Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Lu Tong and Changsun Jian stayed in Jingzhou for more than ten days. They learned about Li Tai's plan and the ongoing affairs in the town, and then returned to Huazhou to report.

Yuwentai sent these two people to Jingzhou, and his attitude was mainly to inquire and confirm, and did not set any insurmountable rules for Li Tai. This shows that he still trusts and expects Li Tai, and hopes that he can create his own in Jingzhou. The beautiful prospects depicted.

After Li Tai tested the freedom given to him by Daxingtai, he was determined in his heart. As long as there was no one to restrain him from doing things, he would be able to ensure that he would be in the best condition to face the next turbulent situation.

In terms of internal affairs, the route has been decided. Like an experienced hunter, Li Tai does not blindly rush for success and mess up his own pace, but still promotes the development of various things step by step. As for foreign affairs, new plans soon emerged.

In late October, an envoy from Xiangyang arrived in Rangcheng. The leader was Cai Dabao, a former acquaintance.

Li Tai also warmly welcomed Cai Dabao's arrival and informed his father, Li Xiao, immediately.

Li Xiao was even more excited about Cai Dabao's arrival. After hearing the news, he returned to the state capital from the city's prefecture school construction site. After a few warm greetings with Cai Dabao, he invited him to come with him to appreciate the prefecture school he planned. site.

Cai Dabao is difficult but kind, and Li Tai can also understand that as a northerner, he is eager to promote the cultural and educational achievements of the Northern Dynasty in front of southerners. If this cultural and educational enterprise is built by himself, it will naturally be even more important. Feeling proud, Li Tai also got up and accompanied him.

"There has been no state school in Jingzhou for a long time. I don't know where to visit the scholars, and it is difficult to get in. Boshan felt this after entering the city, so he opened a place in the city to set up a school. The church here is still under construction and will be ready until next year. It was built to accept the eager to learn people from the state and county..."

Only a circle of foundations had just been laid on the construction site, and the so-called halls had not yet seen the framework. However, Li Xiao still enthusiastically led Cai Dabao to walk around, introducing to him the various areas divided by this state school. It is expectation and pride. In his opinion, being able to develop culture and education in a place is a more glorious deed than before when Li Tai led his army to directly occupy Fancheng and pointed his sword at Xiangyang.

After hearing this, Cai Dabao nodded in agreement and praised him, and expressed his willingness to recommend several teaching doctors from Xiangyang to this place if necessary. Of course, the premise is that they are willing to come to Mianbei.

Li Tai is naturally full of confidence in the future attractiveness of Mianbei. As for now, that's all. If he hadn't been serving as the governor of Jingzhou now, he might not have even bothered to come here. Cai Dabao said this, of course, just politely, but Li Tai believed that he could make it a reality soon.

The area of ​​this school is not small, but because there are not many buildings, the tour was completed quickly.

Li Tai took advantage of the situation and led Cai Dabao to a nearby street. He pointed to the same construction site and smiled at Cai Dabao: "I told Cai Canjun to build a mansion in the city to shelter the poor. Now the building has begun to be built." , when this building is completed, I will write to Xiangyang, asking Cai Canjun to come and appreciate it again! "

"This, this building is actually... the one you really trust!"

After Cai Dabao heard this, his face suddenly lit up, and he saluted him again and sighed.

Li Tai led Cai Dabao to the open space next to the construction site, where a wooden poster was erected, and the poster depicted the architectural drawings of the building he designed himself.

Cai Dabao stepped forward and observed carefully. He saw that the upper floor of this picture is divided into five floors. The bottom floor is made of masonry structure, and the upper four floors are decorated with carved beams and cornices. From this picture alone, it looks very majestic. , combined with the scale of the construction site in front of us, we can imagine that it will be even more spectacular after completion in the future. Coupled with the functions and implications of the building itself, it will definitely be praised by the masses and become one of the city's famous attractions!

"I temporarily named this building Hongbin Building, after Hongyan Traveler without losing his broad-minded ambition. I wonder what Cai Shenjun's intention is?"

Li Tai smiled and asked Cai Dabao again, and Cai Dabao nodded in approval after hearing the words.

The group of people wandered around the construction site for a while, and Li Taicai said with a smile: "If there are any difficulties in construction in Xiangyang, whether it is monetary or craftsmanship difficulties, I will try my best to help Cai Canjun."

"No, no, thank you very much for your concern. When the attic is completed in the coming day, I will write to you to let you know!"

Cai Dabao quickly said without guilt that when he mentioned this matter to King Yueyang before, King Yueyang showed great interest in it and took it over and planned to do it himself. Soon after Li Tai returned to town, he sent people to transfer the promised wealth. The goods were sent to Xiangyang, and after Cai Dabao transferred them to the palace, there was no further information from King Yueyang.

Of course, King Yueyang did not hide it because he was greedy for these goods. He has been busy negotiating with Jingzhao Du family and others recently to adjust the internal order of Yongzhou. He is so busy that he thinks he has forgotten this matter long ago. back.

