"How can those brocade merchants accept the increase in silk prices? What will happen if they join forces to lower prices?"
Regarding the question of King Jin, Wei Yuan was very confident and said: "Silk is limited but brocade can be infinite. There will be as much silk as there is land.
This can be calculated. The output of ice silk is less.
Brocade is as long as you are willing to spend money to train craftsmen, you can get as much as you want. If there is more brocade, there will be more brocade merchants. They will definitely not be of the same mind and will only try to drive up the price of silk. So as long as we have silk in our hands, we will
You can raise the price at will until all brocade merchants no longer make money."
This conclusion was actually reached by ordinary people in the fireworks of the world. Wei Yuan thought it was very reasonable, so he promoted it to King Jin. As for whether King Jin accepted it or not, Wei Yuan didn't care.
Anyway, if there is no King Jin, there will always be others who will change. As long as Wei Yuan continues to collect silk, someone will plant more mulberry trees.
The amount of silk collected by Wei Yuan now seems to be very large, but compared with the potential future usage in Wei Yuan's plan, it is still only a drop in the bucket, so the process of stocking up will be very long. And now the old Taoist hoeer has set off.
On the way to Ningxi County again. This time the old Taoist will collect all the silk stocks of the major brocade shops in Ningxi. When the old Taoist comes back, only Sang Nong in the Ningxi counties will have some stock of silk.
King Pu closed his eyes slightly to hide the divine light flashing at high speed.
He thought carefully for a moment and found that it was indeed as Wei Yuan said. Especially the counties in Ningxi were not under the control of the King of Jin, and the royal family occupied less than 10% of the total local acres. As Wei Yuan said,
If he doesn't change mulberry trees, there are some people who will change mulberry trees, and even if they want to ban mulberry trees locally, they can't do it. The only feasible way is to change all the grain fields in their hands at once before anyone can react.
The fattest first bite.
At this time, Wei Yuan said again: "It is relatively easy to increase taxes on silk now, and it can be established as a rule. Otherwise, when the price of silk rises again, it will not be so easy to increase taxes."
These words directly hit the point. If the price of silk really rises sharply, how can the local wealthy families let this piece of fat be monopolized by the king of Jin? Then the silk tax will definitely not be implemented.
King Jin's eyes flashed, and he said: "You really have great talent! If you can really solve the crisis of the national treasury, I will definitely give you a reward. Oh, by the way, what did the prince say when he invited you to a banquet tonight?"
"The prince asked me not to do anything but to focus on the west."
"Then what did he promise you?"
Wei Yuan said: "I want the land west of Hanyang Pass, but the prince did not reply."
The King of Jin pondered for a moment and then asked: "You will not live long alone. What do you think of the future candidates for the King of Jin?"
"This is the king's family matter, what should I consider? I am focused on the outside world and just want to defeat the Wu clan and live a stable life. If the king wants to ask, he should ask Lu Wenbai and Xu Tongshou.
"
King Jin's eyes were slightly closed, not knowing what he was thinking. Wei Yuan just sat calmly, watching the smoke rising from the incense burner.
After a long time, the King of Jin opened his eyes and said: "The fate of Jin's country lies with you, not with Lu Wenbai and Xu Tongshou. If you want the land in the Western Regions, Gu can grant it to you, but you have to do it step by step, piece by piece before the deadline comes.
Here you go. Besides, what else do you want?"
Wei Yuan's heart moved and he said: "I want people. Countless refugees die every year in Dajin, but I, Qingming, still lack people, so I would like to ask the king to allow me to recruit refugees in Ningzhou."
"You have food, but how many refugees can't be recruited? How about this? I'll give you a sign. The caravan holding this sign can move freely within the Jin Dynasty regardless of its size or what it transports. No one can stop it."
Wei Yuan immediately thanked him and said, "Every time this caravan brings back a refugee, I will give you five taels of silver."
