Diqiu Town, where Xuzhou Li Guojian is located, is, to a certain extent, somewhat similar to Jiehe Commercial City and Jingdong Commercial Market, and is also a commercial town with a fairly high degree of autonomy. In this town full of iron-smelting blast furnaces, the real masters are not the supervisors of Zhiliguo sent by the imperial court, but the thirty-six smelters.

On the tenth day of the third month of the fifth year of the Great Song Dynasty, it was already the spring season, and the town of Diqiu, sixty or seventy miles away from Pengcheng, was filled with thick smoke.

Diqiu is the town of mining and metallurgy, in its north is Panma Iron Mountain, there is a small river with gentle water flow in the south of the mountain, it is a small canal dug artificially, called Yuntie River. The Yuntie River flows south into the town of Diqiu, passes through the town, and then flows west through the depression that later became Weishan Lake, and joins Surabaya. At this time, Surabaya was part of the Central Plains Canal and water transportation system. Every day, large quantities of iron ore are brought into Diqiu from Panma Mountain, while coal is also brought in via Surabaya and the Yuntie River. Finally, it was processed into pig iron in the iron yard in Diqiu Town, and then entered the Central Plains water transportation system through the Iron River - Surabaya, and sent to various places in the Great Song Dynasty.

The town of Diqiu, through which the iron river flows, is extremely prosperous, with a population of tens of thousands—mainly the families and servants of the 36 metallurgical lords, thousands of miners and smelters and their families, as well as merchants from all over the world, all gathered in this town, making the small Diqiu town no less prosperous than the Jiehe Commercial Market and the Jingdong Commercial Market.

The person who presided over this bustling commercial town was, of course, nominally the supervisor of the Zhili State appointed by the imperial court—an official position equivalent to the county governor. The current supervisor of Zhiliguo is Liu Yu and Liu Yanyou, who are the same high school jinshi as Wuhaowen. He has a good relationship with Wu Haowen, and Wu Haowen also helped him buy a house in Kaifeng Mansion. On the way south to Xiuzhou, Wu Haowen also stopped in Li Guojian and talked with Liu Yu about wine.

However, Liu Yu's power in Liguo Jian is not great, and it is not as good as the magistrate in other places. This is because the thirty-six metallurgical masters of Li Guojian are all wealthy businessmen with deep backgrounds, and their families have a few thick legs to hold in Kaifeng Mansion. And every smelter in charge has donated his official body. Although the status of the official who donated is very low, it cannot be compared with Liu Yu, who was born as a jinshi, but it is more or less a talisman. Theoretically, the crimes of these donate-born officials should also be stabilized by the Imperial Historical Observatory. Liu Yu, the national supervisor, can't be a supervisor......

And these smelters, all of them are super-rich, at least they all have a property of more than one million, and everyone is richer than the princes.

They not only own the mines in Panma Mountain and the iron yard in Diqiu Town, but also bought out half of the land in Xuzhou, and are the largest landlord group in Xuzhou. Moreover, they also married each other, and married with the local scholar family in Xuzhou, forming an intertwined interest group.

However, these big names who are indispensable in Xuzhou are standing outside Diqiu Town with Liu Yu today, obviously waiting for someone to come.

"I don't know if Wu Shuaisi can take a fancy to my son Yizhou......" Ren Baichuan, who is also a leading figure among the smelting masters, said a little eagerly.

"Uncle, you're too worried," Zhu Xingshu, who was standing next to him and wearing a green official uniform, said with a smile, "Big brother is a famous talent in Xuzhou City, why can't he worship under Wu Shuaisi?" ”

"What a talent, this year's release test is not the same, but I'm not sure? We, the Lang Jun of the smelter's family, really don't have the material to read. Ren Baichuan touched his big belly and muttered.

The surrounding group of smelters in official uniforms all nodded in agreement, and one of the oldest sighed slowly: "Pity the hearts of parents all over the world, they all want their sons to become dragons, even if they are not reading materials, even if they spend more money?" ”

"Yes, we have money!"

"We're not afraid to spend money!"

"As long as you can enter the Yuntai Academy, we will give you as much money as he wants!"

"I'm afraid he doesn't want money! He is the richest man in the Great Song Dynasty...... It's richer than us! ”

"He doesn't want money to come to us, what are we doing? Can we still produce talents into his eyes? ”

"Yes, we only have rich people here, and we don't have talented people."

Everyone laughed as they spoke, there was indeed no talent here in Li Guojian - although Diqiu Town was rich, there were not many scholars, that is, the sons of the thirty-six smelters and some coal bosses would go to Zheng'er Bajing to study. As for the children of miners and blacksmiths, they all follow the path of their fathers, but they are not considered to be working-class, but in fact, they make a lot of money, so they have little interest in changing their fate through study.

Because although the iron smelting industry in Diqiu Town is already in the early stage of the embryonic stage of capitalism, it is not a real market economy, and it is far from the emerging Jiehe Commercial Market and Jingdong Commercial Market.

In Diqiu Town, most of the industries related to iron smelting are highly monopolized! Not only are the smelters monopolized for generations, but the miners are as monopolistic as the smelters. There were many gangs of miners and smelters, who often fought with each other, but at the same time they were unanimously xenophobic, and did not allow foreign laborers to earn a living in the iron mines, iron yards and coal mines in the territory of Liguo Jian.

