There are more snowy days in Chang'an in January than in previous years, and there is fluttering light snow almost every day, which is not dense, and powdery snowflakes fly in the air and fall to the ground, accumulating a thin layer of snow.

On the third day after the Shangyuan Festival, several carriages guarded by more than 1,000 Yulin troops left Chang'an City and headed for Xinfeng County in the east.

In the distance is an endless winter wheat field, a tributary of the Wei River, passing through the winter wheat field, tall waterwheels can be seen everywhere on both sides of the river, then the sky began to snow again, plum blossom-like snowflakes flew in the air, soon formed a hazy snow mist, the distant scenery became unclear, not far from the official road, more than a dozen farmers who built canals were sitting in front of a waterwheel to rest, they talked and laughed, the snowflakes fell on their heads and shoulders, fell on the wheat field beside them, they were not only annoyed, but more interested.

Li Qi stretched out his hand and felt the snowflakes dancing outside the car window, the snowflakes gently fell on the back of his hand, and then melted, and the cold feeling made him laugh.

"What is Your Highness laughing at?" The master Li Mi, who was sitting in a car with him, put down the book in his hand, leaned in front of the car window and asked him with a smile.

"When we passed through Chang'an City, all we heard were complaints about the non-stop snow, merchants complained that the roads were muddy and difficult to walk, and complained that the weather always refused to let go of the sun, which affected their business, but when we went out of the city to the fields, what we heard was the praise of the farmers for snowflakes, and I was thinking, who should God listen to, whether it is industry and commerce that is important, or agriculture and mulberry are important."

Li Qi is fourteen years old this year, and from this year on, he will no longer live in the harem, but move to the Yongwang Mansion in the Ten Princes' Mansion, and go to court every day like a hundred officials. However, he went to the Hongwen Hall in the East Palace to study, and went to the palace to ask his mother for peace after homework every day, and then returned to his palace, since last year's tree climbing incident, Zhang Huan began to attach great importance to his son's growth and education, every two or three days he will choose some related to the people's livelihood of the fold, copy it into a copy and order someone to send it to him, so that his son can express his opinion on the fold, sometimes he goes out to inspect, and will definitely bring his son with him. Let him study behind closed doors, but also understand the things outside the window, today Zhang Huan went to Xinfeng County to inspect a textile workshop, and specially took his son with him.

Seeing that Li Qi was talking quite interestingly, it was obviously his own idea, but he pushed it to God, he smiled and said, "It's not a question of which is more important. The people take food as the sky, this agriculture is naturally the sky, and the country is rich in wealth, this industry and commerce is the earth, which can also be described as yin and yang, agriculture and mulberry are yang, and industry and commerce are yin. 520 If the yin flourishes and the yang declines, and everyone goes to business to make money, the imperial court must encourage cultivation and weaving, increase taxes and suppress commerce;

However, if the yang is prosperous and the yin is declining, it will affect the finances of the imperial court, so the imperial court must appropriately relax taxes and mobilize the enthusiasm of industry and commerce, of course, the coordination of yin and yang is the best. You see, your father did just that, he took you to inspect the water conservancy ten days ago, interviewed the peasants in the fields, and today he took you to inspect the textile workshops. So the key for those in power is not to do big things. Rather, it is the ability to constantly fine-tune the existing laws, identify problems, and solve them. So that Datang can quickly restore its national strength, do you understand? ”

Li Qi nodded thoughtfully. "I read an excerpt the day before yesterday, it was the household room waiter, said that since the Central Plains promoted cotton planting a few years ago, the raw materials were sufficient, and the imperial court began to encourage merchants in Guanzhong and Hedong to open large workshops, and as a result, a large number of manor tenant farmers went to the city to work, and there was a labor shortage in the manor, and many manor fields began to be barren, and many places in Guanzhong and Hedong have sold the land or reduced the rent, which is unheard of in history, and the land annexation problem that has plagued the Tang Dynasty for a hundred years has appeared to solve the land opportunity. I am very emotional, it seems that the prosperity of industry and commerce is not without benefits. ”

