"The price of cotton is still a bit high." Lao Cheng sighed.

Li Xiao took a handful of freshly grilled mutton skewers from the prince's hand, gave half of them to Lao Cheng, and comforted him, "It's already very good, I think the white cloth sold from Xizhou at the beginning, then it is called an expensive one, and it is more expensive than silk." In the past few years, I have vigorously promoted cotton planting in Anton, and the quantity has slowly risen, and the price has also dropped again and again. ”

"But it's still more expensive." Lao Cheng took a bite of a bunch of mutton.

"The price of cotton is not high in the production area, and the court purchases it more expensive, because many merchants increase the price to make money. If they were willing to make less money, in fact, the price of cotton cloth would be cheaper than that of linen, but now they all know that cotton is a good thing, and the cotton planted by Anton, as soon as it is planted, they have already paid for it, and when it comes to harvest, the cotton will all fall into their hands, and they have a complete monopoly on cotton, and this price is naturally set by them. ”

"These profiteers."

Li Xiao smiled and told Cheng Yanjin that there were also members of the Cheng family among those profiteers, because the profiteers who monopolized Anton's cotton were headed by the thirteen lines of Chishan Port, and the Li family had a share in the thirteen lines, so naturally the Cheng family was indispensable.

After all, who doesn't know that the so-called Thirteen Lines are actually the representatives of those noble and noble officials in Chang'an.

"The thirteen lines were made by your kid, you have to take care of this matter, cotton should be set up as a strategic material by the imperial court, and the imperial court monopoly system should be implemented, and those profiteers should not be allowed to hoard and monopolize."

Cheng Yanjin is an old demon king, and he doesn't even care about his own family.

"It's actually a bit too much to set cotton as a monopoly, after all, the imperial court didn't even do this with salt and iron." Li Xiao shook his head, "But now this situation is indeed a bit excessive, I think the imperial court can introduce some regulations, such as pulling out more money from the treasury every year to collect cotton directly from cotton farmers." In addition, we can encourage more cotton in places suitable for growing cotton, so that if there is more cotton, the monopoly of profiteers will naturally be broken, and the price will fall. ”

People take food as the sky, but clothing is just as important, after all, there is still warmth when they are full.

For a long time, the people planted mulberry and hemp, spun and weaved, and the people were self-sufficient, and the imperial court also directly levied silk and linen to enrich the treasury, which was not only used as currency, but also directly used to give to soldiers and officials.

Silk and linen are all woven by the whole people, but compared with silk and linen, cotton still has a lot of advantages, not to mention that cotton can have excellent performance against the cold, that is, woven cotton cloth, but also more comfortable than linen.

With Li Xiao's textile machine, the process of spinning and weaving cloth in addition to seeds has been greatly reduced, and the production efficiency has been greatly improved.

The increase in the amount of cotton planting is not only helpful for the northern border army of the Tang Dynasty to expand the territory and defend the border, but also for the Tang Dynasty to immigrate to the north to reclaim the land, after all, such as Liaoxi, Liaodong and Saibei and other places, the winter is also extremely cold, if the people can have cotton clothes to keep out the cold, they can better take root there, reclaim the barren tuntian, and enrich the frontier.

"I'm old, if I'm twenty years younger, then with cotton and corn, I can lead the army to destroy Goguryeo, open up the land of Baishui in Montenegro, immigrate to Tuntian, defend the frontier, and expand the territory for another 3,000 miles for the Tang Dynasty!"

When Lao Cheng said this, he was also arrogant.

This is a gray-haired, nearly seventy-year-old veteran, but he still has a heart full of blood.

"I, the Tang Dynasty, destroyed the Eastern Turks, destroyed the Western Turks, swept away Gaochang, and annexed Baekje and Silla, but there are still Tuyuhun and Goguryeo that have not been destroyed, and Tubo has been eyeing the tiger. In the south, although Lingnan is safe, the land south of Jiaozhou can be handed over, Linyi has been restored, and the Nanzhao in southern Yunnan is also big, I am old! ”

Li Xiao raised his glass and toasted the old general.

"The old general has been fighting horses all his life, unifying the world with Emperor Taizong, sweeping the eight wildernesses, although there are still a few opponents, but it must also be left to the younger generation, otherwise there will be no opponents, and the young people will not have the opportunity to practice?"

Datang has successively set up Anxi, Beiting, Anbei, Hanhai, Andong, Liaodong six major protectorates, the east, west and north three directions have been almost swept away, now it is the south, the southeast is Linyi, the southwest is Nanzhao, Tubo.

"It won't be long before the Tang Empire will add three new capitals, and then there will be Annan Metropolitan Protectorate, Yunnan Metropolitan Protectorate, and Zhennan Metropolitan Protectorate. At that time, whether it was Linyi or Liuqiu, or Nanzhao, Tubo, and Tuyuhun, they would all be the territory of my Tang Empire. ”

Cheng Biting Jin raised his glass and laughed, laughing a few drops of his eyes.

"Hahaha, the Nine Metropolitan Protectorates, Yongzhen Datang Jiangshan, Anxi, Beiting, Anbei, Hanhai, Liaodong, Andong, Annan, Yunnan, Zhennan! Well, I look forward to this day as soon as possible, and I hope that the young people of your generation can surpass my generation as soon as possible! ”

Cheng Yanjin drank very happily this meal, Li Xiao didn't drink much, he was already drunk and fell asleep.

The crown prince Li Hong ate a grilled chicken wing and asked Li Xiao, "Master, why does the old demon king Cheng laugh and cry for a while, and he only ate a few skewers of meat and drunk himself first, didn't he say that the old demon king drank a lot of alcohol?" ”

"Because he is happy today, and he is not allowed to call him the old demon king in the future. You have to respect him Grandpa Cheng, he was one of the several generals in front of your grandfather's account of Taizong, he fought countless battles for the Tang Dynasty all his life, although he was called the Demon King, but he was also a demon for the Tang Dynasty, others can call him that, but you can't. ”

"Oh."

Li Hong became serious and bowed seriously to Cheng Yanjin, who was asleep.

On the way back, the two of them continued to walk on the streets of Chang'an on foot, one foot deep and one foot shallow.

"Master, does the imperial court really want to set up the three major protectorates of Annam, Yunnan, and Zhennan?"

"There are no plans for this yet, but there will be later, and the day will not be too far away."

"Master, will you continue to go out of Beijing to lead the troops to fight? Just like you laid Anton for Datang? ”

Li Xiao smiled, reached out and rubbed the prince's head.

"If necessary, I would like to lead the army, but maybe there will not be such a chance again."

"Why, teacher, you are so good at using soldiers, they all say that you are the most powerful person in my Tang Dynasty since Li Jing and Li Ji's second marshal."

"Don't just listen to other people's nonsense, what am I, my Tang Dynasty generals are like clouds, ministers are like rain, and they are not as powerful as mortals, just say that in this court, in addition to Yinggong Li Ji, there are also Li Daozong, Xue Wanche, as well as Wei Chigong, Cheng Yanjin, Xue Wanche, Su Dingfang, Cheng Wuting, Qi Bi He Li, Liang Jianfang, Xiao Siye, Ashina Sheer and other famous generals, the heroes gathered together."

"Wow, are they all famous generals?"

"Well, my Datang has never lacked generals."

"But I still think that the teacher is the most powerful, you are a new territory for the Tang Dynasty with three thousand old and weak, and no one is as powerful as the teacher." Li Hong looked at Li Xiao with admiration, in the eyes of this young child, his teacher is the most capable, he can tell stories, make delicious food, and fight, that is a big hero who can do anything!