Seeing Wu Meiniang being kidnapped, Li Zhen's guard finally reacted. Half of them hurriedly protected Li Zhen's carriage, while the other people rushed up to intercept the other's carriage. At this time, the carriage had just started and was not fast. Several bold guards jumped onto the carriage with a "shock" and prepared to take down the man in black on the carriage.

But what they didn't expect was that the man in black in the car was very skilled in martial arts. Before the few guards who had stepped up were kicked off by the two people in the car, and even took the opportunity to hurt a few people. Then the man in black immediately ran away. The guards in front could not stop him, and the pedestrians around hurriedly hid to both sides, making the carriage unobstructed, and in the blink of an eye it disappeared into the streets and alleys of Chang'an City.

Li Zhen and Wu Meiniang on the carriage only realized that Xiao Meiniang had experienced this kind of accident for the first time and was frightened. After a while, she screamed in surprise. Although Li Zhen was so scared that her face was pale, she was still calm. While ordering the guards to chase him, she sent people to various yamen that manage the public security to report the case and notified the Jinwu Guard to arrest him in the whole city.

Just as Li Zhen was busy with the matter of Wu Meiniang being kidnapped and guessed who kidnapped Wu Meiniang, Li Yan had already entered Duke Lu's mansion, among which Xiao Wenxin had his own female relatives in the mansion entertained in the side hall, while Li Yan was taken to the main hall by Cheng Huailiang.

As soon as we entered the hall, we saw two people sitting opposite each other, eating and talking. One of them was naturally Cheng Yaojin, and the other Li Yan also knew him. It turned out to be the slutty Li Ji. Li Jingye stood beside him, watching his grandfather and Cheng Laopin drink and meat, but he could only swallow his saliva.

"My younger generation, Li Yan, please see the two uncles!" Although Li Yan's title is higher than that of Duke, Li Yan dare not discuss any title in front of them. Everything is based on personal relationships. Both of them are friends with Li Shimin or Li Xiaogong, so Li Yan's call him uncle is not a loss.

"Liulang, please sit down, Zhijie and I have been waiting for you for a long time." Li Ji reached out and asked Li Yan to sit down. He said with a smile. Li Yan did not refuse and bowed and returned the salute to sit down. Cheng Huailiang stood with Li Jingye and accompanied him as a pair of brothers in distress.

"Come on, don't say anything, let's have three drinks first!" Before Li Yan could speak, Cheng Yaojin slapped Li Yan's shoulder heavily and said generously. When Li Ji heard this, he laughed and picked up the wine glass. What else could Li Yan say as a junior? He had no choice but to sacrifice his life to accompany the drunkard. The three glasses of wine together were at least three taels, and Li Yan was still empty, but he ended up getting drunk. The head was a little dizzy immediately, and he hurriedly drank a few sips of sweet soup before he felt better.

"Well~, I wonder if the two uncles summoned my nephews to come, but what's important?" Li Yan's face turned red, and his neck seemed to have become thicker and his tongue was a little numb. As soon as the wine was in his mouth, he immediately realized that this was the first batch of wine brewed by the winery. It took him half a year to take it out. The alcohol was very strong, and he couldn't hold on if he drank it. It would be better to finish the main business earlier.

"Haha, it's not a big deal, it's just that there are so many people in the carbonite mines. I heard that Jingye and others always mention this matter, so I wanted to ask Liulang to ask, see if you have any solutions?" Li Ji glanced at Li Yan and asked indifferently.

After hearing this, Li Yan laughed in his heart. At the beginning, the matter of the carbonite mine was always in Cheng Huailiang, Li Jingye and his younger generations. The elders in their family only thought it was a trick for children. They didn't care too much. However, as carbonite became more and more widely used and the demand for carbonite increased, the huge benefits contained in carbonite finally attracted the attention of their elders, and began to take back their power from the hands of Cheng Huailiang and others, and participated in the management of carbonite mines in the name of the family. Now Cheng Huailiang and his friends speak in the Carbonite Association, which is not only his own opinions, but the thoughts of the elders behind them after careful consideration. However, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji have always been hidden behind the scenes, and they finally jumped to the front today.

"You two uncles and nephews have been having trouble with the lack of people, but they are helpless!" Li Yan said with a wry smile on his face.

