Li Tai returned to the duck farm, but before he got close, he smelled the aroma of roast duck. Following the aroma, Li Tai saw Ma Zhou holding a duck leg in his hand and chewing it with relish.
Seeing Li Tai's arrival, Ma Zhou calmly put down the duck legs and took out a sweat towel to wipe his mouth. He did not show the slightest fear of being caught by Li Tai. Instead, he said calmly: "King of Yue, are you back? You want to
Don’t eat together.”
"Eat together!" Li Tai was not polite and said to Ma Zhou, "Dou Jing has agreed to control locusts according to my plan, which is a crucial step. The next step is to see how far Sinong Temple can push the matter.
One step away!"
"The King of Yue is ready to let everything go?" Ma Zhou was a little surprised.
"Next, if you want to advance the locust control process, you can stay at Sinong Temple and participate in the locust control work!"
Li Tai took another duck leg unceremoniously and said to Ma Zhou,
“If Sinong Temple wants to implement the locust control policy, it needs a large number of talents. After all, it is definitely not an easy task to do a good job in coordinating and organizing the work.
If you want to join it, I can recommend it and I believe you will be able to make a name for yourself soon.
When the locust control is successful, you should be able to obtain an official position above the eighth rank."
"Is there any other choice?" Ma Zhou asked after hearing Li Tai's words,
"Even if Dou Jing succeeds in controlling the locust plague this time, I'm afraid the merits will only be equal to the fault. On the contrary, Zhao Yuankai may be able to go further.
I'm afraid I'll have to do more hard work if I stay there, and I might even be oppressed by Zhao Yuankai as the person you assigned to Sinong Temple."
"Zhao Yuankai..." Li Tai did not deny it, "Then you can only stay with me for the time being. I will recommend you when I find an opportunity!"
Li Tai understood that as long as he did not place any more people in Sinong Temple, Zhao Yuankai would become the link between him and Sinong Temple, and he could know the progress of Sinong Temple's locust control through Zhao Yuankai.
If he had placed other people in Sinong Temple, then Dou Jing would most likely bypass Zhao Yuankai and contact him directly.
After all, Dou Jing couldn't stand Zhao Yuankai's flattering attitude. If she really did this, it would mean that she had given up on Zhao Yuankai.
As for giving up the chess piece Zhao Yuankai for Ma Zhou, Li Tai felt it was a good deal anyway, so he didn't care.
But Ma Zhou also saw this, so he didn't want Li Tai to pay such a high price to let him enter Sinong Temple.
After all, the greater the price Li Tai paid, the deeper Ma Zhou understood that he would be imprinted with the Royal Palace.
Ma Zhou finished the duck legs, licked the bones, and said with a serious expression, "If you leave everything to Sinong Temple, then why are you calling all the people from the villages?"
"Let them raise ducks!" Li Tai said, "The next main task is to raise the ducks.
After we master the art of artificial egg hatching, the number of duck eggs will increase, and more and more ducklings will be hatched.
When the number of duck eggs hatched every day exceeds 2,000, we may feel that there are not enough people!"
"So many?" Ma Zhou was stunned when he heard Li Tai's words, then came to his senses, "You don't have that many duck eggs, right?"
Li Tai said: "Since Sinong Temple has begun a comprehensive fight against locusts, there is no need for me to continue to advance funds.
Let them come forward and get some duck eggs from the Animal Husbandry and Animal Husbandry Department. With the hatching tank still under construction, it will not be difficult to produce a thousand duck eggs a day in the future, and even more in the future.
Of course, it was Sinong Temple who came forward, and the feed for 200,000 ducks was found."
"Even if you solve this problem, what will happen after the locust plague is over? Two hundred thousand ducks, what do you think should be done with it?"
Ma Zhou said to Li Tai seriously, "Now that we are fighting the locust plague, the imperial court will provide coal and grain to feed these two hundred thousand ducks.
But when the locust plague passes, what should we do with these 200,000 ducks?
Does it belong to the Divination and Animal Husbandry Department or to Sinong Temple? If you don’t handle it well, I’m afraid it will cause you a headache in the future!”
"If you don't think far ahead, you will have immediate worries. You think far ahead!" Li Tai heard Ma Zhou's words and said, "Then what are you going to do?"
Li Tai believed that since Ma Zhou had raised the problem, there should be a solution.
"I need to know, what does the King of Yue want!?" Ma Zhou asked Li Tai after hearing what Li Tai said.
