Tibet

Zhang Ping was promoted to the magistrate of Chang'an County, which he had never dreamed of, but at the same time it was not what he wanted. The greater An Lushan's official position, the greater the pressure on him.

At night, he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.

Being an official of An Lushan is definitely not a matter of honoring one's ancestors!

At this time, a family member came to report, "Mr. County, someone is visiting from outside. He said he is your old friend and wants to see you in an emergency!"

Zhang Ping was startled, it was already midnight, who else would come to see him?

He got up and came to the door of the mansion, where he saw a young man covered in blood.

When the man saw Zhang Ping, he knelt down and cried: "Zhang Ping, save me!"

Zhang Ping suddenly recognized him, Li Yu, Li Ye's elder brother and Li Linfu's eldest grandson.

Li Ye also specially told him to help take care of him.

Zhang Ping quickly helped him up and asked in surprise: "You got up first. What's the matter? You're covered in blood?"

"Please save my father quickly, I'm afraid he will die!"

"Ah! What happened to your father?"

Li Yu said with tears on her face: "I cut off his wrist. I don't know if he can survive."

Zhang Ping's eyes widened, "Why did you kill your father?"

Li Yu said with a painful look on his face: "I didn't want to kill him. I repeatedly advised him not to become a thief. He refused to listen and wanted to sever the father-son relationship with me. I had no choice but to cut off his right hand so that he could not do it. official."

Li Yu's father, Li Xiu, is the eldest son of Li Linfu. He was once the Taichang Shaoqing. After his father's death, he was dismissed from office. This time An Lushan entered Chang'an. As a court official to welcome An Lushan, Li Xiu was named Taichang Qing. .

This is something Li Yu cannot tolerate. Once the court is liquidated in the future, the honor of the entire family will be tarnished by his father.

Although the second eldest son Li Wei and the fourth eldest son Li Min are currently serving as high-ranking officials in Luoyang, they are not the eldest sons and their influence on the family will be slightly smaller.

But Li Xiu was different. He was Li Linfu's eldest son and had a huge influence. In the end, Li Yu was unable to persuade his father to resign. He kept doing nothing and took advantage of his father's drunkenness to cut off his right wrist with a knife.

Losing his right hand and being unable to write, naturally he would not be able to be an official. Although Li Yu might be accused of killing his father, he couldn't care less at this time.

Zhang Ping understood the reason and was about to settle Li Yu in his house. He immediately took several government servants to Li Xiu's house.

Fortunately, the housekeeper had promptly asked a doctor to stop the master's bleeding and bandage it.

Li Xiu's face was pale and his eyes were filled with resentment.

"The county magistrate is here!" someone shouted.

Li Xiu didn't know the relationship between Zhang Ping and Li Ye. He said coldly: "Why is County Magistrate Zhang here?"

"Someone reported to the official that a life had occurred here, so the county rushed here to check. What's going on, Mr. Taichang?"

Li Xiu was extremely depressed and lost his right hand. He might not be able to become an official.

He let out a long sigh and said: "Unfortunately, my family has an evil son. I ask the county magistrate to capture that evil son of mine. I will punish him severely according to the family law!"

Zhang Ping nodded, "Where is he now?"

Li Xiu shook his head, "I don't know either!"

"Okay! I'll come back to inquire about the case in detail tomorrow. Since no one was killed, I'll take my leave now!"

Zhang Pingping bowed and left.

At dawn the next day, Zhang Ping sent Li Yu out of Chang'an in the county government's carriage. Li Yu fled to Xiangyang in a hurry with the customs clearance document Zhang Ping issued for him.

In the early morning, a dozen large ships of 3,000 stone slowly arrived in Hanyang County, Mianzhou. These 3,000-stone building ships were the largest warships of the Jianghan Navy. The building ships were the main warships of the Tang Dynasty Navy. The rear half of the ship It is named after the three-story high building built. It has a large number of people and can fight from a high position against the enemy. In particular, the unique racket pole on the building is very famous. Like a fly swatter, the long racket pole can be whipped down to knock down enemy ships in one fell swoop. Slap breaks and sinks.

During the period of Wu Zetian when the Tang Dynasty navy was at its strongest, there were numerous ships with ten thousand stone towers and five thousand stone tower ships. Three thousand stone tower ships were really juniors.

Even now, the three thousand stone tower ships are actually out of reach. Li Lin's Yangtze River navy has ten ten thousand stone tower ships, dozens of five thousand stone tower ships, and even more three thousand stone tower ships. Two to three hundred ships.

Li Ye stood on the top of the first building boat, holding the railing and looking down at the river. This is the intersection of Jiang and Han. The Han River flows into the Yangtze River from here. The waves in the distance are vast, that is the Yangtze River. Countless water birds are in the sky. hover.

