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After a rain, the temperature gradually rises again, and the sun is still shining, and the heat is unbearable. Li Jing was originally going to take advantage of this rain to plant a season of soybeans, but he had to reluctantly stop. Fortunately, the five hundred whales sent by the Dragon King just now, the whale meat was exchanged for 400,000 stone grain.

Li Jing exchanged a lot of food for other things, so he didn't have to worry about food for the time being. However, everything did not go well, the prison army made Zhang Chengye go to the capital quickly and just rushed back, this time he personally escorted Li Jing to the emperor a batch of gifts. The main gift was a two-hundred-pound ambergris incense, as well as the skeleton of the largest whale, and the other was a three-thousand-pound, six-zhang long squid. In addition, there are some canned foods of various colors, as well as Wuliangye liquor and various fruit wines, plus a hint of silk ayaluo.

Along the way, by the way, Song Wei and Cui Yunqing in Qingzhou each gave a gift, a pair of whale skeletons, and some ambergris perfume plus various canned food and liquor and fruit wine, plus a trace of silk.

Song Wei and Cui Yunqing also heard some rumors in Dengzhou, and carefully invited Zhang Chengye to ask about some specific situations. When he came back, he also asked Zhang Chengye to bring a lot of gifts to Li Jing. In addition, he also told Li Jing that Wang Jingwu's side had now withdrawn into Qizhou, Zizhou had been recovered, and now Song Wen had been transferred to the post of Assassin of Zizhou. The soldiers and horses on the front line of quelling the rebellion were commanded by Kang Chengyu. Song Wei was a little recurrent due to the wound. He returned to Qingzhou.

In the letter, Song Wei praised Li Jing's practice of cash-for-work in Dengzhou. It is said that Dengzhou is an extremely important state in Ziqing Town, and it is also an important port in the north of the Tang Dynasty, which can ensure stability, and Li Jing has made great contributions. As for Li Jing's forced acceptance of Dengzhou before, Song Wei didn't say a word. The two have now become father and son, and he will no longer mention the little friction in the past.

Cui Yunqing said more in the letter. However, the most talked about is that there is a lot of chaos in various places because of famine. Among them, there is Yicheng Jiedu, who made the Puzhou salt seller Wang Xianzhi and Shang Junchang of Changyuan County, Huazhou, break through Changheng County. However, he mentioned this mainly because that Shang Junchang was once arrested by Li Jing and sent to Dengzhou. Cui Yunqing didn't really take these 'thieves and bandits' seriously.

The most troublesome thing for him now is still the affairs of Ziqing Town's own territory, although he has just recovered a Zizhou. But in fact, the truth of the matter is that Wang Jingwu took the initiative to retreat, and when Wang Jingwu withdrew, he took away the rich families of the Zizhou border office, and also took away the grain in Zizhou. When I left, I didn't forget to set a fire. Now the Zizhou recovered by Kang Chengzhi is just a ruined city that has been poisoned by war.

Waiting for Song Wen's new history of assassination are hundreds of thousands of displaced and hungry people. Cui Yunqing's people are also having a hard time in Qingzhou. The granary in Qingzhou was also burned by Wang Jingwu last time, and now it is impossible to harvest the grain below. It was all borrowed from the major families to barely support it. Seeing that the time for summer planting is about to be missed, this autumn will be another year of no harvest. Now Cui Yunqing is in a hurry to die, and she doesn't know what to do.

Although he didn't say much between the lines, Li Jing could see that Cui Yunqing meant to let Li Jing take out some food to support Qingzhou and Zizhou. Li Jing estimated that Song Wei must have such thoughts, but although the two are righteous father and son, some words are not as appropriate as Cui Yunqing's teacher to him.

"Song Dashuai didn't ask me to lead troops to Ping to defeat Wang Jingwu?" Li Jing was a little surprised, Song Wei didn't mention it, and Cui Yunqing didn't mention it.

Zhang Chengye still had some tiredness on his face, "Maybe they think that Wang Jingwu is retreating to Qizhou now, I'm afraid it won't be long before, they may be afraid that you will steal the credit." Previously, Wang Jingwu lost one battle after another under us, but the Pinglu army won several battles in a row. I think the Shuai Mansion must feel very faceless. Now that Song Wen's Dengzhou soldiers have passed, it just so happens that Wang Jingwu has abandoned Zizhou again, and they must think that they are enough. If we are allowed to go again, won't that mean that they are useless? ”

"Die to save face and suffer sin!" Li Jing snorted lightly, these people only care about face, but they don't want to delay it for a long time, the slower this matter will subside, not only the more faceless they will be, but the more they will actually consume their strength. If nothing else, when fighting outside, the consumption of grain and grass is a huge number. But for such a thing, Song Wei did not propose to let him send troops, and Li Jing had no reason to take the initiative to send troops again.

The mess here in Qingzhou is better, but what makes Li Jing a little angry is the news that Zhang Chengye brought back from Chang'an.

His Majesty was very happy to see a few things sent by the general, and was quite satisfied, especially the whale skeleton and the three-thousand-pound squid that had been frozen. The Son of Heaven erected the whale skeleton on Suzaku Street for people to participate, and there were countless people watching every day, and everyone knew that this whale was sent by us in Dengzhou. According to Staff Officer Li's words, when I was in Beijing, I arranged some clever people to tell the onlookers on the side of the skeleton every day about the general's borrowing of rain from the dragon king, and the dragon king's gift of 500 giant fish, as well as the general's ghost gate before pulling people. The general does not know the Tao, and now in the entire Chang'an City, no one knows the person Li Jing of Dengzhou, and they all say that the general is the important minister of the Son of Heaven and the messenger of the dragon. Some people say that the general is the stars in the sky! ”

The giant squid and whale skeleton made the emperor happy, and the ambergris and perfume, white wine, fruit wine, and canned whale food also made the nobles in the palace pay for it. The ministers of the other imperial courts also received gifts from Li Jing, so the next day the young son of heaven issued a decree from the palace, especially promoting Li Jing as the county prince of Zhendong, directly crossing the county prince and becoming the county prince. also rewarded Li Jing with some royal things in the palace, which can be regarded as a great grace of heaven.

