Chapter 255: Mutual Judgment (Two in One)

After telling Li Shimin about Hou Junji's actions during this time, Li Zhen shook his head with a wry smile and said: "So, Erchen really can't tell whether Hou Junji has smuggled ordnance or not...... But if he had to let Erchen judge, he shouldn't have the courage to do so. ”

"Why?" Li Shimin was very curious: "Didn't you just say that it was not easy to say?" Why is it so sure now? ”

"Not for sure, but for speculation." Li Zhen explained: "The reason why Erchen can't say for sure is because Erchen doesn't know how bold Hou Junji is and how strong his greed is.

And the reason why Erchen said that he didn't have the courage was based on his previous performance...... Father, please think about it, what Hou Junji did before, including his greed for money in Gaochang, has always been walking on the edge of the law and exploiting loopholes in the law, but he has never done anything that is really illegal.

Smuggling arms is a serious crime, and if Hou Junji really had such courage, he would not have been so cautious before.

And Hou Junji is not a fool, there are only fifty revolvers made in Chang'an Arsenal, which are given to the heroes of the Tang Dynasty as souvenirs, and each holder has a corresponding number, even if he doesn't know the code, he should be able to think that if we really have the heart to investigate this matter, if we gather all the gun bearers together to check it slowly, we can find out his - such an obvious thing that can prove his identity, how can he sell it? It is more reasonable that it should have been lost inadvertently. ”

"Makes sense." Li Shimin nodded slowly: "But I am completely contrary to your guess, I think that Hou Junji has the courage to do this." ”

"Erchen doesn't understand." This time it was Li Zhen's turn to be curious, and her judgment was reasonable, why was Li Shimin so sure? Did he have any crucial evidence?

Li Shimin sighed lightly: "Your speculation is very reasonable, but you don't know Junji." In your eyes, the so-called caution is not because he is timid, but because he looks down on him. ”

"Can't afford it?" What does that mean?

"You all underestimate Hou Junji's greed, the reason why he is not greedy for the soldiers' salaries, nor does he eat empty salaries, is not because he is not brave enough, but in his opinion, it is not cost-effective." Li Shimin saw Li Zhen's doubts and explained: "Take that time he went to Gaochang, he brought a total of 30,000 people that time, and the average monthly salary of the Tang Dynasty army was about the same (I didn't find how much the Tang Dynasty military paid, but the Song Dynasty Xiang Army was about 30 a year, and the forbidden army was 45 times, which was the most in the past dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty used the government military system, the government soldiers were a combination of soldiers and farmers, and there was no silver, and the forbidden army did not have to engage in production, but the silver should not be high, plus the price of the early Tang Dynasty was very low, January should always be about the same), the 30,000 army is only 100,000 in three months, and do you know how much money he took after Gaochang was destroyed that time? ”

"I don't know, but it shouldn't be too little." This Li Zhen really didn't know, that time was spread all over the high-level, but everyone just knew that Hou Junji was greedy for a lot of money, more than half of the Tuyuhun treasury, but the exact number is, this is really not clear. Li Zhen has the ability to know, but he doesn't have the spare time, so he doesn't study it carefully.

One of the most powerful countries on the Silk Road in Gaochang, relying on the Silk Road, they have an income of at least three million guan a year, and the property accumulated in Gaochang for two hundred years is definitely an astronomical amount.

"Eight million guan."

"What? Million? Li Zhen was shocked: "In other words, a small Gaochang has more than 16 million treasures stored in the treasury?" ”

"Yes, I didn't expect that just a small country in the Western Regions would have so much money." Li Shimin took a deep breath: "It was precisely because of that time that I was deeply stimulated, I never thought that I could make so much money by relying on business." ”

"No wonder ......" Li Zhen finally understood, no wonder since Gaochang was destroyed, Li Shimin has changed from ignoring his business reform plan to fully supporting it now. You must know that before, although Li Zhen also made a lot of money, he himself was under tremendous pressure, and the businessmen who were squeezed away by him, or the forces behind them, were all kinds of envy, jealousy and hatred for him.

