Fu Tang

The Tatars have lived near the Yinshan Mountains for generations. This time Li Congjia got the territory and also got the Tatars as a gift. However, these Tatars are very angry if they refuse to obey discipline.

Datang has always adopted an inclusive way to govern the country from top to bottom. Even foreigners can be treated equally as long as they are honest, and this time is no exception. Various data on the part of the Yinshan Mountains were sent, of course the most important ones were the population number and composition.

What surprised Li Congjia was that there was no specific number of Tatars in Khitan, let alone cities or anything, since they were nomads after all.

As soon as Li Congjia saw this situation, he felt dizzy and felt cheated. No wonder Khitan agreed so happily to give Datang all the grasslands near the Yinshan Mountains. It turns out that this place is really a tasteless place.

"Bad? It also depends on where it is concerned." Shi Xueting said: "Khitan can't do anything to them, can't we also do nothing to them?"

Li Congjia leaned back and said lazily: "I have sent officials there before, but it was useless. At the beginning, I couldn't find the location of those tribes. Later, I finally found a few. They don't pay attention to you. What are the rules? Law, people have their own family rules, do you want to take care of it? The end result is that the officials sent are thrown out, and the whole family moves to another place, and you can’t find it if you try to find it.”

What about wars? When these nomads are not strong enough, they will not take the initiative to attack the Central Plains. Unless it is autumn and winter, when the winter is coming, they do not have enough resources, so they will come to plunder the border towns of the Han people. .

However, since Li Congjia came to power, this kind of situation has basically never happened again. Even Khitan has nothing to do with such a strong border town, so what can these nomads do?

So they simply ignore you, what?The site belongs to Datang?What does that matter to them?

At this time, Li Congjia wished that these people would bring troops to attack the border town, so that he could justifiably send people to arrest all these Tatars!

It's a pity that the other party doesn't do anything, so he can't do it either. After all, it's still a matter of superficiality, and it can't leave a psychological shadow on other foreigners, isn't it?

Shi Xueting said with a smile: "This time, you chose the wrong method. The woolen thread has been spun successfully, but it is not so thin and not so strong. The Textile Bureau is changing it. The woolen cloth has also been successfully developed, but it is not enough. Soft, they are working hard to make the fabric lighter and softer, and by the beginning of this autumn, the production will basically be able to come up and some clothes can be made, so why not lure them with benefits?"

Li Congjia has been busy recently and really forgot about wool. Now that he suddenly heard that technology has made a breakthrough, he couldn't help being very happy: "Is there any ready-made clothing? Can it be made?"

Shi Xueting said: "Yes, there is, but the fabric is a bit too stiff, but it is said that they have found a way to soften it, and it is said that the ready-to-wear will be ready next month."

Li Congjia glanced at the perpetual calendar and said with a twitch, "Next month... it will be summer."

"Isn't it just to prepare for winter? If there is wool on the grassland, wouldn't it be a good time to buy it now?"

Li Congjia stroked his chin and said thoughtfully: "Speaking of which, that is already the territory of the Tang Dynasty, so the original border city is no longer suitable, and the city needs to be rebuilt on the new border line, but the original city cannot be abandoned. How about finding a few cities and turning them into mutual markets?"

Shi Xueting simply said: "It's better to turn them all into mutual cities. You know how rich the Western Regions are. Isn't it because there are markets for those countries in the West to trade with the Central Plains? Now we can do the same. I think that There should be quite a few Tatars on the land, so I just took this opportunity to lure them all out."

Li Congjia thought for a while and said, "That's fine. Anyway, it's the existing city. You can let Arong prepare it. I remember what business alliance she formed recently?"

Shi Xueting said helplessly: "I don't know how this child grew up. He used to be very gentle, but now he is becoming more and more domineering. Before doing business, he squeezed out several commercial firms, and other commercial firms are also in danger. These people I was worried that I would follow in the footsteps of those previous firms, so I directly joined forces to boycott our firms, but I didn't know how Ah Rong did it. After a while, she actually joined the alliance and became the leader. "

Li Congjia smiled and said, "Isn't this pretty good?"

Shi Xueting muttered: "What a little lady, who would dare to marry if this continues?"

Li Congjia said calmly: "How incompetent is a man who can't even accept Ah Rong's achievements? Such a man is worthy of Ah Rong? A capable man will appreciate Ah Rong instead, not to mention whether he is married or not. Rong’s freedom, even if you are her master, don’t force her.”

