"The largest number of salt merchants in Yangzhou are salt merchants." Li Shan lowered his head, raised his wrist slightly, and poured the brewed tea soup into the red tea bowl on the side.
The bamboo curtain brings up the breeze, blowing the aroma in the tea bowl and spreading around.
Li Shan's speech was very casual, his green robe was wide and fat, his short beard was fluttering, and his expression was pleasant.
Looking at Li Xuan and Wang Bo who were sitting upright opposite, Li Shan said warmly: "It's rare to see my old friend again today. I should have had a few drinks, but I'm not feeling well and the doctor prohibits drinking. I'm really sorry."
When Li Shan was demoted due to He Lanmin's incident, he joined the army for the palace of Pei King Li Xian, served as an attendant, and was also a direct bachelor of Chongxian Hall.
Although Wang Bo was demoted three or four years earlier, Li Shan still entered Prince Pei's palace earlier than Wang Bo. The two got along for a few years and had a passionate relationship.
"Is the bachelor feeling ill?" Wang Bo was a little surprised, because Li Shan, who was sitting opposite him, had a flushed face, completely showing no sign of the frailty caused by being exiled to Lingnan for several years.
Wang Bo looked at Li Xuan subconsciously: "The Prince of Nanchang is a disciple of Medicine King Wei Xuanzang. The bachelor might as well ask the Prince of Nanchang to help him take a look."
Hearing what Wang Bo said, Li Xuan's face looked strange, and he even looked at Li Shan with a smile.
At this time, Li Shan actually turned his head to the side in embarrassment.
Li Xuan then looked at Wang Bo and whispered: "The bachelor is now recuperating his body in preparation for raising children in the future."
Hearing what Li Xuan said, Wang Bo's face was full of surprise, and at the same time he was confused: "A bachelor is so... and now he can..."
"No problem." Li Xuan said with certainty, looking at Li Shan with a half-smile: "Doctors say that men and women can have children no matter how old they are after adulthood, but before forty, the chance is highest. The older the child, the more difficult it is to give birth. Of course, if you take good care of it, even a ninety-year-old man can have a child."
After listening to what Li Xuan said, Li Shan took a long breath, and then said: "What happened back then affected his wife and children. After returning from Lingnan, there was no one in the family. I wanted to live alone but ended up surviving. However, recently, my clan members introduced me to marry him." The daughter of the Wu family in Jiangxia takes over, and her heart is stirred up again."
"It seems that the bachelor's family is harmonious." Li Xuan glanced at Li Shan's face, crossed his hands, and said respectfully: "Congratulations to the bachelor in advance. The bachelor is in good health, as early as half a year old, and as late as one year , the body will be as strong as the prime of life, but the bachelor still needs to be careful, things will overflow when things are full, beware of accidents!"
"What the King of Nanchang said is very true, Shan has taken note of it!" Li Shan returned the gift with his hand, and then looked at Wang Bo: "Brother Zian, you are not married yet, right?"
The smile on Wang Bo's face stopped suddenly, then quickly dissipated, and even turned a little white.
"In terms of age, I am twenty years older than you, Chi. In terms of seniority, I can also be considered your elder brother. Zi'an, listen to the advice of a brother, there are three ways to be unfilial, and having no heirs is the worst. Although the intention is biased, but the kindness is awe-inspiring," Li Shan looked at Wang Bo sincerely, and Wang Bo nodded silently without saying a word.
"Bachelor has filtered it." Li Xuan pulled back the words, and then said: "With Mr. Zian's talent, as long as he lets go of his heart, daughters from five surnames and seven families will come to his door one after another. What's more, there are many noble daughters from my Li family, maybe. Any princess or county owner will keep an eye on Mr. Zian."
Li Xuan's words were said very lightly, but they secretly pointed out another possible way for Wang Bo to become an official.
Wang Bo was framed many times. Although the emperor granted him amnesty and was released from prison, after this incident, it was almost impossible for him to become a sergeant again.
There aren't many paths left.
One is recommendation by others, such as Li Xian recommending Wang Bo to Li Xuan, so Wang Bo's future is entirely in Li Xuan's hands.
The second is the relatives by marriage, preferably the consort, but Emperor Gaozong only has three daughters alive, Princess Yiyang and Princess Gao'an were born to Concubine Xiao Shu and have already been married.
The only unmarried Princess Taiping was the favorite of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu. They would not give up easily unless they chose someone with a better family background and higher talent than Wang Bo.
What's more, Wang Bo was more than ten years older than Princess Taiping, so how could Empress Wu be willing to do so.
Therefore, the only choices available to Wang Bo are a few royal princes, such as King Han and King Huo, who all have children of the right age, and they do not mind marrying their daughters to wealthy talents from top families like Wang Bo, even if Wang Bo is older. On many.
No matter what, it is better than Wang Bo continuing to fall.
Wang Bo didn't know what Li Xuan had heard, but Li Shan listened. After giving Li Xuan a deep look, he said: "Although the Yangzhou salt merchants are not as valuable as the royal family and aristocratic families, their wealth is far beyond That’s a lot,”
Li Xuan nodded subconsciously. The Yangzhou salt merchants were not only rich, but also bold. They even dared to pursue the idea of a salt ship for the imperial court. What else could they not dare to do?
