"Your Majesty, those merchants from the Western Regions have made a big disturbance in the city today, do you want to send someone to stop them?"

Li Deqian was reading the battle report when his prime minister ran in to report the incident to him.

Hearing this, Li Deqian frowned and said, "What's wrong?" What did they do? ”

"They bought a lot of grain at several grain stores in the city, and even though the grain store owner had raised the price of grain per stone to 800 wen, they still continued to buy as much as they wanted."

"Oh? What are they doing this for? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, they are preparing for the grain and grass to be used on the way back to the Western Regions after leaving Jiaozhi." The prime minister replied with his head down, he was a little afraid to look into Li Deqian's eyes.

Li Deqian was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously said, "What are they doing when they leave?" Isn't it good to do business here? ”

"Your Majesty......" The prime minister said in a hesitant manner: "Your Majesty doesn't know, since you ordered a strict investigation of people of unknown origin and suspicious identities in the city half a month ago, the officials in the city have begun to behave indiscriminately.

They relied on your orders to extort these merchants from the Western Regions......"

The corners of Li Deqian's mouth twitched: "So these merchants from the Western Regions are unbearable, so they have to choose to leave?" ”

"Probably...... Maybe...... Possible...... It should be for this reason. The prime minister wiped the sweat from his forehead, lowered his head, and didn't dare to look at Li Deqian.

"Bastard!" Sure enough, Li Deqian was furious. He slapped the table and jumped up and roared, "Who told you to do that!" Who gave you permission to do that? Take my chicken feathers as arrows, don't you want to live! ”

The prime minister knelt on the ground with a thud, and said with a sad face: "Your Majesty is angry, Wei Chen didn't expect it to develop into the current situation at the beginning. ”

"You haven't thought about it? Don't you know how much benefit these merchants have brought to my kingdom of Annam? They're paying enough business taxes every quarter to pay you a salary! Li Deqian was so angry that he trembled.

After that, Li Deqian walked to the prime minister's side and scolded him. Finally, he took a deep breath, calmed down, closed his eyes and asked, "How many are ready to leave?" ”

The prime minister replied hesitantly: "Back to Your Majesty, there are nineteen ......"

"......" Li Deqian resisted the urge to kick over, it was really a house leak that happened to rain overnight. Now that he is at war with three countries, these people in his family are not honest.

Are they too stupid or too greedy? Didn't they think about the consequences of doing so?

Licking his lips, Li Deqian stretched out a finger and nodded at the prime minister in the air, "There are really your ...... Yours are yours! ”

"Your Majesty is angry." The prime minister hurriedly said: "Weichen thinks that as long as he promises small profits to these merchants, he can keep them. After all, aren't they just to make your majesty notice them this time? ”

"Hehe......" Li Deqian sneered and said: "What you said is simple, promise a small profit, what kind of small profit is promised?" As you said yourself, they would rather pay twice as much than empty the grain store in Thang Long City, which is enough to show that they have made up their minds.

The first basic condition for retaining them is to compensate them for the losses they incurred when they bought food.

But now that our country of Annam is under enemy on three sides, it will cost a lot of money just to maintain the army. Where is the spare money to compensate for their losses?

Prime Minister, Prime Minister, are you really confused or fake? ”

The prime minister licked his lips and said, "Wechen also knows that this method will not work, so Wechen has another countermeasure." ”

"Tell me about it."

"Let's just arrest them all, raid their homes, and confiscate all their property. In this way, it not only solves the current problem, but also brings profits to the treasury, killing two birds with one stone, isn't it beautiful? ”

Hearing this, Li Deqian suddenly felt dizzy. I can't wait to jump over and strangle this bastard in front of me alive.

Raiding the house? Confiscate? Is this fucking human? I used to extort money from others, but now I want their home again. When this news spreads, who will dare to come to Annan to do business in the future?

Anyone with a long-term vision can know that such an act is tantamount to quenching thirst by drinking a donkey, and even if it can relieve an urgent need, after that, no merchant will come to Annan to do business. Losing a large amount of business tax income is like breaking an arm.

If the Song people knew about this, they would wake up laughing in their dreams.

Why was his own prime minister able to make such a proposal? Is he really his own prime minister? Didn't someone secretly swap out your brain?

Li Deqian couldn't help but burst into a foul mouth in his heart, and then he sat back on the dragon chair, calmed down and said, "You go out." ”

"Your Majesty......"

"Get out!"

“……”

The prime minister walked away, and as soon as he went out on his front foot, Li Deqian sent an attendant to call over one of his more relied on eunuchs.

The eunuch trotted all the way into the main hall, and said with a flattering face: "Your Majesty, your name is slave?" ”

"Well, there's something for you to do." Li Deqian said with a tired face: "Wait a while...... No, you go to the palace right away and visit those merchants from the Western Regions for me.

Tell them that my will is not what the officials do. If they are willing to stay, I will give them an explanation. If they still want to go, then go and tell the guards at the gates not to stop them.

And tell them that the next time they come, the Annan Congress will have a big gift for them.

That's all, go for it. ”

After Li Deqian finished arranging, the eunuch was immediately

I went out to run errands.

Then, Li Deqian leaned back. Lying on the dragon chair, I only felt a terrible headache.

In the past, when I saw my father's leisure, I liked to lie on the bed and not move. When I asked him what he was doing, he just said he was resting.

At that time, Li Deqian still felt that his father was a little lazy, but now it seems that this is not the case. The world is full of bad things, and they have to fight wars, and they have to wipe their butts for the mistakes made by their courtiers.

If you are angry, you can't vent it out as soon as possible, and even if you pursue it, they will only launch a few scapegoats. If the same thing happens in the future, the same situation will happen.

Li Deqian felt that he was so tired of being an emperor, he had just learned the official system of the Song people, and not long after he moved here, he had one accident after another.

Is there an emperor in the world who is more unlucky than himself? Probably not......

…………………………

The eunuchs sent out by Li Deqian moved quickly, and the first person he found was Calitz.

His attitude was very good, and he did not have the arrogance that Kaliz expected. It's very amiable, without the slightest bit of aggression.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that those Song people outside the city could bring them more benefits. Kaliz felt that it didn't matter if this matter was turned over like this, after all, the status of the merchant in Jiaozhi was neither high nor low, and he was now so valued by the Jiaozhi Emperor, this feeling was really good.

With regret, Caliz rejected the eunuch's offer. And the eunuch was not angry, but just repeated Li Deqian's original words to Caliz as if he were chatting with a friend.

Kaliz said in his heart that he had this heart, why did he go earlier? He took five carts of grain with his men and left resolutely.

After Khaliz left, several merchants left Thang Long City one after another. Nineteen families chose to leave, and under the persuasion of the eunuchs, six more agreed to stay.

And these six families were not involved in the planning of Kaliz last night.

As long as the merchants who had been to the Khaliz House yesterday, none of them chose to stay. Because they know that only by taking refuge in the Song people can they make more money and get greater benefits.

Therefore, the remaining thirteen merchants left Thang Long City one after another, and Li Deqian, in order to show his sincerity to these disappointed merchants who left as much as possible, did not send anyone to follow them.

This also gave Song Jun an opportunity.

There is a lot of grain in Thang Long City, there are a total of five grain stores, and all the old and new grain have been emptied by the merchants. It took half a day to cross the Red River, and the food finally reached the hands of the Song army, who had been hungry for two days.

Song Jun lit a fire on the bank of the Red River to make food, and looking at the curling smoke on the bank of the river, the Jiaozhi people did not feel strange. There were more than 1,000 of his men from the Western Regions who left Thang Long City, and it would be strange if they couldn't make any movement during their meals.