"The young man's heart is sharp. This is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing. I also came from your age, I can understand what you think in your heart, and I don't want to force your temperament. But you also have to understand the truth that wood is beautiful in the forest and is easy to break. Do things with scale, not too radical, and not hurt people's lives. If it really comes to me, for the sake of you doing a lot of things for me, I will defend one or two. ”

Li Muxi was overjoyed, and said continuously: "If this can be the case, the minister will thank Your Majesty first, and the minister will definitely do his best to share His Majesty's worries." ”

"Alright, from your mouth, I can't hear a few words of truth. Go and do your business, and I will help you when necessary. ”

Li Mu said yes, and when he saw that the time was almost up, he took the opportunity to ask for a plaque. Li Shimin agreed, and promised to order the craftsmen in the palace to make it and send it over. When the goal was achieved, Li Mu retired, and he had to go to the craftsman's workshop to arrange some things.

Li Shimin filled another half bowl of porridge and said to Empress Changsun: "Queen, you have always been good at knowing people, Li Mu, this kid, what do you think?" ”

Empress Eldest Sun thought for a moment and said, "This kid is very smart, although he is a little reckless, but he knows it. It shouldn't be a big mess...... It's just Your Majesty, you just promised him that you would help him, will you make him feel dependent and take the initiative to find trouble with the children of those gate valve families! ”

Li Shimin shook his head and said, "Li Mu, this kid, hasn't taken the initiative to cause trouble yet, he just refuses to suffer, and he feels that if he is bullied, he must fight back." It's not a problem, on the side of the gate valve family, it's not a good thing to have such a person to stir up and knock it. I agreed to help him, just to let the gate valve family know that he was my person, so that they would be afraid. Li Mu is a talent, and there are still many places where I can count on him, and I can't let him fold in the hands of the gate valve family. ”

When Empress Changsun saw that Li Shimin had made up her mind, she just smiled and didn't say anything more.

After finishing breakfast, Li Shimin asked Gao Gonggong to bring the impeachment recital that he received yesterday and played by Lang Yuwengui, a member of the Ministry of Works. Yubi Zhu approved, and then handed it to Gao Gonggong, and said: "Tell Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province to deal with it accordingly, and there is no need to ask more." If the auxiliary machine asked, tell him that this is what I meant. ”

"No." Gao Gonggong took the recital and passed on the will.

The government affairs of the early Tang Dynasty basically followed the system of the Sui Dynasty, with three provinces and six ministries. The Zhongshu Province was the decision-making body, responsible for drafting and issuing the emperor's edicts, and its chief was the Zhongshu Order. The ministry is the deliberative body, responsible for reviewing government decrees and refuting violations, and its chief is the servant. Shangshu Province is the executive body, responsible for the implementation of important decrees, because Li Shimin served as Shangshu Ling, so after he ascended the throne, this position was no longer set up, but replaced by left and right servants.

Today's Zhongshu order is Cen text, the service is Wang Qi, the left servant of Shangshu is Du Ruhui, and the right servant of Shangshu is Fang Xuanling, and the official offices are all in the imperial city, not far away.

Gonggong Gao came to pass the decree and showed the edict of Li Shimin's instructions to Cen Wenwen, Cen Wenwen was confused, and without waiting for him to ask in detail, Gonggong Gao spoke first: "Your Majesty's dictation, you don't need to ask more, just handle it according to this." ”

As soon as Cen Wenwen heard this, he said no more. He drafted an edict and dismissed all the officials mentioned in the impeachment recital. The edict was sent to Menxia Province, and Wang Jue read it once, and without asking a word, he sent it to Shangshu Province. Fang Xuanling was obviously angry with Li Shimin, and he didn't say anything, and was directly sent to the ministry.

Li Shimin's guess was generally not bad, and the eldest grandson Wuji really asked the reason. Gao Gonggong replied according to Li Shimin's instructions, and the eldest grandson Wuji groaned for a long time and didn't say anything.

The edict came into effect, and eunuchs were sent to herald the edict. On the same day, the Ministry of Works dismissed five officials.

Li Mu went to the craftsman's workshop, inspected the construction progress, listened to Yu Wengui's report, and learned that the impeachment transcript had been handed over. Li Mu also fulfilled his promise, and in front of Yu Wengui, he wrote an excerpt recommending him to be the Langzhong of the Ministry of Industry. Yuwen Gui was overjoyed, Li Mu encouraged a few words, and then left with Li Chongyi and the guards and came to the West Market.

Today, Li Mu came to Xishi for two things. The first one, Datang Daily can't afford to print, nothing else, the cost of paper exceeds the budget. If it is still printed on the rice paper currently used, it will be impossible for Datang Daily to pay a penny when it is officially printed. Originally, according to the price of Li Mu when he bought the paper, the cost was controllable. However, Li Mu misestimated the stock of rice paper, and the stock of rice paper in Chang'an City could not be supplied indefinitely. Li Mu has been printing the Datang Daily for several days, and he has consumed a lot of paper in Chang'an City. As a result, the price of paper will rise, and the cost will naturally go up.

Li Mu came to the West Market to find a cheap alternative to the current paper. In addition, he just wanted to buy a batch of tanned leathers, and the assassination of Tongshanfang reminded Li Mu that although he had a system, he was only flesh and blood, and the blade was in the flesh, he also hurt, bleeding too much, and he had to die. Therefore, we must find a way to save my life.

