Late Tang

After a rain, the temperature gradually rose again, the sun was still shining brightly, and the heat was unbearable.Li Jing originally planned to take advantage of this rain to plant a season of soybeans, but had no choice but to stop.Fortunately, with the 40 whales sent by the Dragon King just now, the whale meat was exchanged for [-] shi of grain.

Li Jing exchanged a lot of food with other things, so he doesn't have to worry about food for the time being.But not everything went well, the military supervisor Zhang Chengye went to the capital and just returned, this time he personally escorted a batch of gifts that Li Jing gave to the emperor.The main gift was a piece of two hundred catties of ambergris, the skeleton of the largest whale, and the giant squid weighing three thousand catties and six feet long.In addition, there are some canned food of various colors, as well as Wuliangye liquor and various fruit wines, plus a touch of silk.

Along the way, they gave Song Wei and Cui Yunqing from Qingzhou a gift each, a whale skeleton, some ambergris, various canned food, white wine and fruit wine, and silk.

Song Wei and Cui Yunqing also heard some rumors about Dengzhou, and carefully asked Zhang Chengye to ask about some specific situations.When he came back, he asked Zhang Chengye to bring Li Jing a lot of gifts in return.In addition, Li Jing was also told that Wang Jingwu had withdrawn into Qizhou and Zizhou had been recovered. Now Song Wen was transferred to be the governor of Zizhou. Then he returned to Qingzhou.

In the letter, Song Wei appreciated Li Jing's practice of using work for relief in Dengzhou.It is said that Dengzhou is a very important state in Ziqing Town, and it is also an important port in the north of Datang. Li Jing has contributed a lot to ensuring stability.As for Li Jing's forced acceptance of Dengzhou, Song Wei didn't mention anything.The two have now become adoptive father and son, and he no longer mentions the little friction in the past.

Cui Yunqing said a little more in the letter, but the most talked about was the many chaos that broke out because of the famine.Among them, Yicheng Jiedu made the uprising of Wang Xianzhi, a salt dealer in Puzhou, and Monk Junchang in Changyuan County, Huazhou below, break through Changheng County.However, he mentioned this matter mainly because that Lord Shang was once arrested by Li Jing and sent to Dengzhou.Cui Yunqing didn't really take these "little thieves and bandits" seriously.

The most troublesome thing for him now is the matter in Ziqing Town's own territory, although Zizhou has just been recovered.But in fact, the truth of the matter is that Wang Jingwu retreated on his own initiative. When Wang Jingwu withdrew, he took away all the rich families from the Zizhou border office, and took away all the grain in Zizhou.When I left, I didn't forget to set a fire.Now Zizhou, which Kang Chenghui has recovered, is just a ruined city that has been devastated by the flames of war.

Waiting for Song Wen, the new governor, are hundreds of thousands of displaced and hungry people.Cui Yunqing's life in Qingzhou is also difficult. The granary in Qingzhou was also burned by Wang Jingwu last time. Now it is impossible to harvest the grain below, and it is barely supported by borrowing grain from the major families.Seeing that the time for summer planting is about to be missed, this autumn will be another year of no harvest.Now Cui Yunqing is dying in a hurry and doesn't know what to do.

Although he didn't say much between the lines, Li Jing could tell that Cui Yunqing wanted Li Jing to provide some food to support Qingzhou and Zizhou.Li Jing reckoned that Song Wei must have the same idea, but although the two were righteous father and son, some words were not as appropriate as Cui Yunqing, a teacher, said to him.

"Marshal Song didn't ask me to lead troops to attack Wang Jingwu?" Li Jing was a little surprised. Song Wei didn't mention this matter, and Cui Yunqing didn't mention it either.

Zhang Chengye's face was still a little tired, "Maybe they think that Wang Jingwu has retreated to Qizhou now, and it may not be long. They may be afraid that you will steal the credit. Previously, Wang Jingwu lost successive battles under our hands, but the Pinglu Army On the contrary, he won a few battles in a row. I think the commander-in-chief must feel very shameless. Now that Song Wen's Dengzhou soldiers are passing by, and Wang Jingwu just abandoned Zizhou, they must think that they are enough. Let us go, doesn't that mean they are useless?"

"I want to save face and suffer!" Li Jing snorted softly. These people only care about face, but they don't want to delay it any longer. The slower this matter subsides, not only will they lose face, but it will also consume their strength.Not to mention anything else, the consumption of food and grass is a huge number when fighting outside.But for such a thing, if Song Wei didn't ask him to send troops, it would be absolutely unreasonable for Li Jing to send troops on his own initiative.

The chaos here in Qingzhou was better, but what made Li Jing a little angry was the news that Zhang Chengye brought back from Chang'an.

"Your Majesty was very happy and satisfied with the items sent by the general, especially the whale skeleton and the frozen [-]-jin squid. The emperor put the whale skeleton on Suzaku Avenue for people to participate in. There are countless people onlookers every day, and everyone knows that this whale was sent by us in Dengzhou. According to Staff Officer Li’s words, when I was in Beijing, I arranged some smart people to tell the onlookers next to the skeleton that the general borrowed rain from the Dragon King. And the five hundred giant fish bestowed by the Dragon King, and the matter of the general pulling people before the gate of hell. The general doesn't know, but now in the entire Chang'an city, no one knows Li Jing in Dengzhou. They all say that the general is an important minister of the emperor. Messenger. Some people say that the general descended from the stars in the sky!"

