Datang: Acting as a celestial mystery at the beginning

"I've done an investigation. This person is terrifying, and his methods are endless. It's not without reason that His Majesty asked him to rectify Yantie!"

Wang Gui continued: "Do you know why the imperial court was able to find out the corrupt officials of the aristocratic family so quickly? It was because of this person that he found out the problems in the accounts of the Yantie Division and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. It is said that he only took a few glances. You can find traces of fraud from a fake account, no matter how clever the technique is, it is useless in his eyes."

After he came back to Wang's house yesterday, he went to Yushitai again, because he was really curious, how Wei Zheng and the others found out this. Go ask Wei Zheng.

From their internal point of view, these inside stories were not really secrets, and Wei Zheng might as well have revealed a little bit to him, which caused Wang Gui to be shocked from yesterday until now.

"Is he really that powerful?"

Wang Yuanhua glanced at his daughter indifferently, and what Uncle Wang had said came to mind.

"If we guess wrong, yesterday's instigation was also done by this person."

Wang Rujing pondered for a while: "I did one thing right, and I also did one thing wrong, that is, paying back the salt and iron tax, which can not only prevent our Wang family from being hit, but also be used by Li Yi'an."

Five surnames and Qiwang, and so many aristocratic families, only the Wang family is an exception, this is indeed a good reason to take advantage of.

"From the day I paid the salt and iron tax, Li Yi'an is probably taking care of the subsequent series of things."

Wang Rujing stood up and said shamelessly, "Uncle, I'm sorry! I got you into trouble."

However, she was thinking in her heart, she really deserves to be the man I like.

She only felt that Li Yi'an was getting more and more interesting, and the sense of accomplishment after conquering was even higher.

"It's all for my own family, and Ru Jing is also for the Wang family, so there's no need to be like this."

Wang Gui sighed, "For our Wang family, there are disadvantages as well as advantages."

"Can't we just move closer to the imperial court?"

Wang Yuanhua felt uncomfortable and resisted the court.

"Getting closer doesn't necessarily mean taking refuge in the imperial court."

Wang Rujing smiled calmly, she seemed to have some good idea.

-

In front of Lu Yulin and the others, there was also a handful of fresh salt they had just obtained.

"These are the court's new salt?"

"This kind of salt is a hundred times better than what we produce, but the price is only [-] yuan a catty. What do you think?"

"Impossible, don't they cost nothing to make salt? Sixty yuan a catty of salt, how can this be profitable."

"Maybe it's the same as last time. The court tried every means to lower the price, making us lose everything. This is a trap."

Looking at the refined salt in front of them, their first feeling was that it was impossible. No matter how rich the imperial court was, they would not engage in such a loss-making business.

Among them, there must be secrets that they don't know.

"I think the cost of the imperial court's salt is really low."

Zheng Quan had a different idea from them, and said: "Salt is not like grain. The yield is really not high. It is not easy to make, so the price is so expensive. Li Erlang dares to keep the price so low. If it rebounds after a while If you think about it, I'm afraid that the people all over the world will scold him to death. Li Erlang will not be ignorant of this, so it is possible that they spend almost no cost to make salt."

"There is another matter. Chang'an Daily also said that the new salt will only belong to the imperial court in the future."

He thought for a while, then continued to analyze and said: "Li Erlang is going to completely classify salt and iron as official business. Even if we can steal the method of making salt, under the premise of lowering the price of salt in the court, the benefits obtained It will not be very high, and even be punished by the court."

After hearing his words, everyone felt reasonable.

Then, the court fell silent, and they began to feel the horror of Li Shimin's actions.

As soon as the new salt comes out, the future salt will not be of any concern to them. Even if they can reduce the price of salt to [-] yuan, there is no chance of reversal.

What's more, with their salt-making technology, less than [-] yuan is a blood loss.

"Well, you Li Erlang, you are too deceitful, you insist on confronting us!"

Cui Mao couldn't bear it first, and slapped the table angrily.