Li Mi smiled slightly, "This is actually the result of your father's careful consideration by the emperor and several Xiangguo, a few years ago, the abolition order was strictly implemented, and more than a dozen powerful people who resisted the abolition of slavery were confiscated, and even Guo Ziyi's family was punished with 50,000 yuan, and 80,000 hectares of land were confiscated, and then a large number of fields were granted in Jianghuai, Jiangnan, and Bashu, and the high yield there was used to ensure the food supply of the Tang Dynasty, and a large number of silver mines were mined in Xiaye, and the tax system was reformed, and money was used instead of rent, forcing the surplus population of each family to flow to industry and commerce, so as to revitalize industry and commerce, so that industry and commerce could be revitalized, If the people don't farm and have food, they have another way to live, and who wants to be a tenant farmer and be exploited? Without the surplus population to farm, the annexation of land will lose its meaning, and an excess tax on land will be paid every year, so the land annexation in the past two years has rarely been heard, which is the reason. ”

Li Qi pondered for a moment and asked: "Now because of the small population, if the population reaches 8 million households at the peak of the opening in the future, or even more, and the land for growing grain is not enough to feed the people, will the wind of land annexation resume at that time?" ”

"You don't have to worry about this, there are no wonders in the world, there will always be grain with a higher yield than rice and wheat, just like cotton, if it weren't for the cotton planting and textile technology learned from Egypt, the price of white cloth would not be as cheap as today, moreover, the land west of the Green Ridge is vast, and the population can increase and you can migrate to the West, this is the real reason why your father used the power of the whole country to fight the Broken Leaf War, not only the silver mine of the Broken Leaf Land is related to the strategic interests of the Tang Dynasty, but more importantly, it is to keep the territory of the Western Regions and provide a way to solve domestic contradictions in the future."

The master's step-by-step temptation further broadened Li Qi's thinking, and he looked at the snowflakes flying outside the car window, and fell into deep contemplation.

At noon, the convoy arrived in Xinfeng County, Xinfeng County ordered to get the news early, early in the morning waiting at the Wuli Post Station outside the city, ready to welcome the emperor's arrival, not long after noon, the emperor inspected the dragon finally arrived.

Zhang Huan came here to inspect and decided before the year, mainly because there is a Guo Ji textile workshop in Xinfeng County, there are 2,000 looms, employing more than 4,000 workers, not only weaving good white folded cloth, but also weaving light and light silk, the goods are in short supply, bringing huge profits to the proprietor, and also bringing considerable taxes to Xinfeng County, which is a typical successful workshop, which has attracted wide attention from the imperial court.

This time, accompanied Zhang Huan to inspect the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Li Han, Shaofu Supervisor Yang Minzhong and Ministry of Industry Lang Song Lianyu, the team stopped in front of the post station, Xinfeng County Commander hurriedly greeted him, knelt down in front of the dragon, "Chen Xinfeng County ordered Wang Hongxing to see Your Majesty." ”

The doors opened. Zhang Huan stepped out of the carriage and saw that he was coming alone, so he couldn't help but smile slightly: "Wang Aiqing, please be flat." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Wang Xianling stood up and said: "The minister received a letter from the court, saying that the emperor did not want to disturb the people, and the minister arranged everything. ”

After that, he pointed not far away, where a few post wagons were parked, "Later, Your Majesty can take the carriage into the county seat, and the Guo Ji Workshop will be close to the West Gate, and Your Majesty will come and go." The people of the city will not know. ”

Zhang Huan nodded, "Then I'll trouble you." ”

He turned around and looked at his son's carriage again, Li Qi had also gotten out of the carriage, followed by Li Yu, Zhang Huan smiled at his son and said, "Is the emperor hungry?" ”

"Back to my father, my son has already eaten some pastries in the car, and now I am not hungry."

"That's good. Let's change to a carriage, go early, and go back early. ”

Several people changed into a post station carriage, and continued to drive towards the county seat under the escort of more than 300 Yulin troops, and in a moment, the group arrived at the west gate of Xinfeng County. Entering the city gate, pedestrians come and go on the street, quite lively, especially Hu businessmen, they are directly to Guo Ji Workshop to buy goods merchants, come to Guo Ji Workshop in front of the front, the sound of dense machine is heard from afar.

