The New Year's Day of the Song Kingdom was about a month later than the first night of the Western New Year, and the provinces of Europa began to prepare for New Year's Day after the first day of the Western New Year. If a certain saint in later generations saw this practice, he probably thought that it was too much of Song Doctrine for the province to do so. No one in the officials of Europa Province would think so, since Europa Province is already the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, naturally everything must be done according to the thousands of years of tradition of the Great Song Dynasty. Even if the majority of the province's population is Europa, the locals didn't make the provincial officials feel that there was anything wrong with it.

Within the province, it is generally believed that it is precisely because the locals are accustomed to the Europa tradition that the province is particularly changing customs. New Year's Day is the most important festival in the Great Song Dynasty, and there can be no slackness.

Seeing that the end of the year is approaching, the holidays and celebrations have been decided. The envoy of Hao Kang, the governor of Damascus, arrived in Athens and brought a gift, a large box of red willow branches. He also made a dish of red willow branch kebab at the banquet of the provincial banquet envoys. Not to mention, the lamb on the red willow skewers not only tastes good after being grilled, but the meat quality seems to have changed significantly.

Hao Kang is so on the road, and the provincial side is also quite satisfied. After that, the two sides discussed next year's trade, and of course everyone did not discuss it in such detail, but did exchanges at the policy level. There are three major products of Damascus, the most famous of which is naturally the Damascus scimitar. Damascus scimitars, made from Uzi steel produced near the slave dynasty, were so famous in the Eastern Mediterranean that provincial officials had not been able to use them as gifts for relatives and friends in the country for the last year or two. Hao Kang asked Da Song to help in this regard, and the province readily agreed. To help others is to help yourself.

Another well-known product of Damascus is soap. Damascus soap is made of olive oil and laurel oil, soap made of palm oil will dry and cracked the skin on the back of the hand if you use too much, and the research results of Dasong are that palm oil soap has a very strong ability to remove dirt and oil, and the sebum damage to the skin is serious when used. Olive oil and bay oil soaps don't have this problem. Olive oil and laurel oil are not produced in China, and the results of the study show that soybean oil-based soap does not have this problem. However, the advantage of palm oil is that it is cheaper, more than half the price of soybean oil, and the price is a fraction of that of olive oil and bay oil soap.

Hao Kang proposed to cooperate with the province to create a brand of Damascus olive oil laurel oil soap, so that such an expensive soap can show its true value. Of course, the provincial officials agreed, and couldn't help but praise Hao Kang After all, he grew up studying in the Great Song Dynasty, and his knowledge completely kept up with the economic situation.

Where olive and laurel trees are grown, many plants that produce aromatic oils can also be grown, and the third most famous product of Damascus is perfume. The Great Song Dynasty was not short of perfumes, and when the Zhao official family was in Fujian, they cooperated with Qi Ye, a child of the Qi family, who opened a money village, in the perfume business, and Qi Ye later became the president of the Great Song Dynasty. Perfume has developed into a daily necessities industry that should not be underestimated in the Great Song Dynasty, and the fragrance types with Damascus roses introduced by the Great Song Dynasty as raw materials account for a large proportion of them. Hao Kang believes that the Damascus rose perfume industry, which is famous throughout the Mediterranean, cannot be so destroyed, and he hopes that the province will cooperate with Damascus in perfume sales to restore the local traditional industry of nearly 1,000 years as soon as possible.

This was not a problem for the province, which compared perfumes made from local roses in Damascus with perfumes made from Damascus roses introduced by the Great Song Dynasty. I have to admit that one side of the water and soil raises one side of the flower, and the most basic taste is the same, and the local roses of Damascus are better than the Damascus roses from the Damascus introduced in every angle. There is absolutely no reason for the province to refuse to resume rose production in the Damascus region.

Hao Kang's envoy knew very well the significance of New Year's Day to the Great Song Dynasty, and he did not stay in Athens for New Year's Day, but agreed to come back after the seventh day of the new year. Waiting for Hao Kang's envoy to leave, the provincial reception staff continued to prepare for the New Year. On the twenty-ninth day of the new year, Hao Rui's messenger came.

Xie Song was immediately called to receive him, which made Xie Song very unhappy in his heart. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, where is there a lack of these days to talk about things. If you are not happy, Xie Song still received Hao Rui's messenger. Unlike Hao Kang's envoy's mellow expression of a businessman, the envoy of the Yuan Kingdom looked much more serious, looking like an official. After the formal greeting, the Yuan State official spoke: "Your Excellency, our Yuan Kingdom wants to resume trade. ”

"How come I don't know when Yuan Guo withdrew from the Quadripartite Alliance." Xie Song's tone was full of banter.

Touching a soft nail, the face of the envoy of the Yuan Kingdom turned a little red. Xie Song had an expression of indifference, but his heart was a little dark. After waiting for so long, Yuan Guo finally sent someone. Xie Song didn't think that the Yuan State would resume trade so simply, he was already mentally prepared to talk for three or five months, so he was very dissatisfied with the timing of the Yuan State envoy's election.

