Tibet

Li Ye nodded, "I promised to give it to the court when I reported my work. Because my father happened to be the Minister of Household Affairs, I considered waiting for my father to take office before taking out these supplies. Therefore, I have not moved them. My father can sell them. Let’s raise money to dredge Tianbao Canal.”

Li Dai smiled bitterly and said: "This money has been planned to be used to pay salaries. The court has been in arrears for salary for three months, and many low-level officials are unable to open the door."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "In addition to this batch of materials, the camel team also brought back a batch of gold and silver utensils, worth about half a million guan. I promised the emperor to donate another 1 million guan to the court. This batch of gold and silver utensils I Give it directly to the Ministry of Household Affairs, which lists it as a special fund for dredging rivers."

Li Dai sighed: "It will take at least two million guan to fully dredge Tianbao Canal and manage Sanmenxia. Five hundred thousand guan can only do part of it."

"Part of it is fine. Father, listen to me. We should follow the example of Yin Lijie of Henan during the Kaiyuan period and build large warehouses before and after Sanmenxia. If water transport is not possible in the Sanmenxia section, then we must use land transport. The distance is only twenty or thirty miles. Use Camels are transported, and the large warehouses on both sides serve as transit.

Then Tianbao Canal only needs to be dredged to the distance of Yongtongcang, and there is no need to build it to Chang'an. As long as Yongtongcang stores millions of stones of grain, there will be no famine in Guanzhong. "

Li Dai nodded, "You are using your money wisely, and you have enough time. I will arrange for the Jianghuai tax grains to be transported quickly, and at the same time, priority will be given to repairing the warehouses in the east of Shaanzhou. Although many of them have collapsed, they are still intact." To use some of it, we need to repair thirty miles of grain transportation roads!”

Li Ye said: "Build the road first. If the granary is too late to be repaired, you can set up temporary tents first. We must transport the grain to Guanzhong before winter."

Li Dai nodded, "With half a million dollars, we can solve the big problem at hand."

Li Ye smiled again and said: "Actually, there are still ways to develop financial resources."

"any solution?"

Li Ye said slowly: "Land, the government still has a lot of official houses and land. There are many wealthy businessmen in Chang'an now, but they are not qualified to live in big houses. Their family wealth is millions, and their family is still crowded in a small courtyard of one acre of land." Here, as long as this restriction is abolished, the land price in Chang'an will inevitably rise sharply, and the court will be able to obtain a large amount of money from selling land."

Li Dai walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "Of course it is a good idea to increase revenue, but if you don't cut back on expenditures, you won't be able to sustain it for long. The life of the powerful is too extravagant. The expenses of supporting the emperor, the emperor's relatives, and the five Yang dignitaries have already occupied Half of the imperial tax."

"Didn't Father say that all of it will be used for military expenses?"

Li Dai snorted, "Except for the army stationed in Chang'an, which received full salary, the border troops were only given half, and the other half was raised by themselves. An Lushan's army was nominally 150,000, but in fact it was far more than 100,000. At least several million yuan a year, but the court could not provide it, so An Lushan raised it himself. He also appointed officials in Youzhou, and he was in charge of finance and taxation. The three major powers of government, finance, and army were vested in him. It is obvious that An Lushan Lushan has already supported his troops and is self-reliant, so it would be good if he doesn’t rebel."

At this time, Li Ye suddenly understood why it was said that Anlushan's rebellion was forced by Yang Guozhong, because Anlushan had already supported his own troops, and the court was pretending to be deaf and dumb. As a local emperor, the maximum scope of influence will slowly expand to Hebei.

At this time, the imperial court should actively buy time to prepare for war, prepare money, food and supplies, deploy troops and generals, and build pass fortifications. This is an effective response. After sufficient preparations, the imperial court should mobilize a large army to attack Youzhou. In this way, Anlu Mountain will be destroyed. The chaos was compressed to part of Youzhou, and Hebei, Hedong, Henan and other places will not be affected by the war.

But Yang Guozhong was ignorant of current affairs. He insisted on revealing things that everyone knew. As prime minister, he did not consider any preparations for war. He told Li Longji every day that An Lushan was going to rebel and he must be transferred back to the court. Killed, the extremely stupid Li Longji actually listened to him and transferred An Lushan back to the court. This was tantamount to breaking the tacit agreement and refusing to admit that An Lushan supported the army and was self-reliant. Of course, An Lushan openly rebelled.

In fact, now Yang Guozhong and An Lushan are on the same level. An Lushan killed Yang Guozhong's son. How could Yang Guozhong give up?

Yang Guozhong had impeached An Lushan twice and failed to report to the court as scheduled, but the emperor remained silent. Now Li Longji is still a little awake, but as Mrs. Guo Guo's control over Li Longji deepens, the situation becomes difficult to say.