The strategic significance of Hanyang is very important to the Jianghan Army. As Li Mi said, with Hanyang, the Jianghan Army will have access to rivers and seas, and will be completely transformed.

Li Ye also deeply agreed. He also had a deep understanding. After acquiring Hanyang, the pattern and vision have both expanded.

Although they had Jiangling before, the radiation range of Jiangling was not enough. With Hanyang, the entire Han River came alive, and the entire Shannan East Road could be connected through the Yangtze River and Han River.

The river is blowing in the face, which makes people feel relaxed and happy. This time Li Ye came to Hanyang specifically to inspect. Although Hanyang's strategic location is important, it is meaningless if it is not used, just like begging for food with a golden rice bowl.

The main official who accompanied Li Ye to inspect Mianzhou and Hanyang was the capital transfer envoy Liu Yan. He also stood beside Li Ye, enjoying the comfort of the river breeze.

"Your Highness, Hanyang is the best place for business transit!"

Liu Yan lamented: "If it works well, half of the military salary problem can be solved."

At present, the Jianghan Army, plus the reorganization of the surrendered army, has reached 100,000 people, and its monthly military salary is 300,000 guan. Li Ye brought back 2 million gold coins from the river, and used part of Feilong's gold and silver to transport I exchanged 3 million guan in Chang'an. Including the gold, silver and materials that have not yet been exchanged, there are about 7 million guan. This is a strong foundation.

There are also grain reserves in Jiangling. The tax grains from Jiangnan West Road, Qianzhong Road and Shannan East Road are about one million dan, which are stored in Jiangling. These are the grains that are going to be transported to Chang'an via Shangluo Road. However, An Lushan invaded Guanzhong , the imperial court also agreed that the tax grain stored in the Jiangling transfer warehouse should be used to recruit soldiers.

Although the foundation is relatively solid, there are many places where money and food are used, not only military salaries, but also the resettlement of refugees, which also consumes a lot of money and food. Moreover, Li Ye also suffered from the lack of money and food in the Western Regions and learned a profound lesson, so he must Prepare for a rainy day and obtain stable and sufficient financial resources for expenses.

"What good ideas does the transporter have?" Li Ye asked with a smile.

Liu Yan smiled slightly and said: "Actually, the idea of ​​​​a humble position is three points. The first is to mine, mine and smelt copper and iron. The laws of the previous court were too loose. "Wherever copper and iron are produced in all states in the world, they are mined privately, and the government collects taxes. .' This resulted in poor temples and rich monks, and wealthy families abounded in every state and county, but the court had no funds to recruit soldiers. Therefore, the government had to monopolize mining and smelting, and the benefits could not be passed on to the people.

The second is to promote official business. Since His Highness has been exempted from commercial taxes, it is impossible to profit from the prosperity of commerce. The only way is to establish official business, purchase in large quantities, trade in large quantities, buy low and sell high, and make profits of more than tens of millions, such as As for grain, the price of rice in Jiangnan East Road is about 20 cents per dou of rice, but the price of rice in Chang'an is generally around 80 cents per dou of rice. Transportation is very expensive. As far as I know, the cost of rice merchants transporting Jiangnan rice to Chang'an is about 50 cents. About ten cents, transportation costs account for more than half, but if it is official and commercial transportation, thousands of big ships, ten thousand camels, transported to Guanzhong, the cost is only thirty cents, and we can make a profit of forty to fifty cents per bucket of rice. arts.

Rice is twice as profitable at most, and salt and iron monopoly is ten times as profitable. But as His Highness said before, this cannot be done by a single industry, so I will consider commercial profits for the time being. The salt in Yangzhou is purchased directly from the salt farm, and the price per catty is about Ten coppers, while the price of salt in Shannan East Province and Jiangnan West Province is similar, about sixty coppers per catty, which shows the huge profits made by salt merchants. If we take advantage of official and commercial transportation, all salt merchants will not be able to compete with us. "

At this time, the ship arrived at the shore, and Li Ye happily said: "Let's get off the ship and take a look!"

The ship docked at Hanshui Wharf in Hanyang. Li Xun, who had just taken office as the governor of Mianzhou, led a group of officials to welcome Li Ye and his party at the wharf.

Li Xun stepped forward and bowed, "In this humble position, I see His Royal Highness King Lu!"

Li Ye patted his arm gently. Among all the clan brothers, this brother was his favorite.

Li Ye always remembered that every time he went to practice martial arts outside the city, everything was silent when he came back. Only the light was still on in Li Xun's room, and he could be seen studying hard in the room.

Li Xun only has a clear ambition and clear understanding, so that he can have the opportunity to get to where he is today step by step, not just by his own care.

Li Ye asked with a smile: "How is it? Do you, the governor of Mianzhou, have any difficulties?"