Seeing that Wu Meiniang was hijacked, Li Zhen's guards finally reacted, half hurriedly went to protect Li Zhen's carriage, and the others rushed up to intercept the other party's carriage.

But what they didn't expect was that the black-clothed man in the car was strong in martial arts, and before the few guards who went up could be deployed, they were kicked down by the two people in the car, and even took the opportunity to injure a few people, and then the black-clothed man immediately beat his horse and galloped, and the guards in front couldn't stop him if he wanted to, and the pedestrians around him also hurriedly hid on both sides, making the carriage unimpeded, and disappeared into the streets and alleys of Chang'an City in the blink of an eye.

Li Zhen and Wu Meiniang on the carriage only reacted at this time, Xiao Meiniang experienced this kind of change for the first time, the whole person was scared stupid, and after a while she screamed, although Li Zhen was also frightened and pale, but she was quite calm, while ordering the guards to chase, while sending people to manage the various yamen of public security to report the case, and notify Jin Wuwei to arrest the whole city.

And just when Li Zhen was busy with Wu Meiniang's kidnapping, and guessed who kidnapped Wu Meiniang, Li Su had already entered the Lu Guogong Mansion, among which Xiao Wenxin's own female dependents in the mansion were entertained in the side hall, and Li Su was taken to the main hall by Cheng Huailiang.

As soon as I entered the main hall, I saw two people sitting opposite each other in the hall, talking while eating, one of them was naturally Cheng Biting Jin, and the other Li Su also knew it, it turned out to be Li Ji's old slippery head, and Li Jingye stood next to him, watching his grandfather and Cheng Lao Pifu drink wine and eat meat, but he could only swallow his saliva.

"Junior Li Su, see the two uncles!" Although Li Su's title is higher than that of Guogong, Li Su doesn't dare to talk about any title in front of them, everything is based on personal relations, these two are friends with Li Shimin or Li Xiaogong's peers, so Li Su's uncle is not at a loss.

"Rokuro, please take a seat, Zhijie and I have been waiting for you for a long time." Li Ji stretched out his hand and asked Li Su to sit down. Said with a smile. Li Su did not shirk, bowed down and sat down, while Cheng Huailiang stood with Li Jingye and accompanied him to be a pair of difficult brothers.

"Come, don't say anything, let's have three glasses first!" Before Li Su could speak, Cheng bit Jin and patted Li Su on the shoulder, and boldly picked up a small bowl of wine glass and said. When Li Ji heard this, he laughed and picked up his wine glass. What else can Li Su say as a junior? had no choice but to sacrifice his life to accompany the drunkard, and the three glasses of wine together were at least three taels, and Li Su was still on an empty stomach, so he drank his stomach. My head immediately became a little dizzy, and I hurriedly drank a few sips of sweet soup to feel better.

"Ahem~, I don't know if the two uncles summoned the little nephew here, but what's the matter?" Li Su's face turned red, he felt that his neck seemed to be thickened, and his tongue was a little numb, as soon as he entered the wine just now, he immediately noticed that this was the first batch of wine brewed by the distillery. It was stored for half a year before it was taken out, and the wine was very strong, and he really couldn't hold it if he drank it again, so it was better to finish the business as soon as possible.

"Hehe, it's not a big deal, it's just that it's on the carboniferous mine now. There is a great shortage of people, and I listen to them always mention this matter, so I want to call Liulang to ask, see if you have any way? Li Ji glanced at Li Ji and asked pretending not to care.

After hearing this, Li Su laughed secretly in his heart. At the beginning, the matter of the coal mine had been engaged in by Cheng Huailiang, Li Jingye and his juniors, and the elders in their family only thought it was a child's trick. Didn't pay much attention to it. However, as the use of coal is more and more extensive, the demand for coal is also increasing, and the huge interests contained in the coal have finally attracted the attention of their elders, and they began to take back the power from the hands of Cheng Huailiang and their juniors, and participate in the management of the coal mine in the name of the family. It's just that Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji have always been hidden behind the scenes, and today they finally jumped to the front.

"Qiqi's two uncles and little nephews have been worrying about the lack of people, but they are also at a loss!" Li Su said with a wry smile.

Regarding the lack of people in the mine, in fact, it has been highlighted from the beginning of the mine, when Cheng Huailiang bought nearly 10,000 Tibetan prisoners of war in order to help Li Su, but later, with the discovery of more and more carboniferous mines, this slave is not enough at all. In desperation, I had to spend money to hire the farmers around me, although the people were still much worse, but I was able to make the mine run normally, but the output was miserable.

