Shen Chong looked at Fan Zhixu, then at Yang Zhi, and said after Yang Zhi bowed his head: "The Salt and Iron Division has been doing two things recently, one is to explore minerals, and the other is to promote the use of briquettes. There is no progress in minerals for the time being, but the use of briquettes has been popularized in Qin, Long, Fengxiang and other places, and has won the praise of the people; this time, the Zhifu Division allocated 2,000 catties of scrap iron, and after making a furnace, it will be promoted in Jingyuan Road, Huanqing Road, and Weinan, and Lord Ye means collecting taxes. ”

Ye Mengde said calmly: "Now the Guanzhong Academy is promoting the use of fire kang and ventilated houses, we have experimented, only the briquettes or coal blocks are fully burned, and the room is ventilated, there will be no poisoning; the houses in the military camps in Hezhou and Longyou, as well as the houses of our local government offices, will be gradually rebuilt." The problem is coal, one coal is considered a mineral, and the other is that briquettes are currently specially made by the newly established government coal workshops. The Transshipment Department has reported to Taiyuan to open workshops in 50 cities on the 4th Road in Shaanxi, and King Yun is ready to open 100 in Hedong, and if there are private individuals, we will collect taxes. ”

Everyone here understood that this should be the masterpiece of Shen Chong and Guanzhong Academy, but now King Yun wants to take all the profits into his own hands, and these officials have already used fire pits, and they are confident that most of them will use coal in winter. But merchants are everywhere, more than a hundred government workshops, thousands of officials and workers, it is almost impossible to keep the technology and secrets, and King Yun is just taking precautions.

Fan Shiyan asked, "Lord Ye, how much are you going to collect?"

Ye Mengde spread his hands and said, "King Yun asked to run on Shaanxi Fourth Road to see how much is appropriate." ”

Yang Zhi waved his hand and said, "Then do it according to King Yun's wishes, and the Transshipment Division can decide." ”

Yang Zhi's attitude was so crisp, and it did not exceed Ye Mengde's estimate, Ye Mengde knew very well that the delicate relationship between Yang Zhi and Zhao Kai now, especially Yang Zhi's clean beating of Xixia this time, made the people of Shaanxi and Guanzhong settle down, and caused a lot of sensation in Taiyuan;

Fan Zhixu smiled and said: "I'm thinking, why is the house I live in so warm, it turns out that this is the reason, in my opinion, it can still be controlled in the hands of the government in a short period of time; just even if you are not short of money, what about the food, the 150,000 people promised by the emperor have only three months of food, which is just a drop in the bucket for the hundreds of thousands of people in Shaanxi Fourth Road, and at most they have supported this winter." ”

Ye Mengde, Zeng Wei and others were speechless for a while, Yang Zhi solved the problem of money, but the Transshipment Division still did not solve the problem of food, but now Runzhou began to provide food, which was covered up for a while. Fan Zhixu's reminder was not timely, Yang Zhi smiled and said, "Master Fan, I have already written to King Yun and asked him to help solve it." When King Yun is confirmed, I will report back to you. ”

Fan Zhixu was stunned, could Yang Zhi have a way to solve it, but Fan Zhixu knew that his identity was special, and some things were inconvenient to ask, so he took out Tang Chong's letter from his sleeve, handed it to Yang Zhi and said, "That's good, you take a look at this letter first." ”

Tang Chong's letter did not have much content, mainly to ask Fan Zhixu to find Yang Zhi to find a way, but Yang Zhi and Fan Zhixu saw the same implicit meaning in Tang Chong's letter, that is, Runzhou could help; After reading it, Yang Zhi handed the letter to Ye Mengde and said, "Master Tang is talented, what I am thinking about is exactly what I am thinking. ”

Yang Zhi thought of Hu Xueyan's model of helping Zuo Zongtang, relying on the operation of commerce to maintain the supply of the army, but Yang Zhi knew that it was not appropriate to travel north and south, and now even Zhao Kai was on guard against himself, and rashly intervening would only make Song Huizong's father and son ask for more from him. After consideration, Yang Zhi suggested to Zhao Kai that the supplies for the attack on Western Xia be handed over to the merchants, and the green salt of Yanzhou was used as collateral, and Yang Zhi finally chose the Taiping firm of Nandun Zongyuan presided over by Zhao Lingyun, the Duke of Qingguo.

Ye Mengde knew all this and agreed with Yang Zhi's way of thinking, it was no longer possible for the Great Song Dynasty to move the Beidun Sect in Bianliang to Jinling Mansion, only the Nandun Sect in Runzhou was righteous and could be used. Ye Mengde finished reading the letter and said leisurely: "Runzhou is worried that we will stop fighting with Western Xia, and we are a little anxious; ”

The Dingbei Army had already prepared, Fan Zhixu was overjoyed, and went back to Tang to return a letter first, but for the sake of safety, Fan Zhixu didn't say much, only said that King Yun and Yang Zhi had not given up and were working hard to find a way. Zhao Kai quickly replied, agreed to Yang Zhi's plan, and changed Li Jinyi to the judge of the Shaanxi Transfer Division, and designated Li Jinyi to assist Yang Zhi in doing this.

Zhao Kai, the king of Yun, also saw the benefits, the Taiping business is the clan's tool to collect money, the Taiping business belongs to the kind of business that can do any business, as long as his father Song Huizong agreed, Zhao Gou will never dare to embarrass the business, and a steady stream of materials will be transported to Shaanxi; on the other hand, for the recovery of Western Xia, the enthusiasm of the clan is much higher than that of others, through this matter, he can get the strong support of the clan, which will be of great benefit to the future.

Zhao Kai knew that Fan Zhixu was in Qinzhou, and now was the time to use this relationship to let Yang Zhi and Fan Zhixu jointly write a letter and write a chapter directly; when Zhao Kai and others' letters arrived in Runzhou, Song Huizong agreed to it all, he knew that this was a concession from the Dingbei Army, and in order to obtain food, iron and other materials, he gave the clan magnates a chance to make a fortune. Song Huizong even asked Zhao Yingluo to hint in his family letter to Zhao Kai and Yang Zhi that he was looking forward to recovering his homeland in Western Xia.

Song Huizong saw very clearly from Fan Zhixu's report that Yang Zhi had won the two battles and had not yet mobilized the troops in Weinan and other places under the Shaanxi Zhifu Division; coupled with the more than 100,000 male soldiers of Zhang Shen, Yue Fei and others on the Hedong border, the strength of Zhao Kai of Yun Wang on the Western Front was no less than that of Tong Guan in the past, and famous generals like Yang Zhi, Yue Fei, and Liu Qi were better than Liu Xi and Liu Zhongwu.

Song Huizong specially announced this matter in the early court, that is, to tell Zhao Lingxun and all the people not to produce any moths; there are all parents in the world, every parent hopes that their children will live well, and Song Huizong is no exception, in the face of King Yun's request, Song Huizong feels that he should agree this time. Moreover, the front line is fighting against the Western Xia, and the rivers and mountains of Shaanxi are not only the rivers and mountains of the Dingbei Army, but also the rivers and mountains of the Great Song Dynasty.