The lack of people in the mine has actually been highlighted since the beginning of the mining operation. Cheng Huailiang and his team bought nearly 10,000 Tubo prisoners of war in order to help Li Yan. However, as more and more carboniferous mines were discovered, the number of slaves was not enough. In desperation, they could only spend money to hire farmers around. Although the people were still much different, they could finally make the mine operate normally, but the output was terrible.

However, even hiring a farmer, a method that can only temporarily quench thirst, still has two great disadvantages. One is that it increases the cost of prospecting, and the other is that it is fine during the slack farming period. Farmers who have no farm work are happy to find a part-time job with good wages. However, whenever they are busy with farming, they will immediately throw down the pickaxe and go home to carry a hoe to become a farmer. No matter how much they persuade them, they can't even keep a few more wages. After all, the land-based idea has penetrated into their bones. In their opinion, no matter how much money they earn, they are not as important as the little food produced on the ground.

After the Wang family was forced to a desperate situation by Li Yan, he had no choice but to pay many mines to them, and the Carboniferous Industry Association's mines were doubled. Although this was a good thing, it also worsened the crisis of shortage of people. Originally, there was a serious shortage of manpower, and now it was impossible to draw out people. In desperation, many mines were temporarily sealed up to develop those carboniferous mines with convenient transportation and easy to develop.

However, with the promotion of honeycomb coal and coke, the demand for carbonite is increasing. The Carbonite Industry Association controls most of the market of carbonite, but the output cannot meet the market demand. Even the Wang family cannot do it. They watch such a delicious cake in front of them, but they can't eat it. This is the most painful thing that makes all members of the Carbonite Industry Association feel.

It is precisely because the shortage of people is so serious that the last time the refugees in Jinzhou entered Chang'an, they immediately caused looting by internal personnel of the association, and even sent people to Jinzhou, recruiting refugees to enter the mines. As a result, a famine that was destined to starve to death and freeze many people to death was completely disappeared.

"Hey! Why are those farmers so unstealing? I have heard from the manager that they had a job in the first half of the year, and their annual income was more than the best year, but those people just didn't want to!" Cheng Yaojin punched his leg and said angrily on his face. Although Cheng Yaojin acted rudely, he seemed to be rash. But in fact, they were from a noble family, with both grandfather and father, and received orthodox Confucian education since childhood, so they couldn't understand the farmers' ideas.

"I know the truth, I can't say that. If those farmers are really willing to leave the farming season and concentrate on working in the mines, Kong Yingda and the corrupt scholars will not talk about it, and even Your 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 in full swing.

Looking at the two old foxes singing and acting double acts in front of him, Li Yan looked extremely despised. These two ruthless old men. In addition, the old guys behind Qin Huaiyu, Li Jingheng, etc., have made up their minds to solve the problem of lack of people and are preparing to do something big, but don’t think that Li Yan knows nothing?

Thinking of this, Li Yan simply smiled and said, "Two uncles, the most cost-effective way to mine is to use slaves. Our Tang Dynasty allows slaves to be traded!"

Hearing Li Yan's words, Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin's eyes narrowed. Their four eyes looked like knives. They looked at Li Yan up and down a few times, and their heartbeat was a little strange. I wonder if Li Yan knew their intentions or coincided with them?

"Liulang, what do you mean?" Cheng Yaojin suddenly smiled, but there was a look of admiration in his eyes and asked.

"Hehe. Actually, the uncles must have already made plans, so why bother to hide it from my nephew? Besides, my nephew is also a member of the association. Everyone's interests are the same. What the uncles want to do is actually what my nephew plans in his heart." Li Yan said with a smile.

"Oh? So Liulang, did you agree to establish a slave arrest team?" Li Ji was overjoyed when he heard this.

The Tang Dynasty did not prohibit slave trading, so it became a trend for wealthy families to acquire slaves. The sources of these slaves were also very wide. In addition to the voluntary sale of their bodies or were punished for being punished for being punished for poverty, foreign wars were also a major source of slaves. In addition to these two, there were slaves provided by professional slave capture teams. Most of these slaves were captured from abroad and sent to major cities for sale by special personnel. For example, the "Kunlun Slaves and Silla Maids" that were very popular in the Tang Dynasty, which are the two most famous.

