Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 547

From the beginning of the founding of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom, the status of merchants was quite high, the third largest force after the dignitaries and monks, and the dignitaries and monks also depended on the support of merchants to obtain a superior life. Because of this, It is very common for businessmen to participate in politics in the Three Buddhas.

After Fan Ning put forward the request to buy the land, Wang Guozhanbei immediately called ten famous Sanfo Qi businessmen to discuss the matter.

After the news that the Song Dynasty wanted to buy land in the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom came out, the entire lobby seemed to explode, and ten big businessmen objected one after another.

"Your Majesty, if the Song Dynasty controls a port, then the merchants of the Song Dynasty will inevitably establish a trading house in the port, bypassing our trade with the West, and our interests will be greatly damaged. Your Majesty, you cannot sell land to the other party, or even lease it. no."

The leading businessman is the leader of the chamber of commerce, Pu Kai. His family runs the largest firm in the Srivijaya Kingdom and monopolizes [-]% of the western trade. His brother and son are also high-ranking military officials, and they are powerful in the Srivijaya Kingdom.

Pu’s opinion was unanimously endorsed by the merchants present. It was a consensus between them and the government not to allow Song merchants to trade directly with Western merchants. Once the Song Dynasty established a port in the Sanfoqi Kingdom, Song merchants would have a foothold. This kind of thing It must not be allowed to happen.

The king was a little embarrassed. He could understand the worries of the merchants, but he didn't want to offend the Song Dynasty.

Dihua Jialuo got up and said: "Your Majesty, think about it again! How to reject the officials of the Song Dynasty is better."

The merchants left, and King Zhanbei asked Dihuajialuo, "Do you have any good suggestions?"

Dihua Jialuo said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the Song Army has forcibly occupied the Lusong Kingdom, and they have a base to attack the pirates in Nanyang. In my opinion, they are still looking for excuses to infiltrate their power into Nanyang."

"I understand too, but how can I reject Song Dynasty?"

"Your Majesty, we can give them a piece of land in the east of Java Island, far away from the business hub, and the merchants have no objections. The Song Army is also far away from our core area, and then we can stop the Song Dynasty's mouth. It can be said to kill three birds with one stone. "

This is a good way, away from important commercial areas, and there is a large virgin forest over there, and the indigenous people are fierce, so letting them go there is also an explanation.

Zhanbei nodded, "Then it's decided!"

Early the next morning, King Zhanbei received the visiting Fan Ning, and talked about the enthronement of the new emperor of the Song Dynasty, and the need for the Sanfoqi Kingdom to send envoys to go on a pilgrimage.

When talking about the land lease at the end, Zhanbei said that he agreed in principle to sell the land to the Song Dynasty, but the specific plan is yet to be discussed.

During the next specific negotiation with Dihua Jialuo, Dihua Jialuo took out the map and said to Fan Ning: "After repeated internal negotiations, everyone welcomes the Song army to suppress bandits in Nanyang, but what Fan Shijun said before This piece of land is used for other purposes in my country, and I plan to build a city, so I cannot provide it to your country. We are considering drawing a piece of land in the central and eastern part of Java Island for your country to build a port, and hope that you can understand our difficulties."

This result was expected by Fan Ning. When he heard that the king called the merchants to negotiate this matter, he knew that his idea was going to fail. He wanted the land of Singapore in the future, but the other party was also very shrewd and refused to give him a chance. Instead, he gave himself the easternmost piece of land in the Srivijaya Kingdom, which is thousands of miles away from the Straits of Malacca. Would he want that piece of land?
In that case, he might as well go to Ceylon and buy a piece of land.

Fan Ning smiled lightly and said, "To be honest, we have already obtained a piece of land in Luzon, and we only hope to build another port in the west to echo the port of Luzon, so I have taken a fancy to the land on the other side of the strait. But since your country is inconvenient, that's okay, we can go to Chenla country to buy another piece of land, I appreciate your kindness."

Since the other party didn't want to give him a chance, he didn't want to waste his time on the Three Buddhas, and it was the same when he was looking for the Boni Kingdom. Fan Ning also rejected the idea of ​​the Three Buddhas to sell eastern Java to him, and then left. .

