Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 533
The style of writing in the south of the Yangtze River has always been prosperous, and there are many scholars who study and study.

But most of the scholars are to participate in the imperial examination, and they read books such as classics and history.

Of course Gao Shi knew about the annotations to the Shui Jing. This is a monograph on geography written by Li Daoyuan, a famous minister of the Northern Dynasties, who personally visited the famous mountains and rivers in the world.

The entire Shui Jing Zhu has a total of forty volumes, which can be said to be a fairly complete geography book.

Even Gao Shi only read a part of it, but he didn't expect to see someone watching the water scriptures in the monk's room of Daming Temple.

The one who reads the book is naturally Li Daoyuan who lives in Daming Temple and is about to go to sea.

After getting Master Jianzhen's sea chart, Li Daoyuan quickly started to study the sea chart and marked the navigation routes that Jianzhen failed several times.

However, this is just the record of Jianzhen's several failed sea trips. It can only help Li Daoyuan avoid risks. If he wants to reach Fusang safely, he needs to collect more data.

In addition, Li Daoyuan still needs to find a suitable ship to go to sea. Although Yangzhou has a port, the port on the river cannot sail sea ships.

According to Jianzhen's route, it is to look for ships that can go to sea from Zhoushan, and then go to Fusang from Zhoushan.

Li Daoyuan stayed in Daming Temple and began to plan his route to Fusang.

When visiting the Sutra Pavilion of the Buddhist temple, Li Daoyuan happened to see the "Shui Jingzhu" hidden in the temple. Li Daoyuan happened to be a traveler. He had not read this book systematically before, but now he has traveled half a large area. After Tang, I found this book even more lively and interesting, and started to read it seriously.

Gao Shi couldn't help but stepped forward and said, "Your lord, this "Shui Jing Zhu" is not beneficial to the imperial examination, why spend time reading this kind of book?"

Gao Shi's intentions were good, and he also advised the other party not to waste their young time and prepare for the imperial examination.

Although the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty is open, studying and studying is still the best way for scholars.

Gao Shi himself is also a beneficiary of the imperial examinations. For the young juniors, he has the idea of ​​persuading them to learn, hoping that they can spend their time on the imperial examinations.

Unexpectedly, the young scholar said: "This elder is wrong. Although this book is not good for the imperial examination, it is indeed a wonderful book that can benefit the country and the people."

Gao Shi served as a military envoy in Jianghuai, and he saw many scholars who uttered wild words every day.

However, the talents and learning of these scholars are all knowledge from the classics and history subsets.

Although this Shui Jing Zhu is a wonderful book, it would be too much to say that this book can benefit the country and the people.

Gao Shi asked with a smile: "This old man has also read the Annotations of the Water Classics. Tell me how such a book about geography, mountains and rivers can benefit the country and the people."

Li Daoyuan did not expect that the old man in front of him had also read the annotations to the Shui Jing. You must know that after the Tang Dynasty used the imperial examinations to select scholars, scholars were even more dismissive of miscellaneous books such as the annotations to the Shui Jing. This book.

Now that the other party has read this book, Li Daoyuan said: "If you memorize the geography of mountains and rivers by heart, it can be worth tens of thousands of soldiers. This is one of them."

Gao Shi nodded. He was also the one who led troops to fight. The importance of mountains and rivers to war is beyond doubt.

Gao Shi recalled that before each battle in Hexi, Ge Shuhan would send his men to collect the geographical information of mountains and rivers in the combat area, make maps and sand tables, and read these maps and information every day when commanding the battle.

Gao Shi also learned Ge Shuhan's combat style, and he would observe the terrain of the battlefield first in every battle. In this way, "Shui Jing Zhu" is really useful.

It's just that the battlefields don't all take place on the water scriptures, this kind of statement is far-fetched.

Li Daoyuan continued: "Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. I want to travel thousands of miles and measure the world with my own steps."

Gao Shi suddenly raised his head and looked at Li Daoyuan. He didn't expect this young man to have such an ambition!
Traveling thousands of miles is easy to say, but in fact it is very difficult.

And the words "measure the world" are even more imposing. It seems that this young man is not an ordinary person.

Gao Shi nodded again and again. If he wanted to travel thousands of miles, it would be of great benefit to read the annotations of the Shui Jing.

Unexpectedly, when visiting the Daxiangguo Temple, he even met a strange person.

Gao Shi sighed and said, "Your Majesty's words are quite reasonable."

But looking at Li Daoyuan's clear eyes, Gao Shi couldn't bear the heart that such a person would not take the imperial examination.

So he continued to persuade and said: "But we scholars will always be officials in the future. If you read these books, can you be an official and benefit one party?"

At this time, Gao Shi wanted to educate the other party, and deliberately asked Li Daoyuan like him:
"This collection of classics and history can understand the principles of governing the people, can reading this geography book solve the problem?"

