After Li Siye returned to Wuwei, Hexi, he sent three letters to Dai Wang, who was far away in Yangguan, asking him about the re-establishment of the Pepper Trade Road.

Dai Wang's letter was soon brought back by the messenger and handed over to the Liangzhou Governor's Office. Li Siye sat in front of the desk, stretched out his hand to tear open the letter, and began to read the contents of the letter carefully.

Last year's war in Great Bolu and North India took six months, and the pepper trade route was interrupted for half a year, and Dai Wang felt sorry and distressed, and even his appetite increased a lot. Since the Tang army controlled the entire region of North India, it was not as scrupulous as it had been to live under the nose of Yesapaman before. Now that the steel knives and cutting boards were in their hands, the plundering of North India was becoming more and more brazen.

At least half a year after the shortage, they have to quickly make up for it. Dai Wang requisitioned a large number of cattle from India, and captured many Dalit dalits, who were not qualified to live in villages, to participate in assemblies and religious activities, and to do the most menial manual labor.

Dai Wang and others don't have this kind of thought, as long as he is willing to work hard, it doesn't matter if you are a high caste and a Dalit, there is basically no difference.

He placed these Dalit slaves in every post station from India to Yangguan, with ten to eight people per post station, and only had to take care of the food. These people were also willing to work in peace, at least in the caravanserai they were not oppressed by their personality, and the North Indians called them post slaves.

The post slaves drove yaks and livestock back and forth between the post stations, and the transportation efficiency was far greater than before, and the investment was extremely huge.

This was a guarantee of victory for Li Siye's leadership of the Three Towns regime, which was complementary to the use of military force to escort economic activities, which in turn fed the army. The control of North India was not only to monopolize and control the domestic trade routes, but also to use pepper resources to exchange a large amount of gold and silver materials from Dashi, Fulak and other countries.

Transnational trade has always had a strong vitality and ability to plunder wealth, and the Dutch East India Company, the largest enterprise in history, was once rich.

Since Li Siye took control of Tocharian and attacked the Great and Small Bolu, the two regimes that were eyeing the South Asian subcontinent lost their geographical advantages. Tibet is separated from India by the Himalayas, and there were originally large and small Bolu as passages in and out of Kashmir, but now they are all controlled by Li Siye's Anxi army, and the passage to the north is completely blocked. Since Tocharian fell into the hands of Li Siye, Dashi has also lost its border with India.

Countries such as Tibet and Dashi also had a great demand for spices, but the opening of the border to allow trade travel from the two countries to enter North India inevitably led to some spies trying to make trouble. In order to prevent these people from entering North India, Dai Wang suggested to Li Siye that a market be built in the capital city of Mahboryu. The Quy Nhon army kept the spices plundered from North India in the market and sold them to Tibetan merchants who came to buy them. In the face of the Great Food, the same method was concocted, and a market was opened in the city of Luoran, and all the merchants who came from the Great Food and the Whisk had to purchase spices in the market.

In this way, the states of North India became baby bumps in the arms of Li Siye's forces.

According to the letter sent by Dai Wang, the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce in Yangguan received an average of two stones of pepper every day, which was sixty stones a month, and the price of one bucket of pepper in Chang'an was 600 guan per bucket, and the income earned each month was 360,000 yuan, which far exceeded the coinage of Shaofu Temple in the imperial court.

However, the rapid expansion of wealth will also cause the imperial court and other forces to covet, Li Siye also wrote back to Dai Wang, saying that he should make preparations as early as possible, reduce the amount of pepper transported from today, and increase the transportation of sandalwood, a valuable wood.

Dai Wang didn't understand Li Siye's intention to do this, so he could only believe 100% in Dr. Li's approach, and decided to transport pepper and sandalwood in half, and every stone of pepper transported must transport one stone of sandalwood. All the pepper was supplied to the agents, but the sandalwood was all collected by Li Siye and transported to the Huaqing Palace in Lishan, and it seemed that there were other preparations.

Li Siye presented to the emperor one after another in Wuwei City, but all he did was a tribute, he first prepared to take advantage of the spring and summer in the Huaqing Palace to build sandalwood soup in the concubine soup, and the entire bath was built with sandalwood, which must be able to please Yang Guifei.

He also transported a large number of sandalwood to his own mansion in Chang'an City, preparing to build a sandalwood Dantang for the emperor in Xingqing Palace.

The emperor was very happy when he received the song, and asked the post stations along the way to facilitate his actions.

……

An Lushan had already left Chang'an, leaving behind the strategist Gao Shang and Liu Luogu of the Jinju Academy, and the two drank and talked secretly in the back hall of the Jinjuyuan.

Liu Luogu picked up the wine bottle and poured a full wine cup for Gao Shang, and said in a low voice: "The Michagan Miji Chamber of Commerce in Chang'an West City was still not famous in Tianbao for ten years, but in just three years, it has accumulated a huge amount of family assets. His subordinates once sent someone to investigate carefully, he used to sell rare items such as carpets, chimneys, and horn cups from the Western Regions, but then suddenly turned to pepper, and his family suddenly became rich. ”

Gao Shang stood up from the ground with a wine cup, slowly pondered on the ground, and suddenly turned around and asked, "How has the price of pepper been in the Chang'an market in the past few years, and has there been any obvious fluctuations?" ”

Liu Luogu replied with a wine cup in both hands: "Of course there are changes, from Tianbao three to Tianbao eight, there is almost no obvious change in price, and a bucket of pepper should have a high price of nine hundred guan." But since the ninth year of Tianbao, the price has gradually fallen, and now Tianbao has fallen from 900 to 600 in 13 years. ”

Gao Shang sat cross-legged back on the sheep felt, suddenly gasped, and came to a conclusion: "The reason for the decline in pepper prices must be because the market is saturated, and the price of Tianbao almost fluctuated before eight years, which shows that the pepper market was scarce before this, but the market was close to saturation within a few years, what does this mean?" ”

Liu Luogu heard it in a fog, and asked in confusion: "Mr. Gao, Luo Gu is stupid, please ask Mr. for advice." ”

Gao Shang stroked the lupine and said confidently: "There must be a huge force that expands the trade routes to the west, and is able to send a large amount of pepper and spices to the Central Plains every year. can make the price plummet. There must be official forces doing this business, and the volume of goods in and out is large enough to saturate the market. ”

"What Mr. said is extremely true, you and I should work together to investigate, dig out the people behind this Michagan, and then report it to Dr. An, who will give His Majesty a thorough investigation of these rich people."

"Why bother." Gao Shang waved his feather fan and swore solemnly: "You and I will definitely not find out this matter, and there is no need to bother the lord." Yang Guozhong is now the right minister, why don't we report this matter to him, he will send someone to investigate thoroughly, and he will definitely be able to find out the people behind the scenes. ”

"But this matter is mostly related to Li Siye, Yang Guozhong and Li Siye have always been close, how can we convince Yang Guozhong to investigate him?"