Hearing Li Su suddenly ask such an inexplicable question, Li Ke next to him looked at Li Su a little blankly, although he was not interested in the things introduced by Xie Xianling, but he also heard it from beginning to end, but he couldn't understand where Li Su came to the judgment of the decline in taxes in Suzhou and several counties?

However, after Xie Xianling heard Li Su's question, he was stunned, and after a while he came to his senses, stood up and bowed to Li Su, and said: "His Royal Highness King Qi is really a god, since the second half of last year, there have been some problems with local and nearby taxes, some time ago, Zheng Beijia in Suzhou also called us to discuss the matter, mainly because of this tax reduction. ”

Hearing this, not only did Li Yun and Li Zhen wake up, but Li Ke showed a look of concern, no matter what, this is also his fiefdom, and he will also bear a certain responsibility for the reduction of taxes, so he is naturally very concerned, and Li Ke is also very strange, why does Li Su know more about Suzhou than he knows?

Hearing Xie County's praise, Li Su did not show the slightest smugness on his face, but continued: "Xie County, the reason for the reduction of taxes must be clear to you better than us, so please explain it carefully!" ”

Although Xie Xianling still couldn't figure out what the King of Qi was going to do in front of him, from the performance of the other party, he didn't dare to be the slightest slack, and after organizing the language, he explained the reasons for the reduction of local taxes.

In fact, this matter has a lot to do with Li Su, and it can even be said that the reduction of taxes in Suzhou. It was caused by Li Su. This is a long story, and we have to start with the local economic situation in Suzhou.

Since the establishment of the ancient city of Suzhou by the State of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period. This is the famous land of fish and rice, which is not only rich in rice and tea. In addition, there is one of the most important products, that is, exquisite silk, Suzhou is known as the house of silk, almost every household in the territory of the people grow mulberry silkworms, and then the harvested silkworm cocoons are bleached and silky, and then through the delicate hands of southern women. It was made into pieces of incomparably fine silk and sold to all corners of the world through merchants, and even in the Eastern Roman Empire in the far west, the upper nobility was proud to wear silk.

It is no exaggeration to say. Silk accounts for almost half of Suzhou's financial revenue. Originally, silk was a commodity that was in demand everywhere, and Suzhou had never worried about the sales of silk. But this situation has changed last year, with Li Su's huge investment in the textile industry, coupled with the increasingly abundant sources of cotton, more and more cotton cloth flows to the market, began to squeeze the living space of other fabrics.

At the beginning, because the cotton weaving technology was relatively primitive, the spun cotton cloth was very coarse, and it only had an advantage over linen. So it is only the market of linen cloth that is seized, but as more and more businesses enter the textile industry, coupled with the promotion of Li Su behind it, the upgrading of textile technology is very rapid, in a short period of time, the quality of cotton cloth has risen several steps, and now the texture of cotton cloth is becoming more and more dense and smooth, and has begun to compete with silk for the high-end cloth market.

In fact, in comparison, the texture and smoothness of silk are not comparable to cotton. Therefore, the main clothing of rich and noble families is still led by silk, and even some medium-sized families are proud to wear silk, so no matter how exquisite the cotton cloth is, it cannot shake the status of silk, the top cloth.

But what is said above only refers to Datang domestic, only a small part of the silk produced by Datang is used for domestic sales, most of the silk is actually sold by sea or land, such as the Silk Road in Chang'an, although the goods on this road are not only silk, but silk is the most representative product.

But with the rise of cotton cloth, the merchants in the north suddenly found that they did not have to go all the way to the south, and then begged their grandfather to tell their grandmother to order more silk, and by their side, there were a large number of cotton cloth with lower prices, and more wear-resistant and durable than silk, these cotton cloth was shipped out by merchants through the Silk Road, although the price was lower than that of silk, but because the cost was low, in comparison, it was cotton cloth that brought higher profits.

It is precisely because of this situation that on the Northern Silk Road, cotton cloth slowly replaced silk and became one of the main products of Datang to the outside world. The blockage of sales in the north has dealt a huge blow to silk production, and although shipping in the south can also solve some of the sales problems, there is still a backlog of silk due to the limitations of navigation technology.

The poor sales of silk naturally caused a series of bad consequences, first of all, the reduction of merchants who purchased silk, resulting in the reduction of silk prices, the price of silk dropped, the purchase price of silkworm cocoons will naturally be reduced, and silkworm cocoons can not be sold at a high price, so that silkworm farmers who make a living by raising silkworms are on the verge of bankruptcy, and more and more people cannot eat. For example, the problem of spring famine to be solved before Xie County's order came, most of the people who couldn't eat were silkworm farmers, but these fishermen on the beach were not greatly affected.

