In the early morning, Guo Song's family gathered at the table as usual, and only the seat of the eldest son, Guo Jincheng, was empty.

"Husband, how is Ah Cheng?" The questioner was Liu Caichun, who was four months pregnant, and her lower abdomen was slightly bulging.

Guo Song smiled slightly: "He went to Ju'anfang to teach before, I didn't think it was safe, so I asked him to go to Chang'an Express as a writer." ”

The dining hall suddenly became lively, and Ah Cheng actually went to the newspaper hall, which is a new thing.

Guo Weiwei asked anxiously: "Daddy, can you see the article written by Ah Cheng in the newspaper in the future?" ”

"Of course you can, I guess you'll be able to see it in two days."

There was a round of applause in the dining hall, and everyone's hearts were full of anticipation.

Guo Song put a piece of steamed cake in his mouth, he felt that the taste was very good, sweet but not greasy, he pointed to the steamed cake and asked, "It seems that the taste is different from before!" ”

Dugu Youlan pursed her lips and smiled: "My father sent someone to send cane sugar and beet candy two days ago, let us taste it, this is beet candy." ”

Guo Song was immediately interested, "Is the beet candy out?" ”

"Of course it came out, it was also published in the newspaper, and it was on yesterday's "Chang'an Express", it seems to be ......"

"In the food section!" Min Qiu said with a smile.

"That's right! Right! It's in the food section. ”

There was "Chang'an Express" on the dining table, Minqiu hurriedly handed the express to Guo Song, Guo Song turned to the food column, the food column is to teach everyone to cook, make pasta, and dim sum, which is very popular.

Guo Song suddenly saw an article, 'The Great Revolution of Cuisine', which is introducing sucrose and beet sugar, sucrose has appeared on the market since Tianzhu came to boil sugar decades ago, mainly brown sugar, which is basically only for the palace and the powerful, and has no relationship with ordinary people.

However, it was written in the article that in the future, the raw materials of cane sugar and beet sugar will be planted in large quantities, and in a few years, the sugar of two yuan per catty will definitely be reduced to 100 yuan and enter the homes of ordinary people.

Obviously, the person who wrote this article must have interviewed Dugu's family, and Guo Song really wanted to talk to Dugu Qiu.

..........

After breakfast, Guo Song came to the court, they don't have a fixed morning court every day, just look at the situation, if the political hall puts forward an early dynasty request for a certain matter, Guo Song will hold a small-scale early dynasty, basically covering the relevant officials above the fourth grade, which is actually the expansion of the political hall.

Guo Song sat down in the court room and said to Lu Lun: "Go and inform Dugu Senior Minister, just say that I want to talk to him about beet candy." ”

Lu Lun nodded and went quickly.

Guo Song took out a list from the drawer, this is the shortlist of new Xiangguo, recommended by the current five Xiangguo, there are a total of five people, including Cui Yuanfeng recommended by Pan Liao, Xue Xun recommended by Du You, Wei Yingwu recommended by Zhang Qianyi, Dugu Qiu recommended by Cao Wannian, and Lu Zhen recommended by Zhang Qiu'an.

This Guo Song has determined that it is Cui Yuanfeng, Cui Yuanfu is from Qinghe Cui's family, was Dezong's household servant, was sealed in the book under the Pingzhang matter, just on the eve of entering the phase, Jingyuan's defeat broke out, Cui Yuanfeng did not go south to Chengdu, but went home to watch, captured Hebei, Qinghe Cui's contribution is indispensable, as a reward, Guo Song decided to give the first vacant Xiangguo quota to Qinghe Cui's family.

And Cui Yuanfeng's own qualifications are enough, but their head of the family still owes a little.

The second place Guo Song originally considered to be placed in Hedong, but if it was placed in Hedong, it would not be possible to avoid the Taiyuan Wang family, and the selection of the Taiyuan Wang family would affect the queen mother, which Guo Song had to consider, and Pan Liao was a native of Jiexiu County, Taiyuan Prefecture, although he had been an official in Hexi for a long time, his clansmen were all in Taiyuan Jiexiu County.

So after thinking about it again and again, Guo Song decided to put the second place in Guanzhong, after all, Guanzhong is the big head, and there is only Du You at present.

There are currently two candidates in Guanzhong, one is Wei Yingwu, one is Dugu Qiu, one is the Guanlong family, and the other is the Guanlong noble.

Wei Yingwu's ability is very strong, he served as Jingzhao Yin for two years, and governed Chang'an and Jingzhao areas in an orderly manner, he served as Zuo Shilang in the imperial court, and the magistrate served as the Jiangzhou Thorn History, Chuzhou Thorn History and Suzhou Thorn History, the local qualifications are enough, but the court qualifications are still slightly insufficient.

