In the Zichen Palace, Li Longji listened to Xiao Quai's report on the matter in the river with a smile on his face.

Although Xiao Qubing gave a negative answer to the matter of immortality, which made him feel a little disappointed in his mood of looking forward to it day and night, this cannot be blamed on Xiao Quai. And similar disappointment Li Longji has experienced many times, for example, in the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan, he heard that there was an old Zhang Guo in the Maoshan faction, so he invited him, but he was not allowed to live forever;

Another example is Wu Yun later, and another example is that Lao Tzu dreamed many times, but in the end it was all empty. In short, he was used to it, and although he was disappointed, he was already mentally prepared and quickly adjusted his mood.

He found that Xiao Quzhi was different, and this handsome young man with a fairy and jade color was simply a gift from God. Although Li Longji has no intention of going to politics, his desire to rejoice in his achievements has become more and more prosperous.

To sum up, it is extremely proud and complacent, arrogant and lascivious. His life was brilliant and fulfilling. To have a career, to have love, even in art he is superb, everything (except for immortality) in the pursuit of him has done his best.

The Tang Dynasty reached its apex in his hands, he created the most glorious prosperous era, and he reveled in the great achievements of the Kaiyuan Dynasty. Therefore, the current Li Longji's vanity is extremely inflated, he is very face-saving, and he is unwilling to accept any failure.

But just this year, Datang suffered two big defeats in succession! In April, Jiannan Jiedu made Xian Yu Zhongtong conquer Nanzhao, more than 60,000 troops were killed in battle, and the general Wang Tianyun was killed in battle, and Xian Yu Zhongtong was only spared. Although Yang Guozhong covered up his defeat and turned it into a victory, Li Longji actually understood very well in his heart, and if he didn't expose it, he was just pretending to be confused and leaving a fig leaf for self-deception.

Immediately after August An Lushan conquered the Khitan, he suffered another crushing defeat, more than 60,000 troops were wiped out, and even An Lushan was almost killed. This is called how Li Longji, who is self-absorbed and has an extremely inflated vanity, is not angry, how not to be angry.

With his help, 20,000 Anxi troops and more than 10,000 mercenaries actually fought in Hezhong and Khorasan in succession, defeating more than 200,000 Dashi, Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, and Huang Tuqi Shi coalition army in one fell swoop. Not only did the first battle completely pacify more than 30 countries west of the Green Ridge in the river, but also marched into Khorasan to defeat the main force of the Great Food again, and captured the Governor of Khorasan and the imperial brother alive!

Li Longji has been an emperor for almost forty years, and there has never been such a miraculous victory. The Tang Dynasty shook all over the world, and at next year's Yuanri Grand Meeting, there will be nearly 40 countries in the middle of the river and Lingxi to send people to pay tribute to praise His Majesty the Emperor of the Heavenly Khan's martial arts, prostrate under his feet, which greatly satisfied Li Longji's vanity.

What made Li Longji even more satisfied was that this time the Anxi army also seized gold and silver coins worth more than one million taels of gold, and there were countless other jewelry, jade, gold and silver utensils, spice carpets, etc. According to Xiao Quai's estimates, all of this is worth at least more than two million taels of gold, which is converted into at least 15 million taels of Kaiyuan Tongbao, which is almost half of the annual income of the entire Tang Dynasty.

But this is not over, this Xiao Qubing even found a large silver mine in the river that is extremely rich! This time, he brought 150,000 catties of silver ingots with the army, and according to Xiao Quai's estimates, if the business is good, he can send another 100,000 catties of silver to the Guannai every year in the future.

Xiao Qubing also went on to say that the land in the river is extremely rich in gold and silver mineral resources, and if you send people to explore everywhere, you may be able to find a lot of gold and silver mines, and the gold and silver that the Anxi army can offer to the emperor every year will be unimaginable.

Li Longji is going crazy! As the emperor, Li Longji knew better than everyone how much the Tang Dynasty lacked precious metals such as gold and silver, and even did not have enough copper to mint money, so that there were frequent money shortages. He has been the emperor for so many years, and there is a bad money incident almost every few years, and it has been repeatedly banned, and even Song Jing, the virtuous minister of the Kaiyuan Dynasty, was deposed because of the strict prohibition of bad money to attract resentment.

