Chapter 1,102 Court Discussion

"What's more, the Liao Kingdom is not a completely agricultural country. I'm afraid that if you don't kill the snake when the time comes, you will suffer from it instead."

Zhang Dunli was silent for a long time and exhaled a long breath: "It would be disloyal not to mention this plan to the officials, but it would be unkind and unjust if the plan is so vicious that it is adopted by the officials."

"It's too difficult to be a senior official. I... should just teach and paint honestly..."

Su You smiled and said: "The prince-in-law still cares about the world, but don't worry, we are going to use another strategy to deal with the Liao people. This is generally the case..."

Back in Bianjing, Su You and Cai Que began formal negotiations with Xiao Xi.

The discussion of reintroducing annual coins in the Song and Liao Dynasties caused another controversy in the court.

There are both opposing and supporting voices, and both are loud.

Zhao Xu originally wanted Qian Gang to act arbitrarily, but Su You stopped him.

This is a national policy, and we must unify our thoughts. Why don't you, Your Majesty, we hold a court meeting to discuss the matter of Sui coins? It is always right to listen to more opinions.

Zhao Xu was somewhat dissatisfied with Su You's way of governing. Is it better to discuss it through memorials? Such a discussion in the court, where the ministers were arguing in front of the emperor, was really disgraceful.

Su You laughed and blushed, which meant there was something wrong with the policy.

First of all, we are not afraid of people's objections. If the reason for the objection is right, then we can make adjustments; if the reason for the objection is wrong, we can give an explanation to avoid misunderstanding.

What's wrong with this?

In the end, if it doesn't work, we can still implement a voting system. If there are more voices in favor than against, we will implement it; if there are more voices against than in favor, we will just not implement it.

Zhao Xu expressed his dissent. Pan Geng moved to Yin and Shang Yang carried out reforms. They also insisted on going their own way and succeeded in the end?

Su You said that there were too few scholars at that time and the common people were not intellectually enlightened and needed guidance and enlightenment from wise people.

But now that the scholars have penetrated deeply into the countryside, the situation is different from before. Your Majesty not only wants to see Pan Geng and Shang Yang, but also Fu Jian's defeat of Feishui and Cao Cao's defeat of Chibi. These are also the consequences of insisting on going his own way. .

Calculating history and calculating probabilities, and insisting on implementing policies will ultimately lead to few wins and many losses.

Zhao Xu felt that what Su You said was reasonable, so he convened a court meeting where officials from two systems and above could speak freely in the palace.

There is a precedent for this. During the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, Du Yannian, the admonishing official, proposed that Huo Guang, in the name of Emperor Zhao, ordered Prime Minister Tian Qianqiu and the imperial censor Sang Hongyang to summon more than 60 virtuous literary people to discuss various policies during the Emperor Wu period. In particular, the salt and iron monopoly policy will be comprehensively summarized and debated.

The meeting lasted from February to July. After the meeting, the Han Dynasty canceled the liquor monopoly and the ironware monopoly in some areas, adjusted the national strategy, and began to rest with the people.

By the time of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, Huan Kuan compiled a famous article - "On Salt and Iron" based on the records of that meeting. That meeting was also known as the "Salt and Iron Conference".

At the court meeting, Wang Gui expressed deep concern: "Your Majesty, the Liao Kingdom has always been arrogant and rude. Now it requires half of the annual coins to be exchanged for goods. I think it is just their plan to retreat in order to advance."

"What should we do if we wait until the goods are received and then ask for additional coins?"

Su You was the person responsible for answering and explaining the questions today: "Ms. Wang, these will be signed agreements. The agreement between the two countries cannot be overturned by overturning it. It will definitely go through another consultation and negotiation."

"As for the requests of the Liao Kingdom, I think we can agree to those that are reasonable and beneficial to the Song Dynasty; but of course we must reject those that are unreasonable and detrimental to the Song Dynasty."

"Our agreement with the Liao Kingdom mainly depends on whether it is beneficial to the Song Dynasty. Since the Chanyuan Alliance, the Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom have discussed several annual coins, gradually increasing from 200,000 Guan Min to 500,000 Guan Min.

, and the border issue has also been repeatedly compromised."

"With this agreement, the two countries can be called enemies. It can be said that this is the most beneficial agreement to the Song Dynasty since the Chanyuan Alliance."

