Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 161 Countdown to the New Deal

Three days later, Zhao Guangyi entered the board of directors and attended the meeting as the largest shareholder other than Zhao Guangmei. He clearly opposed Zhao Guangmei's strategy of supporting the northwest.

Then Zhao Guangmei looked at Zhao Dezhao.

"Zhao'er, what do you think?"

"Third uncle, look, this is the grenade I developed based on your suggestion."

"Oh? Have you developed a grenade so quickly? What's the principle? Have you got the fuse?"

"It's not the fuse. I applied the principle and part of the design of the fuse to this grenade."

"Oh~ huh? You mean, the grenade you are holding is a fire bomb inside?"

"Yup!"

As we all know, the principle of fire folding is that a piece of paper burns at an extremely slow speed. By controlling the air content, it burns slowly in a relatively closed space. When it is used, open the lid to allow the air to circulate and blow. Blow and a slow burn will turn into a violent burn.

In terms of effect, it is almost the same as using a lead, which explodes as soon as you pull the lead, but...

"In other words, what you are holding is a grenade, and the fuse inside the grenade is... lit?"

"Yes, third uncle, am I smart?"

"Fuck your mother!!"

Zhao Guangmei jumped three feet high, quickly grabbed the grenade and ran out, found an open space with no people and opened it. Sure enough, she saw that the fire inside was on fire, so she quickly threw it away.

After a while, boom~! !
Blasted.

Zhao Guangmei came back with a livid face, but Zhao Dezhao was still laughing: "How about it, uncle, are my grenades powerful?"

"It's awesome, it's really awesome. Damn, I was playing a grenade at the shareholders' meeting. If this explodes, almost half of our country in the Song Dynasty will be blown up."

Afterwards, Zhao Kuangyin sent someone to ask what happened. After knowing the cause and effect, he came over personally and beat Zhao Dezhao before letting them continue the meeting.

"Third Uncle, I don't agree with the route to the northwest either."

"Why? What's your reason?"

"The northwest is not in a hurry. The one who is anxious now is the southwest. Second and third uncles, let's take care of Dali."

Zhao Guangmei looked confused, and Zhao Guangyi also looked confused, asking: "Why do you want to be a good person?"

Then Zhao Dezhao said seriously: "We are all from the Han and Tang Dynasties. We will fight back sooner or later. How can we not fight? The most important thing is that the Gunpowder Department has very reliable information. A large amount of saltpeter mines have been discovered in Dali."

"........."

Zhao Guangmei was speechless.

However, Zhao Guangyi pondered slightly and said: "If he has saltpeter... he really should be beaten."

The veterans actually nodded after hearing this.

Li Jun frowned and said: "The soldiers have just conquered Shu, and the land of Shu is still not very stable. Isn't it too early to discuss attacking Dali at this time? Besides, Dali has always been respectful, so there is no reason to attack others."

Fu Yanqing snorted from his nose when he heard the words: "The common man is not guilty, but he is guilty of having a jade. He has saltpeter in his hand, so he deserves to destroy the country. I have heard about the battle that Xiao Wang fought this time. Our new style of the Song Dynasty Gunpowder weapons have made great contributions, and the Gunpowder Department and His Royal Highness King Lu are the most important, and saltpeter is the most important raw material for making gunpowder. It must be controlled in the hands of the merchants, and no trace is allowed to be leaked. "

Zhao Guangmei originally wanted to talk about the northwest, but unexpectedly, she started talking about the southwest as soon as she opened her mouth. She frowned and said: "Then there is no need to destroy other people's countries because of this. Why are you so anxious about Dali?" What? In that place, the sky is not clear for three days, the land is not three feet flat, the people are not worth three taels of silver, the strategic location is not important, and it is located on a plateau and is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Just to make saltpeter? Is there no other way? ?For example, let them send envoys to pay tribute? Force them to allow merchants to mine saltpeter in their country? "

Unexpectedly, Zhao Dezhao jumped up as soon as he slammed the table and said: "No, absolutely not. Third uncle, you don't know how powerful the gunpowder is after purification. This thing cannot be relaxed at all. It doesn't matter if Dali has saltpeter. If they Sell ​​it to the Liao Kingdom?"

Zhang Lingduo muttered: "One is in the northeast and the other is in the southwest. How can this be sold?"

Zhao Guangmei turned around and said: "It's not certain. There is already a trading house in Liao. As far as I know, the first thing they did after the establishment of this trading house was to purchase a large amount of saltpeter, and they must have already taken part of it. ."

