A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 302 Don't Believe Rumors, Don't Spread Rumors
Which girl is not pregnant?
The gossip in the market, coupled with Li Deju's reprimand, not only did not make Li Sanniang fearful and back down, but had the opposite effect. She looked more directly into her heart.

The hazy mind became clearer.

It's just that when she went to Wu Huaiyu fearlessly again, she was stopped by the door again.

"The envoy is not here."

"I have something important to do."

"It's really not there."

"Get out of the way, I must see him today."

Menzi looked at Li Sanniang, who was looking sour, and had no choice but to tell her, "I have urgent business, and I went to Lingzhou, and I won't be back for a while."

Li Sanniang didn't believe it, so the door had no choice but to let her into the yamen.

She searched around and found no one, and she didn't care about other people's strange eyes.

After confirming that Wu Huaiyu had really gone to Lingzhou, Li Sanniang left without saying a word, and went to Lingzhou with her people. Li Dezheng heard about it and hurriedly chased after her, but couldn't stop her.

"Why did the Li family try to produce some stubborn species?"

Li Deju said helplessly to Chen Sheng beside him that Chen Sheng was born as a slave of the Li family, and he had been following him before, and he was also very familiar with the situation of the Li family. It seemed that the Li family really had this kind of tradition.

Li Jing came to Chang'an when he was famous and famous all night long, but Li De's son from a famous family always wants to be a ranger.

But Mrs. Li San was brought up by Li Jing and his wife, but she was different from the daughters of other families. Not to mention she didn't like red makeup and armed forces. She didn't like how many famous children wanted to marry him. For example, the eldest son of Chai Shao, that He is the son of Princess Pingyang, and he is also of high status. He is still a thousand cows, and his conditions are very good, but Sanniang just doesn't like him.

But now he wants to pester Wu Huaiyu.

"Maybe it's just a spur of the moment. After all, you're young, and it's possible to be infatuated for a while."

"Forget it, don't care about her, anyway, she was like this when she was young, and the nine cows can't pull back what she decided,"

Just like last year, when Li Sanniang was going to Huining Pass to rescue her father and brother, Mrs. Zhang locked her in the mansion, but she was able to escape from the mansion and go to the border in the end.

When Li Deju returned to Baicheng, he could only write a letter to his family, explaining the situation in detail, and he couldn't control the rest.

Only Li Jing and Zhang can take action in this matter, but he doesn't know how it will end in the end.

"Now our Danyang House is going to become a joke in the aristocratic circle."

Chen Sheng just chuckled, "No one dares to laugh at the Li family. Besides, which big family doesn't have such a thing?"

Back then, Li Jing and Zhang Chuchen's running around at night caused a sensation in Chang'an, but so what?

Li Jing didn't marry a famous girl, but married a kabuki, isn't he still famous all over the world?
Besides, you, Li Deju, haven't been an official for so many years, and you want to be a ranger every day, so you think you have a good name?
·······
When Wu Huaiyu arrived in Lingzhou, it turned out that Lingzhou was also spreading rumors about him. It was true that good things did not go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles.

Xue Wanche also teased him a lot when they met.

I haven't seen this dog slave for a while, and his waistline is fat again. This guy has been living a very comfortable life recently, and the surrounding fans are subdued. He is not under any pressure as the governor of Lingzhou.

The border trade of Lingyan is very hot, and he is making a lot of money even if he is lying down.

Although Wu Huaiyu made a lot of noise in Yanzhou, and even because of the popularity of the Baicheng border city in Yanzhou, some of Lingzhou's trade was diverted, but Lingzhou's size is huge, and it doesn't hurt.

What's more, Yanzhou is also the next state under the governor of Lingzhou.

"Brother Wu, aren't you afraid that Mrs. Fan will kill you by killing your horse?" Fan Xuanfu's fierce reputation is known throughout Chang'an. Back then, he even beheaded seven horses from the Imperial College, scaring several Xun Qi's children. The name of the female tiger has been circulating.

As a child of the Fan family, no one in the Imperial College would dare to provoke him.

"Don't believe in rumors, don't spread rumors!" Huaiyu said with a serious face.

"Hey, I envy you guys who are young and romantic."

"Xue Gong is still young and strong, so it's not enough, how about I give you two pills to invigorate the kidney and strengthen the yang?"

Xue Wanche's eyes widened, "I'm as strong as a bull, how can I not do it?"

Xue Wanche also had a wife, and many concubines. In history, this wife died young. Later, Li Shimin married his younger sister, Princess Danyang, but Princess Danyang later said that Xue Wanche was stupid because he could not perform the ceremony of husband and wife after marriage. .

This is of course nonsense. After all, before Xue Wanche became the princess, he actually had grandchildren. There are a lot of children, how could he not? It can only be said that either the princess is too strong and domineering, which makes Lao Xue afraid, or the princess despises him for being rude and will not let him touch.

Later, Li Shimin still found Yang Shidao and other brothers-in-law, had a drink with Xue Wanche, taught them a lot, and then the princess made friends with him.

