The cold winter caused the soldiers of the Song Dynasty to suffer a lot, especially those who had been in the Central Plains for a long time and had just moved to Yanyun. They lived in the military camp but did not have the warm kangs of the people's homes of Peking Prefecture. The best heating tool was just an iron stove. Even so, the supply of carbon was a big problem.

The best way to keep warm is to rely on yourself. You must be strong, eat enough, wear warm clothes. With half a day of training and half a day of patrol, it is no problem to ensure the temperature of the soldiers. For this reason, Zhao Zhen valued the sweaters of the Song Dynasty. If he could provide sweaters for every soldier guarding the border, it would not only ensure the soldiers' winter, but also buy the morale of the soldiers, right?

The so-called efforts will bring rewards. In Zhao Zhen's opinion, the problem that money can solve is not a problem. The soldiers of the Song Dynasty guarded the border with a bitter cold, so they distributed warm sweaters and good food to them. The court officials began to object, but when Zhao Zhen was furious, "The soldiers guarded the border with a bitter cold and defended the border for the country. Shouldn't the clothes they wear the same as the people of the Song Dynasty? Shouldn't the food they eat the same as the people of Beijing?" After that, the voices of opposition in the court became much smaller.

The soldiers of the Song Dynasty did not all need sweaters, only the border guards in the northwest region needed them, especially in Yanyun, Yanzhou and Hongzhou. Sweaters must be equipped in the army. According to the records of Sitianjian, the cold this winter is a once-in-a-century year. Zhao Zhen himself searched and compared the data on phenology in Chongwenyuan and found that it is likely that the so-called Little Ice Age is coming.

This is just a harbinger. The Ming Dynasty in history encountered the real Little Ice Age, and the Song Dynasty is not much better now. Even the warm Jiangning Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture in the south have begun to fall wildly, which has a great blow to the farming nation.

Fortunately, the food reserves of the Song Dynasty were able to cope with the arrival of disasters, and after all, there were still many places in Lingnan that had not received any impact. In addition, with the food from the South China Sea countries, the life of the Song Dynasty was not difficult, but this was not the case for the Western Xia and the Liao Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty needed a large number of sweaters and equipment to bring warmth to the cold soldiers, so a huge order appeared. No business in the Song Dynasty could eat up this huge order, even Cai Boxi could not do it.

So, according to the original method, Cai Ji took the lead and several businesses joined forces to complete the imperial court orders. For this reason, the funds from the three departments were even delivered to the merchants first to give them money to buy wool and ask someone to make sweaters.

Today's sweaters are sewn with stitches and threads. There is no other way. Of course, the Gewu Academy is stepping up research and development. If they can be successful, it will greatly improve the efficiency and speed of the factory and reduce costs.

With so many orders for sweaters, buying wool became the top priority. Because the purchase volume was huge, Xixia continued to increase the number of goats in order to prevent the Liao people from snatching away their wealth. If goats want to survive in the cold winter, they had to dig out the frozen land and eat the grassroots under the frozen soil.

The pasture area of ​​Dangxiang people has reached an unprecedented level. Even Li Yuanhao is a little scared when he sees it, because there is no more farmland in Dangxiang and the best farmland has been replaced by grasslands. The reason why Li Yuanhao does not change the status quo is not because he did not find the problem, but because he has money.

This year's Zhengdan ceremony was held in the Ganyu Hall, which had been closed for a long time. The cold in the north made many officials who were already accustomed to the climate of Tokyo. For this reason, Zhao Zhen specially rewarded some more charcoal money. Not to mention that this year, the envoys who served the Song Dynasty in Beijing did not decrease due to the cold.

There are even more and more signs that many countries have profited from the Song Dynasty's goods and love and hate the Song Dynasty's goods. Most of the envoys who come here requested to trade with the Song Dynasty to open a deliberation. Until now, the Song Dynasty has only opened a deliberation in Datong Prefecture.

It is natural for Liao people and Xixia people to do business in Datong, because the two countries are close to the Song Dynasty, and after buying things, they can easily transport them back to the country, so that they do not have to spend a lot of money on the road.

But it is not convenient for other neighboring countries. Who dares to enter and exit the land of Xixia at will? Li Yuanhao, the king of a country, has ruined the reputation of Xixia. Others do not look at the people of Xixia, but only look at the character of the emperor of your country.

Before the Song Dynasty could say anything, the Song Dynasty was strongly opposed by the envoys of the Western Xia and Liao Dynasty, because they were afraid that these small countries would separate the goods from the Song Dynasty... Faced with the threats of the Western Xia and Liao Dynasty, the proposal of the envoys of the small countries could only be left alone.

When all the court officials and the envoys of the Zhengdan left, the envoys of the Western Xia requested to stay and took out another letter of national letter written by Li Yuanhao. Foreign ministers could also stay and report the matter. Most of them were some private remarks between the emperors of the two countries, so no outsiders were present.

Zhao Zhen's face was calm after reading Li Yuanhao's letter of nationality, but his heart was already shocked by the stupidity of the Xixia people. Li Yuanhao actually asked the Song Dynasty to sell a large amount of grain to Xixia and use wool as exchange!

Obviously, this is telling Zhao Zhen that the fertile fields of Xixia have become pastures, and the goat's destructive ability has been shown. Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "As far as I know, Xixia occupied the entire Xitaka Plain, and even the back condom fell into your hands. Now he actually told me that there is not enough food. If this is spread, wouldn't it be a joke?"

The messenger Tuoba Yuhui bowed and said, "Dear Your Majesty, this is not the case. My food in Daxia is enough to support it until the beginning of spring next year. However, my emperor is worried that this winter will be slow and there will be a while of spring, so he made complete preparations in advance. I hope that Your Majesty will order the market to start selling grain."

Zhao Zhen nodded slightly. He said this, but others didn't know it. Zhao Zhen knew the situation of Xixia through the Imperial City Department. What kind of goods sold in the market were decided by the Song Dynasty, and grain was generally not sold to the public as an important resource.

Now that Xixia has spoken like this, Li Yuanhao even used the letter of nationality for this, which obviously shows that the food in Xixia is not enough, and Li Yuanhao has realized this problem and has begun to prepare food and grass.

"Well, I will help you with Xixia. To overcome the difficulties, how about the Song Dynasty exchanged food for your wool in the future?"

Tuoba Yuhui's eyes lit up. For Xixia, there are a lot of wool. Now sheep are raising everywhere, so there is no worries about not having wool. Compared with growing food, raising sheep is much easier and has a high benefit! This is a good thing that fell from the sky, so he agreed without hesitation.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Chapter completed!