Datang: Just been appointed as the crown prince, the counterattack system is here

Chapter 102 I am the court, the court is me! [Seeking monthly votes]

"Come on, take a look! A wealthy businessman from Chang'an wants to grow new crops in Jiangling and is hiring people to open up the wasteland at a high price. If you're interested, come and sign up!"

"Come and sign up! Ten cents a day, and you get your day's work as long as you finish it!"

“You’re passing by, don’t miss it!”

At the market in Jiangling City, a burst of vigorous shouting attracted the people of Jiangling passing by.

When some people heard that there was money to be made in reclaiming wasteland, they immediately became interested.

"Hey, brother, are you serious? Ten cents a day?"

"Yeah, I've never heard of anyone getting paid for helping others open up wasteland!"

"That's because you haven't seen much. I've heard of it before, but this is the first time I've heard of someone making ten coins a day for clearing land!"

"Oh, if you're interested, you can come and sign up with me. I guarantee it's fair to everyone!"

The man who was shouting loudly greeted the people around him with a smile.

The people around were eager to try and were planning to sign up.

At this moment, a group of officials came over and shouted coldly: "Where did you come from, you peasant, to dare to incite the people here?!"

"Sir, you have misunderstood. We are grain merchants from Chang'an, and we are here to recruit workers to open up wasteland!" The man who was shouting loudly came forward and said with a smile.

"Merchants from Chang'an?"

The officer frowned and asked coldly, "Do you have any proof?"

"Yes, yes, yes"

The man who was shouting at the top of his lungs took out a purse and handed it to the officer, saying, "Sir, take a look. This is absolutely honest!"

"Ah!"

The officer weighed the purse, opened it, and said with a smile, "He really is a grain merchant from Chang'an!"

"Yes, yes, sir, please give me some favor!"

"It's easy to talk about."

The officer smiled and nodded, then looked around at the people around him and said sternly, "Everyone, behave yourself. What's the point of all this noise?!"

Having said this, he left amid the smiles of the people around him.

At this moment, the person who was actively promoting the event said hurriedly, "If you want to sign up, hurry up, the number of places is limited!"

"Me, me, me, count me in!"

"And I!"

Soon, more than a dozen people signed up to participate in the land reclamation.

the other side.
The official who had just left ran up to an official, handed over his purse with a fawning look on his face, and said, "Sir Cai, this person doesn't look familiar. He doesn't look like someone from Jiangling Prefecture. He must be someone of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"I know, do I need to tell you?"

The officer, Cai Sima, glared at the officer angrily, then took the purse from him and said, "Do you know where the prince hired people to open up the wasteland?"

"It's on the barren hill near Liu Changshi's ancestral home!"

"Liu Changshi?"

Cai Sima frowned, then said thoughtfully, "General Zhang and Inspector Pei's intention is to make the Crown Prince's gang retreat when they see the difficulty. Do you understand?"

"understand!"

The official smiled slyly: "I guarantee that those who are reclaiming the wasteland will work without putting in any effort!"

"Well, as long as you understand!"

"hey-hey."

The next afternoon, Li Chengqian received Ma Zhou's report at the post station.

"Sir, just as you expected, those people who signed up to open up the wasteland are treating us like monkeys. When they feel like it, they do it, and when they feel unhappy, they find a place to rest and sleep. No matter how much we scold them, it's useless!"

"Did the government intervene?"

"At first, I chased away a few people who were slacking off at work. Unexpectedly, they reported me to the authorities, saying I wasn't paying them for their work, so I had no choice but to give them money to avoid disaster. Now, both the officials and the people are taking advantage of me!"

"Hehehe"

Li Chengqian chuckled, then said with a smile, "Raise the wages. The higher the better. You must attract the four great families and even officials to join the game."

"it is good!"

Ma Zhou responded with a smile, turned around and left.

At the same time, Cen Wenben and Li Yuan were confused and didn't understand what was going on.

"My dear grandson, are you planning to set up a big scheme to involve everyone in Jiangling Mansion?"

Li Yuan asked curiously.

"Yes, Grandpa. The more they don't welcome us, the more we'll make trouble. Until everyone in Jiangling knows they're in, then we'll set the rules for them!"

Li Chengqian smiled and nodded.

"But can a reclaimed barren mountain really attract them to join?" Cen Wenben still asked with some confusion.

“What if it’s not a barren mountain, but a mountain of gold?”

Li Chengqian said with a smile.

"Gold Mountain?"

Cen Wenben was slightly stunned: "Young Master, are you saying that the barren mountain is a gold mine?"

"Hahaha!"

Li Yuan suddenly burst into laughter.

