In the city of Songzhou, Li Jing and Li Rang brought a large number of gifts to Zhang's mansion.

Although this is a concubine, not a wife, and the sixth concubine is still accepted, many of the etiquette specifications are modeled after the specifications that are only a little lower than the main wife. Everything is carried out in strict accordance with the six rites, Nacai, asking for names, Najib, Nazheng, inviting dates, and greeting in person.

Li Jing invited the most famous matchmaker in Songzhou to propose to Zhang Rui, and Zhang Rui did not mean to be embarrassed, and after seeing the proposal, he happily agreed. After the Zhang family agreed to propose, Li Rang sent someone to send a Nacai gift, which was a pair of geese, plus some other gifts. In this regard, Li Jingquan was handed over to Li Rang to handle, and Li Rang deserved to be the richest man in the Song Dynasty, and he did things very beautifully.

Nacai is followed by asking the name, which is the woman's name and birthday, and it is also a pair of geese as a gift. Li Rang invited a famous man with a very high status in Songzhou to come to Zhang Rui's mansion with a wild goose, and asked for two purposes, one is to prevent close relatives with the same surname, and the other is to ask for the eight characters of birth, and then go to divination to see if the marriage between the two is suitable.

After asking the name, Najib is to send the eight characters asked back and the man's eight characters to the ancestral temple for divination, and when he gets the auspicious omen, he will reply to the woman with a gift, indicating that he has concluded a marriage. At this point, there is basically no one who is not worthy.

After some process, it was time to accept the ceremony. This is the next gift, the bride price. To hold a wedding for the master, Li Rang naturally wants to show it vigorously. He directly took out a million yuan to buy an extremely rich gift, and on the day of the levy, the convoy of gifts was ten miles long, circling the entire Song City, and was finally sent to Zhang Rui's mansion. Zhang Rui was also very happy when she saw the thick gift list full of books. He is not short of money. But Li Jing can be so big. But it made him feel that Li Jing was very sincere. After giving the gift. The next day, Li Jing asked people to come to discuss with Zhang Rui, and finally set a date for the reception, which was the invitation ceremony.

After the final agreement, the date of the wedding was set on May 18. When that day came, Li Jing personally greeted him and then went to the church to get married, which was considered a ceremony.

Since escaping Zhang's Mansion that day, Li Jing returned to Zhang's Mansion for the first time. These days, I haven't seen Zhang Hui again. According to the rules, until he arrived at the cave room, Li Jing had no chance to see Zhang Hui again. Now Zhang Rui's defense against Li Jing is the same as a thief, there are several layers of family in the outer courtyard of Zhang's house, and several more teams of servant women are invited in the backyard, and Zhang Hui is even more Sumeru by his side.

Li Jing sat in the flower hall of Zhangfu, talking to Zhang Rui, and both of them were a little embarrassed.

What he said to Zhang Rui today was not about marriage, but about the cooperation between Zhenguojun and Songzhou. Songzhou and Bianzhou are the metropolises of the Central Plains, stuck in the southeast and Luoyang Chang'an. Very important. The thing Li Jing wants to cooperate with Zhang Rui is very simple, that is, he hopes to get Zhang Rui's support. Let the merchants of Dengzhou set up a commodity transfer station here under the protection of Songzhou to transport the goods of Dengzhou to Songzhou.

There is already Li Rang's network in Bianzhou, and Zhang Rui's help is still needed in Songzhou.

The territory of the Zhenguo army was very small, and the grain produced was barely enough to sustain food and clothing, which forced Li Jing to strengthen commerce. At present, the situation in Datang is not bad, and it has not yet reached the state of attacking each other and the people are struggling to make a living. At this time, it is still very good to engage in business. In the past, the sailors were sent south to open up the sea to Yangzhou, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou, and even relied on the merchants in Guangzhou to sell goods to Arabia and the Eastern Roman Empire.

In addition to this southward trade route, there was also a maritime trade route to Liaodong, Balhae, Silla, and Japan.

These two sea routes are traditional routes, and what Li Jing wants to strengthen now is the trade route to the Central Plains. The two waterways, the Yellow River and the Jihe River, are now basically paralyzed, and along these two waterways, they are basically eroded by grass thieves.

In addition, there is another road is to go to Youzhou, along the Zhangshui through the well into Taiyuan, and then to Pugu, into the customs to Chang'an. Or ascend to Youzhou on the sea, along the Sanggan River from Feigu into Datong Ulzhou, then into Zhenwu, into the north of the Yellow River, and then cross the Yellow River from Fengzhou into the Guanzhong, or enter Zhenwu directly by the Yellow River waterway to Lingwu into the Guanzhong.

However, Li Jing has always felt that it is too far and difficult to take the two roads in Hebei, and these two roads are mainly land routes.

The two waterways, the Yellow River and the Jishui, were temporarily blocked, so Li Jing planned to take the Huai River and the Yangtze River.

From Dengzhou Sea to the mouth of the Huai River, from Sizhou to the Huai River, go up the river. Sell the goods along the Huai River to Huaibei and Huainan, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Sizhou, Ying, and Haozhu are all rich places, and they are also places where grain is produced, and they are just exchanged for grain with Dengzhou commodities. Moreover, it can go north from the Bianqu on the Huai River, Si, Xu, Hao, Song, Bian, Luoyang, Heyang, Taiyuan, and Chang'an are connected into a smooth trade road. On the Huai River, Yingshui enters Caishui, Ying, Chen, Xu, Ru and Luoyang can also be connected.

The trade route of the Yangtze River is more convenient, along the Yangtze River you can enter the Yangtze River and Han, and the most Lu can go straight to Sanba and Hanzhong and Shuzhong.

