"Ming Gong, this is a letter to you." A postman carefully handed a thick letter to Wang Ju.

This is the convenience brought by the Postal Reform.

Zhang Dun was not greedy for merit, and although Wang Anshi did not say it, Zhang Dun said it, and his idea was Wang Ju's idea.

Indeed, its appearance has produced many positive meanings, although Wang Anshi's wealth accrual has somewhat cast a shadow on it.

Shadows are the charges for mailing property.

It cannot be said that it is a thing, mainly wealth, silver, copper coins and silk. This is not really sent, and the cost of mailing a single piece must be extremely high at this time. Its nature is the same as the flying money of the Tang Dynasty. Before the post office reform, the Song Dynasty also had a similar approach, that is, to remit money from Place A and withdraw money from Place B. The money was not really sent from Place A, but to turn it over from Place B and then charge some handling fees.

For example, now I send 100 pieces of silk, ten taels of silver, and fifty stags of copper coins from Quanzhou to Hongzhou. Copper coins are the basic currency and will not change, but there will be some price difference between silver and silk, especially the price difference between silk, quality, local output quantity, and type of silk. Then make an estimate and then hand it over to the Quanzhou General Administration Deposit, which will be allocated from other places according to the situation, or transferred from other places from the Transport Department to all places.

The mail servant then delivered the letters and documents to the recipient of the Hongzhou letter, and the recipient took out the equivalent silver and silk copper coins from the Hongzhou post office, but in Hongzhou, the price must be revaluated according to the situation.

In fact, this process itself creates some errors.

However, after Wang Anshi's planning, the handling fee was astonishingly high.

The nearest ones charge 20% of the charge, and the farthest charge can reach 60%! That is, sending ten taels of silver. The government has to charge six taels of them! The actual expenditure and income of most government officials are basically balanced. Only a few expenses or income have a serious deficit. That is, turnover is needed, but it is not rice, grass, but money, and the actual cost is less than 10%!

Anyway, Wang Ju can't be anxious.

If this is not done, it will also be a kind of tempering for officials from all over the country and lay the foundation for future banks. But if this is done, don’t expect anything tempering.

Moreover, this high handling fee also hindered his plan below.

Of course, there are still benefits.

For example, nowadays, whether it is officials, soldiers, or ordinary people, as long as they pay enough postage, they will communicate with relatives from other places, rather than just letting their servants ride horses and contact each other.

Wang Ju opened the letter.

The letter was written by Han Yun.

The soju workshop was handed over to the court, so Wang Ju asked Han Yun to preside over part of the sales of the sugar workshop and be responsible for the sale to Xixia and Tubo. This was to make money from "foreigners", and the court did not care much about it.

In order to allow Han Yun to continue to preside over the long-planned plan.

Therefore, Han Yun now mostly operates in Chang'an and Beijing.

When Wang Julin left the capital, Han Yun asked Han Yun to pay attention to some news about the capital. If it really doesn't work, just go find Zhao Niannu. Anyway, a large number of royal children behind Zhao Niannu were all the constituent stocks of the sugar workshop, so there is no need to avoid suspicion.

A lot of things were said in the letter.

Zhao Shiju's rebellion case woke Zhao Xu up, but Lu Huiqing was untrustworthy.

So Zhao Xu quickly appointed Wang Anshi again.

Of course, Wang Anshi could not have made the case a big deal. He strongly advocated Song Xi's intention, Li Shining decided to be a scepter and was granted Yongzhou; Fan Bailu was falsely reported and demoted to Suzhou Taxation, and the case was over.

In short, Lu Huiqing did it too fast this time and backfired.

However, now is not the time to deal with Lu Huiqing, so Wang Anshi sent Shen Kuo to preside over the negotiations with the Liao Kingdom.

To be honest, Shen Kuo is not as good as Lu Huiqing. First of all, Su Dongpo. A few years ago, Su Dongpo was appointed as the magistrate of Hangzhou. Shen Kuo went to the southeast to inspect the farmland water conservancy of Liangzhe Road. Zhao Xu told Shen Kuo that Su Shi was appointed as the magistrate of Hangzhou, so you treated him well. The two met in Hangzhou and drank and talked happily, which was indeed good. However, these letters allowed Shen Kuo to keep it forever, and later became evidence of the Wutai poetry case. After the defeat in Yongle City, Shen Kuo was idle and devoted himself to Runzhou, and he was very respectful to Su Dongpo. Da Su had no chance and could only laugh and cry.

There is also his attitude towards Wang Anshi. When Wang Anshi was in power, he praised the new law and was valued by Wang Anshi, including this time when he was on a mission, Wang Anshi immediately recommended Shen Kuo. However, Wang Anshi got off the stage and immediately reported the various disadvantages of the new law to Wu Yun.

Zhao Xu rarely scolded important officials and villains, but he said that Lu Huiqing and Shen Kuo were villains.

