Northern Dynasties

Lu Tong and Changsun Jian stayed in Jingzhou for more than ten days, learned about Li Tai's plan and what was going on in this township, and inspected it before returning to Huazhou to report.

Yu Wentai sent these two people to Jingzhou. His attitude was based on inquiry and confirmation, and he did not set any insurmountable rules for Li Tai. It can be seen that he still trusts and looks forward to Li Tai, hoping that he can create his own in Jingzhou. The bright future depicted.

After Li Tai tried out the degree of freedom given to him by Daxingtai, he was also determined in his heart. As long as there was no one to restrain him in doing things, he would be able to ensure that he was in the best state to meet the next turmoil.

In terms of internal affairs, the line is fixed. Like an experienced hunter, Li Tai does not blindly rush for success and mess up his pace, but still promotes the development of various things step by step.As for foreign affairs, soon there was a new look.

In late October, a group of envoys from Xiangyang arrived in Rangcheng, led by a former acquaintance Cai Dabao.

For Cai Dabao's arrival, Li Tai also warmly welcomed him, and immediately informed his old man Li Xiao.

Li Xiao was even more excited about Cai Dabao's arrival. After hearing the news, he returned to the state capital from the construction site of the state school in the city. After exchanging warm greetings with Cai Dabao, he invited him to enjoy the state school planned by him site.

Cai Dabao is difficult but kind, and Li Tai can also understand that as a northerner, he is eager to promote the culture and education of the Northern Dynasty in front of the southerners. If this cultural and educational undertaking is built by himself, it will naturally be even more important. Proud, so Li Tai got up and went with him.

"Jingzhou has no state school for a long time, and it is difficult to ask scholars where to visit. After entering the country, Bo Shan felt this, so he set up a school in the city. The building here is still under construction, and it will be ready next year. Completed, accepting scholars from states and counties..."

On the construction site, only a circle of foundations has just been laid, and the so-called halls have not yet seen the framework, but Li Xiao still enthusiastically guides Cai Dabao to walk along, introducing to him the various areas divided by the state school, with a clear expression in his eyes. It is anticipation and pride.In his opinion, Neng Xing's culture and education in one place is even more glorious than the previous Li Tai led the army to occupy Fancheng and point his sword at Xiangyang.

After Cai Dabao heard the words, he also nodded and praised repeatedly, and said that if necessary, he would recommend a few doctors from Xiangyang to teach scriptures here, of course, the premise is that they are willing to come to Mianbei.

For Mianbei's attractiveness in the future, Li Tai is naturally full of confidence, as for now, that's the case.If he hadn't been serving as the governor of Jingzhou, maybe he would not have come here.When Cai Dabao said that, of course he was just being polite, but Li Tai believed that he would soon make it a reality.

The area of ​​this state school is not small, but because there are not many buildings, the tour will be completed soon.

Li Tai took the opportunity to lead Cai Dabao to the street next to him, pointed to the same construction site and said with a smile to Cai Dabao: "I told Cai Canjun to build a luxurious building in the city to shelter the poor, and now the building has already begun , when this building is completed, I will write a letter to Xiangyang, asking Cai Canjun to visit this place again to appreciate it!"

"This, this building is actually... Shi Jun really believes in people!"

After Cai Dabao heard this, his face lit up immediately, and he saluted him again and sighed.

Li Tai led Cai Dabao to the open space on the side of the construction site, where a wooden board newspaper was erected, and the board newspaper depicted the architectural diagram of the building he designed himself.

Cai Dabao stepped forward to observe carefully, and saw that the upper floor of this picture is divided into five floors, the bottom floor is to be made of brick and stone structure, and the upper four floors are carved with beams and cornices. From this picture alone, it is very grand and grand , combined with the scale of the construction site in front of you, it can be imagined that it will be even more spectacular when it is completed in the future.Coupled with the function and connotation of the building itself, it will definitely be praised by the masses and become one of the famous places in the city!

"I temporarily named this building Hongbin Building, which means Hongyan traveler does not lose his broad-minded ambition. I don't know what Cai Canjun wants?"

Li Tai smiled and asked Cai Dabao again, and Cai Dabao nodded repeatedly after hearing what he said.

The group toured the construction site for a while, Li Taicai said with a smile: "If there is any difficulty in the construction of Xiangyang, whether it is the difficulty of money or craftsmanship, I will try my best to help Cai Canjun."

"No, no, thank you for your concern. When the attic is completed in the future, I will definitely write to you!"

Cai Dabao hastily said, not without guilt, that when he mentioned this matter to King Yueyang before, King Yueyang showed great interest in it and took it over to plan to do it himself, and soon after Li Tai returned to the town, he sent his staff to give away the promised wealth. The goods were delivered to Xiangyang, and after Cai Dabao transferred them to the palace, King Yueyang had nothing to say.

Of course, King Yueyang didn't hide these goods because he was greedy for them. He is currently busy negotiating with the Jingzhao Du family to adjust the internal order of Yongzhou. back.

