Chapter 13 Smuggling Clues

Outside the city of Dali, tens of thousands of cattle and sheep crowded the fields outside the city, and hundreds of Sui cavalry and herdsmen kept driving them, not allowing cattle and sheep to run around.

"General, this is only a part, we have exchanged a total of 120,000 cattle and sheep this time, this is the first batch of 30,000 heads, and the rest of the cattle and sheep will come one after another in the next few days."

Yang Yuanqing was not interested in the matter of cattle and sheep for the time being, he was concerned about Yang Wei and the people they brought from the grassland.

After a while, Fat Yu stepped forward with a Turkic man, and the Turkic man saluted Yang Yuanqing and said, "Villain Dahan, on the orders of the Golden Arrow and the Horse, I will report an important piece of information to General Yang." ”

After speaking, he took out a letter and handed it to Yang Yuanqing, the golden arrow horse is the Turkic horse Utu, and Yang Yuanqing has a very good personal relationship, Utu is now the third largest force in the Turks, after the Khitan War the year before last, he was appreciated by the Qimin Khan, not only gave him 10,000 elite guards, but also rewarded nearly half of the Khitan women and children and cattle and sheep to his tribe, and then a large number of small Turkic tribes took refuge in him, so that the power of the Utu Department rose sharply, second only to the Qimin Department and Ye Hu's Shibi Department.

Yang Yuanqing opened the letter, in which Utu told Yang Yuanqing an important piece of information, Ye Hu Luji has bought pig iron from the Central Plains in recent years, and has accumulated as much as 400,000 catties, and the person who sold pig iron to Du Ji is Yu Wenshu's two sons Yu Wenhua and Yu Wenzhi, and behind the letter there is a time point when pig iron is transported into the Turks every time.

Yang Yuanqing soon discovered the pattern, twice a year, once in spring and autumn, of which spring is the beginning of March, and it seems to be very large-scale, not only contraband pig iron, but also silk, porcelain and other valuables.

The messenger Dahan said: "The Golden Arrow Horse wants me to tell the general that this year's caravan is very likely to buy a batch of tea in Wuyuan County, and they will go out of Wuyuan County, and if the general can intercept them, he will be able to seize the pig iron they carry." ”

Although Yang Yuanqing knew that Utu and Duji had contradictions, he wanted to use his own strength to cut off the source of Duji's pig iron, but grabbing the handle of Yuwen's smuggling pig iron has always been Yang Yuanqing's goal.

Yang Yuanqing immediately asked, "What is the name of this caravan?" ”

"It's called Hanhai Caravan, and it has been trading with the grassland for many years, and the leader's surname is Wang, and he is a fat middle-aged man."

The fat fish next to him suddenly interjected: "General, this Hanhai caravan went out of our Wuyuan County once last year, trafficked salt to the grassland, and paid taxes to us, but it seems that it has not arrived this year." ”

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, this Hanhai caravan will inevitably deal with them if it wants to buy tea, and it will also pay taxes to apply for exit, it is easy to find out their movements, so he said to Fat Yu: "You go to the market to supervise the situation of this caravan, how many people, how many mules and horses, what goods are generally bought, and report to me immediately after finding out." ”

He bowed his hand to the messenger, "Please tell Utu, I am very grateful for his information and will not let him down!" ”

Yang Yuanqing turned his horse's head and walked towards the wine shop, at the door of the wine shop, he happened to meet Du Ruhui and Pei Jin and his party walking out of the wine shop, Yang Yuanqing urged him to step forward, and said with a smile: "Why, it's over so soon, don't you want me to pay the bill?" ”

Du Ruhui glanced back at the shopkeeper with a smiling face, but his eyes were a little apprehensive, and said with a smile: "Of course, the wine bill is still hanging on your head, you can not pay, anyway, they don't dare to ask for it." ”

Yang Yuanqing pointed at him and said angrily to everyone: "Look at this guy, he instigated me not to pay the bill, and he wanted to ruin my reputation if he was scheming!" ”

Everyone laughed together, and Pei Jin smiled at Yang Yuanqing: "The main reason is that I am in a hurry to go back to recover my life, so I drank two cups casually and lived up to Yuanqing's hospitality." ”

"Wait a minute, I'll arrange things and go with you."