Although Cai Dabao understood his king, compared with Li Tai, who was right in his words, he inevitably felt that King Yueyang was slightly lacking in action.

The group walked around the city before returning to the state capital. Li Tai and several government officials formally entertained their group of envoys.

Cai Dabao had two purposes for his trip. One was to tell Li Tai that they had taken over Fancheng and several other garrison strongholds again, and he came here to express his gratitude. The second was to represent Li Tai's gift in return on behalf of King Yueyang.

After Li Tai led his army back to the town, he sent people to transport a batch of goods to Xiangyang to express his gratitude for their care for his father. The gift to Cai Dabao was a simple expression of gratitude, and the money was used as the capital for his people to build Hongbin Tower in Xiangyang.

As for the gift to Yueyang King Xiao Zha, it had another purpose and was carefully selected by Li Tai. It included a batch of spoils he had collected from Jinyang Palace before, swords, fine armor and jewelry, as well as Western goods shipped from Longyou.

Li Tai wanted to use this gift to show that although their Guanxi regime was not large in territory, it was rich in resources, especially after opening up the Hexi Corridor, it had a huge advantage in the Silk Road trade, paving the way for the subsequent mutual trade between the two sides.

Cai Dabao came to return the gift on behalf of Yueyang King this time. At the banquet, he first expressed his gratitude, and then ordered his entourage to present the gifts returned by Yueyang King and recite them one by one.

Li Tai presented more than 80 gifts to King Yueyang, including fabrics, lacquerware, spices, jewelry, weapons, horses, gold and silver wares, paper, scriptures, Buddha statues, etc. It can be said that he displayed all the precious goods he could find. Of course, weapons and horses will never be traded in bulk, and they are just for show.

Cai Dabao stood up from the table and immediately took out a long gift list. When he saw the length of the gift list, Li Tai felt a hint of gunpowder. As Cai Dabao read out more than 170 gifts from King Yueyang, he knew in his heart that this guy was going to compete with him.

Li Tai is now rich and powerful, and has seen the world. Of course, he will not be easily intimidated by others. He wants to see how the other party plans to suppress him.

But as Cai Dabao recited and his entourage continued to display the gifts, the glittering jewels in the hall soon made Li Tai see what real luxury is!

The gifts that King Yueyang gave back were not as extensive as those given by Li Tai, but the quantity and quality of the gifts were enough to slap Li Tai in the face.

For example, there were more than 20 kinds of fabrics, including various brocades and brocades, from craftsmanship to materials. Among the foreign goods, Li Tai saw who was the boss of the Silk Road!

Among them, there were two strings of gem bracelets, each of which was made up of more than 20 gems in series, and the types of these gems were completely different, including crystal, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, amber, etc. Some gems were not even seen by Li Tai, and the materials and polishing processes were all excellent.

As for the gold and silver utensils, not only were they much larger than what Li Tai gave, but they were also much more complex in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship. Gilded pots, crystal cups, ivory carvings, lion manes and whisks, all rare and exotic, all kinds of things.

When all the more than 170 kinds of gifts were laid out in the hall, not only the officials of Jingzhou, but also Li Tai himself were dazzled. At the same time, his face was a little hot with embarrassment. This time he was really taught a lesson.

Xiao Zhao was able to give so many gifts in return, which was certainly related to his noble status, but the most important thing was that the status of Southern Liang in the Silk Road trade was much higher than that of Western Wei.

Although Southern Liang did not control the Hexi Corridor, it could conduct Silk Road trade through the Qinghai line controlled by Tuyuhun in Shuzhong. Its territory has been peaceful for a long time, and the nobles and powerful people have accumulated excessively, and their purchasing power is much stronger than that of Guanxi.

Li Tai also thought that if he opened up the Hexi Corridor, he could turn the tables on the Silk Road trade. After being slapped in the face and taught by King Yueyang, he found that their poor situation had not changed!

For a while, two ideas popped up in his mind. One was to continue giving gifts to Xiao Zhao to see if the other party would continue to return double. The other was to lead troops to attack Xiangyang again. Damn, it's all my fault!

However, apart from these two unreliable ideas, Li Tai was also a little worried about how to suppress the other party. Of course, he was not simply trying to compete with the other party in wealth, but hoped to gain more initiative in the next trade discussion.

Xiao Zhao's return gift not only showed that they had their own channels for international trade in Nanliang, but also showed that there was not much demand for trade with Western Wei. If Li Tai could not come up with goods that stimulated the other party's desire to buy, even if he barely won the opportunity to trade, the profit space would not be too large, and it would probably be better to rob directly.

He was not a pacifist, but he felt that if he fell out with Xiangyang right now, it would be detrimental to the plan to continue to infiltrate and develop in the Jiangbei area, and he might be picked up by Xiao Laoqi, the one-eyed dragon, in the end.

After thinking about it, he decided to play to his advantage as a time traveler and open a small cheat to let Xiao Zhao, a bumpkin, see the charm of technological development!