The wine was drunk until the moonlight fell on the branches. Although the alcohol content of Datang wine was not high, it could still be intoxicating if drunk too much. Li Min was helped out by the guards drunkenly, and he could not remember what happened after that. When he waited

When I woke up, it was already the morning of the next day, and I had already returned to the palace.

When he woke up with a hangover, Li Min had a headache and wanted to saw his head open. Fortunately, Wen'er asked the kitchen to prepare hangover soup. Li Min drank several bowls in a row before he felt better. He lay on the bed and groaned for a while.

I just got up and did some Tai Chi in the garden, and then I managed to regain some energy.

"Your Highness, the steward of the tea garden has brought this year's newly picked spring tea!" Li Min just sat down and took a sip of the salty and astringent tea. Gao Zhong came in and reported to him that the inner courtyard of the palace is the same as the palace, isn't it?

Men were allowed to enter. In the past, there were eunuchs, but Li Min rushed them all to the front yard. Now, apart from maids and servants who do menial work, Li Min is the only man in the inner courtyard, unless he has permission. Of course.

Gao Chong was the general manager of the palace and also a eunuch, so he was not subject to restrictions.

"Bah! That's great. Bring both the people and the tea. Finally, you don't have to drink the tea residue!" Li Min spit out the tea in his mouth. He really couldn't stand the strange-flavored tea from Datang. It would be bitter without salt.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get used to the added salt, so he had long been thinking about frying some tea to drink. He had previously ordered Gao Zhong to pick this year's spring tea and send it directly to the palace without any processing.

It happened to be delivered today.

While waiting for others to pull tea leaves, Li Min first cut some bamboo in the garden and removed the leaves to make a tea broom. Then he asked Wen'er to go to the kitchen to find a small iron pot and a charcoal stove for heating in winter.

, when everything was ready, Gao Chong brought a middle-aged steward with a cart to the garden.

"Steward Liu Hu meets the prince!" The middle-aged steward named Liu Hu parked the car and saluted Li Min. Liu Hu looked to be in his forties, with a stocky appearance and a strong build. He actually walked with a bit of

The neatness and toughness of a soldier.

"Well, get up!" Li Min didn't expect a tea garden manager to have such a temperament, and couldn't help but asked curiously, "Liu Hu, have you ever joined the army before?"

"Your Majesty, I used to serve in the army of the Duke of Wei. I retired due to injury. Fortunately, the prince appreciated me and let me manage the tea garden." Liu Hu clasped his fists and saluted. Duke Wei is Li Jing, the military commander of the Tang Dynasty.

God, he defeated the Turks and went on an expedition to Tuyuhun. He never lost a single battle in more than a hundred battles in his life. His prestige in the army was so high that even Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin were defeated by him.

"Well, that's right. I didn't expect that I would have a talent like you under my command. Work hard and I will never treat you badly in the future!" Li Min smiled and praised a few words. Liu Hu also cooperated very well and immediately burst into tears of gratitude.

He expressed that he would do anything to repay Li Min for his kindness.

Next, Li Min began to fry tea himself. Gao Chong and Liu Hu both stayed. Li Min planned to let Liu Hu learn how to make fried tea from all the tea leaves produced in the tea garden. After all, such a large tea garden cannot rely solely on itself.

Fry, and after the tea is fried, you can not only drink it yourself, but also give it to others in the future.

Heat a small iron pot to a certain temperature, then add more than half a kilogram of tea leaves and quickly stir-fry for a minute or two. This is called full pot swirling. When the leaves are soft and dark green, raise the pot to lower the temperature.

, and then use force to rotate the tea leaves in the pot, which is called pulling force. When the leaves shrink into strips and become sticky, raise the pot and lower the temperature a little more. Fry until the tea leaves get into the branches of the broom, and repeat

Fry a few more times until the leaves are 30 to 40% dry, then you can take them out of the pot.

The fried roe was dark green in color and curled into strips, which was exactly the same as the tea that Li Min drank in later generations. This method of frying tea was something Li Min saw on the Internet. He did not expect to make good tea on the first operation.

"Your Highness, your method of frying tea is quite novel, and the aroma of the tea is also very strange, but I don't know how the brewed tea tastes?" Liu Hu sniffed and said. As the manager of the tea garden, he knows tea very well.

This is the first time I've seen this method of making tea, so I'm a little unsure.