King Jin finally had a smile on his face. He shook his head and said: "Wei Yuan, why do you need so many people? In fact, you have land and food now, even if you only rely on the internal reproduction of the realm, more than ten people
A year is enough time for the population to increase several times."
Wei Yuan said: "Your Majesty knows that Qing Ming has a secret method that allows mortals to achieve cultivation in a short period of time. These refugees are just laborers at ordinary times, but they are soldiers that can be mobilized in wartime. I will send them to the battlefield to work hard first.
The trained elite soldiers can stay behind and wait for the opportunity to fight, and decide the outcome in one battle."
King Jin suddenly understood and said with a smile: "This is the right approach. These people are a burden elsewhere, but they are only useful here. The sign will be sent to you tomorrow, and at the same time, I will inform all the ministries about this."
After the matter was agreed upon, King Jin gradually became more and more distant and said, "I am going to practice cultivation. Please step back."
Wei Yuan exited the side hall, and Zhao Tong was waiting outside, leading Wei Yuan to fly back to the royal city. As he took off, Wei Yuan felt as if someone was observing him in the dark, and the eyes seemed familiar.
Returning to the inn, Wei Yuan sat in front of the window, spread out the map, and looked at it silently.
The King of Jin suddenly came to him late at night, and as expected, asked about the establishment of a crown prince, but Wei Yuan did not expect to ask about the empty treasury.
Wei Yuan took advantage of the situation and offered the idea of ​​converting rice into mulberry. He also got permission to recruit refugees, which was a big gain.
It's just that King Jin didn't mention the new army or new weapons at all, which surprised Wei Yuan.
According to Wei Yuan's original expectation, if the new army was successfully organized and trained, his importance would decrease. Even if the King of Jin did not suppress him, at least he would no longer need to reward him.
But now King Jin's performance was unexpected. Wei Yuan guessed that either there was something wrong with the new army, or there were other reasons that forced King Jin to continue to win over him, and even add more chips.
Wei Yuan looked at the map in front of him and drew three circles on it. The innermost circle was Qing Ming's current territory, the middle circle was drawn to Hanyang Pass, and the largest circle was the radius of Qing Ming's expansion to the limit.
Thousands of miles.
If there are no other changes in the future, then Wei Yuan will at least get the entire territory west of Hanyang Pass. Both the King of Jin and the Crown Prince have implicitly acquiesced in this scope. After all, in their view, the Broken Realm is a barbaric land and there is nothing wrong with it.
In terms of value, the Witch Territory is also far more difficult to transform than the Liao Territory.
Promising a piece of land that did not originally belong to the Western Jin Dynasty to Wei Yuan in exchange for his loyalty and support seemed to be a good deal. There are also examples in history books where a fierce man was enfeoffed to a barbaric and alien land.
The fiefdom depends entirely on oneself.
Wei Yuan is also happy to see the success of this.
As for Hanyang Pass, it is not something Wei Yuan must obtain. If the Xu family restarts Hanyang Pass in the future and wants to use it as a base to invade Qingming, then Wei Yuan will build another city opposite it and then set up heavy artillery behind the city.
Confronted with the bombing at Hanyang Pass. Wei Yuan did not believe that the Xu family could withstand his violent bombing.
In the future, Qingming will expand into Hanyang Pass, which is quite far away, so there is no need to consider it now.
In a blink of an eye, it was noon, and Wei Yuan boarded the car and headed to Li Weisheng's mansion for the banquet.
Li Weisheng was transferred to the royal capital and now serves in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. His official position has been promoted to the fourth rank, and he is qualified to ascend the throne. However, in the royal capital, he can only be said to be a fourth rank, so he was invited to entertain Wei Yuan.
The time is also very particular, and it is set at noon.
This time Li Weisheng held a private banquet, with only two people and no other outsiders present.
After drinking for three rounds, Wei Yuan said: "Master Li is also an old friend. If you have anything to say, you might as well say it directly."
