Shi Bufan hurriedly opened the gate of Taiji Palace through Dugu Daxue's Shang Palace identity, and urgently asked to see Emperor Li Shimin. Li Shimin didn't expect that Shi Bufan would urgently ask to see him at this time, so Li Shimin had to come over. Shi Bufan actually wanted to use this method to ask to see him, this was obviously not a trivial matter, and Li Shimin didn't dare to ignore it.

"Your Majesty, it started to snow today, and I asked people to investigate, and there are still many people in my Datang who are not ready to protect themselves from the cold. Especially the people outside the city actually have no less than 3,000 households that are not prepared to keep out the cold, which makes me, the county of Wannian County, the parents of the people, feel very worried. Especially my Wannian County is the attached Guo County of Chang'an, and it is still the case at the feet of the Son of Heaven, so what about other counties, it is indeed difficult to estimate the minister. ”

If that were the case, many of the people would starve to death. These are my people of the Tang Dynasty, my parents and officials of Wannian County still can't bear it, and the emperor is the parents of all the people in the world, so isn't the people freezing to death like their own children freezing to death, how can they bear it? ”

After listening to Shi Bufan's words, Li Shimin also said quite "pretending": "Hey, all the people in the world are my people, and they are all the same as my children, if the people are frozen to death, then how can I bear it!" Every year, I see that many people are going to freeze to death, and I am really heartbroken! It's a pity that I'm incompetent, I'm incompetent! I can only watch my people freeze to death, and I am very heartbroken! ”

Shi Bufan doesn't know if Li Shimin is really heartache or fake heartache, but this doesn't matter. Li Shimin, the emperor, has done better than most other emperors, so he is still good in terms of people's livelihood, so he may really care for the people. But whether it really hurts or not, then it is unknown.

"Your Majesty, since this is the case, the minister came to see him overnight, so that the emperor can save the people as much as possible and avoid freezing to death as much as possible, isn't it very good? We will try to prevent no one from freezing to death this year, at least near our Gyeonggi neighborhood, and that is a good way. Shi Bufan said.

"Oh? What can you do to keep the people from freezing to death? Li Shimin really paid attention to it.

Every year, people freeze to death, which is a common practice in ancient times. Therefore, the ancient people were already surprised that someone froze to death, so Dugu Daxue didn't seem to have any surprises. As for Li Shimin, when he heard that he could not let a single citizen freeze to death, he really had to care. If it is really possible to make no one in the vicinity of Gyeonggi freeze to death, then this is a huge boost to the prestige of Li Shimin, the emperor, so that Li Shimin, the emperor, has just taken office, then he immediately implemented a benevolent government!

It is of great help to consolidate and strengthen the impression of Li Shimin, the emperor, in the minds of the people, and this is a very important benefit, and Li Shimin is of course concerned. Especially Li Shimin has just launched a mutiny and has been in power for less than half a year, so he has not even changed his year name. At this time, it is in the stage of "three fires for new officials to take office", if you don't do something, how can you be worthy of yourself when you just took office? How can you be worthy of the fact that you just drove your dad away?

There are often two possibilities for a king who is not properly enthroned. One is to completely give up on himself and choose to anesthetize himself, anyway, he won't have a good reputation in the history books, so he will naturally break the jar. The other is that since he knows that he is not in the right position, he wants to make some achievements, let history recognize him, and let the people and future generations know that he is capable of becoming an excellent king. Obviously, Li Shimin is the latter kind, hoping to make achievements, and then let the people know that they are capable of becoming a good monarch.

Now that he has just taken office, he must do a few "visible" practical things, otherwise how can he let the people know about his existence?

"Your Majesty, the ancients had an allusion that it was a charcoal in the snow. Of course, sending charcoal in the snow is currently unbearable for Datang. I Datang don't say whether there is this money at present, even if I give the charcoal of the entire Chang'an to the people, it is not enough! What's more, the ancients all had clouds, and it is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish. This kind of charcoal fire can only be burned once, and it will be over when it is burned, which is far inferior to something that can be heated for a long time. For example, leather jackets can naturally be heated for a long time. Shi Bufan said.

