The pig iron business is very profitable, but not everyone can do it, to do this business, you must have a very strong backer, and these backers must be the top officials of the court, and they must be approved by the emperor.

Pig iron is a matter of whether the war can be won, and most of the pig iron is sold according to regulations, how can it be done without the consent of the emperor?

Moreover, the sale of pig iron is only applicable in the barracks, and in any other place, pig iron is not allowed to be bought and sold in large quantities.

After listening to Tong Zhuo's words, Hua Lang nodded slightly, and then asked, "Then who are the backers behind these three people who do pig iron business?" ”

"Their backers have a lot of backgrounds, the backer of the Cheng family is Cheng Qi, this Cheng family has a very high status in the court, Cheng Qi is the book of the Ministry of War, he knows everything about the needs of the war, so a few years ago, he applied to the emperor to open pig iron trading in this Xinjiang, at that time the relationship between the Great Song Dynasty and Western Xia was very bad, and the court desperately needed pig iron to supplement the blades needed by the soldiers, so he agreed, of course, this matter does not mean that he agreed, although the emperor agreed to sell pig iron in this place, However, 80% of the price of pig iron sold must be handed over to the imperial court, that is, after the imperial court bought pig iron with money, the instrument needs to return 80% of the money obtained to the imperial court. ”

"In this way, does the Cheng family still have to make money?"

Tong Zhuo smiled: "Naturally, there is some money, although the mining of pig iron is very troublesome, but most of it is done by the imperial court soldiers, and there are not many people from the Cheng family, this can be said to be a profitable business." ”

Hua Lang bowed slightly, and then asked Tong Zhuo to talk about the other two families.

"The backer of the Pang family is Pang Ji, and now he is the Taishi of the Great Song Dynasty, his status is noble, and it is naturally okay to sell pig iron, and the rules are similar to those of the Cheng family."

"The rest of the family, the Zhao family, this is a terrible one, this is the pig iron business opened by the royal family, and now it is a prince of my Great Song Dynasty who is in charge of all this, called Song Qingyu, is the cousin of the emperor today, and was named the king of Qing, this Zhao family's pig iron business, all the profits are the royal family, and it is the emperor's own property."

"Then how is this green king a person?"

"Lord, naturally there is some arrogance, but I heard that this prince has a very good relationship with the emperor, and sometimes when he enters the palace, he doesn't need to report it at all."

Hua Lang was silent for a while and asked, "Aren't these people's backers here now?" ”

"This is natural, they are all noble people, how could they come to this kind of place, and this place is too close to the frontier, very dangerous, maybe when the Western Xia soldiers rush over, they will be all finished, their pig iron shops, are handed over to trustworthy people, the Cheng family and the Pang family, handed over to their house slave cronies, but the Zhao family is looking for a businessman who is very good at doing business, it seems to be called Zheng Kai, this Zheng master is a business legend, now in his fifties, very rich experience, and has also failed, also brilliant, now helping the heavenly family to do business, the benefits are even more I don't know how many, I heard that one of his sons has been entered by the emperor into the Hanlin Academy. ”

After Hua Lang finished asking, and after Tong Zhuo finished speaking, he finally found a trace of strangeness, so he boldly asked, "Dude, why did you suddenly ask about pig iron?" ”

Hua Lang smiled: "There was a big battle in the military camp yesterday, although my Great Song forced the Western Xia soldiers to retreat, but the battle situation is not optimistic, so I want to know something about this situation." ”

Tong Zhuo nodded again and again, and then suddenly said: "Actually, it's normal for a playboy to want to know about these situations, but I heard that in the past two years, the pig iron business has been very poor." ”

"Poor? How? ”

Tong Zhuo smiled: "The playboy is a smart person, he should know the situation very well, in the past two years, the civil strife in Western Xia has not stopped, and their wolf master is still young, and he has not experienced fighting with my Great Song Dynasty at all, and my Great Song Dynasty, there are often things that happen to eat empty sounds, there are not so many soldiers in the military camp at all, this weapon is naturally enough, since the weapon is enough, and there is a need to buy pig iron." ”

Hua Lang was shocked, he didn't take this into account, and now after Tong Zhuo raised it, Hua Lang found that this problem was very serious, people who did war business naturally hoped for war, if there was no war, they would not be able to survive, so in order to see the war, would they deliberately provoke a war, such as selling pig iron to the enemy and letting them provoke the Great Song Dynasty?

Thinking of this, Hua Lang couldn't help but curse: Abominable businessman!

Not all businessmen are hateful, but these people who start wars for their own business are so hateful that Hwarang hates to kill him immediately.

It must be one or several of these three families that sold pig iron to the Western Xia Kingdom, but who among these families will it be?

The people of the Zhao family are members of the royal family, so it should be unlikely that he will betray his country and let others hate and beat him, right?

Cheng Qi is the secretary of the Ministry of War, if the border pass loses the battle, he will not be better there, then the only one left is Pang Ji, this Pang Ji is a bad person in the later novels, and often opposes these people with the Bao Zheng Yang family, is such a person doing something to betray the country for personal interests?

After some thought, Hua Lang made a decision, he was going to hold a banquet in Linxi City to entertain the people of the three families, and Hua Lang took the opportunity to investigate them.

This thing will be done, and that night, everyone from the three families came, after all, Hualang's face is not small, and they are embarrassed not to give it.

In the place where Hua Lang lived, they held a big feast, and the food was the signature dish in the Ziqi Donglai Inn before, and the people here had never eaten it, after inviting these people into the house, Hua Lang talked and chatted with these people, and so it has been making trouble for a long time, and Hua Lang tested them intentionally or unintentionally, and as a result, Hua Lang found that the people of the Pang family were really very suspicious, they always dodged Hua Lang's questions several times, and left in a hurry halfway.

After the banquet was dispersed, Hua Lang became suspicious of the Pang family, and this banquet could be regarded as a surprise to the snake, but Hua Lang did not regret it, this matter was a big deal, and he might be able to investigate the inside story as quickly as possible.

Of course, there are also disadvantages, such as keeping the enemy on guard.

Therefore, Hualang sent people to pay close attention to the Pang family's every move.