()

Seeing that Li Su's goods were still like this, Gao Ming was immediately relieved.

After letting the waiter make a pot of tea, he asked Li Su.

"Why did you kid run back all of a sudden? Don't you have to worry about Yingzhou? You've left your post like this, and you're worried that the old man will clean you up! ”

Gao Ming originally thought that after he carried Li Shimin out, Li Su would definitely be frightened, but what he didn't expect was that after hearing his words, Li Su was not only not afraid, but also laughed

"Haha, big brother, don't use your father to scare me, this time I sent salt back to Beijing at his behest!"

"Deliver salt?"

Gao Ming remembered that when he and Meng Xin were in Jinju before, Tian Yi also told him that he had shipped a million stones back.

This weight is equivalent to 50,000 tons in the unit of later generations, which is not a small amount!

And now the population of Datang is not large, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Households, there are only more than 1.5 million households, and the total population is less than 20 million.

In this way, the one million stone salt that Tian Yi brought back was enough for the people of the Tang Dynasty for half a year, but why did Li Shimin suddenly let Li Su transport the salt back?

Thinking of this, Gao Ming immediately frowned.

"You are in charge of bringing back the salt from the Fanyang Salt Farm? Isn't Tian Yi in charge of this? ”

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Li Su laughed again.

"Haha, big brother, you don't know this, Tian Yi's salt is used to sell to the people, but the million stone salt I am responsible for sending back is what my father is going to use as a reward!"

Hearing Li Su's words, Gao Ming became even more confused.

"Reward? And it still needs a million stone salt, so who should be rewarded with so much salt? ”

As the saying goes, no merit is not rewarded, since Li Shimin wants to be rewarded, he naturally has to reward those who have merit, and as far as Gao Ming knows, in the past six months, except for the war of the Tang Dynasty against Goguryeo, nothing major has happened, so who will these salt rewards be given to?

"Is it ......?"

Thinking of this, an answer suddenly appeared in Gao Ming's mind, and his eyes widened suddenly.

"Isn't the old man going to use salt to reward the soldiers of the Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo?"

Seeing Gao Ming's look of disbelief, Li Su suddenly couldn't help laughing, and while laughing, he stretched out his thumb to Gao Ming.

"Hahahaha, the eldest brother deserves to be the eldest brother, he actually guessed it, that's right, these salts are used to reward the soldiers of the Eastern Expedition to Goguryeo!"

“……”

And so it was!

After hearing Li Su's affirmative reply, Gao Ming suddenly showed a helpless expression.

"I actually use salt as money, should I praise him for being worthy of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"

Having said that, in fact, Gao Ming also secretly admired Li Shimin's subtle abacus in his heart.

Gao Ming knew very well that when his salt field was not made, the salt of Datang was very expensive.

Take a court member like the eldest grandson Wuji as an example, he can only buy more than 50 catties of salt for a month, which shows that salt is a well-deserved daily luxury.

But now it's different, Gao Ming asked Tian Yi to build a salt farm in Fanyang, and a year's output can supply more than the annual use of Datang!

Datang is not like later generations, there are many factories that can be called "salt consumers", in Datang, there is only one use of salt, and that is to eat!

And so much salt, obviously not so easy to eat, as long as the far-sighted people know, it will not be long before Datang's salt is about to go down the altar of luxury and become an ordinary item that the people can afford.

Of course, Li Shimin is also very aware of this, so he is ready to let the salt exert a wave of residual heat before it has depreciated!

According to the practice of the Tang Dynasty, if a big victory is fought, the ruler still has to express it more or less, which can be regarded as giving some encouragement to these people who are working hard for the Tang Dynasty.

Those who have merit naturally have to be rewarded, and those who have no merit but have hard work must also express it, so that they will naturally have to pay a lot of money.

This must be given, not saved!

Originally, Li Shimin had planned to take out one million yuan from the treasury for reward, but when he heard that it had not rained for more than four months this year, so there was a bumper harvest in Fanyang Salt Farm, he suddenly had a new idea.

In order to confirm the feasibility of this idea, when he went to Mount Tai to ask for rain before, Li Shimin took advantage of this meeting to ask Liu Bing to secretly go to Fanyang to personally confirm the situation in Yantian.

When Liu Bing reported to him that Fan Yang had accumulated more than two million stone salts, Li Shimin immediately knew that the era of low-cost salt was coming.

Although Li Shimin did not study economics and co-ordination, he understood the principle that scarcity is precious, so he made a decision, that is, to wait until the soldiers who went to Goguryeo came back, and then reward them with salt.

Ordinary soldiers are given 50 catties each, junior military attachés are 100 catties each, and senior generals are 200 catties each, all of which are packed in bags and let them take home and eat slowly!

I have to say that although Li Shimin's idea seems a little out of tune, it is indeed feasible.

Gao Ming knew casually that if Li Shimin took out two pieces of money and fifty catties of salt for these soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to choose, then the soldiers would definitely choose the latter without hesitation.

Because in their values, fifty catties of salt are worth more than two dollars.

Once the soldiers accepted the reward, they would not be upset even if the price of salt dropped dramatically after a year or two.

It's like someone kindly gave you a famous brand, but soon after you find out that you only need to charge the phone bill, in such a situation, will you feel that you have suffered a loss?

This is obviously impossible.

And the people of Datang have suffered too much, so they know how to be grateful.

When the Tang Dynasty was first decided, most of the veterans who retired from the army only got half a bag of grain, but no one ever complained, because in their opinion, it was a blessing to have food.

Li Shimin was a qualified king, but he lacked some kindness to the soldiers, but the soldiers were used to it, so they didn't feel anything wrong.

But when Gao Ming became the general of Tiance and began to issue veteran subsidies, he quickly gained a lot of prestige and the loyalty of the soldiers, which even Li Shimin did not expect.

And this time, Li Shimin's plan to prepare to distribute salt is actually a kind of performance of buying people's hearts.

After thinking about these things, Gao Ming suddenly secretly sighed in his heart.

"Alas, since it's the old man's idea, then I'll cooperate with him, and I'll let someone notify Tian Yi later, so that he can temporarily stop selling low-priced salt to the outside world, and wait for the old man to reward the salt!"

Thinking of this, Gao Ming looked at Li Su again.

"Sixth, since you have already transported the salt, are you going back to Yingzhou soon?"

When he said this, in fact, Gao Ming wanted Li Yu to stay for a few more days, although this guy was a little bit second, but he was very sincere in treating people, which was difficult for Gao Ming to find in other brothers.

As if feeling the retention of Gao Ming's tone, Li Su immediately grinned.

"Hehe, since they have all returned to Chang'an, they have to wait for the Dragon Boat Festival before leaving!"

Hearing Li Su's words, Gao Ming also laughed.

"It turns out that the Dragon Boat Festival is coming, and it seems that Qu Yuan's light can be touched again!"

However, what Gao Ming didn't expect was that as soon as his words fell, Li Su's eyes suddenly widened.

"Qu Yuan? Who is Qu Yuan? Is it Big Brother your acquaintance? ”

“……”