At noon, nine military ships and nine hundred soldiers left Marayu City and set sail northward. Akihito stayed at Srivijaya to purchase spices and a batch of training elephants. Seeing off, he watched the Song army ship go away, his heart was heavy, he didn't know whether Sanfoqi's rejection of the Song Dynasty was a blessing or a curse.

Boni Kingdom is also an ancient country, occupying most of the Kalimantan Island today, but Boni Kingdom has not been destroyed, but its territory has become smaller and smaller, and eventually evolved into today's Brunei Kingdom.

The Boni Kingdom has also been sending envoys to Tang and Song pilgrimage, but in terms of population and national strength, the Boni Kingdom is inferior to the Sanfoqi Kingdom, and has been spied on by the Sanfoqi Kingdom. The Sanfoqi Kingdom has invaded the Boni Kingdom many times. With deep hatred, even the Three Buddhas and Qi Kingdom supported the Lu Song Kingdom, and they also had the idea of ​​​​attacking the Boni Kingdom from east to west.

Because of this reason, when Fan Ning asked to buy land in Boni Kingdom, King Lati of Boni Kingdom agreed that, except for the capital, Song Dynasty could buy land and build a port in any place in Boni Kingdom.

The fleet is sailing along the western coast of Boni, which is the west coast of Kalimantan Island. Although it does not have the superiority of the mouth of the Strait of Malacca, it is not too far away from the western fleet. It's only a one-day voyage. Once the Dasong merchants set up a business here and hoard a large amount of goods, they will easily take away customers from the Sanfoqi merchants by virtue of the price advantage.

In addition, there is another important reason. Boni Country is also rich in various spices, the price is low, and the quality is not inferior to that of Sanfoqi Country.

In this way, the entrepot trade of the Three Buddha Qi Kingdom will suffer a devastating blow.

This is called toasting and not eating fine wine. The Three Buddhas and Qi Kingdom have long discriminated against Song merchants and monopolized huge profits. Could it be that the Song Dynasty couldn't deal with it?
Various production capacities within the Song Dynasty will increase rapidly, and Fan Ning must find a way out for their products. Instead of pinning their hopes on the Three Buddhas, it is better to rely on themselves to build several Nanyang ports in the Song Dynasty.

Leading the way for Fan Ning was Dutou, who had been dispatched before. He searched carefully on the west coast and found several good natural harbors.

Dutou reported to Fan Ninghui on a simple map: "I would like to report to the envoy, I have found three good natural harbors in total, one in the north, one in the middle and one in the south, but I recommend a good harbor in the middle, which happens to be the mouth of a big river. , the land is fertile, there are large plains, and the port is also very wide, which can berth directly for ships of thousands of stones."

Fan Ning raised his head and asked left and right: "Are we now the candidate for going to the central region?"

"Exactly! We'll be there in about half a day."

The natural port found by the Song army is the later Pontianak, which happens to be the confluence of the Kapuas River and the Lanta River. There is a large swamp in the depth, but the terrain is flat within thousands of square kilometers along the coast. There is not much coverage, and a small number of Boni people live here, making a living by fishing and hunting.

This location is good, Fan Ning took a fancy to this place at a glance, turned back to the Boni country official who accompanied him and said: "The Song Dynasty wants to buy it within a hundred miles around here, you can ask a price."

The Boni official smiled slightly and said, "Our king has made it clear that if the Song Dynasty wants to buy it, as long as it is within a hundred miles, we will only charge one penny."

Fan Ning shook his head, "I understand your king's kindness, which is to give the land to Da Song. There is no problem now, but I am worried that there will be troubles in the future, so we should clearly mark the price. Da Song will buy it at the normal price."

The official was embarrassed, "I can't decide this matter!"

"Then tell me, how much is this land normally worth?"

"The land here is worthless. Your country must trade it fairly, and you can buy it with a maximum of [-] bolts of silk and satin."

"Then for a thousand bolts of silk, Da Song will buy the land within a hundred miles of the river mouth."

(End of this chapter)