"It's just in time for you to come back, and I was looking for you too. You said it's summer, so we should also recruit soldiers and prepare to sweep Liang Ni. The crops in their fields should also grow. Let's trampled on."

Trampling the crops is a very inhumane act, especially for Shuofang who has been suffering from poverty and famine, but the war is cruel, and they will do everything to trap the enemy and destroy the enemy.

As for the life and death of the people, in fact, who really cares, especially the people of the enemy country.

Wu Huaiyu didn't object, nor did he object. This was even a suggestion he made to the emperor at the beginning, and it was a conventional tactical method.

"Contact Xiazhou, Qingzhou and Yanzhou, how about sending troops together?"

Although it is a raid and harassment operation, it is better for several governor's mansions to send troops in separate directions at the same time.

Xue Wanche asked the cook to entertain Wu Huaiyu and Dou Lu Huairang with the best skills, so the cook roasted a camel, stuffed a sheep in the belly of the camel, stuffed a goose in the belly of the goose, stuffed a pigeon in the belly of the goose, stuffed in the belly of the pigeon. Stuffed with quail eggs.

Just bake it.

The cook is very skilled, such a big camel is still wrapped in layers, but he can still control the heat well, and the roast is very good.

Barbecue with Erguotou.

Xue Wanche likes this strong zhuzi shao very much, and this wine is made by the Wu family's Bingyutang winery.

"This wine is really good. It suits my taste the most. It's a pity that I don't want to buy it."

Now Bingyutang has also opened a branch in Lingyan. As Xue Wanche said, the supply is in short supply. Now the Wu family's shochu, black tea bricks, and fire salt bricks are very popular among the herdsmen outside the Great Wall, and they are extremely popular.

But production is limited.

In particular, this shochu cannot be brewed with grain, but can only be brewed with various fruits, which greatly affects the output.

"We don't lack food in Lingzhou. How about getting some food to brew liquor here?" I want to get a foot in the shochu market and want to partner with Wu Huaiyu.

But Wu Huaiyu was willing to give him some wine for distribution at most, and he was unwilling to openly defy the imperial court's prohibition to use grain to make wine.

"Commander, although Lingzhou is fortified with grain and rivers, it is now time to prepare for war. Although there are some reserves of grain, we dare not touch it lightly. Now that the ban on brewing in Chang'an has not been lifted, how can we dare to mess around at the border. "

Seeing Wu Huaiyu's attitude, Xue Wanche didn't have much to say. He didn't think Wu Huaiyu was abiding by the law, but he thought Wu Huaiyu didn't want him to join the gang.

This is not a good thing to force.

Today's Wu Huaiyu is not something that can be handled casually, and he is on an equal footing with him here.

Xue Wanche turned around and brought up the matter of private casting, copper casting and private casting of copper coins and silver coins. Now Lingzhou is very prosperous, with a complete industrial chain, one-stop manufacturing, sales, and circulation.

The Persian silver coins minted in Lingzhou have even become the main source of coins used by merchants and people in Hexi and the Western Regions. The Persian silver coins minted by Gaochang Kingdom and others are not as many as those minted in Lingzhou.

Regardless of fineness or quantity, the imitation Persian Sasanian silver coins minted in Lingzhou are abundant and good.

One imitation Persian silver coin can be exchanged for 32 Kaiyuan Tongbao. The business of casting silver coins is very profitable. The silver brought by Turkic and Sogdian trade will basically enter the silver coin workshop in Lingzhou and become exquisite imitation coins. Persian silver coins.

And these private casting workshops are not owned by a certain person, but have formed a scale and organization as early as in Li Daozong's hands. There is one.

That's why it has been so prosperous, because everyone from top to bottom participated and gave convenience.

Now the private casting in Lingzhou has encountered some problems.

There is not enough silver and some copper, but the demand is even greater. The prosperity of the border market and the Silk Road requires more currency support.

"I suggest that all copper materials be used to make copper coins, and reduce or stop copper casting."

Xue Wanche's idea was just the opposite. He planned to stop privately minting copper coins, but to cast bronze wares instead.

Even want to sell money casters.

Relatively speaking, Lingzhou's privately minted money is relatively exquisite, not too bad, and the materials used are relatively sufficient. However, compared with the imperial court's Kaiyuan Tongbao, it is actually cut corners, which is also a way to make money privately. The essential.

The imperial court opened Yuan Tongbao coins, and set up money supervisors and coin furnaces in various places, mainly in those copper mine producing areas, using the mined copper materials to cast coins nearby, and then transporting them to various places, because of the national overall planning, sufficient materials, and transportation costs And so on, there are also management costs, so the cost of casting money is quite high. Often, one thousand copper coins are cast and issued, and the final cost is only eight or nine hundred yuan, and sometimes even loses money.

However, private casting is often done in industrial and commercial cities where transactions are thriving, using copper materials on the market, or even directly using copper coins on the market to melt them down and recast them.

Some [-] official coins were melted into [-] private coins, and the proportion of materials was even adjusted, which made the profits of private coins very high.

