After six days, the Weiyuan Fifth Army and the Sixth Army hurriedly arrived at Chengdu Mansion, and when they entered the city, it was the most poisonous time at noon, and the commanders of the two armies, Zhou Rui and Zhang Siliang, did not stop, and immediately went to meet Li Bao.

Li Bao had just finished lunch, and was very happy to see the arrival of the two during his lunch break, so he took the hands of the two and seated them without even putting on his shoes, and then ordered the servants to serve tea.

Zhou Rui looked at Li Bao so enthusiastically, he himself was a little embarrassed, after all, a few years ago, he was disliked by Li Bao because of his disrespect to Zhang Chengye, and he was transferred to the Weizhou Assassin Mansion as a judge.

Now that the Weiyuan Army has been rebuilt, Zhou Ruijing is extremely thoughtful, and he has taken the path of Zhang Zhifang to become the commander of the Weiyuan Fifth Army. Of course, he can be appointed as the commander of the five armies, and Li Bao has to nod, after all, the appointment of the military and political chief must be approved by King Ji, so Zhou Rui cherishes this opportunity very much.

They set off from Chang'an all the way to Xiaoxing and stayed overnight, but the road from Guanzhong to Shuzhong was difficult, and the soldiers were so tired that they were about to fall apart, or a day later than expected. The two brothers were very guilty, so Zhou Rui pleaded guilty to Li Bao and said: "This time, the two brothers who entered Shu also wanted to come to Shuzhong as soon as possible, but after leaving Xingyuan, when they passed by Mingyue Gorge, they didn't expect the plank road to be so difficult, so they asked the king for forgiveness!" ”

"You two don't ask for sin, the road in Shuzhong is already poor, I have walked it myself, and besides, you are not too late. It's a good time, you hurry back and let the sons and daughters rest more, and the war in Dongchuan depends on you. ”

Zhou Rui and Zhang Siliang listened to this, and immediately smiled: "Thank you, the king, I was still thinking before I came, don't let us go to the king of Shuzhong and Zhang Dalang to be too brave and recover Shuzhong at once." I didn't expect that a certain one finally caught up, and the king of the war in Dongchuan just waited to see. ”

"Well, okay, you're tired too, so let's get nervous and rest."

Zhou Rui and Zhang Siliang saluted Li Bao again and then left.

Li Bao sent the two away and didn't feel sleepy for a while, so he simply got up and went to deal with the government affairs on the case. Yi Wuji has acted as Li Bao's personal guard and chamberlain since Hu Sanbao left. He saw that Li Bao was so enthusiastic about political affairs, and he felt a little sorry for Li Bao for being so hardworking.

"Your Royal Highness can't work too hard, when Mr. Hu left, he took special care of him, and the princess and several ladies also explained to him, so that he must advise the king to pay attention to rest. These days, I can't bear to see the king working so hard, why don't you continue to rest, wait for the next one to wake up the king, okay? ”

"No need, Yi Saburo, you rarely care so much about people every day, I'm very happy but we just won Xichuan, so many things have to be decided early. Besides, I'm young and strong, so you don't have to worry. ”

When Yi Wuji heard Li Bao say this, he was a little helpless. But he saw that Li Bao was so busy, and he couldn't help much, so he had to plan to quit.

However, Li Bao stopped him, "You go and bring Zhang Junenvoy and Wang Lvshuai over, and then call the tea merchants and salt merchants from Chengdu and other places." ”

After receiving Li Bao's invitation, the tea merchants and salt merchants in Chengdu were very excited. After all, this King Ji can't help but lean into the Northwest Regions, and he is also very talented in business.

After many tea and salt merchants gathered in the Jiedu Mansion, Yi Wuji immediately led everyone to the outside of Li Bao's study.

After listening to Yi Wuji's report, Li Bao immediately stopped his talks with Zhang Qingping and Wang Jian. He asked Yi Wuji to quickly invite many merchants in.

Many merchants entered the room and knelt down to salute Li Bao, who immediately waved them to get up, and then asked someone to arrange seats and refreshments for the merchants.

The merchants were so happy and a little flattered to see that Li Bao, the king of Ji, was so kind, after all, the merchants were originally lowly and had never seen the nobles attach so much importance to the merchants.

Li Bao said to everyone: "Well, you can try the tea and pastries here first, they are all the best products of Meiya Pastry House." ”

Many merchants immediately nodded and tasted one after another. All of a sudden, everyone sang like a tide, praising the delicious pastries and the mellow tea.

After Li Bao and the others tasted it, he continued: "This time, I called everyone over, and I want to do some research on the development of tea and salt industry in Shuzhong, so if you have something to say, don't hide it." ”

Ancient China's tax tea, tea, tribute tea, tea and horse market began in the Tang Dynasty, and the tea producing areas of the Tang Dynasty were divided into: Shannan, Huainan, West Zhejiang, Jiannan, East Zhejiang, Qianzhong, Jiangnan, and Lingnan.

Shannan and Shuzhong, which Li Bao now controls, are both bulk producing areas of tea, especially Shuzhong, which produces nearly 400,000 quintals of tea every year, while Datang's annual tea output is less than one million quintals, which shows the proportion of Shuzhong tea in Datang's tea industry.

The salt industry in Shuzhong was just starting in the Sui and Tang dynasties, although the well salt in Fuyi County and Rongzhou (now Zigong City, Sichuan) in Shuzhong had further developed and became famous in Bashu. In the twenty-third year of Tang Zhenguan (649), Fushi County was renamed Fuyi County due to the avoidance of Taizong (Li Shimin), and Fushi Salt Well was renamed Fuyi Salt Well.

According to the records of Yuanhe County Atlas, by the second year of Yuanhe of the Tang Dynasty (807 AD), Fuyi County had eight salt wells. In the western production area, another batch of salt wells after Dagongjing were dug one after another, in the first year of Tang Wude (618 AD), the town was placed in Rongzhou, because the town was changed to Gongjing County.

In addition, the advent of Asahikawa Shioi has created a new production area in the area. In the first year of Zhenguan (627 AD), Asahikawa County was placed here. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty (713 AD), there were 13 salt wells in Rongzhou. They are centered on the Fushijing in the east and the Dagongjing in the west.

However, the salt industry during this period was not large enough, only tens of thousands of stone per year. It is still far from the annual output of more than 200,000 tons in later generations, so there is still great potential for the well salt industry in Shuzhong.

It is because he called Zhang Qingping and Wang Jian, the two temporary chiefs of Chengdu, today, and then summoned these tea merchants and salt merchants together, just because he wanted to vigorously develop the tea and salt in Shuzhong, these two very rich industries, after all, Weizhou is now supporting more and more troops and personnel, and he must increase the efficiency of opening up sources and reducing expenditure.

After listening to Li Bao's words, everyone immediately cheered up, after all, as the upstream suppliers of Shanhe Society, the tea merchants in Shuzhong have been hit the hardest in the past half a year.

However, the tea production in Shuzhong has developed rapidly over the years, and they have already become wealthy, and the losses suffered by these merchants in the past six months are very limited, but it is those tea farmers who have suffered the most losses.

Compared with the tea merchants in Shuzhong, the salt merchants are too far behind in terms of wealth and scale. This can be seen in the way they dress and taste.

It was because the salt merchants were more interested in Li Bao's proposal, so the salt merchants asked one after another: "If the king has any ideas, you might as well say it quickly, I can't wait." ”

"Don't worry, it's still early today, let's talk slowly", Li Bao smiled.