Tibet

The custom on the first day of the first lunar month is not to go out, and every household stays at home.

On the first day of the first lunar month, the imperial court usually held a New Year's Day ceremony and hosted a banquet for hundreds of officials.

Li Ye's Qi Palace is no exception. There is also a New Year's banquet, but they are not on the first day of the first lunar month, but on the second day of the first lunar month. One reason is of course to avoid the suspicion of overstepping.

Another reason is that every household has to offer sacrifices on New Year's Eve, usually at midnight. Most people have not slept at night and are sleepy, so they need to catch up on their naps on the morning of the first day of the first lunar month.

Perhaps because the emperor was seriously ill this year, the imperial court did not hold a New Year's meeting or determine a new era name. Instead, it simply extended last year's era name by another year, Baoying five years.

On the morning of the second day of the first lunar month, more than 600 officials from Chang'an gathered in the Qinzheng Building to listen to the New Year's speech delivered by His Royal Highness King Qi.

Li Ye briefly reviewed last year's achievements. The most important achievement was that they obtained Guanzhong and Chang'an, and included Anxi and Beiting into their territory.

The frontier was stable. Although small groups of Tibetan troops continued to harass them, they were defeated and annihilated by the border troops.

The food harvest was good and the people were able to live and work in peace and contentment.

Looking forward to the new year, we will continue to stabilize the border areas, strive to innovate technology, and use technology to increase productivity, increase food production, make the people richer, and make the army stronger.

Li Ye's New Year's speech was not long, and next was a banquet held in the Huaxianhui Building. The King of Qi hosted a banquet for all his civil and military officials.

The dancers in many music studios in Chang'an danced to the sound of music, and the officials welcomed the conversation, which was very lively.

Li Ye only drank two token glasses of wine and left. Everyone was uncomfortable with his presence. But after he left, everyone was free from restraints and could all be in high spirits and drink to their heart's content.

While the New Year's Eve banquet was in full swing, Li Ye met Dugu Ming in the official room.

Dugu Ming is not Li Ye's subordinate. He has resigned from all official positions in the court and only retained the title of Duke of the country to maintain filial piety for his mother Ding You.

However, Li Ye still invited him to attend the New Year Ceremony.

Because of his filial piety, Dugu Ming did not attend any banquets, and naturally he did not attend the New Year's banquet. Moreover, when his daughter got married, he did not prepare a banquet, so he invited relatives and friends in Chang'an to attend a brief wedding ceremony.

"Yesterday, Taiwei changed her story. I officially named her Liangdi, but I still want to save Taiwei's wedding ceremony until the seventh day of the first lunar month so that she can have a good memory."

Dugu Ming nodded, "Thank you, dear son-in-law, for being considerate and giving me enough face."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and asked, "I wonder what my father-in-law's plans are after the wedding?"

When Dugu Ming saw that Li Ye had changed his name to his father-in-law, he felt happy and smiled slightly: "I plan to run in both directions in the next time. I will prepare a very comfortable boat so that the journey will not be too tiring."

"I remember that the Dugu family had a shipyard in Jiangdu?"

Dugu Ming nodded, "There are many shipyards in Jiangdu, hundreds of large and small. The Dugu family and the Dou family jointly opened a shipyard in Jiangdu. It was established in the 17th year of Kaiyuan. It mainly built 500 to 5,000 stone ships. Shi's cargo ships are the second largest in Jiangdu, second only to the government-run shipyard. "

"Have you ever considered building a ten thousand stone ship?"

"Of course I have considered it, but building a cargo ship or sea-going ship of more than five thousand stone must be approved by the court. In fact, this kind of application is easy to approve. Those factories along the coast of Fuzhou and Quanzhou that build ten-thousand-stone sea-going ships have all been successfully approved after submission. , but for some reason, the imperial court refused to approve the application we submitted. Later I found out that the emperor did not allow the Guanlong nobles to build ten thousand stone ships, nor did they allow the Guanlong nobles to be involved in smelting and animal husbandry. The emperor was still on guard against us. "

"It's okay now. I will go all out to develop shipping in the future, and I will need a large number of ships worth more than 10,000 dan."

Dugu Ming smiled slightly and said: "I can help you, but we don't build ships. We have no advantage in shipbuilding, but we can provide spare parts for sea-going ships. It takes five years to make the keel of a ten-thousand-stone sea-going ship. The factory in Guangjiangdu In the warehouse, we have stored hundreds of thousands of stone ship keels, as well as countless types of wood for sea ships. "

Li Ye nodded, "You have actually been preparing to build a sea-going ship, but you have never had the chance to build it!"

"That's true. The court didn't allow us to build it, but we refused to give in. We have been storing and preparing materials. Now we are the largest merchants of shipbuilding materials in the world, and we also have huge profits."

"What about sea ships? Are there really none?" Li Ye asked again.

Dugu Ming smiled slyly, "There is a Wanshi fleet in Mingzhou, which has something to do with us. There is also a Wanshi fleet in Guangzhou, which is also related to us. If my husband needs a ship, I can think of a way."

Li Ye did not express his position immediately. He smiled and said: "I have two things to do with my father-in-law. First, I hope that my father-in-law can set up a shipbuilding school to train a large number of young craftsmen who can build thousands of stone ships. Should this be a problem?" Not big, right?”

Dugu Ming nodded, "We have set up a textile school in Jiangning County, with more than 300 students. The response has been very good. We also have experience in running schools. I can arrange for people to set up a shipbuilding school in Jiangdu, Mingzhou and Quanzhou." School, now that shipwrights have high incomes and are very popular, I believe shipbuilding schools will be very popular.”

Li Ye took out another piece of soap and another piece of soap, put them on the table and said: "The big one is soap and can be used for washing. The small one has spices added and is called soap. It is used for bathing."

Dugu Ming was surprised. He picked up the soap and smelled it, then looked at it carefully and asked, "How is it made?"

"It's separated from suet, not just suet, but other oils as well."

Dugu Ming picked up the soap and went to the pool in the yard to wash his hands. He quickly figured out how to use it. After washing his hands, his hands were clean. He immediately praised: "Good things will definitely sell well. I need to make them." ?”

Li Ye nodded, "My four wives and concubines each contribute 5,000 yuan, and I provide the technology. We will account for 70% of the share, and my father-in-law will be responsible for the production and 30% of the share. Is that okay?"

"Are you just trying to make some money for Taiwei and the others?"

Li Ye smiled and said, "That's right!"

Dugu Ming thought for a while and said: "It's hard to divide 70%, so let's do it like this! Each of them will get 20% of the molecule, and I will get 20%. I will let the rouge factory in Xianyang be responsible for doing this!"

Dugu Ming thought liberally. One was his daughter and the other was his niece. There was no problem in letting them make money.

Li Ye took out a brochure and a counter ticket worth 20,000 yuan and handed it to him, "This is a technical secret. There are also pictures. My father-in-law has put it away. If you don't understand, you can ask me!"

Dugu Ming accepted the money and booklet and said happily: "I will go to Xianyang Factory tomorrow!"