However, why did Wang Ju attach great importance to Shen Kuo? First, this person is indeed knowledgeable. This knowledge is not only written "Dreams of Dreams and Bitans", but also made great achievements in farmland water conservancy. Moreover, this person is scheming. The turning point of his life is not a double-faced person. The opposite double-faced person makes him feel like a fish in water and rise step by step. If he loses, he will be defeated in Yongle City. That battle is too miserable.

In science, Shen Kuo needs to promote it, and in politics, such scheming people are also needed to be comrades-in-arms... Of course, when Wang Ju wrote to Shen Kuo, he was very careful, otherwise he would become the second big Su.

When the great scientist went down, he was extraordinary. He first went to Hedong to investigate. Not only Huangwei Mountain, but also the Liao people fought for four places. One was Huangwei Mountain, which dug more than 30 miles south. The second was Qinwangtai in Weizhou, the ancient Great Wall area, which fought for seven miles south. The third was the Wayaowu area in Wuzhou, which fought for more than ten miles south. The fourth was the Changliancheng area, which also fought for part of it, extending to Huangwei Mountain. Then he drew the map of the original Song Dynasty and the boundary line that the Liao Dynasty competed for now, and handed it to Zhao Xu.

There is no reason for the Liao people to argue, this map is evidence.

Then he negotiated six times with the Liao envoy, and the Liao Kingdom had to give up Huangwei Mountain and invite Tianchi.

In fact, Wang Ju also said about this in the capital that you can make some appropriate concessions, but this section of Huangwei Mountain cannot be given up.

But Wang Anshi suddenly replaced Shen Kuo's negotiations with Han Zhen.

And Wang Anshi drew a line on the map with Huangwei Mountain and said to Han Zhen: "If you want to take it, you must give it to him."

Of course, after getting Huangwei Mountain, the Liao Kingdom was extremely happy.

Therefore, later generations had controversy over this. Some people said that Wang Anshi did not sell land for 700 miles. In terms of length or depth alone, there was no 700 miles.

However, these seven hundred miles refer to a radius of seven hundred miles, and several large areas are indeed between five hundred miles and seven hundred miles.

Some people also said that the negotiations were delayed until ten years of Xining before they were officially settled. At that time, Wang Anshi had completely demoted the prime minister. It had nothing to do with Wang Anshi. But the fact is that Wang Anshi made this concession. The situation could no longer be recovered unless the war started. Yes, the memorials of Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, Fu Bi, and Zhang Fangping were equivalent to forcing Zhao Xu to agree to the Khitan's request and sell land for peace, but they evasively said that they did not make it clear. Therefore, it can only be said that Wang Anshi sold the seven hundred miles of land.

Some people also said that the Liao Kingdom got these 700 miles and then became peaceful. Not bad.

But why did Huang Lian sigh: "The water painting environment is a danger of losing China."

The truth is this sale. Among the various factors that ended the Northern Song Dynasty, it accounted for at least 10% to 20% of the credit...

Wang Ju was surprised to see this.

This story is not properly continued.

First, because of his promise, Zhang Dun allocated three million war-prepared grain storage and transported it to the border specifically. He even issued some decrees on how to reduce transportation costs. There are still many hungry people on the border, but they will not be as panicked as in history.

Secondly, because of his recommendation, Zhang Feng, Liu Changzuo and Miao Su were all transferred to Hebei. Even Zhao Xu transferred Zhang Yu to Hebei.

When the summer arrived, the fleet returned. Another batch of grain was brought back, of course, not as much as last year. Most of the grain was transported to Hangzhou and handed over to the government. Wang Ju did not interfere with the government. Another part was transported to Mizhou, and then hired a flat-bottomed and shallow-drained sea ship to transport it to the Hebei frontline and handed it to Zhang Yu. With this batch of grain, a large number of border troops could be obtained.

Zhang Feng is not particularly outstanding in government affairs, but no one should underestimate him in military affairs.

So the situation in Hebei is much better now than in history.

Moreover, when Han Zhen went to negotiate with the Liao Kingdom, it was almost the arrival of autumn, and the disaster situation had gradually soothed.

Why did Wang Anshi continue to be in harmony?

Wang Ju looked at the letter and was a little dazed. The reason why he was dazed was that Huangwei Mountain.

Huangwei Mountain had no use in the hands of the Liao people, but it played a huge role in the hands of another country. The Jin people went south for the first time. After the Western Route Army conquered Shuozhou, they took Daizhou in just six or seven days. After another six or seven days, Zhongshan surrendered and surrounded Taiyuan two days later. However, they were blocked under the city of Taiyuan and after the two countries made peace, Wanyan Zongwang led his troops back.

The next year, Wanyan Zonghan sent troops from Yunzhou and captured Wenshui in just a few days. Half a month later, Wanyan Zongwang sent troops from Hebei and defeated the Song army in Zhongshi in Jingxing. Then there was no more, and the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed.

