Mid-June.

Emperor Li Siyuan never saw the ministers during his illness, and for a time various sayings spread, and the people in Luoyang City were in turmoil, and many ministers thought that the world would change greatly, or secretly wandered to the mountains and forests, or hid in the military camp. It wasn't until Li Siyuan came to Guangshou Hall with illness that the hearts of the people in Luoyang City settled down.

After the servant Shaoqing He Ze saw Feng Dao, he bet on Li Congrong's body, and asked for Li Congrong to be made the crown prince. For a time, it triggered a controversy between the government and the opposition about the establishment of the reserve. Li Congrong then received a secret letter from He Ze, and in order to prevent the rest of the princes from hearing about the dispute between the neutral princes, Li Congrong directly entered Luoyang City and entered Li Siyuan.

When Li Congrong saw Li Siyuan, he was surprised and delighted, is this still his mighty father? At this time, Li Siyuan had a sallow face, a thin body, and a gray beard, like a terminally ill old man!

"The opportunity is right now!"

Li Congrong remembered these six words in He Ze's secret letter, and immediately made up his mind, and after greeting Li Siyuan's condition, he bowed to the ground and cried: "I heard that there are traitorous ministers who ask the saint to make the prince the prince, the son is young, and the minister is willing to lead troops for the country, and is unwilling to serve as the prince, and asks the saint to take back his life!" “

Li Siyuan looked at Li Congrong in surprise, only to see that Li Congrong entered the hall without removing the sword, a chill suddenly rose in his heart, he opened his mouth, and then said: "This is what the ministers requested, I will consider it, Rong'er should retreat first."

After Li Congrong left, Li Siyuan was furious in his heart, but he didn't expect that he had just fallen ill, and his sons couldn't sit still and wanted to fight for the throne.

For a moment, Li Siyuan wanted to gather soldiers and horses to take Li Congrong directly, but after thinking about it carefully, now that Luoyang and the palace have been under martial law, Li Congrong can not only enter the palace smoothly to see him, but also enter the palace with a sword, what does this mean?

Thinking of this, Li Siyuan suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, although he was unwilling, he still made a book and appointed Li Congrong as the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, above the prime minister, hoping that this move could temporarily stabilize Li Congrong and buy time for himself.

A few days later, Li Congrong returned to Henan Mansion with the canonization edict and satisfaction. At the same time, many ministers in the DPRK and the central government resigned and fled, for fear that Li Congrong would really be made the crown prince, and the ruling Fan Yanguang and others asked for external compensation to avoid the disaster.

But what Li Siyuan didn't expect was that his condition did not improve, but became heavier and heavier.

He Ze, the servant of Shaoqing, thought that the time had come, and hurriedly sent his henchmen to send news to Li Congrong, asking him to lead troops into Beijing, control Li Siyuan, who had little time, and then succeed to the throne in front of the palace.

After receiving the news, Li Congrong did not hesitate at all, and led 3,000 people from Henan Mansion to Chen Chen at Tianjin Bridge, preparing to enter Luoyang City.

Almost at the same time, the privy envoy Feng Yun, Meng Hanqiong, Zhu Hongzhao and others entered the palace to meet and reported Li Siyuan's rebellion to Li Congrong.

Then Li Siyuan summoned the horse to command Zhu Hongshi to lead 500 cavalry to fight Li Congrong, Li Congrong was defeated by the surprise attack and fled back to Henan Mansion, and then was killed by An Congyi in the mansion of the imperial city.

When He Ze, the servant of Shaoqing, heard the news of Li Congrong's death, he fled from Luoyang City in fright, and happened to meet An Congyi, the imperial envoy who returned to Luoyang, and was directly captured and killed by his troops.

After Li Congrong's death, Li Congke, Li Congzhang, Li Conghou and others were shocked, everyone didn't expect that Li Siyuan, who had been seriously ill for a long time, still had such energy, and directly killed Li Congrong. And Li Siyuan also used Li Congrong's head to temporarily suppress the changes of the princes.

The words are divided into two ends, Muping County, Dengzhou.

In early July, Li Congyan stood at the head of the city and looked out of the city, only to see countless people lining up on the official road to enter the city, these people were either carrying their shoulders, or pushing flatbed carts, or driving ox carts and horse-drawn carts, transporting snow-white cotton!

Wu Conghan, Minister of Civil Affairs, and Li Dongxian, the Secretary of the Reclamation Division, accompanied Li Congyan, and the three of them were talking and laughing at this time, and they were in a good mood.

"What is the purchase price given by the Reclamation Division?"

Li Dongxian crossed his hand and said: "Your Majesty, the purchase price of grain this year is 280 yuan per stone, and the price per catty is less than 3 yuan. According to the instructions of the Lord, the purchase price of each asbestos was five times the price of grain, which was 1,400 yuan per stone. ”

Li Congyan nodded, this price is already very good, even if the current cotton seeds do not have the high yield of later generations, the yield per mu is more than three hundred catties, that is, more than three stones. In this way, the income per mu of cotton is more than four times, which is far more profitable than growing grain!

"Very good, the Reclamation Division will do a good job in the acquisition, and there must be no shortage of catties and shortages, deductions of money, etc., once found, it will be severely punished!"

"Whoa!"

At this time, the Reclamation Division set up a registration office at the gate of the city, and all the people who came to sell cotton had to record their names, addresses, and the number of cotton fields at home in the registration office. After the registration is completed, the people can enter the city, and go down in the city according to the acquisition process, and complete the shelling, weighing, approval, delivery, warehousing and other links one by one.

At every link, there is an official supervision of the Suppression Department to prevent the people from being shoddy, or the officials of the Reclamation Division from oppressing the people.

