The next meeting will be in Sunflower Garden, and Li Yuanying will pick up the little friends one by one, and also call Li Chengqian, Crown Princess and Li Xiang by the way.
It was too cold in winter and it was not easy to build a house, but Li Yuanying spent a lot of money to hire people to build the house at the foot of the mountain in order to let the temporarily scattered Gaochang visitors settle down as soon as possible. He paid generously, and gave out winter clothes and rice grains. Many people were willing to come and work in order to survive this winter. He actually built a circle of houses under the mountain in time for the beginning of spring.
Not only Gaochang people, but also farmers in Sunflower Garden have moved into the new house. In the past, those houses were only used as schools. Mei Niang planned to recruit a group of students in the next year, recruiting children from villages from all over the world to engage in basic education, so no one was idle in winter. After the repair and repair, everyone's faces were filled with satisfied and expectant smiles.
It hasn't snowed in Chang'an recently, and the hilltops in the distance are gradually turning green, so Li Yuanying wants to ask his friends to come and see the new look of the sunflower garden.
It's a pity that winter has just passed, and the surroundings are a bit bare, which doesn't look very interesting. Li Yuanying can only take them to the future "tree house base". The settlements of the new and old farmers have been settled, and the spring plowing season will be over, and the manpower will be allocated to build the rest of the drawings. It won't be long before they can play in this tree house base!
This is also the reason why Li Yuanying invited Li Chengqian here. He dragged Li Chengqian to an open space, gestured, and asked Li Chengqian, "Chengqian, how do you think this place will learn from you to build a big stove? There are many people here in Sunflower Garden." , there will be more in the future, you can eat all the roasted whole beef and roasted whole lamb, and the number of times you will use it will not be less than yours!"
How can Li Chengqian know how to create? But he looked at the open space that Li Yuanying had vacated, nodded and said, "This location should be fine." Li Chengqian still understood Li Yuanying very well, and before he could open his mouth, he said, "I'll get someone to come over and help you build the stove later." Come out, if there is no one under your command who can make roasted whole lamb, I will assign a few more people for you."
Li Yuanying, who had left the stove empty-handed, was very happy. That's why he liked his eldest nephew, who was too generous.
Li Yuanying didn't think about talking about business right away, so he took Li Xiang and the others around the sunflower garden and played with the children in the sunflower garden for a long time. When Li Xiang blushed and couldn't play anymore, Li Yuanying asked the younger ones to have a snack and rest, and then he took Di Renjie and the others to sit together and discuss the results of these few days of thinking.
Li Yuanying told Li Chengqian about his previous relationship. Li Chengqian had many Turkic friends. Although they were all Turkic people who surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, their living habits were not far from those of the Western Turkic people who are currently active on the grassland. This is why Li Yuanying brought Li Chengqian here. The second reason.
Of course, Li Yuanying said without opening his mouth that they wanted to take Tubo and Turks into Datang's possession. That tone was too loud, and people might say this or that if he said it!
Li Yuanying only told Li Chengqian about his original intention: he was worried that Wencheng would not be doing well in Tubo, and he had no relatives to complain about, so he wanted to send caravans to places like Tubo and Tuyuhun, to communicate more, and to get the people there in time. The message is passed back.
After hearing Li Yuanying's plan, Li Chengqian said, "Are you going to sell the tea from the south to Tubo and Turks first?"
Li Yuanying said: "Yes, I have already mentioned it to Nalu Dongzan in Tubo, and after discussing a few ways, it should not be difficult to sell it. There are more caravans, so we can know the latest news in time. Wencheng is in Tubo. , Honghua is in Tuyuhun, the two sides must send people there. I think the Turkic side should also send some people there, so I asked you to come over and discuss it."
Li Chengqian said: "I'm afraid it's not easy. Caravans are worried about bandits traveling in the Tang Dynasty, let alone going to Tubo, Tuyuhun and Turks?"
Li Yuanying said: "So we have to plan carefully."
