There is a jingshe and five guest rooms next to the alchemy room. The platform is rammed with loess, and the door wall is made of blue bricks three feet high. Above the green bricks are all thick wooden windows. Because green bricks are very expensive in Shule, they include
The alchemy room was designed using more wood and less bricks. Since the day it was built, Taoist Zhao has lived in the monastery.
The two entered the alchemy room, and Li Siye looked around. The room was still empty, with only a pile of wood used for making charcoal in the corner.
Li Siye nodded and said: "It's too deserted. You can't do it alone. I'll send you three Taoist boys some other time."
Zhao Zhengyi hurriedly said politely: "I don't mind being lonely as a poor Taoist, but being busy is a busy thing. Practicing Taoism requires wisdom. General, please try to find me three clever children."
"Isn't it just that you have the foresight and foresight? Don't worry, I will definitely send you three people who have the foresight and diligence."
"So, I have thanked the general."
"Well," he nodded solemnly and told Zhao Zhengyi: "If you go out to find materials for elixir training, inform me in advance and I will send someone to protect you. Remember to find more sulfur and saltpeter.
.”
"General, don't worry, Zhao Zhengyi has taken note of this."
After Li Siye visited briefly, he proposed to go back home, and Daochang Zhao sent him outside the gate.
As he rode slowly down the street, the servants of the envoy's house found him, ran to his horse and said, "General, Governor Pei is here to visit."
"Understood, tell your family to treat the guests first, and I'll go back right away."
He dismounted at the front door, and the porter quickly ran out and led the horse to the backyard.
Li Siye strolled to the front hall, and Pei Guoliang stood with his hands behind his hands, carefully looking at the screens he had placed on both sides of the back hall. One of the screens was inlaid with a Shule defense map, and the other screen was inlaid with a Shule grassland distribution map.
, the two screens are the same size, making this front hall more majestic.
He stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "I didn't know that the governor was here, and I didn't come far enough to greet him. Please forgive me."
"No, no, I didn't inform you in advance, so I was too abrupt."
The two of them were polite for a while and then sat down respectively. Li Siye ordered his servants to boil goat milk for him and asked, "The governor came here unexpectedly, but he has official business."
"It's true," Pei Guoliang took the goat's milk brought by the servant and put it on the table. "The general still remembers that day in the Governor's Mansion. I once told Shule Town that herdsmen and livestock would appear every few years.
The herds expanded and the pasture could not bear the situation. What we could do at the beginning was to kill the sheep after winter to reduce the burden. After the pasture planning, this situation should not happen in a short time. But I still want to ask, what is the problem?
This method can control herdsmen in peacetime, prevent them from expanding their flocks for no reason, and enable them to actively control the number of livestock."
Li Siye stood up straight, lowered his head and walked slowly in the hall, as if he was thinking carefully, and suddenly turned to ask him: "Shule City is at the intersection of trade routes, and money circulates frequently. The wool and sheep felt produced by the herdsmen,
Have they all been sold to passing business travelers?”
Pei Guoliang nodded: "Yes, but this is only a small amount of transactions. Most of them are sold to large local merchants. In addition to selling goods to and from Qiuci, Yanqi, Dunhuang and other places, these large merchants also directly trade with caravans."
Li Siye asked again: "Who owns these merchants?"
Just as Pei Guoliang was about to open his mouth, he paused and looked a little strange, but he still answered truthfully: "In the Central Plains, officials are not allowed to do business, but we in Shule do not have such rules. Most of these big merchants are my Pei family, and there are others."
Business at the homes of several Sima nobles in the state."
Li Siye asked again: "Where are most of the mutton produced by the herdsmen sold?"
"The hotels, restaurants, and governor's houses in the city include your Tang Army, as well as the mansions of big families in the city. Yes, the hotels, restaurants, and restaurants in the city are also the property of big families like us."
Li Siye spread his hands and said: "The reason and method have been found. Whether it is the whole sheep, mutton, wool, or sheep felt, are the prices actually controlled by you guys?"
"Yes." Pei Guoliang may have guessed a little bit of the reason, nodded in confirmation and said: "Yes, they decide the price."
Li Siye twirled his beard and said: "Rich businessmen control the overall price of sheep at a normal level, and do not reduce prices even if the number of sheep flocks increases significantly. When the pastures are overwhelmed, it is difficult to cut grass in autumn, resulting in insufficient forage for cattle and sheep to eat in the winter.
, only then suddenly took action and the price suddenly dropped. Mutton became the price of cabbage, and the governor ordered the sheep to be killed. The wool and sheepskins of the herdsmen flowed into the hands of wealthy businessmen at extremely low prices. When the next spring comes, the price will be raised again. I will
This phenomenon is called cutting leeks or gathering wool. Governor Pei, think about it, is that true?"
Pei Guoliang sat upright suddenly, but leaned back and almost fell over. He managed to steady himself with his hands, and said in surprise: "How could this be?"
Seeing that his expression did not seem to be fake, Li Siye continued to talk: "Actually, I was thinking about this issue a few days ago. Tuqishi and other nomadic tribes will have more cattle and sheep, and their pastures will be overwhelmed. That is because of their commodity circulation.
It is underdeveloped, and most herdsmen accumulate cattle and sheep as assets. But Shule is different. It is an important east-west trade town, with tens of thousands of business trips every year, and the market in the city is booming every day. The market can control the herdsmen by adjusting the price of sheep.
As long as the Dudu Mansion controls the price a little, and there is a large expansion of cattle and sheep, gradually lowering the price of sheep can effectively curb their desire to expand, digest and absorb adult sheep, and stop the monopoly of prices by wealthy businessmen. Naturally, it will not
It will happen that after the pastures are overwhelmed, prices will suddenly drop, and sheep will be slaughtered on a large scale."
Pei Guoliang was speechless at this time and looked at the eloquent warrior in front of him in shock. He was indeed ignorant and only in his twenties, but even his father who had been to Chang'an had never seen anything like this.
The Tang Dynasty people were insightful and wise, and the husband Yu Wenrong who was good at wealth was probably nothing more than that.
He got up from the ground with the support of his hands, walked in front of Li Siye in two steps, quickly stepped back half a step, straightened his head, and then clasped his hands together and bowed ninety degrees to salute.
"General, it's true, it's true..." He really couldn't think of words to describe Li Siye, so he bowed again and said, "Thank you, general, for your guidance. There is no one in the four seas who can be as wise as the general."
Zhao Chongxuan came to the main hall of the garrison envoy with an official document in hand, and was about to ask Li Siye to sign an official document requesting the transfer of salt from the Governor's Mansion. He happened to be standing at the foot of the steps and saw this scene.
He was agitated and was about to retreat, but Pei Guoliang had already walked out of the hall. The other party was startled for a moment, guessing that he might have seen his humble gesture just now, so he stopped covering it up and said sincerely: "
Shule Town is truly honored to have such an official as Li Zhenshi."
After saying that, he put his hands behind his back, turned around and left.
Zhao Chongxun pursed his lips and carefully considered what he had just seen and heard. After being stunned for a long time, he said to himself: "If the envoy of Shule City had to be as capable as Li Siye, would my level be hopeless in this life?
?”
He gathered his mind again and was about to step forward on the steps, but stopped to straighten his clothes, then held the envelope in both hands and walked solemnly to the hall.