Chapter 195: Tribute [II]

"A maximum of 10,000 pieces of cloth and 1,000 pieces of silk will be paid every year! Three hundred horses, five hundred sheep and cattle! "The Dafeng descendant is even more powerful, and directly reduced Li Cunhuan's offer to the point of less than one percent.

Li Cunhuan naturally did not agree, and after some verbal arguments, Li Cunhuan's strong demand was to pay 50,000 pieces of cloth and silk, 8,000 pieces of silk, 500 horses, and Li Cunhuan did not want cattle and sheep every year.

However, the highest amount of tribute given by the descendants of the Great Seal is 40,000 pieces of cloth, 5,000 pieces of silk, 500 horses, 1,000 cattle and sheep, and some 50 catties of Changbai Mountain ginseng, 5 tiger skins, 20 mink skins and other small amounts of luxury tribute. If it was a ruler who liked pleasure, he would probably accept the request of the Great Feudal Descendant. But Li Cunhuan is not, so the two sides have no choice but to stalemate. Especially the difference in the price of 10,000 pieces of cloth.

Now in Lulong, a horse of raw silk can be exchanged for sixteen buckets of wheat, and a bucket of wheat is about forty yuan. It is equal to six hundred and forty pieces of silk. (Note: Cloth is a general surname, mainly referring to silk fabrics, and the tribute cloth is generally used by civilians is raw silk, of course, it will also be mixed with some high-end silk fabrics.) ）

Therefore, 10,000 pieces of cloth are worth at least 6,400 pieces. And now Lulong is relatively lacking in silk fabrics, because silk fabrics cannot be developed in the short term, such as silkworm raising, flax, etc., which require time and experience, not planting. It's a very simple thing, Li Cunhuan has seen such a news in his last life, a farmer grows vegetables, because the price is too low, he loses money, and changes to breed goats, but because of the first breeding, many are not familiar with it, as a result, all the goats are infected with diseases and die, and the farmers hang themselves because they have no money to repay their debts, which is a sensation.

So a lot of things, it doesn't mean that you want to do it, you have to do it well. Just like the above, raising goats, everyone must think that as long as you give him some grass to eat, he usually puts it outside for a walk, so it's okay. But many things are not so simple, just like the farmer, because he didn't know how to breed, he lost his money.

Because the negotiations were deadlocked, both sides decided to continue the next day, giving both sides one night to think about it.

The next day, the Dafeng descendant came again, but this time there was one more person around, and after the introduction of the Dafeng descendant, Li Cunhuan knew that this person's name was Wu Huagai. Li Cunhuan's heart moved, and he asked Wu Huagai with a smile: "Your Excellency is the disciple of Mr. Little Ghost Valley?" ”

Guiguzi is a generation of strange masters in China's Warring States Period, and the apprentices he taught are one by one. And the first wise man of the Bohai Kingdom called himself Mr. Little Guigu because he admired Han culture and Guiguzi, to show that he was not as good as Guiguzi, he was small, but he was also very smart.

Although Wu Huagai smiled, the surprise that flashed in his eyes did not hide from Li Cunhuan, Li Cunhuan did not dwell on this issue, and said with a smile: "Then Deputy Envoy Wu came this time, I think I should have thought of a compromise solution, right?" ”

"The general is wise!" Wu Huagai slightly flattered Li Cunhuan, organized the language, and said: "General, 40,000 pieces of cloth, 5,000 pieces of silk, 500 horses, 500 horses, cattle and sheep every year, I don't think the general needs much. ”

"Hmmm! What you said is not wrong, now I have Yingzhou, Jian'an Prefecture, Liaodong City, Beiwu Prefecture and other Guanwai prefectures as pastures, and I really look down on the tribute of those thousand cattle and sheep. Li Cunhuan said unceremoniously.

"Huh!" The big feudal descendant on the side laughed dryly, and it seemed that he was so angry that he was sarcastically ridiculed by Li Cunhuan. But it's not good to have a seizure, so you can only hide your anger by laughing dryly.

Compared with the great feudal descendants, Wu Huagai is obviously a lot more generous, pondered for a moment, smiled and said: "The general is rich all over the world, so he naturally doesn't care about this, I heard that the general is short of copper." I wonder if there is such a thing? ”

"That's right!" Li Cunhuan is not afraid to admit this matter, and this matter is not a new thing in Lu Long. However, in fact, there is no shortage of copper, because of the emergence of flying money, the shortage of copper coins has been suppressed to a certain extent. However, due to the lack of copper, the number of copper coins minted has always been small, which restricts the further development of Lulong's economy.

"My Bohai country has always been rich in cooked copper, and Bohai is willing to pay a tribute of 20,000 catties to Datang!" Uhuagai said softly.

Li Cunhuan didn't care about it, took out a piece of paper from his side, picked up a quill pen and calculated, one pound and sixteen taels in the Tang Dynasty, and ten cents for one tael. From here, the unit weight began to appear as a unit of quality, money, which was derived from here.

One and a half percent of lead is added to each copper coin, a small amount of tin and iron is added to one percent, and the remaining seventy and a half percent are added to copper. However, among the molten copper, there will be copper gasification, and Li Cunhuan calculates according to eighty percent of copper. Theoretically, you can get four million copper coins, and copper does not need money, and the prices of lead, iron, tin and the like are relatively cheap, Li Cunhuan estimates that the cost of these four million coins is only about 200 yuan, which is too profitable. Of course, this is mainly because the most expensive copper in it does not have to pay for yourself.

"500,000 catties, and sell no less than 3 million catties of brass to Lu Long every year!" Li Cunhuan said very seriously, 20,000 catties of brass is just 4 million coins, which sounds like a lot, but in fact it is only 4,000 yuan, and it is just more than 1,000 yuan to buy Tang knives.

"And I need rice! 200,000 koku of rice every year! Li Cunhuan's tone of voice this time was very firm, and there was no room for negotiation at all.

The Great Seal descendant pondered for a long time and said, "Yes! However, I hope that the Great General will allow me to trade with Lulong in Bohai and open border markets with each other! And allow the merchants of our Bohai Kingdom to trade in Bo Shan City, and be exempt from all customs duties! ”

"Yes!" Li Cunhuan agreed, "I can even exempt Bohai merchants from the waterway tariff from Yalu Mansion to Daxing City (a city at the mouth of the Yalu River), I only have one request, which is to increase the brass tribute by 50,000 catties!" ”

Hearing this, the Dafeng descendant smiled excitedly, and he said that Li Cunhuan did not understand the benefits that Bohai had obtained from the Tang Dynasty trade. 50,000 catties of brass can get the tax exemption right of Bohai merchants to walk on the Yalu River for a year. This saved more than 50,000 catties of brass. By signing this agreement, his great feudal descendants can gain the favor of the nobles in the country. Why not a businessman? In fact, most of those merchants are just lackeys of those nobles!

"Good!" The Great Seal Descendant hurriedly responded. Wu Huagai, who was on the side, looked at Li Cunhuan carefully with doubts in his eyes, not knowing what was on his mind.

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