Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 521 Making Money
Ever since Ma Zhou found out about Xia Lin's biggest secret, he hadn't looked at him the same way these days. It was an inexplicable emotion. He thought he was a beast, but also thought he was awesome. After all, everyone who knew Dugu Han knew that he was just that tiny...

Everyone has been very busy these days. General Gao is assembling a team to restart the investigation, the Legalists are acting as supervisors, and the old nobles are doing everything they can to stop General Gao and the Legalists. In just four days, six people in the Dali Temple died accidentally, and most of them died in strange circumstances.

Some died of poisoning from eating puffer fish, some were killed by tree branches blown down by strong winds, some died of sudden illness after drinking, and the most outrageous death was even that of being killed by an explosion while lighting incense in the toilet.

Even Gao Shilian encountered several minor dangers that were close calls, and this time Gao Shilian was really furious. He basically slammed the table and shouted a quote that transcended time and space: "You make me uneasy for a moment, and I will make you uncomfortable for the rest of your life."

The Legalists could not stop, as so many of their people had died. If they were to stop, they might as well be wiped out. So what was originally just Anzi's charge turned into a collective charge by the Legalists. The Dali Temple rushed to the Ministry of Justice and slammed the table. When the people in the Ministry of Justice heard this, they were also furious, and then collectively requested the Shangshu to assist in investigating the Dali Temple.

Of course the Shangshu refused, and all officials in the Ministry of Justice were dismissed. Finally, the matter was settled after mediation by Ma Zhou and Gao Shilian, but the joint attack of the Legalists had already taken shape.

During this period, the important players An Zi and Dong Niang were closely protected, especially Dong Niang. Lao Zhang dispatched 20 elite experts from the Inspection Department to protect her closely. These eunuchs were really fierce. When they encountered anyone suspicious, they would just kill them without asking any questions.

Gao Shilian even mobilized all his personal networks. This old monster, who had been dormant for forty years, was going to have a bloody fight with his old boss this time.

Before we knew it, the entire Jinling city was filled with swords and knives as swift as the wind, and the momentum of the fight was unstoppable.

The most relaxed person at the moment was Xia Lin. He was sitting in a tavern, with the envoy of the Li family kneeling opposite him, and the two of them were drinking and chatting happily.

"General Xia is now a great hero in the world. My prince has mentioned you with regret several times. If it were earlier, General Xia would have been the son-in-law of my Li family by now."

"Oops, I missed it."

Xia Lin personally stood up and poured wine for the messenger with a smile on his face.

This is not to say that Xia Lin is flattering, but this person is indeed a very powerful person of high generation. If you think about it, you can understand that at this time, a person from the Li family can be an open envoy in Jinling City and no one has touched him, then you can imagine his reputation and status.

In fact, according to seniority, Li Yuan should call this envoy his uncle. He is of the same generation as the late emperor's father, Emperor Yongxi. He is one of the great Confucian scholars of the time, majoring in national history. He is currently advocating to mediate the dispute between the Li family and the dynasty. He has very high moral character and no actual conflict of interest with others, but he is the kind of totem mascot that even Xia Lin dare not confront.

"I invited you here mainly because I want to talk to you about the current situation in Chang'an." Xia Lin knelt down again and took a deep breath, "If I'm not mistaken, the prices in Chang'an have probably started to soar, and the people are probably about to face a situation of poverty."

The messenger raised his eyebrows and asked, "How did Lord Xia know this?"

"Please rest assured, sir. I have no intention of interfering with people's livelihood. This is not my intention. This is mainly because the southern tycoons and nobles migrated north, and a large amount of money was brought to the north. It may have something to do with me, but not much. Sir, you are from a noble family, so you naturally understand what the noble families will do after the dynasty. It would be meaningless to say it too clearly."

"Um……"

What else can the aristocratic families do? When they arrive at a place, the first thing they do is to sweep away all the local competitors in the same ecological niche. Once they have defeated all of them, they will gradually divide up the market among themselves and control people's livelihood. Then, they will have the final say.

At the moment, Chang'an, no... it should be the entire northwest is in chaos. At the beginning, Chang'an was extremely open and welcomed those who came with money, but things started to change in just a few days.

The entire northwest was plunged into a high-intensity commercial confrontation, prices soared, and money became increasingly worthless. He learned from a letter from Chang'an that rice, which originally cost four cents a pound, had now risen to ten cents, and this did not include the coal, charcoal, and firewood needed for winter heating. In just a few days, the people were already complaining bitterly, and King Li Yuan of Tang even stopped all the work at hand to deal with this problem.

But... the results were minimal.

More and more money was flowing into the Northwest, and the situation was getting out of control.

"It seems that Lord Xia had anticipated this. He is indeed one of the most talented people in the world."

