Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 146 Making Sea Salt

The arrival of such a large envoy from the Japanese kingdom to Chang'an is naturally a major event for the country. Li Shimin sent Tang Jian to receive them. With Sun Xiangfu's previous incidents ahead, Li Shimin felt that he should raise his airs a little bit, at least not let them go. The people of the Wa Kingdom thought that the Tang Dynasty was a country of randomness, so they first let the people from the Wa Kingdom Mission live in the Siyi Pavilion to learn etiquette for a few days.

Of course, this is also a diplomatic method. Through this process of learning etiquette, Tang Jian has already found out the purpose of the Japanese envoy. When the emperor officially summons the envoy, what should be agreed and what should not be agreed? , In fact, the emperor had already discussed it with the ministers.

In the imperial study room of the Taiji Hall, Jiuqing and several prime ministers of the Zhengshitang were there. As Dahonghe, who was in charge of diplomacy, Tang Jian was naturally mainly in charge of affairs.

"Your Majesty, the Japanese country sent the ambassador of the Tang Dynasty, Inuge Ertian, to come to our Tang Dynasty at the order of Emperor Suigu, with three purposes.

One is a tribute, and this time Inugami Ertianxi brought ten boats of silver to Chang'an, each with [-] catties. "

"Sigh~"

As soon as Tang Jian said this, there was a sound of air-conditioning in the imperial study room. The Tang Dynasty was in short supply of gold, silver and copper. The Japanese people are generous, and they actually sent [-] catties of silver as a tribute. How can Li Shimin return the gift?According to the old system of the Sui Dynasty, gifts of double or even triple value should be returned.

If Sun Xiangfu was here, he would tell everyone with a smile that silver is worthless in the Japanese country, it is everywhere, and we will also give them some local products from Tang Dynasty, such as the courgettes grown this year, watermelons are good, easy Give them one hundred thousand catties.

However, people in this era don't know!I just feel that the Japanese people are so imposing, and our Tang Dynasty must not be suppressed by them. Changsun Wuji is even calculating how much gold is available in the imperial treasury.

"The second is to study. Among the members of the mission this time, there are 300 people who are Japanese nobles. They can know Chinese characters and speak Chinese. Emperor Tuigu wants to ask His Majesty to allow them to study in our Datang Imperial Academy."

"300 people?"

"impossible."

Tang Jian didn't continue talking, but a voice interrupted him, this time it was Fang Xuanling and Wei Zheng.

After Li Tang founded the country, the first thing to restore was the education system, but the effect was not satisfactory. Currently, there are only a few hundred students who are qualified to enter the Imperial College, and I have only a few hundred students, but it is obviously inappropriate to recruit [-] foreign students. .

You know, pens, inks, papers and inkstones are very expensive at this time, and Guozijian not only provides these things for students, but also provides various books, as well as meals and accommodation. , I, Datang, will nearly double this expense.

Of course, this is because it is only the first year of Zhenguan, and the economy of the Tang Dynasty has not yet taken off. If five years later, 300 people will be trivial, but the scale will reach thousands at that time.

"The third is to increase non-governmental trade. Therefore, the Japanese mission sent [-] craftsmen to learn the shipbuilding technology of our Tang Dynasty, hoping to build more ships to facilitate non-governmental commerce."

At first glance, it seems that the first two are problems, and only the third one is a normal condition for you and me. However, if Sun Xiangfu was here, he would definitely say, "There is a conspiracy" .

Ships are too important for an island country like Japan, and they cannot be measured by silver or anything else. Once they are given the ability to go out, their ambitions will be completely exposed. At that time, the sea is vast, and who can control it lost them?

However, no one in the imperial study at this time felt that there was anything wrong with this matter. In their view, the boat was just a means of transportation. It's just the transportation of thousands of stones. If they are allowed to build a large number of thousands of stone ships, then a little loss in tribute will be made up from trade immediately. After all, Datang is now exporting its own goods to any country.

"What do you think, let's discuss it!" Li Shimin said after listening to Tang Jian's words calmly.

To be honest, what Tang Jian said did not include the sentence that Li Shimin wanted to hear the most. What kind of attitude does the Wa Kingdom communicate with Datang?Since it is a tribute, why treat my Tang Dynasty as the suzerain country?
Therefore, Li Shimin was not very interested in the so-called conditions behind.

While Li Shimin and the ministers were discussing how to return gifts to the Japanese embassy and how to respond to their conditions in the imperial study, in the guest room of the Siyi Pavilion, Inugami Ertian was plotting with his subordinates.

"Have you found out about Sun Zhengming?"

"I found out that this person was originally just a farmer. Later, because he was good at fishing, he was recruited as a retainer by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. After that, his business became bigger and bigger. He also opened the largest restaurant in Chang'an, Wangjianglou. It is said that he He is very good at farming, and this year he has grown a courgette, a specialty of the Western Regions, Baidiezi, and now, he should have gone to Lingnan, it is said that he is to plant a new kind of rice."

"Boat, I mean boat, why does he have a boat like that?"

"I found this too. His boat was built for him by a family of boatmen in Lantian County."

"Let's go to Lantian County."

"No, there are his guards there, and the equipment is very good. If we go to snatch it, we will definitely not be able to get out of Chang'an. We can only find a way from the Emperor of Tang."

