The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 170: Rich and Good at Business
Not long after, a palace maid came hurriedly and whispered a few words in the ear of King Wu Li Ke.

Then Li Ke was taken to his mother.

Li Tai held the scroll in his hand and first looked at his father and the queen who were sleeping in the shade of the tree, and then looked at Li Ke who was walking behind Concubine Yang.

Concubine Yang stood up, took Li Ke to the side and scolded him.

Li Tai also lay down and flipped through the book in his hand.

On the other side of Taiye Lake, the water is still very calm, and the summer sunshine makes the lake surface sparkle.

Concubine Yang looked at her son and scolded him in a low voice, "What did you say to the Crown Prince again?"

Li Ke lowered his head and said to his mother, "My son told my brother that he wanted to be the vanguard of the expedition to the Western Regions."

Concubine Yang's originally stern expression softened a little, and her tone became much calmer as she asked, "Did His Royal Highness the Crown Prince agree to this?"

Li Ke shook his head and said, "My brother didn't say anything."

Concubine Yang breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "From now on, you and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince should not argue."

"Children remember."

Concubine Yang was teaching her son and scolding him.

Empress Changsun was picking out some brushes.

When Concubine Yang came back after scolding her, Empress Changsun looked at Li Ke who was walking away and asked with a smile, "What is Ke'er doing?"

"He still has to be on duty in the army and can't be delayed."

"The three brothers rarely get together, so it would be good for them to talk to each other more."

Concubine Yang whispered, "Ke'er shouldn't have mentioned the Western Expedition in front of the Crown Prince and His Majesty."

Empress Changsun picked out a few brushes and asked the maid to put them into boxes. She then said, "Cheng Qian has always been a strict brother. The children have to write a lot of words in the East Palace every day to complete some homework. These brushes cannot be used."

Concubine Yang helped the Queen to tidy up.

Especially the brush from the Crown Prince's bedroom in the East Palace. Empress Changsun frowned and asked, "Does Cheng Qian write a lot?"

Ning Er said, "Replying to the Queen, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince usually goes to bed late at night, mostly writing."

Eight out of ten brushes in the Eastern Palace are broken.

Empress Changsun took out a few brand new brushes and put them in a box beside her. Seeing that there was still some space left in the box, she put all the remaining fine Hu brushes in it and ordered, "Ning'er, put all these brushes in Chengqian's bedroom."

"Here." Ning'er took the wooden box containing the brushes and walked away quickly.

Although the children all lived in the East Palace, the mother was very clear about their current situation. Empress Changsun said to Concubine Yang beside her: "Chengqian is usually careless. There are many things missing in the East Palace, and we have to make up for them."

Concubine Yang said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince is usually busy with state affairs, so he probably doesn't consider this carefully."

Empress Changsun added: "Fortunately, Ning'er and Lizhi are sensible."

Concubine Yang sat aside and helped the queen put the inkstone in order.

In the garden, Li Zhi walked up to Dongyang with a test paper and asked, "Sister Dongyang, how do you answer this question?"

Dongyang still looked at the medicine book in his hand and whispered, "Child slave."

"Ah."

Dongyang spoke calmly and slowly, and whispered, "I have to face the life and death of others every day. I often watch others die after they are beyond medical help."

Li Zhi took back his test paper with trembling hands.

Dongyang's tone was still calm and slow. He hadn't put down the medicine book in his hand yet. He supported his chin with one hand and said, "Which medicine is better?"

Li Zhi listened to his sister's words and slowly took two steps back.

Among the children in the Eastern Palace, Li Lizhi and Dongyang were the two who finished learning the basic knowledge the fastest. Their daily studies consisted of some more profound application questions and geometric figures.

Even some more profound and difficult knowledge related to astronomy or solar terms.

Therefore, Dongyang no longer needs to attend classes. He only needs to complete the homework assigned by his royal brother on time, or write some argumentative articles, and occasionally help his royal brother deal with paperwork and memorials.

Dongyang spends most of the rest of her time on her own, and can also teach her younger brothers and sisters. Right now, she needs to devote herself to medicine.

Even if my royal brother doesn't do his homework for a few days, he won't say anything.

Since studying medicine was allowed by her royal brother, it was the most important study in her future life.

With Dongyang's current learning progress, except for Li Chengqian's personal teaching, Dongyang would not be able to learn anything even in the Imperial College, and no one else could teach her unless the teacher's level was similar to that of the emperor's brother.

But looking at the Imperial College, Dongyang and Lizhi's mathematical skills are almost surpassing those of the elderly masters.

Just like Li Lizhi now, her mathematics level is even higher. One of her essays involves a polyhedron arithmetic problem named after the Eight Trigrams, Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan... The mathematical problem of finding the length of a line to measure the surface area has stumped many teachers in the Imperial College.