This time, not only did Yan lose his advantage, but their officials in the court were also severely suppressed.

The imperial court simply issued new salt, and they were completely defeated. All the seven families were no match for the imperial court.

Can they accept this failure?

Impossible to accept!With their pride, all they want is victory.

"No, we absolutely can't sit still, he won't make it easy for us, and I won't make it easy for the court either."

Lu Yulin was very unconvinced and said: "The imperial court suppressed the price of salt, and we continued to increase the prices of other things. I will go back and raise the prices of wine, cloth and silk. I see what Li Erlang can use to resist us." .”

The other five people nodded one after another, expressing their agreement with Lu Yulin's approach, they all went back, and raised the prices of things that could threaten Li Shimin.

After Lu Yulin returned to the Lu family, he thought that the Lu family still had papermaking and printing skills, which could be counterattacked, and immediately went to the Lu family's workshop.

It is already summer now, and it was warm winter in the Tang Dynasty. The weather was hotter than later generations. At this time, it was so hot that Sichuan could grow lychees. Concubine Yang Guifei ate lychees from Sichuan. It was a luxury to have a snowfall in winter.

This is also true, the summer in the Tang Dynasty was very hot, especially in the workshop of the Lu family, the furnaces were constantly operating, and people felt like they were in a furnace.

Lu Yulin had just arrived here, and the heat wave was raging, and soon he was covered with sweat.

Lu Xiuran has been staying in the workshop recently, constantly urging the production of paper and the printing of books. He also has to resist Li Yi'an to prove his strength in the literary world. At this moment, he is sweating and drenched.

"Aye!"

Seeing Lu Yulin coming, he hurried over.

"how is it now?"

Lu Yulin asked.

"Everything is going smoothly. It is really convenient and fast to use those fonts for printing."

Lu Xiuran said excitedly: "In three days at the earliest, my books will be available for sale again."

Lu Yulin calmed down, and said again: "Xiu Ran, help me prepare. My Lu family also wants to print newspapers. I want to regain control of Chang'an's speech and suppress Li Erlang. As for what to print, you can write it down immediately." The reason why the new salt sold by the imperial court is so expensive is because there are poisonous articles in the salt, I want to completely stink the so-called new salt."

Lu Xiuran beckoned, found a craftsman, and said, "Turn on ten more stoves to speed up papermaking."

The craftsman said in embarrassment: "Master, Dalang, our warehouse is almost full, and if we make a lot of paper, I'm afraid there will be no place to put the paper we make."

Lu Yulin asked: "Isn't our warehouse very big? How come there is no room!"

The craftsman said again: "Before we shipped a large amount of phosphor powder, but they were not used, and they were only piled up inside."

The phosphorus powder here is equivalent to the white phosphorus of later generations.

The earliest white phosphorus in history was produced by boiling urine.

However, in this era, Li Yi'an discovered a kind of phosphorus powder that is similar to white phosphorus in later generations. Its activity is almost the same as that of white phosphorus, but people here don't know how to use it, and it only exists in minerals.

Although the ancients didn't know how to use it, the concept of "phosphorus powder" also appeared, and some people had dug it out of minerals, but the amount was not much, so Li Yi'an wrote on the papermaking method.

"Take out all the phosphorus powder and throw it all outside, it's fine if you don't!"

Lu Xiuran said loudly: "Get ready!"

"Yes!"

Artisans can only prepare.

The time soon came to the next day.

At the turn of Weishi and Shenshi, the temperature in the workshop directly soared to its peak under the action of various furnaces.

The phosphorous powder was thrown outside, closer to the furnace, and the temperature was climbing.

You must know that the ignition point of white phosphorus is [-] degrees, and the phosphorus powder may be slightly worse, but it is not as high as that.

Now in the workshop, the temperature emitted by the stove is already above [-] degrees, and with the current weather, the temperature is even more terrifying.

It was the hottest time of the day at the turn of the year.

At this moment, white smoke was rising from the bag containing the phosphorous powder, producing a yellowish-white flame and exuding a large amount of heat.