Li Shimin shook his head and said: "The more you say, the more exaggerated it becomes, how can there be so many leather jackets?" ”

Shi Bufan hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, I didn't mean to ask for a leather jacket, but to say that clothes like a leather jacket can really make the people warm." But I didn't say that you have to wear a leather jacket for heating! ”

"You don't need a leather jacket for heating, but do you use silk cloth? Silk cloth for warmth, it's really not suitable! Li Shimin said.

Silk cloth is okay for covering the body and ordinary clothes, but it is obviously not suitable for heating. Silk cloth may only cover the autumn chill, but the winter cold cannot be stopped.

"Your Majesty, in fact, I don't mean to say that I use silk cloth directly, but goose feathers! Goose feathers can be used for heating, for example, feathered animals. In particular, the tiny down in the feathers is a good thing for warmth. If this kind of fleece is used to fill the cloth, it is not only lighter than a leather jacket, but also less expensive. You can even control the amount of velvet by yourself, so that although I dare not say that every person can be extremely warm, it can be done if you don't freeze to death. ”

"I have the habit of eating geese at the winter solstice in the Tang Dynasty, and now I see that many officials and nobles in Chang'an have also begun to prepare to kill geese to eat, which reminds me of the idea that goose down can be used for warmth. If geese can rely on goose down for warmth, why can't humans do the same? ”

Shi Bufan's method is very simple, in fact, it is to use goose down to keep warm, this kind of thing is very popular in later generations, called down jackets. Down jackets are filled with the down inside of some poultry feathers, so that they can be filled into the clothes to keep warm. Down jackets have replaced cotton clothes and quilts, and have even become the main material for heating in winter. Down is warmer than cotton clothes and quilts, and can be washed, so it has successfully replaced cotton as the main material for heating.

As for the cotton of later generations, it is no longer used for heating, but mainly used to make cotton cloth. So since there was no cotton in the Tang Dynasty, it was completely possible to use down. Especially during the Tang Dynasty, it was generally popular to eat chickens and geese, but there were not many ducks. During the Tang Dynasty, chickens and geese were the two most commonly eaten poultry, especially during the winter solstice.

The winter solstice is also the New Year of the Zhou Dynasty, and the ancient Zhou Dynasty period used the winter solstice as the beginning of the year, which was called the winter calendar. Later, it was changed to spring as the beginning of the year, and it was called the spring calendar. However, although the Tang Dynasty already used the "spring calendar", the winter calendar still exists. The relationship between the spring and winter calendars of the Tang Dynasty is like the relationship between the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar of later generations, a new calendar has become the mainstream, but the other calendar has not been completely eliminated.

The relationship between the winter solstice and the people of the Tang Dynasty is actually the same as the status of the Chinese New Year in later generations, and the winter solstice is also regarded as the New Year. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a winter solstice to eat goose meat tonic, especially in winter, eating goose meat tonic is an important means, elegant and vulgar sharing, almost all walks of life in the city will do so.

"With goose down? Does this really work? Li Shimin asked.

"Okay, Your Majesty, as long as you are willing to order the collection of the geese from all the officials and nobles of our Chang'an families, take their appearance after killing, and continue to send the goose meat back to them, so that we only need these fluffs. Of course, it is not impossible to let the people kill the goose and send the fluff over for selection and sorting. So I think it's not great to use these useless goose feathers for the people? ”

"This is a goose feather in the snow, which is more useful than sending charcoal in the snow back then!"

Li Shimin suddenly felt a toothache, because the value of this goose feather was too low, especially a pound of goose feathers might be cheaper than a pound of charcoal. This kind of goose feather thing is originally unworthy of ordinary people, and they will be discarded casually. Don't give goose feathers to others, otherwise there will be no saying that "goose feathers are lightly gifted for thousands of miles".

The "lightness" of sending goose feathers for thousands of miles not only refers to the light weight of goose feathers, but also refers to the fact that his value is very low, almost no value at all, otherwise it is not worth sending thousands of miles away. Even ordinary people don't want goose feathers.

