Soldiers come to the world

The Tao family has completely withdrawn from the original market since the year before last. Tao Sheng personally went to Lingzhou to purchase [-] hectares of land, and recruited thousands of Han farmers from Guan to reclaim and cultivate it under favorable conditions. The big clans in Lingzhou and Guanlong also bought land to cultivate in Lingzhou. While making profits, they also helped the government restore the old prosperity of the Pearl of the Great Wall under the Han Dynasty as soon as possible.

However, the Tao family did not farm land in Lingzhou for profit, and the grain they harvested was prepared to be handed over to the government free of charge. The Tao family was more interested in gaining political capital. In the first year alone, the Tao family lost [-] million yuan in Lingzhou.

The huge loss of Lingzhou must be made up by other aspects. Under Liu Jing's suggestion, the Tao family started the Western Region trade, and used the huge profits from the Western Region trade to make up for Lingzhou's loss.

As compensation for the Tao family's donation of capital land, Liu Jing gave the Tao family thousands of camels captured from the Huns, and established the Tao family's first western region caravan.

More than a year has passed, and the Tao family has traveled to and from the Western Regions many times, and established a warehouse in Dunhuang County. They transported a large number of Western goods to Yuan, and shipped Yuan's porcelain and silk to the West, earning huge profits from it.

"I heard that Second Uncle just came back from Dawan, this time he can go a long way!"

Tao Li said with a smile: "This trip to Dawan is mainly to explore the road and find the purchase channel. It is also the farthest time I have traveled west in my life."

"Is Dawan Kingdom still alive?"

"The Dawan Kingdom is still there. It used to be under the jurisdiction of the Protectorate of the Western Regions of the Great Han Dynasty. However, after the abolition of the Protectorate of the Western Regions in the first year of Yongchu, the Dawan Kingdom was defeated by the Yuezhi people and surrendered to the Guishuang Kingdom. Along the way, you can see the Great Han Unfortunately, the beacon towers and fortresses that were once established have all been abandoned.”

Liu Jing nodded silently, "One day, I will restore the Protectorate of the Western Regions and restore the glory of the Han Dynasty."

"Hopefully I live to see that day."

Tao Li said with a smile: "I went to Dawan this time, and I wanted to buy Dawan stallions, but Dawan didn't sell stallions at all, and the inspection was very strict. Later, I got three stallions through several Sogdian merchants. Hundreds of blood-sweat stallions, I plan to use them as seeds to breed horses in Longxi."

Liu Jing was overjoyed, "Where is the stallion now?"

"At the Longxi County Racecourse, there are a total of [-] horses."

Liu Jing frowned, "Didn't Second Uncle just say that he bought [-] horses?"

Tao Li didn't say a word, and after a while he sighed and said, "One hundred more horses were intercepted by the horse commander in Hexi."

"Ma Chao?"

Tao Li nodded, and said in a low voice: "Your Highness, I don't know if I should say something. It is related to Ma Dudu. If Your Highness doesn't want to hear it, I won't say it."

Liu Jing had a bad feeling in his heart, and said in a deep voice, "Second Uncle, just speak up!"

"I suggest that Your Highness transfer Ma Chao away as soon as possible! If he stays in Hexi, something will happen sooner or later."

"Second Uncle said in detail, I have actually heard all about it."

"Your Highness may not know that the Hexi Qiang people bought a large amount of weapons and armor from the Guishuang Kingdom last year, and several horse bandits appeared in the Hexi Corridor, all of them were Qiang and Di people, and they robbed passing merchants. To cross Hexi safely, you must first pay a large amount of protection fees in Suzhou, which caused the businessmen’s profits to be greatly reduced, and complaints abound.”

Although Tao Li didn't say it explicitly, he alluded to Ma Chao's connivance with the Qiang and Di people. Zhao Yun also said this at the beginning, and now Tao Li mentioned it again, which must mean that the problem is getting worse.

In fact, when Liu Jing was in Hefei, he also received an ultimatum from Chang'an. Among them, the Hexi government accused Ma Chao of protecting the Qiang people, which caused the conflict between Qiang and Han in Hexi to be very sharp. Longxi.

It's just that the Han army fought against Cao Jun with the power of the whole country in Hefei, and was unable to look around, so they could only appease Ma Chao and try not to touch his interests.

If Ma Chao collected protection fees from businessmen in order to make money, Liu Jing might be able to tolerate it, but Tao Li mentioned that the Qiang people secretly purchased armor from Guishuang Kingdom, which made Liu Jing have to be vigilant.

Once Ma Chao became self-reliant in Hexi, the problem would become serious. Liu Jing secretly thought: "It seems that the Hexi crisis cannot be dragged on indefinitely, and must be resolved as soon as possible." '

. . . . . . . . .

Sun Shangxiang looked at a few more swords and stopped looking at them. The reason is very simple. These top-quality swords are treasures of the store and are not for sale.

Sun Shangxiang pushed away the sword and got up to leave. Although the shop owner Shi Lin was unwilling to sell the treasured sword, he did not want to offend the second concubine of the King of Han. If His Royal Highness was offended, he would not want to do business in Chang'an.

Shi Lin took out a dagger that had been treasured for many years and was also made of Utz steel, and gave it to Sun Shangxiang. In Shi Lin's words, he would not sell this kind of sword, but only give it to people who really understand swords, which made Sun Shangxiang very happy. Huanxi, took the sword and left.

At this time, the carriage was still in the business house, but luckily the business house was not far away, and the tall building could be seen from a distance, so Sun Shangxiang simply walked away and took a stroll around the market.