Distance is not a problem. As we all know, before modern times, the country has never mastered the method of extracting nitrate from urine, and the Northeast Plain, North China Plain, and Mongolian grassland do not produce nitrate, but Huang Taiji still blasted it with artillery. The gate of Ming Dynasty?

If Huang Taiji could get gunpowder, it was difficult to say that the Liao Kingdom couldn't get it. He believed that as long as Chongzhen was not short-sighted, he would have strictly guarded against strategic materials such as saltpeter. Wasn't this still a failure to guard it?

Zhao Guangyi turned around and said, "Third brother, what do you think we should do?"

"Should...should we fight together?"

"Then it becomes a two-front battle again. This is too far, and our Song Dynasty's military strength is indeed stretched. I would say that in the northwest, we still need to maintain a certain degree of strategic restraint."

In the end, nothing could be discussed.

Zhao Guangmei in the northwest insisted on continuing to scatter money. Even if Zhao Guangyi objected, it was useless. Zhao Guangmei still had the ability to have his own way in the trading house.

However, Zhao Guangmei wanted to expand the scale of assistance and even took the initiative to provoke disputes with the Liao State. Such an idea failed to pass, and she even began to prepare to withdraw her troops at any time.

As for whether to fight Dali, in fact, it is a bit too early to discuss this topic at the shareholders' meeting. Zhao Kuangyin has not yet spoken. No matter how powerful the trading company is, it is impossible to hold a meeting behind Zhao Kuangyin's back and then inexplicably control Song Dynasty. Just push forward a completely new national war.So after a long discussion, there was no result. In the end, Zhao Guangmei just ordered Zhao Dezhao to work on the saltpeter mine in Houshu. After all, Houshu was also a big producer of saltpeter.

This can be said to be very rare.

It's like it's not open.

Then, he was stopped by Zhao Guangyi and asked to take him out for a drink.

"What are you doing? You don't want to talk about it at the meeting. Instead, you're still talking about it in private after the meeting is over."

"You and I, brothers, why, can't we still have a few words in private?"

"Oh, what are you trying to say?"

“It’s time to move forward with the New Deal.”

"Huh? Is this what you should say?"

"Didn't you say this in private? I won't recognize it after I leave the house."

"........."

But this time, the two brothers really had the same vision and wanted to go together.

"I do plan to continue to push forward the New Deal, but you came to persuade me to implement the New Deal, which really exceeded my expectations. What do you think?"

"Haha, third brother thinks why Hunan will lose more than 100 million yuan this year?"

When Zhao Guangmei heard this, her face fell, and she said displeasedly: "It's only 100 million yuan. It's not like I can't afford to lose it. To me, it's just a drop in the bucket. If I can make a profit, I can make a lot more than I lose."

Zhao Guangyi smiled when he heard this and said: "Of course I'm not saying that you can't afford to pay, but again, you support the business alone. Even if you are made of iron, how many nails can you drive? I checked the accounts yesterday. Even for the Huainan branch that you personally established, in the first half of this year, the income has been greatly reduced compared to last year. Although there is no loss, at least, I am afraid that it has made more than 100 million yuan less."

Hearing this, Zhao Guangmei sighed, then lightly hammered the table and cursed angrily: "There are also moths in the business house, damn corrupt officials, I personally orchestrated the situation in Huainan. At least within ten years, no matter how hard it is, there will be no one." There should be such a big recession, this money must have been stolen by someone else. When the damn Cao Bin comes back, I will send him over to make them look good. If they dare to take my money, I will kill them all! "

As he said that, he started to pour himself wine.

Zhao Guangyi also poured wine for him and said: "In the entire Song Dynasty, there was only one King of Qin and only one Cao Bin. You worked hard to make money in the front, and countless people behind you became worms and stole money. What you have earned now It is indeed a lot, but the more you make, the more people you have to hire, and the more rats and bugs there are among these people. Sooner or later, they will steal more money than you make. You have a Cao Bin, But even if Cao Bin is a good cat, how can he kill all the countless rats in the world? I remember when you asked Cao Bin to supervise the East Factory, it was to supervise the officials, especially to ask him to implement the eight regulations? Now, all his energy is focused on the inside of the trading company, right? If this continues, I'm afraid he will die of exhaustion."

