Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 159 Cotton Cloth
"Saint, these things are what I have seen and heard in Zheng Baiqu in the past few days. I am afraid that there may be omissions, so I have written a memorial and attached a daily note.

Nowadays, the people of Gaoling are delighted when they hear about the work. It is the honor of the king of Yue, and the diligence and cooperation in the battle of Zheng and Bai is the ability of Ma Zhou.

I believe that the king of Yue and the water envoy Ma Zhou never harshly criticized the people of Gaoling, "

When Zhang Xuansu came back, he told Li Shimin the whole story. Li Shimin was very happy when he said this.

Li Shimin stroked his beard very proudly, making Zhang Xuansu say such words, obviously Qing Que did a pretty good job this time.

After all, Zhang Xuansu is a well-known tough guy in the imperial court, so I am very happy to let him lick like this.

Fang Xuanling on the side looked at Zhang Xuansu in surprise, although it seemed as if she knew him for the first time.

However, Zhang Xuansu continued, "I feel that King Yue's way of integrating different races through labor is very good.

We can use this as a template to transfer part of the corvee tasks to these alien races.

Only after they have served for a certain number of years, so that they can speak Chinese and understand Chinese etiquette, will they be allowed to become my Datang nationality.

In this way, one can educate the alien race and enrich the population of our Tang Dynasty.The second is to reduce the heavy corvee labor of the people in our Tang Dynasty.

Now it seems that the effect of this labor reform is indeed very good! "

"Oh?" Li Shimin couldn't help but look at Fang Xuanling when he heard Zhang Xuansu's words.

"..." Fang Xuanling said, "There are two difficulties in this matter.

The first one is the lack of money. Zheng Guoqu's group of aliens were able to naturalize smoothly. One of the most important reasons is that the king of Yue was willing to spend money.

Now Zheng Baiqu eats meat every three days, and a pair of cotton gloves every six days, not to mention food and cotton clothes.

If the quantity is too large, it will consume too much for Datang's national strength.

As for the second point, the scale is still small, and Su Dingfang leads troops to guard it, so it is difficult for foreigners to feel sick.

But if the scale becomes larger, people will inevitably disturb the place, so how many guards and even soldiers need to be dispatched to manage it.

These all need to be prepared, but this will put pressure on Datang's finances. "

"At the end of the day, it's still about money!" Li Shimin sighed. He has been in power for so many years, and Li Shimin also understands that basically as long as the finances are in place, there are no administrative problems that Datang cannot solve.

If so, please add money!
"Such a good policy, do you give it up because you don't have money?" Zhang Xuansu said with a bit of regret.

"It's not impossible!" Fang Xuanling thought for a while and said softly.

"Oh, tell me?" Hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Li Shimin asked Fang Xuanling curiously.

Fang Xuanling said: "The King of Yue's ability to amass wealth can be said to have been created out of thin air.

From Chen's point of view, I don't know whether King Yue can match Gan Luochen, but the land of Gaoling does limit King Yue's performance.

The minister felt that maybe giving the king of Yue a state might allow more foreigners to become the people of our Tang Dynasty. "

"Has the Qingque been restrained in Gaoling?" Li Shimin heard Fang Xuanling's words, but also approved of Fang Xuanling's judgment.

To be honest, this kind of thing may be difficult for other people to understand, but for Li Shimin, this kind of thing is really easy to understand.

It was as if he could command one hundred thousand legions when he led troops, but the reality was that he could only lead five thousand soldiers.

In Li Shimin's view, Li Tai is his own son, a copy of himself when he was young, but he has strengthened his internal affairs ability a little bit.

Fang Xuanling saw that Li Shimin was already thinking about it, and he was in a state of stupefaction. He didn't say anything more, let alone bring up the word Youzhou.

Because if you continue to talk at this time, people will think that you are deliberately kicking Li Tai to Youzhou.

But in fact, when Li Shimin was thinking about arranging a state for Li Tai, Youzhou almost became an inevitable choice.

The reason is very simple, because Li Tai's method of labor reform is effective, which shows that Li Tai can handle the contradictions of ethnic minorities.

This kind of people went to the border areas to exert their power. Isn't this setting up a stage for Li Tai?

Secondly, compared to other places, Li Tai entered a branch of Youzhou Academy in Youzhou, with various plans made at the beginning. It can be said that although Li Tai is now in Gaoling, he is not without foundation in Youzhou of.