Li Congyan, accompanied by Wu Conghan and Li Dongxian, inspected everywhere, and saw that every link of cotton procurement was in order, and every person who sold cotton was smiling, even if he was so happy during the festival.

"The Reclamation Division can't just wait for the people to come to the door, but also organize people to go deep into all parts of Muping County, there will definitely be people who will not have time to come over to sell cotton, and there will be people who want to privately farm cotton."

Li Dongxian crossed his hands and asked: "Lord, cotton is originally cultivated by the people, if there are people who want to keep some, their subordinates feel that it is okay, why are the people not allowed to stay private?" ”

Li Congyan thought for a while and said: "Cotton is now a strategic material for unified purchase, and ordinary people are not allowed to hoard it privately. Maybe in the future, when the cotton production is enough, I will relax the restrictions on cotton, but not now. The output of cotton is not much, and now it has been purchased for two days, and there are only more than 300,000 catties, although there are still some cotton that has not had time to buy, but it can also be roughly estimated that the output of cotton this year, these cotton is far from enough! ”

"Moreover, cotton is a new product, and it is something that the shogunate vigorously promotes, and I also want to prevent merchants from rushing to buy and hoard, so in the short term, I can't allow the people to privately store cotton!"

"Whoa!"

Li Congyan gave Li Dongxian some more instructions, and then said to Wu Conghan: "All the purchased cotton will be transported to Xingzhuang Village, twenty miles south of Dengzhou City, within four days, and I will set up a freight station there as a place for cotton hoarding. ”

"Whoa!"

"In addition, it should be noted that cotton is extremely flammable, and when cotton is stored and transported, it is necessary to pay attention to fire prevention, especially ventilation during storage, to prevent high temperature from igniting cotton!"

"My subordinates understand."

Then, Wu Conghan asked: "The design drawings of the cotton clothing workshop designed by the master have been tendered, and finally a merchant in Penglai County won the bid, and now this merchant is ready to start construction, and the manpower and building materials are complete." But where is the location of this cotton clothing workshop? ”

"Let's set it in Xingzhuang Village, and then the Ministry of Civil Affairs will also rebuild the cargo station there and use it as a warehouse for the cotton clothing workshop."

"Whoa!"

Wu Conghan said: "In this way, the cotton clothing workshop will be divided under the industrial department, and the subordinates will select suitable people to be in charge of the cotton clothing workshop, and later report the candidates to the lord for decision." ”

Li Congyan waved his hand and said, "The person in charge, you and Li Sisheng will discuss it, and report it to me after the discussion." ”

"Whoa!"

"The cotton clothing workshop produces cotton clothes and quilts, and I will sort out the specific styles and production methods later, and you will hand them over to the Industrial Division."

After Wu Conghan received the order, he forked his hand and said: "Lord, according to what the Lord said, this cotton clothes and quilts are good products for winter cold, and my subordinates think that they can be sold at a high price in the cold winter, so the cotton clothing workshop can be called another cornucopia of the Industrial Division!" ”

Li Congyan didn't know, but at this time, he shook his head and said: "The cotton clothes workshop does not sell cotton clothes and quilts to the public for the time being. ”

"Ahh Why is that? ”

Li Congyan said: "The primary task of the cotton clothing workshop is to serve our Dengzhou soldiers, first to ensure that the Dengzhou field army, garrison army, and training army are all equipped with cotton clothes and quilts, and then consider selling them to the outside world." ”

"I'm afraid that in this way, not only will the cotton clothing workshop not be profitable, but because the cotton purchase price is too high, the workshop will lose a lot once it is put into production!"

Li Congyan said with a smile: "No, the cotton clothes and quilts produced by the cotton clothing workshop are used for the field army, garrison army, and training army, and the military and political department has to spend money to buy them, and they are purchased at market prices." Although the cotton clothing workshop is not sold to the public, it will not lose money, and the Ministry of Military Affairs will spend money. ”

Wu Conghan laughed when he heard this, and said, "It's very good, but I'm afraid Minister Li is going to be worried." ”

Li Congyan also laughed for a while.

The cotton clothes and quilts transferred by the cotton clothing workshop to the Ministry of Military Affairs were settled in money, and the same was true of the Military Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs.

In order to avoid the passivity of the 100 workers of the Military War Division after a long period of time, Li Congyan stipulated that all the weapons and armor purchased by the Military Affairs Department from the Military War Department should be purchased at a price, and the Military War Division should follow the example of the various workshops of the Industrial Department for independent accounting and operation.

In this way, as long as the quality of the military equipment of the military division is good, it will definitely be profitable, and the hundreds of workers, officials, and apprentices in the military division will all come from the profit from the sale of military equipment.

Today, there are more than 15,000 people in the field army alone, plus more than 10,000 garrison troops and thousands of training troops, and the strength of the new army in Dengzhou has about 40,000 people.

At this time, after Li Congyan and Wu Conghan made a decision, they prepared to set off to return to Dengzhou City.

On the way, Wu Conghan asked: "The businessmen of Penglai County can bring people to Xingzhuang Village as soon as the day after tomorrow, there are already some houses available there, and the cotton clothing workshop is expected to be completed in about half a month, but I don't know when the Lord will go to the cotton clothing workshop to have a look?" ”

Li Congyan said: "After the cotton clothing workshop is completed, I will take a look, and then I will guide some details of the cotton clothing workshop." ”

"Whoa!"

On the way back to Dengzhou City by Li Congyan and Wu Conghan, the fast horse sent an urgent report by the Fusi of Beizhen rushed to meet him, Li Congyan frowned slightly, took a red sealed letter, and after opening it, Li Congyan snorted coldly and said to Wu Conghan: "The Khitans have retreated!" ”