Shi Xueting looked at Li Congjia in surprise: "It's always been the order of the parents and the words of the matchmaker. Since I am her master, I am naturally responsible for this. How can I ignore it?"

Li Congjia also felt that what he just said was a bit too much. Such thoughts have no market in this era, so he changed his words and said, "Then you should check her well, and don't push people into the fire pit."

Shi Xueting laughed: "Are you her master, or am I her master?"

Li Congjia reached out and lifted Shi Xueting's chin, leaned over to kiss him and said with a smile, "Is there any difference? Isn't your apprentice my apprentice?"

Shi Xueting clasped his hands together and said: "Amitabha, that's just right. Arong's marriage will be left to you. I'm really not suitable to do this as a monk."

Li Congjia thought for a while and said, "I really... haven't found anyone worthy of her."

Shi Xueting said seriously: "How could it be? There are so many nobles in the capital, those young men are born noble, what can't they be worthy of?"

Li Congjia curled his lips: "So what if you are born noble? It's useless if you don't have a good temperament. Even if you have a good temperament, you can't do it if you don't have the ability."

Shi Xueting looked at Li Congjia speechlessly, and suddenly felt a little stressed. He never knew that Li Congjia was so harsh, and treated his apprentice's future husband so harshly, so wouldn't the conditions he wanted be even more stringent?

Shi Xueting thought about himself carefully, and thought it was probably okay, at least Li Congjia didn't show any disdain for him.

"Okay, Ah Rong is still young, so don't worry too much about this matter."

Shi Xueting came back to his senses and said for a while, speechless: "16 years old, many girls are married at this age, are you still young?"

Li Congjia waved his hand and said, "Marrying too early is not good for a girl's health. I don't have time now, otherwise I will delay my marriage sooner or later."

Postponing the age of marriage... In Shi Xueting's view, this is really looking for trouble.

Fortunately, now Li Congjia's focus is on how to hook up, no, no, no, how to make friends with the Tatars.

"By the way, I'll ask someone to bring over some clothes spun from cashmere thread and woolen cloth. I need to convince everyone with the real thing."

Shi Xueting nodded, he knew that everyone must be the courtiers including the cabinet, and maybe a Minister of the Ministry of Household, um, there might be a Minister of Rites.

Li Congjia also thinks that the mutual market is related to all aspects. The Ministry of Households has to count the past merchants, the Ministry of War of the Privy Council has to ensure the safety of the market, and the Ministry of Criminal Affairs has to send people to sit in town to mediate some economic disputes, etc... Li Congjia Finally, after thinking about it, he simply called all the six cabinet ministries and the Privy Council to the Xuanzheng Palace for a meeting.

This is the first time that many departments have gathered together not because of the war. Everyone said it was really fresh.

Li Congjia thought up a lot of arguments and waited for the subordinates to persuade them when they refuted them. Wool and other things were also prepared. As a result, as soon as his proposal came out, the subordinates enthusiastically agreed.

These bigwigs reacted much faster than Li Congjia. Shi Xueting spoke in great detail before he realized it. Now that Li Congjia only said two words, they understood Li Congjia's purpose.

Even their thinking was more divergent. Li Congjia hoped to understand the basic situation of the Tatars through the exchange market, and these people felt that if the exchange market was successful, the Tatars would need a large amount of food and medicine from the exchange market. In terms of trading, the Tatars have already tried their best to place the tribes closer to the exchange market, and even formed a fixed site, and they will no longer move around.

After they were semi-fixed, Datang tried every means to build some cities and let them live in the cities. By then, these Tatars would basically be considered captive, so why worry about them disappearing?

This is really a good method, and the mutual market must have other benefits, but they need to dig deeper.

So Li Congjia could only stare dumbfounded at their heated discussions about which firm to enter, and the restriction that raw materials for iron and firearms could not be sold there, let alone weapons.

However, food can be sold, and this year’s Tang Dynasty seems to be considered to be a smooth one. Of course, it’s not that there are no natural disasters, but it’s within the range that can be tolerated. The most important thing is that Lingnan is already on the right track. Worried about not having enough food.

The Ministry of Households has even started the idea of ​​mutual market taxation. They have begun to formulate various taxes in detail. They all want to increase the tax.

