"I understand. Next time, I will go for a meal and will not ask any questions. Two days later, I will check on the condition of my teeth."
Bi Goo couldn't bear to part with him, so he wanted to ask.
No matter who it was, would he be able to resist the urge to ask such a person?
However, he decided to chat. His Majesty was not allowed to cause trouble for Xiao Yi.
A meal should be fine. We had a good chat in Henan Province.
"You are not allowed to talk about people's lives or government affairs. Otherwise, you will start talking about problems. Men, invite Yao Qing and the rest over. "
Li Longji felt that chatting wasn't safe either. What could the ministers talk about?
After Brother Yi heard about it, he would give the solutions to the problems encountered during the chat.
Bi Goo nodded and sat there gloomily, waiting for Yao Chong and the rest to come over.
The Prime Minister's office was very close to Xingqing Hall.
Not long after, the three of them arrived and bowed to pay their respects.
An Lushan was arrogant and didn't bow. He only bowed when someone reminded him.
"Please take a seat. Are you still busy with the matters in the court?" Li Longji asked politely.
"Your Majesty." Yao Chong was about to sit down when he heard Li Longji's question. He stood still and said, "Your Majesty, the Honglu Temple and the Turkic Turks have sent a letter to the Prime Minister."
"What's the matter?" Li Longji asked.
"They said that the Li Family Zhuangzi is in need of horses and they are willing to provide some. However, five thousand horses is too much and they want to reduce it to a thousand."
Yao Chong looked like he was reporting seriously, but in reality, there was a smile in his eyes.
They knew what was going on. Li Yi had killed their men and was not in a good mood. He wanted to scare them and rob them.
Robbing was wrong, but robbing the Turkic Turks was right.
"Send someone to Zhuangzi to ask what price Li Yi wants." Li Longji felt that this was a small matter. As long as the other party was willing to pay, the amount could be negotiated.
This meant that they were afraid. If not, they could keep quiet.
If others could exchange for dozens of horses, the Imperial Court would reward them.
Brother Yi had asked for five thousand horses, and the other party had actually replied with a thousand horses. How frightened was he?
Zhang Shuo looked at Bi Goo and then at Li Longji. He stood up and said, "Your Majesty, did you summon us over for the Ministry of Revenue?"
"Go ahead, Minister Bi Goo." Li Longji nodded at Bi Goo.
"Mine, iron mine. I had lunch at the Li Family Zhuangzi. Li Yi gave me two iron mines.
One of them said that there were more ores in it than all the ores in the Tang dynasty combined. The other said that it was more than 60% iron.
Li Yi drew a picture for me, and I hurried back to inform His Majesty. "
Bi Goo was still so excited that his voice trembled when he spoke.
"Li Yi gave out ore again?" Yao Chong's voice was very loud. He said the word "again". The last time he gave out a gold mine, which belonged to His Majesty.
This time, he actually gave it to the Ministry of Revenue. How sad. Why don't you think about me, the Prime Minister?
Next, a group of ministers discussed who would be in charge of the mines and where to find manpower for the big mines.
I will send someone to take a look today. If it is true, the big mines should be true too.
Li Yi in Zhuangzi did not think about mining. He opened a can of lychee.
These days, it was not easy to eat lychee in Chang'an.
He could not eat fresh lychees, so he could only try canned ones.
He pulled out the cork of the big porcelain bottle and poured a pot of lychee and sugar water.
He looked at the color and tasted it again. It was not bad.
The pit of the lychee was dug out. When eaten … it was not as good as raw lychees.
But he still ate lychees, not dried lychees or preserved fruits.
"Open a few more and bring them to the children." Li Yi tasted one and did not eat it. The taste was not good.
Children loved to eat canned food. They were willing to eat sweet ones, but they liked the sour and sweet canned hawthorn even more.
Thinking of the hawthorn, Li Yi said to the palace maids and eunuchs, "Remember to tell Steward Song to buy more hawthorn this year and make it into hawthorn slices and hawthorn cakes.
Seal everything and store it in the cellar. Last year, there was not enough candied hawthorn. Only Big Brother and the others had a lot of candied hawthorn.
No matter what, you have to eat it until spring. At that time, you can take turns to go back and bring a few more skewers. "
"Thank you, Dongzhu." The palace maids and eunuchs said together.
Their status in the palace was now very high. Not only were they trusted and had their families settled down, but more importantly, they had things to bring back every time they took turns.
The concubines and talented people of the other palaces had to send people over if they wanted good things.
By interacting with them, they could find out a lot of useful information.
Those of the palace would not talk about their own situation. They would talk about other things in the palace.
Two days later, a few fast horses galloped back to the Imperial City from Taowei County. The people on the horses shouted 'urgent news' and rushed all the way in.
They only jumped down when they were close to the Political Affairs Hall. A few of them stood outside with a happy face and shouted, "We found the ore. We found the iron ore in Taowei County."
Not long after, they were brought in.
"How is it? You know it's iron ore without refining? "Yao Chong and the other two were in the hall.
"Yes, we brought back the ore. Look at this, it's clearly a piece of iron."
The informant took out a few stones they picked and placed them on the table.
The average quality in Taowei County was more than 60%. On average, some ores were just like iron.
Moreover, it was magnetite, which meant that it had less impurities and could be refined directly without a blast furnace.
The smelting process of the Tang dynasty liked this kind of iron ore the most.
"As expected, Li Yi's words are not bad. Good." Zhang Shuo said contentedly. As for the big iron ore on the other side, he directly sent people to find it and then extract it.
"Change the reward to someone else. But Li Yi..." Lu Huaishen thought of the problem of reward.
Li Yi was a civil official, Grade 3. Above him was Guanglu Dafu, Grade 2.
There were two more above him, Grade 2 and Grade 1 Dafu Yi, Grade 2 and Grade 1 Dafu Yi, Grade 3.
After that, he would take out something else and make him a civil official. Anyway, he couldn't give him an official with real power.
"There's no need to seal it. Others have to seal it. He doesn't have any requirements in this regard." Yao Chong was open-minded.
"Go ahead. We can add a lot of iron to the Tang dynasty." Zhang Shuo looked at the iron ore on the table and was in a good mood.
Li Longji was also in a good mood at this time. The Honglu Temple sent news that the Tujue people had reached an agreement with Li Yi.
Li Yi didn't want 5,000 horses, and the other side didn't want 1,000 either. They took a middle number, 2,500 horses.
However, it was impossible to deliver them in three months. It would take four months. The delay on the way would be a waste of time.
Two thousand five hundred horses, this was not something that could be bought with money, but it was actually given to Li Yi as compensation.
"Now that we have the iron ore, in a few months, we will have more horses. By then, we will have accumulated all kinds of firearms and hot air balloons..."
Li Longji thought about the strength he would have in a few days. He wondered if he should take advantage of Tubo and the Tujue winter to attack them.
In summer, they could farm there. In winter, no matter how warm it was, it would still snow heavily. Their people were facing difficulties.
To send troops at this time, the requirements for the Non-commissioned Officer of the Tang dynasty were high. For Tubo, it was even more difficult.
"Go and ask Brother Yi if he thinks it is appropriate to send troops." Li Longji suppressed the sudden desire.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