"Haha, this tea is not boiled. Just brew it with boiling water. Wen'er, is the water ready?" Li Min said with a smile.

"Okay!" Wen'er agreed and walked up with boiling water. Hua'er put several cups and Li Min personally put the tea leaves in. Wen'er poured the boiling water in, and the curled-up tea leaves slowly unfolded in the water.

, the tea water also turned into emerald green and transparent, looking like emerald. But after a while, a light and distant fragrance of tea filled the air, and the smell made people feel refreshed.

"Eh? Good tea! Good tea!" Liu Hu sniffed and praised the tea loudly. He has managed the tea garden for so many years and has drunk countless good teas. Just smelling the tea aroma will make him feel better.

He knew the quality of this tea. The tea brewed from this roasted tea was definitely better than the tea he had drunk before. Liu Hu stared at the tea cup with bright eyes. If it weren't for Li Min's identity, he would

I've already grabbed the cup and tasted it first.

"Come on, come on, let's all have a taste of the tea made by this king. How about it?" Li Min waved and took the lead in picking up a cup of tea and took a sip. Well, it feels good. It's as good as the ones sold on the street in later generations for a few yuan or two.

The taste of tea is almost the same. Tea frying is a technical job. In addition to the quality of the tea itself, the more skilled the workers are, the better the tea will be. A novice like Li Min didn't fry the tea, which is already considered very good.

Liu Hu saw that Li Min had already tasted it, so he impatiently picked up the tea cup, first put it under his nose and sniffed it for a few times, with an intoxicated expression on his face, and then slowly started to taste it until he finished the cup of tea.

, then put down the tea cup with a look of aftertaste, and looked at Li Min with an expression of awe. Gao Chong, Wen'er, and Hua'er also took a sip. They might not be used to it at first, but slowly they gradually

I felt the benefits of roasted tea and drank the tea in one gulp with joy on my face.

"Your Highness, this tea is bright in color and has a noble aroma. It is slightly bitter at first, gradually cools down, and then sweet at the end. It makes people have endless aftertaste. It is simply a fairy tea from heaven. I can guarantee that there is no tea in the world that can compare with this.

Tea!" Liu Hu bowed deeply to Li Min.

"Hahaha~, Manager Liu is really awesome. He immediately explained the characteristics of this tea." Li Min said with a proud smile. He just couldn't listen to others' compliments. When others praised Li Min, he got a little carried away, "Manager Liu,

I pass on this method of frying tea to you, and all the tea produced in the tea garden is made in this way."

"Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I will live up to your trust." Although Liu Hu vaguely guessed the reason why Li Min asked him to stay, when he heard Li Min say it with his own ears, he was still so excited that he couldn't control himself.

Although he was in charge of the tea garden, he could not see the importance of the method of frying tea, but His Highness Prince Liang taught him the method without hesitation, which shows his trust in himself.

"Your Highness, this method of roasting tea must be kept secret. The roasted tea leaves can be handed over to the old slave and then sold on the market. The profit will definitely be huge, and the money and silk earned can also make up for the deficit of the palace.

"Before Li Min could say anything, Gao Zhong next to him jumped out excitedly and said.

Selling tea? Li Min never thought about this. The first reason he made tea was to drink it himself, and the second reason was to give it to others. He never thought about using tea to make money. After all, in his mind, he should be the king of Liang.

Not short of money, right? But from Gao Zhong’s words, it seems that the finances of Prince Liang’s Mansion are not very optimistic?

"Gao Chong, what do you mean by this? Is there still a deficit in the mansion?" Li Min asked curiously.

"This..." Gao Zhong's face froze. Originally, he shouldn't have told Li Min this kind of thing, but he let it slip in his excitement. Now that Li Min asked, how should he answer the question?

"Your Highness, the finances in the palace are indeed not very good. The palace's income is not enough to meet the expenses. It is now heavily in debt. Fortunately, Concubine Yang and King Shu often provide financial support, so it can barely survive..." Gao Zhong hesitated for a moment and finally decided.

It was better to tell the truth, because he found that since King Liang woke up from injury, he seemed to be a different person, and it was time for him to know these things.

After Gao Zhong's introduction, Li Min finally understood the income and expenditure of his palace. The income of the palace was mainly his salary as a prince, and the salary in the Tang Dynasty was not just coins, but money, food and jobs.