Wang Gui said: "Mingrun is suspected of cheating and exchanging pillars. The 250,000 guan of silver and copper were exchanged for goods, which are still worth 250,000 guan."

"So the annual coins given to the Liao Kingdom are actually not less than one penny, and the additional step of negotiating goods has caused more troubles. How can it be beneficial?"

Li Suzhi was a supporter of the policy, and he came out at this time: "Exchanging silver and copper for goods will certainly be beneficial to the Song Dynasty."

"My husband is from the Hua Han Dynasty, and I don't know anything about merchants. The truth is actually very simple. The more merchants purchase goods, the greater the price discount. The more goods included in the same order, the lower the cost."

"This 250,000 yuan can allow more shops and workshops to expand their scale and improve their efficiency."

"In the current situation of Hebei being in decline, I would like to use these 250,000 yuan, plus the preferential tax system, to recruit merchants and craftsmen in Zhending and Daming to produce the goods needed by the people of Liao.

Stimulating the revitalization of Hebei, secondly, transportation can be transported nearby and costs can be reduced."

"The cost of these 250,000 guan of goods is actually only more than 100,000 guan. Using money to barter has another advantage for our court, which is that it reduces the amount of annual coins in disguise."

"And the remaining ones have turned into the profits of the people and merchants, as well as the country's tax revenue. Why not do it?"

Old man Sun Gusun stood on the opposing side this time: "Your Majesty, the interests of merchants are different from the interests of the country."

"The Liao people are not easy-going people either. What they brought to them with 250,000 yuan were motorized wells, sky mirrors, medicines, and luxury goods."

"With motor-driven wells, we have fertile fields; with medicines, we have strong people; with sky-gazing mirrors, we have an orthodox calendar; with luxury goods, we have the means to win over tribal chiefs."

Su You smiled and said: "Master Sun is very worried, but these things also depend on where they are used."

"As expected by Su You, the Liao people will not use the motorized wells to improve the lives of the people, but to increase the fertile land of the nobles and Buddhist temples; the medicines will be used to save the lives of the nobles first, and will not be used on the Chinese; luxury goods

, it is indeed possible to win over people’s hearts, but is it reliable to win over people’s hearts through luxury goods?”

"I would like to explain that the skyscope is helpful for studying stars, but the calendar has a set of observation algorithms, which requires a long time of astronomical records to calculate and support."

"The astronomical records of the Liao Kingdom are not reliable, and the study of astronomy is now far behind the Song Dynasty."

"Astronomy is the pearl on the top of the mountain of science and engineering. Without the foundation of science and engineering, the study of astronomy will not have great achievements. This thing cannot be made up for by a looking glass."

"Another reason why we sell the sky-gazing mirror is that the early drawing design and mold design of the sky-gazing mirror cost a lot of money."

"Today, only two units have been built, and they were placed in Zhongshan and Bianjing respectively. After that, the mold drawings were piled in the engineering department and were no longer of use."

"Now that the Liao Kingdom is willing to spend a huge sum of 100,000 yuan to purchase one, it will greatly dilute our huge cost of manufacturing the sky mirror. As long as we can get another order, our early research and development costs for the sky mirror will be fully recovered.

came back."

"And in the process of meeting ongoing orders, we can continue to research and improve. A large sky-gazing mirror involves many parts. If the Liao Kingdom wants the sky-gazing mirror to continue to operate, it will be necessary to replace damaged parts in the future.

.”

"Those parts are extremely precise and cannot be made by Liao people, so they must continue to order from us."

"So this is not only a big business, but also a long-term business."

Sun Gu smiled slightly and returned to the courtroom.

Xue Xiang actually agreed with this system, but his economic ability was also among the best in the Song Dynasty. At this time, he came out: "It should be said that the trade between Song and Liao was beneficial to both countries, but I think it was good for the Liao Kingdom."

The benefits are far greater than the benefits to the Song Dynasty."

"One thing I can't figure out is that paper money can indeed alleviate the money shortage and bring great benefits to the Song Dynasty, but why should the Liao people also get this weapon?"

"This will definitely bring about great growth in the Liao economy. How can its growth in national power not pose a great threat to the Song Dynasty?"
Chapter completed!