"Huatian, are these people you brought me to see today reliable?"
"Returning to Your Highness, I have chosen these people. Their talents are incredible, and their family backgrounds are clean. But in terms of loyalty, I really dare not vouch for them. People are so far apart from each other, and Your Highness has to watch them from behind."
Zhao Si glared at him, "Slippery!"
In addition to the famous 72 restaurants in Kaifeng City, there are countless unique snack shops scattered in the streets and alleys, called "foot shops".
Li Shiba's is one such foot shop, not far from Guanyin Yuan, between the First Tianshui Lane and the Second Tianshui Lane. The sheep's head soup they make is very authentic.
Halfway across the alley, you can smell the aroma of mutton soup.
Entering a private room in the back room, there was a person waiting inside for a while.
He is wearing a white robe and a turban on his head. He is in his twenties, has a dark face, deep eyes and an eagle nose.
Um, barbarian?
Zhao Si turned his head and looked at Yu Huatian with questioning eyes.
"Your Highness, this is Li Dan, a native of Shuhu, and a member of Xinyici Leye Sect. He is the fourth in the family and is known as Li Silang. Come and pay homage to His Highness King Jian."
Yu Huatian quickly introduced.
It turns out they are from Youtai.
"The common people have met the king." Li Dan's Kaifeng speech was eloquent, and he was an old Tokyo native.
"Li Silang, when did your family move to Kaifeng?" Zhao Si asked curiously after sitting down.
"Returning to your Majesty, our tribe moved to many places after moving from our homeland, and has been living in the city of Samarkand for two hundred years. Sixty years ago, the Seljuks occupied Khorasan, and our tribe was worried about war.
, then migrated eastward. Forty years ago, they followed the Gaochang Uighur caravan to Kaifeng City."
"So, you were born in Kaifeng?"
"Returning to your Majesty. The younger one was born in Kaifeng and is already twenty-five years old this year."
"Is it possible to get married and have children?"
"The younger one married the concubine of the Lin family of Chenliu grain merchant five years ago and has a son and a daughter."
"One son and one daughter is a good word. Great!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Li Silang, what kind of business do you do on weekdays?"
"Before, we did some caravan business in the Western Regions. However, there were wars on Longyou and Xihe, Qinfeng and other roads, and the risks were extremely high. So we turned east and did business in Hedong, the capital and the southeast."
"How is business?"
"Thanks to the official family, I can still make some money."
After chatting here and there for more than a quarter of an hour, Zhao Si asked very casual and detailed questions.
One moment he asked how many members of Li Dan's family there were, and the next one jumped to what specialties from Hedong were sold to the southeast. The next one asked about the current situation of the caravans in the Western Regions, and the next one jumped to the Li Dan people's ability to keep accounts and lend money.
Li Dan answered them one by one very patiently.
"Li Silang, what do you think the essence of business is?"
"Buy low, sell high." Li Dan then added, "It's easy to say, but hard to do."
"Well, what do you think is the most profitable business?"
Li Dan thought for a while and said, "To tell you the truth, money begets money."
Zhao Si glanced at Li Dan, without comment, and suddenly slapped his forehead.
"I've been waffling for a long time, and I almost forgot about the real thing. Li Silang, have you brought the things?"
"Bring it." Li Dan held out a brocade box and placed it on the table.
"Your Majesty, this is the Sutra of the Vajra Prajnaparamita that can break the Vajra, written in the handwriting of Master Liaoyin, a high-ranking monk from Hedong, when he was fifty years old, using blood as ink from his finger. It has a total of 5,000 words."
"Isn't this thing hard to find?" Zhao Si asked.
"I told you, Your Majesty, that it was really hard to find. I got it from Gao Ban, so I searched everywhere, and finally found this Buddha treasure in Xiang Lan's longevity store."
Xiang Lan is indeed a native of Kaifeng.
Generally, outsiders will call it Daxiangguo Temple, or Xiangguo Temple. Only Kaifeng locals will call it Xianglan.
Zhao Si sighed calmly, "Xianglan Changsheng Treasury is indeed well-deserved. Some people even say that the treasures in the palace are not as many as those in Xianglan Changsheng Treasury."
Li Dan replied with a smile: "Xianglan's longevity bank is one of the best in the world." Over the past hundred years, countless dignitaries in Kaifeng City pledged their family treasures to pawn when they were desperate to survive, and most of them went to Xianglan.
"
Zhao seemed a little envious and jealous.
The group of bald donkeys in Xiangguo Temple have such a big business, which is really enviable, and I really want to lead others to rob it.
Suddenly, Zhao Si asked, "Li Silang, can you tell me if pawn pledge is money making money?"
Li Dan was stunned for a moment and fell into deep thought.
Zhao Si laughed a few times, woke him up, pointed at the brocade box and asked, "How much does it cost?"
"If I get back to the king, the younger one spent sixty-five min."
The number of such "Buddha treasures" redeemed from the treasury of Xiangguo Temple must be more than this. Moreover, now that literati and officials like to talk about Buddhism, and many dignitaries and their families worship Buddha, there is no need to worry about the sales of this thing.
The sixty-five guan was probably only one-third of the real price, and the rest was advanced by Li Dan.
Zhao Si knew it well and nodded.
"Li Silang, I want to set up a company. I have already chosen the name, Fengheng Yuxing. This is the business charter and plan I have drawn up. You can take a look at it first. If you are interested in buying a share, I welcome you.
.”