Yang Yuanqing called Du Ruhui and Yang Sien aside, the joke on his face disappeared, and he said to the two of them: "This time the saint is on the north to tour the five plains, I estimate that his focus is to inspect Dali City, although the saint likes to see prosperous things, but we don't need to be too deliberately hypocritical, just pay attention to two points, one is to clean up the street, let's see it ourselves, and then raise the beggars on the street for a few days, don't let them show up, and the other is the wooden stack on the cave, we must check it carefully to ensure safety." ”

Du Ruhui nodded silently, this is his business, Yang Yuanqing told Yang Sien again: "It is estimated that when the saint comes up, he will encounter the exchange market, and the Turks will come in large numbers, you must send more troops to patrol the Yellow River, and send more spies to all corners of Dali City, and no accidents will occur." ”

Both of them agreed, but Du Ruhui was still a little worried about the food offering, "General, they are hundreds of thousands of people here, do you say that our peach wine is enough?" ”

Yang Yuanqing shook his head and vetoed his strange idea, "It's not easy for us to brew peach wine, don't take it out easily, just use the milk wine on the grassland to entertain, and a total of 120,000 cattle and sheep, and the grain will be stored in the official warehouse, and there may be other entertainment expenses, anyway, this account must be recorded clearly, and you can't be confused, Du County Order, I will leave the matter of this entertainment to you." ”

Du Ruhui is an upright person, he doesn't want to exploit the people, but the grain in the official warehouse is all old grain, and it will definitely be bitter to take it for food, he is full of helplessness, "It is estimated that the final result is that I, like Yang Kuo, was ordered to go to Qiu He to learn." ”

Yang Yuanqing patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "If you want to go, I will go, it's not your turn, you just have to do what you want, and I will bear all the consequences." ”

After speaking, Yang Yuanqing turned around, Du Ruhui looked at his back, and sighed in a low voice: "He said he didn't care, but in fact, he loved the soldiers and civilians of Wuyuan County more than anyone else." ”

Yang Sien also sighed: "He has lived on this land for ten years, ten years, from ten to twenty years old, his most precious years have been sprinkled on this land, how can he not love it?" ”……

The emperor's holy drive is coming, Yang Yuanqing and Pei Jin went to Jiuyuan County together, although Pei Jin's official business is to inform Yang Yuanqing that the holy drive is coming, but he is also responsible for a heavy responsibility of the family, that is, about the marriage of Yang Yuanqing and his sister, according to the agreement, two years have passed, and next month his sister Minqiu will be sixteen years old, and Yang Yuanqing should be married.

Seeing that there was a city gate in front of them, the speed of their group slowed down, Pei Jin glanced at Yang Yuanqing, he wanted to wait for Yang Yuanqing to propose marriage first, but seeing the city gate, they were about to break up, but Yang Yuanqing did not mention the marriage with Minqiu, Rao is Pei Jin was very calm, and he was a little out of breath.

"Yuanqing, the seventh day of next month is Minqiu's sixteenth birthday, should you show her anything?"

Pei Jin implicitly reminded Yang Yuanqing, Yang Yuanqing smiled, he had his own ideas, it would be okay if Pei Jin brought him Minqiu's letter, but when it came to marriage, Pei Jin was a peer after all, and it seemed a little inappropriate to let him talk about such a serious topic.

"How is Minqiu now? She wrote me a letter two months ago, and I wrote her back, I wonder if she received it? ”

Pei Jin is extremely smart, he understands what Yang Yuanqing means, about the marriage, they will write a letter to discuss, they don't have to worry about it, it seems that the only way to ask him is to let his grandfather.

"Oh well! General Yang, I will take my leave, and please take care of me in the future. ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly: "Thank you, Brother Pei, I hope that this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, we can sit together and enjoy the moon." ”

Pei Jin's eyes lit up, and he gave him a solemn salute, "I'm looking forward to it too!" ”

He turned his horse's head and galloped south with a few retinues......

Yang Yuanqing entered the city gate and went directly to the Tea Bureau, which had just been established last spring, and had one each in Zhuo County, Mayi County, Wuyuan County and Wuwei County, basically the same as the Jiaoshi Supervisor, which was subordinate to the Taifu Temple and was responsible for the official tea trade of the entire Sui Dynasty and the Turks.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing's fermentation recipe has been cracked, began to have a large number of businessmen to the south to purchase tea, processed and sold to the grassland, with the sharp increase in sales, the profit of tea has also been greatly reduced, and from ten times the windfall profit to three times the profit, and soon reduced to two times the profit, the imperial court immediately issued an order, not allowed private individuals to trade with the grassland without authorization, to trade with the grassland, can only be purchased from the Tea Administration, so as to control the plummeting price of tea, so that the tea profit is stable at three times the profit.

Interestingly, the prevalence of tea in the grassland, in turn, began to affect the north of the Great Sui, more and more ordinary families began to drink tea, the demand for tea inside and outside the Great Sui increased sharply, and at the same time stimulated the cultivation of tea in the south, in just three years, the planting area of tea tripled.

Yang Yuanqing's Red Rust Tea House has been changed to a Red Rust Winery, specializing in peach wine, and he no longer does the tea business.