It can be said that in the planning of Li Jing and his staff, there is no agriculture, no stability, no work, no wealth, and no business. The idea put forward by the newly appointed wealthy Li Rang after taking office is also to insist on continuing to reclaim the land and produce grain in the territory of the Zhenguo Army, and at the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen the various workshops and mining in the Zhenguo Army. After continuously producing all kinds of commodities, while carrying out long-distance maritime trade by sea, it is also necessary to take advantage of the convenience of the rivers to develop a huge network in various parts of the Central Plains to promote and sell Dengzhou's commodities in exchange for various materials such as grain needed by the Zhenguo army.

There are two trade routes on the sea, two trade routes in Youzhou, three trade routes on the Yellow River, Jishui and Huai River, and one trade route on the Yangtze River, a total of ten trade routes. At present, only one trade route for the Zhenguo Army to enter Bohai Silla is the most perfect, and the trade route for southward advertising is still being opened.

The two roads through Youzhou are only being opened on a small scale, and other trade routes cannot be opened for a while. Li Jing's current focus is on the canal where the Huai River flows into the Bianqu canal. On this trade route, Sizhou Xuyi, Xuzhou Fuli, Maozhou Yongcheng, Songzhou Songcheng, Bianzhou Biancheng, Zhengzhou Xingyang, the eastern capital Luoyang, and Mengzhou Heyang are the most important metropolitan outlets. Among them, the location of Biansong is the top priority of this trade route. If this trade route is to succeed, the key is to have the support of the officials.

"Uncle Yue, if this trade route is opened up, then a large number of Dengzhou's best-selling goods will be transported into the Central Plains. At that time, under this drive, it could also drive the collection and flow of commodities in Henan and even Guanzhong, Hedong and Shannan. Songzhou is a major city on the canal, and when the commodities gather, it will be more prosperous, and the tax revenue from the exchange of goods alone can make the father-in-law receive a soft hand. Li Jing said with a smile.

Zhang Rui's tenure in the history of Songzhou is naturally very clear about these. However, the competition in the mall is just as fierce, especially now that the larger caravans are basically controlled by various big families behind the scenes. If you want to get involved, the power will cause a lot of original interests to fight back. The strong dragon does not press the ground, if Li Jing wants to gain a firm foothold, it is not enough to have best-selling products.

Zhang Rui took the tea and glanced at Li Jing, "This is no problem, since you and I are a family, I will naturally help with this favor." ”

Li Jing smiled slightly, with this good start, the rest of the things are easy to say.

"Uncle Yue, I still have a big business that I want to cooperate with Uncle Yue."

"What business?" Zhang Rui took a sip of tea and tasted it slowly.

"Salt!" Li Jing said very directly, the profit of salt is a huge profit, even if the court imposes heavy taxes, it is still a huge profit. There are large salt ponds, female salt ponds and six small salt ponds under the jurisdiction of the Hezhong Jiedu envoy, and the salt tax paid to the imperial court every year is as high as nearly 2 million guan. Although such a heavy salt tax was paid, the river was still very profitable. Even in history, Tian Lingzi once wanted to return the two salts to the imperial court, and Wang Chongrong directly rebelled against the Hezhong Jiedu, and the fight was inextricable.

Li Jing now has the official position of salt and iron transshipment envoy, Ziqing and Liaodong are both under the jurisdiction of Li Jing's salt and iron transshipment. The imperial court didn't care how much salt Li Jing could sell, and directly set the tax on salt, mines, and tea at 2 million guan a year. This is a huge amount of money, but Li Jing's salt drying method has a huge output, especially now that a large number of displaced people are salt workers, the output can be increased. However, the sales in the prefectures and counties of Ziqing and Liaodong in the territory are full, and now Li Jing's idea is to sell salt to Henan and Shannan. The Huai River area has a huge output of Huai salt, and the profit margin is not large.

"Now the grass thieves are in turmoil, eroding the land of Kyushu, and even the price of salt in the Central Plains has begun to rise a lot. Now the salt has risen to 200 yuan per bucket, or a small bucket, and a stone of salt exceeds 4,000 yuan. More than 36 yuan per catty of salt, the same price as rice. And due to the erosion of Tianping, Yicheng and Taining, eastern and western Zhejiang are also chaotic, and now there is no market for prices, and salt cannot be bought at high prices. Li Jing said about the salt market in Henan today, "Nowadays, in the Shannan area of Henan, most of them rely on the salt of the two pools in the river, and the salt of the deadly pool remains high." The people complained that the son-in-law intended to work for the welfare of the people and was willing to transport salt from Dengzhou to Henan. The high-grade Dengzhou salt, which is large and snow-white and dry, is better than the pool salt, comparable to the green salt produced in the Northwest Salt Lake, and I only sold it to the Songzhou government for 100 yuan per bucket. The government can increase some prices and sell them to the people, isn't this a good thing for you, me, and everyone? ”

Hearing this, Zhang Rui was a little moved. This time, the grass thieves attacked and broke through four of the eight counties in Songzhou, and the losses were great. Although the people of Songzhou were not taken captive, the city was ruined, the villages were burned, and the people's property was gone, which also dealt a heavy blow to Songzhou. Not only will tax revenues be greatly reduced in the next few years, but money will also have to be used to rebuild the four counties, restore people's production, and resettle displaced people. Even during this period of time, it cost a lot of money and food to supply the Zhenguo army.

The official salt is 200 yuan a bucket, and Li Jing is willing to give him 100 yuan a bucket, if Songzhou buys Li Jing's salt and increases the price by 20 or 30 yuan per bucket, the profit will be huge. (To be continued......)