As he spoke, he took out a scroll from his sleeve and handed it over, "It is especially rare to have a person as proficient in accounting as Li Silang. I heard that you guys in Yizhi Leye have a secret method of ancestral accounting. I wonder if we can share it with you."
Let’s discuss it?”
Li Dan took the document with both hands respectfully and made a pun, "This matter is important. Please allow me to discuss it with my clan members."
"Okay, I will wait for the good news."
Li Dan stood up to say goodbye. Zhao Si stood up, cupped his hands, and glanced at Huatian.
"Huatian, help me deliver Li Silang."
Yu Huatian understood in his heart that there were some things that it was not convenient for Zhao to say, and he needed to tell Li Dan.
"Li Silang, please!" Yu Huatian politely led the way.
"Brother, let's have a bowl of sheep's head soup and two sesame biscuits." Zhao Si was the only one left in the room. He suddenly felt hungry and called out.
This soup is really delicious! And the Hu Pancake is really fragrant and crispy, a bit like grilled naan.
While Zhao Si was working hard, the palace guard Xue Fanzi, the official serving in the west, brought someone with him.
"Your Highness, Cao Liulang has arrived."
When Zhao Si looked up, he saw that it was his wet nurse Cao Duo, the only son of his wet nurse, Wei Shi. The two were similar in age and grew up together.
Cao Duo was the great-great-grandson of the famous founding general Cao Bin, but he was just a side branch. Because of Zu Yin's relationship with Zhao Si, he served as a military envoy in Kaifeng Mansion.
He is the sixth among the uncles and brothers, so he is called Cao Liulang.
If Zhao wants to control the military, he must have his own team.
After thinking about it carefully, he discovered that his predecessor, Zhao Siyou, had actually left him a rich "legacy".
Cao Duo is one of them.
"Here, take a seat. Fanzi, order a bowl of sheep's head soup for Liulang. How many cakes do you want?"
"One piece is enough. I just had it at the Yamen."
Cao Duo inherited the fine bloodline of the old Cao family, with a broad face and forehead, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and was very heroic. However, when he smiled, he had a pear dimple on the left side of his face, which reduced his murderous aura by 50%.
After the waiter served the soup and Hu cakes and took them away, Zhao Si asked in a low voice: "How are things going at Lixing Club?"
Lixingshe was Zhao Si's first step in controlling the underground forces in Kaifeng City.
There are millions of soldiers and civilians in Kaifeng City, and there are hundreds of "social groups" such as fighting clubs, boxing clubs, Cuju clubs, sumo wrestling clubs, etc. It's like a joke to hide three thousand dead soldiers.
"Thirteenth Lang, according to your explanation, the Lixing Club has been put up."
Cao Duo replied in a low voice.
"In the past few days, I have found more than 20 good men in Pujun in Kaifeng. They have a clean family background and have practiced good moves since childhood. I also discussed them one by one in private and eliminated a few that were inappropriate and two others.
Eleven people.”
"I bought a village in Akicang Town in the south of the city. Through Pan Qilang and Gao Sanlang, I invited two masters of swords, guns and archery from the Forbidden Army, as well as an expert in tracking and tracing."
"They are all masters from the border army. At that time, these twenty-one people will be quietly sent to the village to practice well. Well, train them and serve as the backbone."
Zhao Si nodded and asked: "Who is the instructor Liu Lang invited?"
"The sword and spear instructor's name is Wang Zhen. Wang Zhengchen is a native of Kaifeng. He has been in the army for generations. He is said to be the seventh generation grandson of Sikong Zhaoyi, the former Liangxiang of the Tang Dynasty. He is unparalleled in swords and spears and is known as Wang Da Chong."
"The archery instructor's name is Gao Shixuan, a Qin Feng Lu Shun soldier, known as Gao Yijian. Last year, he represented the Qin Feng Lu Imperial Army in Beijing to participate in the competition, and won the first place in infantry archery and mounted archery. He was retained in the capital by Prime Minister An."
Zhao seemed silent and listened quietly to Cao Duo's words.
"The expert who traces the traces is called Hu Luxiong, a native of Xinzhou. He claims to be a Chilean and a descendant of the famous Northern Qi general Hu Luguang. In fact, he is a Hedong Uighur. Last year, he represented the Hedong Army in Beijing to participate in the competition and won the third place in the infantry shooting.
, the second in cavalry and archery, was also left behind by Prime Minister An."
"It is said that this man, in order to recover the stolen horses, tracked four horse thieves from the Basimu tribe, went deep into the Liao territory, crossed the Yin Mountains, and crossed the Monan. He pursued them for more than 3,000 miles in one go, and finally captured the four of them.
One kill and he is known as the Thousand Mile Wolf."
He is indeed a werewolf, he is ruthless enough, I like him!
"Rokuro, these three instructors are so nice to greet you. When I have some free time, I will worship them as my masters and learn how to ride, shoot, and shoot with swords and guns."
After Cao Duo left, Zhao Si took Cen Meng, Xue Fanzi and other close guards with him, walked around in the alleyway, and then went into a foot shop called Mrs. Xu.
Before I entered the inner dining room, I heard someone laughing, as loud as a gong.
"Thirteenth Lang, are you finally here?"
1. Qiku, also called Jieku, is the predecessor of the pawn shop.
2. Accounting is not an imported word. In the seventh year of Song Xining's reign (1074), three accounting departments were established to take charge of the country's finances and were promoted by the prime minister.
3. Wang Tuan, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty.
4. Tongzhi knew about An Tao's affairs in the Privy Council. This chapter has been completed!