Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 257
There is no impenetrable wall in the world. The news that Fan Ning was summoned by the emperor and awarded a gold medal for exempting the summons quickly spread secretly, which shocked many dignitaries and court officials. Everyone knows that Fan Ning is a rare child prodigy. Not from a scholarly family, but able to win the No.1 in Tongzi Section in one fell swoop.

But there are thousands of child prodigies, why Fan Ning is the only one favored by the emperor makes many people puzzled.

However, some people have guessed some clues. I am afraid that it has something to do with Fan Ning’s correct answer in the imperial examination interview. For example, the emperor is very interested in Fan Ning’s proposal to operate Liuqiu Island. Liuqiu settled down on the big island.

Another example is that Fan Ning mentioned cotton when he answered correctly, which aroused the emperor's great interest, and even sent officials to Gaochang to learn about cotton planting. Interested.

At night, Fan Ning wrote down nine strategies for overseas business development for the emperor Zhao Zhen, including the first, second and second parts.

He is now writing the first part, which mainly talks about the establishment of overseas horse breeding bases in Maoren Island and Sakhalin Island, using Tamna Island, which is later known as Jeju Island, as a transit point, which saves the war horses from the hard work of traveling long distances by sea.

Maoren Island, which later became Hokkaido, was mainly covered by forests and grasslands at this time, inhabited by a small number of Ainu people, and did not belong to Japan. The climate there is mild, the winter is cold, the pasture is rich, and the pasture is vast, which is very suitable for raising war horse.

Moreover, the shipbuilding industry of the Liao Kingdom was extremely low, and it was impossible to cross the sea to fight at all. There were many conflicts between the Japanese royal family and the Sheguan family. Only then did the famous daimyo family begin to cross the sea and go north.

In the end, it was not until the Meiji Restoration that Japan began to immigrate to Hokkaido in large numbers and officially operated Hokkaido.

The current Maoren Island is basically a blank territory, and the Song Dynasty occupied it as a horse breeding base without any problem at all.

Of course, the first step is to investigate the situation, to send a fleet to Silla and Japan in the name of trade, to investigate the situation of Tamna Island and Maoren Island, and then to familiarize themselves with the hydrological conditions of the ocean and to formulate a suitable route. This work will take at least two days. to three years.

However, Fan Ning still hopes that the imperial court can take Tamna Island before next autumn, first manage Tamna Island, and lay the foundation for the next step to advance to Maoren Island.

On the left side of Fan Ning is a sketch he drew, including Shandong Peninsula, Liaodong Peninsula, Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, Tsushima Island, Japanese Islands, Hokkaido, and Sakhalin Island. Although it is only an outline, some key places He still marked it out.

Fan Ning also drew a route, starting from the Yangtze River in Taicang, headed to Tamna Island, then to Tsushima Island, then sailed along the north coast of Japan, and finally arrived in Hokkaido. There are many supply places in the middle, such as Oki Island , Sado Island, etc., can establish safe havens and supply areas here.

In fact, Fan Ning thought more about using waterways to attack the Liao Kingdom. For example, when the Song army marched northward, a surprise navy army captured the Liaoxi Corridor, cutting off the connection between Liaodong and Youzhou.

But Fan Ning also knew that the emperor in front of him, Zhao Zhen, did not have the courage to launch a war against the Liao Kingdom. He was more interested in the horse breeding base, and he could only wait for the ambitious Song Shenzong to ascend the throne.

"Never mind!"

Fan Ning sighed, and said to himself, "Let's spend 20 years building overseas bases first!"

At this time, there was a sudden knock on the door, "Who is it!" Xiaodong ran out of the room and went to meet him.

The door opened, only to hear Xiaodong say in trepidation: "Little servant sees the master!"

Fan Ning was surprised, put down his pen, went to the door and asked, "Xiaodong, who is it?"

"it's me!"

Before Xiaodong could speak, Zhu Yuanfeng's sonorous voice came from the door, "I'll come and see you, you evil boy!"

Fan Ning couldn't help laughing, walked into the yard and said with a smile: "I don't have superhuman powers, how can I talk about the word 'monster'?"

Zhu Yuanfeng walked into the door and said indignantly: "The old man of the Cao family is celebrating his birthday, and he asked me to send you an invitation card. It is actually the No. 17 invitation card, but I am the No. 90 No. [-] invitation card. Why do you favor one over the other?"

Fang Fanning is a little strange, Mr. Cao is celebrating his birthday, why should he invite himself?

"I don't quite understand. I have nothing to do with the Cao family, but I have a little friendship with Cao Shi. Why do you value me so much?"

"Do you want to know the answer? Buy me a cup of tea first, and then I will tell you."

Fan Ning laughed loudly, "Please come in quickly, Mr. Xiaodong, hurry up and make tea!"

"Hey! It will be ready soon." Xiaodong promised.