However, even if it is a method that can only temporarily quench the thirst of the farmer, there are still two great drawbacks, one is to increase the cost of prospecting, and the other is that the farmer is good when the farm is not working, and the farmer who has no farm work is happy to find a part-time job with a good salary, but whenever the farm is busy, they will immediately throw down the iron pickaxe, go home and pick up the hoe to be the farmer, no matter how much persuasion can not be persuaded, and even increase the salary can not keep a few, after all, the idea of land-oriented has penetrated into their bone marrow, in their opinion, no matter how much money they make, It is not as important as the little grain that is produced on the ground.

And after the Wang family was forced to a dead end by Li Su, they had no choice but to lose a lot of mines to them at once, and suddenly doubled the mines of the Coal Industry Association. Although this is a good thing, but it also exacerbates the crisis of lack of manpower, which is already seriously understaffed, and now it is impossible to draw people, and in desperation, many mines are temporarily mothballed, and those carboniferous mines that are convenient and easy to develop are developed first.

But with the promotion of honeycomb coal and coke, now the demand for charcoal is getting bigger and bigger, the coal industry association controls the vast majority of the market of coal, but the output can not meet the demand of the market, and even the Wang family can't do it, watching such a delicious cake in front of them, but they can't eat it, which is the most painful thing for all members of the whole coal industry association.

It is precisely because the shortage of people is so serious that as soon as the refugees from Jinzhou entered Chang'an last time, they immediately caused the people within the association to rob, and even sent people to Jinzhou to recruit refugees into the mine, and as a result, a famine that was destined to starve to death and freeze to death completely disappeared.

"Hey! Why do you say those farmers don't steal so much, I have heard from the steward, they work for half a year, and they earn more than the best annual income of the year, but those people just don't want to! Cheng Yanjin smashed his fist on his leg, and said angrily on his face. Don't look at Cheng Biting Jin's rudeness, as if he was reckless. But in fact, they were from a big family, and their grandfather and father were both officials, and they received an orthodox Confucian education since childhood, so they couldn't understand what the farmers thought.

"Zhijie, you can't say that, if those farmers are really willing to leave their farming hours and concentrate on working in the mines, Kong Yingda's rotten Confucians don't say it first, even His Majesty will not let us go." Li Ji said with a wry smile. Li Shimin attaches great importance to agriculture. If agriculture is affected by mining, then their mines will be over.

Looking at the two old foxes in front of him, singing and playing double reeds, Li Su despised infinitely in his heart, these two ruthless old men. In addition, there are Qin Huaiyu, Li Jingheng and the other old guys behind them, in order to solve the problem of lack of people, they are all ruthless, and they are about to do a big thing, but don't think that he Li Su knows anything?

Thinking of this, Li Su simply smiled and said: "Two uncles, of course, the most cost-effective way to mine is to use slaves, but our Datang allows slave trading!" ”

Hearing Li Su's words, Li Ji and Cheng Yanjin's eyes narrowed. The four eyes were like knives, looking Li Su up and down a few times, and his heartbeat was a little strange, I don't know if Li Su knew their intentions or coincided with them?

"Rokuro, what do you mean?" Cheng Yanjin suddenly smiled, but asked with a rare look of appreciation in his eyes.

"Hey, hey. In fact, several uncles must have already had plans, why hide the little nephew, besides, the little nephew is also a member of the association, and externally, everyone's interests are the same. What the uncles want to do is actually what the little nephew plans to do. Li said with a grin.

"Oh? So, Rokuro, did you agree to the establishment of a slave hunting team? Li Ji was overjoyed when he heard it.

Datang does not prohibit the slave trade, so it has become common for wealthy families to keep slaves. And the source of these slaves is also very extensive, in addition to the Tang Dynasty because of poverty voluntarily sold or punished as slaves, in addition to foreign wars are also a major source of slaves. In addition to these two, there are also slaves provided by professional slave hunting teams, most of these slaves are captured from abroad, and then sent to major cities by special people for sale, such as the very popular 'Kunlun slaves, Silla maids', which are the most famous two.