Li Tai didn't start from scratch in the past, but had his own foundation for governing, and the Nuhui was emptied in the blink of an eye.

The third problem is Li Tai's age. Li Tai's age determines that Li Tai will have to spend more energy to take back the rights in his own hands when he goes to any place without foundation, but in Youzhou, Almost everything has been paved.

So Li Shimin released Li Tai, even if Youzhou was not the first choice, it was definitely a backup.

Other options should be Luoyang, Chengdu and Yuhang, all of which are possible.

After all, Li Shimin liked Li Tai very much, Fang Xuanling couldn't guarantee whether he would keep Li Tai by his side, but Li Shimin was definitely willing to make King Yue's life better.

Therefore, it is best to release this influence little by little, and finally let Li Shimin choose the location.

The only thing that made Fang Xuanling breathe a sigh of relief was that Li Tai seemed to be really preparing for going to Youzhou.

This series of events will unknowingly increase the weight of Youzhou, which made Li Tai go.

As for Li Shimin, at first Li Tai showed his willingness to go to Youzhou, and then he showed his ability to deal with the conflicts between the aliens and the Han.

Under such circumstances, Li Shimin also began to think whether it was really suitable for Li Tai to go to Youzhou.

Of course, this thought is only fleeting, no matter what, he is his own son, throwing him to Youzhou, not to mention that he is not willing, even the eldest grandson empress is not willing.

"In addition, I found a kind of cotton clothing in Gaoling. It is soft and extremely warm. It is a good product among winter clothes. Compared with the down jacket invented by King Yue, it is softer!" Zhang Xuansu continued.

"It's the padded clothes made of white mats!" Li Shimin thought of the padded clothes Li Tai mentioned in his diary, and said,

"A few years ago, the King of Yue gave Changle a cotton garment made of white cushion flowers that he planted himself.

Later, in order to increase the production, it was planted in Yuanzhou, Shengzhou and other places, and now I think it has harvested a lot. "

"Yuanzhou, Shengzhou?" Hearing this, Fang Xuanling was stunned, because he really didn't know.

"Well, this cotton eats both sunlight and water. Although the requirements for the soil are not too high, it takes a lot of effort to plant it." Li Shimin nodded.
"However, the water transportation plan was successfully completed, and the Weihe River was dredged.

Therefore, the grain from Chang'an can be transported to Shengzhou, Yuanzhou, so a little more cotton was planted. "

"Is this white mat competing with grain?" Fang Xuanling frowned when she heard Li Shimin's words.

"These two places are not considered rich in the first place, and if they can produce some white mats, they can be regarded as being used!" Li Shimin said.

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Fang Xuanling didn't say anything more, because no matter what, he still had to wait until the taxes of these two states came up this year before he could make a judgment.

However, this year, the two places have to be ordered to die. No matter how much money the white mat makes, it must not threaten the farming fields of the two places.

To be honest, this is because the white mat produces cotton clothes for winter, so Fang Xuanling can tolerate a certain degree of encroachment on grain fields.

After all, in the third year of Zhenguan, it was not uncommon for him to see the scene of being too poor to eat, so for Fang Xuanling, food was more important than the weaving material such as white mats.

Li Shimin said: "However, the cotton clothes made of this kind of white mats are guaranteed to be warm.

Even better than the down feather invented by Qingque, huh?It is called down, which is softer and more comfortable to wear.

Especially for some down, if it is not handled properly, it will still have a faint smell of livestock.

But with a white mat, there is no such problem at all!
This is what Qingque prepared to deal with Goguryeo in the future. There is not enough space now. If you want to equip an army, you need to produce more. "

Hearing this, Fang Xuanling frowned slightly, because this matter about Li Tai made Fang Xuanling feel that Li Tai was a little too prepared.

How could this plan to follow his own advice and go to Youzhou to seal it off? He was clearly planning to go to Youzhou to make a big fuss!

For a while, Fang Xuanling didn't know whether to support Li Tai to go to Youzhou or not.

But after thinking about it, is it better to let Li Tai go to Youzhou than to let Li Tai stay in Chang'an and continue to shine this brilliance to cover up the brilliance of the crown prince?
Taking a step back, Li Tai's trip to Youzhou would at most trigger a war with Goguryeo.

But this is nothing compared to the orderly inheritance of Datang.