"The "Historical Records·Biography of Wu Wang Bi" records: Bi Ze caused deportations from all over the world, stole money, and boiled sea water into salt, so that he had no wealth and the country was rich." Wang Bo came back to his senses, looked at Li Shan, and said: " Yangzhou is the land of the world. In the early Han Dynasty, King Wu provoked the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, relying on Yangzhou’s salt wealth..."
"Since the Tang Dynasty established the world, the south has been stable and it is difficult for King Wu to do anything." Li Shan waved his hand to stop Wang Bo from talking.
"What the bachelor said is true. The merchants in Yangzhou only want money. If they get three times the profit, they can ignore the risk of beheading. If they get five times the profit, the court and officials will treat them as nothing. Therefore, the bachelor, Who is the richest man in Yangzhou today, and where does his wealth come from?" Li Xuan looked at Li Shan with deep eyes.
On this trip to see Li Shan, in addition to conveying his uncle Ouyang Tong's concern, he also wanted to know who is most likely to be the culprit in forging high-quality bad money in Yangzhou today.
The first person to be targeted by them is now the richest man in Yangzhou.
As for who the richest man in Yangzhou is, Li Xuan already knew it even before arriving in Yangzhou, but whether he is related to the coinage depends on subsequent investigations.
As a native of Yangzhou, Li Shan of Jiangxia, whose clan is here, he naturally has better information than others.
Even if there is no evidence, just rumors are enough to guide the direction.
"Where did the theory of the richest man in Yangzhou come from?" Li Shan smiled and waved his hand, and then said: "But if we say who is the richest family in Yangzhou now, I think it should be the Shen family. Although the Shen family started as a maritime merchant, they inherited the legacy of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Hou Shenrong, the current head of the Yangzhou Shen family is Shaanzhou Sima Shen Shiheng, but he has not been in Yangzhou for a long time, and the person in charge of the Yangzhou Shen family is his second son, Chaosan doctor and foreign minister Shen Yuqing, a monk of the Ministry of household affairs."
Li Xuan nodded. The Shen family also came from a famous family. The current head of the Shen family, Sima Shen Shiheng of Shaanxi Province, and his father Shen Lin, were former ministers of the Honglu Temple in the Sui Dynasty.
"The Shen family is the leader of Yangzhou's maritime merchants. They are involved in shipbuilding, silk, tea, cloth, gold, ivory, rhinoceros horn and other items. Merchants from Japan, Zhenla, Champa, Fuyu, etc. are all related to it. In recent years, they have been involved in salt. Only then did he become the richest man in Yangzhou. However, the theory of being the richest man in Yangzhou is inherently false. The Lu family, the Meng family, and the Xu family are all big families in Yangzhou for generations. They are also trying one after another. Today it is the Shen family, and tomorrow it will be the other families. Home."
"So, they shouldn't be able to participate in the money-making matter." Li Xuan suddenly showed a ferocious edge.
"Coin making?" Li Shan looked stunned and looked at Li Xuan with some surprise: "Don't you know, Your Majesty, every family in Yangzhou is actually involved in making money. However, this is all permitted by the imperial court. A certain amount of money is minted every year. , and by paying a certain amount of interest, a certain amount of bad money can be minted.”
"Ah!" Li Xuan and Wang Bo were stunned.
All the major families in Yangzhou were actually involved in making bad money. This was something he had never heard of before. What was the emperor doing?
Li Shan pushed the teacup to Li Xuan and Wang Bo and said in a deep voice: "In the war of evil money, the court was unprepared and suffered heavy losses. But after that, Your Majesty and the Queen realized that the evil money incident was unstoppable and the court created it on its own. Evil money was criticized by the people again, so the power was granted to each family, allowing them to create a certain amount of evil money on their own, but the amount was strictly limited, and the quality was not allowed to be too good. Although each family had sufficient profits in the evil money, But only Ashikaga.”
"I see." Li Xuan understood that the court still wanted to keep this benefit in his own hands.
Shaking his head, with these thoughts still in his mind, Li Xuan looked at Li Shan and asked seriously: "That's what I said, but if other people try to enter this industry, they will immediately encounter resistance from all of them. There are no more than four or five of these families in Yangzhou, and there probably won’t be more than ten in the entire Jiangnan Dao, right?”
"There are not ten families, only seven." Li Shan said with a calm expression: "In the early years, the Zhang family in Longxi, Jiannan, Hebei, Shannan, and Jiangnan were not the only ones who were exterminated. There were at least dozens of families that were exterminated. , when the court does not follow the rules, a lot of people will be unlucky."
Whether it's recycling bad money or making Qianfeng Quanbao, the imperial court is using the system to reason with the world's affairs.
When the emperor found that the truth did not make sense, he began to kill people.
Li Zhi and Empress Wu are best at this.
After all, no matter how much bad money there is, the losers are ordinary people.
The world's wealth is simply transferred from the hands of the imperial court to the hands of the wealthy families who make bad money.
When these aristocratic families were confiscated and exterminated, their wealth returned to the court again.
Are those aristocratic families just willing to be like cattle and sheep, to be slaughtered by others?
