Although Liang Shidu and Dahe Duluo had enmity with the Tang Dynasty and despised the Tang Dynasty for taking the opportunity to make war profits, they still quietly brought out a large number of Turks, Liang Kingdom, Dahe's specialties and the Tang Dynasty.
Exchange supplies.
The reason for all this is that they have been busy fighting this year, and they have been fighting until the winter months, and they have not prepared any supplies for the winter.
In order to allow my subordinates and tribesmen to survive this winter smoothly.
They must grit their teeth and exchange supplies with Datang.
The situation at Jieli was the same. They had not prepared supplies for the winter, so while they were criticizing the Tang Dynasty for not being trustworthy and providing military assistance to Sunisu, they also sent people to frantically exchange various supplies in Lingzhou.
.
Datang was making a lot of money from its transactions with the Turks.
After Li Xiaogong came back from Xingyang, the smile on his face never faded.
"Yuanji, I have never thought that opening a border market can be so profitable. In this whole winter month alone, I am afraid that the money we have earned will exceed 5 million yuan. This has almost caught up with me in the 34th year of the Tang Dynasty.
This is something that was simply unthinkable before.”
Li Xiaogong shouted loudly while pouring wine into his mouth.
This was something that would have been unthinkable before.
After all, the Tang Dynasty's annual tax revenue was only one million yuan. Now, as it recovers and recuperates, it has increased, but it has not exceeded two million yuan.
Datang's income from just two border markets in one month exceeded 5 million yuan, which shows how profitable border markets are.
This does not include what was earned from water and sea transportation, and what was confiscated from the Zheng family.
If you add them all up, the money that Datang earned this year may have reached 178 million guan, or 20 million guan.
However, except for the millions confiscated from the Zheng family, which were copper coins, gold and silver, most of the others were materials.
Most of what the Tang Dynasty gained from water and sea transportation was converted into grain. After filling the granaries in Yangzhou and Dizhou, some of it was also transported to the Luoyang granary.
Nowadays, the two governors of Yangzhou and Dizhou are still stepping up their efforts to build docks, warehouses, and granaries.
Because everything existing in Yangzhou and Dizhou can no longer meet the needs of water transportation and sea transportation.
In other words, the granary in Luoyang has not been filled yet, to be precise, it has only been filled one-third.
This is after taking into account the grain purchased from Duji Province last year and this year, as well as the grain confiscated from the Zheng family.
This should be attributed to Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty who was very happy with his achievements.
It was he who built too many granaries in Luoyang in order to turn Luoyang into an ancient and unparalleled capital. This led to the Tang Dynasty transporting millions of stones of grain into the city, but these granaries were not filled.
However, Li Yuanji firmly believed that Datang would be able to fill them up soon.
Whether the Bolingcui family is raided to make a fortune, or the current procurement situation continues, all the granaries in Luoyang will be filled one day.
At that time, Datang can start a new journey.
In addition, from the transactions with Jieli, Sunisu, Liangshidu, and Daheduluo, the most that the Tang Dynasty obtained were cattle, sheep, war horses, and Turkic specialties, and only a very small part of the money was obtained.
However, cattle, sheep and horses are not dead and cannot be stored, so they must be digested as soon as possible.
However, this matter is handled by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the three provinces, so Li Yuanji does not need to worry too much.
Thanks to the Tang Dynasty's previous experience in seizing a large number of cattle, sheep and horses from the Turks, officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the three provinces have now learned how to turn cattle, sheep and war horses into the national power of the Tang Dynasty.
So there is no need to worry about their cattle, sheep and horses being sold cheaply or wasted.
"What my cousin said is that my cousin also made a lot of money this time."
Li Yuanji agreed with a smile.
Li Xiaogong was even happier, but he did not get carried away. Instead, he said humbly: "Not much, not much..."
Li Yuanji smiled and said: "How much is not much?"
Li Xiaogong was stunned for a moment, his smile became a little unnatural, and he continued perfunctorily: "It's really not much..."
Li Yuanji continued with a smile: "Why doesn't my cousin tell me the truth? Do you think you can hide it from me?"
The smile on Li Xiaogong's face suddenly froze.
Whether it is water transportation, sea transportation, or border markets, it was Li Yuanji who promoted it behind the scenes. Nowadays, the people who manage water transportation, sea transportation, and border markets, except for him, Li Xiaogong, are all Li Yuanji's confidants.
How much he earned this year, if Li Yuanji wanted to find out, he wouldn't be able to hide it.
He was now not sure what Li Yuanji meant by asking this, whether he wanted to conquer the local tyrants to divide their land, so he was beating a drum in his heart.
"Haha, I didn't hide it from you, I just didn't do the calculation carefully..."
Li Xiaogong said with a half-hearted smile while beating drums in his heart.
Li Yuanji smiled and asked: "Then do you want me to find someone to help you figure it out?"
Li Xiaogong couldn't laugh anymore and said angrily: "Are you trying to take advantage of me?!"