Jin Feng Zhendong County Gong, Li Jing is naturally happy, after all, the county prince is from the second grade, Li Jing from the third grade to the second grade, this is a very high threshold.

What made Li Jing angry was the eunuch Tian Lingzi, Li Jing thought that he was very good to this eunuch at the beginning, and every time he sent gifts to the capital, except for the emperor, he had the most. But because the emperor once said that he would let him take the Zhendong army into Beijing, the eunuch regarded him as an opponent from then on. Last time, he dug a pit and gave Li Jing a position as a Liaohai salt and iron transfer envoy and a money minting envoy, and these two officials gave Li Jing a year, asking Li Jing to give the imperial court 3 million yuan a year.

Li Jing endured it, this time Zhang Chengye entered Beijing, and Li Jing prepared many gifts for Tian Lingzi, wanting to repair the relationship between the two. But who knows that Lu Dao has not exchanged any benefits at all. The dead eunuch accepted the gift here, turned around and ran to the emperor to say bad things about him, and finally asked the emperor to agree, saying that it was already half of this year, and asked Li Jing to send the three million yuan to Jingshi before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The official appointment he received in May, and now that he is just over a year old, he is asked to hand over three million yuan, which is insidious and can no longer be described as shameless.

Li Jing has this money in his hand, but he doesn't plan to let Tian Lingzi pinch and rub it like this.

"Your Majesty should not agree to Tian Lingzi's unreasonable demands." Zhang Chengye was a little disappointed with the performance of the Son of Heaven this time, he was truly sincere to the Son of Heaven, but the Son of Heaven casually listened to Tian Lingzi's words and asked Li Jing to hand over three million yuan, which made the courtiers feel cold.

"County Prince, we think it's better not to have a hard fight with Natian Lingzi in this matter." Zhang Chengye is also good to Li Jing, in his opinion, although Li Jing is a bit authoritarian, he is loyal to the court and the Son of Heaven, and good to the people, and is a capable minister. Worried that Li Jing would suffer a loss if he directly touched Tian Lingzi in anger, although Li Jing was liked by the Son of Heaven, but after all, he was far away in Dengzhou, and Natian Lingzi was the father of the Son of Heaven, and he controlled the imperial court.

On the same day, Li Jing summoned Li Zhen, Li Liang, Lin Wei, Wang Chong, Zhang Hong and other confidants to discuss the matter.

"How's the salt in the salt works?"

Du Zhongwu looked through the account book and replied: "Including the original Nantuozi Salt Factory, we now have ten salt factories, with a total of 10,000 acres of salt fields. Every 12 days, a phase of salt can be produced, and the first phase can produce 300,000 stones, and nearly one million stones of salt can be produced in a month, and there are now more than 10,000 workers in the ten salt factories. At present, the nine new salt factories have all produced four phases of salt, and with the salt stored in the original Nantuozi salt factory, we now still have 1.5 million stone salt, which was only sold a small part before, and it is not counted. ”

The official salt of the imperial court was collected from the salt households for ten yuan per bucket, and then sold to the people at a price of one hundred yuan, and one hundred yuan was earned in the middle for profit. However, although the profits are high, it has also attracted many people to take risks to sell illicit salt, which has greatly impacted the sale of official salt.

Now Li Jing has the official position of salt and iron transshipment envoy, and is responsible for the purchase and sale of official salt in the entire Liaodong and Ziqing Town. However, Li Jing has his own salt production channels and does not need to buy from the people. But with such a small territory, if you want to earn three million yuan a year, it is very difficult.

From the very beginning, this Tian Lingzi deliberately embarrassed Li Jing.

Ten pennies and a bucket of salt is a small bucket, that is, a bucket of 5.5 catties, and a stone has twenty-one buckets. If he earns 100 wen per bucket, Li Jing has to sell 1.5 million stone salt to earn this figure. The salt factory can dry ten phases of salt a year, and produce three million stone salt a year. If Li Jing really sells it for one hundred and fifty wen a bucket of salt, he can still earn half of it in a year.

However, Li Jing didn't plan to sell it like this, if he really wanted to sell it like this, most of the people in Liaodong and Ziqing Town couldn't afford to eat salt, and the reputation he had accumulated with great difficulty would be gone.

"Our salt retail price is 50 wen per bucket, and wholesale is the same price per stone, which is open to supply to the local people in Qingzhou and Liaodong. If it is a salt merchant from other places, it will cost seventy yuan per bucket, and each stone will be counted as half as usual. Li Jing thought about it and decided.

"But in this way, the salt in our salt factory is just three million yuan a year, and we still have more than 10,000 workers, so won't we all work in vain?"

"Of course it won't be in vain, this salt and iron rotation is not only in charge of salt, but also the minerals in Liaodong and Ziqing Town are all within the jurisdiction, and there is also tea under my control, by the way, we can also mint money." Of course, Li Jing will not let himself suffer, the matter of three million will be put aside now, even if he does not plan to make money from the salt pan for the time being, but there are still tea and minerals that can still be minted, and these can also make a fortune. (To be continued......)