A month has passed and no one has been able to answer the question.

Therefore, Dongyang did not want to go to the Imperial College to answer the questions, because she could answer the questions of her royal sister, so she was too lazy to go to the Imperial College.

Li Zhi ran away. He felt that his royal brother was a terrible person, and now his royal sister had also become a terrible person.

Li Lizhi was playing a game with her younger brothers and sisters. She first divided them into two teams, and then one team was blindfolded and the other team was not blindfolded.

Li Zhi simply stopped writing the test paper and went to play with his brothers and sisters.

This is a collaborative game where one person is blindfolded and needs to kick the sepak takraw ball into the goal.

The other person does not need to be blindfolded, but he cannot kick the ball. He needs to point the direction to the blindfolded person so that the blindfolded teammate can kick the ball into the goal.

This game requires everyone to find a partner.

Li Zhi and Li Shen have always had a good understanding of each other, and this kind of game is not difficult for them.

It’s just that Li Lizhi deliberately separated the two of them.

This made Li Zhi feel very aggrieved.

Three quarters past noon, Li Chengqian finally woke up. His father and grandfather were playing chess beside him. He stood up and stretched.

Then he took some ice water from the wooden basin beside him and wiped his face.

Qingque and Li Ke left at some point.

Li Shimin said: "This is the soup prepared by your mother."

Li Chengqian picked up a bowl of soup from the ice water. The soup was stewed with white fungus and lotus seeds. He swallowed the soup and savored it carefully.

Li Yuan said, "Your mother said that you and your father are prone to getting angry easily, so she gave you something to drink to get rid of the heat."

Li Shimin sat under the shade of a tree, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, and said, "Now Jingzhao Prefecture has a good harvest, and all places are collecting taxes."

Li Chengqian said: "The tax revenue this year will be very good." This was expected. The three-year plan that the Eastern Palace gave to Jingzhao Prefecture could actually achieve this year's goals just by relying on grapes.

"There are a lot of idle people in Jingzhao Prefecture right now. As the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, don't you plan to go and give some orders?"

Listening to his father's words, Li Chengqian put the bowl on the table beside him and said in a deep voice: "Don't be in a hurry. First lay a solid foundation. Then we need to rectify, sort out, summarize and learn from our experiences and mistakes."

Li Yuan sighed, "Erlang, look at this kid Cheng Qian, he always talks about the basics, whether it's when he's practicing archery or doing things."

Li Shimin smiled softly.

The weather was still hot in the afternoon. My younger brothers and sisters were very active after their nap. They were playing around and were very happy even though they sweated a lot.

Li Chengqian picked up the fishing rod, put the bait on the hook, frowned and said, "Father, do you want me to go to Jingzhao Prefecture now and accept the worship of Xu Jingzong and others?"

Li Shimin smiled and said, "What's wrong with this?"

Empress Changsun took away the bowl of Tremella soup and advised, "Your father is worried that you have too many things on your mind, so it's okay to celebrate with the people of Jingzhao Prefecture."

Li Yuan also stroked his beard and smiled at his grandson. As a grandfather, he was happy for his grandson's success, even if these things were things that the grandson thought were his due success.

But Li Yuan felt that this was proud enough, wasn't it?

Li Yuan looked at his son who was pondering the chessboard. Apart from his father, no one else had praised Cheng Qian until now.

Li Chengqian was sitting by the lake fishing and replied, "Mother, there are too many things to do in Jingzhao Prefecture. Let's leave the celebration for later."

Empress Changsun smiled gently and nodded. Seeing that her son was wearing summer clothes that fit him well, she smiled and walked back to the villa nearby.

Ning'er came from the East Palace to the Taiye Lake with a bundle of memorials and documents. She placed them on the table next to the prince.

These were all ordered by the Crown Prince. Even though as a prince he had to spend time with the Emperor and the Empress, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would not neglect his daily government affairs.

A gust of wind blew, causing the fishing line to sway slightly on the water, and the documents and files on the table were blown open.

After the chess game was over, Li Shimin picked up his son's documents and started reading them in frustration.

Li Yuan was packing up the chessboard with a smile on his face.

This document talked about the preparations for this year's trade. Li Shimin looked at his son who was fishing and asked, "Grapes from the Western Regions are now twice as cheap as before. Is the price of soap going to double?"

Li Chengqian said: "Yes, Guanzhong can earn a lot of money from the people of the Western Regions in the future."

"How could this happen? Aren't you afraid that people from the Western Regions won't buy it if the price suddenly increases?"