It was obvious that Li Yuan reacted faster than Cen Wenben.

After hearing Li Yuan's laughter, Cen Wenben quickly reacted and looked at Li Chengqian in surprise: "Young Master, this move is really cruel!"

"We're just getting started! The best is yet to come!"

Li Chengqian smiled and shook his head. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he asked Cen Wenben, "How's the information I asked you to find out going?"

"Uh,"

Cen Wenben hesitated for a moment, then bowed and said, "Sir, I've asked a few friends. Although most of the officials in Jiangling Prefecture are in cahoots, there are some who stand apart from them. That person is Liu Li, the Chief Clerk of Jingzhou! His ancestor is Liu Zhilin, who 'returned home in glory'."

"Liu Li?"

Li Chengqian was slightly stunned and thought to himself, why does this person sound familiar?
Then Cen Wenben continued, "Liu Li was once Xiao Xing's imperial eunuch. After Li Jing conquered Jiangnan, he defected to the Tang Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Wude reign, he was appointed Chief Clerk of the Nankang Prefecture Governor's Office. In the first year of the Zhenguan reign, he was transferred to the position of Chief Clerk of the Jingzhou Prefecture Governor's Office. He was arrogant and straightforward, and did not get along with Zhang Ping, the Jingzhou Governor, or Pei Xuan, the Jingzhou Inspector, and was often marginalized by them!"

"Oh, it turned out to be him!"

After hearing Cen Wenben's detailed introduction, Li Chengqian finally remembered this person.

This Liu Li can be said to be the first tragedy of the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning, he and Cen Wenben strongly supported Wei Wang Li Tai, but Li Tai failed to live up to his expectations and lost to Li Zhi.

He accepted Li Shimin's arrangement and assisted Li Zhi. However, people on Li Zhi's side did not like him, so he followed Wei Zheng's example and wanted to become the second most powerful minister in the Tang Dynasty.

As a result, he was falsely accused by Chu Suiliang, who was also famous for his loyalty and integrity, and was sentenced to death by Li Shimin.

It can be said that Liu Li was a major tragedy and a victim of the political struggle in the late Zhenguan period.

He himself did not have any major problems. His ancestors were prominent and he came from a humble background. He was able to rise to the position of prime minister step by step, which showed that he was very capable.

"What's the current situation with Liu Li? Can he be won over?" Li Yuan asked suddenly.

Cen Wenben hurriedly said, "Master, Liu Li has been driven to Xiangyang by Zhang and Pei and is no longer in Jiangling. It would be of no use to us to win him over now!"

"Since he's useless, let's ignore him for now. We're setting up a trap now to get those people in. It doesn't matter whether he's there or not!"

Li Chengqian waved his hand indifferently and continued, "Apart from the matter of Liu Li, have you found out everything about the assets of the Cai, Pang, Ma, and Huang families?"

"I've found out. The Cai and Ma families mainly deal in grain and grain transport, while the Pang and Huang families mainly deal in textiles and shipbuilding. They also dabble in many other industries!"

"Food, grain transport, textiles, shipbuilding, these are all profitable businesses. As expected of the four great families, they have them all!"

"Yes! If we want to make a breakthrough in Jiangling, we either have to start from where they haven't started, or we have to copy others. It is indeed difficult." Cen Wenben echoed.

Li Chengqian glanced at him with a smile and said, "Why, Mr. Cen, have you given up?"

"No, I believe in your ability. I don't even take the Jiangling nobles seriously!" Cen Wenben said proudly with his chest puffed out.

"Hahaha!"

Li Chengqian threw his head back and laughed heartily, then said with admiration, "As expected of someone who has seen the world, Mr. Cen has made progress!"

"I really want to make progress, sir. Apart from the game in the deserted mountain, is there anything else I can do for you?" Cen Wenben said hurriedly.

Originally, he should have been the most trusted official of the Eastern Palace by Li Chengqian, but Ma Zhou suddenly showed up and made him feel more pressured.

Especially the tacit cooperation between Ma Zhou and Li Chengqian made him feel that he was becoming more and more useless. He was always half a beat slower to react, and his work was sometimes smooth and sometimes not. If this continued, he would probably lose his position as the Minister of the Eastern Palace.

"hehe."

Li Chengqian smiled and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Cen. Besides the situation in the barren mountain, I have other plans. Go investigate the tea trees in Jiangling and see if there are any places where tea trees can be grown on a large scale!"

"Investigating the tea trees?"

Cen Wenben was confused and wondered what kind of job this was.
But Li Chengqian's order made sense, so he didn't ask any more questions and turned around and left the post station.

Li Yuan looked at Li Chengqian with a strange expression and said, "Didn't you come to Jiangling to grow grain? Why are you interested in growing tea?"

