(Happy National Day!) ）

After meeting with the two daughters of the Su family, Yeli Dulan once again convened the ministers to discuss, this time she tried her best to discourage the public opinion, sincerely analyzed the current situation and future of Great Xia, and asked everyone to abandon unrealistic illusions and let the party and the clan thrive.

Although the ministers still have resistance to the Song people, but think about it carefully, what the Queen Mother said is not unreasonable, when the emperor was alive, such a heroic and strong, but also failed to make an inch, on the contrary, it also destroyed the harmonious relationship between the Song and Xia countries for decades, and now the Queen Mother is smart, but after all, she is a woman, and the lord Li Ning Lingge is a weak person without opinions, and then holding the illusion of dominating the world is already an illusory hope.

On the sixth day of October in the seventh year of the Qing calendar of the Great Song Dynasty, Zhao Zhen, the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, met with Li Ning Lingge, the queen mother of the Xia Kingdom, and the two sides signed an eternal friendship treaty in the Zhongxiang Palace of the Pearl City.

The two sides agreed to set up 10 bars along the border, open up six types of prohibited commodities to each other, and encourage free trade between the two sides. At the same time, reaffirming the subordinate relationship, Xia once again affirmed that it was a subject state of the Song State, and the Song State agreed to give 200,000 coins, 100,000 horses of cloth and silk, and 50,000 catties of tea in order to express comfort; The Xia State also promised to send envoys to pay tribute every year, and the Song envoys treated each other with the courtesy of the upper kingdom when they came.

Zhao Zhen also complied with Su Jin's intentions, and apologized in private to Yeli Dulan for coercing the Xia people and the Liao people in the bloody battle before, and Ye Lidulan also showed a high demeanor and apologized for the party's rebellion against the Song Dynasty ten years ago.

For the matter between Xia and Liao, out of the surprise of Ye Li Dulan, the Song State did not force the two to break off diplomatic relations, but Su Jin made a vague hint, saying that the Song people would not let go of the Liao people, and hoped that the Xia State would stand firm, so as not to cause trouble.

The sudden friendship between Song and Xia surprised the Liao people, Yelu Zongzhen was furious, and the repeated blows on military diplomacy made him depressed, and the Liao State quickly reacted, mobilizing 200,000 troops from Shangjing Province to quickly support the Xialiao border line in Xijing Datong, and at the same time mobilizing 150,000 troops from Liaoyang Mansion in Tokyo Province and 50,000 palace tent troops from Dading Mansion in Zhongjing Province to support the Song-Liao border line in Nanjing Province, so far there are still nearly 700,000 troops in Liao, 600,000 of which are arranged at the junction of Song and Xia, and only 50,000 in Shangjing Defense However, the defenses to the east and north of Liaoyang, Fu, Shangjing, etc., were only 50,000 regular troops, plus less than 150,000 Hu servants urgently recruited.

If we use the balance as an analogy, the troops at the southwest end have pressed the balance to the base, while the northeast side is raised high and becomes a hollow area for defense, and it is the place where the Jin and Goryeo people are eyeing each other, although Yelu Zongzhen knows this, there is nothing to be done, for now, the Song State is the biggest enemy.

Under the national construction of the Song Dynasty was in full swing, Li Chong was a master of governance, under his coordination and command, several measures of the Development and Reform Department were carried out in an orderly manner, although there were mistakes from time to time, and there were also officials and localities who took the opportunity to play tricks to make money, under the anonymous reporting system of the people set up by the Development and Reform Department, but all reports were strictly investigated to the end, and a lot of important people were also hooked up, such as the case of Hu Wei's interception of materials by Hu Wei of the Liangzhejiang Cang Division, and the case of Li Yapeng, the prefect of Shuzhou, Huainan, embezzling compensation funds for the national highway, were all punished with the vigorous cooperation of the Division.

As the construction progressed, Su Jin found that the gap in funds is getting bigger and bigger, beyond his own expectations, originally all the projects are expected to be 80 million, the gap is only 20 million, now it seems that there is no 110 million or so difficult to achieve the goal, Li Zhong just stretched out his hand to ask for money to scatter, looking for money can only be done by Su Jin, the treasury bonds can not be issued unlimitedly, 40 million is already the bottom line, otherwise the income will not be enough to pay for the cash of the treasury bonds, there will be a huge crisis; For this reason, Su Jin had to run around all over the Great Song Dynasty, and also ordered Liang Shi to take people to look for mines in the places where coal mines and iron mines were produced in later generations in his memory.

But Su Jin understands that some mines know where they are, but the backwardness of scientific and technological means will make you helpless, and even if you can find a mine and can mine it, you don't want to make a profit in the short term, and you have to invest millions of dollars, all of which almost made Su Jin crazy.

