In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Everyone thinks that the Song Dynasty had a prosperous trade, and that there were countless hidden filths in the collusion between officials and businessmen.

But in fact, this phenomenon is rare, and there are not many in historical records.

Because the Song Dynasty was not only about businessmen doing business, but also officials doing business. Officials were originally businessmen, so how could ordinary businessmen fight against them?

In addition, there is another reason, that is, the officials in the Song Dynasty were too mobile and had a very short shelf life.

For example, there were 23 prime ministers in the Renzong Dynasty, and there were more than 100 vice prime ministers, prime ministers, and prime ministers such as the Minister of State Affairs, the Three Departments, and the Privy Council. The average tenure time was basically no more than two years.

For example, Wang Sui took office as prime minister only last year, and it has not been a year this year, but he has been attacked and impeached by the censors headed by Han Qi.

If he had not been lucky, Zhao Jun would have come down from the sky and saved his life. He would have been impeached now, and he would have been in office for only eight months. It can be said that his butt was cold before he even got warm.

In this situation, even if merchants wanted to bribe officials and build relationships with them, the officials would often be transferred before they could establish good relationships with them, and they would not have time to become corrupt with them.

So it was not that merchants did not want to collude with court officials, but that they could not maintain long-term relationships.

Instead, the clerks of various government offices became the targets of merchants' wooing, and the clerks' main income also came from the merchants' gifts.

For example, the tea merchants wooed the most were the clerks of the Taifu Temple who were responsible for issuing tea permits, as well as the subordinate clerks of the border pacification envoys, the transport envoys, the envoys' office, and the tea and salt envoys who were responsible for collecting grain, counting goods, and delivering tea permits.

The value of the tea permits was also inflated by these clerks, which helped them to raise prices and suck blood from the national treasury. The two sides split the profits 30% to 70%, forming such an alliance of interests, so that each side could get what it needed.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Tian Chang had not even met Wang Yong, who was newly transferred from the Taifu Temple to judge the Taifu Temple this year, and naturally had no right to have anything to do with him.

However, Tian Chang was an old hand after all, and soon found out that the Privy Councilor Li Zi and Wang Yong, the official of the Taifu Temple, had summoned tea merchants from all over the country.

Tian Chang did not go directly to the door, but first found the officials familiar with the Taifu Temple, presented a sum of gold and silver, and asked them to introduce him. The officials were very happy to receive the money, and they had a meal and a drink with Tian Chang, and revealed a lot of secrets.

"Old Tian, ​​you are also lucky. Now Li Xianggong and Wang Panshi have already refused to see guests. It was because of us who helped to say a few good words that they agreed to see you. You must be careful with your words and don't let the secret out."

The next morning, an old official with a trough nose from the Taifu Temple took Tian Chang into the government office through the back door, all the way from the side courtyard through the various government offices to the main hall, and reminded Tian Chang as they walked.

Tian Chang agreed on the surface, but he was quite disgusted in his heart.

He knew that Li Zi had originally called all the tea merchants to hold a meeting in Taifu Temple, and there was no need for introduction. It was definitely not the credit of the clerks. They were even less worthy of speaking in front of Li Xianggong than he was.

As a result, the clerk said that it was all their credit that he could meet Li Xianggong, which was really disgusting. If it weren't for the fact that the King of Hell was easier to deal with than the little ghost, Tian Chang would not have spent this money in vain.

Soon, under the guidance of the clerk, Tian Chang entered the main hall. Li Zi was not in good health, his face was slightly pale, and he was drinking tea to moisten his throat.

There was also an official in his forties sitting next to him.

"Li Xianggong, Wang Panshi, this is Tian Chang, the owner of the largest tea merchant in Bianliang."

After the clerk came in, he bowed and saluted, and then introduced Tian Chang.

Tian Chang hurriedly saluted and said, "Tian Chang meets Li Xianggong and Wang Panshi."

"Are you the owner of Tian's Tea Shop?"

Li Zi put down the teacup and asked.

Tian Chang responded respectfully: "Yes."

"The court intends to re-implement the cash payment law, what do you think?"

Li Zi asked.

Tian Chang said: "This is a good thing for the country, and I support it very much."

"But I heard that several big tea merchants in Bianliang came to you yesterday and wanted to unite with you to oppose the new policy?"

Li Zi said lightly.