But what about Yanmen Pass? What about Xixing Village?

Why did these dangerous villages disappear together?

In fact, it did not disappear, but the Liao Kingdom obtained the northern part of Huangwei Mountain. The Song Dynasty could no longer build a complete line of defense. As a result, the Jin people moved south smoothly from here. Therefore, this way, Hedong Road was no longer an iron wall.

So why did the Liao Kingdom fight for this part so that the fools don’t fight?

But Wang Ju was just staring blankly, and he didn't dare to speak at this time.

At the end of last year, when he went to Beijing to report his work, Wang Juchang talked about his overseas contribution to the Song Dynasty. Since it was made public, Wang Ju also sent someone to secretly make further arrangements. First, he asked someone to promote and encourage hungry people to go to Quanzhou. This year, it is impossible to get them boarded the ship in Mizhou. It is close to the capital and the country's focus is not too much.

Therefore, these hungry people were allowed to flow to the south in the name of fleeing famine, and then secretly borrowed some empty houses to do good deeds along the way and provide food and clothing. Otherwise, after walking thousands of miles, I still don’t know how many people would die.

After arriving in Quanzhou, you can migrate these hungry people away with one hand.

However, Wang Ju also neglected the harm brought by this drought. The Han people have a strong sense of homeland. If they wanted to leave their homeland, they would probably not have lost ten thousand people if they used this method. But now they can't survive. I heard that with a way out, countless hungry people flocked to the south.

Wang Ju once forced to buy some food from various grain merchants at a high price, otherwise the prepared food would be seriously insufficient.

In fact, the court also paid attention to this matter, but counted the number of households in each prefecture and county. Although there are many people flowing south, they are still limited in each prefecture and county, and there is no pressure to relieve disasters.

Some people secretly conducted investigations. Most of the people who fled south were poor households, and some of them were hidden households, not people who could not survive. The ones were willing to flee south. This was thousands of miles away. Moreover, after arriving in Quanzhou, they had to continue to migrate overseas.

As for other reasons, I paid attention to it, but I didn’t object too much.

Seeing that there were too many people, Wang Ju immediately sent people to build 100 sea ships in three places in Quanzhou, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. There were only so many, otherwise the time would be limited, and the quality of the ships they drove would be unqualified.

This made Wang Ju's disciples feel very painful. Building ships in the mainland is nearly four times more expensive!

However, Wang Ju didn't care. He should take power from the people and use it for the people. Moreover, the construction of these ships will also bring a lot of commercial taxes to the three states. When he saw the money, the ministers stopped talking.

In addition, we have prepared movable clamping cabins. These are cargo ships, not passenger ships, and at sea, we want to build a passenger ship with three or four-story boat building to sail. The risk will undoubtedly be higher. In fact, this movable clamping cabin is to make a layer of solid clamping in the middle of the cabin. The cabins were sealed in the past, but they were separated from one to two from the middle, so that they would load more people.

Of course, there is another way. Just like when Westerners later trafficked slaves, locking people in ships, regardless of their lives, a sea ship of six or seven hundred tons can carry more than a thousand people. Can Wang Ju do this?

However, more and more people flocked to the south, especially Wang Ju did something that caused more people to flow to the south, that is, bringing copper back.

The court finally sent an envoy to inquire.

But Wang Ju's various actions were also timely. The First and Third Division also hoped that Wang Ju would advise the maritime merchants to make up for the remaining two million stones of grain.

The second is copper and iron.

Especially for copper, the official price given by the government during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song was 120 cents per catty, which reached 150 cents at this time, and 200 cents at the time of Yuanyou, and 250 cents at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.

In fact, copper production continued to surge during the Northern Song Dynasty, but copper was always lacking. The main reason was that coins were minted and coins were severely outflowed, and coupled with its huge economy, it led to insufficient copper coins. The second is that although the number of poor households increased, many people's income also increased, requiring various utensils, including copper utensils. However, because the government prohibited the people from buying and selling copper, copper utensils became high. Some bold people sold copper coins, and often ten taels of copper utensils could be sold at the same price after being cast.

The Song system was a sixteen tael system, with ten taels only a few dozen grams. A copper coin weighing three to five grams, but it contains a lot of lead or tin. It can get more than one gram of copper by selling a copper coin, which means that nearly three hundred copper coins can be sold, and after the treatment, you can get Yishen coins. Yishen coins are more than seven hundred coins, which is a full double interest rate spread.

But this is gross profit, and the cost of handwork...

But including manual costs, the gross profit was also very amazing, so the imperial court has been repeatedly banned.

Another reason is that many people store copper coins at home and cannot be circulated.

As a result, copper production surged, including the use of gunpowder mining technology, and the copper price has not yet dropped. However, the iron price has gradually stabilized, otherwise the iron price will also be rising slowly.

Therefore, the Song Dynasty has always been short of copper.
To be continued...