Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 259 Comparison of People's Livelihood

The first snow in the second year of Zhenguan came later than before.Wei Zheng has already driven his horse to Chang'an, and it hasn't come down yet, no, before the snow comes down, the people in Xingfu Village are still busy scrambling to plant it.

Cotton vegetables, broad beans, celery, spinach, chrysanthemum chrysanthemum, lettuce, coriander, Chinese cabbage, potherb mustard and other vegetables can be grown at this time of year. Frost can freeze locusts to extinction, but these vegetables cannot be frozen to death.

When the frost came down, the soil would get wet, and when the snow came down, the water would come. This means that the plague of locusts and drought would be over. If it was the past, the people in Guanzhong would spend the winter at home, where would they be? There will still be busy farming scenes, but this year, due to the understanding of the characteristics of these cold-loving vegetables, the food of the common people will be very rich, and the cold winter, which may have been very difficult, is not so sad.

To Li Shimin's surprise, Chang'an's grain dropped again, because Wang Hao's grain had arrived in Chang'an, and it was worth a million stones.

"Your Majesty, although the one million guan that I brought back from Shanyang cannot be put into the national treasury, please don't use it indiscriminately. The livelihood of millions of people in Guanzhong is very important."

"Hehe, I didn't expect that you, Wei Xuancheng, would be deceived by that kid's rhetoric into violating principles. Don't worry, I will only use the 100 million coins to buy the food in Wang Hao's hands."

In the imperial study room, Li Shimin looked at Wei Zheng with a teasing look in his eyes. After learning about the whole process of the Shanyang auction, what surprised Li Shimin the most was Wei Zheng's performance during the whole process. , It's all over the place. In the future, if he stands on the moral high ground and criticizes himself, he may not have enough confidence!
"Governing the country requires means. If you can save more people and reduce the border troubles of the country by sacrificing the old man's reputation, why not! This secret memorial was entrusted by the old minister Sun Zhengming to His Majesty. After reading it, Your Majesty should understand why I obeyed Sun Zhengming's arrangement and facilitated the land auction."

Seeing that Wei Zheng solemnly handed over a seal sealed with sealant to himself, Li Shimin also got excited, and immediately opened it up for a closer look.

After a while, Li Shimin's eyes began to light up. Although he had finished reading the whole ensemble, he couldn't help but read it from the beginning.

"Hahahaha, okay, what Sun Zhengming thinks is exactly what I want. Wait for the west..."

Li Shimin actually wanted to say that after the war between Li Jing and Jieli in the west, he would reward him wildly, when he suddenly realized that Wei Zheng didn't know about Li Jing's expedition. He was afraid of being sprayed, so he quickly closed his mouth.

"Uh, when you go to court tomorrow, all the lords should discuss the rewards for the bone beggars, and set them as an example for those who come later."

Li Shimin slammed on the brakes and changed his tone, but Wei Zheng didn't know why he was hiccupping. He only knew that a foreigner's submission would be a big boost to the court, and he knew that this was the beginning of Sun Xiangfu's plan , It is very important to keep this trend, and I strongly support it in my heart. After a rare compliment to the emperor's wisdom, he withdrew from the imperial study.

When the country's finances are tight, Empress Changsun usually reduces the expenditure of the harem to a toothache level. Why is the toothache?Because the harem has been eating sauerkraut and pickled vegetables for a long time. In fact, there are fish, but Empress Changsun saw that the price of fish in the market was soaring, so she was dragged to the market and sold. Today, Li Shimin finally found it. An excuse not to eat sauerkraut tofu.

Wei Zheng brought back 100 million coins, as well as dozens of cars of perfume, toffee, and spices, all of which went into the inner palace. Today, Empress Changsun must let him eat roast mutton no matter what, after all, Sun Xiangfu was kind Whether the spices that come out are good or not, you have to try it out.

"Your Majesty has been holding Sun Zhengming so tight in the past. How can you rest assured that he has so much money this time? Including the accounts, he has nearly 2000 million yuan in the Anbei Protectorate."

Empress Changsun, who smelled the fragrance from her body from time to time, was also in a happy mood. Even if she was talking about money that made her gnash her teeth, she was still smiling.

"Because I know that money in his hands can play a greater role. You don't know that he is the only one who can't find fault with Wei Zheng. He also tried every means to help him cheat." Li Shimin smelled the fragrance. Empress Changsun was still chewing on toffee.

"Really? It's not easy."

"It's not easy! It is said that when Wei Zheng arrived in Shanyang, he already owed a huge debt of hundreds of thousands of pennies, and it was a private debt. The money was all advanced by him to help the court solve the people's livelihood problems, and The Turkic people in Shanyang, oh, the people in Shanyang now, each of them has their own house, a job that can support their family, and their living standards are better than those of the people in Guanzhong when they were in good times."

"Ha! How did he do this?" Empress Changsun was a little disbelieving.