Tian Chang was shocked and hurriedly bowed and said: "They did come to me, but I don't want to oppose the new policy with them."

"Oh?"

Li Zi asked: "Why?"

Tian Chang said: "Because I know that the new policy is to eliminate corruption at the border and make more false trade to benefit the country. I don't want to harm the country and benefit myself."

"Yeah."

Li Zi nodded with satisfaction, turned his head and looked at Wang Yong and said: "This Tian Dongjia is very righteous, and he is exactly the talent the court needs."

Wang Yong smiled and said: "What you said is that the other tea merchants bribed the officials at the border, so Among them, Tian Chang not only transported the most grain, but also rarely overestimated the price. Even if he took more, he would pay less when he returned to Beijing to get the money. "

"You are very good."

Li Zi turned his head and looked at Tian Chang again and said, "If the Song Dynasty could have more merchants like you, it would not have to worry about the lack of grain at the border."

"Yes, yes, sir, thank you for your compliments."

Tian Chang responded with a smile. In fact, he did not want to take the money, but because he had traveled a lot and had seen too many officials taking advantage of others and knew the dangers of the court, so he decided to leave a rule for himself.

That is, you must not take what you should not take.

It was this rule that saved Tian Chang's life, because Zhao Zhen had already obtained the solution to the tea merchants from Zhao Jun, which was to fight against each other, kill those who were disobedient, and support those who were obedient. Now it is Li When looking for an agent.

Seeing that Tian Chang was well-behaved and sensible, he said: "To tell you the truth, the imperial court really needs to eliminate the cancer of false tea prices at the border and save redundant expenses for the imperial court. But the border cannot be short of food. What do you think we should do?"

Tian Chang said without hesitation: "The people will continue to vigorously purchase grain and rice from Jianghuai this year and send it to Qingzhou and Hejian. The amount will be double that of last year. We will never overestimate the grain and grass."

"very good."

Seeing that Tian Chang was very knowledgeable, Li Zhen smiled and said, "Your tea business is very good. You have contributed a lot to maintaining the stability of tea prices in Bianliang."

"Thank you sir for the compliment."

Tian Chang responded.

"You guys, please step back first."

Li Shen suddenly asked the surrounding officials and government officials to go away.

Everyone then exited the hall, leaving only Li Shen, Wang Yong and Tian Chang.

Then Li Shen asked Tian Chang to sit down again. Tian Chang sat on the chair next to him with some anxiety. Seemingly seeing his nervousness, Li Shen smiled and said, "Don't be afraid. I have something I want to discuss with you."

"Please make it clear, sir."

Tian Chang said cautiously.

Li Zhen said: "You should know better than us about the chaos at the border. We want to hear your opinion, but it doesn't matter."

Tian Chang knew that there were things that should be said and things that should not be said, so he said: "There is indeed some chaos at the border, and the court should rectify it. The common people don't know much about these things."

"Um?"

Li Shen frowned and said, "Are you really not clear about it? Do you know the consequences of deceiving me?"

Tian Chang thought of the tragic situation of the wealthy businessman Zhang Jia from Bozhou and Xu Ming, a wealthy businessman from Hangzhou. He stood up from his chair in fear and knelt down and said, "Whatever my husband wants to ask, the common people will know and tell you everything."

This is the wisdom of a businessman. Give Li Shen the right to ask questions. If Li Shen knows something, it cannot be considered a leak if he answers it. After all, Li Shen already knows it. Naturally, Li Zhen would not ask about things he didn't know, and it would be impossible for him to leak the secrets.

However, this cleverness did not go unnoticed by Li Shen, who said: "Let's talk about the administrative issues at the border first. What do you think will be the impact on the border officers if the money-seeking law is directly opened? I want to hear your opinion. Opinion."

Tian Chang said helplessly: "The impact is naturally huge. Many officials on the border rely on these to make money. After seeing that the money law was opened, they did not make false estimates and settled the money on the spot. They lost a lot of sources of income. Therefore, my husband was When it comes to making money, they are the ones who make the most noise.”

In essence, the money-seeking method was to take back the money that had been embezzled from the court through collusion between businessmen and officials. The merchants have a great business, but at most they will only strain their muscles and bones, but will not go bankrupt. But this is the extra income that border officials make the most money from. Without this income, they will only receive basic salary, so they will naturally not work.