Under the stop of his subordinates, Inugami Ertasu calmed down in an instant. The scene of dozens of warriors under him being massacred by those elite men in Yangzhou Wharf was still in front of his eyes. With nearly a thousand warriors, they dare not face such a warrior head-on.

After the Yangzhou incident more than three months ago, Sun Xiangfu immediately realized the importance of the ship, so he wrote to Chang'an and sent a hundred guards from Xingfu Village to Yang Shunshui's shipyard for protection, which made the shipyard's secrecy several times higher. Level, so that the people on the dog have no chance to start.

"Do you think the emperor of Tang Dynasty will agree to our proposal?"

"I have great hopes. If I buy some more money to bribe their ministers, this matter may become very simple."

"Well, do as you like! As long as we have that kind of boat, we'll have money to spend."

After the agreement between the two was over, they acted on their own.

Besides, Sun Xiangfu, who is in Lingnan, after asking Li Chunfeng for a pigeon, felt that one might not be safe, so he brought all the pigeons that might fly to Chang'an, and not only wrote to Yu Xiuer alone After all, she is a woman and cannot interfere in the government affairs. Therefore, Qin Qiong, Dugu Mou, Hou Junji, even Yu Chigong and Cheng Yaojin have written. In the court, only their words can be effective.

"Okay, the letter has been sent back, whether it will be successful or not, it is up to fate!"

Li Chunfeng, who had experienced the ship robbing incident, naturally knew the hatefulness of these Japanese people, so he comforted him.

"Hey, inconvenient communication is trouble."

Sun Xiangfu complained that at this moment, he missed the phone calls of future generations very much.

After accepting the reality, he continued to read the letter from the warrior Xun.

Previously, there was a bumper harvest in Huainan, and the warehouses of the government alone had a million shi of soybeans, and the soybeans in the private sector were multiples of the official warehouses. Now, once the price of soybeans has dropped to 120 yuan, it will continue to fall. If there is another bumper crop of soybeans, the samurai Xun worried that the price of soybeans would not even be able to sell for [-] yuan, so he asked him for advice.

Not to mention soybeans, as long as the severe drought in Guanzhong next year is overcome, the price of a stone of rice will not be sold for one hundred yuan in the future, let alone soybeans, the reason is that there are too many lands and too few people. Well, as long as Li Shimin doesn't launch a war, the common people will have so much food that they can't finish it.

"Plant, why don't you plant it? People in Tang Dynasty haven't eaten stir-fried vegetables yet! As soon as brother's salted fish bean paste comes out, the common people eat soybean paste as salt, and they can sell as many soybeans as possible."

While going back to the room to pick up a pen to write a reply, he thought about the matter of salt. It seemed that he had to go and see how Shen Tuyong and his group were doing in the past two days. Salt was a very important part.

On an island less than [-] miles away in Guangzhou Bay, all the ships brought by Shen Tuyong from Huainan docked here. Today, they will do a major event here, which is to make salt.

Sun Xiangfu wrote to Wei Shuxie that there are two ways to make salt, one is to divert seawater to dry the salt on the beach, and the other is to cook seawater filtered with gauze charcoal in a casserole over high heat.

In this era without pollution, the salt obtained by these two methods can actually be eaten directly. Since the construction of a sun-dried salt farm still takes time and effort, the smoke produced is not as fine as the salt that is boiled after being filtered in a filter pool, so Shen Tuyong directly I chose this island with more lush forests and used the method of boiling salt.

After the filter pool was built according to the requirements of the secret recipe, the whole process was as simple as anyone could do. Therefore, without any difficulty, Shen Tuyong got a large jar of white sea salt after an hour.

"This, this is refined salt."

I dipped a little bit of crushed salt into my mouth with my fingers, and the subordinates involved in cooking the salt were stunned. They just boiled two barrels of filtered seawater in this earthenware pot, and they got at least one Pounds of salt.

"Brother Shentu, we are well-developed, well-developed, this is refined salt, worth a hundred cents a catty! With so many of us, how much can we cook in a day? Hahaha, we are well-developed..."

"Calm down, don't shout, have you forgotten about Hangzhou Bay? Do you know who gave us the method of making salt? In the future, whoever dares to mention the word salt in front of others, don't blame me, Shentu, for calling him with a knife.

We only know how to fish and dry salted fish, so from tomorrow onwards, women and children will stay on the island to cook salt. Ten renminbi a catty, a boatload is worth more than ten thousand guan, and there are several thousand guan in our hands, enough to save a family fortune for our children and grandchildren. "

Shen Tuyong's words immediately reminded his subordinates of the horrible scene in Hangzhou Bay. In fact, among these people, the truly ruthless ones have been taken away by Sun Xiangfu, and the rest are honest men without much aggressiveness. It is precisely because of this that Sun Xiangfu dared to entrust them with the work of making salt. As for Wei Shuxie, Sun Xiangfu was afraid that Li Shimin would find out that the matter would be out of control, so he found a blamer.Of course, if he took this responsibility, he would also get a corresponding profit, [-]% to [-]%. With the [-] stone boat in Shen Tuyong's hands, he could earn almost [-] guan for every time he pulled a boat of salted fish to Yangzhou.

(End of this chapter)