choke element

Chapter 379
In June, the climate is still hot in Zhongdu.

Although it has gone through several months of Mongolian siege and countless tragedies of soldiers and civilians starved to death, Zhongdu is still a rare big city in the world.When the Mongolian three-way army ravaged half of the Jin Kingdom, this city was almost the only big city that not only did not fall, but also fought several times with the Mongolian army.

Therefore, in the past few months, people from Heshuo have been fleeing to Zhongdu continuously.Even if there is famine and plague in the city, as long as the tall city walls are still there, the massacre of the Mongols can be isolated; no matter how difficult the city is, it is better than hell trampled by iron cavalry.

As a result, the population of Zhongdu City increased instead of falling, which brought great pressure to Yousi.

As far as food supply is concerned, two months ago, the emperor had requested from Xu Ding, an official of the Daxing Mansion, to set an expedient and gracious rule, ordering all officials in the court to be promoted or applied for an official position, and so on. The imperial court offered millet grass.

This decree seems to add a precondition for the promotion of hundreds of officials to seek employment. In essence, it is to sell the official title.The general price is to donate 150 shi of rice, promoted to one rank, and appointed as an envoy; [-] shi rice will be moved to two ranks, and the divisions will be removed; more than this figure, the imperial court will specifically discuss how to reward.

Relying on this, the tension on food has been slightly eased, but the management of such a huge city is not limited to food supply.Xu Ding couldn't care less about public security, environment and other myriad matters.

After summer, the city is steaming with heat, and the ponds and ditches on both sides of the road in the city are filled with stinky water, and garbage and feces are piled up on the street corners as high as mountains.

People who are willing to go out in this kind of weather are either poor people who have no food and clothing and have to go out to work hard, or they have special reasons to go out.

Du Shisheng had a special reason to go out.

The weather was so hot that even if he was sitting in a light carriage, he was sweating like he was in a steamer.But when he put up the curtain of the carriage, he had to endure the stench in the street.Even the area of ​​Ganquanfang near the Gongchen Gate of the Imperial Palace is full of refugees and dirty and smelly garbage.

Some refugees simply sat naked and emaciated in the garbage dump, watching Du Shisheng's carriage pass by dully.But Du Shisheng could only tighten the curtain again.

In the past few months in Zhongdu, in the past few years in various places in Hebei, he has seen such scenes countless times, but every time he sees them, he feels pain and panic in his heart.

From Xianlufang, where he lived in Zhongdu, to the west, to Tongxuanmen Street, and then to the north, this is the place where Hu Shahu's rebellion was at its peak. Later, the Mongolian army threatened Zhongdu several times, and the defenders The materials were taken directly from the ruins to make rolling wood and stones.

Up to now, from Tianwang Temple to the north, the whole area of ​​four or five miles has become a completely white land.Because of the emptiness, the number of refugees clustered on both sides of the road suddenly decreased, and the attendants kept yelling, urging the vehicles to go faster... As a result, the wheels were stuck by the broken bricks and tiles on the border.

When the horse finally started running briskly, the young attendant couldn't help complaining: "It's been really hard living in the middle of the year."

"Living in Zhongdu, how can there be a time when you don't work hard?"

Du Shisheng was wanted by the imperial court in his early years, and he had fled to Tangluo, Hebei, and suffered a lot, but it didn't seem that a local like Follower felt uncomfortable.He smiled and said: "Yesterday I bought some golden wine as a gift. There is still a jug left at home, which is for you. It is a good wine for entertaining the envoys of the Song Dynasty, have you never drank it?"

"Really?" The attendant immediately cheered up and urged the horse to walk briskly.

At this time, the vehicle came to the Changchun Palace.The entourage looked up at the somewhat abrupt Taoist temple in the ruins, and murmured: "I don't know who that one is, whether he will come today or not."

"It's the third time I've asked him out." Du Shisheng said, "It's about time. No matter how twitchy this guy is, he always asks for money."

"Perhaps, it's because you're afraid of being implicated?" The attendant said: "Jie Shuai went from Liaodong to sell horses to the Song Dynasty, but it's a taboo. We have been watched all the time."

Du Shisheng chuckled twice: "Maybe. However, as long as we make sure that the navy is strong and strong, taboos and so on, and committing crimes, it's not a taboo."

It turned out that in the past two months, when Guo Ning gradually reached out to Liaodong, Yila Chucai focused on the economy.

In addition to engaging in trade with the Song State of the Southern Dynasties and generating income from mining on its own land, Yila Chucai is also working hard on trade with Zhongdu.On the one hand, the Ding Navy fleet was used to carry out large-scale trade in salt, iron, and grain with Zhongdu. On the other hand, private merchants were gradually allowed to participate in it, bringing various materials and goods to the three states of Denglai.

After all, the power of the government has its limits, and it is impossible to cover everything when doing business.The military government needs the wealthy households in the three prefectures of Denglai to follow in the footsteps of the military government, to check and make up for the gaps in business, and to make the life of the military and civilians under the rule of Ding Haijun gradually stable, so that they can have some consumption channels.