One day Su Jin inspected the southern coastal area, and saw a lot of foreigners with black skin like ink or white cloth wrapped around their heads in the port of Mingzhou, and immediately felt very curious, although it was normal to see foreigners in later generations, but it was very surprising to see foreigners in this era, and the Mingzhou prefect who accompanied him said that Mingzhou was located on the coast, and there were many people who sailed to and from the Tibetans to trade, and the local city was set up to manage the trade between the Tibetans and the Song people.

This remark suddenly woke up the dreamer, this financial road I actually ignored, overseas trade is a big cake, especially in today's era, many commodities of the Great Song Dynasty are unique, in other countries are still in the period of wilderness and backwardness, this is a huge business opportunity, I didn't expect it, it is indeed a big deal.

Su Jin quickly returned to Beijing and reported this idea to Zhao Zhen, Zhao Zhen was not very interested, he didn't think that he could make any money from the hands of the Fan people, and the Fan people like to make trouble, they don't understand the language, and they are not very easy to manage, plus the annual tax provided by the Ming City Bo Division to the imperial court is only 200,000 yuan, which is really unsightly.

Su Jin was surprised by Zhao Zhen's short-sightedness, since the country didn't want this cake, why not swallow it in one bite, Su Jin after two months of investigation, recruited a large number of coastal sailors, and hired dozens of people as guides, in the case of capital and difficulties, spent five million yuan to purchase sixteen ten thousand stone ships, although according to the current displacement is only a small and medium-sized ship with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, but at that time it was already the limit of technology.

For the safety of this trip, Su Jin did not hesitate to equip each ship with expensive firearms, more than 50 shipwrights per ship, 30 guards, Su Ji sent five people, two guides from the Fan people, and at the same time equipped with compass and compass and other directional instruments, and negotiated with the shipyard to install protective iron sheets in key parts without affecting the overall balance and performance of the ship.

At the end of March of the following year, Su Ji's ocean-going fleet loaded with silk, porcelain, sugar, textiles, tea, hardware and other things set off from Mingzhou Port Yang Fan went to sea, Su Jin was full of hope on the shore to give the fleet a strong trip, Su Jin also had no bottom in his heart, this time it was like a gamble, whether such a ship could experience stormy seas, whether it could successfully reach the place to be reached is a question, maybe there will be no echo in a year, two years, three years or ten years, but once the trip is successful, the channel will be opened, and from then on money is rolling in, and it can't be stopped.

The estimated date of the voyage is 10 months, because along the way, it will pass through more than a dozen countries such as Champang, Chenla, Sriwijaya, Kelantan, Bo Ni, Balinfeng, Lan Wuli, Diche, Sanyu, Dashi, Daqin, Persia, etc., and the voyage is also nearly 10,000 miles.

Calculate the return trip, it should be in February of the ninth year of Qingli, and Su Jin came to Mingzhou to wait after the first month of the first month, in addition to dealing with the government affairs sent from everywhere, what Su Jin had to do was to wait in Mingzhou port for half an hour, until the sea breeze blew strongly, and the whole body was cold before he would go back under the persuasion of everyone.

The return date of February came day by day, and day by day, until the end of March, when the spring flowers were in full bloom, and there was no shadow of the sixteen Su Ji ships, Su Jin's heart gradually became cold, and the lost money fell second, although the total value of the sixteen ships with goods exceeded more than 20 million, and more importantly, the lives of more than 1,000 fleet personnel were buried in the sea, and their lives were not exchanged for any value.

On March 29, the imperial court sent someone to recruit Su Jin into Beijing, there was an important matter to be discussed, Su Jin had no reason to stay in Mingzhou, early in the morning when he got up, Su Jin still went to the port to look at the sea, the morning fog on the sea did not disperse, the hazy white fog shrouded the blue water, nothing happened.

Su Jin sighed, ready to get into the carriage, suddenly heard the high-pitched chirping of seagulls, raised his eyes, thousands of seagulls in the fog flew up and down and chirped and chased, Su Jin was stunned, the seagulls gathered is a sign of a large ship sailing by, Su Jin stood again, put his hand on the pergola and looked at the sea, only to see the high mast, hanging the red flag specially made by Su Ji slowly galloping out of the fog, one after another, a full sixteen seagoing ships that have been weathered by wind and waves, one by one, the entourage cheered loudly, Su Jin only felt that his eyes were sour, I don't know when the tears flowed.

Sixteen Su Kee merchant ships, after a year's arduous voyage, were laden with ivory, coral, agate, pearls, frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, pepper, glaze, tortoiseshell, sand gold, beads, medicine beads, mercury, deer antler velvet, and poria cocos; Hundreds of commodities such as sulfur, snails, pine plates, cypresses, and Luo plates returned to Mingzhou Port; As if adhering to the tradition of the great owner of Su Kee, this adventure finally achieved its goal without danger.