Those years were quite difficult for Li Zhen, not only suffered a lot of exclusion in business, but also was played by many people in the court, although Li Shimin did not reprimand himself for this, but he did not give himself much help.

In the end, Li Zhen was ruthless and started a price war with the outside world, fundamentally squeezing the living space of those businessmen, and finally completely squeezed them out of the business world, forcing many people to even jump off the building. Internally, he bribed all the nobles in the palace, especially those concubines with titles, and offered a large amount of property every year, so that they could help him blow the pillow wind, and finally said that Li Shimin was moved, and after paying a certain price, Li Zhen got his support, which greatly relieved his pressure.

However, all this until Gaochang was destroyed, Li Shimin's attitude suddenly changed, and he turned to vigorously support himself, originally Li Zhen thought that it was his own price to feed Li Shimin, but now it seems that it is purely the commercial tax that has completely stimulated him - a small Gaochang, relying on a Silk Road, can actually make so much money, the Tang Dynasty has a larger territory, more businessmen, and a very good business environment.

Since then, Li Shimin's business behavior for Li Zhen has changed from ignorance to the past, and has become a strong support now, and it is precisely because Li Shimin helped Li Zhen withstand the pressure from the court behind his back that Li Zhen has more free time to play with those opponents in the shopping mall, and slowly forced those older generation businessmen out of the business circle or forced them to change their business model, and then changed the business status of Datang, thus driving the entire Datang business to complete an upgrade, and the court also got more small money.

"Therefore, Hou Junji is not timid, but he doesn't look down on the little salary in the hands of soldiers." Li Shimin turned the topic back to Hou Junji: "In other words, if someone gives him enough benefits, let alone selling weapons, even if he is asked to rebel, he will not hesitate to do it - provided that he can get enough benefits from it." ”

"Erchen kind of understood." Li Zhen said in a low voice, no wonder he dared to rebel in history, in addition to because he and Li Chengqian were too close, more importantly, he thought that if the rebellion was successful, maybe he could go further, and it was not impossible to become the ruler of the three provinces, but after all, he underestimated Li Shimin, and the so-called rebellion failed before it began.

This is also another shortcoming of Hou Junji - he has enough ambition but not enough vision, let alone enough ability, in other words, he can't see the situation clearly, and he thinks too highly of himself, he does what he does seamlessly, but he doesn't know that in the eyes of others, it is full of loopholes.

For example, in the case of Gaochang treasures, Hou Junji was greedy for so much money, and he didn't know about it for others, but in fact, he had already fallen into the eyes of Li Shimin, otherwise with his merits, the reward would be certain, maybe he could really go further, but unfortunately he was too greedy, and in the end not only did not get the reward, but was reprimanded, and went to prison (history) for it.

"What's more important is this ......," Li Shimin's voice turned over in vain, and there were more than a dozen folds.

"What is this?" Li Zhen didn't take it, because he knew that Li Shimin would explain it to him.

"This is Hou Junji's request for the allocation of ordnance in the past few months, with an average of two copies per month, for the same reason, the climate in Nanyang is humid, the ordnance is not durable, and he asks the court to replace it with new equipment. What's more, as early as three months ago, I had already agreed to approve it once, and allocated a batch of ordnance to him, but his fold was still not broken, especially the guns and ammunition, the amount needed was even more amazing, Nanyang has now been basically pacified, where do you need so many munitions? This has to make me suspicious. ”

"......" Li Zhen looked at Li Shimin speechlessly, if you have evidence, you can just take it out, won't it be over? Why do you talk so much nonsense again? And Hou Junji, you are also a waste, do you really think that others can't see your problem? It's been half a month since the last recital, and you are tantamount to writing the words 'I have a problem' on your head, isn't this taking the initiative to attract the court to check you? How can there be such a stupid person in this world? You can eat as much as you have the ability, you obviously have no brains, and you still want to crush people with your IQ, aren't you looking for abuse?

