When Tan Shida and his family saw the three of them and heard Li Yi's words, their eyes widened in shock.
'Three Grand Chancellors? They're all here at the Li Family Zhuangzi's dining hall? They're here for a meal? Why didn't they come yesterday? '
"Hello, all of you." Bi Goo was the oldest among them. He nodded slightly at Tan Shida and his family.
"Hello, Grand Chancellors." Tan Shui sized up Bi Goo and greeted him casually.
"Change to a bigger table. Why don't you change into your casual attire?" Li Yi changed the table. He was sitting at a square table.
Since there were three more people, he needed a round table.
He introduced them to the Tan family members. Indeed, there were three Grand Chancellors.
They looked at each other and put the coupons away. They did not intend to give them away. The stronghold needed money too.
The palace maid showed them respect. Taohong asked, "What do the three Grand Chancellors want to eat?"
"Later. Beef stuffing and mutton soup," Bi Goo said.
Song Jing and Tan Shui nodded. 'We'll eat the same. It'll be better later.'
"Wait 15 minutes. There's beef. It's frozen. I'll make it now." Taohong went to ask around and returned to inform them.
"Eat first. I'll talk to them," Li Yi said to the Tan family members.
The Tan family members did not move. They were not in the mood to eat when it concerned their stronghold.
"Here's the situation …" Li Yi explained to Bi Goo and the others.
He told the Grand Chancellors about the construction of roads and the establishment of a trading company. He also mentioned that he was willing to provide tools and money.
"You can mobilize more than 30,000 men?" Song Jing stared at Tan Shida.
Before he became the Grand Chancellor, he was the commander-in-chief of Guangzhou. He knew the situation there too well.
He taught others how to build houses by burning tiles. He said it would prevent them from catching fire, but in truth, only the rich could build houses.
He taught the commoners, not the mountain villagers. He did not have any good ideas about the mountain villagers. He could only negotiate and ask the mountain villagers for help when he paid tribute.
Now that he was faced with a person who commanded 30,000 mountain villagers, he felt that this person was qualified to sit at the same table as him.
This person had a request from the palace. He had arrived at Chang 'an.
Otherwise, if he wanted to meet Lu Zhou's leader, he would have to inform Lu Zhou in advance and personally visit him. If Lu Zhou's leader was in a bad mood, he would have to use all sorts of threatening 'etiquette'.
"My tribe has more than 10,000 people. Let's go and join forces with the other strongholds." Tan Shi nodded. He was indeed capable of doing so.
"That's easy. The imperial court has agreed." Song Jing agreed without hesitation.
"Old Song, there's one more thing. There's a Provincial Governor of Lu Zhou called Pang Renqing. He …" Li Yi told the three of them about Pang Renqing.
"Bang!" Song Jing slammed the table in anger. "Is he trying to force her to rebel? Was he an idiot? You want the mountain villagers to attack Lu Zhou's mansion? "
Song Jing felt a pain in his liver. He was so angry that he had been very careful when he was the commander-in-chief in Guangzhou.
If you, Pang Renqing, are tired of living, don't implicate others.
The stronghold didn't care about those things, but it was despicable of him to lie to them.
The three members of the Tan family were shocked. They didn't have such a big reaction and knew that they had been deceived. They prepared to go back and talk about it.
"Issue the decree. Issue the decree." Bi Goo stroked his beard as he spoke. If the mountain villagers knew about this, it would be easy to deal with them. Now that they knew, they had to go back …
"Li Yi, do you have paper here?" Su Yi was the youngest among them. He knew he had to do it himself so he did not bring his subordinates with him.
The paper he asked for was special. It was specially used to write imperial edicts.
Li Yi looked at Qing Song. Swoosh! The cub leaped out. Qing Song waved his fist.
A table was cleared out. The cub returned with the special paper. There was a stack of other papers under the table.
