Chapter 99: The Butcher's Knife is Hard to Open
"So he is from the Prince of Liao?" Sheng Wei said in surprise.
"The premise is that what he said is true." Fang Zhongrong said.
"If he is really the prince of Liao, then we can't agree even more. How can a prince exchange a large number of horses for wine." Sheng Wei shook his head.
When Fang Zhongrong heard this, he knew that Sheng Wei thought that the princes of the Liao Kingdom had the same rights as the princes of the Song Dynasty, and said: "If he is really the King of Qin of the Liao Kingdom behind him, he can really provide a large number of war horses. ”
As he said this, he told Sheng Wei about the situation of King Qin.
The king of Qin and the current emperor of Liao have the same mother, and he is the youngest son of the former emperor of Liao.
After the death of the first Emperor of Liao, their biological mother, the queen at the time, wanted to support the younger King of Qin to succeed to the throne so that she could take power more conveniently.
The King of Qin told the current Emperor Liao about this, which resulted in the Queen being deposed.
Afterwards, King Qin was named the emperor's younger brother, and the Emperor Liao also trusted him very much.
"Then how could he betray the interests of the Liao Kingdom?" Sheng Wei frowned.
“I don’t know about that.” Fang Zhongrong shook his head and said, “I’m just telling you what I know. It’s up to you to decide how to make the specific decision.”
“Wait first. Wait for others and see their conditions," Sheng Wei said.
However, after waiting for more than an hour, except for Li Ge, no other merchants came.
"I now believe that he is from King Qin." Sheng Wei said with a bitter smile.
That Li Ge came, but the others didn't, which was a bit unreasonable.
The only possibility is that those people are afraid of Li Ge, or have been told by Li Ge, so they dare not come.
No matter which possibility is possible, it proves that Li Ge has a strong background.
“What should we do now?” Fang Zhongrong asked.
"Don't worry, His Highness said that these wines are originally bait. As long as they can flow into the Liao Kingdom, it doesn't matter who they sell to." Sheng Wei said.
He didn't want to sell to one person, just to prepare for future transactions.
If it is sold to only one person, it will not be conducive to subsequent negotiations.
But now that something like Li Ge has happened, there is no harm in selling it to him.
As long as the wine can be liked by the nobles of the Liao Kingdom, those Liao businessmen will naturally come over like cats that smell fishy smell.
With the decision made, Sheng Wei no longer waited and asked Fang Zhongrong to go back and rest.
The next day, Sheng Wei did not take the initiative to find Li Ge. Instead, he stayed at the inn and waited patiently.
If he takes the initiative to come over, Li Ge will definitely take the opportunity to lower the price.
The two are now competing for patience. Whoever takes the initiative first will have the upper hand.
Li Ge was also very patient and did not visit again all day long.
Sheng Wei simply asked people to pack their things and pretended to leave.
Now Li Ge couldn't sit still anymore and came to the inn when Sheng Wei left the inn.
"Brother Sheng, I've been waiting for news from you. Why are you leaving without saying hello?" Li Ge said with a smile.
"Haha, I think the merchants in Liao are not interested in this wine, so I plan to ship it to Xixia to try it." Sheng Wei said with a smile.
"Brother Sheng, I have already said that I am very interested in this wine. If possible, we can also trade horses this time." Li Ge said.
“Since you are so sincere, let’s sit down and talk in detail.”
Sheng Wei invited Li Ge into the inn and asked someone to open a new room.
“I wonder how Brother Li plans to trade?” Sheng Wei asked.
"Nowadays, an ordinary war horse costs fifty-five taels. How about exchanging one horse for one pound of wine?" Li Ge said.
“A horse can be exchanged for a pound of wine, but I want a superior horse.” Sheng Wei said. "Impossible!" Li Ge said with an ugly face: "A high-quality horse can be sold for more than a hundred taels of silver. If Brother Sheng is not sincere, then there is no need to talk."
Ordinary war horses can only be used as light cavalry, while superior war horses can be used by heavy cavalry.
The number of such war horses in the Liao Kingdom was also limited, and even fewer were sold to the Song Dynasty every year.
"Brother Li, don't worry, I didn't say one pound of wine for a fine horse, I can exchange four pounds of wine for one. But I don't want a castrated one, just a stallion." Sheng Wei said.
The war horses sold by the Liao people to the Song Dynasty were all castrated.
The reason for this is that the temperament of castrated horses is more docile and easier to control.
In addition, they also did not want the Song Dynasty to obtain stallions and breed war horses in large numbers.
"I can't make the decision and I have to ask for permission. This time I can only trade with ordinary war horses." Li Ge said.
"In that case, let's use ordinary war horses to trade this time. I brought more than a thousand kilograms of wine this time. I wonder when the transaction will be completed?" Sheng Wei asked.
He just said that just to test it out. Li Ge did not refuse directly, which means that there will still be opportunities in the future.
“Three days.” Li Ge thought for a while and said, “I need three days to bring the horses!”
"Okay, let's do the deal in three days," Sheng Wei said.
......
Bianjing
After more than a month of investigation, the case of the burning of grain in Shezhou was clearly investigated.
A large amount of evidence was also found about Feng Deguang's acceptance of bribes and manipulation of officials' promotions.
The officials directly ordered that Feng Deguang's home be confiscated. The money found, plus various treasures, was worth more than one million taels of silver. This did not include the several houses and the large amount of land owned by the Feng family, which was shocking.
In addition, an account book was also found, which recorded in detail the officials who had given gifts to Feng Deguang over the years.
In addition to Beijing officials, there are also many local officials, with a total number of more than two hundred.
The one with the highest official position is now the Minister of Dali Temple.
There are too many people involved, and it is difficult for officials to delve into it.
However, what happened this time also made the always kind-hearted officials have murderous intentions. The government became furious and ordered Feng Deguang to be executed and his family members to be sent to the Jiaofang Division.
However, as soon as the official said this, the civil servants of the court were shocked, including the Grand Prime Minister Han Zhang, who came out to intercede on his behalf.
It is said that Feng Deguang is an official and cannot be killed.
Some people say that there are ancestral regulations that prohibit killing scholar-bureaucrats.
In short, there are many things to say, but there is only one purpose, Feng Deguang cannot kill.
For these officials, whether Feng Deguang died or not had nothing to do with them. Even if Feng Deguang died on the road to exile, no one would shed a tear.
But officials must not be allowed to kill.
Once the officials start killing, if their hands slip in the future, one of them may die.
Even those who claim to be loyal ministers have their own selfish motives.
The official sword may not fall on their heads, but what about their descendants?
As long as the officials do not engage in killing, this will be the true ancestral system for the subsequent emperors.
Because the opposition was too strong, the officials were a little shaken. Although they did not promise not to kill, they did not issue the imperial edict.
After retreating from the court, the news quickly spread throughout Bianjing.
Many students from the Imperial College came to sit quietly outside the palace to plead for Feng Deguang.
After Zhao Xing got the news, he immediately asked someone to prepare a car and went to the palace.
(End of this chapter)