In the middle of June every year, it is the time for the first batch of Hu merchants from the Western Regions to Chang'an, this year's war in the Western Regions continues, and the merchants who can come from the battlefield of Jieli and Tuli are lucky, Arsake is a lucky businessman, he knows that he may have to make a fortune this year, because he has not seen many similar caravans to Chang'an along the way, which means that there must be very few similar goods in Chang'an this year, and his goods can be sold at a high price.

Arsake's caravan has a total of more than 300 camels, more than 1,000 boxes of goods, most of which are loaded with the white stacks that were in demand in Chang'an last year, these things can be bought for a pound in Gaochang with a few copper coins, but when they arrive in Chang'an, it can be sold for hundreds of copper coins at a high price, riding on the camel He fantasized beautifully, and after the goods were sold this time, he bought a house in Chang'an, enjoyed two years of Qingfu, and waited for the war in the Western Regions to stop, and then he went to the next cargo.

However, when he walked to a wide river and wanted to fill his kettle with some water, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

On both sides of the river, there are more than one person tall white stacked trees, and on each white stacked tree, there are dozens of cotton peaches, and many cotton peaches have ripened and cracked, and the white flowers are one by one.

"Why? Why was Datang able to plant white stacks, the white stacked trees they planted were actually taller and stronger than those in Gaochangguo, oh my God, what did I see······"

Looking at the banks of the endless river, Arsako clutched his head and shouted.

The cotton tension is better, it is indeed like a small tree, and the reason why Sun Xiangfu chose to plant along the river is because there is enough water and gas here, and the fertility in the soil is also sufficient, and it can produce cotton peaches.

Arsake's shouting suddenly caused the uneasiness of his companions, and they also felt the seriousness of the matter when they saw the cotton, if Datang could grow so much cotton by himself, then, the goods in their hands would become worthless, and they risked their lives to go on this trip, maybe they would lose money, after all, after a few months, people eat horses and chew, and their consumption is also very huge.

Sun Xiangfu planted more than 30,000 acres of cotton this year, and he did not drop a single grain of cottonseed in his house, as well as the cottonseeds in the warehouse of the Department of Agriculture, in order to let the people of Chang'an be able to wear warm clothes.

However, he did not realize the consequences of his massive cotton cultivation.

When Arsake's caravan stayed beside the cotton field for a long time and could not make it, the Qin Mansion's patrol horse team came.

Although there were only twenty or thirty people, Qin Hu, the leader of the team, was very confident that two charges would be able to deal with this camel team led by more than a hundred people.

"Well, where did the merchant come from, staying by my field, trying to steal the crops in the field?" Qin Hu yelled unceremoniously at Arsak and his party. Recently, there have been quite a few merchants from the Western Regions who have misbehaved like him.

"The general misunderstood, we are just tired of walking and resting for a while, and we will leave immediately, and we will not steal the crops in the fields." Arsake's line of people spoke very slippery Chinese, worthy of being a businessman who had walked in Chang'an many times, and as he spoke, he also pointed to the cotton tree near the caravan and signaled that there was no shortage of cotton peaches on it.

Qin Hu's gaze swept towards the cotton forest, and when he saw that there was nothing unusual, he urged the caravan not to stay here again.

After a while, the people of Arsake were all loaded with water and rode on camels, and he asked Qin Hu, who was looking at him with a wary face, "May I ask the general, this white stack was planted in the field of that nobleman?" ”

"Hmph, listen well, this is the property of our Yiguo Mansion, don't have any bad ideas, otherwise, even if Your Majesty forbids the oppression of Hu Shang, a certain family will let you know that this pair of iron fists is not practiced in vain."

When the annual trading season arrived, Li Shimin specially decreed that the Han people should not be oppressed and defrauded by the Hu people, and the eastern and western cities also sent special inspection officials to supervise the transaction situation, and to ensure that all businessmen were given a fair and just environment.

Of course, Qin Hu deliberately mentioned this stubble, not for nothing, some time ago, before the will was made, his pair of iron fists almost didn't kill a merchant in the Western Regions, because that person had nothing to do and ran The Qin family's courgette field sprayed blood, but the blood was filth, and Qin Hu saw that it was worth it, and it was a fat beating.

Originally, because he sold dozens of truckloads of courgettes to Chang'an, but found that the price was not half of that of previous years, the heartbroken Hu Shang, after being beaten by Qin Hu, almost died on the spot, but fortunately, although Qin Hu was domineering, he was not a heartless person, and took him to the city to find a doctor for treatment, and later, Qin Qiong knew about it, and after asking the reason, Qin Qiong didn't feel very good in his heart, so he took it out and talked to Li Shimin again.

Since he talked to Li Shimin, Li Shimin has no smile on his face, first he issued this will not to oppress Hu Shang, and then, he pulled Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Changsun Wuji and others to a meeting every day, as if they had forgotten everything in the south, no, when this scene happened by the river, Li Shimin was still in a meeting with several important ministers.

"Your Majesty, the number of Hu businessmen who come and go to Chang'an this year is less than half of last year, and I am afraid that the tax revenue of the household department will be greatly reduced."

