The conditions inside the mountain were so bad that before the army arrived, it was estimated that half of the soldiers would have to fall.

Hey, how can you find a way to dissuade Your Highness?

These thoughts flashed through everyone's minds.

Li Ke glanced at everyone's expressions, he probably knew what everyone was thinking, paused, and then Li Ke said lightly: "Let me ask, in some areas of Lingnan Province, rice can also be double-cropped, or even triple-cropped, right?" ”

"Yes." Everyone nodded, not knowing why His Highness was asking this.

"In other words, there is no shortage of food in Lingnan?"

"There is no shortage." Everyone didn't say anything, in fact, there was no shortage of food in the whole Tang Dynasty, mainly because the current population of the Tang Dynasty was small, even in Guanzhong, where the population was concentrated, compared to the peak of the Han Dynasty or the peak of other dynasties in later generations, the population was estimated to be only a fraction.

There is no shortage of arable land, and naturally there is no shortage of food.

In the early Tang Dynasty, natural disasters in the early Tang Dynasty could still starve people to death, in fact, because the food distribution was not timely, for example, the grain in Lingnan and other places could not be transported to the affected areas at all, and the grain transported in other areas was also a drop in the bucket.

The second part of the reason is that the early Tang Dynasty was just established, and it has been fighting wars for many years, and a lot of grain collected from the local area has been given priority to supply the army, which means that the official has no grain reserves, and of course it cannot cope with the famine.

The second is that in a disaster year, when they want to buy grain, even the people in the unaffected areas dare not sell grain, and they are afraid that they will suffer a disaster here, and these reasons are piled up to lead to a shortage of food in the last years of Wude and the first year of Zhenguan.

Moreover, when the Tang Dynasty was first established, all kinds of waste were waiting to be rebuilt, the official transportation force was insufficient, and the commerce was not as developed as the later Song Dynasty, and the official and private transportation forces were lacking. The treasury of the Tang Dynasty is poor, and Li Shimin and his people do not understand the principle that the economy needs circulation, the treasury is poor, and they want to save money, so they will not do some things if they can.

But an ordinary person in later generations knows a truth, saving can only save small money, and big money can never be saved, especially for the country.

There is no shortage of food in Lingnan, but it does not mean that all the people in Lingnan have food, for example, those tribes in the mountains, Li Ke knows that they must be short of food.

Think about it, more than a thousand years later, the mountainous areas of Yunnan are full of all kinds of poor areas, and even many ethnic minorities in the mountains do not have the national poverty alleviation policy or rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, and their lives in the Tang Dynasty can be imagined.

"I see, although we can't communicate with these barbarian tribes, I think you must be able to contact a few barbarian tribes, right?" Li Ke looked at them and asked.

"Of course, this is possible." There is no surprise to everyone, there are those in these tribes who are unwilling to communicate with the Han people, and naturally there are those who are not so resistant, and it is definitely possible to contact a few barbarian tribes.

"Okay, then the matter is settled, you can go back and think about it, and then I will give you three days, and we will talk again in three days, by the way, in addition, Sun Simiao and Sun Daochang also came with me, I can help you take a look at your body first." Li Ke smiled and nodded.

If Li Ke remembers correctly, several of these people are about to die, such as Qiu He, who seems to be dying next year, if Sun Simiao is here, it's no problem for him to live for an extra year or two, right? An old man like Qiu He, although he is a little older, is also full of influence, how can he die next year?

Why don't you live for another two or three years, so it's too late to die after Datang takes Southeast Asia.

And some clans such as those sent by the Tang Dynasty, such as Li Daoxing, died in office last year because of miasma, but unfortunately, if he dies again this year, Li Ke will definitely be able to save him.

"Thank you, Your Highness." For this, everyone is full of joy, Sun Simiao's reputation is well known in Lingnan Road, not to mention that the Datang Weekly has been publicized several times, of course they know, and an old fairy like this treats a doctor, which usually can't be begged for.

The ancients all knew that this Langzhong, the doctor, the older he gets, the more powerful he is!

Even if you are a doctor who is not very knowledgeable when you are young, you can already be optimistic about most diseases after decades of experience.

After the negotiation was over, the next thing was naturally the joy of the guests and hosts, and after the meal was finished, everyone also said goodbye, and after they left, a man in his forties walked in.

"Chen Li Dai has seen His Highness." The man saluted Li Ke with some excitement.

"Excuse me, how's that? The weather in Lingnan Road is still adaptable, right? Li Ke asked with a smile, Li Dai is the person in charge of Yuelai Commercial Bank in Lingnan Road.

"If you go back to Your Highness, you have already adapted, and when I first came, I was a little uncomfortable, but in the past few years, I have adapted a lot." Li Dai's tone was still a little excited, this is the living Highness.

"Don't get excited, I'll be here for a while, you can see me often, it's not okay to be so excited." Li Ke made a joke.

"Yes." Li Dai took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down, "Your Highness, this is what you need. ”

After calming down, Li Dai handed Li Ke a document he had brought over.

Li Ke took it and looked at it, it was mainly about the price of Lingnan Road, the top is grain, Guangzhou's grain is currently 100 Wen 1 stone, and the grain of some other state capitals in Lingnan Road, the cheapest is only 60 Wen 1 stone, according to the price of 120 Wen 1 stone in Chang'an, here is only half of the price of Chang'an.

That is to say, if you buy grain from Lingnan Road at a price of 60 yuan, and then use a new ship to transport it to Chang'an, you can also make a profit, not much, according to the minimum profit of 10 yuan for one stone of grain, a 1,200-ton ship can load 700 tons, about 11,500 stone, and the profit is more than 100 yuan.

It seems that the profit is not high, but don't forget that the Tang Dynasty used to make no money at all by transporting grain, and it was all losing money, but now it can still make money, which is a huge progress in itself, which has a great impact on promoting grain trade.

As long as there is profit, there are businessmen who are willing to do it.

The consumption of grain transported by land is too great, and it is estimated that the loss from Lingnan to Chang'an will be close to eighty percent, or even ninety, and the personnel on the road will have to eat nine-tenths of the grain on one stone.

But this problem does not exist with large ships, which can transport enough grain at one time, and if it is a cargo ship, it does not need too many people at all, only basic sailors are needed.

Then there is the price of salt, Li Ke's Chihai salt was not sold in this place, after all, other places in Datang can be consumed, and there is no need to sell it here, but Guangzhou actually sells it! But it was not Li Ke who sold it, but other merchants who bought Li Ke's high-grade salt in Chang'an and came back to Guangzhou to sell it.

Don't say it, many wealthy businessmen here buy it.