Li Zhi tried his best to express his opinion this time, and interjected: "If the tea profit can be improved, there must be someone willing to take the risk."
Now Chang'an has a tea-drinking trend, and the surrounding areas will definitely follow Chang'an's example one after another. In this way, there will definitely be a tea-growing trend in the south. Tea is not a necessity for the common people. People can drink it or not on weekdays. At that time, the tea market will usher in a short period of oversaturation.
Di Renjie and the others thought hard for several days after returning home, and they came to the same result: the supply of Qianjin tea in Chang'an is still in small quantities and at high prices, and the price of Qianjin tea continues to be raised. For the remaining output, they sent caravans to Tubo and Tuyuhun to open up the tea market. After two or three years, new tea planted by following the trend entered the market one after another, and the price of tea in the Tang Dynasty was greatly reduced. They then led these tea merchants to Tubo and Turks, and exchanged tea from Tubo and Turks for cattle. sheep and horses and other gold and silver treasures.
There are two advantages to this: first, their caravans are not so conspicuous mixed with ordinary caravans; second, tea profits are taxed, and the tea tax collected by the court will increase greatly when the market becomes larger.
They also listed one, two, and three points on how to develop the tea market in Tubo and other places, which is roughly like this: First of all, of course, it is necessary to train a group of tea artisans who are willing to endure hardships and let them spread tea culture. Di Renjie proposed You can let the monks go, and there are many people in Tubo who believe in Buddhism; secondly, we need to introduce some legends and stories that are easy to be accepted by the local people for the tea according to local conditions. The people around Li Yuanying can handle it. Ting can collect ten or eight decent legendary sayings in one day; as for how to set the price of tea and how to transport tea, everyone has put forward their own ideas.
Mei Niang didn't speak this time. She and Wei Shu sorted out and recorded everyone's opinions, and compiled a tea export plan that seemed extremely feasible.
Li Chengqian thought that Li Yuanying was just thinking about it, but after listening to their discussion completely, he realized that these children were serious.
Li Chengqian was in a complicated mood.
In order to get news from Tubo in time, Li Yuanying was able to come up with such a plan with great effort. This is probably the reason why children like to play with Li Yuanying. Li Yuanying loves to be noisy, but he is more serious about protecting his own people than anyone else.
For the imperial court, this plan is beneficial and harmless. Tea can be exported to Tubo and Turks, and bring back cattle, sheep and horses, which are very much needed in the Central Plains. Who would be unhappy in the imperial court? What's more, Li Yuanying also wrote a letter stating that tea should be taxed for ten, and that if ten copies of tea were sold, the court would get a profit! If this matter is really done, why worry about the empty treasury? !
Li Chengqian immediately told Li Yuanying and the others what he knew, and said that if he really wanted to sell tea to Turkic, he could recommend some Turkic friends to lead the way.
The two sides hit it off immediately and drew up the plan for the Turkic side on the spot.
This side is chatting hotly, and Li Xiang over there has taken a nap. The concubine was chatting with the attendants. Li Xiang sat up and rubbed his eyes. He didn't see Yaoyao who played with him before going to bed. Little boots, bare feet pattered towards the princess.
The crown princess noticed the sound of her son waking up, bent over and hugged him, stretched out her hand to cover his feet, and blamed him: "Why don't you call someone? Walking barefoot will prevent you from getting sick from the cold."
Li Xiang said: "Look for Yaoyao!"
The concubine couldn't help feeling a little sour, and she put on Li Xiang's shoes and socks herself, and said, "You, if you have Yaoyao, no one will want it."
Li Xiang said: "Yes!" After finishing speaking, he still imitated Yaoyao's arms and hugged the princess, and raised his small hand to pat the princess on the back in a dignified way.
The concubine was amused by him, arranged his clothes for him, and led him to find Li Yuanying and the others.
The sunflower garden is all her own people, and no one stopped the princess when she led Li Xiang closer. As soon as he heard Li Yuanying's voice coming from the room, Li Xiang couldn't wait any longer. He broke away from the princess' hand and ran over to raise the curtain to look inside.