But now the goose feathers can actually keep warm, so that Li Shimin, the emperor, can take them to the people? There are allusions to people sending charcoal in the snow, but sending goose feathers in the snow, this Li Shimin feels a little unable to send it! This kind of thing that everyone treats as garbage, and he actually asked the emperor to order it to be delivered, so where can he put his face?

If you want to say that the emperor gives gifts, they are all precious, but now he sends a bunch of "garbage" to others, which makes Li Shimin a little unable to let go of his face.

When Shi Bufan saw Li Shimin's appearance, he knew that Li Shimin was dying to save face and suffer crimes. But it's not surprising that Chinese don't all pay attention to a heroic and generous gift? If you don't give some luxury gifts to others, how can you make people feel face-saving? Gift-giving in China is a face-saving thing that will be rich and wealthy, and of course it is impossible to give something worthless casually. Although it is said that the goose feather gift is very important, how many people can really do it? There are too many laypeople in this world, and too many people are running around for a living, so there are too many laypeople, and only those who are more affluent will pay attention to what courtesy and affection are more important.

Shi Bufan began to make excuses for Li Shimin and give him a "face", otherwise this Li Shimin is really embarrassed as an emperor!

"Your Majesty, aren't you sending them goose feathers! It's giving them a life! In this cold winter, there are a few people who can withstand such a biting cold wind, and your majesty is giving the people a hope of survival. With this goose feather, the people can survive and not be frozen to death. So Your Majesty, you are giving them an extra life, of course they are very grateful to the Emperor! ”

"Your Majesty, there is nothing more precious in this world than life. Who in this world does not cherish their lives, even if they are not afraid of death, it does not mean that they are willing to die worthlessly. What everyone values most is their own life. Therefore, the emperor, you not only sent goose feathers, but also gave them a life, and they will inevitably be grateful to the emperor. How can the value of this life be measured by the value of money and wealth? ”

Hearing this, Li Shimin felt a lot better, otherwise it would be too embarrassing for an emperor to send a goose feather that has no value. But now that I have listened to Shi Bufan's explanation, this is how I feel that I can get by, at least I am giving life, and the value of life cannot be measured by money, which is what Li Shimin attaches importance to. There is no greater grace in almost any era than the grace of saving lives, and the grace of saving lives is to be rewarded and rewarded heavily.

If you save the emperor's life, then you will be promoted and rich in the future, and the emperor will not be too much to repay. This is not only a life-saving, but also a charcoal in the snow. When people are in danger, they are more grateful when they are helped by others than when they are not.

"Okay, since it's a life for the people, then I naturally don't care about face! As long as the people can be healthy, what's the big deal about losing some face? Li Shimin said.

However, Shi Bufan also complained in his heart: "Face? Is there anyone in this world who values face more than an emperor? To do things for the emperor, we must not only consider the effect of the service, but also consider the emperor's face! If you disgrace the emperor, not only will you not take credit, but you will be guilty of a greater sin than if you messed things up. If I don't find a suitable reason for you, you won't be able to accept such a 'humiliating' thing as sending goose feathers for a while. ”

"However, I'm afraid that even if I kill all the geese in Chang'an, it won't be enough to meet the down needs of the people in the Gyeonggi area, right?" Li Shimin asked.

Li Shimin also took this into account, even if he killed all the geese in Chang'an, he would not be able to make up so much goose down for the people. A goose is just that little fluff, obviously not enough. There are tens of thousands of households in the entire Gyeonggi area, and if every household uses duvets even according to some savings, these fluffs are obviously insufficient. Such a little fluff is still not enough!

"Your Majesty, in fact, this is not difficult. I have a way, the emperor does not give an order to hold a winter hunt, so that not only can the soldiers and various nobles hunt, let the nobles hunt all kinds of feathered birds, but also allow them to exercise their martial spirit, so as to ensure that the martial spirit of my Tang Dynasty will not be lost. If Datang's martial spirit is lost, the consequences will be unimaginable! If the martial spirit of the Han people is lost, the consequences will really be over. Shi Bufan said. (To be continued.) )