If there are people in other places living better than the people in Guanzhong during this period, it is the emperor's negligence. These are the people at the feet of the emperor!
"I also only analyzed some clues. He used the land in several counties of Shuozhou to grow enough food for the people in the Anbei Duhufu area, and lured them with high salaries so that all the people could not rest in peace and work every day. , while constantly improving the construction of his Shanyang City, he produced a lot of things, this perfume! Toffee! It’s just one of them. It is said that there are now many shops in Shanyang City, and the goods are more complete than Chang’an. All go to Shanyang to sell and buy goods, which can be regarded as bringing his talent of goodness to the extreme."

Hearing this, Empress Changsun said with a smile, "Really? If the Chang'an run by His Majesty is inferior to Shanyang, wouldn't it be shameful?"

Empress Changsun actually meant to encourage Li Shimin. Who would have imagined it? Li Shimin's face darkened when he heard the words, and he patted the toffee in his hand on the table and said, "If you don't mention this, I almost forgot, Feng Anqian A few days ago, I submitted a booklet and asked the people in Guanzhong how much their income was in the past, and I was puzzled, so I passed it on to Feng Zhidai to ask, do you know what he said?"

"How did he say?"

"He said that Sun Zhengming boasted that he had passed Haikou in Lingnan back then, and that the people in Lingnan would be richer than those in Guanzhong within three years, and within ten years, all of them would wear gold and silver and look at the poor people in Guanzhong with silly smiles."

"puff."

Empress Changsun was chewing the toffee vigorously. After hearing Li Shimin's words and seeing Li Shimin's expression when he said this, she couldn't help bursting out laughing.

However, when she thought about it carefully, the smile on her face gradually subsided. If someone else said such a thing, Empress Changsun might think it was a fairy tale, but Sun Xiangfu said such a thing, but it made her feel It's possible.

"Your Majesty, after the waterway was opened up, how much grain did Lingnan bring in?"

"Uh, I'm afraid there are more than 300 million stones!" Li Shimin replied in a daze.

"Well, the annual tribute requested by Lingnan was sent to the palace in full. In other words, the imperial court now owes Lingnan more than 300 million shi of grain?"

"Uh, yes, that's it!" Li Shimin was even more stunned. When Empress Changsun asked these words, Li Shimin already understood what she wanted to say.

How many people did Feng An rule? It was only more than 30 yuan, but more than 300 million shi of grain were sent to Guanzhong within a year, and this was not added to the annual tribute. The grain was distributed to everyone, which was more than ten shi!Do the people in Guanzhong have more than ten stones of surplus food in their homes?

Moreover, this is not counting the more than 100 million shi of grain that is being transported to Chang'an. In addition, the fresh melon and fruit business and sugar business in Lingnan are all industries that come with money. It is said that this year, all the white sugar and rock sugar in the east and west cities of Chang'an They were all sold out by merchants from the Western Regions, with a total value of hundreds of thousands.Moreover, there is also a salted fish industry that regularly goes to the Yangzhou salted fish bean paste workshop to bring back tens of thousands of dollars of money.

"No wonder Feng An asked how much the people in Guanzhong had earned in the past! It turned out that he thought that the people in Lingnan were already richer than those in Guanzhong. How long has it been? More than a year?"

Thinking of this question, Li Shimin was a little dazed. As the ruler of the empire, the people under his feet are not as rich as the barbarians on the border. Is this okay?

"Your Majesty can't do that. They have fewer people under their control, and you have more. Moreover, it's normal that Guanzhong suffered a disaster this year." Seeing Li Shimin's expression was wrong, Empress Changsun persuaded.

"I'm pretty sure that even if Guanzhong doesn't suffer a disaster this year, it will still be inferior to Lingnan, and it will be inferior to Shanyang soon. This is a bit wrong! It must be that my governance method is wrong. Feng, it is impossible to compare with the two frontier barbarians..."

Li Shimin seemed to be in a daze, and when his brain started to work, he even forgot to chew the toffee in his mouth.But at this time, there was a notice from the servants, and the imperial physician ordered Sun Simiao, Yuan Tiangang, the imperial historian, and Li Chunfeng, the deputy supervisor, to see him.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the three priests are asking to see you. Do you see me or not?" Empress Changsun called several times in succession before Li Shimin recovered from that strange state.

After a while, the three of Sun Simiao were brought in by the servants. After some visits, the three of them explained their purpose.

Sun Simiao came to resign. Now, all the people in Weinan have been inoculated with vaccinia, and the work of eliminating the source of infection is coming to an end. There is no need for him to stay here. He wants to visit Sun Zhengming in Shanyang City to discuss medical skills. It is an application for companionship.

As for Yuan Tiangang, he came to report to Li Shimin the weather conditions for a period of time in the future. Since the drought in Guanzhong they collectively predicted was accurate, Li Shimin has been very concerned about the weather conditions, and has made some changes in the farming plans of the farmers in Xingfu Village. After learning about it, I paid more attention to the impact of weather on production, so I asked every now and then.

In the end, Li Shimin did not agree to the resignation of Sun Simiao, who had made great contributions to the fight against the plague. He also granted him and Li Chunfeng the official titles of Wensan, a doctor at court.In the end, Li Shimin allowed them to go to Shanyang to discuss medical skills with Sun Xiangfu, but asked them to bring a sentence to Sun Xiangfu. Within this year, they must present a strategy that can enrich the people in Guanzhong.

(End of this chapter)