On the contrary, Du Gu Qiu served as the general of Qianniu Wei and the general of Zuo Wei, and in the Southern Tang Dynasty, he served as the secretary of the Ministry of Shangshu and Zuo Xiang, but Du Gu Qiu did not serve as a magistrate, and he was easy to be criticized in terms of experience.

After all, since the Han and Tang dynasties, there have been rules in all dynasties that do not go to Lizhou County and do not enter the province and Taiwan.

As for the origin of the Guanlong noble, it is actually not very eye-catching.

At this time, a clerk reported at the door, "Your Highness, Senior Minister Dugu is here!" ”

"Let him in!"

After a while, Du Gu Qiu walked in with a smile, Guo Song hurriedly got up and saluted, now Du Gu Qiu is senior minister, from the perspective of respecting his predecessors, he has to be polite, and Du Gu Qiu is still his father-in-law.

"Your Highness is too polite."

The two exchanged two words, Guo Song asked Du Isoqiu to sit down, and the tea boy served two teas.

Guo Song said with a smile: "I invited the senior minister to come today, mainly to ask about beet candy, and the newspaper said it was rather vague. ”

A trace of disappointment flashed in Duguqiu's eyes, and he immediately smiled: "The beet sugar that began to be sold this year was actually harvested last year, a total of 6,000 catties of brown sugar, and it took two months to transport it from Anxi, the quantity is small, and the freight is also expensive, because the first year is a trial planting, the quantity is not much, and 30,000 catties of brown sugar will be boiled out next year, but the beets in Fengzhou should also be harvested in the autumn of next year, and we estimate that the beets in Fengzhou can be boiled out of 80,000 brown sugar." ”

"And what about sucrose?" Guo Song asked again.

Du Isolated Qiu said: "Before talking about sucrose, I still have an idea. ”

"Please!"

Dugu Qiu said with a smile: "This batch of beet sugar was crude in Anxi, and then refined and purified in Zhangye, and later a few Sogdian merchants saw it, and they had to buy our brown sugar, and they were even willing to pay five yuan a catty, according to them, these sugars can be sold for twenty yuan a pound in the West, I was thinking, can the sugar in Anxi be sold to Sogdian merchants?" ”

This is feasible, the historical beet boiled sugar did not appear until a thousand years later, and the West basically uses honey as a sugar substitute, and this kind of brown sugar is indeed relatively rare for them.

Guo Song thought for a while and said, "I'm afraid that we won't be enough for ourselves." ”

"This is what I want to say to His Royal Highness about sugarcane, I have a grandson, with a few stewards to Yunnan to build a manor, where the climate is humid and hot, you can plant a large amount of sugarcane, rough refining on the spot, and then transport it to Yuzhou for refining, and then transport it to all parts of Liangchuan by water, this is one of them, followed by the extensive cultivation of sugarcane in Lingnan, after refining in Guangzhou, it will be transported to Yangzhou by sea, and the entire Jiangnan and Central Plains can get cane sugar supply, as for Chang'an and north of the Yellow River, use the beet sugar supply of Fengzhou."

Guo Song took a few steps and turned around: "So you suggested that Anxi's sugar be sold to the West?" ”

"That's exactly what it means!"

Guo Song nodded and said: "In principle, it is feasible, but the premise is to meet the needs of the people of the Tang Dynasty first, and sell them to the West only if there are surplus materials." ”

"Of course, sugar is a resource for people's livelihood, and we must first meet the needs of our own people, after all, we are not just businessmen."

Du Gu Qiu said a meaningful word, and when he heard the strings and knew the elegant meaning, Guo Song faintly guessed Du Gu Qiu's thoughts.

Guo Song sat down and said: "Recently, I have thought about it a lot, and I think that the basic needs related to the people's livelihood, such as wheat, coarse cloth, salt, jaggery, cattle, government rental housing, etc., should be controlled by the government. ”

Dugu Qiu pondered for a long time and said: "Your Highness means that the beets grown in our manor are sold directly to the government, and our processing is turned to cane sugar?" ”

Guo Song shook his head, "You don't understand what I mean, I don't care about your own sugar beet estate, Guantian himself also grows a large number of sugar beet, I'm talking about jaggery, the sugar beets grown by the government are only made of jaber, you can't sell jaggery sugar, you should continue to purify, make higher grade brown sugar or white sugar, the same is true for sucrose, the government makes jaggery sugar, you make fine products." ”

Only then did Du Isoqiu understand, "I understand what His Highness means!" ”

At this time, Guo Song asked with a faint smile: "Is the senior minister's current health good?" ”

For some reason, King Jin's words seemed to be a casual greeting, but it made Du Isoqiu's heart pound.