Guo Ji Workshop has a total of four workshops in Xinfeng County, the largest of which is close to the West Gate. Covering an area of about 100 acres, surrounded by a long courtyard wall, the proprietor is a Chang'an merchant named Guo Fu, who started with 200 looms four years ago. In just a few years, it has developed into a super large workshop with 2,000 looms. He also knew yesterday that the emperor was going to inspect his workshop today, even though it had been since the second half of last year. He had already received several batches of high-ranking officials of the imperial court, but the emperor himself came to inspect them. It still made him so excited that he didn't sleep all night.

Early in the morning he waited in front of the gate, the yard had been cleaned, and after waiting for a morning, it was as if he had been waiting for more than ten years, just when he was just about to go to lunch, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps outside the gate, and he saw a servant rushing in and shouting in a low voice: "Here it is!" Here it comes! Hurry up and open the door. ”

Guo Dongzhu was so nervous that his heart was about to jump out, he hurriedly stepped forward to open the door, only to see that the outside had been controlled by a large group of soldiers, several people were walking towards the gate, the far left was Wang County Order, he knew, another Shaofu Supervisor Yang Minzhong came in November last year, he also knew, and the man in the middle was about thirty years old, wearing a white folded cloth robe, wearing a black net hat, with a faint smile on his face, which made people feel very kind, and he was followed by a teenager.

Guo Dongzhu's heart was beating violently, he knew that this person must be the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, he hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down: "Grass people Guo Fu knocks on Your Majesty, I wish Your Majesty long live, long live!" ”

Wang Xianling hurriedly introduced Zhang Huan: "Your Majesty, he is Guo Fu, the proprietor of Guo Ji Workshop, a native of Chang'an. ”

Zhang Huan hurriedly ordered someone to help him up, and said with a slight smile: "I am on a private visit to Weifu today, so Guo Dongzhu doesn't need to be polite." ”

"Your Majesty, the minister didn't tell the people in the workshop that His Majesty was coming today, everything is as usual, please come with me."

With that, he hurriedly stepped forward and pushed open another door, "Your Majesty, please go this way." ”

Zhang Huan nodded, took two steps, he suddenly remembered something again, turned his head and asked him, "I heard that you have a son who is in the army in Broken Leaves, is that so?" ”

Guo Dongzhu hurriedly replied: "Yes! The second son of the grass people is the Mo Dao Army of Broken Leaves, participated in the defense of Broken Leaves, and a few days ago he brought a letter, he was very good, and he also received meritorious service and received a lot of rewards. ”

"I also have a righteous son who joined the army in Broken Leaves, and this time he also made meritorious contributions, the children are promising, and our fathers also have a light on their faces!"

"Yes! Two days ago, the military department sent people to beat gongs and drums, and hung a big red flower on the door of my house in Chang'an, and I don't know how many people envy me."

"Then why didn't I?" Zhang Huan turned back to Li Han and smiled: "When I go back, I want to protest to the military department, but they actually forgot my red flower." Everyone laughed together, Guo Dong saw that the emperor was amiable, his nervousness gradually disappeared, and he took Zhang Huan to the inner square, although the outside looks very small, but the inside covers a huge area, five long houses side by side, each house has three hundred looms, hundreds of workers are working in it, most of them are young women. Wearing a unified white dress, at a glance, the white dress in the room is better than snow, which is very eye-catching.

Zhang Huan and everyone walked into a room, and there was a huge bang! The sound came to the face, this is the workshop of weaving white folded cloth, next to each loom there is a large frame, in which another workshop spun a ball of cotton thread, a loom operated by two people, one person weaving cloth during the day. Rest at night, the other is weaving at night and resting during the day, so that the loom does not have to stop from morning to night, and there are dozens of healthy women who are responsible for carrying threads, cloths and other items, and several black-clothed foremen, who are responsible for counting each weaver.

All the spinners are concentrating on weaving. No one paid attention to Zhang Huan and them when they came in, and there were many high-ranking officials of the imperial court who had visited them in the past few months, and they were used to it.

"How much do you pay them?" In the loud sound of the machine, Zhang Huan raised his voice.

"Depending on how much cloth they can weave, I usually pay twenty cents a piece of cloth. They work for five hours a day, and the most skilled can weave ten pieces of cloth a day, that is, 200 yuan, and they can earn six yuan a month, but most of them can earn about three to five yuan, and I also provide room and board, and the coolies in Chang'an East City only earn so much, which is already very good. Many families are vying to send their daughters, and there are even women from Chang'an

"Then how did you think of opening a store in Xinfeng, why don't you open a store in Chang'an?" Li Qi next to him interjected and asked.