Although Sun Shangxiang has realized that she can't interfere with her husband's military and state affairs, she had better not ask about Jiangdong's affairs, otherwise, instead of solving the Jiangdong issue, it will affect the relationship between husband and wife. She can only say something when her husband asks herself. Speaking of this matter, let alone make a face to her husband and ignore it.

Having said that, when she thinks that Jiangdong is about to fall, and the foundation established by her father and brother is about to perish, she still feels unspeakably uncomfortable. As the daughter of the Sun family, it is impossible for her to face Jiangdong's crisis and remain indifferent. Jiangdong was destroyed, but she didn't know how to intercede with her husband. This deep pain weighed on her heart, which made her feel hard to solve.

Sun Shangxiang was full of worries along the way, and most of the passers-by didn't know her. Seeing that she was beautiful, several street ruffians in the market wanted to go up to her to tease her, but they saw her four tall and burly followers with swords behind her, and they were too scared to provoke her. Peep from afar.

After walking thirty or so steps, Sun Shangxiang suddenly heard someone yelling loudly: "First-class Soochow lacquerware, if you miss it, you won't have it."

The voice clearly had a strong Jiangdong accent. Sun Shangxiang was pleasantly surprised when he heard the local accent. Looking back, he saw a small shop on the corner of the street. There is a knotted bamboo lamp, painted black and shiny, it is the famous Soochow lacquerware.

Seeing the goods from her hometown made her feel more happy than the sword shop. She hurried over and saw that the shop was very small, less than a foot wide and about two feet long. It was cut off from the grocery store next door. They are a young couple, both of them are quite handsome and have the temperament of Jiangnan people.

It can be seen that their business is not very good, no one patronizes, the husband and wife are dressed in simple clothes, and they can barely make ends meet when they open this shop. Seeing that Sun Shangxiang paid attention to his small shop, the man quickly smiled and said: "My sister, come in and have a look." , the lacquerware sold in the small shop are all authentic Soochow lacquerware, which is the only one in Chang’an.”

When Sun Shangxiang walked into the small shop, the woman greeted her, and said with a smile, "Sister, choose whatever you want!"

Sun Shangxiang glanced at her and asked with a smile, "Are you from Wu County?"

She spoke the dialect of her hometown. The husband and wife looked at each other and smiled immediately; "It turns out that my sister is also from the same hometown, and we are from Wucheng County."

Sun Shangxiang nodded. No wonder they didn't know her. It turned out that they were from Wucheng County, but Wucheng County also belonged to Wu County. She lived there for a while when she was a child, and Wucheng County left a good impression on her.

"My ancestral home is Fuchun County, but I grew up in Wu County, and I have also been to Wucheng County. The water chestnut there is sweeter than the one in Wu County, so our hometown calls the water chestnut in Wucheng and the lotus root in Wu County."

The woman smiled and said, "Sister is right, but people in Wucheng say that the lotus root in Wu County is not crisp enough, and people in Wu County say that the water chestnut in Wucheng is not sweet."

Hearing this teasing vernacular, Sun Shangxiang's laughter echoed in the small shop like a silver bell, and she suddenly felt better, and said: "I have been in Chang'an for several years, and this is the first time I have met someone from my hometown. When did you come to Chang'an?" of?"

"We came here at the beginning of last year to make a living, but there are many Jiangdong people in Chang'an, have you never met my sister?"

"I seldom go out. Are there many Jiangdong people in Chang'an?"

The young man smiled and said at the door: "There are at least tens of thousands of people, not necessarily in Chang'an, but scattered all over Guan. There are thousands of people in Wucheng County alone."

Sun Shangxiang nodded, and asked strangely: "Why are they all running out, isn't my hometown bad?"

The woman sighed lowly, "Leaving home is as cheap as a dog, if it is not really hard to survive, who would leave home?"

"Why?" Sun Shangxiang asked, "Why can't you survive?"

The man said at the door: "It seems that my eldest sister seldom contacts with her hometown. The taxes in Jiangdong are too heavy, and the government imposes tyranny. My family has been in the business of lacquerware for generations. More than half of the monthly income has to pay commercial tax, as well as poll tax, ship tax, and western levies. For taxes, young and strong men have to go to the army, and if they don’t join the army, they will serve corvee. Who can bear it for three months and one month? Follow my uncle to Chang'an to make a living."

"Don't Marquis Wu care about these things?" Sun Shangxiang said angrily.

The man sneered, "Sister, you must be joking! If Marquis Wu really didn't care, we wouldn't have fled our hometown. It's just that he controls too much, controls too hard, asks for money and food, arrests Ding Congjun everywhere, my brother three People, the eldest brother and the second brother both died in battle, leaving orphans and widows behind. In the end, the eldest sister-in-law died of poverty and illness, and the second sister-in-law disappeared with the child. Of course, the elder sister did not know that he was not in Jiangdong. People in Jiangdong call him Sun Jackal, I can't wait to eat his meat and sleep on his skin, if the Han army attacks Jiangdong, I will be the first to enlist in the army and go back to my hometown."

Sun Shangxiang didn't know how she left the small shop. Her heart was empty and full of loss. She never imagined that Jiangdong would become hell.

She remembered what the young man said again, "Jiangdong people call him Jackal Sun, and they want to eat his meat and sleep on his skin. If the Han army attacks Jiangdong, I will be the first to enlist in the army and go back to my hometown!" '

Thinking of these words, all kinds of feelings flooded into her heart, and Sun Shangxiang couldn't help sighing, if her brother is really so heartless, why would such a Jiangdong protect him?

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