Li Yuan could not agree to the Turkic envoy immediately. The envoy temporarily retreated. Only the prince Jiancheng and five prime ministers were left in the side hall, and they needed to discuss the trade terms proposed by the Turks.

Li Yuan also knew that the conditions for the Turks were very harsh. They wanted strategic materials such as pig iron and food. Once these strategies were imported to the Turks, the strength of the Turks would inevitably become stronger quickly.

"I need to say first that the alliance with the Turks is extremely important to me, which will restore the adverse situation of the Tang Dynasty on the Turks. More importantly, the Turks can cooperate with the Tang Dynasty to deal with the Sui Dynasty, so I need to discuss trade issues with everyone, how to make the greatest benefits and the least disadvantages."

"Father, please tell me first."

Li Jiancheng stood up and bowed, "Father, the Turks are a country of tigers and wolves. Since ancient times, they have been the enemy of the Central Plains. My sons are just worried that once the Turks are strong, their greed will not be just a Sui Dynasty. Once the Hu cavalry swept across the Central Plains, it will bring serious disasters to the Central Plains and restart the era of the Five Barbarians invading China. That will not be able to be saved by our Tang Dynasty. We will become sinners throughout the ages. My sons do not agree to liberalize trade with the Turks."

Li Yuan's face turned gloomy and said in great displeasure: "Then do you agree with the destruction of the Tang Dynasty by the Sui Dynasty? Do you agree with the eternal surrender of the Tang Dynasty to the Turks?"

Li Jiancheng felt the anger in his father's tone, and he was silent. At this time, Pei Ji stood up and said, "Your Majesty, can you please give me a word?"

"Pei Aiqing, please say it!"

Pei Ji glanced at Li Jiancheng from the corner of his eyes and said calmly: "Actually, some of the ideas of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince are not very appropriate. The Turks have invaded the Central Plains more than once or twice. They did not occupy the Central Plains like the Five Barbarians invaded China. They plundered some materials and returned to the grasslands every time. After all, their roots are in the grassland and will not invade the land of the Central Plains. The enemy of the Turks was the Sui Dynasty. The battle of Fengzhou caused heavy casualties. The Sui and Turks had already formed an indissoluble hatred. If the Turks attacked the Sui Dynasty, we would be the ones who benefited. If they fought both sides, we would be the ones who benefited. If they suffered losses, the Sui Dynasty would be even more us. The Sui Dynasty was weak. The Turks cut their claws, and we could take advantage of the situation to annex the Sui Dynasty and then deal with the Turks. The Tang Dynasty could make unparalleled achievements. Therefore, the so-called trade was just a means, the purpose was to make the Sui Dynasty fight each other."

Speaking of this, Pei Ji turned around and smiled at Li Jiancheng, "Your Highness the Crown Prince thought the great enemy of the Tang Dynasty was the Sui Dynasty or the Turks?"

Li Jiancheng snorted heavily, "Fighting with Sui is just an enemy in the country. Funding for the Turks is a national shame. Who is more important? Doesn't Pei Xiangguo understand?"

Li Jiancheng's repeated opposition made Li Yuan even more annoyed. Pei Ji's suggestion reached his heart. But Li Jiancheng used righteousness to refute him and wiped out his excitement.

Just as he was about to have an attack, Xiao Yu stood up and smiled to smooth things over, "Your Majesty, I have a better plan, which can be the best of both worlds."

The four words "The best of both worlds" made Li Yuanlong very happy and nodded immediately, "Please say Xiao Aiqing!"

Xiao Yu walked up and smiled and said, "Your Highness the Crown Prince is right. Interaction with the Turks involves national justice, so you must be careful. The Pei Prime Minister said it also makes sense. You can use the Turks to weaken the Sui Dynasty and eliminate our strong enemies. So what can you do to the best of both worlds? I think the key is the trade, and we might as well agree."