The tea department order is only an eight-grade petty official, served by a young official, named Cui Zhi, born in the Qinghe Cui family, and like Yang Yuanqing, he is only twenty years old this year, and he is upright and full of sharpness.

Yang Yuanqing walked into the tea office, Cui Zhi had just approved a tea quotation and was keeping accounts, he saw Yang Yuanqing coming in, and quickly got up and smiled: "Didn't Mr. Yang go to Dali City?" ”

"The Holy Lord is coming to Wuyuan County, I have to come back and prepare to take over."

Yang Yuanqing smiled, and then turned to the topic, "I want to check a caravan, is it convenient for Cui to sign the order?" ”

"Mr. Yang just said!"

"Call the Hanhai caravan, Cui ordered me to check, so far, has this caravan come here to batch tea?"

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Yang."

Cui Zhi opened the account book, carefully checked page by page, checked it three times, and shook his head, "I'm sorry, there is no record of this caravan." ”

Fat Yu has also checked, there is no record of tax payment in Dali City, it seems that this caravan has not yet arrived in Wuyuan County, Yang Yuanqing bowed to him and said: "This caravan is suspected of fornicating with the Turks, if they come to cover the tea, please notify me immediately." ”

"Don't worry, Manager Yang, I will definitely report it in time." ……

Seven days later, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty appeared in the vast land of Wuyuan County, with as many as 500,000 people, stretching for hundreds of miles, and the banners were overwhelming and immense.

The core of the inspection team is the emperor's palace city, the city is a huge movable wooden palace city, made by Shaofu Temple Qing He Chou, as the name suggests, hexagonal shape, the circumference is eight miles, the female wall is as high as six zhang from the ground, the emperor Yang Guang and the empress and other palace eunuchs live in it, and there are 3,000 palace armor soldiers in the city head defense.

Beneath the castle are hundreds of huge wooden wheels, which are not able to walk on their own, and need to be pulled by thousands of oxen to move forward slowly but steadily.

Yang Guang was in a good mood, he was not the first time to come to Wuyuan County, 20 years after the opening of the emperor, he led an army of 150,000 as the commander, from Wuyuan County, defeated the Western Turkic Datou Khan, this time he returned to the old land, so that he remembered his courage again.

Yang Guang stood at the head of the city and smiled at his wife and children: "I think that I also fought on the border and attacked the Turks in the north, and nearly nine years have passed, but I feel like something happened yesterday. ”

Yang Guang and Empress Xiao have a deep relationship, although he is the emperor, he is still unwilling to accept concubines, his single-mindedness has also won the appreciation of his mother Dugu, in replacing Yang Yong as the prince, he has also received strong support from his mother Dugu.

At the same time, it is also because of the heavy state affairs, although Yang Guang likes to build a palace room, pay attention to pomp, but he does not have any concubines, he only has two wives, one is Queen Xiao, the other is also Queen Xiao's sister, called Xiao Concubine, half a year after the death of his eldest son Yang Zhao, his second wife Xiao Concubine gave birth to a son for him last year, named Gao, this is Yang Guang's third son, the birth of the youngest son brought great comfort to Yang Guang, he loves abnormally, and he has to take him everywhere he goes.

In addition to the youngest son Yang Gao, there are three grandsons born to him by the eldest son, who he also brings with him so that he can educate at any time, while the second son Yang Jin, the king of Qi, stays in the capital Luoyang.

In addition, his eldest sister, Princess Leping Yang Lihua also passed with him this time, Yang Lihua likes to be quiet and generally does not like to go out, but unfortunately, her only granddaughter Li Jingxun died of illness two months ago, so that Yang Lihua was immersed in great grief, in order to let the eldest sister get rid of her sadness, Yang Guang tried his best to persuade her to go on patrol together.

Yang Guang glanced at the eldest sister, and saw that she was still silent, so he smiled and said: "Imperial sister, when you come to Wuyuan County this time, you should be able to see Yang Yuanqing, if I remember correctly, he is weak this year, do you want to take a word for him?" ”

Yang Lihua sighed lightly and smiled reluctantly: "He should marry a wife this year." ”

"Your Majesty, look! Is that Mr. Yang here? ”

A eunuch had a keen eye, and saw a cavalry appear in the distance, like a thin and black line, rushing towards this side, Yang Guang also saw it, he smiled with his beard, and his attitude was very good, he appeared as soon as he entered Wuyuan County, it seems that he has been waiting here for a long time.

Immediately, a guard reported: "Your Majesty, Yang Yuanqing, the governor of Fengzhou, and Changshi Wei Siyun led three thousand cavalry to meet the holy car!" ”