In order to solve the problem of miners' manpower, Cheng Biting Jin finally hit these slaves, most of the slave catchers outside the Tang Dynasty are pirates or robbers, and their reputation is not very good, but there are many shadows of families behind these slave catchers, so it is not too shameful for Cheng Biting Jin to organize a slave hunting team.

"I agree with the slave catcher, but I don't agree with the slave catcher." Li Su shook his head with a smile and said. Some time ago, Wang Zihao had already reported to him that the caravans on the Cheng Mansion and several other prefectures were recruiting brave and ruthless people, and it seemed that there was something going on, and Li Su understood what they wanted to do when he heard it, because he was planning to lead the other party down this road, and seeing the initial success of his plan, Li Su was extremely excited, and today the other party was finally going to talk to him.

"Huh? Why is that? Li Ji and Cheng Yanjin were very surprised.

"Hehe, if I'm not mistaken, a few uncles want to send people to the northern grasslands to attack those weak nomads, right?" Li Su smiled.

"Not bad!" Li Ji and Cheng Yanjin nodded. Miners require strong bodies, so those nomadic tribes in the north are the most suitable, and the north has always been a border trouble in the Tang Dynasty, plus there are many tribes there, they send people to catch some to come back as miners, which can solve their own manpower problems and weaken the strength of the grassland, which is really a double win, even if His Majesty in the court knows about it, he will not say anything.

"Hehe, I heard that there are many contradictions between the tribes there, and life is very hard, for a piece of land with abundant water and grass, you can cause a fire between the two tribes, in this case, why do we have to bother to set up a slave hunting team, directly set up a caravan to collect slaves, and spend money to buy slaves from those tribes, isn't it better?" Li Su said with a sinister smile.

This is the fundamental difference between him and Cheng Biting Jin and Li Ji, when encountering a thing, Li Su's first thought is to spend money to let others solve it, if others can't solve it, he thinks of solving it himself, which is a typical idea of later generations of business owners. And Cheng Biting Jin is different, no matter how high their status is, but to put it bluntly, they are landlords, after making money, the first thing they think of is to hide the money, and they will not spend it until they have to.

Therefore, after thinking of the slaves, Cheng Yanjin's first reaction was to set up a slave hunting team and send people to catch slaves by themselves, although it was a little troublesome, but after all, the cost was very low, and it didn't cost much, but the acquisition of slaves was different, a slave may not be worth anything, but thousands of slaves together, the cost is too great, so instinctively they were a little reluctant to this method, and they didn't think about the pros and cons at all.

"Two uncles, although the cost of buying slaves is higher than the cost of catching slaves, there are also many benefits." Li Su looked at Cheng and Li with a contemplative look, and hurriedly continued, "First, everyone is a figure with a head and a face, and let people know that we are involved in the slave hunting, but after all, there is no shame on the face. The second is that the establishment of a slave hunting team is too slow, we must first prepare manpower and materials, sort out the situation on the grassland and their own strength, know which tribes can provoke which tribes can not be provoked, etc., these must be done by competent people, I don't know when we can really start catching slaves, and even if it is slave hunting, if our slave hunting team is insufficient, there will not be too many slaves sent at a time, plus the consumption of the mine, I don't know which year of the monkey can meet the needs of the mine. Thirdly, it can also provoke the infighting of the northern steppe tribes, and it is easier for my father to convince him. Four ......"

Li Su slowly analyzed the pros and cons of catching slaves, in fact, it is nothing more than a sentence, that is, spending more money will make things easier and faster, and spending less money will become troublesome and slow, and now they are not bad at all, but they will lose the money they can earn for a day if they wait one more day, let them watch it!

In the end, Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji summed it up, and they were finally persuaded by Li Su, but they also discussed it with several other people, if there was no objection, then they would go to see Li Shimin with Li Su, after all, such a big matter, how can you do it without communicating with His Majesty in advance? However, it can weaken the strength of the northern alien race, and it can also strengthen itself, presumably His Majesty Taizong will not object.

The matter was discussed, and through this matter, Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji were also impressed by Li Su, they had only heard about how witty and intelligent Li Su was, but they had never dealt with him head-on, so they didn't have a deep understanding, until today's incident, they really realized Li Su's talent, and couldn't help but compare Cheng Huailiang and Li Jingye next to him, and finally could only shake their heads with a wry smile, their children and grandchildren are really not as good as the King of Qi in front of them.

"Qiyu Guogong, Madame wants to invite King Qi to go!" At this moment, a maid suddenly came in to report. (To be continued......)

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