"I don't deserve it." Xia Lin waved his hand and said, "The biggest problem with the Tang prince right now is that there is too much money. I'm not saying anything about serving the country and the people. I just want to make some money from it. This will give the Tang prince a chance to breathe and I can have a good meal. It's like killing two birds with one stone."

"Then I wonder what Master Xia's intention is?"

Xia Lin watched him get started, so he smiled and said, "It's very simple. Prince Tang just needs to spend money like crazy."

“How to spend it?”

"Repair bridges, mend roads, build houses, move mountains, fill the sea, dig holes, train soldiers. Spend all the money."

The messenger frowned and laughed: "Prince Tang can't get the money from those people. If they spend it, won't the treasury be left with no money or food?" "Spread it." Xia Lin spread his hands and said, "I wonder if you have heard of the word bidding."

"I don't know."

Xia Lin knew that he didn't know, so he explained the meaning of bidding in detail. However, after listening, he still had some questions: "I see. But if that's the case, what else can they do if the prince's mansion doesn't give him money?"

"Advance payment." Xia Lin knocked on the table vigorously. "The key is to advance payment. Let their money melt into the people, melt into products, production capacity and labor, and then the prince will take this money up in the form of taxes. When there is money, we can settle accounts with them. Besides, they probably don't want to keep cash on hand now. When they take over the contract, they will definitely buy materials. Where to buy materials? Naturally, from the south. But now the prince has a bad relationship with the south, so naturally he can't easily let things enter the country. If they want to enter the country, a 20% tax will be added."

"Thirty percent." The messenger laughed.

"Then 30%. They don't actually seek to make money, they just want to convert the money into industries to settle down. This way, they can stabilize prices and not disrupt people's livelihood, and they can also repair bridges and roads, strengthen the army and build cities. Most importantly, I can also get a cup of soup."

The two discussed the details for a long time, and in the end the envoy was certainly unable to make a decision, so the two sat there together and began to write a letter to Li Yuan.

This "together" is really spiritual, which is why Xia Lin really doesn't dare to offend this gentleman casually. As the saying goes, a gentleman can say anything to others and is an extremely open and honest person. If you touch him, you will be seriously despised, and even written in history as a real stain and your credibility will drop to freezing point in a short time.

The two of them finished writing the letter together, and it was Xia Lin who asked someone to mail it out. If nothing else, Xia Lin was impressed by her frankness. He definitely couldn't do it anyway.

Although the two sides are now on the verge of a war, communications and transportation are still not affected. The post stations along the way are operating normally, and the letter has arrived in Luoyang within a few days.

At this time, Emperor Jingtai was in Luoyang. He was planning to force Li Yuan to surrender and reduce the power of the princes. In other words, he was really dreaming of unifying the Central Plains and pacifying the northwest.

He had wanted to take advantage of the chaos in the northwest to deal him a heavy blow, but no one expected that such a broken letter that could calm the chaos in the northwest would slip right under his nose.

Of course, his plan of "pacifying the Northwest" was all his own idea and had no factual basis. The fact that Li Yuan did not give him a crossbow could be considered as a favor left by his father that had not been used up.

After the letter arrived in Luoyang, it reached Li Yuan within two days. After reading the letter, Li Yuan sat there with his nerves burning, unable to understand what Xia Lin was going to do.

If it were someone else, it might just be about making money, but that was Xia Lin. If he wanted to make money, he could even wait until Chang'an completely collapsed before doing so. It would be easier and he could make more money.

After all, according to the current situation, the winter can still be maintained, but once spring comes, Chang'an and even the northwest will collapse.

Before he finished reading the letter, Li Yuan called over his top adviser Du Ruhui and said, "Keming, come and see if this is feasible."

Du Ruhui stepped forward to take the letter, only glanced at it twice and then sat down on the ground leaning against the door frame. He was actually obsessed with it. He carefully analyzed the plan in the letter and even slapped his thigh to cheer from time to time.

"Great! This is a good idea! Why didn't I think of this? It's better to unblock than to block. That's right, it's better to unblock than to block... Great, great, spending money is the best idea. Spending money is good. We have to spend money."

"Keming? Keming."

Li Yuan called out twice before calling Du Ruhui up. Du Ruhui realized that he had lost his composure and quickly stood up and laughed, "Your Majesty, Keming lost his composure."

"No problem. I saw you just now. Is the method in the letter useful?"

"It's useful, very useful. I've only heard of Xia Daosheng before, but now I see that he's amazing. Really amazing. What he said hits the nail on the head. Isn't Northwest Chang'an going to be choked by money? The most important thing right now is how to spend the money! It's better to spend it! We have to spend it!"

"Then...just do as he says?"

Du Ruhui fell silent again. After a long while, he frowned and said, "Your Majesty, it's strange. What exactly is Xia Daosheng planning? Why would he take the initiative to help us overcome the difficulties?"

"I don't understand this either."

"Your Majesty, if you don't understand, then forget about it. Just hurry up and pass this level."

(End of this chapter)