Guo Dongzhu already knew that this young man was the eldest son of the emperor, His Royal Highness King Yong, if nothing else. This is the next emperor. He didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly said respectfully: "Go back to Your Highness." The main reason is that the land in Chang'an is too expensive, in order to save some money to buy the land. I came to Xinfeng County, the land price here is only half of Chang'an, and it is close to Chang'an, because my goods are in short supply, Chang'an East City and West City stores will hire their own carriages to transport goods, and save me a freight. ^^520^^”

"I see." Li Qi suddenly realized, he thought about it and asked: "I saw a lot of Hu merchants on the street just now, it seems that they all came to you to buy goods, so will it be cheaper for them to come to you directly to buy goods than to go to Dongshi to buy them?" ”

"Nope! No! Guo Dongzhu hurriedly waved his hand, "The price is the same, this is the industry rule, I can't sell it cheaper than the West Market, if I don't comply, all the local stores will not buy from me, but you can buy a little more directly from me, and the stock is sufficient, those Hu merchants are all urgent." ”

Everyone said that they were walking, but Zhang Huan suddenly squatted down and asked a young weaver girl, "How much can you earn in a month?" ”

Weaver Niang's face flushed, she lowered her head and whispered: "I've only been here for half a year, I'm not very skilled, and I got thirty-five silver coins last month." ”

The official price of a silver coin is one hundred yuan, which means that she earned three yuan and five hundred yuan, and the monthly salary of a nine-grade master book is only five yuan, of course, the county lieutenant also has land income and food income, but that's it, it's still very good.

Zhang Huan stood up and said to Guo Dongzhu: "Let's go and see the textile lightness!" ”

Light face is also called flowerless tulle, is the lightest yarn on the market at present, it seems to be weightless, cut into clothes, looks like a layer of light fog in general, this yarn textile method is extremely precious, originally only Bozhou two textile families can spin, in order to prevent technology leakage out, the two textile families for generations to intermarry each other, do not let the technology leak out, but six years ago in the Central Plains Rebellion, Bozhou also suffered, two textile families have several families fled to Chang'an, Guo Dongzhu got the news, and spent a lot of money to learn this technology from one of the familiesNow light capacity is his most profitable goods, it has always been in short supply, the price is very expensive, the order has been scheduled to October this year, the entire Guanzhong area, and only Guo Ji Workshop can do this kind of light capacity.

At present, there are only 30 weavers in Guo Dongzhu's light workshop, each of whom is a woman from a white family who has been carefully selected by him, and they have signed a contract with him to ensure that they will not pass on their skills, and their income is also the highest, and the highest one can even get 20 yuan a month.

Out of the gate of the White Cloth Workshop, the ears suddenly quieted down, the Light Workshop is located in a separate courtyard, and there is a fence to separate it from other workshops, there is a special guard, except for the high-ranking officials of the court who came to inspect, no one else is allowed to enter.

Entering the door, Zhang Huan saw that this place was heavily guarded, so he smiled at everyone and said, "Forget it, since it is the treasure of Guo Dongzhu, we will not go in." ”

Guo Dongzhu hurriedly bowed down and said: "It's okay for the emperor to enter, this kind of light-looking technique is very complicated, and laymen can't understand it?" ”

Zhang Huan walked to the window and saw a slight sound of a machine in the large room. Thirty weavers were concentrating on spinning light yarn, and he turned back to Guo Dongzhu and smiled: "I have a request that I want to ask the owner to agree." ”

Guo Dongzhu was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down, "Although Your Majesty speaks, how dare the grass people not agree." ”

"That's right." Zhang Huan sighed and said: "My queen likes light looks very much, and she also organizes palace maids to weave light looks in the palace, but she can't spin them

Guo Dongzhu's heart jumped, which is equivalent to passing on the technology lightly. But he didn't dare not agree, so he gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty asks, the grass people dare not agree, and the grass people will definitely let the best weaver girl enter the palace to teach." ”

After that, he said to a foreman: "Go and call Wu Xiuniang." ”