Li Ye thought for a long time and said: "As long as my father ensures that Guanzhong has sufficient food preparations, ensures official salaries, does not burst the financial pustules, and maintains the balance and stability of the court, I estimate that An Lushan will rebel within two years."

"But if I don't expose it, those bad debts will become my responsibility."

"What I mean is that my father can secretly report to the emperor, but don't make it public directly. If it is made public, the court and the whole world will be in turmoil."

Li Dai nodded helplessly, "Wei Jiansu advised me the same way today, not to cover up Yang Guozhong's death, but to maintain the stability of the court."

Li Dai walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "Ye'er, how much money is left in the river?"

Li Ye said slowly: "There are still one million gold coins in the account."

"Actually?"

"I can't say how many actually there are. I want to support the army, not only the Hezhong Army, but also the Anxi Army. There are nearly 40,000 troops. The court only gave 30% of the military salary, and the other 70% of the military salary and food supplies for the soldiers. I have to figure it out myself. I can give the court another five hundred thousand gold coins at most, but I can’t give any more."

After entering August, the time for the wedding is getting closer and closer day by day.

More than 20 people from the Pei family in Hexi arrived in the capital, led by their eldest son Pei Jia.

The Gaosheng Inn diagonally opposite has been vacated. Li Ye's men only left a dozen people to help, and the rest returned to the military camp outside the city.

Li Ye came to the inn and visited his uncle Pei Jia.

Pei Jia is about forty years old, and his son is Pei Xiu. He is currently guarding the town of Aral Sea thousands of miles away, and his situation is still unknown.

The two sat down in the room. Pei Jia took an eagle letter and gave it to Li Ye, "This is from Sui Ye. I brought it to you along the way."

Li Ye took Ying Xin and asked with a smile: "Uncle, come here, will you have a smooth journey?"

Pei Jia smiled and said: "In general, it went well. Grandma You wanted to come, but she is old and tired from the journey. She can't bear it, so we won't let her come."

Li Ye also smiled and said: "Don't run away when you are old. When I return to Suiye, I will drop by to visit her old man."

"You are now the governor of Anxi, do you still want to go back to Suiye?"

Li Ye nodded, "We must go back to Suiye first, and we can't go to Anxi until next spring. Next year will be very hard. Suiye has to run both ways in Anxi, and we have to launch an offensive against Tubo."

"How are Xi'er and Xiao An?" Pei Jia asked with a smile.

Li Ye waved his hand and said, "Let me see the Yingxin. There may be news about Pei Xiu in the Yingxin."

Pei Jia nodded, picked up the tea cup and drank tea.

Li Ye then opened the eagle letter. The handwriting on it was very small. Li Ye had great eyesight and could barely read it clearly.

He was most concerned about the developments in the Khazar Khanate. Will the Khazar army launch an offensive to attack Aral Sea City?

The letter mentioned this at the beginning. Aral Sea City was very quiet, and no news of the war came.

This made Li Ye slightly relieved. In fact, this result was also what he expected. He had previously considered the worst case scenario, but in fact, the possibility of the Khazar Khanate attacking Aral Sea City was not high.

The original Bandar City was the private territory of Ashina Sabu. The Tang army completely wiped out the Khazar Turk army and relieved the Khazar Khanate's worries. More than a dozen cities of the Khazar Turks were occupied by the Khazar Khanate. , only Bandar City east of the Aral Sea was occupied by the Tang army, which was completely acceptable to the Khazar Khanate. If someone else annihilated the Khazar Turk army for you, you should get a city.

What's more, the consequences of going to war with the Tang Army will be very serious. The Khazar Khanate must think twice. Once the Tang Army and the black-clothed food team up to attack the Khazar Khanate, it will be destroyed.

Li Ye smiled and said: "The letter said that Pei Xiu is good. He is not in Suiye now, but is leading a thousand troops to garrison in Xianhai City, the westernmost city of the Tang Dynasty."

Pei Jia had no idea about Aral Sea City. He smiled and asked, "How far is Aral Sea City from Broken Leaf?"

"It takes a month to ride a horse!"

"Ah! So far away?"

"There is no way. The Tang Dynasty has a vast territory, and Aral Sea City is very important. Only by taking Aral Sea City, from Suiye to Aral Sea City, can such a vast land truly belong to the Tang Dynasty. Without the support of a city, then It can only be a sphere of influence, so I have already submitted a letter to the Ministry of War, requesting that Aral Sea City be designated as the Aral Sea Governor's Palace. The first step is to set it up as a military town, and Pei Xiu will serve as the first military envoy."

Pei Jia smiled and said, "This kid has a lot of potential!"

Pei Jia pondered for a moment and then said: "Now there is a problem you need to be careful about. The court may not be aware of it yet, but it is a big risk."

"what is the problem?"

"You control Anxi and Hezhong, Beiting Jiedushi is your wife's third uncle, and Ganzhou in Hexi is controlled by your grandfather. If the emperor thinks about this, will he not be worried?"