Although Cai Dabao understands his king, compared with Li Tai who speaks and does what he says in front of him, he inevitably feels that King Yueyang is slightly lacking in action.

The group walked around the city for a while before returning to the state capital. Li Tai and several government officials formally entertained their group of envoys.

Cai Dabao has two purposes for this trip, one is to tell Li Tai that they have re-accepted Fancheng and several other fort strongholds, and he is here to express his gratitude, and the second is to represent the king of Yueyang to return Li Tai's previous gifts.

After Li Tai led the army back to the town, he sent people to deliver a batch of goods to Xiangyang, expressing his gratitude to them for taking care of his father.The gift to Cai Dabao was a relatively simple expression of gratitude, and the money was used as the principal for his construction of the Hongbin Building in Xiangyang.

As for the gift to Yueyang King Xiao Xi, it has another purpose, and it was carefully selected by Li Tai.These included a batch of spoils he collected from Jinyang Palace, swords, fine armor, jewelry and artifacts, as well as goods from the Western Regions brought in from Longyou.

Li Tai wanted to use this gift to show that although the Kansai regime is not big, it has a wealth of resources, especially after opening up the Hexi Corridor, it has a huge advantage in the Silk Road trade, and made a contribution for the mutual market trade between the two sides in the future. bedding.

This time Cai Dabao came to return the gift on behalf of King Yueyang. At the banquet, he first expressed his gratitude, and then ordered his attendants to present the gifts returned by King Yueyang, and recited the introduction one by one.

There are more than [-] gifts from Li Tai to King Yueyang, covering fabrics, lacquerware, spices, jewelry, armaments, horses, gold and silverware, paper, scriptures, Buddha statues, etc. It can be said that he can collect everything The precious commodities are displayed.Of course, armaments and horses will never be traded in large quantities, and putting them in it is just for face.

Cai Dabao stood up from the table, and immediately drew out a long gift list.When he saw the length of the gift list, Li Tai felt a bit of gunpowder, and as Cai Dabao read out more than 170 Yueyang King's return gifts, he knew in his heart that this guy was going to compete with him.

Today's Li Tai is rich and powerful, and has seen the world, so of course he won't be bluffed by others casually, but wants to see how the other party plans to overwhelm him.

But with Cai Dabao's chanting and his entourage constantly displaying gifts, the jewels and jewels in the hall soon let Li Tai see what real luxury is!

The types of gifts that King Yueyang gave back were not as extensive as Li Tai's, but in terms of specific types, they really slapped Li Tai in the face with quantity and quality.

Just like a single fabric, there are more than 20 kinds of various brocades and variegated colors from craftsmanship to materials.And among the foreign goods, let Li Tai see who is the master of Silk Road!
There are two strings of gemstone bracelets, each string is composed of more than 20 gemstones in series, but the types of these gemstones are completely different, such as crystal, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, amber, etc. Some gemstones are not even available to Li Tai. I have seen that both the material and the polishing process are excellent.

As for those gold and silver utensils, not only are they far larger than those sent by Li Tai, they are also far more complex in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship.Gilt pots, crystal cups, ivory sculptures, lion's mane and stag tail are all kinds of treasures and novelties.

When these more than 170 kinds of rebate gifts were all displayed in the hall, not only the subordinates in Jingzhou, but even Li Tai himself was dazzled.At the same time, his face was burning with embarrassment, this time he was really educated.

Xiao Xi was able to offer so many gifts in return, although it was related to his noble status, but the most important thing was that Nanliang's status in the Silk Road trade was far higher than that of the Western Wei Dynasty.

Although Nanliang did not control the Hexi Corridor, it could conduct Silk Road trade in Central Shu through the Qinghai Line controlled by Tuyuhun.Its environment has been in peace for a long time, the aristocratic clans have accumulated endlessly, and their purchasing power is much stronger than that of Kansai.

Li Tai thought that if he opened up the Hexi Corridor, he would be able to turn the Silk Road trade into a master, but after being educated by the King of Yueyang, he found out that their poor situation had not changed!

For a while, two thoughts popped up in his mind, one is to continue to give gifts to Xiao Xi, to see if the other party will continue to double the return.The other is to lead troops to attack Xiangyang again, damn it all belongs to Lao Tzu!
But putting aside these two unreliable thoughts, Li Tai was also a little worried about how to overwhelm the other party.Of course, he didn't simply want to compete with the other party for wealth, but hoped to gain more initiative when discussing trade next.

Xiao Xi's gift in return not only shows that Nanliang has its own channels for international trade, but also shows that there is not much demand for trade with the Western Wei Dynasty.If Li Tai can't come up with products that stimulate the other party's desire to buy, even if he barely wins the opportunity to conduct business, the profit margin will not be too great. It is probably better to grab it directly.

He's not a pacifist, but he just feels that if he turns against Xiangyang right now, it may be detrimental to his plan to continue to infiltrate and develop the Jiangbei area.

After thinking about it, he decided that he still had to give full play to his advantages as a time traveler, and opened a small hook to let Xiao Xi, a country bumpkin, see the charm of technological development!