Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 618 All-round Domination

Fang Zhongyong sat in front of the table, just like a statue in the Sanqing Temple. Well, for Li Zhen, the other party was a statue that he could make a wish for.

But there is no guarantee that your wish will come true, and it is very likely that your wish will be in vain.

"Marshal, as long as you support me, the crown prince will be a matter of a word."

Li Zhenfu knelt on the ground and said while suppressing his inner excitement.

Indeed, as long as Fang Zhongyong fully supports whichever prince, that prince will rightfully become the crown prince, without any doubt.

But, what's the cost?

Fang Zhongyong looks like a statue of a god making a wish, but he is not a statue of a god, but a living person. Since he is a human being, he has seven emotions and six desires.

Moreover, even the statues of gods need to be worshipped with incense and offerings. How could Li Zhen not offer anything and expect the other party to recommend him as the crown prince?

"Your Highness, interfering with the establishment of a crown prince is not what a subject should do. There is not much I can do about this matter."

Fang Chongyong said with a serious face, this was already a clear rejection of Li Zhen.

He won't release the eagle until he sees the rabbit!

"General, as long as you recommend me as the crown prince, I can give you anything in the future!"

Li Zhen was a little anxious, and spoke without thinking. He knelt on the ground and refused to get up.

Li Zhen came here quietly tonight. If Li Lin knew about this, he would be in great pain if he didn't die.

But it was precisely because Li Zhen knew that he could not compete with his two brothers that he came here to "pray to the gods". If he did not use his ultimate skills, he would not be able to win, so it was obviously appropriate to pull in foreign aid.

After all, among Li Lin's descendants, only Li Zhen stayed in Bianzhou as a "military supervisor".

He who is close to the water gets the moon first. After learning the content of today's court meeting, Li Zhen rushed to the government office and pleaded with Fang Chongyong.

"Your Highness, please be careful with your words. You said you can give me anything in the future. If I want the throne you sit on, will you give it to me?"

Fang Zhongyong asked coldly.

Li Zhen was speechless. If Fang Chongyong asked for the throne, he would be forcing him to abdicate.

How can this be done?
If that day really comes, I would rather not be a puppet emperor!

"I have spoken carelessly, please forgive me, Marshal. I will take my leave now, goodbye."

Li Zhen left the study room of the Bianzhou government office with an embarrassed look on his face, looking extremely miserable.

After he left, Fang Zhongyong finally showed a leisurely attitude and crossed his legs. The anger on his face just now had long disappeared.

Da Zhenhui came out from behind the screen, looked at Fang Zhongyong's nonchalant look, and asked in confusion: "Why does Li Zhen think that A Lang will support him as the crown prince?"

Even a woman like her knows the basic principles of exchange of interests.

Why did Li Zhen dare to “get something for nothing”?

Or, are you just trying your luck?

“They still don’t understand one thing.”

Fang Zhongyong let Da Zhenhui sit on his lap.

"These emperors and nobles always have an innate sense of superiority. They always think that it is right for others to praise them because they have the so-called righteousness in their hands.

You can make ridiculous promises and make unrealistic promises.

I don’t care whether these things are possible or not.”

Hearing this, Da Zhenhui's pretty face turned slightly red, thinking that Fang Zhongyong was talking about her.

After all, she was also a noble of the Bohai Kingdom.

"Li Zhen and the others just don't understand. If I kill him, I can take those things myself. Why should I ask for his opinion?"

Hearing this, Da Zhenhui felt a surge of domineering aura coming towards her, making her heart tremble slightly.

Power and strong men, troubled times are their stage. This is an era of smashing old rules and establishing new authority.

And this kind of man can often provide a good support for women.

"Ah Lang, are you free tomorrow? Accompany me to visit the large textile workshop outside Kaifeng County. There is a kind of textile machine that I have never seen before."

Now the two of them were sitting in an intimate posture, almost hugging each other.

Da Zhenhui was really afraid that Fang Chongyong would put his hand inside her clothes and touch her, so she quickly changed the subject.

"A loom? What kind of loom?"

Fang Chongyong immediately became interested and no longer cared about doing anything dirty to Da Zhenhui.

"It's the kind that's very tall and requires people to climb up to operate it.

Usually the children are on top while the mothers are busy at the bottom. "

Da Zhenhui stood up, tiptoed, raised her hand and made an exaggerated gesture.

"high?"

As far as Fang Chongyong could remember, he had never seen such tall textile machinery, but it didn't hurt to take a look.

Da Zhenhui heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly served him tea. After the tea, she quickly packed up the tea set and left the study. She was afraid of being caught by Fang Zhongyong, so she kissed him endlessly, making it difficult for him to stand.

After Da Zhenhui left, Fang Zhongyong's brows furrowed as he remembered something bad.

What Li Lin and others did was nothing more than a joke. Just laugh it off.

What are truly difficult are the “small things” that concern people’s livelihood.

From the early Tang Dynasty to the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the silk textile industry, mainly in Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou and Chengdu, developed extremely rapidly!