He turned back to Zhang Huan and said: "This Wu Xiuniang's husband is a soldier, and he was transferred to Anxi to participate in the war last year, and his background is very innocent. Please Your Majesty take a moment, a young woman in a white dress was brought over, Zhang Huan saw her from afar, only to see that she was about twenty-five or sixteen years old, and her appearance was also delicate, but when she got closer, she seemed to be a little familiar. Where have I seen it, that Wu Xiuniang stepped forward and fought opposite Zhang Huan, she was also stunned, and suddenly she knelt down and said in a loud voice: "The little woman knocks on His Majesty the Emperor." ”

Zhang Huan hesitated for a moment and asked, "I see that you are also a little familiar, where did we meet?" ”

"Has Your Majesty forgotten? When His Majesty was in Wuwei, he inspected the immigrants of Tianbao County, and my father told His Majesty about the waterwheel. His Majesty also gave us a famous thorn at that time. ”

Zhang Huan suddenly remembered, and then it was the father and daughter who came to Jincheng to complain and uncover Chen Ping's embezzlement of relief food, and he smiled and said: "It's really a place in life where we don't meet, we actually meet here again." I remember that your surname should be Liu! Hurry up. How did you end up here? ”

Wu Xiuniang was also very happy, she stood up and said, "The little girl's husband's surname is Wu." He was one of His Majesty's own soldiers who slashed my father back then, and was punished by His Majesty. He apologized in his heart, often came to take care of us, after a long time, the little girl married him, and gave birth to two sons, he is a native of Fengtian County, accumulated merit and was promoted to Guoyi Duwei, last year was transferred to Anxi to fight, both sons are studying in Chang'an, I came here to work, earn money for their tuition. ”

Zhang Huan was very relieved to hear that his own soldiers knew that they could correct their mistakes, so he smiled at Wu Xiuniang and said: "What a coincidence, my wife is about to invite a weaver who can weave lightly into the palace to teach them weaving skills, and Guo Dongzhu introduced you to me, are you willing to go?" I will not treat you badly, I will only stay for half a year, and you can go out of the palace to see your son at any time. ”

Wu Xiuniang thought about it, then nodded and responded: "The little girl is willing to enter the palace to teach the queen mother's light appearance technique." ”

"Okay, you go and pack your things, and I'll be back to the palace in a while." Zhang Huan turned back to Guo Dongzhu and said, "I also want to hear the opinions of you industrial businessmen when I come to inspect this time, and I think which laws of the imperial court are not very reasonable, although I want to hear you tell the truth." ”

Guo Dongzhu hurriedly bowed and saluted: "The grass people feel that the court is very tolerant of us now, but the grass people also feel that there are indeed two small places that are not very reasonable. ”

Someone brought Zhang Huan a couch, he sat down, and let Li Qi sit beside him, and said to Guo Dongzhu: "Guo Dongzhu, please speak." ”

Guo Dongzhu thought about it and said: "The grass people want to say that there are many laws and regulations on merchants in the imperial court, and many contradict each other, the year before last, there were Hedong profiteers selling fake tea pits to the people, and the court will cut it all, all Hedong merchants are not allowed to sell tea, this is really unreasonable, this is one thing, and the grass people opened a workshop of 300 looms in Yangzhou last year, and the salt and iron supervisor here in Chang'an said that Guo Ji Workshop is registered in Chang'an, according to the edict of the thirteenth year of Qingzhi, the shop in Yangzhou should pay taxes in Chang'an, But the salt and iron supervisor in Yangzhou said that my store was opened in Yangzhou, according to the edict of the second year of Dazhi, I must pay taxes in Yangzhou, and it should be based on the provisions of the Dazhi year, but the provisions of the thirteenth year of Qingzhi were not abolished, and as a result, I paid taxes on both sides at the same time, so I had no choice but to change the name of the workshop in Yangzhou and register the business registration in Yangzhou. ”

Zhang Huan pondered for a moment and said: "I know about this matter, speaking of which is also involved in the "Yonghui Law Shu", but it is not very complete, I have issued an order last month, ordering Cui Xiangguo to take the lead in the Criminal Department to supplement some new laws and regulations, including commercial law, in the future, my Tang Dynasty will be subject to the "Yonghui Law Shu", no one is allowed to violate the law and arbitrarily, if there is confusion, when the criminal department ruling, these situations you said can be written into a document and put into the four boxes, and the criminal department will naturally adopt it. "To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading! )