After holding back for a long time, the envoy of the Yuan Kingdom asked, "Your Excellency Xie, are you saying that you can trade now?" ”

Xie Song was a little sympathetic to this newcomer's performance, the previous representative of the Yuan Kingdom was not like this, that person was a very good guy. Xie Song could only say: "If I remember correctly, the Yuan Kingdom has never withdrawn from the Quadripartite Alliance. According to the Quadripartite Alliance's statutes, you are ready to trade. ”

Hearing this, the envoy of the Yuan Kingdom said with some excitement: "Can we buy and sell now?" I read that the articles of association say that the trade office is open every day of the year. ”

"Absolutely." After Xie Song finished speaking, he looked at this unreliable looking messenger. He was really shocked by this guy, what is Yuan Guo going to do? What is the expected time for three or five months? Xie Song asked, "What about Lu Shilang, who was in charge of this matter before?" ”

The messenger said that he did not know, but looking at his expression, the messenger knew very well. Xie Song smiled: "This brother, if you only come here once, I will ask the person in charge of this matter in the future." If you are in charge of this matter in the future, why don't you tell me about Lu Shilang's current situation. Isn't it all about saying it early and late? ”

The envoy hesitated for a moment when he heard this, and finally said, "Lu Shilang has passed away. ”

Xie Song couldn't help but sigh when he heard this. The infighting in the upper echelons of the Yuan Kingdom actually implicated that guy, I really didn't expect it. However, Xie Song quickly thought that even the Queen Mother of Yuan had died in this infighting, and a squire was nothing. He didn't mention this topic again, but called the provincial cadre in charge of trade and asked him to take this novice from the Yuan Kingdom to the exchange.

The cadre looked reluctant, and finally had to leave with the messenger. Xie Song hoped that things would not go wrong again, and it was hard to rest for a few days during the Chinese New Year, Xie Song didn't want to get up again for this matter.

Including the Chinese New Year's Eve, there are eight days off on New Year's Day. After the New Year, the provincial officials of Athens held a meeting, and Jeluhon came up and told everyone that they could go to the honeycomb coal factory to pull coal. This batch of coal is Yuan national coal, and everyone no longer has to endure the torment of Greek lignite. This little incident immediately aroused the joy of everyone in the conference room, and no matter how small the needle was, it was unbearable to be poked every day. After a hiatus of more than a year, trade has finally resumed, and the effect has been immediate.

The exchange is theoretically open all year round, but in fact, the Chinese New Year is no different from the holiday. The director didn't seem happy when he reported the situation to everyone, and everyone could understand him, so they didn't care about this person's tone and attitude. This time, instead of bringing the grain traded, Yuan Guo sent coal and leather. The director of the coal is a word, and for the leather is a large number of special approvals.

"If you want to use the leather, you have to tann it first, the level of leather in the Yuan Kingdom is very rotten, they used to know that they couldn't do it, and the leather was sent to us here for tanning after drying. Most of the leather sent this time was tanned by Yuan Guo himself. They didn't know how to tann it, and they almost had to rot the skin. That smell smoky to death! I can't eat for the past few days......"

Mixed with introductions and complaints, the director scolded for four or five minutes. If it weren't for Yeluhong's gentle reminder, the director would probably have been able to scold for at least four or five more minutes.

"Did they talk about grain exports?" Yeluhon asked.

"I said it, but I don't say it." The director replied immediately.

"Why?"

"It seems that I can't harvest food." The director recounted what he had heard.

"Even if it is the temperature of the Yuan country, it is impossible for the grain to be stored for a few years." The chief in charge of grain immediately expressed puzzlement.

"That messenger was promoted on a temporary basis, and he doesn't know much. Anyway, he said that the grain that Yuan Guo has collected now is only enough for normal operation, and he didn't say where the grain went. ”

This news surprised everyone very much, when Hao Ren was alive, the grain of the Yuan Kingdom simply poured into the market of the Quadripartite Alliance like a tide, and made a lot of money together with the coal and leather of the Yuan Kingdom. It also allowed the government-run handicraft factories of the Eastern Roman Empire to operate almost at full capacity. There have been no major disasters in the past two years, and the Yuan Kingdom has not been able to harvest grain. This is somewhat unusual.

Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Yeluhong asked Xie Song, "What do you think will happen?" ”

"I don't know." Xie Song replied. Several possibilities had flashed in his mind, but Xie Song didn't want to say it. What if Jeluhun takes it seriously, and even worse, what if Jeluhun pretends to be serious.

Xie Song didn't say anything, and others began to speak, some thought that the control of the Yuan court declined after the civil war, some thought that the people of the Yuan State used grain to raise livestock, and some thought that the Yuan State rose up to support Hao Rui's civilian armed forces, and their leaders were probably trying to control the place.

Xie Song had thought about these ideas very quickly, but he felt that they were not the point. The goods that are being shipped now are coal and leather, which means that these are the areas that the Yuan lord can effectively manage. These fields used to be easy for Hao Ren to manage, and this Hao Rui, who was less than twenty years old, seemed to have really inherited some of Hao Ren's strength. Logically speaking, the Yuan Kingdom is really stable. It seems that you can't completely underestimate Hao Rui, a young man.