The only thing Li Mu can rely on is the system. He looked through the skill list and the pattern shop, and the first thing that came to mind was forging armor, but the armor under the forging branch was all armor. Li Mu imagined for a moment, if this armor was made, he would wear it on his body and walk in Chang'an City, looking like a stupid Ultraman from the four angles of the front, back, left and right. Therefore, he decided to abandon the armor and make leather armor instead. When he followed Li Ji's army to Chang'an, he saw that most of the people in the Tang army camp were leather armor, which shows that in this era, leather armor is the mainstream.

Moreover, there is a branch of leather making is to make chain mail, on the basis of leather armor, the key parts are reinforced with metal, which not only retains the flexibility of leather armor, but also takes into account the defense of armor, the best of both worlds.

Li Mu thought that it would cost some weeks, but he didn't expect things to go unexpectedly smoothly. The West Market is really a big treasure trove, as long as you have money, as long as Datang has it, even if you can't buy it, you can know the news.

Li Mu found a tooth man and said what he needed. The tooth man took him to a shop, which didn't even have a sign, but it was a famous place in the West Market. Because the four treasures of the study room sold here are the cheapest, and the quality is also acceptable, it is favored by some literati who are not rich in money and need pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

"Your honor, this is the treasurer. You need a lot of paper, it is perfect to find a shopkeeper, Chang'an two cities, who doesn't know that the pen, ink, paper and inkstone of the shopkeeper are the most inexpensive. After speaking, the tooth man introduced Li Mu to the shopkeeper Feng: "Shopkeeper Feng, this noble man wants to buy a lot of paper, and it is a long-term cooperation, this is a big deal, you can be careful." ”

As soon as the shopkeeper heard this, he knew it in his heart. With a roll of his eyes, he suddenly bowed down and saluted, and said, "Little Feng Si, I've seen Master Hou." ”

Li Mu raised his eyebrows and said, "How do you know who I am?" ”

Feng Si became more and more respectful, and said: "Back to Hou Ye's words, it is not difficult to guess that Hou Ye has been printing Datang Daily in the past few days, and a lot of paper has been consumed. The price of rice paper in Chang'an City has risen day by day, and the little one thinks in his heart, that rice paper is expensive, if it is used to print the Tang Daily, I am afraid that it will not be able to withstand consumption. Hou Ye must find other cheap paper instead, I saw Hou Ye just now, seeing that Hou Ye is so young and needs a lot of paper, the small one immediately thought that it was Hou Ye, and there was ...... This retinue of yours is too conspicuous, I'm afraid I can't find a second one in Chang'an City, Datang Daily mentioned that your entourage is eight feet tall, so I guessed it. ”

Li Mu couldn't help but glance at the four letters, and said, "Since you recognize it, Ben Hou won't hide it, that's right, you guessed." Ben Hou came today, I really want to buy a reasonable price of paper, you are a smart person, if there is a suitable one, you may wish to recommend it directly, the price you can do by yourself, Ben Hou is not a fool, if you lie to me, you should also know the temper of Ben Hou. ”

"The little ones don't dare, the little ones don't dare." Feng Si said again and again, called a young man, and gave two orders, and the young man turned back to the back of the shop, and after a while, he took out a stack of yellowed papers.

Li Mu frowned slightly and said, "This is the kind of paper that makes paper money?" ”

Feng Sidao: "Back to the Hou Ye, this kind of paper is called thatched paper in our industry." Hou Ye is right, this paper money used for sacrifice is made of this thatched paper. But the thatched paper that the little one brought to Hou Ye is much better than that kind of paper. Master Hou, please see, the paper surface of the paper brought by the small one is smooth and not rough. This kind of paper is thicker and has a coarse texture, which is honestly not suitable for writing. Wealthy literati would not buy this kind of paper, but it is perfect for printing. A small study of Datang Daily, Hou Ye, you use rice paper to print Datang Daily, because the rice paper is thin, good water permeability, ink is easy to pass through the paper, but if you use this thatch paper to print, you can do two-sided printing, greatly saving paper consumption. ”

Li Mu was really very moved when he heard Feng Si say this, picked up the thatched paper and touched it, the feel was indeed not as good as rice paper, but it was also passable, and asked: "How much is this kind of paper?" ”

"It's only half the price of rice paper."

Li Mu frowned and thought for a while, and said, "This paper, did you make it, or did you buy it from someone else?" ”

"Uh......" Feng Si's eyes were slightly panicked, and he said stubbornly: "Master Hou, you came to buy paper from the little one, and I am afraid that you will inquire about these...... Not quite right、"

"That's the stock." Li Mudao: "Ben Hou doesn't like to cooperate with the second dealer, so let's do it, you open a paper mill, specializing in this kind of thatched paper, Ben Hou signed a contract with you, and in the next three years, the Datang Daily paper in Chang'an City is purchased from your paper mill, and you are exclusively supplying, and the price is set at 30% of the price of rice paper, what do you think?" ”

"This ......" Feng Si was difficult to answer for a while, and the purchase price of this paper was thirty percent of the price of rice paper. Li Mu cut this knife, accurately and ruthlessly, and directly cut off his profits from the sewing. If he buys and sells, the trade cannot be done, because there is no profit. But if you open your own paper mill, although you have a three-year order, the risk is not small. What if the Tang Daily is banned one day? Can he still sue Li Mu?

But on the other hand, if Datang Daily is thriving, the profit of three years of orders is not small. How to choose, so Feng Si fell into a dilemma.