"But Erchen still doesn't understand why Hou Junji sold this gun." Li Zhen held up the revolver and asked very strangely: "The bullets of the revolver are not compatible with the bullets of ordinary hand rifles, and there is no place to replenish the bullets when they are finished, who will buy this thing if they have nothing to do?" And the number of revolvers of this model is not much, once the people in the imperial court know, won't the smuggling of ordnance be exposed? ”

"Firearms are so scarce now, it's good to have a gun, but do others care if you are worthy of bullets?" Li Shimin speculated: "I estimate that the people who buy arms from him should not be ordinary slave hunting teams, but the enemies of the Tang Dynasty, and they should buy guns and store them, and wait until they are stored to a certain base before starting a war with the Tang Dynasty, so it is impossible for this revolver to leak out in a short time." Hou Junji probably thought the same way, but he didn't expect that the work ethic of the Green Snake Gang was so poor, and when he was helping them transport arms, he would secretly hide a part of it, and this revolver even fell into the hands of the second leader of the Green Snake Gang, and was finally discovered by us......"

"That's how it should be." Li Zhen's face suddenly became solemn: "It's just that in this case, Hou Junji is estimated to get the news of the leakage of the firearm, father, we have to prevent him from jumping off the wall in a hurry." ”

"I'm glad that Zhen'er can think of this." Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "You can rest assured that since I came to Lingnan, Hou Junji has been rushing back, calculate the time, it should be almost there, and then leave this matter to me, you don't have to worry." ”

"Then please leave it to my father." Li Zhen's heart finally fell, Nanyang now looks stable, in fact, it has always been at a critical point, this stability is very fragile, if it really stimulates Hou Junji to raise the flag to rebel in Nanyang, it will definitely bring unpredictable losses to Datang, if you want to stabilize the situation in Nanyang again, Datang will have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources again, and its consumption is definitely no less than fighting another Nanyang conquest war.

But now it's okay, Hou Junji returns to Lingnan, and then hand it over to Li Shimin, with Li Shimin's wrist, it is not too simple to silently solve Hou Junji's military power - anyway, Hou Junji has long not wanted to do it in Nanyang, and there are a lot of excerpts for the war, if Li Shimin uses this reason, it should be able to make him lose his vigilance.

"By the way, father, there is one more thing that the retainer forgot to report to you." After discussing Hou Junji, Li Zhen suddenly remembered one thing, that is, Yu Wenhualong, after the old man followed him back to Lingnan, he had been waiting for Li Zhen's introduction, but Li Zhen had just come back and the stool was not hot, so he was beaten by Li Shimin, and when Li Shimin's anger was reduced, something like this happened today, so that after discussing Hou Junji, Li Zhen remembered the old man again.

"What's the matter?"

"That's right, Erchen's first stop on this trip to sea was not Borneo, but the Spice Islands, where Erchen met an overseas remnant......" Li Zhen said everything he saw and heard on the Spice Islands: "That's it, this Yu Wenhua Dragon followed us back to Datang in this way, and now lives in the inn under Wuzhuang Temple, waiting for your summons from your father." ”

"People from the Yuwen family......" Li Shimin was a little disgusted: "It's really troublesome, what I hate the most is the people of the Yuwen family......"

"But after all, Yu Wenhua Dragon is an overseas remnant, and he has been alone overseas for 30 years, but his heart is towards the motherland, and he has spread the Central Plains culture to other races...... This is a good example of publicity, whether it is for the stability of Datang or taking care of the wishes of a lonely old man, this person's father must be seen. Li Zhen persuaded: "And the Mute that Liu Renliang brought back from Luzon before, didn't you meet with your father?" He also rewarded so many treasures, published his deeds in newspapers, and publicized them throughout the Tang Dynasty...... Now that the deeds of Yu Wenhua Dragon are more typical and far-reaching than those of Mute, you want to meet this person, father. ”

"But ......"

Dizzy, mistaken, Hou Junji destroyed not Tuyuhun, but Gaochang, Hou Junji was also greedy for ink is also Gaochang's treasury, and even was imprisoned because of this, Ben San confused these two countries, I am really embarrassed.

(End of chapter)