Not only are there more and more textile machines, but various advanced equipment are also emerging one after another, and the social division of labor is also beginning to rapidly refine.

There are at least five or six sub-processes, and each process is even further divided into smaller sub-processes.

The overall unit time productivity of the silk industry has increased by dozens of times.

Therefore, when the time came to the end of Kaiyuan and the beginning of Tianbao, the price of silk had already dropped, the price of silk cocoons had risen, and the profit margin of the textile industry had plummeted. Not to mention that due to the existence of rent and labor service, there was still a lot of silk that needed to be woven at home, which further increased the consumption of raw materials.

However, the existence of the Silk Road and the export of silk made silk easy to sell, which alleviated this trend to a certain extent.

But the situation today is different from that during the Tianbao period.

The textile industry is slowly recovering, but the number of silk cocoons has not increased accordingly. The number of silk cocoons increases in proportion to the area of ​​mulberry trees. The more mulberry trees there are, the more silk cocoons there are.

Nowadays, due to the limitation of arable land, the number of mulberry trees can no longer be increased in large numbers, while the textile industry is still constantly improving weaving efficiency. This leads to the supply of raw materials being far less than the demand, and thus inverted profits.

The society can still provide more labor to weave cloth, but there is not enough raw material to supply them! This in turn leads to the shrinking scale of the textile industry.

This issue will not cause any major problems in the short term, after all, the industry has a certain degree of self-regulation ability.

But if this continues for a long time, it will hinder the country's economic development and cause various social conflicts.

Can't just leave it there.

In ancient times, textiles were the largest and most abundant handicraft products. If the textile industry could not develop, the country would not be prosperous.

“It’s time to plant cotton on a large scale and promote cotton spinning on a large scale.”

Fang Chongyong fell into deep thought, wondering whether he should use a big move.

Wei Zheng, the prime minister during the Zhenguan period, once recorded in the "Henan Prefecture Records": "Today, most of the cloth collected in the country that is not fully used to make cotton cloth is bought from Duiyueyihou (now India)."

Cotton and cotton textile industry were once promoted in the Central Plains in the early Tang Dynasty. However, due to various reasons, such as the profit margin of cotton textile industry was far lower than that of silk textile industry at that time and the textile technology was not as mature as that of linen, it was not widely promoted.

But the cloth yield of cotton is much better than that of mulberry silk!
How big is the advantage?

If we ignore the fact that mulberry trees also produce edible mulberries, then the weight of the cotton cloth and silk produced from the same area of ​​Gaochang cotton and mulberry trees would differ by more than ten times!

A crushing defeat of orders of magnitude!

If we only look at it from the perspective of the scale of raw materials and finished products, growing cotton has a much greater impact on people's livelihood than growing mulberry trees. As long as the water and soil are suitable, growing cotton is a natural thing to do.

The mulberry leaves produced by an acre of mulberry field are used to feed silkworms to produce silk, and finally undergo a series of processing to become silk, which has a trading value that is definitely higher than cotton cloth woven from cotton.

But silk can only serve the rich, the poor cannot afford to wear it.

Cotton cloth can be promoted among the people and further benefit a wider range of people. “The technology for growing cotton exists, but cotton weaving is still too crude compared to silk weaving, which is one of the main reasons why cotton cloth is unpopular.

Should we introduce some cotton spinning technology from the South?"

Fang Zhongyong tapped the table with his index finger and thought of another thing.

With Lingnan as the core, a textile technology called "kapok weaving" is popular. If people can be sent to introduce it to the Central Plains, and then improve and promote it on this basis, it can be adapted to Gaochang grass cotton.

Then it can be promoted. At least it is much simpler than changing the silk weaving industry to the cotton spinning industry!
"It seems that we need to ask Che Guangqian to send someone to Guangzhou to inquire."

Fang Chongyong had already made up his mind.

What people care about are nothing more than food, clothing, housing and transportation, and clothing ranks first!

In terms of grain, canals were diverted for irrigation, water conservancy projects were built, and the area of ​​arable land was expanded.

In terms of clothing, we should promote straw cotton and improve cotton spinning technology. At the same time, we should not relax the silk weaving industry.

Fang Chongyong secretly thought in his heart that having clothes and food is not enough, he also needs a knife in his hand!

"The stockpile of weapons will eventually be used up, so we must build a national-level workshop.

A large workshop that produces everything from arrows to armor, in addition to gunpowder and kerosene."

"There is food stored at home, clothes on the back, and a knife in the hand.

This way, I won’t be afraid of anyone.”

Fang Zhongyong muttered to himself, with a cold light flashing in his eyes.

The Tang Dynasty is beyond salvation, so there is no need to keep its inherent economic model. If it is useful, use it; if it is not useful, dismantle it. There is nothing wrong with that.

In the past, the Tang Dynasty relied too much on silk as currency, which invisibly weakened the country's economic strength. Now that the great cause has just been established, it is a good time to put things right and change this situation.

As for Li Lin and his gang of insects who are still thinking about fighting for power and profit, Fang Chongyong doesn't know how to evaluate them.