In the past, it was easy to say, after all, it is not a country, and now the people of the same country have two kinds of taxes, oh, except for the deadly places in Yanyun six states, it is easy to distract people anyway.

Li Congjia, who was almost left out of the topic, finally found something to talk about. He said very calmly: "What's so difficult about this? Wouldn't it be better to just implement step-by-step taxation?"

Everyone looked at him with question marks on their faces, and they didn't understand what it meant to pay taxes step by step.

Li Congjia explained in detail: "It is to establish a tax threshold. Those below the threshold do not need to pay taxes, and those above the threshold pay taxes in stages. As income increases, taxation is also increasing. Simply put, the more money you make, the more taxes you pay, isn’t that fair?”

Li Congjia wanted to complain about the tax system in this era for a long time. No matter what it is, it is one size fits all. For example, if the Zhang family collected two stones of wheat, they paid one bucket of tax, and the Li family collected three stones, but still paid one bucket. This is obviously unreasonable. .

Although taxation will be adjusted according to good years and disaster years, it is an overall adjustment and is not flexible enough at all.

Li Congjia thinks that the future certificate method is very good and worth learning. Anyway, except for the ones that are very unsuitable for Datang, he will use all the systems of later generations. After all, human regimes are always improving, and so are various systems.

Hubu Shangshu understood Li Congjia's meaning as soon as he heard it. He frowned slightly and said, "This...isn't easy."

Li Congjia said: "Don't be too anxious, you can formulate it first, and then test it on the mutual market. If you think it's good, then promote it a little bit. This process just allows you to collect more data, and even investigate people's wishes. Create a starting line for taxation."

Fan Zhi nodded, thinking that this is the old saying of seeking the country. No matter what policy it is, it is not easy to implement it directly. The best way is to experiment in a certain place first.

Seeing that no one objected to them, Li Congjia said directly: "Okay, you can discuss the rest, and tell me after you work out the results, oh, the Privy Council and the cabinet should cooperate more, Tatars are barbaric by nature, and they still need some help." Soldiers were stationed there to keep them in check."

After Li Congjia finished speaking, he broke up the meeting and returned to Zichen Hall. At this time, Shi Xueting was reciting scriptures with his eyes closed. Li Congjia sat opposite him and looked at him. He also felt strange. We have been together for so many years. I can't get enough of it, and it always attracts him.

Shi Xueting was so overwhelmed by him that he couldn't continue reading, so he opened his eyes helplessly and asked, "Have you finished approving the scriptures?"

Li Congjia said unhappily: "What's the matter? I can't see you until the approval is finished? Tell me, do you think I'm annoying?"

Shi Xueting said: "How come? I just think that if you finish all the approvals, then we..."

Li Congjia pulled his paws out of his clothes, snorted and said, "You still chant scriptures like this? The Buddha will punish you."

Shi Xueting smiled and said, "The Buddha will understand me."

Li Congjia waved his hand: "Come on, I won't be poor with you. I just suddenly thought that after the opening of the exchange market, if the Tatars are no longer erratic, maybe you can send someone to preach."

Shi Xueting raised his head and thought for a while and said, "It's not easy. These people have their own beliefs, and they form a separate system. It's not easy to assimilate."

Li Congjia said: "Water drops wear stone." But he said that it is easy to say, but it is actually very difficult to do. In fact, he just wanted to use multiple measures to firmly control the Tatars. .

After discussing with the court, they started to work on the mutual market. After they were almost ready, Li Congjia remembered that he didn't seem to tell everyone about the wool. After thinking about it, he thought... he should make some money quietly .

After all, although the Textile Bureau is called so, in fact it belongs to Li Congjia and has almost nothing to do with the court. In order to develop these things, he also spent a lot of money.

He asked the Textile Bureau to register the patent first. The patent registration was very detailed and did not say anything about its use. After the registration, Li Congjia looked at the court and seemed to have no reaction at all. He couldn't help saying: "These people... are all stupid. Is it? Such an obvious useful thing, they can't even find it?"

Especially now that there are finished products, although Li Congjia intentionally made a detour and registered the raw materials and finished products separately, it should be easy to associate, right?As a result, no one found out!

Shi Xueting was very calm: "Isn't this just right? What else do they earn when they find out? What's more, people who register patents only look at the process, and they don't necessarily understand this kind of thing, right?"

Li Congjia thought so, so he simply didn't get angry with these people, and ordered the firm to charge as much wool as possible.