Zhao Guangmei sighed after hearing this: "Human nature is evil, and officials must be corrupt. What can be done about this? The Song Dynasty was only a few years old when it was founded. Even counting the inherited Zhou Dynasty, it was only more than ten years old. However, the corruption in the officialdom is already shocking. Do you know? Second brother, our officials in the Song Dynasty should be the most corrupt in the history of the dynasties. I once ordered Cao Bin to secretly investigate the capital. Before Cao Bin went on this business trip, he checked a total of 42 people about their family assets of officials of sixth rank and above, and among these 42 people, none of them had a family property worth less than [-] yuan."

Zhao Guangyi also sighed: "This has been true in all dynasties. The strong Han Dynasty prospered, and the land annexation by the nobles was probably even further than that of the Song Dynasty."

"Hey~"

Zhao Guangmei sighed even more heavily. He wanted to say something, is it right that this has always been the case?But what's the use of saying it?

This thing is human nature, which is the same at all times and in all countries. Breeze on the sleeves has never been a basic requirement for officials, but a complimentary word used to describe role models.

"So, second brother, do you have any good ideas?"

"The New Deal must be fully implemented. You are really too domineering in your work. Just because you have a bad relationship with the civil servants, you simply broke away from the court system and let the trading houses go their own way. The trading houses did this. Is it appropriate that such a big thing, after so much money has been made, has nothing to do with the ministers in the court, and is all handled by you, His Highness, personally?"

Zhao Guangmei frowned and drank, feeling that her second brother's dog was about to spit out ivory.

"To put it bluntly, you did not get the support of the prefects in Hunan when planting sugar cane. Otherwise, at least you would not have lost so much, and even almost triggered a civil uprising. And your various arrangements in Huainan are also the same. Almost all the local civil servants have been bypassed. The government has a relatively complete system after all. It has developed over the years and has its own set of rules. However, your business is new and has extremely simple administrative routines from top to bottom. Of course, the efficiency is much higher than that of local governments, but it is too easy for your people to be greedy for money. Of course local officials are also greedy, but at least the greed will be more hidden, and corruption will not happen so quickly, and it usually takes three or four years. Just changed it.”

Hearing this, Zhao Guangmei looked thoughtful, then shook her head and said: "Commercial firms and local governments are different. The essence of a commercial firm is still an enterprise. If you really use a floating official, you won't be able to do anything nonsense. There will be competition."

"I'm not saying that you should use Liuguan, but that with the current size of the commercial bank, it is undesirable and impossible to bypass the imperial court and the government one by one. Yes, most of the hundreds of officials are They are opposed to the New Deal, but that is because hundreds of officials want stability. But if the New Deal is imperative, a group of officials who support the New Deal will naturally stand up. For example, Xue Juzheng before, didn’t he agree with it? To put it bluntly First of all, the main body of the New Deal should be changed from the commercial banks to the imperial court. This is the right way."

"Just like this time when hundreds of officials came to impeach you, why don't you argue your case and resolve it in front of the palace? Among the hundreds of officials, is there really not one person who wants to implement the New Deal? You always avoid them, even if There are people who want to take refuge with you, but they may not even have the chance to meet you. The vast majority of bureaucrats may not know what the New Deal is. You have left the court behind and are working alone, so why should they not oppose you?"

When Zhao Guangmei heard this, she didn't even drink. She leaned on the back of the chair and tilted her head with two fingers against her ears, staring at Zhao Guangyi with squinting eyes.
"what?"

"You...do you have any intention? Why do you say this suddenly? You should know that once the New Deal is officially launched and merged with the government, it will damage the vital interests of a considerable number of officials. In other words, if we really take this step, I and I Some people are in a life-and-death relationship. Your position...why are you so proactive all of a sudden?"

"Haha, third brother, third brother, I am doing this from the bottom of my heart for your own good, for the good of the business, and for the good of Song Dynasty. Could it be that in your heart, your second brother is a good-for-nothing who can't even tell the difference between inside and outside? Are you a fool?"

"........."

To put it bluntly, the regulations of the New Deal have been completed a long time ago, but if they are really started, the impact will definitely be much more drastic than Wang Anshi's reform in history. Within a few years, the entire Song Dynasty will not do anything else. It's over.

He always felt that Zhao Guangyi had some purpose, or even some conspiracy?

He was really biased against his second brother, and he didn't believe that he wanted to have a drink with him, but he was sincerely making suggestions for him.

but……

"That's okay. In fact, I really wanted to work with you. Starting tomorrow, the New Deal will be officially implemented. If anyone objects again, or even dares to use their power to obstruct it, they will see blood where it is due. "

(End of this chapter)