In this way, the miners and smelters of Li Guojian have been receiving high salaries for a long time, living a relatively wealthy and secure life, and naturally do not want to make progress, but only rely on the craftsmanship left by their ancestors. If it weren't for the accidents in iron mines, coal mines, and iron yards from time to time, the working class here would be quite comfortable, and their small lives would be much happier than those of the house slaves in Kaifeng Mansion.

The trading of the 36 smelters is also very stable, more stable than the monopoly state-owned enterprises in later generations, and most of the smelters do the business that has been handed down from the five dynasties and ten kingdoms, and the 200-year-old store has no competition. How to make iron, how to sell, how to price, are all thirty-six metallurgical integration, in addition to the charcoal to coal (that is because there is no charcoal), the iron-smelting technology used is also two hundred years unchanged, proper craftsman spirit!

As for the smelters elsewhere in the Great Song Dynasty, it is impossible to threaten the 36th Metallurgical Prison of Liguojian. Li Guojian is too blessed, with resource advantages, geographical advantages, and the accumulation of a thousand-year-old iron city. Especially after coal ironmaking has become the mainstream, in addition to Liguojian, where is there an important iron-smelting town integrating coal, iron and canals?

Unless there is a revolutionary change in the iron smelting industry, these smelters can make money lying down......

And now the revolution has arrived!

A large group of people, all of them in fresh clothes and angry horses, came in a mighty way. They are all micro-clothes, and no one is wearing official robes. However, Liu Yu still recognized Wu Haogu and Ji Yi at a glance.

Liu Yu smiled and said to the smelters around him: "It's here, it's Wu Shuaisi, and Ji Yizhi, who promoted the secretary of Jingdong City, is also here." ”

"Yes, yes, it's Ji Shibo...... Look at him like that, the spring breeze is proud! ”

"I heard that he got a good and bad and sent an envoy to the Western Great Food Country!"

"It seems that he also has a school palace, called Gezhi Academy, if our son can't enter the Yuntai Academy, he can go to Gezhi Academy."

Liu Yu frowned slightly, there is money to be an official in Liguojian, and he can save a big house in Kaifeng Mansion after working for more than a year! But the official authority is a little small, and all of these smelters are above them, and they are more well-informed than their own officials - he doesn't know that Ji Yi is going to envoy Laoshizi Dashi Kingdom! By the way, where is Oshikoku? Is it rich in big stones, so it is called big stone country?

With a question, Liu Yu strode forward, and sang a fat song to Wu Haogu and Ji Yi with a smile on his face, "Wu Shuaisi, Brother Yi, the two of you are here, but it makes Diqiu Town shine!" ”

Wu Haogu turned over and dismounted, his movements were so cool, and then he arched his hand at Liu Yu and a group of smelters wearing official uniforms behind him, and smiled: "Brother Yanyou, Brother He Yi just came to Liguo to do some private affairs, and there is a lot of trouble, so I really don't want to go." ”

"It's okay, it's okay, a certain and Wu Wangdao are close friends, and Shuai Si is the eldest brother of Wangdao, which is the eldest brother of a certain family."

Liu Yu looked very good at dealing with him, and he also had a friendship with Wu Haogu.

Wu Haogu then smiled at a group of smelters who didn't know that the catastrophe would come in a few years (maybe ten years): "You are all the smelters of the Li Guojian, right? I'm here to ask for your help. ”

Help?

A group of smelters were full of promises, but they thought in their hearts: This excuse is good! You can't help in vain, right? By the way, pull dozens of "rich people" to Yuntai School Palace, this is a courtesy exchange, right? As for the tuition fee, it is easy to say......

……

"These are all talented people in Liguo Town?"

"Back to the Shuaisi, these are all rich people, and they all have a lot of ......."

"Really? Okay, go back to Pengcheng with a certain person, and let someone test them, as long as they can get by, they will all be admitted to Yuntai Academy or Sikai Academy. ”

A bit out of Wu Haogu's expectations, Zhu Xingshu and Zhou Daxia did not bring him craftsmen who were proficient in iron smelting, but instead brought him dozens of talented people in the hall of the largest and most luxurious Ren Ye Lord's Mansion in Liguo Town, saying that they were going to enter the Yuntai Academy or the Six Arts Academy.

Not to mention, it looks like a thing. All of them are polite and polite - they are not nouveau riche, they are all 200-year-old "old aristocrats", and their temperament has long been raised. Although he is not very good at reading, his personal cultivation temperament still looks very good, and he is all polite.

And Wu Haogu doesn't pick students very much, he is adhering to the spirit of teaching and classless sages in accepting students...... So I readily agreed.

A group of smelters present were overjoyed, originally thinking that Wu Shuaisi would make a pair, or take out half a word card to take a test, but they didn't expect it to be so easy to speak.

At this time, Wu Haogu smiled and said, "These talented people must be your sons and nephews, right?" You can rest assured, as long as they are still taught, the Yuntai Academy of this official will educate them to become talents. As for whether you can be admitted to the right list of Jinshi, I can't guarantee it, but you must be able to learn it if you are really talented. However, this official also has something to do, and wants you to help him. ”