His income, money and grain are very simple and can be used by you. The prince is a first-class man and has 1,200 acres of land. The tenants on these lands give him a certain amount of rent every year, which is regarded as his fixed salary. In addition, there are

There are some rewards and gifts from the palace, which can be regarded as a considerable amount of income. In fact, he still has a fief, and the taxes on the fief also belong to him, but he can only use it after he reaches adulthood.

As a prince, Li Min's fixed salary for a year is not small. This alone is enough for the expenses of his palace. In addition to the rewards from the palace, the money saved by Concubine Yang is often given to his son.

Logically speaking, Li Min should live a very comfortable life, but in fact this is not the case.

The expenses to maintain the operation of the entire palace are not too large, accounting for only a quarter of the total expenses. The remaining three-quarters are Li Min's personal expenses. In the past, Li Min did everything from eating, drinking, prostitution, and gambling, and he was usually lavish.

Nowadays, they often hold banquets and entertain themselves in major restaurants, and reward a singer with several coins at a flick of the hand. Don’t think that money has always been very little, it has always been a thousand coins. In the Tang Dynasty, one coin could buy more than two kilograms of rice. China in the 21st century

A pound of rice costs at least two or three yuan. Calculating, the purchasing power of one penny in the Tang Dynasty is equivalent to more than five yuan in later generations, and it is almost catching up with the exchange rate of the US dollar and the RMB.

It's always more than five thousand yuan, and a reward for a singer is tens of thousands of yuan. A banquet will not only invite one singer, plus the expenses such as wine and food, a banquet will cost at least one million. And then

In addition, Li Min used to be good at gambling, but he had bad luck and lost a lot in one go. No matter how much money he had, it was not enough for him to spend so much. In the past few years, the foundation of Prince Liang's Mansion has been completely exhausted by him. In order to maintain

For the expenses of the palace, the palace can only borrow debts from foreign countries, and now it owes thousands of dollars in foreign debts alone.

The most pitiable thing was Concubine Yang. After knowing this situation, she gave all her body, money and money to Li Min, but she lived in poverty in the palace. Any rewards Li Shimin usually received were given to Li Min in a flash.

Li Ke was so surprised that he complained that Concubine Yang was partial. When Li Ke went to visit Concubine Yang the day before yesterday, he saw that the Wangyun Palace was very elegantly decorated, with no more luxurious decorations. In fact, it was not that Concubine Yang didn't like luxury, it was just that

She loved her son so much that she gave Li Min all the valuable things in her palace. She usually didn't even have the money to reward the maids in the palace.

When talking about Concubine Yang's current situation, Gao Zhong burst into tears. He entered the palace at the age of eight and followed Concubine Yang when she was the princess of the previous dynasty. He followed Concubine Yang to the Qin Palace after the fall of the Sui Dynasty. After Li Min was born, , was sent by Concubine Yang to take care of Li Min, and has been until now. It can be said that his feelings for Concubine Yang are deeper than that of Li Min. Thinking that Concubine Yang has a body of thousands of gold but lives such a miserable life, he can no longer help but fall to the ground. burst into tears.

Bastard! Li Min wanted to slap himself twice. Li Min was definitely a bastard in the past. With such a good mother who loved him, he still failed to live up to his expectations. He was simply worse than a beast. Thinking of what Concubine Yang said to her in the palace the day before yesterday. Li Min felt a warmth from his own concern. Since he is now fortunate enough to be the son of this great mother, he must behave well and never hurt his mother's heart again! Thinking of this, Li Min secretly swore in his heart.

"Gao Zhong, get up! Don't cry anymore! Go borrow money immediately, and then send people to buy as much tea as possible this year. Liu Hu, you organize all the tea masters in the tea garden, sign confidentiality contracts with them, and give They received twice the treatment, taught them the method of frying tea, fried a large amount of tea, and then organized people to sell it. The palace will never be able to rely on the support of the queen mother and the emperor's brother in the future!" With a goal in mind, Li Min immediately I felt like my whole body was shaken, and my whole person seemed to be much more fulfilled.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Gao Zhong and Liu Hu agreed immediately. Liu Hu didn't notice anything, but Gao Zhong felt that Li Min's temperament in front of him suddenly changed. Somewhat confident and decisive, he is vaguely similar to Wu Wang Li Ke.

PS: The Mid-Autumn Festival benefits are being distributed today, so I’m late in coming back. I hope everyone can understand.
Chapter completed!