However, when there are too many merchants, it is inevitable that dragons and snakes will mix together, and they must be strictly controlled.

Ding Haijun naturally imposed severe punishment on those who privately sold strategic materials such as salt, iron, and grain. They copied several companies and killed several heads.But for some minutiae management, there is no way.

For example, wherever these merchants went, in order to exaggerate their own strength, they would inevitably brag about the strength of the Ding Navy at sea and the smuggling trade of the Ding Navy between Song and Jin.

Just in the first ten days, Ding Haijun established a group animal husbandry office in Liaodong to trade with Heshi Liehuanduan, the capital of Fuzhou, in exchange for [-] horses, and then sold [-] of them to smugglers in the Southern Dynasty at a price of [-] yuan per horse. Baiguan, and it's not a club, it's a serious coin.

This matter was boasted by the businessman, and there was quite a disturbance in the court of Zhongdu.This is because war horses are a strategic material that was prohibited from being sold to the Southern Dynasty by the Dajin Kingdom. Earlier, there was a special decree that those who traded horses with foreigners would be punished for five years.The reward for catching and suing people is not only the reward for the horse sold, but the official will first give three hundred guan in money.

In other words, selling three horses is a capital offense, and even the intermediary must be beheaded together.In order to encourage people to come forward, the official will pay a reward of [-] guan in advance for those who report, and after the case is closed, they will be paid in discount according to the amount of selling horses.

The provisions of the decree are very clear, and as the imperial court has had many war horses in recent years, the enforcement is even stricter.In the vicinity of Zhongdu, in order to gather the lost war horses, the price has even been raised to 50 taels of silver per horse.

As a result, when the merchants from Shandong came, the officials of the DPRK and China knew that the co-author Laizhou Dinghai was still doing such a business?You have a fleet in your hands, isn't it great?Even war horses can be sold to Song people?Taking a step back, even if you smuggled money, why didn't you send some horses to Zhongdu?
In the past few months, the imperial court has obtained a large amount of food from the smuggling trade in the three states of Denglai. Otherwise, tens of thousands of people will starve to death when the food supply in the central capital is insufficient.However, court officials probably didn't think about where the food for the Ding Navy came from and what it would be exchanged for.

On the contrary, the death of Tu Danyi made many people feel that Dinghai was weak when it lost the aid from North Korea, China and Austria.So many people took this opportunity to create some criticisms against Ding Haijun.There were even some stunned and ignorant officials who heard that Du Shisheng was the representative of Dinghai Guo Jiedu in the central capital, and went to the small courtyard where he lived to scold him, and threw stones into the courtyard from time to time.

Du Shisheng didn't care about these things, and he knew that Guo Ning didn't care about them even more.

At the current level of the Dajin court, most of the trouble they can cause people is just talking.Ding Haijun held a knife in his hand, and the knife was stained with blood, so how could he care about these mouths?
However, as long as Dajin is still there, it is always necessary to grasp the trend of the court.

No matter how twitchy the imperial court is, they have to get food and salt and iron support from Ding Haijun; just like Qingshan slaves, who are deeply trusted by the emperor, no matter how twitchy they are, they always hope that Guo Ning will give previously promised benefits.Even if there is trouble in the mouth, both sides have what they need when it is put into practice.

Speaking of Qingshan slaves, the emperor's trust in him and the Bureau of Close Attendants was extraordinary, so a group of forces had gathered around him recently, and some people began to cling to them.

However, the reason why the emperor attached great importance to the Bureau of Close Servants actually showed that he lost control of the court officials; and the more the Bureau of Close Servants was valued by the emperor, the more obvious it was suppressed by the officials.

Therefore, even though Du Shisheng was only a mere foreign official, there was no pressure to interact with the hot court officials.

At this moment, the chariots and horses drove into the side gate of Changchun Palace, and then entered a secluded courtyard.

As soon as Du Shisheng got out of the car, he saw Qing Shannu standing proudly in front of the hall.

In the past few months, Qingshan slaves have earned a lot of oil and water, and they don't seem to be in a bad mood.Therefore, his figure was fatter than when the two met last time.The golden belt presented by Du Shisheng on his waist almost couldn't hold back his stomach.

Du Shisheng bowed his hands to him, a smile appeared on his face, and before he could speak, Qing Shannu yelled first: "Take it!"

　According to Mr. Cheng Minsheng's "Research on Prices in the Song Dynasty", during this period, the price of buying horses in the eastern border areas of the Song Dynasty was 120 to 150 banknotes.The price of buying horses at the Sichuan border is 200 guan notes, and when sent to Lin'an, the total price, together with shipping costs, exceeds 500 guan.Xin Qiji bought Guangxi horses, [-] and [-] horses, but Guangxi horses should not be very tall.

　
(End of this chapter)