The so-called bad money is a copper coin that is not in good condition or enough for the common people. The reason why the ban continues is that in the final analysis, it is because the economy is becoming more and more prosperous, there are more and more places that need to be traded, and the good money minted by the state is not enough.

The problem of bad money has plagued Li Longji for many years but has not been able to solve it, if it is really as Xiao Qu's illness said, there is a large inflow of gold and silver every year, with gold, silver, and copper coins as the currency in circulation, then all the problems will be solved.

Of course, the most important thing is that I will never be short of money again! Every year, I give so much gold and silver to myself, and I can enjoy it as much as I want, squander it as much as I want, and reward it to whomever I want. It's indescribably enjoyable just to think about!

After the ecstasy, Li Longji was still a little skeptical: "Is there really so much gold and silver in the land of the river?" Why didn't anyone else find out before? ”

"That's technical." Xiao Qu said sickly, the Tang army does not enter the river, the Tang merchants are not allowed to go abroad, and people will not tell you if they find out.

"For example, this silver mine in Bosi Mountain has actually been mined by locals and big cannibals for many years. But silver, unlike gold, has a lot of elemental ...... in nature."

"What do you mean by elementality?"

Xiao Quzhi reacted, and he couldn't understand the terms of later generations, so he said: "For example, there is a lot of gold that exists separately in mud, sand and stones, but copper and iron rarely or not exist separately at all. The same is true of silver, which is rarely found alone, and silver ore is mixed with other ores. Therefore, for so many years, they can only mine some silver that exists alone or is very well refined, and the output is very low, less than 20,000 catties a year. But Chan invented a new way to separate silver ore from other miscellaneous ores and then refine it. This results in nearly ten times the original yield, and can be mined for many years. ”

Li Longji was secretly speechless, and said in his heart, the big cannibal mines less than 20,000 catties a year, and you still say that the output is low, do you know how much silver the entire Datang produces in a year? About fifteen thousand taels! It is equivalent to saying that the annual output of the mine mined by the Great Cannibal is sixteen times that of the entire Datang.

Xiao Quzhi continued: "But in this way, the news will definitely leak out. When the cannibals know this, they will definitely try to take the river back, so we need to increase the army and migrate to the river, so that we can keep the river forever. ”

After Xiao Quai, he boasted that the combat power of the big cannibal was super strong, and at the same time, his learning ability was first-class, this time it was just the internal instability that had just changed the dynasty, plus the enemy was too light, coupled with his secret weapon and the master's dream, the Anxi army was lucky to defeat the big food, and the big food will definitely make a comeback in a few years, and when the time comes, it will be a dragon and tiger fight.

"How is the big food compared to Tibet?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister thinks that if you fight head-on on the plains, one big food can fight at least five or six Tibetans."

"How will you deal with it?" Xiao Qu's words were beyond Li Longji's cognition, he originally thought that Da Shi was just an ordinary barbarian, but he didn't expect it to be so powerful, and his knowledge was not bad. According to Xiao Quzhi, the method of refining silver ore is that Xiao Quzhi put forward an idea, and a big cannibal came up with a specific method. One Tubo is enough for the Tang Dynasty to have a headache, and it is difficult for Li Longji to imagine what it would be like for the combat power of six Tubo to compete with the Tang Dynasty in the river.

"Back to Your Majesty, the ministers have taken precautions, one of which is to temporarily support the Persian Governor's Mansion against the Great Eat; The second is to exchange the emperor's brother for a huge ransom, and within two years, the current Caliph will definitely die of illness, and the emperor's uncle Abdullah will definitely compete with the emperor's brother. When the food infighting is over, it will definitely hurt its vitality;

The third is to increase the number of troops in Anxi and Hezhong, and to migrate to Hezhong. In this way, the land in the river will be impregnable. After the river is stabilized, you can send Weichen to lead the army with only 50,000 troops, and you can run rampant throughout the Great Eclipse and fight all the way to the extreme west. Your Majesty, you know, Da Shi is very rich, and all the spices, peppers, cloves, and nutmeg in the entire Tang Dynasty were transported by Da Shi from the sea. ”

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