The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

At the banquet, Di Qing admired and respected Su Jin’s record of breaking Xia’s [-] cavalry in the Battle of Weizhou. Heroes value heroes. In his mind, there is only a concept of victory or defeat. Only generals who actually go to the battlefield will understand how difficult it is for the weak to defeat the strong.

The two talked about it, and the atmosphere was pleasant. When Su Jin mentioned that this trip was to go to Gaonu County, east of Yinzhou in the northeast of Yanzhou, to see if the oil emerging from the ground could be of any use value, Di Qing didn't think so. .

"Lord Su, that thing seems useless to me, but there is black oil mixed with sand and stone springs flowing out of the valley. The local Qiang people collected it with pheasant tails, and it can indeed be burned, but the smoke is thick, making a miasma, and the smell is unpleasant. It smells very good, it can be said that it is useless for you to ask the emperor for this place."

Su Jin smiled and said: "The imperial court owes me Su Ji money, and now it is really financially difficult. I can't "force" to ask for the debt, can I? The emperor gave me a piece of land as compensation. I heard that oil burning can collect smoke. I make ink, and the quality is good, so if I want to set up a workshop for ink making, it will more or less make up for my deficit; you must know that the funds embezzled by Su Ji are the deposits of ordinary people in Huitong Bank. If I don’t want to find a way to make some money, then the common people won’t eat me.”

Di Qing said in astonishment: "So that's the case, but how much money can you make by making ink? My lord, if you have difficulty in turning over the bank at that time, please inform the lower officials. The lower officials have saved [-] to [-] yuan of family property over the years." , can be borrowed from adults for turnover.”[

Su Jin laughed loudly, and quickly cupped his hands to express his thanks: "Thank you, General Di, for your kind words. I have made up my mind as a friend of yours, but what I embezzled is 300 million yuan. I'm afraid I can't solve it at [-] to [-] yuan." My predicament; but the general's sincerity in treating each other moved Su Mou very much."

Di Qing was shocked and said: "300 million? What did you do? You spent so much money?"

Su Jin didn't want to hide it from Di Qing, so he quietly informed Di Qing when he traded horses with Xixia, and finally said: "The people from the Ministry of War are counting the number of horses, and they will be distributed to the garrisons in various places in the near future. You are in a critical place in Yanzhou. , A large number of horses will surely be distributed, General Di, and soon you will have a cavalry team."

Di Qing was overjoyed, looked around and lowered his voice: "Is this true? Mr. Su is really powerful and covers the sky with his hands. I'm afraid the whole court is kept in the dark about such a big matter. The two countries are negotiating peace and opening trade. The terms, not to mention the deal of war horses, how can the Xia people agree? You can do this kind of thing, and I am really a down-to-earth official. If I have [-] cavalry, why should I be afraid of the Xia people's arrogance? It’s so insincere, Mr. Su used private funds to buy horses for the court, and the court is actually in a difficult situation, and he is not afraid of being laughed at if he speaks out.”

Su Jin looked at the anger on Di Qingyingwu's face, and said with a smile: "You can't say that. The court also has difficulties. The emperor also said that in the future, the finances and taxes will be paid in full. Even if you don't give it to me, you will When I spend the 300 million to serve the country; I am not afraid of losing my head in a war, do I still care about the money?"

Di Qing sighed, and he respected Su Jin even more. He also knew that only a limited number of people knew about this matter, and Su Jin was able to tell the truth, so naturally he did not judge himself against outsiders, and he had to keep his mouth shut; Di Qing Immediately promised that if Su Jin had any needs in Gaonu County, manpower and material resources would definitely help.

Seeing that Di Qing was indeed a good friend, Su Jin thought for a while and said, "General Di, actually I wanted that place to see if there was a simple way to extract kerosene. I thought of a way, and I hope I can give it a try. If it really succeeds, from then on we will be in danger of kerosene used by the Song army and civilians, kerosene is too precious, the battle of Weizhou, if kerosene helps the battle, it will not last more than ten days."

Di Qing suddenly realized, and only then did he understand Su Jin's true intention for that barren mountain, but he didn't quite believe that there was an easy way to refine kerosene. After all, with that money to refine kerosene, it would be better to forge an extra set of armor and forge an extra bow and arrow; but Di Qingjiu fought on the battlefield, so he naturally knew the benefits of kerosene, but suffered from insufficient quantity.

Su Jin told Di Qing the secret in his heart, which was actually based on certain considerations; Di Qing is located in Yanzhou, and Gaonu County, the land of Yindong, is not far from Yanzhou. So, it is impossible to stay in Yanzhou every day to supervise; this Di Qing is not a cunning person in all sincerity, and he can be taken care of nearby if he is recruited into the group, and secondly, as the magistrate of Yanzhou, he will sooner or later hide it under his nose However, it is not as frank as the truth.