Li Jiancheng's face changed. Just as he was about to speak, Xiao Yu waved his hand to stop him, "Don't be anxious, please listen to me."

Li Jiancheng swallowed the words he wanted to say again and held back. Xiao Yu said calmly: "Whether it is alliance, marriage or trade, these are normal exchanges between the two countries. There is nothing criticized. It can also remove some moral adverse effects of the Tang Dynasty. It can be said that there are no harm in all kinds of benefits. The key lies in trade. We can sign a trade agreement with the Turks, but we do not write any materials on the agreement. We can verbally agree to pig iron and other materials."

At this time, Li Jiancheng could no longer hold it back, but he knew that he could not say anything, so he gave Chen Shuda a wink.

Chen Shuda was a staunch supporter of Li Jiancheng. He knew the prince’s eyes and said, “I heard from Xiao Xiangguo that he would still agree to send pig iron to the Turks, but he just secretly sent it to the people of the country. Is this what it means?”

Xiao Yu shook his head and sighed: "Why is Chen Xiangguo so anxious? Can you let me say it all?"

Li Yuan was finally annoyed. He glared at Li Jiancheng with great dissatisfaction and snorted heavily, "When Xiao Xiangguo made a statement, no one is allowed to interrupt again. Those who violate the order will be driven out of the hall."

The side hall became silent, and Xiao Yu continued: "Our trade route with the Turks has basically been cut off. We can only take the Zhangye County route, go north from Zhangye to Yanze, and then enter the Turks. I will calculate that it will take at least two or three months to go like this. In a year, it will only take two or three trips. We can transport a small amount of pig iron at a time and more cloth and tea. In this way, the pig iron transported in one year is not worth worrying, but the situation may have changed drastically within this year."

At this time, everyone finally understood what Xiao Yu meant and used the long journey and delays in time to make the pig iron trade nameless, but the Tang Dynasty wanted something, and everyone dared not interrupt, and they all secretly praised it in their hearts. It was indeed a good plan.

Li Yuan also agreed very much. He thought for a while and asked: "The Turks are not fools. They cannot get pig iron, so how can they cooperate with us to attack the Sui Dynasty? What should we do?"

Xiao Yu smiled slightly, "Your Majesty, in addition to government trade, there is also private trade. Official trade is tightened, but private trade is liberalized. The Turks can benefit from private trade, but our reputation is not affected. Moreover, there are many Hu merchants in Zhangye, so let Hu merchants trade with Turks without interfering, so we will have the best of both worlds."

There was a whisper in the hall, and Pei Ji went out again and said, "Your Majesty, Xiao Xiangguo is right. The Turks need pig iron, so they will find ways to get it. If they cannot get it from the outside world, they will think of smelting themselves, plunder the Central Plains craftsmen, and find grassland mineral sources. That will make them powerful. It is better to open a hole and give them a way to obtain pig iron, which will ruin their self-reliance."

The ministers gradually reached an agreement. Li Yuan finally nodded. "I have adopted Xiao Aiqing's plan, so Xiao Aiqing will be fully responsible for this matter... Returning to the imperial study, Li Yuan immediately blamed the prince Li Jiancheng and said: "Those who are in the upper hand must first consider solving the problem. If you say that you are not in line with the national justice, you will deny everything. What should you do with the vital interests of the Tang Dynasty? I can accept your national justice. But you must come up with measures to solve the problem, otherwise you will be unrealistic and empty talk!"

Li Jiancheng was speechless. In fact, he wanted to say that even if the Tang Dynasty had nothing to do with the Turks, the Turks would still attack the Sui Dynasty. It was just a matter of time. The Tang Dynasty should not have anything to do with the Turks. It was just that it was meaningless to say these things now, so he had to remain silent.

Seeing that he did not talk back, Li Yuan's face improved a little, "I won't talk about you more about this matter. You should focus on disaster relief!"

"Yes! My son obeys the order."