For the generals of the Han Dynasty, attacking Goguryeo may not be able to defeat Goguryeo, but if Goguryeo takes the initiative to attack Datang, isn't that the experience bag of Datang?
After all, apart from the scum of the Jin Dynasty, which unified dynasty has been afraid of these barbarian small countries since ancient times.

At this time, Fang Xuanling felt relieved, no matter how he said it, Li Taidong used the corvee matter to settle the matter.

However, not long after that, a large amount of cotton cloth began to appear in the entire Chang'an, crazily impacting the entire Chang'an cloth market.

After all, Li Tai has processed the feathers of the down jacket as much as possible, but limited by the skills of this era, it still feels a bit harsh. The most important thing is that even after many times of processing, there will still be a little smell of animal hair in the down jacket. .

It's usually nothing, but as long as the wearer is sweating, the smell will be a bit strong.

So when there is no such warm and natural plant material as cotton, everyone can bear it.

However, with the emergence of cotton, the market for down jackets will naturally be squeezed out, which is inevitable.

So when Peacock returned to Chang'an with the cotton cloth project, Zheng Fengchi's cloth business was most affected.

Although it would not hurt the muscles and bones, it can be regarded as a strong competitor competing on the same stage.

When Zheng Mingshang learned about the family's down jacket business, he couldn't help but feel anxious after the peacock's cotton cloth kept falling. He immediately called family members to discuss countermeasures, but there was no good way to go up and down.

After all, the peacock gave the Zheng family a chance to make money last time, but the Zheng family put the peacock together.

Although the relationship between the two parties has eased, it is unrealistic to say that they will go back completely.

After all, even if the injury is healed, no one is allowed to leave a scar.

"We got the right to manage the down from the king of Yue, and she took new cotton cloth to compete with our down.

Isn't this a clear trap?
Let's go to the Palace of the King of Yue and let the King of Yue give an explanation. Isn't this treating us as fools!Ouch! "

The second room knew the whole story and began to yell, obviously unable to swallow this breath!

However, just after he finished speaking, he felt his ass being slapped hard.

Anger flared up in his heart for a moment, and he turned around angrily, but then he saw Zheng Fengchi holding a cane, and immediately froze down, smiling all over his face, and said, "Father, you are here!"

"There are so many white silks at home, I want to find one to hang myself, so as not to implicate the family!" Zheng Fengchi knocked on the crutches.

"You are my own father, what are you talking about!" Hearing Zheng Fengchi's words, Erfang couldn't help muttering to himself.

"It's not your own father, you think you can still talk here."

Zheng Fengchi raised his head and looked at Zheng Mingshang. Although his eldest son was not very outstanding, he was not a playboy after all. After several years of training, he had already become the face of the Zheng family in Chang'an.

"Don't pay attention to the silly words of the second child, Mingshang, how do you think we should deal with it?" Zheng Fengchi looked at Zheng Mingshang and said.

"The king of Yue asked the peacock to take out this cotton cloth this time, although it has shocked us, it may not have meant something to us.

The down jacket contract between us and the King of Yue is about to expire. I think we need to talk to the King of Yue again.

No matter what, the down jacket contract must be signed continuously. " Zheng Mingshang said.

"Are you going to continue to lose money?" Erfang rubbed his butt and said unwillingly, feeling like he was going crazy.

"Explain to the second child!" Zheng Fengchi heard the second room's words, and felt that the second room was stupid, and thanked the second room for being stupid.

"Second brother, our Chang'an Zheng family has been able to gain a foothold in the capital slowly in the past few years. The very important reason is that we have taken over the down jacket from the King of Yue, which means that we have established a relationship with the King of Yue.

In addition, in the past few years, the Yue King can be said to be in full swing, so our Zheng family is safe in Chang'an.

If you give up the cooperation with the King of Yue, it is tantamount to severing Chang'an! "

Zheng Mingshang looked at Erfang and said, "And when the time comes, I'm afraid that anyone will be able to step on our Zheng family.

Therefore, regardless of whether down jackets make money or not, we must maintain our relationship with the King of Yue. "

"Huh!" Zheng Fengchi breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Zheng Mingshang's words, and said, "Tomorrow you will go to Gaoling to find King Yue.

Remember, others have choices, but we merchants have no choice.

Now that I have chosen the king of Yue, I will go to the end of this road. Maybe in the future, five families and seven Wangs will become five families and eight Wangs! "

"No!" Zheng Mingshang nodded, indicating that he understood.

(End of this chapter)