Su Yi sat down and began writing. He wanted to transfer Pang Renqing back. To be more precise, he wanted Pang Renqing to return as a criminal.
"The position of Provincial Governor is empty. Don't make any arrangements for now. That place is very important. In the future, Lingnan Circuit will no longer be a place where officials are sent away. I want to invest.
Then, my business with my brothers will be transferred there as well. The seaside must be controlled.
The Tang dynasty's navy is waiting for the ships to be in position. The left and right seaside are important places. "
Li Yi said to Su Yi. The position of Provincial Governor was empty. Someone was responsible for it. The Provincial Governor could not do anything. It was all done by his subordinates.
The Provincial Governor who could really manage things was like Guo Zhiyun, who sent troops when he said so. What ability did those who were sent there have?
"Okay." Su Yi agreed and continued writing.
The three people of the Tan family looked at Li Yi again. Oh! Could Li Dongzhu control the appointment of local officials? Even the Prime Minister listened to him?
Inspector Zhangsun was a good person. He was right. Looking for Li Dongzhu was more useful than asking other officials.
Tan Shui's eyes lit up. She stared at Li Yi and then blushed a little.
She opened her mouth and was about to speak when her brother next to her touched her. She turned her head and saw Tan Hai frowning and shaking his head slightly.
Tan Hai realized the situation. His sister wanted to recruit a man, but he was not a woman who dared to love and hate.
The problem was, this was Li Dongzhu, not an ordinary person.
Tan Shui pouted. She was clearly unhappy.
By the time the soup was done, the script had also been completed.
"Once you're done with the seal, send it to Lu Zhou and have Pang Renqing brought back for punishment," Song Jing explained to the three of them.
He was worried that the three of them would return first and bring their men to the provincial capital to capture Pang Renqing.
If Pang Renqing did not lie and the mountain people caused trouble, the Tang dynasty would reprimand them severely and threaten to beat them up before easing the tension.
Pang Renqing was in the wrong now. Even if the mountain people killed him, the imperial court could not do anything about it. They could only appease them.
"Old Song wants you to go back and stop causing trouble in the provincial capital. The things you've given us in the past are not worth much. You'll have enough to repair the roads.
If you agree, just say the word. If you go back on your word, don't blame me for sending people to kill you. "
Li Yi was not Song Jing. He was straightforward.
He would help where he could. It did not matter if he had to spend more money as long as everyone could live a good life together.
If they were still looking for trouble after making things clear, this was no longer a small problem. What were they trying to achieve through this?
"We won't. Don't worry, Li Dongzhu." Tan Shi was not angry. He liked Li Yi's personality.
The mountain people were like this. If they made a promise, they could not go back on their word. If they did, they would definitely fight.
"Do you fish at sea? I'll give you the tools to make boats. I also have fishing nets made of cotton thread mixed with silk thread. They're sturdy and easy to use. "
Li Yi remembered that Lu Zhou was a seaside. They could catch fish, but the hemp thread would rot if it was soaked in the net for too long.
Zhuangzi had just made silk and cotton thread. They could be used to catch fish on the boats at sea. Many fish could be caught in the net.
Small fishing boats could be used as well. Lu Zhou did not lack wood to build boats.
"The boats we use are small and can only be used nearby. We don't know how to make big boats," Tan Hai said.
Mountain people like them knew how to fight in the mountains and forests. At the same time, they were good swimmers.
Sometimes, they could dive very deep to look for things with their bare hands. If there were big shells, they could look for pearls.
"Stay here for two more days. I'll draw a diagram and have the workshop make a small model that can be broken down. I'll write down the dimensions as well. Take it back and make the boats accordingly."
Li Yi wanted the locals to make fishing boats with a displacement of about ten tons. The deep sea was dangerous, but they could sail for two to three days near the coast.
As long as they did not encounter huge waves, they could harvest a lot of seafood in one trip.
There was no need to sell them. There were many mountain people in the area. When the boats returned, they would eat the fish.
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.