"Taking Yangzhou City as an example, Yangzhou City has developed commerce and trade, and the imperial court also minted coins in Jianghuai, but there is still a shortage of money in Yangzhou City. What is the reason?"

The shortage of money was also Gao Shi's biggest problem after he took office as Huainan Jiedushi.

There are many currencies in the Tang Dynasty. In addition to gold, silver and copper, silk can also be used as currency.

Mingming Jianghuai is the origin of silk, and a lot of silk can be woven every year. The imperial court also opened a mint in the Jiangnan area to mine copper mines and issue copper coins.

But even so, there is still a serious lack of currency in circulation in the Yangzhou market. This lack of currency has even seriously affected the government's taxation and the prosperity of Yangzhou's market.

As the governor of Huainan, Gao Shi was naturally very worried, but although he discovered the problem of money shortage, he couldn't find a solution to it.

Li Daoyuan smiled slightly. He may not be able to answer other questions, but he can really answer this question.

Li Daoyuan said: "The reason for the money shortage is actually in the geography book, but the old man didn't think of it."

"In the geography book?"

Gao Shi became interested, only to hear Li Daoyuan say:

"Yangzhou is an important town for sea and land trade. Not only merchants from Datang, but also Silla, Fusang, and many island countries in Southeast Asia will come to Yangzhou to do business, right?"

Gao Shi nodded. Although Yangzhou is not close to the sea, it is not far from the coastline.

And Yangzhou has a well-developed water network, and it is also the distribution center of the water transportation of the Tang Dynasty, so it also attracts a large number of foreign merchants every year.

Li Daoyuan said: "Those small countries in Nanyang basically have no copper coins in their own countries. Datang's copper coins are legal tender in these island countries. Every time a transaction is made, these merchants will bring some copper coins back to the country. Has the copper coin in Yangzhou decreased soon?"

"Although Xinluo and Fusang have their own currency, the quality of their own country's currency is not enough, far less stable than that of Datang's currency. Many merchants in Xinluo and Fusang will change to Datang when they leave Datang The coins of the country are returned to their own countries to be melted and minted into more national coins, which is another profit."

After listening to Li Daoyuan's words, Gao Shi felt enlightened, no wonder the copper coins in the Yangzhou market were decreasing year by year, it turned out to be the reason.

This scholar is right, indeed, reading ten thousand volumes of books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. I did not expect that there are such talented people in Yangzhou city.

Gao Shi continued to ask: "Lang Jun is talented! I didn't expect this to be the reason!"

Gao Shi already had an idea, as long as foreign businessmen are prohibited from taking away the Tang copper coins, the money shortage in the market can be solved.

Li Daoyuan had vaguely guessed the identity of the old man in front of him, and he asked with a smile: "Does the old man think that as long as foreign businessmen are prohibited from taking away Tang's coins, the problem of money shortage can be solved?"

After being perplexed by Li Daoyuan, Gao Shi nodded and said, "That's true, isn't it a good strategy?"

Li Daoyuan shook his head and said: "This copper coin is okay, but gold and silver are easy to hide. Is the government going to strictly check every foreign merchant ship coming in and out? Can the Jianghuai Jiedu government have this manpower?"

Gao Shi was stunned by this question, yes, if these foreign profiteers hid the money, would he still be able to search every ship?

This is obviously impossible, unless all trade with foreign merchants is banned, the loss of Tang coins can be prevented.

Gao Shi had a headache again. The shortage of money does not only affect business.

Fifth Qi's rent-yong reform in Jianghuai changed Datang's originally complicated tax in kind to currency collection converted into currency at market prices.

Originally, the people of Tang Dynasty had to hand in not only the grain cultivated in the land, but also a certain amount of silk and various messy things every year.

For example, salt households have to turn in salt, and fishermen have to turn in a certain amount of dried fish. This kind of collection in kind can be said to be bothersome to the government and to the people, especially the government in Jiangnan, which occupies the largest tax revenue in the world. Commodities are then classified and counted and sent to Chang'an.

Fifth Qi's reforms are convenient for the government and the people of Jianghuai, so they are naturally very popular.

However, from the collection of various objects to the collection of currency, it was okay at the beginning, and the people could exchange the output of their own fields into coins, and then they could pay this year's taxes.

However, with the further intensification of the money shortage in Jianghuai, many people had to sell their grain at a low price in order to get enough coins, which in turn increased the burden on the people in Jiangnan.

Gao Shi didn't expect that what used to be a good government to reduce the burden on the people would become a bad government that exploited the people in just one or two years.

Gao Shi wants to improve this policy, so he wants to solve the problem of money shortage in the market.

Unexpectedly, the question that had troubled me for a long time would be answered by this young man.

But the trick of prohibiting foreign businessmen from taking away Tang coins is not easy to use, so what is the solution to the problem of money shortage?

(End of this chapter)