When Dou Lu Yan walked around Chang'an City to reveal the news that Li Shimin and Li Chengqian were about to march eastward, Qiu Shenji had already paid attention to him, but he did not find out his source for a while.

Because of some of Li Shimin's thoughts involved, Li Chengqian knew that the news must have leaked out of the Taiji Palace, so he ordered the old ghost to send someone to strictly investigate in the palace.

As for some of the policies of the scholars to resist the imperial court in the local area, Li Chengqian had already prepared and did not take it to heart, and still handled government affairs in the East Palace every day.

On this day, in the Chongjiao Hall of the East Palace, Li Chengqian sat on the throne, and several scholars in the Pingzhang Academy sat on both sides to deal with government affairs.

In the middle of the main hall, Zhu Cheng held a thick stack of paperwork in his hand, and reported to Li Chengqian with a happy face the income from the sale of silk and tea to Hu Shang in the past two years.

“…… In the past two years, grain has been grown in all parts of Guanzhong, and since last year, the imperial court decreed that the Tang Dynasty could only sell 20,000 pieces of silk and 3,000 quintals of tea to the Hu people every year, and the quantity was reduced by more than ten times, but the price also increased by seven or eight times.

In this way, not only did the merchants make money, but the taxes collected by the imperial court did not decrease.

In the past two years, our East Palace has sent people to Jiangdong to sell farm tools, and every time we come back to buy some silk and tea, we can also make a fortune......"

Li Chengqian's trade policy has already achieved initial results, and silk and tea are now the only commodities of the Tang Dynasty, and these things are all luxury goods when they are trafficked to the West, and it is too much of a loss to take the road of small profits but quick turnover.

And Datang doesn't have so much manpower and material resources to produce these things, so it's better to take the high-end route for luxury goods, and it's the king to sell them more expensively.

Li Chengqian nodded after listening to Zhu Cheng's report, and asked again: "What did those Hu merchants use to buy the silk and tea of the Tang Dynasty?"

Zhu Cheng was stunned when he heard this, and did not understand what Li Chengqian meant, and replied directly: "There are gold, silver, pearls and gemstones, etc., and Hu Shang also brought some wine, spices, orchids, etc. to sell in Datang. ”

The road is far away, and most of the Hu merchants who come to Datang also bring some goods to sell to the rich and noble families in Datang, of course, the price is also very expensive.

Before Li Chengqian limited the trading volume of silk and tea, the goods brought by Hu Shang were much more expensive than those of Datang.

Now that the price of silk tea in the Tang Dynasty has risen, the price of these things has also increased, but fortunately, it is not a necessity for life, and Li Chengqian is too lazy to care.

Li Chengqian thought for a moment when he heard this: "King Chuan Gu's order is that in the future, Hu merchants must bring some sheepskins, wool or livestock to Chang'an to buy from the city, and reduce the tax of Hu Shang court by 30% for the livestock that rushes to the court. "Now the people of Datang can't afford to wear silk cotton in most winters, and no matter how cold it is in winter, they can only wear an extra layer of linen clothes, even if there is no disaster or disaster, some frail old people and children can't survive the winter.

Not to mention that it is difficult to achieve results in popularizing cotton for a while, even if it requires a large amount of land to grow cotton, Li Chengqian will not dare to popularize it until the grain problem is solved.

Then the people's cold things can only start with all kinds of fur, wool, down and other aspects.

Zhu Cheng was puzzled: "His Royal Highness the Prince, what does the imperial court do when it buys sheepskins and wool?"

Li Chengqian smiled when he heard this: "Sheepskin and sheepskin can be made into clothes, whether they are sent to the army or sold to the people cheaply, it is better than nothing."

In Datang, there are still many old and weak women and children who are frozen to death in winter every year, and the lonely king always has to think about them. ”

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

Zhu Cheng hurriedly bowed and saluted when he heard this.

Seeing this, Li Chengqian waved his hand and said: "The people of the Tang Dynasty have worked hard all year round and can't keep themselves fed and clothed, so we must introduce resources from foreign countries. ”

Speaking of this, he turned his head to look at Chu Suiliang and said: "Master Chu, you will divide the following documents for the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate and the Liangzhou Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, explain the truth to him clearly, and let them cooperate with the imperial court to implement this policy."

In addition, he told the Anxi Protectorate to only allow Hu merchants to purchase the wool of the Fan tribe that submitted to my Tang Dynasty, and the tribes who did not submit to my Tang Dynasty would not purchase their wool. ”

"Obey the order!" Chu Suiliang hurriedly got up to receive the order.