Do not participate in political affairs, military affairs, or any construction process related to them.

How can they possibly control power?
Seeing the jumping up and down performances of Li Zhen and others, Fang Zhongyong had almost no psychological fluctuations except for a sneer.

How can we do politics well with these insects? Let them go to hell!
……

Inside the emperor's palace in Chenliu County, although it was already late, Li Lin was still restless and paced back and forth in the yard.

He sighed three times for every step he took, as if he had accumulated tremendous suffering and had no place to vent it.

"Your Majesty, it's very cold outside, you should go into the study and rest."

Gao Shang, who was following behind Li Lin, suggested in a low voice.

"I don't know what to do."

Li Lin turned around, looked at Gao Shang with some reproach, and asked, "Why didn't you interrupt Fang Qing at that time?"

Upon hearing this, Gao Shang was stunned on the spot!

He never expected that Li Lin would be so childish.

Gao Shang was a eunuch, even if he was a eunuch close to the emperor. How could he talk about government affairs during a court meeting?
Apart from the Ten Eunuchs in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, was there any other eunuch who interfered in government affairs, especially the dethronement and enthronement of the crown prince, during court meetings?

Not to mention, Li Lin was still a puppet emperor!
If Gao Shang dared to speak at that time, Fang Zhongyong would have beheaded him on the spot in front of all the ministers!

Outsiders can't say anything.

You are just a eunuch. We, the civil and military officials, have no right to have a say when we discuss the appointment of the crown prince!

You deserve to die!

"Your Majesty, I really couldn't speak at that time. I was just a eunuch."

Gao Shang sighed helplessly.

"That's all."

Li Lin waved his hands impatiently.

"Fang Qing proposed to establish a crown prince. What do you think?"

Li Lin asked with a sigh, still with his back to Gao Shang.

"Your Majesty, this is an open conspiracy with no solution. Now we don't need to ask whether to appoint a crown prince, we just need to consider who to appoint as the crown prince."

Gao Shang suggested cautiously.

I have to say, what he said makes a lot of sense.

Is it necessary for their newly established regime to establish a crown prince?

Yes!
Will it be supported by the vast majority of bureaucrats?
Also!

The current situation is that Li Lin is fighting against the general trend. Even the people of Zheng family in Xingyang dare not speak for him, even though this is very disadvantageous to Concubine Zheng who has just entered the harem!

"Do we really need to decide on the candidate for the crown prince in three days?"

Li Lin asked helplessly.

He turned around and looked at Gao Shang, only to see that this eunuch, who was always resourceful, also nodded heavily.

Those who are in the right way will have many supporters, while those who are in the wrong way will have few. In the current situation, establishing a crown prince is the so-called "right way".

But establishing a crown prince would mean that Fang Zhongyong would have an extra rope around Li Lin's neck.

This matter is really too bad.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the trend cannot be violated."

Gao Shang thought for a long time but couldn't figure out how to ease the current situation, so he had to tell the truth.

“I thought before that Fang Qing was planning to make a fuss about Hou Mochen becoming the queen.

I didn't expect that this was just a feint.

Prince! Why didn't I think that he was forcing me to appoint a prince? "

Li Lin regretted it deeply, he hated himself for not seeing Fang Qing's trick. But this trick was an open conspiracy.

Even an emperor with real power like Ji Ge back then was unable to resist the trend of establishing a crown prince. How could Li Lin stop it now?

"Who do you think is best to be the crown prince?"

Li Lin asked in a deep voice, staring at Gao Shang with burning eyes.

Since it is imperative to appoint a crown prince, the only option is to choose the lesser of two evils and select a crown prince who poses less of a threat to oneself.

"The eldest son Li Wei is not an option. He has a legitimate status and is older. If he were the crown prince, Fang Qing could easily persuade His Majesty to become the emperor."

Gao Shang shook his head and said.

Li Qi knew some military affairs, and he was also the oldest and the eldest son before Li Lin ascended the throne.

He deserves to be the crown prince.

But here's the problem.

If Li Wei became the crown prince, it would mean that even if Fang Zhongyong promoted him to the position of crown prince, it would not cause any disturbance. In other words, this would make Li Lin seem a bit redundant!
Precisely because Li Wei was too suitable to be the crown prince, he was the least suitable to be a puppet crown prince when Li Lin was the puppet emperor!
Li Lin couldn't help but sigh that if there was anyone who could compete with Fang Chongyong in the power struggle, Gao Shang might be one of the few.

"Who would be better as the crown prince?"

Li Lin asked impatiently.

"The second son, Li Huan, and his ex-wife, Yuwen, were forced by Fang Qing to remarry one of his subordinates.

Li Xuan and Fang Qing had a deep hatred for each other. Moreover, he had recently married a widow from the Zheng family in Xingyang.

No one could be more suitable than him.”

Gao Shang came over and suggested in a low voice.

"Yes, I think so too."

Li Lin nodded slightly and finally a smile appeared on his face.

(End of this chapter)