The discussion on Li Yuanying's side just came to an end.
Hearing the sound of someone moving the door curtain, Li Yuanying turned his head and saw the little one Li Xiang running over, immediately opened his arms to hug the little one who was running towards him, and asked him if he would like some tea when he woke up.
Li Xiang looked at the green tea, remembering that Li Yuanying tricked him into licking the wine last time, he shook his head resolutely, refusing to open his mouth.
Li Chengqian said: "If you lied to him last time, he will never eat what you give him again."
Li Yuanying didn't believe in evil, so he tried his best to coax Li Xiang to drink tea and eat snacks. Li Xiang vacillated for a while, but finally decided to trust Li Yuanying one more time, and ate some snacks and tea in doubt.
Li Yuanying was proud: "How is it? Yaoyao didn't lie to you, did he? It's delicious!"
Li Xiang nodded: "It's delicious!"
On the way back, the Crown Princess hugged Li Xiang and Li Chengqian and said, "Xiang'er really likes Uncle Yao."
Li Chengqian touched Li Xiang's furry head, and told the princess how Li Yuanying planned to keep in touch with Wencheng.
Wen Cheng had never had any contact with Li Yuanying before, and only entered the palace for a period of time at the end of last year, yet Li Yuanying was able to make such a big plan for her! It can be seen that this kind of thing is often mutual. They feel that Li Yuanying treats them well, so they will naturally like Li Yuanying very much.
The Crown Princess didn't know much about these things, and when Li Chengqian said that Li Yuanying was going to sell tea in Tubo, she couldn't help but ask, "Can this really be done?"
Before Li Chengqian answered, Li Xiang, who was listening carefully, rushed to answer: "It can be done!"
Seeing that Li Xiang was full of confidence, Li Chengqian wondered, "How do you know it can be done?"
Li Xiang said childishly: "Yaoyao said, as long as you want to do it, you can do it! There is nothing difficult in the world, as long as there is a heart!"
Li Chengqian and the princess found that their son had a pretty good memory, and he could memorize everything he said to him, so he might be a good reading material when he grows up. Li Chengqian boasted: "Xiang'er is right, as long as you want to do it, you can do it."
Li Xiang corrected him: "Yaoyao said that!"
Yaoyao said it all, yeah, so stupid!
Seeing that her husband was obviously despised by her son, the Crown Princess couldn't help laughing.
Li Chengqian didn't care about his son.
After returning to the East Palace, Li Chengqian called Fang Yizhi and the others over, and asked them to provide people and money to support Li Yuanying in carrying out the tea-selling plan that had accidentally become very grand. To roll out the whole plan, it is not enough to rely on the few people under Li Yuanying's hands. Li Chengqian naturally participated in today's discussion, and naturally he would not want to reap the benefits.
After Fang Yizhi and the others went back, he ordered the people below to act, and he was busy every day to cooperate with Li Yuanying to make preliminary preparations.
Seeing that the eldest son has become very busy recently, Fang Xuanling looked for an opportunity to find Fang Yi and went straight into the study to ask him what he was doing.
This is a serious matter, there is nothing to hide, Fang Yi picked out what he could say to others and told Fang Xuanling. Fang Xuanling is still the prince's grand teacher at the moment, and he is relieved to hear that the prince is going to open up the tea trade market with King Teng, feeling that the prince is getting better and better.
Although this matter sounds a bit unconstrained, it may not be impossible to do it if you really want to do it!
You must know that there are not many places in the Central Plains that can raise cattle, sheep and horses. Let alone eating meat, it is not easy to replace human power with animal power, and many drudgery has to be done by human power! If tea can be exchanged for some livestock and come back, it will be a great thing for the country and the people.
Fang Xuanling encouraged Fang Yizhi with relief, and brought this matter up with His Majesty Li Er the next day.
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Little Prince: A very powerful person once said that all forces that can be united must be united!