Tibet

On December 12, the 800-mile express message sent from Yunzhou finally arrived in Chang'an, and the reporting soldiers directly delivered the express message to the Yunshuo Governor's Mansion Jinzouyuan.

Yunshuo Dudufu Jinzouyuan and Yunzhou Jinzouyuan are the same team and have two brands. The same is true for other garrison prefectures. For example, the Ganliang Dudufufu Jinzouyuan is also the Liangzhou Jinzouyuan.

There is no need to set up a separate memorial hall for the Dudu Mansion, it is too wasteful, and the main reason is that the land price in Chang'an is too expensive.

Officials who enter the Memorial Court usually have two jobs. If the memorial is sent from the state capital, it will of course be handed over to the White Tiger Hall of the province under the command. If the memorial or express report is sent from the governor's palace, it will be handed over to the Privy Council.

The imperial court built two large buildings outside the Danfeng Gate of the Daming Palace. One was the White Tiger Hall, and the other was the Privy Council's External Relations Hall.

This is like the government affairs hall of later generations. Memorials from various states are directly handed over to the White Tiger Hall, while memorials from various armies are sent to the External Relations Hall of the Privy Council.

At this time, Chang'an has been covered by a heavy snowfall, and the whole city is covered with snow. It is only half a month until the New Year. The whole city is filled with festive joy, and the business of various shops is also the best time of the year.

In the past two days, Li Ye and the senior officials have been learning about the market. As Li Ye expected, after the square wall was demolished, more and more shops along the street opened. Many shops in the East Market and West Market were moved out. For example, the more than 20 shops selling liquor in the West Market have all moved to the east along the street.

The livestock shops were moved outside Xicheng, where a livestock trading center was established, covering a large area. Each of the more than 30 shops has four or five acres of land, and a large number of pigs, cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, Horses, camels and other livestock are traded here, and the business is very prosperous.

It turns out that in the West Market, due to space restrictions, there are much fewer choices.

As the New Year approaches, the best-selling items are sheep, with hundreds of thousands sold a day. This is just private livestock sales, targeting ordinary people.

The Prime Minister's Army and the government have their own sources of goods, and the quantities are even larger.

In the West Market that Li Ye inspected, although many shops had moved away, the West Market was still very lively. Li Ye and Yan Zhenqing, the chief official of Yushitai, walked into a grain shop. The grain shop was very lively, with at least thirty people buying food. Food, shouts and shouts kept coming and going.

Food is Li Ye's biggest concern. Every winter, food prices in Chang'an rise sharply. On the one hand, food from outside cannot come in, but more importantly, the powerful people who control food take the opportunity to increase prices.

Because food prices soared, public dissatisfaction boiled, especially the morale of the army was unstable. This was a fatal matter, forcing the rulers of the Tang Dynasty to move to Luoyang.

Therefore, food has never been a shortage issue, but a political issue involving the interests of too many powerful people.

But this is not unreasonable. Once the powerful get huge benefits from other places, such as industry and commerce, they will let go of food prices.

This is what the Song Dynasty did. It liberalized industry and commerce, making the industry and commerce of the Song Dynasty extremely developed. The court took charge of food. Only rice from Champa could be introduced. Food prices were cheap, and the population grew to over 100 million.

Li Ye also knew this. He had talked with the Guanlong nobles before, and the amount of rice in Chang'an could not exceed eighty cents. This was the bottom line acceptable to him and the court. At eighty cents, he would not use Chang Pingcang. Once it exceeded eighty cents, , Chang Pingcang immediately released grain.

The shopkeeper of the grain store recognized Li Ye and was so frightened that he quickly came out to salute, "My dear fellow, see you, Your Highness!"

Li Ye nodded, "I'm just here to inquire about the price of food. It won't affect your business."

Next to him, Yan Zhenqing asked: "What is the highest price of rice now?"

"Eighty cents per dou of rice. This price has been the same since the beginning of the month. Wheat has gone up and down. Now it costs sixty cents per dou of wheat. Ground flour is almost sixty-five cents."

"Are all other stores the same?" Li Ye asked again.

"it's the same!"

"How much is the cheapest bucket this year?"

"Three months ago, the price of rice was 60 cents per dou, which was the cheapest price this year."

"You guys are busy, I'll go look elsewhere."

Li Ye walked out of the grain store again, and Yan Zhenqing whispered: "Grain prices are still being manipulated!"

Li Ye nodded, "I hope that after the large-scale promotion of Jiaozhou rice, the price of rice can drop to thirty cents per bucket."

Yan Zhenqing knew that it was very difficult. He had to suppress the Guanlong nobles and force them not to dare to confront the court. After Li Longji attacked the Guanlong nobles, the price of rice in Chang'an fell to ten cents per meter. That was the real prosperous age, but it was a pity that the good times did not last long.

"Your Highness, I would like to make you a suggestion!"

"you say!"

Yan Zhenqing smiled and said: "We can issue a price bulletin and report the prices of various important items of the previous day to the Political Hall and His Highness every morning, so that they can be kept informed at any time."

Li Ye said happily: "I had this idea a long time ago, but it has never been implemented. Yan Shijun proposed it in a timely manner. I will bring it to the political affairs hall for discussion tomorrow."

The reason why Li Ye did not implement it was because he wanted to create a price index. He set up an index based on more than a dozen important people's livelihood products, and then observed the changes in the price index in various places, so that he could grasp the social trends of the Tang Dynasty. If the price index in a certain place If the price index suddenly becomes high, there must be a big problem. This kind of index is very useful for the court to control places.

Immediately afterwards, Li Ye entered another cloth shop.

The size of the cloth shop can only be considered medium, but the store has a wide range of products, including traditional silk and linen fabrics and the latest trendy cotton fabrics.

But the most popular selling items are various filling materials, especially cotton, which are placed in several huge bamboo baskets with people crowded on both sides.

The waiter didn't know Li Ye, but judging from Li Ye's aura, he thought it was a big customer. With a smile on his face, the waiter stepped forward and introduced: "Welcome to our shop. The shop has been in business for forty years, and we are very honest!"

Li Ye pointed at the cotton in the big basket and said with a smile: "How to sell cotton now?"

The waiter scratched his head and said: "Reporting to the customer, this is loose cotton. If the customer has a large quantity, we can give you a discount!"

"I'll just ask Sanmian!"

At this time, the shopkeeper ran forward and pushed the waiter away. Although he did not know Li Ye, he saw the guards on both sides and said respectfully: "Return to your highness, five hundred coins per pound of loose cotton!"

"Only five hundred coins?"

Li Ye asked in confusion: "The money was still the same last year, how come it has dropped by half this year?"

The shopkeeper smiled bitterly and pointed to the baskets of cotton at the end: "Is it because of them?"

Li Ye walked up to take a closer look. He twirled the cotton fiber, and when his heart moved, he smiled and said, "Is this cotton?"

"Yes! This is kapok shipped from Quanzhou. It only costs 300 yuan per catty. It's really killing people!"

Next to him, Yan Zhenqing was really shocked. Cotton had always been sold in taels, and it was a benefit only for officials. Officials were given more than a dozen taels of cotton every year, but now they were selling it by the pound, and it was so cheap, only 300 taels per pound.

Li Ye asked again: "Where did you get the goods from?"

The shopkeeper shook his head, "I bought this for three hundred cents a pound. They have several specialty stores, the first one in the north and the two opposite."

"Let's go! Take a look."

Li Ye took Yan Zhenqing out.