The privately minted copper coins here in Lingzhou rely on the large market of Lingzhou, and the profit can be stabilized at around 80.00%.

But selling money to cast utensils, destroying official money to cast bronze utensils, the profit is [-]%.

There is a big difference in profit between privately minted money and sold money casters.

Now Lingzhou is short of copper materials, and even the imperial court knows that the situation of selling money and casting utensils and privately casting money in Lingzhou is serious, so now there is an unspoken rule that copper coins are not allowed to go out of the fortress, and where the imperial court needs to spend, silk cloth is used instead of money dial to.

The purpose of the court doing this is to prevent Lingzhou from plundering the court’s wool. After all, the court is desperately trying to mint about 30 coins a year. The amount of coins minted is too low.

Simply let Shuofang Longyou Hexi area stop importing official money.

What should I do with the money?
Private money or old money, and silk cloth.

In the emperor's secret letter to Wu Huaiyu, there was actually a decree on this matter, which was to ask him to find a way to crack down on the behavior of selling money and casting utensils in Lingzhou Dudufu, and then to improve the quality of privately minted money, and temporarily let privately minted money take over. Official money was circulated outside the Great Wall to make up for the shortage of official money minting.

This decree is of course beneficial to the imperial court.

However, this is undoubtedly a great loss to everyone who has interests in Lingzhou Private Casting.

The profit of selling money castings is [-]%, which is high enough to take risks.

But Wu Huaiyu also knows that Lingyan is now prosperous in industry and commerce. Although it is taking advantage of the Silk Road and border markets, if the imperial court stops importing coins and the local area cannot keep up, then there will be a serious shortage of currency, which will inevitably greatly affect industry and commerce.

Insufficient currency will lead to deflation, but if private casting is too evil, currency depreciation will lead to inflation, which will easily cause market turmoil and confusion.

The emperor hoped that Lingzhou would crack down on the sale of money castings, and replace the insufficient supply of imperial court coins with local coins. At the same time, he also hoped that they could maintain the value of privately minted coins and ensure a certain quality.

In fact, this is also a temporary expedient measure that the court has no choice but to do at the beginning of the founding of the country.

Even if the emperor knew about the problems of private casting and selling money in Lingzhou, he didn't dare to ban it across the board rashly, otherwise there would be endless troubles, and he had to have a proper plan to make a soft landing step by step.

This is a relatively prudent way of governing the country. The emperor also knew that such behavior would cause conflicts among local interest groups, so he gave policies such as liberalizing copper mining.

If Lingzhou can find copper mines, increase mining volume, and obtain more copper materials, it will be able to cast more private money, even if the profit of casting private money may only be 80.00%, which is not as good as selling money casting tools that are several times as profitable , but after all, you can get more profit than before casting money, which can be regarded as a kind of compensation.

"There are copper mines in Lingzhou Dudufu, and there are quite a few, but there is a lack of mining. I think we can invite craftsmen, etc., to attract business and workers, and mine copper mines."

"Then mint coins in copper,"

Wu Huaiyu also said bluntly to Xue Wanche and Doulu Huairang that the imperial court could not always allow Lingzhou to mint money privately, let alone tolerate them selling money to mint coins. In the past five years of Wude, the imperial court has recycled old coins to mint Kaiyuan coins, but the amount of minted coins has remained constant. less.

If the money is sold like this all over the country, then the money from the imperial court will be cast in vain, and it will all be cast privately to make wedding dresses.

In the past, because Lingzhou was on the front line, the court's focus was still on calming the world, and they didn't care about these issues of private casting for a while, and even turned a blind eye on purpose.

But now that Zhenguan is here, it is impossible for the imperial court to tolerate it forever.

Wu Huaiyu still hopes that everyone can face up to these situations as soon as possible, and take advantage of the current opportunity to wash up and go ashore as soon as possible. After mining copper, they can slowly transfer private castings, apply for money supervision, and make official castings.

Minting rights and minting profits were slowly returned to the imperial court, but now those who are interested in private minting can also transfer to copper mining.

Although mining copper may not be as profitable as private casting or casting, at least it is not illegal.

Furthermore, as long as the castings are not sold, it will be legal to mine copper castings at that time, but the profit will not be so high.

Again, some money can earn a vote, but not all the time.

Xue Wanche didn't think that far at all, and just stared at the several times the profit of selling money and casting utensils. The profit of privately casting money is far less than this. Wu Huaiyu's words made him stunned for a while.

"Is the imperial court going to take action?" Xue Wanche was not stupid, and immediately realized it.

"Renchengwang has been in Lingzhou for five years, and now he is Guangluqing in Beijing. The former chief Shi Sima Ke has been dismissed, and many Lingzhou officials have been demoted. Although we have just arrived, we have to learn lessons. We can't wait for the court to come. Go ahead, it's too late then

If we don't want to be decent ourselves, then the imperial court will not give us face.

It’s better to plan ahead. Now, from private casting to mining, although the earning may not be that much, it is legal and safe. "

(End of this chapter)