Zhu Yuanfeng followed Fan Ning into the study, and Fan Ning asked him to sit down and tidy up the desk a little.

Zhu Yuanfeng looked at Xiaodong who was making tea in the yard, and felt amused in his heart. Zhu Pei told himself that she wanted this maid, but she didn't expect to arrange it with Fan Ning, granddaughter's thoughts!It is simply a lice on the monk's head, it is obvious.

Zhu Yuanfeng looked around the room again, and said with a smile, "I heard that you bought a house yourself?"

"Yes! There is an eight-acre house on the Feiyun Bridge in the outer city, and we will move in a few days!" Fan Ning told the truth.

Zhu Yuanfeng sighed, "If I had known you were going to buy a house, I wouldn't have bothered."

Fan Ning was puzzled, "What does the old man mean by this?"

"The yard you live in is actually bought by me. I planned to give it to you in the future. I didn't expect you to buy the house yourself. It makes me depressed!"

Fanning was surprised and delighted at the same time, "Then give it to me, I don't mind having another house."

Zhu Yuanfeng shook his head, "I've decided to give it to Zhu Pei. You can discuss it with her yourself and see if she will give it to you."

At this moment, Xiaodong came in with two cups of tea, and Zhu Yuanfeng picked up the cups of tea and said with a smile, "You were summoned by the emperor yesterday afternoon, right?"

"How does the old man know?"

"How could I not know that this matter has already spread among the upper echelons of the capital and caused a great commotion. That's why Mr. Cao sent you an invitation card!"

Fan Ning scratched the back of his neck, really puzzled and said, "It's not a big deal for the emperor to summon his subjects! I think it's just a trivial matter, why did it cause such a commotion?"

"The key is the gold medal, don't you really understand its importance?"

Fanning took out the gold medal and put it on the table, "What's the importance of it?"

Zhu Yuanfeng sighed and said: "This kind of exempted gold medal has only been issued four times since he ascended the throne. One side was given to Zhao Zongshi, and then it was taken back. The other side was given to your cousin, and it was also taken back in the sixth year of Qingli. Three sides were given to Di Qing last year, and the fourth side is yours.

In fact, now only you and Di Qing have this kind of gold medal without calling, and you can directly enter the palace without calling. Do you think it will cause a sensation? "

Fan Ning thought of another angle. Since the emperor was willing to give him such an important gold medal, doesn't it mean that he agrees with his horse breeding base plan from the bottom of his heart?

Thinking of this, the fire in his heart was also ignited, and he smiled at Zhu Yuanfeng: "Does the old man have any business dealings with Xixia or Liao?"

Zhu Yuanfeng didn't understand what he meant, so he nodded, "I had a deal with the merchants from Xixia. I transported the grain to Yan'an Mansion and handed it over to the army. Then I bought cattle and sheepskin from some Xixia merchants and shipped them back to the Central Plains. Profitable."

"This is smuggling!"

"Of course it is smuggling. Xixia strictly prohibits the export of cattle and horses to the Song Dynasty, but Xixia is short of supplies and relies heavily on the supplies of the Song Dynasty. The border between Song and Xia is thousands of miles long, and it is impossible to guard against it. Even the border troops of the two countries also participated in smuggling. The Song Dynasty mainly Imports of horses, camels, cattle, sheepskin, medicinal materials, green salt, etc., while Xixia imports Qiqi, fragrant medicine, porcelain, lacquerware, tea and other items, the scale of smuggling between the two countries is very large.”

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuanfeng asked strangely: "Why are you asking this?"

Fan Ning said indifferently: "Do you know why the emperor gave me this gold medal?"

"That's why I came to you today, I'm very interested."

"It's the old man who wants to know, or someone else wants to know."

Zhu Yuanfeng was silent for a moment and said, "It's Zhao Zongshi who wants to know."

Fan Ning thought for a while and smiled, "I found a pasture for Da Song, which can raise millions of war horses."

Zhu Yuanfeng was stunned, shook his head for a while and said, "The place to raise horses must be in the north. I can't figure out where there is a place to raise horses in Song Dynasty?"

Fan Ning said indifferently: "This land for raising horses is overseas."

Zhu Yuanfeng was speechless. He sighed and said, "I wanted to ask you if you had any business opportunities, but it turned out to be too far away."

"Of course there are business opportunities, and they are not so big. If the Zhu family can receive some of them, it will be hundreds of thousands of income."

Zhu Yuanfeng lifted his spirits, "Tell me quickly, what business opportunity?"

"One is to prepare stallions. If we can get high-quality Turkic stallions from the Mobei Grassland and donate them to the imperial court in time, the Zhu family will be able to receive a big deal that will benefit generations of descendants, shipping by sea."

Fan Ning originally wanted to add that perhaps the Zhu family still had the opportunity to establish an independent country overseas, but he held back, and he must not say this earth-shattering sentence now.

(End of this chapter)