abilities, because behind them was Wang Jinghui, the richest man of the Song Dynasty, and now only Wang Jinghui has a large amount of food in the hands of the north. In fact, as long as the winning businessman pays another fee, he can directly go to the northwest to collect the corresponding food to the Northwest Song army to cash in the salt field management rights. The entire plan was proposed by Wang Jinghui. Xu was responsible for calculating the cost and profits of the land. In the end, Wang Jinghui passed the current three envoy Zeng Bu wrote a letter to Emperor Zhao Xu.

This was a huge fortune. The Song Dynasty adhered to the control of the salt industry in history. It was difficult for merchants to legally share their interests from formal channels. However, the reallocation of the interests of the salt industry in the northwest gave them hope. Most powerful merchants in the Song Dynasty would not miss this opportunity. Wang Jinghui originally thought that the two largest merchants in the Song Dynasty, the merchants of Chuzhou and Hebei, and the merchants in Hangzhou, which began to slowly form a scale, invested huge sums in the wars between Xihe and Henan in the past. Now there may be problems in turnover.

Thinking that he was throwing out the salt farm now just to get a few people to manage and reduce the cost of the war, but within a few days he knew that he really underestimated the strength of the merchants of the Song Dynasty - only Kaifeng, Biandu, was located in Kaifeng. Eight wealthy people with a net worth of over one billion were part of the group, working together or alone, and came to Jingyuan to visit him to him hoped to get help - they were advised by "people who are interested". The prince consort not only had food, but also had a special influence in the northwest. As long as the prince consort was dealt with, it would basically be considered as a result.

The annual fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty was the highest level in Chinese history. It took more than 900 years after the fall of the Song Dynasty until it reached its level during the Republic of China. At this time, the industrial and commercial tax level of the Song Dynasty had long exceeded the agricultural tax. In the Song Dynasty, which was extremely unscientific and standardized in tax collection of industry and commerce, we can see the real energy of the Song Dynasty merchants - Wang Jinghui didn't have to personally operate the salt farm in Xixia. He had never even heard of the eight merchants worth over one billion yuan before. God knows how many rich people there are in this world and how much wealth they have?! Wang Jinghui sighed in his heart. So much wealth later became cheaper than the Jin and Mongols. If used for war, let alone the Liao Kingdom today, what's the difficulty of the Jin Kingdom and Mongolia that may appear in the future?!

During this period, Wang Jinghui's partners were almost crazy about to be happy, especially Xu's family. Their partners who have always been very close to Wang Jinghui have received the reward they deserve. As long as they have enough money to pay, they all get one or even a few pieces of salt farms to operate, which is much more beneficial than the local rich people outside. So what if you have money? No matter how rich you have, you may not be able to get a salt farm, because there are too many rich people in Bian, and no matter how much money you spend in Bian, it is not worth mentioning. Wang Jinghui did not expect that things would become what they are today. His income mainly comes from the profits of bidding for merchants for salt farms and the profits of transporting grain to Xixia. Even so, his income is as high as more than 300,000 yuan. Not to mention an ordinary merchant of the Song Dynasty, even the court officials would be stunned if they knew the profits.

"It seems that I really became a jeans sold in later generations!" Wang Jinghui thought of the jeans merchants mixed with gold diggers in the northwest of the United States, and his situation was similar to them. The difference was that the jeans merchants served the gold diggers, while he served the merchants of the Song Dynasty bid for the salt field.

"Child, just wait for you to be born. Dad, I'll make money on your milk powder!" Wang Jinghui stroked his wife's already big belly, and thought to herself funnyly.

Northwest, a mound thirty miles outside Shunzhou City.

A sentry wearing Dangxiang served was faithfully performing his duties on the mound, but he didn't know that there was a person hidden in the grass just five steps away in front of him. A cold light burst out, and the Dangxiang sentry was killed before he could even make a sound. This scene continued to happen around the mound. Soon, the sentry arranged by the Dangxiang people here were silently resolved.

Taking advantage of the night, the group of men in black who attacked the Dangxiang people pushed more than 20 crossbows from behind and aimed at a relatively large camp under the mound. The men in black placed a bomb the size of a small wine jar in the firing groove of the crossbows, ignited the lead and loosened the rod, and the bomb was released and flew towards the Dangxiang military camp. Behind the crossbows there were a large number of crossbowmen and more than 3,000 cavalrymen in ambush. After the bomb was shot out, they immediately moved forward to their own position.
Chapter completed!