"Grandpa, you don't know that tea drinking has been a tradition in the south since the Han Dynasty, but there's no tea-making industry. This is an undiscovered treasure land. Since we want to control the economic lifeline of the Tang Dynasty, we must develop a diversified economy. We must not only engage in grain, grain transport, shipbuilding, and textiles, but also expand into other handicrafts such as winemaking and tea-making!"

"In this way, when the people of the Tang Dynasty cannot do without our industry, we will have succeeded!"

"But if you don't have power, how can you guarantee that these properties will eventually be yours?"

As an old politician, Li Yuan was very keen to discover the key point.

But Li Chengqian chuckled: "Grandpa, have you forgotten? The state-owned economic system I mentioned earlier, these industries will eventually become state-owned industries. What is state-owned? It means the court's industries. I am the court, and the court is me. How can it not be mine?"

"So that's how it is. You're determined to fight for power with Erlang!"

"Is grandpa's heart made of tofu?"

"Hahaha!"

Li Yuan smiled heartily: "My heart is like iron, indestructible."

At the same time, at Jiangling Prefecture Government Office.

Zhang Ping, Pei Xuan, and the heads of the four major families in Jiangling gathered together to discuss Li Chengqian's various actions in Jiangling.

But then the Cai family's Patriarch said in a deep voice, "The Crown Prince came to Jiangling this time to make things difficult for us!"

"It's just reclaiming a barren mountain. How can you say that you are picking on us? Our property is not on that barren mountain!" The head of the Ma family said with some amusement.

The Huang family head said disapprovingly, "What I'm worried about isn't that barren mountain, but the real purpose behind it! Think about it, what was the prince's purpose in coming to Jiangling? It was for food!"

"Now, we haven't given him any respect. Logically, he should have used his authority to subdue us. However, he suddenly reclaimed a mountain. This is too unbelievable!"

"Yes, I think this matter is not simple, and we must deal with it carefully!" The head of the Pang family nodded in agreement.

Zhang Ping and Pei Xuan exchanged a glance, then said gravely, "Whatever the Crown Prince's intentions, we can't let him succeed. Isn't he relying on his wealth to hire workers at high prices? Could it be that he has more money than we do? In my opinion, why don't we open up a barren mountain and rob his workers?"

"No!"

When the head of the Cai family heard Zhang Ping's words, he quickly intervened, saying, "If we compete with the Crown Prince for the work, we'll be exposing our conflict openly. Wouldn't that play right into the Crown Prince's hands? After all, we are his subjects, his subjects, and he is the ruler! This world belongs to the Tang Dynasty!"

"Then tell me, what should we do? We can't just let him do whatever he wants, right?" Zhang Ping said somewhat displeasedly.

Everyone looked at each other without saying a word, and the atmosphere instantly fell into silence.

After a while, Pei Xuan said thoughtfully, "I think, how about this? Let's send our people to the barren mountains. No matter what the prince does, we will know everything clearly!"

"That's right! Why didn't I think of it! Put the prince under our noses and see what tricks he plays!" Zhang Ping slammed the table and said.

The people from the four great clans looked at each other and nodded: "That's the only way."

"Okay! Then arrange for your family's tenants to pretend to be pioneers."

"Report——"

Before Zhang Ping could finish his words, a voice came from outside the door: "Reporting to Commander Zhang, the merchant has raised the wages to fifty coins a day, and the people in Jiangling City are signing up like crazy. The whole street is now packed with people!"

"What!?"

Zhang Ping stood up suddenly after hearing this.

The people from the four powerful families were also shocked.

What's going on?
Did the prince come to Jiangling to spend money?

Or, what secrets does that barren mountain hold?!

Thinking of this, the people from the four great clans looked at each other again, and then said decisively: "I will arrange for the people in my family to go to the barren mountain!"

"I am coming too!"

Soon, all the people from the four powerful families left the Jiangling government office.

Zhang Ping and Pei Xuan looked at each other in surprise and doubt.

After a while, Zhang Ping said excitedly, "Should we send someone there too?"

Pei Xuan thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "They have a lot of people, so they can pretend to be hired laborers and go to the barren mountains. We have a lot of people too, but they are government officials after all, so it's easy to be exposed. Besides, I always feel that things are not that simple. Let's let their people go and investigate the situation first!"

"Right."

Zhang Ping nodded in agreement, then narrowed his eyes slightly: "I'm going to the inn, are you coming?"

Pei Xuan smiled slightly: "He caught us by surprise right after he arrived. I have also become interested in that prince!"

"Well, let's go meet him together!"

(End of this chapter)