Di Qing readily agreed to Su Jin's request, and early the next morning, he took hundreds of soldiers carrying Su Jin's list of items all the way to Gaonu County in the northeast.

Gaonu County is a frontier county, but in fact it has long existed in name only. During the war between the two countries, the government offices of the county seat had been destroyed, and the local residents were scattered and living in unknown barren hills, most of them were mountain people of the Qiang nationality; It is the border between Song and Xia, but the barren mountains are barren and cold, and both countries look down on this place. This is why Zhao Zhen promised to reward Su Jin with a radius of [-] miles. It is also because of this, The war only lasted as far as Gaonu County and never went east. Yinzhou was safe under the protection of this barren mountain.

After traveling nearly a hundred miles for two days, they finally arrived at this area; Su Jin didn't have any concept of region, and Su Jin didn't know how big it was in a radius of fifty miles. Anyway, it seemed that the stretch of mountains in front of him was his own.

Everyone got off their horses and entered the mountain and found a valley to camp. Su Jin ordered people to look for the mountain people everywhere, but they were all gone. After working for a long time, they found a mountain person who was cutting firewood on a hillside and dragged him over.

Ma Han took out a large sling of money and dangled it in front of his eyes, saying, "Take us to the valley where oil is produced. The sling of money will belong to you."

That mountain man was a shrewd boy in his twenties, but he was unmoved by the temptation of a large sum of money, he hesitated for a long time and refused to agree.

Ma Han said angrily: "Why do you hesitate to give a lot of money to lead a way? I don't want you to die."

The young Qiang mountain man hung his neck and said: "Money is not easy to use here, and we can't buy things here if we have money. If you really want me to lead the way, you might as well give me something practical."

Su Jin smiled and asked, "What do you want?"

The young man pointed to a donkey in the team and said: "This donkey is very useful. My parents plow the mountains with plowshares on their shoulders. Having this donkey will save my worries."

Ma Han shouted: "You have a big tone, this literary website is worth three or five pennies, and you open your mouth like a lion when you lead a way, General Di, you have a lot of troublemakers on Yanyan Road."

Di Qing was a little embarrassed, and just about to scold the young man, Su Jin hurriedly said with a smile: "There is nothing wrong with his filial piety. Besides, people here don't have the concept of money, so how can he know the value of a donkey? Just for his filial piety, The donkey will be rewarded to him."

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The young mountain people were overjoyed and kowtowed repeatedly. During the conversation, Su Jin and others learned that the young man's name was Danmuji, which meant the meaning of white clouds floating, which was somewhat poetic; A large group of mountain people gathered together, and everyone looked at Danmuji with envious eyes, regretting that they did not get this job; when the officers and soldiers entered the mountain, they were afraid of being hurt, so they hid early. I regretted it, I knew it would be like this not only not to hide, but also to get up on the pole.

Su Jin greeted all the mountain people with a smile, and ordered the accompanying officers and soldiers to distribute some food to them. This group of people were all black and thin. In Su Jin's view, they obviously couldn't get enough to eat. Food should be the most practical for them something.

Zhamuji led the way, and the people turned over several hills, and arrived in a quiet valley in the evening. As soon as they stepped into the valley, everyone felt soft and sticky under their feet, and the grass was yellow and wet. Su Jin brushed aside the weeds and stretched out his hands on the ground When I touched it, my hands were filled with black things, and when I smelled it, it seemed to smell of oil.

Su Jin was overjoyed, as it turned out to be oil seeping out of the open air, which was simply not collected; Zamuji told Su Jin that there was a big bunker in front of him, where a large amount of black oil came out, and the local mountain people thought it was Blasphemed the gods and turned the mountain spring into a poisonous black spring. Later, someone accidentally took some fire to burn it, and only then did they know that these things can be burned; because it is an oily substance that emerges from the cracks in the rocks, the locals call it oil. .

After walking hard for a long time, everyone's boots and trousers were covered with dirt, and finally saw a huge black puddle; Su Jin stood by the side of the puddle and looked at it, dumbfounded, but saw the water in the puddle. Viscous black bubbles, a small piece of liquid in the middle is slowly rolling, obviously something is coming out from the ground; the black water in the pit overflows the edge of the pit, and soaks in all directions, which is why the whole building The meadows in the valley are all the reason for the soft black oil.

While stunned, Su Jin yelled in his heart: "My God, this is oil, one of the most important energy sources in future generations. For these things, countries will go to war without hesitation. In this era, everyone actually regards it as Suddenly, he became a contemporary oil tycoon."

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