The court discussed various rules and regulations for nearly a month. Of course, the most important thing was to discuss how to arrange the soldiers and their families in those cities. After all, there are no cities on the border. Fortunately, it can be opened in the shortest time, so it is also a good choice to set up a mutual market every other city at the beginning, and use the remaining city for ordinary life.

In this way, there are actually only three real mutual city cities in total, two are border guard cities, and one is reformed by Dongsheng Prefecture.

Li Congjia had no objection to this arrangement, so he directly approved and asked them to find a way to relocate and renovate.

It has to be said that people in this era really have no human rights. In later generations, if the state wants to expropriate land, and there are residents on this land, it will have to pay various demolition compensation or give houses.

In Datang, there is nothing, just let you move, of course, it is not without any money, but the money is definitely not enough for these families to buy another house, of course, the Ministry of Households also has a reason, after all, the house was originally It's from the imperial court, you still want money now?

However, the problem is that in these years, soldiers have also paid rent to the state!

Li Congjia couldn't bear to watch it, so he asked the household department to broadcast a little more money to house these people. After all, the people living there were either soldiers or their family members. They were also people who had contributed to the border defense of the Tang Dynasty. How could they? Treat others?

As a result, Li Congjia was thanked by these people for such a small matter, which made him feel a little embarrassed.Of course, what is even more frustrating is that the Minister of the Ministry of Accounting has accusations in his eyes every time he sees Li Congjia. In order to make up for the lost money, the Ministry of Accounting lowered the tax threshold again.

It took a month to discuss the various systems of the mutual market, but it took half a month to actually open it. As for the merchants, there is no need to worry at all. A business firm followed up, and Ah Rong said very loyally that he would never compete with everyone for business. Their family mainly sells all kinds of cloth and buys wool.

It has to be said that once the huge business alliance took action, even the cabinet was alarmed. All the shops in the three exchange cities were robbed, and many people who came later did not buy them at all!

Everyone is looking forward to creating another Western Region, but Li Congjia feels a little... worried.

Why can the Western Regions prosper?The main reason is that it is the main throat leading to the western countries, and there are many countries to the west, but what is there in Dongsheng Prefecture?To the north of the Yinshan Mountains is an extremely cold place. There are few people there, and it is almost impossible to sell things. It can be said that this market is aimed at the Tatars, and the purchasing power of the Tatars is so strong?

Li Congjia looked at the number of merchants in the past and couldn't help asking: "These people have passed, what if they lose money?"

Shi Xueting looked indifferent: "Doing business means making money and losing money. If you can't afford it, you won't let it go."

Li Congjia rolled his eyes: "Who cares if they can afford it or not? What I'm worried about is if they lose, will these people take revenge on Arong?"

Shi Xueting sneered and said: "Do you think they dare? Why did they choose A Rong as the leader? Didn't they like you and me behind A Rong? Otherwise, these people are willing to work under a little lady? It's the same this time, In fact, it wasn’t A Rong’s initiative at all at first, you asked A Rong to find a way to buy wool over there, and I don’t know who knew about it, and thought that A Rong would send people to the exchange market, so he would come here immediately to share a piece of the pie.”

Li Congjia suddenly smiled and said: "It seems that Arong is still very powerful. Even if these people are not convinced, they must admit that Arong's business is profitable, otherwise why would they follow?"

Shi Xueting said earnestly: "That's what it means, so you don't have to worry about them getting angry with A Rong, just you and me, even if they suffer a loss, you can only admit it."

After hearing this, Li Congjia was relieved a lot, but he was relieved, but the Hubu Shangshu began to get angry.

The mutual market was established very quickly, and even all kinds of security facilities were being followed up simultaneously, and the merchants opened at the fastest speed, but the biggest problem was... there were no buyers!

After the mutual market opened, not to mention the Tatars who came to buy things, they didn't even see a single wool of the sheep they kept!

Where have everyone gone?

The author has something to say: Li Congjia: Come, follow me, take refuge in Buddha, take refuge in Dharma, take refuge in Sangha, take refuge in Li Congjia!

Shi Xueting: Alright, rely on Zhongguang.

Li Congjia: Wait...you can just read it, what are you doing with your hands?

Shi Xueting: If you make me one, then we will become two. You have me, right?

Li Congjia:? ? ?How can I explain it that way?