"There will definitely be fewer buyers, but it won't be impossible to sell. Jingzhao Prefecture has calculated that as long as half of the people in the Western Regions buy soap at double the price, it will not only reduce production pressure for Jingyang, but also increase profits. This is the solution that Du He and Jingzhao Prefecture worked out together."

Li Chengqian caught a small fish, took it off the hook, put it back into the Taiye Lake, put the bait back on, and continued, "So they say long sleeves are good for dancing, and more money is good for business."

"Now Du He is a very shrewd businessman. He calculated the costs and profits and found that manpower and production are a kind of cost for him. This method of reducing costs and increasing profits is a sure win for him."

In the past three years, Du He has gone from a novice businessman who was still confused about Sui coins and Tang coins to a mature businessman who can separate profits from costs.

"Does Jingzhao Prefecture also engage in business?"

Li Chengqian explained: "Jingzhao Prefecture certainly cannot be involved in business, otherwise they will be impeached by the Censorate. They are just in charge of the mutual trade, and the transactions are still between merchants from all over the country."

"Besides, if someone like Xu Jingzong is offended, everyone in the court and the public can see what will happen. Xu Jingzong didn't take it seriously. In your opinion, the Censorate has no substantial evidence and will definitely not impeach easily, right?"

Li Shimin remained silent.

Li Chengqian sighed and said, "Father, you worry too much."

Soap was Du He's stepping stone. Now, ordinary soap is not selling as well as before even in summer. Instead, it has become a common item in Chang'an City.

In addition, the simple and smart Guanzhong villagers, whether they are blacksmiths or bricklayers, would buy some soap crumbs from Jingyang to clean their hands after work, which is no different from soap.

But Jingyang's productivity is always limited. Du He has to redistribute the limited productivity to pig farming and planting. In addition, it is the busy farming season now, and the workshop is not as busy as in winter.

As a result, a very strange phenomenon appeared in Jingyang.

In spring and summer, the workshops in Jingyang are deserted, but after late autumn, laborers from various counties in Guanzhong will flock to Jingyang until winter.

This is also the reason why Du He would rather recruit manpower regardless of budget.

Since we are unable to recruit staff in the spring and summer, we can only accumulate reserves in the autumn and winter.

In today's limited productivity situation and the heavy burden of production costs, Du He came up with this idea.

Similarly, for Jingzhao Prefecture, hanging over their heads is the output value of Guanzhong’s construction.

It not only needs to bring benefits, but also needs to be able to make up for the lack of productivity, which has led to a reduction in the output of ordinary soap. It also needs to prepare sufficient goods reserves for the merchants from the south of the Yangtze River who will come to Guanzhong after the autumn.

Du He and Jingzhao Prefecture hit it off and decided to double the price of soap in the trade.

Although some are profit-driven.

Seeing that the economies of scale in the dozen or so counties surrounding Chang'an were still in their infancy, Li Chengqian acquiesced.

Anyway, few people in Guanzhong would buy expensive soap.

Li Chengqian frowned and looked at the lake, muttering, "It's obviously a good time to fish, where have all the fish in Taiye Lake gone?"

Soon, Li Lizhi and Dongyang arrived at the lake.

Li Shimin watched his two daughters skillfully tidy up the documents on the table, classify them, and help review the documents.

"Do you understand?"

Hearing her father's question, Dongyang raised her head and said, "My daughter understands."

Li Shimin stroked his beard and said, "These are all the trade documents of Jingzhao Prefecture."

"Ah."

Li Shimin handed the document in his hand to Dongyang and said, "Take a look at what this scroll means."

When Li Lizhi heard that her father was going to test Dongyang, she glanced sideways and then continued to mark the papers with confidence.

Dongyang explained: "Father, do you still remember that Murong Shun of the Western Regions Caravan went to the Western Regions and brought back a gold coin and a silver pot?"

Li Shimin almost forgot about the existence of Murong Shun, as he was clearly the Khan of Tuyuhun who was personally appointed by him. Only then did he remember that he was the son of Fu Yun who was beheaded.

No one knows what Murong Shun is doing to this day. I heard that he is studying in Sifangguan and working for Jingzhao Prefecture.

Li Shimin asked back: "What does it matter?"

Dongyang explained: "Yes, in the past, grapes were the most valuable in the Western Regions, as well as some other fruits and vegetables. However, the grape harvest in Guanzhong has been good, and based on the mutual trade, the Western Regions no longer have such a big say in the trade."

Li Lizhi took over the conversation and replied, "Since the Guanzhong Mutual Trade was launched, Jingzhao Prefecture has always allowed the Western Regions to trade with gold and silver. Although the Western Regions have taken out gold and silver to trade with the Tang Dynasty, they can still sell them to the Persians at a higher price, or even to people from other places."

(End of this chapter)