"When the locust plague is over, I hope Aye can give me a piece of land so that I can realize my dream of becoming a farmer!"
Li Tai said sincerely, "I want to build a private school, a private school dedicated to learning agricultural knowledge and researching agricultural knowledge!"
"Agricultural private school?" Ma Zhou was a little stunned when he heard Li Tai's words.
"Yes!" Li Tai nodded and said, "If you have a solid warehouse, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace.
I dream that for the people of the Tang Dynasty, all those who work hard will have a good harvest, and all good families will have more than enough every year.
But my strength alone is too small, so I want to establish a private school to spread my thoughts and find companions with similar aspirations.
Take agriculture as the way and live up to the imperial power!"
"That's it!" Ma Zhou couldn't help feeling a little bit sad when he heard Li Tai's words.
He didn't expect that Li Tai would have such a big dream and even start to act for his own dream.
Thinking of this, Ma Zhou said to Li Tai, "I originally wanted to suggest that this duck should be given to the good families who have land around them.
After all, during major disasters, wealthy families will start a frenzy to annex land. By giving these ducks to people who own land, and then comparing them with the number of acres in the past, we can clearly understand the changes in the land after the disaster.
As long as the King of Yue speaks about this matter, and the specific matters are left to the court to do, it can more easily calm the people's remaining resentment against the court.
At that time, although these two hundred thousand ducks will be abandoned, the saint will be favored. This is the most important thing to the king.
So it can be said that it kills multiple birds with one stone, but now it seems that this plan cannot be implemented!"
Ma Zhou sighed slightly when he said this. In fact, according to the original plan, the most important thing was to let the Holy Emperor discover him. Then he would be able to use Li Tai as a springboard and officially enter Li Shimin's eyes.
"Why?" Li Tai couldn't help but wonder when he heard Ma Zhou's words.
Ma Zhou looked serious and said: "Do you think you can support a private school with only the expenses of Prince Yue's Mansion?
Private schools are quite expensive, especially if you want to create a unique agricultural private school!
Therefore, Your Majesty, you must seize a source of wealth, a source of wealth that allows you to afford a private school.
And now these two hundred thousand ducks are the financial resources you can control."
"If so, how should I plan?" Li Tai thought thoughtfully after hearing Ma Zhou's words.
"Let's go back to the original point, that is the Holy One!" Ma Zhou thought, "You need to give the Holy One a reason to continue to control these chickens and ducks as a source of wealth, and at the same time allow and even support you to open a private agricultural school!"
Li Tai was somewhat enlightened when he heard Ma Zhou's words, because Ma Zhou could make him more clear and detailed about his goals.
This feeling is as if the road in front of you, which was originally somewhat foggy, suddenly becomes clear.
In the following days, Li Tai ran between the Duck Farm and Yue Wang Mansion, watching the number of ducks increase day and night.
Of course, Li Tai was also immersed in work, but Sinong Temple began to follow Li Tai's suggestions for controlling locusts and began to mobilize the people to do corvee vigorously.
All fields where crops have been eaten by locusts are being plowed in an organized manner to expose the locust eggs to the sun.
The people didn't object much, after all, they still had to plow the fields when winter wheat was planted.
Although it is a bit harder now, because it is organized by the government, there are some subsidies, and even cattle can be borrowed.
For the common people, the locust plague has been continuous this year. It is not easy to take advantage of it, but they cannot miss it.
It's almost June, and poultry shops of varying sizes have opened in four nearby markets in Chang'an.
Poultry are collected for slaughter here, and some young poultry are also sold.
At the same time, the saying that ducks can be used to defeat locusts began to spread in Chang'an. Of course, this statement was recognized by Master Dou Jing of Sinong Temple.
This time he planned to use ducks to deal with the locusts, which made some people who had fields in their hands slightly tempted.
Of course, what really impressed them was the price of these ducklings. Basically, each duckling cost only two cents.
The normal price of a duckling is about three cents, after all, an adult duck only costs thirty to forty cents.
It’s only two cents now, and the price is not high by any means. Therefore, many good families with acres of land at home are not short of such two cents. Even because the duck is cute, many people with small change buy it as a gift.
Pet breeding.
It can be said that there is an endless stream of people coming to buy ducks, but the duck shop is often sold out.
But as soon as the next day came, the duck shop was immediately replenished. The speed was really amazing.
When the censors discovered this, they soon heard the news and started to impeach the king of Yue for engaging in commercial affairs, which was a disgrace to the state.
