After Li Siye returned to Wuwei, Hexi Province, he sent three letters to Dai Wang who was far away in Yangguan, asking him about the re-establishment of the pepper trade route.
Dai Wang's letter was quickly brought back by the courier and handed over to the yamen of the Liangzhou Governor's Mansion. Li Siye sat in front of the desk, stretched out his hand to tear open the letter, and began to read the contents of the letter carefully.
Last year, the war in Dabolu and North India took six months, and also interrupted the pepper trade route for half a year. Dai Wang felt sorry and distressed, and his appetite also increased a lot. Since the Tang army controlled the entire
In the North Indian region, we are not as scrupulous about living under the eyes of Yesabhaman as before. Now that steel knives and chopping boards are in our hands, the plunder of North India is becoming more and more unscrupulous.
They had to quickly make up for the shortfall of at least half a year. Dai Wang recruited a large number of cattle from India and captured many Dalit untouchables. These people were not qualified to live in the village and could not participate in gatherings and religious activities. The physical exertion they had done
Labor is also the most humble and humble.
Dai Wang and others don't have this idea. For him, as long as he is willing to work hard, it doesn't matter whether you are a high caste or a Dalit.
He placed these Dalit slaves in every inn from India to Yangguan. Each inn had ten to eight people, and they only had to take care of the food. These people were also willing to work with peace of mind, at least in the inn they would not be subjected to
Personally oppressed, North Indians call them post slaves.
The post slaves drove yaks and livestock to and from various post stations. The transportation efficiency was far higher than before, and the investment consumed was also extremely huge.
This is the guarantee of victory when Li Siye takes charge of the three-town regime. He uses military force to protect economic activities, and at the same time, economic activities in turn nourish the army. Controlling North India is not only to monopolize and control domestic trade routes, but also to use pepper
Resources were exchanged for a large amount of gold and silver materials from Dashi, Fulin and other countries.
Transnational trade has always had strong vitality and the ability to plunder wealth. The Dutch East India Company, the company with the highest market value in history, was once extremely wealthy.
Since Li Siye took control of Tochar and attacked the Great and Little Bolu, the two regimes that were eyeing the South Asian subcontinent have lost their geographical convenience. Tubo and India are separated by the Himalayas. Originally, the Great and Small Bolu were used as passages to enter and exit Kashmir. Now,
They were all controlled by Li Siye's Anxi Army, and the route to the north was completely blocked. Since Tocharor fell into Li Siye's hands, Dashi also lost its border with India.
Countries such as Tubo and Dashi also have a huge demand for spices, but the opening of the border allows business travelers from the two countries to enter northern India. It is inevitable that some spies trying to cause trouble will appear during the business travel. In order to prevent these people from entering northern India, Dai Wang made suggestions to Li Siye,
A market was built in the capital city of Dabolut. The Quy Nhon Army put the spices plundered from North India in the market and sold them to Tibetan merchants who came to buy them. They also followed the same method when it came to food, and opened it in Luolan City in Fanyan.
Market, all business travelers coming from Dashi and Fulu must also purchase spices in the market.
In this way, the states of North India became the treasures protected by Li Siye's power.
The letter sent from Dai Wang stated that in these days, the Western Region Chamber of Commerce in Yangguan received an average of two shi of pepper every day, which was 60 shi a month. The Chang'an price of a dou of pepper was 600 guan per dou.
The monthly income earned is 360,000 guan, and this earning rate far exceeds the imperial court's Shaofu Temple coinage.
However, the rapid expansion of wealth will also arouse the covetousness of the imperial court and other forces. Li Siye also wrote a reply to Dai Wang, saying that preparations should be made in advance. From today on, the transportation volume of pepper will be reduced and the transportation volume of precious wood such as sandalwood will be increased.
Dai Wang didn't understand Li Siye's intention, so he could only trust Dr. Li's approach 100% and decided to transport pepper and sandalwood in half. For every stone of pepper transported, one stone of sandalwood must be transported. All the pepper was supplied to the agent, but the sandalwood was shipped to the agent.
However, Li Siye gathered them all into Wuwei City and transported them to the Huaqing Palace in Lishan Mountain. It seemed that he had other preparations.
Li Siye presented to the emperor one after another in Wuwei City, but all he did was to offer tribute. He first planned to take advantage of the spring and summer to build a sandalwood soup in the imperial concubine soup in Huaqing Palace, and the entire bath was made of sandalwood.
, I think it will definitely please Concubine Yang.
He also transported a large amount of sandalwood to his residence in Chang'an City, preparing to build a sandalwood alchemy hall for the emperor in Xingqing Palace.
The emperor was very happy after receiving the memorial and asked for convenience from the stations along the way.
…
An Lushan had left Chang'an, leaving behind counselor Gao Shang and Jinzouyuan Liu Luogu. The two were drinking and talking secretly in the back hall of Jinzouyuan.
Liu Luogu picked up the wine bottle and filled Gao Shang's wine cup, and said in a low voice: "Michagan from Chang'an West City was not well-known when Tianbao was ten years old, but in just three years, he has accumulated hundreds of millions of family assets."
I sent someone to investigate carefully and found out that he used to sell carpets, Pulu, horn cups and other rare items from the Western Regions, but then he suddenly switched to pepper, and his wealth suddenly became richer."
Gao Shang stood up from the ground with a wine cup in hand, walked slowly on the ground and thought carefully, then suddenly turned around and asked: "How has the pricing of pepper in the Chang'an market been in the past few years? Is there any obvious fluctuation?"
Liu Luogu held the wine cup in both hands and replied: "Of course there are changes. From the third year of Tianbao to the eighth year of Tianbao, the price has almost no obvious change. A bushel of pepper should have a high price of 900 guan. But starting from the ninth year of Tianbao, the price
It gradually declined, and today, in the thirteenth year of Tianbao’s existence, it has dropped from 900 guan to 600 guan.”
Gao Shang sat back cross-legged on the sheep felt, suddenly took a breath of cold air, and came to the conclusion: "The reason for the decline in pepper prices must be due to market saturation. There was almost no price fluctuation before Tianbao's eight years, which shows that the price of pepper before that
The market is scarce, but within a few years the market is close to saturation, what does this mean?”
Liu Luogu was confused when he heard this, and asked in confusion: "Mr. Gao, Luogu is stupid, please give me some advice."
Gao Shang stroked the feather fan and said confidently: "There must be a huge force that has expanded the trade route to the west, and is able to transport a large amount of pepper and spices to the Central Plains every year. This can cause the price to plummet. There must be official forces at work.
In this business, the volume of incoming and outgoing goods must be large enough to saturate the market."
"What you said is absolutely true. You and I should work together to investigate and dig out the people behind Michakan, and then report it to Dr. An, who will report it to Your Majesty to thoroughly investigate these wealthy people."
"Why go to all this trouble." Gao Shang waved his feather fan and vowed: "If you and I can investigate this matter, we will definitely not find out anything, let alone trouble my lord. Yang Guozhong is now the right minister, why don't we report this matter to him?
If he sends people to conduct a thorough investigation, he will surely be able to uncover the people behind the scenes."
"But this matter is probably related to Li Siye. Yang Guozhong and Li Siye have always been close. How can we convince Yang Guozhong to investigate him?"