The sericulture industry has been hit, and Suzhou, as one of the main production areas of silk, has naturally been deeply affected. Speaking of the Tang Dynasty's taxation is more complicated, such as rent, land tax, household tax, etc., but in the early Tang Dynasty, the main tax is rent, this tax can actually be regarded as a poll tax, that is, the tax paid by each person every year is fixed, it is said that this tax will not be greatly affected, but now silkworm farmers can't even eat, naturally unable to pay taxes, so this main tax can not be collected, and Suzhou's tax revenue is naturally greatly affected.

After Xie Xian Ling finished speaking, Li Ke looked at Li Su with a depressed face and said, "Sixth brother, it turns out that the tax revenue of my fiefdom has been reduced, all because of you!" ”

After hearing this, Li Ke glanced at Li Ke and said: "Third brother, what you said is not right, you are also the main promoter of the textile industry, and now you have a lot of textile factories under your name!" ”

Belch~! Li Ke's words made Li Ke speechless, indeed, the textile industry in his house is managed by Wang Zihao, and there is a lot of income every year.

"Hehe~, in this way, Brother Qi and I also have a share, and everyone has a textile factory in their house." Li Zhen also scratched his head at this time and said with a smile, the textile industry has just started, and countless Chang'an nobles are involved, Li Yun and Li Zhen are naturally no exception, not to mention that they are still Li Su's brothers, and it is more convenient to enter the textile industry.

And Xie Xianling looked at the four princes in front of him with some depression, it was they who took the lead in the Chang'an aristocracy to make the textile industry develop rapidly, resulting in a blow to the silk industry in the south.

"Xie Xianling, in fact, the reason why I came here today is to solve the problem of silk sales, but this is not an easy task, so it may take a few years." Li Su saw the appearance of Xie Xianling, and smiled and told the main purpose of this visit.

"Your Highness, can you really solve the problem of silk?" Hearing Li Su's words, Xie Xianling immediately stood up excitedly, he is a person who worries about the country and the people, these days for the sericulture industry in Huating County, almost even his hair is about to turn white. Moreover, he was born in the Jiangdong clan, and the sericulture industry is also the main economic pillar of the clan, so whether it is public or private, he hopes to solve the problem of silk sales as soon as possible.

"Xie Xianling's question is not right, who in the world doesn't know my sixth brother's ability, not to mention that it's just a small sales problem, even if you start an industry that is more profitable than silk, it's just easy to handle!" Li Zhen is in a good mood, because he has smelled a trace of money from the words of the sixth brother, so if the sixth brother can do it this time, he will definitely be able to insert a foot in the silk industry.

"Yes, yes! This is not the official's! When Xie Xian Ling heard this, he also hurriedly apologized and smiled. The so-called concern is chaotic, he actually forgot that it was the famous His Royal Highness King Qi standing in front of him.

"Rokuro, do you have any solution to the problem of silk sales?" After all, Li Ke is still a very responsible person, and now that he knows that there is a problem under his rule, he naturally wants to solve it as soon as possible.

"Hehe, in fact, this problem is very simple, silk is still very marketable overseas, the reason for the current situation is actually because of the limited transportation capacity, the trade routes in the north are taken away by cotton, and the shipping capacity in the south is limited, so my solution is to enhance the shipping of Datang!" Li Su said with a smile.

As soon as Li Su's words came out, not only Li Ke, Li Yun, and Li Zhen were disappointed, but even Xie County Ling sighed. I saw Li Ke open his mouth and said: "Liulang, aren't you talking nonsense, we also know about enhancing shipping, but this is not something that can be done overnight, if you wait for your shipping to develop, it is estimated that the silkworm farmers in Datang will have been starved to death long ago." ”

After hearing this, Li Su laughed a few times, and then said after a while: "Third brother, you don't know, in fact, my Datang's shipping industry is already very prosperous, and it is even enough to bear the ability to develop shipping, but it's a pity that our Datang's maritime merchants are too bold, and the risk of shipping is too great, so in the case of no one is organized, few people are willing to go too far, and I came to the south this time to solve this problem!" ”

"Rokuro, what do you mean?" Li Ke seems to vaguely understand something?

"What I mean is actually very simple, in these two years, I will take Liuqiu and other places as a base, integrate Datang's maritime transportation forces, and then form a large fleet to sail outward, so as to reduce the risk of shipping, so that my Datang's shipping capacity will increase exponentially, and the sales of silk will naturally be solved!" Li Su suddenly stood up, took two steps forward, and said with his back to everyone with a proud face.

Although Li Ke understood Li Su's words, he still couldn't figure it out, that is, why did Li Su bring them to Huating? After all, the integration of maritime power doesn't seem to have much to do with here?

The question in Li Ke's heart was quickly answered, and he saw Li Su, who was standing in the wind, suddenly turned around and said solemnly: "As for Huating here, I want to build a new city here, which will become a link port between the mainland and overseas, and will be responsible for organizing the Yangtze River Basin, as well as the commodity distribution center of Huainan Province and Henan Province!" (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )

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