Li Weisheng said: "There are really two things, so I will tell you directly. One is that the King of Wei sent a message and wanted to settle the old grudges with Lord Wei."
Wei Yuan laughed and said, "The King of Wei and I get along very well, how can we have any previous grudges?"
Li Weisheng smiled and did not dwell on this, and said: "This second matter is about Xu Xi, the governor of Bianning County. He has been moving up and down recently and wants to be transferred from Bianning County to another position.
.On the one hand, there is indeed no vacancy, and on the other hand, everyone is concerned about Mr. Wei's thoughts and wonders if you are willing to transfer him, so the ministry has kept this matter under wraps.
It’s just that I thought that if he doesn’t leave, it will be difficult for Mr. Sun Chaoen and Mr. Sun to take a step forward, so I want to ask Mr. Wei what he thinks.”
Wei Yuan said: "It will be a good thing for everyone if Mr. Sun can take a step forward."
"With Lord Wei's words, I feel relieved." Li Weisheng immediately drank three cups to express his gratitude.
"Let's get down to business, there is one more small matter." Li Weisheng leaned forward slightly and said, "I heard that Mr. Wei recently bought a large amount of mulberry silk, so that the price of silk rose sharply, and he also harvested mulberry fields and grain fields in several counties in the west of Ningzhou.
I don’t know why this is, can you tell me a little bit?”
Wei Yuan smiled slightly and asked, "I'm afraid it's not just Mr. Li who wants to know, right?"
Li Wei'en raised his hand and said, "There is indeed an adult who wants to know more details."
Wei Yuan understood it clearly, so he said: "My silk collection has its own uses, and I will only collect more in the future. Soon all the raw silk stocks in the seven counties in the west of Ningzhou will be purchased by me. So if Mr. Li has a way
If you have some spare money, you might as well go to Shanyang County to buy some fields, preferably grain fields.
Then plant mulberry seedlings instead, but you have to do it quickly. If it’s too late, things may change.”
Wei Yuan only said this, and Li Weisheng didn't ask any more questions. With the connections of the big shot above, he could naturally know what the variables Wei Yuan didn't mention.
The two talked about old times again, and Li Weisheng suddenly said: "Master Wei, there is something I still don't understand. Master Wei has always tried every means to absorb the refugees. It is really a way for all people to live in Buddhahood. I admire it very much. But if it is just to help the refugees,
If so, there are actually many ways,
Moving them all the way to Qingming is a waste of time and money. I wonder why Mr. Wei is so persistent?"
Wei Yuan laughed and said: "Everyone has some quirks, and so does Wei. I just want to watch the people I rescued stay under my nose. This is like someone who likes to count the immortal silver every day.
Same."
Li Weisheng also laughed heartily, as if he really believed it.
Afterwards, the guests and hosts had a great time, and Li Weisheng sent Wei Yuan to the door of the mansion.
After boarding the carriage, Wei Yuan remembered Li Weisheng's last question. He answered randomly, and Li Weisheng knew that Wei Yuan did not want to answer this question.
In fact, Wei Yuan relied on instinct when he first did this. Qingming was indeed short of people at that time. Li Weisheng was right. If you want to help mortals, you don’t necessarily need to move to Qingming. You can do it in other counties. But Wei Yuan
What Yuan wants is not just to feed them. It is meaningless for mortals to just be full, and they are still worthless.
If you want them to be born meaningful, many things need to be changed.
After meeting the prince, Wei Yuan finally understood that the things he wanted to change would never be allowed by the aristocratic families, princes and nobles.
The world is like a banquet that has already started. The table is already full of people. If you want to add another person, you have to drag someone down. No matter who it is, they will fight to the death.
That's why Wei Yuan wants to open another table. Wei Yuan can decide what dishes will be served at this table, how to eat them, and who can serve them. Then it will be up to the new table to see if the new table has eaten well, and the people at the original table will be the same.
Chapter completed!