Li Zhen nodded: "Is there any way to stabilize them?"

Tian Chang shook his head and said: "What can be done? Unless the court can send them more money, I'm afraid no one will agree. If the officials at the border get into trouble and the military rations are not delivered in time, the consequences will be dire. That’s big.”

"snort!"

On the side, Wang Yong slapped the case angrily and said: "These corrupt officials, taking their salaries and corrupting the court's money, should be killed. How dare they have the nerve to make trouble? Mr. Li, he should report to the court and start killing!"

Tian Chang couldn't help but shrink his neck after hearing this.

In fact, the Song Dynasty did not stop killing scholar-bureaucrats at the beginning. The Taizu and Taizong dynasties killed many. It was not until the Zhenzong and Renzong dynasties that the tradition of not killing scholar-officials gradually came into being.

For example, Guo Chengyou and Sun Miao deserved to be killed for their crimes, but historically they were demoted.

However, the Song Dynasty only did not kill the scholar-bureaucrats. The lower class people, businessmen, landlords, and officials were killed when they should be killed, and the methods were quite cruel. It was the scholar-bureaucrats who were killed. Relying on their status as officials, they could be said to cover the sky with one hand. .

In the eyes of Shengdou Xiaomin, Tian Chang was already a big shot, but in the eyes of Li Shen and Wang Yong, he was nothing. It was just a matter of one sentence to confiscate the family and exterminate the clan.

So Tian Chang was frightened when he heard this.

It would be really terrifying if the imperial court went on a killing spree against officials at the border, and I'm afraid the entire tea industry would be affected.

Fortunately, Li Zhen was not that murderous, and he was a humble man. He also lowered his dignity to reason with the tea merchants, which is enough to show that he was a gentlemanly senior official. He shook his head and said: "The implications of this matter are very high and it is not advisable. Mr. Tian, ​​I have something else to tell you.”

"Ms. sir, please tell me."

Tian Chang said hurriedly.

Li Shen said: "Your tea business is very good. The court needs to stabilize prices. It was originally a state-owned tea business. Now it wants to do stock trading with private tea merchants like you. How much tea can be consumed depends entirely on your ability. You see how?"

After Tian Chang heard this, his breathing suddenly became rapid.

Tea in the Song Dynasty was actually a monopoly system. There were state-owned enterprises selling wine, rice, salt, tea and other daily necessities. If merchants wanted to join the business, they had to buy tea and salt. This was the so-called forbidden monopoly.

However, both the state-owned salt industry and the tea industry are already extremely corrupt, and officials are corrupt, making the people more willing to buy private salt and tea.

By the late Renzong Dynasty, Guanyan and Guancha were unable to make ends meet and were close to bankruptcy.

Later, Ouyang Xiu analyzed the situation and believed that the situation of government sales was extremely bad. Officials embezzled state-owned assets one after another, secretly replacing official salt and official tea with sand and inferior tea, and the common people also used inferior salt and inferior tea. They assigned tasks and turned to selling good salt and good tea to private traders, resulting in the rampant use of private salt and tea.

Moreover, apart from being corrupt, officials are also careless in selling. After all, they eat from the government and do not need to receive less salary because of sales tasks. Selling a few hundred guan today and a few dozen guan tomorrow will not affect their monthly salary, resulting in very low enthusiasm for selling.

Therefore, it is better to stop the exclusive system and operate jointly with merchants, so that circulation will not be blocked. The deeper the plan is to deprive merchants of their interests, the greater the damage to national interests. If you want to attribute all ten profits to the public, you will lose more, and you will not get three out of ten. It is better to make profits together with merchants, and you can gain five out of ten. Therefore, a good manager of a big country should "tempt big businessmen at all costs."

But that was all later. At least now, tea, rice, salt and wine are still exclusive, and it is not easy for tea merchants to get tea. According to Li Shen's suggestion, he planned to reform the government-run tea business and jointly participate in the business with private tea companies. They would only hold shares and not participate in the operation, but their share of tea leaves would be unlimited and they could collect according to their ability.

This means that after the ban on tea specialized by state-owned enterprises in the Song Dynasty is lifted, their share of tea will be greatly increased. And when the state-owned enterprises withdraw from the market, the market share they can obtain will also increase. This is a great temptation for private tea business owners who are restricted by tea.