In order to solve the problem of miners' manpower, Cheng Yaojin and others finally set their minds on these slaves. Most of the slave hunting teams outside the Tang Dynasty were pirates or robbers, and their reputation was not very good. However, there were many shadows of aristocratic families behind these slave hunting teams, so it was not too embarrassing to organize the slave hunting team.

"I agree to the slave arrest, but I don't agree with the slave arrest." Li Yan smiled and shook his head. Wang Zihao had reported to him some time ago that the caravans in Cheng's mansion and other mansions were recruiting brave and fierce men. It seemed that they had done something. Li Yan understood what they wanted to do when he heard it, because he planned to lead the other party to this road. Seeing that his plan was initially successful, Li Yan was extremely excited. Today, the other party finally wanted to communicate with him.

"Huh? Why is this?" Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin were both very surprised.

"Hehe, if I'm not wrong, my uncles want to send people to the northern grasslands to attack those weak nomadic peoples?" Li Yan said with a smile.

"Not bad!" Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin nodded. The miners require strong health, so the nomadic tribes in the north are the most suitable. Moreover, the north is always a border trouble of the Tang Dynasty. In addition, there are many tribes there, so they sent people to catch some people to work as miners, which can solve their own manpower problems and weaken their strength on the grassland. It is really a killing of two birds with one stone. Even if the emperor in the court knows, he will not say anything.

"Hehe, I heard that there are many conflicts between the tribes there, and life is very difficult. For a place with abundant water and grass, it can cause the battle between the two tribes. In this case, why do we have to work hard to build a slave-catching team? Isn't it better to spend money to buy slaves from those tribes?" Li Yan said with a sinister smile.

This is the fundamental difference between him and Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji. When encountering something, Li Yan first thought of spending money to let others solve it. If others can't solve it, he thought of solving it himself. This is a typical idea of ​​later business owners. Cheng Yaojin and others are different. No matter how high their status is, they are from landlords. After making money, the first thought of hiding the money is to hide it and they will not spend it randomly until they are absolutely necessary.

Therefore, after thinking about slaves, Cheng Yaojin and his friends' first reaction was to set up a slave hunting team and send people to capture slaves. Although it was a little troublesome, the cost was very low after all, and it was not much money to buy slaves. However, it was different to acquire slaves. A slave may not be worth much, but the cost in the addition of thousands of slaves is too great, so they instinctively rejected this method and did not think about the pros and cons.

"The two uncles, although the cost of acquiring slaves is higher than that of catching slaves, there are many benefits." Li Yan looked at Cheng and Li and the two showed a meditative look and hurriedly continued, "First of all, everyone is well-known, let people know that we are involved in the catching slaves, but we always have no face. Second, the establishment of a slave team is too slow to achieve results. We must first prepare manpower and materials, clarify the situation on the grassland and our own strength, know which tribes can provoke which tribes cannot provoke, etc. These must be done by effective people. I don't know when to start catching slaves. Moreover, even if we are catching slaves, if our slave team is not equipped with enough staff, there will not be too many slaves sent at one time. In addition, the consumption of the mines is not known to meet the needs of the mines in the year of the monkey and horses. Third, we can also provoke internal struggles in the northern grassland tribes, and my father's place is easier to convince. Fourth..."

Li Yan slowly analyzed the pros and cons of catching slaves. In fact, it was just one sentence, that is, spending more money makes things easier and faster, and spending less money will become troublesome and slow to take effect. Now they are not short of money at all, but they will lose the money they can earn for one day after waiting for one more day, so let them do it!

Finally, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji decided on it and were finally convinced by Li Yan. However, they discussed it with the others. If there was no objection, they would go to see Li Shimin with Li Yan. After all, such a big thing, how can you not communicate with Your Majesty in advance? However, it can weaken the strength of the northern alien race and strengthen itself. I believe that Your Majesty Taizong will not object.

The matter was discussed, and through this incident, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji also looked at Li Yan with admiration. They had only heard of how smart and intelligent Li Yan was, but they had never had a head-on relationship, so they did not have a deep understanding. It was not until today that they truly realized Li Yan's talent. They involuntarily compared Cheng Huailiang and Li Jingye next to them. Finally, they could only smile bitterly and shook their heads. Their children and grandchildren were really not as good as the King of Qi in front of them.

"Qi Gong, my wife wants to invite the King of Qi to come!" At this moment, a maid came in outside to report. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!