As for competing with the people for profit, it was really not a big deal for the Tang Dynasty, but for a prince to actually end up doing business, it would be too shameful. For the censors, this opportunity to become famous cannot be missed.
Then Li Tai, who was studying in Duck Farm, was called to the East Palace for lectures.
Li Shimin looked at the thick piles of memorials stacked by the censors and said to Li Tai, "These memorials are all for impeaching you for compromising public wealth and engaging in private business. If they are piled up, I am taller than myself. Tell me what's going on!"
"The censor really just got wind of it and brought it directly onto me!" Li Tai curled his lips and hated the censor.
"In the whole of Chang'an, you are the only one who has been working on artificial incubation technology. Now there is an endless stream of ducklings. Who else is it if it's not you!" Li Shimin frowned and said when he saw Li Tai's unwillingness, "You said so yourself.
Is it you behind the scenes?"
"I admit to running a business, but I don't admit to harming the public and enriching private life!" Li Tai could tell that Li Shimin didn't want to deal with him.
"As a descendant of the royal family, you actually run a business, and you actually have the nerve to admit it!" Li Shimin heard Li Tai's words and slammed the table. His originally calm expression suddenly turned like a violent storm.
"Aye is a saint. Neither his son nor his ministers will lie to Aye. As long as Aye asks, Tai can only be sincere!" Li Tai said.
"Then you are short of money?" Li Shimin heard Li Tai's words and said, "Aye knows that you paid 160 gold for locust control. If you are short of money, you can tell Aye that you must not harm the public and private interests and do anything corrupt!"
Li Tai couldn't help but smile bitterly, took out an account book and handed it to Li Shimin, saying,
"Aye, I brought the main account book, and all the income and expenditure should be in it.
I really don’t sell ducklings to harm the public and enrich my private life, but to control locusts!”
"Control locusts?!" Li Shimin heard Li Tai's words and couldn't help but said: "How to control locusts?"
“Locusts are difficult to control because locusts may emerge at any time in any land, especially crop fields.
Even if Sinong Temple organizes large-scale plowing of fields, it may not be able to completely eliminate the locusts, and some fish will definitely be caught.
However, organizing manpower based on the country's situation can only go so far. It is unrealistic to plow every inch of land.
So when the real locust plague comes again, just release the ducks in the wild and let them eat happily!
But it is impossible to use this hand in crop fields. If you do this, the seedlings may be trampled to death.
So we can only let the good people cultivate their crops intensively, take advantage of ducks’ insect-eating characteristics, and eliminate the insects in normal times.”
"If that's the case, why don't every household give a duck so that the people can have a good life and raise it?" After hearing Li Tai's words, Li Shimin understood Li Tai's considerations and asked, "Why do you need to act like this and increase the burden on the people?"
.”
"Because this is screening!" Li Tai looked at Li Shimin and said,
"We just experienced a locust plague. Some people sold their fields, and some sold their sons and daughters. If we give them away directly, we will probably send the ducks to people who don't need them. They will die from drought and drought, and then they will die from waterlogging."
.
Therefore, it is sold directly at a lower market price. First, it avoids the formation of rare goods and stabilizes prices.
Secondly, a good man who has a farm at home doesn't care about two more pennies so that his family can have a good harvest.
Thirdly, since more and more ducks are hatched, Sinong Temple has to bear more weight on feed. How to raise more ducks while suppressing feed consumption is the current problem that needs to be solved.
Try your best to send these little ducks to people who can raise them. If you can't afford two cents, the ducks may be eaten on the same day.
So Aye, the above is the reason why I sell ducklings for two cents, at least until the locust plague is contained, I think it is very necessary!"
Li Shimin couldn't help but think after hearing Li Tai's words.
To be honest, Li Shimin had never considered Li Tai's approach to solving problems from an economic perspective.
But Li Shimin had to admit that Li Tai's method was at least theoretically a win-win situation for all parties. Apart from the fact that he, the King of Yue, was a bit embarrassed to run the industry himself, it actually seemed reasonable.
"You just keep doing it, and I'll see if you can contain this locust plague so that autumn planting can proceed normally. If you can't do that, don't touch these businesses anymore!"
Li Shimin made the final decision.
"Huh!" Li Tai smiled slightly and said, "Aye, you still have a share of this. If there is still a surplus of the money I earn, we will share it 30-70!"
"Get out!" Li Shimin couldn't help but laugh and curse after hearing Li Tai's words.