Li Yuanji said funny: "What advantage do you have that I can take advantage of? The little money you have is not enough to arouse my covetousness, and I can come up with too many ideas to make money.
There is no need to covet your money.
I just think that I have given you enough ways to make money, and I will give you new ways to make money in the future. There is no need for you to eat and occupy more."
Li Xiaogong was stunned at first, then his face turned completely dark, and he said angrily: "Someone sued me?"
Li Yuanji said nothing.
But he believed that Li Xiaogong could understand what he meant.
Li Xiaogong's face suddenly turned darker, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Are they those guys who went to copy the Zheng family with me?"
Li Yuanji rolled his eyes.
you do not say.
The amount he allocated for corruption was only 500,000 guan. As a result, Li Shentong took 250,000 guan, Li Xiaogong took 150,000 guan, and only 100,000 guan was left for the others.
After the others got their hands on it and distributed it to their subordinates, they ended up with less than 5,000 guan.
Of course they were not happy, and of course they had to sue Li Shentong and Li Xiaogong.
Although Li Shentong and Li Xiaogong had high status and were the leaders, so they had the power to take the lion's share of the money, but they were too cruel, to the point where no one else could eat.
Then people can still have no complaints?
Take Qin Qiong as an example. He contributed a nephew, whose life and death are unknown. He dragged his body and screamed in the court for a long time, and finally had someone carry him to Xingyang. In the end, he only received one thousand guan.
Plus a cloth shop belonging to the Zheng family in Chang'an City.
If what he gained from Zheng's family this time was not much, then Qin Qiong's share of one thousand guan was pretty good.
After all, one thousand guan is a very powerful purchase in the Tang Dynasty.
However, the money obtained this time amounted to millions, and the amount of profit that could be divided reached 500,000 guan, but Qin Qiong only received 1,000 guan.
However, he has paid so much, how could he be willing to do so?
Although Qin Qiong did not write a letter to impeach Li Shentong and Li Xiaogong, he did not even speak out.
But the appearance of Li Shentong and Li Xiaogong was really ugly, which was unfair to Qin Qiong.
"Who accused me of being a traitor?"
Li Xiaogong asked with his eyes widened.
Li Yuanji said with a straight face: "Is this really cunning? I won't ask how many properties, houses and shops you and Uncle Wang have embezzled in Xingyang.
But I believe these things are enough to make you rich.
But you are still not greedy enough. You two have eaten up 80% of the 500,000 yuan I allocated to you.
Others only received a few thousand guan, and Qin Qiong was even worse, only receiving a thousand guan.
After all, he is a prince of the country, his status is only second to you, and he has paid a lot of price for this matter.
Why do you have the nerve to give away a thousand guans to others?"
Li Xiaogong blushed all of a sudden. Judging from his harvest this year, a thousand guan was nothing.
Qin Qiong had paid so much but only received a thousand coins. He also felt that he had gone too far.
However, he still forcefully defended himself: "We gave Qin Qiong more than 6,000 guan, not 1,000 guan."
Li Yuanji smiled coldly and said: "A prince is worth six thousand gold when he hooks up with a nephew?"
Li Xiaogong realized that Li Yuanji was angry and opened his mouth, but did not dare to defend himself.
Li Yuanji snorted coldly: "According to my opinion, you and Uncle Wang should not take any of these five hundred thousand guan. You have already eaten enough through water transportation, sea transportation, and border markets, and you have embezzled it again."
The Zheng family has such a large family property and has even distributed nearly 300,000 shi of grain. Are you still greedy?
If everyone in my Li family is like this, then who else is willing to work hard for my Li family?
Who else is willing to protect my Li family?"
Li Xiaogong opened his mouth, but was unable to refute.
Li Yuanji continued: "You have to understand that you are no longer the dandy kid hanging around in Jinyang City. You are now the king of my country in the Tang Dynasty, a person who is less than ten thousand people.
It's time for your brain to change, and it's time to learn how to be a prince.
My father didn't teach you before, nor did my uncles, because it was their first time being a member of the royal family and they had little experience.
Now let me teach you, for me, Mrs. Li, and for you and me, the most important thing is authority, not money.
As long as we hold great power and hold the world's soldiers and horses, what do we want?
What is the difference between money in other people’s hands and money in our hands?
We can get them back at any time through the authority in our hands, and we can also snatch them away at any time through the soldiers and horses under our command.
So money is the same thing in our hands as it is in other people's hands.
It cannot affect our prosperity and wealth at all.
In this case, why don’t we spread out all the money in our hands to exchange for more people’s loyalty and stronger authority?”
Li Xiaogong stared blankly and looked at Li Yuanji in astonishment.
No one has ever said this to him, and no one has ever told him that money is not important in front of power.
So he doesn't realize that the most valuable thing in his hand is power, not money.
What's more, they don't realize that money is nothing compared to power.
He simply uses his inherent thoughts to measure money and power.
Now after hearing Li Yuanji's words, he finally understood what money was and what power was.