At this time, an eunuch reported at the door: "Report to Your Majesty, the King of Qin urgently asked for a meeting and said there was important information about the Sui Dynasty."

Li Yuan was stunned and immediately ordered: "Please give him an audience!"

The eunuch ran away, and Li Jiancheng bowed and said, "Father, I will leave."

Li Yuan shook his head, "No! Stay behind and listen together."

Seeing that although his father had just blamed him, Li Jiancheng still trusted himself very much and did not have prejudice against him because of something, he was moved and stood aside silently.

At this time, Li Shimin hurriedly walked in, knelt down on his knees, and kowtowed to his father respectfully, "Son of my son, I wish my father a long life and a long life forever!"

Li Shimin's respect made Li Yuan like it very much. He waved his hand and said with a smile: "The emperor is exempt from gifts, what's the matter with him when he is looking for his father?"

"Thank you, Father!"

Li Shimin stood up and bowed and said, "Today, I received news from the Tang Feng in Taiyuan that the Sui Dynasty began to make a large amount of money and put it into the market. I thought this matter was very serious, so I came to report to my father."

After saying that, he turned around and turned a wink. An eunuch presented the letter and silver coins with a golden plate. Li Yuan's face was solemn. He picked up the letter and read it again, and then gave it to Li Jiancheng. He picked up two silver coins from the golden plate, held it in his palm and looked at it for a while, and his eyes slowly showed a look of fear.

He looked back at Li Jiancheng, and Li Jiancheng's face was also extremely serious. They were all rulers, so how could they not understand the seriousness of the problem? If the money flowed into the Tang Dynasty, then the wealth of the Tang Dynasty would be plundered by the Sui Dynasty. It was not until this time that they finally realized the serious consequences of the Sui army taking away Huining County.

"Father, at the beginning of the year, the Sui Dynasty used the former Wuzhu coins to buy a large amount of supplies from Chang'an, causing prices to skyrocket and public resentment. It is because the Sui Dynasty owns a large amount of copper coins, and now the Sui Dynasty owns a large amount of silver or even gold, which will put us in a huge crisis."

Li Jiancheng said this because the Tang Dynasty had a profound lesson. At the beginning of the year, the Wuzhu coins used as a void in the Sui Dynasty bought a large amount of materials, causing a shortage of goods in Chang'an and prices soared. The court almost dumped the materials from Bashu to Chang'an, which stabilized the prices.

Later, the Tang Dynasty also found copper mines in Bashu and obtained a large number of copper ingots, and then began to issue the Kaiyuan Tongbao of the Tang Dynasty, regaining its currency disadvantage. Now the Sui Dynasty used gold and silver as currency, which would make the crisis faced by the Tang Dynasty ten times worse than at the beginning of the year, so why didn't Li Jiancheng be in a hurry?

Seeing that Li Shimin seemed to have something to say, Li Yuan asked, "Is there any good way for the emperor?"

"The father and emperor have three strategies. First, we create fake silver and money and invest a lot of money into the Sui Dynasty to disturb their introduction of money. This will help us gain time. Second, we must also find gold and silver mines immediately and also introduce money to resist the plunder of the Sui Dynasty."

Li Jiancheng next to him said: "It is feasible to make fake silver and money. We can use white copper to make fakes, but it is probably unrealistic to find gold and silver ore. I have consulted the documents of the previous dynasty. There are only silver ore in Lingnan, which is too far away. In the Tang Dynasty, we searched for more than half a year and only found copper ore, but no large gold and silver ore was found."

Li Yuan pondered for a moment and asked Li Shimin again, "What is the third plan of the emperor?"

Li Shimin bowed and said, "If the first two strategies do not work, then we have only one way to deal with the crisis."

His face was solemn, saying word by word: "We must regain the Huining County Silver Mine... Lao Gao asked everyone for five monthly tickets, and I hope the book friends can support it!!!]!~!
Chapter completed!