The eldest grandson Wuji read the tax report compiled by his subordinates, and said to Li Shimin with a sad face. Every summer, in addition to the summer grain in the southern region, the transaction tax of the two cities of Chang'an is the bulk of the tax revenue of the household department, because the Hu merchants who set off from the countries of the Western Regions in the spring have to travel for three or four months to reach Chang'an, and after more than a month of trading, they have to take advantage of the heavy snow before the road is closed, and rush back to the Western Regions.

"It seems that Jieli and Tuli can't be allowed to make trouble in the Western Regions."

The lack of trade routes is the main reason why Hu merchants cannot come to Chang'an, and Li Shimin saw this and knew the harm of the trade routes.

The inability to sell the goods produced by the Tang Dynasty will lead to a backlog, and the backlog will be low, and the low price will hurt the peasants, because the landlord and noble class will transfer the losses to the peasants at the bottom, and the peasant class, which sounds like only the second class behind the scholars, is actually the class with the least right to speak.

"But at this time, the treasury has not yet stocked enough money and food for an expedition, so it is not appropriate to rush into battle!" Du Ruhui, the secretary of the military department, answered.

Fighting, especially expeditions, is the most money-burning activity in this period, an expeditionary force of 20,000 people, the consumption of horses and equipment will be hundreds of thousands, and it is necessary to prepare at least half a year's worth of grain and grass.

Therefore, without years of accumulation, the rulers of this era did not dare to launch an expedition, Li Shimin in the early days of Zhenguan was because of his weak family foundation, and he did not dare to send out elite soldiers and fierce generals to fight, this is still last year's war against Jieli achieved a major victory, and there were a lot of benefits, otherwise, he had to be given at least two or three years to prepare reserves before he could launch an expedition of a small scale.

"If you can't fight, let them make trouble, I'm afraid of chaos within Datang, it's really hard to understand." Li Shimin knocked on his case, and he was very unhappy.

"Now there is a new problem, the Hu merchants who sell goods such as courgettes, white stacks, and leather goods in the Western Regions to Chang'an are very difficult to sell, and even if they transport things to Chang'an, they have not created much tax revenue for the imperial court." The eldest grandson Wuji not only saw the problem of the small number of transactions from the accounts, but also saw the problem of the small number of transactions, and reported again.

"Why is that?"

Li Shimin and the ministers all turned their eyes to the eldest grandson Wuji, waiting for his next step.

"Your Majesty, have you forgotten the property of the Shubao family, that white stack, he planted tens of thousands of acres, and I heard from the Hu merchants in the Western Regions that the growth is much better than theirs, as for the courgette, the skin goods are ······."

The eldest grandson Wuji did not continue, Li Shimin also knew that the price of courgettes this year was less than half of last year's, and there was a long-term supply of goods in the market, because Sun Xiangfu had planted tens of thousands of acres, which was enough to supply the magnates of Chang'an to eat melons for a summer.

And if they didn't make a profit, they didn't have the money to purchase a large number of goods produced by Datang, such as silk, linen, ceramics and other goods needed by the people of the Western Regions, which made the entire commercial chain enter a vicious circle.

But you have to say that you don't let Sun Xiangfu grow these things, and let the market go to Hu Shang to make money! It's a bit unreasonable, why should we buy Hu Shang's at a high price when we can produce things that we can eat and use at a low price? Is it just so that they can have money to buy our other products?

Li Shimin had a headache, and this kind of business problem that he had never encountered suddenly appeared and caught him off guard.

When everyone in the imperial study was at a loss, Li Shimin suddenly thought of someone, a person who made him feel like he had a sudden opening last year, Ma Zhou.

"Come on, go to the Dushui Supervisor and pass on Ma Zhou to come to the imperial study to see the driver."

Li Shimin's sudden will made many ministers a little puzzled, and half an hour later, Ma Zhou, who was wearing a six-grade official uniform, was taken to the imperial study by the chamberlain.

After a visit, Li Shimin told Ma Zhou about the problem he encountered, and wanted to hear if he had any good suggestions.

"Your Majesty, this matter is easy." When Ma Zhou heard this, he thought for a while, and then gave up.

"How to solve it, come quickly."

"Your Majesty is worried about two points, the first point is that the trade routes in the Western Regions are not passable, and the Hu merchants cannot come and go smoothly, so the imperial court can send a small group of partial divisions to escort these Hu merchants to and fro, and the required expenses can be provided by the Hu merchants, and there are three advantages to doing so.

First, I can take this opportunity to find out the topography of the countries in the Western Regions, and when my Datang has the power to go on an expedition, I won't even be unclear about the roads and environment.

Second, you can take this opportunity to train soldiers, long-distance expeditions are not easy to many, if you want soldiers to adapt to expeditions, you must first let them learn some common sense of long-distance travel, adapt to the local climate and environment, in this regard, there are many ways to trade in the Western Regions.

Thirdly, you can declare your majesty's benevolence to the countries of the Western Regions, and you can love their merchants so much, and send troops to protect them, not to mention their people's voices. ”

After Ma Zhou finished speaking, Li Shimin slapped the case a few times, "Well said, listen to your words, I will suddenly open up!" ”