Giant squids and whale skeletons made the emperor happy, and the ambergris and perfume, liquor, fruit wine, and canned whales also made the nobles in the palace happy.The ministers of the other courts also received gifts from Li Jing, so the next day the young emperor issued a decree from the palace, especially Jin made Li Jing the Duke of Zhendong County, directly surpassing the County Duke and becoming the Duke of the County.He also rewarded Li Jing with some royal objects in the palace, which can be regarded as a great gift from heaven.

Li Jing was naturally happy when Jin granted the Duke of Zhendong. After all, the Duke was from the second rank, and Li Jing stepped from the third rank to the second rank. This is a very high threshold.

It was the eunuch Tian Lingzi who made Li Jing angry. Li Jing thought he was very kind to this eunuch at the beginning, and every time he sent gifts to the capital, except for the emperor, he was the one who gave the most.But just because the emperor once said that he would bring the Zhendong army into Beijing, the eunuch regarded him as an enemy from then on.The last time I dug a hole, I got Li Jing a position as Liaohai salt and iron transfer envoy and money casting envoy. If these two officials were given to Li Jing, Li Jing would have to give the court 300 million yuan a year.

Li Jing endured it, this time when Zhang Chengye came to Beijing, Li Jing prepared many gifts for Tian Lingzi, hoping to repair the relationship between the two.But who knows, there is no benefit at all in exchange.This dead eunuch accepted the gift here, turned around and ran to the emperor to speak ill of him, and finally asked the emperor to agree that it was halfway through this year, and asked Li Jing to send the 300 million yuan to the capital for storage before the Mid-Autumn Festival .

The official appointment he just received in May, and he is only one year old now, requires him to hand over 300 million yuan. This insidiousness can no longer be described as shameless.

Li Jing had the money in his hand, but he didn't intend to just let Tian Lingzi pinch and rub it round.

"Your Majesty should not agree to Tian Lingzi's unreasonable request." Zhang Chengye was a little disappointed with the emperor's performance this time. He was truly sincere to the emperor, but the emperor casually listened to Tian Lingzi's words and asked Li Jing to hand over 300 million guan. Let the courtiers chill.

"Your Majesty, we think it's better not to go head-to-head with Tian Lingzi on this matter." Zhang Chengye is also good to Li Jing. In his opinion, although Li Jing is a bit authoritarian, he is loyal to the court and the emperor, and good to the people. , is a capable minister.Worried that Li Jing would suffer a loss if he directly confronted Tian Lingzi when he was angry. Although Li Jing was liked by the emperor, he was far away in Dengzhou after all, and Tian Lingzi was the father of the emperor, and he controlled the court.

On the same day, Li Jing summoned Li Zhen, Li Liang, Lin Wei, Wang Zhong, Zhang Hong and other confidantes to discuss matters.

"How is the salt produced in the saltworks?"

Du Zhongwu looked at the account book and replied: "Including the original Nantuozi Salt Factory, we now have ten salt factories with a total of 30 mu of salt fields. We can produce a phase of salt every twelve days. The first phase can produce 1 shi of salt, and it can produce nearly one million shi of salt a month. The ten salt factories now have more than 150 workers. At present, the nine new salt factories have produced the fourth phase of salt. We still have [-] million halite of salt stored in the Tuozi Salt Factory, and we only sold a small part of it before, which was not included in the calculation.”

The official salt of the imperial court was collected from the salt households for ten renminbi a bucket, and then sold to the common people at an additional price of [-] renminbi, with a profit of [-] renminbi in the middle.However, although the profit is high, it also attracts many people to take risks and sell private salt, which greatly impacts the sale of official salt.

Now Li Jing has the official position of salt and iron transfer envoy, and is responsible for the acquisition and sale of official salt in Liaodong and Ziqing Town.However, Li Jing has his own salt production channels and does not need to buy from the people.But with such a small amount of land, if you want to earn 300 million yuan a year, it will be very difficult.

From the very beginning, Tian Lingzi deliberately made things difficult for Li Jing.

A bucket of salt for ten coins is a small bucket, that is, a bucket of 5.5 catties, and a stone has 21 buckets.If one bucket earns one hundred wen, Li Jing has to sell 150 million rock salt to earn this figure.The salt factory can dry ten phases of salt a year and produce 300 million halite a year.If Li Jing really sold it at 150 ren per bucket of salt, he could still earn half of it in a year.

But Li Jing didn't intend to sell it like this. If he really wanted to sell it like this, most of the people in Liaodong and Ziqing towns couldn't afford salt, and the reputation he had accumulated so hard would be gone.

"Our salt retails at [-] Wen per bucket, wholesales at [-] Guan and sells it to the local people in Qingzhou and Liaodong. If it is a salt merchant from other places, it costs [-] Wen per bucket, and each stone is calculated at half a Guan." Li Jing After thinking about it, he decided.

"But in this way, the salt in our saltworks is only 300 million tons a year, and we still have more than 1 workers. If this is the case, won't we all work for nothing?"

"Of course it won't be done in vain. The rotation of salt and iron is not just about salt. The minerals in Liaodong and Ziqing towns are all under my jurisdiction. In addition, tea is also under my control. By the way, we can also cast iron. Money." Of course, Li Jing will not let himself suffer, put the 300 million thing aside for now, even if he doesn't plan to make money from the salt fields for the time being, but there are still tea and minerals that can make money, and these can also make money for a sum.

(To be continued)