After Chu Suiliang sat down to prepare the edict, Li Chengqian directly instructed Zhu Chengdao: "Zhu Cheng, you have done your work meritorious, and the lone king Jin has made you the right man of the prince's family order temple, and then take a group of craftsmen from Longshouyuan to Luoyang to build a larger steel mill." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Cheng hurriedly saluted and said, "Thank You, Your Royal Highness Prince Longen!" ”

Li Chengqian nodded and was about to speak, when an attendant hurriedly came in.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Qi, His Royal Highness the King of Jin asks to see him outside His Royal Highness!"

Li Chengqian was stunned when he heard this, Li Zhi often went into the palace to accompany Li Shimin these days, why did he suddenly come to the East Palace?

"Chuan Jin King enters the palace!"

Li Shimin now ignores the government and politics, and the scope of his activities is in the harem, and Li Chengqian has no way to know Li Shimin's movements at any time.

"Brother see His Royal Highness the Prince!"

After Li Zhi entered the hall, he saluted Li Chengqian timidly.

"The ninth brother is flat!" Li Chengqian said.

"The ninth brother came to the Chongjiao Palace, but the father has a will?" Li Chengqian asked when he saw Li Zhi get up.

"Back to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince—"

"Okay, we're brothers, it's too raw to talk like this, and the eldest brother is not used to it." Li Chengqian raised his hand to interrupt him.

Li Zhi said with joy on his face when he heard this: "Brother Xie! ”

Li Chengqian stretched out his hand and pointed to the seat next to him and said, "Sit down and talk slowly." ”

"The ministers are leaving." When the ministers of the palace saw this, they all got up and took leave.

The ministers retreated, and Li Zhi sat down and served tea to Li Chengqian and Li Zhi.

Li Zhi took a sip of the teacup, put down the cup and said, "Big brother, my father sent me to tell you that my father will go out of Beijing for a hunting trip in two days." ”

Li Chengqian knew that Li Shimin was fond of hunting, and it was not a big deal for him to go out hunting in the autumn.

So he asked casually, "Where is my father going to go?"

Li Zhi smiled when he heard this: "Beibi Mountain." ”

"Beibi Mountain?"

Li Chengqian almost didn't spit out the tea in his mouth, Beibi Mountain is north of Luoyang, and it is the cemetery of the emperors whose capital was in Luoyang.

The feng shui of Beibi Mountain is excellent, and there is a saying that "born in Suzhou and Hangzhou, died in Beipi".

Li Zhi looked a little embarrassed when he saw this, and he also knew that the excuse of going to Beibi Mountain for a safari was a bit perfunctory.

Li Chengqian put down the teacup and looked at Li Zhi seriously: "Father wants to go to Luoyang?"

Li Zhi's face was even more embarrassed when he heard this, and then he smiled and said: "My father only said that he would go hunting in Beibi Mountain, and other ministers and brothers don't know." ”

Li Chengqian snorted coldly in his heart, his face remained unchanged and continued to ask, "When will my father set off?"

"Two days later!" Li Zhidao.

Li Chengqian knew that he couldn't stop Li Shimin from going to Luoyang, so he thought for a while and asked the most important question: "Who is my father going to let accompany him when he goes to Luoyang?"

"Father said that the eldest brother is in Chang'an, and the minister will only bring Jiangxia Wang Shu and the officials of Zhongshu Province." Li Zhidao.

Li Chengqian has no opinion on Li Shimin taking these people away, Li Daozong, the king of Jiangxia, as a military general, is more like an honorary title when he is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the affairs of the Ministry of Rites have always been handed over to the left and right servants to deal with, and Li Chengqian can let Chu Suiliang take over when he leaves.

The officials of Zhongshu Province did not use much except Ma Zhou and Li Chengqian, and Li Chengqian's secretary team was a university scholar in the Pingzhang Academy.

But these people followed Li Shimin to Luoyang, and they could help Li Shimin reorganize a temporary imperial court at any time, which made Li Chengqian a little unacceptable.

Li Shimin had already guessed this, and as soon as Li Zhi saw that Li Chengqian was silent, he said directly: "My father said that my father said that my eldest brother should rest assured that he would supervise the country in Chang'an, and as long as the government is stable, my father will not interfere with the elder brother's governance." ”

Li Shimin said this, and Li Chengqian really had no excuse, so he could only order the minister to cooperate with Li Daozong and Ma Zhou to accompany Li Shimin to go hunting in Beibi Mountain.

Li Shimin left Chang'an, except for Li Chengqian, who was a little uneasy, and the other ministers all breathed a sigh of relief, after all, facing Li Shimin and Li Chengqian, two monarchs at the same time, the pressure was not ordinary.

On the day Li Shimin was sent away, Li Chengqian sent a letter to Luoyang with a flying pigeon and ordered all the grain stored in Luoyang to be transported to Lingzhou.

Li Chengqian was worried that Li Shimin was anxious to go east and misappropriated the grain prepared for Lingzhou.